Chapter II: Principles of Selection for Fairy Tales (1)

All our troubles come from doing that in which we have no
interest.--EPICTETUS.

That is useful for every man which is conformable to his own
constitution and nature.--MARCUS AURELIUS.

Genuine interest means that a person has identified himself
with, or found himself in, a certain course of activity. It
is obtained not by thinking about it and consciously aiming
at it, but by considering and aiming at the conditions that
lie back of it, and compel it.--JOHN DEWEY.

I. THE INTERESTS OF CHILDREN

Now that the value of fairy tales in education has been made clear, let us consider some of those principles of selection which should guide the teacher, the mother, the father, and the librarian, in choosing the tale for the little child.

Fairy tales must contain what interests children. It is a well-known principle that selective interest precedes voluntary attention; therefore interest is fundamental. All that is accomplished of permanent good is a by-product of the enjoyment of the tale. The tale will go home only as it brings joy, and it will bring joy when it secures the child's interest. Now interest is the condition which requires least mental effort. And fairy tales for little children must follow that great law of composition pointed out by Herbert Spencer, which makes all language consider the audience and the economy of the hearer's attention. The first step, then, is to study the interests of the child. We do not wish to give him just what he likes, but we want to give him a chance to choose from among those things which he ought to have and, as good and wise guardians, see that we offer what is in harmony with his interests. Any observation of the child's interest will show that he loves the things he finds in his fairy tales. He enjoys--

_A sense of life_. This is the biggest thing in the fairy
tales, and the basis for their universal appeal. The little
child who is just entering life can no more escape its
attraction than can the aged veteran about to leave the
pathway. The little pig, Whitie, who with his briskly
curling tail goes eagerly down the road to secure, from the
man who carried a load of straw, a bit with which to build
his easily destructible house; Red Riding Hood taking a pot
of jam to her sick grandmother; Henny Penny starting out on
a walk, to meet with the surprise of a nut falling on her
head--the biggest charm of all this is that it is life.

_The familiar_. The child, limited in experience, loves to
come in touch with the things he knows about. It soothes his
tenderness, allays his fears, makes him feel at home in the
world,--and he hates to feel strange,--it calms his
timidity, and satisfies his heart. The home and the people
who live in it; the food, the clothing, and shelter of
everyday life; the garden, the plant in it, or the live ant
or toad; the friendly dog and cat, the road or street near
by, the brook, the hill, the sky--these are a part of his
world, and he feels them his own even in a story. The
presents which the Rabbit went to town to buy for the little
Rabbits, in _How Brother Rabbit Frightens his Neighbors_;
the distinct names, Miss Janey and Billy Malone, given to
the animals of _In Some Lady's Garden_, just as a child
would name her dolls; and the new shoes of the Dog which the
Rabbit managed to get in _Why Mr. Dog Runs after Brother
Rabbit_--these all bring up in the child's experience
delightful familiar associations. The tale which takes a
familiar experience, gives it more meaning, and organizes
it, such as _The Little Red Hen_, broadens, deepens, and
enriches the child's present life.

_The surprise_. While he loves the familiar, nothing more
quickly brings a smile than the surprise. Perhaps the most
essential of the fairy traits is the combination of the
familiar and the unfamiliar. The desire for the unknown,
that curiosity which brings upon itself surprise, is the
charm of childhood as well as the divine fire of the
scientist. The naughty little Elephant who asked "a new,
fine question he had never asked before," and who went to
answer his own question of "what the crocodile has for
dinner," met with many surprises which were spankings; and
as a result, he returned home with a trunk and experience.
He is a very good example of how delightful to the child
this surprise can be. The essence of the fairy tale is
natural life in a spiritual world, the usual child in the
unusual environment, or the unusual child in the natural
environment. This combination of the usual and unusual is
the chief charm of _Alice in Wonderland_, where a natural
child wanders through a changing environment that is
unusual. For an idle moment enjoy the task of seeing how
many ideas it contains which are the familiar ideas of
children, and how they all have been "made different." All
children love a tea-party, but what child would not be
caught by having a tea-party with a Mad Hatter, a March
Hare, and a sleepy Dormouse, with nothing to eat and no tea!
Red Riding Hood was a dear little girl who set out to take a
basket to her grandmother. But in the wood, after she had
been gathering a nosegay and chasing butterflies, "just as I
might do," any child might say, she met a wolf! And what
child's ears would not rise with curiosity? "Now something's
going to happen!" The Three Bears kept house. That was usual
enough; but everything was different, and the charm is in
giving the child a real surprise at every step. The house
was not like an ordinary house; it was in the wood, and more
like a play-house than a real one. There was a room, but not
much in it; a table, but there was not on it what is on your
table--only three bowls. What they contained was usual, but
unusually one bowl of porridge was big and hot, one was less
big and cold, and one was little and just right. There were
usual chairs, unusual in size and very unusual when
Goldilocks sat in them. Upstairs the bedroom was usual, but
the beds were unusual when Goldilocks lay upon them. The
Bears themselves were usual, but their talk and action was a
delightful mixture of the surprising and the comical.
Perhaps this love of surprise accounts for the perfect leap
of interest with which a child will follow the Cock in _The
Bremen Town Musicians_, as he saw from the top of the tree
on which he perched, a light, afar off through the wood.
Certainly the theme of a light in the distance has a charm
for children as it must have had for man long ago.

