On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    we have observed a query respecting the priority of authorship of a story in Mrs . BarbauldV Lessons ; that of The Idle Boy . ' It is related both by Mrs . B . and M . Berquin , and as the manner of telling it is somewhat different , we are curious to know who was the first narrator . The Frenchman ' s introduction of the father , with his superfluous bounty , seems to us no improvement .

    " There was once a very small child ; for if he had heen larger I dare say he would have been more wise ; but this was not much higher than the table . His mamma sent him one day to school . The weather was very fine ; the sun shone without clouds ; and the birds sang upon the trees . The little boy would have liked better to run in the fields , than to go and shut himself up with his books . He asked the young girl who was leading him , if she would play with him ; but she answered , My friend , I have other business to do . When I have led you to the school , I must go to the other end of the village for some wool for my mother to spin ; if I did not , she would have no work to do , and she would earn no money to buy bread .

    " A moment after he saw a bee , who was flying from one flower to another . He said to the girl , I should like to go and play with the bee . But she answered , that the bee had something else to do ; that it was busy in fl y ing from flower to flower , to collect from them something to make honey of : and the bee flew away to its hive . "Then a dog passed by : the little boy would have liked to play with him ; but a hunter , who was near , blew his horn , and directly the dog ran towards bis master , and followed him to the fields . He soon started a partridge , which the hunter shot for his dinner .

    " The little boy went on his way , and he saw near a hedge a bird which was hopping about ; Ah ! said he , that little bird is playing all alone : perhaps he will like me to go and play with him . Not at all , answered the young * girl , the bird has got something else to do . He must collect from all quarters straw , wool , and moss , to build his nest . At the same moment the bird flew asvay , holding in his beak a large piece of straw that he had just found ; and he went to perch upon a great tree , where he had begun to build his nest

    among the leaves . " At last the little boy met a horse on the border of a meadow . He wanted to go and play with him ; but a farmer came by , who led away the horse , saying to the little boy , ' Mv horse has other business to do , than to come and play with you , my chikT : he must come and help me to cultivate my fields , otherwise the corn could not grow there , and we should have no bread . ' ' Then the little boy began to think : and he soon said to himself , ' Every thing which I have met has something else to do than to play : I must do something better , as well as the rest . I will go straight to school and learn my lessons . He went directly to school and learnt Ins lessons quite well , and received the praises of his master . This was not all : his father , who was informed of it , gave him the next day a large wooden rocking-horse , to reward him for so much application . Now , I ask you , if the little boy was not glad not to have lost his time in play ?"—Christian Manual , pp . 15 , 16 . The Editor of the Christian Manual advocates the separation of the old and young in our pubKc Sunday services , if we understand him aright . He thinks it unreasonable to require children ' s attention lo public worship as conducted among adirhs , and would consequently have tnem instructed by

    teachers of their own . This is no new idea , but it is one deserving very serious consideration . We are no advocates for bringing children to public worship at all , till they have some just and general idea of the purposes for which the multitude is brought together . But , at a very early period , this idea may be foriifred in their minds ; they may be , and are , fully capable of sympathy with father or mother in the work they are performing . There is

    Untitled Article

    Children ' s Boohs . 47

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/47/