JUVENILE BOOKS.
THE CHRISTMAS BOX. THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT. THE JUVENILE FORGET ME NOT. THE BOY'S OWN BOOK.
WE cannot see these pretty books without being envious of the " rising generation." We had no such books when we were young. The artist and the poet did not combine for our amuse- ment and instruction : the first talents of the age did not conde- scend to grace our infancy, and strew our stumbling path with roses to smell and strawberries to eat—pleasant poems to delight us—interesting tales to instruct. We were "raised " in those early days when Goody Two Shoes told her tale in gingerbread gilt—when the life and achievements of Tom Thumb were nar- rated in a small thin tome, composed of stiff wood-cuts and whity- brown paper. Some good lady had, we believe, even then abridged the history of the Bible for us in small, and Mr. DAY'S Sandford and Merton was, as it still is, a treasure of instruction and delight. Even now, Sandford and lklerton and Robinson Crusoe take a place in the juvenile library which no other work can ever fill. But these books were but two; when we grew to despise the dirty histories' of Goody Two hoes and Riquet with a Tuft, we knew not where to look for the sweetest pabulum a child can receive, the first mental food. In vain did we look over the family library for something suited to our years : in vain did we ransack the old Town and Country Magazines, until (oh! day to be marked with a white stone !) we more narrowly examined a work in four volumes marked "Pickle" on the back, and which, in our ignorance, in a11 pre- vious researches we had taken for a cookery-book. It proved to be the identical Peregrine of SMOLLET ; and young as we were, and un fit as it might be thought for us, with what joy did we read of Toni Pipes, Commodore Trunnion, and Lieutenant Hatchway ! how immortal is the memory of the Doctor and Pallet, the Roman feast, and the duel at Arras! With what peals of laughter did we greet the escape of Pallet from prison ; and how delicious appeared. the blunder of Tom Pipes, who put the letter in his shoe! Still do we indulge in a good hearty explosion of delight when we call to mind his bright scheme for repairing his disaster, and the .letter beginning " Divine empress of my soul !" How real was all this pleasure 1 how far beyond much that since has borne a higher name !—But it was wrong, we -presume-very pleasant, but very wrong. The error may be excused, since we had no moral little beauties like the Forget Me Not or the New Year's Gift to dally with : our Christmas Box came in the shape of a gross crown- piece, a plum-cake, or a pair of skates ;—good thingsin their way, but not to he compared with these pleasant and instructive sources of never-failing entertainment.
It is difficult, and perhaps unnecessary, to say which of these volumes we prefer ; one has claims which another has not, and a defect is perpetually compensated by a beauty. The only fault we can detect is, that they do not always sufficiently depart in cha- racter from their elder brethren, the adult Souvenirs : there are several pieces which perhaps we might have recommended to the ladies who edite the New Year's Gift (Mrs. ALARIC WATTS) and the Juvenile Forget Me Not (Mrs. S. C. HALL) to hand over to their husbands for their more elaborate productions. It seems conve- nient enough that the Souvenirs should thus be kept in families ; for what may not suit one work, may be valuable for another. We have not the pleasure of knowing whether there are any Misses and Masters ALARIC WATTS, and Misses and Masters S.C. HALLS; but if there are, we hope that they will not let the preparation of Infantine Souvenirs, which are still desiderata, go out of the family. We find pretty much the same body of writers in these and the larger Souvenirs. The difference is, that some accommodate themselves more easily than others to the minds of youth. Mrs. HOFLAND, for instance, succeeds admirably in communicating the same interest to her tales as heretofore, while she renders them easily intelligible to the tenderest years. This requires a simplicity of mind which this very amiable writer seems to possess. Some- times simplicity of subject will produce the same effect, and even the combination of fancy and feeling will not then take it out of.the reach of a child. We may instance JOHN.CLARE'S " Grasshopper, a Tale told to a Daughter," in the Juvenile Forget Me Not. In-the same volume is a beautiful allegory, called "the Rose Discontented with its Thorns." In prose it is finished with great elegance : had the author been equally master of verse, it would have lived as one ofthose charming pieces which every one remembers by heart. The anecdotes of the Robins by Mr. EMMERSON, in Mrs. ALARIC WATTS'S collection, is of a kind of writing which we wish were more common ; for it grows out of a pursuit of never-dying interest, the observation of the ways of Nature. The man who dwells in a cottage in the country is • surrounded by operations which are a library of natural history if he would only open his eyes and read. The HowaTs appear to great advantage in these amiable little books : their simplicity of character, their natural feelings, their placid temperaments and kind affections, admirably fit them for the task of communing with the child and all its little pains and pleasures. " The Spider and the Fly" is a pleasant fable, and " the Stepmother" extremely affecting and natural ; the former in Mrs. WATTS'S Souvenir, and the latter in Mrs. HALL'S, but both by the HOIVITTS.
The Christmas Box boasts a tale in several chapters by Miss EDGEWORTH, called " Garry Owen :" it is not only as excellent as her former pieces of early instruction, but it is infused with rich Irish humour, after the manner of some of her best pieces. We must not forget, while enumerating however imperfectly the pieces which have pleased us, the "Anecdotes of Monkeys," by the Old Sailor—an old friend and favourite of ours.
The Boy's Own Book is a Christmas present, but quite of a dif- ferent nature from the Souvenir books : it will perhaps, however, be a good deal more acceptable to the young lovers of sport. Oh ! what a treasure would it have been to its in the days of squib- making and pigeon-fancying !—Alas ! we were in that, as in other things, obliged to trust to our own feeble lights. We got experi- ence, but at a great price—rabbits rotted, pigeons fled and fought, cracker-mixture exploded in the mortar, &c. &c. But here is instruction in all possible games, puzzles, sports, fancies, and re- creations, scientific and otherwise, with most excellent descriptive wood-cuts, that make all plain to the meanest capacity.
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