Stories from American and English History about the Magna
Charta, Henry VIII., Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell, Pitt,
Gladstone, Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Independence,
Washington, Rebellion, Lincoln, etc.
Stories of American life, from "Oldtown Folks," "Sam Lawson's
Fireside Stories," and from the best novels.
Stories from the "Book of Golden Deeds," Miss Yonge.
Stories from Bolton's "Poor Boys who became Famous," and "Girls
who became Famous."
Stories from Smiles's "Self-Help." Full of brief, inspiring
stories of great men.
Stones from Todd's "Students' Manual."
Stories from Irving's "Sketch Book," Rip Van Winkle, etc.
Stories from Green's "Short History of the English People."
Stories from Doyle's "History of the United States." One of the
very best brief histories.
Stories from Mackenzie's "History of the Nineteenth Century."
Stories from Coffin's "Story of Liberty."
Stories from Freeman's "General Sketch of History."
Stories from the "Stories of the Nations." (Putnam's Series.)
Stories from the books of Columns 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, and 14 of
Table I.
The story of Christ and his Apostles. (It is scarcely needful
to mention Bible stories in general. Every child born into a
civilized family is saturated with them; but the simple story
of Christ's life as an entirety is too seldom told them.)
The story of Buddha, from the "Light of Asia."
The story of Mahomet, Irving.
The story of Confucius.
The story of Socrates drinking the hemlock, from Plato, or from
Fenelon's "Lives of the Philosophers," which contains many
splendid Greek stories.
The story of Prometheus, from AEschylus.
The story of Diogenes in his Tub.
The story of Thermopylae and other battles, from Cressy.
The story of Carthage, from Putnam's series of the "Stories of
the Nations." (Nine to eleven years.)
The story of Roland, Baldwin.
The story of the Cid, Southey.
The story of the Nibelungenlied. (See Baldwin's "Story of
Siegfried.")
The story of Faust, from "Zigzag Journeys."
The story of "Reynard the Fox," Goethe.
The story of Pythagoras and the transmigration of souls.
The story of Astronomy, from Herschel, Proctor, etc.
The story of Geology, from Lyell, Dawson, Miller, etc., or from
Dana's "The Geological Story, Briefly Told."
The story of Athena, Pluto, Neptune, Apollo, Juno, Mars,
Jupiter, Mercury, Charon, Vulcan, Zeus, Io, Orpheus, and
Eurydice, Phaeton, Arachne, Ariadne, Iphigenia, Ceres, Vesta,
Herakles, Minerva, Venus, Scylla and Charybdis, Hercules,
Ulysses, Helen, Achilles, AEneas, etc., from Bulfinch's "Age of
Fable," "Zigzag Journeys," etc.
The story of William Tell, the Man in the Moon, etc., from S.
Baring Gould's "Curious Myths."
The story of the Courtship of Miles Standish.
The story of the Nuernburg Stove, from Ouida's "Bimbi."
The story of Robert Bruce.
The story of Circe's Palace, from "Tanglewood Tales."
The story of Pandora's Box, from the "Wonder Book."
The story of Little Nell, from "The Old Curiosity Shop."
The story of the Boy in "Vanity Fair."
Many other books might be placed on the list of parent-helpers.
Indeed, the perfect guidance of youth would require a perfect
knowledge of literature throughout its breadth and depth; but
the above suggestions, if followed in any large degree, will
result in a far better training than most children now receive.
THE FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT.
As the child learns to read by itself, the books from which were drawn
the stones it has heard may be given to it, care being taken that every
gift shall be adapted to the ability of the little one. The fact that
the boy has heard the story of Horatius at the Bridge does not diminish,
but vastly increases, his desire to read the "Lays of Ancient Rome."
When he comes to the possession of the book, it seems to him like a
discovery of the face of a dear friend with whose voice he has long been
familiar. I well remember with what delight I adopted the "Sketch Book"
as one of my favorites on finding Rip Van Winkle in it.
