Learning to Read, I did use every morning for diverse months, to
Write in a plain Hand for the Child, and send thither by him, _a
Lesson in Verse_, to be not only _read_, but also _Gott_ by Heart.
My proposal was to have the Child improve in goodness, at the same
time that he improved in _Reading_. Upon further Thoughts I
apprehended that a Collection of some of them would be serviceable
to ye Good Education of other children. So I lett ye printer take
them & print them, in some hope of some Help to thereby contributed
unto that great Intention of a _Good Education_. The book is
entituled _Good Lessons for Children_; or Instruction provided for a
little Son to learn at School, when learning to Read.

Although this small book lives only by record, it is safe to assume from
the extracts of the author's diary already quoted, that it lacked every
quality of amusement, and was adapted only to those whom he described,
in a sermon preached before the Governor and Council, as "verie Sharpe
and early Ripe in their capacities." "Good Lessons" has the distinction
of being the first American book to be composed, like many a modern
publication, for a particular young child; and, with its purpose "to
improve in goodness," struck clearly the keynote of the greater part of
all writing for children during the succeeding one hundred and
seventy-five years.

The first glimpse of the amusement book proper appears in that unique
"History of Printing in America," by Isaiah Thomas. This describes,
among other old printers, one Thomas Fleet, who established himself in
Boston about 1713. "At first," wrote Mr. Thomas, "he printed pamphlets
for booksellers, small books for children and ballads" in Pudding
Lane.[19-A] "He owned several negroes, one of which ... was an ingenious
man and cut on wooden blocks all the pictures which decorated the