PREFACE
TO THE FIRST EDITION.
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Ir must be evident, to all who reflect much upon the subject
of carly education, that many little books have been written,
which contain stories, anecdotes, tales of light romance,
legends, &c., well calculated to engage the infant mind; and
to lead it gradually, by the flowery paths of amusement, and
pleasing moral instruction, towards those higher branches of
literature which must at a later period occupy the attention
of the well-educated ; but owing to the mixture of immoral
sentiment and lax principle, in some of our most popular
tales, careful instructors of youth are frequently compelled
to withhold real sources of pleasure and improvement from
the minds and hearts of their pupils, rather than run the risk
of contaminating them. It is difficult to make a selection :
besides which, many excellent compositions for childhood,
by writers of high celebrity, are not to be procured in a
detached state.

To extract, therefore, everything detrimental to the moral
growth of the youthful reader, and to condense in one volume
a complete juvenile library, has been the task (modest in its