more lasting elements of English; later on they may use their discretion
in catching the new words which are afloat in the air, but the
foundations must be laid otherwise. It takes the bloom off the freshness
of young writers if they are determined to exhibit the last new words
that are in, or out of season. New words have a doubtful position at
first. They float here and there like thistle-down, and their future
depends upon where they settle. But until they are established and
accepted they are out of place for children's use. They are contrary to
the perfect manner for children. We ask that their English should be
simple and unaffected, not that it should glitter with the newest
importations, brilliant as they may be. It is from the more permanent
element in the language that they will acquire what they ought to have,
the characteristic traits of thought and manner which belong to it. It
is not too much to look for such things in children's writing and
speaking. The first shoots and leaves may come up early though the full
growth and flower may be long waited for. These characteristics are
often better put into words by foreign critics than by ourselves, for we
are inclined to take them as a whole and to take them for granted; hence
the trouble experienced by educated foreigners in catching the
characteristics of English style, and their surprise in finding that we
have no authentic guides to English composition, fend that the court of
final appeal is only the standard Of the best use. The words of a German
critic on a Collection of English portraits in Berlin are very happily
pointed and might be as aptly applied to writing as to painting.

"English, utterly English! Nothing on God's earth could be more English
than this whole collection. The personality of the artist (_it happened
that he was an Irishman_), the countenances of the subjects, their
dress, the discreetly suggestive backgrounds, all have the
characteristic touch of British culture, very refined, very high-bred,
very quiet, very much clarified, very confident, very neat, very
well-appointed, a little dreamy and just a little wearisome--the precise
qualities which at the same time impress and annoy us in the English."

This is exactly what might be said of Pater's writing, but that is
full-grown English. Pater is not a model for children, they would find
him more than "just a little wearisome." If anyone could put into words
what Sir Joshua Reynolds' p