Below will be found a list of books intended as a suggestion of what
should be given to children of various ages. The larger the number of
good books the child can be induced to read each year, the better of
course, so long as his powers are not overtaxed, and the reading is done
with due thoroughness. But if only four or five are selected from each
year's list, the boy will know more of standard literature by the time
he is sixteen, than most of his elders do. Each book enters the list at
the earliest age an ordinary child would be able to read it with ease,
and it may be used then or at any subsequent age; for no books are
mentioned which are not of everlasting interest and profit to childhood,
manhood, and age. Many of the volumes named below may also be used by
parents and teachers as story-mines. There is no sharp line between the
periods of story-telling and of reading. Most children read simple
English readily at eight or ten years of age; many do a large amount of
reading long before that, and nearly all do some individual work in the
earlier period. The change should be gradual. For the stimulus that
comparison gives, story-telling and reading aloud should be continued
long after the child is able to read alone; in truth, it ought never to
cease. Story-telling ought to be a universal practice. Stories should be
told to and _by_ everybody. One of the best things grown folks can do is
to tell each other the substance of their experience from day to day;
and probably no finer means of education exists than to have the
children give an account at supper or in the hour or two following, of
what they have seen, heard, read, thought, and felt during the day. In
the same way reading _solus_ should lap over into the early period as
far as possible. One of the greatest needs of the day is a class of
books that shall put _solid sense_ into _very_ simple words. A child can
grasp the wonderful, strong, loving, pathetic, and even the humorous and
critical, long before it can overcome the mechanical difficulties of
reading. By so much as we diminish these, we push education nearer to
the cradle. Charles Dudley Warner says, "As a general thing, I do not
believe in books written for children;" and Phillips Brooks, Marietta
Holley, Brooke Herford, and others express a similar feeling. But the
trouble is not with the _plan_ of writing for children, but with the
execution. If the highest _thoughts_ and feelings were written in the
simplest words,--written as a wise parent _tells_ them to his little
ones,--then we should have a juvenile literature that could be
recommended. As it is, most writers for babies seem to have far less
sense than the babies. Their books are filled with unnatural,
make-believe emotions, and egregious nonsense in the place of ideas. The
best prose for young people will be found in the works of Hawthorne,
Curtis, Warner, Holmes, Irving, Addison, Goldsmith, Burroughs, and Poe;
and the best poets for them are Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Burns, and
Homer. Books that flavor sense with fun, as do those of Curtis, Holmes,
Lowell, Holley, Stowe, Irving, Goldsmith, Warner, Addison, and
Burroughs, are among the best means of creating in any heart, young or
old, a love for fine, pure writing. P. T. Barnum, a man whose great
success is largely due to his attainment of that serenity of mind which
Lowell calls the highest result of culture, says: "I should, above
almost everything else, try to cultivate in the child a kindly sense of
humor. Wherever a pure, hearty laugh rings through literature, he should
be permitted and taught to enjoy it." This judgment comes from a
knowledge of the sustaining power a love of humor gives a man immersed
in mental cares and worriments. Lincoln is, perhaps, the best example of
its power.
It is often an inspiration to a boy to know that a book he is reading
has helped and been beloved by some one whose name is to him a synonym
of greatness,--to know, for example, that Franklin got his style from
the "Spectator," which he studied diligently when a boy; that Francis
Parkman from fifteen to twenty-one obtained more pleasure and profit
from Scott than from any other writer; that Darwin was very fond of Mark
Twain's "Treatise on the Frog;" that Marietta Holley places Emerson,
Tennyson, and Eliot next to the Bible in her list of favorites; that
Senator Hoar writes Emerson, Wordsworth, and Scott next after the Bible
and Shakspeare; that Robert Collyer took great delight in Irving's
"Sketch Book," when a youth; that the great historian Lecky is said to
be in the habit of taking Irving with him when he goes to bed; that
Phillips Brooks read Jonson many times when a boy, and that Lockhart's
Scott was a great favorite with him, though the Doctor attaches no
special significance to either of these facts; that Susan Coolidge
thinks "Hans Brinker" is the best of all American books for children,
etc. Similar facts may be found in relation to very many of the best
books, and will aid much in arousing an interest in them.
