A somewhat similar service to children's books was rendered in America by Isaiah Thomas, the long-lived Massachusetts printer and bookseller, the pioneer publisher of juvenile literature in the western world. Drawing freely upon Newbery's list, he needed but to alter a bit the English terminology and give the stories a New England setting to make his reprints interesting to children of Colonial and Revolutionary times. In such stories as (The Juvenile Biographer' (containing accounts of Mistresses Allgoo, Careful and Lovebook, together with the narratives of Mr. Badenough and other heroes) the English text is easily recognizable. They represented no very great advance, it must be admitted, over the least cheerless New England primers. Nor were such of the Thomas publications as were writ ten in America tinged by less sombre sternness. Children the Parents' Joy' ; (A Dying Father's Legacy to an Only Child' ; and Jane way's (Token for the Children of New Eng land'— were the self-explanatory titles of some of these. The echo of Puritan England and Colonial America was far too distinct in such children's books — they were in no sense real literature — to make them delightful reading for healthy boys and girls. For that they had still to wait.
In Germany the educator Basedow and others originated a type of literature which, intended for children and undeveloped adults, combines instruction and narrative in an enter taining manner. Although the art of such tales was still crude, they form another interesting link in the evolution of children's literature. It was as a result of this movement inaugurated by The Philanthropium (see PHILANTHROPY) that Defoe produced his children's classic, (Robinson Crusoe,> so many times translated and imitated—only half successfully, it should be noted, in (The Swiss Family Robinson.) The Modern Period.— At least four dis tinct streams of influence are distinguishable in this great period of children's literature, which was well under way by the beginning of the 19th century. These may be characterized as (1) The Rousseau Influence; (2) The Sunday School Influence; (3) The Poetic Influence; and (4) The Classical Influence. We shall briefly consider each of them.
(1) The first of these influences has already been referred to. The enthusiastic disciples of Rousseau who wrote books for children— notably the two Edgeworths, Thomas Day and Mrs. Barbauld — accepted without question the narrowly utilitarian principles propounded in the The result, so far as children's reading was concerned, was not altogether a happy one. The writers of this school con ceived the function of children's books to be informational and reformative. They, in effect, substituted educational and moral didacticism for the religious didacticism of preceding periods. Thus, parents are urged by the Edge
worths in their (Practical Education' (1796) to banish dolls from the nursery, while the epoch-making (Parent's Assistant' (1796) and Tales' (1801) —perhaps the best known and most meritorious children's books credited to Maria Edgeworth—are equally laden with moral ((objects" and information. Day's (Sanford and Merton' (1783), one of the most famous juveniles of this school and long a children's favorite, would be quite as dull as the Edgeworth books save for its inclusion of some classic tales that constitute its sole redeeming feature. Perhaps even more insipid were the children's books of Mrs. Barbauld, best known for her (Evenings at Home> (1795), whose every chapter seeks to impart some definite lesson ; her (Early Lessons for Children' (1774), written for the special edi fication of Charles Aiken, himself a writer of children's books; and her (Hymns in Prose for Children' (1774), in which, like in all her works, instruction and narrative walk side by side. Among the descendants of these moral and educational writers was Jacob Abbott, author of the once popular Rollo, Jonas and Lucy books.
(2) The writers of juveniles identified with the Sunday School movement, started by Rob ert Raikes (q.v.), were still too didactic in tone, though their didacticism took on a somewhat social hue. The one direct effect of this move ment upon juvenile literature was to create an unusual demand for tracts, a demand which Hannah More was the first to endeavor to satisfy. Her numerous tracts, from (The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain,' her most famous one, to the least meritorious piety pamphlets, are redolent with a fundamental moral ideal - and abound in real pictures of humble folks worthy of a Charles Dickens. But throughout these and all her longer works, the acquisition of knowledge is considered as but a means to a better understanding of the catechism. The imaginative child's fancy must still content itself with very low flights, if it can rise at all.
Pretty much the same may be said of the juveniles of Sarah Kirby Trimmer, a more famous writer of the Sunday School group, who has been called the parent of the didactic age in England. Most of her books — such as 'Easy Lessons for Children) (1780), 'Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature) (1782) and 'Sacred History for Young Per sons) (1785) —were intended for use in the Sunday Schools, which Mrs. Trimmer had helped to open. But it is not for her religious writing as much as for her 'History of the Robins) (1789), which represents the earliest attempt to teach children kindness toward the animal world, that Mrs. Trimmer is best re membered.