the other in English. By such means the pupil was supposed not only to learn Latin, but to absorb a large amount of general knowledge concerning the industries and other "chief things that are in the World.' It was a crude effort to interest the child, and was encyclopædic, dry, and verbal, having more the character of an illustrated dictionary than a child's reading-book; yet for one hundred years this was the most popular text-book in Europe, and it was translated into fourteen languages.

Other Latin books in common use were Æsop, Eutropius, and The Colloquies of Corderius; and for the older boys Cæsar, Ovid, Virgil, and Cicero. In Greek they had the grammar, the Testament, and Homer. Thus they fitted themselves for the university, which made very exacting requirements in the dead languages, but paid little attention to the progress its prospective students had made in science, mathematics, or anything else. The Harvard terms of admission were these:

Whoever shall be able to read Tully, or any other suchlike classical author at sight, and correctly, and without assistance to speak and write Latin both in prose and verse, and to inflect exactly the paradigms of Greek nouns and verbs, has a right to expect to be admitted into the college, and no one may claim admission without these qualifications.

The classical requisites noted above become quite impressive when it is remembered that the law ordered every town in Massachusetts of a hundred families to provide this knowledge.

The Barbers Shop. LXXV.

Tonftrina.

The Barber, I.
in the Barbers-fhop, 2.
cutteth off the Hair
and the Beard

with a pair of Sizzars, 3.
or fhaveth with a Razor,
which he taketh out of his
Cafe, 4:

And he washeth one over a Bafon, 5. with Suds running

out of a Laver, 6.

and also with Sppe, 7.
and wipeth him
with a Towel, 8.

combeth him with a Comb, 9.

and curleth him
with a Crifping Iron, 10.
Sometimes he cutteth a Vein

with a Pen-knife, 11.
where the Blood fpirteth out,12.

Tonfor, I.
in Tonfirina, 2.
tondet Crines
& Barbam
Forcipe, 3.
vel radit Novacula,
quam è Theca, 4. depromit.

Et lavat
fuper Pelvim, 5.
Lixivio defluente
è Gutturnio, 6.
ut & Sapone, 7.
& tergit
Linteo, 8.
pectit Pelline, 9.

crifpat

Calamiftro, 10.

Interdum Venam fecat

Scalpello, 11.

ubi Sanguis propullulat, 12.

The

A Page showing the Method of Teaching in the Visible World.

Most of the teachers of the early Latin schools had received a college education in England, and were men of more than ordinary capacity and experience. Our own Harvard, too, sent forth many graduates who found places in the schools as well as in the pulpits. The teachers were all deeply imbued with that religious spirit which characterized

THE

ENGLISH

SCHOOL-MASTER. Teaching all his Scholars, of what age foever, the most easy, short, and perfect or der of diftinct Reading, and true Writing our English-tongue, that hath ever yet been known or published by any.

Portion of the Title-page of a popular Text-book first published in 1596.

the Puritan epoch, for this was the trend of their whole training. Their college studies were the studies of a divinity school. There was some arithmetic and geometry, physics and science, but as for the rest-it was grammar, logic, and rhetoric; politics and ethics; Chaldee, Hebrew, and Syriac ; biblical and catechetical divinity.

The earliest spelling-book was Coote's The English School-Master, a thin quarto of seventy-two

London pered for The Howkins mGeorge yard in Lombard Street

Frontispiece to a Speller entitled, A Rational Way of Teaching, 1688.

pages, first published in 1596. It continued to be extraordinarily popular for over a century. According to the title-page, "he which hath this Book only, needeth to buy no other to make him fit from his Letters to the Grammar-School, or for an Apprentice." Besides spelling, it contained arithmetic, history, writing lessons, prayers, psalms, and a short catechism. To add to the intricacy, much of the text was printed in old English black letter.

Another ancestral speller was England's Perfect School-Mafter, by Nathaniel Strong, London, 1676, of the editing and use of which the author says in his

U Pon

The Epistle to the Reader

I have

Pon confideration of the bad reading of many, who know not how scarcely to spell any word rightly: I have forted all the words I could think of and ranked them in particular Tables. By this Book a Lad may be taught to read a Chapter perfectly in the Bible in a quarter of a years time. likewife added unto this Book certain other neceffary Inftructions, and useful Varieties, as well for writers as Readers. The whole I crave God's Blessing upon, and leave it to thy candid acceptance; Remaining

Thine to ferve thee or thine,

NAT. STRONG.

One curious department, covering fifteen pages, consists of " Some Obfervations of Words that are alike in found, yet of different fignification, and Their use and meaning are indicated

fpelling."

thus:

I

Saw one fent unto the Hill's ascent,

Who did affent to me before he went,