_Sense impression_. Good things to eat, beautiful flowers,
jewels, the beauties of sight, color, and sound, of odor and
of taste, all gratify a child's craving for sense
impression. This, in its height, is the charm of the
_Arabian Nights_. But in a lesser degree it appears in all
fairy tales. Cinderella's beautiful gowns at the ball and
the fine supper stimulate the sense of color, beauty, and
taste. The sugar-panes and gingerbread roof of the Witch's
House, in _Hansel and Grethel_, stir the child's kindred
taste for sweets and cookies. The Gingerbread Boy, with his
chocolate jacket, his cinnamon buttons, currant eyes,
rose-sugar mouth, orange-candy cap, and gingerbread shoes,
makes the same strong sense appeal. There is a natural
attraction for the child in the beautiful interior of
Sleeping Beauty's Castle, in the lovely perfume of roses in
the Beast's Rose-Garden, in the dance and song of the Elves,
and in the dance of the Goat and her seven Kids about the
well.

_The beautiful_. Closely related to this love of the
material is the sense of the beautiful. "Beauty is pleasure
regarded as the quality of a thing," says Santayana.
Pleasures of the eye and ear, of the imagination and memory,
are those most easily objectified, and form the groundwork
on which all higher beauty rests. The green of the spring,
the odor of Red Riding Hood's flowers, the splendor of the
Prince's ball in _Cinderella_--these when perceived
distinctly are intelligible, and when perceived delightfully
are beautiful. Language is a kind of music, too; the mode of
speaking, the sound of letters, the inflection of the
voice--all are elements of beauty. But this material beauty
is tied up in close association with things "eye hath not
seen nor ear heard," the moral beauty of the good and the
message of the true. The industry of the little Elves
reflects the worth of honest effort of the two aged
peasants, and the dance of the Goat and seven Kids reflects
the triumph of mother wit and the sharpness of love. The
good, the true, and the beautiful are inseparably linked in
the tale, just as they forever grow together in the life of
the child. The tales differ largely in the element of beauty
they present. Among those conspicuous for beauty may be
mentioned Andersen's _Thumbelina_; the Indian _How the Sun,
the Moon, and West Wind Went Out to Dinner_; the Japanese
_Mezumi, the Beautiful_; and the English _Robin's Christmas
Song. Little Two-Eyes_ stands out as one containing a large
element of beauty, and _Oeyvind and Marit_ represents in an
ideal way the possible union of the good, the true, and the
beautiful. This union of the good, the true, and the
beautiful has been expressed by an old Persian legend: "In
the midst of the light is the beautiful, in the midst of the
beautiful is the good, in the midst of the good is God, the
Eternal One."

_Wonder, mystery, magic_. The spirit of wonder, like a
will-o'-the-wisp, leads on through a fairy tale, enticing
the child who follows, knowing that something will happen,
and wondering what. When magic comes in he is gratified
because some one becomes master of the universe--Cinderella,
when she plants the hazel bough, and later goes to the
wishing-tree; the fairy godmother, when with her wand she
transforms a pumpkin to a gilded coach and six mice to
beautiful gray horses; Little Two-Eyes, when she says,--

Little kid, bleat,
I wish to eat!

and immediately her little table set with food so
marvelously appears; or Hop-o'-my-Thumb when he steps into
his Seven-League Boots and goes like the wind.

_Adventure_. This is a form of curiosity. In the old tale,
as the wood was the place outside the usual habitation,
naturally it was the place where things happened. Often
there was a house in the wood, like the one "amidst the
forest darkly green," where Snow White lived with the
Dwarfs. This adventure the little child loves for its own
sake. Later, when he is about eleven or twelve, he loves it
for its motive. This love of adventure is part of the charm
of _Red Riding Hood_, of the _Three Bears_, of the _Three
Pigs_, or of any good tale you might mention.

_Success_. The child likes the fairy tale to tell him of
some one who succeeds. He admires the little pig Speckle who
outwitted the Wolf in getting to the field of turnips first,
or in going to the apple tree at Merry-Garden, or to the
fair at Shanklin; who built his house of brick which would
defy assault; and whose cleverness ended the Wolf's life.
This observation of success teaches the child to admire
masterliness, to get the motto, _Age quod agis_, stamped
into his child life from the beginning. It influences
character to follow such conduct as that of the Little Red
Hen, who took a grain of wheat,--her little mite,--who
planted it, reaped it, made it into bread, and then ate it;
who, in spite of the Goose and the Duck, secured to herself
the reward of her labors.

_Action_. Akin to his love of running, skipping, and
jumping, to his enjoyment in making things go and in seeing
others make things go, is the child's desire for action in
his fairy tales; and this is just another way of saying he
wants his fairy tales to parallel life. Action is the
special charm of the Gingerbread Boy, who opened the oven
door and so marvelously ran along, outrunning an old Man, an
old Woman, a little Boy, two Well-Diggers, two
Ditch-Diggers, a Bear, and a Wolf, until he met the Fox
waiting by the corner of the fence. _Dame Wiggins of Lee and
Her Seven Wonderful Cats_--a humorous tale written by Mrs.
Sharp, a lady of ninety, edited by John Ruskin, who added
the third, fourth, eighth, and ninth stanzas, and
illustrated by Kate Greenaway--has this pleasing trait of
action to a unique degree. So also has _The Cock, the Mouse,
and the Little Red Hen_, a modern tale by Félicité Lefèvre.
This very popular tale among children is a retelling of two
old tales combined, _The Little Red Hen_ and the Irish
_Little Rid Hin_.

