threat has often been couched in modern language by
grandsons of the boys from whom the Socratic Mr. Day wrote to expose the
evils of too luxurious an education. His method of compilation of facts
to be taught may best be given in the words of his Preface: "All who
have been conversant in the education of very young children, have
complained of the total want of proper books to be put in their hands,
while they are taught the elements of reading.... The least exceptional
passages of books that I could find for the purpose were 'Plutarch's
Lives' and Xenophon's 'History of the Institution of Cyrus,' in English
translation; with some part of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and a few passages
from Mr. Brooke's 'Fool of Quality.' ... I therefore resolved ... not
only to collect all such stories as I thought adapted to the faculties
of children, but to connect these by continued narration.... As to the
histories themselves, I have used the most unbounded licence.... As to
the language, I have endeavored to throw into it a greater degree of
elegance and ornament than is usually to be met with in such
compositions; preserving at the same time a sufficient degree of
simplicity to make it intelligible to very young children, and rather
choosing to be diffuse than obscure." With these objects in mind, we can
understand small Tommy's embellishment of his demand for the return of
his ball by addressing the ragged urchin as "Sirrah."

Mr. Day's "Children's Miscellany" contained a number of stories, of
which one, "The History of Little Jack," about a lost child who was
adopted by a goat, was popular enough to be afterwards published
separately. It is a debatable question as to whether the parents or the
children figuring in this "Miscellany" were the more artificial. "Proud
and unfeeling girl," says one tender mother to her little daughter who
had bestowed half her pin money upon a poor family,--"proud and
unfeeling girl, to prefer vain and trifling ornaments to the delight of
relieving the sick and miserable! Retire from my presence! Take away
with you trinket and nosegay, and receive from them all the comforts
they are able to bestow!" Why Mr. Day's stories met with such
unqualified praise at the time they were published, this example of
canting rubbish does not reveal. In real life parents certainly did
retain some of their substance for their own pleasure; why, therefore,
discipline a child for following the same inclination?

In contrast to