the use of which will
infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is
prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents,
Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making
their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy." To this
extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope,
probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the
title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a
finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications.
A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even
Newbery's original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what
he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of
spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not
without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was
to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury
and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make
a better choice.

[Illustration: _A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_]

The manner in which the "Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is written is so
characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the
younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine
briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in
the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine
instruction with amusement. The book itself is miniature in size, about
two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers--Newbery's own
specialty as a binding. The sixty-five little illustrations at the top
of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth
century child, although they were crude in execution and especially
lacked true perspective. The first chapter after the "Address to
Parents" and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives
letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly. First, Tommy is congratulated
upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as
to the use of the "Pocket-Book," "which will teach you to play at all
those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with."
The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with
pins upon a red and black ball. Little Polly is then given similar
congratulations and instructions, except that in her ca