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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Forgotten Books of the American Nursery, by
+Rosalie V. Halsey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Forgotten Books of the American Nursery
+       A History of the Development of the American Story-Book
+
+
+Author: Rosalie V. Halsey
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2006  [eBook #17857]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN
+NURSERY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jason Isbell, Julia Miller, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 17857-h.htm or 17857-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857/17857-h/17857-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857/17857-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   A number of typographical errors have been maintained in the
+   current version of this book. A complete list is found at the
+   end of the text.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY
+
+A History of the Development of the American Story-Book
+
+by
+
+ROSALIE V. HALSEY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _The Devil and the Disobedient Child_]
+
+
+
+
+Boston
+Charles E. Goodspeed & Co.
+1911
+Copyright, 1911, by C.E. Goodspeed & Co.
+Of this book seven hundred copies were printed in November
+1911, by D.B. Updike, at The Merrymount Press, Boston
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                                             PAGE
+
+  I.  Introductory                                                     3
+
+ II.  The Play-Book in England                                        33
+
+III.  Newbery's Books in America                                      59
+
+ IV.  Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery                     89
+
+  V.  The Child and his Book at the End of the Eighteenth Century    121
+
+ VI.  Toy-Books in the early Nineteenth Century                      147
+
+VII.  American Writers and English Critics                           191
+
+      Index                                                          233
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_The Devil and the Disobedient Child_                       Frontispiece
+  From "The Prodigal Daughter." Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5,
+  Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?]
+
+                                                                  Facing
+                                                                    Page
+_The Devil appears as a French Gentleman_                             26
+  From "The Prodigal Daughter." Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5,
+  Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?]
+
+_Title-page from "The Child's New Play-thing"_                        44
+  Printed by J. Draper; J. Edwards in Boston [1750]. Now in the
+  New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
+
+_Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_                       47
+  Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the New
+  York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
+
+_A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_                           49
+  Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the New
+  York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
+
+_John Newbery's Advertisement of Children's Books_                    60
+  From the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of November 15, 1750
+
+_Title-page of "The New Gift for Children"_                           70
+  Printed by Zechariah Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of
+  the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
+
+_Miss Fanny's Maid_                                                   74
+  Illustration from "The New Gift for Children," printed by Zechariah
+  Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of the Historical Society
+  of Pennsylvania
+
+_A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by Isaiah
+Thomas_                                                              106
+  From "The Picture Exhibition," Worcester, MDCCLXXXVIII
+
+_Illustration of Riddle XIV_                                         110
+  From "The Puzzling-Cap," printed by John Adams, Philadelphia, 1805
+
+_Frontispiece from "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes"_          117
+  From one of _The First Worcester Edition_, printed by Isaiah
+  Thomas in MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the Library of the Historical
+  Society of Pennsylvania
+
+_Sir Walter Raleigh and his Man_                                     125
+  Copper-plate illustration from "Little Truths," printed in
+  Philadelphia by J. and J. Crukshank in 1800
+
+_Foot Ball_                                                          126
+  Copper-plate illustration from "Youthful Recreations," printed in
+  Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson about 1802
+
+_Jacob Johnson's Book-Store in Philadelphia about 1800_              155
+
+_A Wall-paper Book-Cover_                                            165
+  From "Lessons for Children from Four to Five Years Old," printed
+  in Wilmington (Delaware) by Peter Brynberg in 1804
+
+_Tom the Piper's Son_                                                170
+  Illustration and text engraved on copper by William Charles, of
+  Philadelphia, in 1808
+
+_A Kind and Good Father_                                             172
+  Woodcut by Alexander Anderson for "The Prize for Youthful
+  Obedience," printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson in 1807
+
+_A Virginian_                                                        174
+  Illustration from "People of all Nations," printed in Philadelphia
+  by Jacob Johnson in 1807
+
+_A Baboon_                                                           174
+  Illustration from "A Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds,"
+  printed in Boston by Lincoln and Edmands in 1813
+
+_Drest or Undrest_                                                   176
+  Illustration from "The Daisy," published by Jacob Johnson in 1808
+
+_Little Nancy_                                                       182
+  Probably engraved by William Charles for "Little Nancy, or, the
+  Punishment of Greediness," published in Philadelphia by Morgan &
+  Yeager about 1830
+
+_Children of the Cottage_                                            196
+  Engraved by Joseph I. Pease for "The Youth's Sketch Book,"
+  published in Boston by Lilly, Wait and Company in 1834
+
+_Henrietta_                                                          200
+  Engraved by Thomas Illman for "The American Juvenile Keepsake,"
+  published in Brockville, U.C., by Horace Billings & Co. in 1835
+
+_A Child and her Doll_                                               206
+  Illustration from "Little Mary," Part II, published in Boston by
+  Cottons and Barnard in 1831
+
+_The Little Runaway_                                                 227
+  Drawn and engraved by J.W. Steel for "Affection's Gift," published
+  in New York by J.C. Riker in 1832
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_Introductory_
+
+
+
+
+    Thy life to mend
+    This _book_ attend.
+            _The New England Tutor_
+                     London (1702-14)
+
+    To be brought up in fear
+    And learn A B C.
+             FOXE, _Book of Martyrs_
+
+
+
+
+_Forgotten Books of the American Nursery_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_Introductory_
+
+
+A shelf full of books belonging to the American children of colonial
+times and of the early days of the Republic presents a strangely
+unfamiliar and curious appearance. If chronologically placed, the
+earliest coverless chap-books are hardly noticeable next to their
+immediate successors with wooden sides; and these, in turn, are
+dominated by the gilt, silver, and many colored bindings of diminutive
+dimensions which hold the stories dear to the childish heart from
+Revolutionary days to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then
+bright blue, salmon, yellow, and marbled paper covers make a vivid
+display which, as the century grows older, fades into the sad-colored
+cloth bindings thought adapted to many children's books of its second
+quarter.
+
+An examination of their contents shows them to be equally foreign to
+present day ideas as to the desirable characteristics for children's
+literature. Yet the crooked black type and crude illustrations of the
+wholly religious episodes related in the oldest volumes on the shelf, the
+didactic and moral stories with their tiny type-metal, wood, and
+copper-plate pictures of the next groups; and the "improving" American
+tales adorned with blurred colored engravings, or stiff steel and wood
+illustrations, that were produced for juvenile amusement in the early
+part of the nineteenth century,--all are as interesting to the lover of
+children as they are unattractive to the modern children themselves. The
+little ones very naturally find the stilted language of these old stories
+unintelligible and the artificial plots bewildering; but to one
+interested in the adult literature of the same periods of history an
+acquaintance with these amusement books of past generations has a
+peculiar charm and value of its own. They then become not merely
+curiosities, but the means of tracing the evolution of an American
+literature for children.
+
+To the student desiring an intimate acquaintance with any civilized
+people, its lighter literature is always a great aid to personal
+research; the more trivial, the more detailed, the greater the worth to
+the investigator are these pen-pictures as records of the nation he
+wishes to know. Something of this value have the story-books of
+old-fashioned childhood. Trivial as they undoubtedly are, they
+nevertheless often contain our best sketches of child-life in the
+eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,--a life as different from that
+of a twentieth century child as was the adult society of those old days
+from that of the present time. They also enable us to mark as is possible
+in no other way, the gradual development of a body of writing which,
+though lagging much behind the adult literature, was yet also affected by
+the local and social conditions in America.
+
+Without attempting to give the history of the evolution of the A B C
+book in England--the legitimate ancestor of all juvenile books--two main
+topics must be briefly discussed before entering upon the proper matter
+of this volume. The first relates to the family life in the early days
+of the Massachusetts Commonwealth, the province that produced the first
+juvenile book. The second topic has to do with the literature thought
+suitable for children in those early Puritan days. These two subjects
+are closely related, the second being dependent upon the first. Both are
+necessary to the history of these quaint toy volumes, whose stories lack
+much meaning unless the conditions of life and literature preceding them
+are understood.
+
+When the Pilgrim Fathers, seeking freedom of faith, founded their first
+settlements in the new country, one of their earliest efforts was
+directed toward firmly establishing their own religion. This, though
+nominally free, was eventually, under the Mathers, to become a theocracy
+as intolerant as that faith from which they had fled. The rocks upon
+which this religion was builded were the Bible and the Catechism. In
+this history of toy-books the catechism is, however, perhaps almost the
+more important to consider, for it was a product of the times, and
+regarded as indispensable to the proper training of a family.
+
+The Puritan conception of life, as an error to be rectified by suffering
+rather than as a joy to be accepted with thanksgiving, made the
+preparation for death and the dreadful Day of Judgment the chief end of
+existence. The catechism, therefore, with its fear-inspiring description
+of Hell and the consequences of sin, became inevitably the chief means of
+instructing children in the knowledge of their sinful inheritance. In
+order to insure a supply of catechisms, it was voted by the members of
+the company in sixteen hundred and twenty-nine, when preparing to
+emigrate, to expend "3 shillings for 2 dussen and ten catechismes."[6-A]
+A contract was also made in the same year with "sundry intended ministers
+for catechising, as also in teaching, or causing to be taught the
+Companyes servants & their children, as also the salvages and their
+children."[6-B] Parents, especially the mothers, were continually
+exhorted in sermons preached for a century after the founding of the
+colony, to catechize the children every day, "that," said Cotton Mather,
+"you may be continually dropping something of the _Catechism_ upon them:
+Some Honey out of the Rock"! Indeed, the learned divine seems to have
+regarded it as a soothing and toothsome morsel, for he even imagined that
+the children cried for it continuously, saying: _"O our dear Parents,
+Acquaint us with the Great God.... Let us not go from your Tender Knees,
+down to the Place of Dragons. Oh! not Parents, but Ostriches: Not
+Parents, but Prodigies."_[6-C]
+
+Much dissension soon arose among the ministers of the settlements as to
+which catechism should be taught. As the result of the discussion the
+"General Corte," which met in sixteen hundred and forty-one, "desired
+that the elders would make a catechism for _the instruction of youth in
+the grounds of religion_."[6-D]
+
+To meet this request, several clergymen immediately responded. Among
+them was John Cotton, who presumably prepared a small volume which was
+entitled "_Milk for Babes_. Drawn out of the Breast of Both Testaments.
+Chiefly for the spiritual nourishment of _Boston_ Babes in either
+England: But may be of like use for any children." For the present
+purpose the importance of this little book lies in the supposition that
+it was printed at Cambridge, by Daye, between sixteen hundred and
+forty-one and sixteen hundred and forty-five, and therefore was the
+first book of any kind written and printed in America for children;--an
+importance altogether different from that attached to it by the author's
+grandson, Cotton Mather, when he asserted that "Milk for Babes" would be
+"valued and studied and improved till New England cease to be New
+England."[7-A]
+
+To the little colonials this "Catechism of New England" was a great
+improvement upon any predecessor, even upon the Westminster Shorter
+Catechism, for it reduced the one hundred and seven questions of that
+famous body of doctrine to sixty-seven, and the longest answer in "Milk
+for Babes" contained only eighty-four words.[7-B]
+
+As the century grew older other catechisms were printed. The number
+produced before the eighteenth century bears witness to the diverse
+views in a community in which they were considered an essential for
+every member, adult or child. Among the six hundred titles roughly
+computed as the output of the press by seventeen hundred in the new
+country, eleven different catechisms may be counted, with twenty
+editions in all; of these the titles of four indicate that they were
+designed for very little children. In each community the pastor
+appointed the catechism to be taught in the school, and joined the
+teacher in drilling the children in its questions and answers. Indeed,
+the answers were regarded as irrefutable in those uncritical days, and
+hence a strong shield and buckler against manifold temptations provided
+by "yt ould deluder Satan." To offset the task of learning these
+doctrines of the church, it is probable that the mothers regaled the
+little ones with old folk-lore tales when the family gathered together
+around the great living-room fire in the winter evening, or asked
+eagerly for a bedtime story in the long summer twilight. Tales such as
+"Jack the Giant Killer," "Tom Thumb," the "Children in the Wood," and
+"Guy of Warwick," were orally current even among the plain people of
+England, though frowned upon by many of the Puritan element. Therefore
+it is at least presumable that these were all familiar to the colonists.
+In fact, it is known that John Dunton, in sixteen hundred and
+eighty-six, sold in his Boston warehouse "The History of Tom Thumb,"
+which he facetiously offered to an ignorant customer "in folio with
+Marginal notes." Besides these orally related tales of enchantment, the
+children had a few simple pastimes, but at first the few toys were
+necessarily of home manufacture. On the whole, amusements were not
+encouraged, although "In the year sixteen hundred and ninety-five Mr.
+Higginson," writes Mrs. Earle, "wrote from Massachusetts to his brother
+in England, that if toys were imported in small quantity to America,
+they would sell." And a venture of this character was certainly made by
+seventeen hundred and twelve in Boston. Still, these were the exception
+in a commonwealth where amusements were considered as wiles of the
+Devil, against whom the ministers constantly warned the congregations
+committed to their charge.
+
+Home in the seventeenth century--and indeed in the eighteenth
+century--was a place where for children the rule "to be seen, not
+heard," was strictly enforced. To read Judge Sewall's diary is to be
+convinced that for children to obtain any importance in life, death was
+necessary. Funerals of little ones were of frequent occurrence, and were
+conducted with great ceremony, in which pomp and meagre preparation were
+strangely mingled. Baby Henry Sewall's funeral procession, for instance,
+included eight ministers, the governor and magistrates of the county,
+and two nurses who bore the little body to the grave, into which, half
+full of water from the raging storm, the rude coffin was lowered. Death
+was kept before the eyes of every member of the colony; even
+two-year-old babies learned such mournful verse as this:
+
+   "I, in the Burying Place may See
+    Graves Shorter than I;
+    From Death's Arrest no age is free
+    Young Children too may die;
+    My God, may such an awful Sight
+    Awakening be to me!
+    Oh! that by Grace I might
+    For Death prepared be."
+
+When the younger members of the family are otherwise mentioned in the
+Judge's diary, it is perhaps to note the parents' pride in the
+eighteen-months-old infant's knowledge of the catechism, an acquirement
+rewarded by the gift of a red apple, but which suggests the reason for
+many funerals. Or, again, difficulties with the alphabet are sorrowfully
+put down; and also deliquencies at the age of four in attending family
+prayer, with a full account of punishments meted out to the culprit.
+Such details are, indeed, but natural, for under the stern conditions
+imposed by Cotton and the Mathers, religion looms large in the
+foreground of any sketch of family life handed down from the first
+century of the Massachusetts colony. Perhaps the very earliest picture
+in which a colonial child with a book occupies the centre of the canvas
+is that given in a letter of Samuel Sewall's. In sixteen hundred and
+seventy-one he wrote with pride to a friend of "little Betty, who though
+Reading passing well, took Three Moneths to Read the first Volume of the
+Book of Martyrs" as she sat by the fire-light at night after her daily
+task of spinning was done. Foxe's "Martyrs" seems gruesome reading for a
+little girl at bedtime, but it was so popular in England that, with the
+Bible and Catechism, it was included in the library of all households
+that could afford it.
+
+Just ten years later, in sixteen hundred and eighty-one, Bunyan's
+"Pilgrim's Progress" was printed in Boston by Samuel Green, and, being
+easily obtainable, superseded in a measure the "Book of Martyrs" as a
+household treasure. Bunyan's dream, according to Macaulay, was the daily
+conversation of thousands, and was received in New England with far
+greater eagerness than in the author's own country. The children
+undoubtedly listened to the talk of their elders and gazed with
+wide-open eyes at the execrable plates in the imported editions
+illustrating Christian's journey. After the deaths by fire and sword of
+the Martyrs, the Pilgrim's difficulties in the Slough of Despond, or
+with the Giant Despair, afforded pleasurable reading; while Mr. Great
+Heart's courageous cheerfulness brought practically a new characteristic
+into Puritan literature.
+
+To Bunyan the children in both old and New England were indebted for
+another book, entitled "A Book for Boys and Girls: or, Country Rhimes
+for Children. By J.B. Licensed and Entered according to Order."[11-A]
+Printed in London, it probably soon made its way to this country, where
+Bunyan was already so well known. "This little octavo volume," writes
+Mrs. Field in "The Child and his Book," "was considered a perfect
+child's book, but was in fact only the literary milk of the unfortunate
+babes of the period." In the light of modern views upon juvenile reading
+and entertainment, the Puritan ideal of mental pabulum for little ones
+is worth recording in an extract from the preface. The following lines
+set forth this author's three-fold purpose:
+
+   "To show them how each Fingle-fangle,
+    On which they doting are, their souls entangle,
+    As with a Web, a Trap, a Gin, or Snare.
+    While by their Play-things, I would them entice,
+    To mount their Thoughts from what are childish Toys
+    To Heaven for that's prepar'd for Girls and Boys.
+    Nor do I so confine myself to these
+    As to shun graver things, I seek to please,
+    Those more compos'd with better things than Toys:
+    Tho thus I would be catching Girls and Boys."
+
+In the seventy-four Meditations composing this curious medley--"tho but
+in Homely Rhimes"--upon subjects familiar to any little girl or boy,
+none leaves the moral to the imagination. Nevertheless, it could well
+have been a relaxation, after the daily drill in "A B abs" and
+catechism, to turn the leaves and to spell out this:
+
+    UPON THE FROG
+
+    The Frog by nature is both damp and cold,
+    Her mouth is large, her belly much will hold,
+    She sits somewhat ascending, loves to be
+    Croaking in gardens tho' unpleasantly.
+
+   _Comparison_
+
+    The hypocrite is like unto this frog;
+    As like as is the Puppy to the Dog.
+    He is of nature cold, his mouth is wide
+    To prate, and at true Goodness to deride.
+
+Doubtless, too, many little Puritans quite envied the child in "The Boy
+and the Watchmaker," a jingle wherein the former said, among other
+things:
+
+   "This Watch my Father did on me bestow
+    A Golden one it is, but 'twill not go,
+    Unless it be at an Uncertainty;
+    I think there is no watch as bad as mine.
+    Sometimes 'tis sullen, 'twill not go at all,
+    And yet 'twas never broke, nor had a fall."
+
+The same small boys may even have enjoyed the tedious explanation of the
+mechanism of the time-piece given by the _Watchmaker_, and after
+skipping the "Comparison" (which made the boy represent a convert and
+the watch in his pocket illustrative of "Grace within his Heart"), they
+probably turned eagerly to the next Meditation _Upon the Boy and his
+Paper of Plumbs_. Weather-cocks, Hobby-horses, Horses, and Drums, all
+served Bunyan in his effort "to point a moral" while adorning his tales.
+
+In a later edition of these grotesque and quaint conceptions, some
+alterations were made and a primer was included. It then appeared as "A
+Book for Boys and Girls; or Temporal Things Spiritualized;" and by the
+time the ninth edition was reached, in seventeen hundred and twenty-four,
+the book was hardly recognizable as "Divine Emblems; or Temporal Things
+Spiritualized."
+
+At present there is no evidence that these rhymes were printed in the
+colonies until long after this ninth edition was issued. It is possible
+that the success attending a book printed in Boston shortly after the
+original "Country Rhimes" was written, made the colonial printers feel
+that their profit would be greater by devoting spare type and paper to
+the now famous "New England Primer." Moreover, it seems peculiarly in
+keeping with the cast of the New England mind of the eighteenth century
+that although Bunyan had attempted to combine play-things with religious
+teaching for the English children, for the little colonials the first
+combination was the elementary teaching and religious exercises found in
+the great "Puritan Primer." Each child was practically, if not verbally,
+told that
+
+    "This little Catechism learned by heart (for so it ought)
+    The Primer next commanded is for Children to be taught."
+
+The Primer, however, was not a product wholly of New England. In sixteen
+hundred and eighty-five there had been printed in Boston by Green, "The
+Protestant Tutor for Children," a primer, a mutilated copy of which is
+now owned by the American Antiquarian Society. "This," again to quote
+Mr. Ford, "was probably an abridged edition of a book bearing the same
+title, printed in London, with the expressed design of bringing up
+children in an aversion to Popery." In Protestant New England the
+author's purpose naturally called forth profound approbation, and in
+"Green's edition of the Tutor lay the germ of the great picture alphabet
+of our fore-fathers."[14-A] The author, Benjamin Harris, had immigrated
+to Boston for personal reasons, and coming in contact with the
+residents, saw the latent possibilities in "The Protestant Tutor." "To
+make it more salable," writes Mr. Ford in "The New England Primer," "the
+school-book character was increased, while to give it an even better
+chance of success by an appeal to local pride it was rechristened and
+came forth under the now famous title of 'The New England
+Primer.'"[14-B]
+
+A careful examination of the titles contained in the first volume of
+Evans's "American Bibliography" shows how exactly this infant's primer
+represented the spirit of the times. This chronological list of American
+imprints of the first one hundred years of the colonial press is largely
+a record in type of the religious activity of the country, and is
+impressive as a witness to the obedience of the press to the law of
+supply and demand. With the Puritan appetite for a grim religion served
+in sermons upon every subject, ornamented and seasoned with supposedly
+apt Scriptural quotations, a demand was created for printed discourses
+to be read and inwardly digested at home. This demand the printers
+supplied. Amid such literary conditions the primer came as light food
+for infants' minds, and as such was accepted by parents to impress
+religious ideas when teaching the alphabet.
+
+It is not by any means certain that the first edition of this great
+primer of our ancestors contained illustrations, as engravers were few
+in America before the eighteenth century. Yet it seems altogether
+probable that they were introduced early in the next century, as by
+seventeen hundred and seventeen Benjamin Harris, Jr., had printed in
+Boston "The Holy Bible in Verse," containing cuts identical with those
+in "The New England Primer" of a somewhat later date, and these pictures
+could well have served as illustrations for both these books for
+children's use, profit, and pleasure. At all events, the thorough
+approval by parents and clergy of this small school-book soon brought to
+many a household the novelty of a real picture-book.
+
+Hitherto little children had been perforce content with the few
+illustrations the adult books offered. Now the printing of this tiny
+volume, with its curious black pictures accompanying the text of
+religious instruction, catechism, and alphabets, marked the milestone on
+the long lane that eventually led to the well-drawn pictures in the
+modern books for children.
+
+It is difficult at so late a day to estimate correctly the pleasure this
+famous picture alphabet brought to the various colonial households. What
+the original illustrations were like can only be inferred from those in
+"The Holy Bible in Verse," and in the later editions of the primer
+itself. In the Bible Adam (or is it Eve?) stands pointing to a tree
+around which a serpent is coiled. By seventeen hundred and thirty-seven
+the engraver was sufficiently skilled to represent two figures, who
+stand as colossal statues on either side of the tree whose fruit had
+such disastrous effects. However, at a time when art criticism had no
+terrors for the engraver, it could well have been a delight to many a
+family of little ones to gaze upon
+
+   "The Lion bold
+    The Lamb doth hold"
+
+and to speculate upon the exact place where the lion ended and the lamb
+began. The wholly religious character of the book was no drawback to its
+popularity, for the two great diaries of the time show how absolutely
+religion permeated the atmosphere surrounding both old and young.
+
+Cotton Mather's diary gives various glimpses of his dealing with his own
+and other people's children. His son Increase, or "Cressy," as he was
+affectionately called, seems to have been particularly unresponsive to
+religious coercion. Mather's method, however, appears to have been more
+efficacious with the younger members of his family, and of Elizabeth and
+Samuel (seven years of age) he wrote: "My two younger children shall
+before the Psalm and prayer answer a Quæstion in the catechism; and have
+their Leaves ready turned unto the proofs of the Answer in the Bible;
+which they shall distinctly read unto us, and show what they prove. This
+also shall supply a fresh matter for prayer." Again he tells of his
+table talk: "Tho' I will have my table talk facetious as well as
+instructive ... yett I will have the Exercise continually intermixed. I
+will set before them some sentence of the Bible, and make some useful
+Remarks upon it." Other people's children he taught as occasion offered;
+even when "on the Road in the Woods," he wrote on another day, "I, being
+desirous to do some Good, called some little children ... and bestowed
+some Instruction with a little Book upon them." To children accustomed
+to instruction at all hours, the amusement found in the pages of the
+primer was far greater than in any other book printed in the colonies
+for years.
+
+Certain titles indicate the nature of the meagre juvenile literary fare
+in the beginning of the new eighteenth century. In seventeen hundred
+Nicholas Boone, in his "Shop over against the old Meeting-house" in
+Boston, reprinted Janeway's "Token for Children." To this was added by
+the Boston printer a "Token for the children of New England, or some
+examples of children in whom the fear of God was remarkably budding when
+they dyed; in several parts of New England." Of course its author, the
+Reverend Mr. Mather, found colonial "examples" as deeply religious as
+any that the mother country could produce; but there is for us a grim
+humor in these various incidents concerning pious and precocious infants
+"of thin habit and pale countenance," whose pallor became that of death
+at so early an age. If it was by the repetition of such tales that the
+Puritan divine strove to convert Cressy, it may well be that the son
+considered it better policy, since Death claimed the little saints, to
+remain a sinner.
+
+By seventeen hundred and six two juvenile books appeared from the press
+of Timothy Green in Boston. The first, "A LITTLE BOOK for
+children wherein are set down several directions for little children:
+and several remarkable stories both ancient and modern of little
+children, divers whereof are lately deceased," was a reprint from an
+English book of the same title, and therefore has not in this chronicle
+the interest of the second book. The purpose of its publication is given
+in Mather's diary:
+
+     [1706] 22d. Im. Friday.
+
+     About this Time sending my little son to School, Where ye Child was
+     Learning to Read, I did use every morning for diverse months, to
+     Write in a plain Hand for the Child, and send thither by him, _a
+     Lesson in Verse_, to be not only _read_, but also _Gott_ by Heart.
+     My proposal was to have the Child improve in goodness, at the same
+     time that he improved in _Reading_. Upon further Thoughts I
+     apprehended that a Collection of some of them would be serviceable
+     to ye Good Education of other children. So I lett ye printer take
+     them & print them, in some hope of some Help to thereby contributed
+     unto that great Intention of a _Good Education_. The book is
+     entituled _Good Lessons for Children_; or Instruction provided for a
+     little Son to learn at School, when learning to Read.
+
+Although this small book lives only by record, it is safe to assume from
+the extracts of the author's diary already quoted, that it lacked every
+quality of amusement, and was adapted only to those whom he described,
+in a sermon preached before the Governor and Council, as "verie Sharpe
+and early Ripe in their capacities." "Good Lessons" has the distinction
+of being the first American book to be composed, like many a modern
+publication, for a particular young child; and, with its purpose "to
+improve in goodness," struck clearly the keynote of the greater part of
+all writing for children during the succeeding one hundred and
+seventy-five years.
+
+The first glimpse of the amusement book proper appears in that unique
+"History of Printing in America," by Isaiah Thomas. This describes,
+among other old printers, one Thomas Fleet, who established himself in
+Boston about 1713. "At first," wrote Mr. Thomas, "he printed pamphlets
+for booksellers, small books for children and ballads" in Pudding
+Lane.[19-A] "He owned several negroes, one of which ... was an ingenious
+man and cut on wooden blocks all the pictures which decorated the
+ballads and small books for his master."[19-B] As corroborative of these
+statements Thomas also mentions Thomas Fleet, Sr., as "the putative
+compiler of Mother Goose Melodies, which he first published in 1719,
+bearing the title of 'Songs for the Nursery.'"
+
+Much discussion has arisen as to the earliest edition of Mother Goose.
+Thomas's suggestion as to the origin of the first American edition has
+been of late years relegated to the region of myth. Nevertheless, there
+is something to be said in favor of the existence of some book of
+nonsense at that time. The Boston "News Letter" for April 12-19, 1739,
+contained a criticism of Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms, in
+which the reviewer wrote that in Psalm VI the translators used the
+phrase, "a wretch forlorn." He added: "(1) There is nothing of this in
+the original or the English Psalter. (2) 'Tis a low expression and to
+add a low one is the less allowable. But (3) what I am most concerned
+for is, that it will be apt to make our Children think of the line in
+their vulgar Play song; much like it, 'This is the maiden all forlorn.'"
+We recognize at once a reference to our nursery friend of the "House
+that Jack Built;" and if this and "Tom Thumb" were sold in Boston, why
+should not other ditties have been among the chap-books which Thomas
+remembered to have set up when a 'prentice lad in the printing-house of
+Zechariah Fowle, who in turn had copied some issued previously by Thomas
+Fleet? In further confirmation of Thomas's statement is a paragraph in
+the preface to an edition of Mother Goose, published in Boston in 1833,
+by Monroe & Francis. The editor traces the origin of these rhymes to a
+London book entitled, "Rhymes for the Nursery or Lullabies for
+Children," "that," he writes, "contained many of the identical pieces
+handed down to us." He continues: "The first book of the kind known to
+be printed in this country _bears_ [_the italics are mine_] the title,
+'_Songs for the Nursery: or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children_.'
+Something probably intended to represent a goose, with a very long neck
+and mouth wide open, covered a large part of the title-page; at the
+bottom of which was: 'Printed by T. Fleet, at his printing house,
+Pudding Lane (Boston) 1719.' Several pages were missing, so that the
+whole number could not be ascertained." The editor clearly writes as if
+he had either seen, or heard accurately described, this piece of
+_Americana_, which the bibliophile to-day would consider a treasure
+trove. Later writers doubt whether any such book existed, for it is
+hardly credible that the Puritan element which so largely composed the
+population of Boston in the first quarter of the eighteenth century
+would have encouraged the printing of any nonsensical jingles.
+
+Boston, however, was not at this time the only place in the colonies
+where primers and religious books were written and printed. In
+Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford, famous as the founder of the "American
+Weekly Mercury," had in 1714 put through his press, probably upon
+subscription, the "Last Words and Dyeing Expressions of Hannah Hill,
+aged 11 years and near three Months." This morbid account of the death
+of a little Quakeress furnished the Philadelphia children with a book
+very similar to Mather's "Token." Not to be outdone by any precocious
+example in Pennsylvania, the Reverend Mr. Mather soon found an instance
+of "Early Piety in Elizabeth Butcher of Boston, being just 8 years and
+11 months old," when she died in 1718. In two years two editions of her
+life had been issued "to instruct and to invite little children to the
+exercise of early piety."
+
+Such mortuary effusions were so common at the time that Benjamin
+Franklin's witty skit upon them is apropos in this connection. In 1719,
+at the age of sixteen, under the pseudonym of Mrs. Dogood, he wrote a
+series of letters for his brother's paper, "The New England Courant."
+From the following extract, taken from these letters, it is evident that
+these children's "Last Words" followed the prevailing fashion:
+
+     _A Receipt_ to make a _New England_
+     Funeral _Elegy_.
+
+     _For the title of your Elegy_. Of these you may have enough ready
+     made at your Hands: But if you should chuse to make it yourself you
+     must be sure not to omit the Words _Aetatis Suae_, which will
+     beautify it exceedingly.
+
+     _For the subject of your Elegy_. Take one of your neighbors who has
+     lately departed this life; it is no great matter at what age the
+     Party Dy'd, but it will be best if he went away suddenly, being
+     _Kill'd_, _Drown'd_ or _Froze to Death_.
+
+     Having chosen the Person, take all his Virtues, Excellencies, &c.
+     and if he have not enough, you may borrow some to make up a
+     sufficient Quantity: To these add his last Words, dying Expressions,
+     &c. if they are to be had: mix all these together, and be sure you
+     strain them well. Then season all with a Handful or two of
+     Melancholy Expressions, such as _Dreadful, Dreadly, cruel, cold,
+     Death, unhappy, Fate, weeping Eyes_, &c. Having mixed all these
+     Ingredients well, put them in an empty Scull of some _young
+     Harvard_; (but in case you have ne'er a One at Hand, you may use
+     your _own_,) then let them Ferment for the Space of a Fortnight, and
+     by that Time they will be incorporated into a Body, which take out
+     and having prepared a sufficient Quantity of double Rhimes, such as
+     _Power, Flower; Quiver, Shiver; Grieve us, Leave us; tell you, excel
+     you; Expeditions, Physicians; Fatigue him, Intrigue him_; &c. you
+     must spread all upon Paper, and if you can procure a Scrap of Latin
+     to put at the _End_, it will garnish it mightily: then having
+     affixed your Name at the bottom with a _Maestus Composuit_, you will
+     have an Excellent Elegy.
+
+     N.B. This Receipt will serve when a Female is the subject of your
+     Elegy, provided you borrow a greater Quantity of Virtues,
+     Excellencies &c.
+
+Of other original books for children of colonial parents in the first
+quarter of that century, "A Looking-glass" did but mirror more religious
+episodes concerning infants, while Mather in his zeal had also published
+"An Earnest Exhortation" to New England children, and "The A, B, C, of
+religion. Fitted unto the youngest and lowest capacities." To this,
+taking advantage of the use of rhymes, he appended further instruction,
+including "The Body of Divinity versified." With our knowledge of the
+clergyman's methods with his congregation it is not difficult to imagine
+that he insisted upon the purchase of these godly aids for every
+household.
+
+In attempting to reproduce the conditions of family life in the early
+settlements and towns of colonial days, we turn quite naturally to the
+newspapers, whose appearance in the first quarter of the eighteenth
+century was gladly welcomed by the people of their time, and whose files
+are now eagerly searched for items of great or small importance. Indeed,
+much information can be gathered from their advertisements, which often
+filled the major part of these periodicals. Apparently shop-keepers were
+keen to take advantage of such space as was reserved for them, as
+sometimes a marginal note informed the public that other advertisements
+must wait for the next issue to appear.
+
+Booksellers' announcements, however, are not too frequent in Boston
+papers, and are noticeably lacking in the early issues of the
+Philadelphia "Weekly Mercury." This dearth of book-news accounts for the
+difficulty experienced by book-lovers of that town in procuring
+literature--a lack noticed at once by the wide-awake young Franklin upon
+his arrival in the city, and recorded in his biography as follows:
+
+"At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania [1728] there was not a
+bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In
+New York and Phil'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only
+paper, etc., ballads, and a few books. Those who lov'd reading were
+obliged to send for their books from London."
+
+Franklin undertook to better this condition by opening a shop for the
+sale of foreign books. Both he and his rival in journalism, Andrew
+Bradford, had stationer's shops, in which were to be had besides "Good
+Writing Paper; Cyphering Slates; Ink Powders, etc., Chapmens Books and
+Ballads." Bradford also advertised in seventeen hundred and thirty that
+all persons could be supplied with "Primers and small Histories of many
+sorts." "Small histories" were probably chap-books, which, hawked about
+the country by peddlers or chapmen, contained tales of "Fair Rosamond,"
+"Jane Grey," "Tom Thumb" or "Tom Hick-a-Thrift," and though read by old
+and young, were hardly more suitable for juvenile reading than the
+religious elegies then so popular. These chap-books were sold in
+considerable quantities on account of their cheapness, and included
+religious subjects as well as tales of adventure.
+
+One of the earliest examples of this chap-book literature, thought
+suitable for children, was printed in the colonies by the press of
+Thomas Fleet, already mentioned as a printer of small books. This book
+of 1736, being intended for ready sale, was such as every Puritan would
+buy for the family library. Entitled "The Prodigal Daughter," it told in
+Psalm-book metre of a "proud, vain girl, who, because her parents would
+not indulge her in all her extravagances, bargained with the devil to
+poisen them." The parents, however, were warned by an angel of her
+intentions:
+
+   "One night her parents sleeping were in bed
+    Nothing but troubled dreams run in their head,
+    At length an angel did to them appear
+    Saying awake, and unto me give ear.
+    A messenger I'm sent by Heaven kind
+    To let you know your lives are both design'd;
+    Your graceless child, whom you love so dear,
+    She for your precious lives hath laid a snare.
+    To poison you the devil tempts her so,
+    She hath no power from the snare to go:
+    But God such care doth of his servants take,
+    Those that believe on Him He'll not forsake.
+
+   "You must not use her cruel or severe,
+    For though these things to you I do declare,
+    It is to show you what the Lord can do,
+    He soon can turn her heart, you'll find it so."
+
+The daughter, discovered in her attempt to poison their food, was
+reproached by the mother for her evil intention and swooned. Every
+effort failed to "bring her spirits to revive:"
+
+   "Four days they kept her, when they did prepare
+    To lay her body in the dust we hear,
+    At her funeral a sermon then was preach'd,
+    All other wicked children for to teach....
+    But suddenly they bitter groans did hear
+    Which much surprized all that then were there.
+    At length they did observe the dismal sound
+    Came from the body just laid in the ground."
+
+The Puritan pride in funeral display is naïvely exhibited in the
+portrayal of the girl when she "in her coffin sat, and did admire her
+winding sheet," before she related her experiences "among lonesome wild
+deserts and briary woods, which dismal were and dark." But immediately
+after her description of the lake of burning misery and of the fierce
+grim Tempter, the Puritan matter-of-fact acceptance of it all is
+suggested by the concluding lines:
+
+   "When thus her story she to them had told,
+    She said, put me to bed for I am cold."
+
+The illustrations of a later edition entered thoroughly into the spirit
+of the author's intent. The contemporary opinion of the French character
+is quaintly shown in the portrait of the Devil dressed as a French
+gentleman, his cloven foot discovering his identity. Whatever
+deficiencies are revealed in these early attempts to illustrate, they
+invariably expressed the artist's purpose, and in this case the Devil,
+after the girl's conversion, is drawn in lines very acceptable to
+Puritan children's idea of his personality.
+
+Almanacs also were in demand, and furnished parents and children, in
+many cases, with their entire library for week-day reading. "Successive
+numbers hung from a string by the chimney or ranked by years and
+generations on cupboard shelves."[26-A] But when Franklin made "Poor
+Richard" an international success, he, by giving short extracts from
+Swift, Steele, Defoe, and Bacon, accustomed the provincial population,
+old and young, to something better than the meagre religious fare
+provided by the colonial press.
+
+Such, then, were the literary conditions for children when an
+advertisement inserted in the "Weekly Mercury" gave promise of better
+days for the little Philadelphians.[26-B] Strangely enough, this attempt
+to make learning seem attractive to children did not appear in the
+booksellers' lists; but crowded in between Tandums, Holland Tapes,
+London Steel, and good Muscavado Sugar,--"Guilt horn books" were
+advertised by Joseph Sims in 1740 as "for sale on reasonable Terms for
+Cash."
+
+[Illustration: _The Devil appears as a French Gentleman_]
+
+Horn-books in themselves were only too common, and not in the least
+delightful. Made of thin wood, whereon was placed a printed sheet of
+paper containing the alphabet and Lord's Prayer, a horn-book was hardly,
+properly speaking, a book at all. But when the printed page was covered
+with yellowish transparent horn, secured to the wooden back by strips of
+brass, it furnished an economical and practically indestructible
+elementary text-book for thousands of English-speaking children on both
+sides of the Atlantic. Sometimes an effort was also made to guard
+against the inconvenient faculty of children for losing school-books, by
+attaching a cord, which, passing through a hole in the handle of the
+board, was hung around the scholar's neck. But since nothing is proof
+against the ingenuity of a schoolboy, many were successfully disposed
+of. Although printed by thousands, few in England or in America have
+survived the century that has elapsed since they were used.
+Occasionally, in tearing down an old building, one of these horn-books
+has been found; dropped in a convenient hole, it has remained secure
+from parents' sight, until brought to light by workmen and prized as a
+curiosity by grown people of the present generation. This notice of
+little gilt horn-books was inserted in the "Weekly Mercury" but once.
+Whether the supply was quickly exhausted, or whether they did not prove
+a successful novelty, can never be known; but at least they herald the
+approach of the little gilt story-books which ten years later were to
+make the name of John Newbery well known in English households, and
+hardly less familiar in the American colonies.
+
+So far the only attractions to induce children to read have been through
+the pictures in the Primer of New England, and by the gilding of the
+horn-book. From further south comes the first note of amusement in
+reading, as well as the first expression of pleasure from the children
+themselves in regard to a book. In 1741, in Virginia, two letters were
+written and received by R.H. Lee and George Washington. These letters,
+which afford the first in any way authentic account of tales of real
+entertainment, are given by Mr. Lossing in "The Home of Washington," and
+tell their own tale:
+
+
+     [_Richard Henry Lee to George Washington_]
+
+     PA brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them
+     in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and
+     elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send you one
+     of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little indian boy on
+     his back like uncle jo's Sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he
+     will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your ma to let
+     you come to see me.
+
+     RICHARD HENRY LEE.
+
+
+     [_G. Washington to R.H. Lee_]
+
+     DEAR DICKEY--I thank you very much for the pretty picture
+     book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed
+     him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame Elephant
+     took care of the Master's little boy, and put him on his back and
+     would not let anybody touch his master's little son. I can read
+     three or four pages sometimes without missing a word.... I have a
+     little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me but I
+     mustn't tell you who wrote the poetry.
+
+         G.W.'s compliments to R.H.L.
+         And likes his book full well,
+         Henceforth will count him his friend
+         And hopes many happy days he may spend.
+
+     Your good friend
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+In a note Mr. Lossing states that he had copies of these two letters,
+sent him by a Mr. Lee, who wrote: "The letter of Richard Henry Lee was
+written by himself, and uncorrected sent by him to his boy friend George
+Washington. The poetical effusion was, I have heard, written by a Mr.
+Howard, a gentleman who used to visit at the house of Mr. Washington."
+
+It would be gratifying to know the titles of these two books, so
+evidently English chap-book tales. It is probable that they were
+imported by a shop-keeper in Alexandria, as in seventeen hundred and
+forty-one there was only one press in Virginia, owned by William Sharps,
+who had moved from Annapolis in seventeen hundred and thirty-six.
+Luxuries were so much more common among the Virginia planters, and life
+was so much more roseate in hue than was the case in the northern
+colonies, that it seems most natural that two southern boys should have
+left the earliest account of any real story-books. Though unfortunately
+nameless, they at least form an interesting coincidence. Bought in
+seventeen hundred and forty-one, they follow just one hundred years
+later than the meeting of the General Court, which was responsible for
+the preparation of Cotton's "Milk for Babes," and precede by a century
+the date when an American story-book literature was recognized as very
+different from that written for English children.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6-A] _Records of Mass. Bay_, vol. i, p. 37 h.
+
+[6-B] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 37 e.
+
+[6-C] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 83.
+
+[6-D] _Records of Mass. Bay_, vol. i, p. 328.
+
+[7-A] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 92.
+
+[7-B] _Ibid._
+
+[11-A] In the possession of the British Museum.
+
+[14-A] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 38.
+
+[14-B] _Ibid._
+
+[19-A] Thomas, _History of Printing in America_, vol. iii, p. 145.
+
+[19-B] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 294.
+
+[26-A] Sears, _American Literature_, p. 86.
+
+[26-B] Although this appears to be the first advertisement of gilt
+horn-books in Philadelphia papers, an inventory of the estate of Michael
+Perry, a Boston bookseller, made in seventeen hundred, includes sixteen
+dozen gilt horn-books.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+1747-1767
+
+
+
+
+    He who learns his letters fair,
+    Shall have a coach and take the air.
+             _Royal Primer_, Newbery, 1762
+
+    Our king the good
+    No man of blood.
+             _The New England Primer_, 1762
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+1747-1767
+
+_The Play-Book in England_
+
+
+The vast horde of story-books so constantly poured into modern nurseries
+makes it difficult to realize that the library of the early colonial
+child consisted of such books as have been already described. The
+juvenile books to-day are multiform. The quantities displayed upon
+shop-counters or ranged upon play-room shelves include a variety of
+subjects bewildering to all but those whose business necessitates a
+knowledge of this kind of literature. For the little child there is no
+lack of gayly colored pictures and short tales in large print; for the
+older boys and girls there lies a generous choice, ranging from Bunny
+stories to Jungle Books, or they
+
+   "May see how all things are,
+    Seas and cities near and far.
+    And the flying fairies' looks
+    In the picture story-books."
+
+The contrast is indeed extreme between that scanty fare of dull sermons
+and "The New England Primer" given to the little people of the early
+eighteenth century, and this superabundance prepared with lavish care
+for the nation of American children.
+
+The beginning of this complex juvenile literature is, therefore, to be
+regarded as a comparatively modern invention of about seventeen hundred
+and forty-five. From that date can be traced the slow growth of a
+literature written with an avowed intention of furnishing amusement as
+well as instruction; and in the toy-books published one hundred and
+fifty years ago are found the prototypes of the present modes of
+bringing fun and knowledge to the American fireside.
+
+The question at once arises as to the reason why this literature came
+into existence; why was it that children after seventeen hundred and
+fifty should have been favored in a way unknown to their parents?
+
+To even the casual reader of English literature the answer is plain, if
+this subject of toy-books be regarded as of near kin to the larger body
+of writing. It has been somewhat the custom to consider children's
+literature as a thing wholly apart from that of adults, probably because
+the majority of the authors of these little tales have so generally
+lacked the qualities indispensable for any true literary work. In
+reality the connection between the two is somewhat like that of parent
+and child; the smaller body, though lacking in power, has closely
+imitated the larger mass of writing in form and kind, and has reflected,
+sometimes clearly, sometimes dimly, the good or bad fashions that have
+shared the successive periods of literary history, like a child who
+unconsciously reproduces a parent's foibles or excellences.
+
+It is to England, then, that we must look to find the conditions out of
+which grew the necessity for this modern invention--the story-book.
+
+The love of stories has been the splendid birthright of every child in
+all ages and in all lands. "Stories," wrote Thackeray,--"stories exist
+everywhere; there is no calculating the distance through which the
+stories have come to us, the number of languages through which they have
+been filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many
+of them have been narrated almost in their present shape for thousands
+of years to the little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to
+their mothers under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow
+Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring
+in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northern Vikings
+as they lay on their shields on deck; and the Arabs couched under the
+stars on the Syrian plains when their flocks were gathered in, and their
+mares were picketed by the tents." This picturesque description leads
+exactly to the point to be emphasized: that children shared in the
+simple tales of their people as long as those tales retained their
+freshness and simplicity; but when, as in England in the eighteenth
+century, the literature lost these qualities and became artificial,
+critical, and even skeptical, it lost its charm for the little ones and
+they no longer cared to listen to it.
+
+Fashion and taste were then alike absorbed in the works of Dryden, Pope,
+Addison, Steele, and Swift, and the novels from the pens of Richardson,
+Fielding, and Smollett had begun to claim and to hold the attention of
+the English reading public. The children, however, could neither
+comprehend nor enjoy the witty criticism and subtle treatment of the
+topics discussed by the older men, although, as will be seen in another
+chapter, the novels became, in both the original and in the abridged
+forms, the delight of many a "young master and miss." Meanwhile, in the
+American colonies the people who could afford to buy books inherited
+their taste for literature as well as for tea from the Puritans and
+fashionables in the mother country; although it is a fact familiar to
+all, that the works of the comparatively few native authors lagged, in
+spirit and in style, far behind the writings of Englishmen of the time.
+
+The reading of one who was a boy in the older era of the urbane Addison
+and the witty Pope, and a man in the newer period of the novelists, is
+well described in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. "All the little
+money," wrote that book-lover, "that came into my hands was laid out in
+books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my collection was of John
+Bunyan's works in separate volumes. I afterwards sold them to buy R.
+Burton's Historical Collections; they were Chapmen's books, and cheap,
+40 or 50 in all."
+
+Burton's "Historical Collections" contained history, travels,
+adventures, fiction, natural history, and biography. So great was the
+favor in which they were held in the eighteenth century that the
+compiler, Nathaniel Crouch, almost lost his identity in his pseudonym,
+and like the late Mr. Clemens, was better known by his nom-de-plume than
+by his family name. According to Dunton, he "melted down the best of the
+English histories into twelve-penny books, which are filled with
+wonders, rarities and curiosities." Although characterized by Dr.
+Johnson as "very proper to allure backward readers," the contents of
+many of the various books afforded the knowledge and entertainment
+eagerly grasped by Franklin and other future makers of the American
+nation. The scarcity of historical works concerning the colonies made
+Burton's account of the "English Empire in America" at once a mine of
+interest to wide-awake boys of the day. Number VIII, entitled "Winter
+Evenings' Entertainment," was long a source of amusement with its
+stories and riddles, and its title was handed down to other books of a
+similar nature. To children, however, the best-known volume of the
+series was Burton's illustrated versification of Bible stories called
+"The Youth's Divine Pastime." But the subjects chosen by Burton were
+such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no
+euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable "Pastime
+for Youth." The literature read by English children was, of course, the
+same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of
+knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting.
+
+To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and
+indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John
+Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent
+medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially
+for the amusement of little children.
+
+While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks
+in England, in the colonies the idea of a child's need of recreation
+through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner
+in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery's books
+as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of
+which there is record.
+
+In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely
+confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses
+delivered on Sunday and "Catechize days," and afterwards printed for
+larger circulation. The reprints from English publications were such
+exotics as, "A Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden," an alluring title, which
+did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious
+nature of its contents.
+
+In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so
+little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the
+popularity of Watts's "Divine Songs" (issued by an Englishman) is well
+attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child's
+books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in
+Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some
+entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published "The
+Parents' Gift, containing a choice collection of God's judgments and
+Mercies," lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added
+a "variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of
+Children." This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America
+that pictures were commendable to parents _because_ entertaining to
+their offspring. Such an idea put into words upon paper and advertised
+in so well-read a sheet as the "Boston Evening Post," must surely have
+impressed fathers and mothers really solicitous for the family welfare
+and anxious to provide harmless pleasure. This pictorial element was
+further encouraged by Franklin, when, in 1747, he reprinted, probably
+for the first time in this country, "Dilworth's New Guide to the English
+Tongue." In this school-book, after the alphabets and spelling lessons,
+a special feature was introduced, that is, illustrated "Select Fables."
+The cuts at the top of each fable possess an added interest from the
+supposition that they were engraved by the printer himself; and the
+constant use of the "Guide" by colonial school-masters and mistresses
+made their pupils unconsciously quite ready for more illustrated and
+fewer homiletic volumes.
+
+Indeed, before the middle of the century pictures had become an accepted
+feature of the few juvenile books, and "The History of the Holy Jesus"
+versified for little ones was issued by at least two old Boston printers
+in 1747 and 1748 with more than a dozen cuts. Among the rare extant
+copies of this small chap-book is one that, although torn and disfigured
+by tiny fingers and the century and a half since it pleased its first
+owner, bears the personal touch of this inscription "Ebenezer ... Bought
+June ... 1749 ... price 0=2=d." Was the price marked upon its page as a
+reminder that two shillings was a large price to pay for a boy's book?
+Perhaps for this reason it received the careful handling that has
+enabled us to examine it, when so many of its contemporaries and
+successors have vanished.
+
+The versified story, notwithstanding its quaintness of diction, begins
+with a dignified directness:
+
+   "The glorious blessed Time had come,
+    The Father had decreed,
+    Jesus of _Mary_ there was born,
+    And in a Manger laid."
+
+
+At the end are two _Hymns_, entitled "Delight in the Lord Jesus," and
+"Absence from Christ intolerable." The final stanza is typical of one
+Puritan doctrine:
+
+   "The Devil throws his fiery Darts,
+    And wicked Ones do act their parts,
+    To ruin me when Christ is gone,
+    And leaves me all alone."
+
+The woodcuts are not the least interesting feature of this old-time
+duodecimo, from the picture showing the mother reading to her children
+to the illustration of the quaking of the earth on the day of the
+crucifixion. Crude and badly drawn as they now seem, they were surely
+sufficient to attract the child of their generation.
+
+About the same time old Zechariah Fowle, who apprenticed Isaiah Thomas,
+and both printed and vended chap-books in Back Street, Boston,
+advertised among his list of books "Lately Publish'd" this same small
+book, together with "A Token for Youth," the "Life and Death of
+Elizabeth Butcher," "A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of
+Childhood and Youth," "The Prodigal Daughter," "The Happy Child," and
+"The New Gift for Children with Cuts." Of these "The New Gift" was
+certainly a real story-book, as one of a later edition still extant
+readily proves.
+
+Thus the children in both countries were prepared to enjoy Newbery's
+miniature story-books, although for somewhat different reasons: in
+England the literature had reached a point too artificial to be
+interesting to little ones; in America the product of the press and the
+character of the majority of the juvenile importations, the reprints, or
+home-made chap-books, has been shown to be such as would hardly attract
+those who were to be the future arbiters of the colonies' destiny.
+
+The reasons for the coming to light of this new form of infant
+literature have been dwelt upon in order to show the necessity for some
+change in the kind of reading-matter to be put in the hands of the
+younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is
+next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in
+England,--a phase largely due to the influence of one man,--and once
+there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction.
+
+Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of
+children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was
+probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher,
+John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public
+opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the
+well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke's
+ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to
+compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, "The Child's
+New Play-thing," with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke,
+without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers
+and readers (such as "Dilworth's Guide"), and then onward to
+story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his letters
+under the title of "Thoughts on Education."
+
+In these letters Locke took an extraordinary course: he first made a
+quaint plea for the _general welfare_ of Mr. Clarke's little son. "I
+imagine," he wrote, "the minds of children are as easily turned this or
+that way as Water itself, and though this be the principal Part, and our
+main Care should be about the inside, yet the Clay Cottage is not to be
+neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and consider first the
+_Health_ of the body." Under Health he discussed clothing, including
+thin shoes, "that they may leak and let in Water." A pause was then
+made to show the benefits of wet feet as against the apparent
+disadvantages of filthy stockings and muddy boots; for mothers even in
+that time were inclined to consider their floors and steps. Bathing next
+received attention. Bathing every day in cold water, Locke regarded as
+exceedingly desirable; no exceptions were to be made, even in the case
+of a "puleing and tender" child. The beneficial effects of air,
+sunlight, the establishment of good conduct, diet, sleep, and "physick"
+were all discussed by the doctor and philosopher, before the development
+of the mind was touched upon. "Education," he wrote, "concerns itself
+with the forming of Children's Minds, giving them that seasoning early,
+which shall influence their Lives later." This seasoning referred to the
+training of children in matters pertaining to their general government
+and to the reverence of parents. For the Puritan population it was
+undoubtedly a shock to find Locke interesting himself in, and moreover
+advocating, dancing as a part of a child's education; and worst of all,
+that he should mention it before their hobby, LEARNING. In this
+connection it is worth while to make mention of a favorite primer,
+which, published about the middle of the eighteenth century, was
+entitled "The Hobby Horse." Locke was quite aware that his method would
+be criticised, and therefore took the bull by the horns in the following
+manner. He admitted that to put the subject of learning last was a cause
+for wonder, "especially if I tell you I think it the least part. This
+may seem strange in the mouth of a bookish man, and this making usually
+the chief, if not only bustle and stir about children; this being almost
+that alone, which is thought on, when People talk about Education, make
+it the greater Paradox." An unusual piece of advice it most surely was
+to parents to whose children came the task of learning to read as soon
+as they were given spoon-food.
+
+Even more revolutionary to the custom of an eighteenth century mother
+was the admonition that reading "be never made a Task." Locke, however,
+was not the man to urge a cure for a bad habit without prescribing a
+remedy, so he went on to say that it was always his "Fancy that Learning
+be made a Play and Recreation to Children"--a "Fancy" at present much in
+vogue. To accomplish this desirable result, "Dice and Play-things with
+the Letters on them" were recommended to teach children the alphabet;
+"and," he added, "twenty other ways may be found ... to make this kind
+of Learning a Sport to them." Letter-blocks were in this way made
+popular, and formed the approved and advanced method until in these
+latter days pedagogy has swept aside the letter-blocks and syllabariums
+and carried the sport to word-pictures.
+
+This theory had a practical result in the introduction to many households
+of "The Child's New Play-thing." This book, already mentioned, was
+printed in England in seventeen hundred and forty-three, and dedicated to
+Prince George. In seventeen hundred and forty-four we find through the
+"Boston Evening Post" of January 23 that the third edition was sold by
+Joseph Edwards, in Cornhill, and it was probably from this edition that
+the first American edition was printed in seventeen hundred and fifty.
+From the following description of this American reprint (one of which is
+happily in the Lenox Collection), it will be seen that the "Play-thing"
+was an attempt to follow Locke's advice, as well as a connecting link
+between the primer of the past and the story-book of the near future.
+
+The title, which the illustration shows, reads, "The Child's New
+Play-thing being a spelling-book intended to make Learning to read a
+diversion instead of a task. Consisting of Scripture-histories, fables,
+stories, moral and religious precepts, proverbs, songs, riddles,
+dialogues, &c. The whole adapted to the capacities of children, and
+divided into lessons of one, two, three and four syllables. The fourth
+edition. To which is added three dialogues; 1. Shewing how a little boy
+shall make every body love him. 2. How a little boy shall grow wiser than
+the rest of his school-fellows. 3. How a little boy shall become a great
+man. Designed for the use of schools, or for children before they go to
+school."
+
+[Illustration: _Title-page from "The Child's new Play-Thing"_]
+
+Coverless and faded, hard usage is written in unmistakable characters
+upon this play-thing of a whole family. Upon a fly-leaf are the
+autographs of "Ebenezer Ware and Sarah Ware, Their Book," and upon
+another page these two names with the addition of the signatures of
+"Ichabod Ware and Cyrus Ware 1787." One parent may have used it when it
+was fresh from the press of Draper & Edwards in Boston; then, through
+enforced economy, handed it down to the next generation, who doubtless
+scorned the dedication so eminently proper in seventeen hundred and
+fifty, so thoroughly out of place thirty-seven years later. There it
+stands in large black type:
+
+  To his ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE GEORGE This Little
+        Play-thing is most humbly dedicated
+                         By
+                His ROYAL HIGHNESS'S
+                  Devoted Servant
+
+Of especial interest are the alphabets in "Roman, Italian, and English
+Names" on the third page, while page four contains the dear old alphabet
+in rhyme, fortunately not altogether forgotten in this prosaic age. We
+recognize it as soon as we see it.
+
+   "A Apple-Pye
+    B bit it
+    C cut it,"
+
+and involuntarily add, D divided it. After the spelling lessons came
+fables, proverbs, and the splendid "Stories proper to raise the
+Attention and excite the Curiosity of Children" of any age; namely, "St.
+George and the Dragon," "Fortunatus," "Guy of Warwick," "Brother and
+Sister," "Reynard the Fox," "The Wolf and the Kid." "The Good Dr.
+Watts," writes Mrs. Field, "is supposed to have had a hand in the
+composition of this toy book especially in the stories, one of which is
+quite in the style of the old hymn writer." Here it is:
+
+     "Once on a time two dogs went out to walk. Tray was a good dog, and
+     would not hurt the least thing in the world, but Snap was cross, and
+     would snarl and bite at all that came in his way. At last they came
+     to a town. All the dogs came round them. Tray hurt none of them, but
+     Snap would grin at one, snarl at the next, and bite a third, till at
+     last they fell on him and tore him limb from limb, and as poor Tray
+     was with him, he met with his death at the same time.
+
+     _Moral_
+
+     "By this fable you see how dangerous it is to be in company with bad
+     boys. Tray was a quiet harmless dog, and hurt nobody, but,
+     &c."[45-A]
+
+Thus we find that Locke sowed the seed, Watts watered the soil in which
+the seed fell, and that Newbery, after mixing in ideas from his very
+fertile brain, soon reaped a golden harvest from the crop of readers,
+picture-books, and little histories which he, with the aid of certain
+well-known authors, produced.
+
+According to his biographer, Mr. Charles Welsh, John Newbery was born in
+a quaint parish of England in seventeen hundred and thirteen. Although
+his father was only a small farmer, Newbury inherited his bookish tastes
+from an ancestor, Ralph or Rafe Newbery, who had been a great publisher
+of the sixteenth century. Showing no inclination toward the life of a
+farmer, the boy, at sixteen, had already entered the shop of a merchant
+in Reading. The name of this merchant is not known, but inference points
+to Mr. Carnan, printer, proprietor, and editor of one of the earliest
+provincial newspapers. In seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, at the
+death of Carnan, John Newbery, then about twenty-four years of age,
+found himself one of the proprietor's heirs and an executor of the
+estate. Carnan left a widow, to whom, to quote her son, Newbery's "love
+of books and acquirements as a printer rendered him very acceptable."
+The amiable and well-to-do widow and Newbery were soon married, and
+their youngest son, Francis Newbery, eventually succeeded his father in
+the business of publishing.
+
+[Illustration: _Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]
+
+Shortly after Newbery's marriage his ambition and enterprise resulted in
+the establishment of his family in London, where, in seventeen hundred
+and forty-four, he opened a warehouse at _The Bible and Crown_, near
+Devereux Court, without Temple Bar. Meanwhile he had associated
+himself with Benjamin Collins, a printer in Salisbury. Collins both
+planned and printed some of Newbery's toy volumes, and his name likewise
+was well-known to shop-keepers in the colonies. Newbery soon found that
+his business warranted another move nearer to the centre of trade. He
+therefore combined two establishments into one at the now celebrated
+corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, and at the same time decided to confine
+his attention exclusively to book publishing and medicine vending.
+
+Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least
+one book for juvenile readers. The title reads: "Little Pretty
+Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master
+Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack
+the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will
+infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is
+prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents,
+Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making
+their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy." To this
+extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope,
+probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the
+title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a
+finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.
+A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even
+Newbery's original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what
+he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of
+spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not
+without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was
+to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury
+and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make
+a better choice.
+
+[Illustration: _A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]
+
+The manner in which the "Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is written is so
+characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the
+younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine
+briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in
+the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine
+instruction with amusement. The book itself is miniature in size, about
+two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers--Newbery's own
+specialty as a binding. The sixty-five little illustrations at the top
+of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth
+century child, although they were crude in execution and especially
+lacked true perspective. The first chapter after the "Address to
+Parents" and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives
+letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly. First, Tommy is congratulated
+upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as
+to the use of the "Pocket-Book," "which will teach you to play at all
+those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with."
+The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with
+pins upon a red and black ball. Little Polly is then given similar
+congratulations and instructions, except that in her case a pincushion
+is to be substituted for a ball. Then follow thirty pages devoted to
+"alphabetically digested" games, from "The _great A Play_" and "The
+_Little_ _a Play_" to "The _great and little Rs_," when plays, or the
+author's imagination, give out and rhymes begin the alphabet anew.
+Modern picture alphabets have not improved much upon this jingle:
+
+   "Great A, B and C
+    And tumble down D,
+    The Cat's a blind buff,
+    And she cannot see."
+
+Next in order are four fables with morals (written in the guise of
+letters), for in Newbery's books and in those of a much later period, we
+feel, as Mr. Welsh writes, a "strong determination on the part of the
+authors to place the moral plainly in sight and to point steadily to
+it." Pictures also take a leading part in this effort to inculcate good
+behaviour; thus _Good Children_ are portrayed in cuts, which accompany
+the directions for attaining perfection. Proverbs, having been hitherto
+introduced into school-books, appear again quite naturally in this
+source of diversion, which closes--at least in the American
+edition--with sixty-three "Rules for Behaviour." These rules include
+those suitable for various occasions, such as "At the Meeting-House,"
+"Home," "The Table," "In Company," and "When abroad with other
+Children." To-day, when many such rules are as obsolete as the tiny
+pages themselves, this chapter affords many glimpses of the customs and
+etiquette of the old-fashioned child's life. Such a direction as "Be not
+hasty to run out of Meeting-House when Worship is ended, as if thou
+weary of being there" (probably an American adaptation of the English
+original), recalls the well-filled colonial meeting-house, where weary
+children sat for hours on high seats, with dangling legs, or screwed
+their small bodies in vain efforts to touch the floor. Again we can see
+the anxious mothers, when, after the long sermon was brought to a close,
+they put restraining hands upon the little ones, lest they, in haste to
+be gone, should forget this admonition. The formalism of the time is
+suggested in this request, "Make a Bow always when come Home, and be
+instantly uncovered," for the ceremony of polite manners in these
+bustling days has so much relaxed that the modern boy does all that is
+required if he remembers to be "instantly uncovered when come Home."
+Among the numerous other requirements only one more may be cited--a rule
+which reveals the table manners of polite society in its requisite for
+genteel conduct: "Throw not anything under the Table. Pick not thy teeth
+at the Table, unless holding thy Napkin before thy mouth with thine
+other Hand." With such an array of intellectual and moral contents, the
+little "Pocket-Book" may appear to-day to be almost anything except an
+amusement book. Yet this was the phase that the English play-book first
+assumed, and it must not be forgotten that English prose fiction was
+only then coming into existence, except such germs as are found in the
+character sketches in the "Spectator" and in the cleverly told incidents
+by Defoe.
+
+In 1744, when Newbery published this duodecimo, Dr. Samuel Johnson was
+the presiding genius of English letters; four years earlier, fiction had
+come prominently into the foreground with the publication of "Pamela" by
+Samuel Richardson; and between seventeen hundred and forty and seventeen
+hundred and fifty-two, Richardson's "Clarissa Harlowe," Smollett's
+"Roderick Random" and "Peregrine Pickle," and Fielding's "Tom Jones" were
+published. This fact may seem irrelevant to the present subject;
+nevertheless, the idea of a veritable story-book, that is a book relating
+a tale, does not seem to have entered Newbery's mind until after these
+novels had met with a deserved and popular success.
+
+The result of Newbery's first efforts to follow Locke's advice was so
+satisfactory that his wares were sought most eagerly. "Very soon," said
+his son, Francis Newbery, "he was in the full employment of his talents
+in writing and publishing books of amusement and instruction for
+Children. The call for them was immense, an edition of many thousands
+being sometimes exhausted during the Christmas holidays. His friend, Dr.
+Samuel Johnson, who, like other grave characters, could now and then be
+jocose, had used to say of him, 'Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I
+know not whether he has read or written most Books.'"[51-A]
+
+The bookseller was no less clever in his use of other people's wits. No
+one knows how many of the tiny gilt bindings covered stories told by
+impecunious writers, to whom the proceeds in times of starvation were
+bread if not butter. Newbery, though called by Goldsmith "the
+philanthropic publisher of St. Paul's Churchyard," knew very well the
+worth to his own pocket of these authors' skill in story-writing. Between
+the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen hundred and
+sixty-seven, the English publisher was at the height of his prosperity;
+his name became a household word in England, and was hardly less well
+known to the little colonials of America.
+
+Newbery's literary associations, too, were both numerous and important.
+Before Oliver Goldsmith began to write for children, he is thought to
+have contributed articles for Newbery's "Literary Magazine" about
+seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, while Johnson's celebrated "Idler"
+was first printed in a weekly journal started by the publisher about the
+same time. For the "British Magazine" Newbery engaged Smollett as
+editor. In this periodical appeared Goldsmith's "History of Miss
+Stanton." When later this was published as "The Vicar of Wakefield," it
+contained a characterization of the bookseller as a good-natured man
+with red, pimpled face, "who was no sooner alighted than he was in haste
+to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and he
+was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of Mr.
+Thomas Trip."[52-A] With such an acquaintance it is probable that
+Newbery often turned to Goldsmith, Giles Jones, and Tobias Smollett for
+assistance in writing or abridging the various children's tales; even
+the pompous Dr. Johnson is said to have had a hand in their
+production--since he expressed a wish to do so. Newbery himself,
+however, assumed the responsibility as well as the credit of so many
+little "Histories," that it is exceedingly difficult to fix upon the
+real authors of some of the best-known volumes in the publisher's
+juvenile library.
+
+The histories of "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Tommy Trip" (once such nursery
+favorites, and now almost, if not quite, forgotten) have been attributed
+to various men; but according to Mr. Pearson in "Banbury Chap-Books,"
+Goldsmith confessed to writing both. Certainly, his sly wit and quizzical
+vein of humor seem to pervade "Goody Two-Shoes"--often ascribed to Giles
+Jones--and the notes affixed to the rhymes of Mother Goose before she
+became Americanized. Again his skill is seen in the adaptation of
+"Wonders of Nature and Art" for juvenile admirers; and for "Fables in
+Verse" he is generally considered responsible. As all these tales were
+printed in the colonies or in the young Republic, their peculiarities and
+particularities may be better described when dealing with the issues of
+the American press.
+
+John Newbery, the most illustrious of publishers in the eyes of the
+old-fashioned child, died in 1767, at the comparatively early age of
+fifty-four. Yet before his death he had proved his talent for producing
+at least fifty original little books, to be worth considerably more than
+the Biblical ten talents.
+
+No sketch of Newbery's life should fail to mention another large factor
+in his successful experiment--the insertion in the "London Chronicle"
+and other newspapers of striking and novel advertisements of his gilt
+volumes, which were to be had for "six-pence the price of binding." An
+instance of his skill appeared in the "London Chronicle" for December
+19, 1764-January 1, 1765:
+
+"The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every
+faculty are desired to observe that on the 1st of January, being New
+Year's Day (oh, that we may all lead new lives!) Mr. Newbery intends to
+publish the following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby
+invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the
+Bible and Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard, but those who are naughty to
+have none."[54-A]
+
+Christopher Smart, his brother-in-law, who was an adept in the art of
+puffing, possibly wrote many of the advertisements of new books--notices
+so cleverly phrased that they could not fail to attract the attention of
+many a country shop-keeper. In this way thousands were sold to the
+country districts; and book-dealers in the American commonwealths,
+reading the English papers and alert to improve their trade, imported
+them in considerable quantities.
+
+After Newbery's death, his son, Francis, and Carnan, his stepson,
+carried on the business until seventeen hundred and eighty-eight; from
+that year until eighteen hundred and two Edward Newbery (a nephew of the
+senior Newbery), who in seventeen hundred and sixty-seven had set up a
+rival establishment, continued to publish new editions of the same
+little works. Yet the credit of this experiment of printing juvenile
+stories belongs entirely to the older publisher. Through them he made a
+strong protest against the reading by children of the lax chap-book
+literature, so excellently described by Mr. John Ashton in "Chap-Books
+of the Eighteenth Century;" and although his stories occasionally
+alluded to disagreeable subjects or situations, these were unfortunately
+familiar to his small patrons.
+
+The gay little covers of gilt or parti-colored paper in which this
+English publisher dressed his books expressed an evident purpose to
+afford pleasure, which was increased by the many illustrations that
+adorned the pages and added interest to the contents.
+
+To the modern child, these books give no pleasure; but to those who love
+the history of children of the past, they are interesting for two
+reasons. In them is portrayed something of the life of eighteenth
+century children; and by them the century's difference in point of view
+as to the constituents of a story-book can be gauged. Moreover, all
+Newbery's publications are to be credited with a careful preparation
+that later stories sadly lacked. They were always written with a certain
+art; if the language was pompous, we remember Dr. Johnson; if the style
+was formal, its composition was correct; if the tales lacked ease in
+telling, it was only the starched etiquette of the day reduced to a
+printed page; and if they preached, they at least were seldom vulgar.
+
+The preaching, moreover, was of different character from that of former
+times. Hitherto, the fear of the Lord had wholly occupied the author's
+attention when he composed a book "proper for a child as soon as he can
+read;" now, material welfare was dwelt upon, and a good boy's reward
+came to him when he was chosen the Lord Mayor of London. Good girls were
+not forgotten, and were assured that, like Goody Two-Shoes, they should
+attain a state of prosperity wherein
+
+   "Their Fortune and their Fame would fix
+    And gallop in their Coach and Six."
+
+Goody Two-Shoes, with her particular method of instilling the alphabet,
+and such books as "King Pippin" (a prodigy of learning) may be
+considered as tiny commentaries upon the years when Johnson reigned
+supreme in the realm of learning. These and many others emphasized not
+the effects of piety,--Cotton Mather's forte,--but the benefits of
+learning; and hence the good boy was also one who at the age of five
+spelt "apple-pye" correctly and therefore eventually became a great man.
+
+At the time of Newbery's death it was more than evident that his
+experiment had succeeded, and children's stories were a printed fact.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[45-A] Field, _The Child and his Book_, p. 223.
+
+[51-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 23.
+
+[52-A] Foster, _Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i, p. 244.
+
+[54-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 109.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1750-1776
+
+
+
+
+    Kings should be good
+    Not men of blood.
+             _The New England Primer_, 1791
+
+    If Faith itself has different dresses worn
+    What wonder modes in wit should take their turn.
+             POPE: _Essay on Man_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1750-1776
+
+_Newbery's Books in America_
+
+
+In the middle of the eighteenth century Thursdays were red-letter days
+for the residents of the Quaker town of Philadelphia. On that day Thomas
+Bradford sent forth from the "Sign of the Bible" in Second Street the
+weekly number of the "Pennsylvania Journal," and upon the same day his
+rival journalists, Franklin and Hall, issued the "Pennsylvania Gazette."
+
+On Thursday, the fifteenth of November, seventeen hundred and fifty, Old
+Style, the good people of the town took up their newspapers with
+doubtless a feeling of comfortable anticipation, as they drew their
+chairs to the fireside and began to look over the local occurrences of
+the past week, the "freshest foreign advices," and the various bits of
+information that had filtered slowly from the northern and more southern
+provinces.
+
+On this particular evening the subscribers to both newspapers found a
+trifle more news in the "Journal," but in each paper the same domestic
+items of interest, somewhat differently worded. The latest news from
+Boston was that of November fifth, from New York, November eighth, the
+Annapolis item was dated October tenth, and the few lines from London
+had been written in August.
+
+The "Gazette" (a larger sheet than the "Journal") occasionally had upon
+its first page some timely article of political or local interest. But
+more frequently there appeared in its first column an effusion of no
+local color, but full of sentimental or moral reflections. In this day's
+issue there was a long letter, dated New York, from one who claimed to
+be "Beauty's Votary." This expressed the writer's disappointment that an
+interesting "Piece" inserted in the "Gazette" a fortnight earlier had
+presented in its conclusion "an unexpected shocking Image." The shock to
+the writer it appears was the greater, because the beginning of the
+article had, he thought, promised a strong contrast between "Furious
+Rage in our rough Sex, and Gentle mildness adorn'd with Beauty's charms
+in the other." The rest of the letter was an apostrophe to the fair sex
+in the sentimental and florid language of the period.
+
+To the women, we imagine, this letter was more acceptable than to the
+men, who found the shipping news more to their taste, and noted with
+pleasure the arrival of the ship Carolina and the Snow Strong, which
+brought cargoes valuable for their various industries.
+
+Advertisements filled a number of columns. Among them was one so novel
+in its character that it must have caught the eye of all readers. The
+middle column on the second page was devoted almost entirely to an
+announcement that John Newbery had for "Sale to Schoolmasters,
+Shopkeepers, &c, who buy in quantities to sell again," "The Museum," "A
+new French Primer," "The Royal Battledore," and "The Pretty Book for
+Children." This notice--a reduced fac-simile of which is given--made
+Newbery's début in Philadelphia; and it must not be forgotten that but a
+short period had elapsed since his first book had been printed in
+England.
+
+[Illustration: _John Newbery's Advertisement of Children's Books_]
+
+Franklin had doubtless heard of the publisher in St. Paul's
+Churchyard through Mr. Strahan, his correspondent, who filled orders for
+him from London booksellers; but the omission of the customary
+announcement of special books as "to be had of the Printer hereof"
+points to Newbery's enterprise in seeking a wider market for his wares,
+and Franklin's business ability in securing the advertisement, as it is
+not repeated in the "Journal."
+
+This "Museum" was probably a newer book than the "Royal Primer,"
+"Battledore," and "Pretty Book," and consequently was more fully
+described; and oddly enough, all of these books are of earlier editions
+than Mr. Welsh, Newbery's biographer, was able to trace in England.
+
+"The Museum" still clings to the same idea which pervaded "The
+Play-thing." Its second title reads: "A private TUTOR for little MASTERS
+and MISSES." The contents show that this purpose was carried out. It
+tutored them by giving directions for reading with eloquence and
+propriety; by presenting "the antient and present State of _Great
+Britain_ with a compendious History of _England_;" by instructing them
+in "the Solar System, geography, Arts and Sciences" and the inevitable
+"Rules for Behaviour, Religion and Morality;" and it admonished them by
+giving the "Dying Words of Great Men when just quitting the Stage of
+Life." As a museum it included descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the
+World, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Tower of
+London, with an ethnological section in the geographical department! All
+of this amusement was to be had for the price of "One Shilling," neatly
+bound, with, thrown in as good measure, "Letters, Tales and Fables
+illustrated with Cuts." Such a library, complete in itself, was a fine
+and most welcome reward for scholarship, when prizes were awarded at the
+end of the school session.
+
+Importations of "Parcels of entertaining books for children" had earlier
+in the year been announced through the columns of the "Gazette;" but
+these importations, though they show familiarity with Newbery's quaint
+phraseology in advertising, probably also included an assortment of such
+little chap-books as "Tom Thumb," "Cinderella" (from the French of
+Monsieur Perrault), and some few other old stories which the children
+had long since appropriated as their own property.
+
+In 1751 we find New York waking up to the appreciation of children's
+books. There J. Waddell and James Parker were apparently the pioneers in
+bringing to public notice the fact that they had for sale little
+novel-books in addition to horn-books and primers; and moreover the
+"Weekly Post-Boy" advertised that these booksellers had "Pretty Books
+for little Masters and Misses" (clearly a Newbery imitation), "with
+Blank Flourished Christmas pieces for Scholars."
+
+But as yet even Franklin had hardly been convinced that the old way of
+imparting knowledge was not superior to the then modern combination of
+amusement and instruction; therefore, although with his partner, David
+Hall, he without doubt sold such children's books as were available, for
+his daughter Sally, aged seven, he had other views. At his request his
+wife, in December, 1751, wrote the following letter to William Strahan:
+
+     MADAM,--I am ordered by my Master to write for him Books
+     for Sally Franklin. I am in Hopes She will be abel to write for
+     herself by the Spring.
+
+       8 Sets of the Perceptor best Edit.
+       8 Doz. of Croxall's Fables.
+       3 Doz. of Bishop Kenns Manual for Winchester School.
+       1 Doz. Familiar Forms, Latin and Eng.
+       Ainsworth's Dictionaries, 4 best Edit.
+       2 Doz. Select Tales and Fables.
+       2 Doz. Costalio's Test.
+       Cole's Dictionarys Latin and Eng. 6 a half doz.
+       3 Doz. of Clarke's Cordery. 1 Boyle's Pliny 2 vols. 8vo.
+       6 Sets of Nature displayed in 7 vols. 12mo.
+       One good Quarto Bibel with Cudes bound in calfe.
+       1 Penrilla. 1 Art of making Common Salt. By Browning.
+
+     My Dafter gives her duty to Mr. Stroyhan and his Lady, and her
+     compliments to Master Billy and all his brothers and Sisters....
+
+     Your humbel Servant
+       DEBORAH FRANKLIN
+
+Little Sally Franklin could not have needed eight dozen copies of
+Aesop's Fables, nor four Ainsworth's Dictionaries, so it is probable
+that Deborah Franklin's far from ready pen put down the book order for
+the spring, and that Sally herself was only to be supplied with the
+"Perceptor," the "Fables," and the "one good Quarto Bibel."
+
+As far as it is now possible to judge, the people of the towns soon
+learned the value of Newbery's little nursery tales, and after seventeen
+hundred and fifty-five, when most of his books were written and
+published, they rapidly gained a place on the family book-shelves in
+America.
+
+By seventeen hundred and sixty Hugh Gaine, printer, publisher, patent
+medicine seller, and employment agent for New York, was importing
+practically all the Englishman's juvenile publications then for sale. At
+the "Bible and Crown," where Gaine printed the "Weekly Mercury," could
+be bought, wholesale and retail, such books as, "Poems for Children
+Three Feet High," "Tommy Trapwit," "Trip's Book of Pictures," "The New
+Year's Gift," "The Christmas Box," etc.
+
+Gaine himself was a prominent printer in New York in the latter half of
+the eighteenth century. Until the Revolution his shop was a favorite one
+and well patronized. But when the hostilities began, the condition of
+his pocket seems to have regulated his sympathies, and he was by turn
+Whig and Tory according to the possession of New York by so-called
+Rebels, or King's Servants. When the British army evacuated New York,
+Gaine, wishing to keep up his trade, dropped the "Crown" from his sign.
+Among the enthusiastic patriots this ruse had scant success. In
+Freneau's political satire of the bookseller, the first verse gives a
+strong suggestion of the ridicule to follow:
+
+   "And first, he was, in his own representation,
+    A printer, once of good reputation.
+    He dwelt in the street called Hanover-Square,
+    (You'll know where it is if you ever was there
+    Next door to the dwelling of Mr. Brownjohn,
+    Who now to the drug-shop of Pluto is gone)
+    But what do I say--who e'er came to town,
+    And knew not Hugh Gaine at the _Bible_ and _Crown_."
+
+A contemporary of, and rival bookseller to, Gaine in seventeen hundred
+and sixty was James Rivington. Mr. Hildeburn has given Rivington a
+rather unenviable reputation; still, as he occasionally printed (?) a
+child's book, Mr. Hildeburn's remarks are quoted:
+
+"Until the advent of Rivington it was generally possible to tell from an
+American Bookseller's advertisement in the current newspapers whether
+the work offered for sale was printed in America or England. But the
+books he received in every fresh invoice from London were 'just
+published by James Rivington' and this form was speedily adopted by
+other booksellers, so that after 1761 the advertisement of books is no
+longer a guide to the issues of the colonial press."
+
+Although Rivington did not set up a press until about seventeen hundred
+and seventy-three,--according to Mr. Hildeburn,--he had a book-shop much
+earlier. Here he probably reprinted the title-page and then put an
+elaborate notice in the "Weekly Mercury" for November 17, 1760, as
+follows:
+
+     JAMES RIVINGTON
+
+     _Bookseller and Stationer from London over against the Golden Key in
+     Hanover Square._
+
+     This day is published, Price, seven Shillings, and sold by the said
+     JAMES RIVINGTON, adorned with two hundred Pictures
+
+           THE
+     FABLES OF AESOP
+
+     with a moral to each Fable in Verse, and an Application in Prose,
+     intended for the Use of the youngest of readers, and proper to be
+     put into the hands of Children, immediately after they have done
+     with the Spelling-Book, it being adapted to their tender Capacities,
+     the Fables are related in a short and lively Manner, and they are
+     recommended to all those who are concerned in the education of
+     Children. This is an entire new Work, elegantly printed and
+     ornamented with much better Cuts than any other Edition of Aesop's
+     Fables. Be pleased to ask for DRAPER'S AESOP.
+
+From such records of parents' care as are given in Mrs. Charles
+Pinckney's letters to her husband's agent in London, and Josiah Quincy's
+reminiscences of his early training, it seems very evident that John
+Locke's advice in "Thoughts on Education" was read and followed at this
+time in the American colonies. Therefore, in accordance with the
+bachelor philosopher's theory as to reading-matter for little children,
+the bookseller recommended the "Fables" to "those concerned in the
+education of children." It is at least a happy coincidence that one of
+the earliest books (as far as is known to the writer), aside from school
+and religious books, issued as published in America for children, should
+have been the one Locke had so heartily recommended. This is what he had
+said many years previously: "When by these gentle ways he begins to
+_read_, some easy pleasant Book, suited to his capacities, should be put
+into his Hands, wherein the Entertainment that he finds might draw him
+on, and reward his Pains in Reading, and yet not such as will fill his
+head with perfectly useless Trumpery, or lay the Principles of Vice and
+Folly. To this Purpose, I think Aesop's Fables the best which being
+Stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may yet afford useful
+Reflections to a grown Man.... If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will
+entertain him much better and encourage him to read." The two hundred
+pictures in Rivington's edition made it, of course, high priced in
+comparison with Newbery's books: but New York then contained many
+families well able to afford this outlay to secure such an acquisition
+to the family library.
+
+Hugh Gaine at this time, as a rule, received each year two shipments of
+books, among which were usually some for children, yet about 1762 he
+began to try his own hand at reprinting Newbery's now famous little
+duodecimos.
+
+In that year we find an announcement through the "New York Mercury" that
+he had himself printed "Divers diverting books for infants." The
+following list gives some idea of their character:
+
+     _Just published by Hugh Gaine_
+
+     A pretty Book for Children; Or an Easy Guide to the English Tongue.
+
+     The private Tutor for little Masters and Misses.
+
+     Food for the Mind; or a new Riddle Book compiled for the use of
+       little Good Boys and Girls in America. By Jack the Giant-Killer,
+       Esq.
+
+     A Collection of Pretty Poems, by Tommy Tag, Esq.
+
+     Aesop's Fables in Verse, with the Conversation of Beasts and Birds,
+       at their several Meetings. By Woglog the great Giant.
+
+     A Little pretty Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master
+       Tommy and pretty Miss Polly, with two Letters from Jack the
+       Giant-Killer.
+
+     Be Merry and Wise: Or the Cream of the Jests. By Tommy Trapwit, Esq.
+
+The title of "Food for the Mind" is of special importance, since in it
+Gaine made a clever alteration by inserting the words "Good Boys and
+Girls in _America_." The colonials were already beginning to feel a
+pride in the fact of belonging to the new country, America, and
+therefore Gaine shrewdly changed the English title to one more likely to
+induce people to purchase.
+
+Gaine and Rivington alone have left records of printing children's
+story-books in the town of New York before the Revolution; but before
+they began to print, other booksellers advertised their invoices of
+books. In 1759 Garrat Noel, a Dutchman, had announced that he had "the
+very prettiest gilt Books for little Masters and Misses that ever were
+invented, full of wit and wisdom, at the surprising low Price of only
+one Shilling each finely bound and adorned with a number of curious
+Cuts." By 1762 Noel had increased his stock and placed a somewhat larger
+advertisement in the "Mercury" of December 27. The late arrival of his
+goods may have been responsible for the bargains he offered at this
+holiday sale.
+
+     GARRAT NOEL _Begs Leave to Inform the Public, that according to
+     his Annual Custom, he has provided a very large Assortment of Books
+     for Entertainment and Improvement of Youth, in Reading, Writing,
+     Cyphering, and Drawing, as Proper Presents at _CHRISTMAS_
+     and _New-Year_._
+
+     The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at _Two
+     Shillings_, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn'd with Cuts.
+
+     [Symbol: hand]Those who buy _Six_, shall have a _Seventh Gratis_,
+     and buying only _Three_, they shall have a present of a fine large
+     Copper-Plate Christmas Piece: [_List of histories follows._]
+
+     The following neat Gilt Books, very instructive and Amusing being
+     full of Pictures, are sold at _Eighteen Pence_ each.
+
+          Fables in Verse and Prose, with the Conversation of Birds &
+          Beasts at their several meetings, Routs and Assemblies for the
+          Improvement of Old and Young, etc.
+
+To-day none of these gay little volumes sold in New York are to be seen.
+The inherent faculty of children for losing and destroying books,
+coupled with the perishable nature of these toy volumes, has rendered
+the children's treasures of seventeen hundred and sixty-two a great
+rarity. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is the fortunate
+possessor of one much prized story-book printed in that year; but though
+it is at present in the Quaker City, a printer of Boston was responsible
+for its production.
+
+In Isaiah Thomas's recollections of the early Boston printers, he
+described Zechariah Fowle, with whom he served his apprenticeship, and
+Samuel Draper, Fowle's partner. These men, about seventeen hundred and
+fifty-seven, took a house in Marlborough Street. Here, according to
+Thomas, "they printed and opened a shop. They kept a great supply of
+ballads, and small pamphlets for book pedlars, of whom there were many
+at that time. Fowle was bred to the business, but he was an indifferent
+hand at the press, and much worse at the case."
+
+This description of the printer's ability is borne out by the "New-Gift
+for Children," printed by this firm. It is probably the oldest
+story-book bearing an American imprint now in existence, and for this
+reason merits description, although its contents can be seen in the
+picture of the title-page. Brown with age and like all chap-books
+without a cover--for it was Newbery who introduced this more durable and
+attractive feature--all sizes in type were used to print its fifteen
+stories. The stories in themselves were not new, as it is called the
+"Fourth edition." It is possible that they were taken from the Banbury
+chap-books, which also often copied Newbery's juvenile library, as the
+list of his publications compiled by Mr. Charles Welsh does not contain
+this title.
+
+The loyalty of the Boston printers found expression on the third page by
+a very black cut of King George the Third, who appears rather puzzled
+and not a little unhappy; but it found favor with customers, for as yet
+the colonials thought their king "no man of blood." On turning the page
+Queen Charlotte looks out with goggle-eyes, curls, and a row of beads
+about the size of pebbles around her thick neck. The picture seems to be
+a copy from some miniature of the queen, as an oval frame with a crown
+surmounting it encircles the portrait. The stories are so much better
+than some that were written even after the nineteenth century, that
+extracts from them are worth reading. The third tale, called "The
+Generosity of Confessing a Fault," begins as follows:
+
+"Miss _Fanny Goodwill_ was one of the prettiest children that ever was
+seen; her temper was as sweet as her looks, and her behavior so genteel
+and obliging that everybody admir'd her; for nobody can help loving good
+children, any more than they can help being angry with those that are
+naughty. It is no wonder then that her papa and mama lov'd her
+dearly, they took a great deal of pains to improve her mind so that
+before she was seven years old, she could read, and talk, and work like
+a little woman. One day as her papa was sitting by the fire, he set her
+upon his knees, kiss'd her, and told her how very much he lov'd her; and
+then smiling, and taking hold of her hand, My dear Fanny, said he, take
+care never to tell a lye, and then I shall always love you as well as I
+do now. You or I may be guilty of a fault; but there is something noble
+and generous in owning our errors, and striving to mend them; but a lye
+more than doubles the fault, and when it is found out, makes the lyar
+appear mean and contemptible.... Thus, my dear, the lyar is a wretch,
+whom nobody trusts, nobody regards, nobody pities. Indeed papa, said
+Miss _Fanny_, I would not be such a creature for all the world. You are
+very good, my little _charmer_, said her papa and kiss'd her again."
+
+[Illustration: _Title-page from "The New Gift for Children"_]
+
+The inevitable temptation came when Miss Fanny went on "a visit to a
+Miss in the neighborhood; her mama ordered her to be home at eight
+o'clock; but she was engag'd at play, and did not mind how the time
+pass'd, so that she stay'd till near ten; and then her mama sent for
+her." The child of course was frightened by the lateness of the hour,
+and the maid--who appears in the illustration with cocked hat and
+musket!--tried to calm her fears with the advice to "tell her mama that
+the Miss she went to see had taken her out." "_No Mary_, said Miss
+_Fanny_, wiping her pretty eyes, I am above a lye;" and she rehearsed
+for the benefit of the maid her father's admonition.
+
+Story IX tells of the _Good Girl and Pretty Girl_. In this the pretty
+child had bright eyes and pretty plump cheeks and was much admired. She,
+however, was a meanly proud girl, and so naughty as not to want to grow
+wiser, but applied to those good people who happened to be less favored
+in looks such terms as "bandy-legs, crump, and all such naughty names."
+The good sister "could read before the pretty miss could tell a letter;
+and though her shape was not so genteel her behavior was a great deal
+more so. But alas! the pretty creature fell sick of the small-pox, and
+all her beauty vanished." Thus in the eighteenth century was the adage
+"Beauty is but skin deep" brought to bear upon conduct.
+
+On the last page is a cut of "Louisburg demolished," which had served
+its time already upon almanacs, but the eight cuts were undoubtedly made
+especially for children. Moreover, since they do not altogether
+illustrate the various stories, they are good proof that similar
+chap-book tales were printed by Fowle and Draper for little ones before
+the War of Independence.
+
+In the southern provinces the sea afforded better transportation
+facilities for household necessities and luxuries than the few
+post-lines from the north could offer. Bills of exchange could be drawn
+against London, to be paid by the profits of the tobacco crops, a safer
+method of payment than any that then existed between the northern and
+southern towns. In the regular orders sent by George Washington to
+Robert Carey in London, twice we find mention of the children's needs
+and wishes. In the very first invoice of goods to be shipped to
+Washington after his marriage with Mrs. Custis in seventeen hundred and
+fifty-nine, he ordered "10 Shillings worth of Toys, 6 little books for
+children beginning to read and a fashionable dressed baby to cost 10
+Shillings;" and again later in ordering clothes, "Toys, Sugar, Images
+and Comfits" for his step-children he added: "Books according to the
+enclosed list to be charged equally to John Parke Custis and Martha
+Parke Custis."
+
+But in Boston the people bought directly from the booksellers, of whom
+there were already many. One of these was John Mein, who played a part
+in the historic Non-Importation Agreement. In seventeen hundred and
+fifty this Englishman had opened in King Street a shop which he called
+the "London Book-Store." Here he sold many imported books, and in
+seventeen hundred and sixty-five, when the population of Boston numbered
+some twenty thousand, he started the "earliest circulating library,
+advertised to contain ten thousand volumes."[73-A] This shop was both
+famous and notorious: famous because of its "Very Grand Assortment of
+the most modern Books;" notorious because of the accusations made
+against its owner when the colonials, aroused by the action of
+Parliament, passed the Non-Importation Agreement.
+
+Before the excitement had culminated in this "Agreement," John Mein's
+lists of importations show that the children's pleasure had not been
+forgotten, and after it their books singularly enough were connected
+with this historic action.
+
+In 1766, in the "Boston Evening Post," we find Mein's announcement that
+"Little Books with Pictures for Children" could be purchased at the
+London Book-Store; in December, 1767, he advertised through the columns
+of the "Boston Chronicle," among other books, "in every branch of polite
+literature," a "Great Variety of entertaining Books for CHILDREN, proper
+for presents at Christmas or New-year's day--Prices from Two Coppers to
+Two Shillings." In August of the following year Mein gave the names of
+seven of Newbery's famous gilt volumes, as "to be sold" at his shop.
+These "pretty little entertaining and instructive Books" were "Giles
+Gingerbread," the "Adventures of little TOMMY TRIP with his dog JOULER,"
+"Tommy Trip's Select Fables," and "an excellent Pastoral Hymn," "The
+Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book," "Leo, the Great Giant," and
+"URAX, or the Fair Wanderer--price eight pence lawful money. _A very
+interesting tale in which the protection of the Almighty_ is proved to
+be the first and chief support of the FEMALE SEX." Number seven in the
+list was the story of the "Cruel Giant Barbarico," and it is one of this
+edition that is now among the rare Americana of the Boston Public
+Library. The imprint upon its title-page coincides with Isaiah Thomas's
+statement that though "Fleming was not concerned with Mein in
+book-selling, several books were printed at their house for Mein." Its
+date, 1768, would indicate that Mein had reproduced one of his
+importations to which allusion has already been made. The book in
+marbled covers, time-worn and faded now, was sold for only "six-pence
+lawful" when new, possibly because it lacked illustrations.
+
+[Illustration: _Miss Fanny's Maid_]
+
+One year later, when the Non-Importation Agreement had passed and was
+rigorously enforced in the port of Boston, these same little books were
+advertised again in the "Chronicle" of December 4-7 under the large
+caption, PRINTED IN AMERICA AND TO BE SOLD BY JOHN MEIN. Times
+had so changed within one year's space that even a child's six-penny
+book was unpopular, if known to have been imported.
+
+Mein was among those accused of violating the "Agreement;" he was
+charged with the importation of materials for book-making. In a November
+number of the "Chronicle" of seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, Mein
+published an article entitled "A State of the Importation from Great
+Britain into the Port of BOSTON with the advertisement of a set
+of Men, who assume to themselves THE TITLE of _ALL the Well
+Disposed Merchants_." In this letter the London Book-Store proprietor
+vigorously defended himself, and protested that the quantity of his work
+necessitated some importations not procurable in Boston. He also made
+sarcastic references to other men whom he thought the cap fitted better
+with less excuse. It was in the following December that he tried to keep
+this trade in children's books by his apparently patriotic announcement
+regarding them. His protests were useless. Already in disfavor with some
+because he was supposed to print books in America but used a London
+imprint, his popularity waned; he was marked as a loyalist, and there
+was little of the spirit of tolerance for such in that hot-bed of
+patriotism. The air was so full of the growing differences between the
+colonials and the king's government, that in seventeen hundred and
+seventy Mein closed out his stock and returned to England.
+
+On the other hand, the patriotic booksellers did not fail to take note
+of the crystallization of public opinion. Robert Bell in Philadelphia
+appended a note to his catalogue of books, stating that "The Lovers and
+Practisers of Patriotism are requested to note that all the Books in
+this Catalogue are either of American manufacture, or imported before
+the Non-Importation Agreement."
+
+The supply of home-made paper was of course limited. So much was needed
+to circulate among the colonies pamphlets dealing with the injustice of
+the king's government toward his American subjects, that it seems
+remarkable that any juvenile books should have been printed in those
+stirring days before the war began. It is rather to be expected that,
+with the serious turn that events had taken and the consequent questions
+that had arisen, the publications of the American press should have
+received the shadow of the forthcoming trouble--a shadow sufficient to
+discourage any attempt at humor for adult or child. Evidence, however,
+points to the fact that humor and amusement were not totally lacking in
+the issues of the press of at least one printer in Boston, John Boyle.
+The humorous satire produced by his press in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-five, called "The First Book of the American Chronicles of the
+Times," purported to set forth the state of political affairs during the
+troubles "wherein all our calamities are seen to flow from the fact that
+the king had set up for our worship the god of the heathen--The Tea
+Chest." This pamphlet has been one to keep the name of John Boyle among
+the prominent printers of pre-Revolutionary days. Additional interest
+accrues for this reason to a play-book printed by Boyle--the only one
+extant of this decade known to the writer.
+
+This quaint little chap-book, three by four inches in size, was issued
+in seventeen hundred and seventy-one, soon after Boyle had set up his
+printing establishment and four years before the publication of the
+famous pamphlet. It represents fully the standard for children's
+literature in the days when Newbery's tiny classics were making their
+way to America, and was indeed advertised by Mein in seventeen hundred
+and sixty-eight among the list of books "Printed in America." Its title,
+"The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book: Containing his Life and
+Adventures," has rather a familiar sound, but its contents would not now
+be allowed upon any nursery table. Since the days of the Anglo-Saxons,
+Tom Thumb's adventures have been told and retold; each generation has
+given to the rising generation the version thought proper for the ears
+of children. In Boyle's edition this method resulted in realism pushed
+to the extreme; but it is not to be denied that the yellowed pages
+contain the wondrous adventures and hairbreadth escapes so dear to the
+small boy of all time. The thrilling incidents were further enlivened,
+moreover, by cuts called by the printer "_curious_" in the sense of very
+fine: and _curious_ they are to-day because of the crudeness of their
+execution and the coarseness of their design. Nevertheless, the
+grotesque character of the illustrations was altogether effective in
+impressing upon the reader the doughty deeds of his old friend, Tom
+Thumb. The book itself shows marks of its popularity, and of the hard
+usage to which it was subjected by its happy owner, who was not critical
+of the editor's freedom of speech.
+
+The coarseness permitted in a nursery favorite makes it sufficiently
+clear that the standard for the ideal toy-book of the eighteenth century
+is no gauge for that of the twentieth. Child-life differed in many
+particulars, as Mr. Julian Hawthorne pointed out some years ago, when he
+wrote that the children of the eighteenth century "were urged to grow up
+almost before they were short-coated." We must bear this in mind in
+turning to another class of books popular with adult and child alike in
+both England and America before and for some years after the Revolution.
+
+This was the period when the novel in the hands of Richardson, Fielding,
+and Smollett was assuming hitherto unsuspected possibilities. Allusion
+must be made to some of the characteristics of their work, since their
+style undoubtedly affected juvenile reading and the tales written for
+children.
+
+Taking for the sake of convenience the novels of the earliest of this
+group of men, Samuel Richardson, as a starting-point, we find in Pamela
+and Mr. Lovelace types of character that merge from the Puritanical
+concrete examples of virtue and vice into a psychological attempt to
+depict the emotion and feeling preceding every act of heroine and
+villain. Through every stage of the story the author still clings to the
+long-established precedent of giving moral and religious instruction.
+Afterwards, when Fielding attempted to parody "Pamela," he developed the
+novel of adventure in high and low life, and produced "Joseph Andrews."
+He then followed this with the character-study represented by "Tom
+Jones, Foundling." Richardson in "Pamela" had aimed to emphasize virtue
+as in the end prospering; Fielding's characters rather embody the
+principle of virtue being its own reward and of vice bringing its own
+punishment. Smollett in "Humphrey Clinker's Adventures" brought forth
+fun from English surroundings instead of seeking for the hero thrilling
+and daring deeds in foreign countries. He also added to the list of
+character-studies "Roderick Random," a tale of the sea, the mystery of
+which has never palled since "Robinson Crusoe" saw light.
+
+There was also the novel of letters. In the age of the first great
+novelists letter-writing was among the polite arts. It was therefore
+counted a great but natural achievement when the epistolary method of
+revealing the plot was introduced. "Clarissa Harlowe" and "Sir Charles
+Grandison" were the results of this style of writing; they comprehended
+the "most Important Concerns of private life"--"concerns" which moved
+with lingering and emotional persistency towards the inevitable
+catastrophe in "Clarissa," and the happy issue out of the
+misunderstandings and misadventures which resulted in Miss Byron's
+alliance with Sir Charles.
+
+Until after the next (nineteenth) century had passed its first decade
+these tales were read in full or abridged forms by many children among
+the fashionable and literary sets in England and America. Indeed, the
+art of writing for children was so unknown that often attempts to
+produce child-like "histories" for them resulted in little other than
+novels upon an abridged scale.
+
+But before even abridged novels found their way into juvenile favor, it
+was "customary in Richardson's time to read his novels aloud in the
+family circle. When some pathetic passage was reached the members of the
+family would retire to separate apartments to weep; and after composing
+themselves, they would return to the fireside to have the reading
+proceed. It was reported to Richardson, that, on one of these occasions,
+'an amiable little boy sobbed as if his sides would burst and resolved
+to mind his books that he might be able to read Pamela through without
+stopping.' That there might be something in the family novel expressly
+for children, Richardson sometimes stepped aside from the main narrative
+to tell them a moral tale."[80-A]
+
+Mr. Cross gives an example of this which, shorn of its decoration, was
+the tale of two little boys and two little girls, who never told fibs,
+who were never rude and noisy, mischievous or quarrelsome; who always
+said their prayers when going to bed, and therefore became fine ladies
+and gentlemen.
+
+To make the tales less difficult for amiable children to read, an
+abridgment of their contents was undertaken; and Goldsmith is said to
+have done much of the "cutting" in "Pamela," "Clarissa Harlowe," "Sir
+Charles Grandison," and others. These books were included in the lists
+of those sent to America for juvenile reading. In Boston, Cox and Berry
+inserted in the "Boston Gazette and Country Journal" a notice that they
+had the "following little Books for all good Boys and Girls:
+
+The Brother's Gift, or the Naughty Girl Reformed.
+The Sister's Gift, or the Naughty Boy Reformed.
+The Hobby Horse, or Christmas Companion.
+The Cries of London as Exhibited in the Streets.
+The Puzzling Cap.
+The History of Tom Jones.
+The History of Joseph Andrews.   Abridg'd from the works of H. Fielding
+The History of Pamela.           abridg'd from the works of Samuel
+                                 Richardson, Esq.
+The History of Grandison.
+The History of Clarissa."
+
+Up to this time the story has been rather of the books read by the
+Puritan and Quaker population of the colonies. There had arisen during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, however, a merchant class
+which owed its prosperity to its own ability. Such men sought for their
+families the material results of wealth which only a place like Boston
+could bestow. Many children, therefore, were sent to this town to
+acquire suitable education in books, accomplishments, and deportment. A
+highly interesting record of a child of well-to-do parents has been left
+by Anna Green Winslow, who came to Boston to stay with an aunt for the
+winters of 1771 and 1772. Her diary gives delightful glimpses of
+children's tea-parties, fashions, and schools, all put down with a
+childish disregard of importance or connection. It is in these jottings
+of daily occurrences that proof is found that so young a girl read,
+quite as a matter of course, the abridged works of Fielding and
+Richardson.
+
+On January 1, 1772, she wrote in her diary, "a Happy New Year, I have
+bestowed no new year's gifts, as yet. But have received one very
+handsome one, Viz, the History of Joseph Andrews abreviated. In nice
+Guilt and Flowers covers." Again, she put down an account of a day's
+work, which she called "a piecemeal for in the first place I sew'd on
+the bosom of unkle's shirt, and mended two pairs of gloves, mended for
+the wash two handkerch'fs, (one cambrick) sewed on half a border of a
+lawn apron of aunt's, read part of the xxist chapter of Exodous, & a
+story in the Mother's Gift." Later she jotted in her book the loan of "3
+of Cousin Charles' books to read, viz.--The puzzling Cap, the female
+Orators & the history of Gaffer Two Shoes." Little Miss Winslow, though
+only eleven years of age, was a typical child of the educated class in
+Boston, and, according to her journal, also followed the English custom
+of reading aloud "with Miss Winslow, the Generous Inconstant and Sir
+Charles Grandison." It is to be regretted that her diary gives no
+information as to how she liked such tales. We must anticipate some
+years to find a comment in the Commonplace Book of a Connecticut girl.
+Lucy Sheldon lived in Litchfield, a thriving town in eighteen hundred,
+and did much reading for a child in those days. Upon "Sir Charles
+Grandison" she confided to her book this offhand note: "Read in little
+Grandison, which shows that, virtue always meets its reward and vice is
+punished." The item is very suggestive of Goldsmith's success in
+producing an abridgment that left the moral where it could not be
+overlooked.
+
+To discuss in detail this class of writings is not necessary, but a
+glance at the story of "Clarissa" gives an instructive impression of
+what old-fashioned children found zestful.
+
+"Clarissa Harlowe" in its abridged form was first published by Newbery,
+Senior. The book that lies before the writer was printed in seventeen
+hundred and seventy-two by his son, Francis Newbery. In size five by
+three and one-half inches, it is decked in once gay parti-colored heavy
+Dutch paper, with a delicate gold tracery over all. This paper binding,
+called by Anna Winslow "Flowery Guilt," can no longer be found in
+Holland, the place of its manufacture; with sarsinet and other
+fascinating materials it has vanished so completely that it exists only
+on the faded bindings of such small books as "Clarissa."
+
+The narrative itself is compressed from the original seven volumes into
+one volume of one hundred and seventy-six closely printed pages, with
+several full-page copper-plate illustrations. The plot, however, gains
+rather than loses in this condensed form. The principal distressing
+situations follow so fast one upon the other that the intensity of the
+various episodes in the _affecting_ history is increased by the total
+absence of all the "moving" letters found in the original work. The
+"lordly husband and father," "the imperious son," "the proud ambitious
+sister, Arabella," all combined to force the universally beloved and
+unassuming Clarissa to marry the wealthy Mr. Somers, who was to be the
+means of "the aggrandisement of the family." Clarissa, in this
+perplexing situation, yielded in a desperate mood to "the earnest
+entreaties of the artful Lovelace to accept the protection of the Ladies
+of his family." Who these ladies were, to whom the designing Lovelace
+conducted the agitated heroine, is set forth in unmistakable language;
+and thereafter follow the treacherous behaviour exhibited by Lovelace,
+the various attempts to escape by the unhappy beauty, and her final
+exhaustion and death. An example of the style may be given in this
+description of the death-scene:
+
+"Clarissa had before remarked that all would be most conveniently over
+in bed: The solemn, the most important moment approached, but her soul
+ardently aspiring after immorality [immortality was of course the
+author's intention], she imagined the time moved slowly; and with great
+presence of mind, she gave orders in relation to her body, directing her
+nurse and the maid of the house, as soon as she was cold, to put her
+into her coffin. The Colonel [her cousin], after paying her another
+visit, wrote to her uncle, Mr. John Harlowe, that they might save
+themselves the trouble of having any further debates about
+reconciliation; for before they could resolve, his dear cousin would
+probably be no more....
+
+"A day or two after, Mr. Belford [a friend] was sent for, and
+immediately came; at his entrance he saw the Colonel kneeling by her
+bed-side with the ladies right hand in both his, which his face covered
+bathing it with tears, though she had just been endeavoring to comfort
+him, in noble and elevated strains. On the opposite side of the bed was
+seated Mrs. Lovick, who leaning against the bed's-head in a most
+disconsolate manner, turned to him as soon as she saw him, crying, O Mr.
+Belford, the dear lady! a heavy sigh not permitting her to say more.
+Mrs. Smith [the landlady] was kneeling at the bed's feet with clasped
+fingers and uplifted eyes, with tears trickling in large drops from her
+cheeks, as if imploring help from the source of all comfort.
+
+"The excellent lady had been silent a few minutes, and was thought
+speechless, she moving her lips without uttering a word; but when Mrs.
+Lovick, on Mr. Belford's approach, pronounced his name, O Mr. Belford!
+cried she, in a faint inward voice, Now!--now!--I bless God, all will
+soon be over--a few minutes will end this strife--and I shall be happy,"
+etc. Her speech was long, although broken by dashes, and again she
+resumed, "in a more faint and broken accent," the blessing and
+directions. "She then sunk her head upon the pillow; and fainting away,
+drew from them her hands." Once more she returned to consciousness,
+"when waving her hand to him [Mr. Belford] and to her cousin, and bowing
+her head to every one present, not omitting the nurse and maid servant,
+with a faltering and inward voice, she added Bless--Bless--you all!--"
+
+The illustrations, in comparison with others of the time, are very well
+engraved, although the choice of subjects is somewhat singular. The last
+one represents Clarissa's friend, "Miss Howe" (the loyal friend to whom
+all the absent letters were addressed), "lamenting over the corpse of
+Clarissa," who lies in the coffin ordered by the heroine "to be covered
+with fine black cloth, and lined with white satin."
+
+As one lays aside this faded duodecimo, the conviction is strong that
+the texture of the life of an old-fashioned child was of coarser weave
+than is pleasant to contemplate. How else could elders and guardians
+have placed without scruple such books in the hands of children? The one
+explanation is to be found in such diaries as that of Anna Winslow, who
+quaintly put down in her book facts and occurrences denoting the
+maturity already reached by a little miss of eleven.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[73-A] Winsor, _Memorial History of Boston_, vol. ii, p. xix.
+
+[80-A] Cross, _Development of the English Novel_, pp. 38, 39.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+1776-1790
+
+
+
+
+    The British King
+    Lost States thirteen.
+             _The New England Primer_,
+                      Philadelphia, 1797
+
+    The good little boy
+    That will not tell a lie,
+    Shall have a plum-pudding
+    Or hot apple-pye.
+             _Jacky Dandy's Delight_,
+                      Worcester, 1786
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+1776-1790
+
+_Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery_
+
+
+When John Mein was forced to close his London Book-Store in Boston and
+to return to England in 1770, the children of that vicinity had need to
+cherish their six-penny books with increased care. The shadow of
+impending conflict was already deep upon the country when Mein departed;
+and the events of the decade following seventeen hundred and
+seventy-three--the year of the Boston Tea-Party--were too absorbing and
+distressing for such trifling publications as toy-books to be more than
+occasionally printed. Indeed, the history of the American Revolution is
+so interwoven with tales of privation of the necessities of life that it
+is astonishing that any printer was able to find ink or paper to produce
+even the nursery classic "Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Robert Bell of
+Philadelphia in seventeen hundred and seventy-six.
+
+In New York the conditions were different. The Loyalists, as long as the
+town was held by the British, continued to receive importations of goods
+of all descriptions. Among the booksellers, Valentine Nutter from time
+to time advertised children's as well as adults' books. Hugh Gaine
+apparently continued to reprint Newbery's duodecimos; and, in a rather
+newer shop, Roger and Berry's, in Hanover Square, near Gaine's, could be
+had "Gilt Books, together with Stationary, Jewelry, a Collection of the
+most books, bibles, prayer-books and patent medicines warranted
+genuine."
+
+Elsewhere in the colonies, as in Boston, the children went without new
+books, although very occasionally such notices as the following were
+inserted in the newspapers:
+
+     _Just imported and to be Sold by Thomas Bradford_
+
+     At his Book-Store in Market-Street, adjoining the Coffee-house
+
+     _The following Books_ ...
+
+     Little Histories for Children,
+
+     Among which are, Book of Knowledge, Joe Miller's Jests, Jenny
+       Twitchells' ditto, the Linnet, The Lark (being collections of best
+       Songs), Robin Redbreast, Choice Spirits, Argalus & Parthenia,
+       Valentine and Orson, Seven Wise Masters, Seven Wise Mistresses,
+       Russell's seven Sermons, Death of Abel, French Convert, Art's
+       Treasury, Complete Letter-Writer, Winter Evening Entertainment,
+       Stories and Tales, Triumphs of Love, being a Collection of Short
+       Stories, Joseph Andrews, Aesop's Fables, Scotch Rogue, Moll
+       Flanders, Lives of Highwaymen, Lives of Pirates, Buccaneers of
+       America, Robinson Crusoe, Twelve Caesars.
+
+Such was the assortment of penny-dreadfuls and religious tracts offered
+in seventeen hundred and eighty-one to the Philadelphia public for
+juvenile reading. It is typical of the chapmen's library peddled about
+the colonies long after they had become states. "Valentine and Orson,"
+"The Seven Wise Masters," "The Seven Wise Mistresses," and "Winter
+Evening Entertainment" are found in publishers' lists for many years,
+and, in spite of frequent vulgarities, there was often no discrimination
+between them and Newbery's far superior stories; but by eighteen hundred
+and thirty almost all of these undesirable reprints had disappeared,
+being buried under the quantities of Sunday-school tales held in high
+favor at that date.
+
+Meanwhile, the six years of struggle for liberty had rendered the
+necessaries of life in many cases luxuries. As early as seventeen
+hundred and seventy-five, during the siege of Boston, provisions and
+articles of dress had reached such prices that we find thrifty Mrs. John
+Adams, in Braintree, Massachusetts, foreseeing a worse condition,
+writing her husband, who was one of the Council assembled in
+Philadelphia, to send her, if possible, six thousand pins, even if they
+should cost five pounds. Prices continued to rise and currency to
+depreciate. In seventeen hundred and seventy-nine Mrs. Adams reported in
+her letters to her husband that potatoes were ten dollars a bushel, and
+writing-paper brought the same price per pound.
+
+Yet family life went on in spite of these increasing difficulties. The
+diaries and letters of such remarkable women as the patriotic Abigail
+Adams, the Quakeress, Mrs. Eliza Drinker, the letters of the Loyalist
+and exile, James Murray, the correspondence of Eliza Pinckney of
+Charleston, and the reminiscences of a Whig family who were obliged to
+leave New York upon the occupation of the town by British forces, abound
+in those details of domestic life that give a many sided picture. Joys
+derived from good news of dear ones, and family reunions; anxieties
+occasioned by illness, or the armies' depredations; courageous efforts
+on the part of mothers not to allow their children's education and
+occupations to suffer unnecessarily; tragedies of death and ruined
+homes--all are recorded with a "particularity" for which we are now
+grateful to the writers.
+
+It is through these writings, also, that we are allowed glimpses of the
+enthusiasm for the cause of Liberty, or King, which was imbibed from the
+parents by the smallest children. On the Whig side, patriotic mothers in
+New England filled their sons with zeal for the cause of freedom and
+with hatred of the tyranny of the Crown; while in the more southern
+colonies the partisanship of the little ones was no less intense. "From
+the constant topic of the present conversation," wrote the Rev. John J.
+Zubly (a Swiss clergyman settled in South Carolina and Georgia), in an
+address to the Earl of Dartmouth in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-five,--"from the constant topic of the present conversation,
+every child unborn will be impressed with the notion--it is slavery to
+be bound at the will of another 'in all things whatsoever.' Every
+mother's milk will convey a detestation of this maxim. Were your
+lordship in America, you might see little ones acquainted with the word
+of command before they can distinctly speak, and shouldering of a gun
+before they are well able to walk."[92-A]
+
+The children of the Tories had also their part in the struggle. To some
+the property of parents was made over, to save it from confiscation in
+the event of the success of the American cause. To others came the
+bitterness of separation from parents, when they were sent across the
+sea to unknown relatives; while again some faint manuscript record tells
+of a motherless child brought from a comfortable home, no longer
+tenable, to whatever quarters could be found within the British lines.
+Fortunately, children usually adapt themselves easily to changed
+conditions, and in the novelty and excitement of the life around them,
+it is probable they soon forgot the luxuries of dolls and hobby-horses,
+toy-books and drums, of former days.
+
+In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the sentiment of the period was
+expressed in two or three editions of "The New England Primer." Already
+in 1770 one had appeared containing as frontispiece a poor wood-cut of
+John Hancock. In 1775 the enthusiasm over the appointment of George
+Washington as commander-in-chief brought out another edition of the A B
+C book with the same picture labelled "General Washington." The custom
+of making one cut do duty in several representations was so well
+understood that this method of introducing George Washington to the
+infant reader naturally escaped remark.
+
+Another primer appeared four years later, which was advertised by
+Walters and Norman in the "Pennsylvania Evening Post" as "adorned with a
+beautiful head of George Washington and other copper-plates." According
+to Mr. Hildeburn, this small book had the honor of containing the first
+portrait of Washington engraved in America. While such facts are of
+trifling importance, they are, nevertheless, indications of the state of
+intense feeling that existed at the time, and point the way by which the
+children's books became nationalized.
+
+In New England the very games of children centred in the events which
+thrilled the country. Josiah Quincy remembered very well in after life,
+how "at the age of five or six, astride my grandfather's cane and with
+my little whip, I performed prodigies of valor, and more than once came
+to my mother's knees declaring that I had driven the British out of
+Boston." Afterwards at Phillips Academy, in Andover, between seventeen
+hundred and seventy-eight and seventeen hundred and eighty-six, Josiah
+and his schoolfellows "established it as a principle that every hoop,
+sled, etc., should in some way bear _Thirteen_ marks as evidence of the
+political character of the owner,--if which were wanting the articles
+became fair prize and were condemned and forfeited without judge, jury,
+or decree of admiralty."[94-A]
+
+Other boys, such as John Quincy Adams, had tutors at home as a less
+expensive means of education than the wartime price of forty dollars a
+week for each child that good boarding-schools demanded. But at their
+homes the children had plenty of opportunity to show their intense
+enthusiasm for the cause of liberty. Years later, Mr. Adams wrote to a
+Quaker friend:
+
+"For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt,
+liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold
+blood, or taken and carried to Boston as hostages. My mother lived in
+uninterrupted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration
+kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the Seventeenth of June
+[1775] lighted the fires of Charlestown."[94-B]
+
+He was, of course, only one of many boys who saw from some height near
+their homes the signs of battle, the fires of the enemy's camps, the
+smoke rising from some farm fired by the British, or burned by its owner
+to prevent their occupation of it. With hearts made to beat quickly by
+the news that filtered through the lines, and heads made old by the
+responsibility thrust upon them,--in the absence of fathers and older
+brothers,--such boys as John Quincy Adams saw active service in the
+capacity of post-riders bearing in their several districts the anxiously
+awaited tidings from Congress or battlefield.
+
+Fortunate indeed were the families whose homes were not disturbed by the
+military operations. From Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, families
+were sent hastily to the country until the progress of the war made it
+possible to return to such comforts as had not been destroyed by the
+British soldiers. The "Memoirs of Eliza Morton," afterward Mrs. Josiah
+Quincy, but a child eight years of age in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-six, gives a realistic account of the life of such Whig
+refugees. Upon the occupation of New York by the British, her father, a
+merchant of wealth, as riches were then reckoned, was obliged to burn
+his warehouse to save it from English hands. Mr. Morton then gathered
+together in the little country village of Basking Ridge, seven miles
+from Morristown, New Jersey, such of his possessions as could be hastily
+transported from the city. Among the books saved in this way were the
+works of Thurston, Thomson, Lyttleton, and Goldsmith, and for the
+children's benefit, "Dodsley's Collection of Poems," and "Pilgrim's
+Progress." "This," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was a great favorite; Mr.
+Greatheart was in my opinion a hero, well able to help us all on our
+way." During the exile from New York, as Eliza Morton grew up, she read
+all these books, and years afterward told her grandchildren that while
+she admired the works of Thurston, Thomson, and Lyttleton, "those of
+Goldsmith were my chief delight. When my reading became afterward more
+extensive I instinctively disliked the extravagant fiction which often
+injures the youthful mind."
+
+The war, however, was not allowed to interfere with the children's
+education in this family. In company with other little exiles, they were
+taught by a venerable old man until the evacuation of Philadelphia made
+it possible to send the older children to Germantown, where a Mr. Leslie
+had what was considered a fine school. The schoolroom walls were hung
+with lists of texts of Scripture beginning with the same letter, and for
+globes were substituted the schoolmaster's snuffbox and balls of yarn.
+If these failed to impress a child with the correct notions concerning
+the solar system, the children themselves were made to whirl around the
+teacher.
+
+In Basking Ridge the children had much excitement with the passing of
+soldiers to Washington's headquarters in Morristown, and with watching
+for "The Post" who carried the news between Philadelphia, Princeton, and
+Morristown. "'The Post,' Mr. Martin," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was an old man
+who carried the mail, ... he was our constant medium of communication;
+and always stopped at our house to refresh himself and horse, tell the
+news, and bring packets. He used to wear a blue coat with yellow
+buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, leathern small-clothes, blue yarn
+stockings, and a red wig and cocked hat, which gave him a sort of
+military appearance. He usually traveled in a sulky, but sometimes in a
+chaise, or on horseback.... Mr. Martin also contrived to employ himself
+in knitting coarse yarn stockings while driving or rather jogging along
+the road, or when seated on his saddle-bags on horseback. He certainly
+did not ride _post_, according to the present [1821] meaning of that
+term."
+
+Deprived like many other children of Newbery's peaceful biographies and
+stories, the little Mortons' lives were too full of an intense daily
+interest to feel the lack of new literature of this sort. Tales of the
+campaigns told in letters to friends and neighbors were reëchoed in the
+ballads and songs that formed part of the literary warfare waged by Whig
+or Loyal partisans. Children of to-day sing so zestfully the popular
+tunes of the moment, that it requires very little imagination to picture
+the schoolboy of Revolutionary days shouting lustily verses from "The
+Battle of the Kegs," and other rhymed stories of military incidents.
+Such a ballad was "A Song for the Red Coats," written after the
+successful campaign against Burgoyne, and beginning:
+
+   "Come unto me, ye heroes,
+    Whose hearts are true and bold,
+    Who value more your honor,
+    Than others do their gold!
+    Give ear unto my story,
+    And I the truth will tell,
+    Concerning many a soldier,
+    Who for his country fell."
+
+Children, it has been said, are good haters. To the patriot boy and
+girl, the opportunity to execrate Benedict Arnold was found in these
+lines of a patriotic "ditty" concerning the fate of Major André:
+
+   "When he was executed
+    He looked both meek and mild;
+    He looked upon the people,
+    And pleasantly he smiled.
+    It moved each eye to pity,
+    Caused every heart to bleed;
+    And every one wished him released--
+    And _Arnold_ in his stead."[98-A]
+
+Loyalist children had an almost equal supply of satirical verse to fling
+back at neighbors' families, where in country districts some farms were
+still occupied by sympathizers with Great Britain. A vigorous example of
+this style of warfare is quoted by Mr. Tyler in his "Literature of the
+American Revolution," and which, written in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-six, is entitled "The Congress." It begins:
+
+   "These hardy knaves and stupid fools,
+    Some apish and pragmatic mules,
+    Some servile acquiescing tools,--
+    These, these compose the Congress!"[98-B]
+
+Or, again, such taunts over the general poverty of the land and
+character of the army as were made in a ballad called "The Rebels" by a
+Loyalist officer:
+
+   "With loud peals of laughter, your sides,
+    Sirs, would crack,
+    To see General Convict and Colonel Shoe-black,
+    With their hunting-shirts and rifle-guns,
+    See Cobblers and quacks, rebel priests and the like,
+    Pettifoggers and barbers, with sword and with pike."
+
+Those Loyalists who lived through this exciting period in America's
+history bore their full share in the heavy personal misfortunes of their
+political party. The hatred felt toward such colonials as were true to
+the king has until recently hardly subsided sufficiently to permit any
+sympathy with the hardships they suffered. Driven from their homes,
+crowded together in those places occupied by the English, or exiled to
+England or Halifax, these faithful subjects had also to undergo
+separation of families perhaps never again united.
+
+Such a Loyalist was James Murray. Forced to leave his daughter and
+grandchildren in Boston with a sister, he took ship for Halifax to seek
+a living. There, amid the pressing anxieties occasioned by this
+separation, he strove to reëstablish himself, and sent from time to time
+such articles as he felt were necessary for their welfare. Thus he
+writes a memorandum of articles sent in seventeen hundred and eighty by
+"Mr. Bean's Cartel to Miss Betsy Murray:--viz: Everlasting 4 yards;
+binding 1 piece, Nankeen 4-7/8 yards. Of Gingham 2 gown patterns; 2
+pairs red shoes from A.E.C. for boys, Jack and Ralph, a parcel--to Mrs.
+Brigden, 1 pair silk shoes and some flowers--Arthur's Geographical
+Grammar,--Locke on Education,--5 children's books," etc. And in return
+he is informed that "Charlotte goes to dancing and writing school,
+improves apace and grows tall. Betsy and Charles are much better but not
+well. The rest of the children are in good health, desiring their duty
+to their Uncle and Aunt Inman, and thanks for their cake and gloves."
+
+To such families the end of the war meant either the necessity for
+making permanent their residence in the British dominion, or of bearing
+both outspoken and silent scorn in the new Republic.
+
+For the Americans the peace of Yorktown brought joy, but new beginnings
+had also to be made. Farms had been laid waste, or had suffered from
+lack of men to cultivate them; industries were almost at a standstill
+from want of material and laborers. Still the people had the splendid
+compensation of freedom with victory, and men went sturdily back to
+their homes to take up as far as possible their various occupations.
+
+An example of the way in which business undertaken before the war was
+rapidly resumed, or increased, is afforded by the revival of prosperity
+for the booksellers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Renewals of
+orders to London agents were speedily made, for the Americans still looked
+to England for their intellectual needs. In Philadelphia--a town of forty
+thousand inhabitants in seventeen hundred and eighty-three--among the
+principal booksellers and printers were Thomas Bradford, Mr. Woodhouse,
+Mr. Oswald, Mr. Pritchard,--who had established a circulating
+library,--Robert Aitkin, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Dunlap, Mr. Rice, William and
+David Hall, Benjamin Bache, J. Crukshank, and Robert Bell. Bell had
+undoubtedly the largest bookstore, but seems not to have been altogether
+popular, if an allusion in "The Philadelphiad" is to be credited. This
+"New Picture of the City" was anonymously published in seventeen hundred
+and eighty-four, and described, among other well-known places, Robert
+Bell's book-shop:
+
+    BELL'S BOOK STORE
+
+    Just by St. Paul's where dry divines rehearse,
+    Bell keeps his store for vending prose and verse,
+    And books that's neither ... for no age nor clime,
+    Lame languid prose begot on hobb'ling rhyme.
+    Here authors meet who ne'er a spring have got,
+    The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot,
+    Smart politicians wrangling here are seen,
+    Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen.
+
+In 1776 Bell's facilities for printing had enabled him to produce an
+edition of "Little Goody Two-Shoes," which seems likely to have been the
+only story-book printed during the troubled years of the Revolution.
+Besides this, Bell printed in 1777 "Aesop's Fables," as did also Robert
+Aitkin; and J. Crukshank had issued during the war an A B C book,
+written by the old schoolmaster, A. Benezet, who had drilled many a
+Philadelphian in his letters. After the Revolution Benjamin Bache
+apparently printed children's books in considerable quantities, and
+orders were sent by other firms to England for juvenile reading-matter.
+
+New England also has records of the sale of these small books in several
+towns soon after peace was established. John Carter, "at Shakespeare's
+Head," in Providence, announced by a broadside issued in November,
+seventeen hundred and eighty-three, that he had a large assortment of
+stationers' wares, and included in his list "Gilt Books for _Children_,"
+among which were most of Newbery's publications. In Hartford,
+Connecticut, where there had been a good press since seventeen hundred
+and sixty-four, "The Children's Magazine" was reprinted in seventeen
+hundred and eighty-nine. Its preposterous titles are noteworthy, since
+it is probable that this was the first attempt at periodical literature
+made for young people in America. One number contains:
+
+     An easy Introduction to Geography.
+     The Schoolboy addressed to the Editors.
+     Moral Tales continued.
+       Tale VIII. The Jealous Wife.
+     The Affectionate Sisters.
+     Familiar Letters on Various Subjects,--Continued....
+       Letter V from _Phillis Flowerdale_ to _Miss Truelove_.
+       Letter VI from _Miss Truelove_ to _Phillis Flowerdale_.
+     Poetry.--The Sweets of May.
+     The Cottage Retirement.
+     Advice to the Fair.
+     The Contented Cottager.
+     The Tear.
+     The Honest Heart.
+
+The autograph of Eben Holt makes the contents of the magazine ludicrous
+as subjects of interest to a boy But having nothing better, Eben most
+surely read it from cover to cover.
+
+In Charleston, South Carolina, Robert Wells imported the books read by
+the members of the various branches of the Ravenel, Pinckney, Prioleau,
+Drayton, and other families. Boston supplied the juvenile public largely
+through E. Battelle and Thomas Andrews, who were the agents for Isaiah
+Thomas, the American Newbery.
