younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is
next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in
England,--a phase largely due to the influence of one man,--and once
there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction.

Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of
children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was
probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher,
John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public
opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the
well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke's
ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to
compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, "The Child's
New Play-thing," with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke,
without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers
and readers (such as "Dilworth's Guide"), and then onward to
story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his letters
under the title of "Thoughts on Education."

In these letters Locke took an extraordinary course: he first made a
quaint plea for the _general welfare_ of Mr. Clarke's little son. "I
imagine," he wrote, "the minds of children are as easily turned this or
that way as Water itself, and though this be the principal Part, and our
main Care should be about the inside, yet the Clay Cottage is not to be
neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and consider first the
_Health_ of the body." Under Health he discussed clothing, including
thin shoes, "that they may leak and let in Water." A pause was then
made to show the benefits of wet feet as against the apparent
disadvantages of filthy stockings and muddy boots; for mothers even in
that time were inclined to consider their floors and steps. Bathing next