"a larger growth" have been supplied in abundance; but, as Sir Walter
Scott has set the example of writing for masters and misses, we hope
that our nursery literature will rise in character, and it will not
henceforth be the business of after-years to correct erroneous ideas
imbibed from silly books during our childhood. In this task much time
has been lost. Mrs. Watts is of the same opinion; and with this view,
"the extravagances of those apocryphal personages--giants, ghosts, and
fairies--have been entirely banished from her pages, as tending not only
to enervate the infant mind, and unfit it for the reception of more
wholesome nutriment, but also to increase the superstitious terrors of
childhood,--the editor has not less scrupulously excluded those novel-like
stories of exaggerated sentiment, which may now almost be said
to form the staple commodity of our nursery literature."--(_Preface_.)
Accordingly, we have in the _New Year's Gift_ three historical pieces
and engravings, illustrating the murder of the young princes in the
Tower; Arthur imploring Hubert not to put out his eyes; and another.
There are from thirty to forty tales, sketches, and poems, among which
are a pretty story, by Mrs. Hofland; a Cricketing Story, by Miss Mitford,
&c. There are two or three little pieces enjoining humanity to animals,
and some pleasing anecdotes of monkeys and tame robins, and a few lines
on the Reed-Sparrow's Nest:--

Only see what a neat, warm, compact little thing!
Mister Nash could not build such a house for the king;
Not he, let him labour his best.

Among the poetry are some graceful lines by Mr. Watts to his son;
but our extract must be "The Spider and the Fly, a new version of
an old story," by Mrs. Howitt. It is a lesson for all folks--great
and small--from the infant in the nursery to the emperor of Russia,