Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
A. C. CHAPMAN, Del J. A. ADAMS Sc
CANUTE’S REPROOF.
EVENINGS AT HOME;
OR,
THE JUVENILE BUDGET OPENED.
PREFACE BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.
In presenting to the American public this new and beautiful edition ofa work that has been established as a favourite for nearly half a century,the publishers do not think it needful to enlarge upon its merits, or topoint out the attractions which have secured for it a popularity so universaland long continued. Fifteen editions in England, and probably anequal or greater number in this country, have already borne testimony inthat behalf, much stronger than any praises which they can bestow. Yetthey may be permitted briefly to suggest a comparison between this charmingspecimen of the good old school, and most of the illustrated works thathave recently been brought out in such profusion, professedly for theentertainment and instruction of youth; works, in the majority of whichthere is exhibited so little of that peculiar talent required for impartinginstruction with entertainment, and so little judgment in the choice ofsubjects, as well as in the manner of dealing with them. The great defectof these books—at least the greater portion of them—is the total want ofpure and unaffected simplicity; the principal characteristic of well-trainedyouth, and therefore indispensable in everything designed foryouthful readers. Multitudes of authors have written, of late years, forchildhood; but small, indeed, is the number of those who, like Mrs. Barbauldand Dr. Aikin, possess the faculty of adaptation to the tastes andintellects of children; and in the effort to make books suited to those tastes4and intellects, they succeed only in producing things too puerile forgrown-up people, and so tainted with the affectation of simplicity that thenatural feelings of the child can give to them no sympathy. And it wouldbe a subject for rejoicing if this were the worst or only fault with whichsome of them are chargeable.
The nearest approach to perfection that a book written for young peoplecan make, is to give the idea of having been written by one of them.When a child reads a story, and fancies that he could write just suchanother, we may be sure that the author has hit the mark. This test ofexcellence the “Evenings at Home” bears with a success unrivalled, asmust be within the experience of ma