e written?

Three rules will suffice. It should be written clearly and simply; for
young minds will spend little time in difficult investigation. It should
have a good moral. It should be interesting; or it will generally be
left unread, and thus any other excellence that it may possess will be
useless. Some writers seem to have a fourth rule,--that it should be
instructive; but, really, it is no great matter, if a child should have
some books without wisdom. Moreover, this maxim is eminently perilous in
its practical application, and, indeed, is seldom followed but at the
expense of the other three.

To these three rules all writers of children's books profess to conform;
yet a good book for children is a rarity; for, simple as the rules are,
they are very little understood. While all admit that the style should
be simple and familiar, some appear to think that anything simple to
them will be equally simple to their child-readers, and write as nearly
as possible in the style of "The Rambler." Such a book is "The Percy
Family," whose author is guilty of an additional impropriety in putting
his ponderous sentences into the mouth of a child not ten years old.
Another and more numerous class, evidently piquing themselves not a
little upon avoiding this error, fall into another by fancying it
necessary to _write down_ to their young readers. They explain
everything with a tiresome minuteness of detail, although any observer
of children ought to know that a child's mind does not want everything
explained. They think that simplicity demands this lengthy discussion of
every trivial matter. There is such a thing as a conceited simplicity,
and there is a technical simplicity, that in its barrenness and
insipidity is worthy only of a simpleton. In Jacob Abbott's "Juveniles"
especially, by means of this minuteness, a very scanty stock of ideas is
made to go a great way. Does simplicity require such trash as this?

"The place was known by the name of the Octagon. The reason why
it was called by this name was, that the principal sitting-room
in the house was built in the form of an octagon, that is,
instead of having four sides, as a room usually has, this room
had eight sides. An octagon is a figure of eight sides.

"A figure of four sides is called a square. A figure of five
sides is called a pentagon, of six sides a hexagon, of eight
sides an octagon. There might be a figure of seven sid