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Child Life in Colonial Days

<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> <h3>SCHOOL-BOOKS</h3> <blockquote> The most worthless book of a bygone day is a record worthy of preservation. Like a telescopic star, its obscurity may render it unavailable for most purposes, but it serves in hands which know how to use it to determine the places of more important bodies. —A. de Morgan, 1847. </blockquote> When any scholar could advance beyond hornbook and primer he was ready for grammar. This was not English grammar, but Latin, and the boy usually began to study it long before he had any book to con. A bulky and wretched grammar called Lilly's was most popular in England. Locke said the study of it was a religious observance without which no scholar was orthodox. It named twenty-five different kinds of nouns and devoted twenty-two pages of solid print to declensions of nouns; it gave seven genders, with fifteen pages of rules for genders and exceptions. Under such a régime we can sympathize with Nash's outburst, "Syntaxis and prosodia! you are[134] tormentors of wit and good for nothing but to get schoolmasters twopence a week." It was said of Ezekiel Cheever, the old Boston schoolmaster, who taught for over seventy years, "He taught us Lilly and he Gospel taught." But he also wrote a Latin grammar of his own, <cite>Cheever's Accidence</cite>, which had unvarying popularity for over a century. Cheever was a thorough grammarian. Cotton Mather thus eulogized him:— <div class="poem"> "Were Grammar quite extinct, yet at his Brain The Candle might have well been Lit again." </div> There was brought forth at his death a broadside entitled <cite>The Grammarian's Funeral</cite>. A fac-simile of it is here given. Josiah Quincy, later in life the president of Harvard College, wrote an account of his dismal school life at Andover. He entered the school when he was six years old, and on the form by his side sat a man of thirty. Both began <cite>Cheever's Accidence</cite>, and committed to memory pages of a book which the younger child certainly could not understand, and no advance was permitted till the first book was conquered. He studied through the book twenty times before mastering it. The hours of study were long—eight hours a day—and this upon lessons absolutely meaningless. <div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 400px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i044.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="568" alt="grammarians" /> <div class="caption">The Grammarians Funeral, OR, An ELEGY compoſed upon the Death of Mr. John Woodmancy, formerly a School-Maſter in Boſton: But now Publiſhed upon the DEATH of the Venerable Mr. Ezekiel Chevers, The late and famous School-Maſter of Boſton in New-England; Who Departed this Life the Twenty-firſt of Auguſt 1708. Early in the Morning. In the Ninety-fourth Year of his Age. <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Eight Parts of Speech this Day wear Mourning Gowns Declin'd Verbs, Pronouns, Participles, Nouns. And not declined, Adverbs and Conjunctions, In Lillies Porch they ſtand to do their functions. With Prepoſition; but the moſt affection Was ſtill obſerved in the Interjection. The Subſtantive ſeeming the limbed beſt, Would ſet a hand to bear him to his Reſt. The Adjective with very grief did ſay, Hold me by ſtrength, or I ſhall faint away. The Clouds of Tears did over-caſt their faces, Yea all were in moſt lamentable Caſes. The five Declenſions did the Work decline, And Told the Pronoun Tu, The work is thine: But in this caſe thoſe have no call to go That want the Vocative, and can't ſay O! The Pronouns ſaid that if the Nouns were there, There was no need of them, they might them ſpare: But for the ſake of Emphaſis they would, In their Diſcretion do what ere they could. Great honour was confer'd on Conjugations, They were to follow next to the Relations. Amo did love him beſt, and Doceo might Alledge he was his Glory and Delight. But Lego ſaid by me he got his skill, And therefore next the Herſe I follow will. Audio ſaid little, hearing them ſo hot, Yet knew by him much Learning he had got.— O Verbs the Active were, Or Paſſive ſure, Sum to be Neuter could not well endure: But this was common to them all to Moan Their load of grief they could not ſoon Depone. A doleful Day for Verbs, they look ſo moody, They drove Spectators to a Mournful Study. The Verbs irregular, 'twas thought by ſome, Would break no rule, if they were pleaſ'd to come. Gaudeo could not be found; fearing diſgrace He had with-drawn, ſent Mæreo in his Place. Poſſum did to the utmoſt he was able, And bore as Stout as if he'd been A Table. Volo was willing, Nolo ſome-what ſtout, But Malo rather choſe, not to ſtand out. Poſſum and Volo wiſh'd all might afford Their help, but had not an Imperative Word. Edo from Service would by no means Swerve, Rather than fail, he thought the Cakes to Serve. Fio was taken in a