+
+An account of the work of this remarkable printer of Worcester,
+Massachusetts, has been given in Dr. Charles L. Nichols's "Bibliography
+of Worcester." Thomas's publications ranked as among the very best of
+the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and were sought by
+book-dealers in the various states. At one time he had sixteen presses,
+seven of which were in Worcester. He had also four bookstores in various
+towns of Massachusetts, one in Concord, New Hampshire, one in Baltimore,
+and one in Albany.
+
+In 1761, at the age of ten, Thomas had set up as his "'Prentice's
+Token," a primer issued by A. Barclay in Cornhill, Boston, entitled "Tom
+Thumb's Play-Book, To Teach Children their letters as soon as they can
+speak." Although this primer was issued by Barclay, Thomas had already
+served four years in a printer's office, for according to his own
+statement he had been sent at the age of six to learn his trade of
+Zechariah Fowle. Here, as 'prentice, he may have helped to set up the
+stories of the "Holy Jesus" and the "New Gift," and upon the cutting of
+their rude illustrations perhaps took his first lessons in engraving.
+For we know that by seventeen hundred and sixty-four he did fairly good
+work upon the "Book of Knowledge" from the press of the old printer.
+Upon the fly-leaf of a copy of this owned by the American Antiquarian
+Society, founded by Thomas, is the statement in the Worcester printer's
+handwriting, "Printed and cuts engraved by I. Thomas then 13 years of
+age for Z. Fowle when I.T. was his Apprentice: bad as the cuts are
+executed, there was not at that time an artist in Boston who could have
+done them much better. Some time before, and soon after there were
+better engravers in Boston." These cuts, especially the frontispiece
+representing a boy with a spy-glass and globe, and with a sextant at his
+feet, are far from poor work for a lad of thirteen. "The battered
+dictionary," says Dr. Nichols, "and the ink-stained Bible which he found
+in Fowle's office started him in his career, and the printing-press,
+together with an invincible determination to excel in his calling,
+carried him onward, until he stands to-day with Franklin and
+Baskerville, a type of the man who with few educational advantages
+succeeds because he loves his art for his art's sake."
+
+In supplying to American children a home-made library, Thomas, although
+he did no really original work for children, such as his English
+prototype, Newbery, had accomplished, yet had a motive which was not
+altogether selfish and pecuniary. The prejudice against anything of
+British manufacture was especially strong in the vicinity of Boston; and
+it was an altogether natural expression of this spirit that impelled the
+Worcester printer, as soon as his business was well established, to
+begin to reprint the various little histories. These reprints were all
+pirated from Newbery and his successors, Newbery and Carnan; but they
+compare most favorably with them, and so far surpassed the work of any
+other American printer of children's books (except possibly those of
+Bache in Philadelphia) that his work demands more than a passing
+mention.
+
+Beginning, like most printers, with the production of a primer in
+seventeen hundred and eighty-four, by seventeen hundred and eighty-six
+Thomas was well under way in his work for children. In that year at
+least eleven little books bore his imprint and were sent to his Boston
+agents to be sold. In the "Worcester Magazine" for June, 1786, Thomas
+addressed an "Advertisement to Booksellers," as follows: "A large
+assortment of all the various sizes of CHILDREN'S Books, known
+by the name of Newbery's Little Books for Children, are now republished
+by I. Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts. They are all done excellently
+in his English Method, and it is supposed the paper, printing, cuts, and
+binding are in every way equal to those imported from England. As the
+Subscriber has been at great expense to carry on this particular branch
+of Printing extensively, he hopes to meet with encouragement from the
+Booksellers in the United States."
+
+Evidently he did meet with great encouragement from parents as well as
+booksellers; and it is suspected that the best printed books bearing
+imprints of other booksellers were often printed in Worcester and bound
+according to the taste and facilities of the dealer. That this practice
+of reprinting the title-page and rebinding was customary, a letter from
+Franklin to his nephew in Boston gives indisputable evidence:
+
+     Philada. Nov. 26, 1788.
+
+     LOVING COUSIN:
+
+     I have lately set up one of my grand-children, Benja. F. Bache, as a
+     Printer here, and he has printed some very pretty little Books for
+     Children. By the Sloop Friendship, Capt. Stutson, I have sent a Box
+     address'd to you, containing 150 of each volume, in Sheets, which I
+     request you would, according to your wonted Goodness, put in a way
+     of being dispos'd of for the Benefit of my dear Sister. They are
+     sold here, bound in marbled Paper at 1 S. a Volume; but I should
+     suppose it best, if it may be done, to sell the whole to some
+     Stationer, at once, unbound as they are; in which case I imagine
+     that half a Dollar a Quire may be thought a reasonable Price,
+     allowing usual Credit if necessary.
+
+     My Love to your Family, & believe me ever,
+
+     Your affectionate Uncle
+          B. FRANKLIN.
+
+     JONA. WILLIAMS, ESQ.
+
+Franklin's reference to the Philadelphia manner of binding toy-books in
+marbled paper indicates that this home-made product was already
+displacing the attractive imported gilt embossed and parti-colored
+covers used by Thomas, who seems never to have adopted this ugly dress
+for his juvenile publications. As the demand for his wares increased,
+Thomas set up other volumes from Newbery's stock, until by seventeen
+hundred and eighty-seven he had reproduced practically every item for
+his increasing trade. It was his custom to include in many of these
+books a Catalogue of the various tales for sale, and in "The Picture
+Exhibition" we find a list of fifty-two stories to be sold for prices
+varying from six pence to a shilling and a half.
+
+These books may be divided into several classes, all imitations of the
+English adult literature then in vogue. The alphabets and primers, such
+as the "Little Lottery Book," "Christmas Box," and "Tom Thumb's
+Play-thing," are outside the limits of the present subject, since they
+were written primarily to instruct; and while it is often difficult to
+draw the line where amusement begins and instruction sinks to the
+background, the title-pages can usually be taken as evidence at least of
+the author's intention. These other books, however, fall naturally under
+the heads of jest and puzzle books, nature stories, fables, rhymes,
+novels, and stories--all prototypes of the nursery literature of to-day.
+
+The jest and joke books published by Thomas numbered, as far as is known
+to the writer, only five. Their titles seem to offer a feast of fun
+unfulfilled by the contents. "Be Merry & Wise, or the Cream of the Jests
+and the Marrow of Maxims," by Tommy Trapwit, contained concentrated
+extracts of wisdom, and jokes such as were current among adults. The
+children for whom they were meant were accustomed to nothing more
+facetious than the following jest: "An arch wag said, _Taylors_ were
+like _Woodcocks_ for they got their substance by their long bills."
+Perhaps they understood also the point in this: "A certain lord had a
+termagant wife, and at the same time a chaplain that was a tolerable
+poet, whom his lordship desired to write a copy of verses upon a shrew.
+I can't imagine, said the chaplain, why your lordship should want a
+copy, who has so good an original." Other witticisms are not quotable.
+
+[Illustration: _A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by
+Isaiah Thomas_]
+
+Conundrums played their part in the eighteenth century juvenile life,
+much as they do to-day. These were to be found in "A Bag of Nuts ready
+Cracked," and "The Big and Little Puzzling Caps." "Food for the Mind"
+was the solemn title of another riddle-book, whose conundrums are very
+serious matters. Riddle XIV of the "Puzzling Cap" is typical of its
+rather dreary contents:
+
+   "There was a man bespoke a thing,
+    Which when the maker home did bring,
+    This same maker did refuse it;
+    He who bespoke it did not use it
+    And he who had it did not know
+    Whether he had it, yea or no."
+
+This was a nut also "ready cracked" by the answer reproduced in the
+illustration.
+
+Nature stories were attempted under the titles of "The Natural History
+of Four Footed Beasts," "Jacky Dandy's Delight; or the History of Birds
+and Beasts in Verse and Prose," "Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of
+Birds," and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts and Birds." All these were
+written after Oliver Goldsmith's "Animated Nature" had won its way into
+great popularity. As a consequence of the favorable impression this book
+had made, Goldsmith is supposed to have been asked by Newbery to try his
+hand upon a juvenile natural history.
+
+Possibly it was as a result of Newbery's request that we have the
+anonymous "Jacky Dandy's Delight" and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts
+and Birds." The former appears to be a good example of Goldsmith's
+facility for amusing himself when doing hack-work for Newbery. How like
+Goldsmith's manner is this description of a monkey:
+
+    "The monkey mischievous
+     Like a naughty boy looks;
+     Who plagues all his friends,
+     And regards not his books.
+
+     "He is an active, pert, busy animal, who mimicks human actions so
+     well that some think him rational. The Indians say, he can speak if
+     he pleases, but will not lest he should be set to work. Herein he
+     resembles those naughty little boys who will not learn A, lest they
+     should be obliged to learn B, too. He is a native of warm countries,
+     and a useless beast in this part of the world; so I shall leave him
+     to speak of another that is more bulky, and comes from cold
+     countries: I mean the Bear."
+
+To poke fun in an offhand manner at little boys and girls seemed to have
+been the only conception of humor to be found in the children's books of
+the period, if we except the "Jests" and the attempts made in a
+ponderous manner on the title-pages. The title of "The Picture
+Exhibition; containing the Original Drawings of Eighteen Disciples....
+Published under the Inspection of Mr. Peter Paul Rubens,..." is
+evidently one of Newbery's efforts to be facetious. To the author, the
+pretence that the pictures were by "Disciples of Peter Paul Rubens"
+evidently conveyed the same idea of wit that "Punch" has at times
+represented to others of a later century.
+
+Fables have always been a mine of interest to young folks, and were
+interspersed liberally with all moral tales, but "Entertaining Fables"
+bears upon its title-page a suggestion that the children's old friend,
+"Aesop," appeared in a new dress.
+
+Another series of books contained the much abridged novels written for
+the older people. "Peregrine Pickle" and "Roderick Random" were both
+reprinted by Isaiah Thomas as early as seventeen hundred and
+eighty-eight. These tales of adventure seem to have had their small
+reflections in such stories as "The Adventures of a Pincushion," and
+"The Adventures of a Peg-top," by Dorothy Kilner, an Englishwoman.
+Mention has already been made of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" in condensed
+form. These were books of over two hundred pages; but most of the
+toy-books were limited to less than one hundred. A remarkable instance
+of the pith of a long plot put into small compass was "The History of
+Tom Jones." A dog-eared copy of such an edition of "Tom Jones" is still
+in existence. Its flowery Dutch binding covers only thirty-one pages,
+four inches long, with a frontispiece and five wood-cut illustrations.
+In so small a space no detailed account of the life of the hero is to be
+expected; nevertheless, the first paragraph introduces Tom as no
+ordinary foundling. Mr. Allworthy finds the infant in his bed one
+evening and rings up his housekeeper Mrs. Deborah Wilkins. "She being a
+strict observer of decency was exceedingly alarmed, on entering her
+master's room, to find him undressed, but more so on his presenting her
+with the child, which he ordered immediately to be taken care of." The
+story proceeds--with little punctuation to enable the reader to take
+breath--to tell how the infant is named, and how Mr. Allworthy's nephew,
+Master Bilfil, is also brought under that generous and respectable
+gentleman's protection. Tommy turned out "good," as Mr. Allworthy had
+hoped when he assumed charge of him; and therefore eventually inherited
+riches and gained the hand of Miss Sophia Western, with whom he rode
+about the country in their "Coach and Six."
+
+Of the stories in this juvenile library, the names, at least, of "Giles
+Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody Two-Shoes" have been
+handed down through various generations. One hundred years ago every
+child knew that "Little King Pippin" attained his glorious end by
+attention to his books in the beginning of his career; that "Giles
+Gingerbread" first learned his alphabet from gingerbread letters, and
+later obtained the patronage of a fine gentleman by spelling "apple-pye"
+correctly. Thus did his digestion prove of material assistance in mental
+gymnastics.
+
+[Illustration: _Illustration of Riddle XIV in "The Puzzling-Cap"_]
+
+But the nursery favorite was undoubtedly "Margery, or Little Goody
+Two-Shoes." She was introduced to the reader in her "state of rags and
+care," from which she gradually emerged in the chapters entitled, "How
+and about Little Margery and her Brother;" "How Little Margery
+obtained the name of Goody Two-Shoes;" "How she became a Tutoress" to
+the farmers' families in which she taught spelling by a game; and how
+they all sang the "Cuz's Chorus" in the intervals between the spelling
+lesson and the composition of sentences like this: "I pray God to bless
+the whole country, and all our friends and all our enemies." Like the
+usual heroine of eighteenth century fiction, she married a title, and as
+Lady Jones was the Lady Bountiful of the district. From these tales it
+is clear that piety as the chief end of the story-book child has been
+succeeded by learning as the desideratum; yet morality is still pushed
+into evidence, and the American mother undoubtedly translated the
+ethical sign-boards along the progress of the tale into Biblical
+admonitions.
+
+All the books were didactic in the extreme. A series of four, called
+"The Mother's," "Father's," "Sister's," and "Brother's Gifts," is a good
+example of this didactic method of story-telling. "The Father's Gift"
+has lessons in spelling preceded by these lines:
+
+   "Let me not join with those in Play,
+    Who fibs and stories tell,
+    I with my Book will spend the Day,
+    And not with such Boys dwell.
+    For one rude Boy will spoil a score
+    As I have oft been told;
+    And one bad sheep, in Time, is sure
+    To injure all the Fold."
+
+"The Mother's Gift" was confined largely to the same instructive field,
+but had one or two stories which conformed to the sentiment of the
+author of "The Adventures of a Pincushion," who stated her motive to be
+"That of providing the young reader with a few pages which should be
+innocent of corrupting if they did not amuse."
+
+"The Brother's" and "Sister's Gifts," however, adopt a different plan of
+instruction. In "The Brother's Gift" we find a brother solicitous
+concerning his sister's education: "Miss Kitty Bland was apt, forward and
+headstrong; and had it not been for the care of her brother, Billy, would
+have probably witnessed all the disadvantages of a modern education"!
+Upon Kitty's return from boarding-school, "she could neither read, nor
+sew, nor write grammatically, dancing stiff and awkward, her musick
+inelegant, and everything she did bordered strongly on affectation." Here
+was a large field for reformation for Billy to effect. He had no doubts
+as to what method to pursue. She was desired to make him twelve shirts,
+and when the first one was presented to him, "he was astonished to find
+her lacking in so useful a female accomplishment." Exemplary conversation
+produced such results that the rest of the garments were satisfactory to
+the critical Billy, who, "as a mark of approbation made her a present of
+a fine pair of stays."
+
+"The Sister's Gift" presents an opposite picture. In this case it is
+Master Courtley who, a "youth of Folly and Idleness," received large
+doses of advice from his sister. This counsel was so efficient with
+Billy's sensitive nature that before the story ends, "he wept bitterly,
+and declared to his sister that she had painted the enormity of his
+vices in such striking colors, that they shocked him in the greatest
+degree; and promised ever after to be as remarkable for generosity,
+compassion and every other virtue as he had hitherto been for cruelty,
+forwardness and ill-nature." Virtue in this instance was its own reward,
+as Billy received no gift in recognition of his changed habits.
+
+To the modern lover of children such tales seem strangely ill-suited to
+the childish mind, losing, as they do, all tenderness in the effort of
+the authors (so often confided to parents in the preface) "to express
+their sentiments with propriety." Such criticism of the style and matter
+of these early attempts to write for little people was probably not made
+by either infant or adult readers of that old-time public. The children
+read what was placed before them as intellectual food, plain and
+sweetened, as unconcernedly as they ate the food upon their plates at
+meal-time. That their own language was the formal one of the period is
+shown by such letters as the following one from Mary Wilder, who had
+just read "The Mother's Gift:"
+
+     Lancaster, October 9th, 1789.
+
+     HOND. MADM:
+
+     Your goodness to me I cannot express. My mind is continually crowded
+     with your kindness. If your goodness could be rewarded, I hope God
+     will repay you. If you remember, some time ago I read a story in
+     "The Mother's Gift," but I hope I shall never resemble Miss Gonson.
+     O Dear! What a thing it is to disobey one's parents. I have one of
+     the best Masters. He gave me a sheet of paper this morning. I hope
+     Uncle Flagg will come up. I am quite tired of looking for Betsy, but
+     I hope she will come. When school is done keeping, I shall come to
+     Sudbury. What a fine book Mrs. Chapone's Letters is: My time grows
+     short and I must make my letter short.
+
+     Your dutiful daughter,
+          P.W.
+
+Nursery rhymes and jingles of these present days have all descended from
+song-books of the eighteenth century, entitled "Little Robin Red
+Breast," "A Poetical Description of Song Birds," "Tommy Thumb's
+Song-Book," and the famous "Melodies of Mother Goose," whose name is
+happily not yet relegated to the days of long ago. Two extracts from the
+"Poetical Description of Song Birds" will be sufficient to show how
+foreign to the birds familiar to American children were the
+descriptions:
+
+    THE BULLFINCH
+
+    This lovely bird is charming to the sight:
+    The back is glossy blue, the belly white,
+    A jetty black shines on his neck and head;
+    His breast is flaming with a beauteous red.
+
+    THE TWITE
+
+    Green like the Linnet it appears to sight,
+    And like the Linnet sings from morn till night.
+    A reddish spot upon his rump is seen,
+    Short is his bill, his feathers always clean:
+    When other singing birds are dull or nice,
+    To sing again the merry Twites entice.
+
+Reflections of the prevailing taste of grown people for biography are
+suggested in three little books, of two of which the author was Mrs.
+Pilkington, who had already written several successful stories for young
+ladies. Her "Biography for Girls" contains various novelettes, in each
+of which the heroine lives the conventional life and dies the
+conventional death of the period, and receives a laudatory epitaph. They
+are remarkable only as being devoid of any interest. Her "Biography for
+Boys" does not appear to have attained the same popularity as that for
+girls. A third book, "The Juvenile Biographers," containing the "Lives
+of Little Masters and Misses," is representative of the changes made in
+many books by the printer to cater to that pride in the young Republic
+so manifest in all local literary productions. In one biography we note
+a Representative to the Massachusetts Assembly:
+
+"As Master Sammy had always been a very sober and careful child, and
+very attentive to his Books, it is no wonder that he proved, in the End,
+to be an excellent Scholar.
+
+"Accordingly, when he had reached the age of fourteen, Mr. William
+Goodall, a wealthy merchant in the city of Boston, took him into his
+counting house, in order to bring him up in the merchantile Way, and
+thereby make his Fortune.
+
+"This was a sad Stroke to his poor Sister Nancy, who having lost both
+her Papa and Mama, was now likely to lose her Brother likewise; but
+Sammy did all he could to appease her, and assured her, that he would
+spend all his leisure Time with her. This he most punctually performed,
+and never were Brother and Sister as happy in each other's company as
+they were.
+
+"Mr. William Goodall was highly satisfied with Sammy's Behaviour, and
+dying much about the Time that Miss Nancy was married to the Gentleman,
+he left all his business to Sammy, together with a large Capital to
+carry it on. So much is Mr. Careful esteemed (for we must now no longer
+call him Master Sammy) that he was chosen in the late General Election,
+Representative in the General Court, for one of the first Towns in New
+England, without the least expense to himself. We here see what are the
+Effects of Good Behaviour."
+
+This adaptation of the English tale to the surroundings of the American
+child is often found in Thomas's reprints, and naturally, owing to his
+enthusiasm over the recent change in the form of government, is made
+wholly by political references. Therefore while the lark and the linnet
+still sang in songs and the cowslips were scattered throughout the
+nature descriptions, Master Friendly no longer rode in the Lord Mayor's
+coach, but was seated as a Congressman in a sedan chair, "and he
+looked--he looked--I do not know what he looked like, but everybody was
+in love with him." The engraver as well as the biographer of the
+recently made Representative was evidently at a loss as to his
+appearance, as the four dots indicating the young gentleman's features
+give but a blank look perhaps intended to denote amazement at his
+election.
+
+The illustrations of Thomas's toy reprints should not be overlooked. The
+Worcester printer seems to have rewritten the "Introduction" to "Goody
+Two-Shoes," and at the end he affixed a "Letter from the Printer which
+he desires may be inserted.
+
+     SIR: I have come with your copy, and so you may return it
+     to the Vatican, if you please; and pray tell Mr. Angelo to brush up
+     his cuts; that in the next edition they may give us a good
+     impression."
+
+This apology for the character of the illustrations serves as an
+introduction to a most interesting subject of conjecture as to the
+making of the cuts, and particularly as to the engraving of the
+frontispiece in "Goody Two-Shoes."
+
+[Illustration: _Goody Twoshoes._]
+
+It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to
+booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in
+bringing out the juvenile books in "the English method." But Mr. Edwin
+Pearson, in his delightful discussion of "Banbury Chap-Books," has also
+stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of
+"Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous
+English illustrator. A comparison of the reproduction of the Bewick
+engraving in Mr. Pearson's book with the frontispiece in Thomas's
+edition shows so much difference that it is a matter of regret that Mr.
+Pearson withheld his authority for attributing to Bewick the
+representation of Margery Two-Shoes. Besides the inference from Thomas's
+letter that the poor cuts would be improved before another edition
+should be printed, there are several points to be observed in comparing
+the cuts. In the first place, the execution in the Thomas cut suggests a
+different hand in the use of the tools; again, the reversed position of
+the figure of "Goody" indicates a copy of the English original. Also the
+expression of Thomas's heroine, although slightly mincing, is less
+distressed than the British dame's, to say nothing of the variation in
+the fashion of the gowns. And such details as the replacing of the
+English landscape by the spire of a meeting-house in the distance seem
+to confirm the impression that the drawing was made after, but not by
+Bewick. In the cuts scattered throughout the text the same difference in
+execution and portrayal of the little schoolmistress is noticeable.
+Margery, upon her rounds to teach the farmers' children to spell such
+words as "plumb-pudding" "(and who can suppose a better?)," presents her
+full face in the Newbery edition, and but a three-quarter view to her
+American admirers.
+
+These facts, together with the knowledge that Isaiah Thomas was a fair
+engraver himself, make it possible that his apology for the first
+impression of the tiny classic was for his own engraving, which he
+thought to better.
+
+Thomas not only copied and pirated Newbery's juvenile histories, but he
+adopted his method of advertising by insertions in the text of these
+tales. For example, in "The Travels of Robinson Crusoe, Written by
+Himself," the little reader was told, "If you learn this Book well and
+are good, you can buy a larger and more complete History of Mr. Crusoe
+at your friend the Bookseller's in Worcester near the Court House." In
+"The Mother's Gift," there is described well-brought-up Miss Nugent
+displaying to ill-bred Miss Jones, "a pretty large collection of books
+neatly bound and nicely kept," all to be had of Mr. Thomas; and again
+Mr. Careful, in "Virtue and Vice," "presented at Christmas time to the
+sons and daughters of his friends, little Gilt Books to read, such as
+are sold at Mr. Thomas' near the Court House in Worcester."
+
+Thomas and his son continued to send out these toy-books until their gay
+bindings faded away before the novelty of the printed paper covers of
+the nineteenth century.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[92-A] Tyler, _Literary History of the American Revolution_, vol. i, p.
+485.
+
+[94-A] _Life of Josiah Quincy_, p. 27. Boston, 1866.
+
+[94-B] Earle, _Child Life in Colonial Days_, p. 171.
+
+[98-A] Tyler, _Literature of the American Revolution_, vol. ii, p. 182.
+
+[98-B] _Ibid._, p. 156.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+1790-1800
+
+
+
+
+    By Washington
+    Great deeds were done.
+             _The New England Primer_,
+                      New York, 1794
+
+    Line after line their wisdom flows
+    Page after page repeating.
+              T.G. HAKE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+1790-1800
+
+_The Child and his Book at the End of the Century_
+
+
+Any attempt to trace the slow development of the American child's story
+of the nineteenth century must inevitably be made through the
+school-books written during the previous one. Before this, English books
+had been adapted to the American trade. But now the continued interest
+in education produced text-books pervaded with the American spirit. They
+cannot, therefore, be ignored as sporadically in the springtime of the
+young Republic, they, like crocuses, thrust forward in the different
+states their blue and yellow covers.
+
+Next to clergymen, schoolmasters received the veneration of the people,
+for learning and godliness went hand in hand. It was the schoolmaster
+who reinforced the efforts of the parents to make good Americans of the
+young folks, by compiling text-books which outsold the English ones
+hitherto used. In the new editions of the old "New England Primer,"
+laudatory verse about General Washington replaced the alphabet rhyme:
+
+   "Whales in the Sea
+    God's Voice obey."
+
+Proud parents thereafter heard their infants lisp:
+
+   "By Washington
+    Great deeds were done."
+
+For older pupils Noah Webster's speller almost superseded Dilworth's,
+and his "Little Readers' Assistant" became the First Reader of many
+children. Webster as schoolmaster in a country district prepared this
+book for his own scholars. It was printed in Hartford in seventeen
+hundred and ninety, and contained a list of subjects suitable for
+farmers' children:
+
+  I. A number of Stories mostly taken from the history of
+     America, and adorned with Cuts.
+
+ II. Rudiments of English Grammar.
+
+III. The Federal Catechism, being a short and easy explanation
+     of the Constitution of the United States.
+
+ IV. General principles of Government and Commerce.
+
+  V. Farmers' Catechism containing plain rules of husbandry.
+
+Bennington, Vermont, contributed in "The Little Scholar's Pretty Pocket
+Companion in Rhyme and Verse," this indirect allusion to political
+affairs:
+
+   "'Twas a toy of royalty, of late almost forgot,
+    'Tis said she represented France
+    On English Monarchies arms,
+    But lately broke his chains by chance
+    And widely spread alarms."
+
+But the most naïve attempt to inculcate patriotism together with a
+lesson in obedience is found in "The Child's Instructor," published
+about seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and written by a Philadelphian.
+Philadelphia had become the residence of the President--a fact that may
+account for one of the stories in this book about an infant prodigy
+called Billy. "The child at five years of age was always good and
+obedient, and prone to make such a remark as, 'If you would be wise you
+must always attend to your vowels and consonants.' When General
+Washington came to town Billy's mama asked him to say a speech to the
+ladies, and he began, 'Americans! place constantly before your eyes, the
+deplorable scenes of your servitude, and the enchanting picture of your
+deliverance. Begin with the infant in his cradle; let the first word he
+lisps be _Washington_.' The ladies were all delighted to hear Billy
+speak so well. One said he should be a lawyer, and another said he
+should be President of the United States. But Billy said he could not be
+either unless his mama gave him leave."[123-A]
+
+Another Philadelphian attempted to embody political sentiment in "A
+Tale--The Political Balance; or, The Fate of Britain and America
+Compared." This juvenile has long since disappeared, but it was
+advertised by its printer, Francis Bailey, in seventeen hundred and
+ninety-two, together with "The History of the Little Boy found under a
+Haycock," and several other books for children. One year later a
+"History of the American Revolution" for children was also printed in
+Philadelphia for the generation who had been born since the war had
+ended. This was written in the Biblical phraseology introduced and made
+popular by Franklin in his famous "Parable against Persecution."
+
+This enthusiasm over the results of the late war and scorn for the
+defeated English sometimes indeed cropped out in the Newbery reprints.
+An edition (1796) of "Goody Two-Shoes" contains this footnote in
+reference to the tyranny of the English landlord over Goody's father:
+
+_"Such is the state of things in Britain. AMERICANS prize your liberty,
+guard your rights and be happy._"[123-B]
+
+In this last decade of the century that had made a nation of the
+colonial commonwealths, the prosperity of the country enabled more
+printers to pirate the generally approved Newbery library. Samuel Hall
+in Boston, with a shop near the court-house, printed them all, using at
+times the dainty covers of flowery Dutch or gilt paper, and again
+another style of binding occasionally used in England. "The Death and
+Burial of Cock Robin," for instance, has a quaint red and gilt cover,
+which according to Mr. Charles Welsh was made by stamping paper with
+dies originally used for printing old German playing-cards. He says: "To
+find such a cover can only be accounted for by the innocence of the
+purchasers as to the appearance of his Satanic Majesty's picture cards
+and hence [they] did not recognize them." In one corner of the book
+cover is impressed the single word "Münch," which stamps this paper as
+"made in Germany." Hall himself was probably as ignorant of the original
+purpose of the picture as the unsuspecting purchaser, who would
+cheerfully have burned it rather than see such an instrument of the
+Devil in the hands of its owner, little Sally Barnes.
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece.
+Sr. Walter Raleigh and his man.]
+
+Of Samuel Hall's reprints from the popular English publications, "Little
+Truths" was in all probability one of the most salable. So few books
+contained any information about America that one of these two volumes
+may be regarded as of particular interest to the young generation of his
+time. The author of "Little Truths," William Darton, a Quaker publisher
+in London, does not divulge from what source he gleaned his knowledge.
+His information concerning Americans is of that misty description
+that confuses Indians ("native Americans") with people of Spanish and
+English descent. The usual "Introduction" states that "The author has
+chose a method after the manner of conversations between children and
+their instructor," and the dialogue is indicated by printing the
+children's observations in italics. These volumes were issued for twenty
+years after they were introduced by Hall, and those of an eighteen
+hundred Philadelphia edition are bound separately. Number one is in blue
+paper with copper-plate pictures on both covers. This volume gives
+information regarding farm produce, live-stock, and about birds quite
+unfamiliar to American children. But the second volume, in white covers,
+introduces the story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his pipe-smoking
+incident, made very realistic in the copper-plate frontispiece. The
+children's question, "_Did Sir Walter Raleigh find out the virtues of
+tobacco?_" affords an excellent opportunity for a discourse upon smoking
+and snuff-taking. These remarks conclude with this prosaic statement:
+"Hundreds of sensible people have fell into these customs from example;
+and, when they would have left them off, found it a very great
+difficulty." Next comes a lesson upon the growth of tobacco leading up
+to a short account of the slave-trade, already a subject of differing
+opinion in the United States, as well as in England. Of further interest
+to small Americans was a short tale of the discovery of this country.
+Perhaps to most children their first book-knowledge of this event came
+from the pages of "Little Truths."
+
+Hall's books were not all so proper for the amusement of young folks. A
+perusal of "Capt. Gulliver's Adventures" leaves one in no doubt as to
+the reason that so many of the old-fashioned mothers preferred to keep
+such tales out of children's hands, and to read over and over again the
+adventures of the Pilgrim, Christian. Mrs. Eliza Drinker of Philadelphia
+in seventeen hundred and ninety-six was re-reading for the third time
+"Pilgrim's Progress," which she considered a "generally approved book,"
+although then "ridiculed by many." The "Legacy to Children" Mrs. Drinker
+also read aloud to her grandchildren, having herself "wept over it
+between fifty and sixty years ago, as did my grandchildren when it was
+read to them. She, Hannah Hill, died in 1714, and ye book was printed in
+1714 by Andrew Bradford."
+
+But Mrs. Drinker's grandchildren had another book very different from
+the pious sayings of the dying Hannah. This contained "64 little stories
+and as many pictures drawn and written by Nancy Skyrin," the mother of
+some of the children. P. Widdows had bound the stories in gilt paper,
+and it was so prized by the family that the grandmother thought the fact
+of the recovery of the book, after it was supposed to have been
+irretrievably lost, worthy of an entry in her journal. Careful inquiry
+among the descendants of Mrs. Drinker has led to the belief that these
+stories were read out of existence many years ago. What they were about
+can only be imagined. Perhaps they were incidents in the lives of the
+same children who cried over the pathetic morbidity of Hannah's dying
+words; or possibly rhymes and verses about school and play hours of
+little Philadelphians; with pictures showing bait-the-bear, trap-ball,
+and other sports of days long since passed away, as well as "I Spie
+Hi" and marbles, familiar still to boys and girls.
+
+[Illustration: _Foot Ball_]
+
+From the fact that these stories were written for the author's own
+children, another book, composed less than a century before, is brought
+to mind. Comparison of even the meagre description of Mrs. Skyrin's book
+with Cotton Mather's professed purpose in "Good Lessons" shows the
+stride made in children's literature to be a long one. Yet a quarter of
+a century was still to run before any other original writing was done in
+America for children's benefit.
+
+Nobody else in America, indeed, seems to have considered the question of
+writing for nursery inmates. Mrs. Barbauld's "Easy Lessons for Children
+from Two to Five Years old," written for English children, were
+considered perfectly adapted to gaining knowledge and perhaps amusement.
+It is true that when Benjamin Bache of Philadelphia issued "Easy
+Lessons," he added this note: "Some alterations were thought necessary to
+be made in this ... American edition, to make it agree with the original
+design of rendering instruction easy and useful.... The climate and the
+familiar objects of this country suggested these alterations." Except for
+the substitution of such words as "Wheat" for "Corn," the intentions of
+the editor seem hardly to have had result, except by way of
+advertisement; and are of interest merely because they represent one step
+further in the direction of Americanizing the story-book literature.
+
+All Mrs. Barbauld's books were considered excellent for young children.
+As a "Dissenter," she gained in the esteem of the people of the northern
+states, and her books were imported as well as reprinted here. Perhaps
+she was best known to our grandparents as the joint author, with Dr.
+Aikin, of "Evenings at Home," and of "Hymns in Prose and Verse." Both
+were read extensively for fifty years. The "Hymns" had an enormous
+circulation, and were often full of fine rhythm and undeserving of the
+entire neglect into which they have fallen. Of course, as the fashion
+changed in the "approved" type of story, Mrs. Barbauld suffered
+criticism. "Mrs. and Miss Edgeworth in their 'Practical Education'
+insisted that evil lurked behind the phrase in 'Easy Lessons,' 'Charles
+wants his dinner' because of the implication 'that Charles must have
+whatever he desires,' and to say 'the sun has gone to bed,' is to incur
+the odium of telling the child a falsehood."[128-A]
+
+But the manner in which these critics of Mrs. Barbauld thought they had
+improved upon her method of story-telling is a tale belonging to another
+chapter. When Miss Edgeworth's wave of popularity reached this country
+Mrs. Barbauld's ideas still flourished as very acceptable to parents.
+
+A contemporary and rival writer for the English nursery was Mrs. Sarah
+Trimmer. Her works for little children were also credited with much
+information they did not give. After the publication of Mrs. Barbauld's
+"Easy Lessons" (which was the result of her own teaching of an adopted
+child), Mrs. Trimmer's friends urged her to make a like use of the
+lessons given to her family of six, and accordingly she published in
+seventeen hundred and seventy-eight an "Easy Introduction into the
+Knowledge of Nature," and followed it some years after its initial
+success by "Fabulous Histories," afterwards known as the "History of
+the Robins." Although Mrs. Trimmer represents more nearly than Mrs.
+Barbauld the religious emotionalism pervading Sunday-school
+libraries,--in which she was deeply interested,--the work of both these
+ladies exemplifies the transitional stage to that Labor-in-Play school
+of writing which was to invade the American nursery in the next century
+when Parley and Abbott throve upon the proceeds of the educational
+narrative.
+
+Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" and Thomas Day's "Sanford and Merton" occupied
+the place in the estimation of boys that the doings of Mrs. Barbauld's
+and Mrs. Trimmer's works held in the opinion of the younger members of
+the nursery. Edition followed upon edition of the adventures of the
+famous island hero. In Philadelphia, in seventeen hundred and
+ninety-three, William Young issued what purported to be the sixth
+edition. In New York many thousands of copies were sold, and in eighteen
+hundred and twenty-four we find a Spanish translation attesting its
+widespread favor. In seventeen hundred and ninety-four, Isaiah Thomas
+placed the surprising adventures of the mariner as on the "Coast of
+America, lying near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque."
+
+Parents also thought very highly of Thomas Day's "Children's Miscellany"
+and "Sanford and Merton." To read this last book is to believe it to be
+possibly in the style that Dr. Samuel Johnson had in mind when he
+remarked to Mrs. Piozzi that "the parents buy the books but the children
+never read them." Yet the testimony of publishers of the past is that
+"Sanford and Merton" had a large and continuous sale for many years.
+"'Sanford and Merton,'" writes Mr. Julian Hawthorne, "ran 'Robinson
+Crusoe' harder than any other work of the eighteenth century
+particularly written for children." "The work," he adds, "is quaint and
+interesting rather to the historian than to the general, especially the
+child, reader. Children would hardly appreciate so amazingly ancient a
+form of conversation as that which resulted from Tommy [the bad boy of
+the story] losing a ball and ordering a ragged boy to pick it up:
+
+"'Bring my ball directly!'
+
+"'I don't choose it,' said the boy.
+
+"'Sirrah,' cried Tommy, 'if I come to you I will make you choose it.'
+
+"'Perhaps not, my pretty master,' said the boy.
+
+"'You little rascal,' said Tommy, who now began to be very angry, 'if I
+come over the hedge I will thrash you within an inch of your life.'"
+
+The gist of Tommy's threat has often been couched in modern language by
+grandsons of the boys from whom the Socratic Mr. Day wrote to expose the
+evils of too luxurious an education. His method of compilation of facts
+to be taught may best be given in the words of his Preface: "All who
+have been conversant in the education of very young children, have
+complained of the total want of proper books to be put in their hands,
+while they are taught the elements of reading.... The least exceptional
+passages of books that I could find for the purpose were 'Plutarch's
+Lives' and Xenophon's 'History of the Institution of Cyrus,' in English
+translation; with some part of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and a few passages
+from Mr. Brooke's 'Fool of Quality.' ... I therefore resolved ... not
+only to collect all such stories as I thought adapted to the faculties
+of children, but to connect these by continued narration.... As to the
+histories themselves, I have used the most unbounded licence.... As to
+the language, I have endeavored to throw into it a greater degree of
+elegance and ornament than is usually to be met with in such
+compositions; preserving at the same time a sufficient degree of
+simplicity to make it intelligible to very young children, and rather
+choosing to be diffuse than obscure." With these objects in mind, we can
+understand small Tommy's embellishment of his demand for the return of
+his ball by addressing the ragged urchin as "Sirrah."
+
+Mr. Day's "Children's Miscellany" contained a number of stories, of
+which one, "The History of Little Jack," about a lost child who was
+adopted by a goat, was popular enough to be afterwards published
+separately. It is a debatable question as to whether the parents or the
+children figuring in this "Miscellany" were the more artificial. "Proud
+and unfeeling girl," says one tender mother to her little daughter who
+had bestowed half her pin money upon a poor family,--"proud and
+unfeeling girl, to prefer vain and trifling ornaments to the delight of
+relieving the sick and miserable! Retire from my presence! Take away
+with you trinket and nosegay, and receive from them all the comforts
+they are able to bestow!" Why Mr. Day's stories met with such
+unqualified praise at the time they were published, this example of
+canting rubbish does not reveal. In real life parents certainly did
+retain some of their substance for their own pleasure; why, therefore,
+discipline a child for following the same inclination?
+
+In contrast to Mr. Day's method, Mrs. Barbauld's plan of simple
+conversation in words of one, two, and three syllables seems modern.
+Both aimed to afford pleasure to children "learning the elements of
+reading." Where Mrs. Barbauld probably judged truly the capacity of
+young children in the dialogues with the little Charles of "Easy
+Lessons," Mr. Day loaded his gun with flowers of rhetoric and overshot
+infant comprehension.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of the criticism that has waylaid and torn to
+tatters Thomas Day's efforts to provide a suitable and edifying variety
+of stories, his method still stands for the distinct secularization of
+children's literature of amusement. Moreover, as Mr. Montrose J. Moses
+writes in his delightful study of "Children's Books and Reading," "he
+foreshadowed the method of retelling incidents from the classics and
+from standard history and travel,--a form which is practised to a great
+extent by our present writers, who thread diverse materials on a slender
+wire of subsidiary story, and who, like Butterworth and Knox, invent
+untiring families of travellers who go to foreign parts, who see things,
+and then talk out loud about them."
+
+Besides tales by English authors, there was a French woman, Madame de
+Genlis, whose books many educated people regarded as particularly
+suitable for their daughters, both in the original text and in the
+English translations. In Aaron Burr's letters we find references to his
+interest in the progress made by his little daughter, Theodosia, in her
+studies. His zeal in searching for helpful books was typical of the care
+many others took to place the best literature within their children's
+reach. From Theodosia's own letters to her father we learn that she was
+a studious child, who wrote and ciphered from five to eight every
+morning and during the same hours every evening. To improve her French,
+Mr. Burr took pains to find reading-matter when his law practice
+necessitated frequent absence from home. Thus from West Chester, in
+seventeen hundred and ninety-six, when Theodosia was nine years old, he
+wrote:
+
+     I rose up suddenly from the sofa and rubbing my head--"What book
+     shall I buy for her?" said I to myself. "She reads so much and so
+     rapidly that it is not easy to find proper and amusing French books
+     for her; and yet I am so flattered with her progress in that
+     language, that I am resolved that she shall, at all events, be
+     gratified." So ... I took my hat and sallied out. It was not my
+     first attempt. I went into one bookseller's after another. I found
+     plenty of fairy tales and such nonsense, for the generality of
+     children of nine or ten years old. "These," said I, "will never do.
+     Her understanding begins to be above such things." ... I began to be
+     discouraged. "But I will search a little longer." I persevered. At
+     last I found it. I found the very thing I sought. It is contained in
+     two volumes, octavo, handsomely bound, and with prints and reprints.
+     It is a work of fancy but replete with instruction and amusement. I
+     must present it with my own hand.
+
+     Yr. affectionate
+          A. BURR.
+
+What speculation there must have been in the Burr family as to the name
+of the gift, and what joy when Mr. Burr presented the two volumes upon
+his return! From a letter written later by Mr. Burr to his wife, it
+appears that he afterward found reason to regret his purchase, which
+seems to have been Madame de Genlis's famous "Annales." "Your account,"
+he wrote, "of Madame Genlis surprises me, and is new evidence of the
+necessity of reading books before we put them in the hands of children."
+Opinion differed, of course, concerning the French lady's books. In New
+York, in Miss Dodsworth's most genteel and fashionable school, a play
+written from "The Dove" by Madame de Genlis was acted with the same zest
+by little girls of ten and twelve years of age as they showed in another
+play taken from "The Search after Happiness," a drama by the Quakeress
+and religious writer, Hannah More. These plays were given at the end of
+school terms by fond parents with that appreciation of the histrionic
+ability of their daughters still to be seen on such occasions.
+
+No such objection as Mrs. Burr made to this lady's "Annales" was
+possible in regard to another French book, by Berquin. Entitled "Ami des
+Enfans," it received under the Rev. Mr. Cooper's translation the name
+"The Looking Glass for the Mind." This collection of tales supposedly
+mirrored the frailties and virtues of rich and poor children. It was
+often bound in full calf, and an edition of seventeen hundred and
+ninety-four contains a better engraved frontispiece than it was
+customary to place in juvenile publications. For half a century it was
+to be found in the shop of all booksellers, and had its place in the
+library of every family of means. There are still those among us who
+have not forgotten the impression produced upon their infant minds by
+certain of the tales. Some remember the cruel child and the canary.
+Others recollect their admiration of the little maid who, when all
+others deserted her young patroness, lying ill with the smallpox, won
+the undying gratitude of the mother by her tender nursing. The author,
+blind himself to the possibilities of detriment to the sick child by
+unskilled care, held up to the view of all, this example of devotion of
+one girl in contrast to the hard-heartedness of many others. This book
+seems also to have been called by the literal translation of its
+original title, "Ami des Enfans;" for in an account of the occupations
+of one summer Sunday in seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, Julia
+Cowles, living in Litchfield, Connecticut, wrote: "Attended meeting all
+day long, but do not recollect the text. Read in 'The Children's
+Friend.'" Many children would not have been permitted to read so nearly
+secular a book; but evidently Julia Cowles's parents were liberal in
+their view of Sunday reading after the family had attended "meeting all
+day long."
+
+In addition to the interest of the context of these toy-books of a past
+generation, one who handles such relics of a century ago sees much of
+the fashions for children of that day. In "The Looking Glass," for
+instance, the illustrations copied from engravings by the famous English
+artist, Bewick, show that at the end of the eighteenth century children
+were still clothed like their elders; the coats and waistcoats, knee
+breeches and hats, of boys were patterned after gentlemen's garments,
+and the caps and aprons, kerchiefs and gowns, for girls were
+reproductions of the mothers' wardrobes.
+
+Again, the fly-leaf of "The History of Master Jacky and Miss Harriot"
+arrests the eye by its quaint inscription: "Rozella Ford's Book. For
+being the second speller in the second class." At once the imagination
+calls up the exercises in a village school at the end of a year's
+session: a row of prim little maids and sturdy boys, standing before the
+school dame and by turn spelling in shrill tones words of three to five
+syllables, until only two, Rozella and a better speller, remain
+unconfused by Dilworth's and Webster's word mysteries. Then the two
+children step forward with bow and curtsey to receive their tiny gilt
+prizes from a pile of duodecimos upon the teacher's desk. Indeed, the
+giving of rewards was carried to such an extent as to become a great
+drain upon the meagre stipend of the teacher. Thus when in copper-plate
+handwriting we find in another six-penny volume the inscription:
+"Benjamin H. Bailey, from one he esteems and loves, Mr. Hapgood," we
+read between its lines the self-denial practised by Mr. Hapgood, who
+possibly received, like many other teachers, but seventy-five cents a
+week besides his board and lodging.
+
+Other books afford a glimpse of children's life: the formal every-day
+routine, the plays they enjoyed, and their demonstration of a
+sensibility as keen as was then in fashion for adults. The "History of a
+Doll," lying upon the writer's table, is among the best in this respect.
+It was evidently much read by its owner and fairly "loved to pieces."
+When it reached this disintegrated stage, a careful mother, or aunt,
+sewed it with coarse flax thread inside a home-made cover of bright blue
+wall-paper. Although the "History of the Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty
+Doll" bears no date, its companion story in the wall-paper wrapper has
+the imprint seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and this, together with
+the press-work, places it as belonging to the eighteenth century. It
+offers to the reader a charming insight into the formality of many an
+old-fashioned family: the deportment stiff with the starched customs of
+that day, the seriousness of their fun, and the sensibility among little
+maidens akin to that exhibited in the heroines of fiction created by
+Richardson and Fielding.
+
+The chapter concerning "The Pedigree of the Doll" treats of finding a
+branch of a tree by a carver, who was desired by Sir John Amiable to
+make one of the best dolls in his power for his "pretty little daughter
+who was as good as she was pretty." The carver accordingly took the
+branch and began carving out the head, shoulders, body, and legs, which
+he soon brought to their proper shape. "He then covered it with a fine,
+flesh-colored enamel and painted its cheeks in the most lively manner.
+It had the finest black and sparkling eyes that were ever beheld; its
+cheeks resembled the blushing rose, its neck the lilly, and its lips the
+coral." The doll is presented, and the next chapter tells of "an
+assembly of little female gossips in full debate on the clothing of the
+doll." "Miss Polly having made her papa a vast number of courtesies for
+it, prevailed on her brother to go round to all the little gossips in
+the neighborhood, begging their company to tea in the afternoon, in
+order to consult in what mode the doll should be dressed." The company
+assembled. "Miss Micklin undertook to make it a fine ruffled laced
+shift, Miss Mantua to make it a silk sacque and petticoat; and in short,
+every one contributed, in some measure, to dress out this beautiful
+creature."
+
+"Everything went on with great harmony till they came to the head-dress
+of the doll; and here they differed so much in opinion, that all their
+little clappers were going at once.... Luckily, at this instant Mrs.
+Amiable happened to come in, and soon brought the little gossips to
+order. The matter in dispute was, whether it should have a high
+head-dress or whether the hair should come down on the forehead, and the
+curls flow in natural ringlets on the shoulders. However, after some
+pretty warm debate, this last mode was adopted, as most proper for a
+little miss." In chapter third "The doll is named:--Accidents attend the
+Ceremony." Here we have a picture of a children's party. "The young
+ladies and gentlemen were entertained with tea and coffee; and when that
+was over, each was presented with a glass of raisin wine." During the
+christening ceremony an accident happened to the doll, because Master
+Tommy, the parson, "in endeavouring to get rid of it before the little
+gossips were ready to receive it, made a sad blunder.... Miss Polly,
+with tears in her eyes, snatched up the doll and clasped it to her
+bosom; while the rest of the little gossips turned all the little
+masters out of the room, that they might be left to themselves to
+inquire more privately into what injuries the dear doll had received....
+Amidst these alarming considerations Tommy Amiable sent the ladies word,
+that, if they would permit him and the rest of the young gentlemen to
+pass the evening among them in the parlour, he would engage to replace
+the nose of the doll in such a manner that not the appearance of the
+late accident should be seen." Permission was accordingly granted for a
+surgical operation upon the nose, but "as to the fracture in one of the
+doll's legs, it was never certainly known how that was remedied, as the
+young ladies thought it very indelicate to mention anything about the
+matter." The misadventures of the doll include its theft by a monkey in
+the West Indies, and at this interesting point the only available copy
+of the tale is cut short by the loss of the last four pages. The charm
+of this book lies largely in the fact that the owner of the doll does
+not grow up and marry as in almost every other novelette. This
+difference, of course, prevents the story from being a typical one of
+its period, but it is, nevertheless, a worthy forerunner of those tales
+of the nineteenth century in which an effort was made to write about
+incidents in a child's life, and to avoid the biographical tendency.
+
+Before leaving the books of the eighteenth century, one tale must be
+mentioned because it contains the germ of the idea which has developed
+into Mr. George's "Junior Republic." It was called "Juvenile Trials for
+Robbing Orchards, Telling Tales and other Heinous Offenses." "This,"
+said Dr. Aikin--Mrs. Barbauld's brother and collaborator in "Evenings at
+Home"--"is a very pleasing and ingenious little Work, in which a Court
+of Justice is supposed to be instituted in a school, composed of the
+Scholars themselves, for the purpose of trying offenses committed at
+School." In "Trial the First" Master Tommy Tell-Truth charges Billy
+Prattle with robbing an orchard. The jury, after hearing Billy express
+his contrition for his act, brings in a verdict of guilty; but the judge
+pardons the culprit because of his repentant frame of mind. Miss Delia,
+the offender in case _Number Two_, does not escape so lightly. Miss
+Stirling charges her with raising contention and strife among her
+school-fellows over a piece of angelica, "whereby," say her prosecutors,
+"one had her favorite cap torn to pieces, and her hair which had been
+that day nicely dressed, pulled all about her shoulders; another had her
+sack torn down the middle; a third had a fine flowered apron of her own
+working, reduced to rags; a fourth was wounded by a pelick, or scratch
+of her antagonist, and in short, there was hardly one among them who had
+not some mark to shew of having been concerned in this unfortunate
+affair." That the good Dr. Aikin approved of the punishment decreed, we
+are sure. The little prisoner was condemned to pass three days in her
+room, as just penalty for such "indelicate" behaviour.
+
+By the close of the century Miss Edgeworth was beginning to supersede
+Mrs. Barbauld in England; but in America the taste in juvenile reading
+was still satisfied with the older writer's little Charles, as the
+correct model for children's deportment, and with Giles Gingerbread as
+the exemplary student. The child's lessons had passed from "Be good or
+you will go to Hell" to "Be good and you will be rich;" or, with the
+Puritan element still so largely predominant, "Be good and you will go
+to Heaven." Virtue as an ethical quality had been shown in "Goody
+Two-Shoes" to bring its reward as surely as vice brought punishment. It
+is to be doubted if this was altogether wholesome; and it may well be
+that it was with this idea in mind that Dr. Johnson made his celebrated
+criticism of the nursery literature in vogue, when he said to Mrs.
+Piozzi, "Babies do not want to be told about babies; they like to be
+told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and
+stimulate their little minds."[141-A]
+
+The learned Doctor, having himself been brought up on "Jack the Giant
+Killer" and "The History of Blue Beard," was inclined to scorn Newbery's
+tales as lacking in imaginative quality. That Dr. Johnson was really
+interested in stories for the young people of his time is attested by a
+note written in seventeen hundred and sixty-three on the fly-leaf of a
+collection of chap-books: "I shall certainly, sometime or other, write a
+little Story-Book in the style of these. I shall be happy to succeed,
+for he who pleases children will be remembered by them."[141-B]
+
+In America, however, it is doubtful whether any true critical spirit
+regarding children's books had been reached. Fortunately in England, at
+the beginning of the next century, there was a man who dared speak his
+opinion. Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer (who had contributed "Fabulous
+Histories" to the juvenile library, and for them had shared the approval
+which greeted Mrs. Barbauld's efforts) were the objects of Charles
+Lamb's particular detestation. In a letter to Coleridge, written in
+1802, he said:
+
+"Goody Two Shoes is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has
+banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at
+Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a
+shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. Barbauld's and Mrs. Trimmer's
+nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and vapid as Mrs.
+Barbauld's books convey, it seems, must come to a child in the shape of
+knowledge; and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his own
+powers when he has learned that a horse is an animal and Billy is better
+than a horse, and such like, instead of that beautiful interest in wild
+tales, which made the child a man, while all the time he suspected
+himself to be no bigger than a child. Science has succeeded to poetry no
+less in the little walks of children than of men. Is there no
+possibility of arresting this force of evil? Think what you would have
+been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in
+childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history. Hang
+them! I mean the cursed Barbauld crew, those blights and blasts of all
+that is human in man and child."[142-A]
+
+To Lamb's extremely sensitive nature, the vanished hand of the literary
+man of Grub Street could not be replaced by Mrs. Barbauld's wish to
+instruct by using simple language. It is possible that he did her some
+injustice. Yet a retrospective glance over the story-book literature
+evolved since Newbery's juvenile library was produced, shows little that
+was not poor in quality and untrue to life. Therefore, it is no wonder
+that Lamb should have cried out against the sore evil which had "beset a
+child's mind." All the poetry of life, all the imaginative powers of a
+child, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Trimmer, and Mr. Day ignored; and Newbery in
+his way, and the old ballads in their way, had appealed to both.
+
+In both countries the passion for knowledge resulted in this curious
+literature of amusement. In England books were written; in America they
+were reprinted, until a religious revival left in its wake the series
+of morbid and educational tales which the desire to write original
+stories for American children produced.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[123-A] Miss Hewins, _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. lxi, p. 112.
+
+[123-B] Brynberg. Wilmington, 1796.
+
+[128-A] Miss Repplier, _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. lvii, p. 509.
+
+[141-A] Hill, _Johnsonian Miscellany_, vol. i, p. 157.
+
+[141-B] _Ibid._
+
+[142-A] Welsh, _Introduction to Goody Two Shoes_, p. x.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+1800-1825
+
+
+
+
+    Her morals then the Matron read,
+    Studious to teach her Children dear,
+    And they by love or Duty led,
+    With Pleasure read.
+             _A Mother's Remarks_,
+                      Philadelphia, 1810
+
+    Mama! see what a pretty book
+    At Day's papa has bought,
+    That I may at its pictures look,
+    And by its words be taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+1800-1825
+
+_Toy-Books in the Early Nineteenth Century_
+
+
+On the 23d of December, 1823, there appeared anonymously in the "Troy
+(New York) Sentinel," a Christmas ballad entitled "A Visit from St.
+Nicholas." This rhymed story of Santa Claus and his reindeer, written
+one year before its publication by Clement Clarke Moore for his own
+family, marks the appearance of a truly original story in the literature
+of the American nursery.
+
+We have seen the somewhat lugubrious influence of Puritan and Quaker
+upon the occasional writings for American children; and now comes a
+story bearing upon its face the features of a Dutchman, as the jolly old
+gentleman enters nursery lore with his happy errand.
+
+Up to this time children of wholly English extraction had probably
+little association with the Feast of St. Nicholas. The Christmas season
+had hitherto been regarded as pagan in its origin by people of Puritan
+or Scotch descent, and was celebrated only as a religious festival by
+the descendants of the more liberal adherents to the Church of England.
+The Dutch element in New York, however, still clung to some of their
+traditions; and the custom of exchanging simple gifts upon Christmas Day
+had come down to them as a result of a combination of the church legend
+of the good St. Nicholas, patron of children, and the Scandinavian myth
+of the fairy gnome, who from his bower in the woods showered good
+children with gifts.[148-A] But to celebrate the day quietly was
+altogether a different thing from introducing to the American public the
+character of Santa Claus, who has become in his mythical entity as well
+known to every American as that other Dutch legendary personage, Rip Van
+Winkle.
+
+In the "Visit from St. Nicholas" Mr. Moore not only introduced Santa
+Claus to the young folk of the various states, but gave to them their
+first story of any lasting merit whatsoever. It is worthy of remark that
+as every impulse to write for juvenile readers has lagged behind the
+desire to write for adults, so the composition of these familiar verses
+telling of the arrival in America of the mysterious and welcome visitor
+on
+
+   "The night before Christmas, when all through the house
+    Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,"
+
+fell at the end of that quarter of the nineteenth century to which we
+are accustomed to refer as the beginning of the national period of
+American literature.
+
+It is, of course, true that the older children of that period had
+already begun to enjoy some of the writings of Irving and Cooper, and to
+learn the fortunately still familiar verses by Hopkinson, Key, Drake,
+and Halleck. School-readers have served to familiarize generation after
+generation with "Hail Columbia," "The Star Spangled Banner," and
+sometimes with "The American Flag." It is, doubtless, their authors'
+jubilant enthusiasm over the freedom of the young Republic that has
+caused the children of the more mature nation to delight in the
+repetition of the patriotic verses. The youthful extravagance of
+expression pervading every line is reëchoed in the heart of the
+schoolboy, who likes to imagine himself, before anything else, a
+patriot. But until "Donder and Blitzen" pranced into the foreground as
+Santa Claus' steeds, there was nothing in American nursery literature of
+any lasting fame. Thereafter, as the custom of observing Christmas Day
+gradually became popular, the perennial small child felt--until
+automobiles sent reindeer to the limbo of bygone things--the thrill of
+delight and fear over the annual visit of Santa Claus that the bigger
+child experiences in exploding fire-crackers on the Fourth of July.
+There are possibilities in both excitements which appeal to one of the
+child's dearest possessions--his imagination.
+
+It is this direct appeal to the imagination that surprises and delights
+us in Mr. Moore's ballad. To re-read it is to be amazed that anything so
+full of merriment, so modern, so free from pompousness or condescension,
+from pedantry or didacticism, could have been written before the latter
+half of the nineteenth century. Not only its style is simple in contrast
+with the labored efforts at simplicity of its contemporaneous verse, but
+its story runs fifty years ahead of its time in its freedom from the
+restraining hand of the moralist and from the warning finger of the
+religious teacher, if we except Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wonder Book."
+
+In our examination of the toy-books of twenty years preceding its
+publication, we shall find nothing so attractive in manner, nor so
+imaginative in conception. Indeed, we shall see, upon the one hand, that
+fun was held in with such a tight curb that it hardly ever escaped into
+print; and upon the other hand that the imagination had little chance
+to develop because of the prodigal indulgence in realities and in
+religious experience from which all authors suffered. We shall also see
+that these realities were made very uncompromising and uncomfortable to
+run counter to. Duty spelled in capital letters was a stumbling-block
+with which only the well-trained story-book child could successfully
+cope; recreation followed in small portions large shares of instruction,
+whether disguised or bare faced. The Religion-in-Play, the
+Ethics-in-Play, and the Labor-in-Play schools of writing for children
+had arrived in America from the land of their origin.
+
+The stories in vogue in England during this first quarter of the
+nineteenth century explain every vagary in America. There fashionable
+and educational authorities had hitched their wagon to the literary
+star, Miss Edgeworth, and the followers of her system; while the
+religiously inclined pinned their faith also upon tracts written by Miss
+Hannah More. In this still imitative land the booksellers simply
+reprinted the more successful of these juvenile publications. The
+changes, therefore, in the character of the juvenile literature of
+amusement of the early nineteenth century in America were due to the
+adoption of the works of these two Englishwomen, and to the increased
+facilities for reproducing toy-books, both in press-work and in
+illustrations.
+
+Hannah More's allegories and religious dramas, written to coöperate with
+the teachings of the first Sabbath Day schools, are, of course, outside
+the literature of amusement. Yet they affected its type in America as
+they undoubtedly gave direction to the efforts of the early writers for
+children.
+
+Miss More, born in seventeen hundred and fifty-four, was a woman of
+already established literary reputation when her attention was attracted
+by Robert Raikes's successful experiment of opening a Sunday-school, in
+seventeen hundred and eighty-one. During the religious revival that
+attended the preaching of George Whitefield, Raikes, already interested
+in the hardships and social condition of the working-classes, was
+further aroused by his intimate knowledge of the manner of life of some
+children in a pin factory. To provide instruction for these child
+laborers, who, without work or restrictions on Sundays, sought
+occupation far from elevating, Raikes founded the first "Sabbath Day
+school."
+
+The movement spread rapidly in England, and ten years later, in seventeen
+hundred and ninety-one, under the inspiration of Bishop White, the
+pioneer First Day school in America was opened in Philadelphia. The good
+Bishop was disturbed mentally by the religious and moral degeneracy of
+the poor children in his diocese, and annoyed during church services by
+their clamor outside the churches--a noise often sufficient to drown the
+prayers of his flock and the sermons of his clergy. To occupy these
+restless children for a part of the day, two sessions of the school were
+held each Sunday: one before the morning service, from eight until
+half-past ten o'clock, and the other in the afternoon for an hour and a
+half. The Bible was used as a reader, and the teaching was done regularly
+by paid instructors.
+
+The first Sunday-school library owed its origin to a wish to further the
+instruction given in the school, and hence contained books thought
+admirably adapted to Sunday reading. Among the somewhat meagre stock
+provided for this purpose were Doddridge's "Power of Religion," Miss
+More's tracts and the writings of her imitators, together with "The
+Fairchild Family," by Mrs. Sherwood, "The Two Lambs," by Mrs. Cameron,
+"The Economy of Human Life," and a little volume made up of selections
+from Mrs. Barbauld's works for children. "The Economy of Human Life,"
+said Miss Sedgwick (who herself afterwards wrote several good books for
+girls), "was quite above my comprehension, and I thought it unmeaning
+and tedious." Testimony of this kind about a book which for years
+appeared regularly upon booksellers' lists enables us to realize that
+the average intelligent child of the year eighteen hundred was beginning
+to be as bored by some of the literature placed in his hands as a child
+would be one hundred years later.
+
+To increase this special class of books, Hannah More devoted her
+attention. Her forty tracts comprising "The Cheap Repository" included
+"The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" and "The Two Shoemakers," which, often
+appearing in American booksellers' advertisements, were for many years a
+staple article in Sunday-school libraries, and even now, although pushed
+to the rear, are discoverable in some such collections of books. Their
+objective point is best given by their author's own words in the preface
+to an edition of "The Search after Happiness; A Pastoral Drama," issued
+by Jacob Johnson of Philadelphia in eighteen hundred and eleven.
+
+Miss More began in the self-depreciatory manner then thought modest and
+becoming in women writers: "The author is sensible it may have many
+imperfections, but if it may be happily instrumental in producing a
+regard to Religion and Virtue in the minds of Young Persons, and afford
+them an innocent, and perhaps not altogether unuseful amusement in the
+exercise of recitation, the end for which it was originally composed ...
+will be fully answered." A drama may seem to us above the comprehension
+of the poor and illiterate class of people whose attention Miss More
+wished to hold, but when we feel inclined to criticise, let us not
+forget that the author was one who had written little eight-year-old
+Thomas Macaulay: "I think we have nearly exhausted the epics. What say
+you to a little good prose? Johnson's 'Hebrides,' or Walton's 'Lives,'
+unless you would like a neat edition of Cowper's poems or 'Paradise
+Lost.'"
+
+Miss More's influence upon the character of Sunday-school books in
+England undoubtedly did much to incline many unknown American women of
+the nineteenth century to take up this class of books as their own field
+for religious effort and pecuniary profit.
+
+Contemporary with Hannah More's writings in the interest of religious
+life of Sunday-school scholars were some of the literary products of the
+painstaking pen of Maria Edgeworth.
+
+Mention of Miss Edgeworth has already been made. About her stories for
+children criticism has played seriously, admiringly, and contemptuously.
+It is not the present purpose, however, to do other than to make clear
+her own aim, and to try to show the effect of her extremely moral tales
+upon her own generation of writers for American children. It is possible
+that she affected these authors more than the child audience for whom
+she wrote. Little ones have a wonderful faculty for seizing upon what
+suits them and leaving the remainder for their elders to discuss.
+
+Maria Edgeworth's life was a long one. Born in seventeen hundred and
+sixty-seven, when John Newbery's books were at the height of their fame,
+she lived until eighteen hundred and forty-nine, when they were scarcely
+remembered; and now her own once popular tales have met a similar fate.
+
+She was educated by a father filled with enthusiasm by the teachings of
+Rousseau and with advice from the platitudinous family friend, Thomas
+Day, author of "Sanford and Merton." Only the truly genial nature and
+strong character of Miss Edgeworth prevented her genius from being
+altogether swamped by this incongruous combination. Fortunately, also,
+her busy practical home life allowed her sympathies full sway and
+counteracted many of the theories introduced by Mr. Edgeworth into his
+family circle. Successive stepmothers filled the Edgeworth nursery with
+children, for whom the devoted older sister planned and wrote the
+stories afterward published.
+
+In seventeen hundred and ninety-one Maria Edgeworth, at her father's
+suggestion, began to note down anecdotes of the children of the family,
+and later these were often used as copy to be criticised by the little
+ones themselves before they were turned over to the printer. Her
+father's educational conversations with his family were often committed
+to paper, and these also furnished material from which Miss Edgeworth
+made it her object in life to interweave knowledge, amusement, and
+ethics. Indeed, it has been most aptly said that between the narrow
+banks of Richard Edgeworth's theories "his daughter's genius flowed
+through many volumes of amusement."
+
+[Illustration: _Jacob Johnson's Book-Store._]
+
+Her first collection of tales was published under the title of "The
+Parent's Assistant," although Miss Edgeworth's own choice of a name had
+been the less formidable one of "The Parent's Friend." Based upon her
+experience as eldest sister in a large and constantly increasing family,
+these tales necessarily struck many true notes and gave valuable hints
+to perplexed parents. In "The Parent's Assistant" realities stalked full
+grown into the nursery as
+
+   "Every object in creation
+    Furnished hints for contemplation."
+
+The characters were invariably true to their creator's original drawing.
+A good girl was good from morning to night; a naughty child began and
+ended the day in disobedience, and by it bottles were smashed,
+strawberries spilled, and lessons disregarded in unbroken sequence. In
+later life Miss Edgeworth confessed to having occasionally introduced in
+"Harry and Lucy" some nonsense as an "alloy to make the sense work
+well;" but as all her earlier children's tales were subjected to the
+pruning scissors of Mr. Edgeworth, this amalgam is to-day hardly
+noticeable in "Popular Tales," "Early Lessons," and "Frank," which
+preceded the six volumes of "Harry and Lucy."
+
+Although a contemporary of Mrs. Barbauld, who had written for little
+children "Easy Lessons," Miss Edgeworth does not seem to have been well
+known in America until about eighteen hundred and five. Then "Harry and
+Lucy" was brought out by Jacob Johnson, a Philadelphia book-dealer.
+This was issued in six small red and blue marbled paper volumes,
+although other parts were not completed until eighteen hundred and
+twenty-three. Between the first and second parts of volume one the
+educational hand of Mr. Edgeworth is visible in the insertion of a
+"Glossary," "to give a popular meaning of the words." "This Glossary,"
+the editor, Mr. Edgeworth, thought, "should be read to children a little
+at a time, and should be made the subject of conversation. Afterwards
+they will read it with more pleasure." The popular meaning of words may
+be succinctly given by one definition: "Dry, what is not wet." Could
+anything be more lucid?
+
+Among the stories by Miss Edgeworth are three rarely mentioned by
+critics, and yet among the most natural and entertaining of her short
+tales. They were also printed by Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia, in
+eighteen hundred and five, under the simple title, "Three Stories for
+Children." "Little Dog Trusty" is a dog any small child would like to
+read about; "The Orangeman" was a character familiar to English
+children; and "The Cherry Orchard" is a tale of a day's pleasure whose
+spirit American children could readily seize. In each Miss Edgeworth had
+a story to tell, and she told it well, even though "she walked," as has
+been often said, "as mentor beside her characters."
+
+Of Miss Edgeworth's many tales, "Waste Not, Want Not" was long
+considered a model. In it what Mr. Edgeworth styled the "shafts of
+ridicule" were aimed at the rich nephew of Mr. Gresham. Mr. Gresham
+(whose prototype we strongly suspect was Mr. Edgeworth himself) "lived
+neither in idleness nor extravagance," and was desirous of adopting an
+heir to his considerable property. Therefore, he invited two nephews to
+visit him, with the object of choosing the more suitable for his
+purpose; apparently he had only to signify his wish and no parental
+objection to his plan would be interposed. The boys arrive: Hal, whose
+mama spends her days at Bath over cards with Lady Diana Sweepstake, is
+an ill-bred child, neither deferential to his uncle, nor with appetite
+for buns when queen-cakes may be had. His cousin Ben, on the contrary,
+has been taught those virtuous habits that make for a respectful
+attitude toward rich uncles and assure a dissertation upon the
+beneficial effect of buns _versus_ queen-cakes. The boys, having had
+their characters thus definitely shown, proceed to live up to them in
+every particular. From start to finish it is the virtuous Ben--his
+generosity, thrift, and foresight are never allowed to lapse for an
+instant--who triumphs in every episode. He saves his string, "good
+whipcord," when requested by Mr. Gresham to untie a parcel, and it
+thereafter serves to spin a fine new top, to help Hal out of a
+difficulty with his toy, and in the final incident of the story, an
+archery contest, our provident hero, finding his bowstring "cracked,"
+calmly draws from his pocket the still excellent piece of cord, and
+affixing it to his bow, wins the match. Hal betrays his great lack of
+self-control by exclaiming, "The everlasting whipcord, I declare," and
+thereupon Patty, Mr. Gresham's only child, who has suffered from Hal's
+defects of character, openly rejoices when the prize is given to Ben. As
+is usual with Miss Edgeworth's badly behaved children, the reader now
+sees the error of Hal's ways, and perceives also that in the lad's
+acknowledgment of the truth of the formerly scorned motto, "Waste not,
+want not," the era of his reformation has begun.
+
+Perpetual action was the key to the success of Miss Edgeworth's
+writings. If to us her fictitious children seem like puppets whose
+strings are too obviously jerked, the monotonous moral cloaked in the
+variety of incident was liked by her own generation,
+
+Miss Edgeworth not only pleased the children, but received the applause
+of their parents and friends. Sir Walter Scott, the prince of
+story-tellers, found much to admire in her tales, and wrote of "Simple
+Susan:" "When the boy brings back the lamb to the little girl, there is
+nothing for it but to put down the book and cry." Susan was the pattern
+child in the tale, "clean as well as industrious," while Barbara--a
+violent contrast--was conceited and lazy, and a _lady_ who "could
+descend without shame from the height of insolent pride to the lowest
+measure of fawning familiarity." Therefore it is small wonder that Sir
+Walter passed her by without mention.
+
+However much we may value an English author's admiration for Miss
+Edgeworth's story-telling gifts, it is to America that we naturally turn
+to seek contemporary opinion. In educational circles there is no doubt
+that Miss Edgeworth won high praise. That her books were not always easy
+to procure, however, we know from a letter written from Washington by
+Mrs. Josiah Quincy, whose life as a child during the Revolution has
+already been described. When Mrs. Quincy was living in the capital city
+in eighteen hundred and ten, during her husband's term as Congressman,
+she found it difficult to provide her family with books. She therefore
+wrote to Boston to a friend, requesting to have sent her Miss
+Edgeworth's "Moral Tales," "if the work can be obtained in one of the
+bookstores. If not," she continued, "borrow one ... and I will replace
+it with a new copy. Cut the book out of its binding and enclose the
+pages in packets.... Be careful to send the entire text and title page."
+The scarcity in Washington of books for young people Mrs. Quincy thought
+justified the hope that reprinting these tales would be profitable to a
+bookseller in whose efforts to introduce a better taste among the
+inhabitants she took a keen interest. But Mrs. Quincy need not have sent
+to Boston for them. Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia had issued most of the
+English author's books by eighteen hundred and five, and New York
+publishers probably made good profit by printing them.
+
+Reading aloud was both a pastime and an education to families in those
+early days of the Republic. Although Mrs. Quincy made every effort to
+procure Miss Edgeworth's stories for her family because, in her opinion,
+"they obtained a decided preference to the works of Hannah More, Mrs.
+Trimmer and Mrs. Chapone," for reading aloud she chose extracts from
+Shakespeare, Milton, Addison, and Goldsmith. Indeed, if it were possible
+to ask our great-grandparents what books they remembered reading in
+their childhood, I think we should find that beyond somewhat hazy
+recollections of Miss Edgeworth's books and Berquin's "The Looking Glass
+for the Mind," they would either mention "Robinson Crusoe," Newbery's
+tales of "Giles Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody
+Two-Shoes" (written fifty years before their own childhood), or
+remember only the classic tales and sketches read to them by their
+parents.
+
+Certainly this is the case if we may take as trustworthy the
+recollections of literary people whose childhood was passed in the first
+part of the nineteenth century. Catharine Sedgwick, for instance, has
+left a charming picture of American family life in a country town in
+eighteen hundred--a life doubtless paralleled by many households in
+comfortable circumstances. Among the host of little prigs and prudes in
+story-books of the day, it is delightful to find in Catharine Sedgwick
+herself an example of a bookish child who was natural. Her reminiscences
+include an account of the way the task of sweeping out the schoolhouse
+after hours was made bearable by feasts of Malaga wine and raisins.
+These she procured from the store where her father kept an open account,
+until the bill having been rendered dotted over with such charges "per
+daughter Catharine," these treats to favorite schoolmates ceased. Also a
+host of intimate details of this large family's life in the country
+brings us in touch with the times: fifteen pairs of calfskin shoes
+ordered from the village shoemaker, because town-bought morocco slippers
+were few and far between; the excitement of a silk gown; the distress of
+a brother, whose trousers for fête occasions were remodelled from an
+older brother's "blue broadcloth worn to fragility--so that Robert [the
+younger brother] said he could not look at them without making a rent;"
+and again the anticipation of the father's return from Philadelphia with
+gifts of necessaries and books.
+
+After seventeen hundred and ninety-five Mr. Sedgwick was compelled as a
+member of Congress to be away the greater part of each year, leaving
+household and farm to the care of an invalid wife. Memories of Mr.
+Sedgwick's infrequent visits home were mingled in his daughter's mind
+with the recollections of being kept up until nine o'clock to listen to
+his reading from Shakespeare, Don Quixote, or Hudibras. "Certainly,"
+wrote Miss Sedgwick, "I did not understand them, but some glances of
+celestial light reached my soul, and I caught from his magnetic sympathy
+some elevation of feeling, and that love of reading which has been to me
+an 'education.'" "I was not more than twelve years old," she continues,
+"I think but ten--when one winter I read Rollin's Ancient History. The
+walking to our schoolhouse was often bad, and I took my lunch (how well
+I remember the bread and butter, and 'nut cake' and cold sausage, and
+nuts and apples that made the miscellaneous contents of that enchanting
+lunch-basket!), and in the interim between morning and afternoon school
+I crept under my desk (the desks were so made as to afford little close
+recesses under them) and read and munched and forgot myself in Cyrus'
+greatness."
+
+It is beyond question that the keen relish induced by the scarcity of
+juvenile reading, together with the sound digestion it promoted,
+overbalanced in mental gain the novelties of a later day.
+
+The Sedgwick library was probably typical of the average choice in
+reading-matter of the contemporary American child. Half a dozen little
+story-books, Berquin's "Children's Friend" (the very form and shade of
+color of its binding with its green edges were never forgotten by any
+member of the Sedgwick family), and the "Looking Glass for the Mind"
+were shelved side by side with a large volume entitled "Elegant
+Extracts," full of ballads, fables, and tales delightful to children
+whose imagination was already excited by the solemn mystery of Rowe's
+"Letters from the Dead to the Living." Since none of these books except
+those containing an infusion of religion were allowed to be read on
+Sunday, the Sedgwick children extended the bounds by turning over the
+pages of a book, and if the word "God" or "Lord" appeared, it was pounced
+upon as sanctified and therefore permissible.
+
+Where families were too poor to buy story-books, the children found what
+amusement they could in the parents' small library. In ministers'
+families sermons were more plentiful than books. Mrs. H.B. Stowe, when a
+girl, found barrels of sermons in the garret of her father, the Rev. Dr.
+Beecher, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Through these sermons his daughter
+searched hungrily for mental food. It seemed as if there were thousands
+of the most unintelligible things. "An appeal on the unlawfulness of a
+man's marrying his wife's sister" turned up in every barrel by the
+dozens, until she despaired of finding an end of it. At last an ancient
+volume of "Arabian Nights" was unearthed. Here was the one inexhaustible
+source of delight to a child so eager for books that at ten years of age
+she had pored over the two volumes of the "Magnalia."
+
+The library advantages of a more fortunately placed old-fashioned child
+we know from Dr. Holmes's frequent reference to incidents of his
+boyhood. He frankly confessed that he read in and not through many of
+the two thousand books in his father's library; but he found much to
+interest him in the volumes of periodicals, especially in the "Annual
+Register" and Rees's "Encyclopedia." Although apparently allowed to
+choose from the book-shelves, there were frequent evidences of a
+parent's careful supervision. "I remember," he once wrote to a friend,
+"many leaves were torn out of a copy of Dryden's Poems, with the comment
+'Hiatus haud diflendus,' but I had like all children a kind of Indian
+sagacity in the discovery of contraband reading, such as a boy carries
+to a corner for perusal. Sermons I had enough from the pulpit. I don't
+know that I ever read one sermon of my own accord during my childhood.
+The 'Life of David,' by Samuel Chandler, had adventures enough, to say
+nothing of gallantry, in it to stimulate and gratify curiosity."
+"Biographies of Pious Children," wrote Dr. Holmes at another time, "were
+not to my taste. Those young persons were generally sickly, melancholy,
+and buzzed around by ghostly comforters or discomforters in a way that
+made me sick to contemplate." Again, Dr. Holmes, writing of the revolt
+from the commonly accepted religious doctrines he experienced upon
+reading the Rev. Thomas Scott's Family Bible, contrasted the gruesome
+doctrines it set forth with the story of Christian told in "Pilgrim's
+Progress," a book which captivated his imagination.
+
+As to story-books, Dr. Holmes once referred to Mrs. Barbauld and Dr.
+Aikin's joint production, "Evenings at Home," with an accuracy bearing
+testimony to his early love for natural science. He also paid a graceful
+tribute to Lady Bountiful of "Little King Pippin" in comparing her in a
+conversation "At the Breakfast Table" with the appearance of three
+maiden ladies "rustling through the aisles of the old meeting-house, in
+silk and satin, not gay but more than decent."
+
+Although Dr. Holmes was not sufficiently impressed with the contents of
+Miss Edgeworth's tales to mention them, at least one of her books
+contained much of the sort of information he found attractive in
+"Evenings at Home." "Harry and Lucy," besides pointing a moral on every
+page, foreshadowed that taste for natural science which turned every
+writer's thought toward printing geographical walks, botanical
+observations, natural history conversations, and geological
+dissertations in the guise of toy-books of amusement. A batch of books
+issued in America during the first two decades of the nineteenth century
+is illustrative of this new fashion. These books, belonging to the
+Labor-in-Play school, may best be described in their American editions.
+
+One hundred years ago the American publishers of toy works were devoting
+their attention to the make-up rather than to the contents of their
+wares. The steady progress of the industrial arts enabled a greater
+number of printers to issue juvenile books, whose attractiveness was
+increased by better illustrations; and also with the improved facilities
+for printing and publishing, the issues of the various firms became more
+individual. At the beginning of the century the cheaper books entirely
+lost their charming gilt, flowery Dutch, and silver wrappers, as home
+products came into use. Size and illustrations also underwent a change.
+
+[Illustration: _A Wall-paper Book-Cover_]
+
+In Philadelphia, Benjamin and Jacob Johnson, and later Johnson and
+Warner, issued both tiny books two inches square, and somewhat larger
+volumes containing illustrations as well as text. These firms used
+for binding gray and blue marbled paper, gold-powdered yellow cardboard,
+or salmon pink, blue, and olive-green papers, usually without
+ornamentation. In eighteen hundred J. and J. Crukshank, of the same
+town, began to decorate with copper-plate cuts the outside of the white
+or blue paper covers of their imprints for children. Other printers
+followed their example, especially after wood-engraving became more
+generally used.
+
+In Wilmington, Delaware, John Adams printed and sold "The New History of
+Blue Beard" in both peacock-blue and olive-green paper covers; but Peter
+Brynberg, also of that town, was still in eighteen hundred and four
+using quaint wall-paper to dress his toy imprints. Matthew Carey, the
+well-known printer of school-books for the children of Philadelphia,
+made a "Child's Guide to Spelling and Reading" more acceptable by a
+charming cover of yellow and red striped paper dotted over with little
+black hearts suggestive of the old Primer rhyme for the letter B:
+
+   "My Book and Heart
+    Shall never part."
+
+In New York the dealers in juvenile books seem either to have bound in
+calf such classics as "The Blossoms of Morality," published by David
+Longworth at the Shakespeare Gallery in eighteen hundred and two, or in
+decorated but unattractive brown paper. This was the cover almost
+invariably used for years by Samuel Wood, the founder of the present
+publishing-house of medical works. He began in eighteen hundred and six
+to print the first of his many thousands of children's religious,
+instructive, and nursery books. As was the custom in order to insure a
+good sale, Wood first brought out a primer, "The Young Child's A B C."
+He decorated its Quaker gray cover with a woodcut of a flock of birds,
+and its title-page with a picture, presumably by Alexander Anderson, of
+a girl holding up a dove in her left hand and holding down a lamb with
+her right.
+
+In New England, Nathaniel Coverly of Salem sometimes used a watered pink
+paper to cover his sixteen page toy-books, and in Boston his son, as
+late as eighteen hundred and thirteen, still used pieces of large
+patterned wall-paper for six-penny books, such as "Tom Thumb," "Old
+Mother Hubbard," and "Cock Robin."
+
+The change in the appearance of most toy-books, however, was due largely
+to the increased use of illustrations. The work of the famous English
+engraver, Thomas Bewick, had at last been successfully copied by a
+physician of New York, Dr. Alexander Anderson.
+
+Dr. Anderson was born in New York in seventeen hundred and seventy-five,
+and by seventeen hundred and ninety-three was employed by printers and
+publishers in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and even Charleston to
+illustrate their books. Like other engravers, he began by cutting in
+type-metal, or engraving upon copper. In seventeen hundred and
+ninety-four, for Durell of New York, he undertook to make illustrations,
+probably for "The Looking Glass for the Mind." Beginning by copying
+Bewick's pictures upon type-metal, when "about one-third done, Dr.
+Anderson felt satisfied he could do better on wood."[166-A] In his diary
+we find noted an instance of his perseverance in the midst of
+discouragement: "Sept. 24. This morning I was quite discouraged on
+seeing a crack in the wood. Employed as usual at the Doctor's, came home
+to dinner, glued the wood and began again with fresh hopes of producing
+a good wood engraving." September 26 found him "pretty well satisfied
+with the impression and so was Durell." In eighteen hundred he engraved
+all the pictures on wood for a new edition of the same book, and from
+this time he seems to have discontinued the use of type-metal, which he
+had employed in his earlier work as illustrator of the "Pilgrim's
+Progress" issued by Hugh Gaine, and of "Tom Thumb's Folio" printed by
+Brewer. After eighteen hundred and twelve Anderson almost gave up
+engraving on copper also, and devoted himself to satisfying the great
+demand for his work on wood. For Durell of New York, an extensive
+reprinter of English books, from toy-books to a folio edition of
+Josephus, he reproduced the English engravings, never making, according
+to Mr. Lossing, more than a frontispiece for the larger volumes.
+
+Although Samuel Wood and Sons of New York also gave Dr. Anderson many
+orders for cuts for their various juvenile publications, he still found
+time to engrave for publishers of other cities. We find his
+illustrations in the toy-books printed in Boston and Philadelphia; and
+for Sidney Babcock, a New Haven publisher of juvenile literature, he
+supplied many of the numerous woodcuts required. The best of Anderson's
+work as an engraver coincided with the years of Babcock's very extensive
+business of issuing children's books, between 1805 and 1840. His cuts
+adorned the juvenile duodecimos that this printer's widely extended
+trade demanded; and even as far south as Charleston, South Carolina,
+Babcock, like Isaiah Thomas, found it profitable to open a branch shop.
+
+Anderson's illustrations are the main features of most of Babcock's
+little blue, pink, and yellow paper-covered books; especially of those
+printed in the early years of the nineteenth century. We notice in them
+the changes in the dress of children, who no longer were clothed exactly
+in the semblance of their elders, but began to assume garments more
+appropriate to their ages, sports, and occupations. Anderson also
+sometimes introduced into his pictures a negro coachman or nurse in the
+place of the footman or maid of the English tale he illustrated.
+
+While the demand for the engraver's work was constant, his remuneration
+was small, if we are to judge by Babcock's payment of only fifty
+shillings for fifteen cuts.
+
+For these toy-books Anderson made many reproductions from Bewick's cuts,
+and although he did not equal the Englishman's work, he so far surpassed
+his pupils and imitators of the early part of the century that his
+engravings are generally to be recognized even when not signed. In
+eighteen hundred and two Dr. Anderson began to reproduce for David
+Longworth Bewick's "Quadrupeds," and these "cuts were afterwards made
+use of, with the Bewick letter-press also, for a series of children's
+books."[168-A]
+
+In eighteen hundred and twelve, for Munroe & Francis of Boston, Dr.
+Anderson made after J. Thompson a set of cuts, mainly remarkable "as
+the chief of his few departures from the style of his favorite,
+Bewick."[169-A]
+
+The custom of not signing either text or engravings in the children's
+books has made it difficult to identify writers and illustrators of
+juvenile literature. But some of the best engravers undoubtedly
+practised their art on these toy-books. Nathaniel Dearborn, who was a
+stationer, printer, and engraver in Boston about eighteen hundred and
+eleven, sometimes signed the full-page illustrations on both wood and
+copper, and Abel Bowen, a copper-engraver, and possibly the first
+wood-engraver in Boston, signed a very curious publication entitled "A
+Metamorphosis"--a manifold paper which in its various possible
+combinations transformed one figure into another in keeping with the
+progress of the story.
+
+C. Gilbert, a pupil of Mason, who had introduced the art of
+wood-engraving in Philadelphia from Boston, engraved on wood certainly
+the two full-page illustrations for "A Present for a Little Girl,"
+printed in eighteen hundred and sixteen for a Baltimore firm, Warner &
+Hanna.
+
+Adams and his pupils, Lansing and Morgan, also did work on children's
+books. Adams seems to have worked under Anderson's instruction, and
+after eighteen hundred and twenty-five did cuts for some books in the
+juvenile libraries of S. Wood and Mahlon Day of New York.
+
+Of the engravers on copper, many tried their hands on these toy-books.
+Among them may be mentioned Amos Doolittle of New Haven, James Poupard,
+John Neagle, and W. Ralph of Philadelphia, and Rollinson of New York,
+who is credited with having engraved the silver buttons on the coat
+worn by Washington on his inauguration as President.
+
+But of the copper-plate engravers, perhaps none did more work for
+children's books than William Charles of Philadelphia. Charles, who is
+best known by his series of caricatures of the events of the War of 1812
+and of local politics, worked upon toy-books as early as eighteen
+hundred and eight, when in Philadelphia he published in two parts "Tom
+the Piper's Son; illustrated with whimsical engravings." In these books
+both text and pictures were engraved, as will be seen in the
+illustration. Charles's plates for a series of moral tales in verse were
+used by his successors, Mary Charles, Morgan & Yeager, and Morgan &
+Sons, for certainly fifteen years after the originals were made. To
+William Charles the children in the vicinity of Philadelphia were also
+probably indebted for the introduction of colored pictures. It is
+possible that the young folks of Boston had the novelty of colored
+picture-books somewhat before Charles introduced them in Philadelphia,
+as we find that "The History and Adventures of Little Henry exemplified
+in a series of figures" was printed by J. Belcher of the Massachusetts
+town in 1812. These "figures" exhibited little Henry suitably attired
+for the various incidents of his career, with a movable head to be
+attached at will to any of the figures, which were not engraved with the
+text, but each was laid in loose on a blank page. William Charles's
+method of coloring the pictures engraved with the text was a slight
+advance, perhaps, upon the illustrations inserted separately; but it is
+doubtful whether these immovable plates afforded as much entertainment
+to little readers as the separate figures similar to paper dolls
+which Belcher, and somewhat later Charles also, used in a few of their
+publications.
+
+[Illustration: _Tom the Piper's Son_]
+
+The "Peacock at Home," engraved by Charles and then colored in
+aqua-tint, is one of the rare early colored picture-books still extant,
+having been first issued in eighteen hundred and fourteen. The coloring
+of the illustrations at first doubled the price, and seems to have been
+used principally for a series of stories belonging to what may be styled
+the Ethics-in-Play type of juvenile literature, and entitled the
+"History and Adventures of Little William," "Little Nancy," etc. These
+tales, written after the objective manner of Miss Edgeworth, glossed
+over by rhyme, contained usually eight colored plates, and sold for
+twenty-five cents each instead of twelve cents, the price of the
+picture-book without colored plates. Sometimes, as in the case of
+"Cinderella," we find the text illustrated with a number of "Elegant
+Figures, to dress and undress." The paper doll could be placed behind
+the costumes appropriate to the various adventures, and, to prevent the
+loss of the heroine, the book was tied up with pink or blue ribbon after
+the manner of a portfolio.
+
+With engravers on wood and copper able to make more attractive the
+passion for instruction which marked the first quarter of the nineteenth
+century, the variety of toy-book literature naturally became greater.
+Indeed, without pictures to render somewhat entertaining the
+Labor-in-Play school, it is doubtful whether it could have attained its
+widespread popularity.
+
+It is, of course, possible to name but a few titles typical of the
+various kinds of instruction offered as amusement. "To present to the
+young Reader a Little Miscellany of Natural History, Moral Precept,
+Sentiment, and Narrative," Dr. Kendall wrote "Keeper's Travels in Search
+of his Master," "The Canary Bird," and "The Sparrow." "The Prize for
+Youthful Obedience" endeavored to instill a love for animals, and to
+promote obedient habits. Its story runs in this way:
+
+"A kind and good father had a little lively son, named Francis; but,
+although that little boy was six years old, he had not yet learned to
+read.
+
+"His mama said to him, one day, 'if Francis will learn to read well, he
+shall have a pretty little chaise.'
+
+"The little boy was vastly pleased with this; he presently spelt five or
+six words and then kissed his mama.
+
+"'Mama,' said Francis, 'I am delighted with the thoughts of this chaise,
+but I should like to have a horse to draw it.'
+
+"'Francis shall have a little dog, which will do instead of a horse,'
+replied his mama, 'but he must take care to give him some victuals, and
+not do him any harm.'"
+
+The dog was purchased, and named Chloe. "She was as brisk as a bee,
+prettily spotted, and as gentle as a lamb." We are now prepared for
+trouble, for the lesson of the story is surely not hidden. Chloe was
+fastened to the chaise, a cat secured to serve as a passenger, and
+"Francis drove his little chaise along the walk." But "when he had been
+long enough among the gooseberry trees, his mama took him in the garden
+and told him the names of the flowers." We are thus led to suppose that
+Francis had never been in the garden before! The mother is called away.
+We feel sure that the trouble anticipated is at hand. "As soon as she
+was gone Francis began whipping the dog," and of course when the dog
+dashed forward the cat tumbled out, and "poor Chloe was terrified by the
+chaise which banged on all sides. Francis now heartily repented of his
+cruel behaviour and went into the house crying, and looking like a very
+simple boy."
+
+[Illustration: _A Kind and Good Father_]
+
+"I see very plainly the cause of this misfortune," said the father, who,
+however, soon forgave his repentant son. Thereafter every day Francis
+learned his lesson, and was rewarded by facts and pictures about
+animals, by table-talks, or by walks about the country.
+
+Knowledge offered within small compass seems to have been a novelty
+introduced in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson, who had a juvenile library
+in High Street.
+
+In eighteen hundred and three he printed two tiny volumes entitled "A
+Description of Various Objects." Bound in green paper covers, the
+two-inch square pages were printed in bold type. The first volume
+contained the illustrations of the objects described in the other. The
+characterizations were exceedingly short, as, for example, this of the
+"Puppet Show:" "Here are several little boys and girls looking at a
+puppet show, I suppose you would like to make one of them."
+
+Four years later Johnson improved upon this, when he printed in better
+type "People of all Nations; an useful toy for Girl or Boy." Of
+approximately the same size as the other volumes, it was bound with
+stiff sides and calf back. The plates, engraved on copper, represent men
+of various nationalities in the favorite alphabetical order. A is an
+American. V is a Virginian,--an Indian in scant costume of feathers
+with a long pipe,--who, the printed description says, "is generally
+dressed after the manner of the English; but this is a poor African, and
+made a slave of." An orang-outang represents the letter O, and according
+to the author, is "a wild man of the woods, in the East Indies. He
+sleeps under trees, and builds himself a hut. He cannot speak, but when
+the natives make a fire in the woods he will come and warm himself." Ten
+years later there was still some difficulty in getting exact
+descriptions of unfamiliar animals. Thus in "A Familiar Description of
+Beasts and Birds" the baboon is drawn with a dog's body and an uncanny
+head with a snout. The reader is informed that "the baboon has a long
+face resembling a dog's; his eyes are red and very bright, his teeth are
+large and strong, but his swiftness renders him hard to be taken. He
+delights in fishing, and will stay for a considerable time under water.
+He imitates several of our actions, and will drink wine, and eat human
+food."
+
+Another series of three books, written by William Darton, the English
+publisher and maker of toy-books, was called "Chapters of Accidents,
+containing Caution and Instruction." Thrilling accounts of "Escapes from
+Danger" when robbing birds'-nests and hunting lions and tigers were
+intermingled with wise counsel and lessons to be gained from an "Upset
+Cart," or a "Balloon Excursion." With one incident the Philadelphia
+printer took the liberty of changing the title to "Cautions to Walkers
+on the Streets of Philadelphia." High Street, now Market Street, is
+represented in a picture of the young woman who, unmindful of the
+warning, "Never to turn hastily around the corner of a street," "ran
+against the porter's load and nearly lost one of her eyes." The
+change, of course, is worthy of notice only because of the slight effort
+to locate the story in America.
+
+[Illustration: _a Virginian_]
+
+[Illustration: _A Baboon_]
+
+An attempt to familiarize children with flowers resulted in two tales,
+called "The Rose's Breakfast" and "Flora's Gala," in which flowers were
+personified as they took part in fêtes. "Garden Amusements, for
+Improving the Minds of Little Children," was issued by Samuel Wood of
+New York with this advertisement: "This little treatise, (written and
+first published in the great emporium of the British nation) containing
+so many pleasing remarks for the juvenile mind, was thought worthy of an
+American edition.... Being so very natural, ... and its tendency so
+moral and amusing, it is to be hoped an advantage will be obtained from
+its re-publication in Freedonia."
+
+Dialogue was the usual method of instruction employed by Miss Edgeworth
+and her followers. In "Garden Amusements" the conversation was
+interrupted by a note criticising a quotation from Milton as savoring
+too much of poetic license. Cowper also gained the anonymous critic's
+disapproval, although it was his point of view and not his style that
+came under censure.
+
+In still another series of stories often reprinted from London editions
+were those moral tales with the sub-title "Cautionary Stories in Verse."
+Mr. William James used these "Cautionary Verses for Children" as an
+example of the manner in which "the muse of evangelical protestantism in
+England, with the mind fixed on the ideas of danger, had at last drifted
+away from the original gospel of freedom." "Chronic anxiety," Mr. James
+continued, "marked the earlier part of this [nineteenth] century in
+evangelical circles." A little salmon-colored volume, "The Daisy," is a
+good example of this series. Each rhyme is a warning or an admonition; a
+chronic fear that a child might be naughty. "Drest or Undrest" is
+typical of the sixteen hints for the proper conduct of every-day life
+contained in the innocent "Daisy:"
+
+   "When children are naughty and will not be drest,
+    Pray what do you think is the way?
+    Why, often I really believe it is best
+    To keep them in night-clothes all day!
+
+   "But then they can have no good breakfast to eat,
+    Nor walk with their mother and aunt;
+    At dinner they'll have neither pudding nor meat,
+    Nor anything else that they want.
+
+   "Then who would be naughty and sit all the day
+    In night-clothes unfit to be seen!
+    And pray who would lose all their pudding and play
+    For not being drest neat and clean."
+
+Two other sets of books with a like purpose were brought out by Charles
+about eighteen hundred and sixteen. One began with those familiar
+nursery verses entitled "My Mother," by Ann Taylor, which were soon
+followed by "My Father," all the family, "My Governess," and even "My
+Pony." The other set of books was "calculated to promote Benevolence and
+Virtue in Children." "Little Fanny," "Little Nancy," and "Little Sophie"
+were all held up as warnings of the results of pride, greed, and
+disobedience.
+
+[Illustration: _Drest or Undrest_]
+
+The difference between these heroines of fiction and the characters
+drawn by Maria Edgeworth lies mainly in the fact that they spoke in
+rhyme instead of in prose, and that they were almost invariably naughty;
+or else the parents were cruel and the children suffered. Rarely do we
+find a cheerful tale such as "The Cherry Orchard" in this cautionary
+style of toy-book. Still more rarely do we find any suspicion of that
+alloy of nonsense supposed by Miss Edgeworth to make the sense work
+well. It is all quite serious. "Little Nancy, or, the Punishment of
+Greediness," is representative of this sort of moral and cautionary
+tale. The frontispiece, "embellishing" the first scene, shows Nancy in
+receipt of an invitation to a garden party:
+
+   "Now the day soon appear'd
+    But she very much fear'd
+    She should not be permitted to go.
+    Her best frock she had torn,
+    The last time it was worn;
+    Which was very vexatious, you know."
+
+However, the mother consents with the _caution_:
+
+   "Not to greedily eat
+    The nice things at the treat;
+    As she much wished to break her of this."
+
+Arrived at the party, Nancy shared the games, and
+
+   "At length was seated,
+    With her friends to be treated;
+    So determin'd on having her share,
+    That she drank and she eat
+    Ev'ry thing she could get,
+    Yet still she was loth to forbear."
+
+The disastrous consequences attending Nancy's disregard of her mother's
+admonition are displayed in a full-page illustration, which is followed
+by another depicting the sorrowful end in bed of the day's pleasure.
+Then the moral:
+
+   "My young readers beware,
+    And avoid with great care
+    Such _excesses_ as these you've just read;
+    For be sure you will find
+    It your interest to mind
+    What your friends and relations have said."
+
+Perhaps of all the toy imprints of the early century none are more
+curious in modern eyes than the three or four German translations
+printed by Philadelphia firms. In eighteen hundred and nine Johnson and
+Warner issued "Kleine Erzählungen über ein Buch mit Kupfern." This seems
+to be a translation of "A Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts," and
+contains a reference to another book entitled "Anecdoten von Hunden."
+Still another book is extant, printed in eighteen hundred and five by
+Zentler, "Unterhaltungen für Deutsche Kinder." This, according to its
+preface, was one of a series for which Jacob and Benjamin Johnson had
+consented to lend the plates for illustrations.
+
+Patriotism, rather than diversion, still characterized the very little
+original work of the first quarter of the century for American children.
+A book with the imposing title of "Geographical, Statistical and
+Political Amusement" was published in Philadelphia in eighteen hundred
+and six. "This work," says its advertisement, "is designed as an easy
+means of uniting Instruction with Pleasure ... to entice the youthful
+mind to an acquaintance with a species of information [about the United
+States] highly useful."
+
+"The Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful
+Information," issued in eighteen hundred and three, contained as its
+only original contribution an article upon General Washington's will,
+"an affecting and most original composition," wrote the editor. This was
+followed seven years later by the well-known "Life of George
+Washington," by M.L. Weems, in which was printed the now famous and
+disputed cherry-tree incident. Its abridged form known to present day
+nursery lore differs from the long drawn out account by Weems, who, like
+Thomas Day, risked being diffuse in his desire to show plainly his
+moral. The last part of the story sufficiently gives his manner of
+writing:
+
+"Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. 'George,' said
+his father, 'do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree
+yonder in the garden?' That was a tough question; and George staggered
+under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself, and looking at his
+father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible
+charm of all conquering truth, he bravely cried out, 'I can't tell a
+lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet!'
+'Run to my arms, you dearest boy,' cried his father in transports, 'run
+to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have
+paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism is worth more
+than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of
+purest gold.'"
+
+Franklin's "Way to Wealth" was considered to be perfectly adapted to all
+children's comprehension, and was issued by various publishers of
+juvenile books. By eighteen hundred and eight it was illustrated and
+sold "with fine engravings for twenty-five cents."
+
+Of patriotic poetry there was much for grown folks, but the "Patriotic
+and Amatory Songster," advertised by S. Avery of Boston about the time
+Weems's biography was published, seems a title ill-suited to the
+juvenile public for whom Avery professed to issue it.
+
+Among the books which may be cited as furnishing instructive amusement
+with less of the admixture of moral purpose was the "London Cries for
+Children," with pictures of street peddlers. This was imitated in
+America by the publication of the "Cries of New York" and "Cries of
+Philadelphia."
+
+In the Lenox Collection there is now one of the various editions of the
+"Cries of New York" (published in 1808), which is valuable both as a
+record of the street life of the old-fashioned town of ninety-six
+thousand inhabitants, and as perhaps the first child's book of purely
+local interest, with original woodcuts very possibly designed and
+engraved by Alexander Anderson.
+
+The "Cries of New York" is of course modelled after the "London Cries,"
+but the account it gives of various incidents in the daily life of old
+New York makes us grateful for the existence of this child's toy. A
+picture of a chimney-sweep, for instance, is copied, with his cry of
+"Sweep, O, O, O, O," from the London book, but the text accompanying it
+is altered to accord with the custom in New York of firing a gun at
+dawn:
+
+"About break of day, after the morning gun is heard from Governor's
+Island, and so through the forenoon, the ears of the citizens are
+greeted with this uncouth sound from figures as unpleasant to the sight,
+clothed in rags and covered with soot--a necessary and suffering class
+of human beings indeed--spending their childhood thus. And in regard to
+the unnecessary bawling of those sooty boys; it is _admirable_ in such a
+noisy place as this, where every needless sound should be hushed, that
+such disagreeable ones should be allowed. The prices for sweeping
+chimneys are--one story houses twelve cents; two stories, eighteen
+cents; three stories, twenty-five cents, and so on."
+
+"Hot Corn" was also cried by children, whose business it was to "gather
+cents, by distributing corn to those who are disposed to regale
+themselves with an ear." Baked pears are pictured as sold "by a little
+black girl, with the pears in an earthen dish under her arm." At the
+same season of the year, "Here's your fine ripe water-melons" also made
+itself heard above the street noises as a street cry of entirely
+American origin. Again there were pictured "Oyster Stands," served by
+negroes, and these were followed by cries of
+
+   "Fine Clams: choice Clams,
+    Here's your Rock-a-way beach
+    Clams: here's your fine
+    Young, sand Clams,"
+
+from Flushing Cove Bay, which the text explains, "turn out as good, or
+perhaps better," than oysters. The introduction of negroes and negro
+children into the illustrations is altogether a novelty, and together
+with the scenes drawn from the street life of the town gave to the
+old-fashioned child its first distinctly American picture-book. Indeed,
+with the exception of this and an occasional illustration in some
+otherwise English reproduction, all the American publishers at this time
+seem to have modelled their wares for small children after those of two
+large London firms, J. Harris, successor to Newbery, and William Darton.
+
+To Darton, the author of "Little Truths," the children were indebted for
+a serious attempt to improve the character of toy-books. A copper-plate
+engraver by profession, Darton's attention was drawn to the scarcity of
+books for children by the discovery that there was not much written for
+them that was worth illustrating. Like Newbery, he set about to make
+books himself, and with John Harvey, also an engraver, he set up in
+Grace Church Street an establishment for printing and publishing, from
+which he supplied, to a great extent, the juvenile books closely
+imitated by American printers. Besides his own compositions, he was very
+alert to encourage promising authors, and through him the famous verses
+of Jane and Ann Taylor were brought into notice. "Original Poems," and
+"Rhymes for the Nursery," by these sisters, were to the old-time child
+what Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verses" is to the modern nursery.
+Darton and Harvey paid ten pounds for the first series of "Original
+Poems," and fifteen pounds for the second; while "Rhymes for the
+Nursery" brought to its authors the unusual sum of twenty pounds. The
+Taylors were the originators of that long series of verses for infants
+which "My Sister" and "My Governess" strove to surpass but never in any
+way equalled, although they apparently met with a fair sale in America.
+
+[Illustration: _Little Nancy_]
+
+Enterprising American booksellers also copied the new ways of
+advertising juvenile books. An instance of this is afforded by Johnson
+and Warner of Philadelphia, who apparently succeeded Jacob and Benjamin
+Johnson, and had, by eighteen hundred and ten, branch shops in Richmond,
+Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. They advertised their "neatly
+executed books of amusement" in book notes in the "Young Gentlemen and
+Ladies' Magazine," by means of digressions from the thread of their
+stories, and sometimes by inserting as frontispiece a rhyme taken from
+one used by John Harris of St. Paul's Churchyard:
+
+   "At JO---- store in Market Street
+    A sure reward good children meet.
+    In coming home the other day
+    I heard a little master say
+    For ev'ry three-pence there he took
+    He had received a little book.
+    With covers neat and cuts so pretty
+    There's not its like in all the city;
+    And that for three-pence he could buy
+    A story book would make one cry;
+    For little more a book of Riddles:
+    Then let us not buy drums and fiddles
+    Nor yet be stopped at pastry cooks',
+    But spend our money all in books;
+    For when we've learnt each bit by heart
+    Mamma will treat us with a tart."
+
+Later, when engraving had become more general in use, William Charles
+cut for an advertisement, as frontispiece to some of his imprints, an
+interior scene containing a shelf of books labelled "W. Charles' Library
+for Little Folks." About the same time another form of advertisement
+came into use. This was the publisher's _Recommendation_, which
+frequently accompanied the narrative in place of a preface. The "Story
+of Little Henry and his Bearer," by Mrs. Sherwood, a writer of many
+English Sunday-school tales, contained the announcement that it was
+"fraught with much useful instruction. It is recommended as an excellent
+thing to be put in the hands of children; and grown persons will find
+themselves well paid for the trouble of reading it."
+
+Little Henry belonged to the Sunday-school type of hero, one whose
+biography Dr. Holmes doubtless avoided when possible. Yet no history of
+toy-books printed presumably for children's amusement as well as
+instruction should omit this favorite story, which represents all others
+of its class of Religion-in-Play books. The following incidents are
+taken from an edition printed by Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston. This
+firm made a special feature of "Books suitable for Presents in
+Sunday-School." They sold wholesale for eight dollars a hundred, such
+tales as Taylor's "Hymns for Infant Minds," "Friendly Instruction,"
+Fenelon's "Reflections," Doddridge's "Principles of the Christian
+Religion," "Pleasures of Piety in Youth," "Walks of Usefulness,"
+"Practical Piety," etc.
+
+The objective point of little Henry's melancholy history was to prove
+the "Usefulness of Female Missionaries," said its editor, Mrs. Cameron,
+a sister of the author, who at the time was herself living in India.
+Mrs. Sherwood based the thread of her story upon the life of a household
+in India, but it winds itself mainly around the conversion of the
+faithful Indian bearer who served five-year-old Henry. This small
+orphan was one of those morbidly religious children who "never said a
+bad word and was vexed when he heard any other person do it." He also,
+although himself "saved by grace," as the phrase then ran in evangelical
+circles, was chronically anxious lest he should offend the Lord. To
+quote verbatim from this relic of the former religious life would savor
+too much of ridiculing those things that were sacred and serious to the
+people of that day. Yet the main incidents of the story were these:
+Henry's conversion took place after a year and a half of hard work on
+the part of a missionary, who finally had the satisfaction of bringing
+little Henry "from the state of grossest heathen darkness and ignorance
+to a competent knowledge of those doctrines necessary to salvation."
+This was followed immediately by the offer of Henry to give all his toys
+for a Bible with a purple morocco cover. Then came the preparations for
+the teacher's departure, when she called him to her room and catechized
+him in a manner worthy of Cotton Mather a century before. After his
+teacher's departure the boy, mindful of the lady's final admonition,
+sought to make a Christian of his bearer, Boosy. Like so many story-book
+parents, Henry's mother was altogether neglectful of her child; and
+consequently he was left much to the care of Boosy--time which he
+improved with "arguments with Boosy concerning the great Creator of
+things." But it is not necessary to follow Henry through his ardent
+missionary efforts to the admission of the black boy of his sinful
+state, nor to the time when the hero was delivered from this evil world.
+Enough has been said to show that the religious child of fiction was not
+very different from little Elizabeth Butcher or Hannah Hill of colonial
+days, whose pious sayings were still read when "Little Henry" was
+introduced to the American child.
+
+Indeed, when Mrs. Sherwood's fictitious children were not sufficiently
+religious to come up to the standard of five-year-old Henry, their
+parents were invariably as pious as the father of the "Fairchild
+Family." This was imported and reprinted for more than one generation as
+a "best seller." It was almost a modernized version of Janeway's "Token
+for Children," with Mather's supplement of "A Token for the Children of
+New England," in its frequent production of death-bed scenes, together
+with painful object lessons upon the sinfulness of every heart. To
+impress such lessons Mr. Fairchild spared his family no sight of horror
+or distress. He even took them to see a man on the gallows, "that," said
+the ingenuous gentleman, "they may love each other with a perfect and
+heavenly love." As the children gazed upon the dreadful object the
+tender father described in detail its every phase, and ended by kneeling
+in prayer. The story of Evelyn in the third chapter was written as the
+result of a present of books from an American _Universalist_, whose
+doctrines Mrs. Sherwood thought likely to be pernicious to children and
+should be controverted as soon as possible. Later, other things
+emanating from America were considered injurious to children, but this
+seems to be the first indication that American ideas were noticed in
+English juvenile literature.
+
+But all this lady's tales were not so lugubrious, and many were immense
+favorites. Children were even named for the hero of the "Little
+Millenium Boy." Publishers frequently sent her orders for books to be
+"written to cuts," and the "Busy Bee," the "Errand Boy," and the "Rose"
+were some of the results of this method of supplying the demand for her
+work. Naturally, Mrs. Sherwood, like Miss Edgeworth, had many imitators,
+but if we could believe the incidents related as true to life, parents
+would seem to have been either very indifferent to their children or
+forever suspicious of them. In Newbery's time it had been thought no sin
+to wear fine buckled shoes, to be genteelly dressed with a wide
+"ribband;" but now the vain child was one who wore a white frock with
+pink sash, towards whom the finger of scorn was pointed, and from whom
+the moral was unfailingly drawn. Vanity was, apparently, an unpardonable
+sin, as when in a "Moral Tale,"
+
+   "Mamma observed the rising lass
+    By stealth retiring to the glass
+    To practise little arts unseen
+    In the true genius of thirteen."
+
+The constant effort to draw a lesson from every action sometimes led to
+overstepping the bounds of truth by the parents themselves, as for
+example in a similar instance of love for a mirror. "What is this I see,
+Harriet?" asked a mother in "Emulation." "Is that the way you employ
+your precious time? I am no longer surprised at the alteration in your
+looks of late, that you have appeared so sickly, have lost your
+complexion; in short I have twenty times been on the point of asking you
+if you are ill. You look shockingly, child."
+
+"I am very well, Mamma, indeed," cried Harriet, quite alarmed.
+
+"Impossible, my dear, you can never look well, while you follow such an
+unwholesome practice. Looking-glasses were never intended for little
+girls, and very few sensible people use them as there is something
+really poisonous in their composition. To use them is not only
+prejudicial to the health but to the disposition."
+
+Although this conception of the use of looking-glasses as prejudicial to
+right living seems to hark back to the views expressed in the old story
+of the "Prodigal Daughter," who sat before a mirror when the Devil made
+his second appearance, yet the world of story-book literature, even
+though its creators were sometimes either careless or ignorant of facts,
+now also emphasized the value of general knowledge, which it endeavored
+to pour in increasing quantity into the nursery. Miss More had started
+the stream of goody-goody books, while Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld,
+and Thomas Day were the originators of the deluge of conversational
+bores, babies, boys, and teachers that threatened to flood the family
+book-shelves of America when the American writers for children came upon
+the scene.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[148-A] As long ago as seventeen hundred and sixty-two, Garrat Noel, a
+Dutch bookseller in New York, advertised that, "according to his Annual
+Custom, he ... provided a very large Assortment of Books ... as proper
+Presents at Christmas." See page 68.
+
+[166-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.
+
+[168-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.
+
+[169-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+1825-1840
+
+
+
+
+    Old story-books! old story-books! we owe you much, old friends,
+    Bright-coloured threads in Memory's warp, of which Death holds the
+      ends.
+    Who can forget? Who can spurn the ministers of joy
+    That waited on the lisping girl and petticoated boy?
+    Talk of your vellum, gold embossed, morocco, roan, and calf;
+    The blue and yellow wraps of old were prettier by half.
+                                                 ELIZA COOKE
+
+    Their works of amusement, when not laden with more religion than the
+    tale can hold in solution, are often admirable.
+                                                _Quarterly Review_, 1843
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+1825-1840
+
+_American Writers and English Critics_
+
+
+It is customary to refer to the early writings of Washington Irving as
+works that marked the time when literature pure and simple developed in
+America. Such writing as had hitherto attracted attention concerned
+itself, not with matters of the imagination, but with facts and theories
+of current and momentous interest. Religion and the affairs of the
+separate commonwealths were uppermost in people's minds in colonial
+days; political warfare and the defence of the policy of Congress
+absorbed attention in Revolutionary times; and later the necessity of
+expounding principles of government and of fostering a national feeling
+produced a literature of fact rather than of fancy.
+
+Gradually all this had changed. A new generation had grown up with more
+leisure for writing and more time to devote to the general culture of
+the public. The English periodical with its purpose of "improving the
+taste, awakening the attention, and amending the heart," had once met
+these requirements. Later on these periodicals had been keenly enjoyed,
+but at the same time there appeared American magazines, modelled after
+them, but largely filled by contributions from literary Americans. Early
+in the nineteenth century such publications were current in most large
+towns. From the short essays and papers in these periodicals to the
+tales of Cooper and Irving the step, after all, was not a long one.
+
+The children's literature of amusement developed, after the end of the
+eighteenth century, in a somewhat similar way, although as usual tagging
+along after that of their parents.
+
+With the constantly increasing population the production of children's
+books grew more profitable, and in eighteen hundred and two Benjamin
+Johnson made an attempt to publish a "Juvenile Magazine" in
+Philadelphia. Its purpose was to be a "Miscellaneous Repository of
+Useful Information;" but the contents were so largely drawn from English
+sources that it was probably, like the toy-books, pirated from an
+English publisher. Indeed, one of the few extant volumes contains only
+one article of distinctly American composition among essays on
+_Education_, the _Choice of a Wife_, _Love_, papers on natural history,
+selections from poems by Coleridge and Cowper; and by anonymous makers
+of verse about _Consumption_ and _Friendship_. The American
+contribution, a discussion of President Washington's will, has already
+been mentioned.
+
+In the same year, 1802, the "Juvenile Olio" was started, edited by
+"Amyntor," but like Johnson's "Juvenile Magazine," was only issued at
+irregular intervals and was short-lived.
+
+Other ventures in children's periodicals continued to be made, however.
+The "Juvenile Magazine," with "Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces
+in Prose and Verse," was compiled by Arthur Donaldson, and sold in
+eighteen hundred and eleven as a monthly in Philadelphia--then the
+literary centre--for twelve and a half cents a number. In eighteen
+hundred and thirteen, in the same city, the "Juvenile Portfolio" made
+its appearance, possibly in imitation of Joseph Dennie's "Port Folio;"
+but it too failed from lack of support and interest.
+
+Boston proved more successful in arousing attention to the possibilities
+in a well-conducted children's periodical, although it was not until
+thirteen years later that Lydia Maria Child established the "Juvenile
+Miscellany for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth." Three numbers
+were issued in 1826, and thereafter it appeared every other month until
+August, 1834, when it was succeeded by a magazine of the same name
+conducted by Sarah J. Hale.
+
+This periodical is a landmark in the history of story-writing for the
+American child. Here at last was an opportunity for the editors to give
+to their subscribers descriptions of cities in their own land in place
+of accounts of palaces in Persia; biographies of national heroes instead
+of incidents in the life of Mahomet; and tales of Indians rather than
+histories of Arabians and Turks. For its pages Mrs. Sigourney, Miss
+Eliza Leslie, Mrs. Wells, Miss Sedgwick, and numerous anonymous
+contributors gladly sent stories of American scenes and incidents which
+were welcomed by parents as well as by children.
+
+In the year following the first appearance of Mrs. Hale's "Juvenile
+Miscellany," the March number is typical of the amusement and
+instruction the editor endeavored to provide. This contained a life of
+Benjamin Franklin (perhaps the earliest child's life of the philosopher
+and statesman), a tale of an Indian massacre of an entire settlement in
+Maine, an essay on memory, a religious episode, and extracts from a
+traveller's journal. The traveller, quite evidently a Bostonian,
+criticised New York in a way not unfamiliar in later days, as a city
+where "the love of literature was less strong than in some other parts
+of the United States;" and then in trying to soften the statement, she
+fell into a comparison with Philadelphia, also made many times since the
+gentle critic observed the difference. "New York," she wrote, "has
+energy, spirit, and bold, lofty enterprise, totally wanting in
+Philadelphia, ... a place of neat, well regulated plans." Also, like the
+English story-book of the previous century, this American "Miscellany"
+introduced _Maxims for a Student_, found, it cheerfully explained,
+"among the manuscripts of a deceased friend." Puzzles and conundrums
+made an entertaining feature, and as the literary _chef d'oeuvre_ was
+inserted a poem supposed to be composed by a babe in South Carolina, but
+of which the author was undoubtedly Mrs. Gilman, whose ideas of a baby's
+ability were certainly not drawn from her own nursery.
+
+A rival to the "Juvenile Miscellany" was the "Youth's Companion,"
+established at this time in Boston by Nathaniel P. Willis and the
+Reverend Asa Rand. The various religious societies also began to issue
+children's magazines for Sunday perusal: the Massachusetts Sunday School
+Union beginning in 1828 the "Sabbath School Times," and other societies
+soon following its example.
+
+"Parley's Magazine," planned by Samuel G. Goodrich and published by
+Lilly, Wait and Company of Boston, ran a successful course of nine years
+from eighteen hundred and thirty-three. The prospectus declared the
+intention of its conductors "to give descriptions of manners, customs,
+and countries, Travels, Voyages, and Adventures in Various parts of the
+world, interesting historical notes, Biography, particularly of young
+persons, original tales, cheerful and pleasing Rhymes, and to issue the
+magazine every fortnight." The popularity of the name of Peter Parley
+insured a goodly number of subscriptions from the beginning, and the
+life of "Parley's Magazine" was somewhat longer than any of its
+predecessors.
+
+In the south the idea of issuing a juvenile magazine was taken up by a
+firm in Charleston, and the "Rose Bud" was started in eighteen hundred
+and thirty. The "Rose Bud," a weekly, was largely the result of the
+success of the "Juvenile Miscellany," as the editor of the southern
+paper, Mrs. Gilman, was a valued contributor to the "Miscellany," and
+had been encouraged in her plan of a paper for children of the south by
+the Boston conductors of the northern periodical.
+
+Mrs. Gilman was born in Boston, and at sixteen years of age had
+published a poem most favorably criticised at the time. Marrying a
+clergyman who settled in Charleston, she continued her literary work,
+but was best known to our grandmothers as the author of "Recollections
+of a New England Housekeeper." The "Rose Bud" soon blossomed into the
+"Southern Rose," a family paper, but faded away in 1839.
+
+Among other juvenile weeklies of the time may be mentioned the "Juvenile
+Rambler" and the "Hive," which are chiefly interesting by reason of the
+opportunity their columns offered to youthful contributors.
+
+Another series of "miscellaneous repositories" for the instructive
+enjoyment of little people was furnished by the Annuals of the period.
+These, of course, were modelled after the adult Annuals revolving in
+social circles and adorning the marble-topped tables of drawing-rooms in
+both England and America.
+
+Issued at the Christmas and New Year seasons, these children's Annuals
+formed the conventional gift-book for many years, and publishers spared
+no effort to make them attractive. Indeed, their red morocco, silk, or
+embossed scarlet cloth bindings form a cheerful contrast to the dreary
+array of black and drab cloth covering the fiction of both old and
+young. Better illustrations were also introduced than the ugly cuts
+"adorning" the other books for juvenile readers. Oliver Pelton, Joseph
+Andrews (who ranked well as an engraver), Elisha Gallaudet, Joseph G.
+Kellogg, Joseph I. Pease, and Thomas Illman were among the workers in
+line-engraving whose early work served to illustrate, often
+delightfully, these popular collections of children's stories.
+
+Among the "Annualettes," "Keepsakes," "Evening Hours," and "Infant's
+Hours" published at intervals after eighteen hundred and twenty-five the
+"Token" stands preëminent. Edited by Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley)
+between the years eighteen hundred and twenty-eight and eighteen hundred
+and forty-two, its contents and illustrations were almost entirely
+American. Edward Everett, Bishop Doane, A.H. Everett, John Quincy Adams,
+Longfellow, Hawthorne, Miss Sedgwick, Eliza Leslie, Dr. Holmes, Horace
+Greeley, James T. Fields, and Gulian Verplanck--all were called upon to
+make the "Token" an annual treat to children. Of the many stories
+written for it, only Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales" survive; but the
+long list of contributors of mark in American literature cannot be
+surpassed to-day by any child's book by contemporary authors. The
+contents, although written in the style of eighty years ago, are
+undoubtedly good from a literary standpoint, however out of date their
+story-telling qualities may be. And, moreover, the "Token" assuredly
+gave pleasure to the public for which its yearly publication was made.
+
+[Illustration: _Children of the Cottage_]
+
+By eighteen hundred and thirty-five the "Annual" was in full swing as a
+popular publication. Then an international book was issued, "The
+American Juvenile Keepsake," edited by Mrs. Hofland, the well-known
+writer of English stories for children. Mrs. Hofland cried up her wares
+in a manner quite different from that of the earlier literary ladies.
+"My table of contents," she wrote in her introduction, "exhibits a list
+of names not exceeded in reputation by any preceding Juvenile Annual;
+for, although got up with a celerity almost distressing in the hurry it
+imposed, such has been the kindness of my literary friends, that they
+have left me little more to wish for." Among the English contributors
+were Miss Mitford, Miss Jean Roberts, Miss Browne, and Mrs. Hall, the
+ablest writers for English children, and already familiar to American
+households.
+
+Mrs. Hofland, herself, wrote one of its stories, noteworthy as an early
+attempt of an English author to write for an American juvenile public.
+She found her theme in the movement of emigration strong in England just
+then among the laboring people. No amount of discouragement and bitter
+criticism of the United States by the British press was sufficient to
+stem appreciably the tide of laborers that flowed towards the country
+whence came information of better wages and more work. Mrs. Hofland,
+although writing for little Americans, could not wholly resist the
+customary fling at American life and society. She acknowledged, however,
+that long residence altered first impressions and brought out the kernel
+of American character, whose husk only was visible to sojourners. She
+deplored the fact that "gay English girls used only to the polished
+society of London were likely to return with the impression that the men
+were rude and women frivolous." This impression the author was inclined
+to believe unjust, yet deemed it wise, because of the incredulous
+(perhaps even in America!), to back her own opinion by a note saying
+that this view was also shared by a valued friend who had lived fourteen
+years in Raleigh, South Carolina.
+
+Having thus done justice, in her own eyes, to conditions in the new
+country, Mrs. Hofland, launched the laborer's family upon the sea, and
+followed their travels from New York to Lexington, Kentucky, at that
+time a land unknown to the average American child beyond some hazy
+association with the name of Daniel Boone. It was thus comparatively
+safe ground on which to place the struggles of the immigrants, who
+prospered because of their English thrift and were an example to the
+former residents. Of course the son grew up to prove a blessing to the
+community, and eventually, like the heroes in old Isaiah Thomas's
+adaptations of Newbery's good boys, was chosen Congressman.
+
+There is another point of interest in connection with this English
+author's tale. Whether consciously or not, it is a very good imitation
+of Peter Parley's method of travelling with his characters in various
+lands or over new country. It is, perhaps, the first instance in the
+history of children's literature of an American story-writer influencing
+the English writer of juvenile fiction. And it was not the only time. So
+popular and profitable did Goodrich's style of story become that
+somewhat later the frequent attempts to exploit anonymously and
+profitably his pseudonymn in England as well as in America were loudly
+lamented by the originator of the "Tales of Peter Parley." It is,
+moreover, suggestive of the gradual change in the relations between the
+two countries that anything written in America was thought worth
+imitating. America, indeed, was beginning to supply incidents around
+which to weave stories for British children and tales altogether made at
+home for her own little readers.
+
+In the same volume Mrs. S.C. Hall also boldly attempted to place her
+heroine in American surroundings. Philadelphia was the scene chosen for
+her tale; but, having flattered her readers by this concession to their
+sympathies and interest, the author was still sufficiently insular to
+doubt the existence of a competent local physician in this the earliest
+medical centre in the United States. An English family had come to make
+their home in the city, where the mother's illness necessitated the
+attendance of a French doctor to make a correct diagnosis of her case.
+An operation was advised, which the mother, Mrs. Allen, hesitated to
+undergo in an unknown land. Emily, the fourteen-year-old daughter, urged
+her not to delay, as she felt quite competent to be in attendance,
+having had "five teeth drawn without screaming; nursed a brother through
+the whooping-cough and a sister through the measles."
+
+"Ma foi, Mademoiselle," said the French doctor, "you are very heroic;
+why, let me see, you talk of being present at an operation, which I
+would not hardly suffer my junior pupils to attend."
+
+"Put," said the heroic damsel, "my resolution, sir, to any test you
+please; draw one, two, three teeth, I will not flinch." And this courage
+the writer thought could not be surpassed in a London child. It is
+needless to say that Emily's fortitude was sufficient to endure the
+sight of her mother's suffering, and to nurse her to complete recovery.
+Evidently residence in America had not yet sapped the young girl's moral
+strength, or reduced her to the frivolous creature an American woman was
+reputed in England to be.
+
+Among the home contributors to "The American Juvenile Keepsake" were
+William L. Stone, who wrote a prosy article about animals; and Mrs.
+Embury, called the Mitford of America (because of her stories of village
+life), who furnished a religious tale to controvert the infidel
+doctrines considered at the time subtly undermining to childish faith,
+with probable reference to the Unitarian movement then gaining many
+adherents. Mrs. Embury's stories were so generally gloomy, being
+strongly tinged with the melancholy religious views of certain church
+denominations, that one would suppose them to have been eminently
+successful in turning children away from the faith she sought to
+encourage. For this "Keepsake" the same lady let her poetical fancy take
+flight in "The Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh," a somewhat lugubrious
+and pessimistic subject for a child's Christmas Annual. Occasionally a
+more cheerful mood possessed "Ianthe," as she chose to call herself, and
+then we have some of the earliest descriptions of country life in
+literature for American children. There is one especially charming
+picture of a walk in New England woods upon a crisp October day, when
+the children merrily hunt for chestnuts among the dry brown leaves,
+and the squirrels play above their heads in the many colored boughs.
+
+[Illustration: _Henrietta_]
+
+Dr. Holmes has somewhere remarked upon the total lack of American nature
+descriptions in the literature of his boyhood. No birds familiar to him
+were ever mentioned; nor were the flowers such as a New England child
+could ever gather. Only English larks and linnets, cowslips and
+hawthorn, were to be found in the toy-books and little histories read to
+him. "Everything was British: even the robin, a domestic bird," wrote
+the doctor, "instead of a great fidgety, jerky, whooping thrush." But
+when Peter Parley, Jacob Abbott, Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. Embury, and
+Eliza Leslie began to write short stories, the Annuals and periodicals
+abounded in American scenes and local color.
+
+There was also another great incentive for writers to work for children.
+This was the demand made for stories from the American Sunday School
+Union, whose influence upon the character of juvenile literature was a
+force bearing upon the various writers, and whose growth was coincident
+with the development of the children's periodical literature.
+
+The American Sunday School Union, an outgrowth of the several religious
+publication societies, in eighteen hundred and twenty-four began to do
+more extensive work, and therefore formed a committee to judge and
+pronounce upon all manuscripts, which American writers were asked to
+submit.
+
+The sessions of the Sunday-schools were no longer held for illiterate
+children only. The younger members of each parish or church were found
+upon its benches each Sunday morning or afternoon. To promote and to
+impress the religious teaching in these schools, rewards were offered
+for well-prepared lessons and regular attendance. Also the scholars were
+encouraged to use the Sunday-school library. For these different
+purposes many books were needed, but naturally only those stamped with
+the approval of the clergyman in charge were circulated.
