Protestant Tutor, which had several of the distinctive features of the Primer, and was (says Mr. Ford) its "legitimate predecessor." The Primer is also the descendant of a line of English primers, running back through many centuries. The earliest surviving reference to it is in an almanac for 1691, published by Harris, in which he advertised as forthcoming "a Second Impression of the New-England Primer enlarged, to which is added, more Directions for Spelling," etc. The first edition must have appeared (says Mr. Ford) between 1687 and 1690. The earliest extant complete copy was published at Boston in 1737. The book was reprinted numberless times in the eighteenth century, with various changes and additions,1 and has often been reproduced since as a curiosity. In its sombre and dogmatic religiousness, severe morality, and defective æsthetic sense (as shown by the doggerel verse and rude wood-cuts), The New England Primer is a mirror of the times which produced and used it. It passes rapidly, and without apparent sense of incongruity, from hard sense or sublime theology to the puerile and trivial. Some idea of the Primer may be had from a description of a copy printed (as the frontispiece shows) sometime during Washington's presidency. It is a quaint little book, four inches long, two and three-fourths inches wide, and one-third of an inch thick. The lids are of wood, covered with pale-blue paper and united by a leather back. The title-page reads thus: "The NewEngland Primer, or, an easy and pleasant Guide to the Art of Reading. Adorn'd with Cutts. To which are added, The Assembly of Divines' Catechism. Boston: Printed and sold by J. White, near Charles-River Bridge." On the reverse are two stanzas to children, ending with Nor dare indulge a meaner flame, The alphabet follows; then come "Easy Syllables for Children — ab, ac, eb, ec, etc.; and in five pages more, a bo mi na ti on and a scanty assortment of other "Words of six Syllables" are reached. Art and poetry are now wedded to the alphabet in twenty-four couplets or triplets, illustrated by inimitable wood-cuts apparently made by the printer with his pocket-knife. Some of the choicest lines are these: 1 Some editions reprinted John Cotton's Spiritual Milk for American Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, for their Souls Nourishment. "In Adam's fall, We sinned all"; "Young Obadias, David, Josias, All were pious"; "Xerxes did die, And so must I"; "Zaccheus, he Did climb the tree, Our Lord to see.' After some other matter, including the statement that “He that don't learn his A B C, For ever will a blockhead be," come the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed. Treading close on the heels of these sublime passages intrudes some pious doggerel, beginning, I in the burying place may see Graves shorter there than I. This is at once succeeded by Watts's pretty Cradle Hymn, 66 and his "Now I lay me down to sleep," both which are still sacred memories to millions. They are but thinly fenced off by Agur's Prayer from a marvellous cut which represents "Mr. John Rogers, minister of the gospel," "the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign," burning at the stake, while his wife, with nine small children, and one at her breast,"1 calmly look on; several pages of metrical advice, which unhappily escaped the author's fate, follow. Then comes The Shorter Catechism, which fills most of the latter half of the book. The solemn questions and answers are still sounding in our ears when we are exhorted to "Let dogs delight to bark and bite"; children are once more reminded that until their "breast glows with sacred love" they should "indulge no meaner fires"; and the Primer ends with this secular stanza, which is all the same as if a Puritan congregation were to come out of church in a jig :· Here's Tom, Dick, and Benny, With pitchfork and with rake; Come here the hay to make. 1 Many were the hours spent by the curious school-boy in wrestling with the question whether there were ten children in all or only nine. The obscure wood-cut but darkened the problem, which is still unsolved. C. PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE. [Many of the titles are copied from first editions; most of the others, from Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana. The titles are often abridged; but what is given is reproduced as exactly as possible, and anything added is enclosed in brackets.] I. COLONIAL PERIOD. 1. VIRGINIA. A Trve Relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia since the first planting of that Collony. Written by Captaine Smith. London, 1608. A True Reportory of the Wracke, and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight. By William Strachey. London, 1610. Good Newes from Virginia. From Alexander Whitaker. London, 1613. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. By Captaine Iohn Smith. London, 1624. Ovids Metamorphosis Englished by G. S. [George Sandys]. London, 1626. A Voyage to Virginia._ By Colonel Norwood. [n. p. n. d.] [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III.] Leah and Rachel, or, the Two Fruitfull Sisters Virginia, and Mary-Land. By John Hammond. London, 1656. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III.] A Song of Sion. Written by a Citizen thereof [John Grave], whose outward Habitation is in Virginia. [England.] 1662. History of Virginia. By a Native and Inhabitant of the Place [Robert Beverley]. The second edition. London, 1722. [The first edition (London, 1705) was smaller.] The Present State of Virginia. By Hugh Jones, A.M. London, 1724. [Reprinted: Sabin's Reprints, No. 5.] The Westover Manuscripts: containing the History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; a Journey to the Land of Eden, A.D. 1733; and a Progress to the Mines. Written from 1728 to 1736, and now first published. By William Byrd, of Westover. Petersburg, 1841. History of the Dividing Line and Other Tracts. From the Papers of William Byrd. Richmond, 1866. Poems on Several Occasions. By a Gentleman of Virginia. Williamsburg, 1736. The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. By William Stith, A.M. Williamsburg, 1747. 