fit, and ſaid, By him a Mournful POEM ſhould be made. Fero was willing for to bear a part, Altho' he did it with an aking heart. Feror excus'd, with grief he was ſo Torn, He could not bear, he needed to be born. </div> <div class="stanza"> Such Nouns and Verbs as we defective find, No Grammar Rule did their attendance bind. They were excepted, and exempted hence, But Supines, all did blame for negligence. Verbs Offspring, Participles hand-in-hand, Follow, and by the ſame direction ſtand: The reſt Promiſcuouſly did croud and cumber, Such Multitudes of each, they wanted Number. Next to the Corps to make th' attendance even, Jove, Mercury, Apollo came from heaven. And Virgil, Cato, gods, men, Rivers, Winds, With Elegies, Tears, Sighs, came in their kinds. Ovid from Pontus haſt's Apparell'd thus, In Exile-weeds bringing De Triſtibus: And Homer ſure had been among the Rout, But that the Stories ſay his Eyes were out. Queens, Cities, Countries, Iſlands, Come All Trees, Birds, Fiſhes, and each Word in Um. </div> <div class="stanza"> What Syntax here can you expect to find? Where each one bears ſuch diſcompoſed mind. Figures of Diction and Conſtruction, Do little: Yet ſtand ſadly looking on. That ſuch a Train may in their motion chord, Proſodia gives the meaſure Word for Word. </div> </div> Sic Mæſtus Cecinit, Benj. Tompſon. </div> </div> <hr class="tb" /> [135] The custom was in Boston—until this century—to study through the grammar three times before any application to parsing. Far better wit than any found in an old-time jest book was the sub-title of a very turgid Latin grammar, "A delysious Syrupe newly Claryfied for Yonge Scholars yt thurste for the Swete Lycore of Latin Speche." The first English Grammar used in Boston public schools and retained in use till this century, was The Young Lady's Accidence, or a Short and Easy Introduction to English Grammar, design'd principally for the use of Young Learners, more especially for those of the Fair Sex, though Proper for Either. It is said that a hundred thousand copies of it were sold. It was a very little grammar about four or five inches long and two or three wide, and had only fifty-seven pages, but it was a very good little grammar when compared with its fellows, being simple and clearly worded. The fashion of the day was to set everything in rhyme as an aid to memory; and even so unpoetical a subject as English Grammar did not escape the rhyming writer. In the <cite>Grammar of the English Tongue</cite>, a large and formidable book in fine type, all the rules and lists of exceptions and definitions were in verse. A single specimen, the definition of[136] a letter, will show the best style of composition, which, when it struggled with moods and tenses, was absolutely meaningless. <div class="poem"> "A Letter is an uncompounded Sound Of which there no Division can be Found, Those Sounds to Certain Characters we fix, Which in the English Tongue are Twenty-Six." </div> The spelling of that day was wildly varied. <cite>Dilworth's Speller</cite> was one of the earliest used, and the spelling in it differed much from that of the British Instructor. A third edition of <cite>The Child's New Spelling Book</cite> was published in 1744. Famous English lesson-books known among common folk as "Readamadeasies," and book traders as "Reading Easies"—really Reading made easy—belied their name. Some had alphabets on two pages because "One Alphabet is commonly worn out before the Scholar is perfect in his Letters." It is interesting to find "Poor Richard's" sayings in these English books, but it is natural, too, when we consider Franklin's popularity abroad, and know that broadsides printed with his pithy and worldly-wise maxims were found hanging on the wall of many an English cottage. <div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 400px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i045.jpg" width-obs="565" height-obs="450" alt="easy" /> <div class="caption">42 Reading Made Easy. ceeds with all her train; warm gentle gales begin to blow, and soft falling showers moisten the earth.——The surface of the ground is adorned with young verdent flowers, the cowslip, daisy, primrose, and a thousand pleasing objects spread themselves all around; the trees put forth their green buds, and deck themselves with blossoms; the birds fill every grove with the charming music of nature; love, tunes their little voices, and they join in pairs to build their nests with care and labour; which, sometimes the playful, the careless, the giddy boy destroys. The careful farmer now ploughs up his fields, and casts the seeds into the bosom of the earth, and waits for harvest. Now too, the young and harmless lambs skip over the grass in wanton play! The cuckoo sings—and all nature seems to rejoice. <div class="poem"> Trees, which dead did late appear, Crown with leaves the rising year; Ev'ry object seems to say, Winter's gloom has pass'd away. </div> 43 SUMMER Summer succeeds.