We have no sympathy with those who maintain that the merely visual presentment of presentations as presently presented conveys a more lasting impression to a child’s mind than the same thing expressed in more technical treatment. It is as easy, we hold, to teach a child his Multiplication Table by saying “Twice two are four” as by writing this questionable statement on a black-board or white sheet.

But we venture to assert, and are prepared to uphold with all the strength and vigour of our arms—being thereto in duty bound by the nature of our obligations as members of a civilized community striving incessantly to banish from the four corners of the earth those outrageous transgressions against[B]—where were we?—oh, yes. We say that it is easier to teach a child by means of short pithy sentences than by long—winded and involved dittoes. Which would a child—which would you—rather learn, and which would you find easier: the whole of “Paradise Lost,” or the following Kinematic summary:—

• 1. Garden of Eden.
• 2. Eve steals apple.
• 3. Adam shares.
• 4. Both expelled from Garden.

It has been thought by many eminent scholastic and preceptual authorities that this is (1) a good summary; (2) theologically sound; (3) simple; (4) expressed with some quantity of jerk. And it has been further pointed out that another of its hidden merits is the ease with which it can be explained. Not a word in it but will be quite familiar to the youngest scholar: with two possible exceptions. “Expelled” (which means “driven out”) might be unfamiliar to a child of two; and “Apple” (at 9d. a lb.) might be a forbidden fruit to a child of one or one and a half.

Q.E.D., therefore. We may regard it as proven that the Kinematograph has come to stay. Hinc illae lacrimae: because, after all, it destroys eyesight and thus defeats its own purposes; for a blind person attending a Kinematograph performance must be a real enthusiast.