+
+The board of publication appointed by the American Sunday School
+Union--composed chiefly of clergymen of certain denominations--passed
+upon the merits of the many manuscripts sent in by piously inclined
+persons, and edited such of them as proved acceptable. The marginal
+notes on the pages of the first edition of an old Sunday-school favorite
+bear witness to the painstaking care of the editors that the leaflets,
+tracts, and stories poured in from all parts of the country should
+"shine by reason of the truth contained," and "avoid the least
+appearance, the most indirect insinuations, of anything which can
+militate against the strictest ideas of propriety." The tales had also
+to keep absolutely within the bounds of religion. Many were the stories
+found lacking in direct religious teaching, or returned because religion
+was not vitally connected with the plot, to be rewritten or sent
+elsewhere for publication.
+
+The hundreds of stories turned out in what soon became a mechanical
+fashion were of two patterns: the one of the good child, a constant
+attendant upon Sabbath School and Divine Worship, but who died young
+after converting parent or worldly friend during a painful illness; the
+other of the unregenerate youth, who turned away from the godly
+admonition of mother and clergyman, refused to attend Sunday-school,
+and consequently fell into evil ways leading to the thief's or
+drunkard's grave. Often a sick mother was introduced to claim emotional
+attention, or to use as a lay figure upon which to drape Scripture texts
+as fearful warnings to the black sheep of the family. Indeed, the little
+reader no sooner began to enjoy the tale of some sweet and gentle girl,
+or to delight in the mischievous boy, than he was called upon to reflect
+that early piety portended an early death, and youthful pranks led to a
+miserable old age. Neither prospect offered much encouragement to hope
+for a happy life, and from conversations with those brought up on this
+form of religious culture, it is certain that if a child escaped without
+becoming morbid and neurotic, there were dark and secret resolves to
+risk the unpleasant future in favor of a happy present.
+
+The stories, too, presented a somewhat paradoxical familiarity with the
+ways of a mysterious Providence. This was exceedingly perplexing to the
+thoughtful child, whose queries as to justice were too often hushed by
+parent or teacher. In real life, every child expected, even if he did
+not receive, a tangible reward for doing the right thing; but
+Providence, according to these authors, immediately caused a good child
+to become ill unto death. It is not a matter for surprise that the
+healthy-minded, vigorous child often turned in disgust from the
+Sunday-school library to search for Cooper's tales of adventure on his
+father's book-shelves.
+
+The correct and approved child's story, even if not issued under
+religious auspices, was thoroughly saturated with religion. Whatever may
+have been the practice of parents in regard to their own reading, they
+wished that of the nursery to show not only an educational and moral,
+but a religious tendency. The books for American children therefore
+divided themselves into three classes: the denominational story, to set
+forth the doctrines of one church; the educational tale; and the moral
+narrative of American life.
+
+The denominational stories produced by the several Sunday-school
+societies were, as has been said, only a kind of scaffolding upon which
+to build the teachings of the various churches. But their sale was
+enormous, and a factor to be reckoned with because of their influence
+upon the educational and moral tales of their period. By eighteen
+hundred and twenty-seven, fifty-thousand books and tracts had been sent
+out by one Sunday-school society alone.[204-A] There are few things more
+remarkable in the history of juvenile literature than the growth of the
+business of the American Sunday School Union. By eighteen hundred and
+twenty-eight it had issued over seven hundred of these religious
+trifles, varying from a sixteen-page duodecimo to a small octavo volume;
+and most of these appear to have been written by Americans trying their
+inexperienced pens upon a form of literature not then recognized as
+difficult. The influence of such a flood of tiny books could hardly have
+been other than morbid, although occasionally there floated down the
+stream duodecimos which were grasped by little readers with eagerness.
+Such volumes, one reader of bygone Sunday-school books tells us,
+glimmered from the dark depths of death and prison scenes, and were
+passed along with whispered recommendation until their well-worn covers
+attracted the eye of the teacher, and were quickly found to be missing
+from library shelves. Others were commended in their stead, such as
+described the city boy showing the country cousin the town sights, with
+most edifying conversation as to their history; or, again, amusement of
+a light and alluring character was presumably to be found in the story
+of a little maid who sat upon a footstool at her mother's knee, and
+while she hemmed the four sides of a handkerchief, listened to the
+account of missionary enterprises in the dark corners of the earth.
+
+To us of to-day the small illustrations are perhaps the most interesting
+feature, preserving as they do children's occupations and costumes. In
+one book we see quaintly frocked and pantaletted girls and much buttoned
+boys in Sunday-school. In another, entitled "Election Day," are pictured
+two little lads watching, from the square in front of Independence Hall,
+the handing in of votes for the President through a window of the famous
+building--a picture that emphasizes the change in methods of casting the
+ballot since eighteen hundred and twenty-eight.
+
+That engravers were not always successful when called upon to embellish
+the pages of the Sunday-school books, many of them easily prove. That
+the designers of woodcuts were sometimes lacking in imagination when
+obliged to depict Bible verses can have no better example than the
+favorite vignette on title-pages portraying "My soul doth magnify the
+Lord" as a man with a magnifying glass held over a blank space. Perhaps
+equal in lack of imagination was the often repeated frontispiece of
+"Mercy streaming from the Cross," illustrated by a large cross with an
+effulgent rain beating upon the luxuriant tresses of a languishing lady.
+There were many pictures but little art in the old-fashioned
+Sunday-school library books.
+
+It was in Philadelphia that one of the first, if not the first
+children's library was incorporated in 1827 as the Apprentices' Library.
+Eleven years later this library contained more than two thousand books,
+and had seven hundred children as patrons. The catalogue of that year is
+indicative of the prevalence of the Sunday-school book. "Adventures of
+Lot" precedes the "Affectionate Daughter-in-Law," which is followed by
+"Anecdotes of Christian Missions" and "An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners."
+Turning the yellowed pages, we find "Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive,"
+histories of Bible worthies, the "Infidel Class," "Little Deceiver
+Reclaimed," "Letters to Little Children," "Juvenile Piety," and
+"Julianna Oakley." The bookish child of this decade could not escape
+from the "Reformed Family" and the consumptive little Christian, except
+by taking refuge in the parents' novels, collections of the British
+poets and essayists, and the constantly increasing American writings for
+adults. Perhaps in this way the Sunday-school books may be counted among
+that long list of such things as are commonly called blessings in
+disguise.
+
+[Illustration: _A Child and her Doll_]
+
+Aside from the strictly religious tale, the contents of the now
+considerable output of Harper and Brothers, Mahlon Day, Samuel Wood and
+Sons of New York; Cottons and Barnard, Lincoln and Edmunds, Lilly, Wait
+and Company, Munroe and Francis of Boston; Matthew Carey, Conrad and
+Parsons, Morgan and Sons, and Thomas T. Ashe of Philadelphia--to
+mention but a few of the publishers of juvenile novelties--are
+convincing proof that booksellers catered to the demand for stories with
+a strong religious bias. The "New York Weekly," indeed, called attention
+to Day's books as "maintaining an unbroken tendency to virtue and
+piety."
+
+When not impossibly pious, these children of anonymous fiction were
+either insufferable prigs with a steel moral code, or so ill-bred as to
+be equally impossible and unnatural. The favorite plan of their creators
+was to follow Miss Edgeworth's device of contrasting the good and
+naughty infant. The children, too, were often cousins: one, for example,
+was the son of a gentleman who in his choice of a wife was influenced by
+strict religious principles; the other boy inherited his disposition
+from his mother, a lady of bland manners and fine external appearance,
+but who failed to establish in her offspring "correct principles of
+virtue, religion, and morality." The author paused at this point in the
+narrative to discuss the frailties of the lady, before resuming its
+slender thread. Who to-day could wade through with children the
+good-goody books of that generation?
+
+Happily, many of the writers for little ones chose to be unknown, for it
+would be ungenerous to disparage by name these ladies who considered
+their productions edifying, and in their ingenuousness never dreamed
+that their stories were devoid of every quality that makes a child's
+book of value to the child. They were literally unconscious that their
+tales lacked that simplicity and directness in style, and they
+themselves that knowledge of human nature, absolutely necessary to
+construct a pleasing and profitable story. The watchwords of these
+painstaking ladies were "religion, virtue, and morality," and heedless
+of everything else, they found oblivion in most cases before they gained
+recognition from the public they longed to influence.
+
+The decade following eighteen hundred and thirty brought prominently to
+the foreground six American authors among the many who occasioned brief
+notice. Of these writers two were men and four were women. Jacob Abbott
+and Samuel G. Goodrich wrote the educational tales, Abbott largely for
+the nursery, while Goodrich devoted his attention mainly to books for
+the little lads at school. The four women, Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Miss
+Eliza Leslie, Miss Catharine Sedgwick, and Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney,
+wrote mainly for girls, and took American life as their subject. Mrs.
+Hale wrote much for adults, but when editor of the "Juvenile
+Miscellany," she made various contributions to it. Yet to-day we know
+her only by one of her "Poems for Children," published in Boston in
+eighteen hundred and thirty--"Mary had a Little Lamb."
+
+Mary's lamb has travelled much farther than to school, and has even
+reached that point when its authorship has been disputed. Quite recently
+in the "Century Magazine" Mrs. Hale's claim to its composition has been
+set forth at some length by Mr. Richard W. Hale, who shows clearly her
+desire when more than ninety years of age to be recognized as the
+originator of these verses, In fact, "shortly before her death," wrote
+Mr. Hale, "she directed her son to write emphatically that every poem in
+her book of eighteen hundred and thirty was of her own composition."
+Although rarely seen in print, "Mary had a Little Lamb" has outlived
+all other nursery rhymes of its day; perhaps because it had most truly
+the quality, unusual at the time, of being told directly and simply--a
+quality, indeed, that appeals to every generation.
+
+Miss Leslie, like Mrs. Hale, did much editing, beginning on adult
+gift-books and collections of housewife's receipts, and then giving most
+of her attention to juvenile literature. As editor Miss Leslie did good
+work on the "Violet" and the "Pearl," both gift-books for children. She
+also abridged, edited, and rewrote "The Wonderful Traveller," and the
+adventures of Munchausen, Gulliver, and Sindbad, heroes often
+disregarded by this period of lack of imagination and over-supply of
+educational theories. Also, as a writer of stories for little girls and
+school-maidens, Eliza Leslie met with warm approval on both sides of the
+Atlantic.
+
+Undoubtedly the success of Eliza Leslie's "American Girls' Book,"
+modelled after the English "Boy's Own Book," and published in 1831,
+added to the popularity attained by her earlier work, although of this
+she was but the compiler.
+
+The "American Girls' Book" was intended for little girls, and by
+dialogue, the prevailing mode of conveying instruction or amusement,
+numerous games and plays were described. Already many of the pastimes
+have gone out of fashion. "Lady Queen Anne" and "Robin's Alive," "a
+dangerous game with a lighted stick," are altogether unknown; "Track the
+Rabbit" has changed its name to "Fox and Geese;" "Hot Buttered Beans"
+has found a substitute in "Hunt the Thimble;" and "Stir the Mush" has
+given place to "Going to Jerusalem."
+
+But Miss Leslie did more than preserve for us these old-fashioned
+games. She has left sketches of children's ways and nature in her
+various stories for little people. She shared, of course, in the habit
+of moralizing characteristic of her day, but her children are childish,
+and her heroines are full of the whims, and have truly the pleasures and
+natural emotions, of real children.
+
+Miss Leslie began her work for children in eighteen hundred and
+twenty-seven, when "Atlantic Stories" were published, and as her
+sketches of child-life appeared one after another, her pen grew more
+sure in its delineation of characters and her talent was speedily
+recognized. Even now "Birthday Stories" are worth reading and treasuring
+because of the pictures of family life eighty years ago. The "Souvenir,"
+for example, is a Christmas tale of old Philadelphia; the "Cadet's
+Sister" sketches life at West Point, where the author's brother had been
+a student; while the "Launch of the Frigate" and "Anthony and Clara"
+tell of customs and amusements quite passed away. The charming
+description of children shopping for their simple Christmas gifts, the
+narrative of the boys who paid a poor lad in a bookstore to ornament
+their "writing-pieces" for more "respectable presents" to parents, the
+quiet celebration of the day itself, can ill be spared from the history
+of child life and diversions in America. It is well to be reminded, in
+these days of complex and expensive amusements, of some of the saner and
+simpler pleasures enjoyed by children in Miss Leslie's lifetime.
+
+All of this writer's books, moreover, have some real interest, whether
+it be "Althea Vernon," with the description of summer life and fashions
+at Far Rockaway (New York's Manhattan Beach of 1830), or "Henrietta
+Harrison," with its sarcastic reference to the fashionable school where
+the pupils could sing French songs and Italian operas, but could not be
+sure of the notes of "Hail Columbia." Or again, the account is worth
+reading of the heroine's trip to New York from Philadelphia. "Simply
+habited in a plaid silk frock and Thibet shawl," little Henrietta
+starts, under her uncle's protection, at five o'clock in the morning to
+take the boat for Bordentown, New Jersey. There she has her first
+experience of a railway train, and looks out of the window "at all the
+velocity of the train will allow her to see." At Heightstown small
+children meet the train with fruit and cakes to sell to hungry
+travellers. And finally comes the wonderful voyage from Amboy to the
+Battery in New York, which is not reached until night has fallen.
+
+This is the simple explanation as to why Eliza Leslie's books met with
+so generous a reception: they were full of the incidents which children
+love, and unusually free from the affectations of the pious fictitious
+heroine.
+
+The stories of Miss Catharine Sedgwick also received most favorable
+criticism, and in point of style were certainly better than Miss
+Leslie's. Her reputation as a literary woman was more than national, and
+"Redwood," one of her best novels, was attributed in France to Fenimore
+Cooper, when it appeared anonymously in eighteen hundred and
+twenty-four. Miss Sedgwick's novels, however, pass out of nursery
+comprehension in the first chapters, although these were full of a
+healthy New England atmosphere, with coasting parties and picnics,
+Indians and gypsies, nowhere else better described. The same tone
+pervades her contributions to the "Juvenile Miscellany," the "Token,"
+and the "Youth's Keepsake," together with her best-known children's
+books, "Stories for Children," "A Well Spent Hour," and "A Love Token
+for Children."
+
+In contrast to Mrs. Sherwood's still popular "Fairchild Family,"
+Catharine Sedgwick's stories breathe a sunny, invigorating atmosphere,
+abounding in local incidents, and vigorous in delineation of types then
+plentiful in New England. "She has fallen," wrote one admirer, most
+truthfully, in the "North American Review" of 1827,--"she has fallen
+upon the view, from which the treasures of our future literature are to
+be wrought. A literature to have real freshness must be moulded by the
+influences of the society where it had its origin. Letters thrive, when
+they are at home in the soil. Miss Sedgwick's imaginations have such
+vigor and bloom because they are not exotics." Another reviewer, aroused
+by English criticism of the social life in America, and full of the much
+vaunted theory that "all men are equal," rejoiced in the author's
+attitude towards the so-called "help" in New England families in
+contrast to Miss More's portrayal of the English child's condescension
+towards inferiors, which he thought unsuitable to set before the
+children in America.
+
+All Miss Sedgwick's stories were the product of her own keen
+intelligence and observation, and not written in imitation of Miss More,
+Miss Edgeworth, or Mrs. Sherwood, as were the anonymous tales of "Little
+Lucy; or, the Pleasant Day," or "Little Helen; a Day in the Life of a
+Naughty Girl." They preached, indeed, at length, but the preaching
+could be skipped by interested readers, and unlike the work of many
+contemporaries, there was always a thread to take up.
+
+Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, another favorite contributor to magazines,
+collected her "Poetry for Children" into a volume bearing this title, in
+eighteen hundred and thirty-four, and published "Tales and Essays" in
+the same year. These were followed two years later by "Olive Buds," and
+thereafter at intervals she brought out several other books, none of
+which have now any interest except as examples of juvenile literature
+that had once a decided vogue and could safely be bought for the
+Sunday-school library.
+
+The names of Mrs. Anna M. Wells, Mrs. Frances S. Osgood, Mrs. Farrar,
+Mrs. Eliza L. Follen, and Mrs. Seba Smith were all well beloved by
+children eighty years ago, and their writings, if long since lost sight
+of, at least added their quota to the children's publications which were
+distinctly American.
+
+If the quantity of books sold is any indication of the popularity of an
+author's work, nothing produced by any of these ladies is to be compared
+with the "Tales of Peter Parley" and the "Rollo Books" of Jacob Abbott.
+
+The tendency to instruct while endeavoring to entertain was remodelled
+by these men, who in after years had a host of imitators. Great visions
+of good to children had overtaken dreams of making children good, with
+the result that William Darton's conversational method of instruction
+was compounded with Miss Edgeworth's educational theories and elaborated
+after the manner of Hannah More. Samuel Goodrich, at least, confessed
+that his many tales were the direct result of a conversation with Miss
+More, whom, because of his admiration for her books, he made an effort
+to meet when in England in eighteen hundred and twenty-three. While
+talking with the old lady about her "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," the
+idea came to Mr. Goodrich that he, himself, might write for American
+children and make good use of her method of introducing much detail in
+description. As a child he had not found the few toy-books within his
+reach either amusing or interesting, with the exception of this
+Englishwoman's writings. He resolved that the growing generation should
+be better served, but little dreamed of the unprecedented success, as
+far as popularity was concerned, that the result of his determination
+would prove.
+
+After his return to America, the immediate favorable reception of the
+"Token," under Goodrich's direction, led to the publication in the same
+year (1828) of "Peter Parley's Tales about America," followed by "Tales
+about Europe." At this date of retrospection the first volume seems in
+many ways the best of any of the numerous books by the same author. The
+boy hero, taken as a child companion upon a journey through several
+states, met with adventures among Indians upon the frontiers, and saw
+places of historical significance. Every incident is told in imitation
+of Miss More, with that detailed description which Goodrich had found so
+fascinating. If a little overdone in this respect, the narrative has
+certainly a freshness sadly deficient in many later volumes. Even the
+second tale seems to lack the engaging spontaneity of the first, and
+already to grow didactic and recitative rather than personal. But both
+met with an equally generous and appreciative reception. Parley's
+educational tales were undoubtedly the American pioneers in what may be
+readily styled the "travelogue" manner used in later years by Elbridge
+Brooks and many other writers for little people. These early attempts of
+Parley's to educate the young reader were followed by one hundred
+others, which sold like hot cakes. Of some tales the sales reached a
+total of fifty thousand in one year, while it is estimated that seven
+million of Peter Parley's "Histories" and "Tales" were sold before the
+admiration of their style and qualities waned.
+
+Peter Parley took his heroes far afield. Jacob Abbott adopted another
+plan of instruction in the majority of his books. Beginning in eighteen
+hundred and thirty-four with the "Young Christian Series," the Reverend
+Mr. Abbott soon had readers in England, Scotland, Germany, France,
+Holland, and India, where many of his volumes were translated and
+republished. In the "Rollo Books" and "Franconia" an attempt was made to
+answer many of the questions that children of each century pour out to
+astonish and confound their elders. The child reader saw nothing
+incongruous in the remarkable wisdom and maturity of Mary Bell and
+Beechnut, who could give advice and information with equal glibness. The
+advice, moreover, was often worth following, and the knowledge
+occasionally worth having; and the little one swallowed chunks of morals
+and morsels of learning without realizing that he was doing so. Most of
+both was speedily forgotten, but many adults in after years were
+unconsciously indebted to Goodrich and Abbott for some familiarity with
+foreign countries, some interest in natural science.
+
+Notwithstanding the immense demand for American stories, there was
+fortunately still some doubt as to whether this remodelled form of
+instructive amusement and moral story-book literature did not lack
+certain wholesome features characteristic of the days when fairies and
+folklore, and Newbery's gilt volumes, had plenty of room on the nursery
+table. "I cannot very well tell," wrote the editor of the "Fairy
+Book"[216-A] in 1836,--"I cannot very well tell why it is that the good
+old histories and tales, which used to be given to young people for
+their amusement and instruction, as soon as they could read, have of
+late years gone quite out of fashion in this country. In former days
+there was a worthy English bookseller, one Mr. Newbery, who used to
+print thousands of nice little volumes of such stories, which, as he
+solemnly declared in print in the books themselves, he gave away to all
+little boys and girls, charging them only a sixpenny for the gold
+covers. These of course no one could be so unreasonable as to wish him
+to furnish at his own expense.... Yet in the last generation, American
+boys and girls (the fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers
+of the present generation) were not wholly dependent upon Mr. Newbery of
+St. Paul's church-yard, though they knew him well and loved him much.
+The great Benjamin Franklin, when a printer in Philadelphia, did not
+disdain to print divers of Newbery's books adorned with cuts in the
+likeness of his, though it must be confessed somewhat inferior.[216-B]
+Yet rude as they were, they were probably the first things in the way of
+pictures that West and Copley ever beheld, and so instilled into those
+future painters, the rudiments of that art by which they afterwards
+became so eminent themselves, and conferred such honour upon their
+native country. In somewhat later time there were the worthy Hugh Gaine,
+at the Sign of the Bible and Crown in Pearl street, and the patriotic
+Samuel Loudon, and the genuine and unadulterated New Yorker, Evert
+Duyckinck, besides others in Boston and Philadelphia, who trod in the
+steps of Newbery, and supplied the infant mind with its first and
+sweetest literary food. The munificent Newbery, and the pious and loyal
+Hugh Gaine, and the patriotic Samuel Loudon are departed. Banks now
+abound and brokers swarm where Loudon erst printed, and many millions
+worth of silk and woolen goods are every year sold where Gaine vended
+his big Bibles and his little story-books. They are all gone; the
+glittering covers and their more brilliant contents, the tales of wonder
+and enchantment, the father's best reward for merit, the good
+grandmother's most prized presents. They are gone--the cheap delight of
+childhood, the unbought grace of boyhood, the dearest, freshest, and
+most unfading recollections of maturer life. They are gone--and in their
+stead has succeeded a swarm of geological catechisms, entomological
+primers, and tales of political economy--dismal trash, all of them;
+something half-way between stupid story-books and bad school-books;
+being so ingeniously written as to be unfit for any useful purpose in
+school and too dull for any entertainment out of it."
+
+This is practically Charles Lamb's lament of some thirty years before.
+Lamb had despised the learned Charles, Mrs. Barbauld's peg upon which
+to hang instruction, and now an American Shakespeare lover found the use
+of toy-books as mechanical guides to knowledge for nursery inmates
+equally deplorable.
+
+Yet an age so in love with the acquirement of solid facts as to produce
+a Parley and an Abbott was the period when the most famous of all
+nursery books was brought out from the dark corner into which it had
+been swept by the theories of two generations, and presented once again
+as "The Only True Mother Goose Melodies."
+
+The origin of Mother Goose as the protecting genius of the various
+familiar jingles has been an interesting field of speculation and
+research. The claim for Boston as the birthplace of their sponsor has
+long ago been proved a poor one, and now seems likely to have been an
+ingenious form of advertisement. But Boston undoubtedly did once again
+make popular, at least in America, the lullabies and rhymes repeated for
+centuries around French or English firesides.
+
+The history of Mother Goose and her brood is a long one. "Mother Goose,"
+writes Mr. Walter T. Field, "began her existence as the raconteuse of
+fairy tales, not as the nursery poetess. As La Mère Oye she told stories
+to French children more than two hundred and fifty years ago." According
+to the researches made by Mr. Field in the literature of Mother Goose,
+"the earliest date at which Mother Goose appears as the author of
+children's stories is 1667, when Charles Perrault, a distinguished
+French littérateur, published in Paris a little book of tales which he
+had during that and the preceding year contributed to a magazine known
+as 'Moejen's Recueil,' printed at The Hague. This book is entitled
+'Histoires ou Contes du Tems Passé, avec des Moralitez,' and has a
+frontispiece in which an old woman is pictured, telling stories to a
+family group by the fireside while in the background are the words in
+large characters, 'Contes de ma Mère l'Oye.'"
+
+It seems, however, to have been John Newbery's publishing-house that
+made Mother Goose sponsor for the ditties in much the form in which we
+now have them. In Newbery's collection of "Melodies" there were numerous
+footnotes burlesquing Dr. Johnson and his dictionary, together with
+jests upon the moralizing habit prevalent among authors. There is
+evidence that Goldsmith wrote many of these notes when doing hack-work
+for the famous publisher in St. Paul's Churchyard. It is known, for
+instance, that in January, 1760, Goldsmith celebrated the production of
+his "Good Natur'd Man" by dining his friends at an inn. During the feast
+he sang his favorite song, said to be
+
+   "There was an old woman tos't up in a blanket,
+    Seventy times as high as the moon."
+
+This was introduced quite irrelevantly in the preface to "Mother Goose's
+Melodies," but with the apology that it was a favorite with the editor.
+There is also the often quoted remark of Miss Hawkins as confirming
+Goldsmith's editorship: "I little thought what I should have to boast,
+when Goldsmith taught me to play Jack and Jill, by two bits of paper on
+his fingers." But neither of these statements seems to have more weight
+in solving the mystery of the editor's name than the evidence of the
+whimsically satirical notes themselves. How like the author of the
+"Vicar of Wakefield" and the children's "Fables in Verse" is this
+remark underneath:
+
+    "'There was an old Woman who liv'd under a hill,
+     And if she's not gone, she lives there still.'
+
+     "This is a self evident Proposition, which is the very essence of
+     Truth. She lived under the hill, and if she's not gone, she lives
+     there still. Nobody will presume to contradict this. _Croesa._"
+
+And is not this also a good-natured imitation of that kind of seriously
+intended information which Mr. Edgeworth inserted some thirty years
+later in "Harry and Lucy:" "Dry, what is not wet"? Again this note is
+appended to
+
+   "See Saw Margery Daw
+    Jacky shall have a new master:"
+
+"It is a mean and scandalous Practise in Authors to put Notes to Things
+that deserve no Notice." Who except Goldsmith was capable of this vein
+of humor?
+
+When Munroe and Francis in Boston undertook about eighteen hundred and
+twenty-four to republish these old-fashioned rhymes, in the practice of
+the current theory that everything must be simplified, they omitted all
+these notes and changed many of the "Melodies." Sir Walter Scott's
+"Donnel Dhu" was included, and the beautiful Shakespeare selections,
+"When Daffodils begin to 'pear," "When the Bee sucks," etc., were
+omitted. Doubtless the American editors thought that they had vastly
+improved upon the Newbery publication in every word changed and every
+line omitted. In reality, they deprived the nursery of much that might
+well have remained as it was, although certain expressions were very
+properly altered. In a negative manner they did one surprising and
+fortunate thing: in leaving out the amusing notes they did not attempt
+to replace them, and consequently the nursery had one book free from
+that advice and precept, which in other verse for children resulted in
+persistent nagging. The illustrations were entirely redrawn, and Abel
+Bowen and Nathaniel Dearborn were asked to do the engraving for this
+Americanized edition.
+
+Of the poetry written in America for children before eighteen hundred
+and forty there is little that need be said. Much of it was entirely
+religious in character and most of it was colorless and dreary stuff.
+The "Child's Gem" of eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, considered a
+treasury of precious verse by one reviewer, and issued in embossed
+morocco binding, was characteristic of many contemporary _poems_, in
+which nature was forced to exude precepts of virtue and industry. The
+following stanzas are no exception to the general tone of the contents
+of practically every book entitled "Poetry for Children:"
+
+   "'Be good, little Edmund,' your mother will say,
+    She will whisper it soft in your ear,
+    And often repeat it, by night and by day
+    That you may not forget it, my dear.
+
+   "And the ant at its work, and the flower-loving bee
+    And the sweet little bird in the wood
+    As it warbles its song, from its nest in the tree,
+    Seems to say, 'little Eddy be good.'"
+
+The change in the character of the children's books written by Americans
+had begun to be seriously noticed in England. Although there were still
+many importations (such as the series written by Mrs. Sherwood), there
+was some inclination to resent the stocking of American booksellers'
+shelves by the work of local talent, much to the detriment of English
+publishers' pockets. The literary critics took up the subject, and
+thought themselves justified in disparaging many of the American books
+which found also ready sale on English book-counters. The religious
+books underwent scathing criticism, possibly not undeserved, except that
+the English productions of the same order and time make it now appear
+that it was but the pot calling the kettle black. Almost as much fault
+was found with the story-books. It apparently mattered little that the
+tables were now turned and British publishers were pirating American
+tales as freely and successfully as Thomas and Philadelphia printers had
+in former years made use of Newbery's, and Darton and Harvey's, juvenile
+novelties in book ware.
+
+In the "Quarterly Review" of 1843, in an article entitled "Books for
+Children," the writer found much cause for complaint in regard to
+stories then all too conspicuous in bookshops in England. "The same
+egregious mistakes," said the critic, "as to the nature of a child's
+understanding--the same explanations, which are all but indelicate, and
+always profane--seem to pervade all these American mentors; and of a
+number by Peter Parley, Abbott, Todd, &c., it matters little which we
+take up." "Under the name of Peter Parley," continued the disgruntled
+gentleman, after finding only malicious evil in poor Mr. Todd's efforts
+to explain religious doctrines, "such a number of juvenile school-books
+are current--some greatly altered from the originals and many more by
+_adopters_ of _Mr. Goodrich's_ pseudonym--that it becomes difficult to
+measure the merits or demerits of the said _magnus parens_, Goodrich."
+Liberal quotations followed from "Peter Parley's Farewell," which was
+censured as palling to the mind of those familiar with the English
+sources from which the facts had been irreverently culled.
+
+The reviewer then passed on to another section of "American
+abominations" which "seem to have some claim to popularity since they
+are easily sold." "These," continued the anonymous critic, "are works
+not of amusement--those we shall touch upon later--but of that
+half-and-half description where instruction blows with a side wind....
+Accordingly after impatient investigation of an immense number of little
+tomes, we are come to the conclusion that they may be briefly
+classified--firstly, as containing such information as any child in
+average life who can speak plainly is likely to be possessed of; and
+secondly, such as when acquired is not worth having."
+
+To this second class of book the Reverend Mr. Abbott's "Rollo Books"
+were unhesitatingly consigned. They were regarded as curiosities for
+"mere occupation of the eye, and utter stagnation of the thoughts, full
+of empty minutiae with all the rules of common sense set aside."
+
+Next the writer considered the style of those Americans who persuaded
+shillings from English pockets by "ingeniously contrived series which
+rendered the purchase of a single volume by no means so recommendable as
+that of all." The "uncouth phraseology, crack-jack words, and puritan
+derived words are nationalized and therefore do not permit cavilling,"
+continued the reviewer, dismayed and disgusted that it was necessary to
+warn his public, "but their children never did, or perhaps never will,
+hear any other language; and it is to be hoped they _understand_ it. At
+all events, we have nothing to do but keep ours from it, believing
+firmly that early familiarity with refined and beautiful forms ... is
+one of the greatest safeguards against evil, if not necessary to good."
+
+However, the critic did not close his article without a good word for
+those ladies in whose books we ourselves have found merit. "Their works
+of amusement" he considered admirable, "when not laden with more
+religion than the tale can hold in solution. Miss Sedgwick takes a high
+place for powers of description and traits of nature, though her
+language is so studded with Americanisms as much to mar the pleasure and
+perplex the mind of an English reader. Besides this lady, Mrs. Sigourney
+and Mrs. Seba Smith may be mentioned. The former, especially, to all
+other gifts adds a refinement, and nationality of subject, with a
+knowledge of life, which some of her poetical pieces led us to expect.
+Indeed the little Americans have little occasion to go begging to the
+history or tradition of other nations for topics of interest."
+
+The "Westminster Review" of eighteen hundred and forty was also in doubt
+"whether all this Americanism [such as Parley's 'Tales' contained] is
+desirable for English children, were it," writes the critic, "only for
+them we keep the 'pure well of English undefiled,' and cannot at all
+admire the improvements which it pleases that go-ahead nation to claim
+the right of making in our common tongue: unwisely enough as regards
+themselves, we think, for one of the elements in the power of a nation
+is the wide spread of its language."
+
+This same criticism was made again and again about the style of American
+writers for adults, so that it is little wonder the children's books
+received no unqualified praise. But Americanisms were not the worst
+feature of the "inundation of American children's books," which because
+of their novelty threatened to swamp the "higher class" English. They
+were feared because of the "multitude of false notions likely to be
+derived from them, the more so as the similarity of name and language
+prevents children from being on their guard, and from remembering that
+the representations that they read are by foreigners." It was the
+American view of English institutions (presented in story-book form)
+which rankled in the British breast as a "condescending tenderness of
+the free nation towards the monarchical régime" from which at any cost
+the English child must be guarded. In this respect Peter Parley was the
+worst offender, and was regarded as "a sad purveyor of slip-slop, and no
+matter how amusing, ignorant of his subject." That gentleman, meanwhile,
+read the criticisms and went on making "bread and butter," while he
+scowled at the English across the water, who criticised, but pirated as
+fast as he published in America.
+
+Gentle Miss Eliza Leslie received altogether different treatment in this
+review of American juvenile literature. She was considered "good
+everywhere, and particularly so for the meridian in which her tales were
+placed;" and we quite agree with the reviewer who considered it well
+worth while to quote long paragraphs from her "Tell Tale" to show its
+character and "truly useful lesson." "To America," continued this
+writer, "we also owe a host of little books, that bring together the
+literature of childhood and the people; as 'Home,' 'Live and Let Live'
+[by Miss Sedgwick], &c., but excellent in intention as they are, we have
+our doubts, as to the general reception they will meet in this country
+while so much of more exciting and elegant food is at hand." Even if the
+food of amusement in England appeared to the British mind more spiced
+and more _elegant_, neither Miss Leslie's nor Miss Sedgwick's fictitious
+children were ever anaemic puppets without wills of their own,--a type
+made familiar by Miss Edgeworth and persisted in by her admirers and
+successors,--but vitalized little creatures, who acted to some degree,
+at least, like the average child who loved their histories and named her
+dolls after favorite characters.
+
+To-day these English criticisms are only of value as showing that the
+American story-book was no longer imitating the English tale, but was
+developing, by reason of the impress of differing social forces, a new
+type. Its faults do not prevent us from seeing that the spirit expressed
+in this juvenile literature is that of a new nation feeling its own way,
+and making known its purpose in its own manner. While we smile at
+sedulous endeavors of the serious-minded writers to present their
+convictions, educational, religious, or moral, in palatable form, and to
+consider children always as a race apart, whose natural actions were
+invariably sinful, we still read between the lines that these writers
+were really interested in the welfare of the American child; and that
+they were working according to the accepted theories of the third decade
+of the nineteenth century as to the constituents of a juvenile
+library which, while "judicious and attractive, should also blend
+instruction with innocent amusement."
+
+[Illustration: _The Little Runaway_]
+
+And now as we have reached the point in the history of the American
+story-book when it is popular at least in both English-speaking
+countries, if not altogether satisfactory to either, what can be said of
+the value of this juvenile literature of amusement which has developed
+on the tiny pages of well-worn volumes? If, of all the books written for
+children by Americans seventy-five years and more ago, only Nathaniel
+Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" has survived to the present generation; of all
+the verse produced, only the simple rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb," and
+Clement Moore's "The Night before Christmas" are still quoted, has their
+history any value to-day?
+
+If we consider that there is nothing more rare in the fiction of any
+nation than the popular child's story that endures; nothing more unusual
+than the successful well-written juvenile tale, we can perhaps find a
+value not to be reckoned by the survival or literary character of these
+old-fashioned books, but in their silent testimony to the influence of
+the progress of social forces at work even upon so small a thing as a
+child's toy-book. The successful well-written child's book has been
+rare, because it has been too often the object rather than the manner of
+writing that has been considered of importance; because it has been the
+aim of all writers either to "improve in goodness" the young reader, as
+when, two hundred years ago, Cotton Mather penned "Good Lessons" for his
+infant son to learn at school, or, to quote the editor of "Affection's
+Gift" (published a century and a quarter later), it has been for the
+purpose of "imparting moral precepts and elevated sentiments, of uniting
+instruction and amusement, through the fascinating mediums of
+interesting narrative and harmony of numbers."
+
+The result of both intentions has been a collection of dingy or faded
+duodecimos containing a series of impressions of what each generation
+thought good, religiously, morally, and educationally, for little folk.
+If few of them shed any light upon child nature in those long-ago days,
+many throw shafts of illumination upon the change and progress in
+American ideals and thought concerning the welfare of children. As has
+already been said, the press supplied what the public taste demanded,
+and if the writers produced for earlier generations of children what may
+now be considered lumber, the press of more modern date has not
+progressed so far in this field of literature as to make it in any
+degree certain that our children's treasures may not be consigned to an
+equal oblivion. For these too are but composites made by superimposing
+the latest fads or theories as to instructive amusement of children upon
+those of previous generations of toy-books. Most of what was once
+considered the "perfume of youth and freshness" in a literary way has
+been discarded as dry and unprofitable, mistaken or deceptive; and yet,
+after all has been said by way of criticism of methods and subjects,
+these chap-books, magazines, gift and story books form our best if
+blurred pictures of the amusements and daily life of the old-time
+American child.
+
+We are learning also to prize these small "Histories" as part of the
+progress of the arts of book-making and illustration, and of the growth
+of the business of publishing in America; and already we are aware of
+the fulfilment of what was called by one old bookseller, "Tom Thumb's
+Maxim in Trade and Politics:" "He who buys this book for Two-pence, and
+lays it up till it is worth Three-pence, may get an hundred per cent by
+the bargain."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[204-A] _Election Day_, p. 71. American Sunday School Union, 1828.
+
+[216-A] Mr. G.C. Verplanck was probably the editor of this book,
+published by Harper & Bros.
+
+[216-B] This statement the writer has been unable to verify.
+
+
+
+
+_Index_
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+ABBOTT, Jacob, 201, 208, 213, 215, 218, 222, 223.
+
+Abbott, John S.C., 129.
+
+A, B, C Book, 101.
+
+A, B, C of religion, 22.
+
+Absence from Christ intolerable, 39.
+
+Adams, John, 165.
+
+Adams, Mrs. John, 91.
+
+Adams, J.A., 169.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, 196.
+
+Addison, Joseph, 159.
+
+Adventures of a Peg-top, 109.
+
+Adventures of a Pincushion, 109, 111, 112.
+
+Adventures of Lot, 206.
+
+Aesop, 63, 66, 67, 69, 90, 101, 109.
+
+Affectionate Daughter-in-Law, 206.
+
+Affection's Gift, 227.
+
+Aikin, Dr. John, 139, 140, 163.
+
+Ainsworth, Robert, 63.
+
+Aitkin, Robert, 100, 101.
+
+Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, An, 206.
+
+Althea Vernon, 210.
+
+American Antiquarian Society, 103.
+
+American Flag, 148.
+
+American Girls' Book, 209.
+
+American Juvenile Keepsake, 197, 200.
+
+American Sunday School Union, 201, 202, 204.
+
+American Weekly Mercury, 20.
+
+Ami des Enfans, 134, 135.
+
+Amyntor, 192.
+
+Anderson, Dr. Alexander, 166-169, 180.
+
+André, Major John, 97.
+
+Andrews, Joseph, 196.
+
+Andrews, Thomas, 102.
+
+Anecdoten von Hunden, 178.
+
+Anecdotes of Christian Missions, 206.
+
+Animated Nature, 108.
+
+Annales of Madame de Genlis, 134.
+
+Annual Register, 163.
+
+Anthony and Clara, 210.
+
+Arabian Nights, 162.
+
+Argalus & Parthenia, 90.
+
+Arnold, Benedict, 97, 98.
+
+Arthur's Geographical Grammar, 99.
+
+Art's Treasury, 90.
+
+Ashe, Thomas T., 207.
+
+Ashton, John, 54.
+
+Atlantic Stories, 210.
+
+Avery, S., 180.
+
+
+BABCOCK, Sidney, 167, 168.
+
+Bache, Benjamin, 100, 101, 104, 105, 127.
+
+Bag of Nuts ready Cracked, 107.
+
+Bailey, Francis, 123.
+
+Banbury Chap-Books, 53, 70, 117.
+
+Barbauld, Anna Letitia, 127-129, 132, 140-142, 152, 155, 163, 188, 218.
+
+Barclay, Andrew, 102, 103.
+
+Baskerville, John, 103.
+
+Battelle, E., 102.
+
+Battle of the Kegs, 97.
+
+Be Merry and Wise, 67, 106.
+
+Beecher, Rev. Dr. Lyman, 162.
+
+Belcher, J., 170, 171.
+
+Bell, Robert, 75, 76, 89, 100, 101.
+
+Benezet, Anthony, 101.
+
+Berquin, Arnaud, 134, 159, 161.
+
+Bewick, Thomas, 117, 118, 135, 166, 168, 169.
+
+Bewick's Quadrupeds, 168.
+
+Bibliography of Worcester, 102.
+
+Big and Little Puzzling Caps, 107.
+
+Biography for Boys, 115.
+
+Biography for Girls, 114, 115.
+
+Birthday Stories, 210.
+
+Blossoms of Morality, 165.
+
+Blue Beard, The History of, 141, 165.
+
+Body of Divinity versified, 22.
+
+Book for Boys and Girls; or, Country Rhimes for Children, 11.
+
+Book for Boys and Girls; or, Temporal Things Spiritualized, 13.
+
+Book of Knowledge, 90, 103.
+
+Book of Martyrs, 10.
+
+Books for Children, 222.
+
+Bookseller of the last century, The, 51, 54.
+
+Boone, Daniel, 198.
+
+Boone, Nicholas, 17.
+
+Boston Chronicle, 74, 75.
+
+Boston Evening Post, 38, 43, 73.
+
+Boston Gazette and Country Journal, 80.
+
+Boston News Letter, 19.
+
+Boston Public Library, 74.
+
+Bowen, Abel, 169, 221.
+
+Boy and his Paper of Plumbs, 12.
+
+Boy and the Watchmaker, 12.
+
+Boy's Own Book, 209.
+
+Boyle, John, 76, 77.
+
+Bradford, Andrew, 20, 21, 126.
+
+Bradford, Thomas, 59, 90, 100.
+
+Brewer, printer, 167.
+
+Brooke, Henry, 130.
+
+Brooks, Elbridge, 215.
+
+Brother's Gift, 80, 111, 112.
+
+Browne, Miss, 197.
+
+Brynberg, Peter, 165.
+
+Buccaneers of America, 90.
+
+Bunyan, John, 10-13.
+
+Burr, Aaron, 132-134.
+
+Burr, Theodosia, 132, 133.
+
+Burton, R., 36, 37.
+
+Burton's Historical Collections, 36.
+
+Busy Bee, 187.
+
+Butcher, Elizabeth, 21, 40, 186.
+
+Butterworth, Hezekiah, 132.
+
+
+CADET'S Sister, 210.
+
+Cameron, Lucy Lyttleton, 152, 184.
+
+Canary Bird, The, 172.
+
+Carey, Matthew, 165, 206.
+
+Carey, Robert, 72.
+
+Carnan, Mr., 46, 104.
+
+Carter, John, 101.
+
+Catechism, 5, 6, 10, 15.
+
+Catechism of New England, 7.
+
+Cautionary Stories in Verse, 175.
+
+Century Magazine, 208.
+
+Chandler, Samuel, 163.
+
+Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century, 54.
+
+Chapone, Hester, 113, 114, 159.
+
+Chapters of Accidents, 174.
+
+Charles, Mary, 170.
+
+Charles, William, 170, 171, 176, 183.
+
+Cheap Repository, 152.
+
+Cherry Orchard, The, 156, 177.
+
+Child, Lydia Maria, 193, 201.
+
+Child and his Book, 11, 45.
+
+Children in the Wood, 8.
+
+Children's Books and Reading, 132.
+
+Children's Friend, 135, 161.
+
+Children's Magazine, The, 101.
+
+Children's Miscellany, 129, 131.
+
+Child's Garden of Verses, Stevenson's, 182.
+
+Child's Gem, 221.
+
+Child's Guide to Spelling and Reading, 165.
+
+Child's Instructor, 122, 123.
+
+Child's New Play-thing, 41, 43-45.
+
+Choice Spirits, 90.
+
+Christmas Box, 64, 106.
+
+Cinderella, 62, 171.
+
+Clarissa Harlowe, 50, 79-85, 109.
+
+Clarke, Edward, 41.
+
+Cock Robin, 166.
+
+Collection of Pretty Poems, 67.
+
+Collins, Benjamin, 47.
+
+Complete Letter-Writer, 90.
+
+Congress, The, 98.
+
+Conrad and Parsons, 206, 207.
+
+Contes de ma Mère l'Oye, 219.
+
+Cooper, James Fenimore, 148, 191, 203, 211.
+
+Cooper, Rev. Mr., 134.
+
+Copley, John Stuart, 217.
+
+Cotton, John, 6, 9, 30.
+
+Cottons and Barnard, 206.
+
+Country Rhimes for Children, 11, 13.
+
+Coverly, Nathaniel, 166.
+
+Cowper, William, 153, 175.
+
+Cox and Berry, 80.
+
+Cries of London, 80, 180.
+
+Cries of New York, 180-182.
+
+Cries of Philadelphia, 180.
+
+Cross, Wilbur L., 80.
+
+Crouch, Nathaniel, 36.
+
+Cruel Giant Barbarico, 74.
+
+Crukshank, Joseph, 100, 101, 165.
+
+Custis, John Parke, 73.
+
+Custis, Martha Parke, 73.
+
+Cuz's Chorus, 111.
+
+
+DAISY, The, 176.
+
+Darton, William, 124, 174, 182, 213.
+
+Darton and Harvey, 222.
+
+Day, Mahlon, 169, 206, 207.
+
+Day, Thomas, 129-132, 142, 145, 154, 179, 188.
+
+Daye, John, 7.
+
+Dearborn, Nathaniel, 169, 221.
+
+Death and Burial of Cock Robin, 124.
+
+Death of Abel, 90.
+
+Defoe, Daniel, 129.
+
+Delight in the Lord Jesus, 39.
+
+Description of Various Objects, A, 173.
+
+Development of the English novel, 80.
+
+Dennie, Joseph, 192.
+
+Dilworth, Thomas, 38, 41, 121, 136.
+
+Divine emblems, 13.
+
+Divine Songs, 38.
+
+Doane, Bishop G.W., 196.
+
+Doddridge, Philip, 152, 184.
+
+Dodsley, Robert, 95.
+
+Don Quixote, 161.
+
+Donaldson, Arthur, 192.
+
+Donnel Dhu, 220.
+
+Doolittle, Amos, 169.
+
+Dove, The, 134.
+
+Drake, Joseph Rodman, 148.
+
+Draper, Samuel, 69.
+
+Draper and Edwards, 44.
+
+Drinker, Eliza, 91, 126.
+
+Dryden's Poems, 163.
+
+Dunlap, John, 100.
+
+Dunton, John, 8, 36.
+
+Durell, publisher, 166, 167.
+
+Duyckinck, Evert, 217.
+
+
+EARLY Lessons, 155.
+
+Earnest Exhortation, 22.
+
+Easy Introduction into the knowledge of Nature, 128.
+
+Easy Lessons for Children, 127, 128, 132, 155.
+
+Economy of Human Life, 152.
+
+Edgeworth, Maria, 128, 140, 150, 153-159, 164, 171, 175-177, 187, 188,
+207, 212, 213, 226.
+
+Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 154-156, 220.
+
+Edwards, Joseph, 43.
+
+Elegant Extracts, 162.
+
+Embury, Emma C., 200, 201.
+
+Emulation, 187.
+
+English Empire in America, 36.
+
+Entertaining Fables, 109.
+
+Errand Boy, 187.
+
+Evenings at Home, 128, 139, 163, 164.
+
+Everett, Alexander H., 196.
+
+Everett, Edward, 196.
+
+
+FABLES in verse, 53, 220.
+
+Fabulous Histories, 128, 141.
+
+Fair Rosamond, 24.
+
+Fairchild Family, The, 152, 186, 212.
+
+Fairy Book, 216.
+
+Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds, 174.
+
+Farrar, Eliza Ware, 213.
+
+Father's Gift, The, 111.
+
+Female Orators, 82.
+
+Fenelon's Reflections, 184.
+
+Field, E.M., 11, 45.
+
+Field, Walter T., 218.
+
+Fielding, Henry, 51, 78, 80, 81, 137.
+
+Fields, James T., 196.
+
+First Book of the American Chronicles of the Times, 76.
+
+Fleet, Thomas, 19, 20, 24, 38.
+
+Fleming, John, 74.
+
+Flora's Gala, 175.
+
+Follen, Eliza L., 213.
+
+Food for the Mind, 67, 68, 107.
+
+Fool of Quality, 130.
+
+Ford, Paul Leicester, 14.
+
+Fowle, Zechariah, 20, 40, 69, 103.
+
+Fowle and Draper, 72.
+
+Fox and Geese, 209.
+
+Foxe, John, 10.
+
+Franconia, 215.
+
+Frank, 155.
+
+Franklin, Benjamin, 21-24, 26, 36, 38, 59-62, 103, 105, 123, 179, 193, 216.
+
+Franklin, Sally, 62, 63.
+
+Franklin and Hall, 59.
+
+French Convert, 90.
+
+Friendly Instruction, 184.
+
+
+GAFFER Two Shoes, 82.
+
+Gaine, Hugh, 64, 65, 67, 68, 89, 167, 217.
+
+Gallaudet, Elisha, 196.
+
+Garden Amusements, 175.
+
+Generous Inconstant, The, 82.
+
+Genlis, Madame Stéphanie-Félicité de, 132, 134.
+
+Geographical, Statistical and Political Amusement, 178.
+
+George's Junior Republic, 139.
+
+Gilbert, C., 169.
+
+Giles Gingerbread, 74, 110, 140, 159.
+
+Gilman, Caroline, 194, 195.
+
+Going to Jerusalem, 209.
+
+Goldsmith, Oliver, 51, 52, 80, 82, 95, 108, 159, 219, 220.
+
+Good Lessons for Children, 18, 127, 227.
+
+Good Natur'd Man, 219.
+
+Goodrich, Samuel G., 129, 194-196, 198, 199, 201, 208, 213-215, 218,
+222-225.
+
+Goody Two-Shoes, 52, 53, 55, 89, 101, 110, 116-118, 123, 140-142, 159.
+
+Greeley, Horace, 196.
+
+Green, Samuel, 10, 13, 14.
+
+Green, Timothy, 17.
+
+Gulliver's Adventures, 125.
+
+Guy of Warwick, 8.
+
+
+HAIL Columbia, 148, 211.
+
+Hale, Richard W., 208.
+
+Hale, Sarah J., 193, 208, 209.
+
+Hall, Anna Maria, 197, 199.
+
+Hall, David, 59, 62, 100.
+
+Hall, Samuel, 124, 125.
+
+Hall, William, 100.
+
+Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 148.
+
+Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive, 206.
+
+Happy Child, 40.
+
+Harper and Brothers, 206, 216.
+
+Harris, Benjamin, 14.
+
+Harris, John, 182, 183.
+
+Harry and Lucy, 155, 156, 164, 220.
+
+Harvey, John, 182.
+
+Hawkins, Laetitia Matilda, 219.
+
+Hawthorne, Julian, 78, 129, 130.
+
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 149, 196, 227.
+
+Hebrides, 153.
+
+Henrietta Harrison, 211.
+
+Hildeburn, Charles R., 65, 93.
+
+Hill, George Birbeck, 141.
+
+Hill, Hannah, 21, 186.
+
+Histoires ou Contes du Tems Passé, 219.
+
+Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 69.
+
+History of a Doll, 136.
+
+History of printing in America, 18, 19.
+
+History of the American Revolution, 123.
+
+History of the Holy Jesus, 39, 40, 103.
+
+History of the Institution of Cyrus, 130.
+
+History of the Robins, 129.
+
+Hive, The, 195.
+
+Hobby Horse, The, 42, 80.
+
+Hofland, Barbara, 197, 198.
+
+Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, 162-164, 184, 196, 201.
+
+Holy Bible in Verse, 15.
+
+Home, 226.
+
+Home of Washington, 28.
+
+Hopkinson, Joseph, 148.
+
+Hot Buttered Beans, 209.
+
+House that Jack Built, 19.
+
+Howard, Mr., 29.
+
+Hudibras, 161.
+
+Hunt the Thimble, 209.
+
+Hymns for Infant Minds, 184.
+
+Hymns in Prose and Verse, 128.
+
+
+"IANTHE." _See_ Embury.
+
+Illman, Thomas, 196.
+
+Infidel Class, 206.
+
+Irving, Washington, 148, 191.
+
+
+JACK and Jill, 219.
+
+Jack the Giant Killer, 8, 141.
+
+Jacky Dandy's Delight, 107, 108.
+
+James, William, 175, 176.
+
+Jane Grey, 24.
+
+Janeway, James, 17, 186.
+
+Jenny Twitchell's Jests, 90.
+
+Joe Miller's Jests, 90.
+
+Johnson, Benjamin, 164, 178, 183, 192.
+
+Johnson, Jacob, 152, 155, 156, 159, 164, 173, 178, 183.
+
+Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 36, 50-52, 129, 140, 141, 153, 219.
+
+Johnson and Warner, 164, 178, 183.
+
+Johnsonian Miscellany, 141.
+
+Jones, Giles, 52, 53.
+
+Joseph Andrews, 78, 81, 90.
+
+Josephus, 167.
+
+Julianna Oakley, 206.
+
+Juvenile Biographers, 115, 116.
+
+Juvenile Magazine, 179, 192.
+
+Juvenile Miscellany, 193-195, 208, 212.
+
+Juvenile Olio, 192.
+
+Juvenile Piety, 206.
+
+Juvenile Portfolio, 192.
+
+Juvenile Rambler, 195.
+
+Juvenile Trials for Robbing Orchards, etc., 139, 140.
+
+
+KEEPER'S Travels in Search of his Master, 172.
+
+Kellogg, Joseph G., 196.
+
+Kendall, Dr., 172.
+
+Key, Francis Scott, 148.
+
+Kilner, Dorothy, 109.
+
+King Pippin, 55, 110, 159, 163.
+
+Kleine Erzählungen über ein Buch mit Kupfern, 178.
+
+Knox, Thomas W., 132.
+
+
+LADY Queen Anne, 209.
+
+Lamb, Charles, 141, 142, 217.
+
+Lansing, G., 169.
+
+Lark, The, 90.
+
+Launch of the Frigate, 210.
+
+Lee, Richard Henry, 28, 29.
+
+Legacy to Children, 126.
+
+Lenox Collection, 180.
+
+Leo, the Great Giant, 74.
+
+Leslie, Eliza, 193, 196, 201, 208-211, 225, 226.
+
+Letters from the Dead to the Living, 162.
+
+Letters to Little Children, 206.
+
+Liddon, Mr., 100.
+
+Life of David, 163.
+
+Lilly, Wait and Company, 194, 206.
+
+Lincoln and Edmunds, 184, 206.
+
+Linnet, The, 90.
+
+Linton, William James, 166, 168, 169.
+
+Literary Magazine, 52.
+
+Literature of the American Revolution, 98.
+
+Little Book for Children, 17.
+
+Little Boy found under a Haycock, 123.
+
+Little Deceiver Reclaimed, 206.
+
+Little Dog Trusty, 156.
+
+Little Fanny, 176.
+
+Little Helen, 212.
+
+Little Henry, 170.
+
+Little Henry and his Bearer, 184, 185.
+
+Little Jack, 131.
+
+Little Lottery Book, 106.
+
+Little Lucy, 212.
+
+Little Millenium Boy, 186.
+
+Little Nancy, 171, 176-178.
+
+Little Pretty Pocket-Book, A, 47-50, 67.
+
+Little Readers' Assistant, 121, 122.
+
+Little Robin Red Breast, 114.
+
+Little Scholar's Pretty Pocket Companion, 122.
+
+Little Sophie, 176.
+
+Little Truths, 124, 125, 182.
+
+Little William, 171.
+
+Live and Let Live, 226.
+
+Lives of Highwaymen, 90.
+
+Lives of Pirates, 90.
+
+Locke, John, 41-43, 46, 51, 66, 99.
+
+London Chronicle, 53.
+
+Longfellow, Henry W., 196.
+
+Longworth, David, 165, 168.
+
+Looking-glass, A, 22.
+
+Looking Glass for the Mind, 134, 135, 159, 162, 166.
+
+Lossing, Benson J., 28, 29, 167.
+
+Loudon, Samuel, 217.
+
+Love Token for Children, 212.
+
+
+MACAULAY, T.B., 153.
+
+Magnalia, 162.
+
+Mary had a Little Lamb, 208, 209, 227.
+
+Mason, A.J., 169.
+
+Massachusetts Sunday School Union, 194.
+
+Master Jacky and Miss Harriot, 135.
+
+Mather, Cotton, 6, 7, 9, 16-18, 21, 22, 56, 127, 185, 186, 227.
+
+Mather, Elizabeth, 16.
+
+Mather, Increase, 16-18.
+
+Mather, Samuel, 16.
+
+Mein, John, 73-75, 77, 89.
+
+Metamorphosis, A, 169.
+
+Milk for Babes, 6, 7, 30.
+
+Milton, John, 159, 175.
+
+Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of Birds, 107.
+
+Mitford, Mary Russell, 197.
+
+Moejen's Recueil, 218.
+
+Moll Flanders, 90.
+
+Moore, Clement Clarke, 147-149, 227.
+
+Moral Tale, 187.
+
+Moral Tales, 159.
+
+More, Hannah, 134, 150-153, 159, 188, 212-214.
+
+Morgan, engraver, 169.
+
+Morgan and Sons, 170, 207.
+
+Morgan and Yeager, 170.
+
+Morton, Eliza, 95.
+
+Moses, Montrose J., 132.
+
+Mother Goose Melodies, 19, 20, 53, 114, 218-220.
+
+Mother's Gift, 82, 111, 113, 118.
+
+Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts, A, 178.
+
+Munroe and Francis, 20, 168, 206, 220.
+
+Murray, James, 91.
+
+Museum, The, 60, 61.
+
+My Father, 176.
+
+My Governess, 176, 182.
+
+My Mother, 176.
+
+My Pony, 176.
+
+My Sister, 182.
+
+
+NATURAL History of Four Footed Beasts, 107.
+
+Neagle, John, 169.
+
+New England Courant, 21, 22.
+
+New England Primer, 6, 7, 13-15, 28, 33, 93, 121.
+
+New French Primer, 60.
+
+New Gift for Children with Cuts, 40, 69-72, 103.
+
+New Guide to the English Tongue, 38.
+
+New Picture of the City, 100.
+
+New Year's Gift, 64.
+
+New York Mercury, 67.
+
+New York Weekly, 207.
+
+Newbery, Carnan, 54.
+
+Newbery, Edward, 54.
+
+Newbery, Francis, 46, 51, 54, 82.
+
+Newbery, John, 28, 37, 40, 46-56, 60-62, 64, 67, 70, 74, 77, 82, 89, 90,
+97, 101, 104, 108, 118, 123, 124, 141, 142, 154, 159, 182, 187, 198,
+216, 217, 219, 220, 222.
+
+Newbery, Ralph, 46.
+
+Nichols, Dr. Charles L., 102, 103.
+
+Night before Christmas, The, 147, 148, 227.
+
+Noel, Garrat, 68, 148.
+
+North American Review, 212.
+
+Nutter, Valentine, 89.
+
+
+OLD Mother Hubbard, 166.
+
+Olive Buds, 213.
+
+Orangeman, The, 156.
+
+Original Poems, 182.
+
+Osgood, Frances S., 213.
+
+Oswald, Ebenezer, 100.
+
+
+PAMELA, 50, 78, 80, 81, 109.
+
+Parable against Persecution, 123.
+
+Paradise Lost, 153.
+
+Parent's Assistant, 155.
+
+Parents' Gift, 38.
+
+Parker, James, 62.
+
+Parley, Peter. _See_ Goodrich, S.G.
+
+Pastoral Hymn, 74.
+
+Patriotic and Amatory Songster, 180.
+
+Peacock at Home, 171.
+
+Pearl, The, 209.
+
+Pearson, Edwin, 53, 117.
+
+Pease, Joseph I., 196.
+
+Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty Doll, 136-139.
+
+Pelton, Oliver, 196.
+
+Pennsylvania Evening Post, 93.
+
+Pennsylvania Gazette, 59, 62.
+
+Pennsylvania Journal, 59.
+
+People of all Nations, 173, 174.
+
+Peregrine Pickle, 51, 109.
+
+Perrault, Charles, 62, 218.
+
+Perry, Michael, 26.
+
+Philadelphiad, The, 100.
+
+Picture Exhibition, The, 106, 109.
+
+Pilgrim's Progress, 10, 36, 95, 126, 163, 167.
+
+Pilkington, Mary, 114.
+
+Pinckney, Eliza, 91.
+
+Play-thing, The, 61.
+
+Pleasures of Piety in Youth, 184.
+
+Plutarch's Lives, 130.
+
+Poems for Children, 208.
+
+Poems for Children Three Feet High, 64.
+
+Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden, 38.
+
+Poetical Description of Song Birds, 114.
+
+Poetry for Children, 213, 221.
+
+Popular Tales, 155.
+
+Poupard, James, 169.
+
+Power of Religion, 152.
+
+Practical Education, 128.
+
+Practical Piety, 184.
+
+Present for a Little Girl, 169.
+
+Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood, 40.
+
+Pretty Book for Children, 60, 61, 67.
+
+Principles of the Christian Religion, 184.
+
+Pritchard, Mr., 100.
+
+Private Tutor for little Masters and Misses, 67.
+
+Prize for Youthful Obedience, 172, 173.
+
+Prodigal Daughter, The, 24-26, 40, 188.
+
+Protestant Tutor for Children, 13, 14.
+
+Puritan Primer, 13.
+
+Puzzling Cap, 80, 82.
+
+
+QUARTERLY Review, 222.
+
+Quincy, Mrs. Josiah, 158, 159.
+
+
+RAIKES, Robert, 151.
+
+Ralph, W., 169.
+
+Rand, Rev. Asa, 194.
+
+Rebels, The, 98.
+
+Recollections of a New England Housekeeper, 195.
+
+Redwood, 211.
+
+Rees's Encyclopedia, 163.
+
+Reformed Family, 206.
+
+Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh, 200.
+
+Rhymes for the Nursery, 20, 182.
+
+Rice, Mr., 100.
+
+Richardson, Samuel, 50, 78-81, 137.
+
+Rivington, James, 65, 67, 68.
+
+Roberts, Jean, 197.
+
+Robin Red Breast, 90.
+
+Robin's Alive, 209.
+
+Robinson Crusoe, 79, 90, 118, 129, 130, 159.
+
+Roderick Random, 51, 109.
+
+Roger and Berry, 89.
+
+Rollin's Ancient History, 161.
+
+Rollinson, William, 169.
+
+Rollo Books, 213, 215, 223.
+
+Rose, The, 187.
+
+Rose Bud, 195.
+
+Rose's Breakfast, The, 175.
+
+Rowe, Elizabeth, 162.
+
+Royal Battledore, 60, 61.
+
+Royal Primer, 61.
+
+Russell's Seven Sermons, 90.
+
+
+SABBATH School Times, 194.
+
+Sanford and Merton, 129, 154.
+
+Scotch Rogue, 90.
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 158, 220.
+
+Scott's (Rev. Thomas) Family Bible, 163.
+
+Search after Happiness, 134, 152.
+
+Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, 152, 160, 161, 193, 196, 208, 211, 212, 224,
+226.
+
+Seven Wise Masters, 90.
+
+Seven Wise Mistresses, 90.
+
+Sewall, Henry, 9.
+
+Sewall, Samuel, 9, 10.
+
+Shakespeare, William, 159, 161.
+
+Sharps, William, 29.
+
+Sheldon, Lucy, 82.
+
+Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 152, 214.
+
+Sherwood, Mary Martha, 152, 184, 186, 187, 212, 221.
+
+Sigourney, Lydia H., 193, 208, 213, 224.
+
+Simple Susan, 158.
+
+Sims, Joseph, 27.
+
+Sir Charles Grandison, 79-82.
+
+Sister's Gift, 80, 111-113.
+
+Skyrin, Nancy, 126, 127.
+
+Smart, Christopher, 54.
+
+Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, 213, 224.
+
+Smollett, Tobias, 51, 52, 78, 79.
+
+Song for the Red Coats, 97.
+
+Songs for the Nursery, 19, 20.
+
+Southern Rose, 195.
+
+Souvenir, 210.
+
+Sparrow, The, 172.
+
+Star Spangled Banner, 148.
+
+Stevenson, Robert Louis, 182.
+
+Stir the Mush, 209.
+
+Stone, William L., 200.
+
+Stories and Tales, 90.
+
+Stories for Children, 212.
+
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 162.
+
+Strahan, William, 61-63.
+
+
+TALE, A: The Political Balance, 123.
+
+Tales and Essays, 213.
+
+Taylor, Ann, 176, 182.
+
+Taylor, Jane, 182, 184.
+
+Tell Tale, 225.
+
+Thackerary, W.M., 34.
+
+Thomas, Isaiah, 18-20, 40, 69, 74, 102-104, 106, 109, 116-118, 129, 168,
+198, 222.
+
+Thompson, John, 168.
+
+Thoughts on Education, 41, 66, 99.
+
+Three Stories for Children, 156.
+
+Todd, John, D.D., 222.
+
+Token, The, 196, 197, 212, 214.
+
+Token for Children, 17, 186.
+
+Token for the Children of New England, 17, 21, 186.
+
+Token for Youth, 40.
+
+Tom Hick-a-Thrift, 24.
+
+Tom Jones, 51, 78, 80, 109, 110.
+
+Tom the Piper's Son, 170.
+
+Tom Thumb, 8, 19, 24, 62, 74, 77, 102, 106, 114, 166, 167.
+
+Tommy Trapwit, 64.
+
+Tommy Trip, 52, 74, 107, 108.
+
+Track the Rabbit, 209.
+
+Trimmer, Sarah, 128, 129, 141, 142, 159.
+
+Trip's Book of Pictures, 64.
+
+Triumphs of Love, 90.
+
+Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel, 147.
+
+Twelve Caesars, 90.
+
+Twice Told Tales, 196.
+
+Two Lambs, 152.
+
+Two Shoemakers, 152.
+
+Tyler, Moses Coit, 98.
+
+
+UNTERHALTUNGEN für Deutsche Kinder, 178.
+
+Urax, or the Fair Wanderer, 74.
+
+
+VALENTINE and Orson, 90.
+
+Verplanck, Gulian C., 196, 216.
+
+Vicar of Wakefield, 52, 219.
+
+Violet, The, 209.
+
+
+WADDELL, J., 62.
+
+Walks of Usefulness, 184.
+
+Walters and Norman, 93.
+
+Walton's Lives, 153.
+
+Warner and Hanna, 169.
+
+Washington, George, 28, 29, 72, 73, 93, 122, 123, 170, 179.
+
+Waste Not, Want Not, 156-158.
+
+Watts, Isaac, 38, 45, 46.
+
+Way to Wealth, 179.
+
+Webster, Noah, 121, 122, 136.
+
+Weekly Mercury, 23, 26, 27, 64, 65, 68.
+
+Weekly Post-Boy, 62.
+
+Weems's Life of George Washington, 179, 180.
+
+Well Spent Hour, 212.
+
+Wells, Anna M., 193, 213.
+
+Wells, Robert, 102.
+
+Welsh, Charles, 46, 49, 51, 54, 61, 70, 124, 142.
+
+West, Benjamin, 216.
+
+Westminster Review, 224.
+
+Westminster Shorter Catechism, 7.
+
+White, William, D.D., 151.
+
+Whitefield, George, 151.
+
+Widdows, P., 126.
+
+Wilder, Mary, 113.
+
+Willis, Nathaniel P., 194.
+
+Winslow, Anna Green, 81-83, 85.
+
+Winter Evenings' Entertainment, 37, 90.
+
+Wonder Book, 149, 227.
+
+Wonderful Traveller, 209.
+
+Wonders of Nature and Art, 53.
+
+Wood, Samuel, 165, 166, 169, 175.
+
+Wood, Samuel, and Sons, 167, 206.
+
+Wood-engraving in America, 166-169.
+
+Woodhouse, William, 100.
+
+Worcester Magazine, 104.
+
+
+XENOPHON, 130.
+
+
+YOUNG, William, 129.
+
+Young Child's A B C, 166.
+
+Young Christian Series, 215.
+
+Young Gentlemen and Ladies' Magazine, 183.
+
+Youth's Companion, 194.
+
+Youth's Divine Pastime, 37.
+
+Youth's Keepsake, 212.
+
+
+ZENTLER, publisher, 178.
+
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained.
+
+   Misspelled words and typographical errors:
+
+      p. ix   Edmands for Edmunds
+      p. 46   Newbury  for Newbery
+      p. 102  Period missing at end of the sentence "to a boy But"
+      p. 158  Paragraph ends with , "her own generation,"
+      p. 208  Sentence ends with a comma: "the originator of these
+              verses,"
+      p. 243  Thackerary for Thackeray
+
+   Inconsistent hyphenation:
+
+      folk-lore / folklore
+      school-fellows / schoolfellows
+      school-masters / schoolmasters
+      small-pox / smallpox
+      wood-cut / woodcut
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Forgotten Books of the American Nursery, by
+Rosalie V. Halsey</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Forgotten Books of the American Nursery</p>
+<p>       A History of the Development of the American Story-Book</p>
+<p>Author: Rosalie V. Halsey</p>
+<p>Release Date: February 25, 2006  [eBook #17857]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Jason Isbell, Julia Miller,<br />
+	and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+	(http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div style="background-color: #EEE; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em;">
+<p class="center"><b>Transcriber&rsquo;s&nbsp;Note</b></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">A number of typographical errors have been maintained
+in the current version of this book. They are <ins class="correction" title="correction">marked</ins>
+and the corrected text is shown in the popup that appers when the cursor
+is placed over the marked text. A <a href="#note">list</a> of these
+errors is found at the end of this book.</p>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span><br />
+&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="sectionhead" style="margin-bottom: 2em;"><i>Forgotten Books of the American Nursery</i></h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 340px;">
+<a name="img01" id="img01"></a><a href="images/img01-full.jpg"><img src="images/img01.jpg" width="340" height="400" alt="The Devil and the Disobedient Child" title="The Devil and the Disobedient Child" /></a>
+<i>The Devil and the Disobedient Child</i>
+</div>
+
+
+<h1 class="chapterhead">FORGOTTEN BOOKS</h1>
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">OF</h2>
+<h1 style="font-weight: normal;">THE AMERICAN NURSERY</h1>
+
+<h3 class="sectionhead"><i>A History of the Development of<br />
+the American Story-Book</i></h3>
+
+<p class="center noindent">BY</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent">ROSALIE V. HALSEY</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px; margin-top: 2em;">
+<img src="images/img02.jpg" width="150" height="169" alt="Publisher&rsquo;s image" title="Publisher&rsquo;s image" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center noindent" style="margin-top: 2em;">BOSTON</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent"><i>Charles E. Goodspeed &amp; Co.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center noindent">1911</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center noindent"><i>Copyright, 1911, by C.&nbsp;E. Goodspeed &amp; Co.</i></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;">
+<img src="images/img03.jpg" width="30" height="22" alt="Three dots" title="Three dots" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent"><i>Of this book seven hundred copies were printed in November
+1911, by D.&nbsp;B. Updike, at The Merrymount Press, Boston</i></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS" id="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <td>CHAPTER</td>
+  <td align="right" >PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">I.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><i>Introductory</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_I">3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">II.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><i>The Play-Book in England</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_II">33</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">III.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><i>Newbery&rsquo;s Books in America</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_III">59</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">IV.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><i>Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">V.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><i>The Child and his Book at the End of the Eighteenth Century</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_V">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">VI.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><i>Toy-Books in the early Nineteenth Century</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">147</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">VII.</td>
+  <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><i>American Writers and English Critics</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">191</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <td><a href="#INDEX"><i>Index</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#INDEX">233</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span><br />
+&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr>
+  <td><a href="#img01"><i>The Devil and the Disobedient Child</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" ><a href="#img01"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From &ldquo;The Prodigal Daughter.&rdquo; Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5,
+Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?]</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="right" ><i>Facing<br />Page</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><a href="#img04"><i>The Devil appears as a French Gentleman</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#img04">26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From &ldquo;The Prodigal Daughter.&rdquo; Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5,
+Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?]</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img05"><i>Title-page from &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s New Play-thing&rdquo;</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img05">44</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Printed by J. Draper; J. Edwards in Boston [1750]. Now in the
+New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img06"><i>Title-page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img06">47</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, <span class="smrom">MDCCLXXXVII</span>. Now in the
+New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img07"><i>A page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img07">49</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, <span class="smrom">MDCCLXXXVII</span>. Now in the
+New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img08"><i>John Newbery&rsquo;s Advertisement of Children&rsquo;s Books</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img08">60</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From the &ldquo;Pennsylvania Gazette&rdquo; of November 15, 1750</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img10"><i>Title-page of &ldquo;The New Gift for Children&rdquo;</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img10">70</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Printed by Zechariah Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of
+the Historical Society of Pennsylvania</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img11"><i>Miss Fanny&rsquo;s Maid</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img11">74</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Illustration from &ldquo;The New Gift for Children,&rdquo; printed by Zechariah
+Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of the Historical
+Society of Pennsylvania</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img12"><i>A page from a Catalogue of Children&rsquo;s Books
+printed by Isaiah Thomas</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img12">106</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From &ldquo;The Picture Exhibition,&rdquo; Worcester, <span class="smrom">MDCCLXXXVIII</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img13"><i>Illustration of Riddle XIV</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img13">110</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From &ldquo;The Puzzling-Cap,&rdquo; printed by John Adams, Philadelphia,
+1805</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img14"><i>Frontispiece from &ldquo;The History of Little Goody
+Two-Shoes&rdquo;</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img14">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From one of <i>The First Worcester Edition</i>, printed by Isaiah Thomas
+in <span class="smrom">MDCCLXXXVII</span>. Now in the Library of the Historical Society of
+Pennsylvania</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img15"><i>Sir Walter Raleigh and his Man</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img15">125</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Copper-plate illustration from &ldquo;Little Truths,&rdquo; printed in Philadelphia
+by J. and J. Crukshank in 1800</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img16"><i>Foot Ball</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img16">126</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Copper-plate illustration from &ldquo;Youthful Recreations,&rdquo; printed in
+Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson about 1802</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img17"><i>Jacob Johnson&rsquo;s Book-Store in Philadelphia about 1800</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img17">155</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img18"><i>A Wall-paper Book-Cover</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img18">165</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>From &ldquo;Lessons for Children from Four to Five Years Old,&rdquo; printed
+in Wilmington (Delaware) by Peter Brynberg in 1804</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img19"><i>Tom the Piper&rsquo;s Son</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img19">170</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Illustration and text engraved on copper by William Charles, of
+Philadelphia, in 1808</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img20"><i>A Kind and Good Father</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img20">172</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Woodcut by Alexander Anderson for &ldquo;The Prize for Youthful
+Obedience,&rdquo; printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson in 1807</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img21"><i>A Virginian</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img21">174</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Illustration from &ldquo;People of all Nations,&rdquo; printed in Philadelphia by
+Jacob Johnson in 1807<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img22"><i>A Baboon</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img22">174</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Illustration from &ldquo;A Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds,&rdquo;
+printed in Boston by Lincoln and <a name="corr1" id="corr1"></a><ins class="correction" title="Edmunds">Edmands</ins> in 1813</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img23"><i>Drest or Undrest</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img23">176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Illustration from &ldquo;The Daisy,&rdquo; published by Jacob Johnson in 1808</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img24"><i>Little Nancy</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img24">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Probably engraved by William Charles for &ldquo;Little Nancy, or, the
+Punishment of Greediness,&rdquo; published in Philadelphia by Morgan &amp;
+Yeager about 1830</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img25"><i>Children of the Cottage</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img25">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Engraved by Joseph I. Pease for &ldquo;The Youth&rsquo;s Sketch Book,&rdquo; published
+in Boston by Lilly, Wait and Company in 1834</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img26"><i>Henrietta</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img26">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Engraved by Thomas Illman for &ldquo;The American Juvenile Keepsake,&rdquo;
+published in Brockville, U.&nbsp;C., by Horace Billings &amp; Co. in
+1835</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img27"><i>A Child and her Doll</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img27">206</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Illustration from &ldquo;Little Mary,&rdquo; Part II, published in Boston by
+Cottons and Barnard in 1831</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img28"><i>The Little Runaway</i></a></td>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-top: 1em;"><a href="#img28">227</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Drawn and engraved by J.&nbsp;W. Steel for &ldquo;Affection&rsquo;s Gift,&rdquo; published
+in New York by J.&nbsp;C. Riker in 1832</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span><br />
+&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;"><i>Introductory</i></h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Poetry 1">
+<tr>
+  <td>Thy life to mend<br />
+      This <i>book</i> attend.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>The New England Tutor</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 5em;">London (1702-14)</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 2">
+<tr>
+  <td>To be brought up in fear<br />
+      And learn A B C.<br /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Foxe</span>, <i>Book of Martyrs</i></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><i>Forgotten Books of the American Nursery</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 30px;">
+<img src="images/img03.jpg" width="30" height="22" alt="Three dots" title="Three dots" />
+</div>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Introductory</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span style="text-transform: uppercase">shelf</span> full of books belonging to the American children of colonial
+times and of the early days of the Republic presents a strangely
+unfamiliar and curious appearance. If chronologically placed, the
+earliest coverless chap-books are hardly noticeable next to their
+immediate successors with wooden sides; and these, in turn, are
+dominated by the gilt, silver, and many colored bindings of diminutive
+dimensions which hold the stories dear to the childish heart from
+Revolutionary days to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then
+bright blue, salmon, yellow, and marbled paper covers make a vivid
+display which, as the century grows older, fades into the sad-colored
+cloth bindings thought adapted to many children&rsquo;s books of its second
+quarter.</p>
+
+<p>An examination of their contents shows them to be equally foreign to
+present day ideas as to the desirable characteristics for children&rsquo;s
+literature. Yet the crooked black type and crude illustrations of the
+wholly religious episodes related in the oldest volumes on the shelf,
+the didactic and moral stories with their tiny type-metal, wood, and
+copper-plate pictures of the next groups; and the &ldquo;improving&rdquo; American
+tales adorned with blurred colored engravings, or stiff steel and wood
+illustrations, that were produced for juvenile amusement in the early
+part of the nineteenth century,&mdash;all are as interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> to the lover of
+children as they are unattractive to the modern children themselves. The
+little ones very naturally find the stilted language of these old
+stories unintelligible and the artificial plots bewildering; but to one
+interested in the adult literature of the same periods of history an
+acquaintance with these amusement books of past generations has a
+peculiar charm and value of its own. They then become not merely
+curiosities, but the means of tracing the evolution of an American
+literature for children.</p>
+
+<p>To the student desiring an intimate acquaintance with any civilized
+people, its lighter literature is always a great aid to personal
+research; the more trivial, the more detailed, the greater the worth to
+the investigator are these pen-pictures as records of the nation he
+wishes to know. Something of this value have the story-books of
+old-fashioned childhood. Trivial as they undoubtedly are, they
+nevertheless often contain our best sketches of child-life in the
+eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,&mdash;a life as different from
+that of a twentieth century child as was the adult society of those old
+days from that of the present time. They also enable us to mark as is
+possible in no other way, the gradual development of a body of writing
+which, though lagging much behind the adult literature, was yet also
+affected by the local and social conditions in America.</p>
+
+<p>Without attempting to give the history of the evolution of the A B C
+book in England&mdash;the legitimate ancestor of all juvenile books&mdash;two main
+topics must be briefly discussed before entering upon the proper matter
+of this volume. The first relates to the family life in the early days
+of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> Massachusetts Commonwealth, the province that produced the first
+juvenile book. The second topic has to do with the literature thought
+suitable for children in those early Puritan days. These two subjects
+are closely related, the second being dependent upon the first. Both are
+necessary to the history of these quaint toy volumes, whose stories lack
+much meaning unless the conditions of life and literature preceding them
+are understood.</p>
+
+<p>When the Pilgrim Fathers, seeking freedom of faith, founded their first
+settlements in the new country, one of their earliest efforts was
+directed toward firmly establishing their own religion. This, though
+nominally free, was eventually, under the Mathers, to become a theocracy
+as intolerant as that faith from which they had fled. The rocks upon
+which this religion was builded were the Bible and the Catechism. In
+this history of toy-books the catechism is, however, perhaps almost the
+more important to consider, for it was a product of the times, and
+regarded as indispensable to the proper training of a family.</p>
+
+<p>The Puritan conception of life, as an error to be rectified by suffering
+rather than as a joy to be accepted with thanksgiving, made the
+preparation for death and the dreadful Day of Judgment the chief end of
+existence. The catechism, therefore, with its fear-inspiring description
+of Hell and the consequences of sin, became inevitably the chief means of
+instructing children in the knowledge of their sinful inheritance. In
+order to insure a supply of catechisms, it was voted by the members of
+the company in sixteen hundred and twenty-nine, when preparing to
+emigrate, to expend &ldquo;3 shil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>lings for 2 dussen and ten <span class="nowrap">catechismes.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_6-A_1" id="FNanchor_6-A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-A_1" class="fnanchor">6-*</a></span>
+A contract was also made in the same year with &ldquo;sundry intended ministers
+for catechising, as also in teaching, or causing to be taught the
+Companyes servants &amp; their children, as also the salvages and their
+<span class="nowrap">children.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_6-B_2" id="FNanchor_6-B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-B_2" class="fnanchor">6-&#8224;</a></span> Parents, especially the mothers, were continually
+exhorted in sermons preached for a century after the founding of the
+colony, to catechize the children every day, &ldquo;that,&rdquo; said Cotton Mather,
+&ldquo;you may be continually dropping something of the <i>Catechism</i> upon them:
+Some Honey out of the Rock&rdquo;! Indeed, the learned divine seems to have
+regarded it as a soothing and toothsome morsel, for he even imagined that
+the children cried for it continuously, saying: <i>&ldquo;O our dear Parents,
+Acquaint us with the Great God.... Let us not go from your Tender Knees,
+down to the Place of Dragons. Oh! not Parents, but Ostriches: Not
+Parents, but </i><span class="nowrap"><i>Prodigies.&rdquo;</i><a name="FNanchor_6-C_3" id="FNanchor_6-C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-C_3" class="fnanchor">6-&#8225;</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Much dissension soon arose among the ministers of the settlements as to
+which catechism should be taught. As the result of the discussion the
+&ldquo;General Corte,&rdquo; which met in sixteen hundred and forty-one, &ldquo;desired
+that the elders would make a catechism for <i>the instruction of youth in
+the grounds of </i><span class="nowrap"><i>religion</i>.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_6-D_4" id="FNanchor_6-D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-D_4" class="fnanchor">6-&#167;</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To meet this request, several clergymen immediately responded. Among
+them was John Cotton, who presumably prepared a small volume which was
+entitled &ldquo;<i>Milk for Babes</i>. Drawn out of the Breast of Both Testaments.
+Chiefly for the spiritual nourishment of <i>Boston</i> Babes in either
+England: But may be of like use for any children.&rdquo; For the present
+purpose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> the importance of this little book lies in the supposition that
+it was printed at Cambridge, by Daye, between sixteen hundred and
+forty-one and sixteen hundred and forty-five, and therefore was the
+first book of any kind written and printed in America for children;&mdash;an
+importance altogether different from that attached to it by the author&rsquo;s
+grandson, Cotton Mather, when he asserted that &ldquo;Milk for Babes&rdquo; would be
+&ldquo;valued and studied and improved till New England cease to be New
+<span class="nowrap">England.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_7-A_5" id="FNanchor_7-A_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-A_5" class="fnanchor">7-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To the little colonials this &ldquo;Catechism of New England&rdquo; was a great
+improvement upon any predecessor, even upon the Westminster Shorter
+Catechism, for it reduced the one hundred and seven questions of that
+famous body of doctrine to sixty-seven, and the longest answer in &ldquo;Milk
+for Babes&rdquo; contained only eighty-four <span class="nowrap">words.<a name="FNanchor_7-B_6" id="FNanchor_7-B_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-B_6" class="fnanchor">7-&#8224;</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As the century grew older other catechisms were printed. The number
+produced before the eighteenth century bears witness to the diverse
+views in a community in which they were considered an essential for
+every member, adult or child. Among the six hundred titles roughly
+computed as the output of the press by seventeen hundred in the new
+country, eleven different catechisms may be counted, with twenty
+editions in all; of these the titles of four indicate that they were
+designed for very little children. In each community the pastor
+appointed the catechism to be taught in the school, and joined the
+teacher in drilling the children in its questions and answers. Indeed,
+the answers were regarded as irrefutable in those uncritical days, and
+hence a strong shield and buckler<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> against manifold temptations provided
+by &ldquo;yt ould deluder Satan.&rdquo; To offset the task of learning these
+doctrines of the church, it is probable that the mothers regaled the
+little ones with old folk-lore tales when the family gathered together
+around the great living-room fire in the winter evening, or asked
+eagerly for a bedtime story in the long summer twilight. Tales such as
+&ldquo;Jack the Giant Killer,&rdquo; &ldquo;Tom Thumb,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Children in the Wood,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Guy of Warwick,&rdquo; were orally current even among the plain people of
+England, though frowned upon by many of the Puritan element. Therefore
+it is at least presumable that these were all familiar to the colonists.
+In fact, it is known that John Dunton, in sixteen hundred and
+eighty-six, sold in his Boston warehouse &ldquo;The History of Tom Thumb,&rdquo;
+which he facetiously offered to an ignorant customer &ldquo;in folio with
+Marginal notes.&rdquo; Besides these orally related tales of enchantment, the
+children had a few simple pastimes, but at first the few toys were
+necessarily of home manufacture. On the whole, amusements were not
+encouraged, although &ldquo;In the year sixteen hundred and ninety-five Mr.
+Higginson,&rdquo; writes Mrs. Earle, &ldquo;wrote from Massachusetts to his brother
+in England, that if toys were imported in small quantity to America,
+they would sell.&rdquo; And a venture of this character was certainly made by
+seventeen hundred and twelve in Boston. Still, these were the exception
+in a commonwealth where amusements were considered as wiles of the
+Devil, against whom the ministers constantly warned the congregations
+committed to their charge.</p>
+
+<p>Home in the seventeenth century&mdash;and indeed in the eighteenth
+century&mdash;was a place where for children the rule &ldquo;to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> be seen, not
+heard,&rdquo; was strictly enforced. To read Judge Sewall&rsquo;s diary is to be
+convinced that for children to obtain any importance in life, death was
+necessary. Funerals of little ones were of frequent occurrence, and were
+conducted with great ceremony, in which pomp and meagre preparation were
+strangely mingled. Baby Henry Sewall&rsquo;s funeral procession, for instance,
+included eight ministers, the governor and magistrates of the county,
+and two nurses who bore the little body to the grave, into which, half
+full of water from the raging storm, the rude coffin was lowered. Death
+was kept before the eyes of every member of the colony; even
+two-year-old babies learned such mournful verse as this:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;I, in the Burying Place may See<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Graves Shorter than I;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From Death&rsquo;s Arrest no age is free<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Young Children too may die;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My God, may such an awful Sight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Awakening be to me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh! that by Grace I might<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For Death prepared be.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">When the younger members of the family are otherwise mentioned in the
+Judge&rsquo;s diary, it is perhaps to note the parents&rsquo; pride in the
+eighteen-months-old infant&rsquo;s knowledge of the catechism, an acquirement
+rewarded by the gift of a red apple, but which suggests the reason for
+many funerals. Or, again, difficulties with the alphabet are sorrowfully
+put down; and also deliquencies at the age of four in attending family
+prayer, with a full account of punishments meted out to the culprit.
+Such details are, indeed, but natural, for under the stern conditions
+imposed by Cotton and the Mathers, religion looms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> large in the
+foreground of any sketch of family life handed down from the first
+century of the Massachusetts colony. Perhaps the very earliest picture
+in which a colonial child with a book occupies the centre of the canvas
+is that given in a letter of Samuel Sewall&rsquo;s. In sixteen hundred and
+seventy-one he wrote with pride to a friend of &ldquo;little Betty, who though
+Reading passing well, took Three Moneths to Read the first Volume of the
+Book of Martyrs&rdquo; as she sat by the fire-light at night after her daily
+task of spinning was done. Foxe&rsquo;s &ldquo;Martyrs&rdquo; seems gruesome reading for a
+little girl at bedtime, but it was so popular in England that, with the
+Bible and Catechism, it was included in the library of all households
+that could afford it.</p>
+
+<p>Just ten years later, in sixteen hundred and eighty-one, Bunyan&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Pilgrim&rsquo;s Progress&rdquo; was printed in Boston by Samuel Green, and, being
+easily obtainable, superseded in a measure the &ldquo;Book of Martyrs&rdquo; as a
+household treasure. Bunyan&rsquo;s dream, according to Macaulay, was the daily
+conversation of thousands, and was received in New England with far
+greater eagerness than in the author&rsquo;s own country. The children
+undoubtedly listened to the talk of their elders and gazed with
+wide-open eyes at the execrable plates in the imported editions
+illustrating Christian&rsquo;s journey. After the deaths by fire and sword of
+the Martyrs, the Pilgrim&rsquo;s difficulties in the Slough of Despond, or
+with the Giant Despair, afforded pleasurable reading; while Mr. Great
+Heart&rsquo;s courageous cheerfulness brought practically a new characteristic
+into Puritan literature.</p>
+
+<p>To Bunyan the children in both old and New England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> were indebted for
+another book, entitled &ldquo;A Book for Boys and Girls: or, Country Rhimes
+for Children. By J.&nbsp;B. Licensed and Entered according to <span class="nowrap">Order.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_11-A_7" id="FNanchor_11-A_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-A_7" class="fnanchor">11-*</a></span>
+Printed in London, it probably soon made its way to this country, where
+Bunyan was already so well known. &ldquo;This little octavo volume,&rdquo; writes
+Mrs. Field in &ldquo;The Child and his Book,&rdquo; &ldquo;was considered a perfect
+child&rsquo;s book, but was in fact only the literary milk of the unfortunate
+babes of the period.&rdquo; In the light of modern views upon juvenile reading
+and entertainment, the Puritan ideal of mental pabulum for little ones
+is worth recording in an extract from the preface. The following lines
+set forth this author&rsquo;s three-fold purpose:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;To show them how each Fingle-fangle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On which they doting are, their souls entangle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As with a Web, a Trap, a Gin, or Snare.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While by their Play-things, I would them entice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To mount their Thoughts from what are childish Toys<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Heaven for that&rsquo;s prepar&rsquo;d for Girls and Boys.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor do I so confine myself to these<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As to shun graver things, I seek to please,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Those more compos&rsquo;d with better things than Toys:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho thus I would be catching Girls and Boys.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">In the seventy-four Meditations composing this curious medley&mdash;&ldquo;tho but
+in Homely Rhimes&rdquo;&mdash;upon subjects familiar to any little girl or boy,
+none leaves the moral to the imagination. Nevertheless, it could well
+have been a relaxation, after the daily drill in &ldquo;A B abs&rdquo; and
+catechism, to turn the leaves and to spell out this:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p style="padding-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">Upon the Frog</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Frog by nature is both damp and cold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her mouth is large, her belly much will hold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She sits somewhat ascending, loves to be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Croaking in gardens tho&rsquo; unpleasantly.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p style="padding-left: 8em;"><i>Comparison</i></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The hypocrite is like unto this frog;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As like as is the Puppy to the Dog.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He is of nature cold, his mouth is wide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To prate, and at true Goodness to deride.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Doubtless, too, many little Puritans quite envied the child in &ldquo;The Boy
+and the Watchmaker,&rdquo; a jingle wherein the former said, among other
+things:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;This Watch my Father did on me bestow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Golden one it is, but &rsquo;twill not go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unless it be at an Uncertainty;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I think there is no watch as bad as mine.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sometimes &rsquo;tis sullen, &rsquo;twill not go at all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet &rsquo;twas never broke, nor had a fall.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The same small boys may even have enjoyed the tedious explanation of the
+mechanism of the time-piece given by the <i>Watchmaker</i>, and after
+skipping the &ldquo;Comparison&rdquo; (which made the boy represent a convert and
+the watch in his pocket illustrative of &ldquo;Grace within his Heart&rdquo;), they
+probably turned eagerly to the next Meditation <i>Upon the Boy and his
+Paper of Plumbs</i>. Weather-cocks, Hobby-horses, Horses, and Drums, all
+served Bunyan in his effort &ldquo;to point a moral&rdquo; while adorning his tales.</p>
+
+<p>In a later edition of these grotesque and quaint conceptions, some
+alterations were made and a primer was included. It then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> appeared as &ldquo;A
+Book for Boys and Girls; or Temporal Things Spiritualized;&rdquo; and by the
+time the ninth edition was reached, in seventeen hundred and
+twenty-four, the book was hardly recognizable as &ldquo;Divine Emblems; or
+Temporal Things Spiritualized.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At present there is no evidence that these rhymes were printed in the
+colonies until long after this ninth edition was issued. It is possible
+that the success attending a book printed in Boston shortly after the
+original &ldquo;Country Rhimes&rdquo; was written, made the colonial printers feel
+that their profit would be greater by devoting spare type and paper to
+the now famous &ldquo;New England Primer.&rdquo; Moreover, it seems peculiarly in
+keeping with the cast of the New England mind of the eighteenth century
+that although Bunyan had attempted to combine play-things with religious
+teaching for the English children, for the little colonials the first
+combination was the elementary teaching and religious exercises found in
+the great &ldquo;Puritan Primer.&rdquo; Each child was practically, if not verbally,
+told that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;This little Catechism learned by heart (for so it ought)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Primer next commanded is for Children to be taught.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The Primer, however, was not a product wholly of New England. In sixteen
+hundred and eighty-five there had been printed in Boston by Green, &ldquo;The
+Protestant Tutor for Children,&rdquo; a primer, a mutilated copy of which is
+now owned by the American Antiquarian Society. &ldquo;This,&rdquo; again to quote
+Mr. Ford, &ldquo;was probably an abridged edition of a book bearing the same
+title, printed in London, with the expressed design of bringing up
+children in an aversion to Popery.&rdquo; In Protes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>tant New England the
+author&rsquo;s purpose naturally called forth profound approbation, and in
+&ldquo;Green&rsquo;s edition of the Tutor lay the germ of the great picture alphabet
+of our <span class="nowrap">fore-fathers.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_14-A_8" id="FNanchor_14-A_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-A_8" class="fnanchor">14-*</a></span> The author, Benjamin Harris, had immigrated
+to Boston for personal reasons, and coming in contact with the
+residents, saw the latent possibilities in &ldquo;The Protestant Tutor.&rdquo; &ldquo;To
+make it more salable,&rdquo; writes Mr. Ford in &ldquo;The New England Primer,&rdquo; &ldquo;the
+school-book character was increased, while to give it an even better
+chance of success by an appeal to local pride it was rechristened and
+came forth under the now famous title of &lsquo;The New England
+<span class="nowrap">Primer.&rsquo;&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_14-B_9" id="FNanchor_14-B_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-B_9" class="fnanchor">14-&#8224;</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A careful examination of the titles contained in the first volume of
+Evans&rsquo;s &ldquo;American Bibliography&rdquo; shows how exactly this infant&rsquo;s primer
+represented the spirit of the times. This chronological list of American
+imprints of the first one hundred years of the colonial press is largely
+a record in type of the religious activity of the country, and is
+impressive as a witness to the obedience of the press to the law of
+supply and demand. With the Puritan appetite for a grim religion served
+in sermons upon every subject, ornamented and seasoned with supposedly
+apt Scriptural quotations, a demand was created for printed discourses
+to be read and inwardly digested at home. This demand the printers
+supplied. Amid such literary conditions the primer came as light food
+for infants&rsquo; minds, and as such was accepted by parents to impress
+religious ideas when teaching the alphabet.</p>
+
+<p>It is not by any means certain that the first edition of this great
+primer of our ancestors contained illustrations, as en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>gravers were few
+in America before the eighteenth century. Yet it seems altogether
+probable that they were introduced early in the next century, as by
+seventeen hundred and seventeen Benjamin Harris, Jr., had printed in
+Boston &ldquo;The Holy Bible in Verse,&rdquo; containing cuts identical with those
+in &ldquo;The New England Primer&rdquo; of a somewhat later date, and these pictures
+could well have served as illustrations for both these books for
+children&rsquo;s use, profit, and pleasure. At all events, the thorough
+approval by parents and clergy of this small school-book soon brought to
+many a household the novelty of a real picture-book.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto little children had been perforce content with the few
+illustrations the adult books offered. Now the printing of this tiny
+volume, with its curious black pictures accompanying the text of
+religious instruction, catechism, and alphabets, marked the milestone on
+the long lane that eventually led to the well-drawn pictures in the
+modern books for children.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult at so late a day to estimate correctly the pleasure this
+famous picture alphabet brought to the various colonial households. What
+the original illustrations were like can only be inferred from those in
+&ldquo;The Holy Bible in Verse,&rdquo; and in the later editions of the primer
+itself. In the Bible Adam (or is it Eve?) stands pointing to a tree
+around which a serpent is coiled. By seventeen hundred and thirty-seven
+the engraver was sufficiently skilled to represent two figures, who
+stand as colossal statues on either side of the tree whose fruit had
+such disastrous effects. However, at a time when art criticism had no
+terrors for the engraver, it could well have been a delight to many a
+family of little ones to gaze upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;The Lion bold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Lamb doth hold&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">and to speculate upon the exact place where the lion ended and the lamb
+began. The wholly religious character of the book was no drawback to its
+popularity, for the two great diaries of the time show how absolutely
+religion permeated the atmosphere surrounding both old and young.</p>
+
+<p>Cotton Mather&rsquo;s diary gives various glimpses of his dealing with his own
+and other people&rsquo;s children. His son Increase, or &ldquo;Cressy,&rdquo; as he was
+affectionately called, seems to have been particularly unresponsive to
+religious coercion. Mather&rsquo;s method, however, appears to have been more
+efficacious with the younger members of his family, and of Elizabeth and
+Samuel (seven years of age) he wrote: &ldquo;My two younger children shall
+before the Psalm and prayer answer a Qu&aelig;stion in the catechism; and have
+their Leaves ready turned unto the proofs of the Answer in the Bible;
+which they shall distinctly read unto us, and show what they prove. This
+also shall supply a fresh matter for prayer.&rdquo; Again he tells of his
+table talk: &ldquo;Tho&rsquo; I will have my table talk facetious as well as
+instructive ... yett I will have the Exercise continually intermixed. I
+will set before them some sentence of the Bible, and make some useful
+Remarks upon it.&rdquo; Other people&rsquo;s children he taught as occasion offered;
+even when &ldquo;on the Road in the Woods,&rdquo; he wrote on another day, &ldquo;I, being
+desirous to do some Good, called some little children ... and bestowed
+some Instruction with a little Book upon them.&rdquo; To children accustomed
+to instruction at all hours, the amusement found in the pages of the
+primer was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> far greater than in any other book printed in the colonies
+for years.</p>
+
+<p>Certain titles indicate the nature of the meagre juvenile literary fare
+in the beginning of the new eighteenth century. In seventeen hundred
+Nicholas Boone, in his &ldquo;Shop over against the old Meeting-house&rdquo; in
+Boston, reprinted Janeway&rsquo;s &ldquo;Token for Children.&rdquo; To this was added by
+the Boston printer a &ldquo;Token for the children of New England, or some
+examples of children in whom the fear of God was remarkably budding when
+they dyed; in several parts of New England.&rdquo; Of course its author, the
+Reverend Mr. Mather, found colonial &ldquo;examples&rdquo; as deeply religious as
+any that the mother country could produce; but there is for us a grim
+humor in these various incidents concerning pious and precocious infants
+&ldquo;of thin habit and pale countenance,&rdquo; whose pallor became that of death
+at so early an age. If it was by the repetition of such tales that the
+Puritan divine strove to convert Cressy, it may well be that the son
+considered it better policy, since Death claimed the little saints, to
+remain a sinner.</p>
+
+<p>By seventeen hundred and six two juvenile books appeared from the press
+of Timothy Green in Boston. The first, &ldquo;<span class="smcap">A Little Book</span> for
+children wherein are set down several directions for little children:
+and several remarkable stories both ancient and modern of little
+children, divers whereof are lately deceased,&rdquo; was a reprint from an
+English book of the same title, and therefore has not in this chronicle
+the interest of the second book. The purpose of its publication is given
+in Mather&rsquo;s diary:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="right">[1706] 22d. Im. Friday.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">About this Time sending my little son to School, Where ye Child was
+Learning to Read, I did use every morning for diverse months, to
+Write in a plain Hand for the Child, and send thither by him, <i>a
+Lesson in Verse</i>, to be not only <i>read</i>, but also <i>Gott</i> by Heart.
+My proposal was to have the Child improve in goodness, at the same
+time that he improved in <i>Reading</i>. Upon further Thoughts I
+apprehended that a Collection of some of them would be serviceable
+to ye Good Education of other children. So I lett ye printer take
+them &amp; print them, in some hope of some Help to thereby contributed
+unto that great Intention of a <i>Good Education</i>. The book is
+entituled <i>Good Lessons for Children</i>; or Instruction provided for a
+little Son to learn at School, when learning to Read.</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Although this small book lives only by record, it is safe to assume from
+the extracts of the author&rsquo;s diary already quoted, that it lacked every
+quality of amusement, and was adapted only to those whom he described,
+in a sermon preached before the Governor and Council, as &ldquo;verie Sharpe
+and early Ripe in their capacities.&rdquo; &ldquo;Good Lessons&rdquo; has the distinction
+of being the first American book to be composed, like many a modern
+publication, for a particular young child; and, with its purpose &ldquo;to
+improve in goodness,&rdquo; struck clearly the keynote of the greater part of
+all writing for children during the succeeding one hundred and
+seventy-five years.</p>
+
+<p>The first glimpse of the amusement book proper appears in that unique
+&ldquo;History of Printing in America,&rdquo; by Isaiah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> Thomas. This describes,
+among other old printers, one Thomas Fleet, who established himself in
+Boston about 1713. &ldquo;At first,&rdquo; wrote Mr. Thomas, &ldquo;he printed pamphlets
+for booksellers, small books for children and ballads&rdquo; in Pudding
+<span class="nowrap">Lane.<a name="FNanchor_19-A_10" id="FNanchor_19-A_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-A_10" class="fnanchor">19-*</a></span> &ldquo;He owned several negroes, one of which ... was an ingenious
+man and cut on wooden blocks all the pictures which decorated the
+ballads and small books for his <span class="nowrap">master.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_19-B_11" id="FNanchor_19-B_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-B_11" class="fnanchor">19-&#8224;</a></span> As corroborative of these
+statements Thomas also mentions Thomas Fleet, Sr., as &ldquo;the putative
+compiler of Mother Goose Melodies, which he first published in 1719,
+bearing the title of &lsquo;Songs for the Nursery.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Much discussion has arisen as to the earliest edition of Mother Goose.
+Thomas&rsquo;s suggestion as to the origin of the first American edition has
+been of late years relegated to the region of myth. Nevertheless, there
+is something to be said in favor of the existence of some book of
+nonsense at that time. The Boston &ldquo;News Letter&rdquo; for April 12-19, 1739,
+contained a criticism of Tate and Brady&rsquo;s version of the Psalms, in
+which the reviewer wrote that in Psalm VI the translators used the
+phrase, &ldquo;a wretch forlorn.&rdquo; He added: &ldquo;(1) There is nothing of this in
+the original or the English Psalter. (2) &rsquo;Tis a low expression and to
+add a low one is the less allowable. But (3) what I am most concerned
+for is, that it will be apt to make our Children think of the line in
+their vulgar Play song; much like it, &lsquo;This is the maiden all forlorn.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+We recognize at once a reference to our nursery friend of the &ldquo;House
+that Jack Built;&rdquo; and if this and &ldquo;Tom Thumb&rdquo; were sold in Boston, why
+should not other ditties have been among the chap-books<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> which Thomas
+remembered to have set up when a &rsquo;prentice lad in the printing-house of
+Zechariah Fowle, who in turn had copied some issued previously by Thomas
+Fleet? In further confirmation of Thomas&rsquo;s statement is a paragraph in
+the preface to an edition of Mother Goose, published in Boston in 1833,
+by Monroe &amp; Francis. The editor traces the origin of these rhymes to a
+London book entitled, &ldquo;Rhymes for the Nursery or Lullabies for
+Children,&rdquo; &ldquo;that,&rdquo; he writes, &ldquo;contained many of the identical pieces
+handed down to us.&rdquo; He continues: &ldquo;The first book of the kind known to
+be printed in this country <i>bears</i> [<i>the italics are mine</i>] the title,
+&lsquo;<i>Songs for the Nursery: or Mother Goose&rsquo;s Melodies for Children</i>.&rsquo;
+Something probably intended to represent a goose, with a very long neck
+and mouth wide open, covered a large part of the title-page; at the
+bottom of which was: &lsquo;Printed by T. Fleet, at his printing house,
+Pudding Lane (Boston) 1719.&rsquo; Several pages were missing, so that the
+whole number could not be ascertained.&rdquo; The editor clearly writes as if
+he had either seen, or heard accurately described, this piece of
+<i>Americana</i>, which the bibliophile to-day would consider a treasure
+trove. Later writers doubt whether any such book existed, for it is
+hardly credible that the Puritan element which so largely composed the
+population of Boston in the first quarter of the eighteenth century
+would have encouraged the printing of any nonsensical jingles.</p>
+
+<p>Boston, however, was not at this time the only place in the colonies
+where primers and religious books were written and printed. In
+Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford, famous as the founder of the &ldquo;American
+Weekly Mercury,&rdquo; had in 1714 put through his press, probably upon
+subscription, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> &ldquo;Last Words and Dyeing Expressions of Hannah Hill,
+aged 11 years and near three Months.&rdquo; This morbid account of the death
+of a little Quakeress furnished the Philadelphia children with a book
+very similar to Mather&rsquo;s &ldquo;Token.&rdquo; Not to be outdone by any precocious
+example in Pennsylvania, the Reverend Mr. Mather soon found an instance
+of &ldquo;Early Piety in Elizabeth Butcher of Boston, being just 8 years and
+11 months old,&rdquo; when she died in 1718. In two years two editions of her
+life had been issued &ldquo;to instruct and to invite little children to the
+exercise of early piety.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Such mortuary effusions were so common at the time that Benjamin
+Franklin&rsquo;s witty skit upon them is apropos in this connection. In 1719,
+at the age of sixteen, under the pseudonym of Mrs. Dogood, he wrote a
+series of letters for his brother&rsquo;s paper, &ldquo;The New England Courant.&rdquo;
+From the following extract, taken from these letters, it is evident that
+these children&rsquo;s &ldquo;Last Words&rdquo; followed the prevailing fashion:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="center noindent"><i>A Receipt</i> to make a <i>New England</i><br />
+Funeral <i>Elegy</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>For the title of your Elegy</i>. Of these you may have enough ready
+made at your Hands: But if you should chuse to make it yourself you
+must be sure not to omit the Words <i>Aetatis Suae</i>, which will
+beautify it exceedingly.</p>
+
+<p><i>For the subject of your Elegy</i>. Take one of your neighbors who has
+lately departed this life; it is no great matter at what age the
+Party Dy&rsquo;d, but it will be best if he went away suddenly, being
+<i>Kill&rsquo;d</i>, <i>Drown&rsquo;d</i> or <i>Froze to Death</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Having chosen the Person, take all his Virtues, Excellencies, &amp;c.
+and if he have not enough, you may borrow some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>to make up a
+sufficient Quantity: To these add his last Words, dying Expressions,
+&amp;c. if they are to be had: mix all these together, and be sure you
+strain them well. Then season all with a Handful or two of
+Melancholy Expressions, such as <i>Dreadful, Dreadly, cruel, cold,
+Death, unhappy, Fate, weeping Eyes</i>, &amp;c. Having mixed all these
+Ingredients well, put them in an empty Scull of some <i>young
+Harvard</i>; (but in case you have ne&rsquo;er a One at Hand, you may use
+your <i>own</i>,) then let them Ferment for the Space of a Fortnight, and
+by that Time they will be incorporated into a Body, which take out
+and having prepared a sufficient Quantity of double Rhimes, such as
+<i>Power, Flower; Quiver, Shiver; Grieve us, Leave us; tell you, excel
+you; Expeditions, Physicians; Fatigue him, Intrigue him</i>; &amp;c. you
+must spread all upon Paper, and if you can procure a Scrap of Latin
+to put at the <i>End</i>, it will garnish it mightily: then having
+affixed your Name at the bottom with a <i>Maestus Composuit</i>, you will
+have an Excellent Elegy.</p>
+
+<p>N.B. This Receipt will serve when a Female is the subject of your
+Elegy, provided you borrow a greater Quantity of Virtues,
+Excellencies &amp;c.</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Of other original books for children of colonial parents in the first
+quarter of that century, &ldquo;A Looking-glass&rdquo; did but mirror more religious
+episodes concerning infants, while Mather in his zeal had also published
+&ldquo;An Earnest Exhortation&rdquo; to New England children, and &ldquo;The A, B, C, of
+religion. Fitted unto the youngest and lowest capacities.&rdquo; To this,
+taking advantage of the use of rhymes, he appended further instruction,
+including &ldquo;The Body of Divinity versified.&rdquo; With our knowledge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> of the
+clergyman&rsquo;s methods with his congregation it is not difficult to imagine
+that he insisted upon the purchase of these godly aids for every
+household.</p>
+
+<p>In attempting to reproduce the conditions of family life in the early
+settlements and towns of colonial days, we turn quite naturally to the
+newspapers, whose appearance in the first quarter of the eighteenth
+century was gladly welcomed by the people of their time, and whose files
+are now eagerly searched for items of great or small importance. Indeed,
+much information can be gathered from their advertisements, which often
+filled the major part of these periodicals. Apparently shop-keepers were
+keen to take advantage of such space as was reserved for them, as
+sometimes a marginal note informed the public that other advertisements
+must wait for the next issue to appear.</p>
+
+<p>Booksellers&rsquo; announcements, however, are not too frequent in Boston
+papers, and are noticeably lacking in the early issues of the
+Philadelphia &ldquo;Weekly Mercury.&rdquo; This dearth of book-news accounts for the
+difficulty experienced by book-lovers of that town in procuring
+literature&mdash;a lack noticed at once by the wide-awake young Franklin upon
+his arrival in the city, and recorded in his biography as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania [1728] there was not a
+bookseller&rsquo;s shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In
+New York and Phil&rsquo;a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only
+paper, etc., ballads, and a few books. Those who lov&rsquo;d reading were
+obliged to send for their books from London.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Franklin undertook to better this condition by opening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> a shop for the
+sale of foreign books. Both he and his rival in journalism, Andrew
+Bradford, had stationer&rsquo;s shops, in which were to be had besides &ldquo;Good
+Writing Paper; Cyphering Slates; Ink Powders, etc., Chapmens Books and
+Ballads.&rdquo; Bradford also advertised in seventeen hundred and thirty that
+all persons could be supplied with &ldquo;Primers and small Histories of many
+sorts.&rdquo; &ldquo;Small histories&rdquo; were probably chap-books, which, hawked about
+the country by peddlers or chapmen, contained tales of &ldquo;Fair Rosamond,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Jane Grey,&rdquo; &ldquo;Tom Thumb&rdquo; or &ldquo;Tom Hick-a-Thrift,&rdquo; and though read by old
+and young, were hardly more suitable for juvenile reading than the
+religious elegies then so popular. These chap-books were sold in
+considerable quantities on account of their cheapness, and included
+religious subjects as well as tales of adventure.</p>
+
+<p>One of the earliest examples of this chap-book literature, thought
+suitable for children, was printed in the colonies by the press of
+Thomas Fleet, already mentioned as a printer of small books. This book
+of 1736, being intended for ready sale, was such as every Puritan would
+buy for the family library. Entitled &ldquo;The Prodigal Daughter,&rdquo; it told in
+Psalm-book metre of a &ldquo;proud, vain girl, who, because her parents would
+not indulge her in all her extravagances, bargained with the devil to
+poisen them.&rdquo; The parents, however, were warned by an angel of her
+intentions:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;One night her parents sleeping were in bed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nothing but troubled dreams run in their head,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At length an angel did to them appear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Saying awake, and unto me give ear.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span><span class="i0">A messenger I&rsquo;m sent by Heaven kind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To let you know your lives are both design&rsquo;d;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your graceless child, whom you love so dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She for your precious lives hath laid a snare.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To poison you the devil tempts her so,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She hath no power from the snare to go:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But God such care doth of his servants take,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Those that believe on Him He&rsquo;ll not forsake.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;You must not use her cruel or severe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For though these things to you I do declare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is to show you what the Lord can do,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He soon can turn her heart, you&rsquo;ll find it so.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The daughter, discovered in her attempt to poison their food, was
+reproached by the mother for her evil intention and swooned. Every
+effort failed to &ldquo;bring her spirits to revive:&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Four days they kept her, when they did prepare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To lay her body in the dust we hear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At her funeral a sermon then was preach&rsquo;d,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All other wicked children for to teach....<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But suddenly they bitter groans did hear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which much surprized all that then were there.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At length they did observe the dismal sound<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Came from the body just laid in the ground.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The Puritan pride in funeral display is na&iuml;vely exhibited in the
+portrayal of the girl when she &ldquo;in her coffin sat, and did admire her
+winding sheet,&rdquo; before she related her experiences &ldquo;among lonesome wild
+deserts and briary woods, which dismal were and dark.&rdquo; But immediately
+after her description of the lake of burning misery and of the fierce
+grim Tempter, the Puritan matter-of-fact acceptance of it all is
+suggested by the concluding lines:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;When thus her story she to them had told,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She said, put me to bed for I am cold.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The illustrations of a later edition entered thoroughly into the spirit
+of the author&rsquo;s intent. The contemporary opinion of the French character
+is quaintly shown in the portrait of the Devil dressed as a French
+gentleman, his cloven foot discovering his identity. Whatever
+deficiencies are revealed in these early attempts to illustrate, they
+invariably expressed the artist&rsquo;s purpose, and in this case the Devil,
+after the girl&rsquo;s conversion, is drawn in lines very acceptable to
+Puritan children&rsquo;s idea of his personality.</p>
+
+<p>Almanacs also were in demand, and furnished parents and children, in
+many cases, with their entire library for week-day reading. &ldquo;Successive
+numbers hung from a string by the chimney or ranked by years and
+generations on cupboard <span class="nowrap">shelves.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_26-A_12" id="FNanchor_26-A_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-A_12" class="fnanchor">26-*</a></span> But when Franklin made &ldquo;Poor
+Richard&rdquo; an international success, he, by giving short extracts from
+Swift, Steele, Defoe, and Bacon, accustomed the provincial population,
+old and young, to something better than the meagre religious fare
+provided by the colonial press.</p>
+
+<p>Such, then, were the literary conditions for children when an
+advertisement inserted in the &ldquo;Weekly Mercury&rdquo; gave promise of better
+days for the little <span class="nowrap">Philadelphians.<a name="FNanchor_26-B_13" id="FNanchor_26-B_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-B_13" class="fnanchor">26-&#8224;</a></span> Strangely enough, this attempt
+to make learning seem attractive to children did not appear in the
+booksellers&rsquo; lists; but crowded in between Tandums, Holland Tapes,
+London Steel, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> good Muscavado Sugar,&mdash;&ldquo;Guilt horn books&rdquo; were
+advertised by Joseph Sims in 1740 as &ldquo;for sale on reasonable Terms for
+Cash.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 332px;">
+<a name="img04" id="img04"></a><a href="images/img04-full.jpg"><img src="images/img04.jpg" width="332" height="400" alt="The Devil appears as a French Gentleman" title="The Devil appears as a French Gentleman" /></a>
+<i>The Devil appears as a French Gentleman</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Horn-books in themselves were only too common, and not in the least
+delightful. Made of thin wood, whereon was placed a printed sheet of
+paper containing the alphabet and Lord&rsquo;s Prayer, a horn-book was hardly,
+properly speaking, a book at all. But when the printed page was covered
+with yellowish transparent horn, secured to the wooden back by strips of
+brass, it furnished an economical and practically indestructible
+elementary text-book for thousands of English-speaking children on both
+sides of the Atlantic. Sometimes an effort was also made to guard
+against the inconvenient faculty of children for losing school-books, by
+attaching a cord, which, passing through a hole in the handle of the
+board, was hung around the scholar&rsquo;s neck. But since nothing is proof
+against the ingenuity of a schoolboy, many were successfully disposed
+of. Although printed by thousands, few in England or in America have
+survived the century that has elapsed since they were used.
+Occasionally, in tearing down an old building, one of these horn-books
+has been found; dropped in a convenient hole, it has remained secure
+from parents&rsquo; sight, until brought to light by workmen and prized as a
+curiosity by grown people of the present generation. This notice of
+little gilt horn-books was inserted in the &ldquo;Weekly Mercury&rdquo; but once.
+Whether the supply was quickly exhausted, or whether they did not prove
+a successful novelty, can never be known; but at least they herald the
+approach of the little gilt story-books which ten years later were to
+make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> the name of John Newbery well known in English households, and
+hardly less familiar in the American colonies.</p>
+
+<p>So far the only attractions to induce children to read have been through
+the pictures in the Primer of New England, and by the gilding of the
+horn-book. From further south comes the first note of amusement in
+reading, as well as the first expression of pleasure from the children
+themselves in regard to a book. In 1741, in Virginia, two letters were
+written and received by R.&nbsp;H. Lee and George Washington. These letters,
+which afford the first in any way authentic account of tales of real
+entertainment, are given by Mr. Lossing in &ldquo;The Home of Washington,&rdquo; and
+tell their own tale:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center noindent">[<i>Richard Henry Lee to George Washington</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Pa</span> brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them
+in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and
+elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send you one
+of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little indian boy on
+his back like uncle jo&rsquo;s Sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he
+will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your ma to let
+you come to see me.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Richard henry Lee</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center noindent">[<i>G. Washington to R.&nbsp;H. Lee</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Dear Dickey</span>&mdash;I thank you very much for the pretty picture
+book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed
+him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame Elephant
+took care of the Master&rsquo;s little boy, and put him on his back and
+would not let anybody touch his master&rsquo;s little son. I can read
+three or four pages some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>times without missing a word.... I have a
+little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me but I
+mustn&rsquo;t tell you who wrote the poetry.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="G. W. poem">
+<tr>
+  <td>G.&nbsp;W.&rsquo;s compliments to R.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;L.<br />
+      And likes his book full well,<br />
+      Henceforth will count him his friend<br />
+      And hopes many happy days he may spend.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="padding-right: 6em;">Your good friend</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">George Washington.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">In a note Mr. Lossing states that he had copies of these two letters,
+sent him by a Mr. Lee, who wrote: &ldquo;The letter of Richard Henry Lee was
+written by himself, and uncorrected sent by him to his boy friend George
+Washington. The poetical effusion was, I have heard, written by a Mr.
+Howard, a gentleman who used to visit at the house of Mr. Washington.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It would be gratifying to know the titles of these two books, so
+evidently English chap-book tales. It is probable that they were
+imported by a shop-keeper in Alexandria, as in seventeen hundred and
+forty-one there was only one press in Virginia, owned by William Sharps,
+who had moved from Annapolis in seventeen hundred and thirty-six.
+Luxuries were so much more common among the Virginia planters, and life
+was so much more roseate in hue than was the case in the northern
+colonies, that it seems most natural that two southern boys should have
+left the earliest account of any real story-books. Though unfortunately
+nameless, they at least form an interesting coincidence. Bought in
+seventeen hundred and forty-one, they follow just one hundred years
+later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> than the meeting of the General Court, which was responsible for
+the preparation of Cotton&rsquo;s &ldquo;Milk for Babes,&rdquo; and precede by a century
+the date when an American story-book literature was recognized as very
+different from that written for English children.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6-A_1" id="Footnote_6-A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-A_1"><span class="label">&nbsp;&nbsp;6-*</span></a> <i>Records of Mass. Bay</i>, vol. i, p. 37 h.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6-B_2" id="Footnote_6-B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-B_2"><span class="label">&nbsp;&nbsp;6-&#8224;</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, vol. i, p. 37 e.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6-C_3" id="Footnote_6-C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-C_3"><span class="label">&nbsp;&nbsp;6-&#8225;</span></a> Ford, <i>The New England Primer</i>, p. 83.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6-D_4" id="Footnote_6-D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-D_4"><span class="label">&nbsp;&nbsp;6-&#167;</span></a> <i>Records of Mass. Bay</i>, vol. i, p. 328.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_7-A_5" id="Footnote_7-A_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-A_5"><span class="label">&nbsp;&nbsp;7-*</span></a> Ford, <i>The New England Primer</i>, p. 92.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_7-B_6" id="Footnote_7-B_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-B_6"><span class="label">&nbsp;&nbsp;7-&#8224;</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_11-A_7" id="Footnote_11-A_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-A_7"><span class="label">11-*</span></a> In the possession of the British Museum.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_14-A_8" id="Footnote_14-A_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-A_8"><span class="label">14-*</span></a> Ford, <i>The New England Primer</i>, p. 38.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_14-B_9" id="Footnote_14-B_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-B_9"><span class="label">14-&#8224;</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_19-A_10" id="Footnote_19-A_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-A_10"><span class="label">19-*</span></a> Thomas, <i>History of Printing in America</i>, vol. iii, p.
+145.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_19-B_11" id="Footnote_19-B_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-B_11"><span class="label">19-&#8224;</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, vol. i, p. 294.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_26-A_12" id="Footnote_26-A_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-A_12"><span class="label">26-*</span></a> Sears, <i>American Literature</i>, p. 86.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_26-B_13" id="Footnote_26-B_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-B_13"><span class="label">26-&#8224;</span></a> Although this appears to be the first advertisement of
+gilt horn-books in Philadelphia papers, an inventory of the estate of
+Michael Perry, a Boston bookseller, made in seventeen hundred, includes
+sixteen dozen gilt horn-books.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;">1747-1767</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Poetry 3">
+<tr>
+  <td>He who learns his letters fair,<br />
+      Shall have a coach and take the air.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>Royal Primer</i>, Newbery, 1762</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>Our king the good<br />
+      No man of blood.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>The New England Primer</i>, 1762</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead">CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">1747-1767</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>The Play-Book in England</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">T</span><span style="text-transform: uppercase">he</span> vast horde of story-books so constantly poured into modern nurseries
+makes it difficult to realize that the library of the early colonial
+child consisted of such books as have been already described. The
+juvenile books to-day are multiform. The quantities displayed upon
+shop-counters or ranged upon play-room shelves include a variety of
+subjects bewildering to all but those whose business necessitates a
+knowledge of this kind of literature. For the little child there is no
+lack of gayly colored pictures and short tales in large print; for the
+older boys and girls there lies a generous choice, ranging from Bunny
+stories to Jungle Books, or they</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;May see how all things are,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seas and cities near and far.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the flying fairies&rsquo; looks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the picture story-books.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The contrast is indeed extreme between that scanty fare of dull sermons
+and &ldquo;The New England Primer&rdquo; given to the little people of the early
+eighteenth century, and this superabundance prepared with lavish care
+for the nation of American children.</p>
+
+<p>The beginning of this complex juvenile literature is, therefore, to be
+regarded as a comparatively modern invention of about seventeen hundred
+and forty-five. From that date can be traced the slow growth of a
+literature written with an avowed intention of furnishing amusement as
+well as instruc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>tion; and in the toy-books published one hundred and
+fifty years ago are found the prototypes of the present modes of
+bringing fun and knowledge to the American fireside.</p>
+
+<p>The question at once arises as to the reason why this literature came
+into existence; why was it that children after seventeen hundred and
+fifty should have been favored in a way unknown to their parents?</p>
+
+<p>To even the casual reader of English literature the answer is plain, if
+this subject of toy-books be regarded as of near kin to the larger body
+of writing. It has been somewhat the custom to consider children&rsquo;s
+literature as a thing wholly apart from that of adults, probably because
+the majority of the authors of these little tales have so generally
+lacked the qualities indispensable for any true literary work. In
+reality the connection between the two is somewhat like that of parent
+and child; the smaller body, though lacking in power, has closely
+imitated the larger mass of writing in form and kind, and has reflected,
+sometimes clearly, sometimes dimly, the good or bad fashions that have
+shared the successive periods of literary history, like a child who
+unconsciously reproduces a parent&rsquo;s foibles or excellences.</p>
+
+<p>It is to England, then, that we must look to find the conditions out of
+which grew the necessity for this modern invention&mdash;the story-book.</p>
+
+<p>The love of stories has been the splendid birthright of every child in
+all ages and in all lands. &ldquo;Stories,&rdquo; wrote Thackeray,&mdash;&ldquo;stories exist
+everywhere; there is no calculating the distance through which the
+stories have come to us, the number of languages through which they have
+been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many
+of them have been narrated almost in their present shape for thousands
+of years to the little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to
+their mothers under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow
+Jumna&mdash;their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring
+in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northern Vikings
+as they lay on their shields on deck; and the Arabs couched under the
+stars on the Syrian plains when their flocks were gathered in, and their
+mares were picketed by the tents.&rdquo; This picturesque description leads
+exactly to the point to be emphasized: that children shared in the
+simple tales of their people as long as those tales retained their
+freshness and simplicity; but when, as in England in the eighteenth
+century, the literature lost these qualities and became artificial,
+critical, and even skeptical, it lost its charm for the little ones and
+they no longer cared to listen to it.</p>
+
+<p>Fashion and taste were then alike absorbed in the works of Dryden, Pope,
+Addison, Steele, and Swift, and the novels from the pens of Richardson,
+Fielding, and Smollett had begun to claim and to hold the attention of
+the English reading public. The children, however, could neither
+comprehend nor enjoy the witty criticism and subtle treatment of the
+topics discussed by the older men, although, as will be seen in another
+chapter, the novels became, in both the original and in the abridged
+forms, the delight of many a &ldquo;young master and miss.&rdquo; Meanwhile, in the
+American colonies the people who could afford to buy books inherited
+their taste for literature as well as for tea from the Puritans and
+fashionables in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> the mother country; although it is a fact familiar to
+all, that the works of the comparatively few native authors lagged, in
+spirit and in style, far behind the writings of Englishmen of the time.</p>
+
+<p>The reading of one who was a boy in the older era of the urbane Addison
+and the witty Pope, and a man in the newer period of the novelists, is
+well described in Benjamin Franklin&rsquo;s autobiography. &ldquo;All the little
+money,&rdquo; wrote that book-lover, &ldquo;that came into my hands was laid out in
+books. Pleased with the Pilgrim&rsquo;s Progress, my collection was of John
+Bunyan&rsquo;s works in separate volumes. I afterwards sold them to buy R.
+Burton&rsquo;s Historical Collections; they were Chapmen&rsquo;s books, and cheap,
+40 or 50 in all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Burton&rsquo;s &ldquo;Historical Collections&rdquo; contained history, travels,
+adventures, fiction, natural history, and biography. So great was the
+favor in which they were held in the eighteenth century that the
+compiler, Nathaniel Crouch, almost lost his identity in his pseudonym,
+and like the late Mr. Clemens, was better known by his nom-de-plume than
+by his family name. According to Dunton, he &ldquo;melted down the best of the
+English histories into twelve-penny books, which are filled with
+wonders, rarities and curiosities.&rdquo; Although characterized by Dr.
+Johnson as &ldquo;very proper to allure backward readers,&rdquo; the contents of
+many of the various books afforded the knowledge and entertainment
+eagerly grasped by Franklin and other future makers of the American
+nation. The scarcity of historical works concerning the colonies made
+Burton&rsquo;s account of the &ldquo;English Empire in America&rdquo; at once a mine of
+interest to wide-awake boys of the day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> Number VIII, entitled &ldquo;Winter
+Evenings&rsquo; Entertainment,&rdquo; was long a source of amusement with its
+stories and riddles, and its title was handed down to other books of a
+similar nature. To children, however, the best-known volume of the
+series was Burton&rsquo;s illustrated versification of Bible stories called
+&ldquo;The Youth&rsquo;s Divine Pastime.&rdquo; But the subjects chosen by Burton were
+such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no
+euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable &ldquo;Pastime
+for Youth.&rdquo; The literature read by English children was, of course, the
+same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of
+knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting.</p>
+
+<p>To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and
+indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John
+Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent
+medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially
+for the amusement of little children.</p>
+
+<p>While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks
+in England, in the colonies the idea of a child&rsquo;s need of recreation
+through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner
+in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery&rsquo;s books
+as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of
+which there is record.</p>
+
+<p>In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely
+confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses
+delivered on Sunday and &ldquo;Catechize days,&rdquo; and afterwards printed for
+larger circulation. The reprints from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> English publications were such
+exotics as, &ldquo;A Poesie out of Mr. Dod&rsquo;s Garden,&rdquo; an alluring title, which
+did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious
+nature of its contents.</p>
+
+<p>In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so
+little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the
+popularity of Watts&rsquo;s &ldquo;Divine Songs&rdquo; (issued by an Englishman) is well
+attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child&rsquo;s
+books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in
+Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some
+entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published &ldquo;The
+Parents&rsquo; Gift, containing a choice collection of God&rsquo;s judgments and
+Mercies,&rdquo; lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added
+a &ldquo;variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of
+Children.&rdquo; This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America
+that pictures were commendable to parents <i>because</i> entertaining to
+their offspring. Such an idea put into words upon paper and advertised
+in so well-read a sheet as the &ldquo;Boston Evening Post,&rdquo; must surely have
+impressed fathers and mothers really solicitous for the family welfare
+and anxious to provide harmless pleasure. This pictorial element was
+further encouraged by Franklin, when, in 1747, he reprinted, probably
+for the first time in this country, &ldquo;Dilworth&rsquo;s New Guide to the English
+Tongue.&rdquo; In this school-book, after the alphabets and spelling lessons,
+a special feature was introduced, that is, illustrated &ldquo;Select Fables.&rdquo;
+The cuts at the top of each fable possess an added interest from the
+supposition that they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> engraved by the printer himself; and the
+constant use of the &ldquo;Guide&rdquo; by colonial school-masters and mistresses
+made their pupils unconsciously quite ready for more illustrated and
+fewer homiletic volumes.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, before the middle of the century pictures had become an accepted
+feature of the few juvenile books, and &ldquo;The History of the Holy Jesus&rdquo;
+versified for little ones was issued by at least two old Boston printers
+in 1747 and 1748 with more than a dozen cuts. Among the rare extant
+copies of this small chap-book is one that, although torn and disfigured
+by tiny fingers and the century and a half since it pleased its first
+owner, bears the personal touch of this inscription &ldquo;Ebenezer ... Bought
+June ... 1749 ... price 0=2=d.&rdquo; Was the price marked upon its page as a
+reminder that two shillings was a large price to pay for a boy&rsquo;s book?
