Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

   In trying to straighten the jumble of books on my shelves (sigh), I made it over to the children's book shelves. I long ago had purchased a set of the "McGufffey's Eclectic Readers" for my curiosity. What an education!  There are a Primer and four Readers.  The Primer is for the youngest child. The last Reader is - or was - about junior high level - or what would have been that level back in the day.

   The McGuffey's were widely used in schools beginning in the 1830s, at a time when many immigrants were coming from Europe. The readers helped to standardize the English language, according to a brief history I read. They also reflected the moral values of the 19th century and helped to shape them, as well.  By 1925 about 122 million copies were in use.

   For the edification of those who choose to read this post, I am setting down some items from the Primer. Remember, this is for the youngest child. See Dick. See Dick run?  Hah! In the front of the book are pages with capital and lower case alphabet. In the back of the book are script writing exercises. Each lesson has at the top of the page the letters and words to be used, with their phonetic characters (long or short vowel).

   Lesson LI:   There is a picture of a tree and this lesson. "Do you see that tall tree? Long ago it sprang up from a nut. Do you know who made it so? It was God, my child. God made the world and all things in it. He made the sun to light the day and the moon to shine at night. God shows that he loves us by all that he has done for us. Should we not then love him?"

Lesson LII: a poem to learn  "When the stars at set of sun,
                                                    Watch you from on high;
                                                 When the light of moon has come,
                                                     Think the Lord is nigh.
                                 
                                                 All you do, and all you say,
                                                      He can see and hear;
                                                 When you work and when you play,
                                                      Think the Lord is near.
     
                                                  All your joys and griefs he knows,
                                                       Sees each smile and tear;
                                                  When to him you tell your woes,
                                                        Know the Lord will hear."

   When someone in the 1800s had only a sixth grade education,  as I saw in the Sixth Reader, he/she would have knowledge of elocution, some works of Shakespeare, Dryden and about one hundred major authors and poets, Patrick Henry's speech, Blackstone' the Origin of Property, Daniel Webster, etc., etc.

   I think I need to sit down and go through that last Reader. There are a few things I don't remember having been exposed to, even in my college days; and my education gave me a pretty full liberal arts and humanities background.

10/03/2017