The Water Babies can be read on many levels. It is a children's story that has proved incredibly popular with young minds since its first publication in book form in 1863. It is also a moral fable, with many warnings of dire consequences for wayward youngsters, admonitions to live a good life and even to wash in cold water, "like a good Englishman". But within its forthright prose Reverend Kingsley has managed to insert his own critique on the evils of child labour and, (as one of the few Churchmen to support Charles Darwin's theory of evolution), an abhorrence of the small-minded scientists of his day.