In talking about lives of saints for children, I have divided the subject up into three sections according to age. This is arbitrary, but I had to divide it somehow. The first section is about children under seven, the second from seven to twelve, and the third from thirteen to sixteen or seventeen, or perhaps for boys a bit later. There are of course enormous changes withio these age ranges, but the great upheaval caused by the dawn ot reason and conscience, and the still greater changes that take place at puberty are some justification for this. It is clear that a lot oj what I say applies to all the groups, and that all such general divisions are to some extent misleading and annoying, but could see no way of avoiding them without chaos.

The interest of a child in saints can be said to begin only when he first asks ‘What is a saint?’. Children between four and seven are of an age to enjoy stories about saints in the same way that they enjoy stories about witches, princesses and dragons.