PREFACE additional pleasure, from our knowledge of the
powerful attainments of the author, and his ad-
vanced age at the period of their composition.’
The success attained by Perrault’s little collection
animated others to write Fairy Tales. Such were
the Countess D’Aulnoy, Madame Murat, and Made-
moiselle de la Force. But only the first of those
approached Perrault in charm of style, and gained
a lasting hold on posterity. She told the imperish-
able tales of ‘The Fair Maid with Golden Locks,’
‘Gracieuse and Percinet,’ and ‘The White Cat.’
Among a host of imitators none wrote stories that
have lived, except Madame de Beaumont, who pub-
lished her collection in 1740, and in it is ‘ Beauty
and the Beast,’ a tale that has gone through suc-
cessive stages of simplification, till it has assumed
a form tolerable to childish minds. _

Almost as soon as Perrault’s tales became popular
in France, they were translated into English, and
speedily became indispensable in the nursery. It is
to be regretted that the popularity which attended
them caused the disappearance of a great many of
our own home-grown folk-tales. Attempts were
made in England to win the ears of little folk by
fairy tales. A couple of volumes were published in
1750, but they lacked precisely that quality which
was so conspicuous in Perrault, and so certain to
ensure success with children—simplicity, both in
structure of the plot, and in diction. Though the
stories in this collection have some merit, they
have none of them gained a hearing.

It was otherwise with Grimm; he did in Germany
on a more extended scale what Perrault did in
France, and Grimm’s Folk-Tales won their way
to children’s hearts at once, and have established
therein an empire, which cannot be shaken.
Grimm’s success was due to the same cause as
that of Perrault.

The stories in this little book are all, with two

Vi