Plato, Bacon, Goethe, Spencer, Emerson, and many others of the best are
for the most part too difficult to be properly grasped until the mind is
more mature than it usually is at sixteen. No precise rules, however,
can be laid down on this subject, I have known a boy read Spencer's
"First Principles" and Goethe's "Faust" and "Wilhelm Meister" at
sixteen, and gain a mastery of them. All I have attempted to do is to
make broad suggestions; experiment in each case must do the rest.
_Literature adapted to a Child Six or Eight Years of Age and
upward._
Little Lord Fauntleroy. A book that cannot fail to delight and
improve every reader.
King of the Golden River, Ruskin.
"Rosebud," from "Harvard Sophomore Stories."
Christmas all the Year round, Howells.
Mrs. Stowe's "Laughin' in Meetin'." An exceedingly funny story.
"Each and All" and "Seven Little Sisters," by Jane Andrews.
Used in the Boston Public Schools as supplementary reading.
Classics in Babyland, Bates.
Scudder's "Fables and Folk Stories." Fine books for little
ones.
AEsop.
Rainbows for Children, Lydia Maria Child.
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell. The autobiography of a splendid
horse, and the best teacher of kindness to animals we know of.
Burroughs' "Birds and Bees." In fact, all his beautiful and
simple stories of Nature--"Pepacton," "Fresh Fields," "Wake
Robin," "Winter Sunshine," "Signs and Seasons," etc.--are the
delight of children as soon as they can read.
Winslow's "Fairy Geography."
By Sea-side and Wayside, Wright.
_Literature adapted to a Child Eight to Nine Years of Age and
upward._
Sandford and Merton, Day. One of the very best of children's
books.
Play Days, Sarah Orne Jewett.
Andersen's "Fairy Tales." Cannot be too highly praised.
Stories from King Arthur, Hanson. A good foundation for the
study of Malory, Tennyson, etc.
"Winners in Life's Race," and "Life and her Children," by Miss
Arabella Buckley. Books that charm many children of eight or
nine.
Fairy Frisket; or, Peeps at Insect Life. Nelson & Sons.
Physiology, with pictures.
Queer Little People, Mrs. Stowe.
Kingsley's "Water Babies." A beautiful book, as indeed are all
of Kingsley's.
Longfellow's "Building of the Ship."
The Fountain, Lowell.
Ye Mariners of England, Campbell.
Carleton's "Farm Ballads and Farm Legends." Humorous, pathetic,
sensible.
_Literature adapted to a Child Nine to Ten Years of Age and
upward._
Story of a Bad Boy, Aldrich. A splendid book for boys.
Boys of '76, Coffin. An eight-year-old boy read it five times,
he was so pleased with it.
New Year's Bargain, Coolidge.
Pussy Willow, Stowe.
Hanson's "Homer and Virgil." Brief, clear, simple, clean.
Stories from Homer, Hanson.
Stories from Pliny, White.
Grimm's "Fairy Tales."
Legend of Sleeping Beauty.
Clodd's "The Childhood of the World." A splendid book to teach
children the development of the world.
"Friends in Feathers and Fur," "Wings and Fins," "Paws and
Claws," by Johonnot. Books much liked by the little ones.
First Book of Zoology, Morse.
Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris."
Wordsworth's "Peter Bell."
Mary, Queen of Scots, Strickland.
The Prince and the Pauper, Twain. A book that mingles no small
amount of sense with its abounding fun and occasional tragedy.
_Literature adapted to a Child Ten or Eleven Years of Age and
upward._
Being a Boy, Warner.
Little Women, Alcott. One of the most popular books of the day.
A Dog's Mission, Stowe.
