THOMAS DAY

Sandford and Merton


Thomas Day was born in London on June 22, 1748, and educated
at the Charterhouse and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Entering the Middle Temple in 1765, he was called to the Bar
ten years later, but never practised. A contemporary and
disciple of Rousseau, he convinced himself that human
suffering was, in the main, the result of the artificial
arrangements of society, and inheriting a fortune at an early
age he spent large sums in philanthropy. A poem written by him
in 1773, entitled "The Dying Negro," has been described as
supplying the keynote of the anti-slavery movement. His
"History of Sandford and Merton," published in three volumes
between the years 1783 and 1789, provided a channel through
which many generations of English people have imbibed a kind
of refined Rousseauism. It retains its interest for the
philosophic mind, despite the burlesque of _Punch_ and its
waning popularity as a book for children. Thomas Day died
through a fall from his horse on September 28, 1789.


_I.--Mr. Barlow and his Pupils_


In the western part of England lived a gentleman of a large fortune,
whose name was Merton. He had a great estate in Jamaica, but had