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PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME,
BROWN, AND GREEN.

1830.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY SAMUEL MANNING AND CO.

LONDON. HOUSE YARD, ST. PAUL'S.

PREFACE.

IN presenting to the Public another volume of "The New Year's Gift," I should be wanting in gratitude if I did not profit by the opportunity, to offer my acknowledgments to the public (and the critical press in particular) for the kind indulgence with which my first attempt has been received: a desire to manifest a due sense of this encouragement, has led to improvements in the present volume, which will, it is hoped, give it a considerable advantage over its predecessor. As these improvements are, however, of a character to meet the eye at a glance, it will scarcely be deemed necessary for me to allude to them in detail.

It has been suggested by more than one critic whose opinions are entitled to my respect, that I have been somewhat too rigid in the selection of my stories, more especially

in my studied rejection of the Giants and Dragons of Faëry-land.

From this charge I will venture to shield myself under the authority of Miss Edgeworth, who, in reply to the assertion of Dr. Johnson, that children require to have their imaginations excited by tales of giants and fairies, judiciously observes:

The fact remains to be proved; but supposing that they do prefer such tales, is this a reason why they should be indulged in reading them? It may be said that a little experience in life would soon convince them, that fairies, giants, and enchanters, are not to be met with in the world. But why should the mind be filled with fantastic visions, instead of useful knowledge? Why should so much valuable time be lost? Why should we vitiate their taste, and spoil their appetite, by suffering them to feed upon 'sweetmeats?

concur in the

A large proportion of the parents of my young readers will, I hope, propriety of these remarks. For my own part, I have uniformly been of opinion, that children should be taught nothing that it will ever be necessary for them to unlearn, -If ignorance has been assimilated to a sheet of blank paper, error may, with equal justice, be compared to the blurred and blotted leaf; the stains of which require to

be eradicated before it is possible to apply it to any useful purpose. With such views, I could not consent to administer a description of aliment to the minds of my young readers, which I should deem unfitted for that of my own child.

One other suggestion, conveyed in terms too kind, and from a quarter too respectable not to be entitled to attention, remains yet to be noticed;-it is, that the style of some of the stories in the last volume of the New Year's Gift was occasionally a little above the comprehension of one class of the children for whose amusement the book was designed. Without affecting to dispute with my friendly monitor, the propriety of his dictum, as it regards one or two of the expressions quoted in its support; and, whilst I agree with him fully that the language which is addressed to children should be as simple as possible, I am far from considering that the puerilities, which used to form the stock in trade of nursery literature, need be resorted to in works like the New Year's Gift.

Much of the simple and unadorned prose of our elder writers, is perfectly intelligible to the capacity of most children of ten years

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