Two Years before the Mast, Dana. Recommended by Sarah Orne
Jewett, George William Curtis, and others.
Ten Boys on the Road, Andrews. A great favorite with the boys.
Jan of the Windmill, Ewing. The story of a poor boy who becomes
a famous painter.
Hawthorne's "Celestial Railroad."
Little People of Asia, Miller.
Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales" and "Wonder Book" should belong
to every child old enough to read ordinary English.
Adventures of a Brownie, Craik.
Stories from Chaucer, Seymour.
Stories from Livy, Church.
Lives of the Philosophers, Fenelon. An excellent book.
What Darwin saw in his Trip round the World in the Ship Beagle.
Fairy Land of Science, Miss Buckley. An author who writes for
children to perfection.
Animal Life in the Sea and on the Land, Cooper. Very fine
indeed.
Darwin's chapter on the "Habits of Ants" (in the "Origin of
Species") is very interesting and amusing to little ones, and
together with Burroughs' books prepares them to read such works
as Lubbock's "Ants, Bees, and Wasps."
Ragozin's "Chaldea." One of the indispensable books for
children.
Longfellow's "Psalm of Life."
Longfellow's "Hiawatha."
Lowell's "Under the Old Elm."
Wordsworth's "White Doe of Rylstone."
Lamb's Essay on Roast Pig. A piece of fun always enjoyed by
boys and girls.
_Literature adapted to a Child Eleven to Twelve Years of Age
and upward._
Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice."
Marcus Aurelius. In a school where the book was at their call
children from ten to thirteen carried it to and from school,
charmed with its beautiful thoughts.
Hans Brinker, Mary Mapes Dodge. One of the very best stories
for children.
Dickens' "Christmas Carol."
Hawthorne's "Great Stone Face." Highly appreciated by the young
folks.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mrs. Stowe. A book that every child should
have as soon as he is able to read it.
Another Flock of Girls, Nora Perry.
At the Back of the North Wind, Macdonald. A beautiful story,
with a high motive.
A Hunting of the Deer, Warner.
Crusade of the Children, Gray. A thrilling story.
Bryant's translation of the Odyssey.
Story of the Iliad, Church.
Stories from Herodotus, Church.
Mary Treat's "Home Book of Nature."
Half Hours with the Stars, Proctor.
Guyot's "Earth and Man." A most excellent book.
First Book in Geology, Shaler.
First Steps in Chemistry, Brewster.
First Steps in Scientific Knowledge, Best.
Abou Ben Adhem, Hunt.
Scott's "Lady of the Lake."
Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome."
Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn."
Whittier's "Snow Bound."
How they Brought the Good News to Aix, Browning.
Wordsworth's "We are Seven."
Franklin's Autobiography.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech.
Samantha at the Centennial.
_Literature adapted to a Child Twelve to Thirteen Years of Age
and upward._
Shakspeare's "Julius Caesar."
Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan. Indispensable.
Meditation of Thomas a Kempis. A strong influence for sweetness
and purity.
Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. Full of fun and good feeling;
one of the most indispensable of books.
Cooper's novels, especially "The Spy" and the "Last of the
Mohicans." Books that are fascinating and yet wholesome.
"My Summer in a Garden," and "In the Wilderness," Warner. Very
humorous.
"The Dog of Flanders," from "Little Classics."
Picciola, Saintine. A great favorite.
The Story of Arnon, Amelie Rives.
Drake's "Culprit Fay."
Dr. Brown's "Rab and his Friends."
"The Man without a Country," "My Double and How He Undid Me,"
etc., by E. E. Hale. The cast is extremely funny.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster, Eggleston.
Boots and Saddles, Mrs. Custer.
Story of the AEneid, Church.
Stories from Greek Tragedians, Church.
Plumptre's "Sophocles."
Ruskin's "Athena."
Boys and Girls in Biology, Stevenson.
Other Worlds than Ours, Proctor.
Captains of Industry, Parton.
Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal." One of the great poet's
finest productions.
Byron's "Eve of Waterloo."
Longfellow's "Evangeline."
Scott's "Marmion."
Milton's "Comus."
"The Two Runaways," "The Born Inventor," "Idyl of Sinkin'
Mountain," etc., by Edwards. Very funny.
_Literature adapted to a Child Thirteen to Fourteen Years of
Age and upward._
Shakspeare's "Coriolanus" and "Taming of the Shrew."
Scott's "Ivanhoe," "Heart of Midlothian," "Guy Mannering," etc.
It is the making of a boy if he learns to love Scott. He will
make a gentleman of him, and give him an undying love of good
literature.
Journal of Eugenie de Guerin. Full of delicacy and quiet
strength.
Tom Brown, Hughes. An universal favorite.
Curtis' "Prue and I." One of the very choicest books, both in
substance and expression,--especially remarkable for its moral
suggestiveness.
Craddock's "Floating down Lost Creek." Most excellent.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson. A story with a powerful
moral,--if we give scope to our evil nature, it will master us.
Goldsmith's "Good-Natured Man."
Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship."
Ben Hur, Wallace.
The Fool's Errand, Tourgee.
The Boys' King Arthur, Lanier.
Epictetus.
Physiology for Girls, Shepard.
Physiology for Boys, Shepard.
What Young People should Know, Wilder. A book that no boy or
girl should be without.
How Plants Behave, Gray.
Goethe's "Erl King."
Browning's "Ivan Ivanovitch." A favorite.
The Forsaken Merman, Matthew Arnold. An exquisite poem.
Longfellow's "Miles Standish."
Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel."
The Veiled Statue of Truth, Schiller.
Guetenburg, and the Art of Printing.
Doyle's "United States History."
John Bright's "Speeches on the American Question."
Backlog Studies, Warner.
"Encyclopaedia of Persons and Places," and "Encyclopaedia of
Common Things," by Champlin, should be within the reach of
every child over twelve or thirteen years of age.
_Literature adapted to a Child Fourteen to Fifteen Years of
Age._
Shakespeare's "Henry Fourth" and "Henry Fifth."
Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Holmes; and Irving's "Sketch
Book." Two of the best books in all the world.
George Eliot's novels, especially "Silas Marner," "The Mill on
the Floss," "Romola," and "Adam Bede."
The Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot.
Our Best Society, Curtis.
Bulwer's "Rienzi."
The Marble Faun, Hawthorne.
Sad Little Prince, Fawcett.
Chita, or Youma, by Hearn, a master of English style.
Grande Pointe, Cable.
La Fontaine's Fables.
Plutarch's "Morals."
Ethics of the Dust, Ruskin.
Lady How and Madam Why, Kingsley.
Sketches of Creation, Winchell. Very interesting to children of
fourteen or fifteen.
The Geological Story, Briefly Told, Dana.
Ready for Business, or Choosing an Occupation, Fowler and
Wells.
Ode to a Skylark, Shelley.
Birds of Aristophanes, Frere.
Alfred the Great, Hughes.
Plutarch's "Lives."
Green's "Short History of the English People."
Demosthenes on the Crown. The finest of all orations.
The Biglow Papers, Lowell. The best of fun and sense.
Sweet Cicely, Holley. Quiet humor and unfailing wisdom.
Higginson's "Vacations for Saints." A splendid example of
humorous writing.
_Literature adapted to a Child Fifteen to Sixteen Years of Age
and upward._
Shakspeare's "Hamlet" and "The Tempest."
Dante's "Inferno."
Dickens' "Pickwick Papers," "David Copperfield," "Old Curiosity
Shop," etc.
Thackeray's "Vanity Fair."
Tourgee's "Hot Plowshares," and "With Fire and Sword," by
Sienkiewicz. Two of the greatest historical novels.
Carlyle's "Past and Present."
Arnold's "Sweetness and Light."
Ruskin's "Crown of Wild Olive."