2. NEW ENGLAND. A Description of New England; or, The Observations, and discoueries of Captain Iohn Smith. London, 1616. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II.] A Relation or Iournall of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation setled at Plimoth. [By William Bradford and Edward Winslow.] London, 1622. [Long known as Mourt's Relation. Reprinted: Library of New-England History, No. 1; portions of, in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 2, Vol. IX.] Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation." From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts. Boston, 1898. [Also in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 4, Vol. III.] New-England. Or A Briefe Enarration of the Ayre, Earth, Water, Fish and Fowles of that Country. With a Description of the Natures, Orders, Habits, and Religion of the Natiues; in Latine and English Verse. [By William Morrell.] London, 1625. [Reprinted: The Club of Odd Volumes, Boston, 1895, in photographic facsimile from a copy of the first edition in the British Museum; Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 1, Vol. I., but with only the Latin title, Nova-Anglia.] A Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the settlement of Massachusetts and the other New-England Colonies, from the year 1630 to 1644. Written by John Winthrop, and now first published from a correct copy of the original Manuscript. Hartford, 1790. [Reprinted at Boston, 1825, 1826, as The History of New England. This edition included the third volume of the manuscript, bringing the record down to 1649.] - Some Old Puritan Love-Letters John and Margaret Winthrop 1618-1638. Edited by J. H. Twichell. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1893. New-Englands Plantation. Written by a reuerend Diuine now there resident [Francis Higginson]. London, 1630. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. I.; Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 1, Vol. I.] Nevv Englands Prospect. By William Wood. London, 1634. [Reprinted: Pub. Prince Soc., Vol. I.] New English Canaan. By Thomas Morton. Amsterdam, 1637. [Reprinted: Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II.; Pub. Prince Soc., Vol. XV.] The Freeman's Oath. [Cambridge.] 1639. [The first thing printed in America. See Winthrop's The History of New England, Vol. I., p. 289, ed. 1825.] The VVhole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. [Cambridge.] 1640. [Said to be the first book printed in America. The copy in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, has the autograph of Richard Mather, one of the three principal translators.] Simplicities Defence against Seven-headed Policy. Or Innocency Vindicated, being unjustly Accused . . . by that Seven-headed ChurchGovernment united in New-England. [By Samuel Gorton.] London, 1646. The Soules Implantation into the Naturall Olive. By T. H. [Thomas Hooker]. London, 1640. The Simple Cobler of Aggavvam in America. Willing to help 'mend his Native Country, lamentably tattered, both in the upper-Leather and sole, with all the honest stitches he can take. By Theodore de la Guard [Nathaniel Ward]. London, 1647. [Reprinted: London, 1647, three editions; Boston, 1713; Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III.] Mercurius Anti-mechanicus. Or The Simple Coblers Boy. By Theodore de la Guarden [Nathaniel Ward?]. London, 1648. The Parable of the Ten Virgins opened & applied. By Thomas Shepard. London, 1660. The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament, Faithfully Translated into English Metre. For the use, edification and comfort of the Saints in publick and private, especially in New-England. Cambridge, Printed for Hezekiah Usher, of Bostoo. [1658?] [This work, appearing first in 1651, exists in several slightly different forms. "The only copy of this edition [the one above] that I know of was sold at the Brinley sale for $90, and is now in the library of Brown University."-Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.] The Tenth Muse lately sprung up in America. Or Severall Poems, compiled with great variety of VVit and Learning, full of delight. By a Gentlewoman in those parts [Anne Bradstreet]. London, 1650. Several Poems. By a Gentlewoman in New-England [Anne Bradstreet]. The second Edition, Corrected by the Author, and enlarged by an Addition of several other Poems found amongst her Papers after her Death. Boston, 1678. [Reprinted: 1758.] The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse. Edited by J. H. Ellis. Charleston, 1867. [Full biographical introduction.] A History of New-England. From the English planting in the Yeere 1628. untill the Yeere 1652. [By Edward Johnson.] [The running title is "Wonder-working Providence of Sions Saviour, in New England."] London, 1654. [Reprinted: Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Series 2, Vols. II.-VIII.] The Day of Doom; or, A Description of the Great and Last Judgment. With a short Discourse about Eternity. [By Michael Wigglesworth.] London, 1673. [First edition, 1661 or 1662? Reprinted: Boston, 1715, 1751, 1828; Newburyport, 1811.] Meat out of the Eater: or, Meditations concerning the Necessity, End, and Usefulness of Afflictions unto God's Children. By Michael Wigglesworth. The Fifth Edition. Boston, 1717. [First edition, 1669. On the fly-leaf of the Brown University Library's copy is written in ink, "6 of August 1729 Prise. Jonathan Trask His Book."] A Key into the Language of America: or, An help to the Language of |