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    Sunday School Hgjnn#. $27

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Sunday-School Hymns.F

    with harmless amusehients , and encouraging the exercise of mutual kindnesses Sid forbearance towards one another ; l 6 e eldej : w & sled 10 help the younger , , th $ babe was assisted In its attempts to ljsp . or to ^ un , tjy th ^ cliiid of greater a 4 yWeenimt . Infant Schools , m abort , , were , to be great , nqrseriGSy > wd & r the besi possible gover « nr > e # V giaardiug the tempers and governi « g 7 irje ^ bafeits of their pbajrges : gently * exercising JtJaeir growing : powers

    upon the ofojecis around tlaem , gratifying their harmless curiosity , encouraging every individual attempt to acquire a little kftowl £ dge $ sudh was the first idea of an Infant School . But to follow this up required ttefco-o'peTa » tion of no light degree of intellect and afTectiono It was found very hard when so many little creatures were gathered together ., to let them go and come , all uninitiated into what vulgar schoolmasters and mistresses call

    learning ; to have , in short , a school without scholarship ,, Why should they not shout out the Multiplication Table as well as their ten-year-old brothers and sisters ? What was there to hinder their rattling over the catecliism and shouting the creed ? It was obvious , the thing could be done , and it should be done , only they would do it in somewhat a different manner . Accordingly the Multiplication Tal > le was set to music , and the fc ^ ence Table put into rhymes , of which the following is a specimen :

    " Forty pence are three and four-pence , A pretty sum , or Pm mistaken ; Fifty pence are four and iwo-pence , Which will buy fiv < e pounds of bacon . "

    Then it was thought quite shocking that childrein of three amd four years old should be scarcely at all acquainted wi 3 h Scripture , and accordingly pictures representing our Saviour ' s miracles and various other parts of the Bible , were ordered to be executed for the * ' Infant School Society . " In one school , where pictures chiefly representing farm-yards and agricultural occupations were introduced , we have it on good authority that the master was ordered by his committee to ask the children for Scripture references to the objects so represented . Thus when he pointed to a cow , the children were to quote him chapter and verse of those passages in Scripture in which a cow was mentioned—the same with the sheaves , the clouds , & c . Another example of deviation from a rational and sensible course in the instruction given to these babes , is to be found in this little collection of Hymns by Mr . William Barre , Master of the Shoieditch Infant School * It is grievous to see that an individual holding such an , office , should have made so little use of his opportunities of observation as to dream of inculcating humanity to animals upon his soholars , in strains like the following ; of whicta we know not which is worst , the theology or the method of teaching it :

    " Every creature is partaker Of the fruit From the root , Of our sin against our Maker . The effects of man ' s transgression Reach to atl Great and small , All things make the sad confession . And shall ivey who cans ' ( I the trouble And the pain Hrutes sustain , Dare to make their misery double ? ' *

    Sunday School Hgjnn#. $27

    Sunday School Hgjnn # . $ 27

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 827, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/27/