Emerson's Essays on "Manners," "Self-Reliance," "Eloquence,"
"Friendship," "Representative Men," etc.
Mrs. Whitney's "Sights and Insights." A book that is filled
with beautiful thoughts and unselfish actions.
Spencer's "Data of Ethics." Indispensable to a complete
understanding of ethical subjects.
"The Light of Asia." A book that cannot fail to broaden and
deepen every life it touches.
Ten Great Religions, Clarke.
Omar. Superb poetry.
Bryant's "Thanatopsis."
Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." A lesson of the awfulness of
cruelty.
Auld Lang Syne, Burns.
Toilers of the Sea, Hugo.
Huxley's "Man's Place in Nature."
Tyndall's "Forms of Water."
Our Country, Strong. A book that ought to be in the hands of
every young person.
Bryce's "American Commonwealth."
Guizot's "History of Civilization."
Mill's "Logic." No young man can afford to remain unacquainted
with this book.
The Hand and Ring, Green. One of the finest examples of
reasoning in the language.
Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is another such example, and
his "Gold Bug" is another.
Phillips' Speeches
Webster's "Liberty and Union."
Golden Treasury, Palgrave.
The Spectator. One of the very best books to study, in order to
form a good style. Franklin and others attribute their success
largely to reading it carefully in boyhood.
The Fable for Critics, Lowell.
The Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, Twain. Fun and sense
welded together to make the most delightful book the author has
written.
SPECIAL STUDIES.
Next in value to a love of good reading is a habit of concentrating the
attention upon one subject through a long course of reading. In this way
only can any thorough mastery be obtained. The child should be taught
not to be satisfied with the thought of any one writer, but to
investigate the ideas of all upon the topic in hand, and then form his
own opinion. Thus he will gain breadth, depth, tolerance, independence,
and scientific method in the search for truth. Of course it is
impossible in a work of this kind to map out lines of study for the
multitudinous needs of young people. The universities and the libraries
provide the means of gaining full information as to the literature of
any subject that may be selected. A few topic-clusters may, however, be
of use here in the way of illustration. Many examples will be found in
Baldwin's "The Book Lover."
=The Industrial Question=.--Suppose a young man desired to study the
industrial question, which is one of the most important subjects of
to-day, the proper method would be to go to one of the great libraries,
or examine the catalogues of the large publishing-houses, to discover
the names of recent books on the given topic, or on such subjects as
Labor and Capital, Socialism, Co-operation, etc. Such books usually
refer to others, and name many kindred works on the last pages. Thus the
student's list will swell. I have myself investigated more than two
hundred books on this topic and those it led me to. A few of the more
important I will name as a starting-point for any one wishing to follow
this research.
Labor, Thornton.
Conflict of Labor and Capital, Bolles; also, Howell.
Political Economy, Mill.
Progress and Poverty, George.
Profit-Sharing, Gilman.
In Darkest England, Booth.
Wages and the Wages Class, Walker.
Book of the New Moral World, Owen.
Communistic Societies of the United States, Nordhoff.
Dynamic Sociology, Ward.
Looking Backward, Bellamy.
Destinee Sociale, Considerant.
More's "Utopia."
Co-operative Societies, Watts.
History of Co-operation, Holyoake.
The Margin of Profits, Atkinson.
Gronlund's "Co-operative Commonwealth."
Capital, Karl Marx.
The State in relation to Labor, Jevons.
Organisation du Travail, Louis Blanc.
Co-operative Stores, Morrison.
Labor and Capital, Jervis.
Newton's "Co-operative Production and Co-operative
Distribution in the United States."
Property and Progress, Mallock.
Principles of Sociology, Spencer.
Mill on Socialism.
The Progress of the Working Classes, Giffen.
Ely's "French and German Socialism," "Problems of To-day,"
and "Labor Movement in America."
Dilke's "Problems of Greater Britain."
Contemporary Socialism, Rae.
Outlines of an Industrial Science, Symes.