not fail to determine the taste of
the next generation towards physical sciences.

"Chinese dolls are sober in color, meek in demeanor, and comprehensive
in mien.... The favorite Chinese toy remains the theatrical scene
where the family is treated _a la Moliere_.

"Persia sends beautiful toys, from which can be inferred a national
taste for music, since most of their dolls are blowing instruments.

"Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, have sent no dolls. Do they make none, under
the impression, correct in a low state of culture, that dolls for
children become idols for men?

"The Finlanders and Laplanders, who are not troubled with such
religious prejudices, give rosy cheeks and bodies as fat as seals to
their dolls.

"The French toy represents the versatility of the nation, touching
every topic, grave or grotesque.

"From Berlin come long trains of artillery, regiments of lead, horse
and foot on moving tramways.

"From the Hartz and the Alps still issue those wooden herds, more
characteristic of the dull feelings of their makers than of the
instincts of the animals they represent.

"The American toys justify the rule we have found good elsewhere, that
their character both reveals and prefaces the national tendencies.
With us, toys refer the mind and habits of children to home economy,
husbandry, and mechanical labor; and their very material is durable,
mainly wood and iron.

"So from childhood every people has its sympathies expressed or
suppressed, and set deeper in its flesh and blood than scholastic
ideas.... The children who have no toys seize realities very late, and
never form ideals.... The nations rendered famous by their artists,
artisans, and idealists have supplied their infants with many toys,
for there is more philosophy and poetry in a single doll than in a
thousand books.... If you will tell us what your children play with,
we will tell you what sort of women and men they will be; so let
this Republic make the toys which will raise the moral and artistic
character of her children."

Froebel's educational toys do us one service, in that they preach a
silent but impressive sermon on simplicity.

It is easy to see that the hurlyburly of our modern life is not wholly
favorable to the simple creed of childhood, "delight and liberty, when
busy or at rest," but we might make it a little less artificial than
we do, perhaps.

Every thoughtful person knows that the simple, natural playthings of
the old-fashion