Story-telling is almost the oldest art in the world - the first
conscious form of literary communication. In the East it still
survives, and it is not an uncommon thing to see a crowd at a street corner held by the simple narration of a story. There are signs in the West of a growing interest in this ancient art, and we may yet live to see the renaissance of the troubadours and the minstrels whose appeal will then rival that of the mob orator or itinerant politician.
One of the surest signs of a belief in the educational power of the
story is its introduction into the curriculum of the training-college
and the classes of the elementary and secondary schools. It is just
at the time when the imagination is most keen, the mind being
unhampered by accumulation of facts, that stories appeal most vividly and are retained for all time.