—The sun now darts his beams with greater force, and the days are at the longest. The flocks and herds not being able to endure the scorching heat of the sun, retire beneath the shade of some spreading tree, or the side of some cooling stream or river. The wanton youths betake themselves to the waters and swim with pleasure over the liquid surface. Early in the morning the careful mower walks forth with his scythe on his shoulder, and sometimes with a pipe in </div> </div> <hr class="tb" /> Not until the days of Noah Webster and his famous Spelling Book and Dictionary was there any decided uniformity of spelling. Professor Earle[137] says the process of compelling a uniform spelling is a strife against nature. Certainly it took a long struggle against nature to make spelling uniform in America. In the same letter, men of high education would spell the same word several different ways. There was no better usage in England. The edition of Milton's <cite>Paradise Lost</cite> printed in 1688 shows some very grotesque spelling. Therefore it is not strange to find a New York teacher advertising to teach "writeing and spilling." To show that a fetich was made of spelling seventy-five years ago, I give this extract from a Danbury school notice:— <blockquote> "The advantages that small children obtain at this school may be easily imagined when the public are informed that those who spell go through the whole of Webster's spelling book twice a fortnight." </blockquote> The teaching of spelling in many schools was peculiar. The master gave out the word, with a blow of his strap on the desk as a signal for all to start together, and the whole class spelled out the word in syllables in chorus. The teacher's ear was so trained and acute that he at once detected any misspelling. If this happened, he demanded the name of the scholar who made the mistake. If there was any hesitancy or refusal in acknowledgment, he kept[138] the whole class until, by repeated trials of long words, accuracy was obtained. The roar of the many voices of the large school, all pitched in different keys, could be heard on summer days for a long distance. In many country schools the scholars not only spelled aloud but studied all their lessons aloud, as children in Oriental countries do to-day: and the teacher was quick to detect any lowering of the volume of sound and would reprove any child who was studying silently. Sometimes the combined roar of voices became offensive to the neighbors of the school, and restraining votes were passed at town-meetings. The colonial school and schoolmaster took a firm stand on "cyphering." "The Bible and figgers is all I want my boys to know," said an old farmer. Arithmetic was usually taught without text-books. Teachers had manuscript "sum-books," from which they gave out rules and problems in arithmetic to their scholars. Abraham Lincoln learned arithmetic from a "sum-book" of which he made a neat copy. A page from this sum-book is here given in reduced size. Too often these sums were copied by the pupil without any explanation of the process being offered or rendered by the master. The artist Trumbull recalled that he spent three weeks, unaided in any way, over a single sum in long division. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i046.jpg" width-obs="377" height-obs="600" alt="Lincoln" /> <div class="caption">Page from Abraham Lincoln's Sum Book </div> </div> [139] A manuscript sum-book in my possession is marked, "Sarah Keeler her Book, May ye 1st, A.D. 1773, Ridgbury." There are multiplication examples of fifteen figures multiplied by fifteen, and long division examples of a dividend of quintillions, chiefly in sevens and nines, divided by a mixed divisor of billions in eights and fives—a thing to make poor Sarah turn in her grave. There are Reductions Ascending and Reductions Descending and Reductions both Ascending and Descending at the same time, as complicated as the computations of the revolutions of the celestial spheres. There are miserable catch-examples about people's ages and others about collections of excises, with "Proofs," and still others about I know not what, for there are within their borders mysterious abbreviations and signs, like some black magic. Sainted Sarah Keeler! a melancholy sympathy settles on me as I regard this book and all the extended sums you knew, and think of the paths of pleasantness of the present pupils of kindergartens; and wonder what kind of a mathematical song or game or allegory could be invented to disguise these very "plain figures." Sometimes a zealous teacher would write out tables of measures and a few blind rules for his scholars. This amateur arithmetic would be copied[140] and recopied until it was punctuated with mistakes. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i047.