Hand County press. (Miller, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1893, 1882-09-13
THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER.
E.r rdcfs from a Renaaykabis Book Cos,pilest
by John Esioe fFkA


BY John ssios. sfekH
The Congregationalist prints an in
teresting article upon some of the ear
hest primers in use in New England. A
single copy of an Indian primer, COM
piled by John Eliot, and printed in
Cambridge in 1869, has been preserved
MIR. !. Hammond Trumbull, of Hart
ford, Conn, it appears, is of opinion
that its contents are substantially the
same as those of the earliest New En-
gland primer in English before they
were enlarged" and saimproved, or
adorned with cuts" fhis is nearly
twenty years older than the fryt, New
England primer which can be traced.
and sixty-eight years older than the
earliest now known to survive in COM
plete form. The New England prim-
err of 1887" the Congregationdtist
says, has on the inside ofsthe first leaf,
before the title, a wood cut of King
George the Second, and on the reverse
a ghastlynnsge labeled 'The Pope, or
Man of Sim 1t has 1Thei Great Gapi-
tai Letters the Small Letters the
Easie Syllables for Children and so
on to those caterpilliary ones of six
syllables each. Then came the wood
cuts with their rhymes, beginning In
Adams fall we sinned all'-but stop
ping short of the late Dr. Taylor's sug-
gestion of the enunciation Of the NEXT
stage Of the same truth I IitIf!Ei
40 I s In Gains murier3 Y tisU-i
= We sinned furdcr
These are succeeded by The Dutiful
Child's Promises" by "An Alphabet of
Lessons for YOUTH the Lords Prayer,
the Greed, the Commandments; six
verses, zone of which every child should
learn by heart" among which is Nov
l lay me, etc, and another: ~
80 Have communion with few H.,
y. BE intimate with ONE
Deal justly by all,
Speak evi of none.
Then came,ptayers at king down and
for the morning, the names and orders
of the books of the Old and New Testa-
ment, with oversees for Little Chill
dren.n beginning: s4s
Lord, if Thou lengthen out my days, etc,
and the hymn: !e ss-r
Though am young, little one,
followed, over leaf, by the famous and
never to be forgotten picture cut of
"Mr. John Rogers, Minister of the
Gospel in London, the first. martyr in
Queen Mary'ss Reignr his wife with
nine small Children and one at her
Breast following him to the Stake"
Then follow the verses said to have
been made by Mr.. Rogers as an SEX
hortation" lin later editions, "Advice")
TO his children; but which Mr.. Trum-
bull shows were, in fact, composed by
Robert Smith, o contemporary of Rogers,
and later a martyr also. The Shorter
completes the book. The
next edition known to exist is called
the New England Primer, Improved"
printed at Boston in i7tS, and very
altered from its predcces-
sor. DIR. Trumbull points out that the
" Great Revival had interviewed be-
tween these two editions, and he traces
TO the influence of this fact the obvious
change which now comes over the spirit
Of the primer, which is no longer pri-
marily anti-papal, but evangelical. The
Pope as a bugbear is gone, and "all
that savored of worldliness, frivolity
and vain iEaginipgs" was ousted by q
substitute of distinctively religious
tone. Notice some such changes of |
this character as the following:
ORIGINAL. IMPROVED
The cat doth play Christ cracihed
And after slay. For sinners dy'd.
dog will bite The peluge drownd
A thief at night. The earth around.
Nightinsales sins Nesh did view
In time Of Spring. Tn old world d new
Time cuts down all, Young Timothy
s Both great andsmaM Learnt sin to fly.
Dr.. Trumbuli also points out how the
liberty thus taken by this editor en-
boldened those who published later
editions to make still further innova-
tons. Witness the following changes
in regard to the letter X:
I737. Our King the good
No man of blood