o children
thus to prejudice them against a subject which thrills with human
interest, and touches human life at every turn, it is unfair to history
to present it thus, it is misleading to give development to a particular
period without any general scheme against which it may show in due
proportion, as misleading as the old picture-books for children in which
the bat on one page and the man on the other were of the same size.

There must necessarily be a principle of selection, but one of the
elements to be considered in making choice ought always to be that of
proportion and of fitness in adaptation to a general scheme. It was
pointed out by Sir Joshua Fitch in his "Lessons on Teaching" (an
old-fashioned book now, since it was published before the deluge of
"Pedagogics," but still valuable) that an ideal plan of teaching history
to children might be found in the historical books of Holy Scripture,
and in practice the idea is useful, suggesting that one aim should be
kept in view, that at times the guiding line should contract to a mere
clue of direction, and at others expand into very full and vivid
narrative chiefly in biographical form. The principle may be applied in
the teaching of any history that may be given to children, that is to
say, in general, to Sacred history which has its own place in connexion
with religious teaching, to ancient history within very small limits, to
Greek and Roman history in such proportion as the years of education may
allow, and to the two most prominent and most necessary for children,
the history of their own country and that of modern Europe directed
along the lines of the history of the Church.

There are periods and degrees of development in the minds of children to
which correspond different manners of teaching and even different
objects, as we make appeal to one or other of the growing faculties. The
first stage is imaginative, the second calls not only upon the
imagination and memory but upon the understanding, and the third, which
is the beginning of a period of fruition, begins to exercise the
judgment, and to give some ideas concerning principles of research and
criticism.

The first is the period of romance, when by means of the best myths of
many nations, from their heroic legends and later stories, the minds of
children are turned to what is high and beautiful in the traditions of
the past, and they learn those truths concerning human life and destiny
which transcend