"The food of mind, a daily bread as necessary as that of body, is precisely those "mental pictures or ideas" which imagination produces; and for this reason, children must have the mind-stuff which they can transmute into such pictures or ideas; nothing external serves the purpose. I am not bold enough to say with Mr. Chesterton, "Hans Anderson or Hell," but I do venture to say that the mind which does not feed on poetry, history, fiction, travel, all the treasures that are bound up in books, on pictures, on the beauty of a sunset or a flower, such a mind may be acute and alert, but it does not dwell in heavenly places."
-- Charlotte Mason's "The Imagination in Childhood," published in the Parents' Review
Beautiful! I haven't heard Chesterton say "Hans Anderson or Hell" but I'm pretty sure that's not too far off. I love the vast array of reading she recommends.
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