The infant moralist by Lady Helena Carnegie and Violet Jacob
"The infant moralist by Lady Helena Carnegie and Violet Jacob" is an illustrated collection of cautionary poems for children written in the early 20th century. The verses adopt a stern, didactic tone to teach manners, obedience, charity, and self-control, often through exaggerated consequences and darkly comic twists. It is essentially a book of moral instruction, using brief rhymed vignettes to contrast vice and virtue in domestic and village settings. Across a sequence
of short poems, a severe adult narrator addresses children who misbehave and those who do well. Cruelty, gluttony, envy, profanity, pranks, and disobedience are met with swift, sometimes disastrous outcomes—boys fall from towers after mischief, a credulous child runs off with a caravan and is lost to his family, a grimace is fixed forever by a change of wind, a planted mouse shocks an aunt into silence, and a vicious act of revenge nearly causes a drowning. By contrast, charity, politeness, courage, and thoughtful regard for parents and elders are praised, as when a girl brings food to the poor or a boy calmly saves his sister from a wasp. The settings and incidents are everyday—school treats, parlors, gardens, lanes—yet the consequences are dramatically amplified to imprint the lesson: heed guidance, curb impulses, respect others, and avoid violence. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
"[A] very clever imitation of early-Victorian poems for children. [...] The volume has all the humour of--apparent--seriousness."--The Bookman, Feb. 1904.
Note
Illustrated by Violet Jacob.
Contents
Cruelty to animals -- Insensate mischief -- Charitable Louisa -- Credulity -- The consequences of greed -- Profanity -- Envy -- The school feast -- Courage -- Heartless folly -- Politeness -- The result of heedlessness -- Lawless disrespect -- Inevitable retribution -- Revenge -- Unsuitable jesting -- The chatterbox -- Solicitude -- Ill-timed levity -- Thomas and the beggar -- Offensive manners -- Contumacious Constantine -- Disobedient Emily -- Violence.
Credits
Carol Brown, Mairi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (National Library of Scotland)
Reading Level
Reading ease score: 85.2 (6th grade). Easy to read.
