Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/24

 of eight: 'My dear child, you mustn't take this book to read; it is reserved for boys twelve years old, and might cause you to strain your mental outfit!' If, however, the books were classified in some such order as the following, one could appreciate the attempt to suit literature to its appropriate readers, especially if all children were branded with their mental endowments, after examination in a psychological laboratory:—

This scheme avoids the utterly fallacious theory, codified in American and British catalogues and educational standards, that intelligence goes with age, while it gives abundant scope for psychological diagnosis by those experts in mental physiology