a
new dream, every night, about our chair!"

Laurence, and Clara, and Charley, said the same. But the good old
gentleman shook his head, and declared that here ended the history, real
or fabulous, of GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR.

BIOGRAPHICAL STORIES

BENJAMIN WEST,
SIR ISAAC NEWTON,
SAMUEL JOHNSON
OLIVER CROMWELL,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
QUEEN CHRISTINA.

This small volume, and others of a similar character, from the
same hand, have not been composed without a deep sense of
responsibility. The author regards children as sacred, and would
not, for the world, cast any thing into the fountain of a young
heart, that might embitter and pollute its waters. And, even in
point of the reputation to be aimed at, juvenile literature is as
well worth cultivating as any other. The writer, if he succeed in
pleasing his little readers, may hope to be remembered by them
till their own old age--a far longer period of literary existence
than is generally attained, by those who seek immortality from the
judgments of full grown men.

Chapter I

When Edward Temple was about eight or nine years old, he was afflicted
with a disorder of the eyes. It was so severe, and his sight was naturally
so delicate, that the surgeon felt some apprehensions lest the boy should
become totally blind. He therefore gave strict directions to keep him in a
darkened chamber, with a bandage over his eyes. Not a ray of the blessed
light of Heaven could be suffered to visit the poor lad.

This was a sad thing for Edward! It was just the same as if there were to
be no more sunshine, nor moonlight, nor glow of the cheerful fire, nor
light of lamps. A night had begun which was to continue perhaps for
months,--a longer and drearier night than that which voyagers are compelled
to endure, when their ship is ice-bound, throughout the winter, in the
Arctic Ocean. His dear father and mother, his brother George, and the
sweet face of little Emily Robinson, must all vanish, and leave him in
utter darkness and solitude. Their voices and footsteps, it is true, would
be heard around him; he would feel his mother's embrace, and the kind
pressure of all their hands; but still it would seem as if they were a
thousand miles away.

And then his studies! They were to be entirely given up. This was another
grievous trial; for Edward's memory hardly went back to the period when he
had not known how to read. Many and many