As poets for children the Lambs strike their most artificial note; the verses are forced and written according to prescribed formulæ. There is a mechanical effort in them to appear youthful, as though before setting to the task--for so the two called it--a memorandum of childish deeds and thoughts and expressions had been drawn up, from which each was to extract inspiration. But inspiration is sorely lacking; to most of the poems you can apply the stigma of “old maids” children; there is little that is naturally playful or spontaneously appealing in sentiment. Such lines as “Crumbs to the Birds” are unaffected and simple, and the paraphrase “On the Lord’s Prayer” aptly interpretative. But on the whole, the verses are stilted; the feeling in them comes not from the authors so much as it indicates how carefully it was thought out by them. We find Lamb making excuses to Coleridge in June, 1809: “Our little poems are ... humble, but they have no name. You must read them, remembering they were task-work; and perhaps you will admire the number of subjects, all of children, picked out by an old bachelor and an old maid. Many parents would not have found so many.” It is this utmost sincerity and such a naïve confession which make Charles Lamb one of the most lovable figures in English literature. =Bibliographical Note= LUCAS, E. V.--Old-Fashioned Tales. Selected by. London, Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co.; New York, Stokes. LUCAS, E. V.--Forgotten Tales of Long Ago. Selected by. London, Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co.; New York, Stokes, 1906. MORLEY, JOHN--Jean Jacques Rousseau. Macmillan. ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES--Émile; or, Treatise on Education. Abridged and Translated by W. H. Payne. (International Educational Series.) New York, Appleton, 1893. * * * * * DE GENLIS, COMTESSE, As an Educator. _Nation_, 73: 183 (Sept. 5, ’01). DE GENLIS, COUNTESS, Memoirs of the. Illustrative of the History of the 18th and 19th Century. Written by herself. (2 vols.) [English translation.] New York, Wilder & Campbell, 1825. DE GENLIS, COMTESSE--Théâtre d’Éducation. (5 vols.) Paris, 1825. DE GENLIS, COMTESSE--Adelaide and Theodore. Letters on Education,--containing all the principles relative to three different plans of education; to that of princes, and to those of young persons of both sexes. Translated from the French. (3 vols.) London, 1788. BERQUIN, ARNAUD--The Children’s Friend, Being a Selection from the Works of. Montrose, 1798. BERQUIN, ARNAUD--L’Ami des Enfants. Paris, 1792. * * * * * EDGEWORTH, MARIA--The Parent’s Assistant; or, Stories for Children. (3 vols.) EDGEWORTH, MARIA, AND RICHARD LOVELL--Practical Education. (1st American ed., 2 vols.) New York, 1801. EDGEWORTH, RICHARD LOVELL, Memoirs of. Begun by himself and concluded by his daughter, Maria Edgeworth. (2 vols.) London, Hunter, 1820.