the way, has of late years been espoused by the redoubtable Madame Montessori. _Punch_ carried the war into the enemy's camp in a revised version of _Cinderella_, rewritten so as to combine instruction with amusement, and based on the latest scientific, ethnological, and psychological discoveries and theories; while in "New Lamps for Old" he retold other nursery tales so as to meet the supposed requirements of the modern child. I am afraid it must be taken as a confession of the failure of his efforts that in 1911 _Punch_ described an "advanced child" replying to his grandmother's offer to tell him a story, "Oh, no, Granny, not a _story_, please! They're so stodgy and unconvincing and as out-of-date as _tunes_ in music. We should much prefer an impressionist word-picture or a subtle character-sketch." [Sidenote: _The War on Wonderland_] [Illustration: TOMMY: "Do you believe in fairies, Mrs. Hardacre?" MRS. H.: "No, certainly not." TOMMY: "I'm so glad you're candid about it. There's such a pose among grown-ups nowadays to _pretend_ they do."] The attempt to teach gardening at certain schools in the 'nineties was "guyed" in the account of a disastrous imaginary experiment--the encouragement of Small Holdings for Small Boys at a fashionable Preparatory School. Here _Punch_ is irresponsible and reactionary; but there is point in his criticism of the new-fangled cult of "nature study," on the ground that even playtime was now made a burden and toil for children by object lessons. In the same year (1900) the doctrine of self-expression was proclaimed in strident tones by Mr. Bernard Shaw in a lecture to the members of the Teachers' Guild of Great Britain. "Any grown-up person," said the prophet, "guilty of the crime of trying to form the character of children ought to be drowned. If there is to be any progress at all, it must be recognized that the children know better than their teachers." This was almost beyond the reach of comment or parody, but _Punch_ did his best. Cranks, whether official or unofficial, he treated with impartial disrespect, and shortly before falling upon Mr. Shaw he had gibbeted a school inspector who had been alleged in his report to have penned this immortal sentence:-- The lower babies' mental arithmetic leaves much to be desired.