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PREFACE.

fresh, always pure, never harmful in teaching, have been, and ever will be, a source of undefiled instruction for our little ones, second only in wholesomeness to Religious teaching itself. The works of MM. Grimm are admirable specimens of this class of teaching, without doubt the best exemplification in Fairy lore of what we assert is its influence on tender minds. Inimitably quaint and grotesque, with a wealth of playful fancy, and possessing an inexhaustible fertility of invention, they are, of all Fairy Tales, the ones that will win the heart of a child; and, whilst enlisting his attention by enveloping him as it were spellbound in their charms, will teach him pure and wholesome lessons that may remain deeply rooted in his heart, and bear precious fruit long after his memory has wellnigh forgotten the sources. If such a result be attained by the publication of this Edition of "Grimm's Goblins," we shall not regret the trouble and pains spent over a task that will make young lives happier, or old ones wiser. To render this Edition attractive, not merely to the young, but to enlist the interest alike of the more matured, we have introduced at considerable length an exhaustive treatise on the derivation and etymology of the word Fairy, et hoc genus omne, chiefly compiled from that profound antiquarian Warton, together with a most interesting extract from Keightley's "Fairy Mythology." We have also added some remarks of a more modern writer in the Quarterly Review, bearing on the same fascinating subject, to whom we express our acknowledgments for the learned and able manner in which he has exhausted this interesting topic; and we hope with these welcome additions, the present Edition will be found to contain matters of instruction and delight to old and young alike.

R. M.