The Moral Picture Book
* * * * * John Cooper was a little boy, whose father and mother lived in a cottage on one side of a village green. He was his parents' only child, so that he had no brothers nor sisters to play with. But he had a dog of which he was very fond, and he used sometimes to play with other children on the green. Tom Jones was one of the boys that played with John Cooper. One day he asked John Cooper to go for a long walk with him, instead of going to school. John at first would not consent, but at last he gave way and went with Tom, taking Carlo with him. There was a pretty stream of water that ran along one side of the green, and then passed through a wood in a winding course. In some places it was rather broad and deep, and in other places it was shallow, and ran murmuring over the stones at the bottom. Tom said that it would be very pleasant to go along the stream, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other, far into the wood, and to look for birds' nests. The sun was shining very brightly, the trees were in full leaf, the grass was thick and green, sweet flowers were blooming on all sides, butter-flies and dragon-flies sported in the sunshine, and birds were singing on every
details will partly account for the lateness of my appearing, but
there is yet another cause. Professional ambition suggested that
literary labours, unpopular with the vulgar and the half
educated, are not likely to help a man up the ladder of
promotion. But common sense presently suggested to me that,
professionally speaking, I was not a success, and, at the same
time, that I had no cause to be ashamed of my failure. In our
day, when we live under a despotism of the lower "middle class"
Philister who can pardon anything but superiority, the prizes of
competitive services are monopolized by certain "pets" of the
Mediocratie, and prime favourites of that jealous and potent
majority--the Mediocnties who know "no nonsense about merit." It
is hard for an outsider to realise how perfect is the monopoly of
common place, and to comprehend how fatal a stumbling stone that
man sets in the way of his own advancement who dares to think for
himself, or who knows more or who does more than the mob of
gentlemen employee who know very little and who do even less.
Yet, however behindhand I may be, there is still ample room and
verge for an English version of the "Arabian Nights'
Entertainments."
Our century of translations, popular and vernacular, from
(Professor Antoine) Galland's delightful abbreviation and
adaptation (A.D. 1704), in no wise represent the eastern
original. The best and latest, the Rev. Mr. Foster's, which is
* * * * * John Cooper was a little boy, whose father and mother lived in a cottage on one side of a village green. He was his parents' only child, so that he had no brothers nor sisters to play with. But he had a dog of which he was very fond, and he used sometimes to play with other children on the green. Tom Jones was one of the boys that played with John Cooper. One day he asked John Cooper to go for a long walk with him, instead of going to school. John at first would not consent, but at last he gave way and went with Tom, taking Carlo with him. There was a pretty stream of water that ran along one side of the green, and then passed through a wood in a winding course. In some places it was rather broad and deep, and in other places it was shallow, and ran murmuring over the stones at the bottom. Tom said that it would be very pleasant to go along the stream, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other, far into the wood, and to look for birds' nests. The sun was shining very brightly, the trees were in full leaf, the grass was thick and green, sweet flowers were blooming on all sides, butter-flies and dragon-flies sported in the sunshine, and birds were singing on every