stand up, these play their allotted parts in his innocent comedies, and meanwhile he grows steadily in sympathy and in comprehension of the ever-widening circle of human relationships.  “When we have restored playthings to their place in education—­a place which assigns them the principal part in the development of human sympathies, we can later on put in the hands of children objects whose impressions will reach their minds more particularly.”

Dr. E. Seguin, our Commissioner of Education to the Universal Exhibition at Vienna, philosophizes most charmingly on children’s toys in his Report (chapter on the Training of Special Senses).  He says the vast array of playthings (separated by nationalities) left at first sight an impression of silly sameness; but that a second look “discovered in them particular characters, as of national idiosyncrasies; and a closer examination showed that these puerilities had sense enough in them, not only to disclose the movements of the mind, but to predict what is to follow.”

He classifies the toys exhibited, and in so doing gives us delightful and valuable generalizations, some of which I will quote:—­

“Chinese and Japanese toys innumerable, as was to have been expected.  Japanese toys much brighter, the dolls relieved in gold and gaudy colors, absolutely saucy.  The application of the natural and mechanical forces in their toys cannot fail to determine the taste of the next generation towards physical sciences.

“Chinese dolls are sober in color, meek in demeanor, and comprehensive in mien....  The favorite Chinese toy remains the theatrical scene where the family is treated a la Moliere.

“Persia sends beautiful toys, from which can be inferred a national taste for music, since most of their dolls are blowing instruments.

“Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, have sent no dolls.  Do they make none, under the impression, correct in a low state of culture, that dolls for children become idols for men?

“The Finlanders and Laplanders, who are not troubled with such religious prejudices, give rosy cheeks and bodies as fat as seals to their dolls.

“The French toy represents the versatility of the nation, touching every topic, grave or grotesque.

“From Berlin come long trains of artillery, regiments of lead, horse and foot on moving tramways.

“From the Hartz and the Alps still issue those wooden herds, more characteristic of the dull feelings of their makers than of the instincts of the animals they represent.

“The American toys justify the rule we have found good elsewhere, that their character both reveals and prefaces the national tendencies.  With us, toys refer the mind and habits of children to home economy, husbandry, and mechanical labor; and their very material is durable, mainly wood and iron.