_Humor_. The child loves a joke, and the tale that is
humorous is his special delight. Humor is the source of
pleasure in _Billy Bobtail_, where the number of animals and
the noises they make fill the tale with hilarious fun. There
is most pleasing humor in _Lambikin_. Here the reckless hero
frolicked about on his little tottery legs. On his way to
Granny's house, as he met the Jackal, the Vulture, the
Tiger, and the Wolf, giving a little frisk, he said,--

To Granny's house I go,
Where I shall fatter grow,
Then you can eat me so!

Later, on returning, when the animals asked, "Have you seen
Lambikin?" cozily settled within his Drumikin, laughing and
singing to himself, he called out slyly--

Lost in the forest, and so are you,
On, little Drumikin! Tum-pa, turn-too!

Humor is the charm, too, of Andersen's _Snow Man_. Here the
child can identify himself with the Dog and thereby join in
the sport which the Dog makes at the Snow Man's expense,
just as if he himself were enlightening the Snow Man about
the Sun, the Moon, and the Stove. There is most delightful
humor in _The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership_, where the
Cat has the face to play upon the credulity of the poor
housekeeper Mouse, who always "stayed at home and did not go
out into the daytime." Returning home from his ventures
abroad he named the first kitten Top-Off, the second one
Half-Out, and the third one All-Out; while instead of having
attended the christening of each, as he pretended, he
secretly had been visiting the jar of fat he had placed for
safe-keeping in the church.

_Poetic justice_. Emotional satisfaction and moral
satisfaction based on emotional instinct appeal to the
child. He pities the plight of the animals in the _Bremen
Town Musicians_, and he wants them to find a refuge, a safe
home. He is glad that the robbers are chased out, his sense
of right and wrong is satisfied. Poetic justice suits him.
This is one reason why fairy tales make a more definite
impression often than life--because in the tale the
retribution follows the act so swiftly that the child may
see it, while in life "the mills of the gods grind slowly,"
and even the adult who looks cannot see them grind. The
child wants Cinderella to gain the reward for her goodness;
and he wishes the worthy Shoemaker and his Wife, in the
_Elves and the Shoemaker_, to get the riches their industry
deserves.

_The imaginative_. Fairy tales satisfy the activity of the
child's imagination and stimulate his fancy. Some beautiful
spring day, perhaps, after he has enjoyed an excursion to a
field or meadow or wood, he will want to follow Andersen's
Thumbelina in her travels. He will follow her as she floats
on a lily pad, escapes a frog of a husband, rides on a
butterfly, lives in the house of a field-mouse, escapes a
mole of a husband, and then rides on the back of a friendly
swallow to reach the south land and to become queen of the
flowers. Here there is much play of fancy. But even when the
episodes are homely and the situations familiar, as in
_Little Red Hen_, the act of seeing them as distinct images
and of following them with interest feeds the imagination.
For while the elements are familiar, the combination is
unusual; and this nourishes the child's ability to remove
from the usual situation, which is the essential element in
all originality. By entering into the life of the characters
and identifying himself with them, he develops a large
sympathy and a sense of power, he gains insight into life,
and a care for the interests of the world. Thus imagination
grows "in flexibility, in scope, and in sympathy, till the
life which the individual lives is informed with the life of
nature and of society," and acquires what Professor John
Dewey calls Culture.

_Animals_. Very few of the child's fairy tales contain no
animals. Southey said of a home: "A house is never perfectly
furnished for enjoyment unless there is in it a child rising
three years old and a kitten rising six weeks; kitten is in
the animal world what a rose-bud is in a garden." In the
same way it might be said of fairy tales: No tale is quite
suited to the little child unless in it there is at least
one animal. Such animal tales are _The Bremen Town
Musicians, Henny Penny, Ludwig and Marleen_ and _The
Elephant's Child_. The episode of the hero or heroine and
the friendly animal, as we find it retained in Two-Eyes and
her little Goat, was probably a folk-lore convention--since
dropped--common to the beginning of many of the old tales.
It indicates how largely the friendly animal entered into
the old stories.

_A portrayal of human relations, especially with children_.
In _Cinderella_ the child is held by the unkind treatment
inflicted upon Cinderella by her Stepmother and the two
haughty Sisters. He notes the solicitude of the Mother of
the Seven Kids in guarding them from the Wolf. In the _Three
Bears_ he observes a picture of family life. A little child,
on listening to _The Three Pigs_ for the first time, was
overwhelmed by one thought and cried out, "And didn't the
Mother come home any more?" Naturally the child would be
interested especially in children, for he is like the older
boy, who, when looking at a picture-book, gleefully
exclaimed, "That's me!" He likes to put himself in the place
of others. He can do it most readily if the character is a
small individual like Red Riding Hood who should obey her
mother; or like Goldilocks who must not wander in the wood;
or like Henny Penny who went to take a walk and was accosted
by, "Where are you going?" In _Brother Rabbit and the Little
Girl_ the Little Girl takes the keenest enjoyment in putting
herself in the customary grown-up's place of granting
permission, while the Rabbit takes the usual child's place
of mentioning a request with much persuasion. The child is
interested, too, in the strange people he meets in the fairy
tales: the clever little elves who lived in the groves and
danced on the grass; the dwarfs who inhabited the
earth-rocks and the hills; the trolls who dwelt in the wild
pine forest or the rocky spurs, who ate men or porridge, and
who fled at the noise of bells; the fairies who pleased with
their red caps, green jackets, and sprightly ways; the
beautiful fairy godmother who waved her wonderful wand; or
those lovely fairy spirits who appeared at the moment when
most needed--just as all best friends do--and who could
grant, in a twinkling, the wish that was most desired.

