Page:A Study of Fairy Tales.djvu/84

60 its paragraphs, will display a control of the principles of sincerity, unity, mass, and coherence.

A tale which well illustrates the hterary form possible to the child's tale, which may be said to possess that perfection of form we call style, and which may be used with the distinct aim to improve the child's English and perfect his language expression, is the modern realistic fairy tale, Oeyvind and Marit.

And Oeyvind replied:—

The story is full of instances illustrating precision, energy, and delicacy. In fact, almost any passage exemplifies the general qualities of form and the qualities of composition. The personality of the writer has given to the tale a poetic and dramatic charm of simplicity. Note the precision and delicacy displayed in the opening paragraph:—