They may, perhaps, show that
there is some reason for attributing the work to Oliver Goldsmith,
although, of course, it is not claimed that they absolutely establish
the fact.
Having occasion to examine carefully as many of the books for children
published by John Newbery as I could procure (and they are as scarce
as blackberries in midwinter, for what among books has so brief a life
as a nursery book?), I was struck while perusing them with a certain
distinct literary flavour, so to speak, which appeared to be common to
a group of little volumes, all published about the same period. These
were: "Goody Two Shoes," "Giles Gingerbread," "Tom Thumb's Folio,"
"The Lilliputian Magazine," "The Lilliputian Masquerade," "The Easter
Gift," "A Pretty Plaything," "The Fairing," "Be Merry and Wise," "The
Valentine's Gift," "Pretty Poems for the Amusement of Children Three
Feet High," "A Pretty Book of Pictures," "Tom Telescope," and a few
others. I give abbreviated titles only, but if space permitted I mould
like to quote them in full; they are remarkable no less for their
curious quaintness and their clever ingenuity than for their
attractiveness to both parents (who, it must not be forgotten, are
more often the real buyers of children's books) and the young people
for whom they were written, and they are in themselves most
entertaining and amusing reading.
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