Until recent years, all the principal characters in English literature were adults. Children had no place in literature except as they might affect their elders and their elders’ relations to one another. It was not considered necessary by the writers to reveal the development of the childhood of their main characters. Children were supposed to be seen and not heard. This belief seemed to dominate literature until about the nineteenth century. Writers differ in their opinions as to when the child entered literature. The following extracts taken from magazine articles show the views of several authors upon this subject: