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222 The Century of the Child
that they desire to receive an impression in
its purity, not as a means to something else.
They wish through the story to go through a
real experience; at the same time they will
say " No," if they are asked whether they
would prefer to hear a real history to a story.
This apparent contradiction can be explained
in this way: the tale presents reality, as
reality is conceived of by the naive fancy of
early ages, and is in just the form in which
the imagination of the child can receive it.
In telling stories, we find, besides, that what
attracts children is the narrative of actions;
in this roundabout way they get hold of
emotions and sentiments. The development
of the child—this is a truth which has to be
worked out before it can really be taken in
—
answers in miniature to the development of
mankind as a whole. And it follows from
this that children combine idealism and real-
ism, as epic national poetry does. Great, good,
heroic, supernatural traits affect them most;
but only in a concrete shape sensibly perceived,
with the richness of the power which comes
from life, without any adaptation to our pre-
sent conceptions. •
We can test this by telling a real folk-lore
tale, and Anderson’s version of it. With a
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