Part 9 (1/2)

In one of the Buddha stories which I reproduce at the end of this book, the little Hare (who is, I think, a symbol of nervous individualism) constantly says: ”Suppose the Earth were to fall in, ould become of me?”

As an antidote to the ordinary attitude towards death, I commend an episode from a German folklore story which is called ”Unlucky John,”

and which is included in the list of stories reco sums up in poetic form some of the material necessary for the wants of a child

THE CHILD

The little new soul has coriirt on his tender feet, And he carries his scrip for what gifts he ive to hi road?

A crown for his head, or a laurel wreath?

A sword to wield, or is gold his load?

What will you give hih day and night?

Give or withhold froive to hiht

Let hi rain; and the friend of trees; With a singing heart for the pride of noon, And a tender heart for what twilight sees

Let him be lover of you and yours-- The Child and Mary; but also Pan And the sylvan Gods of the woods and hills, And the God that is hid in his fellow and the joy of the earth, These be gifts for his scrip to keep Till, the journey ended, he stands at last In the gathering dark, at the gate of sleep

ETHEL CLIFFORD

And so our stories should contain all the essentials for the child's scrip on the road of life, providing the essentials and holding or withholding the non-essentials But, above all, let us fill the scrip with gifts that the child need never reject, even when he passes through to ”the gate of sleep”

CHAPTER V HOW TO OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE EFFECT OF THE STORY

We are now come to the , to which all the foregoing re, and that is the effect of these stories upon the child, quite apart fro to theh to justify us in the telling But, since I have urged the extre and of bestowing so ht that we should expect some permanent results or else those who are not satisfied with the mere enjoyment of the children will seek other methods of appeal--it is to them that I most specially dedicate this chapter

I think we are of the threshold of the re-discovery of an old truth, that _dramatic presentation_ is the quickest and the surest method of appeal, because it is the only one hichhas appeared before us in a vital fors are often given in a blurred, faint light that they gradually fade out of ourto me, on one occasion, the fact that stories were told so much in the schools, to the detriment of science, for which he clainize in the best-told stories Being very much interested in her point of view, I asked her to tellback on her school days, what she could re out fro some little time over the matter, she said with some embarrassment, but with candor that did her much honor:

”Well, now I come to think of it, it was the story of Cinderella”

Now, I a any brief for this story in particular I think the reason it was remembered was because of the dramatic forination and kept the ht also have been easily remembered if it had been presented in the form of a successful che of the dramatic appeal and will be remembered on that account

Sully says: ”We cannot understand the fascination of a story for children save in reine, and unversed in abstract reflection, words are not dead things but _winged_, as the old Greeks called the-Glass,” was ical than she are of when she , that _fixes_ it, and you must take the consequences”

In Curtin's ”Introduction to Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians”, he says:

”I re roused inthe early years ofstupendous, dreadful in hty I rerown soan to study Latin, I caer_--the herald of the Sun”