1870, Jan. 12. BOUND AUG 26 1914 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. THIS volume is designed and calculated for an early reading-book, to be placed in the hands of children as soon after they learn to read as practicable. It will be found equally interesting to children, and vastly more profitable, than books containing childish stories, and senseless fictions, such as those too frequently used in schools. Of many such, it is not too much to say that they are not merely useless, but injurious to the minds of youth, creating a taste for the trifling and laughable, and leading them to look for amusement rather than instruction in their books. Can it be doubted that the fondness for works of romance and fiction shown by many young persons, has its origin in the early habit of finding their books in school to afford them any thing but truth, and often pleasing them with their very absurdity and falsehood? May they not thence learn to reject all books which substitute the useful and the true, for the fanciful and entertaining nonsense to which they have become accustomed ? Every teacher must have discovered that there are very few, even among the best of reading-books, though abounding with juvenile stories, the morality of which may be unexceptionable, which prompt the child to think, and inspire him with the love of thinking. And yet this should be the tendency of every reading lesson, whether small or great. Unless a child thinks while reading, he will never understand what he reads. Nor will he ever love to think on what he reads, unless the lessons in the book are beautifully true. Such they will be, if they are true to nature, for nature is beautiful to a child. It is when every lesson opens to the mind some new truth in nature or art, exemplified by some beautiful illustration drawn from familiar objects, that the curiosity of children is awakened and gratified, and the love of knowledge for its own sake becomes a part of their being, as it is an instinct of their nature, when cultivated, not repressed. The construction of the easy and simple lessons of this book is such, that no catechetical questions are appended, for the reason that they are uncalled for. The teacher has only to pause after each lesson has been read, and inquire what has been its subject, and examine the child upon the meaning of every sentence or paragraph, to ascertain how far he has been thinking, and to what extent he loves to think. In many of the lessons, as in that upon "the forms of objects," it is recommended that the diagrams be transferred to the black board, and that they be imitated upon the slates. So also models or specimens, like those in the apparatus of Mr. Holbrook, of New York, will be found of great practical benefit. In this way, this little book, containing, as its name imports, the "Rudiments of Knowledge," will be instrumental in awakening the young mind to the habit of thinking on every subject about which they read, and prompt them to reject every book which does not afford them the luxury of thought. That such may be its fruits in our common schools is the desire of THE AMERICAN EDITOR. N. B. In the order of time, this book should precede the volume entitled "Information on Common Things," and both should be read and studied, before the scientific series is commenced. |