Augie Nielson's Post

Unicorns, Dragons and Manticores, Oh My!

            It goes without saying that reading stands as the most important skill that a child needs learn. Children’s books are designed interest them with pictures and prose in order to educate. Children’s books have developed a long way since their first publishing. Today these books are separated into categories based on age, reading level and subject. In the 18^th century, it was believed by the philosopher John Locke who theorized that childhood shapes the adult life. From this theory, he deduced that early reading was a crucial component in the process. One such book, A Description of Three Hundred Animals by Thomas Boreman, accomplishes just that. However, upon closer examination of this book the reader will encounter fantastic beasts, such as unicorns, dragons and a bear ape among the lion and the lamb. Descriptions was published in 1786 and yet there are creatures of myth. The reasons for such an occurrence can be attributed to Christian values, cryptozoological beliefs or to give lessons about other subjects.

            Early children’s books were used to be a Christian starter guide to life, and Descriptions portrays such characteristics. 18^th century children’s books commonly portrayed one or both emblems common in books at the time; the looking glass and the perspective glass. The looking glass was meant to serve as instruction for Christian inner qualities rather than outer qualities. The creator of this emblem says in his discussion of the looking glass, “‘Without eyes’ opened by Christianity, [we are] seduced by luxury…” (Pickering 604). The looking glass is meant to show us what’s important on the inside rather than looking at the outside. Within us should be the focus of Christ and the desire to follow his teachings. That individuals who become infatuated with their outer appearance are doomed to eternal suffering in hell. Meanwhile the perspective glass scatters perceptions. As the following passage describes the perceptive glass, “The mirror abused ‘[our] mis-inform’d beholder’s eye’ and instead of a ‘true reflection’ scattered ‘deceitful beams’” (Pickering 604). The perspective glass can distort our view of what is truth and show us something that is unrecognizable. The perspective glass will confuse us and try to get us to focus on a tainted reflection of ourselves. When paired with the looking glass, we gaze upon what we see now but not what has come or will come. The role of these tools are meant to distract godliness and are meant to be overcome.

            In Descriptions there is a beast known as the lamia. The lamia is described by Boreman; “And by its Fraud it deftroys Men…it lays open its Breaft, and entices him to draw near; and, when it has him within Reach, it falls upon him and devours him” (Boreman 22). The lamia hunts man and uses its feminine characteristics to lure men to its deadly claws. The lamia fulfills the role of perspective glass as it hides its beastly nature in order for it to destroy man. It also serves as the role of looking glass as it represents the Christian ideal of seduction. These reflections warn young Christian to not give into their animalistic desires should the devil consume them in sin. Children’s books serve as learning tools to teach Christian values in a fantastic way. New Christians that settled into the Americas could use these lessons of the looking and perspective glass in the newfound freedom and the dangers of what a new continent could hold.

            It goes without saying that a new land with endless woods and territory has the potential to hold such fantastic or thought to be extinct or new creatures. This idea that the Americas could hold unknown creatures was still held by explorers even after the revolutionary war. Thomas Jefferson notes this belief in his letter to Meriwether Lewis Jefferson’s instructions on what to look for on his journeys. Aside from marking out new territories and trying to establish new relationships with the indigenous people, Jefferson tells Lewis to be on the lookout for creatures of the extinct/cryptozoological category. Jefferson notes these hopes halfway through his letter; “The animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the United States; The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct…” (Jefferson). Jefferson had hope that the animals’ unknown to current biologist would be discover, even those thought to be extinct. One of these major hopes was to find mastodons which Jefferson was very taken with. A large amount of North America remained unexplored and this lead to a great imagination amongst Americans. Even if there were just remains, it could hold evidence that the Americas could very well be a garden of Eden variant.  Finding such creatures would have been a game changer in what biologist knew about the current state of the world.