_The diminutive_. This pleasure in the diminutive is found
in the interest in the fairy characters, Baby Bear, Little
Billy-Goat, Little Pig, the Little Elves, Teeny Tiny,
Thumbelina, and Tom Thumb, as well as in tiny objects. In
the _Tale of Tom Thumb_ the child is captivated by the
miniature chariot drawn by six small mice, the tiny
butterfly-wing shirt and chicken-skin boots worn by Tom, and
the small speech produced by him at court, when asked his
name:--

My name is Tom Thumb,
From the Fairies I come;
When King Arthur shone,
This court was my home.
In me he delighted,
By him I was knighted.
Did you never hear of
Sir Thomas Thumb?

_Doll i' the Grass_ contains a tiny chariot made from a
silver spoon and drawn by two white mice, and _Little
Two-Eyes_ gives a magic table. The child takes keen delight
in the fairy ship which could be folded up and put into a
pocket, and in the wonderful nut-shell that could bring
forth beautiful silver and gold dresses. The little wagon of
Chanticleer and Partlet that took them a trip up to the
hill, and the tiny mugs and beds, table and plates, of Snow
White's cottage in the wood--such as these all meet the
approval of child-nature.

_Rhythm and repetition_. The child at first loves sound;
later he loves sound and sense, or meaning. Repetition
pleases him because he has limited experience and is glad to
come upon something he has known before. He observes and he
wants to compare, but it is a job. Repetition saves him a
task and boldly proclaims, "We are the same." Such is the
effect of the repetitive expressions which we find in _Teeny
Tiny_: as, "Now when the teeny-tiny woman got home to her
teeny-tiny house, she was a teeny-tiny bit tired"; or, in
_Little Jack Rollaround_, who cried out with such vigorous
persistence, "Roll me around!" and called to the moon, "I
want the people to see me!" In _The Little Rabbit Who Wanted
Red Wings_, one of the pleasantest tales for little
children, the White Rabbit said to his Mammy, "Oh, Mammy, I
wish I had a long gray tail like Bushy Tail's; I wish I had
a back full of bristles like Mr. Porcupine's; I wish I had a
pair of red rubbers like Miss Puddleduck's." At last, when
he beheld the tiny red-bird at the Wishing-Pond, he said,
"Oh, I wish I had a pair of little red wings!" Then, after
getting his wings, when he came home at night and his Mammy
no longer knew him, he repeated to Mr. Bushy Tail, Miss
Puddleduck, and old Mr. Ground Hog, the same petition to
sleep all night, "Please, kind Mr. Bushy Tail, may I sleep
in your house all night?" etc. Repetition here aids the
child in following the characters, the story, and its
meaning. It is a distinct help to unity and to clearness.

_The Elephant's Child_ is an example of how the literary
artist has used this element of repetition, and used it so
wonderfully that the form is the matter and the tale cannot
be told without the artist's words. "'Satiable curtiosity,"
"the banks of the great, grey-green, greasy, Limpopo River,
all set about with fever-trees," and "'Scuse me," are but a
few of those expressions for which the child will watch as
eagerly as one does for a signal light known to be due. The
repetition of the one word, "curtiosity," throughout the
tale, simply makes the point of the whole story and makes
that point delightfully impressive.

Rhythm and repetition also make a bodily appeal, they appeal
to the child's motor sense and instinctively get into his
muscles. This is very evident in _Brother Rabbit's
Riddle_:--

De big bird bob en little bird sing;
De big bee zoon en little bee sting,
De little man lead en big hoss foller--
Kin you tell wat 's good fer a head in a holler?

The song in _Brother Rabbit and the Little Girl_ appeals
also to the child's sense of sound:--

De jay-bird hunt de sparrer-nes;
De bee-martin sail all 'roun';
De squer'l, he holler from de top er de tree,
Mr. Mole, he stay in de ground;
He hide en he stay twel de dark drap down--
Mr. Mole, he hide in de groun'.

_The simple and the sincere_. The child's taste for the
simple and the sincere is one reason for the appeal which
Andersen's tales make. In using his stories it is to be
remembered that, although Andersen lacked manliness in being
sentimental, he preserved the child's point of view and gave
his thought in the true nursery story's mode of expression.
Since real sentiment places the emphasis on the object which
arouses feeling and the sentimental places the emphasis on
the feeling, sincerity demands that in using Andersen's
tales, one lessen the sentimental when it occurs by omitting
to give prominence to the feeling. Andersen's tales reflect
what is elementary in human nature, childlike fancy, and
emotion. His speech is characterized by the simplest words
and conceptions, an avoidance of the abstract, the use of
direct language, and a naïve poetic expression adapted to
general comprehension. He is not to be equaled in child
conversations. The world of the fairy tale must be simple
like the world Andersen has given us. It must be a world of
genuine people and honest occupations in order to form a
suitable background for the supernatural. Only fairy tales
possessing simplicity are suited to the oldest kindergarten
child of five or six years. To the degree that the child is
younger than five years, he should be given fewer and fewer
fairy tales. Those given should be largely realistic stories
of extreme simplicity.

