SOURCE: "The Moral Tale: (i) Didactic" and "The Moral Tale: (ii) Persuasive; chiefly in verse," in Children's Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life, Cambridge at the University Press, 1932, pp. 158-81, 182-204.

In the following excerpt from his seminal study of children's literature, Darton discusses in detail the history of instructional literature, listing many of its practitioners and conventions.

Between about 1790 and 1820 there were at least a score of writers for children whose recognition by the public was sufficient, on economic grounds, to get them into print regularly. The stronger ones . . . have escaped Time's scythe, though maybe they are only preserved for show in an old-fashioned garden. Those of less hardy growth are now little more than names, and must here have something like catalogue treatment. They were very much of a pattern. They were far better at telling a story than at constructing one. Their very...