            A creature that was believed to be on the American continent was the dreaded manticore. Stemming from Greek myth, Boreman notes that the manticore is a rare occurrence in the Americas, but regardless bred by the natives. He writes a description of the taming of the manticore by natives; “…is bred among the Indians… When the Indians take a whelp of this Beaft, they bruife its Buttocks and Tail, to prevent its bearing the fharp Quills; then it is tamed without Danger” (Boreman 19). Boreman held the belief that the manticore was bred by the natives and describes the techniques used to tame such a dangerous creature. Feelings towards the native Americans would paint them as being capable of producing creatures of terrifying appearance. Superstition surround the native practices and associating them with the monstrous was commonplace for the Europeans. The fact that the natives also resorted to violence in order to tame a violent creature also paints the natives as savage as the creatures they thought were roaming the brush. Another more benign creature described in Boreman’s book was the bear-ape. Descriptions of these creatures can also be compared to that as the cryptozoological animal known in modern day as Bigfoot. Boreman writes, “…his Head and Face like a Child’s… It will not eat the Flefh, nor attempt the Life of Man…” (Boreman 27). Boreman here describes a creature that very closely describes a human-like creature that is harmless to humans. There are no known great apes in North America besides humans and Europeans would have been able to distinguish between the natives and beasts. The only other suspected great ape in the Americas is the legendary Sasquatch, arguably the most infamous of cryptozoological creatures. The fact that Boreman cites this creature in his book holds the way that Children’s book was not only used as the hope that such creatures were present in the New World, but to inspire them to read more into the world around them.

            It is with this new inspiration to search the world around them, that children were encouraged to find other lessons present in them. This is described in Samuel Pickering Jr.’s essay “Emblems and Children’s Books in the 18^th Century” regarding the way that the first children’s book was being structure. Pickering writes, “…such books blended characters drawn from pagan or secular literature…even the matter of fairy tales was being mixed with traditional allegory” (Pickering 609). The lessons being taught in these books were mixed with fairy tales and the moral values upheld by the standards at the time. This tradition still holds true today, establishing itself to give stories a spike of interest. Forms of children’s entertainment today use a similar method, i.e. providing a purple dinosaur in order to teach about what is correct in life. This method allows a child’s attention to be engaged in a subject for a much longer time than if it were presented in the way that an adult might understand.

            Along the lines of the engagement of the reader’s attention is provided in the preface of Descriptions. The author of the preface, Christina Duff Stewart, states in her piece, “…most of the books which have been made use of to introduce Children into a Habit of Reading… ‘to engage the attention of children” (Boreman). Children’s books are meant to install a pleasure for reading and learning. To create a collection of spectacular subjects that must somehow find a way to do so creatively. For an author to plant the seed of education, they must find a method in order to keep a child’s short attention span in focus. Therefore, they must attempt to input elements that are fantastic and appealing to the eye. One of the creature’s listed in this book, known as the allocamelus, is one such creature. In its description, Boreman describes the allocamelus as “His Head, Neck, and Ears are like a Mule’s…His Body is like a Camel’s, and Feet like an Ostrich’s” (Boreman 22). Boreman describes this creature possessing three different attributes. This technique can be seen as using comparison and association while creating a fantastical creature. It also holds a child’s interest and provides pictures of what these animals may look like, stimulating a child’s fascination even if they don’t read the words. Presentation is a key component in the inspiration of children. Boreman shows through this grandeur process that he reflects the outstanding characteristics of a true children’s book. When it comes to the attention of children, the best way to knock them dead is to stun them with sparkling fascination.

            Nearly every little girl has wanted a unicorn for her birthday and so many young boys pretend to be knights of the round table slaying dragons. The young live in a world that is amazingly mythical and full of infinite possibilities. The discovery of America to the Europeans reflects this idea of the mythical coming to life. What more when they live in this fantasy, it becomes that much more concert in existence. Boreman’s Descriptions provides such ideas that contribute to ideas about American subjects. The novel holds ideas about what the standards of Christianity are and present them as something that embodies the more solid and complete. This further solidifies Christian ideas and has them applied to the reader’s adult lives. The discovery of America also meant that there were new and unknown lands just waiting to be explored. The potential for there to be creatures that have been either extinct or unknown to the civilized world stokes even the dullest of imaginations. These two elements combined to create a book that was both stimulates and gives lessons to the ideas about morality to children. This book would build a generation of explorers and idealists who may very well have settled out into the American unknown to attempt and find the amazing and strange. America after all lives as a wonderfully bizarre and fascinating place.

Work Cited

Boreman, Thomas. A Description of Three Hundred Animals Viz. Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, and Insects: With a Particular Account of the Manner of Catching Whales in Greenland. London: Printed for J.F. and C. Rivington, 1786. Print.

Jefferson, Thomas. "Jefferson's Letter to Meriwether Lewis." Digital History. Digital History, n.d. Web.

Pickering, Samuel, Jr. "Emblems and Children's Books in the 18th Century." A History of Book Illustration. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1994. 603-17. Print.