_Unity of effect_. The little child likes the short tale,
for it is a unity he can grasp. If you have ever listened to
a child of five spontaneously attempting to tell you a long
tale he has not grasped, and have observed how the units of
the tale have become confused in the mind that has not held
the central theme, you then realize how harmful it is to
give a child too long a story. Unity demands that there be
no heaping up of sensations, but neat, orderly, essential
incidents, held together by one central idea. The tale must
go to the climax directly. It must close according to Uncle
Remus's idea when he says, "De tale ain't persoon atter em
no furder don de place whar dey [the characters] make der
disappear'nce." It will say what it has to say and lose no
time in saying it; and often it will attempt to say only one
thing. It will be remarkable as well for what it omits as
for what it tells. The Norse _Doll i' the Grass_ well
illustrates this unity. Boots set out to find a wife and
found a charming little lassie who could spin and weave a
shirt in one day, though of course the shirt was tiny. He
took her home and then celebrated his wedding with the
pleasure of the king. This unity, which is violated in
Grimm's complicated _Golden Bird_, appears pleasantly in
_The Little Pine Tree that Wished for New Leaves_. Here one
feeling dominates the tale, the Pine Tree was no longer
contented. So she wished, first for gold leaves, next for
glass leaves, and then for leaves like those of the oaks and
maples. But the robber who stole her gold leaves, the storm
that shattered her glass leaves, and the goat that ate her
broad green leaves, changed her feeling of discontent, until
she wished at last to have back her slender needles, green
and fair, and awoke next morning, happy and contented.

Fairy tales for little children must avoid certain elements opposed to the interests of the very young child. Temperaments vary and one must be guided by the characteristics of the individual child. But while the little girl with unusual power of visualization, who weeps on hearing of Thumbling's travels down the cow's mouth in company with the hay, may be the exception, she proves the rule: the little child generally should not have the tale that creates an emotion of horror or deep feeling of pain. This standard would determine what tales should not be given to the child of kindergarten age:--

_The tale of the witch_. The witch is too strange and too
fearful for the child who has not learned to distinguish the
true from the imaginative. This would move _Hansel and
Grethel_ into the second-grade work and _Sleeping Beauty_
preferably into the work of the first grade. The child soon
gains sufficient experience so that later the story
impresses, not the strangeness.

_The tale of the dragon_. This would eliminate _Siegfried
and the Dragon_. A dragon is too fearful a beast and
produces terror in the heart of the child. Tales of heroic
adventure with the sword are not suited to his strength. He
has not yet entered the realm of bold adventure where
Perseus and Theseus and Hercules display their powers. The
fact that hero-tales abound in delightful literature is not
adequate reason for crowding the _Rhinegold Legends, Wagner
Stories_, and _Tales of King Arthur_, into the kindergarten.
Their beauty and charm do not make it less criminal to
present to little children such a variety of images as
knighthood carries with it. These tales are not sufficiently
simple for the little child, and must produce a mental
confusion and the crudest of returns.

_Giant tales_. This would omit _Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack
the Giant-Killer_, and _Tom Hickathrift_, moving them up
into the primary field. A little girl, when eating tongue,
confidingly asked, "Whose tongue?" and when told, "A cow's,"
immediately questioned with tenderness, "Don't he feel it?"
Thereafter she insisted that she didn't like tongue. To a
child of such sensibilities the cutting off of heads is
savage and gruesome and should not be given a chance to
impress so prominently. Life cannot be without its strife
and struggle, but the little child need not meet everything
in life at once. This does not mean that absolutely no giant
tale would be used at this time. The tale of _Mr. Miacca_,
in which "little Tommy couldn't always be good and one day
went round the corner," is a giant tale which could be used
with young children because it is full of delightful humor.
Because of the simplicity of Tommy's language and his sweet
childishness it appeals to the child's desire to identify
himself with the character. Tommy is so clever and inventive
and his lively surprises so brimful of fun that the final
effect is entirely pleasing.

_Some tales of transformation_. The little child is not
pleased but shocked by the transformation of men into
animals. A little girl, on looking at an illustration of
_Little Brother and Sister_, remarked, "If my Sister would
turn into a fawn I would cry." When the animals are
terrifying, the transformation contains horror for the
child. This, together with the length and complexity of the
story, would move _Beauty and the Beast_ up into the second
grade where the same transformation becomes an element of
pleasure. A simple tale of transformation, such as _The
Little Lamb and the Little Fish_, in which Gretchen becomes
a lamb and Peterkin a little fish, is interesting but not
horrible, and could be used. So also could a tale such as
Grimm's _Fundevogel_, in which the brother and sister escape
the pursuit of the witch by becoming, one a rosebush and the
other a rose; later, one a church and the other a steeple;
and a third time, one a pond and the other a duck. In both
these tales we have the witch and transformation, but the
effect contains no horror.