+Perhaps for this reason it received the careful handling that has
+enabled us to examine it, when so many of its contemporaries and
+successors have vanished.</p>
+
+<p>The versified story, notwithstanding its quaintness of diction, begins
+with a dignified directness:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;The glorious blessed Time had come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Father had decreed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jesus of <i>Mary</i> there was born,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in a Manger laid.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p class="noindent">At the end are two <i>Hymns</i>, entitled &ldquo;Delight in the Lord Jesus,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Absence from Christ intolerable.&rdquo; The final stanza is typical of one
+Puritan doctrine:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;The Devil throws his fiery Darts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And wicked Ones do act their parts,<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span><span class="i0">To ruin me when Christ is gone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And leaves me all alone.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The woodcuts are not the least interesting feature of this old-time
+duodecimo, from the picture showing the mother reading to her children
+to the illustration of the quaking of the earth on the day of the
+crucifixion. Crude and badly drawn as they now seem, they were surely
+sufficient to attract the child of their generation.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time old Zechariah Fowle, who apprenticed Isaiah Thomas,
+and both printed and vended chap-books in Back Street, Boston,
+advertised among his list of books &ldquo;Lately Publish&rsquo;d&rdquo; this same small
+book, together with &ldquo;A Token for Youth,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Life and Death of
+Elizabeth Butcher,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of
+Childhood and Youth,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Prodigal Daughter,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Happy Child,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;The New Gift for Children with Cuts.&rdquo; Of these &ldquo;The New Gift&rdquo; was
+certainly a real story-book, as one of a later edition still extant
+readily proves.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the children in both countries were prepared to enjoy Newbery&rsquo;s
+miniature story-books, although for somewhat different reasons: in
+England the literature had reached a point too artificial to be
+interesting to little ones; in America the product of the press and the
+character of the majority of the juvenile importations, the reprints, or
+home-made chap-books, has been shown to be such as would hardly attract
+those who were to be the future arbiters of the colonies&rsquo; destiny.</p>
+
+<p>The reasons for the coming to light of this new form of infant
+literature have been dwelt upon in order to show the necessity for some
+change in the kind of reading-matter to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> put in the hands of the
+younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is
+next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in
+England,&mdash;a phase largely due to the influence of one man,&mdash;and once
+there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction.</p>
+
+<p>Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of
+children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was
+probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher,
+John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public
+opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the
+well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke&rsquo;s
+ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to
+compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s
+New Play-thing,&rdquo; with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke,
+without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers
+and readers (such as &ldquo;Dilworth&rsquo;s Guide&rdquo;), and then onward to
+story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his letters
+under the title of &ldquo;Thoughts on Education.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In these letters Locke took an extraordinary course: he first made a
+quaint plea for the <i>general welfare</i> of Mr. Clarke&rsquo;s little son. &ldquo;I
+imagine,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;the minds of children are as easily turned this or
+that way as Water itself, and though this be the principal Part, and our
+main Care should be about the inside, yet the Clay Cottage is not to be
+neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and consider first the
+<i>Health</i> of the body.&rdquo; Under Health he discussed clothing, including
+thin shoes, &ldquo;that they may leak and let in Water.&rdquo; A pause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> was then
+made to show the benefits of wet feet as against the apparent
+disadvantages of filthy stockings and muddy boots; for mothers even in
+that time were inclined to consider their floors and steps. Bathing next
+received attention. Bathing every day in cold water, Locke regarded as
+exceedingly desirable; no exceptions were to be made, even in the case
+of a &ldquo;puleing and tender&rdquo; child. The beneficial effects of air,
+sunlight, the establishment of good conduct, diet, sleep, and &ldquo;physick&rdquo;
+were all discussed by the doctor and philosopher, before the development
+of the mind was touched upon. &ldquo;Education,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;concerns itself
+with the forming of Children&rsquo;s Minds, giving them that seasoning early,
+which shall influence their Lives later.&rdquo; This seasoning referred to the
+training of children in matters pertaining to their general government
+and to the reverence of parents. For the Puritan population it was
+undoubtedly a shock to find Locke interesting himself in, and moreover
+advocating, dancing as a part of a child&rsquo;s education; and worst of all,
+that he should mention it before their hobby, <span class="smcap">Learning</span>. In this
+connection it is worth while to make mention of a favorite primer,
+which, published about the middle of the eighteenth century, was
+entitled &ldquo;The Hobby Horse.&rdquo; Locke was quite aware that his method would
+be criticised, and therefore took the bull by the horns in the following
+manner. He admitted that to put the subject of learning last was a cause
+for wonder, &ldquo;especially if I tell you I think it the least part. This
+may seem strange in the mouth of a bookish man, and this making usually
+the chief, if not only bustle and stir about children; this being almost
+that alone, which is thought on, when People talk about Education,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> make
+it the greater Paradox.&rdquo; An unusual piece of advice it most surely was
+to parents to whose children came the task of learning to read as soon
+as they were given spoon-food.</p>
+
+<p>Even more revolutionary to the custom of an eighteenth century mother
+was the admonition that reading &ldquo;be never made a Task.&rdquo; Locke, however,
+was not the man to urge a cure for a bad habit without prescribing a
+remedy, so he went on to say that it was always his &ldquo;Fancy that Learning
+be made a Play and Recreation to Children&rdquo;&mdash;a &ldquo;Fancy&rdquo; at present much in
+vogue. To accomplish this desirable result, &ldquo;Dice and Play-things with
+the Letters on them&rdquo; were recommended to teach children the alphabet;
+&ldquo;and,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;twenty other ways may be found ... to make this kind
+of Learning a Sport to them.&rdquo; Letter-blocks were in this way made
+popular, and formed the approved and advanced method until in these
+latter days pedagogy has swept aside the letter-blocks and syllabariums
+and carried the sport to word-pictures.</p>
+
+<p>This theory had a practical result in the introduction to many
+households of &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s New Play-thing.&rdquo; This book, already
+mentioned, was printed in England in seventeen hundred and forty-three,
+and dedicated to Prince George. In seventeen hundred and forty-four we
+find through the &ldquo;Boston Evening Post&rdquo; of January 23 that the third
+edition was sold by Joseph Edwards, in Cornhill, and it was probably
+from this edition that the first American edition was printed in
+seventeen hundred and fifty. From the following description of this
+American reprint (one of which is happily in the Lenox Collection), it
+will be seen that the &ldquo;Play-thing&rdquo; was an attempt to follow Locke&rsquo;s
+advice, as well as a connecting link between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> the primer of the past and
+the story-book of the near future.</p>
+
+<p>The title, which the illustration shows, reads, &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s New
+Play-thing being a spelling-book intended to make Learning to read a
+diversion instead of a task. Consisting of Scripture-histories, fables,
+stories, moral and religious precepts, proverbs, songs, riddles,
+dialogues, &amp;c. The whole adapted to the capacities of children, and
+divided into lessons of one, two, three and four syllables. The fourth
+edition. To which is added three dialogues; 1. Shewing how a little boy
+shall make every body love him. 2. How a little boy shall grow wiser
+than the rest of his school-fellows. 3. How a little boy shall become a
+great man. Designed for the use of schools, or for children before they
+go to school.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 213px;">
+<a name="img05" id="img05"></a><a href="images/img05-full.jpg"><img src="images/img05.jpg" width="213" height="400" alt="Title-page from &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s new Play-Thing&rdquo;" title="Title-page from &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s new Play-Thing&rdquo;" /></a>
+<i>Title-page from &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s new Play-Thing&rdquo;</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Coverless and faded, hard usage is written in unmistakable characters
+upon this play-thing of a whole family. Upon a fly-leaf are the
+autographs of &ldquo;Ebenezer Ware and Sarah Ware, Their Book,&rdquo; and upon
+another page these two names with the addition of the signatures of
+&ldquo;Ichabod Ware and Cyrus Ware 1787.&rdquo; One parent may have used it when it
+was fresh from the press of Draper &amp; Edwards in Boston; then, through
+enforced economy, handed it down to the next generation, who doubtless
+scorned the dedication so eminently proper in seventeen hundred and
+fifty, so thoroughly out of place thirty-seven years later. There it
+stands in large black type:</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent">
+To his ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE GEORGE This Little<br />
+Play-thing is most humbly dedicated<br />
+By<br />
+His ROYAL HIGHNESS&rsquo;S<br />
+Devoted Servant</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Of especial interest are the alphabets in &ldquo;Roman, Italian, and English
+Names&rdquo; on the third page, while page four contains the dear old alphabet
+in rhyme, fortunately not altogether forgotten in this prosaic age. We
+recognize it as soon as we see it.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;A Apple-Pye<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">B bit it<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">C cut it,&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">and involuntarily add, D divided it. After the spelling lessons came
+fables, proverbs, and the splendid &ldquo;Stories proper to raise the
+Attention and excite the Curiosity of Children&rdquo; of any age; namely, &ldquo;St.
+George and the Dragon,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fortunatus,&rdquo; &ldquo;Guy of Warwick,&rdquo; &ldquo;Brother and
+Sister,&rdquo; &ldquo;Reynard the Fox,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Wolf and the Kid.&rdquo; &ldquo;The Good Dr.
+Watts,&rdquo; writes Mrs. Field, &ldquo;is supposed to have had a hand in the
+composition of this toy book especially in the stories, one of which is
+quite in the style of the old hymn writer.&rdquo; Here it is:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&ldquo;Once on a time two dogs went out to walk. Tray was a good dog, and
+would not hurt the least thing in the world, but Snap was cross, and
+would snarl and bite at all that came in his way. At last they came
+to a town. All the dogs came round them. Tray hurt none of them, but
+Snap would grin at one, snarl at the next, and bite a third, till at
+last they fell on him and tore him limb from limb, and as poor Tray
+was with him, he met with his death at the same time.</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent"><i>Moral</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&ldquo;By this fable you see how dangerous it is to be in company with bad
+boys. Tray was a quiet harmless dog, and hurt nobody, but,
+<span class="nowrap">&amp;c.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_45-A_14" id="FNanchor_45-A_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_45-A_14" class="fnanchor">45-*</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Thus we find that Locke sowed the seed, Watts watered the soil in which
+the seed fell, and that Newbery, after mixing in ideas from his very
+fertile brain, soon reaped a golden harvest from the crop of readers,
+picture-books, and little histories which he, with the aid of certain
+well-known authors, produced.</p>
+
+<p>According to his biographer, Mr. Charles Welsh, John Newbery was born in
+a quaint parish of England in seventeen hundred and thirteen. Although
+his father was only a small farmer, <a name="corr2" id="corr2"></a><ins class="correction" title="Newbery">Newbury</ins> inherited his bookish tastes
+from an ancestor, Ralph or Rafe Newbery, who had been a great publisher
+of the sixteenth century. Showing no inclination toward the life of a
+farmer, the boy, at sixteen, had already entered the shop of a merchant
+in Reading. The name of this merchant is not known, but inference points
+to Mr. Carnan, printer, proprietor, and editor of one of the earliest
+provincial newspapers. In seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, at the
+death of Carnan, John Newbery, then about twenty-four years of age,
+found himself one of the proprietor&rsquo;s heirs and an executor of the
+estate. Carnan left a widow, to whom, to quote her son, Newbery&rsquo;s &ldquo;love
+of books and acquirements as a printer rendered him very acceptable.&rdquo;
+The amiable and well-to-do widow and Newbery were soon married, and
+their youngest son, Francis Newbery, eventually succeeded his father in
+the business of publishing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 265px;">
+<a name="img06" id="img06"></a><a href="images/img06-full.jpg"><img src="images/img06.jpg" width="265" height="400" alt="Title-page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;" title="Title-page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;" /></a>
+<i>Title-page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Shortly after Newbery&rsquo;s marriage his ambition and enterprise resulted in
+the establishment of his family in London, where, in seventeen hundred
+and forty-four, he opened a warehouse at <i>The Bible and Crown</i>, near
+Devereux Court, without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> Temple Bar. Meanwhile he had associated
+himself with Benjamin Collins, a printer in Salisbury. Collins both
+planned and printed some of Newbery&rsquo;s toy volumes, and his name likewise
+was well-known to shop-keepers in the colonies. Newbery soon found that
+his business warranted another move nearer to the centre of trade. He
+therefore combined two establishments into one at the now celebrated
+corner of St. Paul&rsquo;s Churchyard, and at the same time decided to confine
+his attention exclusively to book publishing and medicine vending.</p>
+
+<p>Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least
+one book for juvenile readers. The title reads: &ldquo;Little Pretty
+Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master
+Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack
+the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will
+infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is
+prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents,
+Guardians, Governesses, &amp;c., wherein rules are laid down for making
+their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy.&rdquo; To this
+extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope,
+probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the
+title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a
+finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.
+A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even
+Newbery&rsquo;s original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what
+he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of
+spreading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> out over the page the entire contents of the book was not
+without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was
+to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury
+and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make
+a better choice.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 263px;">
+<a name="img07" id="img07"></a><a href="images/img07-full.jpg"><img src="images/img07.jpg" width="263" height="400" alt="A page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;" title="A page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;" /></a>
+<i>A page from &ldquo;A Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo;</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>The manner in which the &ldquo;Little Pretty Pocket-Book&rdquo; is written is so
+characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the
+younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine
+briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in
+the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine
+instruction with amusement. The book itself is miniature in size, about
+two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers&mdash;Newbery&rsquo;s own
+specialty as a binding. The sixty-five little illustrations at the top
+of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth
+century child, although they were crude in execution and especially
+lacked true perspective. The first chapter after the &ldquo;Address to
+Parents&rdquo; and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives
+letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly. First, Tommy is congratulated
+upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as
+to the use of the &ldquo;Pocket-Book,&rdquo; &ldquo;which will teach you to play at all
+those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with.&rdquo;
+The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with
+pins upon a red and black ball. Little Polly is then given similar
+congratulations and instructions, except that in her case a pincushion
+is to be substituted for a ball. Then follow thirty pages devoted to
+&ldquo;alphabetically digested&rdquo; games, from &ldquo;The <i>great A Play</i>&rdquo; and &ldquo;The
+<i>Little</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> <i>a Play</i>&rdquo; to &ldquo;The <i>great and little Rs</i>,&rdquo; when plays, or the
+author&rsquo;s imagination, give out and rhymes begin the alphabet anew.
+Modern picture alphabets have not improved much upon this jingle:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Great A, B and C<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And tumble down D,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Cat&rsquo;s a blind buff,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And she cannot see.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Next in order are four fables with morals (written in the guise of
+letters), for in Newbery&rsquo;s books and in those of a much later period, we
+feel, as Mr. Welsh writes, a &ldquo;strong determination on the part of the
+authors to place the moral plainly in sight and to point steadily to
+it.&rdquo; Pictures also take a leading part in this effort to inculcate good
+behaviour; thus <i>Good Children</i> are portrayed in cuts, which accompany
+the directions for attaining perfection. Proverbs, having been hitherto
+introduced into school-books, appear again quite naturally in this
+source of diversion, which closes&mdash;at least in the American
+edition&mdash;with sixty-three &ldquo;Rules for Behaviour.&rdquo; These rules include
+those suitable for various occasions, such as &ldquo;At the Meeting-House,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Home,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Table,&rdquo; &ldquo;In Company,&rdquo; and &ldquo;When abroad with other
+Children.&rdquo; To-day, when many such rules are as obsolete as the tiny
+pages themselves, this chapter affords many glimpses of the customs and
+etiquette of the old-fashioned child&rsquo;s life. Such a direction as &ldquo;Be not
+hasty to run out of Meeting-House when Worship is ended, as if thou
+weary of being there&rdquo; (probably an American adaptation of the English
+original), recalls the well-filled colonial meeting-house, where weary
+children sat for hours on high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> seats, with dangling legs, or screwed
+their small bodies in vain efforts to touch the floor. Again we can see
+the anxious mothers, when, after the long sermon was brought to a close,
+they put restraining hands upon the little ones, lest they, in haste to
+be gone, should forget this admonition. The formalism of the time is
+suggested in this request, &ldquo;Make a Bow always when come Home, and be
+instantly uncovered,&rdquo; for the ceremony of polite manners in these
+bustling days has so much relaxed that the modern boy does all that is
+required if he remembers to be &ldquo;instantly uncovered when come Home.&rdquo;
+Among the numerous other requirements only one more may be cited&mdash;a rule
+which reveals the table manners of polite society in its requisite for
+genteel conduct: &ldquo;Throw not anything under the Table. Pick not thy teeth
+at the Table, unless holding thy Napkin before thy mouth with thine
+other Hand.&rdquo; With such an array of intellectual and moral contents, the
+little &ldquo;Pocket-Book&rdquo; may appear to-day to be almost anything except an
+amusement book. Yet this was the phase that the English play-book first
+assumed, and it must not be forgotten that English prose fiction was
+only then coming into existence, except such germs as are found in the
+character sketches in the &ldquo;Spectator&rdquo; and in the cleverly told incidents
+by Defoe.</p>
+
+<p>In 1744, when Newbery published this duodecimo, Dr. Samuel Johnson was
+the presiding genius of English letters; four years earlier, fiction had
+come prominently into the foreground with the publication of &ldquo;Pamela&rdquo; by
+Samuel Richardson; and between seventeen hundred and forty and seventeen
+hundred and fifty-two, Richardson&rsquo;s &ldquo;Clarissa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> Harlowe,&rdquo; Smollett&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Roderick Random&rdquo; and &ldquo;Peregrine Pickle,&rdquo; and Fielding&rsquo;s &ldquo;Tom Jones&rdquo;
+were published. This fact may seem irrelevant to the present subject;
+nevertheless, the idea of a veritable story-book, that is a book
+relating a tale, does not seem to have entered Newbery&rsquo;s mind until
+after these novels had met with a deserved and popular success.</p>
+
+<p>The result of Newbery&rsquo;s first efforts to follow Locke&rsquo;s advice was so
+satisfactory that his wares were sought most eagerly. &ldquo;Very soon,&rdquo; said
+his son, Francis Newbery, &ldquo;he was in the full employment of his talents
+in writing and publishing books of amusement and instruction for
+Children. The call for them was immense, an edition of many thousands
+being sometimes exhausted during the Christmas holidays. His friend, Dr.
+Samuel Johnson, who, like other grave characters, could now and then be
+jocose, had used to say of him, &lsquo;Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I
+know not whether he has read or written most <span class="nowrap">Books.&rsquo;&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_51-A_15" id="FNanchor_51-A_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_51-A_15" class="fnanchor">51-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The bookseller was no less clever in his use of other people&rsquo;s wits. No
+one knows how many of the tiny gilt bindings covered stories told by
+impecunious writers, to whom the proceeds in times of starvation were
+bread if not butter. Newbery, though called by Goldsmith &ldquo;the
+philanthropic publisher of St. Paul&rsquo;s Churchyard,&rdquo; knew very well the
+worth to his own pocket of these authors&rsquo; skill in story-writing.
+Between the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen
+hundred and sixty-seven, the English publisher was at the height of his
+prosperity; his name became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> a household word in England, and was hardly
+less well known to the little colonials of America.</p>
+
+<p>Newbery&rsquo;s literary associations, too, were both numerous and important.
+Before Oliver Goldsmith began to write for children, he is thought to
+have contributed articles for Newbery&rsquo;s &ldquo;Literary Magazine&rdquo; about
+seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, while Johnson&rsquo;s celebrated &ldquo;Idler&rdquo;
+was first printed in a weekly journal started by the publisher about the
+same time. For the &ldquo;British Magazine&rdquo; Newbery engaged Smollett as
+editor. In this periodical appeared Goldsmith&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of Miss
+Stanton.&rdquo; When later this was published as &ldquo;The Vicar of Wakefield,&rdquo; it
+contained a characterization of the bookseller as a good-natured man
+with red, pimpled face, &ldquo;who was no sooner alighted than he was in haste
+to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and he
+was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of Mr.
+Thomas <span class="nowrap">Trip.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_52-A_16" id="FNanchor_52-A_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_52-A_16" class="fnanchor">52-*</a></span> With such an acquaintance it is probable that
+Newbery often turned to Goldsmith, Giles Jones, and Tobias Smollett for
+assistance in writing or abridging the various children&rsquo;s tales; even
+the pompous Dr. Johnson is said to have had a hand in their
+production&mdash;since he expressed a wish to do so. Newbery himself,
+however, assumed the responsibility as well as the credit of so many
+little &ldquo;Histories,&rdquo; that it is exceedingly difficult to fix upon the
+real authors of some of the best-known volumes in the publisher&rsquo;s
+juvenile library.</p>
+
+<p>The histories of &ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tommy Trip&rdquo; (once such nursery
+favorites, and now almost, if not quite,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> forgotten) have been
+attributed to various men; but according to Mr. Pearson in &ldquo;Banbury
+Chap-Books,&rdquo; Goldsmith confessed to writing both. Certainly, his sly wit
+and quizzical vein of humor seem to pervade &ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes&rdquo;&mdash;often
+ascribed to Giles Jones&mdash;and the notes affixed to the rhymes of Mother
+Goose before she became Americanized. Again his skill is seen in the
+adaptation of &ldquo;Wonders of Nature and Art&rdquo; for juvenile admirers; and for
+&ldquo;Fables in Verse&rdquo; he is generally considered responsible. As all these
+tales were printed in the colonies or in the young Republic, their
+peculiarities and particularities may be better described when dealing
+with the issues of the American press.</p>
+
+<p>John Newbery, the most illustrious of publishers in the eyes of the
+old-fashioned child, died in 1767, at the comparatively early age of
+fifty-four. Yet before his death he had proved his talent for producing
+at least fifty original little books, to be worth considerably more than
+the Biblical ten talents.</p>
+
+<p>No sketch of Newbery&rsquo;s life should fail to mention another large factor
+in his successful experiment&mdash;the insertion in the &ldquo;London Chronicle&rdquo;
+and other newspapers of striking and novel advertisements of his gilt
+volumes, which were to be had for &ldquo;six-pence the price of binding.&rdquo; An
+instance of his skill appeared in the &ldquo;London Chronicle&rdquo; for December
+19, 1764-January 1, 1765:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every
+faculty are desired to observe that on the 1st of January, being New
+Year&rsquo;s Day (oh, that we may all lead new lives!) Mr. Newbery intends to
+publish the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby
+invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the
+Bible and Sun in St. Paul&rsquo;s Churchyard, but those who are naughty to
+have <span class="nowrap">none.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_54-A_17" id="FNanchor_54-A_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_54-A_17" class="fnanchor">54-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Christopher Smart, his brother-in-law, who was an adept in the art of
+puffing, possibly wrote many of the advertisements of new books&mdash;notices
+so cleverly phrased that they could not fail to attract the attention of
+many a country shop-keeper. In this way thousands were sold to the
+country districts; and book-dealers in the American commonwealths,
+reading the English papers and alert to improve their trade, imported
+them in considerable quantities.</p>
+
+<p>After Newbery&rsquo;s death, his son, Francis, and Carnan, his stepson,
+carried on the business until seventeen hundred and eighty-eight; from
+that year until eighteen hundred and two Edward Newbery (a nephew of the
+senior Newbery), who in seventeen hundred and sixty-seven had set up a
+rival establishment, continued to publish new editions of the same
+little works. Yet the credit of this experiment of printing juvenile
+stories belongs entirely to the older publisher. Through them he made a
+strong protest against the reading by children of the lax chap-book
+literature, so excellently described by Mr. John Ashton in &ldquo;Chap-Books
+of the Eighteenth Century;&rdquo; and although his stories occasionally
+alluded to disagreeable subjects or situations, these were unfortunately
+familiar to his small patrons.</p>
+
+<p>The gay little covers of gilt or parti-colored paper in which this
+English publisher dressed his books expressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> an evident purpose to
+afford pleasure, which was increased by the many illustrations that
+adorned the pages and added interest to the contents.</p>
+
+<p>To the modern child, these books give no pleasure; but to those who love
+the history of children of the past, they are interesting for two
+reasons. In them is portrayed something of the life of eighteenth
+century children; and by them the century&rsquo;s difference in point of view
+as to the constituents of a story-book can be gauged. Moreover, all
+Newbery&rsquo;s publications are to be credited with a careful preparation
+that later stories sadly lacked. They were always written with a certain
+art; if the language was pompous, we remember Dr. Johnson; if the style
+was formal, its composition was correct; if the tales lacked ease in
+telling, it was only the starched etiquette of the day reduced to a
+printed page; and if they preached, they at least were seldom vulgar.</p>
+
+<p>The preaching, moreover, was of different character from that of former
+times. Hitherto, the fear of the Lord had wholly occupied the author&rsquo;s
+attention when he composed a book &ldquo;proper for a child as soon as he can
+read;&rdquo; now, material welfare was dwelt upon, and a good boy&rsquo;s reward
+came to him when he was chosen the Lord Mayor of London. Good girls were
+not forgotten, and were assured that, like Goody Two-Shoes, they should
+attain a state of prosperity wherein</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Their Fortune and their Fame would fix<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And gallop in their Coach and Six.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Goody Two-Shoes, with her particular method of instilling the alphabet,
+and such books as &ldquo;King Pippin&rdquo; (a prodigy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> learning) may be
+considered as tiny commentaries upon the years when Johnson reigned
+supreme in the realm of learning. These and many others emphasized not
+the effects of piety,&mdash;Cotton Mather&rsquo;s forte,&mdash;but the benefits of
+learning; and hence the good boy was also one who at the age of five
+spelt &ldquo;apple-pye&rdquo; correctly and therefore eventually became a great man.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of Newbery&rsquo;s death it was more than evident that his
+experiment had succeeded, and children&rsquo;s stories were a printed fact.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_45-A_14" id="Footnote_45-A_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45-A_14"><span class="label">45-*</span></a> Field, <i>The Child and his Book</i>, p. 223.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_51-A_15" id="Footnote_51-A_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51-A_15"><span class="label">51-*</span></a> Welsh, <i>Bookseller of the Last Century</i>, pp. 22, 23.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_52-A_16" id="Footnote_52-A_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52-A_16"><span class="label">52-*</span></a> Foster, <i>Life of Goldsmith</i>, vol. i, p. 244.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_54-A_17" id="Footnote_54-A_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54-A_17"><span class="label">54-*</span></a> Welsh, <i>Bookseller of the Last Century</i>, p. 109.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;">1750-1776</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Poetry 5">
+<tr>
+  <td>Kings should be good<br />
+      Not men of blood.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>The New England Primer</i>, 1791</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>If Faith itself has different dresses worn<br />
+      What wonder modes in wit should take their turn.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 5em;"><span class="smcap">Pope</span>: <i>Essay on Man</i></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead">CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">1750-1776</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Newbery&rsquo;s Books in America</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">I</span><span style="text-transform: uppercase">n</span> the middle of the eighteenth century Thursdays were red-letter days
+for the residents of the Quaker town of Philadelphia. On that day Thomas
+Bradford sent forth from the &ldquo;Sign of the Bible&rdquo; in Second Street the
+weekly number of the &ldquo;Pennsylvania Journal,&rdquo; and upon the same day his
+rival journalists, Franklin and Hall, issued the &ldquo;Pennsylvania Gazette.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On Thursday, the fifteenth of November, seventeen hundred and fifty, Old
+Style, the good people of the town took up their newspapers with
+doubtless a feeling of comfortable anticipation, as they drew their
+chairs to the fireside and began to look over the local occurrences of
+the past week, the &ldquo;freshest foreign advices,&rdquo; and the various bits of
+information that had filtered slowly from the northern and more southern
+provinces.</p>
+
+<p>On this particular evening the subscribers to both newspapers found a
+trifle more news in the &ldquo;Journal,&rdquo; but in each paper the same domestic
+items of interest, somewhat differently worded. The latest news from
+Boston was that of November fifth, from New York, November eighth, the
+Annapolis item was dated October tenth, and the few lines from London
+had been written in August.</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Gazette&rdquo; (a larger sheet than the &ldquo;Journal&rdquo;) occasionally had upon
+its first page some timely article of political or local interest. But
+more frequently there appeared in its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> first column an effusion of no
+local color, but full of sentimental or moral reflections. In this day&rsquo;s
+issue there was a long letter, dated New York, from one who claimed to
+be &ldquo;Beauty&rsquo;s Votary.&rdquo; This expressed the writer&rsquo;s disappointment that an
+interesting &ldquo;Piece&rdquo; inserted in the &ldquo;Gazette&rdquo; a fortnight earlier had
+presented in its conclusion &ldquo;an unexpected shocking Image.&rdquo; The shock to
+the writer it appears was the greater, because the beginning of the
+article had, he thought, promised a strong contrast between &ldquo;Furious
+Rage in our rough Sex, and Gentle mildness adorn&rsquo;d with Beauty&rsquo;s charms
+in the other.&rdquo; The rest of the letter was an apostrophe to the fair sex
+in the sentimental and florid language of the period.</p>
+
+<p>To the women, we imagine, this letter was more acceptable than to the
+men, who found the shipping news more to their taste, and noted with
+pleasure the arrival of the ship Carolina and the Snow Strong, which
+brought cargoes valuable for their various industries.</p>
+
+<p>Advertisements filled a number of columns. Among them was one so novel
+in its character that it must have caught the eye of all readers. The
+middle column on the second page was devoted almost entirely to an
+announcement that John Newbery had for &ldquo;Sale to Schoolmasters,
+Shopkeepers, &amp;c., who buy in quantities to sell again,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Museum,&rdquo; &ldquo;A
+new French Primer,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Royal Battledore,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Pretty Book for
+Children.&rdquo; This notice&mdash;a reduced fac-simile of which is given&mdash;made
+Newbery&rsquo;s d&eacute;but in Philadelphia; and it must not be forgotten that but a
+short period had elapsed since his first book had been printed in
+England.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 132px;">
+<a name="img08" id="img08"></a><a href="images/img08-full.jpg"><img src="images/img08.jpg" width="132" height="400" alt="John Newbery&rsquo;s Advertisement of Children&rsquo;s Books" title="John Newbery&rsquo;s Advertisement of Children&rsquo;s Books" /></a>
+</div>
+<p class="center noindent" style="margin-top: 0em;"><i>John Newbery&rsquo;s Advertisement of Children&rsquo;s Books</i></p>
+
+<p>Franklin had doubtless heard of the publisher in St. Paul&rsquo;s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+Churchyard through Mr. Strahan, his correspondent, who filled orders for
+him from London booksellers; but the omission of the customary
+announcement of special books as &ldquo;to be had of the Printer hereof&rdquo;
+points to Newbery&rsquo;s enterprise in seeking a wider market for his wares,
+and Franklin&rsquo;s business ability in securing the advertisement, as it is
+not repeated in the &ldquo;Journal.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This &ldquo;Museum&rdquo; was probably a newer book than the &ldquo;Royal Primer,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Battledore,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Pretty Book,&rdquo; and consequently was more fully
+described; and oddly enough, all of these books are of earlier editions
+than Mr. Welsh, Newbery&rsquo;s biographer, was able to trace in England.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Museum&rdquo; still clings to the same idea which pervaded &ldquo;The
+Play-thing.&rdquo; Its second title reads: &ldquo;A private <span class="smcap">Tutor</span> for
+little <span class="smcap">Masters</span> and <span class="smcap">Misses</span>.&rdquo; The contents show that
+this purpose was carried out. It tutored them by giving directions for
+reading with eloquence and propriety; by presenting &ldquo;the antient and
+present State of <i>Great Britain</i> with a compendious History of
+<i>England</i>;&rdquo; by instructing them in &ldquo;the Solar System, geography, Arts
+and Sciences&rdquo; and the inevitable &ldquo;Rules for Behaviour, Religion and
+Morality;&rdquo; and it admonished them by giving the &ldquo;Dying Words of Great
+Men when just quitting the Stage of Life.&rdquo; As a museum it included
+descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the World, Westminster Abbey, St.
+Paul&rsquo;s Churchyard, and the Tower of London, with an ethnological section
+in the geographical department! All of this amusement was to be had for
+the price of &ldquo;One Shilling,&rdquo; neatly bound, with, thrown in as good
+measure, &ldquo;Letters, Tales and Fables illustrated with Cuts.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> Such a
+library, complete in itself, was a fine and most welcome reward for
+scholarship, when prizes were awarded at the end of the school session.</p>
+
+<p>Importations of &ldquo;Parcels of entertaining books for children&rdquo; had earlier
+in the year been announced through the columns of the &ldquo;Gazette;&rdquo; but
+these importations, though they show familiarity with Newbery&rsquo;s quaint
+phraseology in advertising, probably also included an assortment of such
+little chap-books as &ldquo;Tom Thumb,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cinderella&rdquo; (from the French of
+Monsieur Perrault), and some few other old stories which the children
+had long since appropriated as their own property.</p>
+
+<p>In 1751 we find New York waking up to the appreciation of children&rsquo;s
+books. There J. Waddell and James Parker were apparently the pioneers in
+bringing to public notice the fact that they had for sale little
+novel-books in addition to horn-books and primers; and moreover the
+&ldquo;Weekly Post-Boy&rdquo; advertised that these booksellers had &ldquo;Pretty Books
+for little Masters and Misses&rdquo; (clearly a Newbery imitation), &ldquo;with
+Blank Flourished Christmas pieces for Scholars.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But as yet even Franklin had hardly been convinced that the old way of
+imparting knowledge was not superior to the then modern combination of
+amusement and instruction; therefore, although with his partner, David
+Hall, he without doubt sold such children&rsquo;s books as were available, for
+his daughter Sally, aged seven, he had other views. At his request his
+wife, in December, 1751, wrote the following letter to William Strahan:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Madam</span>,&mdash;I am ordered by my Master to write for him Books
+for Sally Franklin. I am in Hopes She will be abel to write for
+herself by the Spring.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="noindent">8 Sets of the Perceptor best Edit.<br />
+8 Doz. of Croxall&rsquo;s Fables.<br />
+3 Doz. of Bishop Kenns Manual for Winchester School.<br />
+1 Doz. Familiar Forms, Latin and Eng.<br />
+Ainsworth&rsquo;s Dictionaries, 4 best Edit.<br />
+2 Doz. Select Tales and Fables.<br />
+2 Doz. Costalio&rsquo;s Test.<br />
+Cole&rsquo;s Dictionarys Latin and Eng. 6 a half doz.<br />
+3 Doz. of Clarke&rsquo;s Cordery. 1 Boyle&rsquo;s Pliny 2 vols. 8vo.<br />
+6 Sets of Nature displayed in 7 vols. 12mo.<br />
+One good Quarto Bibel with Cudes bound in calfe.<br />
+1 Penrilla. 1 Art of making Common Salt. By Browning.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">My Dafter gives her duty to Mr. Stroyhan and his Lady, and her
+compliments to Master Billy and all his brothers and Sisters....</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent" style="margin-bottom: 0em;">Your humbel Servant</p>
+<p class="right" style="margin-top: 0em;"><span class="smcap">Deborah Franklin</span></p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Little Sally Franklin could not have needed eight dozen copies of
+Aesop&rsquo;s Fables, nor four Ainsworth&rsquo;s Dictionaries, so it is probable
+that Deborah Franklin&rsquo;s far from ready pen put down the book order for
+the spring, and that Sally herself was only to be supplied with the
+&ldquo;Perceptor,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Fables,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;one good Quarto Bibel.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As far as it is now possible to judge, the people of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> towns soon
+learned the value of Newbery&rsquo;s little nursery tales, and after seventeen
+hundred and fifty-five, when most of his books were written and
+published, they rapidly gained a place on the family book-shelves in
+America.</p>
+
+<p>By seventeen hundred and sixty Hugh Gaine, printer, publisher, patent
+medicine seller, and employment agent for New York, was importing
+practically all the Englishman&rsquo;s juvenile publications then for sale. At
+the &ldquo;Bible and Crown,&rdquo; where Gaine printed the &ldquo;Weekly Mercury,&rdquo; could
+be bought, wholesale and retail, such books as, &ldquo;Poems for Children
+Three Feet High,&rdquo; &ldquo;Tommy Trapwit,&rdquo; &ldquo;Trip&rsquo;s Book of Pictures,&rdquo; &ldquo;The New
+Year&rsquo;s Gift,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Christmas Box,&rdquo; etc.</p>
+
+<p>Gaine himself was a prominent printer in New York in the latter half of
+the eighteenth century. Until the Revolution his shop was a favorite one
+and well patronized. But when the hostilities began, the condition of
+his pocket seems to have regulated his sympathies, and he was by turn
+Whig and Tory according to the possession of New York by so-called
+Rebels, or King&rsquo;s Servants. When the British army evacuated New York,
+Gaine, wishing to keep up his trade, dropped the &ldquo;Crown&rdquo; from his sign.
+Among the enthusiastic patriots this ruse had scant success. In
+Freneau&rsquo;s political satire of the bookseller, the first verse gives a
+strong suggestion of the ridicule to follow:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;And first, he was, in his own representation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A printer, once of good reputation.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He dwelt in the street called Hanover-Square,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(You&rsquo;ll know where it is if you ever was there<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span><span class="i0">Next door to the dwelling of Mr. Brownjohn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who now to the drug-shop of Pluto is gone)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But what do I say&mdash;who e&rsquo;er came to town,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And knew not Hugh Gaine at the <i>Bible</i> and <i>Crown</i>.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">A contemporary of, and rival bookseller to, Gaine in seventeen hundred
+and sixty was James Rivington. Mr. Hildeburn has given Rivington a
+rather unenviable reputation; still, as he occasionally printed&nbsp;(?) a
+child&rsquo;s book, Mr. Hildeburn&rsquo;s remarks are quoted:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Until the advent of Rivington it was generally possible to tell from an
+American Bookseller&rsquo;s advertisement in the current newspapers whether
+the work offered for sale was printed in America or England. But the
+books he received in every fresh invoice from London were &lsquo;just
+published by James Rivington&rsquo; and this form was speedily adopted by
+other booksellers, so that after 1761 the advertisement of books is no
+longer a guide to the issues of the colonial press.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Although Rivington did not set up a press until about seventeen hundred
+and seventy-three,&mdash;according to Mr. Hildeburn,&mdash;he had a book-shop much
+earlier. Here he probably reprinted the title-page and then put an
+elaborate notice in the &ldquo;Weekly Mercury&rdquo; for November 17, 1760, as
+follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent center">JAMES RIVINGTON</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><i>Bookseller and Stationer from London over against the Golden Key in
+Hanover Square.</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%">This day is published, Price, seven Shillings, and sold by the said
+<span class="smcap">James Rivington</span>, adorned with two hundred Pictures</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot" style="font-size: 90%"><p class="center noindent">THE<br />
+FABLES OF AESOP</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">with a moral to each Fable in Verse, and an Application in Prose,
+intended for the Use of the youngest of readers, and proper to be
+put into the hands of Children, immediately after they have done
+with the Spelling-Book, it being adapted to their tender Capacities,
+the Fables are related in a short and lively Manner, and they are
+recommended to all those who are concerned in the education of
+Children. This is an entire new Work, elegantly printed and
+ornamented with much better Cuts than any other Edition of Aesop&rsquo;s
+Fables. Be pleased to ask for DRAPER&rsquo;S AESOP.</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">From such records of parents&rsquo; care as are given in Mrs. Charles
+Pinckney&rsquo;s letters to her husband&rsquo;s agent in London, and Josiah Quincy&rsquo;s
+reminiscences of his early training, it seems very evident that John
+Locke&rsquo;s advice in &ldquo;Thoughts on Education&rdquo; was read and followed at this
+time in the American colonies. Therefore, in accordance with the
+bachelor philosopher&rsquo;s theory as to reading-matter for little children,
+the bookseller recommended the &ldquo;Fables&rdquo; to &ldquo;those concerned in the
+education of children.&rdquo; It is at least a happy coincidence that one of
+the earliest books (as far as is known to the writer), aside from school
+and religious books, issued as published in America for children, should
+have been the one Locke had so heartily recommended. This is what he had
+said many years previously: &ldquo;When by these gentle ways he begins to
+<i>read</i>, some easy pleasant Book, suited to his capacities, should be put
+into his Hands, wherein the Entertainment that he finds might draw him
+on, and reward his Pains in Reading, and yet not such as will fill his
+head with perfectly useless Trumpery, or lay the Principles of Vice and
+Folly. To this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> Purpose, I think Aesop&rsquo;s Fables the best which being
+Stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may yet afford useful
+Reflections to a grown Man.... If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will
+entertain him much better and encourage him to read.&rdquo; The two hundred
+pictures in Rivington&rsquo;s edition made it, of course, high priced in
+comparison with Newbery&rsquo;s books: but New York then contained many
+families well able to afford this outlay to secure such an acquisition
+to the family library.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh Gaine at this time, as a rule, received each year two shipments of
+books, among which were usually some for children, yet about 1762 he
+began to try his own hand at reprinting Newbery&rsquo;s now famous little
+duodecimos.</p>
+
+<p>In that year we find an announcement through the &ldquo;New York Mercury&rdquo; that
+he had himself printed &ldquo;Divers diverting books for infants.&rdquo; The
+following list gives some idea of their character:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="center noindent"><i>Just published by Hugh Gaine</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%">A pretty Book for Children; Or an Easy Guide to the English Tongue.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%">The private Tutor for little Masters and Misses.</p>
+
+<p class="hanging" style="font-size: 90%">Food for the Mind; or a new Riddle Book compiled for the use of
+little Good Boys and Girls in America. By Jack the Giant-Killer,
+Esq.</p>
+
+<p class="hanging" style="font-size: 90%">A Collection of Pretty Poems, by Tommy Tag, Esq.</p>
+
+<p class="hanging" style="font-size: 90%">Aesop&rsquo;s Fables in Verse, with the Conversation of Beasts and Birds,
+at their several Meetings. By Woglog the great Giant.</p>
+
+<p class="hanging" style="font-size: 90%">A Little pretty Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master
+Tommy and pretty Miss Polly, with two Letters from Jack the
+Giant-Killer.</p>
+
+<p class="hanging" style="font-size: 90%">Be Merry and Wise: Or the Cream of the Jests. By Tommy Trapwit, Esq.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">The title of &ldquo;Food for the Mind&rdquo; is of special importance, since in it
+Gaine made a clever alteration by inserting the words &ldquo;Good Boys and
+Girls in <i>America</i>.&rdquo; The colonials were already beginning to feel a
+pride in the fact of belonging to the new country, America, and
+therefore Gaine shrewdly changed the English title to one more likely to
+induce people to purchase.</p>
+
+<p>Gaine and Rivington alone have left records of printing children&rsquo;s
+story-books in the town of New York before the Revolution; but before
+they began to print, other booksellers advertised their invoices of
+books. In 1759 Garrat Noel, a Dutchman, had announced that he had &ldquo;the
+very prettiest gilt Books for little Masters and Misses that ever were
+invented, full of wit and wisdom, at the surprising low Price of only
+one Shilling each finely bound and adorned with a number of curious
+Cuts.&rdquo; By 1762 Noel had increased his stock and placed a somewhat larger
+advertisement in the &ldquo;Mercury&rdquo; of December 27. The late arrival of his
+goods may have been responsible for the bargains he offered at this
+holiday sale.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent"><b>GARRAT NOEL</b> <i>Begs Leave to Inform the Public, that according to
+his Annual Custom, he has provided a very large Assortment of Books
+for Entertainment and Improvement of Youth, in Reading, Writing,
+Cyphering, and Drawing, as Proper Presents at </i><span class="smcap">Christmas</span><i>
+and </i>New-Year<i>.</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%;">The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at <i>Two
+Shillings</i>, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn&rsquo;d with Cuts.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%;"><img src="images/img09.jpg" width="41" height="18" alt="Pointing hand" title="Pointing hand" />Those who buy <i>Six</i>, shall have a <i>Seventh Gratis</i>,
+and buying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>only <i>Three</i>, they shall have a present of a fine large
+Copper-Plate Christmas Piece: [<i>List of histories follows.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%;">The following neat Gilt Books, very instructive and Amusing being
+full of Pictures, are sold at <i>Eighteen Pence</i> each.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%;">Fables in Verse and Prose, with the Conversation of Birds &amp;
+Beasts at their several meetings, Routs and Assemblies for the
+Improvement of Old and Young, etc.</p></div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">To-day none of these gay little volumes sold in New York are to be seen.
+The inherent faculty of children for losing and destroying books,
+coupled with the perishable nature of these toy volumes, has rendered
+the children&rsquo;s treasures of seventeen hundred and sixty-two a great
+rarity. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is the fortunate
+possessor of one much prized story-book printed in that year; but though
+it is at present in the Quaker City, a printer of Boston was responsible
+for its production.</p>
+
+<p>In Isaiah Thomas&rsquo;s recollections of the early Boston printers, he
+described Zechariah Fowle, with whom he served his apprenticeship, and
+Samuel Draper, Fowle&rsquo;s partner. These men, about seventeen hundred and
+fifty-seven, took a house in Marlborough Street. Here, according to
+Thomas, &ldquo;they printed and opened a shop. They kept a great supply of
+ballads, and small pamphlets for book pedlars, of whom there were many
+at that time. Fowle was bred to the business, but he was an indifferent
+hand at the press, and much worse at the case.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This description of the printer&rsquo;s ability is borne out by the &ldquo;New-Gift
+for Children,&rdquo; printed by this firm. It is probably the oldest
+story-book bearing an American imprint now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> in existence, and for this
+reason merits description, although its contents can be seen in the
+picture of the title-page. Brown with age and like all chap-books
+without a cover&mdash;for it was Newbery who introduced this more durable and
+attractive feature&mdash;all sizes in type were used to print its fifteen
+stories. The stories in themselves were not new, as it is called the
+&ldquo;Fourth edition.&rdquo; It is possible that they were taken from the Banbury
+chap-books, which also often copied Newbery&rsquo;s juvenile library, as the
+list of his publications compiled by Mr. Charles Welsh does not contain
+this title.</p>
+
+<p>The loyalty of the Boston printers found expression on the third page by
+a very black cut of King George the Third, who appears rather puzzled
+and not a little unhappy; but it found favor with customers, for as yet
+the colonials thought their king &ldquo;no man of blood.&rdquo; On turning the page
+Queen Charlotte looks out with goggle-eyes, curls, and a row of beads
+about the size of pebbles around her thick neck. The picture seems to be
+a copy from some miniature of the queen, as an oval frame with a crown
+surmounting it encircles the portrait. The stories are so much better
+than some that were written even after the nineteenth century, that
+extracts from them are worth reading. The third tale, called &ldquo;The
+Generosity of Confessing a Fault,&rdquo; begins as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Miss <i>Fanny Goodwill</i> was one of the prettiest children that ever was
+seen; her temper was as sweet as her looks, and her behavior so genteel
+and obliging that everybody admir&rsquo;d her; for nobody can help loving good
+children, any more than they can help being angry with those that are
+naughty. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> no wonder then that her papa and mama lov&rsquo;d her
+dearly, they took a great deal of pains to improve her mind so that
+before she was seven years old, she could read, and talk, and work like
+a little woman. One day as her papa was sitting by the fire, he set her
+upon his knees, kiss&rsquo;d her, and told her how very much he lov&rsquo;d her; and
+then smiling, and taking hold of her hand, My dear Fanny, said he, take
+care never to tell a lye, and then I shall always love you as well as I
+do now. You or I may be guilty of a fault; but there is something noble
+and generous in owning our errors, and striving to mend them; but a lye
+more than doubles the fault, and when it is found out, makes the lyar
+appear mean and contemptible.... Thus, my dear, the lyar is a wretch,
+whom nobody trusts, nobody regards, nobody pities. Indeed papa, said
+Miss <i>Fanny</i>, I would not be such a creature for all the world. You are
+very good, my little <i>charmer</i>, said her papa and kiss&rsquo;d her again.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 215px;">
+<a name="img10" id="img10"></a><a href="images/img10-full.jpg"><img src="images/img10.jpg" width="215" height="400" alt="Title-page from &ldquo;The New Gift for Children&rdquo;" title="Title-page from &ldquo;The New Gift for Children&rdquo;" /></a>
+<i>Title-page from &ldquo;The New Gift for Children&rdquo;</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>The inevitable temptation came when Miss Fanny went on &ldquo;a visit to a
+Miss in the neighborhood; her mama ordered her to be home at eight
+o&rsquo;clock; but she was engag&rsquo;d at play, and did not mind how the time
+pass&rsquo;d, so that she stay&rsquo;d till near ten; and then her mama sent for
+her.&rdquo; The child of course was frightened by the lateness of the hour,
+and the maid&mdash;who appears in the illustration with cocked hat and
+musket!&mdash;tried to calm her fears with the advice to &ldquo;tell her mama that
+the Miss she went to see had taken her out.&rdquo; &ldquo;<i>No Mary</i>, said Miss
+<i>Fanny</i>, wiping her pretty eyes, I am above a lye;&rdquo; and she rehearsed
+for the benefit of the maid her father&rsquo;s admonition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Story IX tells of the <i>Good Girl and Pretty Girl</i>. In this the pretty
+child had bright eyes and pretty plump cheeks and was much admired. She,
+however, was a meanly proud girl, and so naughty as not to want to grow
+wiser, but applied to those good people who happened to be less favored
+in looks such terms as &ldquo;bandy-legs, crump, and all such naughty names.&rdquo;
+The good sister &ldquo;could read before the pretty miss could tell a letter;
+and though her shape was not so genteel her behavior was a great deal
+more so. But alas! the pretty creature fell sick of the small-pox, and
+all her beauty vanished.&rdquo; Thus in the eighteenth century was the adage
+&ldquo;Beauty is but skin deep&rdquo; brought to bear upon conduct.</p>
+
+<p>On the last page is a cut of &ldquo;Louisburg demolished,&rdquo; which had served
+its time already upon almanacs, but the eight cuts were undoubtedly made
+especially for children. Moreover, since they do not altogether
+illustrate the various stories, they are good proof that similar
+chap-book tales were printed by Fowle and Draper for little ones before
+the War of Independence.</p>
+
+<p>In the southern provinces the sea afforded better transportation
+facilities for household necessities and luxuries than the few
+post-lines from the north could offer. Bills of exchange could be drawn
+against London, to be paid by the profits of the tobacco crops, a safer
+method of payment than any that then existed between the northern and
+southern towns. In the regular orders sent by George Washington to
+Robert Carey in London, twice we find mention of the children&rsquo;s needs
+and wishes. In the very first invoice of goods to be shipped to
+Washington after his marriage with Mrs. Custis in seventeen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> hundred and
+fifty-nine, he ordered &ldquo;10 Shillings worth of Toys, 6 little books for
+children beginning to read and a fashionable dressed baby to cost 10
+Shillings;&rdquo; and again later in ordering clothes, &ldquo;Toys, Sugar, Images
+and Comfits&rdquo; for his step-children he added: &ldquo;Books according to the
+enclosed list to be charged equally to John Parke Custis and Martha
+Parke Custis.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But in Boston the people bought directly from the booksellers, of whom
+there were already many. One of these was John Mein, who played a part
+in the historic Non-Importation Agreement. In seventeen hundred and
+fifty this Englishman had opened in King Street a shop which he called
+the &ldquo;London Book-Store.&rdquo; Here he sold many imported books, and in
+seventeen hundred and sixty-five, when the population of Boston numbered
+some twenty thousand, he started the &ldquo;earliest circulating library,
+advertised to contain ten thousand <span class="nowrap">volumes.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_73-A_18" id="FNanchor_73-A_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_73-A_18" class="fnanchor">73-*</a></span> This shop was both
+famous and notorious: famous because of its &ldquo;Very Grand Assortment of
+the most modern Books;&rdquo; notorious because of the accusations made
+against its owner when the colonials, aroused by the action of
+Parliament, passed the Non-Importation Agreement.</p>
+
+<p>Before the excitement had culminated in this &ldquo;Agreement,&rdquo; John Mein&rsquo;s
+lists of importations show that the children&rsquo;s pleasure had not been
+forgotten, and after it their books singularly enough were connected
+with this historic action.</p>
+
+<p>In 1766, in the &ldquo;Boston Evening Post,&rdquo; we find Mein&rsquo;s announcement that
+&ldquo;Little Books with Pictures for Children&rdquo; could be purchased at the
+London Book-Store; in December,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> 1767, he advertised through the columns
+of the &ldquo;Boston Chronicle,&rdquo; among other books, &ldquo;in every branch of polite
+literature,&rdquo; a &ldquo;Great Variety of entertaining Books for
+<span class="smcap">Children</span>, proper for presents at Christmas or New-year&rsquo;s
+day&mdash;Prices from Two Coppers to Two Shillings.&rdquo; In August of the
+following year Mein gave the names of seven of Newbery&rsquo;s famous gilt
+volumes, as &ldquo;to be sold&rdquo; at his shop. These &ldquo;pretty little entertaining
+and instructive Books&rdquo; were &ldquo;Giles Gingerbread,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Adventures of
+little <span class="smcap">Tommy Trip</span> with his dog <span class="smcap">Jouler</span>,&rdquo; &ldquo;Tommy Trip&rsquo;s
+Select Fables,&rdquo; and &ldquo;an excellent Pastoral Hymn,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Famous Tommy
+Thumb&rsquo;s Little Story-Book,&rdquo; &ldquo;Leo, the Great Giant,&rdquo; and &ldquo;<span class="smcap">Urax</span>,
+or the Fair Wanderer&mdash;price eight pence lawful money. <i>A very
+interesting tale in which the protection of the Almighty</i> is proved to
+be the first and chief support of the <span class="smcap">Female Sex</span>.&rdquo; Number seven
+in the list was the story of the &ldquo;Cruel Giant Barbarico,&rdquo; and it is one
+of this edition that is now among the rare Americana of the Boston
+Public Library. The imprint upon its title-page coincides with Isaiah
+Thomas&rsquo;s statement that though &ldquo;Fleming was not concerned with Mein in
+book-selling, several books were printed at their house for Mein.&rdquo; Its
+date, 1768, would indicate that Mein had reproduced one of his
+importations to which allusion has already been made. The book in
+marbled covers, time-worn and faded now, was sold for only &ldquo;six-pence
+lawful&rdquo; when new, possibly because it lacked illustrations.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 305px;">
+<a name="img11" id="img11"></a><a href="images/img11-full.jpg"><img src="images/img11.jpg" width="305" height="400" alt="Miss Fanny&rsquo;s Maid" title="Miss Fanny&rsquo;s Maid" /></a>
+<i>Miss Fanny&rsquo;s Maid</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>One year later, when the Non-Importation Agreement had passed and was
+rigorously enforced in the port of Boston, these same little books were
+advertised again in the &ldquo;Chroni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>cle&rdquo; of December 4-7 under the large
+caption, <span class="smcap">Printed in America and to be sold by John Mein</span>. Times
+had so changed within one year&rsquo;s space that even a child&rsquo;s six-penny
+book was unpopular, if known to have been imported.</p>
+
+<p>Mein was among those accused of violating the &ldquo;Agreement;&rdquo; he was
+charged with the importation of materials for book-making. In a November
+number of the &ldquo;Chronicle&rdquo; of seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, Mein
+published an article entitled &ldquo;A State of the Importation from Great
+Britain into the Port of <span class="smcap">Boston</span> with the advertisement of a set
+of Men, who assume to themselves <span class="smcap">The Title</span> of <i>ALL the Well
+Disposed Merchants</i>.&rdquo; In this letter the London Book-Store proprietor
+vigorously defended himself, and protested that the quantity of his work
+necessitated some importations not procurable in Boston. He also made
+sarcastic references to other men whom he thought the cap fitted better
+with less excuse. It was in the following December that he tried to keep
+this trade in children&rsquo;s books by his apparently patriotic announcement
+regarding them. His protests were useless. Already in disfavor with some
+because he was supposed to print books in America but used a London
+imprint, his popularity waned; he was marked as a loyalist, and there
+was little of the spirit of tolerance for such in that hot-bed of
+patriotism. The air was so full of the growing differences between the
+colonials and the king&rsquo;s government, that in seventeen hundred and
+seventy Mein closed out his stock and returned to England.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the patriotic booksellers did not fail to take note
+of the crystallization of public opinion. Robert Bell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> in Philadelphia
+appended a note to his catalogue of books, stating that &ldquo;The Lovers and
+Practisers of Patriotism are requested to note that all the Books in
+this Catalogue are either of American manufacture, or imported before
+the Non-Importation Agreement.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The supply of home-made paper was of course limited. So much was needed
+to circulate among the colonies pamphlets dealing with the injustice of
+the king&rsquo;s government toward his American subjects, that it seems
+remarkable that any juvenile books should have been printed in those
+stirring days before the war began. It is rather to be expected that,
+with the serious turn that events had taken and the consequent questions
+that had arisen, the publications of the American press should have
+received the shadow of the forthcoming trouble&mdash;a shadow sufficient to
+discourage any attempt at humor for adult or child. Evidence, however,
+points to the fact that humor and amusement were not totally lacking in
+the issues of the press of at least one printer in Boston, John Boyle.
+The humorous satire produced by his press in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-five, called &ldquo;The First Book of the American Chronicles of the
+Times,&rdquo; purported to set forth the state of political affairs during the
+troubles &ldquo;wherein all our calamities are seen to flow from the fact that
+the king had set up for our worship the god of the heathen&mdash;The Tea
+Chest.&rdquo; This pamphlet has been one to keep the name of John Boyle among
+the prominent printers of pre-Revolutionary days. Additional interest
+accrues for this reason to a play-book printed by Boyle&mdash;the only one
+extant of this decade known to the writer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This quaint little chap-book, three by four inches in size, was issued
+in seventeen hundred and seventy-one, soon after Boyle had set up his
+printing establishment and four years before the publication of the
+famous pamphlet. It represents fully the standard for children&rsquo;s
+literature in the days when Newbery&rsquo;s tiny classics were making their
+way to America, and was indeed advertised by Mein in seventeen hundred
+and sixty-eight among the list of books &ldquo;Printed in America.&rdquo; Its title,
+&ldquo;The Famous Tommy Thumb&rsquo;s Little Story-Book: Containing his Life and
+Adventures,&rdquo; has rather a familiar sound, but its contents would not now
+be allowed upon any nursery table. Since the days of the Anglo-Saxons,
+Tom Thumb&rsquo;s adventures have been told and retold; each generation has
+given to the rising generation the version thought proper for the ears
+of children. In Boyle&rsquo;s edition this method resulted in realism pushed
+to the extreme; but it is not to be denied that the yellowed pages
+contain the wondrous adventures and hairbreadth escapes so dear to the
+small boy of all time. The thrilling incidents were further enlivened,
+moreover, by cuts called by the printer &ldquo;<i>curious</i>&rdquo; in the sense of very
+fine: and <i>curious</i> they are to-day because of the crudeness of their
+execution and the coarseness of their design. Nevertheless, the
+grotesque character of the illustrations was altogether effective in
+impressing upon the reader the doughty deeds of his old friend, Tom
+Thumb. The book itself shows marks of its popularity, and of the hard
+usage to which it was subjected by its happy owner, who was not critical
+of the editor&rsquo;s freedom of speech.</p>
+
+<p>The coarseness permitted in a nursery favorite makes it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> sufficiently
+clear that the standard for the ideal toy-book of the eighteenth century
+is no gauge for that of the twentieth. Child-life differed in many
+particulars, as Mr. Julian Hawthorne pointed out some years ago, when he
+wrote that the children of the eighteenth century &ldquo;were urged to grow up
+almost before they were short-coated.&rdquo; We must bear this in mind in
+turning to another class of books popular with adult and child alike in
+both England and America before and for some years after the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>This was the period when the novel in the hands of Richardson, Fielding,
+and Smollett was assuming hitherto unsuspected possibilities. Allusion
+must be made to some of the characteristics of their work, since their
+style undoubtedly affected juvenile reading and the tales written for
+children.</p>
+
+<p>Taking for the sake of convenience the novels of the earliest of this
+group of men, Samuel Richardson, as a starting-point, we find in Pamela
+and Mr. Lovelace types of character that merge from the Puritanical
+concrete examples of virtue and vice into a psychological attempt to
+depict the emotion and feeling preceding every act of heroine and
+villain. Through every stage of the story the author still clings to the
+long-established precedent of giving moral and religious instruction.
+Afterwards, when Fielding attempted to parody &ldquo;Pamela,&rdquo; he developed the
+novel of adventure in high and low life, and produced &ldquo;Joseph Andrews.&rdquo;
+He then followed this with the character-study represented by &ldquo;Tom
+Jones, Foundling.&rdquo; Richardson in &ldquo;Pamela&rdquo; had aimed to emphasize virtue
+as in the end prospering; Fielding&rsquo;s characters rather embody the
+principle of virtue being its own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> reward and of vice bringing its own
+punishment. Smollett in &ldquo;Humphrey Clinker&rsquo;s Adventures&rdquo; brought forth
+fun from English surroundings instead of seeking for the hero thrilling
+and daring deeds in foreign countries. He also added to the list of
+character-studies &ldquo;Roderick Random,&rdquo; a tale of the sea, the mystery of
+which has never palled since &ldquo;Robinson Crusoe&rdquo; saw light.</p>
+
+<p>There was also the novel of letters. In the age of the first great
+novelists letter-writing was among the polite arts. It was therefore
+counted a great but natural achievement when the epistolary method of
+revealing the plot was introduced. &ldquo;Clarissa Harlowe&rdquo; and &ldquo;Sir Charles
+Grandison&rdquo; were the results of this style of writing; they comprehended
+the &ldquo;most Important Concerns of private life&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;concerns&rdquo; which moved
+with lingering and emotional persistency towards the inevitable
+catastrophe in &ldquo;Clarissa,&rdquo; and the happy issue out of the
+misunderstandings and misadventures which resulted in Miss Byron&rsquo;s
+alliance with Sir Charles.</p>
+
+<p>Until after the next (nineteenth) century had passed its first decade
+these tales were read in full or abridged forms by many children among
+the fashionable and literary sets in England and America. Indeed, the
+art of writing for children was so unknown that often attempts to
+produce child-like &ldquo;histories&rdquo; for them resulted in little other than
+novels upon an abridged scale.</p>
+
+<p>But before even abridged novels found their way into juvenile favor, it
+was &ldquo;customary in Richardson&rsquo;s time to read his novels aloud in the
+family circle. When some pathetic passage was reached the members of the
+family would retire to sepa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>rate apartments to weep; and after composing
+themselves, they would return to the fireside to have the reading
+proceed. It was reported to Richardson, that, on one of these occasions,
+&lsquo;an amiable little boy sobbed as if his sides would burst and resolved
+to mind his books that he might be able to read Pamela through without
+stopping.&rsquo; That there might be something in the family novel expressly
+for children, Richardson sometimes stepped aside from the main narrative
+to tell them a moral <span class="nowrap">tale.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_80-A_19" id="FNanchor_80-A_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_80-A_19" class="fnanchor">80-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cross gives an example of this which, shorn of its decoration, was
+the tale of two little boys and two little girls, who never told fibs,
+who were never rude and noisy, mischievous or quarrelsome; who always
+said their prayers when going to bed, and therefore became fine ladies
+and gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>To make the tales less difficult for amiable children to read, an
+abridgment of their contents was undertaken; and Goldsmith is said to
+have done much of the &ldquo;cutting&rdquo; in &ldquo;Pamela,&rdquo; &ldquo;Clarissa Harlowe,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sir
+Charles Grandison,&rdquo; and others. These books were included in the lists
+of those sent to America for juvenile reading. In Boston, Cox and Berry
+inserted in the &ldquo;Boston Gazette and Country Journal&rdquo; a notice that they
+had the &ldquo;following little Books for all good Boys and Girls:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 90%" summary="List">
+<tr>
+  <td>The Brother&rsquo;s Gift, or the Naughty Girl Reformed.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The Sister&rsquo;s Gift, or the Naughty Boy Reformed.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The Hobby Horse, or Christmas Companion.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The Cries of London as Exhibited in the Streets.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The Puzzling Cap.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The History of Tom Jones.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>The History of Joseph Andrews.</td>
+  <td style="padding-left: 2em;">Abridg&rsquo;d from the works of H. Fielding</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The History of Pamela.</td>
+  <td style="padding-left: 2em;">abridg&rsquo;d from the works of Samuel Richardson, Esq.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The History of Grandison.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>The History of Clarissa.&rdquo;</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">Up to this time the story has been rather of the books read by the
+Puritan and Quaker population of the colonies. There had arisen during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, however, a merchant class
+which owed its prosperity to its own ability. Such men sought for their
+families the material results of wealth which only a place like Boston
+could bestow. Many children, therefore, were sent to this town to
+acquire suitable education in books, accomplishments, and deportment. A
+highly interesting record of a child of well-to-do parents has been left
+by Anna Green Winslow, who came to Boston to stay with an aunt for the
+winters of 1771 and 1772. Her diary gives delightful glimpses of
+children&rsquo;s tea-parties, fashions, and schools, all put down with a
+childish disregard of importance or connection. It is in these jottings
+of daily occurrences that proof is found that so young a girl read,
+quite as a matter of course, the abridged works of Fielding and
+Richardson.</p>
+
+<p>On January 1, 1772, she wrote in her diary, &ldquo;a Happy New Year, I have
+bestowed no new year&rsquo;s gifts, as yet. But have received one very
+handsome one, Viz, the History of Joseph Andrews abreviated. In nice
+Guilt and Flowers covers.&rdquo; Again, she put down an account of a day&rsquo;s
+work, which she called &ldquo;a piecemeal for in the first place I sew&rsquo;d on
+the bosom of unkle&rsquo;s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> shirt, and mended two pairs of gloves, mended for
+the wash two handkerch&rsquo;fs, (one cambrick) sewed on half a border of a
+lawn apron of aunt&rsquo;s, read part of the xxist chapter of Exodous, &amp; a
+story in the Mother&rsquo;s Gift.&rdquo; Later she jotted in her book the loan of &ldquo;3
+of Cousin Charles&rsquo; books to read, viz.&mdash;The puzzling Cap, the female
+Orators &amp; the history of Gaffer Two Shoes.&rdquo; Little Miss Winslow, though
+only eleven years of age, was a typical child of the educated class in
+Boston, and, according to her journal, also followed the English custom
+of reading aloud &ldquo;with Miss Winslow, the Generous Inconstant and Sir
+Charles Grandison.&rdquo; It is to be regretted that her diary gives no
+information as to how she liked such tales. We must anticipate some
+years to find a comment in the Commonplace Book of a Connecticut girl.
+Lucy Sheldon lived in Litchfield, a thriving town in eighteen hundred,
+and did much reading for a child in those days. Upon &ldquo;Sir Charles
+Grandison&rdquo; she confided to her book this offhand note: &ldquo;Read in little
+Grandison, which shows that, virtue always meets its reward and vice is
+punished.&rdquo; The item is very suggestive of Goldsmith&rsquo;s success in
+producing an abridgment that left the moral where it could not be
+overlooked.</p>
+
+<p>To discuss in detail this class of writings is not necessary, but a
+glance at the story of &ldquo;Clarissa&rdquo; gives an instructive impression of
+what old-fashioned children found zestful.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Clarissa Harlowe&rdquo; in its abridged form was first published by Newbery,
+Senior. The book that lies before the writer was printed in seventeen
+hundred and seventy-two by his son, Francis Newbery. In size five by
+three and one-half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> inches, it is decked in once gay parti-colored heavy
+Dutch paper, with a delicate gold tracery over all. This paper binding,
+called by Anna Winslow &ldquo;Flowery Guilt,&rdquo; can no longer be found in
+Holland, the place of its manufacture; with sarsinet and other
+fascinating materials it has vanished so completely that it exists only
+on the faded bindings of such small books as &ldquo;Clarissa.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The narrative itself is compressed from the original seven volumes into
+one volume of one hundred and seventy-six closely printed pages, with
+several full-page copper-plate illustrations. The plot, however, gains
+rather than loses in this condensed form. The principal distressing
+situations follow so fast one upon the other that the intensity of the
+various episodes in the <i>affecting</i> history is increased by the total
+absence of all the &ldquo;moving&rdquo; letters found in the original work. The
+&ldquo;lordly husband and father,&rdquo; &ldquo;the imperious son,&rdquo; &ldquo;the proud ambitious
+sister, Arabella,&rdquo; all combined to force the universally beloved and
+unassuming Clarissa to marry the wealthy Mr. Somers, who was to be the
+means of &ldquo;the aggrandisement of the family.&rdquo; Clarissa, in this
+perplexing situation, yielded in a desperate mood to &ldquo;the earnest
+entreaties of the artful Lovelace to accept the protection of the Ladies
+of his family.&rdquo; Who these ladies were, to whom the designing Lovelace
+conducted the agitated heroine, is set forth in unmistakable language;
+and thereafter follow the treacherous behaviour exhibited by Lovelace,
+the various attempts to escape by the unhappy beauty, and her final
+exhaustion and death. An example of the style may be given in this
+description of the death-scene:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Clarissa had before remarked that all would be most conveniently over
+in bed: The solemn, the most important moment approached, but her soul
+ardently aspiring after immorality [immortality was of course the
+author&rsquo;s intention], she imagined the time moved slowly; and with great
+presence of mind, she gave orders in relation to her body, directing her
+nurse and the maid of the house, as soon as she was cold, to put her
+into her coffin. The Colonel [her cousin], after paying her another
+visit, wrote to her uncle, Mr. John Harlowe, that they might save
+themselves the trouble of having any further debates about
+reconciliation; for before they could resolve, his dear cousin would
+probably be no more....</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A day or two after, Mr. Belford [a friend] was sent for, and
+immediately came; at his entrance he saw the Colonel kneeling by her
+bed-side with the ladies right hand in both his, which his face covered
+bathing it with tears, though she had just been endeavoring to comfort
+him, in noble and elevated strains. On the opposite side of the bed was
+seated Mrs. Lovick, who leaning against the bed&rsquo;s-head in a most
+disconsolate manner, turned to him as soon as she saw him, crying, O Mr.
+Belford, the dear lady! a heavy sigh not permitting her to say more.
+Mrs. Smith [the landlady] was kneeling at the bed&rsquo;s feet with clasped
+fingers and uplifted eyes, with tears trickling in large drops from her
+cheeks, as if imploring help from the source of all comfort.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The excellent lady had been silent a few minutes, and was thought
+speechless, she moving her lips without uttering a word; but when Mrs.
+Lovick, on Mr. Belford&rsquo;s approach, pronounced his name, O Mr. Belford!
+cried she, in a faint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> inward voice, Now!&mdash;now!&mdash;I bless God, all will
+soon be over&mdash;a few minutes will end this strife&mdash;and I shall be happy,&rdquo;
+etc. Her speech was long, although broken by dashes, and again she
+resumed, &ldquo;in a more faint and broken accent,&rdquo; the blessing and
+directions. &ldquo;She then sunk her head upon the pillow; and fainting away,
+drew from them her hands.&rdquo; Once more she returned to consciousness,
+&ldquo;when waving her hand to him [Mr. Belford] and to her cousin, and bowing
+her head to every one present, not omitting the nurse and maid servant,
+with a faltering and inward voice, she added Bless&mdash;Bless&mdash;you all!&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations, in comparison with others of the time, are very well
+engraved, although the choice of subjects is somewhat singular. The last
+one represents Clarissa&rsquo;s friend, &ldquo;Miss Howe&rdquo; (the loyal friend to whom
+all the absent letters were addressed), &ldquo;lamenting over the corpse of
+Clarissa,&rdquo; who lies in the coffin ordered by the heroine &ldquo;to be covered
+with fine black cloth, and lined with white satin.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As one lays aside this faded duodecimo, the conviction is strong that
+the texture of the life of an old-fashioned child was of coarser weave
+than is pleasant to contemplate. How else could elders and guardians
+have placed without scruple such books in the hands of children? The one
+explanation is to be found in such diaries as that of Anna Winslow, who
+quaintly put down in her book facts and occurrences denoting the
+maturity already reached by a little miss of eleven.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73-A_18" id="Footnote_73-A_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73-A_18"><span class="label">73-*</span></a> Winsor, <i>Memorial History of Boston</i>, vol. ii, p. xix.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80-A_19" id="Footnote_80-A_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80-A_19"><span class="label">80-*</span></a> Cross, <i>Development of the English Novel</i>, pp. 38, 39.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;">1776-1790</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>The British King<br />
+      Lost States thirteen.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>The New England Primer</i>,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 3em;">Philadelphia, 1797</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>The good little boy<br />
+      That will not tell a lie,<br />
+      Shall have a plum-pudding<br />
+      Or hot apple-pye.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>Jacky Dandy&rsquo;s Delight</i>,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 3em;">Worcester, 1786</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">1776-1790</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">W</span><span style="text-transform: uppercase">hen</span> John Mein was forced to close his London Book-Store in Boston and
+to return to England in 1770, the children of that vicinity had need to
+cherish their six-penny books with increased care. The shadow of
+impending conflict was already deep upon the country when Mein departed;
+and the events of the decade following seventeen hundred and
+seventy-three&mdash;the year of the Boston Tea-Party&mdash;were too absorbing and
+distressing for such trifling publications as toy-books to be more than
+occasionally printed. Indeed, the history of the American Revolution is
+so interwoven with tales of privation of the necessities of life that it
+is astonishing that any printer was able to find ink or paper to produce
+even the nursery classic &ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes,&rdquo; printed by Robert Bell of
+Philadelphia in seventeen hundred and seventy-six.</p>
+
+<p>In New York the conditions were different. The Loyalists, as long as the
+town was held by the British, continued to receive importations of goods
+of all descriptions. Among the booksellers, Valentine Nutter from time
+to time advertised children&rsquo;s as well as adults&rsquo; books. Hugh Gaine
+apparently continued to reprint Newbery&rsquo;s duodecimos; and, in a rather
+newer shop, Roger and Berry&rsquo;s, in Hanover Square, near Gaine&rsquo;s, could be
+had &ldquo;Gilt Books, together with Stationary, Jewelry, a Collection of the
+most books, bibles, prayer-books and patent medicines warranted
+genuine.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere in the colonies, as in Boston, the children went without new
+books, although very occasionally such notices as the following were
+inserted in the newspapers:</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent"><i>Just imported and to be Sold by Thomas Bradford</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot" style="font-size: 90%"><p>At his Book-Store in Market-Street, adjoining the Coffee-house</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><i>The following Books</i> ...</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Little Histories for Children,</p>
+
+<p class="hanging">Among which are, Book of Knowledge, Joe Miller&rsquo;s Jests, Jenny
+Twitchells&rsquo; ditto, the Linnet, The Lark (being collections of best
+Songs), Robin Redbreast, Choice Spirits, Argalus &amp; Parthenia,
+Valentine and Orson, Seven Wise Masters, Seven Wise Mistresses,
+Russell&rsquo;s seven Sermons, Death of Abel, French Convert, Art&rsquo;s
+Treasury, Complete Letter-Writer, Winter Evening Entertainment,
+Stories and Tales, Triumphs of Love, being a Collection of Short
+Stories, Joseph Andrews, Aesop&rsquo;s Fables, Scotch Rogue, Moll
+Flanders, Lives of Highwaymen, Lives of Pirates, Buccaneers of
+America, Robinson Crusoe, Twelve Caesars.</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Such was the assortment of penny-dreadfuls and religious tracts offered
+in seventeen hundred and eighty-one to the Philadelphia public for
+juvenile reading. It is typical of the chapmen&rsquo;s library peddled about
+the colonies long after they had become states. &ldquo;Valentine and Orson,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;The Seven Wise Masters,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Seven Wise Mistresses,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Winter
+Evening Entertainment&rdquo; are found in publishers&rsquo; lists for many years,
+and, in spite of frequent vulgarities, there was often no discrimination
+between them and Newbery&rsquo;s far superior stories; but by eighteen hundred
+and thirty almost all of these undesirable reprints had disappeared,
+being buried under the quantities of Sunday-school tales held in high
+favor at that date.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the six years of struggle for liberty had rendered the
+necessaries of life in many cases luxuries. As early as seventeen
+hundred and seventy-five, during the siege of Boston, provisions and
+articles of dress had reached such prices that we find thrifty Mrs. John
+Adams, in Braintree, Massachusetts, foreseeing a worse condition,
+writing her husband, who was one of the Council assembled in
+Philadelphia, to send her, if possible, six thousand pins, even if they
+should cost five pounds. Prices continued to rise and currency to
+depreciate. In seventeen hundred and seventy-nine Mrs. Adams reported in
+her letters to her husband that potatoes were ten dollars a bushel, and
+writing-paper brought the same price per pound.</p>
+
+<p>Yet family life went on in spite of these increasing difficulties. The
+diaries and letters of such remarkable women as the patriotic Abigail
+Adams, the Quakeress, Mrs. Eliza Drinker, the letters of the Loyalist
+and exile, James Murray, the correspondence of Eliza Pinckney of
+Charleston, and the reminiscences of a Whig family who were obliged to
+leave New York upon the occupation of the town by British forces, abound
+in those details of domestic life that give a many sided picture. Joys
+derived from good news of dear ones, and family reunions; anxieties
+occasioned by illness, or the armies&rsquo; depredations; courageous efforts
+on the part of mothers not to allow their children&rsquo;s education and
+occupations to suffer unnecessarily; tragedies of death and ruined
+homes&mdash;all are recorded with a &ldquo;particularity&rdquo; for which we are now
+grateful to the writers.</p>
+
+<p>It is through these writings, also, that we are allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> glimpses of the
+enthusiasm for the cause of Liberty, or King, which was imbibed from the
+parents by the smallest children. On the Whig side, patriotic mothers in
+New England filled their sons with zeal for the cause of freedom and
+with hatred of the tyranny of the Crown; while in the more southern
+colonies the partisanship of the little ones was no less intense. &ldquo;From
+the constant topic of the present conversation,&rdquo; wrote the Rev. John J.
+Zubly (a Swiss clergyman settled in South Carolina and Georgia), in an
+address to the Earl of Dartmouth in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-five,&mdash;&ldquo;from the constant topic of the present conversation,
+every child unborn will be impressed with the notion&mdash;it is slavery to
+be bound at the will of another &lsquo;in all things whatsoever.&rsquo; Every
+mother&rsquo;s milk will convey a detestation of this maxim. Were your
+lordship in America, you might see little ones acquainted with the word
+of command before they can distinctly speak, and shouldering of a gun
+before they are well able to <span class="nowrap">walk.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_92-A_20" id="FNanchor_92-A_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_92-A_20" class="fnanchor">92-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The children of the Tories had also their part in the struggle. To some
+the property of parents was made over, to save it from confiscation in
+the event of the success of the American cause. To others came the
+bitterness of separation from parents, when they were sent across the
+sea to unknown relatives; while again some faint manuscript record tells
+of a motherless child brought from a comfortable home, no longer
+tenable, to whatever quarters could be found within the British lines.
+Fortunately, children usually adapt themselves easily to changed
+conditions, and in the novelty and excitement of the life around them,
+it is probable they soon forgot the luxuries of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> dolls and hobby-horses,
+toy-books and drums, of former days.</p>
+
+<p>In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the sentiment of the period was
+expressed in two or three editions of &ldquo;The New England Primer.&rdquo; Already
+in 1770 one had appeared containing as frontispiece a poor wood-cut of
+John Hancock. In 1775 the enthusiasm over the appointment of George
+Washington as commander-in-chief brought out another edition of the A B
+C book with the same picture labelled &ldquo;General Washington.&rdquo; The custom
+of making one cut do duty in several representations was so well
+understood that this method of introducing George Washington to the
+infant reader naturally escaped remark.</p>
+
+<p>Another primer appeared four years later, which was advertised by
+Walters and Norman in the &ldquo;Pennsylvania Evening Post&rdquo; as &ldquo;adorned with a
+beautiful head of George Washington and other copper-plates.&rdquo; According
+to Mr. Hildeburn, this small book had the honor of containing the first
+portrait of Washington engraved in America. While such facts are of
+trifling importance, they are, nevertheless, indications of the state of
+intense feeling that existed at the time, and point the way by which the
+children&rsquo;s books became nationalized.</p>
+
+<p>In New England the very games of children centred in the events which
+thrilled the country. Josiah Quincy remembered very well in after life,
+how &ldquo;at the age of five or six, astride my grandfather&rsquo;s cane and with
+my little whip, I performed prodigies of valor, and more than once came
+to my mother&rsquo;s knees declaring that I had driven the British out of
+Boston.&rdquo; Afterwards at Phillips Academy, in Andover, between seventeen
+hundred and seventy-eight and seventeen hundred and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> eighty-six, Josiah
+and his schoolfellows &ldquo;established it as a principle that every hoop,
+sled, etc., should in some way bear <i>Thirteen</i> marks as evidence of the
+political character of the owner,&mdash;if which were wanting the articles
+became fair prize and were condemned and forfeited without judge, jury,
+or decree of <span class="nowrap">admiralty.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_94-A_21" id="FNanchor_94-A_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_94-A_21" class="fnanchor">94-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Other boys, such as John Quincy Adams, had tutors at home as a less
+expensive means of education than the wartime price of forty dollars a
+week for each child that good boarding-schools demanded. But at their
+homes the children had plenty of opportunity to show their intense
+enthusiasm for the cause of liberty. Years later, Mr. Adams wrote to a
+Quaker friend:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children
+dwelt, liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in
+cold blood, or taken and carried to Boston as hostages. My mother lived
+in uninterrupted danger of being consumed with them all in a
+conflagration kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the
+Seventeenth of June [1775] lighted the fires of <span class="nowrap">Charlestown.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_94-B_22" id="FNanchor_94-B_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_94-B_22" class="fnanchor">94-&#8224;</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was, of course, only one of many boys who saw from some height near
+their homes the signs of battle, the fires of the enemy&rsquo;s camps, the
+smoke rising from some farm fired by the British, or burned by its owner
+to prevent their occupation of it. With hearts made to beat quickly by
+the news that filtered through the lines, and heads made old by the
+responsibility thrust upon them,&mdash;in the absence of fathers and older<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+brothers,&mdash;such boys as John Quincy Adams saw active service in the
+capacity of post-riders bearing in their several districts the anxiously
+awaited tidings from Congress or battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunate indeed were the families whose homes were not disturbed by the
+military operations. From Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, families
+were sent hastily to the country until the progress of the war made it
+possible to return to such comforts as had not been destroyed by the
+British soldiers. The &ldquo;Memoirs of Eliza Morton,&rdquo; afterward Mrs. Josiah
+Quincy, but a child eight years of age in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-six, gives a realistic account of the life of such Whig
+refugees. Upon the occupation of New York by the British, her father, a
+merchant of wealth, as riches were then reckoned, was obliged to burn
+his warehouse to save it from English hands. Mr. Morton then gathered
+together in the little country village of Basking Ridge, seven miles
+from Morristown, New Jersey, such of his possessions as could be hastily
+transported from the city. Among the books saved in this way were the
+works of Thurston, Thomson, Lyttleton, and Goldsmith, and for the
+children&rsquo;s benefit, &ldquo;Dodsley&rsquo;s Collection of Poems,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Pilgrim&rsquo;s
+Progress.&rdquo; &ldquo;This,&rdquo; wrote Mrs. Quincy, &ldquo;was a great favorite; Mr.
+Greatheart was in my opinion a hero, well able to help us all on our
+way.&rdquo; During the exile from New York, as Eliza Morton grew up, she read
+all these books, and years afterward told her grandchildren that while
+she admired the works of Thurston, Thomson, and Lyttleton, &ldquo;those of
+Goldsmith were my chief delight. When my reading became afterward more
+extensive I instinctively disliked the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> extravagant fiction which often
+injures the youthful mind.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The war, however, was not allowed to interfere with the children&rsquo;s
+education in this family. In company with other little exiles, they were
+taught by a venerable old man until the evacuation of Philadelphia made
+it possible to send the older children to Germantown, where a Mr. Leslie
+had what was considered a fine school. The schoolroom walls were hung
+with lists of texts of Scripture beginning with the same letter, and for
+globes were substituted the schoolmaster&rsquo;s snuffbox and balls of yarn.
+If these failed to impress a child with the correct notions concerning
+the solar system, the children themselves were made to whirl around the
+teacher.</p>
+
+<p>In Basking Ridge the children had much excitement with the passing of
+soldiers to Washington&rsquo;s headquarters in Morristown, and with watching
+for &ldquo;The Post&rdquo; who carried the news between Philadelphia, Princeton, and
+Morristown. &ldquo;&lsquo;The Post,&rsquo; Mr. Martin,&rdquo; wrote Mrs. Quincy, &ldquo;was an old man
+who carried the mail, ... he was our constant medium of communication;
+and always stopped at our house to refresh himself and horse, tell the
+news, and bring packets. He used to wear a blue coat with yellow
+buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, leathern small-clothes, blue yarn
+stockings, and a red wig and cocked hat, which gave him a sort of
+military appearance. He usually traveled in a sulky, but sometimes in a
+chaise, or on horseback.... Mr. Martin also contrived to employ himself
+in knitting coarse yarn stockings while driving or rather jogging along
+the road, or when seated on his saddle-bags on horseback. He certainly
+did not ride <i>post</i>, according to the present [1821] meaning of that
+term.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Deprived like many other children of Newbery&rsquo;s peaceful biographies and
+stories, the little Mortons&rsquo; lives were too full of an intense daily
+interest to feel the lack of new literature of this sort. Tales of the
+campaigns told in letters to friends and neighbors were re&euml;choed in the
+ballads and songs that formed part of the literary warfare waged by Whig
+or Loyal partisans. Children of to-day sing so zestfully the popular
+tunes of the moment, that it requires very little imagination to picture
+the schoolboy of Revolutionary days shouting lustily verses from &ldquo;The
+Battle of the Kegs,&rdquo; and other rhymed stories of military incidents.
+Such a ballad was &ldquo;A Song for the Red Coats,&rdquo; written after the
+successful campaign against Burgoyne, and beginning:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Come unto me, ye heroes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose hearts are true and bold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who value more your honor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than others do their gold!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Give ear unto my story,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And I the truth will tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Concerning many a soldier,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who for his country fell.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Children, it has been said, are good haters. To the patriot boy and
+girl, the opportunity to execrate Benedict Arnold was found in these
+lines of a patriotic &ldquo;ditty&rdquo; concerning the fate of Major Andr&eacute;:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;When he was executed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He looked both meek and mild;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He looked upon the people,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And pleasantly he smiled.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It moved each eye to pity,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Caused every heart to bleed;<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span><span class="i0">And every one wished him released&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And <i>Arnold</i> in his stead.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_98-A_23" id="FNanchor_98-A_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_98-A_23" class="fnanchor">98-*</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Loyalist children had an almost equal supply of satirical verse to fling
+back at neighbors&rsquo; families, where in country districts some farms were
+still occupied by sympathizers with Great Britain. A vigorous example of
+this style of warfare is quoted by Mr. Tyler in his &ldquo;Literature of the
+American Revolution,&rdquo; and which, written in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-six, is entitled &ldquo;The Congress.&rdquo; It begins:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;These hardy knaves and stupid fools,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some apish and pragmatic mules,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some servile acquiescing tools,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">These, these compose the Congress!&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_98-B_24" id="FNanchor_98-B_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_98-B_24" class="fnanchor">98-&#8224;</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Or, again, such taunts over the general poverty of the land and
+character of the army as were made in a ballad called &ldquo;The Rebels&rdquo; by a
+Loyalist officer:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;With loud peals of laughter, your sides,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sirs, would crack,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see General Convict and Colonel Shoe-black,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With their hunting-shirts and rifle-guns,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">See Cobblers and quacks, rebel priests and the like,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pettifoggers and barbers, with sword and with pike.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Those Loyalists who lived through this exciting period in America&rsquo;s
+history bore their full share in the heavy personal misfortunes of their
+political party. The hatred felt toward such colonials as were true to
+the king has until recently hardly subsided sufficiently to permit any
+sympathy with the hardships they suffered. Driven from their homes,
+crowded together in those places occupied by the English, or exiled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> to
+England or Halifax, these faithful subjects had also to undergo
+separation of families perhaps never again united.</p>
+
+<p>Such a Loyalist was James Murray. Forced to leave his daughter and
+grandchildren in Boston with a sister, he took ship for Halifax to seek
+a living. There, amid the pressing anxieties occasioned by this
+separation, he strove to re&euml;stablish himself, and sent from time to time
+such articles as he felt were necessary for their welfare. Thus he
+writes a memorandum of articles sent in seventeen hundred and eighty by
+&ldquo;Mr. Bean&rsquo;s Cartel to Miss Betsy Murray:&mdash;viz: Everlasting 4 yards;
+binding 1 piece, Nankeen 4<span class="hidespace">&nbsp;</span><span class="num">7</span>/<span class="den">8</span> yards. Of Gingham 2 gown patterns; 2
+pairs red shoes from A.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;C. for boys, Jack and Ralph, a parcel&mdash;to Mrs.
+Brigden, 1 pair silk shoes and some flowers&mdash;Arthur&rsquo;s Geographical
+Grammar,&mdash;Locke on Education,&mdash;5 children&rsquo;s books,&rdquo; etc. And in return
+he is informed that &ldquo;Charlotte goes to dancing and writing school,
+improves apace and grows tall. Betsy and Charles are much better but not
+well. The rest of the children are in good health, desiring their duty
+to their Uncle and Aunt Inman, and thanks for their cake and gloves.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>To such families the end of the war meant either the necessity for
+making permanent their residence in the British dominion, or of bearing
+both outspoken and silent scorn in the new Republic.</p>
+
+<p>For the Americans the peace of Yorktown brought joy, but new beginnings
+had also to be made. Farms had been laid waste, or had suffered from
+lack of men to cultivate them; industries were almost at a standstill
+from want of material and laborers. Still the people had the splendid
+compensa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>tion of freedom with victory, and men went sturdily back to
+their homes to take up as far as possible their various occupations.</p>
+
+<p>An example of the way in which business undertaken before the war was
+rapidly resumed, or increased, is afforded by the revival of prosperity
+for the booksellers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Renewals of
+orders to London agents were speedily made, for the Americans still looked
+to England for their intellectual needs. In Philadelphia&mdash;a town of forty
+thousand inhabitants in seventeen hundred and eighty-three&mdash;among the
+principal booksellers and printers were Thomas Bradford, Mr. Woodhouse,
+Mr. Oswald, Mr. Pritchard,&mdash;who had established a circulating
+library,&mdash;Robert Aitkin, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Dunlap, Mr. Rice, William and
+David Hall, Benjamin Bache, J. Crukshank, and Robert Bell. Bell had
+undoubtedly the largest bookstore, but seems not to have been altogether
+popular, if an allusion in &ldquo;The Philadelphiad&rdquo; is to be credited. This
+&ldquo;New Picture of the City&rdquo; was anonymously published in seventeen hundred
+and eighty-four, and described, among other well-known places, Robert
+Bell&rsquo;s book-shop:</p>
+
+<p style="padding-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">Bell&rsquo;s Book Store</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Just by St. Paul&rsquo;s where dry divines rehearse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bell keeps his store for vending prose and verse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And books that&rsquo;s neither ... for no age nor clime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lame languid prose begot on hobb&rsquo;ling rhyme.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here authors meet who ne&rsquo;er a spring have got,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Smart politicians wrangling here are seen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">In 1776 Bell&rsquo;s facilities for printing had enabled him to produce an
+edition of &ldquo;Little Goody Two-Shoes,&rdquo; which seems likely to have been the
+only story-book printed during the troubled years of the Revolution.
+Besides this, Bell printed in 1777 &ldquo;Aesop&rsquo;s Fables,&rdquo; as did also Robert
+Aitkin; and J. Crukshank had issued during the war an A B C book,
+written by the old schoolmaster, A. Benezet, who had drilled many a
+Philadelphian in his letters. After the Revolution Benjamin Bache
+apparently printed children&rsquo;s books in considerable quantities, and
+orders were sent by other firms to England for juvenile reading-matter.</p>
+
+<p>New England also has records of the sale of these small books in several
+towns soon after peace was established. John Carter, &ldquo;at Shakespeare&rsquo;s
+Head,&rdquo; in Providence, announced by a broadside issued in November,
+seventeen hundred and eighty-three, that he had a large assortment of
+stationers&rsquo; wares, and included in his list &ldquo;Gilt Books for <i>Children</i>,&rdquo;
+among which were most of Newbery&rsquo;s publications. In Hartford,
+Connecticut, where there had been a good press since seventeen hundred
+and sixty-four, &ldquo;The Children&rsquo;s Magazine&rdquo; was reprinted in seventeen
+hundred and eighty-nine. Its preposterous titles are noteworthy, since
+it is probable that this was the first attempt at periodical literature
+made for young people in America. One number contains:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="noindent">An easy Introduction to Geography.<br />
+The Schoolboy addressed to the Editors.<br />
+Moral Tales continued.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tale VIII. The Jealous Wife.</span><br />
+The Affectionate Sisters.<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>Familiar Letters on Various Subjects,&mdash;Continued....<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Letter V from <i>Phillis Flowerdale</i> to <i>Miss Truelove</i>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Letter VI from <i>Miss Truelove</i> to <i>Phillis Flowerdale</i>.</span><br />
+Poetry.&mdash;The Sweets of May.<br />
+The Cottage Retirement.<br />
+Advice to the Fair.<br />
+The Contented Cottager.<br />
+The Tear.<br />
+The Honest Heart.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The autograph of Eben Holt makes the contents of the magazine ludicrous
+as subjects of interest to a <a name="corr3" id="corr3"></a><ins class="correction" title="boy.">boy</ins> But having nothing better, Eben most
+surely read it from cover to cover.</p>
+
+<p>In Charleston, South Carolina, Robert Wells imported the books read by
+the members of the various branches of the Ravenel, Pinckney, Prioleau,
+Drayton, and other families. Boston supplied the juvenile public largely
+through E. Battelle and Thomas Andrews, who were the agents for Isaiah
+Thomas, the American Newbery.</p>
+
+<p>An account of the work of this remarkable printer of Worcester,
+Massachusetts, has been given in Dr. Charles L. Nichols&rsquo;s &ldquo;Bibliography
+of Worcester.&rdquo; Thomas&rsquo;s publications ranked as among the very best of
+the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and were sought by
+book-dealers in the various states. At one time he had sixteen presses,
+seven of which were in Worcester. He had also four bookstores in various
+towns of Massachusetts, one in Concord, New Hampshire, one in Baltimore,
+and one in Albany.</p>
+
+<p>In 1761, at the age of ten, Thomas had set up as his &ldquo;&rsquo;Prentice&rsquo;s
+Token,&rdquo; a primer issued by A. Barclay in Cornhill, Boston, entitled &ldquo;Tom
+Thumb&rsquo;s Play-Book, To Teach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> Children their letters as soon as they can
+speak.&rdquo; Although this primer was issued by Barclay, Thomas had already
+served four years in a printer&rsquo;s office, for according to his own
+statement he had been sent at the age of six to learn his trade of
+Zechariah Fowle. Here, as &rsquo;prentice, he may have helped to set up the
+stories of the &ldquo;Holy Jesus&rdquo; and the &ldquo;New Gift,&rdquo; and upon the cutting of
+their rude illustrations perhaps took his first lessons in engraving.
+For we know that by seventeen hundred and sixty-four he did fairly good
+work upon the &ldquo;Book of Knowledge&rdquo; from the press of the old printer.
+Upon the fly-leaf of a copy of this owned by the American Antiquarian
+Society, founded by Thomas, is the statement in the Worcester printer&rsquo;s
+handwriting, &ldquo;Printed and cuts engraved by I. Thomas then 13 years of
+age for Z. Fowle when I.&nbsp;T. was his Apprentice: bad as the cuts are
+executed, there was not at that time an artist in Boston who could have
+done them much better. Some time before, and soon after there were
+better engravers in Boston.&rdquo; These cuts, especially the frontispiece
+representing a boy with a spy-glass and globe, and with a sextant at his
+feet, are far from poor work for a lad of thirteen. &ldquo;The battered
+dictionary,&rdquo; says Dr. Nichols, &ldquo;and the ink-stained Bible which he found
+in Fowle&rsquo;s office started him in his career, and the printing-press,
+together with an invincible determination to excel in his calling,
+carried him onward, until he stands to-day with Franklin and
+Baskerville, a type of the man who with few educational advantages
+succeeds because he loves his art for his art&rsquo;s sake.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In supplying to American children a home-made library,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> Thomas, although
+he did no really original work for children, such as his English
+prototype, Newbery, had accomplished, yet had a motive which was not
+altogether selfish and pecuniary. The prejudice against anything of
+British manufacture was especially strong in the vicinity of Boston; and
+it was an altogether natural expression of this spirit that impelled the
+Worcester printer, as soon as his business was well established, to
+begin to reprint the various little histories. These reprints were all
+pirated from Newbery and his successors, Newbery and Carnan; but they
+compare most favorably with them, and so far surpassed the work of any
+other American printer of children&rsquo;s books (except possibly those of
+Bache in Philadelphia) that his work demands more than a passing
+mention.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning, like most printers, with the production of a primer in
+seventeen hundred and eighty-four, by seventeen hundred and eighty-six
+Thomas was well under way in his work for children. In that year at
+least eleven little books bore his imprint and were sent to his Boston
+agents to be sold. In the &ldquo;Worcester Magazine&rdquo; for June, 1786, Thomas
+addressed an &ldquo;Advertisement to Booksellers,&rdquo; as follows: &ldquo;A large
+assortment of all the various sizes of <span class="smcap">Children&rsquo;s</span> Books, known
+by the name of Newbery&rsquo;s Little Books for Children, are now republished
+by I. Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts. They are all done excellently
+in his English Method, and it is supposed the paper, printing, cuts, and
+binding are in every way equal to those imported from England. As the
+Subscriber has been at great expense to carry on this particular branch
+of Printing extensively, he hopes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> to meet with encouragement from the
+Booksellers in the United States.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Evidently he did meet with great encouragement from parents as well as
+booksellers; and it is suspected that the best printed books bearing
+imprints of other booksellers were often printed in Worcester and bound
+according to the taste and facilities of the dealer. That this practice
+of reprinting the title-page and rebinding was customary, a letter from
+Franklin to his nephew in Boston gives indisputable evidence:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">
+Philada. Nov. 26, 1788.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Loving Cousin:</span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">I have lately set up one of my grand-children, Benja. F. Bache, as a
+Printer here, and he has printed some very pretty little Books for
+Children. By the Sloop Friendship, Capt. Stutson, I have sent a Box
+address&rsquo;d to you, containing 150 of each volume, in Sheets, which I
+request you would, according to your wonted Goodness, put in a way
+of being dispos&rsquo;d of for the Benefit of my dear Sister. They are
+sold here, bound in marbled Paper at 1 S. a Volume; but I should
+suppose it best, if it may be done, to sell the whole to some
+Stationer, at once, unbound as they are; in which case I imagine
+that half a Dollar a Quire may be thought a reasonable Price,
+allowing usual Credit if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>My Love to your Family, &amp; believe me ever,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="padding-right: 4em;">Your affectionate Uncle</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 90%"><span class="smcap">Jona. Williams, Esq.</span></p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Franklin&rsquo;s reference to the Philadelphia manner of binding toy-books in
+marbled paper indicates that this home-made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> product was already
+displacing the attractive imported gilt embossed and parti-colored
+covers used by Thomas, who seems never to have adopted this ugly dress
+for his juvenile publications. As the demand for his wares increased,
+Thomas set up other volumes from Newbery&rsquo;s stock, until by seventeen
+hundred and eighty-seven he had reproduced practically every item for
+his increasing trade. It was his custom to include in many of these
+books a Catalogue of the various tales for sale, and in &ldquo;The Picture
+Exhibition&rdquo; we find a list of fifty-two stories to be sold for prices
+varying from six pence to a shilling and a half.</p>
+
+<p>These books may be divided into several classes, all imitations of the
+English adult literature then in vogue. The alphabets and primers, such
+as the &ldquo;Little Lottery Book,&rdquo; &ldquo;Christmas Box,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tom Thumb&rsquo;s
+Play-thing,&rdquo; are outside the limits of the present subject, since they
+were written primarily to instruct; and while it is often difficult to
+draw the line where amusement begins and instruction sinks to the
+background, the title-pages can usually be taken as evidence at least of
+the author&rsquo;s intention. These other books, however, fall naturally under
+the heads of jest and puzzle books, nature stories, fables, rhymes,
+novels, and stories&mdash;all prototypes of the nursery literature of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The jest and joke books published by Thomas numbered, as far as is known
+to the writer, only five. Their titles seem to offer a feast of fun
+unfulfilled by the contents. &ldquo;Be Merry &amp; Wise, or the Cream of the Jests
+and the Marrow of Maxims,&rdquo; by Tommy Trapwit, contained concentrated
+extracts of wisdom, and jokes such as were current among adults. The
+chil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>dren for whom they were meant were accustomed to nothing more
+facetious than the following jest: &ldquo;An arch wag said, <i>Taylors</i> were
+like <i>Woodcocks</i> for they got their substance by their long bills.&rdquo;
+Perhaps they understood also the point in this: &ldquo;A certain lord had a
+termagant wife, and at the same time a chaplain that was a tolerable
+poet, whom his lordship desired to write a copy of verses upon a shrew.
+I can&rsquo;t imagine, said the chaplain, why your lordship should want a
+copy, who has so good an original.&rdquo; Other witticisms are not quotable.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 274px;">
+<a name="img12" id="img12"></a><a href="images/img12-full.jpg"><img src="images/img12.jpg" width="274" height="400" alt="A page from a Catalogue of Children&rsquo;s Books printed by
+Isaiah Thomas" title="A page from a Catalogue of Children&rsquo;s Books printed by
+Isaiah Thomas" /> </a>
+<i>A page from a Catalogue of Children&rsquo;s Books printed by
+Isaiah Thomas</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Conundrums played their part in the eighteenth century juvenile life,
+much as they do to-day. These were to be found in &ldquo;A Bag of Nuts ready
+Cracked,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Big and Little Puzzling Caps.&rdquo; &ldquo;Food for the Mind&rdquo;
+was the solemn title of another riddle-book, whose conundrums are very
+serious matters. Riddle XIV of the &ldquo;Puzzling Cap&rdquo; is typical of its
+rather dreary contents:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;There was a man bespoke a thing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which when the maker home did bring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This same maker did refuse it;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He who bespoke it did not use it<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he who had it did not know<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whether he had it, yea or no.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">This was a nut also &ldquo;ready cracked&rdquo; by the answer reproduced in the
+illustration.</p>
+
+<p>Nature stories were attempted under the titles of &ldquo;The Natural History
+of Four Footed Beasts,&rdquo; &ldquo;Jacky Dandy&rsquo;s Delight; or the History of Birds
+and Beasts in Verse and Prose,&rdquo; &ldquo;Mr. Telltruth&rsquo;s Natural History of
+Birds,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tommy Trip&rsquo;s History of Beasts and Birds.&rdquo; All these were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+written after Oliver Goldsmith&rsquo;s &ldquo;Animated Nature&rdquo; had won its way into
+great popularity. As a consequence of the favorable impression this book
+had made, Goldsmith is supposed to have been asked by Newbery to try his
+hand upon a juvenile natural history.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly it was as a result of Newbery&rsquo;s request that we have the
+anonymous &ldquo;Jacky Dandy&rsquo;s Delight&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tommy Trip&rsquo;s History of Beasts
+and Birds.&rdquo; The former appears to be a good example of Goldsmith&rsquo;s
+facility for amusing himself when doing hack-work for Newbery. How like
+Goldsmith&rsquo;s manner is this description of a monkey:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;The monkey mischievous<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like a naughty boy looks;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who plagues all his friends,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And regards not his books.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&ldquo;He is an active, pert, busy animal, who mimicks human actions so
+well that some think him rational. The Indians say, he can speak if
+he pleases, but will not lest he should be set to work. Herein he
+resembles those naughty little boys who will not learn A, lest they
+should be obliged to learn B, too. He is a native of warm countries,
+and a useless beast in this part of the world; so I shall leave him
+to speak of another that is more bulky, and comes from cold
+countries: I mean the Bear.&rdquo;</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">To poke fun in an offhand manner at little boys and girls seemed to have
+been the only conception of humor to be found in the children&rsquo;s books of
+the period, if we except the &ldquo;Jests&rdquo; and the attempts made in a
+ponderous manner on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> the title-pages. The title of &ldquo;The Picture
+Exhibition; containing the Original Drawings of Eighteen Disciples....
+Published under the Inspection of Mr. Peter Paul Rubens,...&rdquo; is
+evidently one of Newbery&rsquo;s efforts to be facetious. To the author, the
+pretence that the pictures were by &ldquo;Disciples of Peter Paul Rubens&rdquo;
+evidently conveyed the same idea of wit that &ldquo;Punch&rdquo; has at times
+represented to others of a later century.</p>
+
+<p>Fables have always been a mine of interest to young folks, and were
+interspersed liberally with all moral tales, but &ldquo;Entertaining Fables&rdquo;
+bears upon its title-page a suggestion that the children&rsquo;s old friend,
+&ldquo;Aesop,&rdquo; appeared in a new dress.</p>
+
+<p>Another series of books contained the much abridged novels written for
+the older people. &ldquo;Peregrine Pickle&rdquo; and &ldquo;Roderick Random&rdquo; were both
+reprinted by Isaiah Thomas as early as seventeen hundred and
+eighty-eight. These tales of adventure seem to have had their small
+reflections in such stories as &ldquo;The Adventures of a Pincushion,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;The Adventures of a Peg-top,&rdquo; by Dorothy Kilner, an Englishwoman.
+Mention has already been made of &ldquo;Pamela&rdquo; and &ldquo;Clarissa&rdquo; in condensed
+form. These were books of over two hundred pages; but most of the
+toy-books were limited to less than one hundred. A remarkable instance
+of the pith of a long plot put into small compass was &ldquo;The History of
+Tom Jones.&rdquo; A dog-eared copy of such an edition of &ldquo;Tom Jones&rdquo; is still
+in existence. Its flowery Dutch binding covers only thirty-one pages,
+four inches long, with a frontispiece and five wood-cut illustrations.
+In so small a space no detailed account of the life of the hero is to be
+expected; nevertheless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> the first paragraph introduces Tom as no
+ordinary foundling. Mr. Allworthy finds the infant in his bed one
+evening and rings up his housekeeper Mrs. Deborah Wilkins. &ldquo;She being a
+strict observer of decency was exceedingly alarmed, on entering her
+master&rsquo;s room, to find him undressed, but more so on his presenting her
+with the child, which he ordered immediately to be taken care of.&rdquo; The
+story proceeds&mdash;with little punctuation to enable the reader to take
+breath&mdash;to tell how the infant is named, and how Mr. Allworthy&rsquo;s nephew,
+Master Bilfil, is also brought under that generous and respectable
+gentleman&rsquo;s protection. Tommy turned out &ldquo;good,&rdquo; as Mr. Allworthy had
+hoped when he assumed charge of him; and therefore eventually inherited
+riches and gained the hand of Miss Sophia Western, with whom he rode
+about the country in their &ldquo;Coach and Six.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Of the stories in this juvenile library, the names, at least, of &ldquo;Giles
+Gingerbread,&rdquo; &ldquo;Little King Pippin,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes&rdquo; have been
+handed down through various generations. One hundred years ago every
+child knew that &ldquo;Little King Pippin&rdquo; attained his glorious end by
+attention to his books in the beginning of his career; that &ldquo;Giles
+Gingerbread&rdquo; first learned his alphabet from gingerbread letters, and
+later obtained the patronage of a fine gentleman by spelling &ldquo;apple-pye&rdquo;
+correctly. Thus did his digestion prove of material assistance in mental
+gymnastics.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 233px;">
+<a name="img13" id="img13"></a><a href="images/img13-full.jpg"><img src="images/img13.jpg" width="233" height="400" alt="Illustration of Riddle XIV in &ldquo;The Puzzling-Cap&rdquo;" title="Illustration of Riddle XIV in &ldquo;The Puzzling-Cap&rdquo;" /></a>
+<i>Illustration of Riddle XIV in &ldquo;The Puzzling-Cap&rdquo;</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the nursery favorite was undoubtedly &ldquo;Margery, or Little Goody
+Two-Shoes.&rdquo; She was introduced to the reader in her &ldquo;state of rags and
+care,&rdquo; from which she gradually emerged in the chapters entitled, &ldquo;How
+and about Little Margery and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> her Brother;&rdquo; &ldquo;How Little Margery
+obtained the name of Goody Two-Shoes;&rdquo; &ldquo;How she became a Tutoress&rdquo; to
+the farmers&rsquo; families in which she taught spelling by a game; and how
+they all sang the &ldquo;Cuz&rsquo;s Chorus&rdquo; in the intervals between the spelling
+lesson and the composition of sentences like this: &ldquo;I pray God to bless
+the whole country, and all our friends and all our enemies.&rdquo; Like the
+usual heroine of eighteenth century fiction, she married a title, and as
+Lady Jones was the Lady Bountiful of the district. From these tales it
+is clear that piety as the chief end of the story-book child has been
+succeeded by learning as the desideratum; yet morality is still pushed
+into evidence, and the American mother undoubtedly translated the
+ethical sign-boards along the progress of the tale into Biblical
+admonitions.</p>
+
+<p>All the books were didactic in the extreme. A series of four, called
+&ldquo;The Mother&rsquo;s,&rdquo; &ldquo;Father&rsquo;s,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sister&rsquo;s,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Brother&rsquo;s Gifts,&rdquo; is a good
+example of this didactic method of story-telling. &ldquo;The Father&rsquo;s Gift&rdquo;
+has lessons in spelling preceded by these lines:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Let me not join with those in Play,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who fibs and stories tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I with my Book will spend the Day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And not with such Boys dwell.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For one rude Boy will spoil a score<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As I have oft been told;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And one bad sheep, in Time, is sure<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To injure all the Fold.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">&ldquo;The Mother&rsquo;s Gift&rdquo; was confined largely to the same instructive field,
+but had one or two stories which conformed to the sentiment of the
+author of &ldquo;The Adventures of a Pin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>cushion,&rdquo; who stated her motive to be
+&ldquo;That of providing the young reader with a few pages which should be
+innocent of corrupting if they did not amuse.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Brother&rsquo;s&rdquo; and &ldquo;Sister&rsquo;s Gifts,&rdquo; however, adopt a different plan of
+instruction. In &ldquo;The Brother&rsquo;s Gift&rdquo; we find a brother solicitous
+concerning his sister&rsquo;s education: &ldquo;Miss Kitty Bland was apt, forward
+and headstrong; and had it not been for the care of her brother, Billy,
+would have probably witnessed all the disadvantages of a modern
+education&rdquo;! Upon Kitty&rsquo;s return from boarding-school, &ldquo;she could neither
+read, nor sew, nor write grammatically, dancing stiff and awkward, her
+musick inelegant, and everything she did bordered strongly on
+affectation.&rdquo; Here was a large field for reformation for Billy to
+effect. He had no doubts as to what method to pursue. She was desired to
+make him twelve shirts, and when the first one was presented to him, &ldquo;he
+was astonished to find her lacking in so useful a female
+accomplishment.&rdquo; Exemplary conversation produced such results that the
+rest of the garments were satisfactory to the critical Billy, who, &ldquo;as a
+mark of approbation made her a present of a fine pair of stays.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Sister&rsquo;s Gift&rdquo; presents an opposite picture. In this case it is
+Master Courtley who, a &ldquo;youth of Folly and Idleness,&rdquo; received large
+doses of advice from his sister. This counsel was so efficient with
+Billy&rsquo;s sensitive nature that before the story ends, &ldquo;he wept bitterly,
+and declared to his sister that she had painted the enormity of his
+vices in such striking colors, that they shocked him in the greatest
+degree; and promised ever after to be as remarkable for generosity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+compassion and every other virtue as he had hitherto been for cruelty,
+forwardness and ill-nature.&rdquo; Virtue in this instance was its own reward,
+as Billy received no gift in recognition of his changed habits.</p>
+
+<p>To the modern lover of children such tales seem strangely ill-suited to
+the childish mind, losing, as they do, all tenderness in the effort of
+the authors (so often confided to parents in the preface) &ldquo;to express
+their sentiments with propriety.&rdquo; Such criticism of the style and matter
+of these early attempts to write for little people was probably not made
+by either infant or adult readers of that old-time public. The children
+read what was placed before them as intellectual food, plain and
+sweetened, as unconcernedly as they ate the food upon their plates at
+meal-time. That their own language was the formal one of the period is
+shown by such letters as the following one from Mary Wilder, who had
+just read &ldquo;The Mother&rsquo;s Gift:&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="right">Lancaster, October 9th, 1789.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Hond. Madm:</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Your goodness to me I cannot express. My mind is continually crowded
+with your kindness. If your goodness could be rewarded, I hope God
+will repay you. If you remember, some time ago I read a story in
+&ldquo;The Mother&rsquo;s Gift,&rdquo; but I hope I shall never resemble Miss Gonson.
+O Dear! What a thing it is to disobey one&rsquo;s parents. I have one of
+the best Masters. He gave me a sheet of paper this morning. I hope
+Uncle Flagg will come up. I am quite tired of looking for Betsy, but
+I hope she will come. When school is done keeping, I shall come to
+Sudbury. What a fine book Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> Chapone&rsquo;s Letters is: My time grows
+short and I must make my letter short.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Your dutiful daughter,</p>
+<p class="right">P.&nbsp;W.</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Nursery rhymes and jingles of these present days have all descended from
+song-books of the eighteenth century, entitled &ldquo;Little Robin Red
+Breast,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Poetical Description of Song Birds,&rdquo; &ldquo;Tommy Thumb&rsquo;s
+Song-Book,&rdquo; and the famous &ldquo;Melodies of Mother Goose,&rdquo; whose name is
+happily not yet relegated to the days of long ago. Two extracts from the
+&ldquo;Poetical Description of Song Birds&rdquo; will be sufficient to show how
+foreign to the birds familiar to American children were the
+descriptions:</p>
+
+<p style="padding-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">The Bullfinch</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This lovely bird is charming to the sight:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The back is glossy blue, the belly white,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A jetty black shines on his neck and head;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His breast is flaming with a beauteous red.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p style="padding-left: 9em;"><span class="smcap">The Twite</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Green like the Linnet it appears to sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And like the Linnet sings from morn till night.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A reddish spot upon his rump is seen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Short is his bill, his feathers always clean:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When other singing birds are dull or nice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To sing again the merry Twites entice.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Reflections of the prevailing taste of grown people for biography are
+suggested in three little books, of two of which the author was Mrs.
+Pilkington, who had already written several successful stories for young
+ladies. Her &ldquo;Biography for Girls&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> contains various novelettes, in each
+of which the heroine lives the conventional life and dies the
+conventional death of the period, and receives a laudatory epitaph. They
+are remarkable only as being devoid of any interest. Her &ldquo;Biography for
+Boys&rdquo; does not appear to have attained the same popularity as that for
+girls. A third book, &ldquo;The Juvenile Biographers,&rdquo; containing the &ldquo;Lives
+of Little Masters and Misses,&rdquo; is representative of the changes made in
+many books by the printer to cater to that pride in the young Republic
+so manifest in all local literary productions. In one biography we note
+a Representative to the Massachusetts Assembly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;As Master Sammy had always been a very sober and careful child, and
+very attentive to his Books, it is no wonder that he proved, in the End,
+to be an excellent Scholar.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Accordingly, when he had reached the age of fourteen, Mr. William
+Goodall, a wealthy merchant in the city of Boston, took him into his
+counting house, in order to bring him up in the merchantile Way, and
+thereby make his Fortune.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This was a sad Stroke to his poor Sister Nancy, who having lost both
+her Papa and Mama, was now likely to lose her Brother likewise; but
+Sammy did all he could to appease her, and assured her, that he would
+spend all his leisure Time with her. This he most punctually performed,
+and never were Brother and Sister as happy in each other&rsquo;s company as
+they were.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. William Goodall was highly satisfied with Sammy&rsquo;s Behaviour, and
+dying much about the Time that Miss Nancy was married to the Gentleman,
+he left all his business to Sammy, together with a large Capital to
+carry it on. So much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> is Mr. Careful esteemed (for we must now no longer
+call him Master Sammy) that he was chosen in the late General Election,
+Representative in the General Court, for one of the first Towns in New
+England, without the least expense to himself. We here see what are the
+Effects of Good Behaviour.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This adaptation of the English tale to the surroundings of the American
+child is often found in Thomas&rsquo;s reprints, and naturally, owing to his
+enthusiasm over the recent change in the form of government, is made
+wholly by political references. Therefore while the lark and the linnet
+still sang in songs and the cowslips were scattered throughout the
+nature descriptions, Master Friendly no longer rode in the Lord Mayor&rsquo;s
+coach, but was seated as a Congressman in a sedan chair, &ldquo;and he
+looked&mdash;he looked&mdash;I do not know what he looked like, but everybody was
+in love with him.&rdquo; The engraver as well as the biographer of the
+recently made Representative was evidently at a loss as to his
+appearance, as the four dots indicating the young gentleman&rsquo;s features
+give but a blank look perhaps intended to denote amazement at his
+election.</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations of Thomas&rsquo;s toy reprints should not be overlooked. The
+Worcester printer seems to have rewritten the &ldquo;Introduction&rdquo; to &ldquo;Goody
+Two-Shoes,&rdquo; and at the end he affixed a &ldquo;Letter from the Printer which
+he desires may be inserted.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>: I have come with your copy, and so you may return it
+to the Vatican, if you please; and pray tell Mr. Angelo to brush up
+his cuts; that in the next edition they may give us a good
+impression.&rdquo;</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">This apology for the character of the illustrations serves as an
+introduction to a most interesting subject of conjecture as to the
+making of the cuts, and particularly as to the engraving of the
+frontispiece in &ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 264px;">
+<a name="img14" id="img14"></a><a href="images/img14-full.jpg"><img src="images/img14.jpg" width="264" height="400" alt="Goody Twoshoes." title="Goody Twoshoes." /></a>
+<i>Goody Twoshoes.</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to
+booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in
+bringing out the juvenile books in &ldquo;the English method.&rdquo; But Mr. Edwin
+Pearson, in his delightful discussion of &ldquo;Banbury Chap-Books,&rdquo; has also
+stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of
+&ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes,&rdquo; printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous
+English illustrator. A comparison of the reproduction of the Bewick
+engraving in Mr. Pearson&rsquo;s book with the frontispiece in Thomas&rsquo;s
+edition shows so much difference that it is a matter of regret that Mr.
+Pearson withheld his authority for attributing to Bewick the
+representation of Margery Two-Shoes. Besides the inference from Thomas&rsquo;s
+letter that the poor cuts would be improved before another edition
+should be printed, there are several points to be observed in comparing
+the cuts. In the first place, the execution in the Thomas cut suggests a
+different hand in the use of the tools; again, the reversed position of
+the figure of &ldquo;Goody&rdquo; indicates a copy of the English original. Also the
+expression of Thomas&rsquo;s heroine, although slightly mincing, is less
+distressed than the British dame&rsquo;s, to say nothing of the variation in
+the fashion of the gowns. And such details as the replacing of the
+English landscape by the spire of a meeting-house in the distance seem
+to confirm the impression that the drawing was made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> after, but not by
+Bewick. In the cuts scattered throughout the text the same difference in
+execution and portrayal of the little schoolmistress is noticeable.
+Margery, upon her rounds to teach the farmers&rsquo; children to spell such
+words as &ldquo;plumb-pudding&rdquo; &ldquo;(and who can suppose a better?),&rdquo; presents her
+full face in the Newbery edition, and but a three-quarter view to her
+American admirers.</p>
+
+<p>These facts, together with the knowledge that Isaiah Thomas was a fair
+engraver himself, make it possible that his apology for the first
+impression of the tiny classic was for his own engraving, which he
+thought to better.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas not only copied and pirated Newbery&rsquo;s juvenile histories, but he
+adopted his method of advertising by insertions in the text of these
+tales. For example, in &ldquo;The Travels of Robinson Crusoe, Written by
+Himself,&rdquo; the little reader was told, &ldquo;If you learn this Book well and
+are good, you can buy a larger and more complete History of Mr. Crusoe
+at your friend the Bookseller&rsquo;s in Worcester near the Court House.&rdquo; In
+&ldquo;The Mother&rsquo;s Gift,&rdquo; there is described well-brought-up Miss Nugent
+displaying to ill-bred Miss Jones, &ldquo;a pretty large collection of books
+neatly bound and nicely kept,&rdquo; all to be had of Mr. Thomas; and again
+Mr. Careful, in &ldquo;Virtue and Vice,&rdquo; &ldquo;presented at Christmas time to the
+sons and daughters of his friends, little Gilt Books to read, such as
+are sold at Mr. Thomas&rsquo; near the Court House in Worcester.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Thomas and his son continued to send out these toy-books until their gay
+bindings faded away before the novelty of the printed paper covers of
+the nineteenth century.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92-A_20" id="Footnote_92-A_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92-A_20"><span class="label">92-*</span></a> Tyler, <i>Literary History of the American Revolution</i>,
+vol. i, p. 485.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94-A_21" id="Footnote_94-A_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94-A_21"><span class="label">94-*</span></a> <i>Life of Josiah Quincy</i>, p. 27. Boston, 1866.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94-B_22" id="Footnote_94-B_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94-B_22"><span class="label">94-&#8224;</span></a> Earle, <i>Child Life in Colonial Days</i>, p. 171.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98-A_23" id="Footnote_98-A_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98-A_23"><span class="label">98-*</span></a> Tyler, <i>Literature of the American Revolution</i>, vol. ii,
+p. 182.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98-B_24" id="Footnote_98-B_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98-B_24"><span class="label">98-&#8224;</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 156.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;">1790-1800</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>By Washington<br />
+      Great deeds were done.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>The New England Primer</i>,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 3em;">New York, 1794</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>Line after line their wisdom flows<br />
+      Page after page repeating.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">T.&nbsp;G. Hake</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead">CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">1790-1800</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>The Child and his Book at the End of the Century</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">A</span><span style="text-transform: uppercase">ny</span> attempt to trace the slow development of the American child&rsquo;s story
+of the nineteenth century must inevitably be made through the
+school-books written during the previous one. Before this, English books
+had been adapted to the American trade. But now the continued interest
+in education produced text-books pervaded with the American spirit. They
+cannot, therefore, be ignored as sporadically in the springtime of the
+young Republic, they, like crocuses, thrust forward in the different
+states their blue and yellow covers.</p>
+
+<p>Next to clergymen, schoolmasters received the veneration of the people,
+for learning and godliness went hand in hand. It was the schoolmaster
+who reinforced the efforts of the parents to make good Americans of the
+young folks, by compiling text-books which outsold the English ones
+hitherto used. In the new editions of the old &ldquo;New England Primer,&rdquo;
+laudatory verse about General Washington replaced the alphabet rhyme:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Whales in the Sea<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">God&rsquo;s Voice obey.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Proud parents thereafter heard their infants lisp:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;By Washington<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Great deeds were done.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">For older pupils Noah Webster&rsquo;s speller almost superseded Dilworth&rsquo;s,
+and his &ldquo;Little Readers&rsquo; Assistant&rdquo; became the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> First Reader of many
+children. Webster as schoolmaster in a country district prepared this
+book for his own scholars. It was printed in Hartford in seventeen
+hundred and ninety, and contained a list of subjects suitable for
+farmers&rsquo; children:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Subject list">
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">I.</td>
+  <td>A number of Stories mostly taken from the history of America, and
+      adorned with Cuts.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">II.</td>
+  <td>Rudiments of English Grammar.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">III.</td>
+  <td>The Federal Catechism, being a short and easy explanation of the
+      Constitution of the United States.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">IV.</td>
+  <td>General principles of Government and Commerce.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right" style="padding-right: 1em;">V.</td>
+  <td>Farmers&rsquo; Catechism containing plain rules of husbandry.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">Bennington, Vermont, contributed in &ldquo;The Little Scholar&rsquo;s Pretty Pocket
+Companion in Rhyme and Verse,&rdquo; this indirect allusion to political
+affairs:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;&rsquo;Twas a toy of royalty, of late almost forgot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&rsquo;Tis said she represented France<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On English Monarchies arms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But lately broke his chains by chance<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And widely spread alarms.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">But the most na&iuml;ve attempt to inculcate patriotism together with a
+lesson in obedience is found in &ldquo;The Child&rsquo;s Instructor,&rdquo; published
+about seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and written by a Philadelphian.
+Philadelphia had become the residence of the President&mdash;a fact that may
+account for one of the stories in this book about an infant prodigy
+called Billy. &ldquo;The child at five years of age was always good and
+obedient, and prone to make such a remark as, &lsquo;If you would be wise you
+must always attend to your vowels and consonants.&rsquo; When General
+Washington came to town Billy&rsquo;s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> mama asked him to say a speech to the
+ladies, and he began, &lsquo;Americans! place constantly before your eyes, the
+deplorable scenes of your servitude, and the enchanting picture of your
+deliverance. Begin with the infant in his cradle; let the first word he
+lisps be <i>Washington</i>.&rsquo; The ladies were all delighted to hear Billy
+speak so well. One said he should be a lawyer, and another said he
+should be President of the United States. But Billy said he could not be
+either unless his mama gave him <span class="nowrap">leave.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_123-A_25" id="FNanchor_123-A_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_123-A_25" class="fnanchor">123-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Another Philadelphian attempted to embody political sentiment in &ldquo;A
+Tale&mdash;The Political Balance; or, The Fate of Britain and America
+Compared.&rdquo; This juvenile has long since disappeared, but it was
+advertised by its printer, Francis Bailey, in seventeen hundred and
+ninety-two, together with &ldquo;The History of the Little Boy found under a
+Haycock,&rdquo; and several other books for children. One year later a
+&ldquo;History of the American Revolution&rdquo; for children was also printed in
+Philadelphia for the generation who had been born since the war had
+ended. This was written in the Biblical phraseology introduced and made
+popular by Franklin in his famous &ldquo;Parable against Persecution.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This enthusiasm over the results of the late war and scorn for the
+defeated English sometimes indeed cropped out in the Newbery reprints.
+An edition (1796) of &ldquo;Goody Two-Shoes&rdquo; contains this footnote in
+reference to the tyranny of the English landlord over Goody&rsquo;s father:</p>
+
+<p><i>&ldquo;Such is the state of things in Britain. AMERICANS prize your liberty,
+guard your rights and be </i><span class="nowrap"><i>happy.</i>&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_123-B_26" id="FNanchor_123-B_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_123-B_26" class="fnanchor">123-&#8224;</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In this last decade of the century that had made a nation of the
+colonial commonwealths, the prosperity of the country enabled more
+printers to pirate the generally approved Newbery library. Samuel Hall
+in Boston, with a shop near the court-house, printed them all, using at
+times the dainty covers of flowery Dutch or gilt paper, and again
+another style of binding occasionally used in England. &ldquo;The Death and
+Burial of Cock Robin,&rdquo; for instance, has a quaint red and gilt cover,
+which according to Mr. Charles Welsh was made by stamping paper with
+dies originally used for printing old German playing-cards. He says: &ldquo;To
+find such a cover can only be accounted for by the innocence of the
+purchasers as to the appearance of his Satanic Majesty&rsquo;s picture cards
+and hence [they] did not recognize them.&rdquo; In one corner of the book
+cover is impressed the single word &ldquo;M&uuml;nch,&rdquo; which stamps this paper as
+&ldquo;made in Germany.&rdquo; Hall himself was probably as ignorant of the original
+purpose of the picture as the unsuspecting purchaser, who would
+cheerfully have burned it rather than see such an instrument of the
+Devil in the hands of its owner, little Sally Barnes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 340px;">
+<a name="img15" id="img15"></a><a href="images/img15-full.jpg"><img src="images/img15.jpg" width="340" height="400" alt="Frontispiece. Sr. Walter Raleigh and his man." title="Frontispiece. Sr. Walter Raleigh and his man." /></a>
+<i>Frontispiece. Sr. Walter Raleigh and his man.</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of Samuel Hall&rsquo;s reprints from the popular English publications, &ldquo;Little
+Truths&rdquo; was in all probability one of the most salable. So few books
+contained any information about America that one of these two volumes
+may be regarded as of particular interest to the young generation of his
+time. The author of &ldquo;Little Truths,&rdquo; William Darton, a Quaker publisher
+in London, does not divulge from what source he gleaned his knowledge.