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="466" alt="Cockers" /> <div class="caption"> Cocker's ARITHMETICK: BEING A plain and familiar Method, ſuitable to the meaneſt Capacity, for the full underſtanding of that incomparable Art, as it is now taught by the ableſt School-Maſters in City and Country. Composed By Edward Cocker, late Practitioner in the Arts of Writing, Arithmetick, and Engraving. Being that ſo long ſince promiſed to the World. PERUSED AND PUBLISHED By John Hawkins, Writing-Maſter near St. George's Church in Southwark, by the Author's correct Copy, and commended to the World by many eminent Mathematicians and Writing-Maſters in and near London. This Impreſſion is corrected and amended, with many Additions throughout the whole. Licenſed, Sept. 3. 1677. Roger L'Eſtrange. LONDON, Printed by R. Holt, for T. Paſſinger, and ſold by John Back, at the black Boy on London-Bridge, 1688. Title Page </div> </div> <div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 600px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i048.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="375" alt="Alphabet" /> <div class="caption"> No. 1 First Picture Alphabet. No. 2. Second Picture Alphabet. No. 3. Third Picture Alphabet. No. 4. Lessons in One Syllable. No. 5. Lessons in Numbers. No. 6. Words in Common Use. One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve I.        II.     III.     IV.   V.   VI.   VII.   VIII.   IX.    X.     XI.       XII. 1         2        3         4     5      6        7         8       9      10      11         12 The Clock has two hands; a long one and a short one. The short hand is the hour hand, and the long one is the minute hand. The short or hour hand moves very slowly, and the long or minute hand goes all round the Clock face while the hour hand goes from one figure to the next one. <div class="center"> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="time"> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">2</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">2</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">Two and two added together make</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">1</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">One and four together make</td><td align="right">5</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">2</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">Five and two together make</td><td align="right">7</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">1</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">Seven and one together make</td><td align="right">8</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">2</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">What are eight and two? They make</td><td align="right">10</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">10</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">Twice ten make</td><td align="right">20</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">5</td></tr> <tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right">—</td></tr> <tr><td align="left">Twenty is a score, and five score</td><td align="right">100</td></tr> </table></div> Battledore, "Lessons in Numbers" </div> </div> Many scholars never saw a printed arithmetic; and when the master had one for circulation it was scarcely more helpful than the sum-book. One of the most ancient arithmetics was written by the mathematician Record, who lived from the year 1500 to 1558. He is said to have invented the sign of equality =, but there is nothing in his book to indicate this fact. The terms "arsemetrick" and "augrime"[141] are used in it, instead of arithmetic. Many curious and obsolete rules are given, among them, "The Golden Rule," "Rule of Falsehood," "The Redeeming of Pawnes of Geams," "The Backer Rule of Thirds." Here is a simple problem under the latter:— <blockquote> "I did lend my friend 3&frasl;4 of a Porteguise 7 months upon promise that he should do as much for me again, and when I should borrow of him, he could lend me but 5&frasl;12 of a Porteguese, now I demand how long time I must keep his money in just Recompence of my loan, accounting 13 months in the year." </blockquote> Rhyme is used in this book, in dialogues between the master and scholar. Copies of <cite>Cocker's Arithmetick</cite> are said to be very rare in England, but I have seen several in America. An edition was published in Philadelphia in 1779. The frontispiece of English and American editions shows the picture of the mathematician surrounded by a wreath of laurel with the droll apostrophe:— <div class="poem"> "Ingenious Cocker! Now to Rest thou 'rt Gone Noe Art can Show thee fully but thine Own Thy rare Arithmetick alone can show What vast Sums of Thanks wee for Thy Labour owe." </div> "Ingenious Cocker," as one would say "Most noble Shakespeare!" It is hard indeed to idealize or write poetical tributes to one by the name of Cocker.