_The tale of strange animal relations and strange creatures.
Tom Tit Tot_, which Jacobs considers the most delightful of
all fairy tales, is brimful of humor for the older child,
but here the tailed man is not suited to the faith and
understanding of six years. _Rumpelstiltskin_, its parallel,
must also be excluded. _The House in the Wood_, and its
Norse parallel, _The Two Step-Sisters_, are both very
beautiful, but are more suited to the second grade. In the
kindergarten it is much better to present the tale which
emphasizes goodness, rather than the two just mentioned,
which present the good and the bad and show what happens to
both. Besides there is a certain elation resulting from the
superior reward won by the good child which crowds out any
pity for the erring child. Such elation is a form of
selfishness and ought not to be emphasized. _Snow White and
Rose Red_ contains the strange dwarf, but it is a tale so
full of love and goodness and home life that in spite of its
length it could be used in the first grade.

_Unhappy tales_. The very little child pities, and its
tender heart must be protected from depressing sadness as
unrelieved as we find it in _The Little Match Girl_. The
image of suffering impressed on a child, who cannot forget
the sight of a cripple for days, is too intense to be
healthful. The sorrow of the poor is one of the elements of
life that even the very little child meets, and it is
legitimate that his literature should include tales that
call for compassion. But in a year or two, when he develops
less impressionability and more poise, he is better prepared
to meet such situations, as he must meet them in life.

_The tale of capture_. This would eliminate _Proserpine_. No
more beautiful myth exists than this one of the springtime,
but its beauty and its symbolism do not make it suitable for
the kindergarten. It is more suited to the elementary child
of the fourth grade. In fact, very few myths of any sort
find a legitimate place in the kindergarten, perhaps only a
few of the simpler _pourquois_ tales. _The Legend of the
Pied Piper of Hamelin_, which is very beautiful, and appeals
to little children because of the piping and of the children
following after, should be omitted from the kindergarten
because the capture at the close--the disappearance of the
children in the hill--is tragic in pathos. It is better to
leave the literature as it is and offer it later when the
child reaches the second grade. The effect of this tragic
end has been realized by Josephine Scribner Gates, who (_St.
Nicholas_, November, 1914) has given to the children, "And
Piped Those Children Back Again." This is a modern
completion of _The Pied Piper_. It most happily makes the
little lame boy who was left in Hamelin when the Piper
closed the door of the mountain, the means of the
restoration of the other children to their parents.

_The very long tale_. This would omit _The Ugly Duckling.
The Ugly Duckling_ is a most artistic tale and one that is
very true to life. Its characters are the animals of the
barn-yard, the hens and ducks familiar to the little child's
experience. But the theme and emotional interest working out
at length through varied scenes, make it much better adapted
to the capacities of a third-grade child. _The White Cat_, a
feminine counterpart of _Puss-in-Boots_--which gives a most
charming picture of how a White Cat, a transformed princess,
helped a youth, and re-transformed became his bride--because
of its length, is better used in the first grade at the same
time with _Puss-in-Boots_. The same holds true of _Peter,
Paul, and Espen_, or its parallel, Laboulaye's _Poucinet_.
This is a fine tale telling how the youngest of three sons
succeeded in winning the king's favor and finally the
princess and half the kingdom. First, Espen had to cut down
the giant oak that shadowed the palace and dig a well in the
courtyard of the castle deep enough to furnish water the
entire year. But after winning in these tests, he is
required to conquer a great Ogre who dwells in the forest,
and later to prove himself cleverer in intellect than the
princess by telling the greater falsehood. It is evident
that not only the subject-matter but the working out of the
long plot are much beyond kindergarten children.

_The complicated or the insincere tale_. This would
eliminate a tale of complicated structure, such as Grimm's
_Golden Bird_; and many of the modern fairy tales, which
will be dealt with later on.

The fairy tales mentioned above are all important tales which the child should receive at a later time when he is ready for them. They are mentioned because they all have been suggested for kindergarten use. The whole field of children's literature is largely unclassified and ungraded as yet, and such arrangements as we possess show slight respect for standards. There is abundant material for the youngest, and much will be gained by omitting to give the very young what they will enjoy a little later, much better and with freshness. It is true that a few classics are well-suited to the child at any age, such as _Alice in Wonderland_, _The Jungle Books_, and _Uncle Remus Tales_. In regard to this grading of the classics, Lamb in _Mackery End_, speaking of his sister's education, said, "She was tumbled early, by accident or design, into a spacious closet of good old English reading, without much selection or prohibition, and browsed at will upon that fair and wholesome pasturage. Had I twenty girls they should be brought up exactly in this fashion." Lamb would have argued: Set the child free in the library and let him choose for himself, and feed on great literature, those stories which give general types of situation and character, which give the simplest pictures of a people at different epochs. But with all due respect to Lamb it must be said that Lamb is not living in this scientific day of discovery of the child's personality and of accurate attention to the child's needs. Because the _Odyssey_ is a great book and will give much to any child does not prove at all that the same child would not be better off by reading it when his interests reach its life. This outlook on the problem would eliminate the necessity of having the classics rewritten from a new moral viewpoint, which is becoming a custom now-a-days, and which is to be frowned upon, for it deprives the literature of much of its vigor and force.

II. THE FAIRY TALE AS LITERATURE

From the point of view of the child, we have seen that in a subjective sense, fairy tales must contain the interests of children. In an objective sense, rather from the point of view of literature, let us now consider what fairy tales must contain, what are the main standards which determine the value of fairy tales as literature, and as such, subject-matter of real worth to the child.

