276 Education. 



the numerous translations, compends and abridge- 

 ments, which modern instructors have produced. 

 Scarcely a department of art, science, or taste, 

 can be mentioned in which numerous works of 

 this nature have not been furnished by the friends 

 of youth. To the same class also belong the moral 

 tales, the histories, adventures, and selections, of 

 which a few years past have produced an un- 

 exampled number and variety. Some of these 

 performances have been planned with great wis- 

 dom, and executed with great felicity; and are 

 eminently suited to attract the youthful mind, to 

 direct and strengthen its growing powers, to beget 

 a taste for the sciences, and to cultivate the best 

 principles of the heart. Of many others, indeed, 

 a very different character must be given; but it is 

 certain, that parents and teachers were never be- 

 fore presented with so rich a variety of helps, or so 

 ample a field of choice, in works of this nature, as 

 during the last thirty years of the period under re- 

 view. 



Among the many writers and compilers to whom 

 the public are indebted for their labours in this 

 important field, it is difficult to make a selection of 

 those who are most entitled to praise. Of this num- 

 ber are, Mrs. Trimmer, Mrs. Barbauld, Miss 

 C. Smith, Miss Hannah More, Miss Wake- 

 field, Mr. Day, and Dr. Mavor, of Great-Bri- 

 tain; Madame Genlis, Abbe Gaultier, M. de 

 Beaumont, and M. Berquin, of France; Messrs. 

 Basedow, Campe, Salzman, and Von Rochow, 

 of Germany; andMr.LiNDLEY Murray, and Mr. 

 Noah Webster, of our own country. To say 

 that the performances of all these have commanded 

 much attention, and that those of several of thern 

 have been eminently and extensively useful, 

 would be to describe their merits in a very im- 

 perfect manner. 



