"A Necklace of Stories," The Academy 16
(July - Dec. 1879): 444.
A Necklace of Stories. By Moncure Conway. Chatto and Windus,
A Necklace of Stories. By Moncure D. Conway. (Chatto and Windus.) This
is a collection of thoughtful and suggestive stories, with underlying
meanings of a kind one might expect from a teacher like Mr. Moncure
Conway. Several of them seem designed as protests against the monstrous
overgrowth of superstition that prevents the light of religion from
penetrating to men's hearts, and one of them in particular, called "The
Unfinished Island," is an allegory in which the Diviners who dwell
in the Temple of the Beautiful One play a hateful part. Others, such
as "The Naturalist, the Child, and the Hunting Bird," "The
Bucket and the Acorn," "Bernard and Robin Redbreast,"
"The Bulb and the Mole Cricket," convey simpler lessons that
could be understood even b y children. But although the book would seem
to be designed for young readers, it is doubtful whether by but the
most thoughtful among them would be likely to appreciate or understand
it. We would commend it instead to the attention of parents who are
experiencing difficulties regarding the religious training of their
children, not desiring any longer to lead them in the old paths, but
yet uncertain as to new. The story of "The Child and the Image"
sums up in a few words the teaching of much modern philosophy. The child
is frightened by a grotesque mediaeval demon carved over a church door,
and asks, "Where does that bad one live?" "He doesn't
live at all," explains the father; "there isn't any bad deity.
They thought so, but they were mistaken, just as you were mistaken in
thinking that stone could hurt you." "But why did they not
take it down when they found they were mistaken?" again queries
the child, and is told how it was kept to make people believe how ugly
it was to be wicked and cruel, but that it did frighten good people
as well as bad "until they rose above it." Of such
sort are the lessons taught in these poetical little stories - lessons
that will be deemed wise or harmful by those who read them according
to the training they have received or the opinions they have adopted.