The old tale will not always be perfect literature; often it will be imperfect, especially in form. Yet the tale should be selected with the standards of literature guiding in the estimate of its worth and in the emphasis to be placed upon its content. Such relating of the tale to literary standards would make it quite impossible later in the primary grades when teaching the reading of _Three Pigs_, to put the main stress on a mere external like the expression of the voice. A study of the story as literature would have centered the attention on the situation, the characters, and the plot. If the voice is receiving training in music and in the phonics of spelling, then when the reading of the tale is undertaken it will be a willing servant to the mind which is concentrating on the reality, and will express what the thought compels.

The fairy tale first must be a classic in reality even if it lacks the crowning touch of perfect form given through the re-treatment of a literary artist. In _Reynard the Fox_ we have an exact example of the folk-tale that has been elevated into literature. But this was possible only because the tales originally possessed the qualities of a true classic. "A true classic," Sainte-Beuve has said, "is one which enriches the human mind, has increased its treasure and caused it to advance a step, which has discovered some moral and unequivocal truth or revealed some eternal passion in that heart where all seemed known and discovered; which is an expression of thought, observation, or invention, in no matter what form, only provided it be broad and great, refined and sensible, sane and beautiful in itself; which speaks in its own peculiar style which is found to be also that of the whole world, a style new and old, easily contemporary with all time." Immediately some of the great fairy tales stand out as answering to this test--_Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Jack the Giant-Killer_,--which has been said to be the epitome of the whole life of man--_Beauty and the Beast_, and a crowd of others. Any fairy tale which answers to the test of a real classic must, like these, show itself to contain for the child a permanent enrichment of the mind.

Fairy tales must have certain qualities which belong to all literature as a fine art, whether it is the literature of knowledge or the literature of power. Literature is not the book nor is it life; but literature is the sense of life, whose artist is the author, and the medium he uses is words, language. It is good art when his sense of life is truth, and fine art when there is beauty in that truth. The one essential beauty of literature is in its essence and does not depend upon any decoration. As words are the medium, literature will distinguish carefully among them and use them as the painter, for particular lights and shades. According to Pater literature must have two qualities, mind and soul. Literature will have mind when it has that architectural sense of structure which foresees the end in the beginning and keeps all the parts related in a harmonious unity. It will have soul when it has that "vagrant sympathy" which makes it come home to us and which makes it suggest what it does not say. Test the _Tale of Cinderella_ by this standard. As to mind, it makes one think of a bridge in which the very keystone of the structure is the condition that Cinderella return from the ball by the stroke of twelve. And its "vagrant sympathy" is quite definite enough to reach a maid of five, who remarked: "If I'd have been Cinderella, I wouldn't have helped those ugly sisters, would you?"

If the fairy tale stands the test of literature it must have proved itself, not only a genuine classic according to Sainte-Beuve's standard, and a tale possessing qualities of mind and soul according to Pater's _Style_, but it must have shown itself also a work owning certain features distinguishing it as literature. These particular literary marks which differentiate the literary tale from the ordinary prose tale have been pointed out by Professor Winchester in his _Principles of Literary Criticism_. They apply to the old tale of primitive peoples just as well as to the modern tale of to-day. As literature the tale must have:

(1) a power to appeal to the emotions;

(2) a power to appeal to the imagination;

(3) a basis of truth; and

(4) a form more or less perfect.

(1) A power to appeal to the emotions. This appeal to the emotions is its unique distinguishing literary trait. Literature appeals, not to the personal emotions but to the universal ones. For this reason, through literature the child may come in time to develop a power of universal sympathy, which is not the least value literature has to bestow upon him, for this sympathy will become a benediction to all those with whom he may have to deal. In order that emotion in the tales may be literary--make a permanent appeal--according to Professor Winchester's standards, it must have justness given by a deep and worthy cause; vividness so that it may enlarge and thrill; a certain steadiness produced by everything in the tale contributing to the main emotion; a variety resulting from contrasts of character; and a high quality obtained through its sympathy with life and its relation to the conduct of life, so that the feeling for the material beauty of mere sights and sounds is closely related to the deepest suggestions of moral beauty. The best literary tales will possess emotion having all five characteristics. Many tales will exhibit one or more of these traits conspicuously. No tale that is literature will be found which does not lay claim to some one of these qualities which appeal to the broadly human emotions.