+His information concerning Ameri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>cans is of that misty description
+that confuses Indians (&ldquo;native Americans&rdquo;) with people of Spanish and
+English descent. The usual &ldquo;Introduction&rdquo; states that &ldquo;The author has
+chose a method after the manner of conversations between children and
+their instructor,&rdquo; and the dialogue is indicated by printing the
+children&rsquo;s observations in italics. These volumes were issued for twenty
+years after they were introduced by Hall, and those of an eighteen
+hundred Philadelphia edition are bound separately. Number one is in blue
+paper with copper-plate pictures on both covers. This volume gives
+information regarding farm produce, live-stock, and about birds quite
+unfamiliar to American children. But the second volume, in white covers,
+introduces the story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his pipe-smoking
+incident, made very realistic in the copper-plate frontispiece. The
+children&rsquo;s question, &ldquo;<i>Did Sir Walter Raleigh find out the virtues of
+tobacco?</i>&rdquo; affords an excellent opportunity for a discourse upon smoking
+and snuff-taking. These remarks conclude with this prosaic statement:
+&ldquo;Hundreds of sensible people have fell into these customs from example;
+and, when they would have left them off, found it a very great
+difficulty.&rdquo; Next comes a lesson upon the growth of tobacco leading up
+to a short account of the slave-trade, already a subject of differing
+opinion in the United States, as well as in England. Of further interest
+to small Americans was a short tale of the discovery of this country.
+Perhaps to most children their first book-knowledge of this event came
+from the pages of &ldquo;Little Truths.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Hall&rsquo;s books were not all so proper for the amusement of young folks. A
+perusal of &ldquo;Capt. Gulliver&rsquo;s Adventures&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> leaves one in no doubt as to
+the reason that so many of the old-fashioned mothers preferred to keep
+such tales out of children&rsquo;s hands, and to read over and over again the
+adventures of the Pilgrim, Christian. Mrs. Eliza Drinker of Philadelphia
+in seventeen hundred and ninety-six was re-reading for the third time
+&ldquo;Pilgrim&rsquo;s Progress,&rdquo; which she considered a &ldquo;generally approved book,&rdquo;
+although then &ldquo;ridiculed by many.&rdquo; The &ldquo;Legacy to Children&rdquo; Mrs. Drinker
+also read aloud to her grandchildren, having herself &ldquo;wept over it
+between fifty and sixty years ago, as did my grandchildren when it was
+read to them. She, Hannah Hill, died in 1714, and ye book was printed in
+1714 by Andrew Bradford.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Drinker&rsquo;s grandchildren had another book very different from
+the pious sayings of the dying Hannah. This contained &ldquo;64 little stories
+and as many pictures drawn and written by Nancy Skyrin,&rdquo; the mother of
+some of the children. P. Widdows had bound the stories in gilt paper,
+and it was so prized by the family that the grandmother thought the fact
+of the recovery of the book, after it was supposed to have been
+irretrievably lost, worthy of an entry in her journal. Careful inquiry
+among the descendants of Mrs. Drinker has led to the belief that these
+stories were read out of existence many years ago. What they were about
+can only be imagined. Perhaps they were incidents in the lives of the
+same children who cried over the pathetic morbidity of Hannah&rsquo;s dying
+words; or possibly rhymes and verses about school and play hours of
+little Philadelphians; with pictures showing bait-the-bear, trap-ball,
+and other sports of days long since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> passed away, as well as &ldquo;I Spie
+Hi&rdquo; and marbles, familiar still to boys and girls.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 275px;">
+<a name="img16" id="img16"></a><a href="images/img16-full.jpg"><img src="images/img16.jpg" width="275" height="400" alt="Foot Ball" title="Foot Ball" /></a>
+<i>Foot Ball</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>From the fact that these stories were written for the author&rsquo;s own
+children, another book, composed less than a century before, is brought
+to mind. Comparison of even the meagre description of Mrs. Skyrin&rsquo;s book
+with Cotton Mather&rsquo;s professed purpose in &ldquo;Good Lessons&rdquo; shows the
+stride made in children&rsquo;s literature to be a long one. Yet a quarter of
+a century was still to run before any other original writing was done in
+America for children&rsquo;s benefit.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody else in America, indeed, seems to have considered the question of
+writing for nursery inmates. Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s &ldquo;Easy Lessons for Children
+from Two to Five Years old,&rdquo; written for English children, were
+considered perfectly adapted to gaining knowledge and perhaps amusement.
+It is true that when Benjamin Bache of Philadelphia issued &ldquo;Easy
+Lessons,&rdquo; he added this note: &ldquo;Some alterations were thought necessary
+to be made in this ... American edition, to make it agree with the
+original design of rendering instruction easy and useful.... The climate
+and the familiar objects of this country suggested these alterations.&rdquo;
+Except for the substitution of such words as &ldquo;Wheat&rdquo; for &ldquo;Corn,&rdquo; the
+intentions of the editor seem hardly to have had result, except by way
+of advertisement; and are of interest merely because they represent one
+step further in the direction of Americanizing the story-book
+literature.</p>
+
+<p>All Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s books were considered excellent for young children.
+As a &ldquo;Dissenter,&rdquo; she gained in the esteem of the people of the northern
+states, and her books were im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>ported as well as reprinted here. Perhaps
+she was best known to our grandparents as the joint author, with Dr.
+Aikin, of &ldquo;Evenings at Home,&rdquo; and of &ldquo;Hymns in Prose and Verse.&rdquo; Both
+were read extensively for fifty years. The &ldquo;Hymns&rdquo; had an enormous
+circulation, and were often full of fine rhythm and undeserving of the
+entire neglect into which they have fallen. Of course, as the fashion
+changed in the &ldquo;approved&rdquo; type of story, Mrs. Barbauld suffered
+criticism. &ldquo;Mrs. and Miss Edgeworth in their &lsquo;Practical Education&rsquo;
+insisted that evil lurked behind the phrase in &lsquo;Easy Lessons,&rsquo; &lsquo;Charles
+wants his dinner&rsquo; because of the implication &lsquo;that Charles must have
+whatever he desires,&rsquo; and to say &lsquo;the sun has gone to bed,&rsquo; is to incur
+the odium of telling the child a <span class="nowrap">falsehood.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_128-A_27" id="FNanchor_128-A_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_128-A_27" class="fnanchor">128-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the manner in which these critics of Mrs. Barbauld thought they had
+improved upon her method of story-telling is a tale belonging to another
+chapter. When Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s wave of popularity reached this country
+Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s ideas still flourished as very acceptable to parents.</p>
+
+<p>A contemporary and rival writer for the English nursery was Mrs. Sarah
+Trimmer. Her works for little children were also credited with much
+information they did not give. After the publication of Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Easy Lessons&rdquo; (which was the result of her own teaching of an adopted
+child), Mrs. Trimmer&rsquo;s friends urged her to make a like use of the
+lessons given to her family of six, and accordingly she published in
+seventeen hundred and seventy-eight an &ldquo;Easy Introduction into the
+Knowledge of Nature,&rdquo; and followed it some years after its initial
+success by &ldquo;Fabulous Histories,&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> afterwards known as the &ldquo;History of
+the Robins.&rdquo; Although Mrs. Trimmer represents more nearly than Mrs.
+Barbauld the religious emotionalism pervading Sunday-school
+libraries,&mdash;in which she was deeply interested,&mdash;the work of both these
+ladies exemplifies the transitional stage to that Labor-in-Play school
+of writing which was to invade the American nursery in the next century
+when Parley and Abbott throve upon the proceeds of the educational
+narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Defoe&rsquo;s &ldquo;Robinson Crusoe&rdquo; and Thomas Day&rsquo;s &ldquo;Sanford and Merton&rdquo; occupied
+the place in the estimation of boys that the doings of Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s
+and Mrs. Trimmer&rsquo;s works held in the opinion of the younger members of
+the nursery. Edition followed upon edition of the adventures of the
+famous island hero. In Philadelphia, in seventeen hundred and
+ninety-three, William Young issued what purported to be the sixth
+edition. In New York many thousands of copies were sold, and in eighteen
+hundred and twenty-four we find a Spanish translation attesting its
+widespread favor. In seventeen hundred and ninety-four, Isaiah Thomas
+placed the surprising adventures of the mariner as on the &ldquo;Coast of
+America, lying near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Parents also thought very highly of Thomas Day&rsquo;s &ldquo;Children&rsquo;s Miscellany&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;Sanford and Merton.&rdquo; To read this last book is to believe it to be
+possibly in the style that Dr. Samuel Johnson had in mind when he
+remarked to Mrs. Piozzi that &ldquo;the parents buy the books but the children
+never read them.&rdquo; Yet the testimony of publishers of the past is that
+&ldquo;Sanford and Merton&rdquo; had a large and continuous sale for many years.
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Sanford and Merton,&rsquo;&rdquo; writes Mr. Julian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> Hawthorne, &ldquo;ran &lsquo;Robinson
+Crusoe&rsquo; harder than any other work of the eighteenth century
+particularly written for children.&rdquo; &ldquo;The work,&rdquo; he adds, &ldquo;is quaint and
+interesting rather to the historian than to the general, especially the
+child, reader. Children would hardly appreciate so amazingly ancient a
+form of conversation as that which resulted from Tommy [the bad boy of
+the story] losing a ball and ordering a ragged boy to pick it up:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Bring my ball directly!&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;I don&rsquo;t choose it,&rsquo; said the boy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Sirrah,&rsquo; cried Tommy, &lsquo;if I come to you I will make you choose it.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Perhaps not, my pretty master,&rsquo; said the boy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;You little rascal,&rsquo; said Tommy, who now began to be very angry, &lsquo;if I
+come over the hedge I will thrash you within an inch of your life.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The gist of Tommy&rsquo;s threat has often been couched in modern language by
+grandsons of the boys from whom the Socratic Mr. Day wrote to expose the
+evils of too luxurious an education. His method of compilation of facts
+to be taught may best be given in the words of his Preface: &ldquo;All who
+have been conversant in the education of very young children, have
+complained of the total want of proper books to be put in their hands,
+while they are taught the elements of reading.... The least exceptional
+passages of books that I could find for the purpose were &lsquo;Plutarch&rsquo;s
+Lives&rsquo; and Xenophon&rsquo;s &lsquo;History of the Institution of Cyrus,&rsquo; in English
+translation; with some part of &lsquo;Robinson Crusoe,&rsquo; and a few passages
+from Mr. Brooke&rsquo;s &lsquo;Fool of Quality.&rsquo; ... I therefore resolved ...<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> not
+only to collect all such stories as I thought adapted to the faculties
+of children, but to connect these by continued narration.... As to the
+histories themselves, I have used the most unbounded licence.... As to
+the language, I have endeavored to throw into it a greater degree of
+elegance and ornament than is usually to be met with in such
+compositions; preserving at the same time a sufficient degree of
+simplicity to make it intelligible to very young children, and rather
+choosing to be diffuse than obscure.&rdquo; With these objects in mind, we can
+understand small Tommy&rsquo;s embellishment of his demand for the return of
+his ball by addressing the ragged urchin as &ldquo;Sirrah.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Day&rsquo;s &ldquo;Children&rsquo;s Miscellany&rdquo; contained a number of stories, of
+which one, &ldquo;The History of Little Jack,&rdquo; about a lost child who was
+adopted by a goat, was popular enough to be afterwards published
+separately. It is a debatable question as to whether the parents or the
+children figuring in this &ldquo;Miscellany&rdquo; were the more artificial. &ldquo;Proud
+and unfeeling girl,&rdquo; says one tender mother to her little daughter who
+had bestowed half her pin money upon a poor family,&mdash;&ldquo;proud and
+unfeeling girl, to prefer vain and trifling ornaments to the delight of
+relieving the sick and miserable! Retire from my presence! Take away
+with you trinket and nosegay, and receive from them all the comforts
+they are able to bestow!&rdquo; Why Mr. Day&rsquo;s stories met with such
+unqualified praise at the time they were published, this example of
+canting rubbish does not reveal. In real life parents certainly did
+retain some of their substance for their own pleasure; why, therefore,
+discipline a child for following the same inclination?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In contrast to Mr. Day&rsquo;s method, Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s plan of simple
+conversation in words of one, two, and three syllables seems modern.
+Both aimed to afford pleasure to children &ldquo;learning the elements of
+reading.&rdquo; Where Mrs. Barbauld probably judged truly the capacity of
+young children in the dialogues with the little Charles of &ldquo;Easy
+Lessons,&rdquo; Mr. Day loaded his gun with flowers of rhetoric and overshot
+infant comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, in spite of the criticism that has waylaid and torn to
+tatters Thomas Day&rsquo;s efforts to provide a suitable and edifying variety
+of stories, his method still stands for the distinct secularization of
+children&rsquo;s literature of amusement. Moreover, as Mr. Montrose J. Moses
+writes in his delightful study of &ldquo;Children&rsquo;s Books and Reading,&rdquo; &ldquo;he
+foreshadowed the method of retelling incidents from the classics and
+from standard history and travel,&mdash;a form which is practised to a great
+extent by our present writers, who thread diverse materials on a slender
+wire of subsidiary story, and who, like Butterworth and Knox, invent
+untiring families of travellers who go to foreign parts, who see things,
+and then talk out loud about them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Besides tales by English authors, there was a French woman, Madame de
+Genlis, whose books many educated people regarded as particularly
+suitable for their daughters, both in the original text and in the
+English translations. In Aaron Burr&rsquo;s letters we find references to his
+interest in the progress made by his little daughter, Theodosia, in her
+studies. His zeal in searching for helpful books was typical of the care
+many others took to place the best literature within their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> children&rsquo;s
+reach. From Theodosia&rsquo;s own letters to her father we learn that she was
+a studious child, who wrote and ciphered from five to eight every
+morning and during the same hours every evening. To improve her French,
+Mr. Burr took pains to find reading-matter when his law practice
+necessitated frequent absence from home. Thus from West Chester, in
+seventeen hundred and ninety-six, when Theodosia was nine years old, he
+wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">I rose up suddenly from the sofa and rubbing my head&mdash;&ldquo;What book
+shall I buy for her?&rdquo; said I to myself. &ldquo;She reads so much and so
+rapidly that it is not easy to find proper and amusing French books
+for her; and yet I am so flattered with her progress in that
+language, that I am resolved that she shall, at all events, be
+gratified.&rdquo; So ... I took my hat and sallied out. It was not my
+first attempt. I went into one bookseller&rsquo;s after another. I found
+plenty of fairy tales and such nonsense, for the generality of
+children of nine or ten years old. &ldquo;These,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;will never do.
+Her understanding begins to be above such things.&rdquo; ... I began to be
+discouraged. &ldquo;But I will search a little longer.&rdquo; I persevered. At
+last I found it. I found the very thing I sought. It is contained in
+two volumes, octavo, handsomely bound, and with prints and reprints.
+It is a work of fancy but replete with instruction and amusement. I
+must present it with my own hand.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yr. affectionate</p>
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">A. Burr.</span></p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">What speculation there must have been in the Burr family as to the name
+of the gift, and what joy when Mr. Burr pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>sented the two volumes upon
+his return! From a letter written later by Mr. Burr to his wife, it
+appears that he afterward found reason to regret his purchase, which
+seems to have been Madame de Genlis&rsquo;s famous &ldquo;Annales.&rdquo; &ldquo;Your account,&rdquo;
+he wrote, &ldquo;of Madame Genlis surprises me, and is new evidence of the
+necessity of reading books before we put them in the hands of children.&rdquo;
+Opinion differed, of course, concerning the French lady&rsquo;s books. In New
+York, in Miss Dodsworth&rsquo;s most genteel and fashionable school, a play
+written from &ldquo;The Dove&rdquo; by Madame de Genlis was acted with the same zest
+by little girls of ten and twelve years of age as they showed in another
+play taken from &ldquo;The Search after Happiness,&rdquo; a drama by the Quakeress
+and religious writer, Hannah More. These plays were given at the end of
+school terms by fond parents with that appreciation of the histrionic
+ability of their daughters still to be seen on such occasions.</p>
+
+<p>No such objection as Mrs. Burr made to this lady&rsquo;s &ldquo;Annales&rdquo; was
+possible in regard to another French book, by Berquin. Entitled &ldquo;Ami des
+Enfans,&rdquo; it received under the Rev. Mr. Cooper&rsquo;s translation the name
+&ldquo;The Looking Glass for the Mind.&rdquo; This collection of tales supposedly
+mirrored the frailties and virtues of rich and poor children. It was
+often bound in full calf, and an edition of seventeen hundred and
+ninety-four contains a better engraved frontispiece than it was
+customary to place in juvenile publications. For half a century it was
+to be found in the shop of all booksellers, and had its place in the
+library of every family of means. There are still those among us who
+have not forgotten the impression produced upon their infant minds by
+certain of the tales. Some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> remember the cruel child and the canary.
+Others recollect their admiration of the little maid who, when all
+others deserted her young patroness, lying ill with the smallpox, won
+the undying gratitude of the mother by her tender nursing. The author,
+blind himself to the possibilities of detriment to the sick child by
+unskilled care, held up to the view of all, this example of devotion of
+one girl in contrast to the hard-heartedness of many others. This book
+seems also to have been called by the literal translation of its
+original title, &ldquo;Ami des Enfans;&rdquo; for in an account of the occupations
+of one summer Sunday in seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, Julia
+Cowles, living in Litchfield, Connecticut, wrote: &ldquo;Attended meeting all
+day long, but do not recollect the text. Read in &lsquo;The Children&rsquo;s
+Friend.&rsquo;&rdquo; Many children would not have been permitted to read so nearly
+secular a book; but evidently Julia Cowles&rsquo;s parents were liberal in
+their view of Sunday reading after the family had attended &ldquo;meeting all
+day long.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the interest of the context of these toy-books of a past
+generation, one who handles such relics of a century ago sees much of
+the fashions for children of that day. In &ldquo;The Looking Glass,&rdquo; for
+instance, the illustrations copied from engravings by the famous English
+artist, Bewick, show that at the end of the eighteenth century children
+were still clothed like their elders; the coats and waistcoats, knee
+breeches and hats, of boys were patterned after gentlemen&rsquo;s garments,
+and the caps and aprons, kerchiefs and gowns, for girls were
+reproductions of the mothers&rsquo; wardrobes.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the fly-leaf of &ldquo;The History of Master Jacky and Miss Harriot&rdquo;
+arrests the eye by its quaint inscription:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> &ldquo;Rozella Ford&rsquo;s Book. For
+being the second speller in the second class.&rdquo; At once the imagination
+calls up the exercises in a village school at the end of a year&rsquo;s
+session: a row of prim little maids and sturdy boys, standing before the
+school dame and by turn spelling in shrill tones words of three to five
+syllables, until only two, Rozella and a better speller, remain
+unconfused by Dilworth&rsquo;s and Webster&rsquo;s word mysteries. Then the two
+children step forward with bow and curtsey to receive their tiny gilt
+prizes from a pile of duodecimos upon the teacher&rsquo;s desk. Indeed, the
+giving of rewards was carried to such an extent as to become a great
+drain upon the meagre stipend of the teacher. Thus when in copper-plate
+handwriting we find in another six-penny volume the inscription:
+&ldquo;Benjamin H. Bailey, from one he esteems and loves, Mr. Hapgood,&rdquo; we
+read between its lines the self-denial practised by Mr. Hapgood, who
+possibly received, like many other teachers, but seventy-five cents a
+week besides his board and lodging.</p>
+
+<p>Other books afford a glimpse of children&rsquo;s life: the formal every-day
+routine, the plays they enjoyed, and their demonstration of a
+sensibility as keen as was then in fashion for adults. The &ldquo;History of a
+Doll,&rdquo; lying upon the writer&rsquo;s table, is among the best in this respect.
+It was evidently much read by its owner and fairly &ldquo;loved to pieces.&rdquo;
+When it reached this disintegrated stage, a careful mother, or aunt,
+sewed it with coarse flax thread inside a home-made cover of bright blue
+wall-paper. Although the &ldquo;History of the Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty
+Doll&rdquo; bears no date, its companion story in the wall-paper wrapper has
+the imprint sev<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>enteen hundred and ninety-one, and this, together with
+the press-work, places it as belonging to the eighteenth century. It
+offers to the reader a charming insight into the formality of many an
+old-fashioned family: the deportment stiff with the starched customs of
+that day, the seriousness of their fun, and the sensibility among little
+maidens akin to that exhibited in the heroines of fiction created by
+Richardson and Fielding.</p>
+
+<p>The chapter concerning &ldquo;The Pedigree of the Doll&rdquo; treats of finding a
+branch of a tree by a carver, who was desired by Sir John Amiable to
+make one of the best dolls in his power for his &ldquo;pretty little daughter
+who was as good as she was pretty.&rdquo; The carver accordingly took the
+branch and began carving out the head, shoulders, body, and legs, which
+he soon brought to their proper shape. &ldquo;He then covered it with a fine,
+flesh-colored enamel and painted its cheeks in the most lively manner.
+It had the finest black and sparkling eyes that were ever beheld; its
+cheeks resembled the blushing rose, its neck the lilly, and its lips the
+coral.&rdquo; The doll is presented, and the next chapter tells of &ldquo;an
+assembly of little female gossips in full debate on the clothing of the
+doll.&rdquo; &ldquo;Miss Polly having made her papa a vast number of courtesies for
+it, prevailed on her brother to go round to all the little gossips in
+the neighborhood, begging their company to tea in the afternoon, in
+order to consult in what mode the doll should be dressed.&rdquo; The company
+assembled. &ldquo;Miss Micklin undertook to make it a fine ruffled laced
+shift, Miss Mantua to make it a silk sacque and petticoat; and in short,
+every one contributed, in some measure, to dress out this beautiful
+creature.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Everything went on with great harmony till they came to the head-dress
+of the doll; and here they differed so much in opinion, that all their
+little clappers were going at once.... Luckily, at this instant Mrs.
+Amiable happened to come in, and soon brought the little gossips to
+order. The matter in dispute was, whether it should have a high
+head-dress or whether the hair should come down on the forehead, and the
+curls flow in natural ringlets on the shoulders. However, after some
+pretty warm debate, this last mode was adopted, as most proper for a
+little miss.&rdquo; In chapter third &ldquo;The doll is named:&mdash;Accidents attend the
+Ceremony.&rdquo; Here we have a picture of a children&rsquo;s party. &ldquo;The young
+ladies and gentlemen were entertained with tea and coffee; and when that
+was over, each was presented with a glass of raisin wine.&rdquo; During the
+christening ceremony an accident happened to the doll, because Master
+Tommy, the parson, &ldquo;in endeavouring to get rid of it before the little
+gossips were ready to receive it, made a sad blunder.... Miss Polly,
+with tears in her eyes, snatched up the doll and clasped it to her
+bosom; while the rest of the little gossips turned all the little
+masters out of the room, that they might be left to themselves to
+inquire more privately into what injuries the dear doll had received....
+Amidst these alarming considerations Tommy Amiable sent the ladies word,
+that, if they would permit him and the rest of the young gentlemen to
+pass the evening among them in the parlour, he would engage to replace
+the nose of the doll in such a manner that not the appearance of the
+late accident should be seen.&rdquo; Permission was accordingly granted for a
+surgical operation upon the nose, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> &ldquo;as to the fracture in one of the
+doll&rsquo;s legs, it was never certainly known how that was remedied, as the
+young ladies thought it very indelicate to mention anything about the
+matter.&rdquo; The misadventures of the doll include its theft by a monkey in
+the West Indies, and at this interesting point the only available copy
+of the tale is cut short by the loss of the last four pages. The charm
+of this book lies largely in the fact that the owner of the doll does
+not grow up and marry as in almost every other novelette. This
+difference, of course, prevents the story from being a typical one of
+its period, but it is, nevertheless, a worthy forerunner of those tales
+of the nineteenth century in which an effort was made to write about
+incidents in a child&rsquo;s life, and to avoid the biographical tendency.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the books of the eighteenth century, one tale must be
+mentioned because it contains the germ of the idea which has developed
+into Mr. George&rsquo;s &ldquo;Junior Republic.&rdquo; It was called &ldquo;Juvenile Trials for
+Robbing Orchards, Telling Tales and other Heinous Offenses.&rdquo; &ldquo;This,&rdquo;
+said Dr. Aikin&mdash;Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s brother and collaborator in &ldquo;Evenings at
+Home&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;is a very pleasing and ingenious little Work, in which a Court
+of Justice is supposed to be instituted in a school, composed of the
+Scholars themselves, for the purpose of trying offenses committed at
+School.&rdquo; In &ldquo;Trial the First&rdquo; Master Tommy Tell-Truth charges Billy
+Prattle with robbing an orchard. The jury, after hearing Billy express
+his contrition for his act, brings in a verdict of guilty; but the judge
+pardons the culprit because of his repentant frame of mind. Miss Delia,
+the offender in case <i>Number Two</i>, does not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> escape so lightly. Miss
+Stirling charges her with raising contention and strife among her
+school-fellows over a piece of angelica, &ldquo;whereby,&rdquo; say her prosecutors,
+&ldquo;one had her favorite cap torn to pieces, and her hair which had been
+that day nicely dressed, pulled all about her shoulders; another had her
+sack torn down the middle; a third had a fine flowered apron of her own
+working, reduced to rags; a fourth was wounded by a pelick, or scratch
+of her antagonist, and in short, there was hardly one among them who had
+not some mark to shew of having been concerned in this unfortunate
+affair.&rdquo; That the good Dr. Aikin approved of the punishment decreed, we
+are sure. The little prisoner was condemned to pass three days in her
+room, as just penalty for such &ldquo;indelicate&rdquo; behaviour.</p>
+
+<p>By the close of the century Miss Edgeworth was beginning to supersede
+Mrs. Barbauld in England; but in America the taste in juvenile reading
+was still satisfied with the older writer&rsquo;s little Charles, as the
+correct model for children&rsquo;s deportment, and with Giles Gingerbread as
+the exemplary student. The child&rsquo;s lessons had passed from &ldquo;Be good or
+you will go to Hell&rdquo; to &ldquo;Be good and you will be rich;&rdquo; or, with the
+Puritan element still so largely predominant, &ldquo;Be good and you will go
+to Heaven.&rdquo; Virtue as an ethical quality had been shown in &ldquo;Goody
+Two-Shoes&rdquo; to bring its reward as surely as vice brought punishment. It
+is to be doubted if this was altogether wholesome; and it may well be
+that it was with this idea in mind that Dr. Johnson made his celebrated
+criticism of the nursery literature in vogue, when he said to Mrs.
+Piozzi, &ldquo;Babies do not want to be told about babies; they like to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> be
+told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and
+stimulate their little <span class="nowrap">minds.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_141-A_28" id="FNanchor_141-A_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_141-A_28" class="fnanchor">141-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The learned Doctor, having himself been brought up on &ldquo;Jack the Giant
+Killer&rdquo; and &ldquo;The History of Blue Beard,&rdquo; was inclined to scorn Newbery&rsquo;s
+tales as lacking in imaginative quality. That Dr. Johnson was really
+interested in stories for the young people of his time is attested by a
+note written in seventeen hundred and sixty-three on the fly-leaf of a
+collection of chap-books: &ldquo;I shall certainly, sometime or other, write a
+little Story-Book in the style of these. I shall be happy to succeed,
+for he who pleases children will be remembered by <span class="nowrap">them.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_141-B_29" id="FNanchor_141-B_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_141-B_29" class="fnanchor">141-&#8224;</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In America, however, it is doubtful whether any true critical spirit
+regarding children&rsquo;s books had been reached. Fortunately in England, at
+the beginning of the next century, there was a man who dared speak his
+opinion. Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer (who had contributed &ldquo;Fabulous
+Histories&rdquo; to the juvenile library, and for them had shared the approval
+which greeted Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s efforts) were the objects of Charles
+Lamb&rsquo;s particular detestation. In a letter to Coleridge, written in
+1802, he said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Goody Two Shoes is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s stuff has
+banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at
+Newbery&rsquo;s hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a
+shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s and Mrs. Trimmer&rsquo;s
+nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and vapid as Mrs.
+Barbauld&rsquo;s books convey, it seems, must come to a child in the shape<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> of
+knowledge; and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his own
+powers when he has learned that a horse is an animal and Billy is better
+than a horse, and such like, instead of that beautiful interest in wild
+tales, which made the child a man, while all the time he suspected
+himself to be no bigger than a child. Science has succeeded to poetry no
+less in the little walks of children than of men. Is there no
+possibility of arresting this force of evil? Think what you would have
+been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives&rsquo; fables in
+childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history. Hang
+them! I mean the cursed Barbauld crew, those blights and blasts of all
+that is human in man and <span class="nowrap">child.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_142-A_30" id="FNanchor_142-A_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_142-A_30" class="fnanchor">142-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To Lamb&rsquo;s extremely sensitive nature, the vanished hand of the literary
+man of Grub Street could not be replaced by Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s wish to
+instruct by using simple language. It is possible that he did her some
+injustice. Yet a retrospective glance over the story-book literature
+evolved since Newbery&rsquo;s juvenile library was produced, shows little that
+was not poor in quality and untrue to life. Therefore, it is no wonder
+that Lamb should have cried out against the sore evil which had &ldquo;beset a
+child&rsquo;s mind.&rdquo; All the poetry of life, all the imaginative powers of a
+child, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Trimmer, and Mr. Day ignored; and Newbery in
+his way, and the old ballads in their way, had appealed to both.</p>
+
+<p>In both countries the passion for knowledge resulted in this curious
+literature of amusement. In England books were written; in America they
+were reprinted, until a religious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> revival left in its wake the series
+of morbid and educational tales which the desire to write original
+stories for American children produced.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123-A_25" id="Footnote_123-A_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123-A_25"><span class="label">123-*</span></a> Miss Hewins, <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, vol. lxi, p. 112.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123-B_26" id="Footnote_123-B_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123-B_26"><span class="label">123-&#8224;</span></a> Brynberg. Wilmington, 1796.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128-A_27" id="Footnote_128-A_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128-A_27"><span class="label">128-*</span></a> Miss Repplier, <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, vol. lvii, p. 509.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141-A_28" id="Footnote_141-A_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141-A_28"><span class="label">141-*</span></a> Hill, <i>Johnsonian Miscellany</i>, vol. i, p. 157.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141-B_29" id="Footnote_141-B_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141-B_29"><span class="label">141-&#8224;</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142-A_30" id="Footnote_142-A_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142-A_30"><span class="label">142-*</span></a> Welsh, <i>Introduction to Goody Two Shoes</i>, p. x.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p>
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;">1800-1825</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>Her morals then the Matron read,<br />
+      Studious to teach her Children dear,<br />
+      And they by love or Duty led,<br />
+      With Pleasure read.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>A Mother&rsquo;s Remarks</i>,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 3em;">Philadelphia, 1810</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 2em;" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>Mama! see what a pretty book<br />
+      At Day&rsquo;s papa has bought,<br />
+      That I may at its pictures look,<br />
+      And by its words be taught.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">1800-1825</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Toy-Books in the Early Nineteenth Century</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">O</span><span style="text-transform: uppercase">n</span> the 23d of December, 1823, there appeared anonymously in the &ldquo;Troy
+(New York) Sentinel,&rdquo; a Christmas ballad entitled &ldquo;A Visit from St.
+Nicholas.&rdquo; This rhymed story of Santa Claus and his reindeer, written
+one year before its publication by Clement Clarke Moore for his own
+family, marks the appearance of a truly original story in the literature
+of the American nursery.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen the somewhat lugubrious influence of Puritan and Quaker
+upon the occasional writings for American children; and now comes a
+story bearing upon its face the features of a Dutchman, as the jolly old
+gentleman enters nursery lore with his happy errand.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time children of wholly English extraction had probably
+little association with the Feast of St. Nicholas. The Christmas season
+had hitherto been regarded as pagan in its origin by people of Puritan
+or Scotch descent, and was celebrated only as a religious festival by
+the descendants of the more liberal adherents to the Church of England.
+The Dutch element in New York, however, still clung to some of their
+traditions; and the custom of exchanging simple gifts upon Christmas Day
+had come down to them as a result of a combination of the church legend
+of the good St. Nicholas, patron of children, and the Scandinavian myth
+of the fairy gnome, who from his bower in the woods showered good
+children with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> <span class="nowrap">gifts.<a name="FNanchor_148-A_31" id="FNanchor_148-A_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_148-A_31" class="fnanchor">148-*</a></span> But to celebrate the day quietly was
+altogether a different thing from introducing to the American public the
+character of Santa Claus, who has become in his mythical entity as well
+known to every American as that other Dutch legendary personage, Rip Van
+Winkle.</p>
+
+<p>In the &ldquo;Visit from St. Nicholas&rdquo; Mr. Moore not only introduced Santa
+Claus to the young folk of the various states, but gave to them their
+first story of any lasting merit whatsoever. It is worthy of remark that
+as every impulse to write for juvenile readers has lagged behind the
+desire to write for adults, so the composition of these familiar verses
+telling of the arrival in America of the mysterious and welcome visitor
+on</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;The night before Christmas, when all through the house<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">fell at the end of that quarter of the nineteenth century to which we
+are accustomed to refer as the beginning of the national period of
+American literature.</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, true that the older children of that period had
+already begun to enjoy some of the writings of Irving and Cooper, and to
+learn the fortunately still familiar verses by Hopkinson, Key, Drake,
+and Halleck. School-readers have served to familiarize generation after
+generation with &ldquo;Hail Columbia,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Star Spangled Banner,&rdquo; and
+sometimes with &ldquo;The American Flag.&rdquo; It is, doubtless, their authors&rsquo;
+jubilant enthusiasm over the freedom of the young Republic that has
+caused the children of the more mature nation to delight in the
+repetition of the patriotic verses. The youth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>ful extravagance of
+expression pervading every line is re&euml;choed in the heart of the
+schoolboy, who likes to imagine himself, before anything else, a
+patriot. But until &ldquo;Donder and Blitzen&rdquo; pranced into the foreground as
+Santa Claus&rsquo; steeds, there was nothing in American nursery literature of
+any lasting fame. Thereafter, as the custom of observing Christmas Day
+gradually became popular, the perennial small child felt&mdash;until
+automobiles sent reindeer to the limbo of bygone things&mdash;the thrill of
+delight and fear over the annual visit of Santa Claus that the bigger
+child experiences in exploding fire-crackers on the Fourth of July.
+There are possibilities in both excitements which appeal to one of the
+child&rsquo;s dearest possessions&mdash;his imagination.</p>
+
+<p>It is this direct appeal to the imagination that surprises and delights
+us in Mr. Moore&rsquo;s ballad. To re-read it is to be amazed that anything so
+full of merriment, so modern, so free from pompousness or condescension,
+from pedantry or didacticism, could have been written before the latter
+half of the nineteenth century. Not only its style is simple in contrast
+with the labored efforts at simplicity of its contemporaneous verse, but
+its story runs fifty years ahead of its time in its freedom from the
+restraining hand of the moralist and from the warning finger of the
+religious teacher, if we except Nathaniel Hawthorne&rsquo;s &ldquo;Wonder Book.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In our examination of the toy-books of twenty years preceding its
+publication, we shall find nothing so attractive in manner, nor so
+imaginative in conception. Indeed, we shall see, upon the one hand, that
+fun was held in with such a tight curb that it hardly ever escaped into
+print; and upon the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> hand that the imagination had little chance
+to develop because of the prodigal indulgence in realities and in
+religious experience from which all authors suffered. We shall also see
+that these realities were made very uncompromising and uncomfortable to
+run counter to. Duty spelled in capital letters was a stumbling-block
+with which only the well-trained story-book child could successfully
+cope; recreation followed in small portions large shares of instruction,
+whether disguised or bare faced. The Religion-in-Play, the
+Ethics-in-Play, and the Labor-in-Play schools of writing for children
+had arrived in America from the land of their origin.</p>
+
+<p>The stories in vogue in England during this first quarter of the
+nineteenth century explain every vagary in America. There fashionable
+and educational authorities had hitched their wagon to the literary
+star, Miss Edgeworth, and the followers of her system; while the
+religiously inclined pinned their faith also upon tracts written by Miss
+Hannah More. In this still imitative land the booksellers simply
+reprinted the more successful of these juvenile publications. The
+changes, therefore, in the character of the juvenile literature of
+amusement of the early nineteenth century in America were due to the
+adoption of the works of these two Englishwomen, and to the increased
+facilities for reproducing toy-books, both in press-work and in
+illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>Hannah More&rsquo;s allegories and religious dramas, written to co&ouml;perate with
+the teachings of the first Sabbath Day schools, are, of course, outside
+the literature of amusement. Yet they affected its type in America as
+they undoubtedly gave direction to the efforts of the early writers for
+children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss More, born in seventeen hundred and fifty-four, was a woman of
+already established literary reputation when her attention was attracted
+by Robert Raikes&rsquo;s successful experiment of opening a Sunday-school, in
+seventeen hundred and eighty-one. During the religious revival that
+attended the preaching of George Whitefield, Raikes, already interested
+in the hardships and social condition of the working-classes, was
+further aroused by his intimate knowledge of the manner of life of some
+children in a pin factory. To provide instruction for these child
+laborers, who, without work or restrictions on Sundays, sought
+occupation far from elevating, Raikes founded the first &ldquo;Sabbath Day
+school.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The movement spread rapidly in England, and ten years later, in
+seventeen hundred and ninety-one, under the inspiration of Bishop White,
+the pioneer First Day school in America was opened in Philadelphia. The
+good Bishop was disturbed mentally by the religious and moral degeneracy
+of the poor children in his diocese, and annoyed during church services
+by their clamor outside the churches&mdash;a noise often sufficient to drown
+the prayers of his flock and the sermons of his clergy. To occupy these
+restless children for a part of the day, two sessions of the school were
+held each Sunday: one before the morning service, from eight until
+half-past ten o&rsquo;clock, and the other in the afternoon for an hour and a
+half. The Bible was used as a reader, and the teaching was done
+regularly by paid instructors.</p>
+
+<p>The first Sunday-school library owed its origin to a wish to further the
+instruction given in the school, and hence contained books thought
+admirably adapted to Sunday reading. Among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> the somewhat meagre stock
+provided for this purpose were Doddridge&rsquo;s &ldquo;Power of Religion,&rdquo; Miss
+More&rsquo;s tracts and the writings of her imitators, together with &ldquo;The
+Fairchild Family,&rdquo; by Mrs. Sherwood, &ldquo;The Two Lambs,&rdquo; by Mrs. Cameron,
+&ldquo;The Economy of Human Life,&rdquo; and a little volume made up of selections
+from Mrs. Barbauld&rsquo;s works for children. &ldquo;The Economy of Human Life,&rdquo;
+said Miss Sedgwick (who herself afterwards wrote several good books for
+girls), &ldquo;was quite above my comprehension, and I thought it unmeaning
+and tedious.&rdquo; Testimony of this kind about a book which for years
+appeared regularly upon booksellers&rsquo; lists enables us to realize that
+the average intelligent child of the year eighteen hundred was beginning
+to be as bored by some of the literature placed in his hands as a child
+would be one hundred years later.</p>
+
+<p>To increase this special class of books, Hannah More devoted her
+attention. Her forty tracts comprising &ldquo;The Cheap Repository&rdquo; included
+&ldquo;The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Two Shoemakers,&rdquo; which, often
+appearing in American booksellers&rsquo; advertisements, were for many years a
+staple article in Sunday-school libraries, and even now, although pushed
+to the rear, are discoverable in some such collections of books. Their
+objective point is best given by their author&rsquo;s own words in the preface
+to an edition of &ldquo;The Search after Happiness; A Pastoral Drama,&rdquo; issued
+by Jacob Johnson of Philadelphia in eighteen hundred and eleven.</p>
+
+<p>Miss More began in the self-depreciatory manner then thought modest and
+becoming in women writers: &ldquo;The author is sensible it may have many
+imperfections, but if it may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> be happily instrumental in producing a
+regard to Religion and Virtue in the minds of Young Persons, and afford
+them an innocent, and perhaps not altogether unuseful amusement in the
+exercise of recitation, the end for which it was originally composed ...
+will be fully answered.&rdquo; A drama may seem to us above the comprehension
+of the poor and illiterate class of people whose attention Miss More
+wished to hold, but when we feel inclined to criticise, let us not
+forget that the author was one who had written little eight-year-old
+Thomas Macaulay: &ldquo;I think we have nearly exhausted the epics. What say
+you to a little good prose? Johnson&rsquo;s &lsquo;Hebrides,&rsquo; or Walton&rsquo;s &lsquo;Lives,&rsquo;
+unless you would like a neat edition of Cowper&rsquo;s poems or &lsquo;Paradise
+Lost.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Miss More&rsquo;s influence upon the character of Sunday-school books in
+England undoubtedly did much to incline many unknown American women of
+the nineteenth century to take up this class of books as their own field
+for religious effort and pecuniary profit.</p>
+
+<p>Contemporary with Hannah More&rsquo;s writings in the interest of religious
+life of Sunday-school scholars were some of the literary products of the
+painstaking pen of Maria Edgeworth.</p>
+
+<p>Mention of Miss Edgeworth has already been made. About her stories for
+children criticism has played seriously, admiringly, and contemptuously.
+It is not the present purpose, however, to do other than to make clear
+her own aim, and to try to show the effect of her extremely moral tales
+upon her own generation of writers for American children. It is possible
+that she affected these authors more than the child audience for whom
+she wrote. Little ones have a wonderful faculty for seiz<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>ing upon what
+suits them and leaving the remainder for their elders to discuss.</p>
+
+<p>Maria Edgeworth&rsquo;s life was a long one. Born in seventeen hundred and
+sixty-seven, when John Newbery&rsquo;s books were at the height of their fame,
+she lived until eighteen hundred and forty-nine, when they were scarcely
+remembered; and now her own once popular tales have met a similar fate.</p>
+
+<p>She was educated by a father filled with enthusiasm by the teachings of
+Rousseau and with advice from the platitudinous family friend, Thomas
+Day, author of &ldquo;Sanford and Merton.&rdquo; Only the truly genial nature and
+strong character of Miss Edgeworth prevented her genius from being
+altogether swamped by this incongruous combination. Fortunately, also,
+her busy practical home life allowed her sympathies full sway and
+counteracted many of the theories introduced by Mr. Edgeworth into his
+family circle. Successive stepmothers filled the Edgeworth nursery with
+children, for whom the devoted older sister planned and wrote the
+stories afterward published.</p>
+
+<p>In seventeen hundred and ninety-one Maria Edgeworth, at her father&rsquo;s
+suggestion, began to note down anecdotes of the children of the family,
+and later these were often used as copy to be criticised by the little
+ones themselves before they were turned over to the printer. Her
+father&rsquo;s educational conversations with his family were often committed
+to paper, and these also furnished material from which Miss Edgeworth
+made it her object in life to interweave knowledge, amusement, and
+ethics. Indeed, it has been most aptly said that between the narrow
+banks of Richard Edgeworth&rsquo;s theories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> &ldquo;his daughter&rsquo;s genius flowed
+through many volumes of amusement.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 257px;">
+<a name="img17" id="img17"></a><a href="images/img17-full.jpg"><img src="images/img17.jpg" width="257" height="300" alt="Jacob Johnson&rsquo;s Book-Store." title="Jacob Johnson&rsquo;s Book-Store." /></a>
+<i>Jacob Johnson&rsquo;s Book-Store.</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Her first collection of tales was published under the title of &ldquo;The
+Parent&rsquo;s Assistant,&rdquo; although Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s own choice of a name had
+been the less formidable one of &ldquo;The Parent&rsquo;s Friend.&rdquo; Based upon her
+experience as eldest sister in a large and constantly increasing family,
+these tales necessarily struck many true notes and gave valuable hints
+to perplexed parents. In &ldquo;The Parent&rsquo;s Assistant&rdquo; realities stalked full
+grown into the nursery as</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Every object in creation<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Furnished hints for contemplation.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The characters were invariably true to their creator&rsquo;s original drawing.
+A good girl was good from morning to night; a naughty child began and
+ended the day in disobedience, and by it bottles were smashed,
+strawberries spilled, and lessons disregarded in unbroken sequence. In
+later life Miss Edgeworth confessed to having occasionally introduced in
+&ldquo;Harry and Lucy&rdquo; some nonsense as an &ldquo;alloy to make the sense work
+well;&rdquo; but as all her earlier children&rsquo;s tales were subjected to the
+pruning scissors of Mr. Edgeworth, this amalgam is to-day hardly
+noticeable in &ldquo;Popular Tales,&rdquo; &ldquo;Early Lessons,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Frank,&rdquo; which
+preceded the six volumes of &ldquo;Harry and Lucy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Although a contemporary of Mrs. Barbauld, who had written for little
+children &ldquo;Easy Lessons,&rdquo; Miss Edgeworth does not seem to have been well
+known in America until about eighteen hundred and five. Then &ldquo;Harry and
+Lucy&rdquo; was brought out by Jacob Johnson, a Philadelphia book-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>dealer.
+This was issued in six small red and blue marbled paper volumes,
+although other parts were not completed until eighteen hundred and
+twenty-three. Between the first and second parts of volume one the
+educational hand of Mr. Edgeworth is visible in the insertion of a
+&ldquo;Glossary,&rdquo; &ldquo;to give a popular meaning of the words.&rdquo; &ldquo;This Glossary,&rdquo;
+the editor, Mr. Edgeworth, thought, &ldquo;should be read to children a little
+at a time, and should be made the subject of conversation. Afterwards
+they will read it with more pleasure.&rdquo; The popular meaning of words may
+be succinctly given by one definition: &ldquo;Dry, what is not wet.&rdquo; Could
+anything be more lucid?</p>
+
+<p>Among the stories by Miss Edgeworth are three rarely mentioned by
+critics, and yet among the most natural and entertaining of her short
+tales. They were also printed by Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia, in
+eighteen hundred and five, under the simple title, &ldquo;Three Stories for
+Children.&rdquo; &ldquo;Little Dog Trusty&rdquo; is a dog any small child would like to
+read about; &ldquo;The Orangeman&rdquo; was a character familiar to English
+children; and &ldquo;The Cherry Orchard&rdquo; is a tale of a day&rsquo;s pleasure whose
+spirit American children could readily seize. In each Miss Edgeworth had
+a story to tell, and she told it well, even though &ldquo;she walked,&rdquo; as has
+been often said, &ldquo;as mentor beside her characters.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Of Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s many tales, &ldquo;Waste Not, Want Not&rdquo; was long
+considered a model. In it what Mr. Edgeworth styled the &ldquo;shafts of
+ridicule&rdquo; were aimed at the rich nephew of Mr. Gresham. Mr. Gresham
+(whose prototype we strongly suspect was Mr. Edgeworth himself) &ldquo;lived
+neither in idle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>ness nor extravagance,&rdquo; and was desirous of adopting an
+heir to his considerable property. Therefore, he invited two nephews to
+visit him, with the object of choosing the more suitable for his
+purpose; apparently he had only to signify his wish and no parental
+objection to his plan would be interposed. The boys arrive: Hal, whose
+mama spends her days at Bath over cards with Lady Diana Sweepstake, is
+an ill-bred child, neither deferential to his uncle, nor with appetite
+for buns when queen-cakes may be had. His cousin Ben, on the contrary,
+has been taught those virtuous habits that make for a respectful
+attitude toward rich uncles and assure a dissertation upon the
+beneficial effect of buns <i>versus</i> queen-cakes. The boys, having had
+their characters thus definitely shown, proceed to live up to them in
+every particular. From start to finish it is the virtuous Ben&mdash;his
+generosity, thrift, and foresight are never allowed to lapse for an
+instant&mdash;who triumphs in every episode. He saves his string, &ldquo;good
+whipcord,&rdquo; when requested by Mr. Gresham to untie a parcel, and it
+thereafter serves to spin a fine new top, to help Hal out of a
+difficulty with his toy, and in the final incident of the story, an
+archery contest, our provident hero, finding his bowstring &ldquo;cracked,&rdquo;
+calmly draws from his pocket the still excellent piece of cord, and
+affixing it to his bow, wins the match. Hal betrays his great lack of
+self-control by exclaiming, &ldquo;The everlasting whipcord, I declare,&rdquo; and
+thereupon Patty, Mr. Gresham&rsquo;s only child, who has suffered from Hal&rsquo;s
+defects of character, openly rejoices when the prize is given to Ben. As
+is usual with Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s badly behaved children, the reader now
+sees the error of Hal&rsquo;s ways, and perceives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> also that in the lad&rsquo;s
+acknowledgment of the truth of the formerly scorned motto, &ldquo;Waste not,
+want not,&rdquo; the era of his reformation has begun.</p>
+
+<p>Perpetual action was the key to the success of Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s
+writings. If to us her fictitious children seem like puppets whose
+strings are too obviously jerked, the monotonous moral cloaked in the
+variety of incident was liked by her own <a name="corr4" id="corr4"></a><ins class="correction" title="generation.">generation,</ins></p>
+
+<p>Miss Edgeworth not only pleased the children, but received the applause
+of their parents and friends. Sir Walter Scott, the prince of
+story-tellers, found much to admire in her tales, and wrote of &ldquo;Simple
+Susan:&rdquo; &ldquo;When the boy brings back the lamb to the little girl, there is
+nothing for it but to put down the book and cry.&rdquo; Susan was the pattern
+child in the tale, &ldquo;clean as well as industrious,&rdquo; while Barbara&mdash;a
+violent contrast&mdash;was conceited and lazy, and a <i>lady</i> who &ldquo;could
+descend without shame from the height of insolent pride to the lowest
+measure of fawning familiarity.&rdquo; Therefore it is small wonder that Sir
+Walter passed her by without mention.</p>
+
+<p>However much we may value an English author&rsquo;s admiration for Miss
+Edgeworth&rsquo;s story-telling gifts, it is to America that we naturally turn
+to seek contemporary opinion. In educational circles there is no doubt
+that Miss Edgeworth won high praise. That her books were not always easy
+to procure, however, we know from a letter written from Washington by
+Mrs. Josiah Quincy, whose life as a child during the Revolution has
+already been described. When Mrs. Quincy was living in the capital city
+in eighteen hundred and ten, during her husband&rsquo;s term as Congressman,
+she found it difficult to pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>vide her family with books. She therefore
+wrote to Boston to a friend, requesting to have sent her Miss
+Edgeworth&rsquo;s &ldquo;Moral Tales,&rdquo; &ldquo;if the work can be obtained in one of the
+bookstores. If not,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;borrow one ... and I will replace
+it with a new copy. Cut the book out of its binding and enclose the
+pages in packets.... Be careful to send the entire text and title page.&rdquo;
+The scarcity in Washington of books for young people Mrs. Quincy thought
+justified the hope that reprinting these tales would be profitable to a
+bookseller in whose efforts to introduce a better taste among the
+inhabitants she took a keen interest. But Mrs. Quincy need not have sent
+to Boston for them. Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia had issued most of the
+English author&rsquo;s books by eighteen hundred and five, and New York
+publishers probably made good profit by printing them.</p>
+
+<p>Reading aloud was both a pastime and an education to families in those
+early days of the Republic. Although Mrs. Quincy made every effort to
+procure Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s stories for her family because, in her opinion,
+&ldquo;they obtained a decided preference to the works of Hannah More, Mrs.
+Trimmer and Mrs. Chapone,&rdquo; for reading aloud she chose extracts from
+Shakespeare, Milton, Addison, and Goldsmith. Indeed, if it were possible
+to ask our great-grandparents what books they remembered reading in
+their childhood, I think we should find that beyond somewhat hazy
+recollections of Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s books and Berquin&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Looking Glass
+for the Mind,&rdquo; they would either mention &ldquo;Robinson Crusoe,&rdquo; Newbery&rsquo;s
+tales of &ldquo;Giles Gingerbread,&rdquo; &ldquo;Little King Pippin,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Goody
+Two-Shoes&rdquo; (written fifty years before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> their own childhood), or
+remember only the classic tales and sketches read to them by their
+parents.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly this is the case if we may take as trustworthy the
+recollections of literary people whose childhood was passed in the first
+part of the nineteenth century. Catharine Sedgwick, for instance, has
+left a charming picture of American family life in a country town in
+eighteen hundred&mdash;a life doubtless paralleled by many households in
+comfortable circumstances. Among the host of little prigs and prudes in
+story-books of the day, it is delightful to find in Catharine Sedgwick
+herself an example of a bookish child who was natural. Her reminiscences
+include an account of the way the task of sweeping out the schoolhouse
+after hours was made bearable by feasts of Malaga wine and raisins.
+These she procured from the store where her father kept an open account,
+until the bill having been rendered dotted over with such charges &ldquo;per
+daughter Catharine,&rdquo; these treats to favorite schoolmates ceased. Also a
+host of intimate details of this large family&rsquo;s life in the country
+brings us in touch with the times: fifteen pairs of calfskin shoes
+ordered from the village shoemaker, because town-bought morocco slippers
+were few and far between; the excitement of a silk gown; the distress of
+a brother, whose trousers for f&ecirc;te occasions were remodelled from an
+older brother&rsquo;s &ldquo;blue broadcloth worn to fragility&mdash;so that Robert [the
+younger brother] said he could not look at them without making a rent;&rdquo;
+and again the anticipation of the father&rsquo;s return from Philadelphia with
+gifts of necessaries and books.</p>
+
+<p>After seventeen hundred and ninety-five Mr. Sedgwick was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> compelled as a
+member of Congress to be away the greater part of each year, leaving
+household and farm to the care of an invalid wife. Memories of Mr.
+Sedgwick&rsquo;s infrequent visits home were mingled in his daughter&rsquo;s mind
+with the recollections of being kept up until nine o&rsquo;clock to listen to
+his reading from Shakespeare, Don Quixote, or Hudibras. &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo;
+wrote Miss Sedgwick, &ldquo;I did not understand them, but some glances of
+celestial light reached my soul, and I caught from his magnetic sympathy
+some elevation of feeling, and that love of reading which has been to me
+an &lsquo;education.&rsquo;&rdquo; &ldquo;I was not more than twelve years old,&rdquo; she continues,
+&ldquo;I think but ten&mdash;when one winter I read Rollin&rsquo;s Ancient History. The
+walking to our schoolhouse was often bad, and I took my lunch (how well
+I remember the bread and butter, and &lsquo;nut cake&rsquo; and cold sausage, and
+nuts and apples that made the miscellaneous contents of that enchanting
+lunch-basket!), and in the interim between morning and afternoon school
+I crept under my desk (the desks were so made as to afford little close
+recesses under them) and read and munched and forgot myself in Cyrus&rsquo;
+greatness.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is beyond question that the keen relish induced by the scarcity of
+juvenile reading, together with the sound digestion it promoted,
+overbalanced in mental gain the novelties of a later day.</p>
+
+<p>The Sedgwick library was probably typical of the average choice in
+reading-matter of the contemporary American child. Half a dozen little
+story-books, Berquin&rsquo;s &ldquo;Children&rsquo;s Friend&rdquo; (the very form and shade of
+color of its binding with its green edges were never forgotten by any
+member of the Sedgwick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> family), and the &ldquo;Looking Glass for the Mind&rdquo;
+were shelved side by side with a large volume entitled &ldquo;Elegant
+Extracts,&rdquo; full of ballads, fables, and tales delightful to children
+whose imagination was already excited by the solemn mystery of Rowe&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Letters from the Dead to the Living.&rdquo; Since none of these books except
+those containing an infusion of religion were allowed to be read on
+Sunday, the Sedgwick children extended the bounds by turning over the
+pages of a book, and if the word &ldquo;God&rdquo; or &ldquo;Lord&rdquo; appeared, it was
+pounced upon as sanctified and therefore permissible.</p>
+
+<p>Where families were too poor to buy story-books, the children found what
+amusement they could in the parents&rsquo; small library. In ministers&rsquo;
+families sermons were more plentiful than books. Mrs. H.&nbsp;B. Stowe, when a
+girl, found barrels of sermons in the garret of her father, the Rev. Dr.
+Beecher, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Through these sermons his daughter
+searched hungrily for mental food. It seemed as if there were thousands
+of the most unintelligible things. &ldquo;An appeal on the unlawfulness of a
+man&rsquo;s marrying his wife&rsquo;s sister&rdquo; turned up in every barrel by the
+dozens, until she despaired of finding an end of it. At last an ancient
+volume of &ldquo;Arabian Nights&rdquo; was unearthed. Here was the one inexhaustible
+source of delight to a child so eager for books that at ten years of age
+she had pored over the two volumes of the &ldquo;Magnalia.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The library advantages of a more fortunately placed old-fashioned child
+we know from Dr. Holmes&rsquo;s frequent reference to incidents of his
+boyhood. He frankly confessed that he read in and not through many of
+the two thousand books in his father&rsquo;s library; but he found much to
+interest him in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> volumes of periodicals, especially in the &ldquo;Annual
+Register&rdquo; and Rees&rsquo;s &ldquo;Encyclopedia.&rdquo; Although apparently allowed to
+choose from the book-shelves, there were frequent evidences of a
+parent&rsquo;s careful supervision. &ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; he once wrote to a friend,
+&ldquo;many leaves were torn out of a copy of Dryden&rsquo;s Poems, with the comment
+&lsquo;Hiatus haud diflendus,&rsquo; but I had like all children a kind of Indian
+sagacity in the discovery of contraband reading, such as a boy carries
+to a corner for perusal. Sermons I had enough from the pulpit. I don&rsquo;t
+know that I ever read one sermon of my own accord during my childhood.
+The &lsquo;Life of David,&rsquo; by Samuel Chandler, had adventures enough, to say
+nothing of gallantry, in it to stimulate and gratify curiosity.&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Biographies of Pious Children,&rdquo; wrote Dr. Holmes at another time, &ldquo;were
+not to my taste. Those young persons were generally sickly, melancholy,
+and buzzed around by ghostly comforters or discomforters in a way that
+made me sick to contemplate.&rdquo; Again, Dr. Holmes, writing of the revolt
+from the commonly accepted religious doctrines he experienced upon
+reading the Rev. Thomas Scott&rsquo;s Family Bible, contrasted the gruesome
+doctrines it set forth with the story of Christian told in &ldquo;Pilgrim&rsquo;s
+Progress,&rdquo; a book which captivated his imagination.</p>
+
+<p>As to story-books, Dr. Holmes once referred to Mrs. Barbauld and Dr.
+Aikin&rsquo;s joint production, &ldquo;Evenings at Home,&rdquo; with an accuracy bearing
+testimony to his early love for natural science. He also paid a graceful
+tribute to Lady Bountiful of &ldquo;Little King Pippin&rdquo; in comparing her in a
+conversation &ldquo;At the Breakfast Table&rdquo; with the appearance of three
+maiden ladies &ldquo;rustling through the aisles of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> old meeting-house, in
+silk and satin, not gay but more than decent.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Although Dr. Holmes was not sufficiently impressed with the contents of
+Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s tales to mention them, at least one of her books
+contained much of the sort of information he found attractive in
+&ldquo;Evenings at Home.&rdquo; &ldquo;Harry and Lucy,&rdquo; besides pointing a moral on every
+page, foreshadowed that taste for natural science which turned every
+writer&rsquo;s thought toward printing geographical walks, botanical
+observations, natural history conversations, and geological
+dissertations in the guise of toy-books of amusement. A batch of books
+issued in America during the first two decades of the nineteenth century
+is illustrative of this new fashion. These books, belonging to the
+Labor-in-Play school, may best be described in their American editions.</p>
+
+<p>One hundred years ago the American publishers of toy works were devoting
+their attention to the make-up rather than to the contents of their
+wares. The steady progress of the industrial arts enabled a greater
+number of printers to issue juvenile books, whose attractiveness was
+increased by better illustrations; and also with the improved facilities
+for printing and publishing, the issues of the various firms became more
+individual. At the beginning of the century the cheaper books entirely
+lost their charming gilt, flowery Dutch, and silver wrappers, as home
+products came into use. Size and illustrations also underwent a change.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 265px;">
+<a name="img18" id="img18"></a><a href="images/img18-full.jpg"><img src="images/img18.jpg" width="265" height="400" alt="A Wall-paper Book-Cover" title="A Wall-paper Book-Cover" /></a>
+<i>A Wall-paper Book-Cover</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>In Philadelphia, Benjamin and Jacob Johnson, and later Johnson and
+Warner, issued both tiny books two inches square, and somewhat larger
+volumes containing illustrations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> as well as text. These firms used
+for binding gray and blue marbled paper, gold-powdered yellow cardboard,
+or salmon pink, blue, and olive-green papers, usually without
+ornamentation. In eighteen hundred J. and J. Crukshank, of the same
+town, began to decorate with copper-plate cuts the outside of the white
+or blue paper covers of their imprints for children. Other printers
+followed their example, especially after wood-engraving became more
+generally used.</p>
+
+<p>In Wilmington, Delaware, John Adams printed and sold &ldquo;The New History of
+Blue Beard&rdquo; in both peacock-blue and olive-green paper covers; but Peter
+Brynberg, also of that town, was still in eighteen hundred and four
+using quaint wall-paper to dress his toy imprints. Matthew Carey, the
+well-known printer of school-books for the children of Philadelphia,
+made a &ldquo;Child&rsquo;s Guide to Spelling and Reading&rdquo; more acceptable by a
+charming cover of yellow and red striped paper dotted over with little
+black hearts suggestive of the old Primer rhyme for the letter B:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;My Book and Heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall never part.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">In New York the dealers in juvenile books seem either to have bound in
+calf such classics as &ldquo;The Blossoms of Morality,&rdquo; published by David
+Longworth at the Shakespeare Gallery in eighteen hundred and two, or in
+decorated but unattractive brown paper. This was the cover almost
+invariably used for years by Samuel Wood, the founder of the present
+publishing-house of medical works. He began in eighteen hundred and six
+to print the first of his many thousands of children&rsquo;s religious,
+instructive, and nursery books. As was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> custom in order to insure a
+good sale, Wood first brought out a primer, &ldquo;The Young Child&rsquo;s A B C.&rdquo;
+He decorated its Quaker gray cover with a woodcut of a flock of birds,
+and its title-page with a picture, presumably by Alexander Anderson, of
+a girl holding up a dove in her left hand and holding down a lamb with
+her right.</p>
+
+<p>In New England, Nathaniel Coverly of Salem sometimes used a watered pink
+paper to cover his sixteen page toy-books, and in Boston his son, as
+late as eighteen hundred and thirteen, still used pieces of large
+patterned wall-paper for six-penny books, such as &ldquo;Tom Thumb,&rdquo; &ldquo;Old
+Mother Hubbard,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Cock Robin.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The change in the appearance of most toy-books, however, was due largely
+to the increased use of illustrations. The work of the famous English
+engraver, Thomas Bewick, had at last been successfully copied by a
+physician of New York, Dr. Alexander Anderson.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Anderson was born in New York in seventeen hundred and seventy-five,
+and by seventeen hundred and ninety-three was employed by printers and
+publishers in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and even Charleston to
+illustrate their books. Like other engravers, he began by cutting in
+type-metal, or engraving upon copper. In seventeen hundred and
+ninety-four, for Durell of New York, he undertook to make illustrations,
+probably for &ldquo;The Looking Glass for the Mind.&rdquo; Beginning by copying
+Bewick&rsquo;s pictures upon type-metal, when &ldquo;about one-third done, Dr.
+Anderson felt satisfied he could do better on <span class="nowrap">wood.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_166-A_32" id="FNanchor_166-A_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_166-A_32" class="fnanchor">166-*</a></span> In his diary
+we find noted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> an instance of his perseverance in the midst of
+discouragement: &ldquo;Sept. 24. This morning I was quite discouraged on
+seeing a crack in the wood. Employed as usual at the Doctor&rsquo;s, came home
+to dinner, glued the wood and began again with fresh hopes of producing
+a good wood engraving.&rdquo; September 26 found him &ldquo;pretty well satisfied
+with the impression and so was Durell.&rdquo; In eighteen hundred he engraved
+all the pictures on wood for a new edition of the same book, and from
+this time he seems to have discontinued the use of type-metal, which he
+had employed in his earlier work as illustrator of the &ldquo;Pilgrim&rsquo;s
+Progress&rdquo; issued by Hugh Gaine, and of &ldquo;Tom Thumb&rsquo;s Folio&rdquo; printed by
+Brewer. After eighteen hundred and twelve Anderson almost gave up
+engraving on copper also, and devoted himself to satisfying the great
+demand for his work on wood. For Durell of New York, an extensive
+reprinter of English books, from toy-books to a folio edition of
+Josephus, he reproduced the English engravings, never making, according
+to Mr. Lossing, more than a frontispiece for the larger volumes.</p>
+
+<p>Although Samuel Wood and Sons of New York also gave Dr. Anderson many
+orders for cuts for their various juvenile publications, he still found
+time to engrave for publishers of other cities. We find his
+illustrations in the toy-books printed in Boston and Philadelphia; and
+for Sidney Babcock, a New Haven publisher of juvenile literature, he
+supplied many of the numerous woodcuts required. The best of Anderson&rsquo;s
+work as an engraver coincided with the years of Babcock&rsquo;s very extensive
+business of issuing children&rsquo;s books, between 1805 and 1840. His cuts
+adorned the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> juvenile duodecimos that this printer&rsquo;s widely extended
+trade demanded; and even as far south as Charleston, South Carolina,
+Babcock, like Isaiah Thomas, found it profitable to open a branch shop.</p>
+
+<p>Anderson&rsquo;s illustrations are the main features of most of Babcock&rsquo;s
+little blue, pink, and yellow paper-covered books; especially of those
+printed in the early years of the nineteenth century. We notice in them
+the changes in the dress of children, who no longer were clothed exactly
+in the semblance of their elders, but began to assume garments more
+appropriate to their ages, sports, and occupations. Anderson also
+sometimes introduced into his pictures a negro coachman or nurse in the
+place of the footman or maid of the English tale he illustrated.</p>
+
+<p>While the demand for the engraver&rsquo;s work was constant, his remuneration
+was small, if we are to judge by Babcock&rsquo;s payment of only fifty
+shillings for fifteen cuts.</p>
+
+<p>For these toy-books Anderson made many reproductions from Bewick&rsquo;s cuts,
+and although he did not equal the Englishman&rsquo;s work, he so far surpassed
+his pupils and imitators of the early part of the century that his
+engravings are generally to be recognized even when not signed. In
+eighteen hundred and two Dr. Anderson began to reproduce for David
+Longworth Bewick&rsquo;s &ldquo;Quadrupeds,&rdquo; and these &ldquo;cuts were afterwards made
+use of, with the Bewick letter-press also, for a series of children&rsquo;s
+<span class="nowrap">books.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_168-A_33" id="FNanchor_168-A_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_168-A_33" class="fnanchor">168-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In eighteen hundred and twelve, for Munroe &amp; Francis of Boston, Dr.
+Anderson made after J. Thompson a set of cuts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> mainly remarkable &ldquo;as
+the chief of his few departures from the style of his favorite,
+<span class="nowrap">Bewick.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_169-A_34" id="FNanchor_169-A_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_169-A_34" class="fnanchor">169-*</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The custom of not signing either text or engravings in the children&rsquo;s
+books has made it difficult to identify writers and illustrators of
+juvenile literature. But some of the best engravers undoubtedly
+practised their art on these toy-books. Nathaniel Dearborn, who was a
+stationer, printer, and engraver in Boston about eighteen hundred and
+eleven, sometimes signed the full-page illustrations on both wood and
+copper, and Abel Bowen, a copper-engraver, and possibly the first
+wood-engraver in Boston, signed a very curious publication entitled &ldquo;A
+Metamorphosis&rdquo;&mdash;a manifold paper which in its various possible
+combinations transformed one figure into another in keeping with the
+progress of the story.</p>
+
+<p>C. Gilbert, a pupil of Mason, who had introduced the art of
+wood-engraving in Philadelphia from Boston, engraved on wood certainly
+the two full-page illustrations for &ldquo;A Present for a Little Girl,&rdquo;
+printed in eighteen hundred and sixteen for a Baltimore firm, Warner &amp;
+Hanna.</p>
+
+<p>Adams and his pupils, Lansing and Morgan, also did work on children&rsquo;s
+books. Adams seems to have worked under Anderson&rsquo;s instruction, and
+after eighteen hundred and twenty-five did cuts for some books in the
+juvenile libraries of S. Wood and Mahlon Day of New York.</p>
+
+<p>Of the engravers on copper, many tried their hands on these toy-books.
+Among them may be mentioned Amos Doolittle of New Haven, James Poupard,
+John Neagle, and W. Ralph of Philadelphia, and Rollinson of New York,
+who is credited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> with having engraved the silver buttons on the coat
+worn by Washington on his inauguration as President.</p>
+
+<p>But of the copper-plate engravers, perhaps none did more work for
+children&rsquo;s books than William Charles of Philadelphia. Charles, who is
+best known by his series of caricatures of the events of the War of 1812
+and of local politics, worked upon toy-books as early as eighteen
+hundred and eight, when in Philadelphia he published in two parts &ldquo;Tom
+the Piper&rsquo;s Son; illustrated with whimsical engravings.&rdquo; In these books
+both text and pictures were engraved, as will be seen in the
+illustration. Charles&rsquo;s plates for a series of moral tales in verse were
+used by his successors, Mary Charles, Morgan &amp; Yeager, and Morgan &amp;
+Sons, for certainly fifteen years after the originals were made. To
+William Charles the children in the vicinity of Philadelphia were also
+probably indebted for the introduction of colored pictures. It is
+possible that the young folks of Boston had the novelty of colored
+picture-books somewhat before Charles introduced them in Philadelphia,
+as we find that &ldquo;The History and Adventures of Little Henry exemplified
+in a series of figures&rdquo; was printed by J. Belcher of the Massachusetts
+town in 1812. These &ldquo;figures&rdquo; exhibited little Henry suitably attired
+for the various incidents of his career, with a movable head to be
+attached at will to any of the figures, which were not engraved with the
+text, but each was laid in loose on a blank page. William Charles&rsquo;s
+method of coloring the pictures engraved with the text was a slight
+advance, perhaps, upon the illustrations inserted separately; but it is
+doubtful whether these immovable plates afforded as much entertainment
+to little readers as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> separate figures similar to paper dolls
+which Belcher, and somewhat later Charles also, used in a few of their
+publications.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 329px;">
+<a name="img19" id="img19"></a><a href="images/img19-full.jpg"><img src="images/img19.jpg" width="329" height="400" alt="Tom the Piper&rsquo;s Son" title="Tom the Piper&rsquo;s Son" /></a>
+<i>Tom the Piper&rsquo;s Son</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Peacock at Home,&rdquo; engraved by Charles and then colored in
+aqua-tint, is one of the rare early colored picture-books still extant,
+having been first issued in eighteen hundred and fourteen. The coloring
+of the illustrations at first doubled the price, and seems to have been
+used principally for a series of stories belonging to what may be styled
+the Ethics-in-Play type of juvenile literature, and entitled the
+&ldquo;History and Adventures of Little William,&rdquo; &ldquo;Little Nancy,&rdquo; etc. These
+tales, written after the objective manner of Miss Edgeworth, glossed
+over by rhyme, contained usually eight colored plates, and sold for
+twenty-five cents each instead of twelve cents, the price of the
+picture-book without colored plates. Sometimes, as in the case of
+&ldquo;Cinderella,&rdquo; we find the text illustrated with a number of &ldquo;Elegant
+Figures, to dress and undress.&rdquo; The paper doll could be placed behind
+the costumes appropriate to the various adventures, and, to prevent the
+loss of the heroine, the book was tied up with pink or blue ribbon after
+the manner of a portfolio.</p>
+
+<p>With engravers on wood and copper able to make more attractive the
+passion for instruction which marked the first quarter of the nineteenth
+century, the variety of toy-book literature naturally became greater.
+Indeed, without pictures to render somewhat entertaining the
+Labor-in-Play school, it is doubtful whether it could have attained its
+widespread popularity.</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, possible to name but a few titles typical of the
+various kinds of instruction offered as amusement. &ldquo;To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> present to the
+young Reader a Little Miscellany of Natural History, Moral Precept,
+Sentiment, and Narrative,&rdquo; Dr. Kendall wrote &ldquo;Keeper&rsquo;s Travels in Search
+of his Master,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Canary Bird,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Sparrow.&rdquo; &ldquo;The Prize for
+Youthful Obedience&rdquo; endeavored to instill a love for animals, and to
+promote obedient habits. Its story runs in this way:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A kind and good father had a little lively son, named Francis; but,
+although that little boy was six years old, he had not yet learned to
+read.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;His mama said to him, one day, &lsquo;if Francis will learn to read well, he
+shall have a pretty little chaise.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The little boy was vastly pleased with this; he presently spelt five or
+six words and then kissed his mama.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Mama,&rsquo; said Francis, &lsquo;I am delighted with the thoughts of this chaise,
+but I should like to have a horse to draw it.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Francis shall have a little dog, which will do instead of a horse,&rsquo;
+replied his mama, &lsquo;but he must take care to give him some victuals, and
+not do him any harm.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The dog was purchased, and named Chloe. &ldquo;She was as brisk as a bee,
+prettily spotted, and as gentle as a lamb.&rdquo; We are now prepared for
+trouble, for the lesson of the story is surely not hidden. Chloe was
+fastened to the chaise, a cat secured to serve as a passenger, and
+&ldquo;Francis drove his little chaise along the walk.&rdquo; But &ldquo;when he had been
+long enough among the gooseberry trees, his mama took him in the garden
+and told him the names of the flowers.&rdquo; We are thus led to suppose that
+Francis had never been in the garden before! The mother is called away.
+We feel sure that the trouble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> anticipated is at hand. &ldquo;As soon as she
+was gone Francis began whipping the dog,&rdquo; and of course when the dog
+dashed forward the cat tumbled out, and &ldquo;poor Chloe was terrified by the
+chaise which banged on all sides. Francis now heartily repented of his
+cruel behaviour and went into the house crying, and looking like a very
+simple boy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 308px;">
+<a name="img20" id="img20"></a><a href="images/img20-full.jpg"><img src="images/img20.jpg" width="308" height="200" alt="A Kind and Good Fatherimg19" title="img19" /></a>
+<i>A Kind and Good Fatherimg19</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I see very plainly the cause of this misfortune,&rdquo; said the father, who,
+however, soon forgave his repentant son. Thereafter every day Francis
+learned his lesson, and was rewarded by facts and pictures about
+animals, by table-talks, or by walks about the country.</p>
+
+<p>Knowledge offered within small compass seems to have been a novelty
+introduced in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson, who had a juvenile library
+in High Street.</p>
+
+<p>In eighteen hundred and three he printed two tiny volumes entitled &ldquo;A
+Description of Various Objects.&rdquo; Bound in green paper covers, the
+two-inch square pages were printed in bold type. The first volume
+contained the illustrations of the objects described in the other. The
+characterizations were exceedingly short, as, for example, this of the
+&ldquo;Puppet Show:&rdquo; &ldquo;Here are several little boys and girls looking at a
+puppet show, I suppose you would like to make one of them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Four years later Johnson improved upon this, when he printed in better
+type &ldquo;People of all Nations; an useful toy for Girl or Boy.&rdquo; Of
+approximately the same size as the other volumes, it was bound with
+stiff sides and calf back. The plates, engraved on copper, represent men
+of various nationalities in the favorite alphabetical order. A is an
+American. V is a Virginian,&mdash;an Indian in scant costume of feathers
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> a long pipe,&mdash;who, the printed description says, &ldquo;is generally
+dressed after the manner of the English; but this is a poor African, and
+made a slave of.&rdquo; An orang-outang represents the letter O, and according
+to the author, is &ldquo;a wild man of the woods, in the East Indies. He
+sleeps under trees, and builds himself a hut. He cannot speak, but when
+the natives make a fire in the woods he will come and warm himself.&rdquo; Ten
+years later there was still some difficulty in getting exact
+descriptions of unfamiliar animals. Thus in &ldquo;A Familiar Description of
+Beasts and Birds&rdquo; the baboon is drawn with a dog&rsquo;s body and an uncanny
+head with a snout. The reader is informed that &ldquo;the baboon has a long
+face resembling a dog&rsquo;s; his eyes are red and very bright, his teeth are
+large and strong, but his swiftness renders him hard to be taken. He
+delights in fishing, and will stay for a considerable time under water.
+He imitates several of our actions, and will drink wine, and eat human
+food.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Another series of three books, written by William Darton, the English
+publisher and maker of toy-books, was called &ldquo;Chapters of Accidents,
+containing Caution and Instruction.&rdquo; Thrilling accounts of &ldquo;Escapes from
+Danger&rdquo; when robbing birds&rsquo;-nests and hunting lions and tigers were
+intermingled with wise counsel and lessons to be gained from an &ldquo;Upset
+Cart,&rdquo; or a &ldquo;Balloon Excursion.&rdquo; With one incident the Philadelphia
+printer took the liberty of changing the title to &ldquo;Cautions to Walkers
+on the Streets of Philadelphia.&rdquo; High Street, now Market Street, is
+represented in a picture of the young woman who, unmindful of the
+warning, &ldquo;Never to turn hastily around the corner of a street,&rdquo; &ldquo;ran
+against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> porter&rsquo;s load and nearly lost one of her eyes.&rdquo; The
+change, of course, is worthy of notice only because of the slight effort
+to locate the story in America.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 137px;">
+<a name="img21" id="img21"></a><a href="images/img21-full.jpg"><img src="images/img21.jpg" width="137" height="200" alt="A Virginian" title="A Virginian" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 203px; margin-top: 2em;">
+<a name="img22" id="img22"></a><a href="images/img22-full.jpg"><img src="images/img22.jpg" width="203" height="200" alt="A Baboon" title="A Baboon" /></a>
+<i>A Baboon</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>An attempt to familiarize children with flowers resulted in two tales,
+called &ldquo;The Rose&rsquo;s Breakfast&rdquo; and &ldquo;Flora&rsquo;s Gala,&rdquo; in which flowers were
+personified as they took part in f&ecirc;tes. &ldquo;Garden Amusements, for
+Improving the Minds of Little Children,&rdquo; was issued by Samuel Wood of
+New York with this advertisement: &ldquo;This little treatise, (written and
+first published in the great emporium of the British nation) containing
+so many pleasing remarks for the juvenile mind, was thought worthy of an
+American edition.... Being so very natural, ... and its tendency so
+moral and amusing, it is to be hoped an advantage will be obtained from
+its re-publication in Freedonia.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Dialogue was the usual method of instruction employed by Miss Edgeworth
+and her followers. In &ldquo;Garden Amusements&rdquo; the conversation was
+interrupted by a note criticising a quotation from Milton as savoring
+too much of poetic license. Cowper also gained the anonymous critic&rsquo;s
+disapproval, although it was his point of view and not his style that
+came under censure.</p>
+
+<p>In still another series of stories often reprinted from London editions
+were those moral tales with the sub-title &ldquo;Cautionary Stories in Verse.&rdquo;
+Mr. William James used these &ldquo;Cautionary Verses for Children&rdquo; as an
+example of the manner in which &ldquo;the muse of evangelical protestantism in
+England, with the mind fixed on the ideas of danger, had at last drifted
+away from the original gospel of freedom.&rdquo; &ldquo;Chronic anxiety,&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> Mr. James
+continued, &ldquo;marked the earlier part of this [nineteenth] century in
+evangelical circles.&rdquo; A little salmon-colored volume, &ldquo;The Daisy,&rdquo; is a
+good example of this series. Each rhyme is a warning or an admonition; a
+chronic fear that a child might be naughty. &ldquo;Drest or Undrest&rdquo; is
+typical of the sixteen hints for the proper conduct of every-day life
+contained in the innocent &ldquo;Daisy:&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;When children are naughty and will not be drest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pray what do you think is the way?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, often I really believe it is best<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To keep them in night-clothes all day!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;But then they can have no good breakfast to eat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor walk with their mother and aunt;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At dinner they&rsquo;ll have neither pudding nor meat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor anything else that they want.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Then who would be naughty and sit all the day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In night-clothes unfit to be seen!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And pray who would lose all their pudding and play<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For not being drest neat and clean.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Two other sets of books with a like purpose were brought out by Charles
+about eighteen hundred and sixteen. One began with those familiar
+nursery verses entitled &ldquo;My Mother,&rdquo; by Ann Taylor, which were soon
+followed by &ldquo;My Father,&rdquo; all the family, &ldquo;My Governess,&rdquo; and even &ldquo;My
+Pony.&rdquo; The other set of books was &ldquo;calculated to promote Benevolence and
+Virtue in Children.&rdquo; &ldquo;Little Fanny,&rdquo; &ldquo;Little Nancy,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Little Sophie&rdquo;
+were all held up as warnings of the results of pride, greed, and
+disobedience.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 328px;">
+<a name="img23" id="img23"></a><a href="images/img23-full.jpg"><img src="images/img23.jpg" width="328" height="300" alt="Drest or Undrest" title="Drest or Undrest" /></a>
+<i>Drest or Undrest</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>The difference between these heroines of fiction and the characters
+drawn by Maria Edgeworth lies mainly in the fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> that they spoke in
+rhyme instead of in prose, and that they were almost invariably naughty;
+or else the parents were cruel and the children suffered. Rarely do we
+find a cheerful tale such as &ldquo;The Cherry Orchard&rdquo; in this cautionary
+style of toy-book. Still more rarely do we find any suspicion of that
+alloy of nonsense supposed by Miss Edgeworth to make the sense work
+well. It is all quite serious. &ldquo;Little Nancy, or, the Punishment of
+Greediness,&rdquo; is representative of this sort of moral and cautionary
+tale. The frontispiece, &ldquo;embellishing&rdquo; the first scene, shows Nancy in
+receipt of an invitation to a garden party:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Now the day soon appear&rsquo;d<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But she very much fear&rsquo;d<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She should not be permitted to go.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her best frock she had torn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The last time it was worn;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which was very vexatious, you know.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">However, the mother consents with the <i>caution</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Not to greedily eat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The nice things at the treat;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As she much wished to break her of this.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Arrived at the party, Nancy shared the games, and</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;At length was seated,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With her friends to be treated;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So determin&rsquo;d on having her share,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That she drank and she eat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ev&rsquo;ry thing she could get,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet still she was loth to forbear.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The disastrous consequences attending Nancy&rsquo;s disregard of her mother&rsquo;s
+admonition are displayed in a full-page illus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>tration, which is followed
+by another depicting the sorrowful end in bed of the day&rsquo;s pleasure.
+Then the moral:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;My young readers beware,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And avoid with great care<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such <i>excesses</i> as these you&rsquo;ve just read;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For be sure you will find<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It your interest to mind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What your friends and relations have said.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Perhaps of all the toy imprints of the early century none are more
+curious in modern eyes than the three or four German translations
+printed by Philadelphia firms. In eighteen hundred and nine Johnson and
+Warner issued &ldquo;Kleine Erz&auml;hlungen &uuml;ber ein Buch mit Kupfern.&rdquo; This seems
+to be a translation of &ldquo;A Mother&rsquo;s Remarks over a Set of Cuts,&rdquo; and
+contains a reference to another book entitled &ldquo;Anecdoten von Hunden.&rdquo;
+Still another book is extant, printed in eighteen hundred and five by
+Zentler, &ldquo;Unterhaltungen f&uuml;r Deutsche Kinder.&rdquo; This, according to its
+preface, was one of a series for which Jacob and Benjamin Johnson had
+consented to lend the plates for illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>Patriotism, rather than diversion, still characterized the very little
+original work of the first quarter of the century for American children.
+A book with the imposing title of &ldquo;Geographical, Statistical and
+Political Amusement&rdquo; was published in Philadelphia in eighteen hundred
+and six. &ldquo;This work,&rdquo; says its advertisement, &ldquo;is designed as an easy
+means of uniting Instruction with Pleasure ... to entice the youthful
+mind to an acquaintance with a species of information [about the United
+States] highly useful.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful
+Information,&rdquo; issued in eighteen hundred and three, contained as its
+only original contribution an article upon General Washington&rsquo;s will,
+&ldquo;an affecting and most original composition,&rdquo; wrote the editor. This was
+followed seven years later by the well-known &ldquo;Life of George
+Washington,&rdquo; by M.&nbsp;L. Weems, in which was printed the now famous and
+disputed cherry-tree incident. Its abridged form known to present day
+nursery lore differs from the long drawn out account by Weems, who, like
+Thomas Day, risked being diffuse in his desire to show plainly his
+moral. The last part of the story sufficiently gives his manner of
+writing:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. &lsquo;George,&rsquo; said
+his father, &lsquo;do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree
+yonder in the garden?&rsquo; That was a tough question; and George staggered
+under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself, and looking at his
+father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible
+charm of all conquering truth, he bravely cried out, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t tell a
+lie, Pa; you know I can&rsquo;t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet!&rsquo;
+&lsquo;Run to my arms, you dearest boy,&rsquo; cried his father in transports, &lsquo;run
+to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have
+paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism is worth more
+than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of
+purest gold.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Franklin&rsquo;s &ldquo;Way to Wealth&rdquo; was considered to be perfectly adapted to all
+children&rsquo;s comprehension, and was issued by various publishers of
+juvenile books. By eighteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> hundred and eight it was illustrated and
+sold &ldquo;with fine engravings for twenty-five cents.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Of patriotic poetry there was much for grown folks, but the &ldquo;Patriotic
+and Amatory Songster,&rdquo; advertised by S. Avery of Boston about the time
+Weems&rsquo;s biography was published, seems a title ill-suited to the
+juvenile public for whom Avery professed to issue it.</p>
+
+<p>Among the books which may be cited as furnishing instructive amusement
+with less of the admixture of moral purpose was the &ldquo;London Cries for
+Children,&rdquo; with pictures of street peddlers. This was imitated in
+America by the publication of the &ldquo;Cries of New York&rdquo; and &ldquo;Cries of
+Philadelphia.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the Lenox Collection there is now one of the various editions of the
+&ldquo;Cries of New York&rdquo; (published in 1808), which is valuable both as a
+record of the street life of the old-fashioned town of ninety-six
+thousand inhabitants, and as perhaps the first child&rsquo;s book of purely
+local interest, with original woodcuts very possibly designed and
+engraved by Alexander Anderson.</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Cries of New York&rdquo; is of course modelled after the &ldquo;London Cries,&rdquo;
+but the account it gives of various incidents in the daily life of old
+New York makes us grateful for the existence of this child&rsquo;s toy. A
+picture of a chimney-sweep, for instance, is copied, with his cry of
+&ldquo;Sweep, O, O, O, O,&rdquo; from the London book, but the text accompanying it
+is altered to accord with the custom in New York of firing a gun at
+dawn:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;About break of day, after the morning gun is heard from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> Governor&rsquo;s
+Island, and so through the forenoon, the ears of the citizens are
+greeted with this uncouth sound from figures as unpleasant to the sight,
+clothed in rags and covered with soot&mdash;a necessary and suffering class
+of human beings indeed&mdash;spending their childhood thus. And in regard to
+the unnecessary bawling of those sooty boys; it is <i>admirable</i> in such a
+noisy place as this, where every needless sound should be hushed, that
+such disagreeable ones should be allowed. The prices for sweeping
+chimneys are&mdash;one story houses twelve cents; two stories, eighteen
+cents; three stories, twenty-five cents, and so on.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hot Corn&rdquo; was also cried by children, whose business it was to &ldquo;gather
+cents, by distributing corn to those who are disposed to regale
+themselves with an ear.&rdquo; Baked pears are pictured as sold &ldquo;by a little
+black girl, with the pears in an earthen dish under her arm.&rdquo; At the
+same season of the year, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s your fine ripe water-melons&rdquo; also made
+itself heard above the street noises as a street cry of entirely
+American origin. Again there were pictured &ldquo;Oyster Stands,&rdquo; served by
+negroes, and these were followed by cries of</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Fine Clams: choice Clams,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here&rsquo;s your Rock-a-way beach<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Clams: here&rsquo;s your fine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Young, sand Clams,&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">from Flushing Cove Bay, which the text explains, &ldquo;turn out as good, or
+perhaps better,&rdquo; than oysters. The introduction of negroes and negro
+children into the illustrations is altogether a novelty, and together
+with the scenes drawn from the street life of the town gave to the
+old-fashioned child its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> first distinctly American picture-book. Indeed,
+with the exception of this and an occasional illustration in some
+otherwise English reproduction, all the American publishers at this time
+seem to have modelled their wares for small children after those of two
+large London firms, J. Harris, successor to Newbery, and William Darton.</p>
+
+<p>To Darton, the author of &ldquo;Little Truths,&rdquo; the children were indebted for
+a serious attempt to improve the character of toy-books. A copper-plate
+engraver by profession, Darton&rsquo;s attention was drawn to the scarcity of
+books for children by the discovery that there was not much written for
+them that was worth illustrating. Like Newbery, he set about to make
+books himself, and with John Harvey, also an engraver, he set up in
+Grace Church Street an establishment for printing and publishing, from
+which he supplied, to a great extent, the juvenile books closely
+imitated by American printers. Besides his own compositions, he was very
+alert to encourage promising authors, and through him the famous verses
+of Jane and Ann Taylor were brought into notice. &ldquo;Original Poems,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Rhymes for the Nursery,&rdquo; by these sisters, were to the old-time child
+what Stevenson&rsquo;s &ldquo;Child&rsquo;s Garden of Verses&rdquo; is to the modern nursery.
+Darton and Harvey paid ten pounds for the first series of &ldquo;Original
+Poems,&rdquo; and fifteen pounds for the second; while &ldquo;Rhymes for the
+Nursery&rdquo; brought to its authors the unusual sum of twenty pounds. The
+Taylors were the originators of that long series of verses for infants
+which &ldquo;My Sister&rdquo; and &ldquo;My Governess&rdquo; strove to surpass but never in any
+way equalled, although they apparently met with a fair sale in America.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 329px;">
+<a name="img24" id="img24"></a><a href="images/img24-full.jpg"><img src="images/img24.jpg" width="329" height="400" alt="Little Nancy" title="Little Nancy" /></a>
+<i>Little Nancy</i>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Enterprising American booksellers also copied the new ways of
+advertising juvenile books. An instance of this is afforded by Johnson
+and Warner of Philadelphia, who apparently succeeded Jacob and Benjamin
+Johnson, and had, by eighteen hundred and ten, branch shops in Richmond,
+Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. They advertised their &ldquo;neatly
+executed books of amusement&rdquo; in book notes in the &ldquo;Young Gentlemen and
+Ladies&rsquo; Magazine,&rdquo; by means of digressions from the thread of their
+stories, and sometimes by inserting as frontispiece a rhyme taken from
+one used by John Harris of St. Paul&rsquo;s Churchyard:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;At JO&mdash;&mdash; store in Market Street<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A sure reward good children meet.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In coming home the other day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I heard a little master say<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For ev&rsquo;ry three-pence there he took<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He had received a little book.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With covers neat and cuts so pretty<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There&rsquo;s not its like in all the city;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And that for three-pence he could buy<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A story book would make one cry;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For little more a book of Riddles:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then let us not buy drums and fiddles<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor yet be stopped at pastry cooks&rsquo;,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But spend our money all in books;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For when we&rsquo;ve learnt each bit by heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mamma will treat us with a tart.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Later, when engraving had become more general in use, William Charles
+cut for an advertisement, as frontispiece to some of his imprints, an
+interior scene containing a shelf of books labelled &ldquo;W. Charles&rsquo; Library
+for Little Folks.&rdquo; About<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> the same time another form of advertisement
+came into use. This was the publisher&rsquo;s <i>Recommendation</i>, which
+frequently accompanied the narrative in place of a preface. The &ldquo;Story
+of Little Henry and his Bearer,&rdquo; by Mrs. Sherwood, a writer of many
+English Sunday-school tales, contained the announcement that it was
+&ldquo;fraught with much useful instruction. It is recommended as an excellent
+thing to be put in the hands of children; and grown persons will find
+themselves well paid for the trouble of reading it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Little Henry belonged to the Sunday-school type of hero, one whose
+biography Dr. Holmes doubtless avoided when possible. Yet no history of
+toy-books printed presumably for children&rsquo;s amusement as well as
+instruction should omit this favorite story, which represents all others
+of its class of Religion-in-Play books. The following incidents are
+taken from an edition printed by Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston. This
+firm made a special feature of &ldquo;Books suitable for Presents in
+Sunday-School.&rdquo; They sold wholesale for eight dollars a hundred, such
+tales as Taylor&rsquo;s &ldquo;Hymns for Infant Minds,&rdquo; &ldquo;Friendly Instruction,&rdquo;
+Fenelon&rsquo;s &ldquo;Reflections,&rdquo; Doddridge&rsquo;s &ldquo;Principles of the Christian
+Religion,&rdquo; &ldquo;Pleasures of Piety in Youth,&rdquo; &ldquo;Walks of Usefulness,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Practical Piety,&rdquo; etc.</p>
+
+<p>The objective point of little Henry&rsquo;s melancholy history was to prove
+the &ldquo;Usefulness of Female Missionaries,&rdquo; said its editor, Mrs. Cameron,
+a sister of the author, who at the time was herself living in India.
+Mrs. Sherwood based the thread of her story upon the life of a household
+in India, but it winds itself mainly around the conversion of the
+faithful Indian bearer who served five-year-old Henry. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> small
+orphan was one of those morbidly religious children who &ldquo;never said a
+bad word and was vexed when he heard any other person do it.&rdquo; He also,
+although himself &ldquo;saved by grace,&rdquo; as the phrase then ran in evangelical
+circles, was chronically anxious lest he should offend the Lord. To
+quote verbatim from this relic of the former religious life would savor
+too much of ridiculing those things that were sacred and serious to the
+people of that day. Yet the main incidents of the story were these:
+Henry&rsquo;s conversion took place after a year and a half of hard work on
+the part of a missionary, who finally had the satisfaction of bringing
+little Henry &ldquo;from the state of grossest heathen darkness and ignorance
+to a competent knowledge of those doctrines necessary to salvation.&rdquo;
+This was followed immediately by the offer of Henry to give all his toys
+for a Bible with a purple morocco cover. Then came the preparations for
+the teacher&rsquo;s departure, when she called him to her room and catechized
+him in a manner worthy of Cotton Mather a century before. After his
+teacher&rsquo;s departure the boy, mindful of the lady&rsquo;s final admonition,
+sought to make a Christian of his bearer, Boosy. Like so many story-book
+parents, Henry&rsquo;s mother was altogether neglectful of her child; and
+consequently he was left much to the care of Boosy&mdash;time which he
+improved with &ldquo;arguments with Boosy concerning the great Creator of
+things.&rdquo; But it is not necessary to follow Henry through his ardent
+missionary efforts to the admission of the black boy of his sinful
+state, nor to the time when the hero was delivered from this evil world.
+Enough has been said to show that the religious child of fiction was not
+very different from little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> Elizabeth Butcher or Hannah Hill of colonial
+days, whose pious sayings were still read when &ldquo;Little Henry&rdquo; was
+introduced to the American child.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, when Mrs. Sherwood&rsquo;s fictitious children were not sufficiently
+religious to come up to the standard of five-year-old Henry, their
+parents were invariably as pious as the father of the &ldquo;Fairchild
+Family.&rdquo; This was imported and reprinted for more than one generation as
+a &ldquo;best seller.&rdquo; It was almost a modernized version of Janeway&rsquo;s &ldquo;Token
+for Children,&rdquo; with Mather&rsquo;s supplement of &ldquo;A Token for the Children of
+New England,&rdquo; in its frequent production of death-bed scenes, together
+with painful object lessons upon the sinfulness of every heart. To
+impress such lessons Mr. Fairchild spared his family no sight of horror
+or distress. He even took them to see a man on the gallows, &ldquo;that,&rdquo; said
+the ingenuous gentleman, &ldquo;they may love each other with a perfect and
+heavenly love.&rdquo; As the children gazed upon the dreadful object the
+tender father described in detail its every phase, and ended by kneeling
+in prayer. The story of Evelyn in the third chapter was written as the
+result of a present of books from an American <i>Universalist</i>, whose
+doctrines Mrs. Sherwood thought likely to be pernicious to children and
+should be controverted as soon as possible. Later, other things
+emanating from America were considered injurious to children, but this
+seems to be the first indication that American ideas were noticed in
+English juvenile literature.</p>
+
+<p>But all this lady&rsquo;s tales were not so lugubrious, and many were immense
+favorites. Children were even named for the hero of the &ldquo;Little
+Millenium Boy.&rdquo; Publishers frequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> sent her orders for books to be
+&ldquo;written to cuts,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Busy Bee,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Errand Boy,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Rose&rdquo;
+were some of the results of this method of supplying the demand for her
+work. Naturally, Mrs. Sherwood, like Miss Edgeworth, had many imitators,
+but if we could believe the incidents related as true to life, parents
+would seem to have been either very indifferent to their children or
+forever suspicious of them. In Newbery&rsquo;s time it had been thought no sin
+to wear fine buckled shoes, to be genteelly dressed with a wide
+&ldquo;ribband;&rdquo; but now the vain child was one who wore a white frock with
+pink sash, towards whom the finger of scorn was pointed, and from whom
+the moral was unfailingly drawn. Vanity was, apparently, an unpardonable
+sin, as when in a &ldquo;Moral Tale,&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;Mamma observed the rising lass<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By stealth retiring to the glass<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To practise little arts unseen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the true genius of thirteen.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">The constant effort to draw a lesson from every action sometimes led to
+overstepping the bounds of truth by the parents themselves, as for
+example in a similar instance of love for a mirror. &ldquo;What is this I see,
+Harriet?&rdquo; asked a mother in &ldquo;Emulation.&rdquo; &ldquo;Is that the way you employ
+your precious time? I am no longer surprised at the alteration in your
+looks of late, that you have appeared so sickly, have lost your
+complexion; in short I have twenty times been on the point of asking you
+if you are ill. You look shockingly, child.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am very well, Mamma, indeed,&rdquo; cried Harriet, quite alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Impossible, my dear, you can never look well, while you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> follow such an
+unwholesome practice. Looking-glasses were never intended for little
+girls, and very few sensible people use them as there is something
+really poisonous in their composition. To use them is not only
+prejudicial to the health but to the disposition.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Although this conception of the use of looking-glasses as prejudicial to
+right living seems to hark back to the views expressed in the old story
+of the &ldquo;Prodigal Daughter,&rdquo; who sat before a mirror when the Devil made
+his second appearance, yet the world of story-book literature, even
+though its creators were sometimes either careless or ignorant of facts,
+now also emphasized the value of general knowledge, which it endeavored
+to pour in increasing quantity into the nursery. Miss More had started
+the stream of goody-goody books, while Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld,
+and Thomas Day were the originators of the deluge of conversational
+bores, babies, boys, and teachers that threatened to flood the family
+book-shelves of America when the American writers for children came upon
+the scene.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_148-A_31" id="Footnote_148-A_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148-A_31"><span class="label">148-*</span></a> As long ago as seventeen hundred and sixty-two, Garrat
+Noel, a Dutch bookseller in New York, advertised that, &ldquo;according to his
+Annual Custom, he ... provided a very large Assortment of Books ... as
+proper Presents at Christmas.&rdquo; See page 68.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_166-A_32" id="Footnote_166-A_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166-A_32"><span class="label">166-*</span></a> Linton, <i>Wood Engraving in America</i>. Boston, 1882.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_168-A_33" id="Footnote_168-A_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168-A_33"><span class="label">168-*</span></a> Linton, <i>Wood Engraving in America</i>. Boston, 1882.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_169-A_34" id="Footnote_169-A_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169-A_34"><span class="label">169-*</span></a> Linton, <i>Wood Engraving in America</i>. Boston, 1882.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><b>CHAPTER VII</b></h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em;">1825-1840</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Poetry 4">
+<tr>
+  <td>Old story-books! old story-books! we owe you much, old friends,<br />
+      Bright-coloured threads in Memory&rsquo;s warp, of which Death holds the ends.<br />
+      Who can forget? Who can spurn the ministers of joy<br />
+      That waited on the lisping girl and petticoated boy?<br />
+      Talk of your vellum, gold embossed, morocco, roan, and calf;<br />
+      The blue and yellow wraps of old were prettier by half.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><span class="smcap">Eliza Cooke</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">Their works of amusement, when not laden with more religion than the
+tale can hold in solution, are often admirable.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><i>Quarterly Review</i>, 1843</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">1825-1840</h2>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;"><i>American Writers and English Critics</i></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap">I</span><span style="text-transform: uppercase">t</span> is customary to refer to the early writings of Washington Irving as
+works that marked the time when literature pure and simple developed in
+America. Such writing as had hitherto attracted attention concerned
+itself, not with matters of the imagination, but with facts and theories
+of current and momentous interest. Religion and the affairs of the
+separate commonwealths were uppermost in people&rsquo;s minds in colonial
+days; political warfare and the defence of the policy of Congress
+absorbed attention in Revolutionary times; and later the necessity of
+expounding principles of government and of fostering a national feeling
+produced a literature of fact rather than of fancy.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually all this had changed. A new generation had grown up with more
+leisure for writing and more time to devote to the general culture of
+the public. The English periodical with its purpose of &ldquo;improving the
+taste, awakening the attention, and amending the heart,&rdquo; had once met
+these requirements. Later on these periodicals had been keenly enjoyed,
+but at the same time there appeared American magazines, modelled after
+them, but largely filled by contributions from literary Americans. Early
+in the nineteenth century such publications were current in most large
+towns. From the short essays and papers in these periodicals to the
+tales of Cooper and Irving the step, after all, was not a long one.</p>
+
+<p>The children&rsquo;s literature of amusement developed, after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> end of the
+eighteenth century, in a somewhat similar way, although as usual tagging
+along after that of their parents.</p>
+
+<p>With the constantly increasing population the production of children&rsquo;s
+books grew more profitable, and in eighteen hundred and two Benjamin
+Johnson made an attempt to publish a &ldquo;Juvenile Magazine&rdquo; in
+Philadelphia. Its purpose was to be a &ldquo;Miscellaneous Repository of
+Useful Information;&rdquo; but the contents were so largely drawn from English
+sources that it was probably, like the toy-books, pirated from an
+English publisher. Indeed, one of the few extant volumes contains only
+one article of distinctly American composition among essays on
+<i>Education</i>, the <i>Choice of a Wife</i>, <i>Love</i>, papers on natural history,
+selections from poems by Coleridge and Cowper; and by anonymous makers
+of verse about <i>Consumption</i> and <i>Friendship</i>. The American
+contribution, a discussion of President Washington&rsquo;s will, has already
+been mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In the same year, 1802, the &ldquo;Juvenile Olio&rdquo; was started, edited by
+&ldquo;Amyntor,&rdquo; but like Johnson&rsquo;s &ldquo;Juvenile Magazine,&rdquo; was only issued at
+irregular intervals and was short-lived.</p>
+
+<p>Other ventures in children&rsquo;s periodicals continued to be made, however.
+The &ldquo;Juvenile Magazine,&rdquo; with &ldquo;Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces
+in Prose and Verse,&rdquo; was compiled by Arthur Donaldson, and sold in
+eighteen hundred and eleven as a monthly in Philadelphia&mdash;then the
+literary centre&mdash;for twelve and a half cents a number. In eighteen
+hundred and thirteen, in the same city, the &ldquo;Juvenile Portfolio&rdquo; made
+its appearance, possibly in imitation of Joseph Dennie&rsquo;s &ldquo;Port Folio;&rdquo;
+but it too failed from lack of support and interest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Boston proved more successful in arousing attention to the possibilities
+in a well-conducted children&rsquo;s periodical, although it was not until
+thirteen years later that Lydia Maria Child established the &ldquo;Juvenile
+Miscellany for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth.&rdquo; Three numbers
+were issued in 1826, and thereafter it appeared every other month until
+August, 1834, when it was succeeded by a magazine of the same name
+conducted by Sarah J. Hale.</p>
+
+<p>This periodical is a landmark in the history of story-writing for the
+American child. Here at last was an opportunity for the editors to give
+to their subscribers descriptions of cities in their own land in place
+of accounts of palaces in Persia; biographies of national heroes instead
+of incidents in the life of Mahomet; and tales of Indians rather than
+histories of Arabians and Turks. For its pages Mrs. Sigourney, Miss
+Eliza Leslie, Mrs. Wells, Miss Sedgwick, and numerous anonymous
+contributors gladly sent stories of American scenes and incidents which
+were welcomed by parents as well as by children.</p>
+
+<p>In the year following the first appearance of Mrs. Hale&rsquo;s &ldquo;Juvenile
+Miscellany,&rdquo; the March number is typical of the amusement and
+instruction the editor endeavored to provide. This contained a life of
+Benjamin Franklin (perhaps the earliest child&rsquo;s life of the philosopher
+and statesman), a tale of an Indian massacre of an entire settlement in
+Maine, an essay on memory, a religious episode, and extracts from a
+traveller&rsquo;s journal. The traveller, quite evidently a Bostonian,
+criticised New York in a way not unfamiliar in later days, as a city
+where &ldquo;the love of literature was less strong than in some other parts
+of the United States;&rdquo; and then in trying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> to soften the statement, she
+fell into a comparison with Philadelphia, also made many times since the
+gentle critic observed the difference. &ldquo;New York,&rdquo; she wrote, &ldquo;has
+energy, spirit, and bold, lofty enterprise, totally wanting in
+Philadelphia, ... a place of neat, well regulated plans.&rdquo; Also, like the
+English story-book of the previous century, this American &ldquo;Miscellany&rdquo;
+introduced <i>Maxims for a Student</i>, found, it cheerfully explained,
+&ldquo;among the manuscripts of a deceased friend.&rdquo; Puzzles and conundrums
+made an entertaining feature, and as the literary <i>chef d&rsquo;&oelig;uvre</i> was
+inserted a poem supposed to be composed by a babe in South Carolina, but
+of which the author was undoubtedly Mrs. Gilman, whose ideas of a baby&rsquo;s
+ability were certainly not drawn from her own nursery.</p>
+
+<p>A rival to the &ldquo;Juvenile Miscellany&rdquo; was the &ldquo;Youth&rsquo;s Companion,&rdquo;
+established at this time in Boston by Nathaniel P. Willis and the
+Reverend Asa Rand. The various religious societies also began to issue
+children&rsquo;s magazines for Sunday perusal: the Massachusetts Sunday School
+Union beginning in 1828 the &ldquo;Sabbath School Times,&rdquo; and other societies
+soon following its example.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Parley&rsquo;s Magazine,&rdquo; planned by Samuel G. Goodrich and published by
+Lilly, Wait and Company of Boston, ran a successful course of nine years
+from eighteen hundred and thirty-three. The prospectus declared the
+intention of its conductors &ldquo;to give descriptions of manners, customs,
+and countries, Travels, Voyages, and Adventures in Various parts of the
+world, interesting historical notes, Biography, particularly of young
+persons, original tales, cheerful and pleasing Rhymes, and to issue the
+magazine every fortnight.&rdquo; The popularity of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> the name of Peter Parley
+insured a goodly number of subscriptions from the beginning, and the
+life of &ldquo;Parley&rsquo;s Magazine&rdquo; was somewhat longer than any of its
+predecessors.</p>
+
+<p>In the south the idea of issuing a juvenile magazine was taken up by a
+firm in Charleston, and the &ldquo;Rose Bud&rdquo; was started in eighteen hundred
+and thirty. The &ldquo;Rose Bud,&rdquo; a weekly, was largely the result of the
+success of the &ldquo;Juvenile Miscellany,&rdquo; as the editor of the southern
+paper, Mrs. Gilman, was a valued contributor to the &ldquo;Miscellany,&rdquo; and
+had been encouraged in her plan of a paper for children of the south by
+the Boston conductors of the northern periodical.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gilman was born in Boston, and at sixteen years of age had
+published a poem most favorably criticised at the time. Marrying a
+clergyman who settled in Charleston, she continued her literary work,
+but was best known to our grandmothers as the author of &ldquo;Recollections
+of a New England Housekeeper.&rdquo; The &ldquo;Rose Bud&rdquo; soon blossomed into the
+&ldquo;Southern Rose,&rdquo; a family paper, but faded away in 1839.</p>
+
+<p>Among other juvenile weeklies of the time may be mentioned the &ldquo;Juvenile
+Rambler&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Hive,&rdquo; which are chiefly interesting by reason of the
+opportunity their columns offered to youthful contributors.</p>
+
+<p>Another series of &ldquo;miscellaneous repositories&rdquo; for the instructive
+enjoyment of little people was furnished by the Annuals of the period.
+These, of course, were modelled after the adult Annuals revolving in
+social circles and adorning the marble-topped tables of drawing-rooms in
+both England and America.</p>
+
+<p>Issued at the Christmas and New Year seasons, these chil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>dren&rsquo;s Annuals
+formed the conventional gift-book for many years, and publishers spared
+no effort to make them attractive. Indeed, their red morocco, silk, or
+embossed scarlet cloth bindings form a cheerful contrast to the dreary
+array of black and drab cloth covering the fiction of both old and
+young. Better illustrations were also introduced than the ugly cuts
+&ldquo;adorning&rdquo; the other books for juvenile readers. Oliver Pelton, Joseph
+Andrews (who ranked well as an engraver), Elisha Gallaudet, Joseph G.
+Kellogg, Joseph I. Pease, and Thomas Illman were among the workers in
+line-engraving whose early work served to illustrate, often
+delightfully, these popular collections of children&rsquo;s stories.</p>
+
+<p>Among the &ldquo;Annualettes,&rdquo; &ldquo;Keepsakes,&rdquo; &ldquo;Evening Hours,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Infant&rsquo;s
+Hours&rdquo; published at intervals after eighteen hundred and twenty-five the
+&ldquo;Token&rdquo; stands pre&euml;minent. Edited by Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley)
+between the years eighteen hundred and twenty-eight and eighteen hundred
+and forty-two, its contents and illustrations were almost entirely
+American. Edward Everett, Bishop Doane, A.&nbsp;H. Everett, John Quincy Adams,
+Longfellow, Hawthorne, Miss Sedgwick, Eliza Leslie, Dr. Holmes, Horace
+Greeley, James T. Fields, and Gulian Verplanck&mdash;all were called upon to
+make the &ldquo;Token&rdquo; an annual treat to children. Of the many stories
+written for it, only Hawthorne&rsquo;s &ldquo;Twice Told Tales&rdquo; survive; but the
+long list of contributors of mark in American literature cannot be
+surpassed to-day by any child&rsquo;s book by contemporary authors. The
+contents, although written in the style of eighty years ago, are
+undoubtedly good from a literary standpoint, however out of date their
+story-telling quali<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>ties may be. And, moreover, the &ldquo;Token&rdquo; assuredly
+gave pleasure to the public for which its yearly publication was made.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="img25" id="img25"></a><a href="images/img25-full.jpg"><img src="images/img25.jpg" width="400" height="325" alt="Children of the Cottage" title="Children of the Cottage" /></a>
+<i>Children of the Cottage</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>By eighteen hundred and thirty-five the &ldquo;Annual&rdquo; was in full swing as a
+popular publication. Then an international book was issued, &ldquo;The
+American Juvenile Keepsake,&rdquo; edited by Mrs. Hofland, the well-known
+writer of English stories for children. Mrs. Hofland cried up her wares
+in a manner quite different from that of the earlier literary ladies.
+&ldquo;My table of contents,&rdquo; she wrote in her introduction, &ldquo;exhibits a list
+of names not exceeded in reputation by any preceding Juvenile Annual;
+for, although got up with a celerity almost distressing in the hurry it
+imposed, such has been the kindness of my literary friends, that they
+have left me little more to wish for.&rdquo; Among the English contributors
+were Miss Mitford, Miss Jean Roberts, Miss Browne, and Mrs. Hall, the
+ablest writers for English children, and already familiar to American
+households.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hofland, herself, wrote one of its stories, noteworthy as an early
+attempt of an English author to write for an American juvenile public.
+She found her theme in the movement of emigration strong in England just
+then among the laboring people. No amount of discouragement and bitter
+criticism of the United States by the British press was sufficient to
+stem appreciably the tide of laborers that flowed towards the country
+whence came information of better wages and more work. Mrs. Hofland,
+although writing for little Americans, could not wholly resist the
+customary fling at American life and society. She acknowledged, however,
+that long residence altered first impressions and brought out the kernel
+of Ameri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>can character, whose husk only was visible to sojourners. She
+deplored the fact that &ldquo;gay English girls used only to the polished
+society of London were likely to return with the impression that the men
+were rude and women frivolous.&rdquo; This impression the author was inclined
+to believe unjust, yet deemed it wise, because of the incredulous
+(perhaps even in America!), to back her own opinion by a note saying
+that this view was also shared by a valued friend who had lived fourteen
+years in Raleigh, South Carolina.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus done justice, in her own eyes, to conditions in the new
+country, Mrs. Hofland, launched the laborer&rsquo;s family upon the sea, and
+followed their travels from New York to Lexington, Kentucky, at that
+time a land unknown to the average American child beyond some hazy
+association with the name of Daniel Boone. It was thus comparatively
+safe ground on which to place the struggles of the immigrants, who
+prospered because of their English thrift and were an example to the
+former residents. Of course the son grew up to prove a blessing to the
+community, and eventually, like the heroes in old Isaiah Thomas&rsquo;s
+adaptations of Newbery&rsquo;s good boys, was chosen Congressman.</p>
+
+<p>There is another point of interest in connection with this English
+author&rsquo;s tale. Whether consciously or not, it is a very good imitation
+of Peter Parley&rsquo;s method of travelling with his characters in various
+lands or over new country. It is, perhaps, the first instance in the
+history of children&rsquo;s literature of an American story-writer influencing
+the English writer of juvenile fiction. And it was not the only time. So
+popular and profitable did Goodrich&rsquo;s style of story become that
+some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>what later the frequent attempts to exploit anonymously and
+profitably his pseudonymn in England as well as in America were loudly
+lamented by the originator of the &ldquo;Tales of Peter Parley.&rdquo; It is,
+moreover, suggestive of the gradual change in the relations between the
+two countries that anything written in America was thought worth
+imitating. America, indeed, was beginning to supply incidents around
+which to weave stories for British children and tales altogether made at
+home for her own little readers.</p>
+
+<p>In the same volume Mrs. S.&nbsp;C. Hall also boldly attempted to place her
+heroine in American surroundings. Philadelphia was the scene chosen for
+her tale; but, having flattered her readers by this concession to their
+sympathies and interest, the author was still sufficiently insular to
+doubt the existence of a competent local physician in this the earliest
+medical centre in the United States. An English family had come to make
+their home in the city, where the mother&rsquo;s illness necessitated the
+attendance of a French doctor to make a correct diagnosis of her case.
+An operation was advised, which the mother, Mrs. Allen, hesitated to
+undergo in an unknown land. Emily, the fourteen-year-old daughter, urged
+her not to delay, as she felt quite competent to be in attendance,
+having had &ldquo;five teeth drawn without screaming; nursed a brother through
+the whooping-cough and a sister through the measles.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ma foi, Mademoiselle,&rdquo; said the French doctor, &ldquo;you are very heroic;
+why, let me see, you talk of being present at an operation, which I
+would not hardly suffer my junior pupils to attend.&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Put,&rdquo; said the heroic damsel, &ldquo;my resolution, sir, to any test you
+please; draw one, two, three teeth, I will not flinch.&rdquo; And this courage
+the writer thought could not be surpassed in a London child. It is
+needless to say that Emily&rsquo;s fortitude was sufficient to endure the
+sight of her mother&rsquo;s suffering, and to nurse her to complete recovery.
+Evidently residence in America had not yet sapped the young girl&rsquo;s moral
+strength, or reduced her to the frivolous creature an American woman was
+reputed in England to be.</p>
+
+<p>Among the home contributors to &ldquo;The American Juvenile Keepsake&rdquo; were
+William L. Stone, who wrote a prosy article about animals; and Mrs.
+Embury, called the Mitford of America (because of her stories of village
+life), who furnished a religious tale to controvert the infidel
+doctrines considered at the time subtly undermining to childish faith,
+with probable reference to the Unitarian movement then gaining many
+adherents. Mrs. Embury&rsquo;s stories were so generally gloomy, being
+strongly tinged with the melancholy religious views of certain church
+denominations, that one would suppose them to have been eminently
+successful in turning children away from the faith she sought to
+encourage. For this &ldquo;Keepsake&rdquo; the same lady let her poetical fancy take
+flight in &ldquo;The Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh,&rdquo; a somewhat lugubrious
+and pessimistic subject for a child&rsquo;s Christmas Annual. Occasionally a
+more cheerful mood possessed &ldquo;Ianthe,&rdquo; as she chose to call herself, and
+then we have some of the earliest descriptions of country life in
+literature for American children. There is one especially charming
+picture of a walk in New England woods upon a crisp October day, when
+the children merrily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> hunt for chestnuts among the dry brown leaves,
+and the squirrels play above their heads in the many colored boughs.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 298px;">
+<a name="img26" id="img26"></a><a href="images/img26-full.jpg"><img src="images/img26.jpg" width="298" height="400" alt="Henrietta" title="Henrietta" /></a>
+<i>Henrietta</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dr. Holmes has somewhere remarked upon the total lack of American nature
+descriptions in the literature of his boyhood. No birds familiar to him
+were ever mentioned; nor were the flowers such as a New England child
+could ever gather. Only English larks and linnets, cowslips and
+hawthorn, were to be found in the toy-books and little histories read to
+him. &ldquo;Everything was British: even the robin, a domestic bird,&rdquo; wrote
+the doctor, &ldquo;instead of a great fidgety, jerky, whooping thrush.&rdquo; But
+when Peter Parley, Jacob Abbott, Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. Embury, and
+Eliza Leslie began to write short stories, the Annuals and periodicals
+abounded in American scenes and local color.</p>
+
+<p>There was also another great incentive for writers to work for children.
+This was the demand made for stories from the American Sunday School
+Union, whose influence upon the character of juvenile literature was a
+force bearing upon the various writers, and whose growth was coincident
+with the development of the children&rsquo;s periodical literature.</p>
+
+<p>The American Sunday School Union, an outgrowth of the several religious
+publication societies, in eighteen hundred and twenty-four began to do
+more extensive work, and therefore formed a committee to judge and
+pronounce upon all manuscripts, which American writers were asked to
+submit.</p>
+
+<p>The sessions of the Sunday-schools were no longer held for illiterate
+children only. The younger members of each parish or church were found
+upon its benches each Sunday morning or afternoon. To promote and to
+impress the religious teach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>ing in these schools, rewards were offered
+for well-prepared lessons and regular attendance. Also the scholars were
+encouraged to use the Sunday-school library. For these different
+purposes many books were needed, but naturally only those stamped with
+the approval of the clergyman in charge were circulated.</p>
+
+<p>The board of publication appointed by the American Sunday School
+Union&mdash;composed chiefly of clergymen of certain denominations&mdash;passed
+upon the merits of the many manuscripts sent in by piously inclined
+persons, and edited such of them as proved acceptable. The marginal
+notes on the pages of the first edition of an old Sunday-school favorite
+bear witness to the painstaking care of the editors that the leaflets,
+tracts, and stories poured in from all parts of the country should
+&ldquo;shine by reason of the truth contained,&rdquo; and &ldquo;avoid the least
+appearance, the most indirect insinuations, of anything which can
+militate against the strictest ideas of propriety.&rdquo; The tales had also
+to keep absolutely within the bounds of religion. Many were the stories
+found lacking in direct religious teaching, or returned because religion
+was not vitally connected with the plot, to be rewritten or sent
+elsewhere for publication.</p>
+
+<p>The hundreds of stories turned out in what soon became a mechanical
+fashion were of two patterns: the one of the good child, a constant
+attendant upon Sabbath School and Divine Worship, but who died young
+after converting parent or worldly friend during a painful illness; the
+other of the unregenerate youth, who turned away from the godly
+admonition of mother and clergyman, refused to attend Sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>day-school,
+and consequently fell into evil ways leading to the thief&rsquo;s or
+drunkard&rsquo;s grave. Often a sick mother was introduced to claim emotional
+attention, or to use as a lay figure upon which to drape Scripture texts
+as fearful warnings to the black sheep of the family. Indeed, the little
+reader no sooner began to enjoy the tale of some sweet and gentle girl,
+or to delight in the mischievous boy, than he was called upon to reflect
+that early piety portended an early death, and youthful pranks led to a
+miserable old age. Neither prospect offered much encouragement to hope
+for a happy life, and from conversations with those brought up on this
+form of religious culture, it is certain that if a child escaped without
+becoming morbid and neurotic, there were dark and secret resolves to
+risk the unpleasant future in favor of a happy present.</p>
+
+<p>The stories, too, presented a somewhat paradoxical familiarity with the
+ways of a mysterious Providence. This was exceedingly perplexing to the
+thoughtful child, whose queries as to justice were too often hushed by
+parent or teacher. In real life, every child expected, even if he did
+not receive, a tangible reward for doing the right thing; but
+Providence, according to these authors, immediately caused a good child
+to become ill unto death. It is not a matter for surprise that the
+healthy-minded, vigorous child often turned in disgust from the
+Sunday-school library to search for Cooper&rsquo;s tales of adventure on his
+father&rsquo;s book-shelves.</p>
+
+<p>The correct and approved child&rsquo;s story, even if not issued under
+religious auspices, was thoroughly saturated with religion. Whatever may
+have been the practice of parents in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> regard to their own reading, they
+wished that of the nursery to show not only an educational and moral,
+but a religious tendency. The books for American children therefore
+divided themselves into three classes: the denominational story, to set
+forth the doctrines of one church; the educational tale; and the moral
+narrative of American life.</p>
+
+<p>The denominational stories produced by the several Sunday-school
+societies were, as has been said, only a kind of scaffolding upon which
+to build the teachings of the various churches. But their sale was
+enormous, and a factor to be reckoned with because of their influence
+upon the educational and moral tales of their period. By eighteen
+hundred and twenty-seven, fifty-thousand books and tracts had been sent
+out by one Sunday-school society <span class="nowrap">alone.<a name="FNanchor_204-A_35" id="FNanchor_204-A_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_204-A_35" class="fnanchor">204-*</a></span> There are few things more
+remarkable in the history of juvenile literature than the growth of the
+business of the American Sunday School Union. By eighteen hundred and
+twenty-eight it had issued over seven hundred of these religious
+trifles, varying from a sixteen-page duodecimo to a small octavo volume;
+and most of these appear to have been written by Americans trying their
+inexperienced pens upon a form of literature not then recognized as
+difficult. The influence of such a flood of tiny books could hardly have
+been other than morbid, although occasionally there floated down the
+stream duodecimos which were grasped by little readers with eagerness.
+Such volumes, one reader of bygone Sunday-school books tells us,
+glimmered from the dark depths of death and prison scenes, and were
+passed along with whispered recommendation until their well-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>worn covers
+attracted the eye of the teacher, and were quickly found to be missing
+from library shelves. Others were commended in their stead, such as
+described the city boy showing the country cousin the town sights, with
+most edifying conversation as to their history; or, again, amusement of
+a light and alluring character was presumably to be found in the story
+of a little maid who sat upon a footstool at her mother&rsquo;s knee, and
+while she hemmed the four sides of a handkerchief, listened to the
+account of missionary enterprises in the dark corners of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>To us of to-day the small illustrations are perhaps the most interesting
+feature, preserving as they do children&rsquo;s occupations and costumes. In
+one book we see quaintly frocked and pantaletted girls and much buttoned
+boys in Sunday-school. In another, entitled &ldquo;Election Day,&rdquo; are pictured
+two little lads watching, from the square in front of Independence Hall,
+the handing in of votes for the President through a window of the famous
+building&mdash;a picture that emphasizes the change in methods of casting the
+ballot since eighteen hundred and twenty-eight.</p>
+
+<p>That engravers were not always successful when called upon to embellish
+the pages of the Sunday-school books, many of them easily prove. That
+the designers of woodcuts were sometimes lacking in imagination when
+obliged to depict Bible verses can have no better example than the
+favorite vignette on title-pages portraying &ldquo;My soul doth magnify the
+Lord&rdquo; as a man with a magnifying glass held over a blank space. Perhaps
+equal in lack of imagination was the often repeated frontispiece of
+&ldquo;Mercy streaming from the Cross,&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> illustrated by a large cross with an
+effulgent rain beating upon the luxuriant tresses of a languishing lady.
+There were many pictures but little art in the old-fashioned
+Sunday-school library books.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Philadelphia that one of the first, if not the first
+children&rsquo;s library was incorporated in 1827 as the Apprentices&rsquo; Library.
+Eleven years later this library contained more than two thousand books,
+and had seven hundred children as patrons. The catalogue of that year is
+indicative of the prevalence of the Sunday-school book. &ldquo;Adventures of
+Lot&rdquo; precedes the &ldquo;Affectionate Daughter-in-Law,&rdquo; which is followed by
+&ldquo;Anecdotes of Christian Missions&rdquo; and &ldquo;An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners.&rdquo;
+Turning the yellowed pages, we find &ldquo;Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive,&rdquo;
+histories of Bible worthies, the &ldquo;Infidel Class,&rdquo; &ldquo;Little Deceiver
+Reclaimed,&rdquo; &ldquo;Letters to Little Children,&rdquo; &ldquo;Juvenile Piety,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Julianna Oakley.&rdquo; The bookish child of this decade could not escape
+from the &ldquo;Reformed Family&rdquo; and the consumptive little Christian, except
+by taking refuge in the parents&rsquo; novels, collections of the British
+poets and essayists, and the constantly increasing American writings for
+adults. Perhaps in this way the Sunday-school books may be counted among
+that long list of such things as are commonly called blessings in
+disguise.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="img27" id="img27"></a><a href="images/img27-full.jpg"><img src="images/img27.jpg" width="400" height="301" alt="A Child and her Doll" title="A Child and her Doll" /></a>
+<i>A Child and her Doll</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>Aside from the strictly religious tale, the contents of the now
+considerable output of Harper and Brothers, Mahlon Day, Samuel Wood and
+Sons of New York; Cottons and Barnard, Lincoln and Edmunds, Lilly, Wait
+and Company, Munroe and Francis of Boston; Matthew Carey, Conrad and
+Par<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>sons, Morgan and Sons, and Thomas T. Ashe of Philadelphia&mdash;to
+mention but a few of the publishers of juvenile novelties&mdash;are
+convincing proof that booksellers catered to the demand for stories with
+a strong religious bias. The &ldquo;New York Weekly,&rdquo; indeed, called attention
+to Day&rsquo;s books as &ldquo;maintaining an unbroken tendency to virtue and
+piety.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When not impossibly pious, these children of anonymous fiction were
+either insufferable prigs with a steel moral code, or so ill-bred as to
+be equally impossible and unnatural. The favorite plan of their creators
+was to follow Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s device of contrasting the good and
+naughty infant. The children, too, were often cousins: one, for example,
+was the son of a gentleman who in his choice of a wife was influenced by
+strict religious principles; the other boy inherited his disposition
+from his mother, a lady of bland manners and fine external appearance,
+but who failed to establish in her offspring &ldquo;correct principles of
+virtue, religion, and morality.&rdquo; The author paused at this point in the
+narrative to discuss the frailties of the lady, before resuming its
+slender thread. Who to-day could wade through with children the
+good-goody books of that generation?</p>
+
+<p>Happily, many of the writers for little ones chose to be unknown, for it
+would be ungenerous to disparage by name these ladies who considered
+their productions edifying, and in their ingenuousness never dreamed
+that their stories were devoid of every quality that makes a child&rsquo;s
+book of value to the child. They were literally unconscious that their
+tales lacked that simplicity and directness in style, and they
+themselves that knowledge of human nature, absolutely necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> to
+construct a pleasing and profitable story. The watchwords of these
+painstaking ladies were &ldquo;religion, virtue, and morality,&rdquo; and heedless
+of everything else, they found oblivion in most cases before they gained
+recognition from the public they longed to influence.</p>
+
+<p>The decade following eighteen hundred and thirty brought prominently to
+the foreground six American authors among the many who occasioned brief
+notice. Of these writers two were men and four were women. Jacob Abbott
+and Samuel G. Goodrich wrote the educational tales, Abbott largely for
+the nursery, while Goodrich devoted his attention mainly to books for
+the little lads at school. The four women, Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Miss
+Eliza Leslie, Miss Catharine Sedgwick, and Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney,
+wrote mainly for girls, and took American life as their subject. Mrs.
