Arthur Mee's Book
Ma. MEE has again turned Fairy Godfather, and once more presents the children of England with an encyclopaedic volume containing prose, verse, and excellent reproductions of famous pictures.
He writes in his prefatory pages, which are entitled " The Lovely Hour " :—
" When you are a very young child, it may be that you will come to love this book and smile ; when you are a very old child you may love it still, and perhaps a tear will come at times. If you are some- where between, a well-tried friend of Time refusing to grow old, you will meet here old friends and new ones, some that have kept you company from the first days you remember, somo that will be with you to the end."
Mr. Mee has done well over this matter of remembering ; his book is half full of tried poems that have withstood the
test of time, and ballads and nursery rhymes that are the rightful inheritance of all children. Cynics may be inclined to sneer at the moral " uplift " of the book, and at some of the hackneyed verse that is reproduced, but if they will remember the days of their own youth they will recall a time when " The Arab's Farewell to His Steed " stirred their blood, and when " The Burial of Sir John Moore " seemed a noble thing, to be learned by heart and repeated with fervour. All the stories are heroic or moral, for Mr. Mee is wise enough to remember that heroism and goodness are qualities that win laurels—in the nursery at any rate. Besides stories and poems there are excellent reproductions of many of the best among the world's pictures.
As the book is dedicated to " Every Child Who Loves the Flag," there are naturally a great many patriotic poems included in it ; these range in style from " Rule Britannia " to Mr, Begbie's " Boys of the Young Brigade."
Velasquez, Sanchez Coello, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Herrick, W. S. Gilbert, Beaumont, and R. L. S. are all represented in Mr. Mee's admirably Selected volume.
Previous page
