beauty as antagonists." The same attitude (in addition to antiritualism) explains the neglect of music in the church service. Since all æsthetic pleasure was deemed reprehensible,

A HORNBOOK

SO

church music was accused of "bewitching the mind with syrenes sound." In the seventeenth century singing grew uncommon in New England that only some eight or ten tunes were in general use. There were places where only the name of the tune was familiar, the music having been "miserably tortured and twisted and quavered into a horrible medley of confused and disorderly noises." This neglect of music by the Puritans contrasts very strongly with the interest in music which continued in Germany,

picture of Charles II on horseback stamped on the back where the subject generally occupied

an important place in the elementary school curriculum. Speaking of the intellectual life of the Puritans, Eggleston says:

The emigrants had no considerable part in the higher intellectual life of the age; the great artistic passions of Shakespeare and Milton touched them not at any point. Bacon's contributions to the art of finding truth did not belong to them. Men may live in the same time without being intellectual contemporaries. (1: 2.)

Puritan science composed mainly of superstitious beliefs.The current scientific traditions among the colonists were such as had been handed down from the days of Aristotle and Pliny. In astronomy they believed the earth to be the center of the universe. Astrology was esteemed as a practical science. The superstitions about the relation of the phases of the moon to harvesting were the same as prevailed in Germany in the ninth century. Comets were regarded as they are among the superstitious negroes of the South to-day. Birds were supposed to hibernate in winter in mud at the bottom of ponds. Living devils were the supposed agents of witches and other evil forces. In medical practice bleeding the patient was a favorite remedy, "the almanacs pointing out the proper time of the moon for letting blood according to the age of the patient." The usefulness of a plant or animal in curing any disease was supposedly indicated by some label which God had placed on it to make it resemble the disease. Hence, since toads had warts, "black powder" (charcoal) made by boiling, charring, and pulverizing the remains of toads was supposed to cure any human skin eruption, even smallpox.

Narrow intellectual life a factor in narrow curriculum. — This brief description of the intellectual life of the Puritan colonists may help in understanding the narrow curriculum of the elementary school. On the one hand, there existed intense mental activity and interest in the field of religion and theology; on the other hand, indifference and opposition in the field of art, ignorance and superstition in the field of science. The curriculum of the Massachusetts elementary school, as established by the law of 1647, included only reading and

writing. This was not changed by law until 1789, when arithmetic, the English language, orthography, and decent behavior were added.

Religious books used as reading texts. - The textbooks used in the elementary schools convey the best idea of the subject matter taught. Practically all of the texts used down

This consisted of a sheet of stiff paper folded so as to make three or more pages. It replaced the hornbook in some places

to the Revolution were of English origin or direct imitations of English models. In 1690 John Locke, the English philosopher, speaking of English elementary schools, said that he knew of no books being used besides the hornbook, primer, Psalter, Testament, and Bible. These same books continued to be the regular textbooks in American elementary schools until the period from 1750 to 1800 when they began to be displaced by "spelling books."

In Adam's Fall
We finned all.

The hornbook, from which children generally learned their letters, is shown on page 70. It was really not a book but a wooden paddle, on which was fastened a single sheet of paper covered with a sheet of transparent horn. On the paper were usually printed the alphabet, the syllables ab, eb, ib, etc., and the Lord's Prayer. After learning his letters and syllables from the hornbook, the pupil took up the primer.

Primers developed from medieval religious manuals. The primer is one of the oldest English books, dating back to the Middle Ages. It was originally the simplest manual of devotion for the laity, containing the Creed,

the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Command

Thy Life to mend,
This Book attend.

The Cat doth play,
And after flay.

A Dog will bite
A Thief at Night.

An Eagle' flight
Is out of fight.

The idle Fool
Is whipt at School

ments, a few psalms, etc. It was to be learned by heart by adults and children, and the clergy were enjoined to provide instruction in it.

With the addition of the alphabet and lists of syllables and words, the primer became the standard text for instruction in learning to read. The material in it was altered to correspond to changes in religious beliefs. Thus when the Lutheran doctrines began to circulate in England, primers embodying

them were published. Sir Thomas More, complaining of these, said, "Of all these heresies the seed is sown and prettily sprung up in these little books before. For the primer and Psalter, prayers and all were translated and made in this manner by heretics only." (4: 33.) Likewise, during the period of the Puritan Commonwealth, under the leadership of Cromwell, Parliament passed the following law forbidding the use of primers which had been prepared during the period of kingship:

Thursday the 24th of Julii 1651.

Resolved by the Parliament

That all Primers formerly used in the time of the Kingship in this nation, be suppressed, and shall from henceforth be no further used in any School, either Publique or Private, within this Commonwealth. (4: 361.)

"New England Primer" patterned after English models. The English primers were used in the Massachusetts schools until "The New England Primer" appeared about 1690 and was almost universally adopted. In the Boston "Almanack for the year of the Christian Empire, 1691,” appeared the following:

Advertisement:

There is now in the press and will suddenly be extant, a
Second Impression of the New England Primer enlarged,
to which is added, more Directions for Spelling; the
Prayer of K. Edward the 6th, and Verses made by Mr.
Rogers the Martyr, left as a Legacy to his Children.

Sold by Benjamin Harris, at the London Coffee-
House in Boston.

For about a hundred years this book was the chief beginning reading book of American schools.

Religious character of contents of "New England Primer." -The contents of "The New England Primer" show clearly its religious character and purpose. One of the earliest extant editions, that of 1727, which is reprinted by Ford (5),