volume of the
series was Burton's illustrated versification of Bible stories called
"The Youth's Divine Pastime." But the subjects chosen by Burton were
such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no
euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable "Pastime
for Youth." The literature read by English children was, of course, the
same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of
knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting.

To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and
indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John
Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent
medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially
for the amusement of little children.

While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks
in England, in the colonies the idea of a child's need of recreation
through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner
in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery's books
as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of
which there is record.

In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely
confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses
delivered on Sunday and "Catechize days," and afterwards printed for
larger circulation. The reprints from English publications were such
exotics as, "A Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden," an alluring title, which
did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious
nature of its contents.

In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so
little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the
popularity of Watts's "Divine Songs" (issued by an Englishman) is well
attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child's
books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in
Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some
entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published "The
Parents' Gift, containing a choice collection of God's judgments and
Mercies," lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added
a "variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of
Children." This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America
that pictures were commendable to parents _becaus