Racine's "Plaideurs," in which the counsel for the defence, eager to
show how fundamental his knowledge, begins his speech: "Before the
Creation of the World"--And the Judge (with a touch of weariness
tempered by humor) suggests:

"Let us pass on to the Deluge."

And thus I, too, have passed on to the Deluge. I have abandoned an
account of the origin and past of stories which at best would only
have displayed a little recently acquired book knowledge. When I
thought of the number of scholars who could treat this part of the
question infinitely better than myself, I realized how much wiser it
would be--though the task is more humdrum--to deal with the present
possibilities of story-telling for our generation of parents
and teachers.

My objects in urging the use of stories in the education of children
are at least fivefold:

First, to give them dramatic joy, for which they have a natural
craving; to develop a sense of humor, which is really a sense of
proportion; to correct certain tendencies by showing the consequences
in the career of the hero in the story [Of this motive the children
must be quite unconscious and there should be no didactic emphasis];
to present by means of example, not precept, such ideals as will
sooner or later be translated into action; and finally, to develop the
imagination, which really includes all the other points.

But the art of story-telling appeals not only to the educational world
and to parents as parents, but also to a wider public interested in