delivered on Sunday and "Catechize days," and afterwards printed for
larger circulation. The reprints from English publications were such
exotics as, "A Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden," an alluring title, which
did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious
nature of its contents.

In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so
little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the
popularity of Watts's "Divine Songs" (issued by an Englishman) is well
attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child's
books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in
Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some
entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published "The
Parents' Gift, containing a choice collection of God's judgments and
Mercies," lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added
a "variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of
Children." This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America
that pictures were commendable to parents _because_ entertaining to
their offspring. Such an idea put into words upon paper and advertised
in so well-read a sheet as the "Boston Evening Post," must surely have
impressed fathers and mothers really solicitous for the family welfare
and anxious to provide harmless pleasure. This pictorial element was
further encouraged by Franklin, when, in 1747, he reprinted, probably
for the first time in this country, "Dilworth's New Guide to the English
Tongue." In this school-book, after the alphabets and spelling lessons,
a special feature was introduced, that is, illustrated "Select Fables."
The cuts at the top of each fable possess an added interest from the
supposition that they were engraved by the printer himself; and the
constant use of the "Guide" by colonial school-masters and mistresses
made their pupils unconsciously quite ready for more illustrated and