everything new had existed in some trained imagination, fertile with
ideas. The tale feeds the imagination, for the soul of it is a bit of
play. It suits the child because in it he is not bound by the law of
cause and effect, nor by the necessary relations of actual life. He is
entirely in sympathy with a world where events follow as one may
choose. He likes the mastership of the universe. And fairyland--where
there is no time; where troubles fade; where youth abides; where
things come out all right--is a pleasant place.

Furthermore, fairy tales are play forms. "Play," Bichter says, "is the
first creative utterance of man." "It is the highest form in which the
native activity of childhood expresses itself," says Miss Blow. Fairy
tales offer to the little child an opportunity for the exercise of
that self-active inner impulse which seeks expression in two kinds of
play, the symbolic activity of free play and the concrete presentation
of types. The play, _The Light Bird_, and the tale, _The Bremen_ _Town
Musicians_, both offer an opportunity for the child to express that
pursuit of a light afar off, a theme which appeals to childhood. The
fairy tale, because it presents an organized form of human experience,
helps to organize the mind and gives to play the values of human life.
By contributing so largely to the play spirit, fairy tales contribute
to that joy of activity, of achievement, of coöperation, and of
judgment, which is the joy of all work. This habit of kindergarten
play, with its joy and freedom and initiative, is the highest goal to
be attained in the method of university work.

Fairy tales give the child a power of accurate observation. The habit
of re-experiencing, of visualization, which they exercise, increases
the ability to see, and is the contribution literature offers to
nature study. In childhood acquaintance with the natural objects of