Applying the test of emotion to fairy tales, _Cinderella_ possesses a just emotion, Cinderella's cause is the cause of goodness and kindness and love, and deserves a just reward. _The Town Musicians of Bremen_ exhibits vivid emotion, for all four characters are in the same desperate danger of losing life, all four unite to save it, and to find a home. Andersen's _Steadfast Tin Soldier_ is a good example of steadiness of emotion, as it maintains throughout its message of courage. The Tin Soldier remained steadfast, whether on the table just escaped from the toy-box, or in the street after a frightful fall from the window, or spinning in a paper boat that bobbed, or sailing under the crossing, or lying at full length within the fish that swallowed him, or at last melting in the full glare of the hearth fire. It is a very good example, too, of vividness of emotion. _The Little Elves_ illustrates steadiness of emotion, it is pervaded by the one feeling, that industry deserves reward. The French tale, _Drakesbill_, is especially delightful and humorous because "Bill Drake" perseveres in his happy, fresh vivacity, at the end of every rebuff of fortune, and triumphantly continues his one cry of, "Quack, quack, quack! When shall I get my money back?" _Lambikin_ leaves the one distinct impression of light gaiety and happy-heartedness; and _The Foolish, Timid Rabbit_ preserves steadily the one effect of the credulity of the animals, made all the more prominent by contrast to the wisdom of the Lion. Variety of emotion appears in tales such as _Cinderella, Little Two-Eyes, Sleeping Beauty_, and _Three Pigs_, where the various characters are drawn distinctly and their contrasting traits produce varied emotional effects. All the great fairy tales appeal to emotion of a high moral quality and it is this which is the source of their universal appeal. It is this high moral quality of the spiritual truth, which is the center of the tale's unity, holding together all the parts under one emotional theme. This is the source of the perennial freshness of the old tale; for while the immortal truth it presents is old, the personality of the child that meets it is new. For the child, the tale is new because he discovers in it a bit of himself he had not known before, and it retains for him a lasting charm so that he longs to hear it again and again. The beauty of truth, the reward of goodness, and the duty of fairness, give a high emotional quality to _Little Two-Eyes_; and _Sleeping Beauty_ illustrates the blighting power of hatred to impose a curse and the saving power of love to overcome the works of hatred.

Considering folk-tales from the standpoint of emotion, if asked to suggest what author's work would rank in the same class, one is rather surprised to find, that for high moral quality, variety, and worthy cause, the author who comes to mind is none other than Shakespeare. Perhaps, with all due respect to literature's idol, one might even venture to question which receives honor by the comparison, Shakespeare or the folk-tales? It might be rather a pleasant task to discover who is the Cordelia, the Othello, the Rosalind, and the Portia of the folk-tales; or who the Beauty, the Bluebeard, the Cinderella, the Puss-in-Boots, and the Hop-o'-my-Thumb, of Shakespeare.

The little child is open to emotional appeal, his heart is tender and he is impressionable. If he feels with the characters in his tales he develops a power of emotion. In Andersen's _Snow Man_ it is hard to say which seems more human to him or which makes more of an emotional appeal, the Snow Man or the Dog. He is sorry for the poor Shoemaker in _The Little Elves_, glad when he grows rich, delighted for the Elves when they receive their presents, and satisfied at the happy end. Since literature depicts life and character in order to awaken noble emotions, it follows that one must omit to present what awakens repulsive or degrading emotions. And it is for this reason, as has been mentioned under the heading "Elements to be avoided," that the tales of the witch and the dragon must be excluded, not for all time, but for the earliest years, when they awaken horror.

Through fairy tales we have seen that the emotional power of the child is strengthened. This has been effected because, in the tale just as truly as in life, action is presented in real situations; and back of every action is the motive force of emotion. This cumulative power of emotion, secured by the child through the handling of tales, will serve daily a present need. It will be the dynamic force which he will require for anything he wishes to accomplish in life. It will give the child the ability to use it in any situation similar to that in which it was acquired. It will make a difference in his speech; he will not have to say so much, for what he does say will produce results. This growing power of emotion will carry over into feelings of relation and thus lead to judgment of values. This evaluation is the basis of reasoning and answers to the child's daily call to think from causes to consequences. This increasing power of emotion develops into the æsthetic sensibilities and so results in a cultivation of taste and an understanding of life. Emotion therefore leads to appreciation, which, when logically developed, becomes expression. Fairy tales, thus, in conducting emotional capacity through this varied growth and toward this high development, hold an educational value of no mean order.

(2) The power to appeal to the imagination. Emotion can be aroused by showing the objects which excite emotion. Imagination is this power to see and show things in the concrete. Curry says, "Whenever the soul comes vividly in contact with any fact, truth, etc., whenever it takes them home to itself with more than common intensity, out of that meeting of the soul and its object there arises a thrill of joy, a glow of feeling. It is the faculty that can create ideal presence." When through imagination we select spontaneously from the elements of experience and combine into new wholes, we call it creative imagination.--The creative imagination will be viewed here as it appears in action in the creative return given by the child to his fairy tales.--When we emphasize a similarity seen in mere external or accidental relations or follow suggestions not of an essential nature in the object, we call it fancy. Ruskin, in his _Modern Painters_, vol. I, part III, _Of the Imaginative Faculty_, would distinguish three classes of the imagination:--

(a) _The associative imagination_. This is the power of imagination by which we call into association other images that tend to produce the same or allied emotion. When this association has no common ground of emotion it is fancy. The test for the associative imagination, which has the power to combine ideas to form a conception, is that if one part is taken away the rest of the combination goes to pieces. It requires intense simplicity, harmony, and absolute truth. Andersen's _Fairy Tales_ are a perfect drill for the associative imagination. Literature parallels life and what is presented calls up individual experience. Any child will feel a thrill of kinship with the experiences given in _The Tin Soldier_--a little boy's birthday, the opening of the box, the counting of the soldiers, and the setting of them upon the table. And because here Andersen has transformed this usual experience with a vivacity and charm, the tale ranks high as a tale of imagination. _Little Ida's Flowers_ and _Thumbelina_ are tales of pure fancy. Grimm's _The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean_ and _The Spindle, the Shuttle, and the Needle_ rank in the same class, as also do the Norse _The Doll i' the Grass_ and the English _Tom Thumb_.