A man, any man, will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; -- and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading, the
primers and class-books, and when we leave school, the "Little Reading," and story-books, which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only of pygmies and manikins.
But there is no literary public in England for anything except newspapers,
primers, and encyclopaedias.
The Book of Common Prayer, now used in the English Church coordinately with Bible and Psalter, took shape out of previous
primers of private devotion, litanies, and hymns, mainly as the work of Archbishop Cranmer during the reign of Edward VI.
Then, there are the Prodromus whales of the old Scotch Sibbald, and Jonah's whale, as depicted in the prints of old Bibles and the cuts of old
primers. What shall be said of these?
Among these were many for little children--picture books,
primers, readers--for they had known that their little child would be old enough for such before they might hope to return to England.
He coaxed in schoolmistress fashion, as to a congregation of boys with
primers. His talk was an endless repetition.
"Yes, if your are good, and love your book, as the boys in the
primer are told to do," said Meg, smiling.
A school for little children had been often in her thoughts; and, at one time, she had begun a review of her early studies in the New England
Primer, with a view to prepare herself for the office of instructress.
Pearl, therefore -- so large were the attainments of her three years' lifetime -- could have borne a fair examination in the New England
Primer, or the first column of the Westminster Catechisms, although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated works.
He spoke as though he had been reading from a child's
Primer. When he had finished, he replaced his cigarette between his teeth.
He can read his
primer, and I have brought down my Virgil.
These young ladies--not supposed to have been actually christened by the names applied to them, though always so called in the family from the places of their birth in barracks--are respectively employed on three-legged stools, the younger (some five or six years old) in learning her letters out of a penny
primer, the elder