OLD-TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS - online book

An Illustrated history & description Of Schools in the 18th & 19th Centurys.

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	Grammars, Histories, and Minor Text-books 367
	The most attractive edition of Murray s Gram­mar was " one adapted to the present mode of in­struction," by Enoch Pond, Worcester, 1835, a thin little volume with many small engravings illustrating the parts of speech. Another illustrated text-book dealing with this subject was The Little Gram­marian. It was of English origin, but was republished in New York in 1829. The text made clear " the leading rules of syntax in a series of instructive and amusing tales/' The pictures con­sisted of twelve half-page steel en­gravings made to accompany the stories. The author says of his system that he is trying to make agree­able " a subject naturally dry and tedious in the same way that the skilful apothecary gilds his pill and colors the otherwise nauseous draught." Each chapter takes a part of speech, and the narrative in that chapter has that part of speech printed in italics as often as it occurs. These emphatic words occur so often they make the text pages look very queer. Just how effective this method is can be judged from the specimen which follows : —