de and badly drawn as they now seem, they were surely
sufficient to attract the child of their generation.

About the same time old Zechariah Fowle, who apprenticed Isaiah Thomas,
and both printed and vended chap-books in Back Street, Boston,
advertised among his list of books "Lately Publish'd" this same small
book, together with "A Token for Youth," the "Life and Death of
Elizabeth Butcher," "A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of
Childhood and Youth," "The Prodigal Daughter," "The Happy Child," and
"The New Gift for Children with Cuts." Of these "The New Gift" was
certainly a real story-book, as one of a later edition still extant
readily proves.

Thus the children in both countries were prepared to enjoy Newbery's
miniature story-books, although for somewhat different reasons: in
England the literature had reached a point too artificial to be
interesting to little ones; in America the product of the press and the
character of the majority of the juvenile importations, the reprints, or
home-made chap-books, has been shown to be such as would hardly attract
those who were to be the future arbiters of the colonies' destiny.

The reasons for the coming to light of this new form of infant
literature have been dwelt upon in order to show the necessity for some
change in the kind of reading-matter to be put in the hands of the
younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is
next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in
England,--a phase largely due to the influence of one man,--and once
there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction.

Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of
children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was
probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher,
John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public
opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the
well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke's
ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to
compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, "The Child's
New Play-thing," with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke,
without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers
and readers (such as "Dilworth's Guide"), and then onward to
story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his l