ABSTRACT
If we are to believe William Makepeace Thackeray, science books for children were not popular. He claimed that in his younger days, ‘Abominable attempts were made … to make useful books for children, and cram science down their throats as calomel used to be administered under the pretence of a spoonful of currant-jelly.’2 We get a similar impression from Charles Kingsley, writing the preface to his own children’s science book 25 years later, and remembering that the books he read as a child were ‘few and dull, and the pictures in them ugly and mean’.3 Nevertheless, Kingsley went on to mention one story, which, even though it was an ‘old-fashioned, prim, sententious story’, had made an impact on him.4 Writer and critic John Ruskin, botanist Jane Loudon, geologist Gideon Mantell and doctor’s wife Phoebe Lankester, as well as religious leaders F.D. Maurice and Benjamin Gregory, all remembered the same story.5 Here, at least, is one story which left a positive impression. It was called ‘Eyes and No Eyes; or, The Art of Seeing’, and was one of many stories contained in Evenings at Home; or The Juvenile Budget Opened (1792-96).
