A Childs Book of Saints

A Child's Book of Saints, by William Canton

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Title: A Child's Book of Saints
Author: William Canton
Illustrator: T. H. Robinson
Release Date: July 20, 2007 [EBook #22112]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHILD'S BOOK OF SAINTS ***

Produced by Al Haines

A Child's Book of Saints
by
William Canton
With illustrations by
T. H. Robinson

This is fairy gold, boy; And I will prove it so. --Shakespeare
Every man I will go with thee, be thy guide in thy most need to go by thy side.

London
Published by J. M. Dent & Co.
and in New York by
E. P. Dutton & Co.

First Edition, March 1906.
Reprinted May 1906.

EDITOR'S NOTE.
"A Child's Book of Saints" was first published in 1898, when Mr. Canton had already found his audience. The book is a near successor indeed to his "W. V.: Her Book," and to "The Invisible Playmate"; and W. V. again acts as guardian elf and guide to this new region of the child's earthly paradise. The Saints are here treated with a simplicity that is almost or altogether childlike, and with an unforced imagination which is only to be learnt by becoming as a child. And this is perhaps why, although comparatively a new book, it has the air of something pleasantly old, and written long ago; and thus wins its way into the children's library of old favourite authors.
Mr. Canton's published works, up to January 1906, comprise:--"A Lost Epic, and other Poems," 1887. "The Invisible Playmate: a Story of the Unseen," 1894, 1897. "W. V., Her Book and Various Verses," 1896. "A Child's Book of Saints," 1898, 1902. "Children's Sayings, Edited, with a Digression on the Small People," 1900. "The True Annals of Fairyland" (The Reign of King Herla), 1900, &c. "In Memory of W. V." (Winifred Vida Canton), 1901. "The Comrades: Poems, Old and New," 1902. "What is the Bible Society?" 1903. "The Story of the Bible Society," 1904. "A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society," 1904. "Little Hands and God's Book: a Sketch of the Bible Society," 1804-1904, 1905.

Contents
IN THE FOREST OF STONE THE SONG OF THE MINSTER THE PILGRIM OF A NIGHT THE ANCIENT GODS PURSUING THE DREAM OF THE WHITE LARK THE HERMIT OF THE PILLAR KENACH'S LITTLE WOMAN GOLDEN APPLES AND ROSES RED THE SEVEN YEARS OF SEEKING THE GUARDIANS OF THE DOOR ON THE SHORES OF LONGING THE CHILDREN OF SPINALUNGA THE SIN OF THE PRINCE BISHOP THE LITTLE BEDESMAN OF CHRIST THE BURNING OF ABBOT SPIRIDION THE COUNTESS ITHA THE STORY OF THE LOST BROTHER THE KING ORGULOUS THE JOURNEY OF RHEINFRID LIGHTING THE LAMPS

List of Illustrations
Women lived the life of prayer and praise and austerity and miracle
"These are the fields in which the Shepherds watched"
Hilary wondered and mused
A gaunt, dark figure, far up in the blue Asian sky
"Come not any nearer, turn thy face to the forest, and go down"
"I am not mad, most noble Sapricius"
They won their long sea-way home
"And four good Angels watch my bed, two at the foot and two the head"
And again in the keen November
The eight hundred horsemen turned in dismay
"Surely in all the world God has no more beautiful house than this"
St. Francis of Assisi
Itha rode away with her lord
King Orgulous

A saint, whose very name I have forgotten, had a vision, in which he saw Satan standing before the throne of God; and, listening, he heard the evil spirit say, "Why hast Thou condemned me, who have offended Thee but once, whilst Thou savest thousands of men who have offended Thee many times?" God answered him, "Hast thou once asked pardon of me?"
Behold the Christian mythology! It is the dramatic truth, which has its worth and effect independently of the literal truth, and which even gains nothing by being fact. What matter whether the saint had or had not heard the sublime words which I have just quoted! The great point is to know that pardon is refused only to him who does not ask it.
COUNT DE MAISTRE.

A Child's Book of Saints
In the Forest of Stone
Looking down the vista of trees and houses from the slope of our garden, W. V. saw the roof and spire of the church of the Oak-men showing well above the green huddle of the Forest.
"It is a pretty big church, isn't it, father?" she asked, as she pointed it out to me.
It was a most picturesque old-fashioned church, though in my thoughtlessness I had mistaken it for a beech and a tall poplar growing apparently side by side; but the moment