age 328: "_Those who go there must go first where
they do not like, and do what they do not like, and help somebody they
do not like._" Besides these leading ideas there are several others that
run through the story. Meanness and wickedness are made unattractive and
bring punishment. The punishment grows logically out of the offense and
has a direct relation to the misdeed. Persons are not rewarded for their
good deeds but they are happy in being good. It is not a credit to do
right, but wrongdoing is discreditable. Little meannesses stand in the
way of happiness though they may not bring any definite punishments.
Evil is ugliness, goodness is beauty. Friendship is made attractive and
filial love is strongly inculcated. The strong appeal made to the
sympathy of the reader by the very real and very human Tom, the chimney
sweep, is a strong influence for good, and progress toward character in
the clever little water baby is a continuous refining influence on the
reader.

The bits of advice, the little asides, are slipped into the text so
naturally that they are never repulsive or calculated to raise
antagonism in the minds of those who naturally dislike advice. Taken
from the text they seem more formal and less helpful, but here are a few
of them as illustrations:

"Let well alone, lad, and ill too at times."

"You must expect to be beat a few times in your life, little man, if you
live such a life as a man ought to live."

"Ah, first thoughts are best, and a body's heart'll guide them right, if
they will but hearken to it."

"It was not quite well bred, no doubt; but you know, Tom had not
finished his education yet."

"For salmon, like other true gentlemen, always choose their lady and
love her, and are true to her, and take care of her, and work for her,
and fight for her, as every true gentleman ought."

"What has been once can never come over again."

"No more to be bought for money than a good conscience or the Victoria
cross."

"You see, experience is of very little good unless a man, or a lobster,
has wit enough to make use of it."

"It is not good for little boys to be told everything, and never to be
forced to use their own wits."

"And so if you do not know that things are wrong, that is no reason why
you should not be punished for them; though not as much, my little man
(and the lady looked very kindly, after all), as if you did know."

"I am quite sure that she knows best. Perhaps she wishes peo