124 Education. [CiiAP. XXV. 



fore presented Avitli 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 

 review. 



Among the many writers and compilers to whom 

 the public are indebted for their labours in this im- 

 portant field, it is not difficult to make a selection 

 of those who are most entitled to praise. Of this 

 number are Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Trimmer, Dr. 

 Percival, Mrs. C. Smith, miss Hannah More, Mrs. 

 Wakefield, Mr. Day, Dr. Aikin, and miss Edge- 

 worth, of Great Britain ; madame Genlis, abbe Gaul- 

 tier, M. de Beaumont, and M. Berquin, of France ; 

 Messrs. Basedow, Campe, Salzmann, and von Ro- 

 chow, of Germany ; and Mr. Lindley Murray, and 

 Mr. Noah Webster, of America. To say that the 

 performances of all these have commanded much at- 

 tention, and that those of several of them have been 

 eminently and extensively useful, would be to 

 describe their merits in a very imperfect manner. 



From this multiplication of the means and faci- 

 lities of education we may account for the fact, 

 that during the last century the advantages of edu- 

 cation M^ere more extensively diffused through the 

 different ranks of society than in any former age. 

 It may safely be asserted, that there never was a 

 period in which the elements of useful knowledge 

 were so common and popular as during that which 

 is under review. In all preceding stages of hu- 

 man improvement, knowledge was possessed by a 

 few. Before the invention of printing, indeed, the 

 obstacles in the way of a general diffusion of in- 

 formation were numerous, and almost insurmount- 

 able j and even with the advantage of that invew-= 