+Hale wrote much for adults, but when editor of the &ldquo;Juvenile
+Miscellany,&rdquo; she made various contributions to it. Yet to-day we know
+her only by one of her &ldquo;Poems for Children,&rdquo; published in Boston in
+eighteen hundred and thirty&mdash;&ldquo;Mary had a Little Lamb.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mary&rsquo;s lamb has travelled much farther than to school, and has even
+reached that point when its authorship has been disputed. Quite recently
+in the &ldquo;Century Magazine&rdquo; Mrs. Hale&rsquo;s claim to its composition has been
+set forth at some length by Mr. Richard W. Hale, who shows clearly her
+desire when more than ninety years of age to be recognized as the
+originator of these <a name="corr5" id="corr5"></a><ins class="correction" title="verses.">verses,</ins> In fact, &ldquo;shortly before her death,&rdquo; wrote
+Mr. Hale, &ldquo;she directed her son to write emphatically that every poem in
+her book of eighteen hundred and thirty was of her own composition.&rdquo;
+Although rarely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> seen in print, &ldquo;Mary had a Little Lamb&rdquo; has outlived
+all other nursery rhymes of its day; perhaps because it had most truly
+the quality, unusual at the time, of being told directly and simply&mdash;a
+quality, indeed, that appeals to every generation.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Leslie, like Mrs. Hale, did much editing, beginning on adult
+gift-books and collections of housewife&rsquo;s receipts, and then giving most
+of her attention to juvenile literature. As editor Miss Leslie did good
+work on the &ldquo;Violet&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Pearl,&rdquo; both gift-books for children. She
+also abridged, edited, and rewrote &ldquo;The Wonderful Traveller,&rdquo; and the
+adventures of Munchausen, Gulliver, and Sindbad, heroes often
+disregarded by this period of lack of imagination and over-supply of
+educational theories. Also, as a writer of stories for little girls and
+school-maidens, Eliza Leslie met with warm approval on both sides of the
+Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly the success of Eliza Leslie&rsquo;s &ldquo;American Girls&rsquo; Book,&rdquo;
+modelled after the English &ldquo;Boy&rsquo;s Own Book,&rdquo; and published in 1831,
+added to the popularity attained by her earlier work, although of this
+she was but the compiler.</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;American Girls&rsquo; Book&rdquo; was intended for little girls, and by
+dialogue, the prevailing mode of conveying instruction or amusement,
+numerous games and plays were described. Already many of the pastimes
+have gone out of fashion. &ldquo;Lady Queen Anne&rdquo; and &ldquo;Robin&rsquo;s Alive,&rdquo; &ldquo;a
+dangerous game with a lighted stick,&rdquo; are altogether unknown; &ldquo;Track the
+Rabbit&rdquo; has changed its name to &ldquo;Fox and Geese;&rdquo; &ldquo;Hot Buttered Beans&rdquo;
+has found a substitute in &ldquo;Hunt the Thimble;&rdquo; and &ldquo;Stir the Mush&rdquo; has
+given place to &ldquo;Going to Jerusalem.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Leslie did more than preserve for us these old-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>fashioned
+games. She has left sketches of children&rsquo;s ways and nature in her
+various stories for little people. She shared, of course, in the habit
+of moralizing characteristic of her day, but her children are childish,
+and her heroines are full of the whims, and have truly the pleasures and
+natural emotions, of real children.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Leslie began her work for children in eighteen hundred and
+twenty-seven, when &ldquo;Atlantic Stories&rdquo; were published, and as her
+sketches of child-life appeared one after another, her pen grew more
+sure in its delineation of characters and her talent was speedily
+recognized. Even now &ldquo;Birthday Stories&rdquo; are worth reading and treasuring
+because of the pictures of family life eighty years ago. The &ldquo;Souvenir,&rdquo;
+for example, is a Christmas tale of old Philadelphia; the &ldquo;Cadet&rsquo;s
+Sister&rdquo; sketches life at West Point, where the author&rsquo;s brother had been
+a student; while the &ldquo;Launch of the Frigate&rdquo; and &ldquo;Anthony and Clara&rdquo;
+tell of customs and amusements quite passed away. The charming
+description of children shopping for their simple Christmas gifts, the
+narrative of the boys who paid a poor lad in a bookstore to ornament
+their &ldquo;writing-pieces&rdquo; for more &ldquo;respectable presents&rdquo; to parents, the
+quiet celebration of the day itself, can ill be spared from the history
+of child life and diversions in America. It is well to be reminded, in
+these days of complex and expensive amusements, of some of the saner and
+simpler pleasures enjoyed by children in Miss Leslie&rsquo;s lifetime.</p>
+
+<p>All of this writer&rsquo;s books, moreover, have some real interest, whether
+it be &ldquo;Althea Vernon,&rdquo; with the description of summer life and fashions
+at Far Rockaway (New York&rsquo;s Man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>hattan Beach of 1830), or &ldquo;Henrietta
+Harrison,&rdquo; with its sarcastic reference to the fashionable school where
+the pupils could sing French songs and Italian operas, but could not be
+sure of the notes of &ldquo;Hail Columbia.&rdquo; Or again, the account is worth
+reading of the heroine&rsquo;s trip to New York from Philadelphia. &ldquo;Simply
+habited in a plaid silk frock and Thibet shawl,&rdquo; little Henrietta
+starts, under her uncle&rsquo;s protection, at five o&rsquo;clock in the morning to
+take the boat for Bordentown, New Jersey. There she has her first
+experience of a railway train, and looks out of the window &ldquo;at all the
+velocity of the train will allow her to see.&rdquo; At Heightstown small
+children meet the train with fruit and cakes to sell to hungry
+travellers. And finally comes the wonderful voyage from Amboy to the
+Battery in New York, which is not reached until night has fallen.</p>
+
+<p>This is the simple explanation as to why Eliza Leslie&rsquo;s books met with
+so generous a reception: they were full of the incidents which children
+love, and unusually free from the affectations of the pious fictitious
+heroine.</p>
+
+<p>The stories of Miss Catharine Sedgwick also received most favorable
+criticism, and in point of style were certainly better than Miss
+Leslie&rsquo;s. Her reputation as a literary woman was more than national, and
+&ldquo;Redwood,&rdquo; one of her best novels, was attributed in France to Fenimore
+Cooper, when it appeared anonymously in eighteen hundred and
+twenty-four. Miss Sedgwick&rsquo;s novels, however, pass out of nursery
+comprehension in the first chapters, although these were full of a
+healthy New England atmosphere, with coasting parties and picnics,
+Indians and gypsies, nowhere else better described.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> The same tone
+pervades her contributions to the &ldquo;Juvenile Miscellany,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Token,&rdquo;
+and the &ldquo;Youth&rsquo;s Keepsake,&rdquo; together with her best-known children&rsquo;s
+books, &ldquo;Stories for Children,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Well Spent Hour,&rdquo; and &ldquo;A Love Token
+for Children.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In contrast to Mrs. Sherwood&rsquo;s still popular &ldquo;Fairchild Family,&rdquo;
+Catharine Sedgwick&rsquo;s stories breathe a sunny, invigorating atmosphere,
+abounding in local incidents, and vigorous in delineation of types then
+plentiful in New England. &ldquo;She has fallen,&rdquo; wrote one admirer, most
+truthfully, in the &ldquo;North American Review&rdquo; of 1827,&mdash;&ldquo;she has fallen
+upon the view, from which the treasures of our future literature are to
+be wrought. A literature to have real freshness must be moulded by the
+influences of the society where it had its origin. Letters thrive, when
+they are at home in the soil. Miss Sedgwick&rsquo;s imaginations have such
+vigor and bloom because they are not exotics.&rdquo; Another reviewer, aroused
+by English criticism of the social life in America, and full of the much
+vaunted theory that &ldquo;all men are equal,&rdquo; rejoiced in the author&rsquo;s
+attitude towards the so-called &ldquo;help&rdquo; in New England families in
+contrast to Miss More&rsquo;s portrayal of the English child&rsquo;s condescension
+towards inferiors, which he thought unsuitable to set before the
+children in America.</p>
+
+<p>All Miss Sedgwick&rsquo;s stories were the product of her own keen
+intelligence and observation, and not written in imitation of Miss More,
+Miss Edgeworth, or Mrs. Sherwood, as were the anonymous tales of &ldquo;Little
+Lucy; or, the Pleasant Day,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Little Helen; a Day in the Life of a
+Naughty Girl.&rdquo; They preached, indeed, at length, but the preaching
+could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> be skipped by interested readers, and unlike the work of many
+contemporaries, there was always a thread to take up.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, another favorite contributor to magazines,
+collected her &ldquo;Poetry for Children&rdquo; into a volume bearing this title, in
+eighteen hundred and thirty-four, and published &ldquo;Tales and Essays&rdquo; in
+the same year. These were followed two years later by &ldquo;Olive Buds,&rdquo; and
+thereafter at intervals she brought out several other books, none of
+which have now any interest except as examples of juvenile literature
+that had once a decided vogue and could safely be bought for the
+Sunday-school library.</p>
+
+<p>The names of Mrs. Anna M. Wells, Mrs. Frances S. Osgood, Mrs. Farrar,
+Mrs. Eliza L. Follen, and Mrs. Seba Smith were all well beloved by
+children eighty years ago, and their writings, if long since lost sight
+of, at least added their quota to the children&rsquo;s publications which were
+distinctly American.</p>
+
+<p>If the quantity of books sold is any indication of the popularity of an
+author&rsquo;s work, nothing produced by any of these ladies is to be compared
+with the &ldquo;Tales of Peter Parley&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Rollo Books&rdquo; of Jacob Abbott.</p>
+
+<p>The tendency to instruct while endeavoring to entertain was remodelled
+by these men, who in after years had a host of imitators. Great visions
+of good to children had overtaken dreams of making children good, with
+the result that William Darton&rsquo;s conversational method of instruction
+was compounded with Miss Edgeworth&rsquo;s educational theories and elaborated
+after the manner of Hannah More. Samuel Goodrich, at least, confessed
+that his many tales were the direct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> result of a conversation with Miss
+More, whom, because of his admiration for her books, he made an effort
+to meet when in England in eighteen hundred and twenty-three. While
+talking with the old lady about her &ldquo;Shepherd of Salisbury Plain,&rdquo; the
+idea came to Mr. Goodrich that he, himself, might write for American
+children and make good use of her method of introducing much detail in
+description. As a child he had not found the few toy-books within his
+reach either amusing or interesting, with the exception of this
+Englishwoman&rsquo;s writings. He resolved that the growing generation should
+be better served, but little dreamed of the unprecedented success, as
+far as popularity was concerned, that the result of his determination
+would prove.</p>
+
+<p>After his return to America, the immediate favorable reception of the
+&ldquo;Token,&rdquo; under Goodrich&rsquo;s direction, led to the publication in the same
+year (1828) of &ldquo;Peter Parley&rsquo;s Tales about America,&rdquo; followed by &ldquo;Tales
+about Europe.&rdquo; At this date of retrospection the first volume seems in
+many ways the best of any of the numerous books by the same author. The
+boy hero, taken as a child companion upon a journey through several
+states, met with adventures among Indians upon the frontiers, and saw
+places of historical significance. Every incident is told in imitation
+of Miss More, with that detailed description which Goodrich had found so
+fascinating. If a little overdone in this respect, the narrative has
+certainly a freshness sadly deficient in many later volumes. Even the
+second tale seems to lack the engaging spontaneity of the first, and
+already to grow didactic and recitative rather than personal. But both
+met with an equally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> generous and appreciative reception. Parley&rsquo;s
+educational tales were undoubtedly the American pioneers in what may be
+readily styled the &ldquo;travelogue&rdquo; manner used in later years by Elbridge
+Brooks and many other writers for little people. These early attempts of
+Parley&rsquo;s to educate the young reader were followed by one hundred
+others, which sold like hot cakes. Of some tales the sales reached a
+total of fifty thousand in one year, while it is estimated that seven
+million of Peter Parley&rsquo;s &ldquo;Histories&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tales&rdquo; were sold before the
+admiration of their style and qualities waned.</p>
+
+<p>Peter Parley took his heroes far afield. Jacob Abbott adopted another
+plan of instruction in the majority of his books. Beginning in eighteen
+hundred and thirty-four with the &ldquo;Young Christian Series,&rdquo; the Reverend
+Mr. Abbott soon had readers in England, Scotland, Germany, France,
+Holland, and India, where many of his volumes were translated and
+republished. In the &ldquo;Rollo Books&rdquo; and &ldquo;Franconia&rdquo; an attempt was made to
+answer many of the questions that children of each century pour out to
+astonish and confound their elders. The child reader saw nothing
+incongruous in the remarkable wisdom and maturity of Mary Bell and
+Beechnut, who could give advice and information with equal glibness. The
+advice, moreover, was often worth following, and the knowledge
+occasionally worth having; and the little one swallowed chunks of morals
+and morsels of learning without realizing that he was doing so. Most of
+both was speedily forgotten, but many adults in after years were
+unconsciously indebted to Goodrich and Abbott for some familiarity with
+foreign countries, some interest in natural science.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the immense demand for American stories, there was
+fortunately still some doubt as to whether this remodelled form of
+instructive amusement and moral story-book literature did not lack
+certain wholesome features characteristic of the days when fairies and
+folklore, and Newbery&rsquo;s gilt volumes, had plenty of room on the nursery
+table. &ldquo;I cannot very well tell,&rdquo; wrote the editor of the &ldquo;Fairy
+<span class="nowrap">Book&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_216-A_36" id="FNanchor_216-A_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_216-A_36" class="fnanchor">216-*</a></span> in 1836,&mdash;&ldquo;I cannot very well tell why it is that the good
+old histories and tales, which used to be given to young people for
+their amusement and instruction, as soon as they could read, have of
+late years gone quite out of fashion in this country. In former days
+there was a worthy English bookseller, one Mr. Newbery, who used to
+print thousands of nice little volumes of such stories, which, as he
+solemnly declared in print in the books themselves, he gave away to all
+little boys and girls, charging them only a sixpenny for the gold
+covers. These of course no one could be so unreasonable as to wish him
+to furnish at his own expense.... Yet in the last generation, American
+boys and girls (the fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers
+of the present generation) were not wholly dependent upon Mr. Newbery of
+St. Paul&rsquo;s church-yard, though they knew him well and loved him much.
+The great Benjamin Franklin, when a printer in Philadelphia, did not
+disdain to print divers of Newbery&rsquo;s books adorned with cuts in the
+likeness of his, though it must be confessed somewhat <span class="nowrap">inferior.<a name="FNanchor_216-B_37" id="FNanchor_216-B_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_216-B_37" class="fnanchor">216-&#8224;</a></span>
+Yet rude as they were, they were probably the first things in the way of
+pictures that West and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> Copley ever beheld, and so instilled into those
+future painters, the rudiments of that art by which they afterwards
+became so eminent themselves, and conferred such honour upon their
+native country. In somewhat later time there were the worthy Hugh Gaine,
+at the Sign of the Bible and Crown in Pearl street, and the patriotic
+Samuel Loudon, and the genuine and unadulterated New Yorker, Evert
+Duyckinck, besides others in Boston and Philadelphia, who trod in the
+steps of Newbery, and supplied the infant mind with its first and
+sweetest literary food. The munificent Newbery, and the pious and loyal
+Hugh Gaine, and the patriotic Samuel Loudon are departed. Banks now
+abound and brokers swarm where Loudon erst printed, and many millions
+worth of silk and woolen goods are every year sold where Gaine vended
+his big Bibles and his little story-books. They are all gone; the
+glittering covers and their more brilliant contents, the tales of wonder
+and enchantment, the father&rsquo;s best reward for merit, the good
+grandmother&rsquo;s most prized presents. They are gone&mdash;the cheap delight of
+childhood, the unbought grace of boyhood, the dearest, freshest, and
+most unfading recollections of maturer life. They are gone&mdash;and in their
+stead has succeeded a swarm of geological catechisms, entomological
+primers, and tales of political economy&mdash;dismal trash, all of them;
+something half-way between stupid story-books and bad school-books;
+being so ingeniously written as to be unfit for any useful purpose in
+school and too dull for any entertainment out of it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This is practically Charles Lamb&rsquo;s lament of some thirty years before.
+Lamb had despised the learned Charles, Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> Barbauld&rsquo;s peg upon which
+to hang instruction, and now an American Shakespeare lover found the use
+of toy-books as mechanical guides to knowledge for nursery inmates
+equally deplorable.</p>
+
+<p>Yet an age so in love with the acquirement of solid facts as to produce
+a Parley and an Abbott was the period when the most famous of all
+nursery books was brought out from the dark corner into which it had
+been swept by the theories of two generations, and presented once again
+as &ldquo;The Only True Mother Goose Melodies.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The origin of Mother Goose as the protecting genius of the various
+familiar jingles has been an interesting field of speculation and
+research. The claim for Boston as the birthplace of their sponsor has
+long ago been proved a poor one, and now seems likely to have been an
+ingenious form of advertisement. But Boston undoubtedly did once again
+make popular, at least in America, the lullabies and rhymes repeated for
+centuries around French or English firesides.</p>
+
+<p>The history of Mother Goose and her brood is a long one. &ldquo;Mother Goose,&rdquo;
+writes Mr. Walter T. Field, &ldquo;began her existence as the raconteuse of
+fairy tales, not as the nursery poetess. As La M&egrave;re Oye she told stories
+to French children more than two hundred and fifty years ago.&rdquo; According
+to the researches made by Mr. Field in the literature of Mother Goose,
+&ldquo;the earliest date at which Mother Goose appears as the author of
+children&rsquo;s stories is 1667, when Charles Perrault, a distinguished
+French litt&eacute;rateur, published in Paris a little book of tales which he
+had during that and the preceding year contributed to a magazine known
+as &lsquo;Moejen&rsquo;s Recueil,&rsquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> printed at The Hague. This book is entitled
+&lsquo;Histoires ou Contes du Tems Pass&eacute;, avec des Moralitez,&rsquo; and has a
+frontispiece in which an old woman is pictured, telling stories to a
+family group by the fireside while in the background are the words in
+large characters, &lsquo;Contes de ma M&egrave;re l&rsquo;Oye.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It seems, however, to have been John Newbery&rsquo;s publishing-house that
+made Mother Goose sponsor for the ditties in much the form in which we
+now have them. In Newbery&rsquo;s collection of &ldquo;Melodies&rdquo; there were numerous
+footnotes burlesquing Dr. Johnson and his dictionary, together with
+jests upon the moralizing habit prevalent among authors. There is
+evidence that Goldsmith wrote many of these notes when doing hack-work
+for the famous publisher in St. Paul&rsquo;s Churchyard. It is known, for
+instance, that in January, 1760, Goldsmith celebrated the production of
+his &ldquo;Good Natur&rsquo;d Man&rdquo; by dining his friends at an inn. During the feast
+he sang his favorite song, said to be</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;There was an old woman tos&rsquo;t up in a blanket,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seventy times as high as the moon.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">This was introduced quite irrelevantly in the preface to &ldquo;Mother Goose&rsquo;s
+Melodies,&rdquo; but with the apology that it was a favorite with the editor.
+There is also the often quoted remark of Miss Hawkins as confirming
+Goldsmith&rsquo;s editorship: &ldquo;I little thought what I should have to boast,
+when Goldsmith taught me to play Jack and Jill, by two bits of paper on
+his fingers.&rdquo; But neither of these statements seems to have more weight
+in solving the mystery of the editor&rsquo;s name than the evidence of the
+whimsically satirical notes themselves. How like the author of the
+&ldquo;Vicar of Wakefield&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> and the children&rsquo;s &ldquo;Fables in Verse&rdquo; is this
+remark underneath:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;&lsquo;There was an old Woman who liv&rsquo;d under a hill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And if she&rsquo;s not gone, she lives there still.&rsquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot" style="font-size: 90%;"><p class="noindent">&ldquo;This is a self evident Proposition, which is the very essence of
+Truth. She lived under the hill, and if she&rsquo;s not gone, she lives
+there still. Nobody will presume to contradict this. <i>Croesa.</i>&rdquo;</p></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">And is not this also a good-natured imitation of that kind of seriously
+intended information which Mr. Edgeworth inserted some thirty years
+later in &ldquo;Harry and Lucy:&rdquo; &ldquo;Dry, what is not wet&rdquo;? Again this note is
+appended to</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;See Saw Margery Daw<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jacky shall have a new master:&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">&ldquo;It is a mean and scandalous Practise in Authors to put Notes to Things
+that deserve no Notice.&rdquo; Who except Goldsmith was capable of this vein
+of humor?</p>
+
+<p>When Munroe and Francis in Boston undertook about eighteen hundred and
+twenty-four to republish these old-fashioned rhymes, in the practice of
+the current theory that everything must be simplified, they omitted all
+these notes and changed many of the &ldquo;Melodies.&rdquo; Sir Walter Scott&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Donnel Dhu&rdquo; was included, and the beautiful Shakespeare selections,
+&ldquo;When Daffodils begin to &rsquo;pear,&rdquo; &ldquo;When the Bee sucks,&rdquo; etc., were
+omitted. Doubtless the American editors thought that they had vastly
+improved upon the Newbery publication in every word changed and every
+line omitted. In reality, they deprived the nursery of much that might
+well have remained as it was, although certain expressions were very
+properly altered. In a negative manner they did one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> surprising and
+fortunate thing: in leaving out the amusing notes they did not attempt
+to replace them, and consequently the nursery had one book free from
+that advice and precept, which in other verse for children resulted in
+persistent nagging. The illustrations were entirely redrawn, and Abel
+Bowen and Nathaniel Dearborn were asked to do the engraving for this
+Americanized edition.</p>
+
+<p>Of the poetry written in America for children before eighteen hundred
+and forty there is little that need be said. Much of it was entirely
+religious in character and most of it was colorless and dreary stuff.
+The &ldquo;Child&rsquo;s Gem&rdquo; of eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, considered a
+treasury of precious verse by one reviewer, and issued in embossed
+morocco binding, was characteristic of many contemporary <i>poems</i>, in
+which nature was forced to exude precepts of virtue and industry. The
+following stanzas are no exception to the general tone of the contents
+of practically every book entitled &ldquo;Poetry for Children:&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;&lsquo;Be good, little Edmund,&rsquo; your mother will say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She will whisper it soft in your ear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And often repeat it, by night and by day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That you may not forget it, my dear.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="first">&ldquo;And the ant at its work, and the flower-loving bee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the sweet little bird in the wood<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As it warbles its song, from its nest in the tree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seems to say, &lsquo;little Eddy be good.&rsquo;&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The change in the character of the children&rsquo;s books written by Americans
+had begun to be seriously noticed in England. Although there were still
+many importations (such as the series written by Mrs. Sherwood), there
+was some inclination to re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>sent the stocking of American booksellers&rsquo;
+shelves by the work of local talent, much to the detriment of English
+publishers&rsquo; pockets. The literary critics took up the subject, and
+thought themselves justified in disparaging many of the American books
+which found also ready sale on English book-counters. The religious
+books underwent scathing criticism, possibly not undeserved, except that
+the English productions of the same order and time make it now appear
+that it was but the pot calling the kettle black. Almost as much fault
+was found with the story-books. It apparently mattered little that the
+tables were now turned and British publishers were pirating American
+tales as freely and successfully as Thomas and Philadelphia printers had
+in former years made use of Newbery&rsquo;s, and Darton and Harvey&rsquo;s, juvenile
+novelties in book ware.</p>
+
+<p>In the &ldquo;Quarterly Review&rdquo; of 1843, in an article entitled &ldquo;Books for
+Children,&rdquo; the writer found much cause for complaint in regard to
+stories then all too conspicuous in bookshops in England. &ldquo;The same
+egregious mistakes,&rdquo; said the critic, &ldquo;as to the nature of a child&rsquo;s
+understanding&mdash;the same explanations, which are all but indelicate, and
+always profane&mdash;seem to pervade all these American mentors; and of a
+number by Peter Parley, Abbott, Todd, &amp;c., it matters little which we
+take up.&rdquo; &ldquo;Under the name of Peter Parley,&rdquo; continued the disgruntled
+gentleman, after finding only malicious evil in poor Mr. Todd&rsquo;s efforts
+to explain religious doctrines, &ldquo;such a number of juvenile school-books
+are current&mdash;some greatly altered from the originals and many more by
+<i>adopters</i> of <i>Mr. Goodrich&rsquo;s</i> pseudonym<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>&mdash;that it becomes difficult to
+measure the merits or demerits of the said <i>magnus parens</i>, Goodrich.&rdquo;
+Liberal quotations followed from &ldquo;Peter Parley&rsquo;s Farewell,&rdquo; which was
+censured as palling to the mind of those familiar with the English
+sources from which the facts had been irreverently culled.</p>
+
+<p>The reviewer then passed on to another section of &ldquo;American
+abominations&rdquo; which &ldquo;seem to have some claim to popularity since they
+are easily sold.&rdquo; &ldquo;These,&rdquo; continued the anonymous critic, &ldquo;are works
+not of amusement&mdash;those we shall touch upon later&mdash;but of that
+half-and-half description where instruction blows with a side wind....
+Accordingly after impatient investigation of an immense number of little
+tomes, we are come to the conclusion that they may be briefly
+classified&mdash;firstly, as containing such information as any child in
+average life who can speak plainly is likely to be possessed of; and
+secondly, such as when acquired is not worth having.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>To this second class of book the Reverend Mr. Abbott&rsquo;s &ldquo;Rollo Books&rdquo;
+were unhesitatingly consigned. They were regarded as curiosities for
+&ldquo;mere occupation of the eye, and utter stagnation of the thoughts, full
+of empty minutiae with all the rules of common sense set aside.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Next the writer considered the style of those Americans who persuaded
+shillings from English pockets by &ldquo;ingeniously contrived series which
+rendered the purchase of a single volume by no means so recommendable as
+that of all.&rdquo; The &ldquo;uncouth phraseology, crack-jack words, and puritan
+derived words are nationalized and therefore do not permit cavilling,&rdquo;
+continued the reviewer, dismayed and disgusted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> that it was necessary to
+warn his public, &ldquo;but their children never did, or perhaps never will,
+hear any other language; and it is to be hoped they <i>understand</i> it. At
+all events, we have nothing to do but keep ours from it, believing
+firmly that early familiarity with refined and beautiful forms ... is
+one of the greatest safeguards against evil, if not necessary to good.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>However, the critic did not close his article without a good word for
+those ladies in whose books we ourselves have found merit. &ldquo;Their works
+of amusement&rdquo; he considered admirable, &ldquo;when not laden with more
+religion than the tale can hold in solution. Miss Sedgwick takes a high
+place for powers of description and traits of nature, though her
+language is so studded with Americanisms as much to mar the pleasure and
+perplex the mind of an English reader. Besides this lady, Mrs. Sigourney
+and Mrs. Seba Smith may be mentioned. The former, especially, to all
+other gifts adds a refinement, and nationality of subject, with a
+knowledge of life, which some of her poetical pieces led us to expect.
+Indeed the little Americans have little occasion to go begging to the
+history or tradition of other nations for topics of interest.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Westminster Review&rdquo; of eighteen hundred and forty was also in doubt
+&ldquo;whether all this Americanism [such as Parley&rsquo;s &lsquo;Tales&rsquo; contained] is
+desirable for English children, were it,&rdquo; writes the critic, &ldquo;only for
+them we keep the &lsquo;pure well of English undefiled,&rsquo; and cannot at all
+admire the improvements which it pleases that go-ahead nation to claim
+the right of making in our common tongue: unwisely enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> as regards
+themselves, we think, for one of the elements in the power of a nation
+is the wide spread of its language.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This same criticism was made again and again about the style of American
+writers for adults, so that it is little wonder the children&rsquo;s books
+received no unqualified praise. But Americanisms were not the worst
+feature of the &ldquo;inundation of American children&rsquo;s books,&rdquo; which because
+of their novelty threatened to swamp the &ldquo;higher class&rdquo; English. They
+were feared because of the &ldquo;multitude of false notions likely to be
+derived from them, the more so as the similarity of name and language
+prevents children from being on their guard, and from remembering that
+the representations that they read are by foreigners.&rdquo; It was the
+American view of English institutions (presented in story-book form)
+which rankled in the British breast as a &ldquo;condescending tenderness of
+the free nation towards the monarchical r&eacute;gime&rdquo; from which at any cost
+the English child must be guarded. In this respect Peter Parley was the
+worst offender, and was regarded as &ldquo;a sad purveyor of slip-slop, and no
+matter how amusing, ignorant of his subject.&rdquo; That gentleman, meanwhile,
+read the criticisms and went on making &ldquo;bread and butter,&rdquo; while he
+scowled at the English across the water, who criticised, but pirated as
+fast as he published in America.</p>
+
+<p>Gentle Miss Eliza Leslie received altogether different treatment in this
+review of American juvenile literature. She was considered &ldquo;good
+everywhere, and particularly so for the meridian in which her tales were
+placed;&rdquo; and we quite agree with the reviewer who considered it well
+worth while to quote long paragraphs from her &ldquo;Tell Tale&rdquo; to show its
+character<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> and &ldquo;truly useful lesson.&rdquo; &ldquo;To America,&rdquo; continued this
+writer, &ldquo;we also owe a host of little books, that bring together the
+literature of childhood and the people; as &lsquo;Home,&rsquo; &lsquo;Live and Let Live&rsquo;
+[by Miss Sedgwick], &amp;c., but excellent in intention as they are, we have
+our doubts, as to the general reception they will meet in this country
+while so much of more exciting and elegant food is at hand.&rdquo; Even if the
+food of amusement in England appeared to the British mind more spiced
+and more <i>elegant</i>, neither Miss Leslie&rsquo;s nor Miss Sedgwick&rsquo;s fictitious
+children were ever anaemic puppets without wills of their own,&mdash;a type
+made familiar by Miss Edgeworth and persisted in by her admirers and
+successors,&mdash;but vitalized little creatures, who acted to some degree,
+at least, like the average child who loved their histories and named her
+dolls after favorite characters.</p>
+
+<p>To-day these English criticisms are only of value as showing that the
+American story-book was no longer imitating the English tale, but was
+developing, by reason of the impress of differing social forces, a new
+type. Its faults do not prevent us from seeing that the spirit expressed
+in this juvenile literature is that of a new nation feeling its own way,
+and making known its purpose in its own manner. While we smile at
+sedulous endeavors of the serious-minded writers to present their
+convictions, educational, religious, or moral, in palatable form, and to
+consider children always as a race apart, whose natural actions were
+invariably sinful, we still read between the lines that these writers
+were really interested in the welfare of the American child; and that
+they were working according to the accepted theories of the third decade
+of the nineteenth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> century as to the constituents of a juvenile
+library which, while &ldquo;judicious and attractive, should also blend
+instruction with innocent amusement.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;">
+<a name="img28" id="img28"></a><a href="images/img28-full.jpg"><img src="images/img28.jpg" width="315" height="400" alt="The Little Runaway" title="The Little Runaway" /></a>
+<i>The Little Runaway</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>And now as we have reached the point in the history of the American
+story-book when it is popular at least in both English-speaking
+countries, if not altogether satisfactory to either, what can be said of
+the value of this juvenile literature of amusement which has developed
+on the tiny pages of well-worn volumes? If, of all the books written for
+children by Americans seventy-five years and more ago, only Nathaniel
+Hawthorne&rsquo;s &ldquo;Wonder Book&rdquo; has survived to the present generation; of all
+the verse produced, only the simple rhyme, &ldquo;Mary had a Little Lamb,&rdquo; and
+Clement Moore&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Night before Christmas&rdquo; are still quoted, has their
+history any value to-day?</p>
+
+<p>If we consider that there is nothing more rare in the fiction of any
+nation than the popular child&rsquo;s story that endures; nothing more unusual
+than the successful well-written juvenile tale, we can perhaps find a
+value not to be reckoned by the survival or literary character of these
+old-fashioned books, but in their silent testimony to the influence of
+the progress of social forces at work even upon so small a thing as a
+child&rsquo;s toy-book. The successful well-written child&rsquo;s book has been
+rare, because it has been too often the object rather than the manner of
+writing that has been considered of importance; because it has been the
+aim of all writers either to &ldquo;improve in goodness&rdquo; the young reader, as
+when, two hundred years ago, Cotton Mather penned &ldquo;Good Lessons&rdquo; for his
+infant son to learn at school, or, to quote the editor of &ldquo;Affection&rsquo;s
+Gift&rdquo;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> (published a century and a quarter later), it has been for the
+purpose of &ldquo;imparting moral precepts and elevated sentiments, of uniting
+instruction and amusement, through the fascinating mediums of
+interesting narrative and harmony of numbers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The result of both intentions has been a collection of dingy or faded
+duodecimos containing a series of impressions of what each generation
+thought good, religiously, morally, and educationally, for little folk.
+If few of them shed any light upon child nature in those long-ago days,
+many throw shafts of illumination upon the change and progress in
+American ideals and thought concerning the welfare of children. As has
+already been said, the press supplied what the public taste demanded,
+and if the writers produced for earlier generations of children what may
+now be considered lumber, the press of more modern date has not
+progressed so far in this field of literature as to make it in any
+degree certain that our children&rsquo;s treasures may not be consigned to an
+equal oblivion. For these too are but composites made by superimposing
+the latest fads or theories as to instructive amusement of children upon
+those of previous generations of toy-books. Most of what was once
+considered the &ldquo;perfume of youth and freshness&rdquo; in a literary way has
+been discarded as dry and unprofitable, mistaken or deceptive; and yet,
+after all has been said by way of criticism of methods and subjects,
+these chap-books, magazines, gift and story books form our best if
+blurred pictures of the amusements and daily life of the old-time
+American child.</p>
+
+<p>We are learning also to prize these small &ldquo;Histories&rdquo; as part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> of the
+progress of the arts of book-making and illustration, and of the growth
+of the business of publishing in America; and already we are aware of
+the fulfilment of what was called by one old bookseller, &ldquo;Tom Thumb&rsquo;s
+Maxim in Trade and Politics:&rdquo; &ldquo;He who buys this book for Two-pence, and
+lays it up till it is worth Three-pence, may get an hundred per cent by
+the bargain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_204-A_35" id="Footnote_204-A_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204-A_35"><span class="label">204-*</span></a> <i>Election Day</i>, p. 71. American Sunday School Union,
+1828.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_216-A_36" id="Footnote_216-A_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216-A_36"><span class="label">216-*</span></a> Mr. G.&nbsp;C. Verplanck was probably the editor of this
+book, published by Harper &amp; Bros.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_216-B_37" id="Footnote_216-B_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216-B_37"><span class="label">216-&#8224;</span></a> This statement the writer has been unable to verify.</p></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><i>Index</i></h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="chapterhead"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Abbott</span>, Jacob, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>
+  <li>Abbott, John S.&nbsp;C., <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>
+  <li>A, B, C Book, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+  <li>A, B, C of religion, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+  <li>Absence from Christ intolerable, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adams, John, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adams, Mrs. John, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adams, J.&nbsp;A., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adams, John Quincy, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Addison, Joseph, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adventures of a Peg-top, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adventures of a Pincushion, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>
+  <li>Adventures of Lot, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Aesop, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Affectionate Daughter-in-Law, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Affection&rsquo;s Gift, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Aikin, Dr. John, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ainsworth, Robert, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li>
+  <li>Aitkin, Robert, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+  <li>Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, An, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Althea Vernon, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>American Antiquarian Society, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>American Flag, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>American Girls&rsquo; Book, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>American Juvenile Keepsake, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li>
+  <li>American Sunday School Union, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</li>
+  <li>American Weekly Mercury, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ami des Enfans, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+  <li>Amyntor, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li>
+  <li>Anderson, Dr. Alexander, <a href='#Page_166'>166-169</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+  <li>Andr&eacute;, Major John, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</li>
+  <li>Andrews, Joseph, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Andrews, Thomas, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+  <li>Anecdoten von Hunden, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+  <li>Anecdotes of Christian Missions, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Animated Nature, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li>
+  <li>Annales of Madame de Genlis, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li>
+  <li>Annual Register, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Anthony and Clara, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>Arabian Nights, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Argalus &amp; Parthenia, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Arnold, Benedict, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li>
+  <li>Arthur&rsquo;s Geographical Grammar, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+  <li>Art&rsquo;s Treasury, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ashe, Thomas T., <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ashton, John, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</li>
+  <li>Atlantic Stories, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>Avery, S., <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Babcock</span>, Sidney, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bache, Benjamin, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bag of Nuts ready Cracked, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bailey, Francis, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+  <li>Banbury Chap-Books, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Barbauld, Anna Letitia, <a href='#Page_127'>127-129</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140-142</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</li>
+  <li>Barclay, Andrew, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>Baskerville, John, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>Battelle, E., <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+  <li>Battle of the Kegs, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</li>
+  <li>Be Merry and Wise, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+  <li>Beecher, Rev. Dr. Lyman, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Belcher, J., <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bell, Robert, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+  <li>Benezet, Anthony, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+  <li>Berquin, Arnaud, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bewick, Thomas, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bewick&rsquo;s Quadrupeds, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bibliography of Worcester, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+  <li>Big and Little Puzzling Caps, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+  <li>Biography for Boys, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</li>
+  <li>Biography for Girls, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>.</li>
+  <li>Birthday Stories, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>Blossoms of Morality, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li>
+  <li>Blue Beard, The History of, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li>
+  <li>Body of Divinity versified, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+  <li>Book for Boys and Girls; or, Country Rhimes for Children, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</li>
+  <li>Book for Boys and Girls; or, Temporal Things Spiritualized, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+  <li>Book of Knowledge, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>Book of Martyrs, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+  <li>Books for Children, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bookseller of the last century, The, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boone, Daniel, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boone, Nicholas, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boston Chronicle, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boston Evening Post, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boston Gazette and Country Journal, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boston News Letter, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boston Public Library, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bowen, Abel, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boy and his Paper of Plumbs, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boy and the Watchmaker, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boy&rsquo;s Own Book, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Boyle, John, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bradford, Andrew, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bradford, Thomas, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Brewer, printer, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+  <li>Brooke, Henry, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+  <li>Brooks, Elbridge, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.</li>
+  <li>Brother&rsquo;s Gift, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</li>
+  <li>Browne, Miss, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li>
+  <li>Brynberg, Peter, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li>
+  <li>Buccaneers of America, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Bunyan, John, <a href='#Page_10'>10-13</a>.</li>
+  <li>Burr, Aaron, <a href='#Page_132'>132-134</a>.</li>
+  <li>Burr, Theodosia, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</li>
+  <li>Burton, R., <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</li>
+  <li>Burton&rsquo;s Historical Collections, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+  <li>Busy Bee, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+  <li>Butcher, Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+  <li>Butterworth, Hezekiah, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Cadet&rsquo;s</span> Sister, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cameron, Lucy Lyttleton, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Canary Bird, The, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+  <li>Carey, Matthew, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Carey, Robert, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li>
+  <li>Carnan, Mr., <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+  <li>Carter, John, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+  <li>Catechism, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
+  <li>Catechism of New England, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cautionary Stories in Verse, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Century Magazine, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chandler, Samuel, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chapone, Hester, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chapters of Accidents, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.</li>
+  <li>Charles, Mary, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+  <li>Charles, William, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cheap Repository, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cherry Orchard, The, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child, Lydia Maria, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child and his Book, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+  <li>Children in the Wood, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li>
+  <li>Children&rsquo;s Books and Reading, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+  <li>Children&rsquo;s Friend, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+  <li>Children&rsquo;s Magazine, The, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>.</li>
+  <li>Children&rsquo;s Miscellany, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child&rsquo;s Garden of Verses, Stevenson&rsquo;s, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child&rsquo;s Gem, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child&rsquo;s Guide to Spelling and Reading, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child&rsquo;s Instructor, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+  <li>Child&rsquo;s New Play-thing, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43-45</a>.</li>
+  <li>Choice Spirits, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Christmas Box, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cinderella, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+  <li>Clarissa Harlowe, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79-85</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Clarke, Edward, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cock Robin, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li>
+  <li>Collection of Pretty Poems, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li>
+  <li>Collins, Benjamin, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</li>
+  <li>Complete Letter-Writer, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Congress, The, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li>
+  <li>Conrad and Parsons, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+  <li>Contes de ma M&egrave;re l&rsquo;Oye, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cooper, James Fenimore, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cooper, Rev. Mr., <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li>
+  <li>Copley, John Stuart, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cotton, John, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cottons and Barnard, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Country Rhimes for Children, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+  <li>Coverly, Nathaniel, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cowper, William, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cox and Berry, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cries of London, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cries of New York, <a href='#Page_180'>180-182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cries of Philadelphia, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cross, Wilbur L., <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</li>
+  <li>Crouch, Nathaniel, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cruel Giant Barbarico, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+  <li>Crukshank, Joseph, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Custis, John Parke, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.</li>
+  <li>Custis, Martha Parke, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.</li>
+  <li>Cuz&rsquo;s Chorus, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Daisy</span>, The, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>Darton, William, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Darton and Harvey, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+  <li>Day, Mahlon, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+  <li>Day, Thomas, <a href='#Page_129'>129-132</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+  <li>Daye, John, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dearborn, Nathaniel, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.</li>
+  <li>Death and Burial of Cock Robin, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.</li>
+  <li>Death of Abel, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Defoe, Daniel, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>
+  <li>Delight in the Lord Jesus, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.</li>
+  <li>Description of Various Objects, A, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.</li>
+  <li>Development of the English novel, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dennie, Joseph, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dilworth, Thomas, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+  <li>Divine emblems, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+  <li>Divine Songs, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+  <li>Doane, Bishop G.&nbsp;W., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Doddridge, Philip, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dodsley, Robert, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li>
+  <li>Don Quixote, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+  <li>Donaldson, Arthur, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li>
+  <li>Donnel Dhu, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Doolittle, Amos, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dove, The, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li>
+  <li>Drake, Joseph Rodman, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>Draper, Samuel, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li>
+  <li>Draper and Edwards, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.</li>
+  <li>Drinker, Eliza, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dryden&rsquo;s Poems, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dunlap, John, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Dunton, John, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+  <li>Durell, publisher, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+  <li>Duyckinck, Evert, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Early</span> Lessons, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+  <li>Earnest Exhortation, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+  <li>Easy Introduction into the knowledge of Nature, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</li>
+  <li>Easy Lessons for Children, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+  <li>Economy of Human Life, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+  <li>Edgeworth, Maria, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153-159</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175-177</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>,
+<a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+  <li>Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, <a href='#Page_154'>154-156</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Edwards, Joseph, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li>
+  <li>Elegant Extracts, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Embury, Emma C., <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</li>
+  <li>Emulation, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+  <li>English Empire in America, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</li>
+  <li>Entertaining Fables, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Errand Boy, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+  <li>Evenings at Home, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li>
+  <li>Everett, Alexander H., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Everett, Edward, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Fables</span> in verse, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fabulous Histories, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fair Rosamond, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Fairchild Family, The, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fairy Book, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+  <li>Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.</li>
+  <li>Farrar, Eliza Ware, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Father&rsquo;s Gift, The, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>.</li>
+  <li>Female Orators, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fenelon&rsquo;s Reflections, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Field, E.&nbsp;M., <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li>
+  <li>Field, Walter T., <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fielding, Henry, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fields, James T., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>First Book of the American Chronicles of the Times, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fleet, Thomas, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fleming, John, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+  <li>Flora&rsquo;s Gala, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Follen, Eliza L., <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Food for the Mind, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fool of Quality, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ford, Paul Leicester, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fowle, Zechariah, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fowle and Draper, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</li>
+  <li>Fox and Geese, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Foxe, John, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+  <li>Franconia, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.</li>
+  <li>Frank, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+  <li>Franklin, Benjamin, <a href='#Page_21'>21-24</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59-62</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+  <li>Franklin, Sally, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li>
+  <li>Franklin and Hall, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li>
+  <li>French Convert, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Friendly Instruction, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Gaffer</span> Two Shoes, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+  <li>Gaine, Hugh, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</li>
+  <li>Gallaudet, Elisha, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Garden Amusements, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Generous Inconstant, The, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+  <li>Genlis, Madame St&eacute;phanie-F&eacute;licit&eacute; de, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</li>
+  <li>Geographical, Statistical and Political Amusement, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+  <li>George&rsquo;s Junior Republic, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.</li>
+  <li>Gilbert, C., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Giles Gingerbread, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>Gilman, Caroline, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li>
+  <li>Going to Jerusalem, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Goldsmith, Oliver, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Good Lessons for Children, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Good Natur&rsquo;d Man, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Goodrich, Samuel G., <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194-196</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213-215</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>,
+<a href='#Page_222'>222-225</a>.</li>
+  <li>Goody Two-Shoes, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116-118</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140-142</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>Greeley, Horace, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Green, Samuel, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+  <li>Green, Timothy, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+  <li>Gulliver&rsquo;s Adventures, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>.</li>
+  <li>Guy of Warwick, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Hail</span> Columbia, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hale, Richard W., <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Hale, Sarah J., <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hall, Anna Maria, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hall, David, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hall, Samuel, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hall, William, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Halleck, Fitz-Greene, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Happy Child, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</li>
+  <li>Harper and Brothers, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+  <li>Harris, Benjamin, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+  <li>Harris, John, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+  <li>Harry and Lucy, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Harvey, John, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hawkins, Laetitia Matilda, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hawthorne, Julian, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hawthorne, Nathaniel, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hebrides, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+  <li>Henrietta Harrison, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hildeburn, Charles R., <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hill, George Birbeck, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hill, Hannah, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+  <li>Histoires ou Contes du Tems Pass&eacute;, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Historical Society of Pennsylvania, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li>
+  <li>History of a Doll, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+  <li>History of printing in America, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+  <li>History of the American Revolution, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+  <li>History of the Holy Jesus, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>History of the Institution of Cyrus, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+  <li>History of the Robins, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hive, The, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hobby Horse, The, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hofland, Barbara, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</li>
+  <li>Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, <a href='#Page_162'>162-164</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</li>
+  <li>Holy Bible in Verse, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</li>
+  <li>Home, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+  <li>Home of Washington, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hopkinson, Joseph, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hot Buttered Beans, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>House that Jack Built, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</li>
+  <li>Howard, Mr., <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hudibras, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hunt the Thimble, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hymns for Infant Minds, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Hymns in Prose and Verse, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li>&ldquo;<span class="smcap">Ianthe</span>.&rdquo; <i>See</i> Embury.</li>
+  <li>Illman, Thomas, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Infidel Class, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Irving, Washington, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Jack</span> and Jill, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Jack the Giant Killer, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</li>
+  <li>Jacky Dandy&rsquo;s Delight, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li>
+  <li>James, William, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>Jane Grey, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.</li>
+  <li>Janeway, James, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+  <li>Jenny Twitchell&rsquo;s Jests, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Joe Miller&rsquo;s Jests, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Johnson, Benjamin, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Johnson, Jacob, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+  <li>Johnson, Dr. Samuel, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50-52</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Johnson and Warner, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+  <li>Johnsonian Miscellany, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</li>
+  <li>Jones, Giles, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li>
+  <li>Joseph Andrews, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Josephus, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+  <li>Julianna Oakley, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Biographers, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Magazine, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Miscellany, <a href='#Page_193'>193-195</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Olio, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Piety, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Portfolio, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Rambler, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li>
+  <li>Juvenile Trials for Robbing Orchards, etc., <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Keeper&rsquo;s</span> Travels in Search of his Master, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+  <li>Kellogg, Joseph G., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Kendall, Dr., <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+  <li>Key, Francis Scott, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>Kilner, Dorothy, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>King Pippin, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Kleine Erz&auml;hlungen &uuml;ber ein Buch mit Kupfern, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+  <li>Knox, Thomas W., <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Lady</span> Queen Anne, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lamb, Charles, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lansing, G., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lark, The, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Launch of the Frigate, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lee, Richard Henry, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+  <li>Legacy to Children, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lenox Collection, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+  <li>Leo, the Great Giant, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+  <li>Leslie, Eliza, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208-211</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+  <li>Letters from the Dead to the Living, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Letters to Little Children, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Liddon, Mr., <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Life of David, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lilly, Wait and Company, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lincoln and Edmunds, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Linnet, The, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Linton, William James, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Literary Magazine, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li>
+  <li>Literature of the American Revolution, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Book for Children, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Boy found under a Haycock, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Deceiver Reclaimed, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Dog Trusty, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Fanny, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Helen, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Henry, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Henry and his Bearer, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Jack, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Lottery Book, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Lucy, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Millenium Boy, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Little Nancy, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176-178</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Pretty Pocket-Book, A, <a href='#Page_47'>47-50</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Readers&rsquo; Assistant, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Robin Red Breast, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Scholar&rsquo;s Pretty Pocket Companion, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Sophie, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little Truths, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Little William, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+  <li>Live and Let Live, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lives of Highwaymen, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lives of Pirates, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Locke, John, <a href='#Page_41'>41-43</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+  <li>London Chronicle, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li>
+  <li>Longfellow, Henry W., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Longworth, David, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+  <li>Looking-glass, A, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+  <li>Looking Glass for the Mind, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li>
+  <li>Lossing, Benson J., <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+  <li>Loudon, Samuel, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</li>
+  <li>Love Token for Children, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Macaulay</span>, T.&nbsp;B., <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+  <li>Magnalia, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mary had a Little Lamb, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mason, A.&nbsp;J., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Massachusetts Sunday School Union, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+  <li>Master Jacky and Miss Harriot, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mather, Cotton, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16-18</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mather, Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mather, Increase, <a href='#Page_16'>16-18</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mather, Samuel, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mein, John, <a href='#Page_73'>73-75</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+  <li>Metamorphosis, A, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Milk for Babes, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</li>
+  <li>Milton, John, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mr. Telltruth&rsquo;s Natural History of Birds, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mitford, Mary Russell, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li>
+  <li>Moejen&rsquo;s Recueil, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</li>
+  <li>Moll Flanders, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Moore, Clement Clarke, <a href='#Page_147'>147-149</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Moral Tale, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li>
+  <li>Moral Tales, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>More, Hannah, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150-153</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212-214</a>.</li>
+  <li>Morgan, engraver, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Morgan and Sons, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+  <li>Morgan and Yeager, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+  <li>Morton, Eliza, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.</li>
+  <li>Moses, Montrose J., <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mother Goose Melodies, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218-220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mother&rsquo;s Gift, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li>
+  <li>Mother&rsquo;s Remarks over a Set of Cuts, A, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+  <li>Munroe and Francis, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Murray, James, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</li>
+  <li>Museum, The, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></li>
+  <li>My Father, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>My Governess, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>My Mother, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>My Pony, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</li>
+  <li>My Sister, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Natural</span> History of Four Footed Beasts, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</li>
+  <li>Neagle, John, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>New England Courant, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</li>
+  <li>New England Primer, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13-15</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</li>
+  <li>New French Primer, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.</li>
+  <li>New Gift for Children with Cuts, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69-72</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>New Guide to the English Tongue, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+  <li>New Picture of the City, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>New Year&rsquo;s Gift, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>
+  <li>New York Mercury, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li>
+  <li>New York Weekly, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</li>
+  <li>Newbery, Carnan, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</li>
+  <li>Newbery, Edward, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</li>
+  <li>Newbery, Francis, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+  <li>Newbery, John, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46-56</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60-62</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>,
+<a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>,
+<a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+  <li>Newbery, Ralph, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+  <li>Nichols, Dr. Charles L., <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</li>
+  <li>Night before Christmas, The, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Noel, Garrat, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>North American Review, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Nutter, Valentine, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Old</span> Mother Hubbard, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li>
+  <li>Olive Buds, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Orangeman, The, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</li>
+  <li>Original Poems, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Osgood, Frances S., <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Oswald, Ebenezer, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Pamela</span>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Parable against Persecution, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+  <li>Paradise Lost, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+  <li>Parent&rsquo;s Assistant, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+  <li>Parents&rsquo; Gift, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+  <li>Parker, James, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+  <li>Parley, Peter. <i>See</i> Goodrich, S.&nbsp;G.</li>
+  <li>Pastoral Hymn, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+  <li>Patriotic and Amatory Songster, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+  <li>Peacock at Home, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pearl, The, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pearson, Edwin, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pease, Joseph I., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty Doll, <a href='#Page_136'>136-139</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pelton, Oliver, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pennsylvania Evening Post, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pennsylvania Gazette, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pennsylvania Journal, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</li>
+  <li>People of all Nations, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.</li>
+  <li>Peregrine Pickle, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Perrault, Charles, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</li>
+  <li>Perry, Michael, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li>
+  <li>Philadelphiad, The, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Picture Exhibition, The, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pilgrim&rsquo;s Progress, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pilkington, Mary, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pinckney, Eliza, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</li>
+  <li>Play-thing, The, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pleasures of Piety in Youth, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Plutarch&rsquo;s Lives, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poems for Children, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poems for Children Three Feet High, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poesie out of Mr. Dod&rsquo;s Garden, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poetical Description of Song Birds, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poetry for Children, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.</li>
+  <li>Popular Tales, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poupard, James, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Power of Religion, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+  <li>Practical Education, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</li>
+  <li>Practical Piety, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Present for a Little Girl, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pretty Book for Children, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li>
+  <li>Principles of the Christian Religion, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Pritchard, Mr., <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Private Tutor for little Masters and Misses, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</li>
+  <li>Prize for Youthful Obedience, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.</li>
+  <li>Prodigal Daughter, The, <a href='#Page_24'>24-26</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li>
+  <li>Protestant Tutor for Children, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li>
+  <li>Puritan Primer, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.</li>
+  <li>Puzzling Cap, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Quarterly</span> Review, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+  <li>Quincy, Mrs. Josiah, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Raikes</span>, Robert, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ralph, W., <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rand, Rev. Asa, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rebels, The, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li>
+  <li>Recollections of a New England Housekeeper, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li>
+  <li>Redwood, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rees&rsquo;s Encyclopedia, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Reformed Family, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rhymes for the Nursery, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rice, Mr., <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Richardson, Samuel, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78-81</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rivington, James, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</li>
+  <li>Roberts, Jean, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li>
+  <li>Robin Red Breast, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Robin&rsquo;s Alive, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Robinson Crusoe, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>Roderick Random, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</li>
+  <li>Roger and Berry, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rollin&rsquo;s Ancient History, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rollinson, William, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rollo Books, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rose, The, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Rose Bud, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rose&rsquo;s Breakfast, The, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rowe, Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Royal Battledore, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+  <li>Royal Primer, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li>
+  <li>Russell&rsquo;s Seven Sermons, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Sabbath</span> School Times, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sanford and Merton, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</li>
+  <li>Scotch Rogue, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Scott, Sir Walter, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li>
+  <li>Scott&rsquo;s (Rev. Thomas) Family Bible, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li>
+  <li>Search after Happiness, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>,
+<a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li>
+  <li>Seven Wise Masters, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Seven Wise Mistresses, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sewall, Henry, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sewall, Samuel, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li>
+  <li>Shakespeare, William, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sharps, William, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sheldon, Lucy, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li>
+  <li>Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sherwood, Mary Martha, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sigourney, Lydia H., <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li>
+  <li>Simple Susan, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sims, Joseph, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sir Charles Grandison, <a href='#Page_79'>79-82</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sister&rsquo;s Gift, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111-113</a>.</li>
+  <li>Skyrin, Nancy, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.</li>
+  <li>Smart, Christopher, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.</li>
+  <li>Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li>
+  <li>Smollett, Tobias, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li>
+  <li>Song for the Red Coats, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</li>
+  <li>Songs for the Nursery, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</li>
+  <li>Southern Rose, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.</li>
+  <li>Souvenir, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</li>
+  <li>Sparrow, The, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</li>
+  <li>Star Spangled Banner, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stevenson, Robert Louis, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stir the Mush, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stone, William L., <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stories and Tales, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stories for Children, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</li>
+  <li>Strahan, William, <a href='#Page_61'>61-63</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Tale</span>, A: The Political Balance, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tales and Essays, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Taylor, Ann, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</li>
+  <li>Taylor, Jane, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tell Tale, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.</li>
+  <li><a name="corr6" id="corr6"></a><ins class="correction" title="Thackeray">Thackerary</ins>, W.&nbsp;M., <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>.</li>
+  <li>Thomas, Isaiah, <a href='#Page_18'>18-20</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102-104</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116-118</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>,
+<a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+  <li>Thompson, John, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</li>
+  <li>Thoughts on Education, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</li>
+  <li>Three Stories for Children, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</li>
+  <li>Todd, John, D.&nbsp;D., <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li>
+  <li>Token, The, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Token for Children, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+  <li>Token for the Children of New England, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</li>
+  <li>Token for Youth, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tom Hick-a-Thrift, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tom Jones, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tom the Piper&rsquo;s Son, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tom Thumb, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tommy Trapwit, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tommy Trip, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.</li>
+  <li>Track the Rabbit, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+  <li>Trimmer, Sarah, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.</li>
+  <li>Trip&rsquo;s Book of Pictures, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li>
+  <li>Triumphs of Love, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Troy (N.&nbsp;Y.) Sentinel, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.</li>
+  <li>Twelve Caesars, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Twice Told Tales, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li>
+  <li>Two Lambs, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+  <li>Two Shoemakers, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</li>
+  <li>Tyler, Moses Coit, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Unterhaltungen</span> f&uuml;r Deutsche Kinder, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+  <li>Urax, or the Fair Wanderer, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Valentine</span> and Orson, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Verplanck, Gulian C., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+  <li>Vicar of Wakefield, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</li>
+  <li>Violet, The, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Waddell</span>, J., <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+  <li>Walks of Usefulness, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</li>
+  <li>Walters and Norman, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li>
+  <li>Walton&rsquo;s Lives, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li>
+  <li>Warner and Hanna, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Washington, George, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</li>
+  <li>Waste Not, Want Not, <a href='#Page_156'>156-158</a>.</li>
+  <li>Watts, Isaac, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li>
+  <li>Way to Wealth, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</li>
+  <li>Webster, Noah, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</li>
+  <li>Weekly Mercury, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.</li>
+  <li>Weekly Post-Boy, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li>
+  <li>Weems&rsquo;s Life of George Washington, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</li>
+  <li>Well Spent Hour, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wells, Anna M., <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wells, Robert, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</li>
+  <li>Welsh, Charles, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.</li>
+  <li>West, Benjamin, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</li>
+  <li>Westminster Review, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li>
+  <li>Westminster Shorter Catechism, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li>
+  <li>White, William, D.&nbsp;D., <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.</li>
+  <li>Whitefield, George, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.</li>
+  <li>Widdows, P., <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wilder, Mary, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</li>
+  <li>Willis, Nathaniel P., <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+  <li>Winslow, Anna Green, <a href='#Page_81'>81-83</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.</li>
+  <li>Winter Evenings&rsquo; Entertainment, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wonder Book, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wonderful Traveller, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></li>
+  <li>Wonders of Nature and Art, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wood, Samuel, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wood, Samuel, and Sons, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li>
+  <li>Wood-engraving in America, <a href='#Page_166'>166-169</a>.</li>
+  <li>Woodhouse, William, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li>
+  <li>Worcester Magazine, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Xenophon</span>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Young</span>, William, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</li>
+  <li>Young Child&rsquo;s A B C, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</li>
+  <li>Young Christian Series, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.</li>
+  <li>Young Gentlemen and Ladies&rsquo; Magazine, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</li>
+  <li>Youth&rsquo;s Companion, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.</li>
+  <li>Youth&rsquo;s Divine Pastime, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</li>
+  <li>Youth&rsquo;s Keepsake, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li><span class="smcap">Zentler</span>, publisher, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div style="background-color: #EEE; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em;">
+<p class="center noindent"><a name="note" id="note"></a><b>Transcriber&rsquo;s&nbsp;Note</b></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Misspelled words and typographical errors:</p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 0%;" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="typos">
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">Page</td>
+  <td>Error</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#corr1">ix</a></td>
+  <td>Edmands for Edmunds</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#corr2">46</a></td>
+  <td>Newbury for Newbery</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#corr3">102</a></td>
+  <td>Missing period: &ldquo;to a boy But&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#corr4">158</a></td>
+  <td>Paragraph ends with , &ldquo;her own generation,&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#corr5">208</a></td>
+  <td>Sentence ends with a comma: &ldquo;the originator of these
+verses,&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#corr6">243</a></td>
+  <td>Thackerary for Thackeray</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">Inconsistent hyphenation:</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">folk-lore / folklore<br />
+school-fellows / schoolfellows<br />
+school-masters / schoolmasters<br />
+small-pox / smallpox<br />
+wood-cut / woodcut</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 17857-h.txt or 17857-h.zip *******</p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,8148 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Forgotten Books of the American Nursery, by
+Rosalie V. Halsey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Forgotten Books of the American Nursery
+       A History of the Development of the American Story-Book
+
+
+Author: Rosalie V. Halsey
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2006  [eBook #17857]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN
+NURSERY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jason Isbell, Julia Miller, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 17857-h.htm or 17857-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857/17857-h/17857-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857/17857-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   A number of typographical errors have been maintained in the
+   current version of this book. A complete list is found at the
+   end of the text.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY
+
+A History of the Development of the American Story-Book
+
+by
+
+ROSALIE V. HALSEY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _The Devil and the Disobedient Child_]
+
+
+
+
+Boston
+Charles E. Goodspeed & Co.
+1911
+Copyright, 1911, by C.E. Goodspeed & Co.
+Of this book seven hundred copies were printed in November
+1911, by D.B. Updike, at The Merrymount Press, Boston
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                                             PAGE
+
+  I.  Introductory                                                     3
+
+ II.  The Play-Book in England                                        33
+
+III.  Newbery's Books in America                                      59
+
+ IV.  Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery                     89
+
+  V.  The Child and his Book at the End of the Eighteenth Century    121
+
+ VI.  Toy-Books in the early Nineteenth Century                      147
+
+VII.  American Writers and English Critics                           191
+
+      Index                                                          233
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_The Devil and the Disobedient Child_                       Frontispiece
+  From "The Prodigal Daughter." Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5,
+  Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?]
+
+                                                                  Facing
+                                                                    Page
+_The Devil appears as a French Gentleman_                             26
+  From "The Prodigal Daughter." Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5,
+  Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?]
+
+_Title-page from "The Child's New Play-thing"_                        44
+  Printed by J. Draper; J. Edwards in Boston [1750]. Now in the
+  New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
+
+_Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_                       47
+  Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the New
+  York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
+
+_A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_                           49
+  Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the New
+  York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
+
+_John Newbery's Advertisement of Children's Books_                    60
+  From the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of November 15, 1750
+
+_Title-page of "The New Gift for Children"_                           70
+  Printed by Zechariah Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of
+  the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
+
+_Miss Fanny's Maid_                                                   74
+  Illustration from "The New Gift for Children," printed by Zechariah
+  Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of the Historical Society
+  of Pennsylvania
+
+_A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by Isaiah
+Thomas_                                                              106
+  From "The Picture Exhibition," Worcester, MDCCLXXXVIII
+
+_Illustration of Riddle XIV_                                         110
+  From "The Puzzling-Cap," printed by John Adams, Philadelphia, 1805
+
+_Frontispiece from "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes"_          117
+  From one of _The First Worcester Edition_, printed by Isaiah
+  Thomas in MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the Library of the Historical
+  Society of Pennsylvania
+
+_Sir Walter Raleigh and his Man_                                     125
+  Copper-plate illustration from "Little Truths," printed in
+  Philadelphia by J. and J. Crukshank in 1800
+
+_Foot Ball_                                                          126
+  Copper-plate illustration from "Youthful Recreations," printed in
+  Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson about 1802
+
+_Jacob Johnson's Book-Store in Philadelphia about 1800_              155
+
+_A Wall-paper Book-Cover_                                            165
+  From "Lessons for Children from Four to Five Years Old," printed
+  in Wilmington (Delaware) by Peter Brynberg in 1804
+
+_Tom the Piper's Son_                                                170
+  Illustration and text engraved on copper by William Charles, of
+  Philadelphia, in 1808
+
+_A Kind and Good Father_                                             172
+  Woodcut by Alexander Anderson for "The Prize for Youthful
+  Obedience," printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson in 1807
+
+_A Virginian_                                                        174
+  Illustration from "People of all Nations," printed in Philadelphia
+  by Jacob Johnson in 1807
+
+_A Baboon_                                                           174
+  Illustration from "A Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds,"
+  printed in Boston by Lincoln and Edmands in 1813
+
+_Drest or Undrest_                                                   176
+  Illustration from "The Daisy," published by Jacob Johnson in 1808
+
+_Little Nancy_                                                       182
+  Probably engraved by William Charles for "Little Nancy, or, the
+  Punishment of Greediness," published in Philadelphia by Morgan &
+  Yeager about 1830
+
+_Children of the Cottage_                                            196
+  Engraved by Joseph I. Pease for "The Youth's Sketch Book,"
+  published in Boston by Lilly, Wait and Company in 1834
+
+_Henrietta_                                                          200
+  Engraved by Thomas Illman for "The American Juvenile Keepsake,"
+  published in Brockville, U.C., by Horace Billings & Co. in 1835
+
+_A Child and her Doll_                                               206
+  Illustration from "Little Mary," Part II, published in Boston by
+  Cottons and Barnard in 1831
+
+_The Little Runaway_                                                 227
+  Drawn and engraved by J.W. Steel for "Affection's Gift," published
+  in New York by J.C. Riker in 1832
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_Introductory_
+
+
+
+
+    Thy life to mend
+    This _book_ attend.
+            _The New England Tutor_
+                     London (1702-14)
+
+    To be brought up in fear
+    And learn A B C.
+             FOXE, _Book of Martyrs_
+
+
+
+
+_Forgotten Books of the American Nursery_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_Introductory_
+
+
+A shelf full of books belonging to the American children of colonial
+times and of the early days of the Republic presents a strangely
+unfamiliar and curious appearance. If chronologically placed, the
+earliest coverless chap-books are hardly noticeable next to their
+immediate successors with wooden sides; and these, in turn, are
+dominated by the gilt, silver, and many colored bindings of diminutive
+dimensions which hold the stories dear to the childish heart from
+Revolutionary days to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then
+bright blue, salmon, yellow, and marbled paper covers make a vivid
+display which, as the century grows older, fades into the sad-colored
+cloth bindings thought adapted to many children's books of its second
+quarter.
+
+An examination of their contents shows them to be equally foreign to
+present day ideas as to the desirable characteristics for children's
+literature. Yet the crooked black type and crude illustrations of the
+wholly religious episodes related in the oldest volumes on the shelf, the
+didactic and moral stories with their tiny type-metal, wood, and
+copper-plate pictures of the next groups; and the "improving" American
+tales adorned with blurred colored engravings, or stiff steel and wood
+illustrations, that were produced for juvenile amusement in the early
+part of the nineteenth century,--all are as interesting to the lover of
+children as they are unattractive to the modern children themselves. The
+little ones very naturally find the stilted language of these old stories
+unintelligible and the artificial plots bewildering; but to one
+interested in the adult literature of the same periods of history an
+acquaintance with these amusement books of past generations has a
+peculiar charm and value of its own. They then become not merely
+curiosities, but the means of tracing the evolution of an American
+literature for children.
+
+To the student desiring an intimate acquaintance with any civilized
+people, its lighter literature is always a great aid to personal
+research; the more trivial, the more detailed, the greater the worth to
+the investigator are these pen-pictures as records of the nation he
+wishes to know. Something of this value have the story-books of
+old-fashioned childhood. Trivial as they undoubtedly are, they
+nevertheless often contain our best sketches of child-life in the
+eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,--a life as different from that
+of a twentieth century child as was the adult society of those old days
+from that of the present time. They also enable us to mark as is possible
+in no other way, the gradual development of a body of writing which,
+though lagging much behind the adult literature, was yet also affected by
+the local and social conditions in America.
+
+Without attempting to give the history of the evolution of the A B C
+book in England--the legitimate ancestor of all juvenile books--two main
+topics must be briefly discussed before entering upon the proper matter
+of this volume. The first relates to the family life in the early days
+of the Massachusetts Commonwealth, the province that produced the first
+juvenile book. The second topic has to do with the literature thought
+suitable for children in those early Puritan days. These two subjects
+are closely related, the second being dependent upon the first. Both are
+necessary to the history of these quaint toy volumes, whose stories lack
+much meaning unless the conditions of life and literature preceding them
+are understood.
+
+When the Pilgrim Fathers, seeking freedom of faith, founded their first
+settlements in the new country, one of their earliest efforts was
+directed toward firmly establishing their own religion. This, though
+nominally free, was eventually, under the Mathers, to become a theocracy
+as intolerant as that faith from which they had fled. The rocks upon
+which this religion was builded were the Bible and the Catechism. In
+this history of toy-books the catechism is, however, perhaps almost the
+more important to consider, for it was a product of the times, and
+regarded as indispensable to the proper training of a family.
+
+The Puritan conception of life, as an error to be rectified by suffering
+rather than as a joy to be accepted with thanksgiving, made the
+preparation for death and the dreadful Day of Judgment the chief end of
+existence. The catechism, therefore, with its fear-inspiring description
+of Hell and the consequences of sin, became inevitably the chief means of
+instructing children in the knowledge of their sinful inheritance. In
+order to insure a supply of catechisms, it was voted by the members of
+the company in sixteen hundred and twenty-nine, when preparing to
+emigrate, to expend "3 shillings for 2 dussen and ten catechismes."[6-A]
+A contract was also made in the same year with "sundry intended ministers
+for catechising, as also in teaching, or causing to be taught the
+Companyes servants & their children, as also the salvages and their
+children."[6-B] Parents, especially the mothers, were continually
+exhorted in sermons preached for a century after the founding of the
+colony, to catechize the children every day, "that," said Cotton Mather,
+"you may be continually dropping something of the _Catechism_ upon them:
+Some Honey out of the Rock"! Indeed, the learned divine seems to have
+regarded it as a soothing and toothsome morsel, for he even imagined that
+the children cried for it continuously, saying: _"O our dear Parents,
+Acquaint us with the Great God.... Let us not go from your Tender Knees,
+down to the Place of Dragons. Oh! not Parents, but Ostriches: Not
+Parents, but Prodigies."_[6-C]
+
+Much dissension soon arose among the ministers of the settlements as to
+which catechism should be taught. As the result of the discussion the
+"General Corte," which met in sixteen hundred and forty-one, "desired
+that the elders would make a catechism for _the instruction of youth in
+the grounds of religion_."[6-D]
+
+To meet this request, several clergymen immediately responded. Among
+them was John Cotton, who presumably prepared a small volume which was
+entitled "_Milk for Babes_. Drawn out of the Breast of Both Testaments.
+Chiefly for the spiritual nourishment of _Boston_ Babes in either
+England: But may be of like use for any children." For the present
+purpose the importance of this little book lies in the supposition that
+it was printed at Cambridge, by Daye, between sixteen hundred and
+forty-one and sixteen hundred and forty-five, and therefore was the
+first book of any kind written and printed in America for children;--an
+importance altogether different from that attached to it by the author's
+grandson, Cotton Mather, when he asserted that "Milk for Babes" would be
+"valued and studied and improved till New England cease to be New
+England."[7-A]
+
+To the little colonials this "Catechism of New England" was a great
+improvement upon any predecessor, even upon the Westminster Shorter
+Catechism, for it reduced the one hundred and seven questions of that
+famous body of doctrine to sixty-seven, and the longest answer in "Milk
+for Babes" contained only eighty-four words.[7-B]
+
+As the century grew older other catechisms were printed. The number
+produced before the eighteenth century bears witness to the diverse
+views in a community in which they were considered an essential for
+every member, adult or child. Among the six hundred titles roughly
+computed as the output of the press by seventeen hundred in the new
+country, eleven different catechisms may be counted, with twenty
+editions in all; of these the titles of four indicate that they were
+designed for very little children. In each community the pastor
+appointed the catechism to be taught in the school, and joined the
+teacher in drilling the children in its questions and answers. Indeed,
+the answers were regarded as irrefutable in those uncritical days, and
+hence a strong shield and buckler against manifold temptations provided
+by "yt ould deluder Satan." To offset the task of learning these
+doctrines of the church, it is probable that the mothers regaled the
+little ones with old folk-lore tales when the family gathered together
+around the great living-room fire in the winter evening, or asked
+eagerly for a bedtime story in the long summer twilight. Tales such as
+"Jack the Giant Killer," "Tom Thumb," the "Children in the Wood," and
+"Guy of Warwick," were orally current even among the plain people of
+England, though frowned upon by many of the Puritan element. Therefore
+it is at least presumable that these were all familiar to the colonists.
+In fact, it is known that John Dunton, in sixteen hundred and
+eighty-six, sold in his Boston warehouse "The History of Tom Thumb,"
+which he facetiously offered to an ignorant customer "in folio with
+Marginal notes." Besides these orally related tales of enchantment, the
+children had a few simple pastimes, but at first the few toys were
+necessarily of home manufacture. On the whole, amusements were not
+encouraged, although "In the year sixteen hundred and ninety-five Mr.
+Higginson," writes Mrs. Earle, "wrote from Massachusetts to his brother
+in England, that if toys were imported in small quantity to America,
+they would sell." And a venture of this character was certainly made by
+seventeen hundred and twelve in Boston. Still, these were the exception
+in a commonwealth where amusements were considered as wiles of the
+Devil, against whom the ministers constantly warned the congregations
+committed to their charge.
+
+Home in the seventeenth century--and indeed in the eighteenth
+century--was a place where for children the rule "to be seen, not
+heard," was strictly enforced. To read Judge Sewall's diary is to be
+convinced that for children to obtain any importance in life, death was
+necessary. Funerals of little ones were of frequent occurrence, and were
+conducted with great ceremony, in which pomp and meagre preparation were
+strangely mingled. Baby Henry Sewall's funeral procession, for instance,
+included eight ministers, the governor and magistrates of the county,
+and two nurses who bore the little body to the grave, into which, half
+full of water from the raging storm, the rude coffin was lowered. Death
+was kept before the eyes of every member of the colony; even
+two-year-old babies learned such mournful verse as this:
+
+   "I, in the Burying Place may See
+    Graves Shorter than I;
+    From Death's Arrest no age is free
+    Young Children too may die;
+    My God, may such an awful Sight
+    Awakening be to me!
+    Oh! that by Grace I might
+    For Death prepared be."
+
+When the younger members of the family are otherwise mentioned in the
+Judge's diary, it is perhaps to note the parents' pride in the
+eighteen-months-old infant's knowledge of the catechism, an acquirement
+rewarded by the gift of a red apple, but which suggests the reason for
+many funerals. Or, again, difficulties with the alphabet are sorrowfully
+put down; and also deliquencies at the age of four in attending family
+prayer, with a full account of punishments meted out to the culprit.
+Such details are, indeed, but natural, for under the stern conditions
+imposed by Cotton and the Mathers, religion looms large in the
+foreground of any sketch of family life handed down from the first
+century of the Massachusetts colony. Perhaps the very earliest picture
+in which a colonial child with a book occupies the centre of the canvas
+is that given in a letter of Samuel Sewall's. In sixteen hundred and
+seventy-one he wrote with pride to a friend of "little Betty, who though
+Reading passing well, took Three Moneths to Read the first Volume of the
+Book of Martyrs" as she sat by the fire-light at night after her daily
+task of spinning was done. Foxe's "Martyrs" seems gruesome reading for a
+little girl at bedtime, but it was so popular in England that, with the
+Bible and Catechism, it was included in the library of all households
+that could afford it.
+
+Just ten years later, in sixteen hundred and eighty-one, Bunyan's
+"Pilgrim's Progress" was printed in Boston by Samuel Green, and, being
+easily obtainable, superseded in a measure the "Book of Martyrs" as a
+household treasure. Bunyan's dream, according to Macaulay, was the daily
+conversation of thousands, and was received in New England with far
+greater eagerness than in the author's own country. The children
+undoubtedly listened to the talk of their elders and gazed with
+wide-open eyes at the execrable plates in the imported editions
+illustrating Christian's journey. After the deaths by fire and sword of
+the Martyrs, the Pilgrim's difficulties in the Slough of Despond, or
+with the Giant Despair, afforded pleasurable reading; while Mr. Great
+Heart's courageous cheerfulness brought practically a new characteristic
+into Puritan literature.
+
+To Bunyan the children in both old and New England were indebted for
+another book, entitled "A Book for Boys and Girls: or, Country Rhimes
+for Children. By J.B. Licensed and Entered according to Order."[11-A]
+Printed in London, it probably soon made its way to this country, where
+Bunyan was already so well known. "This little octavo volume," writes
+Mrs. Field in "The Child and his Book," "was considered a perfect
+child's book, but was in fact only the literary milk of the unfortunate
+babes of the period." In the light of modern views upon juvenile reading
+and entertainment, the Puritan ideal of mental pabulum for little ones
+is worth recording in an extract from the preface. The following lines
+set forth this author's three-fold purpose:
+
+   "To show them how each Fingle-fangle,
+    On which they doting are, their souls entangle,
+    As with a Web, a Trap, a Gin, or Snare.
+    While by their Play-things, I would them entice,
+    To mount their Thoughts from what are childish Toys
+    To Heaven for that's prepar'd for Girls and Boys.
+    Nor do I so confine myself to these
+    As to shun graver things, I seek to please,
+    Those more compos'd with better things than Toys:
+    Tho thus I would be catching Girls and Boys."
+
+In the seventy-four Meditations composing this curious medley--"tho but
+in Homely Rhimes"--upon subjects familiar to any little girl or boy,
+none leaves the moral to the imagination. Nevertheless, it could well
+have been a relaxation, after the daily drill in "A B abs" and
+catechism, to turn the leaves and to spell out this:
+
+    UPON THE FROG
+
+    The Frog by nature is both damp and cold,
+    Her mouth is large, her belly much will hold,
+    She sits somewhat ascending, loves to be
+    Croaking in gardens tho' unpleasantly.
+
+   _Comparison_
+
+    The hypocrite is like unto this frog;
+    As like as is the Puppy to the Dog.
+    He is of nature cold, his mouth is wide
+    To prate, and at true Goodness to deride.
+
+Doubtless, too, many little Puritans quite envied the child in "The Boy
+and the Watchmaker," a jingle wherein the former said, among other
+things:
+
+   "This Watch my Father did on me bestow
+    A Golden one it is, but 'twill not go,
+    Unless it be at an Uncertainty;
+    I think there is no watch as bad as mine.
+    Sometimes 'tis sullen, 'twill not go at all,
+    And yet 'twas never broke, nor had a fall."
+
+The same small boys may even have enjoyed the tedious explanation of the
+mechanism of the time-piece given by the _Watchmaker_, and after
+skipping the "Comparison" (which made the boy represent a convert and
+the watch in his pocket illustrative of "Grace within his Heart"), they
+probably turned eagerly to the next Meditation _Upon the Boy and his
+Paper of Plumbs_. Weather-cocks, Hobby-horses, Horses, and Drums, all
+served Bunyan in his effort "to point a moral" while adorning his tales.
+
+In a later edition of these grotesque and quaint conceptions, some
+alterations were made and a primer was included. It then appeared as "A
+Book for Boys and Girls; or Temporal Things Spiritualized;" and by the
+time the ninth edition was reached, in seventeen hundred and twenty-four,
+the book was hardly recognizable as "Divine Emblems; or Temporal Things
+Spiritualized."
+
+At present there is no evidence that these rhymes were printed in the
+colonies until long after this ninth edition was issued. It is possible
+that the success attending a book printed in Boston shortly after the
+original "Country Rhimes" was written, made the colonial printers feel
+that their profit would be greater by devoting spare type and paper to
+the now famous "New England Primer." Moreover, it seems peculiarly in
+keeping with the cast of the New England mind of the eighteenth century
+that although Bunyan had attempted to combine play-things with religious
+teaching for the English children, for the little colonials the first
+combination was the elementary teaching and religious exercises found in
+the great "Puritan Primer." Each child was practically, if not verbally,
+told that
+
+    "This little Catechism learned by heart (for so it ought)
+    The Primer next commanded is for Children to be taught."
+
+The Primer, however, was not a product wholly of New England. In sixteen
+hundred and eighty-five there had been printed in Boston by Green, "The
+Protestant Tutor for Children," a primer, a mutilated copy of which is
+now owned by the American Antiquarian Society. "This," again to quote
+Mr. Ford, "was probably an abridged edition of a book bearing the same
+title, printed in London, with the expressed design of bringing up
+children in an aversion to Popery." In Protestant New England the
+author's purpose naturally called forth profound approbation, and in
+"Green's edition of the Tutor lay the germ of the great picture alphabet
+of our fore-fathers."[14-A] The author, Benjamin Harris, had immigrated
+to Boston for personal reasons, and coming in contact with the
+residents, saw the latent possibilities in "The Protestant Tutor." "To
+make it more salable," writes Mr. Ford in "The New England Primer," "the
+school-book character was increased, while to give it an even better
+chance of success by an appeal to local pride it was rechristened and
+came forth under the now famous title of 'The New England
+Primer.'"[14-B]
+
+A careful examination of the titles contained in the first volume of
+Evans's "American Bibliography" shows how exactly this infant's primer
+represented the spirit of the times. This chronological list of American
+imprints of the first one hundred years of the colonial press is largely
+a record in type of the religious activity of the country, and is
+impressive as a witness to the obedience of the press to the law of
+supply and demand. With the Puritan appetite for a grim religion served
+in sermons upon every subject, ornamented and seasoned with supposedly
+apt Scriptural quotations, a demand was created for printed discourses
+to be read and inwardly digested at home. This demand the printers
+supplied. Amid such literary conditions the primer came as light food
+for infants' minds, and as such was accepted by parents to impress
+religious ideas when teaching the alphabet.
+
+It is not by any means certain that the first edition of this great
+primer of our ancestors contained illustrations, as engravers were few
+in America before the eighteenth century. Yet it seems altogether
+probable that they were introduced early in the next century, as by
+seventeen hundred and seventeen Benjamin Harris, Jr., had printed in
+Boston "The Holy Bible in Verse," containing cuts identical with those
+in "The New England Primer" of a somewhat later date, and these pictures
+could well have served as illustrations for both these books for
+children's use, profit, and pleasure. At all events, the thorough
+approval by parents and clergy of this small school-book soon brought to
+many a household the novelty of a real picture-book.
+
+Hitherto little children had been perforce content with the few
+illustrations the adult books offered. Now the printing of this tiny
+volume, with its curious black pictures accompanying the text of
+religious instruction, catechism, and alphabets, marked the milestone on
+the long lane that eventually led to the well-drawn pictures in the
+modern books for children.
+
+It is difficult at so late a day to estimate correctly the pleasure this
+famous picture alphabet brought to the various colonial households. What
+the original illustrations were like can only be inferred from those in
+"The Holy Bible in Verse," and in the later editions of the primer
+itself. In the Bible Adam (or is it Eve?) stands pointing to a tree
+around which a serpent is coiled. By seventeen hundred and thirty-seven
+the engraver was sufficiently skilled to represent two figures, who
+stand as colossal statues on either side of the tree whose fruit had
+such disastrous effects. However, at a time when art criticism had no
+terrors for the engraver, it could well have been a delight to many a
+family of little ones to gaze upon
+
+   "The Lion bold
+    The Lamb doth hold"
+
+and to speculate upon the exact place where the lion ended and the lamb
+began. The wholly religious character of the book was no drawback to its
+popularity, for the two great diaries of the time show how absolutely
+religion permeated the atmosphere surrounding both old and young.
+
+Cotton Mather's diary gives various glimpses of his dealing with his own
+and other people's children. His son Increase, or "Cressy," as he was
+affectionately called, seems to have been particularly unresponsive to
+religious coercion. Mather's method, however, appears to have been more
+efficacious with the younger members of his family, and of Elizabeth and
+Samuel (seven years of age) he wrote: "My two younger children shall
+before the Psalm and prayer answer a Quaestion in the catechism; and have
+their Leaves ready turned unto the proofs of the Answer in the Bible;
+which they shall distinctly read unto us, and show what they prove. This
+also shall supply a fresh matter for prayer." Again he tells of his
+table talk: "Tho' I will have my table talk facetious as well as
+instructive ... yett I will have the Exercise continually intermixed. I
+will set before them some sentence of the Bible, and make some useful
+Remarks upon it." Other people's children he taught as occasion offered;
+even when "on the Road in the Woods," he wrote on another day, "I, being
+desirous to do some Good, called some little children ... and bestowed
+some Instruction with a little Book upon them." To children accustomed
+to instruction at all hours, the amusement found in the pages of the
+primer was far greater than in any other book printed in the colonies
+for years.
+
+Certain titles indicate the nature of the meagre juvenile literary fare
+in the beginning of the new eighteenth century. In seventeen hundred
+Nicholas Boone, in his "Shop over against the old Meeting-house" in
+Boston, reprinted Janeway's "Token for Children." To this was added by
+the Boston printer a "Token for the children of New England, or some
+examples of children in whom the fear of God was remarkably budding when
+they dyed; in several parts of New England." Of course its author, the
+Reverend Mr. Mather, found colonial "examples" as deeply religious as
+any that the mother country could produce; but there is for us a grim
+humor in these various incidents concerning pious and precocious infants
+"of thin habit and pale countenance," whose pallor became that of death
+at so early an age. If it was by the repetition of such tales that the
+Puritan divine strove to convert Cressy, it may well be that the son
+considered it better policy, since Death claimed the little saints, to
+remain a sinner.
+
+By seventeen hundred and six two juvenile books appeared from the press
+of Timothy Green in Boston. The first, "A LITTLE BOOK for
+children wherein are set down several directions for little children:
+and several remarkable stories both ancient and modern of little
+children, divers whereof are lately deceased," was a reprint from an
+English book of the same title, and therefore has not in this chronicle
+the interest of the second book. The purpose of its publication is given
+in Mather's diary:
+
+     [1706] 22d. Im. Friday.
+
+     About this Time sending my little son to School, Where ye Child was
+     Learning to Read, I did use every morning for diverse months, to
+     Write in a plain Hand for the Child, and send thither by him, _a
+     Lesson in Verse_, to be not only _read_, but also _Gott_ by Heart.
+     My proposal was to have the Child improve in goodness, at the same
+     time that he improved in _Reading_. Upon further Thoughts I
+     apprehended that a Collection of some of them would be serviceable
+     to ye Good Education of other children. So I lett ye printer take
+     them & print them, in some hope of some Help to thereby contributed
+     unto that great Intention of a _Good Education_. The book is
+     entituled _Good Lessons for Children_; or Instruction provided for a
+     little Son to learn at School, when learning to Read.
+
+Although this small book lives only by record, it is safe to assume from
+the extracts of the author's diary already quoted, that it lacked every
+quality of amusement, and was adapted only to those whom he described,
+in a sermon preached before the Governor and Council, as "verie Sharpe
+and early Ripe in their capacities." "Good Lessons" has the distinction
+of being the first American book to be composed, like many a modern
+publication, for a particular young child; and, with its purpose "to
+improve in goodness," struck clearly the keynote of the greater part of
+all writing for children during the succeeding one hundred and
+seventy-five years.
+
+The first glimpse of the amusement book proper appears in that unique
+"History of Printing in America," by Isaiah Thomas. This describes,
+among other old printers, one Thomas Fleet, who established himself in
+Boston about 1713. "At first," wrote Mr. Thomas, "he printed pamphlets
+for booksellers, small books for children and ballads" in Pudding
+Lane.[19-A] "He owned several negroes, one of which ... was an ingenious
+man and cut on wooden blocks all the pictures which decorated the
+ballads and small books for his master."[19-B] As corroborative of these
+statements Thomas also mentions Thomas Fleet, Sr., as "the putative
+compiler of Mother Goose Melodies, which he first published in 1719,
+bearing the title of 'Songs for the Nursery.'"
+
+Much discussion has arisen as to the earliest edition of Mother Goose.
+Thomas's suggestion as to the origin of the first American edition has
+been of late years relegated to the region of myth. Nevertheless, there
+is something to be said in favor of the existence of some book of
+nonsense at that time. The Boston "News Letter" for April 12-19, 1739,
+contained a criticism of Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms, in
+which the reviewer wrote that in Psalm VI the translators used the
+phrase, "a wretch forlorn." He added: "(1) There is nothing of this in
+the original or the English Psalter. (2) 'Tis a low expression and to
+add a low one is the less allowable. But (3) what I am most concerned
+for is, that it will be apt to make our Children think of the line in
+their vulgar Play song; much like it, 'This is the maiden all forlorn.'"
+We recognize at once a reference to our nursery friend of the "House
+that Jack Built;" and if this and "Tom Thumb" were sold in Boston, why
+should not other ditties have been among the chap-books which Thomas
+remembered to have set up when a 'prentice lad in the printing-house of
+Zechariah Fowle, who in turn had copied some issued previously by Thomas
+Fleet? In further confirmation of Thomas's statement is a paragraph in
+the preface to an edition of Mother Goose, published in Boston in 1833,
+by Monroe & Francis. The editor traces the origin of these rhymes to a
+London book entitled, "Rhymes for the Nursery or Lullabies for
+Children," "that," he writes, "contained many of the identical pieces
+handed down to us." He continues: "The first book of the kind known to
+be printed in this country _bears_ [_the italics are mine_] the title,
+'_Songs for the Nursery: or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children_.'
+Something probably intended to represent a goose, with a very long neck
+and mouth wide open, covered a large part of the title-page; at the
+bottom of which was: 'Printed by T. Fleet, at his printing house,
+Pudding Lane (Boston) 1719.' Several pages were missing, so that the
+whole number could not be ascertained." The editor clearly writes as if
+he had either seen, or heard accurately described, this piece of
+_Americana_, which the bibliophile to-day would consider a treasure
+trove. Later writers doubt whether any such book existed, for it is
+hardly credible that the Puritan element which so largely composed the
+population of Boston in the first quarter of the eighteenth century
+would have encouraged the printing of any nonsensical jingles.
+
+Boston, however, was not at this time the only place in the colonies
+where primers and religious books were written and printed. In
+Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford, famous as the founder of the "American
+Weekly Mercury," had in 1714 put through his press, probably upon
+subscription, the "Last Words and Dyeing Expressions of Hannah Hill,
+aged 11 years and near three Months." This morbid account of the death
+of a little Quakeress furnished the Philadelphia children with a book
+very similar to Mather's "Token." Not to be outdone by any precocious
+example in Pennsylvania, the Reverend Mr. Mather soon found an instance
+of "Early Piety in Elizabeth Butcher of Boston, being just 8 years and
+11 months old," when she died in 1718. In two years two editions of her
+life had been issued "to instruct and to invite little children to the
+exercise of early piety."
+
+Such mortuary effusions were so common at the time that Benjamin
+Franklin's witty skit upon them is apropos in this connection. In 1719,
+at the age of sixteen, under the pseudonym of Mrs. Dogood, he wrote a
+series of letters for his brother's paper, "The New England Courant."
+From the following extract, taken from these letters, it is evident that
+these children's "Last Words" followed the prevailing fashion:
+
+     _A Receipt_ to make a _New England_
+     Funeral _Elegy_.
+
+     _For the title of your Elegy_. Of these you may have enough ready
+     made at your Hands: But if you should chuse to make it yourself you
+     must be sure not to omit the Words _Aetatis Suae_, which will
+     beautify it exceedingly.
+
+     _For the subject of your Elegy_. Take one of your neighbors who has
+     lately departed this life; it is no great matter at what age the
+     Party Dy'd, but it will be best if he went away suddenly, being
+     _Kill'd_, _Drown'd_ or _Froze to Death_.
+
+     Having chosen the Person, take all his Virtues, Excellencies, &c.
+     and if he have not enough, you may borrow some to make up a
+     sufficient Quantity: To these add his last Words, dying Expressions,
+     &c. if they are to be had: mix all these together, and be sure you
+     strain them well. Then season all with a Handful or two of
+     Melancholy Expressions, such as _Dreadful, Dreadly, cruel, cold,
+     Death, unhappy, Fate, weeping Eyes_, &c. Having mixed all these
+     Ingredients well, put them in an empty Scull of some _young
+     Harvard_; (but in case you have ne'er a One at Hand, you may use
+     your _own_,) then let them Ferment for the Space of a Fortnight, and
+     by that Time they will be incorporated into a Body, which take out
+     and having prepared a sufficient Quantity of double Rhimes, such as
+     _Power, Flower; Quiver, Shiver; Grieve us, Leave us; tell you, excel
+     you; Expeditions, Physicians; Fatigue him, Intrigue him_; &c. you
+     must spread all upon Paper, and if you can procure a Scrap of Latin
+     to put at the _End_, it will garnish it mightily: then having
+     affixed your Name at the bottom with a _Maestus Composuit_, you will
+     have an Excellent Elegy.
+
+     N.B. This Receipt will serve when a Female is the subject of your
+     Elegy, provided you borrow a greater Quantity of Virtues,
+     Excellencies &c.
+
+Of other original books for children of colonial parents in the first
+quarter of that century, "A Looking-glass" did but mirror more religious
+episodes concerning infants, while Mather in his zeal had also published
+"An Earnest Exhortation" to New England children, and "The A, B, C, of
+religion. Fitted unto the youngest and lowest capacities." To this,
+taking advantage of the use of rhymes, he appended further instruction,
+including "The Body of Divinity versified." With our knowledge of the
+clergyman's methods with his congregation it is not difficult to imagine
+that he insisted upon the purchase of these godly aids for every
+household.
+
+In attempting to reproduce the conditions of family life in the early
+settlements and towns of colonial days, we turn quite naturally to the
+newspapers, whose appearance in the first quarter of the eighteenth
+century was gladly welcomed by the people of their time, and whose files
+are now eagerly searched for items of great or small importance. Indeed,
+much information can be gathered from their advertisements, which often
+filled the major part of these periodicals. Apparently shop-keepers were
+keen to take advantage of such space as was reserved for them, as
+sometimes a marginal note informed the public that other advertisements
+must wait for the next issue to appear.
+
+Booksellers' announcements, however, are not too frequent in Boston
+papers, and are noticeably lacking in the early issues of the
+Philadelphia "Weekly Mercury." This dearth of book-news accounts for the
+difficulty experienced by book-lovers of that town in procuring
+literature--a lack noticed at once by the wide-awake young Franklin upon
+his arrival in the city, and recorded in his biography as follows:
+
+"At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania [1728] there was not a
+bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In
+New York and Phil'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only
+paper, etc., ballads, and a few books. Those who lov'd reading were
+obliged to send for their books from London."
+
+Franklin undertook to better this condition by opening a shop for the
+sale of foreign books. Both he and his rival in journalism, Andrew
+Bradford, had stationer's shops, in which were to be had besides "Good
+Writing Paper; Cyphering Slates; Ink Powders, etc., Chapmens Books and
+Ballads." Bradford also advertised in seventeen hundred and thirty that
+all persons could be supplied with "Primers and small Histories of many
+sorts." "Small histories" were probably chap-books, which, hawked about
+the country by peddlers or chapmen, contained tales of "Fair Rosamond,"
+"Jane Grey," "Tom Thumb" or "Tom Hick-a-Thrift," and though read by old
+and young, were hardly more suitable for juvenile reading than the
+religious elegies then so popular. These chap-books were sold in
+considerable quantities on account of their cheapness, and included
+religious subjects as well as tales of adventure.
+
+One of the earliest examples of this chap-book literature, thought
+suitable for children, was printed in the colonies by the press of
+Thomas Fleet, already mentioned as a printer of small books. This book
+of 1736, being intended for ready sale, was such as every Puritan would
+buy for the family library. Entitled "The Prodigal Daughter," it told in
+Psalm-book metre of a "proud, vain girl, who, because her parents would
+not indulge her in all her extravagances, bargained with the devil to
+poisen them." The parents, however, were warned by an angel of her
+intentions:
+
+   "One night her parents sleeping were in bed
+    Nothing but troubled dreams run in their head,
+    At length an angel did to them appear
+    Saying awake, and unto me give ear.
+    A messenger I'm sent by Heaven kind
+    To let you know your lives are both design'd;
+    Your graceless child, whom you love so dear,
+    She for your precious lives hath laid a snare.
+    To poison you the devil tempts her so,
+    She hath no power from the snare to go:
+    But God such care doth of his servants take,
+    Those that believe on Him He'll not forsake.
+
+   "You must not use her cruel or severe,
+    For though these things to you I do declare,
+    It is to show you what the Lord can do,
+    He soon can turn her heart, you'll find it so."
+
+The daughter, discovered in her attempt to poison their food, was
+reproached by the mother for her evil intention and swooned. Every
+effort failed to "bring her spirits to revive:"
+
+   "Four days they kept her, when they did prepare
+    To lay her body in the dust we hear,
+    At her funeral a sermon then was preach'd,
+    All other wicked children for to teach....
+    But suddenly they bitter groans did hear
+    Which much surprized all that then were there.
+    At length they did observe the dismal sound
+    Came from the body just laid in the ground."
+
+The Puritan pride in funeral display is naively exhibited in the
+portrayal of the girl when she "in her coffin sat, and did admire her
+winding sheet," before she related her experiences "among lonesome wild
+deserts and briary woods, which dismal were and dark." But immediately
+after her description of the lake of burning misery and of the fierce
+grim Tempter, the Puritan matter-of-fact acceptance of it all is
+suggested by the concluding lines:
+
+   "When thus her story she to them had told,
+    She said, put me to bed for I am cold."
+
+The illustrations of a later edition entered thoroughly into the spirit
+of the author's intent. The contemporary opinion of the French character
+is quaintly shown in the portrait of the Devil dressed as a French
+gentleman, his cloven foot discovering his identity. Whatever
+deficiencies are revealed in these early attempts to illustrate, they
+invariably expressed the artist's purpose, and in this case the Devil,
+after the girl's conversion, is drawn in lines very acceptable to
+Puritan children's idea of his personality.
+
+Almanacs also were in demand, and furnished parents and children, in
+many cases, with their entire library for week-day reading. "Successive
+numbers hung from a string by the chimney or ranked by years and
+generations on cupboard shelves."[26-A] But when Franklin made "Poor
+Richard" an international success, he, by giving short extracts from
+Swift, Steele, Defoe, and Bacon, accustomed the provincial population,
+old and young, to something better than the meagre religious fare
+provided by the colonial press.
+
+Such, then, were the literary conditions for children when an
+advertisement inserted in the "Weekly Mercury" gave promise of better
+days for the little Philadelphians.[26-B] Strangely enough, this attempt
+to make learning seem attractive to children did not appear in the
+booksellers' lists; but crowded in between Tandums, Holland Tapes,
+London Steel, and good Muscavado Sugar,--"Guilt horn books" were
+advertised by Joseph Sims in 1740 as "for sale on reasonable Terms for
+Cash."
+
+[Illustration: _The Devil appears as a French Gentleman_]
+
+Horn-books in themselves were only too common, and not in the least
+delightful. Made of thin wood, whereon was placed a printed sheet of
+paper containing the alphabet and Lord's Prayer, a horn-book was hardly,
+properly speaking, a book at all. But when the printed page was covered
+with yellowish transparent horn, secured to the wooden back by strips of
+brass, it furnished an economical and practically indestructible
+elementary text-book for thousands of English-speaking children on both
+sides of the Atlantic. Sometimes an effort was also made to guard
+against the inconvenient faculty of children for losing school-books, by
+attaching a cord, which, passing through a hole in the handle of the
+board, was hung around the scholar's neck. But since nothing is proof
+against the ingenuity of a schoolboy, many were successfully disposed
+of. Although printed by thousands, few in England or in America have
+survived the century that has elapsed since they were used.
+Occasionally, in tearing down an old building, one of these horn-books
+has been found; dropped in a convenient hole, it has remained secure
+from parents' sight, until brought to light by workmen and prized as a
+curiosity by grown people of the present generation. This notice of
+little gilt horn-books was inserted in the "Weekly Mercury" but once.
+Whether the supply was quickly exhausted, or whether they did not prove
+a successful novelty, can never be known; but at least they herald the
+approach of the little gilt story-books which ten years later were to
+make the name of John Newbery well known in English households, and
+hardly less familiar in the American colonies.
+
+So far the only attractions to induce children to read have been through
+the pictures in the Primer of New England, and by the gilding of the
+horn-book. From further south comes the first note of amusement in
+reading, as well as the first expression of pleasure from the children
+themselves in regard to a book. In 1741, in Virginia, two letters were
+written and received by R.H. Lee and George Washington. These letters,
+which afford the first in any way authentic account of tales of real
+entertainment, are given by Mr. Lossing in "The Home of Washington," and
+tell their own tale:
+
+
+     [_Richard Henry Lee to George Washington_]
+
+     PA brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them
+     in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and
+     elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send you one
+     of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little indian boy on
+     his back like uncle jo's Sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he
+     will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your ma to let
+     you come to see me.
+
+     RICHARD HENRY LEE.
+
+
+     [_G. Washington to R.H. Lee_]
+
+     DEAR DICKEY--I thank you very much for the pretty picture
+     book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed
+     him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame Elephant
+     took care of the Master's little boy, and put him on his back and
+     would not let anybody touch his master's little son. I can read
+     three or four pages sometimes without missing a word.... I have a
+     little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me but I
+     mustn't tell you who wrote the poetry.
+
+         G.W.'s compliments to R.H.L.
+         And likes his book full well,
+         Henceforth will count him his friend
+         And hopes many happy days he may spend.
+
+     Your good friend
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+In a note Mr. Lossing states that he had copies of these two letters,
+sent him by a Mr. Lee, who wrote: "The letter of Richard Henry Lee was
+written by himself, and uncorrected sent by him to his boy friend George
+Washington. The poetical effusion was, I have heard, written by a Mr.
+Howard, a gentleman who used to visit at the house of Mr. Washington."
+
+It would be gratifying to know the titles of these two books, so
+evidently English chap-book tales. It is probable that they were
+imported by a shop-keeper in Alexandria, as in seventeen hundred and
+forty-one there was only one press in Virginia, owned by William Sharps,
+who had moved from Annapolis in seventeen hundred and thirty-six.
+Luxuries were so much more common among the Virginia planters, and life
+was so much more roseate in hue than was the case in the northern
+colonies, that it seems most natural that two southern boys should have
+left the earliest account of any real story-books. Though unfortunately
+nameless, they at least form an interesting coincidence. Bought in
+seventeen hundred and forty-one, they follow just one hundred years
+later than the meeting of the General Court, which was responsible for
+the preparation of Cotton's "Milk for Babes," and precede by a century
+the date when an American story-book literature was recognized as very
+different from that written for English children.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6-A] _Records of Mass. Bay_, vol. i, p. 37 h.
+
+[6-B] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 37 e.
+
+[6-C] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 83.
+
+[6-D] _Records of Mass. Bay_, vol. i, p. 328.
+
+[7-A] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 92.
+
+[7-B] _Ibid._
+
+[11-A] In the possession of the British Museum.
+
+[14-A] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 38.
+
+[14-B] _Ibid._
+
+[19-A] Thomas, _History of Printing in America_, vol. iii, p. 145.
+
+[19-B] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 294.
+
+[26-A] Sears, _American Literature_, p. 86.
+
+[26-B] Although this appears to be the first advertisement of gilt
+horn-books in Philadelphia papers, an inventory of the estate of Michael
+Perry, a Boston bookseller, made in seventeen hundred, includes sixteen
+dozen gilt horn-books.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+1747-1767
+
+
+
+
+    He who learns his letters fair,
+    Shall have a coach and take the air.
+             _Royal Primer_, Newbery, 1762
+
+    Our king the good
+    No man of blood.
+             _The New England Primer_, 1762
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+1747-1767
+
+_The Play-Book in England_
+
+
+The vast horde of story-books so constantly poured into modern nurseries
+makes it difficult to realize that the library of the early colonial
+child consisted of such books as have been already described. The
+juvenile books to-day are multiform. The quantities displayed upon
+shop-counters or ranged upon play-room shelves include a variety of
+subjects bewildering to all but those whose business necessitates a
+knowledge of this kind of literature. For the little child there is no
+lack of gayly colored pictures and short tales in large print; for the
+older boys and girls there lies a generous choice, ranging from Bunny
+stories to Jungle Books, or they
+
+   "May see how all things are,
+    Seas and cities near and far.
+    And the flying fairies' looks
+    In the picture story-books."
+
+The contrast is indeed extreme between that scanty fare of dull sermons
+and "The New England Primer" given to the little people of the early
+eighteenth century, and this superabundance prepared with lavish care
+for the nation of American children.
+
+The beginning of this complex juvenile literature is, therefore, to be
+regarded as a comparatively modern invention of about seventeen hundred
+and forty-five. From that date can be traced the slow growth of a
+literature written with an avowed intention of furnishing amusement as
+well as instruction; and in the toy-books published one hundred and
+fifty years ago are found the prototypes of the present modes of
+bringing fun and knowledge to the American fireside.
+
+The question at once arises as to the reason why this literature came
+into existence; why was it that children after seventeen hundred and
+fifty should have been favored in a way unknown to their parents?
+
+To even the casual reader of English literature the answer is plain, if
+this subject of toy-books be regarded as of near kin to the larger body
+of writing. It has been somewhat the custom to consider children's
+literature as a thing wholly apart from that of adults, probably because
+the majority of the authors of these little tales have so generally
+lacked the qualities indispensable for any true literary work. In
+reality the connection between the two is somewhat like that of parent
+and child; the smaller body, though lacking in power, has closely
+imitated the larger mass of writing in form and kind, and has reflected,
+sometimes clearly, sometimes dimly, the good or bad fashions that have
+shared the successive periods of literary history, like a child who
+unconsciously reproduces a parent's foibles or excellences.
+
+It is to England, then, that we must look to find the conditions out of
+which grew the necessity for this modern invention--the story-book.
+
+The love of stories has been the splendid birthright of every child in
+all ages and in all lands. "Stories," wrote Thackeray,--"stories exist
+everywhere; there is no calculating the distance through which the
+stories have come to us, the number of languages through which they have
+been filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many
+of them have been narrated almost in their present shape for thousands
+of years to the little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to
+their mothers under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow
+Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring
+in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northern Vikings
+as they lay on their shields on deck; and the Arabs couched under the
+stars on the Syrian plains when their flocks were gathered in, and their
+mares were picketed by the tents." This picturesque description leads
+exactly to the point to be emphasized: that children shared in the
+simple tales of their people as long as those tales retained their
+freshness and simplicity; but when, as in England in the eighteenth
+century, the literature lost these qualities and became artificial,
+critical, and even skeptical, it lost its charm for the little ones and
+they no longer cared to listen to it.
+
+Fashion and taste were then alike absorbed in the works of Dryden, Pope,
+Addison, Steele, and Swift, and the novels from the pens of Richardson,
+Fielding, and Smollett had begun to claim and to hold the attention of
+the English reading public. The children, however, could neither
+comprehend nor enjoy the witty criticism and subtle treatment of the
+topics discussed by the older men, although, as will be seen in another
+chapter, the novels became, in both the original and in the abridged
+forms, the delight of many a "young master and miss." Meanwhile, in the
+American colonies the people who could afford to buy books inherited
+their taste for literature as well as for tea from the Puritans and
+fashionables in the mother country; although it is a fact familiar to
+all, that the works of the comparatively few native authors lagged, in
+spirit and in style, far behind the writings of Englishmen of the time.
+
+The reading of one who was a boy in the older era of the urbane Addison
+and the witty Pope, and a man in the newer period of the novelists, is
+well described in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. "All the little
+money," wrote that book-lover, "that came into my hands was laid out in
+books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my collection was of John
+Bunyan's works in separate volumes. I afterwards sold them to buy R.
+Burton's Historical Collections; they were Chapmen's books, and cheap,
+40 or 50 in all."
+
+Burton's "Historical Collections" contained history, travels,
+adventures, fiction, natural history, and biography. So great was the
+favor in which they were held in the eighteenth century that the
+compiler, Nathaniel Crouch, almost lost his identity in his pseudonym,
+and like the late Mr. Clemens, was better known by his nom-de-plume than
+by his family name. According to Dunton, he "melted down the best of the
+English histories into twelve-penny books, which are filled with
+wonders, rarities and curiosities." Although characterized by Dr.
+Johnson as "very proper to allure backward readers," the contents of
+many of the various books afforded the knowledge and entertainment
+eagerly grasped by Franklin and other future makers of the American
+nation. The scarcity of historical works concerning the colonies made
+Burton's account of the "English Empire in America" at once a mine of
+interest to wide-awake boys of the day. Number VIII, entitled "Winter
+Evenings' Entertainment," was long a source of amusement with its
+stories and riddles, and its title was handed down to other books of a
+similar nature. To children, however, the best-known volume of the
+series was Burton's illustrated versification of Bible stories called
+"The Youth's Divine Pastime." But the subjects chosen by Burton were
+such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no
+euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable "Pastime
+for Youth." The literature read by English children was, of course, the
+same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of
+knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting.
+
+To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and
+indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John
+Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent
+medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially
+for the amusement of little children.
+
+While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks
+in England, in the colonies the idea of a child's need of recreation
+through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner
+in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery's books
+as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of
+which there is record.
+
+In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely
+confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses
+delivered on Sunday and "Catechize days," and afterwards printed for
+larger circulation. The reprints from English publications were such
+exotics as, "A Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden," an alluring title, which
+did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious
+nature of its contents.
+
+In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so
+little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the
+popularity of Watts's "Divine Songs" (issued by an Englishman) is well
+attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child's
+books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in
+Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some
+entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published "The
+Parents' Gift, containing a choice collection of God's judgments and
+Mercies," lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added
+a "variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of
+Children." This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America
+that pictures were commendable to parents _because_ entertaining to
+their offspring. Such an idea put into words upon paper and advertised
+in so well-read a sheet as the "Boston Evening Post," must surely have
+impressed fathers and mothers really solicitous for the family welfare
+and anxious to provide harmless pleasure. This pictorial element was
+further encouraged by Franklin, when, in 1747, he reprinted, probably
+for the first time in this country, "Dilworth's New Guide to the English
+Tongue." In this school-book, after the alphabets and spelling lessons,
+a special feature was introduced, that is, illustrated "Select Fables."
+The cuts at the top of each fable possess an added interest from the
+supposition that they were engraved by the printer himself; and the
+constant use of the "Guide" by colonial school-masters and mistresses
+made their pupils unconsciously quite ready for more illustrated and
+fewer homiletic volumes.
+
+Indeed, before the middle of the century pictures had become an accepted
+feature of the few juvenile books, and "The History of the Holy Jesus"
+versified for little ones was issued by at least two old Boston printers
+in 1747 and 1748 with more than a dozen cuts. Among the rare extant
+copies of this small chap-book is one that, although torn and disfigured
+by tiny fingers and the century and a half since it pleased its first
+owner, bears the personal touch of this inscription "Ebenezer ... Bought
+June ... 1749 ... price 0=2=d." Was the price marked upon its page as a
+reminder that two shillings was a large price to pay for a boy's book?
+Perhaps for this reason it received the careful handling that has
+enabled us to examine it, when so many of its contemporaries and
+successors have vanished.
+
+The versified story, notwithstanding its quaintness of diction, begins
+with a dignified directness:
+
+   "The glorious blessed Time had come,
+    The Father had decreed,
+    Jesus of _Mary_ there was born,
+    And in a Manger laid."
+
+
+At the end are two _Hymns_, entitled "Delight in the Lord Jesus," and
+"Absence from Christ intolerable." The final stanza is typical of one
+Puritan doctrine:
+
+   "The Devil throws his fiery Darts,
+    And wicked Ones do act their parts,
+    To ruin me when Christ is gone,
+    And leaves me all alone."
+
+The woodcuts are not the least interesting feature of this old-time
+duodecimo, from the picture showing the mother reading to her children
+to the illustration of the quaking of the earth on the day of the
+crucifixion. Crude and badly drawn as they now seem, they were surely
+sufficient to attract the child of their generation.
+
+About the same time old Zechariah Fowle, who apprenticed Isaiah Thomas,
+and both printed and vended chap-books in Back Street, Boston,
+advertised among his list of books "Lately Publish'd" this same small
+book, together with "A Token for Youth," the "Life and Death of
+Elizabeth Butcher," "A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of
+Childhood and Youth," "The Prodigal Daughter," "The Happy Child," and
+"The New Gift for Children with Cuts." Of these "The New Gift" was
+certainly a real story-book, as one of a later edition still extant
+readily proves.
+
+Thus the children in both countries were prepared to enjoy Newbery's
+miniature story-books, although for somewhat different reasons: in
+England the literature had reached a point too artificial to be
+interesting to little ones; in America the product of the press and the
+character of the majority of the juvenile importations, the reprints, or
+home-made chap-books, has been shown to be such as would hardly attract
+those who were to be the future arbiters of the colonies' destiny.
+
+The reasons for the coming to light of this new form of infant
+literature have been dwelt upon in order to show the necessity for some
+change in the kind of reading-matter to be put in the hands of the
+younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is
+next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in
+England,--a phase largely due to the influence of one man,--and once
+there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction.
+
+Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of
+children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was
+probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher,
+John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public
+opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the
+well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke's
+ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to
+compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, "The Child's
+New Play-thing," with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke,
+without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers
+and readers (such as "Dilworth's Guide"), and then onward to
+story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his letters
+under the title of "Thoughts on Education."
+
+In these letters Locke took an extraordinary course: he first made a
+quaint plea for the _general welfare_ of Mr. Clarke's little son. "I
+imagine," he wrote, "the minds of children are as easily turned this or
+that way as Water itself, and though this be the principal Part, and our
+main Care should be about the inside, yet the Clay Cottage is not to be
+neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and consider first the
+_Health_ of the body." Under Health he discussed clothing, including
+thin shoes, "that they may leak and let in Water." A pause was then
+made to show the benefits of wet feet as against the apparent
+disadvantages of filthy stockings and muddy boots; for mothers even in
+that time were inclined to consider their floors and steps. Bathing next
+received attention. Bathing every day in cold water, Locke regarded as
+exceedingly desirable; no exceptions were to be made, even in the case
+of a "puleing and tender" child. The beneficial effects of air,
+sunlight, the establishment of good conduct, diet, sleep, and "physick"
+were all discussed by the doctor and philosopher, before the development
+of the mind was touched upon. "Education," he wrote, "concerns itself
+with the forming of Children's Minds, giving them that seasoning early,
+which shall influence their Lives later." This seasoning referred to the
+training of children in matters pertaining to their general government
+and to the reverence of parents. For the Puritan population it was
+undoubtedly a shock to find Locke interesting himself in, and moreover
+advocating, dancing as a part of a child's education; and worst of all,
+that he should mention it before their hobby, LEARNING. In this
+connection it is worth while to make mention of a favorite primer,
+which, published about the middle of the eighteenth century, was
+entitled "The Hobby Horse." Locke was quite aware that his method would
+be criticised, and therefore took the bull by the horns in the following
+manner. He admitted that to put the subject of learning last was a cause
+for wonder, "especially if I tell you I think it the least part. This
+may seem strange in the mouth of a bookish man, and this making usually
+the chief, if not only bustle and stir about children; this being almost
+that alone, which is thought on, when People talk about Education, make
+it the greater Paradox." An unusual piece of advice it most surely was
+to parents to whose children came the task of learning to read as soon
+as they were given spoon-food.
+
+Even more revolutionary to the custom of an eighteenth century mother
+was the admonition that reading "be never made a Task." Locke, however,
+was not the man to urge a cure for a bad habit without prescribing a
+remedy, so he went on to say that it was always his "Fancy that Learning
+be made a Play and Recreation to Children"--a "Fancy" at present much in
+vogue. To accomplish this desirable result, "Dice and Play-things with
+the Letters on them" were recommended to teach children the alphabet;
+"and," he added, "twenty other ways may be found ... to make this kind
+of Learning a Sport to them." Letter-blocks were in this way made
+popular, and formed the approved and advanced method until in these
+latter days pedagogy has swept aside the letter-blocks and syllabariums
+and carried the sport to word-pictures.
+
+This theory had a practical result in the introduction to many households
+of "The Child's New Play-thing." This book, already mentioned, was
+printed in England in seventeen hundred and forty-three, and dedicated to
+Prince George. In seventeen hundred and forty-four we find through the
+"Boston Evening Post" of January 23 that the third edition was sold by
+Joseph Edwards, in Cornhill, and it was probably from this edition that
+the first American edition was printed in seventeen hundred and fifty.
+From the following description of this American reprint (one of which is
+happily in the Lenox Collection), it will be seen that the "Play-thing"
+was an attempt to follow Locke's advice, as well as a connecting link
+between the primer of the past and the story-book of the near future.
+
+The title, which the illustration shows, reads, "The Child's New
+Play-thing being a spelling-book intended to make Learning to read a
+diversion instead of a task. Consisting of Scripture-histories, fables,
+stories, moral and religious precepts, proverbs, songs, riddles,
+dialogues, &c. The whole adapted to the capacities of children, and
+divided into lessons of one, two, three and four syllables. The fourth
+edition. To which is added three dialogues; 1. Shewing how a little boy
+shall make every body love him. 2. How a little boy shall grow wiser than
+the rest of his school-fellows. 3. How a little boy shall become a great
+man. Designed for the use of schools, or for children before they go to
+school."
+
+[Illustration: _Title-page from "The Child's new Play-Thing"_]
+
+Coverless and faded, hard usage is written in unmistakable characters
+upon this play-thing of a whole family. Upon a fly-leaf are the
+autographs of "Ebenezer Ware and Sarah Ware, Their Book," and upon
+another page these two names with the addition of the signatures of
+"Ichabod Ware and Cyrus Ware 1787." One parent may have used it when it
+was fresh from the press of Draper & Edwards in Boston; then, through
+enforced economy, handed it down to the next generation, who doubtless
+scorned the dedication so eminently proper in seventeen hundred and
+fifty, so thoroughly out of place thirty-seven years later. There it
+stands in large black type:
+
+  To his ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE GEORGE This Little
+        Play-thing is most humbly dedicated
+                         By
+                His ROYAL HIGHNESS'S
+                  Devoted Servant
+
+Of especial interest are the alphabets in "Roman, Italian, and English
+Names" on the third page, while page four contains the dear old alphabet
+in rhyme, fortunately not altogether forgotten in this prosaic age. We
+recognize it as soon as we see it.
+
+   "A Apple-Pye
+    B bit it
+    C cut it,"
+
+and involuntarily add, D divided it. After the spelling lessons came
+fables, proverbs, and the splendid "Stories proper to raise the
+Attention and excite the Curiosity of Children" of any age; namely, "St.
+George and the Dragon," "Fortunatus," "Guy of Warwick," "Brother and
+Sister," "Reynard the Fox," "The Wolf and the Kid." "The Good Dr.
+Watts," writes Mrs. Field, "is supposed to have had a hand in the
+composition of this toy book especially in the stories, one of which is
+quite in the style of the old hymn writer." Here it is:
+
+     "Once on a time two dogs went out to walk. Tray was a good dog, and
+     would not hurt the least thing in the world, but Snap was cross, and
+     would snarl and bite at all that came in his way. At last they came
+     to a town. All the dogs came round them. Tray hurt none of them, but
+     Snap would grin at one, snarl at the next, and bite a third, till at
+     last they fell on him and tore him limb from limb, and as poor Tray
+     was with him, he met with his death at the same time.
+
+     _Moral_
+
+     "By this fable you see how dangerous it is to be in company with bad
+     boys. Tray was a quiet harmless dog, and hurt nobody, but,
+     &c."[45-A]
+
+Thus we find that Locke sowed the seed, Watts watered the soil in which
+the seed fell, and that Newbery, after mixing in ideas from his very
+fertile brain, soon reaped a golden harvest from the crop of readers,
+picture-books, and little histories which he, with the aid of certain
+well-known authors, produced.
+
+According to his biographer, Mr. Charles Welsh, John Newbery was born in
+a quaint parish of England in seventeen hundred and thirteen. Although
+his father was only a small farmer, Newbury inherited his bookish tastes
+from an ancestor, Ralph or Rafe Newbery, who had been a great publisher
+of the sixteenth century. Showing no inclination toward the life of a
+farmer, the boy, at sixteen, had already entered the shop of a merchant
+in Reading. The name of this merchant is not known, but inference points
+to Mr. Carnan, printer, proprietor, and editor of one of the earliest
+provincial newspapers. In seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, at the
+death of Carnan, John Newbery, then about twenty-four years of age,
+found himself one of the proprietor's heirs and an executor of the
+estate. Carnan left a widow, to whom, to quote her son, Newbery's "love
+of books and acquirements as a printer rendered him very acceptable."
+The amiable and well-to-do widow and Newbery were soon married, and
+their youngest son, Francis Newbery, eventually succeeded his father in
+the business of publishing.
+
+[Illustration: _Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]
+
+Shortly after Newbery's marriage his ambition and enterprise resulted in
+the establishment of his family in London, where, in seventeen hundred
+and forty-four, he opened a warehouse at _The Bible and Crown_, near
+Devereux Court, without Temple Bar. Meanwhile he had associated
+himself with Benjamin Collins, a printer in Salisbury. Collins both
+planned and printed some of Newbery's toy volumes, and his name likewise
+was well-known to shop-keepers in the colonies. Newbery soon found that
+his business warranted another move nearer to the centre of trade. He
+therefore combined two establishments into one at the now celebrated
+corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, and at the same time decided to confine
+his attention exclusively to book publishing and medicine vending.
+
+Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least
+one book for juvenile readers. The title reads: "Little Pretty
+Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master
+Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack
+the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will
+infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is
+prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents,
+Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making
+their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy." To this
+extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope,
+probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the
+title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a
+finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.
+A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even
+Newbery's original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what
+he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of
+spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not
+without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was
+to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury
+and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make
+a better choice.
+
+[Illustration: _A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]
+
+The manner in which the "Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is written is so
+characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the
+younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine
+briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in
+the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine
+instruction with amusement. The book itself is miniature in size, about
+two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers--Newbery's own
+specialty as a binding. The sixty-five little illustrations at the top
+of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth
+century child, although they were crude in execution and especially
+lacked true perspective. The first chapter after the "Address to
+Parents" and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives
+letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly. First, Tommy is congratulated
+upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as
+to the use of the "Pocket-Book," "which will teach you to play at all
+those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with."
+The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with
+pins upon a red and black ball. Little Polly is then given similar
+congratulations and instructions, except that in her case a pincushion
+is to be substituted for a ball. Then follow thirty pages devoted to
+"alphabetically digested" games, from "The _great A Play_" and "The
+_Little_ _a Play_" to "The _great and little Rs_," when plays, or the
+author's imagination, give out and rhymes begin the alphabet anew.
+Modern picture alphabets have not improved much upon this jingle:
+
+   "Great A, B and C
+    And tumble down D,
+    The Cat's a blind buff,
+    And she cannot see."
+
+Next in order are four fables with morals (written in the guise of
+letters), for in Newbery's books and in those of a much later period, we
+feel, as Mr. Welsh writes, a "strong determination on the part of the
+authors to place the moral plainly in sight and to point steadily to
+it." Pictures also take a leading part in this effort to inculcate good
+behaviour; thus _Good Children_ are portrayed in cuts, which accompany
+the directions for attaining perfection. Proverbs, having been hitherto
+introduced into school-books, appear again quite naturally in this
+source of diversion, which closes--at least in the American
+edition--with sixty-three "Rules for Behaviour." These rules include
+those suitable for various occasions, such as "At the Meeting-House,"
+"Home," "The Table," "In Company," and "When abroad with other
+Children." To-day, when many such rules are as obsolete as the tiny
+pages themselves, this chapter affords many glimpses of the customs and
+etiquette of the old-fashioned child's life. Such a direction as "Be not
+hasty to run out of Meeting-House when Worship is ended, as if thou
+weary of being there" (probably an American adaptation of the English
+original), recalls the well-filled colonial meeting-house, where weary
+children sat for hours on high seats, with dangling legs, or screwed
+their small bodies in vain efforts to touch the floor. Again we can see
+the anxious mothers, when, after the long sermon was brought to a close,
+they put restraining hands upon the little ones, lest they, in haste to
+be gone, should forget this admonition. The formalism of the time is
+suggested in this request, "Make a Bow always when come Home, and be
+instantly uncovered," for the ceremony of polite manners in these
+bustling days has so much relaxed that the modern boy does all that is
+required if he remembers to be "instantly uncovered when come Home."
+Among the numerous other requirements only one more may be cited--a rule
+which reveals the table manners of polite society in its requisite for
+genteel conduct: "Throw not anything under the Table. Pick not thy teeth
+at the Table, unless holding thy Napkin before thy mouth with thine
+other Hand." With such an array of intellectual and moral contents, the
+little "Pocket-Book" may appear to-day to be almost anything except an
+amusement book. Yet this was the phase that the English play-book first
+assumed, and it must not be forgotten that English prose fiction was
+only then coming into existence, except such germs as are found in the
+character sketches in the "Spectator" and in the cleverly told incidents
+by Defoe.
+
+In 1744, when Newbery published this duodecimo, Dr. Samuel Johnson was
+the presiding genius of English letters; four years earlier, fiction had
+come prominently into the foreground with the publication of "Pamela" by
+Samuel Richardson; and between seventeen hundred and forty and seventeen
+hundred and fifty-two, Richardson's "Clarissa Harlowe," Smollett's
+"Roderick Random" and "Peregrine Pickle," and Fielding's "Tom Jones" were
+published. This fact may seem irrelevant to the present subject;
+nevertheless, the idea of a veritable story-book, that is a book relating
+a tale, does not seem to have entered Newbery's mind until after these
+novels had met with a deserved and popular success.
+
+The result of Newbery's first efforts to follow Locke's advice was so
+satisfactory that his wares were sought most eagerly. "Very soon," said
+his son, Francis Newbery, "he was in the full employment of his talents
+in writing and publishing books of amusement and instruction for
+Children. The call for them was immense, an edition of many thousands
+being sometimes exhausted during the Christmas holidays. His friend, Dr.
+Samuel Johnson, who, like other grave characters, could now and then be
+jocose, had used to say of him, 'Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I
+know not whether he has read or written most Books.'"[51-A]
+
+The bookseller was no less clever in his use of other people's wits. No
+one knows how many of the tiny gilt bindings covered stories told by
+impecunious writers, to whom the proceeds in times of starvation were
+bread if not butter. Newbery, though called by Goldsmith "the
+philanthropic publisher of St. Paul's Churchyard," knew very well the
+worth to his own pocket of these authors' skill in story-writing. Between
+the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen hundred and
+sixty-seven, the English publisher was at the height of his prosperity;
+his name became a household word in England, and was hardly less well
+known to the little colonials of America.
+
+Newbery's literary associations, too, were both numerous and important.
+Before Oliver Goldsmith began to write for children, he is thought to
+have contributed articles for Newbery's "Literary Magazine" about
+seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, while Johnson's celebrated "Idler"
+was first printed in a weekly journal started by the publisher about the
+same time. For the "British Magazine" Newbery engaged Smollett as
+editor. In this periodical appeared Goldsmith's "History of Miss
+Stanton." When later this was published as "The Vicar of Wakefield," it
+contained a characterization of the bookseller as a good-natured man
+with red, pimpled face, "who was no sooner alighted than he was in haste
+to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and he
+was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of Mr.
+Thomas Trip."[52-A] With such an acquaintance it is probable that
+Newbery often turned to Goldsmith, Giles Jones, and Tobias Smollett for
+assistance in writing or abridging the various children's tales; even
+the pompous Dr. Johnson is said to have had a hand in their
+production--since he expressed a wish to do so. Newbery himself,
+however, assumed the responsibility as well as the credit of so many
+little "Histories," that it is exceedingly difficult to fix upon the
+real authors of some of the best-known volumes in the publisher's
+juvenile library.
+
+The histories of "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Tommy Trip" (once such nursery
+favorites, and now almost, if not quite, forgotten) have been attributed
+to various men; but according to Mr. Pearson in "Banbury Chap-Books,"
+Goldsmith confessed to writing both. Certainly, his sly wit and quizzical
+vein of humor seem to pervade "Goody Two-Shoes"--often ascribed to Giles
+Jones--and the notes affixed to the rhymes of Mother Goose before she
+became Americanized. Again his skill is seen in the adaptation of
+"Wonders of Nature and Art" for juvenile admirers; and for "Fables in
+Verse" he is generally considered responsible. As all these tales were
+printed in the colonies or in the young Republic, their peculiarities and
+particularities may be better described when dealing with the issues of
+the American press.
+
+John Newbery, the most illustrious of publishers in the eyes of the
+old-fashioned child, died in 1767, at the comparatively early age of
+fifty-four. Yet before his death he had proved his talent for producing
+at least fifty original little books, to be worth considerably more than
+the Biblical ten talents.
+
+No sketch of Newbery's life should fail to mention another large factor
+in his successful experiment--the insertion in the "London Chronicle"
+and other newspapers of striking and novel advertisements of his gilt
+volumes, which were to be had for "six-pence the price of binding." An
+instance of his skill appeared in the "London Chronicle" for December
+19, 1764-January 1, 1765:
+
+"The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every
+faculty are desired to observe that on the 1st of January, being New
+Year's Day (oh, that we may all lead new lives!) Mr. Newbery intends to
+publish the following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby
+invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the
+Bible and Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard, but those who are naughty to
+have none."[54-A]
+
+Christopher Smart, his brother-in-law, who was an adept in the art of
+puffing, possibly wrote many of the advertisements of new books--notices
+so cleverly phrased that they could not fail to attract the attention of
+many a country shop-keeper. In this way thousands were sold to the
+country districts; and book-dealers in the American commonwealths,
+reading the English papers and alert to improve their trade, imported
+them in considerable quantities.
