compare it with other lives; he sees himself and his own possibilities
reflected in them as in a mirror.

They also aid in the growth of the imaginative faculty, which is very
early developed in the child, and requires its natural food.
"Imagination," says Dr. Seguin, "is more than a decorative attribute
of leisure; it is a power in the sense that from images perceived and
stored it sublimes ideals." "If I were to choose between two great
calamities for my children," he goes on to say, "I would rather have
them unalphabetic than unimaginative."

There is a great difference of opinion concerning the value of fairy
stories. The Gradgrinds will not accept them on any basis whatever,
but they are invariably so fascinating to children that it is certain
they must serve some good purpose and appeal to some inherent craving
in child-nature. But here comes in the necessity of discrimination.
The true meaning of the word "faerie" is spiritual, but many stories
masquerade under that title which have no claim to it. Some universal
spiritual truth underlies the really fine old fairy tale; but there
can be no educative influence in the so-called fairy stories which are
merely jumbles of impossible incidents, and which not unfrequently
present dishonesty, deceit, and cruelty in attractive or amusing
guise.

When the fairy tale carries us into an exquisite ideal world, where
the fancy may roam at will, creating new images and seeing truth ever
in new forms, then it has a pure and lovely influence over children,
who are natural poets, and live more in the spirit and less in the
body than we. The fairy tale offers us a broad canvas on which to
paint our word-pictures. There are no restrictions of time or space;