a juvenile book. They wept over little Dick's
farewell to Oliver, and shuddered when Nancy saw coffins, enjoying it
all extremely, and taking in so little of it that it has appeared to
them since as not one of the least of Dickens's glories that he could
write a book about the scum of London which children may read and
re-read well into their young girlhood without receiving even the shadow
of an impression of any evil beyond pocket-picking and house-breaking
and general hard-heartedness.

And so it might not be far from the truth to say that children can read
anything. They can, and do, even now when they have a literature of
their own; for persons who would be shocked at the idea of turning a
child loose in an adult library, where things unsuitable might pass
harmlessly over its head, think nothing of taking a book off a counter
and presenting it to their little ones, they themselves knowing no more
than the man in the moon what it contains, although certain that the
contents, whatever they may be, will be readily assimilated by the
youthful mind. Suppose simply that such a book is full of slang and bad
grammar, the antediluvians had an advantage there: if you want that sort
of thing to amuse children with, the language of thieves is peculiarly
suitable, in so far that if ever the young people who devoured "Oliver
Twist" had over among themselves any of the Dodger's and Charley Bates's
racy expressions it was with a wholesome sense of its being highly
improper; whereas one cannot imagine the little folk of to-day seeing
any impropriety in an equally debased decoction of English--albeit
somewhat more mildly drawn--when put into the mouths of children like
themselves. Then, again, the ancient young people used to read Scott's
and Cooper's novels, and found there much that was entirely beyond them,
which they knew was only for grown persons, and therefore, though they
read of love, courtship, and marriage, they remained as unsophisticated
as before. But how is a child to be unsophisticated nowadays, when all
these topics are manipulated for its especial benefit?--when there is a
devoted boy in the story, and, in due course of time, proposal,
engagement, and the wedding? In the same way one can affirm without fear
of contradiction that the lads who formerly enjoyed pirates and Red
Rovers from their parents' book-shelves had a healthier mental food than
those who at present are provided with Rovers of their own, carefully