+
+After Newbery's death, his son, Francis, and Carnan, his stepson,
+carried on the business until seventeen hundred and eighty-eight; from
+that year until eighteen hundred and two Edward Newbery (a nephew of the
+senior Newbery), who in seventeen hundred and sixty-seven had set up a
+rival establishment, continued to publish new editions of the same
+little works. Yet the credit of this experiment of printing juvenile
+stories belongs entirely to the older publisher. Through them he made a
+strong protest against the reading by children of the lax chap-book
+literature, so excellently described by Mr. John Ashton in "Chap-Books
+of the Eighteenth Century;" and although his stories occasionally
+alluded to disagreeable subjects or situations, these were unfortunately
+familiar to his small patrons.
+
+The gay little covers of gilt or parti-colored paper in which this
+English publisher dressed his books expressed an evident purpose to
+afford pleasure, which was increased by the many illustrations that
+adorned the pages and added interest to the contents.
+
+To the modern child, these books give no pleasure; but to those who love
+the history of children of the past, they are interesting for two
+reasons. In them is portrayed something of the life of eighteenth
+century children; and by them the century's difference in point of view
+as to the constituents of a story-book can be gauged. Moreover, all
+Newbery's publications are to be credited with a careful preparation
+that later stories sadly lacked. They were always written with a certain
+art; if the language was pompous, we remember Dr. Johnson; if the style
+was formal, its composition was correct; if the tales lacked ease in
+telling, it was only the starched etiquette of the day reduced to a
+printed page; and if they preached, they at least were seldom vulgar.
+
+The preaching, moreover, was of different character from that of former
+times. Hitherto, the fear of the Lord had wholly occupied the author's
+attention when he composed a book "proper for a child as soon as he can
+read;" now, material welfare was dwelt upon, and a good boy's reward
+came to him when he was chosen the Lord Mayor of London. Good girls were
+not forgotten, and were assured that, like Goody Two-Shoes, they should
+attain a state of prosperity wherein
+
+   "Their Fortune and their Fame would fix
+    And gallop in their Coach and Six."
+
+Goody Two-Shoes, with her particular method of instilling the alphabet,
+and such books as "King Pippin" (a prodigy of learning) may be
+considered as tiny commentaries upon the years when Johnson reigned
+supreme in the realm of learning. These and many others emphasized not
+the effects of piety,--Cotton Mather's forte,--but the benefits of
+learning; and hence the good boy was also one who at the age of five
+spelt "apple-pye" correctly and therefore eventually became a great man.
+
+At the time of Newbery's death it was more than evident that his
+experiment had succeeded, and children's stories were a printed fact.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[45-A] Field, _The Child and his Book_, p. 223.
+
+[51-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 23.
+
+[52-A] Foster, _Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i, p. 244.
+
+[54-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 109.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1750-1776
+
+
+
+
+    Kings should be good
+    Not men of blood.
+             _The New England Primer_, 1791
+
+    If Faith itself has different dresses worn
+    What wonder modes in wit should take their turn.
+             POPE: _Essay on Man_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1750-1776
+
+_Newbery's Books in America_
+
+
+In the middle of the eighteenth century Thursdays were red-letter days
+for the residents of the Quaker town of Philadelphia. On that day Thomas
+Bradford sent forth from the "Sign of the Bible" in Second Street the
+weekly number of the "Pennsylvania Journal," and upon the same day his
+rival journalists, Franklin and Hall, issued the "Pennsylvania Gazette."
+
+On Thursday, the fifteenth of November, seventeen hundred and fifty, Old
+Style, the good people of the town took up their newspapers with
+doubtless a feeling of comfortable anticipation, as they drew their
+chairs to the fireside and began to look over the local occurrences of
+the past week, the "freshest foreign advices," and the various bits of
+information that had filtered slowly from the northern and more southern
+provinces.
+
+On this particular evening the subscribers to both newspapers found a
+trifle more news in the "Journal," but in each paper the same domestic
+items of interest, somewhat differently worded. The latest news from
+Boston was that of November fifth, from New York, November eighth, the
+Annapolis item was dated October tenth, and the few lines from London
+had been written in August.
+
+The "Gazette" (a larger sheet than the "Journal") occasionally had upon
+its first page some timely article of political or local interest. But
+more frequently there appeared in its first column an effusion of no
+local color, but full of sentimental or moral reflections. In this day's
+issue there was a long letter, dated New York, from one who claimed to
+be "Beauty's Votary." This expressed the writer's disappointment that an
+interesting "Piece" inserted in the "Gazette" a fortnight earlier had
+presented in its conclusion "an unexpected shocking Image." The shock to
+the writer it appears was the greater, because the beginning of the
+article had, he thought, promised a strong contrast between "Furious
+Rage in our rough Sex, and Gentle mildness adorn'd with Beauty's charms
+in the other." The rest of the letter was an apostrophe to the fair sex
+in the sentimental and florid language of the period.
+
+To the women, we imagine, this letter was more acceptable than to the
+men, who found the shipping news more to their taste, and noted with
+pleasure the arrival of the ship Carolina and the Snow Strong, which
+brought cargoes valuable for their various industries.
+
+Advertisements filled a number of columns. Among them was one so novel
+in its character that it must have caught the eye of all readers. The
+middle column on the second page was devoted almost entirely to an
+announcement that John Newbery had for "Sale to Schoolmasters,
+Shopkeepers, &c, who buy in quantities to sell again," "The Museum," "A
+new French Primer," "The Royal Battledore," and "The Pretty Book for
+Children." This notice--a reduced fac-simile of which is given--made
+Newbery's debut in Philadelphia; and it must not be forgotten that but a
+short period had elapsed since his first book had been printed in
+England.
+
+[Illustration: _John Newbery's Advertisement of Children's Books_]
+
+Franklin had doubtless heard of the publisher in St. Paul's
+Churchyard through Mr. Strahan, his correspondent, who filled orders for
+him from London booksellers; but the omission of the customary
+announcement of special books as "to be had of the Printer hereof"
+points to Newbery's enterprise in seeking a wider market for his wares,
+and Franklin's business ability in securing the advertisement, as it is
+not repeated in the "Journal."
+
+This "Museum" was probably a newer book than the "Royal Primer,"
+"Battledore," and "Pretty Book," and consequently was more fully
+described; and oddly enough, all of these books are of earlier editions
+than Mr. Welsh, Newbery's biographer, was able to trace in England.
+
+"The Museum" still clings to the same idea which pervaded "The
+Play-thing." Its second title reads: "A private TUTOR for little MASTERS
+and MISSES." The contents show that this purpose was carried out. It
+tutored them by giving directions for reading with eloquence and
+propriety; by presenting "the antient and present State of _Great
+Britain_ with a compendious History of _England_;" by instructing them
+in "the Solar System, geography, Arts and Sciences" and the inevitable
+"Rules for Behaviour, Religion and Morality;" and it admonished them by
+giving the "Dying Words of Great Men when just quitting the Stage of
+Life." As a museum it included descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the
+World, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Tower of
+London, with an ethnological section in the geographical department! All
+of this amusement was to be had for the price of "One Shilling," neatly
+bound, with, thrown in as good measure, "Letters, Tales and Fables
+illustrated with Cuts." Such a library, complete in itself, was a fine
+and most welcome reward for scholarship, when prizes were awarded at the
+end of the school session.
+
+Importations of "Parcels of entertaining books for children" had earlier
+in the year been announced through the columns of the "Gazette;" but
+these importations, though they show familiarity with Newbery's quaint
+phraseology in advertising, probably also included an assortment of such
+little chap-books as "Tom Thumb," "Cinderella" (from the French of
+Monsieur Perrault), and some few other old stories which the children
+had long since appropriated as their own property.
+
+In 1751 we find New York waking up to the appreciation of children's
+books. There J. Waddell and James Parker were apparently the pioneers in
+bringing to public notice the fact that they had for sale little
+novel-books in addition to horn-books and primers; and moreover the
+"Weekly Post-Boy" advertised that these booksellers had "Pretty Books
+for little Masters and Misses" (clearly a Newbery imitation), "with
+Blank Flourished Christmas pieces for Scholars."
+
+But as yet even Franklin had hardly been convinced that the old way of
+imparting knowledge was not superior to the then modern combination of
+amusement and instruction; therefore, although with his partner, David
+Hall, he without doubt sold such children's books as were available, for
+his daughter Sally, aged seven, he had other views. At his request his
+wife, in December, 1751, wrote the following letter to William Strahan:
+
+     MADAM,--I am ordered by my Master to write for him Books
+     for Sally Franklin. I am in Hopes She will be abel to write for
+     herself by the Spring.
+
+       8 Sets of the Perceptor best Edit.
+       8 Doz. of Croxall's Fables.
+       3 Doz. of Bishop Kenns Manual for Winchester School.
+       1 Doz. Familiar Forms, Latin and Eng.
+       Ainsworth's Dictionaries, 4 best Edit.
+       2 Doz. Select Tales and Fables.
+       2 Doz. Costalio's Test.
+       Cole's Dictionarys Latin and Eng. 6 a half doz.
+       3 Doz. of Clarke's Cordery. 1 Boyle's Pliny 2 vols. 8vo.
+       6 Sets of Nature displayed in 7 vols. 12mo.
+       One good Quarto Bibel with Cudes bound in calfe.
+       1 Penrilla. 1 Art of making Common Salt. By Browning.
+
+     My Dafter gives her duty to Mr. Stroyhan and his Lady, and her
+     compliments to Master Billy and all his brothers and Sisters....
+
+     Your humbel Servant
+       DEBORAH FRANKLIN
+
+Little Sally Franklin could not have needed eight dozen copies of
+Aesop's Fables, nor four Ainsworth's Dictionaries, so it is probable
+that Deborah Franklin's far from ready pen put down the book order for
+the spring, and that Sally herself was only to be supplied with the
+"Perceptor," the "Fables," and the "one good Quarto Bibel."
+
+As far as it is now possible to judge, the people of the towns soon
+learned the value of Newbery's little nursery tales, and after seventeen
+hundred and fifty-five, when most of his books were written and
+published, they rapidly gained a place on the family book-shelves in
+America.
+
+By seventeen hundred and sixty Hugh Gaine, printer, publisher, patent
+medicine seller, and employment agent for New York, was importing
+practically all the Englishman's juvenile publications then for sale. At
+the "Bible and Crown," where Gaine printed the "Weekly Mercury," could
+be bought, wholesale and retail, such books as, "Poems for Children
+Three Feet High," "Tommy Trapwit," "Trip's Book of Pictures," "The New
+Year's Gift," "The Christmas Box," etc.
+
+Gaine himself was a prominent printer in New York in the latter half of
+the eighteenth century. Until the Revolution his shop was a favorite one
+and well patronized. But when the hostilities began, the condition of
+his pocket seems to have regulated his sympathies, and he was by turn
+Whig and Tory according to the possession of New York by so-called
+Rebels, or King's Servants. When the British army evacuated New York,
+Gaine, wishing to keep up his trade, dropped the "Crown" from his sign.
+Among the enthusiastic patriots this ruse had scant success. In
+Freneau's political satire of the bookseller, the first verse gives a
+strong suggestion of the ridicule to follow:
+
+   "And first, he was, in his own representation,
+    A printer, once of good reputation.
+    He dwelt in the street called Hanover-Square,
+    (You'll know where it is if you ever was there
+    Next door to the dwelling of Mr. Brownjohn,
+    Who now to the drug-shop of Pluto is gone)
+    But what do I say--who e'er came to town,
+    And knew not Hugh Gaine at the _Bible_ and _Crown_."
+
+A contemporary of, and rival bookseller to, Gaine in seventeen hundred
+and sixty was James Rivington. Mr. Hildeburn has given Rivington a
+rather unenviable reputation; still, as he occasionally printed (?) a
+child's book, Mr. Hildeburn's remarks are quoted:
+
+"Until the advent of Rivington it was generally possible to tell from an
+American Bookseller's advertisement in the current newspapers whether
+the work offered for sale was printed in America or England. But the
+books he received in every fresh invoice from London were 'just
+published by James Rivington' and this form was speedily adopted by
+other booksellers, so that after 1761 the advertisement of books is no
+longer a guide to the issues of the colonial press."
+
+Although Rivington did not set up a press until about seventeen hundred
+and seventy-three,--according to Mr. Hildeburn,--he had a book-shop much
+earlier. Here he probably reprinted the title-page and then put an
+elaborate notice in the "Weekly Mercury" for November 17, 1760, as
+follows:
+
+     JAMES RIVINGTON
+
+     _Bookseller and Stationer from London over against the Golden Key in
+     Hanover Square._
+
+     This day is published, Price, seven Shillings, and sold by the said
+     JAMES RIVINGTON, adorned with two hundred Pictures
+
+           THE
+     FABLES OF AESOP
+
+     with a moral to each Fable in Verse, and an Application in Prose,
+     intended for the Use of the youngest of readers, and proper to be
+     put into the hands of Children, immediately after they have done
+     with the Spelling-Book, it being adapted to their tender Capacities,
+     the Fables are related in a short and lively Manner, and they are
+     recommended to all those who are concerned in the education of
+     Children. This is an entire new Work, elegantly printed and
+     ornamented with much better Cuts than any other Edition of Aesop's
+     Fables. Be pleased to ask for DRAPER'S AESOP.
+
+From such records of parents' care as are given in Mrs. Charles
+Pinckney's letters to her husband's agent in London, and Josiah Quincy's
+reminiscences of his early training, it seems very evident that John
+Locke's advice in "Thoughts on Education" was read and followed at this
+time in the American colonies. Therefore, in accordance with the
+bachelor philosopher's theory as to reading-matter for little children,
+the bookseller recommended the "Fables" to "those concerned in the
+education of children." It is at least a happy coincidence that one of
+the earliest books (as far as is known to the writer), aside from school
+and religious books, issued as published in America for children, should
+have been the one Locke had so heartily recommended. This is what he had
+said many years previously: "When by these gentle ways he begins to
+_read_, some easy pleasant Book, suited to his capacities, should be put
+into his Hands, wherein the Entertainment that he finds might draw him
+on, and reward his Pains in Reading, and yet not such as will fill his
+head with perfectly useless Trumpery, or lay the Principles of Vice and
+Folly. To this Purpose, I think Aesop's Fables the best which being
+Stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may yet afford useful
+Reflections to a grown Man.... If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will
+entertain him much better and encourage him to read." The two hundred
+pictures in Rivington's edition made it, of course, high priced in
+comparison with Newbery's books: but New York then contained many
+families well able to afford this outlay to secure such an acquisition
+to the family library.
+
+Hugh Gaine at this time, as a rule, received each year two shipments of
+books, among which were usually some for children, yet about 1762 he
+began to try his own hand at reprinting Newbery's now famous little
+duodecimos.
+
+In that year we find an announcement through the "New York Mercury" that
+he had himself printed "Divers diverting books for infants." The
+following list gives some idea of their character:
+
+     _Just published by Hugh Gaine_
+
+     A pretty Book for Children; Or an Easy Guide to the English Tongue.
+
+     The private Tutor for little Masters and Misses.
+
+     Food for the Mind; or a new Riddle Book compiled for the use of
+       little Good Boys and Girls in America. By Jack the Giant-Killer,
+       Esq.
+
+     A Collection of Pretty Poems, by Tommy Tag, Esq.
+
+     Aesop's Fables in Verse, with the Conversation of Beasts and Birds,
+       at their several Meetings. By Woglog the great Giant.
+
+     A Little pretty Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master
+       Tommy and pretty Miss Polly, with two Letters from Jack the
+       Giant-Killer.
+
+     Be Merry and Wise: Or the Cream of the Jests. By Tommy Trapwit, Esq.
+
+The title of "Food for the Mind" is of special importance, since in it
+Gaine made a clever alteration by inserting the words "Good Boys and
+Girls in _America_." The colonials were already beginning to feel a
+pride in the fact of belonging to the new country, America, and
+therefore Gaine shrewdly changed the English title to one more likely to
+induce people to purchase.
+
+Gaine and Rivington alone have left records of printing children's
+story-books in the town of New York before the Revolution; but before
+they began to print, other booksellers advertised their invoices of
+books. In 1759 Garrat Noel, a Dutchman, had announced that he had "the
+very prettiest gilt Books for little Masters and Misses that ever were
+invented, full of wit and wisdom, at the surprising low Price of only
+one Shilling each finely bound and adorned with a number of curious
+Cuts." By 1762 Noel had increased his stock and placed a somewhat larger
+advertisement in the "Mercury" of December 27. The late arrival of his
+goods may have been responsible for the bargains he offered at this
+holiday sale.
+
+     GARRAT NOEL _Begs Leave to Inform the Public, that according to
+     his Annual Custom, he has provided a very large Assortment of Books
+     for Entertainment and Improvement of Youth, in Reading, Writing,
+     Cyphering, and Drawing, as Proper Presents at _CHRISTMAS_
+     and _New-Year_._
+
+     The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at _Two
+     Shillings_, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn'd with Cuts.
+
+     [Symbol: hand]Those who buy _Six_, shall have a _Seventh Gratis_,
+     and buying only _Three_, they shall have a present of a fine large
+     Copper-Plate Christmas Piece: [_List of histories follows._]
+
+     The following neat Gilt Books, very instructive and Amusing being
+     full of Pictures, are sold at _Eighteen Pence_ each.
+
+          Fables in Verse and Prose, with the Conversation of Birds &
+          Beasts at their several meetings, Routs and Assemblies for the
+          Improvement of Old and Young, etc.
+
+To-day none of these gay little volumes sold in New York are to be seen.
+The inherent faculty of children for losing and destroying books,
+coupled with the perishable nature of these toy volumes, has rendered
+the children's treasures of seventeen hundred and sixty-two a great
+rarity. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is the fortunate
+possessor of one much prized story-book printed in that year; but though
+it is at present in the Quaker City, a printer of Boston was responsible
+for its production.
+
+In Isaiah Thomas's recollections of the early Boston printers, he
+described Zechariah Fowle, with whom he served his apprenticeship, and
+Samuel Draper, Fowle's partner. These men, about seventeen hundred and
+fifty-seven, took a house in Marlborough Street. Here, according to
+Thomas, "they printed and opened a shop. They kept a great supply of
+ballads, and small pamphlets for book pedlars, of whom there were many
+at that time. Fowle was bred to the business, but he was an indifferent
+hand at the press, and much worse at the case."
+
+This description of the printer's ability is borne out by the "New-Gift
+for Children," printed by this firm. It is probably the oldest
+story-book bearing an American imprint now in existence, and for this
+reason merits description, although its contents can be seen in the
+picture of the title-page. Brown with age and like all chap-books
+without a cover--for it was Newbery who introduced this more durable and
+attractive feature--all sizes in type were used to print its fifteen
+stories. The stories in themselves were not new, as it is called the
+"Fourth edition." It is possible that they were taken from the Banbury
+chap-books, which also often copied Newbery's juvenile library, as the
+list of his publications compiled by Mr. Charles Welsh does not contain
+this title.
+
+The loyalty of the Boston printers found expression on the third page by
+a very black cut of King George the Third, who appears rather puzzled
+and not a little unhappy; but it found favor with customers, for as yet
+the colonials thought their king "no man of blood." On turning the page
+Queen Charlotte looks out with goggle-eyes, curls, and a row of beads
+about the size of pebbles around her thick neck. The picture seems to be
+a copy from some miniature of the queen, as an oval frame with a crown
+surmounting it encircles the portrait. The stories are so much better
+than some that were written even after the nineteenth century, that
+extracts from them are worth reading. The third tale, called "The
+Generosity of Confessing a Fault," begins as follows:
+
+"Miss _Fanny Goodwill_ was one of the prettiest children that ever was
+seen; her temper was as sweet as her looks, and her behavior so genteel
+and obliging that everybody admir'd her; for nobody can help loving good
+children, any more than they can help being angry with those that are
+naughty. It is no wonder then that her papa and mama lov'd her
+dearly, they took a great deal of pains to improve her mind so that
+before she was seven years old, she could read, and talk, and work like
+a little woman. One day as her papa was sitting by the fire, he set her
+upon his knees, kiss'd her, and told her how very much he lov'd her; and
+then smiling, and taking hold of her hand, My dear Fanny, said he, take
+care never to tell a lye, and then I shall always love you as well as I
+do now. You or I may be guilty of a fault; but there is something noble
+and generous in owning our errors, and striving to mend them; but a lye
+more than doubles the fault, and when it is found out, makes the lyar
+appear mean and contemptible.... Thus, my dear, the lyar is a wretch,
+whom nobody trusts, nobody regards, nobody pities. Indeed papa, said
+Miss _Fanny_, I would not be such a creature for all the world. You are
+very good, my little _charmer_, said her papa and kiss'd her again."
+
+[Illustration: _Title-page from "The New Gift for Children"_]
+
+The inevitable temptation came when Miss Fanny went on "a visit to a
+Miss in the neighborhood; her mama ordered her to be home at eight
+o'clock; but she was engag'd at play, and did not mind how the time
+pass'd, so that she stay'd till near ten; and then her mama sent for
+her." The child of course was frightened by the lateness of the hour,
+and the maid--who appears in the illustration with cocked hat and
+musket!--tried to calm her fears with the advice to "tell her mama that
+the Miss she went to see had taken her out." "_No Mary_, said Miss
+_Fanny_, wiping her pretty eyes, I am above a lye;" and she rehearsed
+for the benefit of the maid her father's admonition.
+
+Story IX tells of the _Good Girl and Pretty Girl_. In this the pretty
+child had bright eyes and pretty plump cheeks and was much admired. She,
+however, was a meanly proud girl, and so naughty as not to want to grow
+wiser, but applied to those good people who happened to be less favored
+in looks such terms as "bandy-legs, crump, and all such naughty names."
+The good sister "could read before the pretty miss could tell a letter;
+and though her shape was not so genteel her behavior was a great deal
+more so. But alas! the pretty creature fell sick of the small-pox, and
+all her beauty vanished." Thus in the eighteenth century was the adage
+"Beauty is but skin deep" brought to bear upon conduct.
+
+On the last page is a cut of "Louisburg demolished," which had served
+its time already upon almanacs, but the eight cuts were undoubtedly made
+especially for children. Moreover, since they do not altogether
+illustrate the various stories, they are good proof that similar
+chap-book tales were printed by Fowle and Draper for little ones before
+the War of Independence.
+
+In the southern provinces the sea afforded better transportation
+facilities for household necessities and luxuries than the few
+post-lines from the north could offer. Bills of exchange could be drawn
+against London, to be paid by the profits of the tobacco crops, a safer
+method of payment than any that then existed between the northern and
+southern towns. In the regular orders sent by George Washington to
+Robert Carey in London, twice we find mention of the children's needs
+and wishes. In the very first invoice of goods to be shipped to
+Washington after his marriage with Mrs. Custis in seventeen hundred and
+fifty-nine, he ordered "10 Shillings worth of Toys, 6 little books for
+children beginning to read and a fashionable dressed baby to cost 10
+Shillings;" and again later in ordering clothes, "Toys, Sugar, Images
+and Comfits" for his step-children he added: "Books according to the
+enclosed list to be charged equally to John Parke Custis and Martha
+Parke Custis."
+
+But in Boston the people bought directly from the booksellers, of whom
+there were already many. One of these was John Mein, who played a part
+in the historic Non-Importation Agreement. In seventeen hundred and
+fifty this Englishman had opened in King Street a shop which he called
+the "London Book-Store." Here he sold many imported books, and in
+seventeen hundred and sixty-five, when the population of Boston numbered
+some twenty thousand, he started the "earliest circulating library,
+advertised to contain ten thousand volumes."[73-A] This shop was both
+famous and notorious: famous because of its "Very Grand Assortment of
+the most modern Books;" notorious because of the accusations made
+against its owner when the colonials, aroused by the action of
+Parliament, passed the Non-Importation Agreement.
+
+Before the excitement had culminated in this "Agreement," John Mein's
+lists of importations show that the children's pleasure had not been
+forgotten, and after it their books singularly enough were connected
+with this historic action.
+
+In 1766, in the "Boston Evening Post," we find Mein's announcement that
+"Little Books with Pictures for Children" could be purchased at the
+London Book-Store; in December, 1767, he advertised through the columns
+of the "Boston Chronicle," among other books, "in every branch of polite
+literature," a "Great Variety of entertaining Books for CHILDREN, proper
+for presents at Christmas or New-year's day--Prices from Two Coppers to
+Two Shillings." In August of the following year Mein gave the names of
+seven of Newbery's famous gilt volumes, as "to be sold" at his shop.
+These "pretty little entertaining and instructive Books" were "Giles
+Gingerbread," the "Adventures of little TOMMY TRIP with his dog JOULER,"
+"Tommy Trip's Select Fables," and "an excellent Pastoral Hymn," "The
+Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book," "Leo, the Great Giant," and
+"URAX, or the Fair Wanderer--price eight pence lawful money. _A very
+interesting tale in which the protection of the Almighty_ is proved to
+be the first and chief support of the FEMALE SEX." Number seven in the
+list was the story of the "Cruel Giant Barbarico," and it is one of this
+edition that is now among the rare Americana of the Boston Public
+Library. The imprint upon its title-page coincides with Isaiah Thomas's
+statement that though "Fleming was not concerned with Mein in
+book-selling, several books were printed at their house for Mein." Its
+date, 1768, would indicate that Mein had reproduced one of his
+importations to which allusion has already been made. The book in
+marbled covers, time-worn and faded now, was sold for only "six-pence
+lawful" when new, possibly because it lacked illustrations.
+
+[Illustration: _Miss Fanny's Maid_]
+
+One year later, when the Non-Importation Agreement had passed and was
+rigorously enforced in the port of Boston, these same little books were
+advertised again in the "Chronicle" of December 4-7 under the large
+caption, PRINTED IN AMERICA AND TO BE SOLD BY JOHN MEIN. Times
+had so changed within one year's space that even a child's six-penny
+book was unpopular, if known to have been imported.
+
+Mein was among those accused of violating the "Agreement;" he was
+charged with the importation of materials for book-making. In a November
+number of the "Chronicle" of seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, Mein
+published an article entitled "A State of the Importation from Great
+Britain into the Port of BOSTON with the advertisement of a set
+of Men, who assume to themselves THE TITLE of _ALL the Well
+Disposed Merchants_." In this letter the London Book-Store proprietor
+vigorously defended himself, and protested that the quantity of his work
+necessitated some importations not procurable in Boston. He also made
+sarcastic references to other men whom he thought the cap fitted better
+with less excuse. It was in the following December that he tried to keep
+this trade in children's books by his apparently patriotic announcement
+regarding them. His protests were useless. Already in disfavor with some
+because he was supposed to print books in America but used a London
+imprint, his popularity waned; he was marked as a loyalist, and there
+was little of the spirit of tolerance for such in that hot-bed of
+patriotism. The air was so full of the growing differences between the
+colonials and the king's government, that in seventeen hundred and
+seventy Mein closed out his stock and returned to England.
+
+On the other hand, the patriotic booksellers did not fail to take note
+of the crystallization of public opinion. Robert Bell in Philadelphia
+appended a note to his catalogue of books, stating that "The Lovers and
+Practisers of Patriotism are requested to note that all the Books in
+this Catalogue are either of American manufacture, or imported before
+the Non-Importation Agreement."
+
+The supply of home-made paper was of course limited. So much was needed
+to circulate among the colonies pamphlets dealing with the injustice of
+the king's government toward his American subjects, that it seems
+remarkable that any juvenile books should have been printed in those
+stirring days before the war began. It is rather to be expected that,
+with the serious turn that events had taken and the consequent questions
+that had arisen, the publications of the American press should have
+received the shadow of the forthcoming trouble--a shadow sufficient to
+discourage any attempt at humor for adult or child. Evidence, however,
+points to the fact that humor and amusement were not totally lacking in
+the issues of the press of at least one printer in Boston, John Boyle.
+The humorous satire produced by his press in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-five, called "The First Book of the American Chronicles of the
+Times," purported to set forth the state of political affairs during the
+troubles "wherein all our calamities are seen to flow from the fact that
+the king had set up for our worship the god of the heathen--The Tea
+Chest." This pamphlet has been one to keep the name of John Boyle among
+the prominent printers of pre-Revolutionary days. Additional interest
+accrues for this reason to a play-book printed by Boyle--the only one
+extant of this decade known to the writer.
+
+This quaint little chap-book, three by four inches in size, was issued
+in seventeen hundred and seventy-one, soon after Boyle had set up his
+printing establishment and four years before the publication of the
+famous pamphlet. It represents fully the standard for children's
+literature in the days when Newbery's tiny classics were making their
+way to America, and was indeed advertised by Mein in seventeen hundred
+and sixty-eight among the list of books "Printed in America." Its title,
+"The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book: Containing his Life and
+Adventures," has rather a familiar sound, but its contents would not now
+be allowed upon any nursery table. Since the days of the Anglo-Saxons,
+Tom Thumb's adventures have been told and retold; each generation has
+given to the rising generation the version thought proper for the ears
+of children. In Boyle's edition this method resulted in realism pushed
+to the extreme; but it is not to be denied that the yellowed pages
+contain the wondrous adventures and hairbreadth escapes so dear to the
+small boy of all time. The thrilling incidents were further enlivened,
+moreover, by cuts called by the printer "_curious_" in the sense of very
+fine: and _curious_ they are to-day because of the crudeness of their
+execution and the coarseness of their design. Nevertheless, the
+grotesque character of the illustrations was altogether effective in
+impressing upon the reader the doughty deeds of his old friend, Tom
+Thumb. The book itself shows marks of its popularity, and of the hard
+usage to which it was subjected by its happy owner, who was not critical
+of the editor's freedom of speech.
+
+The coarseness permitted in a nursery favorite makes it sufficiently
+clear that the standard for the ideal toy-book of the eighteenth century
+is no gauge for that of the twentieth. Child-life differed in many
+particulars, as Mr. Julian Hawthorne pointed out some years ago, when he
+wrote that the children of the eighteenth century "were urged to grow up
+almost before they were short-coated." We must bear this in mind in
+turning to another class of books popular with adult and child alike in
+both England and America before and for some years after the Revolution.
+
+This was the period when the novel in the hands of Richardson, Fielding,
+and Smollett was assuming hitherto unsuspected possibilities. Allusion
+must be made to some of the characteristics of their work, since their
+style undoubtedly affected juvenile reading and the tales written for
+children.
+
+Taking for the sake of convenience the novels of the earliest of this
+group of men, Samuel Richardson, as a starting-point, we find in Pamela
+and Mr. Lovelace types of character that merge from the Puritanical
+concrete examples of virtue and vice into a psychological attempt to
+depict the emotion and feeling preceding every act of heroine and
+villain. Through every stage of the story the author still clings to the
+long-established precedent of giving moral and religious instruction.
+Afterwards, when Fielding attempted to parody "Pamela," he developed the
+novel of adventure in high and low life, and produced "Joseph Andrews."
+He then followed this with the character-study represented by "Tom
+Jones, Foundling." Richardson in "Pamela" had aimed to emphasize virtue
+as in the end prospering; Fielding's characters rather embody the
+principle of virtue being its own reward and of vice bringing its own
+punishment. Smollett in "Humphrey Clinker's Adventures" brought forth
+fun from English surroundings instead of seeking for the hero thrilling
+and daring deeds in foreign countries. He also added to the list of
+character-studies "Roderick Random," a tale of the sea, the mystery of
+which has never palled since "Robinson Crusoe" saw light.
+
+There was also the novel of letters. In the age of the first great
+novelists letter-writing was among the polite arts. It was therefore
+counted a great but natural achievement when the epistolary method of
+revealing the plot was introduced. "Clarissa Harlowe" and "Sir Charles
+Grandison" were the results of this style of writing; they comprehended
+the "most Important Concerns of private life"--"concerns" which moved
+with lingering and emotional persistency towards the inevitable
+catastrophe in "Clarissa," and the happy issue out of the
+misunderstandings and misadventures which resulted in Miss Byron's
+alliance with Sir Charles.
+
+Until after the next (nineteenth) century had passed its first decade
+these tales were read in full or abridged forms by many children among
+the fashionable and literary sets in England and America. Indeed, the
+art of writing for children was so unknown that often attempts to
+produce child-like "histories" for them resulted in little other than
+novels upon an abridged scale.
+
+But before even abridged novels found their way into juvenile favor, it
+was "customary in Richardson's time to read his novels aloud in the
+family circle. When some pathetic passage was reached the members of the
+family would retire to separate apartments to weep; and after composing
+themselves, they would return to the fireside to have the reading
+proceed. It was reported to Richardson, that, on one of these occasions,
+'an amiable little boy sobbed as if his sides would burst and resolved
+to mind his books that he might be able to read Pamela through without
+stopping.' That there might be something in the family novel expressly
+for children, Richardson sometimes stepped aside from the main narrative
+to tell them a moral tale."[80-A]
+
+Mr. Cross gives an example of this which, shorn of its decoration, was
+the tale of two little boys and two little girls, who never told fibs,
+who were never rude and noisy, mischievous or quarrelsome; who always
+said their prayers when going to bed, and therefore became fine ladies
+and gentlemen.
+
+To make the tales less difficult for amiable children to read, an
+abridgment of their contents was undertaken; and Goldsmith is said to
+have done much of the "cutting" in "Pamela," "Clarissa Harlowe," "Sir
+Charles Grandison," and others. These books were included in the lists
+of those sent to America for juvenile reading. In Boston, Cox and Berry
+inserted in the "Boston Gazette and Country Journal" a notice that they
+had the "following little Books for all good Boys and Girls:
+
+The Brother's Gift, or the Naughty Girl Reformed.
+The Sister's Gift, or the Naughty Boy Reformed.
+The Hobby Horse, or Christmas Companion.
+The Cries of London as Exhibited in the Streets.
+The Puzzling Cap.
+The History of Tom Jones.
+The History of Joseph Andrews.   Abridg'd from the works of H. Fielding
+The History of Pamela.           abridg'd from the works of Samuel
+                                 Richardson, Esq.
+The History of Grandison.
+The History of Clarissa."
+
+Up to this time the story has been rather of the books read by the
+Puritan and Quaker population of the colonies. There had arisen during
+the first half of the eighteenth century, however, a merchant class
+which owed its prosperity to its own ability. Such men sought for their
+families the material results of wealth which only a place like Boston
+could bestow. Many children, therefore, were sent to this town to
+acquire suitable education in books, accomplishments, and deportment. A
+highly interesting record of a child of well-to-do parents has been left
+by Anna Green Winslow, who came to Boston to stay with an aunt for the
+winters of 1771 and 1772. Her diary gives delightful glimpses of
+children's tea-parties, fashions, and schools, all put down with a
+childish disregard of importance or connection. It is in these jottings
+of daily occurrences that proof is found that so young a girl read,
+quite as a matter of course, the abridged works of Fielding and
+Richardson.
+
+On January 1, 1772, she wrote in her diary, "a Happy New Year, I have
+bestowed no new year's gifts, as yet. But have received one very
+handsome one, Viz, the History of Joseph Andrews abreviated. In nice
+Guilt and Flowers covers." Again, she put down an account of a day's
+work, which she called "a piecemeal for in the first place I sew'd on
+the bosom of unkle's shirt, and mended two pairs of gloves, mended for
+the wash two handkerch'fs, (one cambrick) sewed on half a border of a
+lawn apron of aunt's, read part of the xxist chapter of Exodous, & a
+story in the Mother's Gift." Later she jotted in her book the loan of "3
+of Cousin Charles' books to read, viz.--The puzzling Cap, the female
+Orators & the history of Gaffer Two Shoes." Little Miss Winslow, though
+only eleven years of age, was a typical child of the educated class in
+Boston, and, according to her journal, also followed the English custom
+of reading aloud "with Miss Winslow, the Generous Inconstant and Sir
+Charles Grandison." It is to be regretted that her diary gives no
+information as to how she liked such tales. We must anticipate some
+years to find a comment in the Commonplace Book of a Connecticut girl.
+Lucy Sheldon lived in Litchfield, a thriving town in eighteen hundred,
+and did much reading for a child in those days. Upon "Sir Charles
+Grandison" she confided to her book this offhand note: "Read in little
+Grandison, which shows that, virtue always meets its reward and vice is
+punished." The item is very suggestive of Goldsmith's success in
+producing an abridgment that left the moral where it could not be
+overlooked.
+
+To discuss in detail this class of writings is not necessary, but a
+glance at the story of "Clarissa" gives an instructive impression of
+what old-fashioned children found zestful.
+
+"Clarissa Harlowe" in its abridged form was first published by Newbery,
+Senior. The book that lies before the writer was printed in seventeen
+hundred and seventy-two by his son, Francis Newbery. In size five by
+three and one-half inches, it is decked in once gay parti-colored heavy
+Dutch paper, with a delicate gold tracery over all. This paper binding,
+called by Anna Winslow "Flowery Guilt," can no longer be found in
+Holland, the place of its manufacture; with sarsinet and other
+fascinating materials it has vanished so completely that it exists only
+on the faded bindings of such small books as "Clarissa."
+
+The narrative itself is compressed from the original seven volumes into
+one volume of one hundred and seventy-six closely printed pages, with
+several full-page copper-plate illustrations. The plot, however, gains
+rather than loses in this condensed form. The principal distressing
+situations follow so fast one upon the other that the intensity of the
+various episodes in the _affecting_ history is increased by the total
+absence of all the "moving" letters found in the original work. The
+"lordly husband and father," "the imperious son," "the proud ambitious
+sister, Arabella," all combined to force the universally beloved and
+unassuming Clarissa to marry the wealthy Mr. Somers, who was to be the
+means of "the aggrandisement of the family." Clarissa, in this
+perplexing situation, yielded in a desperate mood to "the earnest
+entreaties of the artful Lovelace to accept the protection of the Ladies
+of his family." Who these ladies were, to whom the designing Lovelace
+conducted the agitated heroine, is set forth in unmistakable language;
+and thereafter follow the treacherous behaviour exhibited by Lovelace,
+the various attempts to escape by the unhappy beauty, and her final
+exhaustion and death. An example of the style may be given in this
+description of the death-scene:
+
+"Clarissa had before remarked that all would be most conveniently over
+in bed: The solemn, the most important moment approached, but her soul
+ardently aspiring after immorality [immortality was of course the
+author's intention], she imagined the time moved slowly; and with great
+presence of mind, she gave orders in relation to her body, directing her
+nurse and the maid of the house, as soon as she was cold, to put her
+into her coffin. The Colonel [her cousin], after paying her another
+visit, wrote to her uncle, Mr. John Harlowe, that they might save
+themselves the trouble of having any further debates about
+reconciliation; for before they could resolve, his dear cousin would
+probably be no more....
+
+"A day or two after, Mr. Belford [a friend] was sent for, and
+immediately came; at his entrance he saw the Colonel kneeling by her
+bed-side with the ladies right hand in both his, which his face covered
+bathing it with tears, though she had just been endeavoring to comfort
+him, in noble and elevated strains. On the opposite side of the bed was
+seated Mrs. Lovick, who leaning against the bed's-head in a most
+disconsolate manner, turned to him as soon as she saw him, crying, O Mr.
+Belford, the dear lady! a heavy sigh not permitting her to say more.
+Mrs. Smith [the landlady] was kneeling at the bed's feet with clasped
+fingers and uplifted eyes, with tears trickling in large drops from her
+cheeks, as if imploring help from the source of all comfort.
+
+"The excellent lady had been silent a few minutes, and was thought
+speechless, she moving her lips without uttering a word; but when Mrs.
+Lovick, on Mr. Belford's approach, pronounced his name, O Mr. Belford!
+cried she, in a faint inward voice, Now!--now!--I bless God, all will
+soon be over--a few minutes will end this strife--and I shall be happy,"
+etc. Her speech was long, although broken by dashes, and again she
+resumed, "in a more faint and broken accent," the blessing and
+directions. "She then sunk her head upon the pillow; and fainting away,
+drew from them her hands." Once more she returned to consciousness,
+"when waving her hand to him [Mr. Belford] and to her cousin, and bowing
+her head to every one present, not omitting the nurse and maid servant,
+with a faltering and inward voice, she added Bless--Bless--you all!--"
+
+The illustrations, in comparison with others of the time, are very well
+engraved, although the choice of subjects is somewhat singular. The last
+one represents Clarissa's friend, "Miss Howe" (the loyal friend to whom
+all the absent letters were addressed), "lamenting over the corpse of
+Clarissa," who lies in the coffin ordered by the heroine "to be covered
+with fine black cloth, and lined with white satin."
+
+As one lays aside this faded duodecimo, the conviction is strong that
+the texture of the life of an old-fashioned child was of coarser weave
+than is pleasant to contemplate. How else could elders and guardians
+have placed without scruple such books in the hands of children? The one
+explanation is to be found in such diaries as that of Anna Winslow, who
+quaintly put down in her book facts and occurrences denoting the
+maturity already reached by a little miss of eleven.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[73-A] Winsor, _Memorial History of Boston_, vol. ii, p. xix.
+
+[80-A] Cross, _Development of the English Novel_, pp. 38, 39.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+1776-1790
+
+
+
+
+    The British King
+    Lost States thirteen.
+             _The New England Primer_,
+                      Philadelphia, 1797
+
+    The good little boy
+    That will not tell a lie,
+    Shall have a plum-pudding
+    Or hot apple-pye.
+             _Jacky Dandy's Delight_,
+                      Worcester, 1786
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+1776-1790
+
+_Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery_
+
+
+When John Mein was forced to close his London Book-Store in Boston and
+to return to England in 1770, the children of that vicinity had need to
+cherish their six-penny books with increased care. The shadow of
+impending conflict was already deep upon the country when Mein departed;
+and the events of the decade following seventeen hundred and
+seventy-three--the year of the Boston Tea-Party--were too absorbing and
+distressing for such trifling publications as toy-books to be more than
+occasionally printed. Indeed, the history of the American Revolution is
+so interwoven with tales of privation of the necessities of life that it
+is astonishing that any printer was able to find ink or paper to produce
+even the nursery classic "Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Robert Bell of
+Philadelphia in seventeen hundred and seventy-six.
+
+In New York the conditions were different. The Loyalists, as long as the
+town was held by the British, continued to receive importations of goods
+of all descriptions. Among the booksellers, Valentine Nutter from time
+to time advertised children's as well as adults' books. Hugh Gaine
+apparently continued to reprint Newbery's duodecimos; and, in a rather
+newer shop, Roger and Berry's, in Hanover Square, near Gaine's, could be
+had "Gilt Books, together with Stationary, Jewelry, a Collection of the
+most books, bibles, prayer-books and patent medicines warranted
+genuine."
+
+Elsewhere in the colonies, as in Boston, the children went without new
+books, although very occasionally such notices as the following were
+inserted in the newspapers:
+
+     _Just imported and to be Sold by Thomas Bradford_
+
+     At his Book-Store in Market-Street, adjoining the Coffee-house
+
+     _The following Books_ ...
+
+     Little Histories for Children,
+
+     Among which are, Book of Knowledge, Joe Miller's Jests, Jenny
+       Twitchells' ditto, the Linnet, The Lark (being collections of best
+       Songs), Robin Redbreast, Choice Spirits, Argalus & Parthenia,
+       Valentine and Orson, Seven Wise Masters, Seven Wise Mistresses,
+       Russell's seven Sermons, Death of Abel, French Convert, Art's
+       Treasury, Complete Letter-Writer, Winter Evening Entertainment,
+       Stories and Tales, Triumphs of Love, being a Collection of Short
+       Stories, Joseph Andrews, Aesop's Fables, Scotch Rogue, Moll
+       Flanders, Lives of Highwaymen, Lives of Pirates, Buccaneers of
+       America, Robinson Crusoe, Twelve Caesars.
+
+Such was the assortment of penny-dreadfuls and religious tracts offered
+in seventeen hundred and eighty-one to the Philadelphia public for
+juvenile reading. It is typical of the chapmen's library peddled about
+the colonies long after they had become states. "Valentine and Orson,"
+"The Seven Wise Masters," "The Seven Wise Mistresses," and "Winter
+Evening Entertainment" are found in publishers' lists for many years,
+and, in spite of frequent vulgarities, there was often no discrimination
+between them and Newbery's far superior stories; but by eighteen hundred
+and thirty almost all of these undesirable reprints had disappeared,
+being buried under the quantities of Sunday-school tales held in high
+favor at that date.
+
+Meanwhile, the six years of struggle for liberty had rendered the
+necessaries of life in many cases luxuries. As early as seventeen
+hundred and seventy-five, during the siege of Boston, provisions and
+articles of dress had reached such prices that we find thrifty Mrs. John
+Adams, in Braintree, Massachusetts, foreseeing a worse condition,
+writing her husband, who was one of the Council assembled in
+Philadelphia, to send her, if possible, six thousand pins, even if they
+should cost five pounds. Prices continued to rise and currency to
+depreciate. In seventeen hundred and seventy-nine Mrs. Adams reported in
+her letters to her husband that potatoes were ten dollars a bushel, and
+writing-paper brought the same price per pound.
+
+Yet family life went on in spite of these increasing difficulties. The
+diaries and letters of such remarkable women as the patriotic Abigail
+Adams, the Quakeress, Mrs. Eliza Drinker, the letters of the Loyalist
+and exile, James Murray, the correspondence of Eliza Pinckney of
+Charleston, and the reminiscences of a Whig family who were obliged to
+leave New York upon the occupation of the town by British forces, abound
+in those details of domestic life that give a many sided picture. Joys
+derived from good news of dear ones, and family reunions; anxieties
+occasioned by illness, or the armies' depredations; courageous efforts
+on the part of mothers not to allow their children's education and
+occupations to suffer unnecessarily; tragedies of death and ruined
+homes--all are recorded with a "particularity" for which we are now
+grateful to the writers.
+
+It is through these writings, also, that we are allowed glimpses of the
+enthusiasm for the cause of Liberty, or King, which was imbibed from the
+parents by the smallest children. On the Whig side, patriotic mothers in
+New England filled their sons with zeal for the cause of freedom and
+with hatred of the tyranny of the Crown; while in the more southern
+colonies the partisanship of the little ones was no less intense. "From
+the constant topic of the present conversation," wrote the Rev. John J.
+Zubly (a Swiss clergyman settled in South Carolina and Georgia), in an
+address to the Earl of Dartmouth in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-five,--"from the constant topic of the present conversation,
+every child unborn will be impressed with the notion--it is slavery to
+be bound at the will of another 'in all things whatsoever.' Every
+mother's milk will convey a detestation of this maxim. Were your
+lordship in America, you might see little ones acquainted with the word
+of command before they can distinctly speak, and shouldering of a gun
+before they are well able to walk."[92-A]
+
+The children of the Tories had also their part in the struggle. To some
+the property of parents was made over, to save it from confiscation in
+the event of the success of the American cause. To others came the
+bitterness of separation from parents, when they were sent across the
+sea to unknown relatives; while again some faint manuscript record tells
+of a motherless child brought from a comfortable home, no longer
+tenable, to whatever quarters could be found within the British lines.
+Fortunately, children usually adapt themselves easily to changed
+conditions, and in the novelty and excitement of the life around them,
+it is probable they soon forgot the luxuries of dolls and hobby-horses,
+toy-books and drums, of former days.
+
+In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the sentiment of the period was
+expressed in two or three editions of "The New England Primer." Already
+in 1770 one had appeared containing as frontispiece a poor wood-cut of
+John Hancock. In 1775 the enthusiasm over the appointment of George
+Washington as commander-in-chief brought out another edition of the A B
+C book with the same picture labelled "General Washington." The custom
+of making one cut do duty in several representations was so well
+understood that this method of introducing George Washington to the
+infant reader naturally escaped remark.
+
+Another primer appeared four years later, which was advertised by
+Walters and Norman in the "Pennsylvania Evening Post" as "adorned with a
+beautiful head of George Washington and other copper-plates." According
+to Mr. Hildeburn, this small book had the honor of containing the first
+portrait of Washington engraved in America. While such facts are of
+trifling importance, they are, nevertheless, indications of the state of
+intense feeling that existed at the time, and point the way by which the
+children's books became nationalized.
+
+In New England the very games of children centred in the events which
+thrilled the country. Josiah Quincy remembered very well in after life,
+how "at the age of five or six, astride my grandfather's cane and with
+my little whip, I performed prodigies of valor, and more than once came
+to my mother's knees declaring that I had driven the British out of
+Boston." Afterwards at Phillips Academy, in Andover, between seventeen
+hundred and seventy-eight and seventeen hundred and eighty-six, Josiah
+and his schoolfellows "established it as a principle that every hoop,
+sled, etc., should in some way bear _Thirteen_ marks as evidence of the
+political character of the owner,--if which were wanting the articles
+became fair prize and were condemned and forfeited without judge, jury,
+or decree of admiralty."[94-A]
+
+Other boys, such as John Quincy Adams, had tutors at home as a less
+expensive means of education than the wartime price of forty dollars a
+week for each child that good boarding-schools demanded. But at their
+homes the children had plenty of opportunity to show their intense
+enthusiasm for the cause of liberty. Years later, Mr. Adams wrote to a
+Quaker friend:
+
+"For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt,
+liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold
+blood, or taken and carried to Boston as hostages. My mother lived in
+uninterrupted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration
+kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the Seventeenth of June
+[1775] lighted the fires of Charlestown."[94-B]
+
+He was, of course, only one of many boys who saw from some height near
+their homes the signs of battle, the fires of the enemy's camps, the
+smoke rising from some farm fired by the British, or burned by its owner
+to prevent their occupation of it. With hearts made to beat quickly by
+the news that filtered through the lines, and heads made old by the
+responsibility thrust upon them,--in the absence of fathers and older
+brothers,--such boys as John Quincy Adams saw active service in the
+capacity of post-riders bearing in their several districts the anxiously
+awaited tidings from Congress or battlefield.
+
+Fortunate indeed were the families whose homes were not disturbed by the
+military operations. From Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, families
+were sent hastily to the country until the progress of the war made it
+possible to return to such comforts as had not been destroyed by the
+British soldiers. The "Memoirs of Eliza Morton," afterward Mrs. Josiah
+Quincy, but a child eight years of age in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-six, gives a realistic account of the life of such Whig
+refugees. Upon the occupation of New York by the British, her father, a
+merchant of wealth, as riches were then reckoned, was obliged to burn
+his warehouse to save it from English hands. Mr. Morton then gathered
+together in the little country village of Basking Ridge, seven miles
+from Morristown, New Jersey, such of his possessions as could be hastily
+transported from the city. Among the books saved in this way were the
+works of Thurston, Thomson, Lyttleton, and Goldsmith, and for the
+children's benefit, "Dodsley's Collection of Poems," and "Pilgrim's
+Progress." "This," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was a great favorite; Mr.
+Greatheart was in my opinion a hero, well able to help us all on our
+way." During the exile from New York, as Eliza Morton grew up, she read
+all these books, and years afterward told her grandchildren that while
+she admired the works of Thurston, Thomson, and Lyttleton, "those of
+Goldsmith were my chief delight. When my reading became afterward more
+extensive I instinctively disliked the extravagant fiction which often
+injures the youthful mind."
+
+The war, however, was not allowed to interfere with the children's
+education in this family. In company with other little exiles, they were
+taught by a venerable old man until the evacuation of Philadelphia made
+it possible to send the older children to Germantown, where a Mr. Leslie
+had what was considered a fine school. The schoolroom walls were hung
+with lists of texts of Scripture beginning with the same letter, and for
+globes were substituted the schoolmaster's snuffbox and balls of yarn.
+If these failed to impress a child with the correct notions concerning
+the solar system, the children themselves were made to whirl around the
+teacher.
+
+In Basking Ridge the children had much excitement with the passing of
+soldiers to Washington's headquarters in Morristown, and with watching
+for "The Post" who carried the news between Philadelphia, Princeton, and
+Morristown. "'The Post,' Mr. Martin," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was an old man
+who carried the mail, ... he was our constant medium of communication;
+and always stopped at our house to refresh himself and horse, tell the
+news, and bring packets. He used to wear a blue coat with yellow
+buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, leathern small-clothes, blue yarn
+stockings, and a red wig and cocked hat, which gave him a sort of
+military appearance. He usually traveled in a sulky, but sometimes in a
+chaise, or on horseback.... Mr. Martin also contrived to employ himself
+in knitting coarse yarn stockings while driving or rather jogging along
+the road, or when seated on his saddle-bags on horseback. He certainly
+did not ride _post_, according to the present [1821] meaning of that
+term."
+
+Deprived like many other children of Newbery's peaceful biographies and
+stories, the little Mortons' lives were too full of an intense daily
+interest to feel the lack of new literature of this sort. Tales of the
+campaigns told in letters to friends and neighbors were reechoed in the
+ballads and songs that formed part of the literary warfare waged by Whig
+or Loyal partisans. Children of to-day sing so zestfully the popular
+tunes of the moment, that it requires very little imagination to picture
+the schoolboy of Revolutionary days shouting lustily verses from "The
+Battle of the Kegs," and other rhymed stories of military incidents.
+Such a ballad was "A Song for the Red Coats," written after the
+successful campaign against Burgoyne, and beginning:
+
+   "Come unto me, ye heroes,
+    Whose hearts are true and bold,
+    Who value more your honor,
+    Than others do their gold!
+    Give ear unto my story,
+    And I the truth will tell,
+    Concerning many a soldier,
+    Who for his country fell."
+
+Children, it has been said, are good haters. To the patriot boy and
+girl, the opportunity to execrate Benedict Arnold was found in these
+lines of a patriotic "ditty" concerning the fate of Major Andre:
+
+   "When he was executed
+    He looked both meek and mild;
+    He looked upon the people,
+    And pleasantly he smiled.
+    It moved each eye to pity,
+    Caused every heart to bleed;
+    And every one wished him released--
+    And _Arnold_ in his stead."[98-A]
+
+Loyalist children had an almost equal supply of satirical verse to fling
+back at neighbors' families, where in country districts some farms were
+still occupied by sympathizers with Great Britain. A vigorous example of
+this style of warfare is quoted by Mr. Tyler in his "Literature of the
+American Revolution," and which, written in seventeen hundred and
+seventy-six, is entitled "The Congress." It begins:
+
+   "These hardy knaves and stupid fools,
+    Some apish and pragmatic mules,
+    Some servile acquiescing tools,--
+    These, these compose the Congress!"[98-B]
+
+Or, again, such taunts over the general poverty of the land and
+character of the army as were made in a ballad called "The Rebels" by a
+Loyalist officer:
+
+   "With loud peals of laughter, your sides,
+    Sirs, would crack,
+    To see General Convict and Colonel Shoe-black,
+    With their hunting-shirts and rifle-guns,
+    See Cobblers and quacks, rebel priests and the like,
+    Pettifoggers and barbers, with sword and with pike."
+
+Those Loyalists who lived through this exciting period in America's
+history bore their full share in the heavy personal misfortunes of their
+political party. The hatred felt toward such colonials as were true to
+the king has until recently hardly subsided sufficiently to permit any
+sympathy with the hardships they suffered. Driven from their homes,
+crowded together in those places occupied by the English, or exiled to
+England or Halifax, these faithful subjects had also to undergo
+separation of families perhaps never again united.
+
+Such a Loyalist was James Murray. Forced to leave his daughter and
+grandchildren in Boston with a sister, he took ship for Halifax to seek
+a living. There, amid the pressing anxieties occasioned by this
+separation, he strove to reestablish himself, and sent from time to time
+such articles as he felt were necessary for their welfare. Thus he
+writes a memorandum of articles sent in seventeen hundred and eighty by
+"Mr. Bean's Cartel to Miss Betsy Murray:--viz: Everlasting 4 yards;
+binding 1 piece, Nankeen 4-7/8 yards. Of Gingham 2 gown patterns; 2
+pairs red shoes from A.E.C. for boys, Jack and Ralph, a parcel--to Mrs.
+Brigden, 1 pair silk shoes and some flowers--Arthur's Geographical
+Grammar,--Locke on Education,--5 children's books," etc. And in return
+he is informed that "Charlotte goes to dancing and writing school,
+improves apace and grows tall. Betsy and Charles are much better but not
+well. The rest of the children are in good health, desiring their duty
+to their Uncle and Aunt Inman, and thanks for their cake and gloves."
+
+To such families the end of the war meant either the necessity for
+making permanent their residence in the British dominion, or of bearing
+both outspoken and silent scorn in the new Republic.
+
+For the Americans the peace of Yorktown brought joy, but new beginnings
+had also to be made. Farms had been laid waste, or had suffered from
+lack of men to cultivate them; industries were almost at a standstill
+from want of material and laborers. Still the people had the splendid
+compensation of freedom with victory, and men went sturdily back to
+their homes to take up as far as possible their various occupations.
+
+An example of the way in which business undertaken before the war was
+rapidly resumed, or increased, is afforded by the revival of prosperity
+for the booksellers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Renewals of
+orders to London agents were speedily made, for the Americans still looked
+to England for their intellectual needs. In Philadelphia--a town of forty
+thousand inhabitants in seventeen hundred and eighty-three--among the
+principal booksellers and printers were Thomas Bradford, Mr. Woodhouse,
+Mr. Oswald, Mr. Pritchard,--who had established a circulating
+library,--Robert Aitkin, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Dunlap, Mr. Rice, William and
+David Hall, Benjamin Bache, J. Crukshank, and Robert Bell. Bell had
+undoubtedly the largest bookstore, but seems not to have been altogether
+popular, if an allusion in "The Philadelphiad" is to be credited. This
+"New Picture of the City" was anonymously published in seventeen hundred
+and eighty-four, and described, among other well-known places, Robert
+Bell's book-shop:
+
+    BELL'S BOOK STORE
+
+    Just by St. Paul's where dry divines rehearse,
+    Bell keeps his store for vending prose and verse,
+    And books that's neither ... for no age nor clime,
+    Lame languid prose begot on hobb'ling rhyme.
+    Here authors meet who ne'er a spring have got,
+    The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot,
+    Smart politicians wrangling here are seen,
+    Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen.
+
+In 1776 Bell's facilities for printing had enabled him to produce an
+edition of "Little Goody Two-Shoes," which seems likely to have been the
+only story-book printed during the troubled years of the Revolution.
+Besides this, Bell printed in 1777 "Aesop's Fables," as did also Robert
+Aitkin; and J. Crukshank had issued during the war an A B C book,
+written by the old schoolmaster, A. Benezet, who had drilled many a
+Philadelphian in his letters. After the Revolution Benjamin Bache
+apparently printed children's books in considerable quantities, and
+orders were sent by other firms to England for juvenile reading-matter.
+
+New England also has records of the sale of these small books in several
+towns soon after peace was established. John Carter, "at Shakespeare's
+Head," in Providence, announced by a broadside issued in November,
+seventeen hundred and eighty-three, that he had a large assortment of
+stationers' wares, and included in his list "Gilt Books for _Children_,"
+among which were most of Newbery's publications. In Hartford,
+Connecticut, where there had been a good press since seventeen hundred
+and sixty-four, "The Children's Magazine" was reprinted in seventeen
+hundred and eighty-nine. Its preposterous titles are noteworthy, since
+it is probable that this was the first attempt at periodical literature
+made for young people in America. One number contains:
+
+     An easy Introduction to Geography.
+     The Schoolboy addressed to the Editors.
+     Moral Tales continued.
+       Tale VIII. The Jealous Wife.
+     The Affectionate Sisters.
+     Familiar Letters on Various Subjects,--Continued....
+       Letter V from _Phillis Flowerdale_ to _Miss Truelove_.
+       Letter VI from _Miss Truelove_ to _Phillis Flowerdale_.
+     Poetry.--The Sweets of May.
+     The Cottage Retirement.
+     Advice to the Fair.
+     The Contented Cottager.
+     The Tear.
+     The Honest Heart.
+
+The autograph of Eben Holt makes the contents of the magazine ludicrous
+as subjects of interest to a boy But having nothing better, Eben most
+surely read it from cover to cover.
+
+In Charleston, South Carolina, Robert Wells imported the books read by
+the members of the various branches of the Ravenel, Pinckney, Prioleau,
+Drayton, and other families. Boston supplied the juvenile public largely
+through E. Battelle and Thomas Andrews, who were the agents for Isaiah
+Thomas, the American Newbery.
+
+An account of the work of this remarkable printer of Worcester,
+Massachusetts, has been given in Dr. Charles L. Nichols's "Bibliography
+of Worcester." Thomas's publications ranked as among the very best of
+the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and were sought by
+book-dealers in the various states. At one time he had sixteen presses,
+seven of which were in Worcester. He had also four bookstores in various
+towns of Massachusetts, one in Concord, New Hampshire, one in Baltimore,
+and one in Albany.
+
+In 1761, at the age of ten, Thomas had set up as his "'Prentice's
+Token," a primer issued by A. Barclay in Cornhill, Boston, entitled "Tom
+Thumb's Play-Book, To Teach Children their letters as soon as they can
+speak." Although this primer was issued by Barclay, Thomas had already
+served four years in a printer's office, for according to his own
+statement he had been sent at the age of six to learn his trade of
+Zechariah Fowle. Here, as 'prentice, he may have helped to set up the
+stories of the "Holy Jesus" and the "New Gift," and upon the cutting of
+their rude illustrations perhaps took his first lessons in engraving.
+For we know that by seventeen hundred and sixty-four he did fairly good
+work upon the "Book of Knowledge" from the press of the old printer.
+Upon the fly-leaf of a copy of this owned by the American Antiquarian
+Society, founded by Thomas, is the statement in the Worcester printer's
+handwriting, "Printed and cuts engraved by I. Thomas then 13 years of
+age for Z. Fowle when I.T. was his Apprentice: bad as the cuts are
+executed, there was not at that time an artist in Boston who could have
+done them much better. Some time before, and soon after there were
+better engravers in Boston." These cuts, especially the frontispiece
+representing a boy with a spy-glass and globe, and with a sextant at his
+feet, are far from poor work for a lad of thirteen. "The battered
+dictionary," says Dr. Nichols, "and the ink-stained Bible which he found
+in Fowle's office started him in his career, and the printing-press,
+together with an invincible determination to excel in his calling,
+carried him onward, until he stands to-day with Franklin and
+Baskerville, a type of the man who with few educational advantages
+succeeds because he loves his art for his art's sake."
+
+In supplying to American children a home-made library, Thomas, although
+he did no really original work for children, such as his English
+prototype, Newbery, had accomplished, yet had a motive which was not
+altogether selfish and pecuniary. The prejudice against anything of
+British manufacture was especially strong in the vicinity of Boston; and
+it was an altogether natural expression of this spirit that impelled the
+Worcester printer, as soon as his business was well established, to
+begin to reprint the various little histories. These reprints were all
+pirated from Newbery and his successors, Newbery and Carnan; but they
+compare most favorably with them, and so far surpassed the work of any
+other American printer of children's books (except possibly those of
+Bache in Philadelphia) that his work demands more than a passing
+mention.
+
+Beginning, like most printers, with the production of a primer in
+seventeen hundred and eighty-four, by seventeen hundred and eighty-six
+Thomas was well under way in his work for children. In that year at
+least eleven little books bore his imprint and were sent to his Boston
+agents to be sold. In the "Worcester Magazine" for June, 1786, Thomas
+addressed an "Advertisement to Booksellers," as follows: "A large
+assortment of all the various sizes of CHILDREN'S Books, known
+by the name of Newbery's Little Books for Children, are now republished
+by I. Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts. They are all done excellently
+in his English Method, and it is supposed the paper, printing, cuts, and
+binding are in every way equal to those imported from England. As the
+Subscriber has been at great expense to carry on this particular branch
+of Printing extensively, he hopes to meet with encouragement from the
+Booksellers in the United States."
+
+Evidently he did meet with great encouragement from parents as well as
+booksellers; and it is suspected that the best printed books bearing
+imprints of other booksellers were often printed in Worcester and bound
+according to the taste and facilities of the dealer. That this practice
+of reprinting the title-page and rebinding was customary, a letter from
+Franklin to his nephew in Boston gives indisputable evidence:
+
+     Philada. Nov. 26, 1788.
+
+     LOVING COUSIN:
+
+     I have lately set up one of my grand-children, Benja. F. Bache, as a
+     Printer here, and he has printed some very pretty little Books for
+     Children. By the Sloop Friendship, Capt. Stutson, I have sent a Box
+     address'd to you, containing 150 of each volume, in Sheets, which I
+     request you would, according to your wonted Goodness, put in a way
+     of being dispos'd of for the Benefit of my dear Sister. They are
+     sold here, bound in marbled Paper at 1 S. a Volume; but I should
+     suppose it best, if it may be done, to sell the whole to some
+     Stationer, at once, unbound as they are; in which case I imagine
+     that half a Dollar a Quire may be thought a reasonable Price,
+     allowing usual Credit if necessary.
+
+     My Love to your Family, & believe me ever,
+
+     Your affectionate Uncle
+          B. FRANKLIN.
+
+     JONA. WILLIAMS, ESQ.
+
+Franklin's reference to the Philadelphia manner of binding toy-books in
+marbled paper indicates that this home-made product was already
+displacing the attractive imported gilt embossed and parti-colored
+covers used by Thomas, who seems never to have adopted this ugly dress
+for his juvenile publications. As the demand for his wares increased,
+Thomas set up other volumes from Newbery's stock, until by seventeen
+hundred and eighty-seven he had reproduced practically every item for
+his increasing trade. It was his custom to include in many of these
+books a Catalogue of the various tales for sale, and in "The Picture
+Exhibition" we find a list of fifty-two stories to be sold for prices
+varying from six pence to a shilling and a half.
+
+These books may be divided into several classes, all imitations of the
+English adult literature then in vogue. The alphabets and primers, such
+as the "Little Lottery Book," "Christmas Box," and "Tom Thumb's
+Play-thing," are outside the limits of the present subject, since they
+were written primarily to instruct; and while it is often difficult to
+draw the line where amusement begins and instruction sinks to the
+background, the title-pages can usually be taken as evidence at least of
+the author's intention. These other books, however, fall naturally under
+the heads of jest and puzzle books, nature stories, fables, rhymes,
+novels, and stories--all prototypes of the nursery literature of to-day.
+
+The jest and joke books published by Thomas numbered, as far as is known
+to the writer, only five. Their titles seem to offer a feast of fun
+unfulfilled by the contents. "Be Merry & Wise, or the Cream of the Jests
+and the Marrow of Maxims," by Tommy Trapwit, contained concentrated
+extracts of wisdom, and jokes such as were current among adults. The
+children for whom they were meant were accustomed to nothing more
+facetious than the following jest: "An arch wag said, _Taylors_ were
+like _Woodcocks_ for they got their substance by their long bills."
+Perhaps they understood also the point in this: "A certain lord had a
+termagant wife, and at the same time a chaplain that was a tolerable
+poet, whom his lordship desired to write a copy of verses upon a shrew.
+I can't imagine, said the chaplain, why your lordship should want a
+copy, who has so good an original." Other witticisms are not quotable.
+
+[Illustration: _A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by
+Isaiah Thomas_]
+
+Conundrums played their part in the eighteenth century juvenile life,
+much as they do to-day. These were to be found in "A Bag of Nuts ready
+Cracked," and "The Big and Little Puzzling Caps." "Food for the Mind"
+was the solemn title of another riddle-book, whose conundrums are very
+serious matters. Riddle XIV of the "Puzzling Cap" is typical of its
+rather dreary contents:
+
+   "There was a man bespoke a thing,
+    Which when the maker home did bring,
+    This same maker did refuse it;
+    He who bespoke it did not use it
+    And he who had it did not know
+    Whether he had it, yea or no."
+
+This was a nut also "ready cracked" by the answer reproduced in the
+illustration.
+
+Nature stories were attempted under the titles of "The Natural History
+of Four Footed Beasts," "Jacky Dandy's Delight; or the History of Birds
+and Beasts in Verse and Prose," "Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of
+Birds," and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts and Birds." All these were
+written after Oliver Goldsmith's "Animated Nature" had won its way into
+great popularity. As a consequence of the favorable impression this book
+had made, Goldsmith is supposed to have been asked by Newbery to try his
+hand upon a juvenile natural history.
+
+Possibly it was as a result of Newbery's request that we have the
+anonymous "Jacky Dandy's Delight" and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts
+and Birds." The former appears to be a good example of Goldsmith's
+facility for amusing himself when doing hack-work for Newbery. How like
+Goldsmith's manner is this description of a monkey:
+
+    "The monkey mischievous
+     Like a naughty boy looks;
+     Who plagues all his friends,
+     And regards not his books.
+
+     "He is an active, pert, busy animal, who mimicks human actions so
+     well that some think him rational. The Indians say, he can speak if
+     he pleases, but will not lest he should be set to work. Herein he
+     resembles those naughty little boys who will not learn A, lest they
+     should be obliged to learn B, too. He is a native of warm countries,
+     and a useless beast in this part of the world; so I shall leave him
+     to speak of another that is more bulky, and comes from cold
+     countries: I mean the Bear."
+
+To poke fun in an offhand manner at little boys and girls seemed to have
+been the only conception of humor to be found in the children's books of
+the period, if we except the "Jests" and the attempts made in a
+ponderous manner on the title-pages. The title of "The Picture
+Exhibition; containing the Original Drawings of Eighteen Disciples....
+Published under the Inspection of Mr. Peter Paul Rubens,..." is
+evidently one of Newbery's efforts to be facetious. To the author, the
+pretence that the pictures were by "Disciples of Peter Paul Rubens"
+evidently conveyed the same idea of wit that "Punch" has at times
+represented to others of a later century.
+
+Fables have always been a mine of interest to young folks, and were
+interspersed liberally with all moral tales, but "Entertaining Fables"
+bears upon its title-page a suggestion that the children's old friend,
+"Aesop," appeared in a new dress.
+
+Another series of books contained the much abridged novels written for
+the older people. "Peregrine Pickle" and "Roderick Random" were both
+reprinted by Isaiah Thomas as early as seventeen hundred and
+eighty-eight. These tales of adventure seem to have had their small
+reflections in such stories as "The Adventures of a Pincushion," and
+"The Adventures of a Peg-top," by Dorothy Kilner, an Englishwoman.
+Mention has already been made of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" in condensed
+form. These were books of over two hundred pages; but most of the
+toy-books were limited to less than one hundred. A remarkable instance
+of the pith of a long plot put into small compass was "The History of
+Tom Jones." A dog-eared copy of such an edition of "Tom Jones" is still
+in existence. Its flowery Dutch binding covers only thirty-one pages,
+four inches long, with a frontispiece and five wood-cut illustrations.
+In so small a space no detailed account of the life of the hero is to be
+expected; nevertheless, the first paragraph introduces Tom as no
+ordinary foundling. Mr. Allworthy finds the infant in his bed one
+evening and rings up his housekeeper Mrs. Deborah Wilkins. "She being a
+strict observer of decency was exceedingly alarmed, on entering her
+master's room, to find him undressed, but more so on his presenting her
+with the child, which he ordered immediately to be taken care of." The
+story proceeds--with little punctuation to enable the reader to take
+breath--to tell how the infant is named, and how Mr. Allworthy's nephew,
+Master Bilfil, is also brought under that generous and respectable
+gentleman's protection. Tommy turned out "good," as Mr. Allworthy had
+hoped when he assumed charge of him; and therefore eventually inherited
+riches and gained the hand of Miss Sophia Western, with whom he rode
+about the country in their "Coach and Six."
+
+Of the stories in this juvenile library, the names, at least, of "Giles
+Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody Two-Shoes" have been
+handed down through various generations. One hundred years ago every
+child knew that "Little King Pippin" attained his glorious end by
+attention to his books in the beginning of his career; that "Giles
+Gingerbread" first learned his alphabet from gingerbread letters, and
+later obtained the patronage of a fine gentleman by spelling "apple-pye"
+correctly. Thus did his digestion prove of material assistance in mental
+gymnastics.
+
+[Illustration: _Illustration of Riddle XIV in "The Puzzling-Cap"_]
+
+But the nursery favorite was undoubtedly "Margery, or Little Goody
+Two-Shoes." She was introduced to the reader in her "state of rags and
+care," from which she gradually emerged in the chapters entitled, "How
+and about Little Margery and her Brother;" "How Little Margery
+obtained the name of Goody Two-Shoes;" "How she became a Tutoress" to
+the farmers' families in which she taught spelling by a game; and how
+they all sang the "Cuz's Chorus" in the intervals between the spelling
+lesson and the composition of sentences like this: "I pray God to bless
+the whole country, and all our friends and all our enemies." Like the
+usual heroine of eighteenth century fiction, she married a title, and as
+Lady Jones was the Lady Bountiful of the district. From these tales it
+is clear that piety as the chief end of the story-book child has been
+succeeded by learning as the desideratum; yet morality is still pushed
+into evidence, and the American mother undoubtedly translated the
+ethical sign-boards along the progress of the tale into Biblical
+admonitions.
+
+All the books were didactic in the extreme. A series of four, called
+"The Mother's," "Father's," "Sister's," and "Brother's Gifts," is a good
+example of this didactic method of story-telling. "The Father's Gift"
+has lessons in spelling preceded by these lines:
+
+   "Let me not join with those in Play,
+    Who fibs and stories tell,
+    I with my Book will spend the Day,
+    And not with such Boys dwell.
+    For one rude Boy will spoil a score
+    As I have oft been told;
+    And one bad sheep, in Time, is sure
+    To injure all the Fold."
+
+"The Mother's Gift" was confined largely to the same instructive field,
+but had one or two stories which conformed to the sentiment of the
+author of "The Adventures of a Pincushion," who stated her motive to be
+"That of providing the young reader with a few pages which should be
+innocent of corrupting if they did not amuse."
+
+"The Brother's" and "Sister's Gifts," however, adopt a different plan of
+instruction. In "The Brother's Gift" we find a brother solicitous
+concerning his sister's education: "Miss Kitty Bland was apt, forward and
+headstrong; and had it not been for the care of her brother, Billy, would
+have probably witnessed all the disadvantages of a modern education"!
+Upon Kitty's return from boarding-school, "she could neither read, nor
+sew, nor write grammatically, dancing stiff and awkward, her musick
+inelegant, and everything she did bordered strongly on affectation." Here
+was a large field for reformation for Billy to effect. He had no doubts
+as to what method to pursue. She was desired to make him twelve shirts,
+and when the first one was presented to him, "he was astonished to find
+her lacking in so useful a female accomplishment." Exemplary conversation
+produced such results that the rest of the garments were satisfactory to
+the critical Billy, who, "as a mark of approbation made her a present of
+a fine pair of stays."
+
+"The Sister's Gift" presents an opposite picture. In this case it is
+Master Courtley who, a "youth of Folly and Idleness," received large
+doses of advice from his sister. This counsel was so efficient with
+Billy's sensitive nature that before the story ends, "he wept bitterly,
+and declared to his sister that she had painted the enormity of his
+vices in such striking colors, that they shocked him in the greatest
+degree; and promised ever after to be as remarkable for generosity,
+compassion and every other virtue as he had hitherto been for cruelty,
+forwardness and ill-nature." Virtue in this instance was its own reward,
+as Billy received no gift in recognition of his changed habits.
+
+To the modern lover of children such tales seem strangely ill-suited to
+the childish mind, losing, as they do, all tenderness in the effort of
+the authors (so often confided to parents in the preface) "to express
+their sentiments with propriety." Such criticism of the style and matter
+of these early attempts to write for little people was probably not made
+by either infant or adult readers of that old-time public. The children
+read what was placed before them as intellectual food, plain and
+sweetened, as unconcernedly as they ate the food upon their plates at
+meal-time. That their own language was the formal one of the period is
+shown by such letters as the following one from Mary Wilder, who had
+just read "The Mother's Gift:"
+
+     Lancaster, October 9th, 1789.
+
+     HOND. MADM:
+
+     Your goodness to me I cannot express. My mind is continually crowded
+     with your kindness. If your goodness could be rewarded, I hope God
+     will repay you. If you remember, some time ago I read a story in
+     "The Mother's Gift," but I hope I shall never resemble Miss Gonson.
+     O Dear! What a thing it is to disobey one's parents. I have one of
+     the best Masters. He gave me a sheet of paper this morning. I hope
+     Uncle Flagg will come up. I am quite tired of looking for Betsy, but
+     I hope she will come. When school is done keeping, I shall come to
+     Sudbury. What a fine book Mrs. Chapone's Letters is: My time grows
+     short and I must make my letter short.
+
+     Your dutiful daughter,
+          P.W.
+
+Nursery rhymes and jingles of these present days have all descended from
+song-books of the eighteenth century, entitled "Little Robin Red
+Breast," "A Poetical Description of Song Birds," "Tommy Thumb's
+Song-Book," and the famous "Melodies of Mother Goose," whose name is
+happily not yet relegated to the days of long ago. Two extracts from the
+"Poetical Description of Song Birds" will be sufficient to show how
+foreign to the birds familiar to American children were the
+descriptions:
+
+    THE BULLFINCH
+
+    This lovely bird is charming to the sight:
+    The back is glossy blue, the belly white,
+    A jetty black shines on his neck and head;
+    His breast is flaming with a beauteous red.
+
+    THE TWITE
+
+    Green like the Linnet it appears to sight,
+    And like the Linnet sings from morn till night.
+    A reddish spot upon his rump is seen,
+    Short is his bill, his feathers always clean:
+    When other singing birds are dull or nice,
+    To sing again the merry Twites entice.
+
+Reflections of the prevailing taste of grown people for biography are
+suggested in three little books, of two of which the author was Mrs.
+Pilkington, who had already written several successful stories for young
+ladies. Her "Biography for Girls" contains various novelettes, in each
+of which the heroine lives the conventional life and dies the
+conventional death of the period, and receives a laudatory epitaph. They
+are remarkable only as being devoid of any interest. Her "Biography for
+Boys" does not appear to have attained the same popularity as that for
+girls. A third book, "The Juvenile Biographers," containing the "Lives
+of Little Masters and Misses," is representative of the changes made in
+many books by the printer to cater to that pride in the young Republic
+so manifest in all local literary productions. In one biography we note
+a Representative to the Massachusetts Assembly:
+
+"As Master Sammy had always been a very sober and careful child, and
+very attentive to his Books, it is no wonder that he proved, in the End,
+to be an excellent Scholar.
+
+"Accordingly, when he had reached the age of fourteen, Mr. William
+Goodall, a wealthy merchant in the city of Boston, took him into his
+counting house, in order to bring him up in the merchantile Way, and
+thereby make his Fortune.
+
+"This was a sad Stroke to his poor Sister Nancy, who having lost both
+her Papa and Mama, was now likely to lose her Brother likewise; but
+Sammy did all he could to appease her, and assured her, that he would
+spend all his leisure Time with her. This he most punctually performed,
+and never were Brother and Sister as happy in each other's company as
+they were.
+
+"Mr. William Goodall was highly satisfied with Sammy's Behaviour, and
+dying much about the Time that Miss Nancy was married to the Gentleman,
+he left all his business to Sammy, together with a large Capital to
+carry it on. So much is Mr. Careful esteemed (for we must now no longer
+call him Master Sammy) that he was chosen in the late General Election,
+Representative in the General Court, for one of the first Towns in New
+England, without the least expense to himself. We here see what are the
+Effects of Good Behaviour."
+
+This adaptation of the English tale to the surroundings of the American
+child is often found in Thomas's reprints, and naturally, owing to his
+enthusiasm over the recent change in the form of government, is made
+wholly by political references. Therefore while the lark and the linnet
+still sang in songs and the cowslips were scattered throughout the
+nature descriptions, Master Friendly no longer rode in the Lord Mayor's
+coach, but was seated as a Congressman in a sedan chair, "and he
+looked--he looked--I do not know what he looked like, but everybody was
+in love with him." The engraver as well as the biographer of the
+recently made Representative was evidently at a loss as to his
+appearance, as the four dots indicating the young gentleman's features
+give but a blank look perhaps intended to denote amazement at his
+election.
+
+The illustrations of Thomas's toy reprints should not be overlooked. The
+Worcester printer seems to have rewritten the "Introduction" to "Goody
+Two-Shoes," and at the end he affixed a "Letter from the Printer which
+he desires may be inserted.
+
+     SIR: I have come with your copy, and so you may return it
+     to the Vatican, if you please; and pray tell Mr. Angelo to brush up
+     his cuts; that in the next edition they may give us a good
+     impression."
+
+This apology for the character of the illustrations serves as an
+introduction to a most interesting subject of conjecture as to the
+making of the cuts, and particularly as to the engraving of the
+frontispiece in "Goody Two-Shoes."
+
+[Illustration: _Goody Twoshoes._]
+
+It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to
+booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in
+bringing out the juvenile books in "the English method." But Mr. Edwin
+Pearson, in his delightful discussion of "Banbury Chap-Books," has also
+stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of
+"Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous
+English illustrator. A comparison of the reproduction of the Bewick
+engraving in Mr. Pearson's book with the frontispiece in Thomas's
+edition shows so much difference that it is a matter of regret that Mr.
+Pearson withheld his authority for attributing to Bewick the
+representation of Margery Two-Shoes. Besides the inference from Thomas's
+letter that the poor cuts would be improved before another edition
+should be printed, there are several points to be observed in comparing
+the cuts. In the first place, the execution in the Thomas cut suggests a
+different hand in the use of the tools; again, the reversed position of
+the figure of "Goody" indicates a copy of the English original. Also the
+expression of Thomas's heroine, although slightly mincing, is less
+distressed than the British dame's, to say nothing of the variation in
+the fashion of the gowns. And such details as the replacing of the
+English landscape by the spire of a meeting-house in the distance seem
+to confirm the impression that the drawing was made after, but not by
+Bewick. In the cuts scattered throughout the text the same difference in
+execution and portrayal of the little schoolmistress is noticeable.
+Margery, upon her rounds to teach the farmers' children to spell such
+words as "plumb-pudding" "(and who can suppose a better?)," presents her
+full face in the Newbery edition, and but a three-quarter view to her
+American admirers.
+
+These facts, together with the knowledge that Isaiah Thomas was a fair
+engraver himself, make it possible that his apology for the first
+impression of the tiny classic was for his own engraving, which he
+thought to better.
+
+Thomas not only copied and pirated Newbery's juvenile histories, but he
+adopted his method of advertising by insertions in the text of these
+tales. For example, in "The Travels of Robinson Crusoe, Written by
+Himself," the little reader was told, "If you learn this Book well and
+are good, you can buy a larger and more complete History of Mr. Crusoe
+at your friend the Bookseller's in Worcester near the Court House." In
+"The Mother's Gift," there is described well-brought-up Miss Nugent
+displaying to ill-bred Miss Jones, "a pretty large collection of books
+neatly bound and nicely kept," all to be had of Mr. Thomas; and again
+Mr. Careful, in "Virtue and Vice," "presented at Christmas time to the
+sons and daughters of his friends, little Gilt Books to read, such as
+are sold at Mr. Thomas' near the Court House in Worcester."
+
+Thomas and his son continued to send out these toy-books until their gay
+bindings faded away before the novelty of the printed paper covers of
+the nineteenth century.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[92-A] Tyler, _Literary History of the American Revolution_, vol. i, p.
+485.
+
+[94-A] _Life of Josiah Quincy_, p. 27. Boston, 1866.
+
+[94-B] Earle, _Child Life in Colonial Days_, p. 171.
+
+[98-A] Tyler, _Literature of the American Revolution_, vol. ii, p. 182.
+
+[98-B] _Ibid._, p. 156.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+1790-1800
+
+
+
+
+    By Washington
+    Great deeds were done.
+             _The New England Primer_,
+                      New York, 1794
+
+    Line after line their wisdom flows
+    Page after page repeating.
+              T.G. HAKE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+1790-1800
+
+_The Child and his Book at the End of the Century_
+
+
+Any attempt to trace the slow development of the American child's story
+of the nineteenth century must inevitably be made through the
+school-books written during the previous one. Before this, English books
+had been adapted to the American trade. But now the continued interest
+in education produced text-books pervaded with the American spirit. They
+cannot, therefore, be ignored as sporadically in the springtime of the
+young Republic, they, like crocuses, thrust forward in the different
+states their blue and yellow covers.
+
+Next to clergymen, schoolmasters received the veneration of the people,
+for learning and godliness went hand in hand. It was the schoolmaster
+who reinforced the efforts of the parents to make good Americans of the
+young folks, by compiling text-books which outsold the English ones
+hitherto used. In the new editions of the old "New England Primer,"
+laudatory verse about General Washington replaced the alphabet rhyme:
+
+   "Whales in the Sea
+    God's Voice obey."
+
+Proud parents thereafter heard their infants lisp:
+
+   "By Washington
+    Great deeds were done."
+
+For older pupils Noah Webster's speller almost superseded Dilworth's,
+and his "Little Readers' Assistant" became the First Reader of many
+children. Webster as schoolmaster in a country district prepared this
+book for his own scholars. It was printed in Hartford in seventeen
+hundred and ninety, and contained a list of subjects suitable for
+farmers' children:
+
+  I. A number of Stories mostly taken from the history of
+     America, and adorned with Cuts.
+
+ II. Rudiments of English Grammar.
+
+III. The Federal Catechism, being a short and easy explanation
+     of the Constitution of the United States.
+
+ IV. General principles of Government and Commerce.
+
+  V. Farmers' Catechism containing plain rules of husbandry.
+
+Bennington, Vermont, contributed in "The Little Scholar's Pretty Pocket
+Companion in Rhyme and Verse," this indirect allusion to political
+affairs:
+
+   "'Twas a toy of royalty, of late almost forgot,
+    'Tis said she represented France
+    On English Monarchies arms,
+    But lately broke his chains by chance
+    And widely spread alarms."
+
+But the most naive attempt to inculcate patriotism together with a
+lesson in obedience is found in "The Child's Instructor," published
+about seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and written by a Philadelphian.
+Philadelphia had become the residence of the President--a fact that may
+account for one of the stories in this book about an infant prodigy
+called Billy. "The child at five years of age was always good and
+obedient, and prone to make such a remark as, 'If you would be wise you
+must always attend to your vowels and consonants.' When General
+Washington came to town Billy's mama asked him to say a speech to the
+ladies, and he began, 'Americans! place constantly before your eyes, the
+deplorable scenes of your servitude, and the enchanting picture of your
+deliverance. Begin with the infant in his cradle; let the first word he
+lisps be _Washington_.' The ladies were all delighted to hear Billy
+speak so well. One said he should be a lawyer, and another said he
+should be President of the United States. But Billy said he could not be
+either unless his mama gave him leave."[123-A]
+
+Another Philadelphian attempted to embody political sentiment in "A
+Tale--The Political Balance; or, The Fate of Britain and America
+Compared." This juvenile has long since disappeared, but it was
+advertised by its printer, Francis Bailey, in seventeen hundred and
+ninety-two, together with "The History of the Little Boy found under a
+Haycock," and several other books for children. One year later a
+"History of the American Revolution" for children was also printed in
+Philadelphia for the generation who had been born since the war had
+ended. This was written in the Biblical phraseology introduced and made
+popular by Franklin in his famous "Parable against Persecution."
+
+This enthusiasm over the results of the late war and scorn for the
+defeated English sometimes indeed cropped out in the Newbery reprints.
+An edition (1796) of "Goody Two-Shoes" contains this footnote in
+reference to the tyranny of the English landlord over Goody's father:
+
+_"Such is the state of things in Britain. AMERICANS prize your liberty,
+guard your rights and be happy._"[123-B]
+
+In this last decade of the century that had made a nation of the
+colonial commonwealths, the prosperity of the country enabled more
+printers to pirate the generally approved Newbery library. Samuel Hall
+in Boston, with a shop near the court-house, printed them all, using at
+times the dainty covers of flowery Dutch or gilt paper, and again
+another style of binding occasionally used in England. "The Death and
+Burial of Cock Robin," for instance, has a quaint red and gilt cover,
+which according to Mr. Charles Welsh was made by stamping paper with
+dies originally used for printing old German playing-cards. He says: "To
+find such a cover can only be accounted for by the innocence of the
+purchasers as to the appearance of his Satanic Majesty's picture cards
+and hence [they] did not recognize them." In one corner of the book
+cover is impressed the single word "Muench," which stamps this paper as
+"made in Germany." Hall himself was probably as ignorant of the original
+purpose of the picture as the unsuspecting purchaser, who would
+cheerfully have burned it rather than see such an instrument of the
+Devil in the hands of its owner, little Sally Barnes.
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece.
+Sr. Walter Raleigh and his man.]
+
+Of Samuel Hall's reprints from the popular English publications, "Little
+Truths" was in all probability one of the most salable. So few books
+contained any information about America that one of these two volumes
+may be regarded as of particular interest to the young generation of his
+time. The author of "Little Truths," William Darton, a Quaker publisher
+in London, does not divulge from what source he gleaned his knowledge.
+His information concerning Americans is of that misty description
+that confuses Indians ("native Americans") with people of Spanish and
+English descent. The usual "Introduction" states that "The author has
+chose a method after the manner of conversations between children and
+their instructor," and the dialogue is indicated by printing the
+children's observations in italics. These volumes were issued for twenty
+years after they were introduced by Hall, and those of an eighteen
+hundred Philadelphia edition are bound separately. Number one is in blue
+paper with copper-plate pictures on both covers. This volume gives
+information regarding farm produce, live-stock, and about birds quite
+unfamiliar to American children. But the second volume, in white covers,
+introduces the story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his pipe-smoking
+incident, made very realistic in the copper-plate frontispiece. The
+children's question, "_Did Sir Walter Raleigh find out the virtues of
+tobacco?_" affords an excellent opportunity for a discourse upon smoking
+and snuff-taking. These remarks conclude with this prosaic statement:
+"Hundreds of sensible people have fell into these customs from example;
+and, when they would have left them off, found it a very great
+difficulty." Next comes a lesson upon the growth of tobacco leading up
+to a short account of the slave-trade, already a subject of differing
+opinion in the United States, as well as in England. Of further interest
+to small Americans was a short tale of the discovery of this country.
+Perhaps to most children their first book-knowledge of this event came
+from the pages of "Little Truths."
+
+Hall's books were not all so proper for the amusement of young folks. A
+perusal of "Capt. Gulliver's Adventures" leaves one in no doubt as to
+the reason that so many of the old-fashioned mothers preferred to keep
+such tales out of children's hands, and to read over and over again the
+adventures of the Pilgrim, Christian. Mrs. Eliza Drinker of Philadelphia
+in seventeen hundred and ninety-six was re-reading for the third time
+"Pilgrim's Progress," which she considered a "generally approved book,"
+although then "ridiculed by many." The "Legacy to Children" Mrs. Drinker
+also read aloud to her grandchildren, having herself "wept over it
+between fifty and sixty years ago, as did my grandchildren when it was
+read to them. She, Hannah Hill, died in 1714, and ye book was printed in
+1714 by Andrew Bradford."
+
+But Mrs. Drinker's grandchildren had another book very different from
+the pious sayings of the dying Hannah. This contained "64 little stories
+and as many pictures drawn and written by Nancy Skyrin," the mother of
+some of the children. P. Widdows had bound the stories in gilt paper,
+and it was so prized by the family that the grandmother thought the fact
+of the recovery of the book, after it was supposed to have been
+irretrievably lost, worthy of an entry in her journal. Careful inquiry
+among the descendants of Mrs. Drinker has led to the belief that these
+stories were read out of existence many years ago. What they were about
+can only be imagined. Perhaps they were incidents in the lives of the
+same children who cried over the pathetic morbidity of Hannah's dying
+words; or possibly rhymes and verses about school and play hours of
+little Philadelphians; with pictures showing bait-the-bear, trap-ball,
+and other sports of days long since passed away, as well as "I Spie
+Hi" and marbles, familiar still to boys and girls.
+
+[Illustration: _Foot Ball_]
+
+From the fact that these stories were written for the author's own
+children, another book, composed less than a century before, is brought
+to mind. Comparison of even the meagre description of Mrs. Skyrin's book
+with Cotton Mather's professed purpose in "Good Lessons" shows the
+stride made in children's literature to be a long one. Yet a quarter of
+a century was still to run before any other original writing was done in
+America for children's benefit.
+
+Nobody else in America, indeed, seems to have considered the question of
+writing for nursery inmates. Mrs. Barbauld's "Easy Lessons for Children
+from Two to Five Years old," written for English children, were
+considered perfectly adapted to gaining knowledge and perhaps amusement.
+It is true that when Benjamin Bache of Philadelphia issued "Easy
+Lessons," he added this note: "Some alterations were thought necessary to
+be made in this ... American edition, to make it agree with the original
+design of rendering instruction easy and useful.... The climate and the
+familiar objects of this country suggested these alterations." Except for
+the substitution of such words as "Wheat" for "Corn," the intentions of
+the editor seem hardly to have had result, except by way of
+advertisement; and are of interest merely because they represent one step
+further in the direction of Americanizing the story-book literature.
+
+All Mrs. Barbauld's books were considered excellent for young children.
+As a "Dissenter," she gained in the esteem of the people of the northern
+states, and her books were imported as well as reprinted here. Perhaps
+she was best known to our grandparents as the joint author, with Dr.
+Aikin, of "Evenings at Home," and of "Hymns in Prose and Verse." Both
+were read extensively for fifty years. The "Hymns" had an enormous
+circulation, and were often full of fine rhythm and undeserving of the
+entire neglect into which they have fallen. Of course, as the fashion
+changed in the "approved" type of story, Mrs. Barbauld suffered
+criticism. "Mrs. and Miss Edgeworth in their 'Practical Education'
+insisted that evil lurked behind the phrase in 'Easy Lessons,' 'Charles
+wants his dinner' because of the implication 'that Charles must have
+whatever he desires,' and to say 'the sun has gone to bed,' is to incur
+the odium of telling the child a falsehood."[128-A]
+
+But the manner in which these critics of Mrs. Barbauld thought they had
+improved upon her method of story-telling is a tale belonging to another
+chapter. When Miss Edgeworth's wave of popularity reached this country
+Mrs. Barbauld's ideas still flourished as very acceptable to parents.
+
+A contemporary and rival writer for the English nursery was Mrs. Sarah
+Trimmer. Her works for little children were also credited with much
+information they did not give. After the publication of Mrs. Barbauld's
+"Easy Lessons" (which was the result of her own teaching of an adopted
+child), Mrs. Trimmer's friends urged her to make a like use of the
+lessons given to her family of six, and accordingly she published in
+seventeen hundred and seventy-eight an "Easy Introduction into the
+Knowledge of Nature," and followed it some years after its initial
+success by "Fabulous Histories," afterwards known as the "History of
+the Robins." Although Mrs. Trimmer represents more nearly than Mrs.
+Barbauld the religious emotionalism pervading Sunday-school
+libraries,--in which she was deeply interested,--the work of both these
+ladies exemplifies the transitional stage to that Labor-in-Play school
+of writing which was to invade the American nursery in the next century
+when Parley and Abbott throve upon the proceeds of the educational
+narrative.
+
+Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" and Thomas Day's "Sanford and Merton" occupied
+the place in the estimation of boys that the doings of Mrs. Barbauld's
+and Mrs. Trimmer's works held in the opinion of the younger members of
+the nursery. Edition followed upon edition of the adventures of the
+famous island hero. In Philadelphia, in seventeen hundred and
+ninety-three, William Young issued what purported to be the sixth
+edition. In New York many thousands of copies were sold, and in eighteen
+hundred and twenty-four we find a Spanish translation attesting its
+widespread favor. In seventeen hundred and ninety-four, Isaiah Thomas
+placed the surprising adventures of the mariner as on the "Coast of
+America, lying near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque."
+
+Parents also thought very highly of Thomas Day's "Children's Miscellany"
+and "Sanford and Merton." To read this last book is to believe it to be
+possibly in the style that Dr. Samuel Johnson had in mind when he
+remarked to Mrs. Piozzi that "the parents buy the books but the children
+never read them." Yet the testimony of publishers of the past is that
+"Sanford and Merton" had a large and continuous sale for many years.
+"'Sanford and Merton,'" writes Mr. Julian Hawthorne, "ran 'Robinson
+Crusoe' harder than any other work of the eighteenth century
+particularly written for children." "The work," he adds, "is quaint and
+interesting rather to the historian than to the general, especially the
+child, reader. Children would hardly appreciate so amazingly ancient a
+form of conversation as that which resulted from Tommy [the bad boy of
+the story] losing a ball and ordering a ragged boy to pick it up:
+
+"'Bring my ball directly!'
+
+"'I don't choose it,' said the boy.
+
+"'Sirrah,' cried Tommy, 'if I come to you I will make you choose it.'
+
+"'Perhaps not, my pretty master,' said the boy.
+
+"'You little rascal,' said Tommy, who now began to be very angry, 'if I
+come over the hedge I will thrash you within an inch of your life.'"
+
+The gist of Tommy's threat has often been couched in modern language by
+grandsons of the boys from whom the Socratic Mr. Day wrote to expose the
+evils of too luxurious an education. His method of compilation of facts
+to be taught may best be given in the words of his Preface: "All who
+have been conversant in the education of very young children, have
+complained of the total want of proper books to be put in their hands,
+while they are taught the elements of reading.... The least exceptional
+passages of books that I could find for the purpose were 'Plutarch's
+Lives' and Xenophon's 'History of the Institution of Cyrus,' in English
+translation; with some part of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and a few passages
+from Mr. Brooke's 'Fool of Quality.' ... I therefore resolved ... not
+only to collect all such stories as I thought adapted to the faculties
+of children, but to connect these by continued narration.... As to the
+histories themselves, I have used the most unbounded licence.... As to
+the language, I have endeavored to throw into it a greater degree of
+elegance and ornament than is usually to be met with in such
+compositions; preserving at the same time a sufficient degree of
+simplicity to make it intelligible to very young children, and rather
+choosing to be diffuse than obscure." With these objects in mind, we can
+understand small Tommy's embellishment of his demand for the return of
+his ball by addressing the ragged urchin as "Sirrah."
+
+Mr. Day's "Children's Miscellany" contained a number of stories, of
+which one, "The History of Little Jack," about a lost child who was
+adopted by a goat, was popular enough to be afterwards published
+separately. It is a debatable question as to whether the parents or the
+children figuring in this "Miscellany" were the more artificial. "Proud
+and unfeeling girl," says one tender mother to her little daughter who
+had bestowed half her pin money upon a poor family,--"proud and
+unfeeling girl, to prefer vain and trifling ornaments to the delight of
+relieving the sick and miserable! Retire from my presence! Take away
+with you trinket and nosegay, and receive from them all the comforts
+they are able to bestow!" Why Mr. Day's stories met with such
+unqualified praise at the time they were published, this example of
+canting rubbish does not reveal. In real life parents certainly did
+retain some of their substance for their own pleasure; why, therefore,
+discipline a child for following the same inclination?
+
+In contrast to Mr. Day's method, Mrs. Barbauld's plan of simple
+conversation in words of one, two, and three syllables seems modern.
+Both aimed to afford pleasure to children "learning the elements of
+reading." Where Mrs. Barbauld probably judged truly the capacity of
+young children in the dialogues with the little Charles of "Easy
+Lessons," Mr. Day loaded his gun with flowers of rhetoric and overshot
+infant comprehension.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of the criticism that has waylaid and torn to
+tatters Thomas Day's efforts to provide a suitable and edifying variety
+of stories, his method still stands for the distinct secularization of
+children's literature of amusement. Moreover, as Mr. Montrose J. Moses
+writes in his delightful study of "Children's Books and Reading," "he
+foreshadowed the method of retelling incidents from the classics and
+from standard history and travel,--a form which is practised to a great
+extent by our present writers, who thread diverse materials on a slender
+wire of subsidiary story, and who, like Butterworth and Knox, invent
+untiring families of travellers who go to foreign parts, who see things,
+and then talk out loud about them."
+
+Besides tales by English authors, there was a French woman, Madame de
+Genlis, whose books many educated people regarded as particularly
+suitable for their daughters, both in the original text and in the
+English translations. In Aaron Burr's letters we find references to his
+interest in the progress made by his little daughter, Theodosia, in her
+studies. His zeal in searching for helpful books was typical of the care
+many others took to place the best literature within their children's
+reach. From Theodosia's own letters to her father we learn that she was
+a studious child, who wrote and ciphered from five to eight every
+morning and during the same hours every evening. To improve her French,
+Mr. Burr took pains to find reading-matter when his law practice
+necessitated frequent absence from home. Thus from West Chester, in
+seventeen hundred and ninety-six, when Theodosia was nine years old, he
+wrote:
+
+     I rose up suddenly from the sofa and rubbing my head--"What book
+     shall I buy for her?" said I to myself. "She reads so much and so
+     rapidly that it is not easy to find proper and amusing French books
+     for her; and yet I am so flattered with her progress in that
+     language, that I am resolved that she shall, at all events, be
+     gratified." So ... I took my hat and sallied out. It was not my
+     first attempt. I went into one bookseller's after another. I found
+     plenty of fairy tales and such nonsense, for the generality of
+     children of nine or ten years old. "These," said I, "will never do.
+     Her understanding begins to be above such things." ... I began to be
+     discouraged. "But I will search a little longer." I persevered. At
+     last I found it. I found the very thing I sought. It is contained in
+     two volumes, octavo, handsomely bound, and with prints and reprints.
+     It is a work of fancy but replete with instruction and amusement. I
+     must present it with my own hand.
+
+     Yr. affectionate
+          A. BURR.
+
+What speculation there must have been in the Burr family as to the name
+of the gift, and what joy when Mr. Burr presented the two volumes upon
+his return! From a letter written later by Mr. Burr to his wife, it
+appears that he afterward found reason to regret his purchase, which
+seems to have been Madame de Genlis's famous "Annales." "Your account,"
+he wrote, "of Madame Genlis surprises me, and is new evidence of the
+necessity of reading books before we put them in the hands of children."
+Opinion differed, of course, concerning the French lady's books. In New
+York, in Miss Dodsworth's most genteel and fashionable school, a play
+written from "The Dove" by Madame de Genlis was acted with the same zest
+by little girls of ten and twelve years of age as they showed in another
+play taken from "The Search after Happiness," a drama by the Quakeress
+and religious writer, Hannah More. These plays were given at the end of
+school terms by fond parents with that appreciation of the histrionic
+ability of their daughters still to be seen on such occasions.
+
+No such objection as Mrs. Burr made to this lady's "Annales" was
+possible in regard to another French book, by Berquin. Entitled "Ami des
+Enfans," it received under the Rev. Mr. Cooper's translation the name
+"The Looking Glass for the Mind." This collection of tales supposedly
+mirrored the frailties and virtues of rich and poor children. It was
+often bound in full calf, and an edition of seventeen hundred and
+ninety-four contains a better engraved frontispiece than it was
+customary to place in juvenile publications. For half a century it was
+to be found in the shop of all booksellers, and had its place in the
+library of every family of means. There are still those among us who
+have not forgotten the impression produced upon their infant minds by
+certain of the tales. Some remember the cruel child and the canary.
+Others recollect their admiration of the little maid who, when all
+others deserted her young patroness, lying ill with the smallpox, won
+the undying gratitude of the mother by her tender nursing. The author,
+blind himself to the possibilities of detriment to the sick child by
+unskilled care, held up to the view of all, this example of devotion of
+one girl in contrast to the hard-heartedness of many others. This book
+seems also to have been called by the literal translation of its
+original title, "Ami des Enfans;" for in an account of the occupations
+of one summer Sunday in seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, Julia
+Cowles, living in Litchfield, Connecticut, wrote: "Attended meeting all
+day long, but do not recollect the text. Read in 'The Children's
+Friend.'" Many children would not have been permitted to read so nearly
+secular a book; but evidently Julia Cowles's parents were liberal in
+their view of Sunday reading after the family had attended "meeting all
+day long."
+
+In addition to the interest of the context of these toy-books of a past
+generation, one who handles such relics of a century ago sees much of
+the fashions for children of that day. In "The Looking Glass," for
+instance, the illustrations copied from engravings by the famous English
+artist, Bewick, show that at the end of the eighteenth century children
+were still clothed like their elders; the coats and waistcoats, knee
+breeches and hats, of boys were patterned after gentlemen's garments,
+and the caps and aprons, kerchiefs and gowns, for girls were
+reproductions of the mothers' wardrobes.
+
+Again, the fly-leaf of "The History of Master Jacky and Miss Harriot"
+arrests the eye by its quaint inscription: "Rozella Ford's Book. For
+being the second speller in the second class." At once the imagination
+calls up the exercises in a village school at the end of a year's
+session: a row of prim little maids and sturdy boys, standing before the
+school dame and by turn spelling in shrill tones words of three to five
+syllables, until only two, Rozella and a better speller, remain
+unconfused by Dilworth's and Webster's word mysteries. Then the two
+children step forward with bow and curtsey to receive their tiny gilt
+prizes from a pile of duodecimos upon the teacher's desk. Indeed, the
+giving of rewards was carried to such an extent as to become a great
+drain upon the meagre stipend of the teacher. Thus when in copper-plate
+handwriting we find in another six-penny volume the inscription:
+"Benjamin H. Bailey, from one he esteems and loves, Mr. Hapgood," we
+read between its lines the self-denial practised by Mr. Hapgood, who
+possibly received, like many other teachers, but seventy-five cents a
+week besides his board and lodging.
+
+Other books afford a glimpse of children's life: the formal every-day
+routine, the plays they enjoyed, and their demonstration of a
+sensibility as keen as was then in fashion for adults. The "History of a
+Doll," lying upon the writer's table, is among the best in this respect.
+It was evidently much read by its owner and fairly "loved to pieces."
+When it reached this disintegrated stage, a careful mother, or aunt,
+sewed it with coarse flax thread inside a home-made cover of bright blue
+wall-paper. Although the "History of the Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty
+Doll" bears no date, its companion story in the wall-paper wrapper has
+the imprint seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and this, together with
+the press-work, places it as belonging to the eighteenth century. It
+offers to the reader a charming insight into the formality of many an
+old-fashioned family: the deportment stiff with the starched customs of
+that day, the seriousness of their fun, and the sensibility among little
+maidens akin to that exhibited in the heroines of fiction created by
+Richardson and Fielding.
+
+The chapter concerning "The Pedigree of the Doll" treats of finding a
+branch of a tree by a carver, who was desired by Sir John Amiable to
+make one of the best dolls in his power for his "pretty little daughter
+who was as good as she was pretty." The carver accordingly took the
+branch and began carving out the head, shoulders, body, and legs, which
+he soon brought to their proper shape. "He then covered it with a fine,
+flesh-colored enamel and painted its cheeks in the most lively manner.
+It had the finest black and sparkling eyes that were ever beheld; its
+cheeks resembled the blushing rose, its neck the lilly, and its lips the
+coral." The doll is presented, and the next chapter tells of "an
+assembly of little female gossips in full debate on the clothing of the
+doll." "Miss Polly having made her papa a vast number of courtesies for
+it, prevailed on her brother to go round to all the little gossips in
+the neighborhood, begging their company to tea in the afternoon, in
+order to consult in what mode the doll should be dressed." The company
+assembled. "Miss Micklin undertook to make it a fine ruffled laced
+shift, Miss Mantua to make it a silk sacque and petticoat; and in short,
+every one contributed, in some measure, to dress out this beautiful
+creature."
+
+"Everything went on with great harmony till they came to the head-dress
+of the doll; and here they differed so much in opinion, that all their
+little clappers were going at once.... Luckily, at this instant Mrs.
+Amiable happened to come in, and soon brought the little gossips to
+order. The matter in dispute was, whether it should have a high
+head-dress or whether the hair should come down on the forehead, and the
+curls flow in natural ringlets on the shoulders. However, after some
+pretty warm debate, this last mode was adopted, as most proper for a
+little miss." In chapter third "The doll is named:--Accidents attend the
+Ceremony." Here we have a picture of a children's party. "The young
+ladies and gentlemen were entertained with tea and coffee; and when that
+was over, each was presented with a glass of raisin wine." During the
+christening ceremony an accident happened to the doll, because Master
+Tommy, the parson, "in endeavouring to get rid of it before the little
+gossips were ready to receive it, made a sad blunder.... Miss Polly,
+with tears in her eyes, snatched up the doll and clasped it to her
+bosom; while the rest of the little gossips turned all the little
+masters out of the room, that they might be left to themselves to
+inquire more privately into what injuries the dear doll had received....
+Amidst these alarming considerations Tommy Amiable sent the ladies word,
+that, if they would permit him and the rest of the young gentlemen to
+pass the evening among them in the parlour, he would engage to replace
+the nose of the doll in such a manner that not the appearance of the
+late accident should be seen." Permission was accordingly granted for a
+surgical operation upon the nose, but "as to the fracture in one of the
+doll's legs, it was never certainly known how that was remedied, as the
+young ladies thought it very indelicate to mention anything about the
+matter." The misadventures of the doll include its theft by a monkey in
+the West Indies, and at this interesting point the only available copy
+of the tale is cut short by the loss of the last four pages. The charm
+of this book lies largely in the fact that the owner of the doll does
+not grow up and marry as in almost every other novelette. This
+difference, of course, prevents the story from being a typical one of
+its period, but it is, nevertheless, a worthy forerunner of those tales
+of the nineteenth century in which an effort was made to write about
+incidents in a child's life, and to avoid the biographical tendency.
+
+Before leaving the books of the eighteenth century, one tale must be
+mentioned because it contains the germ of the idea which has developed
+into Mr. George's "Junior Republic." It was called "Juvenile Trials for
+Robbing Orchards, Telling Tales and other Heinous Offenses." "This,"
+said Dr. Aikin--Mrs. Barbauld's brother and collaborator in "Evenings at
+Home"--"is a very pleasing and ingenious little Work, in which a Court
+of Justice is supposed to be instituted in a school, composed of the
+Scholars themselves, for the purpose of trying offenses committed at
+School." In "Trial the First" Master Tommy Tell-Truth charges Billy
+Prattle with robbing an orchard. The jury, after hearing Billy express
+his contrition for his act, brings in a verdict of guilty; but the judge
+pardons the culprit because of his repentant frame of mind. Miss Delia,
+the offender in case _Number Two_, does not escape so lightly. Miss
+Stirling charges her with raising contention and strife among her
+school-fellows over a piece of angelica, "whereby," say her prosecutors,
+"one had her favorite cap torn to pieces, and her hair which had been
+that day nicely dressed, pulled all about her shoulders; another had her
+sack torn down the middle; a third had a fine flowered apron of her own
+working, reduced to rags; a fourth was wounded by a pelick, or scratch
+of her antagonist, and in short, there was hardly one among them who had
+not some mark to shew of having been concerned in this unfortunate
+affair." That the good Dr. Aikin approved of the punishment decreed, we
+are sure. The little prisoner was condemned to pass three days in her
+room, as just penalty for such "indelicate" behaviour.
+
+By the close of the century Miss Edgeworth was beginning to supersede
+Mrs. Barbauld in England; but in America the taste in juvenile reading
+was still satisfied with the older writer's little Charles, as the
+correct model for children's deportment, and with Giles Gingerbread as
+the exemplary student. The child's lessons had passed from "Be good or
+you will go to Hell" to "Be good and you will be rich;" or, with the
+Puritan element still so largely predominant, "Be good and you will go
+to Heaven." Virtue as an ethical quality had been shown in "Goody
+Two-Shoes" to bring its reward as surely as vice brought punishment. It
+is to be doubted if this was altogether wholesome; and it may well be
+that it was with this idea in mind that Dr. Johnson made his celebrated
+criticism of the nursery literature in vogue, when he said to Mrs.
+Piozzi, "Babies do not want to be told about babies; they like to be
+told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and
+stimulate their little minds."[141-A]
+
+The learned Doctor, having himself been brought up on "Jack the Giant
+Killer" and "The History of Blue Beard," was inclined to scorn Newbery's
+tales as lacking in imaginative quality. That Dr. Johnson was really
+interested in stories for the young people of his time is attested by a
+note written in seventeen hundred and sixty-three on the fly-leaf of a
+collection of chap-books: "I shall certainly, sometime or other, write a
+little Story-Book in the style of these. I shall be happy to succeed,
+for he who pleases children will be remembered by them."[141-B]
+
+In America, however, it is doubtful whether any true critical spirit
+regarding children's books had been reached. Fortunately in England, at
+the beginning of the next century, there was a man who dared speak his
+opinion. Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer (who had contributed "Fabulous
+Histories" to the juvenile library, and for them had shared the approval
+which greeted Mrs. Barbauld's efforts) were the objects of Charles
+Lamb's particular detestation. In a letter to Coleridge, written in
+1802, he said:
+
+"Goody Two Shoes is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has
+banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at
+Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a
+shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. Barbauld's and Mrs. Trimmer's
+nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and vapid as Mrs.
+Barbauld's books convey, it seems, must come to a child in the shape of
+knowledge; and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his own
+powers when he has learned that a horse is an animal and Billy is better
+than a horse, and such like, instead of that beautiful interest in wild
+tales, which made the child a man, while all the time he suspected
+himself to be no bigger than a child. Science has succeeded to poetry no
+less in the little walks of children than of men. Is there no
+possibility of arresting this force of evil? Think what you would have
+been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in
+childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history. Hang
+them! I mean the cursed Barbauld crew, those blights and blasts of all
+that is human in man and child."[142-A]
+
+To Lamb's extremely sensitive nature, the vanished hand of the literary
+man of Grub Street could not be replaced by Mrs. Barbauld's wish to
+instruct by using simple language. It is possible that he did her some
+injustice. Yet a retrospective glance over the story-book literature
+evolved since Newbery's juvenile library was produced, shows little that
+was not poor in quality and untrue to life. Therefore, it is no wonder
+that Lamb should have cried out against the sore evil which had "beset a
+child's mind." All the poetry of life, all the imaginative powers of a
+child, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Trimmer, and Mr. Day ignored; and Newbery in
+his way, and the old ballads in their way, had appealed to both.
+
+In both countries the passion for knowledge resulted in this curious
+literature of amusement. In England books were written; in America they
+were reprinted, until a religious revival left in its wake the series
+of morbid and educational tales which the desire to write original
+stories for American children produced.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[123-A] Miss Hewins, _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. lxi, p. 112.
+
+[123-B] Brynberg. Wilmington, 1796.
+
+[128-A] Miss Repplier, _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. lvii, p. 509.
+
+[141-A] Hill, _Johnsonian Miscellany_, vol. i, p. 157.
+
+[141-B] _Ibid._
+
+[142-A] Welsh, _Introduction to Goody Two Shoes_, p. x.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+1800-1825
+
+
+
+
+    Her morals then the Matron read,
+    Studious to teach her Children dear,
+    And they by love or Duty led,
+    With Pleasure read.
+             _A Mother's Remarks_,
+                      Philadelphia, 1810
+
+    Mama! see what a pretty book
+    At Day's papa has bought,
+    That I may at its pictures look,
+    And by its words be taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+1800-1825
+
+_Toy-Books in the Early Nineteenth Century_
+
+
+On the 23d of December, 1823, there appeared anonymously in the "Troy
+(New York) Sentinel," a Christmas ballad entitled "A Visit from St.
+Nicholas." This rhymed story of Santa Claus and his reindeer, written
+one year before its publication by Clement Clarke Moore for his own
+family, marks the appearance of a truly original story in the literature
+of the American nursery.
+
+We have seen the somewhat lugubrious influence of Puritan and Quaker
+upon the occasional writings for American children; and now comes a
+story bearing upon its face the features of a Dutchman, as the jolly old
+gentleman enters nursery lore with his happy errand.
+
+Up to this time children of wholly English extraction had probably
+little association with the Feast of St. Nicholas. The Christmas season
+had hitherto been regarded as pagan in its origin by people of Puritan
+or Scotch descent, and was celebrated only as a religious festival by
+the descendants of the more liberal adherents to the Church of England.
+The Dutch element in New York, however, still clung to some of their
+traditions; and the custom of exchanging simple gifts upon Christmas Day
+had come down to them as a result of a combination of the church legend
+of the good St. Nicholas, patron of children, and the Scandinavian myth
+of the fairy gnome, who from his bower in the woods showered good
+children with gifts.[148-A] But to celebrate the day quietly was
+altogether a different thing from introducing to the American public the
+character of Santa Claus, who has become in his mythical entity as well
+known to every American as that other Dutch legendary personage, Rip Van
+Winkle.
+
+In the "Visit from St. Nicholas" Mr. Moore not only introduced Santa
+Claus to the young folk of the various states, but gave to them their
+first story of any lasting merit whatsoever. It is worthy of remark that
+as every impulse to write for juvenile readers has lagged behind the
+desire to write for adults, so the composition of these familiar verses
+telling of the arrival in America of the mysterious and welcome visitor
+on
+
+   "The night before Christmas, when all through the house
+    Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,"
+
+fell at the end of that quarter of the nineteenth century to which we
+are accustomed to refer as the beginning of the national period of
+American literature.
+
+It is, of course, true that the older children of that period had
+already begun to enjoy some of the writings of Irving and Cooper, and to
+learn the fortunately still familiar verses by Hopkinson, Key, Drake,
+and Halleck. School-readers have served to familiarize generation after
+generation with "Hail Columbia," "The Star Spangled Banner," and
+sometimes with "The American Flag." It is, doubtless, their authors'
+jubilant enthusiasm over the freedom of the young Republic that has
+caused the children of the more mature nation to delight in the
+repetition of the patriotic verses. The youthful extravagance of
+expression pervading every line is reechoed in the heart of the
+schoolboy, who likes to imagine himself, before anything else, a
+patriot. But until "Donder and Blitzen" pranced into the foreground as
+Santa Claus' steeds, there was nothing in American nursery literature of
+any lasting fame. Thereafter, as the custom of observing Christmas Day
+gradually became popular, the perennial small child felt--until
+automobiles sent reindeer to the limbo of bygone things--the thrill of
+delight and fear over the annual visit of Santa Claus that the bigger
+child experiences in exploding fire-crackers on the Fourth of July.
+There are possibilities in both excitements which appeal to one of the
+child's dearest possessions--his imagination.
+
+It is this direct appeal to the imagination that surprises and delights
+us in Mr. Moore's ballad. To re-read it is to be amazed that anything so
+full of merriment, so modern, so free from pompousness or condescension,
+from pedantry or didacticism, could have been written before the latter
+half of the nineteenth century. Not only its style is simple in contrast
+with the labored efforts at simplicity of its contemporaneous verse, but
+its story runs fifty years ahead of its time in its freedom from the
+restraining hand of the moralist and from the warning finger of the
+religious teacher, if we except Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wonder Book."
+
+In our examination of the toy-books of twenty years preceding its
+publication, we shall find nothing so attractive in manner, nor so
+imaginative in conception. Indeed, we shall see, upon the one hand, that
+fun was held in with such a tight curb that it hardly ever escaped into
+print; and upon the other hand that the imagination had little chance
+to develop because of the prodigal indulgence in realities and in
+religious experience from which all authors suffered. We shall also see
+that these realities were made very uncompromising and uncomfortable to
+run counter to. Duty spelled in capital letters was a stumbling-block
+with which only the well-trained story-book child could successfully
+cope; recreation followed in small portions large shares of instruction,
+whether disguised or bare faced. The Religion-in-Play, the
+Ethics-in-Play, and the Labor-in-Play schools of writing for children
+had arrived in America from the land of their origin.
+
+The stories in vogue in England during this first quarter of the
+nineteenth century explain every vagary in America. There fashionable
+and educational authorities had hitched their wagon to the literary
+star, Miss Edgeworth, and the followers of her system; while the
+religiously inclined pinned their faith also upon tracts written by Miss
+Hannah More. In this still imitative land the booksellers simply
+reprinted the more successful of these juvenile publications. The
+changes, therefore, in the character of the juvenile literature of
+amusement of the early nineteenth century in America were due to the
+adoption of the works of these two Englishwomen, and to the increased
+facilities for reproducing toy-books, both in press-work and in
+illustrations.
+
+Hannah More's allegories and religious dramas, written to cooeperate with
+the teachings of the first Sabbath Day schools, are, of course, outside
+the literature of amusement. Yet they affected its type in America as
+they undoubtedly gave direction to the efforts of the early writers for
+children.
+
+Miss More, born in seventeen hundred and fifty-four, was a woman of
+already established literary reputation when her attention was attracted
+by Robert Raikes's successful experiment of opening a Sunday-school, in
+seventeen hundred and eighty-one. During the religious revival that
+attended the preaching of George Whitefield, Raikes, already interested
+in the hardships and social condition of the working-classes, was
+further aroused by his intimate knowledge of the manner of life of some
+children in a pin factory. To provide instruction for these child
+laborers, who, without work or restrictions on Sundays, sought
+occupation far from elevating, Raikes founded the first "Sabbath Day
+school."
+
+The movement spread rapidly in England, and ten years later, in seventeen
+hundred and ninety-one, under the inspiration of Bishop White, the
+pioneer First Day school in America was opened in Philadelphia. The good
+Bishop was disturbed mentally by the religious and moral degeneracy of
+the poor children in his diocese, and annoyed during church services by
+their clamor outside the churches--a noise often sufficient to drown the
+prayers of his flock and the sermons of his clergy. To occupy these
+restless children for a part of the day, two sessions of the school were
+held each Sunday: one before the morning service, from eight until
+half-past ten o'clock, and the other in the afternoon for an hour and a
+half. The Bible was used as a reader, and the teaching was done regularly
+by paid instructors.
+
+The first Sunday-school library owed its origin to a wish to further the
+instruction given in the school, and hence contained books thought
+admirably adapted to Sunday reading. Among the somewhat meagre stock
+provided for this purpose were Doddridge's "Power of Religion," Miss
+More's tracts and the writings of her imitators, together with "The
+Fairchild Family," by Mrs. Sherwood, "The Two Lambs," by Mrs. Cameron,
+"The Economy of Human Life," and a little volume made up of selections
+from Mrs. Barbauld's works for children. "The Economy of Human Life,"
+said Miss Sedgwick (who herself afterwards wrote several good books for
+girls), "was quite above my comprehension, and I thought it unmeaning
+and tedious." Testimony of this kind about a book which for years
+appeared regularly upon booksellers' lists enables us to realize that
+the average intelligent child of the year eighteen hundred was beginning
+to be as bored by some of the literature placed in his hands as a child
+would be one hundred years later.
+
+To increase this special class of books, Hannah More devoted her
+attention. Her forty tracts comprising "The Cheap Repository" included
+"The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" and "The Two Shoemakers," which, often
+appearing in American booksellers' advertisements, were for many years a
+staple article in Sunday-school libraries, and even now, although pushed
+to the rear, are discoverable in some such collections of books. Their
+objective point is best given by their author's own words in the preface
+to an edition of "The Search after Happiness; A Pastoral Drama," issued
+by Jacob Johnson of Philadelphia in eighteen hundred and eleven.
+
+Miss More began in the self-depreciatory manner then thought modest and
+becoming in women writers: "The author is sensible it may have many
+imperfections, but if it may be happily instrumental in producing a
+regard to Religion and Virtue in the minds of Young Persons, and afford
+them an innocent, and perhaps not altogether unuseful amusement in the
+exercise of recitation, the end for which it was originally composed ...
+will be fully answered." A drama may seem to us above the comprehension
+of the poor and illiterate class of people whose attention Miss More
+wished to hold, but when we feel inclined to criticise, let us not
+forget that the author was one who had written little eight-year-old
+Thomas Macaulay: "I think we have nearly exhausted the epics. What say
+you to a little good prose? Johnson's 'Hebrides,' or Walton's 'Lives,'
+unless you would like a neat edition of Cowper's poems or 'Paradise
+Lost.'"
+
+Miss More's influence upon the character of Sunday-school books in
+England undoubtedly did much to incline many unknown American women of
+the nineteenth century to take up this class of books as their own field
+for religious effort and pecuniary profit.
+
+Contemporary with Hannah More's writings in the interest of religious
+life of Sunday-school scholars were some of the literary products of the
+painstaking pen of Maria Edgeworth.
+
+Mention of Miss Edgeworth has already been made. About her stories for
+children criticism has played seriously, admiringly, and contemptuously.
+It is not the present purpose, however, to do other than to make clear
+her own aim, and to try to show the effect of her extremely moral tales
+upon her own generation of writers for American children. It is possible
+that she affected these authors more than the child audience for whom
+she wrote. Little ones have a wonderful faculty for seizing upon what
+suits them and leaving the remainder for their elders to discuss.
+
+Maria Edgeworth's life was a long one. Born in seventeen hundred and
+sixty-seven, when John Newbery's books were at the height of their fame,
+she lived until eighteen hundred and forty-nine, when they were scarcely
+remembered; and now her own once popular tales have met a similar fate.
+
+She was educated by a father filled with enthusiasm by the teachings of
+Rousseau and with advice from the platitudinous family friend, Thomas
+Day, author of "Sanford and Merton." Only the truly genial nature and
+strong character of Miss Edgeworth prevented her genius from being
+altogether swamped by this incongruous combination. Fortunately, also,
+her busy practical home life allowed her sympathies full sway and
+counteracted many of the theories introduced by Mr. Edgeworth into his
+family circle. Successive stepmothers filled the Edgeworth nursery with
+children, for whom the devoted older sister planned and wrote the
+stories afterward published.
+
+In seventeen hundred and ninety-one Maria Edgeworth, at her father's
+suggestion, began to note down anecdotes of the children of the family,
+and later these were often used as copy to be criticised by the little
+ones themselves before they were turned over to the printer. Her
+father's educational conversations with his family were often committed
+to paper, and these also furnished material from which Miss Edgeworth
+made it her object in life to interweave knowledge, amusement, and
+ethics. Indeed, it has been most aptly said that between the narrow
+banks of Richard Edgeworth's theories "his daughter's genius flowed
+through many volumes of amusement."
+
+[Illustration: _Jacob Johnson's Book-Store._]
+
+Her first collection of tales was published under the title of "The
+Parent's Assistant," although Miss Edgeworth's own choice of a name had
+been the less formidable one of "The Parent's Friend." Based upon her
+experience as eldest sister in a large and constantly increasing family,
+these tales necessarily struck many true notes and gave valuable hints
+to perplexed parents. In "The Parent's Assistant" realities stalked full
+grown into the nursery as
+
+   "Every object in creation
+    Furnished hints for contemplation."
+
+The characters were invariably true to their creator's original drawing.
+A good girl was good from morning to night; a naughty child began and
+ended the day in disobedience, and by it bottles were smashed,
+strawberries spilled, and lessons disregarded in unbroken sequence. In
+later life Miss Edgeworth confessed to having occasionally introduced in
+"Harry and Lucy" some nonsense as an "alloy to make the sense work
+well;" but as all her earlier children's tales were subjected to the
+pruning scissors of Mr. Edgeworth, this amalgam is to-day hardly
+noticeable in "Popular Tales," "Early Lessons," and "Frank," which
+preceded the six volumes of "Harry and Lucy."
+
+Although a contemporary of Mrs. Barbauld, who had written for little
+children "Easy Lessons," Miss Edgeworth does not seem to have been well
+known in America until about eighteen hundred and five. Then "Harry and
+Lucy" was brought out by Jacob Johnson, a Philadelphia book-dealer.
+This was issued in six small red and blue marbled paper volumes,
+although other parts were not completed until eighteen hundred and
+twenty-three. Between the first and second parts of volume one the
+educational hand of Mr. Edgeworth is visible in the insertion of a
+"Glossary," "to give a popular meaning of the words." "This Glossary,"
+the editor, Mr. Edgeworth, thought, "should be read to children a little
+at a time, and should be made the subject of conversation. Afterwards
+they will read it with more pleasure." The popular meaning of words may
+be succinctly given by one definition: "Dry, what is not wet." Could
+anything be more lucid?
+
+Among the stories by Miss Edgeworth are three rarely mentioned by
+critics, and yet among the most natural and entertaining of her short
+tales. They were also printed by Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia, in
+eighteen hundred and five, under the simple title, "Three Stories for
+Children." "Little Dog Trusty" is a dog any small child would like to
+read about; "The Orangeman" was a character familiar to English
+children; and "The Cherry Orchard" is a tale of a day's pleasure whose
+spirit American children could readily seize. In each Miss Edgeworth had
+a story to tell, and she told it well, even though "she walked," as has
+been often said, "as mentor beside her characters."
+
+Of Miss Edgeworth's many tales, "Waste Not, Want Not" was long
+considered a model. In it what Mr. Edgeworth styled the "shafts of
+ridicule" were aimed at the rich nephew of Mr. Gresham. Mr. Gresham
+(whose prototype we strongly suspect was Mr. Edgeworth himself) "lived
+neither in idleness nor extravagance," and was desirous of adopting an
+heir to his considerable property. Therefore, he invited two nephews to
+visit him, with the object of choosing the more suitable for his
+purpose; apparently he had only to signify his wish and no parental
+objection to his plan would be interposed. The boys arrive: Hal, whose
+mama spends her days at Bath over cards with Lady Diana Sweepstake, is
+an ill-bred child, neither deferential to his uncle, nor with appetite
+for buns when queen-cakes may be had. His cousin Ben, on the contrary,
+has been taught those virtuous habits that make for a respectful
+attitude toward rich uncles and assure a dissertation upon the
+beneficial effect of buns _versus_ queen-cakes. The boys, having had
+their characters thus definitely shown, proceed to live up to them in
+every particular. From start to finish it is the virtuous Ben--his
+generosity, thrift, and foresight are never allowed to lapse for an
+instant--who triumphs in every episode. He saves his string, "good
+whipcord," when requested by Mr. Gresham to untie a parcel, and it
+thereafter serves to spin a fine new top, to help Hal out of a
+difficulty with his toy, and in the final incident of the story, an
+archery contest, our provident hero, finding his bowstring "cracked,"
+calmly draws from his pocket the still excellent piece of cord, and
+affixing it to his bow, wins the match. Hal betrays his great lack of
+self-control by exclaiming, "The everlasting whipcord, I declare," and
+thereupon Patty, Mr. Gresham's only child, who has suffered from Hal's
+defects of character, openly rejoices when the prize is given to Ben. As
+is usual with Miss Edgeworth's badly behaved children, the reader now
+sees the error of Hal's ways, and perceives also that in the lad's
+acknowledgment of the truth of the formerly scorned motto, "Waste not,
+want not," the era of his reformation has begun.