[142] It gives us a sense of pleasant familiarity with any one to know that he is "well acquaint" with one of our intimate friends, so I feel much drawn to ingenious Cocker by knowing that he was well known of Sam Pepys. He was a writing master, and did some mighty fine engraving for Pepys, who calls him ingenuous, not ingenious. It is rather a facer to learn from the notes in the Diary that Cocker had nothing whatever to do with his Arithmetic, which was a forgery by John Hawkins. The age that would rhyme a grammar would rhyme an arithmetic, and Record's example was followed and enlarged upon. Thomas Hylles published one in 1620, <cite>The Arte of Vulgar Arithmiteke</cite>, written in dialogue, with the rules and theorems in verse. This is an example of his poesy:— "The Partition of a Shilling into his Aliquot Partes. <div class="poem"> "A farthing first finds forty-eight A Halfpeny hopes for twentiefoure Three farthings seeks out 16 streight A peny puls a dozen lower Dicke dandiprat drewe 8 out deade Twopence took 6 and went his way Tom trip a goe with 4 is fled But Goodman grote on 3 doth stay A testerne only 2 doth take Moe parts a Shilling cannot make." </div> <div class="figcenter bord" style="width: 600px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i050.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="427" alt="Webster" /> <div class="caption">Noah Webster's "American Selection" </div> </div> [143] In 1633 Nicholas Hunt added to his rules and tables an "Arithmetike-Rithmeticall or the Handmaid's Song of Numbers," which rhymes are simply unspeakable. These attempts did not end with the seventeenth century. In 1801 Richard Vyse had a <cite>Tutor's Guide</cite> with problems in rhyme. <div class="poem"> "When first the Marriage Knot was tied Between my Wife and Me My age did hers as far exceed As three times three does three. But when Ten years and half ten Years We man and wife had been Her age came up as near to mine As eight is to sixteen. Now tell me I pray What were our Ages on our Wedding Day?" </div> The earliest date of the old rhyme,— <div class="poem"> "Thirtie daies hath September, Aprill, June and November, Februarie eight and twentie alone, all the rest thirtie and one." </div> is given by Halliwell as 1633. I have found it in an old arithmetic printed in London in 1596. The lines beginning "Multiplication is vexation," are not an outburst of modern students. They are found in a manuscript dated 1570 circa. <div class="poem"> "Multiplication is mie vexation And Division quite as bad, The Golden rule is mie stumbling stule, And Practice makes me mad." </div> [144] After the Revolution, in new and zealous Americanism, text-books by American authors outsold English books. The blue-backed spelling book of Noah Webster drove Perry and Dilworth from the field. Bingham and Webster took advantage of the need of suitable school-books and divided the field between them. Webster's Spelling Book outstripped Bingham's <cite>Child's Companion</cite>, but Bingham's Readers, such as <cite>The American Preceptor</cite> and <cite>The Columbian Orator</cite> held their ground against Webster's. Not one of Bingham's books proved a failure. <cite>The Columbian Orator</cite> contained seven extracts from speeches of Pitt in opposition to the measures of George III., it had speeches by Fox and Sheridan, part of the address of President Carnot at the establishment of the French Republic, and the famous speech of Colonel Barré on the Stamp Act. Nicholas Pike of Newburyport, Massachusetts, wrote an arithmetic that routed the English books of Cocker and Hodder. It was studied by many persons now living. It had three hundred and sixty-three barren rules, and not a single explanation of one of them. Many of them would now be wholly unintelligible to scholars, though no more antiquated than are the methods; for instance, this rule in Tare and Trett:— [145] <blockquote> "Deduct the Tare and Trett. Divide the Suttle by amount given; the Quotient will be the Cloff which subtract from the Suttle the Remainder will be the Neat." </blockquote> <div class="figcenter bor" style="width: 433px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i051.jpg" width-obs="433" height-obs="600" alt="assistant" /> <div class="caption">"The Little Reader's Assistant," by Noah Webster </div> </div> The tables of measures were longer than ours to-day; in measuring liquids were used the terms anchors, tuns, butts, tierces, kilderkins, firkins, puncheons, etc. In dry measure were pottles, strikes, cooms, quarters, weys, lasts. Examples in currency were in pounds, shillings, and pence; and doubtless helped to retain the use of these terms in daily trade long after dollars had been coined in America. This labored book, aided by the flattering testimonials of Governor Bowdoin, of the Presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth Colleges, and of that idolized American, George Washington, gained wide acceptance. I have examined with care a <cite>Wingate's Arithmetic</cite> printed in 1620, which was used for over a century in the Winslow family in Massachusetts. "Pythagoras his Table," is, of course, our multiplication table. Then comes, the "Rule of Three," the "double Golden