Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/25

 who profess to measure up a man's idiosyncrasies by the twist of his toes or the cock of his eyes. Whether vivisection would be a necessary part of the process, only experts can decide!

The attempt to classify books into grades, to suit the supposed tastes and mental abilities of children of various ages whose minds are awakening to activity and acquiring powers of observation, is a complete mistake. So is the plan of separating books for boys and girls, or setting aside those of a low literary quality, but undeniably moral tone, for juvenile consumption. The whole policy of directing the reading of children in grooves, according to some standard, fixed maybe by an unsympathetic adult, is an insult to the intelligence and humanity which reside in boys and girls, however much they may be concealed under the inanities their parents teach them. No doubt some of the mistaken notions as to the possibility of suiting books to ages have arisen from the frequent inquiries which present-giving relatives address to booksellers when they want books suitable for children of a certain age. To meet this demand, certain semi-religious, semi-commercial publishing houses have issued hundreds of tons of books based on the age-limit fetish.

In selecting books for the use of boys and girls, or, in other words, forming a small juvenile library, it is well to avoid most of the literature professedly written for youth, and published at preposterous prices by discerning publishers, who manufacture this gilded rubbish with an eye to the rich uncle