+
+Perpetual action was the key to the success of Miss Edgeworth's
+writings. If to us her fictitious children seem like puppets whose
+strings are too obviously jerked, the monotonous moral cloaked in the
+variety of incident was liked by her own generation,
+
+Miss Edgeworth not only pleased the children, but received the applause
+of their parents and friends. Sir Walter Scott, the prince of
+story-tellers, found much to admire in her tales, and wrote of "Simple
+Susan:" "When the boy brings back the lamb to the little girl, there is
+nothing for it but to put down the book and cry." Susan was the pattern
+child in the tale, "clean as well as industrious," while Barbara--a
+violent contrast--was conceited and lazy, and a _lady_ who "could
+descend without shame from the height of insolent pride to the lowest
+measure of fawning familiarity." Therefore it is small wonder that Sir
+Walter passed her by without mention.
+
+However much we may value an English author's admiration for Miss
+Edgeworth's story-telling gifts, it is to America that we naturally turn
+to seek contemporary opinion. In educational circles there is no doubt
+that Miss Edgeworth won high praise. That her books were not always easy
+to procure, however, we know from a letter written from Washington by
+Mrs. Josiah Quincy, whose life as a child during the Revolution has
+already been described. When Mrs. Quincy was living in the capital city
+in eighteen hundred and ten, during her husband's term as Congressman,
+she found it difficult to provide her family with books. She therefore
+wrote to Boston to a friend, requesting to have sent her Miss
+Edgeworth's "Moral Tales," "if the work can be obtained in one of the
+bookstores. If not," she continued, "borrow one ... and I will replace
+it with a new copy. Cut the book out of its binding and enclose the
+pages in packets.... Be careful to send the entire text and title page."
+The scarcity in Washington of books for young people Mrs. Quincy thought
+justified the hope that reprinting these tales would be profitable to a
+bookseller in whose efforts to introduce a better taste among the
+inhabitants she took a keen interest. But Mrs. Quincy need not have sent
+to Boston for them. Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia had issued most of the
+English author's books by eighteen hundred and five, and New York
+publishers probably made good profit by printing them.
+
+Reading aloud was both a pastime and an education to families in those
+early days of the Republic. Although Mrs. Quincy made every effort to
+procure Miss Edgeworth's stories for her family because, in her opinion,
+"they obtained a decided preference to the works of Hannah More, Mrs.
+Trimmer and Mrs. Chapone," for reading aloud she chose extracts from
+Shakespeare, Milton, Addison, and Goldsmith. Indeed, if it were possible
+to ask our great-grandparents what books they remembered reading in
+their childhood, I think we should find that beyond somewhat hazy
+recollections of Miss Edgeworth's books and Berquin's "The Looking Glass
+for the Mind," they would either mention "Robinson Crusoe," Newbery's
+tales of "Giles Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody
+Two-Shoes" (written fifty years before their own childhood), or
+remember only the classic tales and sketches read to them by their
+parents.
+
+Certainly this is the case if we may take as trustworthy the
+recollections of literary people whose childhood was passed in the first
+part of the nineteenth century. Catharine Sedgwick, for instance, has
+left a charming picture of American family life in a country town in
+eighteen hundred--a life doubtless paralleled by many households in
+comfortable circumstances. Among the host of little prigs and prudes in
+story-books of the day, it is delightful to find in Catharine Sedgwick
+herself an example of a bookish child who was natural. Her reminiscences
+include an account of the way the task of sweeping out the schoolhouse
+after hours was made bearable by feasts of Malaga wine and raisins.
+These she procured from the store where her father kept an open account,
+until the bill having been rendered dotted over with such charges "per
+daughter Catharine," these treats to favorite schoolmates ceased. Also a
+host of intimate details of this large family's life in the country
+brings us in touch with the times: fifteen pairs of calfskin shoes
+ordered from the village shoemaker, because town-bought morocco slippers
+were few and far between; the excitement of a silk gown; the distress of
+a brother, whose trousers for fete occasions were remodelled from an
+older brother's "blue broadcloth worn to fragility--so that Robert [the
+younger brother] said he could not look at them without making a rent;"
+and again the anticipation of the father's return from Philadelphia with
+gifts of necessaries and books.
+
+After seventeen hundred and ninety-five Mr. Sedgwick was compelled as a
+member of Congress to be away the greater part of each year, leaving
+household and farm to the care of an invalid wife. Memories of Mr.
+Sedgwick's infrequent visits home were mingled in his daughter's mind
+with the recollections of being kept up until nine o'clock to listen to
+his reading from Shakespeare, Don Quixote, or Hudibras. "Certainly,"
+wrote Miss Sedgwick, "I did not understand them, but some glances of
+celestial light reached my soul, and I caught from his magnetic sympathy
+some elevation of feeling, and that love of reading which has been to me
+an 'education.'" "I was not more than twelve years old," she continues,
+"I think but ten--when one winter I read Rollin's Ancient History. The
+walking to our schoolhouse was often bad, and I took my lunch (how well
+I remember the bread and butter, and 'nut cake' and cold sausage, and
+nuts and apples that made the miscellaneous contents of that enchanting
+lunch-basket!), and in the interim between morning and afternoon school
+I crept under my desk (the desks were so made as to afford little close
+recesses under them) and read and munched and forgot myself in Cyrus'
+greatness."
+
+It is beyond question that the keen relish induced by the scarcity of
+juvenile reading, together with the sound digestion it promoted,
+overbalanced in mental gain the novelties of a later day.
+
+The Sedgwick library was probably typical of the average choice in
+reading-matter of the contemporary American child. Half a dozen little
+story-books, Berquin's "Children's Friend" (the very form and shade of
+color of its binding with its green edges were never forgotten by any
+member of the Sedgwick family), and the "Looking Glass for the Mind"
+were shelved side by side with a large volume entitled "Elegant
+Extracts," full of ballads, fables, and tales delightful to children
+whose imagination was already excited by the solemn mystery of Rowe's
+"Letters from the Dead to the Living." Since none of these books except
+those containing an infusion of religion were allowed to be read on
+Sunday, the Sedgwick children extended the bounds by turning over the
+pages of a book, and if the word "God" or "Lord" appeared, it was pounced
+upon as sanctified and therefore permissible.
+
+Where families were too poor to buy story-books, the children found what
+amusement they could in the parents' small library. In ministers'
+families sermons were more plentiful than books. Mrs. H.B. Stowe, when a
+girl, found barrels of sermons in the garret of her father, the Rev. Dr.
+Beecher, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Through these sermons his daughter
+searched hungrily for mental food. It seemed as if there were thousands
+of the most unintelligible things. "An appeal on the unlawfulness of a
+man's marrying his wife's sister" turned up in every barrel by the
+dozens, until she despaired of finding an end of it. At last an ancient
+volume of "Arabian Nights" was unearthed. Here was the one inexhaustible
+source of delight to a child so eager for books that at ten years of age
+she had pored over the two volumes of the "Magnalia."
+
+The library advantages of a more fortunately placed old-fashioned child
+we know from Dr. Holmes's frequent reference to incidents of his
+boyhood. He frankly confessed that he read in and not through many of
+the two thousand books in his father's library; but he found much to
+interest him in the volumes of periodicals, especially in the "Annual
+Register" and Rees's "Encyclopedia." Although apparently allowed to
+choose from the book-shelves, there were frequent evidences of a
+parent's careful supervision. "I remember," he once wrote to a friend,
+"many leaves were torn out of a copy of Dryden's Poems, with the comment
+'Hiatus haud diflendus,' but I had like all children a kind of Indian
+sagacity in the discovery of contraband reading, such as a boy carries
+to a corner for perusal. Sermons I had enough from the pulpit. I don't
+know that I ever read one sermon of my own accord during my childhood.
+The 'Life of David,' by Samuel Chandler, had adventures enough, to say
+nothing of gallantry, in it to stimulate and gratify curiosity."
+"Biographies of Pious Children," wrote Dr. Holmes at another time, "were
+not to my taste. Those young persons were generally sickly, melancholy,
+and buzzed around by ghostly comforters or discomforters in a way that
+made me sick to contemplate." Again, Dr. Holmes, writing of the revolt
+from the commonly accepted religious doctrines he experienced upon
+reading the Rev. Thomas Scott's Family Bible, contrasted the gruesome
+doctrines it set forth with the story of Christian told in "Pilgrim's
+Progress," a book which captivated his imagination.
+
+As to story-books, Dr. Holmes once referred to Mrs. Barbauld and Dr.
+Aikin's joint production, "Evenings at Home," with an accuracy bearing
+testimony to his early love for natural science. He also paid a graceful
+tribute to Lady Bountiful of "Little King Pippin" in comparing her in a
+conversation "At the Breakfast Table" with the appearance of three
+maiden ladies "rustling through the aisles of the old meeting-house, in
+silk and satin, not gay but more than decent."
+
+Although Dr. Holmes was not sufficiently impressed with the contents of
+Miss Edgeworth's tales to mention them, at least one of her books
+contained much of the sort of information he found attractive in
+"Evenings at Home." "Harry and Lucy," besides pointing a moral on every
+page, foreshadowed that taste for natural science which turned every
+writer's thought toward printing geographical walks, botanical
+observations, natural history conversations, and geological
+dissertations in the guise of toy-books of amusement. A batch of books
+issued in America during the first two decades of the nineteenth century
+is illustrative of this new fashion. These books, belonging to the
+Labor-in-Play school, may best be described in their American editions.
+
+One hundred years ago the American publishers of toy works were devoting
+their attention to the make-up rather than to the contents of their
+wares. The steady progress of the industrial arts enabled a greater
+number of printers to issue juvenile books, whose attractiveness was
+increased by better illustrations; and also with the improved facilities
+for printing and publishing, the issues of the various firms became more
+individual. At the beginning of the century the cheaper books entirely
+lost their charming gilt, flowery Dutch, and silver wrappers, as home
+products came into use. Size and illustrations also underwent a change.
+
+[Illustration: _A Wall-paper Book-Cover_]
+
+In Philadelphia, Benjamin and Jacob Johnson, and later Johnson and
+Warner, issued both tiny books two inches square, and somewhat larger
+volumes containing illustrations as well as text. These firms used
+for binding gray and blue marbled paper, gold-powdered yellow cardboard,
+or salmon pink, blue, and olive-green papers, usually without
+ornamentation. In eighteen hundred J. and J. Crukshank, of the same
+town, began to decorate with copper-plate cuts the outside of the white
+or blue paper covers of their imprints for children. Other printers
+followed their example, especially after wood-engraving became more
+generally used.
+
+In Wilmington, Delaware, John Adams printed and sold "The New History of
+Blue Beard" in both peacock-blue and olive-green paper covers; but Peter
+Brynberg, also of that town, was still in eighteen hundred and four
+using quaint wall-paper to dress his toy imprints. Matthew Carey, the
+well-known printer of school-books for the children of Philadelphia,
+made a "Child's Guide to Spelling and Reading" more acceptable by a
+charming cover of yellow and red striped paper dotted over with little
+black hearts suggestive of the old Primer rhyme for the letter B:
+
+   "My Book and Heart
+    Shall never part."
+
+In New York the dealers in juvenile books seem either to have bound in
+calf such classics as "The Blossoms of Morality," published by David
+Longworth at the Shakespeare Gallery in eighteen hundred and two, or in
+decorated but unattractive brown paper. This was the cover almost
+invariably used for years by Samuel Wood, the founder of the present
+publishing-house of medical works. He began in eighteen hundred and six
+to print the first of his many thousands of children's religious,
+instructive, and nursery books. As was the custom in order to insure a
+good sale, Wood first brought out a primer, "The Young Child's A B C."
+He decorated its Quaker gray cover with a woodcut of a flock of birds,
+and its title-page with a picture, presumably by Alexander Anderson, of
+a girl holding up a dove in her left hand and holding down a lamb with
+her right.
+
+In New England, Nathaniel Coverly of Salem sometimes used a watered pink
+paper to cover his sixteen page toy-books, and in Boston his son, as
+late as eighteen hundred and thirteen, still used pieces of large
+patterned wall-paper for six-penny books, such as "Tom Thumb," "Old
+Mother Hubbard," and "Cock Robin."
+
+The change in the appearance of most toy-books, however, was due largely
+to the increased use of illustrations. The work of the famous English
+engraver, Thomas Bewick, had at last been successfully copied by a
+physician of New York, Dr. Alexander Anderson.
+
+Dr. Anderson was born in New York in seventeen hundred and seventy-five,
+and by seventeen hundred and ninety-three was employed by printers and
+publishers in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and even Charleston to
+illustrate their books. Like other engravers, he began by cutting in
+type-metal, or engraving upon copper. In seventeen hundred and
+ninety-four, for Durell of New York, he undertook to make illustrations,
+probably for "The Looking Glass for the Mind." Beginning by copying
+Bewick's pictures upon type-metal, when "about one-third done, Dr.
+Anderson felt satisfied he could do better on wood."[166-A] In his diary
+we find noted an instance of his perseverance in the midst of
+discouragement: "Sept. 24. This morning I was quite discouraged on
+seeing a crack in the wood. Employed as usual at the Doctor's, came home
+to dinner, glued the wood and began again with fresh hopes of producing
+a good wood engraving." September 26 found him "pretty well satisfied
+with the impression and so was Durell." In eighteen hundred he engraved
+all the pictures on wood for a new edition of the same book, and from
+this time he seems to have discontinued the use of type-metal, which he
+had employed in his earlier work as illustrator of the "Pilgrim's
+Progress" issued by Hugh Gaine, and of "Tom Thumb's Folio" printed by
+Brewer. After eighteen hundred and twelve Anderson almost gave up
+engraving on copper also, and devoted himself to satisfying the great
+demand for his work on wood. For Durell of New York, an extensive
+reprinter of English books, from toy-books to a folio edition of
+Josephus, he reproduced the English engravings, never making, according
+to Mr. Lossing, more than a frontispiece for the larger volumes.
+
+Although Samuel Wood and Sons of New York also gave Dr. Anderson many
+orders for cuts for their various juvenile publications, he still found
+time to engrave for publishers of other cities. We find his
+illustrations in the toy-books printed in Boston and Philadelphia; and
+for Sidney Babcock, a New Haven publisher of juvenile literature, he
+supplied many of the numerous woodcuts required. The best of Anderson's
+work as an engraver coincided with the years of Babcock's very extensive
+business of issuing children's books, between 1805 and 1840. His cuts
+adorned the juvenile duodecimos that this printer's widely extended
+trade demanded; and even as far south as Charleston, South Carolina,
+Babcock, like Isaiah Thomas, found it profitable to open a branch shop.
+
+Anderson's illustrations are the main features of most of Babcock's
+little blue, pink, and yellow paper-covered books; especially of those
+printed in the early years of the nineteenth century. We notice in them
+the changes in the dress of children, who no longer were clothed exactly
+in the semblance of their elders, but began to assume garments more
+appropriate to their ages, sports, and occupations. Anderson also
+sometimes introduced into his pictures a negro coachman or nurse in the
+place of the footman or maid of the English tale he illustrated.
+
+While the demand for the engraver's work was constant, his remuneration
+was small, if we are to judge by Babcock's payment of only fifty
+shillings for fifteen cuts.
+
+For these toy-books Anderson made many reproductions from Bewick's cuts,
+and although he did not equal the Englishman's work, he so far surpassed
+his pupils and imitators of the early part of the century that his
+engravings are generally to be recognized even when not signed. In
+eighteen hundred and two Dr. Anderson began to reproduce for David
+Longworth Bewick's "Quadrupeds," and these "cuts were afterwards made
+use of, with the Bewick letter-press also, for a series of children's
+books."[168-A]
+
+In eighteen hundred and twelve, for Munroe & Francis of Boston, Dr.
+Anderson made after J. Thompson a set of cuts, mainly remarkable "as
+the chief of his few departures from the style of his favorite,
+Bewick."[169-A]
+
+The custom of not signing either text or engravings in the children's
+books has made it difficult to identify writers and illustrators of
+juvenile literature. But some of the best engravers undoubtedly
+practised their art on these toy-books. Nathaniel Dearborn, who was a
+stationer, printer, and engraver in Boston about eighteen hundred and
+eleven, sometimes signed the full-page illustrations on both wood and
+copper, and Abel Bowen, a copper-engraver, and possibly the first
+wood-engraver in Boston, signed a very curious publication entitled "A
+Metamorphosis"--a manifold paper which in its various possible
+combinations transformed one figure into another in keeping with the
+progress of the story.
+
+C. Gilbert, a pupil of Mason, who had introduced the art of
+wood-engraving in Philadelphia from Boston, engraved on wood certainly
+the two full-page illustrations for "A Present for a Little Girl,"
+printed in eighteen hundred and sixteen for a Baltimore firm, Warner &
+Hanna.
+
+Adams and his pupils, Lansing and Morgan, also did work on children's
+books. Adams seems to have worked under Anderson's instruction, and
+after eighteen hundred and twenty-five did cuts for some books in the
+juvenile libraries of S. Wood and Mahlon Day of New York.
+
+Of the engravers on copper, many tried their hands on these toy-books.
+Among them may be mentioned Amos Doolittle of New Haven, James Poupard,
+John Neagle, and W. Ralph of Philadelphia, and Rollinson of New York,
+who is credited with having engraved the silver buttons on the coat
+worn by Washington on his inauguration as President.
+
+But of the copper-plate engravers, perhaps none did more work for
+children's books than William Charles of Philadelphia. Charles, who is
+best known by his series of caricatures of the events of the War of 1812
+and of local politics, worked upon toy-books as early as eighteen
+hundred and eight, when in Philadelphia he published in two parts "Tom
+the Piper's Son; illustrated with whimsical engravings." In these books
+both text and pictures were engraved, as will be seen in the
+illustration. Charles's plates for a series of moral tales in verse were
+used by his successors, Mary Charles, Morgan & Yeager, and Morgan &
+Sons, for certainly fifteen years after the originals were made. To
+William Charles the children in the vicinity of Philadelphia were also
+probably indebted for the introduction of colored pictures. It is
+possible that the young folks of Boston had the novelty of colored
+picture-books somewhat before Charles introduced them in Philadelphia,
+as we find that "The History and Adventures of Little Henry exemplified
+in a series of figures" was printed by J. Belcher of the Massachusetts
+town in 1812. These "figures" exhibited little Henry suitably attired
+for the various incidents of his career, with a movable head to be
+attached at will to any of the figures, which were not engraved with the
+text, but each was laid in loose on a blank page. William Charles's
+method of coloring the pictures engraved with the text was a slight
+advance, perhaps, upon the illustrations inserted separately; but it is
+doubtful whether these immovable plates afforded as much entertainment
+to little readers as the separate figures similar to paper dolls
+which Belcher, and somewhat later Charles also, used in a few of their
+publications.
+
+[Illustration: _Tom the Piper's Son_]
+
+The "Peacock at Home," engraved by Charles and then colored in
+aqua-tint, is one of the rare early colored picture-books still extant,
+having been first issued in eighteen hundred and fourteen. The coloring
+of the illustrations at first doubled the price, and seems to have been
+used principally for a series of stories belonging to what may be styled
+the Ethics-in-Play type of juvenile literature, and entitled the
+"History and Adventures of Little William," "Little Nancy," etc. These
+tales, written after the objective manner of Miss Edgeworth, glossed
+over by rhyme, contained usually eight colored plates, and sold for
+twenty-five cents each instead of twelve cents, the price of the
+picture-book without colored plates. Sometimes, as in the case of
+"Cinderella," we find the text illustrated with a number of "Elegant
+Figures, to dress and undress." The paper doll could be placed behind
+the costumes appropriate to the various adventures, and, to prevent the
+loss of the heroine, the book was tied up with pink or blue ribbon after
+the manner of a portfolio.
+
+With engravers on wood and copper able to make more attractive the
+passion for instruction which marked the first quarter of the nineteenth
+century, the variety of toy-book literature naturally became greater.
+Indeed, without pictures to render somewhat entertaining the
+Labor-in-Play school, it is doubtful whether it could have attained its
+widespread popularity.
+
+It is, of course, possible to name but a few titles typical of the
+various kinds of instruction offered as amusement. "To present to the
+young Reader a Little Miscellany of Natural History, Moral Precept,
+Sentiment, and Narrative," Dr. Kendall wrote "Keeper's Travels in Search
+of his Master," "The Canary Bird," and "The Sparrow." "The Prize for
+Youthful Obedience" endeavored to instill a love for animals, and to
+promote obedient habits. Its story runs in this way:
+
+"A kind and good father had a little lively son, named Francis; but,
+although that little boy was six years old, he had not yet learned to
+read.
+
+"His mama said to him, one day, 'if Francis will learn to read well, he
+shall have a pretty little chaise.'
+
+"The little boy was vastly pleased with this; he presently spelt five or
+six words and then kissed his mama.
+
+"'Mama,' said Francis, 'I am delighted with the thoughts of this chaise,
+but I should like to have a horse to draw it.'
+
+"'Francis shall have a little dog, which will do instead of a horse,'
+replied his mama, 'but he must take care to give him some victuals, and
+not do him any harm.'"
+
+The dog was purchased, and named Chloe. "She was as brisk as a bee,
+prettily spotted, and as gentle as a lamb." We are now prepared for
+trouble, for the lesson of the story is surely not hidden. Chloe was
+fastened to the chaise, a cat secured to serve as a passenger, and
+"Francis drove his little chaise along the walk." But "when he had been
+long enough among the gooseberry trees, his mama took him in the garden
+and told him the names of the flowers." We are thus led to suppose that
+Francis had never been in the garden before! The mother is called away.
+We feel sure that the trouble anticipated is at hand. "As soon as she
+was gone Francis began whipping the dog," and of course when the dog
+dashed forward the cat tumbled out, and "poor Chloe was terrified by the
+chaise which banged on all sides. Francis now heartily repented of his
+cruel behaviour and went into the house crying, and looking like a very
+simple boy."
+
+[Illustration: _A Kind and Good Father_]
+
+"I see very plainly the cause of this misfortune," said the father, who,
+however, soon forgave his repentant son. Thereafter every day Francis
+learned his lesson, and was rewarded by facts and pictures about
+animals, by table-talks, or by walks about the country.
+
+Knowledge offered within small compass seems to have been a novelty
+introduced in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson, who had a juvenile library
+in High Street.
+
+In eighteen hundred and three he printed two tiny volumes entitled "A
+Description of Various Objects." Bound in green paper covers, the
+two-inch square pages were printed in bold type. The first volume
+contained the illustrations of the objects described in the other. The
+characterizations were exceedingly short, as, for example, this of the
+"Puppet Show:" "Here are several little boys and girls looking at a
+puppet show, I suppose you would like to make one of them."
+
+Four years later Johnson improved upon this, when he printed in better
+type "People of all Nations; an useful toy for Girl or Boy." Of
+approximately the same size as the other volumes, it was bound with
+stiff sides and calf back. The plates, engraved on copper, represent men
+of various nationalities in the favorite alphabetical order. A is an
+American. V is a Virginian,--an Indian in scant costume of feathers
+with a long pipe,--who, the printed description says, "is generally
+dressed after the manner of the English; but this is a poor African, and
+made a slave of." An orang-outang represents the letter O, and according
+to the author, is "a wild man of the woods, in the East Indies. He
+sleeps under trees, and builds himself a hut. He cannot speak, but when
+the natives make a fire in the woods he will come and warm himself." Ten
+years later there was still some difficulty in getting exact
+descriptions of unfamiliar animals. Thus in "A Familiar Description of
+Beasts and Birds" the baboon is drawn with a dog's body and an uncanny
+head with a snout. The reader is informed that "the baboon has a long
+face resembling a dog's; his eyes are red and very bright, his teeth are
+large and strong, but his swiftness renders him hard to be taken. He
+delights in fishing, and will stay for a considerable time under water.
+He imitates several of our actions, and will drink wine, and eat human
+food."
+
+Another series of three books, written by William Darton, the English
+publisher and maker of toy-books, was called "Chapters of Accidents,
+containing Caution and Instruction." Thrilling accounts of "Escapes from
+Danger" when robbing birds'-nests and hunting lions and tigers were
+intermingled with wise counsel and lessons to be gained from an "Upset
+Cart," or a "Balloon Excursion." With one incident the Philadelphia
+printer took the liberty of changing the title to "Cautions to Walkers
+on the Streets of Philadelphia." High Street, now Market Street, is
+represented in a picture of the young woman who, unmindful of the
+warning, "Never to turn hastily around the corner of a street," "ran
+against the porter's load and nearly lost one of her eyes." The
+change, of course, is worthy of notice only because of the slight effort
+to locate the story in America.
+
+[Illustration: _a Virginian_]
+
+[Illustration: _A Baboon_]
+
+An attempt to familiarize children with flowers resulted in two tales,
+called "The Rose's Breakfast" and "Flora's Gala," in which flowers were
+personified as they took part in fetes. "Garden Amusements, for
+Improving the Minds of Little Children," was issued by Samuel Wood of
+New York with this advertisement: "This little treatise, (written and
+first published in the great emporium of the British nation) containing
+so many pleasing remarks for the juvenile mind, was thought worthy of an
+American edition.... Being so very natural, ... and its tendency so
+moral and amusing, it is to be hoped an advantage will be obtained from
+its re-publication in Freedonia."
+
+Dialogue was the usual method of instruction employed by Miss Edgeworth
+and her followers. In "Garden Amusements" the conversation was
+interrupted by a note criticising a quotation from Milton as savoring
+too much of poetic license. Cowper also gained the anonymous critic's
+disapproval, although it was his point of view and not his style that
+came under censure.
+
+In still another series of stories often reprinted from London editions
+were those moral tales with the sub-title "Cautionary Stories in Verse."
+Mr. William James used these "Cautionary Verses for Children" as an
+example of the manner in which "the muse of evangelical protestantism in
+England, with the mind fixed on the ideas of danger, had at last drifted
+away from the original gospel of freedom." "Chronic anxiety," Mr. James
+continued, "marked the earlier part of this [nineteenth] century in
+evangelical circles." A little salmon-colored volume, "The Daisy," is a
+good example of this series. Each rhyme is a warning or an admonition; a
+chronic fear that a child might be naughty. "Drest or Undrest" is
+typical of the sixteen hints for the proper conduct of every-day life
+contained in the innocent "Daisy:"
+
+   "When children are naughty and will not be drest,
+    Pray what do you think is the way?
+    Why, often I really believe it is best
+    To keep them in night-clothes all day!
+
+   "But then they can have no good breakfast to eat,
+    Nor walk with their mother and aunt;
+    At dinner they'll have neither pudding nor meat,
+    Nor anything else that they want.
+
+   "Then who would be naughty and sit all the day
+    In night-clothes unfit to be seen!
+    And pray who would lose all their pudding and play
+    For not being drest neat and clean."
+
+Two other sets of books with a like purpose were brought out by Charles
+about eighteen hundred and sixteen. One began with those familiar
+nursery verses entitled "My Mother," by Ann Taylor, which were soon
+followed by "My Father," all the family, "My Governess," and even "My
+Pony." The other set of books was "calculated to promote Benevolence and
+Virtue in Children." "Little Fanny," "Little Nancy," and "Little Sophie"
+were all held up as warnings of the results of pride, greed, and
+disobedience.
+
+[Illustration: _Drest or Undrest_]
+
+The difference between these heroines of fiction and the characters
+drawn by Maria Edgeworth lies mainly in the fact that they spoke in
+rhyme instead of in prose, and that they were almost invariably naughty;
+or else the parents were cruel and the children suffered. Rarely do we
+find a cheerful tale such as "The Cherry Orchard" in this cautionary
+style of toy-book. Still more rarely do we find any suspicion of that
+alloy of nonsense supposed by Miss Edgeworth to make the sense work
+well. It is all quite serious. "Little Nancy, or, the Punishment of
+Greediness," is representative of this sort of moral and cautionary
+tale. The frontispiece, "embellishing" the first scene, shows Nancy in
+receipt of an invitation to a garden party:
+
+   "Now the day soon appear'd
+    But she very much fear'd
+    She should not be permitted to go.
+    Her best frock she had torn,
+    The last time it was worn;
+    Which was very vexatious, you know."
+
+However, the mother consents with the _caution_:
+
+   "Not to greedily eat
+    The nice things at the treat;
+    As she much wished to break her of this."
+
+Arrived at the party, Nancy shared the games, and
+
+   "At length was seated,
+    With her friends to be treated;
+    So determin'd on having her share,
+    That she drank and she eat
+    Ev'ry thing she could get,
+    Yet still she was loth to forbear."
+
+The disastrous consequences attending Nancy's disregard of her mother's
+admonition are displayed in a full-page illustration, which is followed
+by another depicting the sorrowful end in bed of the day's pleasure.
+Then the moral:
+
+   "My young readers beware,
+    And avoid with great care
+    Such _excesses_ as these you've just read;
+    For be sure you will find
+    It your interest to mind
+    What your friends and relations have said."
+
+Perhaps of all the toy imprints of the early century none are more
+curious in modern eyes than the three or four German translations
+printed by Philadelphia firms. In eighteen hundred and nine Johnson and
+Warner issued "Kleine Erzaehlungen ueber ein Buch mit Kupfern." This seems
+to be a translation of "A Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts," and
+contains a reference to another book entitled "Anecdoten von Hunden."
+Still another book is extant, printed in eighteen hundred and five by
+Zentler, "Unterhaltungen fuer Deutsche Kinder." This, according to its
+preface, was one of a series for which Jacob and Benjamin Johnson had
+consented to lend the plates for illustrations.
+
+Patriotism, rather than diversion, still characterized the very little
+original work of the first quarter of the century for American children.
+A book with the imposing title of "Geographical, Statistical and
+Political Amusement" was published in Philadelphia in eighteen hundred
+and six. "This work," says its advertisement, "is designed as an easy
+means of uniting Instruction with Pleasure ... to entice the youthful
+mind to an acquaintance with a species of information [about the United
+States] highly useful."
+
+"The Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful
+Information," issued in eighteen hundred and three, contained as its
+only original contribution an article upon General Washington's will,
+"an affecting and most original composition," wrote the editor. This was
+followed seven years later by the well-known "Life of George
+Washington," by M.L. Weems, in which was printed the now famous and
+disputed cherry-tree incident. Its abridged form known to present day
+nursery lore differs from the long drawn out account by Weems, who, like
+Thomas Day, risked being diffuse in his desire to show plainly his
+moral. The last part of the story sufficiently gives his manner of
+writing:
+
+"Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. 'George,' said
+his father, 'do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree
+yonder in the garden?' That was a tough question; and George staggered
+under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself, and looking at his
+father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible
+charm of all conquering truth, he bravely cried out, 'I can't tell a
+lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet!'
+'Run to my arms, you dearest boy,' cried his father in transports, 'run
+to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have
+paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism is worth more
+than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of
+purest gold.'"
+
+Franklin's "Way to Wealth" was considered to be perfectly adapted to all
+children's comprehension, and was issued by various publishers of
+juvenile books. By eighteen hundred and eight it was illustrated and
+sold "with fine engravings for twenty-five cents."
+
+Of patriotic poetry there was much for grown folks, but the "Patriotic
+and Amatory Songster," advertised by S. Avery of Boston about the time
+Weems's biography was published, seems a title ill-suited to the
+juvenile public for whom Avery professed to issue it.
+
+Among the books which may be cited as furnishing instructive amusement
+with less of the admixture of moral purpose was the "London Cries for
+Children," with pictures of street peddlers. This was imitated in
+America by the publication of the "Cries of New York" and "Cries of
+Philadelphia."
+
+In the Lenox Collection there is now one of the various editions of the
+"Cries of New York" (published in 1808), which is valuable both as a
+record of the street life of the old-fashioned town of ninety-six
+thousand inhabitants, and as perhaps the first child's book of purely
+local interest, with original woodcuts very possibly designed and
+engraved by Alexander Anderson.
+
+The "Cries of New York" is of course modelled after the "London Cries,"
+but the account it gives of various incidents in the daily life of old
+New York makes us grateful for the existence of this child's toy. A
+picture of a chimney-sweep, for instance, is copied, with his cry of
+"Sweep, O, O, O, O," from the London book, but the text accompanying it
+is altered to accord with the custom in New York of firing a gun at
+dawn:
+
+"About break of day, after the morning gun is heard from Governor's
+Island, and so through the forenoon, the ears of the citizens are
+greeted with this uncouth sound from figures as unpleasant to the sight,
+clothed in rags and covered with soot--a necessary and suffering class
+of human beings indeed--spending their childhood thus. And in regard to
+the unnecessary bawling of those sooty boys; it is _admirable_ in such a
+noisy place as this, where every needless sound should be hushed, that
+such disagreeable ones should be allowed. The prices for sweeping
+chimneys are--one story houses twelve cents; two stories, eighteen
+cents; three stories, twenty-five cents, and so on."
+
+"Hot Corn" was also cried by children, whose business it was to "gather
+cents, by distributing corn to those who are disposed to regale
+themselves with an ear." Baked pears are pictured as sold "by a little
+black girl, with the pears in an earthen dish under her arm." At the
+same season of the year, "Here's your fine ripe water-melons" also made
+itself heard above the street noises as a street cry of entirely
+American origin. Again there were pictured "Oyster Stands," served by
+negroes, and these were followed by cries of
+
+   "Fine Clams: choice Clams,
+    Here's your Rock-a-way beach
+    Clams: here's your fine
+    Young, sand Clams,"
+
+from Flushing Cove Bay, which the text explains, "turn out as good, or
+perhaps better," than oysters. The introduction of negroes and negro
+children into the illustrations is altogether a novelty, and together
+with the scenes drawn from the street life of the town gave to the
+old-fashioned child its first distinctly American picture-book. Indeed,
+with the exception of this and an occasional illustration in some
+otherwise English reproduction, all the American publishers at this time
+seem to have modelled their wares for small children after those of two
+large London firms, J. Harris, successor to Newbery, and William Darton.
+
+To Darton, the author of "Little Truths," the children were indebted for
+a serious attempt to improve the character of toy-books. A copper-plate
+engraver by profession, Darton's attention was drawn to the scarcity of
+books for children by the discovery that there was not much written for
+them that was worth illustrating. Like Newbery, he set about to make
+books himself, and with John Harvey, also an engraver, he set up in
+Grace Church Street an establishment for printing and publishing, from
+which he supplied, to a great extent, the juvenile books closely
+imitated by American printers. Besides his own compositions, he was very
+alert to encourage promising authors, and through him the famous verses
+of Jane and Ann Taylor were brought into notice. "Original Poems," and
+"Rhymes for the Nursery," by these sisters, were to the old-time child
+what Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verses" is to the modern nursery.
+Darton and Harvey paid ten pounds for the first series of "Original
+Poems," and fifteen pounds for the second; while "Rhymes for the
+Nursery" brought to its authors the unusual sum of twenty pounds. The
+Taylors were the originators of that long series of verses for infants
+which "My Sister" and "My Governess" strove to surpass but never in any
+way equalled, although they apparently met with a fair sale in America.
+
+[Illustration: _Little Nancy_]
+
+Enterprising American booksellers also copied the new ways of
+advertising juvenile books. An instance of this is afforded by Johnson
+and Warner of Philadelphia, who apparently succeeded Jacob and Benjamin
+Johnson, and had, by eighteen hundred and ten, branch shops in Richmond,
+Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. They advertised their "neatly
+executed books of amusement" in book notes in the "Young Gentlemen and
+Ladies' Magazine," by means of digressions from the thread of their
+stories, and sometimes by inserting as frontispiece a rhyme taken from
+one used by John Harris of St. Paul's Churchyard:
+
+   "At JO---- store in Market Street
+    A sure reward good children meet.
+    In coming home the other day
+    I heard a little master say
+    For ev'ry three-pence there he took
+    He had received a little book.
+    With covers neat and cuts so pretty
+    There's not its like in all the city;
+    And that for three-pence he could buy
+    A story book would make one cry;
+    For little more a book of Riddles:
+    Then let us not buy drums and fiddles
+    Nor yet be stopped at pastry cooks',
+    But spend our money all in books;
+    For when we've learnt each bit by heart
+    Mamma will treat us with a tart."
+
+Later, when engraving had become more general in use, William Charles
+cut for an advertisement, as frontispiece to some of his imprints, an
+interior scene containing a shelf of books labelled "W. Charles' Library
+for Little Folks." About the same time another form of advertisement
+came into use. This was the publisher's _Recommendation_, which
+frequently accompanied the narrative in place of a preface. The "Story
+of Little Henry and his Bearer," by Mrs. Sherwood, a writer of many
+English Sunday-school tales, contained the announcement that it was
+"fraught with much useful instruction. It is recommended as an excellent
+thing to be put in the hands of children; and grown persons will find
+themselves well paid for the trouble of reading it."
+
+Little Henry belonged to the Sunday-school type of hero, one whose
+biography Dr. Holmes doubtless avoided when possible. Yet no history of
+toy-books printed presumably for children's amusement as well as
+instruction should omit this favorite story, which represents all others
+of its class of Religion-in-Play books. The following incidents are
+taken from an edition printed by Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston. This
+firm made a special feature of "Books suitable for Presents in
+Sunday-School." They sold wholesale for eight dollars a hundred, such
+tales as Taylor's "Hymns for Infant Minds," "Friendly Instruction,"
+Fenelon's "Reflections," Doddridge's "Principles of the Christian
+Religion," "Pleasures of Piety in Youth," "Walks of Usefulness,"
+"Practical Piety," etc.
+
+The objective point of little Henry's melancholy history was to prove
+the "Usefulness of Female Missionaries," said its editor, Mrs. Cameron,
+a sister of the author, who at the time was herself living in India.
+Mrs. Sherwood based the thread of her story upon the life of a household
+in India, but it winds itself mainly around the conversion of the
+faithful Indian bearer who served five-year-old Henry. This small
+orphan was one of those morbidly religious children who "never said a
+bad word and was vexed when he heard any other person do it." He also,
+although himself "saved by grace," as the phrase then ran in evangelical
+circles, was chronically anxious lest he should offend the Lord. To
+quote verbatim from this relic of the former religious life would savor
+too much of ridiculing those things that were sacred and serious to the
+people of that day. Yet the main incidents of the story were these:
+Henry's conversion took place after a year and a half of hard work on
+the part of a missionary, who finally had the satisfaction of bringing
+little Henry "from the state of grossest heathen darkness and ignorance
+to a competent knowledge of those doctrines necessary to salvation."
+This was followed immediately by the offer of Henry to give all his toys
+for a Bible with a purple morocco cover. Then came the preparations for
+the teacher's departure, when she called him to her room and catechized
+him in a manner worthy of Cotton Mather a century before. After his
+teacher's departure the boy, mindful of the lady's final admonition,
+sought to make a Christian of his bearer, Boosy. Like so many story-book
+parents, Henry's mother was altogether neglectful of her child; and
+consequently he was left much to the care of Boosy--time which he
+improved with "arguments with Boosy concerning the great Creator of
+things." But it is not necessary to follow Henry through his ardent
+missionary efforts to the admission of the black boy of his sinful
+state, nor to the time when the hero was delivered from this evil world.
+Enough has been said to show that the religious child of fiction was not
+very different from little Elizabeth Butcher or Hannah Hill of colonial
+days, whose pious sayings were still read when "Little Henry" was
+introduced to the American child.
+
+Indeed, when Mrs. Sherwood's fictitious children were not sufficiently
+religious to come up to the standard of five-year-old Henry, their
+parents were invariably as pious as the father of the "Fairchild
+Family." This was imported and reprinted for more than one generation as
+a "best seller." It was almost a modernized version of Janeway's "Token
+for Children," with Mather's supplement of "A Token for the Children of
+New England," in its frequent production of death-bed scenes, together
+with painful object lessons upon the sinfulness of every heart. To
+impress such lessons Mr. Fairchild spared his family no sight of horror
+or distress. He even took them to see a man on the gallows, "that," said
+the ingenuous gentleman, "they may love each other with a perfect and
+heavenly love." As the children gazed upon the dreadful object the
+tender father described in detail its every phase, and ended by kneeling
+in prayer. The story of Evelyn in the third chapter was written as the
+result of a present of books from an American _Universalist_, whose
+doctrines Mrs. Sherwood thought likely to be pernicious to children and
+should be controverted as soon as possible. Later, other things
+emanating from America were considered injurious to children, but this
+seems to be the first indication that American ideas were noticed in
+English juvenile literature.
+
+But all this lady's tales were not so lugubrious, and many were immense
+favorites. Children were even named for the hero of the "Little
+Millenium Boy." Publishers frequently sent her orders for books to be
+"written to cuts," and the "Busy Bee," the "Errand Boy," and the "Rose"
+were some of the results of this method of supplying the demand for her
+work. Naturally, Mrs. Sherwood, like Miss Edgeworth, had many imitators,
+but if we could believe the incidents related as true to life, parents
+would seem to have been either very indifferent to their children or
+forever suspicious of them. In Newbery's time it had been thought no sin
+to wear fine buckled shoes, to be genteelly dressed with a wide
+"ribband;" but now the vain child was one who wore a white frock with
+pink sash, towards whom the finger of scorn was pointed, and from whom
+the moral was unfailingly drawn. Vanity was, apparently, an unpardonable
+sin, as when in a "Moral Tale,"
+
+   "Mamma observed the rising lass
+    By stealth retiring to the glass
+    To practise little arts unseen
+    In the true genius of thirteen."
+
+The constant effort to draw a lesson from every action sometimes led to
+overstepping the bounds of truth by the parents themselves, as for
+example in a similar instance of love for a mirror. "What is this I see,
+Harriet?" asked a mother in "Emulation." "Is that the way you employ
+your precious time? I am no longer surprised at the alteration in your
+looks of late, that you have appeared so sickly, have lost your
+complexion; in short I have twenty times been on the point of asking you
+if you are ill. You look shockingly, child."
+
+"I am very well, Mamma, indeed," cried Harriet, quite alarmed.
+
+"Impossible, my dear, you can never look well, while you follow such an
+unwholesome practice. Looking-glasses were never intended for little
+girls, and very few sensible people use them as there is something
+really poisonous in their composition. To use them is not only
+prejudicial to the health but to the disposition."
+
+Although this conception of the use of looking-glasses as prejudicial to
+right living seems to hark back to the views expressed in the old story
+of the "Prodigal Daughter," who sat before a mirror when the Devil made
+his second appearance, yet the world of story-book literature, even
+though its creators were sometimes either careless or ignorant of facts,
+now also emphasized the value of general knowledge, which it endeavored
+to pour in increasing quantity into the nursery. Miss More had started
+the stream of goody-goody books, while Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld,
+and Thomas Day were the originators of the deluge of conversational
+bores, babies, boys, and teachers that threatened to flood the family
+book-shelves of America when the American writers for children came upon
+the scene.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[148-A] As long ago as seventeen hundred and sixty-two, Garrat Noel, a
+Dutch bookseller in New York, advertised that, "according to his Annual
+Custom, he ... provided a very large Assortment of Books ... as proper
+Presents at Christmas." See page 68.
+
+[166-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.
+
+[168-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.
+
+[169-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+1825-1840
+
+
+
+
+    Old story-books! old story-books! we owe you much, old friends,
+    Bright-coloured threads in Memory's warp, of which Death holds the
+      ends.
+    Who can forget? Who can spurn the ministers of joy
+    That waited on the lisping girl and petticoated boy?
+    Talk of your vellum, gold embossed, morocco, roan, and calf;
+    The blue and yellow wraps of old were prettier by half.
+                                                 ELIZA COOKE
+
+    Their works of amusement, when not laden with more religion than the
+    tale can hold in solution, are often admirable.
+                                                _Quarterly Review_, 1843
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+1825-1840
+
+_American Writers and English Critics_
+
+
+It is customary to refer to the early writings of Washington Irving as
+works that marked the time when literature pure and simple developed in
+America. Such writing as had hitherto attracted attention concerned
+itself, not with matters of the imagination, but with facts and theories
+of current and momentous interest. Religion and the affairs of the
+separate commonwealths were uppermost in people's minds in colonial
+days; political warfare and the defence of the policy of Congress
+absorbed attention in Revolutionary times; and later the necessity of
+expounding principles of government and of fostering a national feeling
+produced a literature of fact rather than of fancy.
+
+Gradually all this had changed. A new generation had grown up with more
+leisure for writing and more time to devote to the general culture of
+the public. The English periodical with its purpose of "improving the
+taste, awakening the attention, and amending the heart," had once met
+these requirements. Later on these periodicals had been keenly enjoyed,
+but at the same time there appeared American magazines, modelled after
+them, but largely filled by contributions from literary Americans. Early
+in the nineteenth century such publications were current in most large
+towns. From the short essays and papers in these periodicals to the
+tales of Cooper and Irving the step, after all, was not a long one.
+
+The children's literature of amusement developed, after the end of the
+eighteenth century, in a somewhat similar way, although as usual tagging
+along after that of their parents.
+
+With the constantly increasing population the production of children's
+books grew more profitable, and in eighteen hundred and two Benjamin
+Johnson made an attempt to publish a "Juvenile Magazine" in
+Philadelphia. Its purpose was to be a "Miscellaneous Repository of
+Useful Information;" but the contents were so largely drawn from English
+sources that it was probably, like the toy-books, pirated from an
+English publisher. Indeed, one of the few extant volumes contains only
+one article of distinctly American composition among essays on
+_Education_, the _Choice of a Wife_, _Love_, papers on natural history,
+selections from poems by Coleridge and Cowper; and by anonymous makers
+of verse about _Consumption_ and _Friendship_. The American
+contribution, a discussion of President Washington's will, has already
+been mentioned.
+
+In the same year, 1802, the "Juvenile Olio" was started, edited by
+"Amyntor," but like Johnson's "Juvenile Magazine," was only issued at
+irregular intervals and was short-lived.
+
+Other ventures in children's periodicals continued to be made, however.
+The "Juvenile Magazine," with "Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces
+in Prose and Verse," was compiled by Arthur Donaldson, and sold in
+eighteen hundred and eleven as a monthly in Philadelphia--then the
+literary centre--for twelve and a half cents a number. In eighteen
+hundred and thirteen, in the same city, the "Juvenile Portfolio" made
+its appearance, possibly in imitation of Joseph Dennie's "Port Folio;"
+but it too failed from lack of support and interest.
+
+Boston proved more successful in arousing attention to the possibilities
+in a well-conducted children's periodical, although it was not until
+thirteen years later that Lydia Maria Child established the "Juvenile
+Miscellany for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth." Three numbers
+were issued in 1826, and thereafter it appeared every other month until
+August, 1834, when it was succeeded by a magazine of the same name
+conducted by Sarah J. Hale.
+
+This periodical is a landmark in the history of story-writing for the
+American child. Here at last was an opportunity for the editors to give
+to their subscribers descriptions of cities in their own land in place
+of accounts of palaces in Persia; biographies of national heroes instead
+of incidents in the life of Mahomet; and tales of Indians rather than
+histories of Arabians and Turks. For its pages Mrs. Sigourney, Miss
+Eliza Leslie, Mrs. Wells, Miss Sedgwick, and numerous anonymous
+contributors gladly sent stories of American scenes and incidents which
+were welcomed by parents as well as by children.
+
+In the year following the first appearance of Mrs. Hale's "Juvenile
+Miscellany," the March number is typical of the amusement and
+instruction the editor endeavored to provide. This contained a life of
+Benjamin Franklin (perhaps the earliest child's life of the philosopher
+and statesman), a tale of an Indian massacre of an entire settlement in
+Maine, an essay on memory, a religious episode, and extracts from a
+traveller's journal. The traveller, quite evidently a Bostonian,
+criticised New York in a way not unfamiliar in later days, as a city
+where "the love of literature was less strong than in some other parts
+of the United States;" and then in trying to soften the statement, she
+fell into a comparison with Philadelphia, also made many times since the
+gentle critic observed the difference. "New York," she wrote, "has
+energy, spirit, and bold, lofty enterprise, totally wanting in
+Philadelphia, ... a place of neat, well regulated plans." Also, like the
+English story-book of the previous century, this American "Miscellany"
+introduced _Maxims for a Student_, found, it cheerfully explained,
+"among the manuscripts of a deceased friend." Puzzles and conundrums
+made an entertaining feature, and as the literary _chef d'oeuvre_ was
+inserted a poem supposed to be composed by a babe in South Carolina, but
+of which the author was undoubtedly Mrs. Gilman, whose ideas of a baby's
+ability were certainly not drawn from her own nursery.
+
+A rival to the "Juvenile Miscellany" was the "Youth's Companion,"
+established at this time in Boston by Nathaniel P. Willis and the
+Reverend Asa Rand. The various religious societies also began to issue
+children's magazines for Sunday perusal: the Massachusetts Sunday School
+Union beginning in 1828 the "Sabbath School Times," and other societies
+soon following its example.
+
+"Parley's Magazine," planned by Samuel G. Goodrich and published by
+Lilly, Wait and Company of Boston, ran a successful course of nine years
+from eighteen hundred and thirty-three. The prospectus declared the
+intention of its conductors "to give descriptions of manners, customs,
+and countries, Travels, Voyages, and Adventures in Various parts of the
+world, interesting historical notes, Biography, particularly of young
+persons, original tales, cheerful and pleasing Rhymes, and to issue the
+magazine every fortnight." The popularity of the name of Peter Parley
+insured a goodly number of subscriptions from the beginning, and the
+life of "Parley's Magazine" was somewhat longer than any of its
+predecessors.
+
+In the south the idea of issuing a juvenile magazine was taken up by a
+firm in Charleston, and the "Rose Bud" was started in eighteen hundred
+and thirty. The "Rose Bud," a weekly, was largely the result of the
+success of the "Juvenile Miscellany," as the editor of the southern
+paper, Mrs. Gilman, was a valued contributor to the "Miscellany," and
+had been encouraged in her plan of a paper for children of the south by
+the Boston conductors of the northern periodical.
+
+Mrs. Gilman was born in Boston, and at sixteen years of age had
+published a poem most favorably criticised at the time. Marrying a
+clergyman who settled in Charleston, she continued her literary work,
+but was best known to our grandmothers as the author of "Recollections
+of a New England Housekeeper." The "Rose Bud" soon blossomed into the
+"Southern Rose," a family paper, but faded away in 1839.
+
+Among other juvenile weeklies of the time may be mentioned the "Juvenile
+Rambler" and the "Hive," which are chiefly interesting by reason of the
+opportunity their columns offered to youthful contributors.
+
+Another series of "miscellaneous repositories" for the instructive
+enjoyment of little people was furnished by the Annuals of the period.
+These, of course, were modelled after the adult Annuals revolving in
+social circles and adorning the marble-topped tables of drawing-rooms in
+both England and America.
+
+Issued at the Christmas and New Year seasons, these children's Annuals
+formed the conventional gift-book for many years, and publishers spared
+no effort to make them attractive. Indeed, their red morocco, silk, or
+embossed scarlet cloth bindings form a cheerful contrast to the dreary
+array of black and drab cloth covering the fiction of both old and
+young. Better illustrations were also introduced than the ugly cuts
+"adorning" the other books for juvenile readers. Oliver Pelton, Joseph
+Andrews (who ranked well as an engraver), Elisha Gallaudet, Joseph G.
+Kellogg, Joseph I. Pease, and Thomas Illman were among the workers in
+line-engraving whose early work served to illustrate, often
+delightfully, these popular collections of children's stories.
+
+Among the "Annualettes," "Keepsakes," "Evening Hours," and "Infant's
+Hours" published at intervals after eighteen hundred and twenty-five the
+"Token" stands preeminent. Edited by Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley)
+between the years eighteen hundred and twenty-eight and eighteen hundred
+and forty-two, its contents and illustrations were almost entirely
+American. Edward Everett, Bishop Doane, A.H. Everett, John Quincy Adams,
+Longfellow, Hawthorne, Miss Sedgwick, Eliza Leslie, Dr. Holmes, Horace
+Greeley, James T. Fields, and Gulian Verplanck--all were called upon to
+make the "Token" an annual treat to children. Of the many stories
+written for it, only Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales" survive; but the
+long list of contributors of mark in American literature cannot be
+surpassed to-day by any child's book by contemporary authors. The
+contents, although written in the style of eighty years ago, are
+undoubtedly good from a literary standpoint, however out of date their
+story-telling qualities may be. And, moreover, the "Token" assuredly
+gave pleasure to the public for which its yearly publication was made.
+
+[Illustration: _Children of the Cottage_]
+
+By eighteen hundred and thirty-five the "Annual" was in full swing as a
+popular publication. Then an international book was issued, "The
+American Juvenile Keepsake," edited by Mrs. Hofland, the well-known
+writer of English stories for children. Mrs. Hofland cried up her wares
+in a manner quite different from that of the earlier literary ladies.
+"My table of contents," she wrote in her introduction, "exhibits a list
+of names not exceeded in reputation by any preceding Juvenile Annual;
+for, although got up with a celerity almost distressing in the hurry it
+imposed, such has been the kindness of my literary friends, that they
+have left me little more to wish for." Among the English contributors
+were Miss Mitford, Miss Jean Roberts, Miss Browne, and Mrs. Hall, the
+ablest writers for English children, and already familiar to American
+households.
+
+Mrs. Hofland, herself, wrote one of its stories, noteworthy as an early
+attempt of an English author to write for an American juvenile public.
+She found her theme in the movement of emigration strong in England just
+then among the laboring people. No amount of discouragement and bitter
+criticism of the United States by the British press was sufficient to
+stem appreciably the tide of laborers that flowed towards the country
+whence came information of better wages and more work. Mrs. Hofland,
+although writing for little Americans, could not wholly resist the
+customary fling at American life and society. She acknowledged, however,
+that long residence altered first impressions and brought out the kernel
+of American character, whose husk only was visible to sojourners. She
+deplored the fact that "gay English girls used only to the polished
+society of London were likely to return with the impression that the men
+were rude and women frivolous." This impression the author was inclined
+to believe unjust, yet deemed it wise, because of the incredulous
+(perhaps even in America!), to back her own opinion by a note saying
+that this view was also shared by a valued friend who had lived fourteen
+years in Raleigh, South Carolina.
+
+Having thus done justice, in her own eyes, to conditions in the new
+country, Mrs. Hofland, launched the laborer's family upon the sea, and
+followed their travels from New York to Lexington, Kentucky, at that
+time a land unknown to the average American child beyond some hazy
+association with the name of Daniel Boone. It was thus comparatively
+safe ground on which to place the struggles of the immigrants, who
+prospered because of their English thrift and were an example to the
+former residents. Of course the son grew up to prove a blessing to the
+community, and eventually, like the heroes in old Isaiah Thomas's
+adaptations of Newbery's good boys, was chosen Congressman.
+
+There is another point of interest in connection with this English
+author's tale. Whether consciously or not, it is a very good imitation
+of Peter Parley's method of travelling with his characters in various
+lands or over new country. It is, perhaps, the first instance in the
+history of children's literature of an American story-writer influencing
+the English writer of juvenile fiction. And it was not the only time. So
+popular and profitable did Goodrich's style of story become that
+somewhat later the frequent attempts to exploit anonymously and
+profitably his pseudonymn in England as well as in America were loudly
+lamented by the originator of the "Tales of Peter Parley." It is,
+moreover, suggestive of the gradual change in the relations between the
+two countries that anything written in America was thought worth
+imitating. America, indeed, was beginning to supply incidents around
+which to weave stories for British children and tales altogether made at
+home for her own little readers.
+
+In the same volume Mrs. S.C. Hall also boldly attempted to place her
+heroine in American surroundings. Philadelphia was the scene chosen for
+her tale; but, having flattered her readers by this concession to their
+sympathies and interest, the author was still sufficiently insular to
+doubt the existence of a competent local physician in this the earliest
+medical centre in the United States. An English family had come to make
+their home in the city, where the mother's illness necessitated the
+attendance of a French doctor to make a correct diagnosis of her case.
+An operation was advised, which the mother, Mrs. Allen, hesitated to
+undergo in an unknown land. Emily, the fourteen-year-old daughter, urged
+her not to delay, as she felt quite competent to be in attendance,
+having had "five teeth drawn without screaming; nursed a brother through
+the whooping-cough and a sister through the measles."
+
+"Ma foi, Mademoiselle," said the French doctor, "you are very heroic;
+why, let me see, you talk of being present at an operation, which I
+would not hardly suffer my junior pupils to attend."
+
+"Put," said the heroic damsel, "my resolution, sir, to any test you
+please; draw one, two, three teeth, I will not flinch." And this courage
+the writer thought could not be surpassed in a London child. It is
+needless to say that Emily's fortitude was sufficient to endure the
+sight of her mother's suffering, and to nurse her to complete recovery.
+Evidently residence in America had not yet sapped the young girl's moral
+strength, or reduced her to the frivolous creature an American woman was
+reputed in England to be.
+
+Among the home contributors to "The American Juvenile Keepsake" were
+William L. Stone, who wrote a prosy article about animals; and Mrs.
+Embury, called the Mitford of America (because of her stories of village
+life), who furnished a religious tale to controvert the infidel
+doctrines considered at the time subtly undermining to childish faith,
+with probable reference to the Unitarian movement then gaining many
+adherents. Mrs. Embury's stories were so generally gloomy, being
+strongly tinged with the melancholy religious views of certain church
+denominations, that one would suppose them to have been eminently
+successful in turning children away from the faith she sought to
+encourage. For this "Keepsake" the same lady let her poetical fancy take
+flight in "The Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh," a somewhat lugubrious
+and pessimistic subject for a child's Christmas Annual. Occasionally a
+more cheerful mood possessed "Ianthe," as she chose to call herself, and
+then we have some of the earliest descriptions of country life in
+literature for American children. There is one especially charming
+picture of a walk in New England woods upon a crisp October day, when
+the children merrily hunt for chestnuts among the dry brown leaves,
+and the squirrels play above their heads in the many colored boughs.
+
+[Illustration: _Henrietta_]
+
+Dr. Holmes has somewhere remarked upon the total lack of American nature
+descriptions in the literature of his boyhood. No birds familiar to him
+were ever mentioned; nor were the flowers such as a New England child
+could ever gather. Only English larks and linnets, cowslips and
+hawthorn, were to be found in the toy-books and little histories read to
+him. "Everything was British: even the robin, a domestic bird," wrote
+the doctor, "instead of a great fidgety, jerky, whooping thrush." But
+when Peter Parley, Jacob Abbott, Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. Embury, and
+Eliza Leslie began to write short stories, the Annuals and periodicals
+abounded in American scenes and local color.
+
+There was also another great incentive for writers to work for children.
+This was the demand made for stories from the American Sunday School
+Union, whose influence upon the character of juvenile literature was a
+force bearing upon the various writers, and whose growth was coincident
+with the development of the children's periodical literature.
+
+The American Sunday School Union, an outgrowth of the several religious
+publication societies, in eighteen hundred and twenty-four began to do
+more extensive work, and therefore formed a committee to judge and
+pronounce upon all manuscripts, which American writers were asked to
+submit.
+
+The sessions of the Sunday-schools were no longer held for illiterate
+children only. The younger members of each parish or church were found
+upon its benches each Sunday morning or afternoon. To promote and to
+impress the religious teaching in these schools, rewards were offered
+for well-prepared lessons and regular attendance. Also the scholars were
+encouraged to use the Sunday-school library. For these different
+purposes many books were needed, but naturally only those stamped with
+the approval of the clergyman in charge were circulated.
+
+The board of publication appointed by the American Sunday School
+Union--composed chiefly of clergymen of certain denominations--passed
+upon the merits of the many manuscripts sent in by piously inclined
+persons, and edited such of them as proved acceptable. The marginal
+notes on the pages of the first edition of an old Sunday-school favorite
+bear witness to the painstaking care of the editors that the leaflets,
+tracts, and stories poured in from all parts of the country should
+"shine by reason of the truth contained," and "avoid the least
+appearance, the most indirect insinuations, of anything which can
+militate against the strictest ideas of propriety." The tales had also
+to keep absolutely within the bounds of religion. Many were the stories
+found lacking in direct religious teaching, or returned because religion
+was not vitally connected with the plot, to be rewritten or sent
+elsewhere for publication.
+
+The hundreds of stories turned out in what soon became a mechanical
+fashion were of two patterns: the one of the good child, a constant
+attendant upon Sabbath School and Divine Worship, but who died young
+after converting parent or worldly friend during a painful illness; the
+other of the unregenerate youth, who turned away from the godly
+admonition of mother and clergyman, refused to attend Sunday-school,
+and consequently fell into evil ways leading to the thief's or
+drunkard's grave. Often a sick mother was introduced to claim emotional
+attention, or to use as a lay figure upon which to drape Scripture texts
+as fearful warnings to the black sheep of the family. Indeed, the little
+reader no sooner began to enjoy the tale of some sweet and gentle girl,
+or to delight in the mischievous boy, than he was called upon to reflect
+that early piety portended an early death, and youthful pranks led to a
+miserable old age. Neither prospect offered much encouragement to hope
+for a happy life, and from conversations with those brought up on this
+form of religious culture, it is certain that if a child escaped without
+becoming morbid and neurotic, there were dark and secret resolves to
+risk the unpleasant future in favor of a happy present.
+
+The stories, too, presented a somewhat paradoxical familiarity with the
+ways of a mysterious Providence. This was exceedingly perplexing to the
+thoughtful child, whose queries as to justice were too often hushed by
+parent or teacher. In real life, every child expected, even if he did
+not receive, a tangible reward for doing the right thing; but
+Providence, according to these authors, immediately caused a good child
+to become ill unto death. It is not a matter for surprise that the
+healthy-minded, vigorous child often turned in disgust from the
+Sunday-school library to search for Cooper's tales of adventure on his
+father's book-shelves.
+
+The correct and approved child's story, even if not issued under
+religious auspices, was thoroughly saturated with religion. Whatever may
+have been the practice of parents in regard to their own reading, they
+wished that of the nursery to show not only an educational and moral,
+but a religious tendency. The books for American children therefore
+divided themselves into three classes: the denominational story, to set
+forth the doctrines of one church; the educational tale; and the moral
+narrative of American life.
+
+The denominational stories produced by the several Sunday-school
+societies were, as has been said, only a kind of scaffolding upon which
+to build the teachings of the various churches. But their sale was
+enormous, and a factor to be reckoned with because of their influence
+upon the educational and moral tales of their period. By eighteen
+hundred and twenty-seven, fifty-thousand books and tracts had been sent
+out by one Sunday-school society alone.[204-A] There are few things more
+remarkable in the history of juvenile literature than the growth of the
+business of the American Sunday School Union. By eighteen hundred and
+twenty-eight it had issued over seven hundred of these religious
+trifles, varying from a sixteen-page duodecimo to a small octavo volume;
+and most of these appear to have been written by Americans trying their
+inexperienced pens upon a form of literature not then recognized as
+difficult. The influence of such a flood of tiny books could hardly have
+been other than morbid, although occasionally there floated down the
+stream duodecimos which were grasped by little readers with eagerness.
+Such volumes, one reader of bygone Sunday-school books tells us,
+glimmered from the dark depths of death and prison scenes, and were
+passed along with whispered recommendation until their well-worn covers
+attracted the eye of the teacher, and were quickly found to be missing
+from library shelves. Others were commended in their stead, such as
+described the city boy showing the country cousin the town sights, with
+most edifying conversation as to their history; or, again, amusement of
+a light and alluring character was presumably to be found in the story
+of a little maid who sat upon a footstool at her mother's knee, and
+while she hemmed the four sides of a handkerchief, listened to the
+account of missionary enterprises in the dark corners of the earth.
+
+To us of to-day the small illustrations are perhaps the most interesting
+feature, preserving as they do children's occupations and costumes. In
+one book we see quaintly frocked and pantaletted girls and much buttoned
+boys in Sunday-school. In another, entitled "Election Day," are pictured
+two little lads watching, from the square in front of Independence Hall,
+the handing in of votes for the President through a window of the famous
+building--a picture that emphasizes the change in methods of casting the
+ballot since eighteen hundred and twenty-eight.
+
+That engravers were not always successful when called upon to embellish
+the pages of the Sunday-school books, many of them easily prove. That
+the designers of woodcuts were sometimes lacking in imagination when
+obliged to depict Bible verses can have no better example than the
+favorite vignette on title-pages portraying "My soul doth magnify the
+Lord" as a man with a magnifying glass held over a blank space. Perhaps
+equal in lack of imagination was the often repeated frontispiece of
+"Mercy streaming from the Cross," illustrated by a large cross with an
+effulgent rain beating upon the luxuriant tresses of a languishing lady.
+There were many pictures but little art in the old-fashioned
+Sunday-school library books.
+
+It was in Philadelphia that one of the first, if not the first
+children's library was incorporated in 1827 as the Apprentices' Library.
+Eleven years later this library contained more than two thousand books,
+and had seven hundred children as patrons. The catalogue of that year is
+indicative of the prevalence of the Sunday-school book. "Adventures of
+Lot" precedes the "Affectionate Daughter-in-Law," which is followed by
+"Anecdotes of Christian Missions" and "An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners."
+Turning the yellowed pages, we find "Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive,"
+histories of Bible worthies, the "Infidel Class," "Little Deceiver
+Reclaimed," "Letters to Little Children," "Juvenile Piety," and
+"Julianna Oakley." The bookish child of this decade could not escape
+from the "Reformed Family" and the consumptive little Christian, except
+by taking refuge in the parents' novels, collections of the British
+poets and essayists, and the constantly increasing American writings for
+adults. Perhaps in this way the Sunday-school books may be counted among
+that long list of such things as are commonly called blessings in
+disguise.
+
+[Illustration: _A Child and her Doll_]
+
+Aside from the strictly religious tale, the contents of the now
+considerable output of Harper and Brothers, Mahlon Day, Samuel Wood and
+Sons of New York; Cottons and Barnard, Lincoln and Edmunds, Lilly, Wait
+and Company, Munroe and Francis of Boston; Matthew Carey, Conrad and
+Parsons, Morgan and Sons, and Thomas T. Ashe of Philadelphia--to
+mention but a few of the publishers of juvenile novelties--are
+convincing proof that booksellers catered to the demand for stories with
+a strong religious bias. The "New York Weekly," indeed, called attention
+to Day's books as "maintaining an unbroken tendency to virtue and
+piety."
+
+When not impossibly pious, these children of anonymous fiction were
+either insufferable prigs with a steel moral code, or so ill-bred as to
+be equally impossible and unnatural. The favorite plan of their creators
+was to follow Miss Edgeworth's device of contrasting the good and
+naughty infant. The children, too, were often cousins: one, for example,
+was the son of a gentleman who in his choice of a wife was influenced by
+strict religious principles; the other boy inherited his disposition
+from his mother, a lady of bland manners and fine external appearance,
+but who failed to establish in her offspring "correct principles of
+virtue, religion, and morality." The author paused at this point in the
+narrative to discuss the frailties of the lady, before resuming its
+slender thread. Who to-day could wade through with children the
+good-goody books of that generation?
+
+Happily, many of the writers for little ones chose to be unknown, for it
+would be ungenerous to disparage by name these ladies who considered
+their productions edifying, and in their ingenuousness never dreamed
+that their stories were devoid of every quality that makes a child's
+book of value to the child. They were literally unconscious that their
+tales lacked that simplicity and directness in style, and they
+themselves that knowledge of human nature, absolutely necessary to
+construct a pleasing and profitable story. The watchwords of these
+painstaking ladies were "religion, virtue, and morality," and heedless
+of everything else, they found oblivion in most cases before they gained
+recognition from the public they longed to influence.
+
+The decade following eighteen hundred and thirty brought prominently to
+the foreground six American authors among the many who occasioned brief
+notice. Of these writers two were men and four were women. Jacob Abbott
+and Samuel G. Goodrich wrote the educational tales, Abbott largely for
+the nursery, while Goodrich devoted his attention mainly to books for
+the little lads at school. The four women, Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Miss
+Eliza Leslie, Miss Catharine Sedgwick, and Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney,
+wrote mainly for girls, and took American life as their subject. Mrs.
+Hale wrote much for adults, but when editor of the "Juvenile
+Miscellany," she made various contributions to it. Yet to-day we know
+her only by one of her "Poems for Children," published in Boston in
+eighteen hundred and thirty--"Mary had a Little Lamb."
+
+Mary's lamb has travelled much farther than to school, and has even
+reached that point when its authorship has been disputed. Quite recently
+in the "Century Magazine" Mrs. Hale's claim to its composition has been
+set forth at some length by Mr. Richard W. Hale, who shows clearly her
+desire when more than ninety years of age to be recognized as the
+originator of these verses, In fact, "shortly before her death," wrote
+Mr. Hale, "she directed her son to write emphatically that every poem in
+her book of eighteen hundred and thirty was of her own composition."
+Although rarely seen in print, "Mary had a Little Lamb" has outlived
+all other nursery rhymes of its day; perhaps because it had most truly
+the quality, unusual at the time, of being told directly and simply--a
+quality, indeed, that appeals to every generation.
+
+Miss Leslie, like Mrs. Hale, did much editing, beginning on adult
+gift-books and collections of housewife's receipts, and then giving most
+of her attention to juvenile literature. As editor Miss Leslie did good
+work on the "Violet" and the "Pearl," both gift-books for children. She
+also abridged, edited, and rewrote "The Wonderful Traveller," and the
+adventures of Munchausen, Gulliver, and Sindbad, heroes often
+disregarded by this period of lack of imagination and over-supply of
+educational theories. Also, as a writer of stories for little girls and
+school-maidens, Eliza Leslie met with warm approval on both sides of the
+Atlantic.
+
+Undoubtedly the success of Eliza Leslie's "American Girls' Book,"
+modelled after the English "Boy's Own Book," and published in 1831,
+added to the popularity attained by her earlier work, although of this
+she was but the compiler.
+
+The "American Girls' Book" was intended for little girls, and by
+dialogue, the prevailing mode of conveying instruction or amusement,
+numerous games and plays were described. Already many of the pastimes
+have gone out of fashion. "Lady Queen Anne" and "Robin's Alive," "a
+dangerous game with a lighted stick," are altogether unknown; "Track the
+Rabbit" has changed its name to "Fox and Geese;" "Hot Buttered Beans"
+has found a substitute in "Hunt the Thimble;" and "Stir the Mush" has
+given place to "Going to Jerusalem."
+
+But Miss Leslie did more than preserve for us these old-fashioned
+games. She has left sketches of children's ways and nature in her
+various stories for little people. She shared, of course, in the habit
+of moralizing characteristic of her day, but her children are childish,
+and her heroines are full of the whims, and have truly the pleasures and
+natural emotions, of real children.
+
+Miss Leslie began her work for children in eighteen hundred and
+twenty-seven, when "Atlantic Stories" were published, and as her
+sketches of child-life appeared one after another, her pen grew more
+sure in its delineation of characters and her talent was speedily
+recognized. Even now "Birthday Stories" are worth reading and treasuring
+because of the pictures of family life eighty years ago. The "Souvenir,"
+for example, is a Christmas tale of old Philadelphia; the "Cadet's
+Sister" sketches life at West Point, where the author's brother had been
+a student; while the "Launch of the Frigate" and "Anthony and Clara"
+tell of customs and amusements quite passed away. The charming
+description of children shopping for their simple Christmas gifts, the
+narrative of the boys who paid a poor lad in a bookstore to ornament
+their "writing-pieces" for more "respectable presents" to parents, the
+quiet celebration of the day itself, can ill be spared from the history
+of child life and diversions in America. It is well to be reminded, in
+these days of complex and expensive amusements, of some of the saner and
+simpler pleasures enjoyed by children in Miss Leslie's lifetime.
+
+All of this writer's books, moreover, have some real interest, whether
+it be "Althea Vernon," with the description of summer life and fashions
+at Far Rockaway (New York's Manhattan Beach of 1830), or "Henrietta
+Harrison," with its sarcastic reference to the fashionable school where
+the pupils could sing French songs and Italian operas, but could not be
+sure of the notes of "Hail Columbia." Or again, the account is worth
+reading of the heroine's trip to New York from Philadelphia. "Simply
+habited in a plaid silk frock and Thibet shawl," little Henrietta
+starts, under her uncle's protection, at five o'clock in the morning to
+take the boat for Bordentown, New Jersey. There she has her first
+experience of a railway train, and looks out of the window "at all the
+velocity of the train will allow her to see." At Heightstown small
+children meet the train with fruit and cakes to sell to hungry
+travellers. And finally comes the wonderful voyage from Amboy to the
+Battery in New York, which is not reached until night has fallen.
+
+This is the simple explanation as to why Eliza Leslie's books met with
+so generous a reception: they were full of the incidents which children
+love, and unusually free from the affectations of the pious fictitious
+heroine.
+
+The stories of Miss Catharine Sedgwick also received most favorable
+criticism, and in point of style were certainly better than Miss
+Leslie's. Her reputation as a literary woman was more than national, and
+"Redwood," one of her best novels, was attributed in France to Fenimore
+Cooper, when it appeared anonymously in eighteen hundred and
+twenty-four. Miss Sedgwick's novels, however, pass out of nursery
+comprehension in the first chapters, although these were full of a
+healthy New England atmosphere, with coasting parties and picnics,
+Indians and gypsies, nowhere else better described. The same tone
+pervades her contributions to the "Juvenile Miscellany," the "Token,"
+and the "Youth's Keepsake," together with her best-known children's
+books, "Stories for Children," "A Well Spent Hour," and "A Love Token
+for Children."
+
+In contrast to Mrs. Sherwood's still popular "Fairchild Family,"
+Catharine Sedgwick's stories breathe a sunny, invigorating atmosphere,
+abounding in local incidents, and vigorous in delineation of types then
+plentiful in New England. "She has fallen," wrote one admirer, most
+truthfully, in the "North American Review" of 1827,--"she has fallen
+upon the view, from which the treasures of our future literature are to
+be wrought. A literature to have real freshness must be moulded by the
+influences of the society where it had its origin. Letters thrive, when
+they are at home in the soil. Miss Sedgwick's imaginations have such
+vigor and bloom because they are not exotics." Another reviewer, aroused
+by English criticism of the social life in America, and full of the much
+vaunted theory that "all men are equal," rejoiced in the author's
+attitude towards the so-called "help" in New England families in
+contrast to Miss More's portrayal of the English child's condescension
+towards inferiors, which he thought unsuitable to set before the
+children in America.
+
+All Miss Sedgwick's stories were the product of her own keen
+intelligence and observation, and not written in imitation of Miss More,
+Miss Edgeworth, or Mrs. Sherwood, as were the anonymous tales of "Little
+Lucy; or, the Pleasant Day," or "Little Helen; a Day in the Life of a
+Naughty Girl." They preached, indeed, at length, but the preaching
+could be skipped by interested readers, and unlike the work of many
+contemporaries, there was always a thread to take up.
+
+Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, another favorite contributor to magazines,
+collected her "Poetry for Children" into a volume bearing this title, in
+eighteen hundred and thirty-four, and published "Tales and Essays" in
+the same year. These were followed two years later by "Olive Buds," and
+thereafter at intervals she brought out several other books, none of
+which have now any interest except as examples of juvenile literature
+that had once a decided vogue and could safely be bought for the
+Sunday-school library.
+
+The names of Mrs. Anna M. Wells, Mrs. Frances S. Osgood, Mrs. Farrar,
+Mrs. Eliza L. Follen, and Mrs. Seba Smith were all well beloved by
+children eighty years ago, and their writings, if long since lost sight
+of, at least added their quota to the children's publications which were
+distinctly American.
+
+If the quantity of books sold is any indication of the popularity of an
+author's work, nothing produced by any of these ladies is to be compared
+with the "Tales of Peter Parley" and the "Rollo Books" of Jacob Abbott.
+
+The tendency to instruct while endeavoring to entertain was remodelled
+by these men, who in after years had a host of imitators. Great visions
+of good to children had overtaken dreams of making children good, with
+the result that William Darton's conversational method of instruction
+was compounded with Miss Edgeworth's educational theories and elaborated
+after the manner of Hannah More. Samuel Goodrich, at least, confessed
+that his many tales were the direct result of a conversation with Miss
+More, whom, because of his admiration for her books, he made an effort
+to meet when in England in eighteen hundred and twenty-three. While
+talking with the old lady about her "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," the
+idea came to Mr. Goodrich that he, himself, might write for American
+children and make good use of her method of introducing much detail in
+description. As a child he had not found the few toy-books within his
+reach either amusing or interesting, with the exception of this
+Englishwoman's writings. He resolved that the growing generation should
+be better served, but little dreamed of the unprecedented success, as
+far as popularity was concerned, that the result of his determination
+would prove.
+
+After his return to America, the immediate favorable reception of the
+"Token," under Goodrich's direction, led to the publication in the same
+year (1828) of "Peter Parley's Tales about America," followed by "Tales
+about Europe." At this date of retrospection the first volume seems in
+many ways the best of any of the numerous books by the same author. The
+boy hero, taken as a child companion upon a journey through several
+states, met with adventures among Indians upon the frontiers, and saw
+places of historical significance. Every incident is told in imitation
+of Miss More, with that detailed description which Goodrich had found so
+fascinating. If a little overdone in this respect, the narrative has
+certainly a freshness sadly deficient in many later volumes. Even the
+second tale seems to lack the engaging spontaneity of the first, and
+already to grow didactic and recitative rather than personal. But both
+met with an equally generous and appreciative reception. Parley's
+educational tales were undoubtedly the American pioneers in what may be
+readily styled the "travelogue" manner used in later years by Elbridge
+Brooks and many other writers for little people. These early attempts of
+Parley's to educate the young reader were followed by one hundred
+others, which sold like hot cakes. Of some tales the sales reached a
+total of fifty thousand in one year, while it is estimated that seven
+million of Peter Parley's "Histories" and "Tales" were sold before the
+admiration of their style and qualities waned.
+
+Peter Parley took his heroes far afield. Jacob Abbott adopted another
+plan of instruction in the majority of his books. Beginning in eighteen
+hundred and thirty-four with the "Young Christian Series," the Reverend
+Mr. Abbott soon had readers in England, Scotland, Germany, France,
+Holland, and India, where many of his volumes were translated and
+republished. In the "Rollo Books" and "Franconia" an attempt was made to
+answer many of the questions that children of each century pour out to
+astonish and confound their elders. The child reader saw nothing
+incongruous in the remarkable wisdom and maturity of Mary Bell and
+Beechnut, who could give advice and information with equal glibness. The
+advice, moreover, was often worth following, and the knowledge
+occasionally worth having; and the little one swallowed chunks of morals
+and morsels of learning without realizing that he was doing so. Most of
+both was speedily forgotten, but many adults in after years were
+unconsciously indebted to Goodrich and Abbott for some familiarity with
+foreign countries, some interest in natural science.
+
+Notwithstanding the immense demand for American stories, there was
+fortunately still some doubt as to whether this remodelled form of
+instructive amusement and moral story-book literature did not lack
+certain wholesome features characteristic of the days when fairies and
+folklore, and Newbery's gilt volumes, had plenty of room on the nursery
+table. "I cannot very well tell," wrote the editor of the "Fairy
+Book"[216-A] in 1836,--"I cannot very well tell why it is that the good
+old histories and tales, which used to be given to young people for
+their amusement and instruction, as soon as they could read, have of
+late years gone quite out of fashion in this country. In former days
+there was a worthy English bookseller, one Mr. Newbery, who used to
+print thousands of nice little volumes of such stories, which, as he
+solemnly declared in print in the books themselves, he gave away to all
+little boys and girls, charging them only a sixpenny for the gold
+covers. These of course no one could be so unreasonable as to wish him
+to furnish at his own expense.... Yet in the last generation, American
+boys and girls (the fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers
+of the present generation) were not wholly dependent upon Mr. Newbery of
+St. Paul's church-yard, though they knew him well and loved him much.
+The great Benjamin Franklin, when a printer in Philadelphia, did not
+disdain to print divers of Newbery's books adorned with cuts in the
+likeness of his, though it must be confessed somewhat inferior.[216-B]
+Yet rude as they were, they were probably the first things in the way of
+pictures that West and Copley ever beheld, and so instilled into those
+future painters, the rudiments of that art by which they afterwards
+became so eminent themselves, and conferred such honour upon their
+native country. In somewhat later time there were the worthy Hugh Gaine,
+at the Sign of the Bible and Crown in Pearl street, and the patriotic
+Samuel Loudon, and the genuine and unadulterated New Yorker, Evert
+Duyckinck, besides others in Boston and Philadelphia, who trod in the
+steps of Newbery, and supplied the infant mind with its first and
+sweetest literary food. The munificent Newbery, and the pious and loyal
+Hugh Gaine, and the patriotic Samuel Loudon are departed. Banks now
+abound and brokers swarm where Loudon erst printed, and many millions
+worth of silk and woolen goods are every year sold where Gaine vended
+his big Bibles and his little story-books. They are all gone; the
+glittering covers and their more brilliant contents, the tales of wonder
+and enchantment, the father's best reward for merit, the good
+grandmother's most prized presents. They are gone--the cheap delight of
+childhood, the unbought grace of boyhood, the dearest, freshest, and
+most unfading recollections of maturer life. They are gone--and in their
+stead has succeeded a swarm of geological catechisms, entomological
+primers, and tales of political economy--dismal trash, all of them;
+something half-way between stupid story-books and bad school-books;
+being so ingeniously written as to be unfit for any useful purpose in
+school and too dull for any entertainment out of it."
+
+This is practically Charles Lamb's lament of some thirty years before.
+Lamb had despised the learned Charles, Mrs. Barbauld's peg upon which
+to hang instruction, and now an American Shakespeare lover found the use
+of toy-books as mechanical guides to knowledge for nursery inmates
+equally deplorable.
+
+Yet an age so in love with the acquirement of solid facts as to produce
+a Parley and an Abbott was the period when the most famous of all
+nursery books was brought out from the dark corner into which it had
+been swept by the theories of two generations, and presented once again
+as "The Only True Mother Goose Melodies."
+
+The origin of Mother Goose as the protecting genius of the various
+familiar jingles has been an interesting field of speculation and
+research. The claim for Boston as the birthplace of their sponsor has
+long ago been proved a poor one, and now seems likely to have been an
+ingenious form of advertisement. But Boston undoubtedly did once again
+make popular, at least in America, the lullabies and rhymes repeated for
+centuries around French or English firesides.
+
+The history of Mother Goose and her brood is a long one. "Mother Goose,"
+writes Mr. Walter T. Field, "began her existence as the raconteuse of
+fairy tales, not as the nursery poetess. As La Mere Oye she told stories
+to French children more than two hundred and fifty years ago." According
+to the researches made by Mr. Field in the literature of Mother Goose,
+"the earliest date at which Mother Goose appears as the author of
+children's stories is 1667, when Charles Perrault, a distinguished
+French litterateur, published in Paris a little book of tales which he
+had during that and the preceding year contributed to a magazine known
+as 'Moejen's Recueil,' printed at The Hague. This book is entitled
+'Histoires ou Contes du Tems Passe, avec des Moralitez,' and has a
+frontispiece in which an old woman is pictured, telling stories to a
+family group by the fireside while in the background are the words in
+large characters, 'Contes de ma Mere l'Oye.'"
+
+It seems, however, to have been John Newbery's publishing-house that
+made Mother Goose sponsor for the ditties in much the form in which we
+now have them. In Newbery's collection of "Melodies" there were numerous
+footnotes burlesquing Dr. Johnson and his dictionary, together with
+jests upon the moralizing habit prevalent among authors. There is
+evidence that Goldsmith wrote many of these notes when doing hack-work
+for the famous publisher in St. Paul's Churchyard. It is known, for
+instance, that in January, 1760, Goldsmith celebrated the production of
+his "Good Natur'd Man" by dining his friends at an inn. During the feast
+he sang his favorite song, said to be
+
+   "There was an old woman tos't up in a blanket,
+    Seventy times as high as the moon."
+
+This was introduced quite irrelevantly in the preface to "Mother Goose's
+Melodies," but with the apology that it was a favorite with the editor.
+There is also the often quoted remark of Miss Hawkins as confirming
+Goldsmith's editorship: "I little thought what I should have to boast,
+when Goldsmith taught me to play Jack and Jill, by two bits of paper on
+his fingers." But neither of these statements seems to have more weight
+in solving the mystery of the editor's name than the evidence of the
+whimsically satirical notes themselves. How like the author of the
+"Vicar of Wakefield" and the children's "Fables in Verse" is this
+remark underneath:
+
+    "'There was an old Woman who liv'd under a hill,
+     And if she's not gone, she lives there still.'
+
+     "This is a self evident Proposition, which is the very essence of
+     Truth. She lived under the hill, and if she's not gone, she lives
+     there still. Nobody will presume to contradict this. _Croesa._"
+
+And is not this also a good-natured imitation of that kind of seriously
+intended information which Mr. Edgeworth inserted some thirty years
+later in "Harry and Lucy:" "Dry, what is not wet"? Again this note is
+appended to
+
+   "See Saw Margery Daw
+    Jacky shall have a new master:"
+
+"It is a mean and scandalous Practise in Authors to put Notes to Things
+that deserve no Notice." Who except Goldsmith was capable of this vein
+of humor?
+
+When Munroe and Francis in Boston undertook about eighteen hundred and
+twenty-four to republish these old-fashioned rhymes, in the practice of
+the current theory that everything must be simplified, they omitted all
+these notes and changed many of the "Melodies." Sir Walter Scott's
+"Donnel Dhu" was included, and the beautiful Shakespeare selections,
+"When Daffodils begin to 'pear," "When the Bee sucks," etc., were
+omitted. Doubtless the American editors thought that they had vastly
+improved upon the Newbery publication in every word changed and every
+line omitted. In reality, they deprived the nursery of much that might
+well have remained as it was, although certain expressions were very
+properly altered. In a negative manner they did one surprising and
+fortunate thing: in leaving out the amusing notes they did not attempt
+to replace them, and consequently the nursery had one book free from
+that advice and precept, which in other verse for children resulted in
+persistent nagging. The illustrations were entirely redrawn, and Abel
+Bowen and Nathaniel Dearborn were asked to do the engraving for this
+Americanized edition.
+
+Of the poetry written in America for children before eighteen hundred
+and forty there is little that need be said. Much of it was entirely
+religious in character and most of it was colorless and dreary stuff.
+The "Child's Gem" of eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, considered a
+treasury of precious verse by one reviewer, and issued in embossed
+morocco binding, was characteristic of many contemporary _poems_, in
+which nature was forced to exude precepts of virtue and industry. The
+following stanzas are no exception to the general tone of the contents
+of practically every book entitled "Poetry for Children:"
+
+   "'Be good, little Edmund,' your mother will say,
+    She will whisper it soft in your ear,
+    And often repeat it, by night and by day
+    That you may not forget it, my dear.
+
+   "And the ant at its work, and the flower-loving bee
+    And the sweet little bird in the wood
+    As it warbles its song, from its nest in the tree,
+    Seems to say, 'little Eddy be good.'"
+
+The change in the character of the children's books written by Americans
+had begun to be seriously noticed in England. Although there were still
+many importations (such as the series written by Mrs. Sherwood), there
+was some inclination to resent the stocking of American booksellers'
+shelves by the work of local talent, much to the detriment of English
+publishers' pockets. The literary critics took up the subject, and
+thought themselves justified in disparaging many of the American books
+which found also ready sale on English book-counters. The religious
+books underwent scathing criticism, possibly not undeserved, except that
+the English productions of the same order and time make it now appear
+that it was but the pot calling the kettle black. Almost as much fault
+was found with the story-books. It apparently mattered little that the
+tables were now turned and British publishers were pirating American
+tales as freely and successfully as Thomas and Philadelphia printers had
+in former years made use of Newbery's, and Darton and Harvey's, juvenile
+novelties in book ware.
+
+In the "Quarterly Review" of 1843, in an article entitled "Books for
+Children," the writer found much cause for complaint in regard to
+stories then all too conspicuous in bookshops in England. "The same
+egregious mistakes," said the critic, "as to the nature of a child's
+understanding--the same explanations, which are all but indelicate, and
+always profane--seem to pervade all these American mentors; and of a
+number by Peter Parley, Abbott, Todd, &c., it matters little which we
+take up." "Under the name of Peter Parley," continued the disgruntled
+gentleman, after finding only malicious evil in poor Mr. Todd's efforts
+to explain religious doctrines, "such a number of juvenile school-books
+are current--some greatly altered from the originals and many more by
+_adopters_ of _Mr. Goodrich's_ pseudonym--that it becomes difficult to
+measure the merits or demerits of the said _magnus parens_, Goodrich."
+Liberal quotations followed from "Peter Parley's Farewell," which was
+censured as palling to the mind of those familiar with the English
+sources from which the facts had been irreverently culled.
+
+The reviewer then passed on to another section of "American
+abominations" which "seem to have some claim to popularity since they
+are easily sold." "These," continued the anonymous critic, "are works
+not of amusement--those we shall touch upon later--but of that
+half-and-half description where instruction blows with a side wind....
+Accordingly after impatient investigation of an immense number of little
+tomes, we are come to the conclusion that they may be briefly
+classified--firstly, as containing such information as any child in
+average life who can speak plainly is likely to be possessed of; and
+secondly, such as when acquired is not worth having."
+
+To this second class of book the Reverend Mr. Abbott's "Rollo Books"
+were unhesitatingly consigned. They were regarded as curiosities for
+"mere occupation of the eye, and utter stagnation of the thoughts, full
+of empty minutiae with all the rules of common sense set aside."
+
+Next the writer considered the style of those Americans who persuaded
+shillings from English pockets by "ingeniously contrived series which
+rendered the purchase of a single volume by no means so recommendable as
+that of all." The "uncouth phraseology, crack-jack words, and puritan
+derived words are nationalized and therefore do not permit cavilling,"
+continued the reviewer, dismayed and disgusted that it was necessary to
+warn his public, "but their children never did, or perhaps never will,
+hear any other language; and it is to be hoped they _understand_ it. At
+all events, we have nothing to do but keep ours from it, believing
+firmly that early familiarity with refined and beautiful forms ... is
+one of the greatest safeguards against evil, if not necessary to good."
+
+However, the critic did not close his article without a good word for
+those ladies in whose books we ourselves have found merit. "Their works
+of amusement" he considered admirable, "when not laden with more
+religion than the tale can hold in solution. Miss Sedgwick takes a high
+place for powers of description and traits of nature, though her
+language is so studded with Americanisms as much to mar the pleasure and
+perplex the mind of an English reader. Besides this lady, Mrs. Sigourney
+and Mrs. Seba Smith may be mentioned. The former, especially, to all
+other gifts adds a refinement, and nationality of subject, with a
+knowledge of life, which some of her poetical pieces led us to expect.
+Indeed the little Americans have little occasion to go begging to the
+history or tradition of other nations for topics of interest."
+
+The "Westminster Review" of eighteen hundred and forty was also in doubt
+"whether all this Americanism [such as Parley's 'Tales' contained] is
+desirable for English children, were it," writes the critic, "only for
+them we keep the 'pure well of English undefiled,' and cannot at all
+admire the improvements which it pleases that go-ahead nation to claim
+the right of making in our common tongue: unwisely enough as regards
+themselves, we think, for one of the elements in the power of a nation
+is the wide spread of its language."
+
+This same criticism was made again and again about the style of American
+writers for adults, so that it is little wonder the children's books
+received no unqualified praise. But Americanisms were not the worst
+feature of the "inundation of American children's books," which because
+of their novelty threatened to swamp the "higher class" English. They
+were feared because of the "multitude of false notions likely to be
+derived from them, the more so as the similarity of name and language
+prevents children from being on their guard, and from remembering that
+the representations that they read are by foreigners." It was the
+American view of English institutions (presented in story-book form)
+which rankled in the British breast as a "condescending tenderness of
+the free nation towards the monarchical regime" from which at any cost
+the English child must be guarded. In this respect Peter Parley was the
+worst offender, and was regarded as "a sad purveyor of slip-slop, and no
+matter how amusing, ignorant of his subject." That gentleman, meanwhile,
+read the criticisms and went on making "bread and butter," while he
+scowled at the English across the water, who criticised, but pirated as
+fast as he published in America.
+
+Gentle Miss Eliza Leslie received altogether different treatment in this
+review of American juvenile literature. She was considered "good
+everywhere, and particularly so for the meridian in which her tales were
+placed;" and we quite agree with the reviewer who considered it well
+worth while to quote long paragraphs from her "Tell Tale" to show its
+character and "truly useful lesson." "To America," continued this
+writer, "we also owe a host of little books, that bring together the
+literature of childhood and the people; as 'Home,' 'Live and Let Live'
+[by Miss Sedgwick], &c., but excellent in intention as they are, we have
+our doubts, as to the general reception they will meet in this country
+while so much of more exciting and elegant food is at hand." Even if the
+food of amusement in England appeared to the British mind more spiced
+and more _elegant_, neither Miss Leslie's nor Miss Sedgwick's fictitious
+children were ever anaemic puppets without wills of their own,--a type
+made familiar by Miss Edgeworth and persisted in by her admirers and
+successors,--but vitalized little creatures, who acted to some degree,
+at least, like the average child who loved their histories and named her
+dolls after favorite characters.
+
+To-day these English criticisms are only of value as showing that the
+American story-book was no longer imitating the English tale, but was
+developing, by reason of the impress of differing social forces, a new
+type. Its faults do not prevent us from seeing that the spirit expressed
+in this juvenile literature is that of a new nation feeling its own way,
+and making known its purpose in its own manner. While we smile at
+sedulous endeavors of the serious-minded writers to present their
+convictions, educational, religious, or moral, in palatable form, and to
+consider children always as a race apart, whose natural actions were
+invariably sinful, we still read between the lines that these writers
+were really interested in the welfare of the American child; and that
+they were working according to the accepted theories of the third decade
+of the nineteenth century as to the constituents of a juvenile
+library which, while "judicious and attractive, should also blend
+instruction with innocent amusement."
+
+[Illustration: _The Little Runaway_]
+
+And now as we have reached the point in the history of the American
+story-book when it is popular at least in both English-speaking
+countries, if not altogether satisfactory to either, what can be said of
+the value of this juvenile literature of amusement which has developed
+on the tiny pages of well-worn volumes? If, of all the books written for
+children by Americans seventy-five years and more ago, only Nathaniel
+Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" has survived to the present generation; of all
+the verse produced, only the simple rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb," and
+Clement Moore's "The Night before Christmas" are still quoted, has their
+history any value to-day?
+
+If we consider that there is nothing more rare in the fiction of any
+nation than the popular child's story that endures; nothing more unusual
+than the successful well-written juvenile tale, we can perhaps find a
+value not to be reckoned by the survival or literary character of these
+old-fashioned books, but in their silent testimony to the influence of
+the progress of social forces at work even upon so small a thing as a
+child's toy-book. The successful well-written child's book has been
+rare, because it has been too often the object rather than the manner of
+writing that has been considered of importance; because it has been the
+aim of all writers either to "improve in goodness" the young reader, as
+when, two hundred years ago, Cotton Mather penned "Good Lessons" for his
+infant son to learn at school, or, to quote the editor of "Affection's
+Gift" (published a century and a quarter later), it has been for the
+purpose of "imparting moral precepts and elevated sentiments, of uniting
+instruction and amusement, through the fascinating mediums of
+interesting narrative and harmony of numbers."
+
+The result of both intentions has been a collection of dingy or faded
+duodecimos containing a series of impressions of what each generation
+thought good, religiously, morally, and educationally, for little folk.
+If few of them shed any light upon child nature in those long-ago days,
+many throw shafts of illumination upon the change and progress in
+American ideals and thought concerning the welfare of children. As has
+already been said, the press supplied what the public taste demanded,
+and if the writers produced for earlier generations of children what may
+now be considered lumber, the press of more modern date has not
+progressed so far in this field of literature as to make it in any
+degree certain that our children's treasures may not be consigned to an
+equal oblivion. For these too are but composites made by superimposing
+the latest fads or theories as to instructive amusement of children upon
+those of previous generations of toy-books. Most of what was once
+considered the "perfume of youth and freshness" in a literary way has
+been discarded as dry and unprofitable, mistaken or deceptive; and yet,
+after all has been said by way of criticism of methods and subjects,
+these chap-books, magazines, gift and story books form our best if
+blurred pictures of the amusements and daily life of the old-time
+American child.
+
+We are learning also to prize these small "Histories" as part of the
+progress of the arts of book-making and illustration, and of the growth
+of the business of publishing in America; and already we are aware of
+the fulfilment of what was called by one old bookseller, "Tom Thumb's
+Maxim in Trade and Politics:" "He who buys this book for Two-pence, and
+lays it up till it is worth Three-pence, may get an hundred per cent by
+the bargain."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[204-A] _Election Day_, p. 71. American Sunday School Union, 1828.
+
+[216-A] Mr. G.C. Verplanck was probably the editor of this book,
+published by Harper & Bros.
+
+[216-B] This statement the writer has been unable to verify.
+
+
+
+
+_Index_
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+ABBOTT, Jacob, 201, 208, 213, 215, 218, 222, 223.
+
+Abbott, John S.C., 129.
+
+A, B, C Book, 101.
+
+A, B, C of religion, 22.
+
+Absence from Christ intolerable, 39.
+
+Adams, John, 165.
+
+Adams, Mrs. John, 91.
+
+Adams, J.A., 169.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, 196.
+
+Addison, Joseph, 159.
+
+Adventures of a Peg-top, 109.
+
+Adventures of a Pincushion, 109, 111, 112.
+
+Adventures of Lot, 206.
+
+Aesop, 63, 66, 67, 69, 90, 101, 109.
+
+Affectionate Daughter-in-Law, 206.
+
+Affection's Gift, 227.
+
+Aikin, Dr. John, 139, 140, 163.
+
+Ainsworth, Robert, 63.
+
+Aitkin, Robert, 100, 101.
+
+Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, An, 206.
+
+Althea Vernon, 210.
+
+American Antiquarian Society, 103.
+
+American Flag, 148.
+
+American Girls' Book, 209.
+
+American Juvenile Keepsake, 197, 200.
+
+American Sunday School Union, 201, 202, 204.
+
+American Weekly Mercury, 20.
+
+Ami des Enfans, 134, 135.
+
+Amyntor, 192.
+
+Anderson, Dr. Alexander, 166-169, 180.
+
+Andre, Major John, 97.
+
+Andrews, Joseph, 196.
+
+Andrews, Thomas, 102.
+
+Anecdoten von Hunden, 178.
+
+Anecdotes of Christian Missions, 206.
+
+Animated Nature, 108.
+
+Annales of Madame de Genlis, 134.
+
+Annual Register, 163.
+
+Anthony and Clara, 210.
+
+Arabian Nights, 162.
+
+Argalus & Parthenia, 90.
+
+Arnold, Benedict, 97, 98.
+
+Arthur's Geographical Grammar, 99.
+
+Art's Treasury, 90.
+
+Ashe, Thomas T., 207.
+
+Ashton, John, 54.
+
+Atlantic Stories, 210.
+
+Avery, S., 180.
+
+
+BABCOCK, Sidney, 167, 168.
+
+Bache, Benjamin, 100, 101, 104, 105, 127.
+
+Bag of Nuts ready Cracked, 107.
+
+Bailey, Francis, 123.
+
+Banbury Chap-Books, 53, 70, 117.
+
+Barbauld, Anna Letitia, 127-129, 132, 140-142, 152, 155, 163, 188, 218.
+
+Barclay, Andrew, 102, 103.
+
+Baskerville, John, 103.
+
+Battelle, E., 102.
+
+Battle of the Kegs, 97.
+
+Be Merry and Wise, 67, 106.
+
+Beecher, Rev. Dr. Lyman, 162.
+
+Belcher, J., 170, 171.
+
+Bell, Robert, 75, 76, 89, 100, 101.
+
+Benezet, Anthony, 101.
+
+Berquin, Arnaud, 134, 159, 161.
+
+Bewick, Thomas, 117, 118, 135, 166, 168, 169.
+
+Bewick's Quadrupeds, 168.
+
+Bibliography of Worcester, 102.
+
+Big and Little Puzzling Caps, 107.
+
+Biography for Boys, 115.
+
+Biography for Girls, 114, 115.
+
+Birthday Stories, 210.
+
+Blossoms of Morality, 165.
+
+Blue Beard, The History of, 141, 165.
+
+Body of Divinity versified, 22.
+
+Book for Boys and Girls; or, Country Rhimes for Children, 11.
+
+Book for Boys and Girls; or, Temporal Things Spiritualized, 13.
+
+Book of Knowledge, 90, 103.
+
+Book of Martyrs, 10.
+
+Books for Children, 222.
+
+Bookseller of the last century, The, 51, 54.
+
+Boone, Daniel, 198.
+
+Boone, Nicholas, 17.
+
+Boston Chronicle, 74, 75.
+
+Boston Evening Post, 38, 43, 73.
+
+Boston Gazette and Country Journal, 80.
+
+Boston News Letter, 19.
+
+Boston Public Library, 74.
+
+Bowen, Abel, 169, 221.
+
+Boy and his Paper of Plumbs, 12.
+
+Boy and the Watchmaker, 12.
+
+Boy's Own Book, 209.
+
+Boyle, John, 76, 77.
+
+Bradford, Andrew, 20, 21, 126.
+
+Bradford, Thomas, 59, 90, 100.
+
+Brewer, printer, 167.
+
+Brooke, Henry, 130.
+
+Brooks, Elbridge, 215.
+
+Brother's Gift, 80, 111, 112.
+
+Browne, Miss, 197.
+
+Brynberg, Peter, 165.
+
+Buccaneers of America, 90.
+
+Bunyan, John, 10-13.
+
+Burr, Aaron, 132-134.
+
+Burr, Theodosia, 132, 133.
+
+Burton, R., 36, 37.
+
+Burton's Historical Collections, 36.
+
+Busy Bee, 187.
+
+Butcher, Elizabeth, 21, 40, 186.
+
+Butterworth, Hezekiah, 132.
+
+
+CADET'S Sister, 210.
+
+Cameron, Lucy Lyttleton, 152, 184.
+
+Canary Bird, The, 172.
+
+Carey, Matthew, 165, 206.
+
+Carey, Robert, 72.
+
+Carnan, Mr., 46, 104.
+
+Carter, John, 101.
+
+Catechism, 5, 6, 10, 15.
+
+Catechism of New England, 7.
+
+Cautionary Stories in Verse, 175.
+
+Century Magazine, 208.
+
+Chandler, Samuel, 163.
+
+Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century, 54.
+
+Chapone, Hester, 113, 114, 159.
+
+Chapters of Accidents, 174.
+
+Charles, Mary, 170.
+
+Charles, William, 170, 171, 176, 183.
+
+Cheap Repository, 152.
+
+Cherry Orchard, The, 156, 177.
+
+Child, Lydia Maria, 193, 201.
+
+Child and his Book, 11, 45.
+
+Children in the Wood, 8.
+
+Children's Books and Reading, 132.
+
+Children's Friend, 135, 161.
+
+Children's Magazine, The, 101.
+
+Children's Miscellany, 129, 131.
+
+Child's Garden of Verses, Stevenson's, 182.
+
+Child's Gem, 221.
+
+Child's Guide to Spelling and Reading, 165.
+
+Child's Instructor, 122, 123.
+
+Child's New Play-thing, 41, 43-45.
+
+Choice Spirits, 90.
+
+Christmas Box, 64, 106.
+
+Cinderella, 62, 171.
+
+Clarissa Harlowe, 50, 79-85, 109.
+
+Clarke, Edward, 41.
+
+Cock Robin, 166.
+
+Collection of Pretty Poems, 67.
+
+Collins, Benjamin, 47.
+
+Complete Letter-Writer, 90.
+
+Congress, The, 98.
+
+Conrad and Parsons, 206, 207.
+
+Contes de ma Mere l'Oye, 219.
+
+Cooper, James Fenimore, 148, 191, 203, 211.
+
+Cooper, Rev. Mr., 134.
+
+Copley, John Stuart, 217.
+
+Cotton, John, 6, 9, 30.
+
+Cottons and Barnard, 206.
+
+Country Rhimes for Children, 11, 13.
+
+Coverly, Nathaniel, 166.
+
+Cowper, William, 153, 175.
+
+Cox and Berry, 80.
+
+Cries of London, 80, 180.
+
+Cries of New York, 180-182.
+
+Cries of Philadelphia, 180.
+
+Cross, Wilbur L., 80.
+
+Crouch, Nathaniel, 36.
+
+Cruel Giant Barbarico, 74.
+
+Crukshank, Joseph, 100, 101, 165.
+
+Custis, John Parke, 73.
+
+Custis, Martha Parke, 73.
+
+Cuz's Chorus, 111.
+
+
+DAISY, The, 176.
+
+Darton, William, 124, 174, 182, 213.
+
+Darton and Harvey, 222.
+
+Day, Mahlon, 169, 206, 207.
+
+Day, Thomas, 129-132, 142, 145, 154, 179, 188.
+
+Daye, John, 7.
+
+Dearborn, Nathaniel, 169, 221.
+
+Death and Burial of Cock Robin, 124.
+
+Death of Abel, 90.
+
+Defoe, Daniel, 129.
+
+Delight in the Lord Jesus, 39.
+
+Description of Various Objects, A, 173.
+
+Development of the English novel, 80.
+
+Dennie, Joseph, 192.
+
+Dilworth, Thomas, 38, 41, 121, 136.
+
+Divine emblems, 13.
+
+Divine Songs, 38.
+
+Doane, Bishop G.W., 196.
+
+Doddridge, Philip, 152, 184.
+
+Dodsley, Robert, 95.
+
+Don Quixote, 161.
+
+Donaldson, Arthur, 192.
+
+Donnel Dhu, 220.
+
+Doolittle, Amos, 169.
+
+Dove, The, 134.
+
+Drake, Joseph Rodman, 148.
+
+Draper, Samuel, 69.
+
+Draper and Edwards, 44.
+
+Drinker, Eliza, 91, 126.
+
+Dryden's Poems, 163.
+
+Dunlap, John, 100.
+
+Dunton, John, 8, 36.
+
+Durell, publisher, 166, 167.
+
+Duyckinck, Evert, 217.
+
+
+EARLY Lessons, 155.
+
+Earnest Exhortation, 22.
+
+Easy Introduction into the knowledge of Nature, 128.
+
+Easy Lessons for Children, 127, 128, 132, 155.
+
+Economy of Human Life, 152.
+
+Edgeworth, Maria, 128, 140, 150, 153-159, 164, 171, 175-177, 187, 188,
+207, 212, 213, 226.
+
+Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 154-156, 220.
+
+Edwards, Joseph, 43.
+
+Elegant Extracts, 162.
+
+Embury, Emma C., 200, 201.
+
+Emulation, 187.
+
+English Empire in America, 36.
+
+Entertaining Fables, 109.
+
+Errand Boy, 187.
+
+Evenings at Home, 128, 139, 163, 164.
+
+Everett, Alexander H., 196.
+
+Everett, Edward, 196.
+
+
+FABLES in verse, 53, 220.
+
+Fabulous Histories, 128, 141.
+
+Fair Rosamond, 24.
+
+Fairchild Family, The, 152, 186, 212.
+
+Fairy Book, 216.
+
+Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds, 174.
+
+Farrar, Eliza Ware, 213.
+
+Father's Gift, The, 111.
+
+Female Orators, 82.
+
+Fenelon's Reflections, 184.
+
+Field, E.M., 11, 45.
+
+Field, Walter T., 218.
+
+Fielding, Henry, 51, 78, 80, 81, 137.
+
+Fields, James T., 196.
+
+First Book of the American Chronicles of the Times, 76.
+
+Fleet, Thomas, 19, 20, 24, 38.
+
+Fleming, John, 74.
+
+Flora's Gala, 175.
+
+Follen, Eliza L., 213.
+
+Food for the Mind, 67, 68, 107.
+
+Fool of Quality, 130.
+
+Ford, Paul Leicester, 14.
+
+Fowle, Zechariah, 20, 40, 69, 103.
+
+Fowle and Draper, 72.
+
+Fox and Geese, 209.
+
+Foxe, John, 10.
+
+Franconia, 215.
+
+Frank, 155.
+
+Franklin, Benjamin, 21-24, 26, 36, 38, 59-62, 103, 105, 123, 179, 193, 216.
+
+Franklin, Sally, 62, 63.
+
+Franklin and Hall, 59.
+
+French Convert, 90.
+
+Friendly Instruction, 184.
+
+
+GAFFER Two Shoes, 82.
+
+Gaine, Hugh, 64, 65, 67, 68, 89, 167, 217.
+
+Gallaudet, Elisha, 196.
+
+Garden Amusements, 175.
+
+Generous Inconstant, The, 82.
+
+Genlis, Madame Stephanie-Felicite de, 132, 134.
+
+Geographical, Statistical and Political Amusement, 178.
+
+George's Junior Republic, 139.
+
+Gilbert, C., 169.
+
+Giles Gingerbread, 74, 110, 140, 159.
+
+Gilman, Caroline, 194, 195.
+
+Going to Jerusalem, 209.
+
+Goldsmith, Oliver, 51, 52, 80, 82, 95, 108, 159, 219, 220.
+
+Good Lessons for Children, 18, 127, 227.
+
+Good Natur'd Man, 219.
+
+Goodrich, Samuel G., 129, 194-196, 198, 199, 201, 208, 213-215, 218,
+222-225.
+
+Goody Two-Shoes, 52, 53, 55, 89, 101, 110, 116-118, 123, 140-142, 159.
+
+Greeley, Horace, 196.
+
+Green, Samuel, 10, 13, 14.
+
+Green, Timothy, 17.
+
+Gulliver's Adventures, 125.
+
+Guy of Warwick, 8.
+
+
+HAIL Columbia, 148, 211.
+
+Hale, Richard W., 208.
+
+Hale, Sarah J., 193, 208, 209.
+
+Hall, Anna Maria, 197, 199.
+
+Hall, David, 59, 62, 100.
+
+Hall, Samuel, 124, 125.
+
+Hall, William, 100.
+
+Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 148.
+
+Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive, 206.
+
+Happy Child, 40.
+
+Harper and Brothers, 206, 216.
+
+Harris, Benjamin, 14.
+
+Harris, John, 182, 183.
+
+Harry and Lucy, 155, 156, 164, 220.
+
+Harvey, John, 182.
+
+Hawkins, Laetitia Matilda, 219.
+
+Hawthorne, Julian, 78, 129, 130.
+
+Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 149, 196, 227.
+
+Hebrides, 153.
+
+Henrietta Harrison, 211.
+
+Hildeburn, Charles R., 65, 93.
+
+Hill, George Birbeck, 141.
+
+Hill, Hannah, 21, 186.
+
+Histoires ou Contes du Tems Passe, 219.
+
+Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 69.
+
+History of a Doll, 136.
+
+History of printing in America, 18, 19.
+
+History of the American Revolution, 123.
+
+History of the Holy Jesus, 39, 40, 103.
+
+History of the Institution of Cyrus, 130.
+
+History of the Robins, 129.
+
+Hive, The, 195.
+
+Hobby Horse, The, 42, 80.
+
+Hofland, Barbara, 197, 198.
+
+Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, 162-164, 184, 196, 201.
+
+Holy Bible in Verse, 15.
+
+Home, 226.
+
+Home of Washington, 28.
+
+Hopkinson, Joseph, 148.
+
+Hot Buttered Beans, 209.
+
+House that Jack Built, 19.
+
+Howard, Mr., 29.
+
+Hudibras, 161.
+
+Hunt the Thimble, 209.
+
+Hymns for Infant Minds, 184.
+
+Hymns in Prose and Verse, 128.
+
+
+"IANTHE." _See_ Embury.
+
+Illman, Thomas, 196.
+
+Infidel Class, 206.
+
+Irving, Washington, 148, 191.
+
+
+JACK and Jill, 219.
+
+Jack the Giant Killer, 8, 141.
+
+Jacky Dandy's Delight, 107, 108.
+
+James, William, 175, 176.
+
+Jane Grey, 24.
+
+Janeway, James, 17, 186.
+
+Jenny Twitchell's Jests, 90.
+
+Joe Miller's Jests, 90.
+
+Johnson, Benjamin, 164, 178, 183, 192.
+
+Johnson, Jacob, 152, 155, 156, 159, 164, 173, 178, 183.
+
+Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 36, 50-52, 129, 140, 141, 153, 219.
+
+Johnson and Warner, 164, 178, 183.
+
+Johnsonian Miscellany, 141.
+
+Jones, Giles, 52, 53.
+
+Joseph Andrews, 78, 81, 90.
+
+Josephus, 167.
+
+Julianna Oakley, 206.
+
+Juvenile Biographers, 115, 116.
+
+Juvenile Magazine, 179, 192.
+
+Juvenile Miscellany, 193-195, 208, 212.
+
+Juvenile Olio, 192.
+
+Juvenile Piety, 206.
+
+Juvenile Portfolio, 192.
+
+Juvenile Rambler, 195.
+
+Juvenile Trials for Robbing Orchards, etc., 139, 140.
+
+
+KEEPER'S Travels in Search of his Master, 172.
+
+Kellogg, Joseph G., 196.
+
+Kendall, Dr., 172.
+
+Key, Francis Scott, 148.
+
+Kilner, Dorothy, 109.
+
+King Pippin, 55, 110, 159, 163.
+
+Kleine Erzaehlungen ueber ein Buch mit Kupfern, 178.
+
+Knox, Thomas W., 132.
+
+
+LADY Queen Anne, 209.
+
+Lamb, Charles, 141, 142, 217.
+
+Lansing, G., 169.
+
+Lark, The, 90.
+
+Launch of the Frigate, 210.
+
+Lee, Richard Henry, 28, 29.
+
+Legacy to Children, 126.
+
+Lenox Collection, 180.
+
+Leo, the Great Giant, 74.
+
+Leslie, Eliza, 193, 196, 201, 208-211, 225, 226.
+
+Letters from the Dead to the Living, 162.
+
+Letters to Little Children, 206.
+
+Liddon, Mr., 100.
+
+Life of David, 163.
+
+Lilly, Wait and Company, 194, 206.
+
+Lincoln and Edmunds, 184, 206.
+
+Linnet, The, 90.
+
+Linton, William James, 166, 168, 169.
+
+Literary Magazine, 52.
+
+Literature of the American Revolution, 98.
+
+Little Book for Children, 17.
+
+Little Boy found under a Haycock, 123.
+
+Little Deceiver Reclaimed, 206.
+
+Little Dog Trusty, 156.
+
+Little Fanny, 176.
+
+Little Helen, 212.
+
+Little Henry, 170.
+
+Little Henry and his Bearer, 184, 185.
+
+Little Jack, 131.
+
+Little Lottery Book, 106.
+
+Little Lucy, 212.
+
+Little Millenium Boy, 186.
+
+Little Nancy, 171, 176-178.
+
+Little Pretty Pocket-Book, A, 47-50, 67.
+
+Little Readers' Assistant, 121, 122.
+
+Little Robin Red Breast, 114.
+
+Little Scholar's Pretty Pocket Companion, 122.
+
+Little Sophie, 176.
+
+Little Truths, 124, 125, 182.
+
+Little William, 171.
+
+Live and Let Live, 226.
+
+Lives of Highwaymen, 90.
+
+Lives of Pirates, 90.
+
+Locke, John, 41-43, 46, 51, 66, 99.
+
+London Chronicle, 53.
+
+Longfellow, Henry W., 196.
+
+Longworth, David, 165, 168.
+
+Looking-glass, A, 22.
+
+Looking Glass for the Mind, 134, 135, 159, 162, 166.
+
+Lossing, Benson J., 28, 29, 167.
+
+Loudon, Samuel, 217.
+
+Love Token for Children, 212.
+
+
+MACAULAY, T.B., 153.
+
+Magnalia, 162.
+
+Mary had a Little Lamb, 208, 209, 227.
+
+Mason, A.J., 169.
+
+Massachusetts Sunday School Union, 194.
+
+Master Jacky and Miss Harriot, 135.
+
+Mather, Cotton, 6, 7, 9, 16-18, 21, 22, 56, 127, 185, 186, 227.
+
+Mather, Elizabeth, 16.
+
+Mather, Increase, 16-18.
+
+Mather, Samuel, 16.
+
+Mein, John, 73-75, 77, 89.
+
+Metamorphosis, A, 169.
+
+Milk for Babes, 6, 7, 30.
+
+Milton, John, 159, 175.
+
+Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of Birds, 107.
+
+Mitford, Mary Russell, 197.
+
+Moejen's Recueil, 218.
+
+Moll Flanders, 90.
+
+Moore, Clement Clarke, 147-149, 227.
+
+Moral Tale, 187.
+
+Moral Tales, 159.
+
+More, Hannah, 134, 150-153, 159, 188, 212-214.
+
+Morgan, engraver, 169.
+
+Morgan and Sons, 170, 207.
+
+Morgan and Yeager, 170.
+
+Morton, Eliza, 95.
+
+Moses, Montrose J., 132.
+
+Mother Goose Melodies, 19, 20, 53, 114, 218-220.
+
+Mother's Gift, 82, 111, 113, 118.
+
+Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts, A, 178.
+
+Munroe and Francis, 20, 168, 206, 220.
+
+Murray, James, 91.
+
+Museum, The, 60, 61.
+
+My Father, 176.
+
+My Governess, 176, 182.
+
+My Mother, 176.
+
+My Pony, 176.
+
+My Sister, 182.
+
+
+NATURAL History of Four Footed Beasts, 107.
+
+Neagle, John, 169.
+
+New England Courant, 21, 22.
+
+New England Primer, 6, 7, 13-15, 28, 33, 93, 121.
+
+New French Primer, 60.
+
+New Gift for Children with Cuts, 40, 69-72, 103.
+
+New Guide to the English Tongue, 38.
+
+New Picture of the City, 100.
+
+New Year's Gift, 64.
+
+New York Mercury, 67.
+
+New York Weekly, 207.
+
+Newbery, Carnan, 54.
+
+Newbery, Edward, 54.
+
+Newbery, Francis, 46, 51, 54, 82.
+
+Newbery, John, 28, 37, 40, 46-56, 60-62, 64, 67, 70, 74, 77, 82, 89, 90,
+97, 101, 104, 108, 118, 123, 124, 141, 142, 154, 159, 182, 187, 198,
+216, 217, 219, 220, 222.
+
+Newbery, Ralph, 46.
+
+Nichols, Dr. Charles L., 102, 103.
+
+Night before Christmas, The, 147, 148, 227.
+
+Noel, Garrat, 68, 148.
+
+North American Review, 212.
+
+Nutter, Valentine, 89.
+
+
+OLD Mother Hubbard, 166.
+
+Olive Buds, 213.
+
+Orangeman, The, 156.
+
+Original Poems, 182.
+
+Osgood, Frances S., 213.
+
+Oswald, Ebenezer, 100.
+
+
+PAMELA, 50, 78, 80, 81, 109.
+
+Parable against Persecution, 123.
+
+Paradise Lost, 153.
+
+Parent's Assistant, 155.
+
+Parents' Gift, 38.
+
+Parker, James, 62.
+
+Parley, Peter. _See_ Goodrich, S.G.
+
+Pastoral Hymn, 74.
+
+Patriotic and Amatory Songster, 180.
+
+Peacock at Home, 171.
+
+Pearl, The, 209.
+
+Pearson, Edwin, 53, 117.
+
+Pease, Joseph I., 196.
+
+Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty Doll, 136-139.
+
+Pelton, Oliver, 196.
+
+Pennsylvania Evening Post, 93.
+
+Pennsylvania Gazette, 59, 62.
+
+Pennsylvania Journal, 59.
+
+People of all Nations, 173, 174.
+
+Peregrine Pickle, 51, 109.
+
+Perrault, Charles, 62, 218.
+
+Perry, Michael, 26.
+
+Philadelphiad, The, 100.
+
+Picture Exhibition, The, 106, 109.
+
+Pilgrim's Progress, 10, 36, 95, 126, 163, 167.
+
+Pilkington, Mary, 114.
+
+Pinckney, Eliza, 91.
+
+Play-thing, The, 61.
+
+Pleasures of Piety in Youth, 184.
+
+Plutarch's Lives, 130.
+
+Poems for Children, 208.
+
+Poems for Children Three Feet High, 64.
+
+Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden, 38.
+
+Poetical Description of Song Birds, 114.
+
+Poetry for Children, 213, 221.
+
+Popular Tales, 155.
+
+Poupard, James, 169.
+
+Power of Religion, 152.
+
+Practical Education, 128.
+
+Practical Piety, 184.
+
+Present for a Little Girl, 169.
+
+Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood, 40.
+
+Pretty Book for Children, 60, 61, 67.
+
+Principles of the Christian Religion, 184.
+
+Pritchard, Mr., 100.
+
+Private Tutor for little Masters and Misses, 67.
+
+Prize for Youthful Obedience, 172, 173.
+
+Prodigal Daughter, The, 24-26, 40, 188.
+
+Protestant Tutor for Children, 13, 14.
+
+Puritan Primer, 13.
+
+Puzzling Cap, 80, 82.
+
+
+QUARTERLY Review, 222.
+
+Quincy, Mrs. Josiah, 158, 159.
+
+
+RAIKES, Robert, 151.
+
+Ralph, W., 169.
+
+Rand, Rev. Asa, 194.
+
+Rebels, The, 98.
+
+Recollections of a New England Housekeeper, 195.
+
+Redwood, 211.
+
+Rees's Encyclopedia, 163.
+
+Reformed Family, 206.
+
+Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh, 200.
+
+Rhymes for the Nursery, 20, 182.
+
+Rice, Mr., 100.
+
+Richardson, Samuel, 50, 78-81, 137.
+
+Rivington, James, 65, 67, 68.
+
+Roberts, Jean, 197.
+
+Robin Red Breast, 90.
+
+Robin's Alive, 209.
+
+Robinson Crusoe, 79, 90, 118, 129, 130, 159.
+
+Roderick Random, 51, 109.
+
+Roger and Berry, 89.
+
+Rollin's Ancient History, 161.
+
+Rollinson, William, 169.
+
+Rollo Books, 213, 215, 223.
+
+Rose, The, 187.
+
+Rose Bud, 195.
+
+Rose's Breakfast, The, 175.
+
+Rowe, Elizabeth, 162.
+
+Royal Battledore, 60, 61.
+
+Royal Primer, 61.
+
+Russell's Seven Sermons, 90.
+
+
+SABBATH School Times, 194.
+
+Sanford and Merton, 129, 154.
+
+Scotch Rogue, 90.
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 158, 220.
+
+Scott's (Rev. Thomas) Family Bible, 163.
+
+Search after Happiness, 134, 152.
+
+Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, 152, 160, 161, 193, 196, 208, 211, 212, 224,
+226.
+
+Seven Wise Masters, 90.
+
+Seven Wise Mistresses, 90.
+
+Sewall, Henry, 9.
+
+Sewall, Samuel, 9, 10.
+
+Shakespeare, William, 159, 161.
+
+Sharps, William, 29.
+
+Sheldon, Lucy, 82.
+
+Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 152, 214.
+
+Sherwood, Mary Martha, 152, 184, 186, 187, 212, 221.
+
+Sigourney, Lydia H., 193, 208, 213, 224.
+
+Simple Susan, 158.
+
+Sims, Joseph, 27.
+
+Sir Charles Grandison, 79-82.
+
+Sister's Gift, 80, 111-113.
+
+Skyrin, Nancy, 126, 127.
+
+Smart, Christopher, 54.
+
+Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, 213, 224.
+
+Smollett, Tobias, 51, 52, 78, 79.
+
+Song for the Red Coats, 97.
+
+Songs for the Nursery, 19, 20.
+
+Southern Rose, 195.
+
+Souvenir, 210.
+
+Sparrow, The, 172.
+
+Star Spangled Banner, 148.
+
+Stevenson, Robert Louis, 182.
+
+Stir the Mush, 209.
+
+Stone, William L., 200.
+
+Stories and Tales, 90.
+
+Stories for Children, 212.
+
+Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 162.
+
+Strahan, William, 61-63.
+
+
+TALE, A: The Political Balance, 123.
+
+Tales and Essays, 213.
+
+Taylor, Ann, 176, 182.
+
+Taylor, Jane, 182, 184.
+
+Tell Tale, 225.
+
+Thackerary, W.M., 34.
+
+Thomas, Isaiah, 18-20, 40, 69, 74, 102-104, 106, 109, 116-118, 129, 168,
+198, 222.
+
+Thompson, John, 168.
+
+Thoughts on Education, 41, 66, 99.
+
+Three Stories for Children, 156.
+
+Todd, John, D.D., 222.
+
+Token, The, 196, 197, 212, 214.
+
+Token for Children, 17, 186.
+
+Token for the Children of New England, 17, 21, 186.
+
+Token for Youth, 40.
+
+Tom Hick-a-Thrift, 24.
+
+Tom Jones, 51, 78, 80, 109, 110.
+
+Tom the Piper's Son, 170.
+
+Tom Thumb, 8, 19, 24, 62, 74, 77, 102, 106, 114, 166, 167.
+
+Tommy Trapwit, 64.
+
+Tommy Trip, 52, 74, 107, 108.
+
+Track the Rabbit, 209.
+
+Trimmer, Sarah, 128, 129, 141, 142, 159.
+
+Trip's Book of Pictures, 64.
+
+Triumphs of Love, 90.
+
+Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel, 147.
+
+Twelve Caesars, 90.
+
+Twice Told Tales, 196.
+
+Two Lambs, 152.
+
+Two Shoemakers, 152.
+
+Tyler, Moses Coit, 98.
+
+
+UNTERHALTUNGEN fuer Deutsche Kinder, 178.
+
+Urax, or the Fair Wanderer, 74.
+
+
+VALENTINE and Orson, 90.
+
+Verplanck, Gulian C., 196, 216.
+
+Vicar of Wakefield, 52, 219.
+
+Violet, The, 209.
+
+
+WADDELL, J., 62.
+
+Walks of Usefulness, 184.
+
+Walters and Norman, 93.
+
+Walton's Lives, 153.
+
+Warner and Hanna, 169.
+
+Washington, George, 28, 29, 72, 73, 93, 122, 123, 170, 179.
+
+Waste Not, Want Not, 156-158.
+
+Watts, Isaac, 38, 45, 46.
+
+Way to Wealth, 179.
+
+Webster, Noah, 121, 122, 136.
+
+Weekly Mercury, 23, 26, 27, 64, 65, 68.
+
+Weekly Post-Boy, 62.
+
+Weems's Life of George Washington, 179, 180.
+
+Well Spent Hour, 212.
+
+Wells, Anna M., 193, 213.
+
+Wells, Robert, 102.
+
+Welsh, Charles, 46, 49, 51, 54, 61, 70, 124, 142.
+
+West, Benjamin, 216.
+
+Westminster Review, 224.
+
+Westminster Shorter Catechism, 7.
+
+White, William, D.D., 151.
+
+Whitefield, George, 151.
+
+Widdows, P., 126.
+
+Wilder, Mary, 113.
+
+Willis, Nathaniel P., 194.
+
+Winslow, Anna Green, 81-83, 85.
+
+Winter Evenings' Entertainment, 37, 90.
+
+Wonder Book, 149, 227.
+
+Wonderful Traveller, 209.
+
+Wonders of Nature and Art, 53.
+
+Wood, Samuel, 165, 166, 169, 175.
+
+Wood, Samuel, and Sons, 167, 206.
+
+Wood-engraving in America, 166-169.
+
+Woodhouse, William, 100.
+
+Worcester Magazine, 104.
+
+
+XENOPHON, 130.
+
+
+YOUNG, William, 129.
+
+Young Child's A B C, 166.
+
+Young Christian Series, 215.
+
+Young Gentlemen and Ladies' Magazine, 183.
+
+Youth's Companion, 194.
+
+Youth's Divine Pastime, 37.
+
+Youth's Keepsake, 212.
+
+
+ZENTLER, publisher, 178.
+
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained.
+
+   Misspelled words and typographical errors:
+
+      p. ix   Edmands for Edmunds
+      p. 46   Newbury  for Newbery
+      p. 102  Period missing at end of the sentence "to a boy But"
+      p. 158  Paragraph ends with , "her own generation,"
+      p. 208  Sentence ends with a comma: "the originator of these
+              verses,"
+      p. 243  Thackerary for Thackeray
+
+   Inconsistent hyphenation:
+
+      folk-lore / folklore
+      school-fellows / schoolfellows
+      school-masters / schoolmasters
+      small-pox / smallpox
+      wood-cut / woodcut
+
+
+
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