Rule," the "Rule of Fellowship," the "Rule of False," etc., etc., ending with "Pastimes, a collection of pleasant and polite Questions to exercise all the parts of Vulgar Arithmetick." Here is one:— [146] <blockquote> "This Problem is usually propounded in this manner, viz. fifteen Christians and fifteen Turks being at Sea in one and the same Ship in a terrible Storm, & the Pilot declaring a necessity of casting the one half of those Persons into the Sea, that the rest might be saved; they all agreed that the persons to be cast away should be set out by lot after this manner, viz. the thirty persons should be placed in a round form like a Ring, and then beginning to count at one of the Passengers, and proceeding circularly, every ninth person should be cast into the Sea, until of the thirty persons there remained only fifteen. The question is, how those thirty persons ought to be placed, that the lot might infallibly fall upon the fifteen Turks & not upon any of the fifteen Christians? For the more easie remembering of the rule to resolve this question shall presuppose the five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, to signifie five numbers to wit, (a) one, (e) two, (i) three, (o) four, and (u) five; then will the rule it self be briefly comprehended in these two following verses:— <div class="poem"> From numbers, aid and art Never will fame depart. </div> In which verses you are principally to observe the vowels, with their correspondent numbers before assigned, and then beginning with the Christians the vowel o (in from) signifieth that four Christians are to be placed together; next unto them, the vowel u (in num) signifieth that five Turks are to be placed. In like manner e (in bers) denoteth 2 Christians, a (in aid) 1 Turk, i (in aid) 3 Christians, a (in and) 1 Turk, a (in art) 1 Christian, e (in ne) 2 Turks, e (in ver) 2 Christians,[147] i (in will) 3 Turks, a (in fame) 1 Christian, e (in fame) 2 Turks, e (in de) 2 Christians, a (in part) 1 Turk. "The invention of the said Rule and such like, dependeth upon the subsequent demonstration, viz. if the number of persons be thirty, let thirty figures or cyphers be placed circularly or else in a right line as you see:— ooooooooooooooo." </blockquote> I trust the little Winslows and their neighbors understood this sum, and its explanation, and that the Christians were all saved, and the Turks were all drowned. Geography was an accomplishment rather than a necessary study, and was spoken of as a diversion for a winter's evening. Many objections were made that it took the scholar's attention away from "cyphering." It was not taught in the elementary schools till this century. <cite>Morse's Geography</cite> was not written till after the Revolution. It had a mean little map of the United States, only a few inches square. On it all the land west of the Mississippi River was called Louisiana, and nearly all north of the Ohio River, the Northwestern Territory. Small as the book was, and meagre as was its information, many of its pages were devoted to short, stilted dialogues between a teacher and pupil, in which the scholar was made to say such priggish sentences:— [148] <blockquote> "I am very thankful, sir, for your entertaining instruction, and I shall never forget what you have been telling me. "I long, sir, for to-morrow to come that I may hear more of your information. "I am truly delighted, sir, with the account you have given me of my country. I wish, sir, it may be agreeable to you to give me a more particular description of the United States. "I hope, sir, I have a due sense of your goodness to me. I have, sir, very cheerfully, and I trust very profitably, attended your instructions." </blockquote> A rather amusing <cite>Geographical Catechism</cite> was published in 1796, by Rev. Henry Pattillo, a Presbyterian minister of North Carolina, for the use of the university students. It is properly and Presbyterianly religious. It gives this explanation of comets:— <blockquote> "Their uses are mere conjecture. Some judge them the seats of punishment where sinners suffer the extremes of heat and cold. Mr. Whiston says a comet approaching the sun brushed the earth with its tail and caused the deluge, and that another will cause the conflagration." </blockquote> Let us not be too eager to jeer at these ancient school-books. Pope wrote nearly two centuries ago: <div class="poem"> "Still is to-morrow wiser than to-day We think our fathers fools so wise we grow. Our wiser sons no doubt will think us so." </div> [149] Perhaps the series of text-books which have chased each other in and out of our nineteenth-century public schools under the successive boards of commissioners and school committees who have also flashed briefly on our educational horizon, may cut no better figure two centuries hence than do those of Lilly and Pike and Cocker. <hr class="chap" /> [150] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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