The Sun.
London, England, 1824-05-26 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICE.

FIFTY-TWO SCRIPTURAL CARDS for the USE of
CHILDREN, containing 454 Texts, arranged under their
respective heads as a Daily Exercise for every Week in the
Year.—Second Edition.

The facilitation of early instruction is a dis-
tinguishing characteristic of the present age ;
and those who know the difficulty and import-
ance of the work under any circumstances, will
not be disposed to regard it with less interest than
they view the more obtrusive and ostentatious
triumphs of human knowledge in the application
of steam and gas to the purposes of social life. It
might seen ridiculous to claim the name of phi-
losopher for a person who invents an amusing
method of teaching children their letters and
points ; but although it may not require any
profundity of philosophy to sound the depths of
the infant mind, and thence seize those objects
which most readily engage a child's attention for
the purpose of fixing it on others, to which it
ought to be directed, it may be a question whe-
ther any philosophers effect more towards the
accumulation of knowledge than those persons
whose humble labours are directed towards creat-
ing an appetite for learning in children, and sub-
duing thoseantipathies to its acquirement which the
lightsome and buoyant spirits of childhood natural-
ly entertain towards any thing which offers itself in
an unamusing form—" T-ti; lAN/TA
xcorapolgEv 6r,Y.czv."—and many a young mind in
its earliest advances to knowledge might have
drooped and fainted in the exertion, wbich now,
under the guidance and support of these useful
pioneers, is invigorated and assisted to pursue its
ascent with cheerfulness and facility. •
The authoress of these cards (for we under-
stand theM to be the production of a Lady) must
not suppose that we mean to degrade her pre-
tensions to those of the humble, though useful,
compilers of books for the nursery. But we
make the above remarks for the purpose of setting
the excellence and utility of her work in the
fairest and most conspicuous point of view. From
the alphabet to the rudiments of almost every
department of science, amusing books for the use
of children have been composed ; it is, however,
the shame of an age pre-eminent in its care of
early education, that more have not been written
on religious knowledge ; and of those which have
been written, almost all turn on the knowledge
of Scripture facts, without that application of them
to the heart, which constitutes the Christian, and
which, when habitually made in early youth, is
of incalculable importance.
The writer of these cards has supplied the de-
sideratum. Their plan and execution are equally
excellent. They embrace all the great Christian
doctrines and duties, and being in te very words
of Scriptures, they are simple and intelligible.
Of the extent of their subject some idea may be
formed, when Ise state that they comprise the
leading attributes of the Holy Trinity, collec-
tively, and in its several persons ; the subjects of
Faith, Repentance, the Sacraments, Life, Death,
and Eternity, the Scriptures, Prayer, Analysis of
the Human Helirt,Moral Obedience, and Christian
Consolation. They are a beautiful epitome of
Christianity. They are easily learned, one or
o texts forming a lesson for the week-day,and
the whole six comprised in the card are to be re-
peated on the Sunday. The texts are brief and
impressive ; and it is impossible for a child of
ordinary abilities and feeling to learn them, and
be unacquainted with the nature of Christian
motives, and unimpressed with the importance
of Christian conduct. Of all works intended for
the instruction of children, we hesitate not to say
that in object, conception, and execution, these
cards are the best we have ever seen ; and we
therefore earnestly recommend them to all pa-
rents. There is nothing in them to startle any
person calling himself a Christian, unless he be a
Socinian, and even he must' acknowledge that
they contain the words of Scripture. The whole
are simple and practical ; every thing which they
contain ought to be known, reflected on, and
acted on ; their brevity, and the method of learn-
ing them impresses them with ease on the me-
mory ; and their importance and authority must
influence the feelings even of a reflective child.—
The best interests of the human race are deeply
indebted to the authoress for extending the uti-
lity of her work beyond the fireside for which it
was at first designed, and she may be the happy
instrument, under the good Providence of God,
of sowing seeds in the heart of the child which
may spring up, as he advances in age, to a rich
harvest of holiness on earth and happiness here-
after.

VALUE OF NUMBERS.—Nothing is more diffi-
cult than to form any just conception of any
quantity that greatly surpasses those small ones
with which we are familiar, but whose number is
comparatively few. Even those who calculate
and understand the value of numbers with quick-
ness and accuracy, are far from having correct no-
tions on this subject. To give an idea of The
extent of numbers which are frequently named
without attention, we shall state from the Ency-
clopedia Britannica these few facts.--:-If a per-
son employed in taking money reckon one
hundred guineas in one minute, and continue
et work ten hours each day,.he will employ near-
ly seventeen days to reckon one million! One
thousand men would fake forty-five years to
reckon 1,000,000,000,000 .