The importance of this essay consists in the fact that it is the earliest, written and published in America, upon the subject of school teaching, and that it is the only picture we have of the colonial country school.[1] It is remarkable that at a time when the use of force was considered essential in the training of children, views so correct upon the subject of discipline should have been entertained. The only copy of the original edition I have ever seen is in the Cassel collection, recently secured by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a ten years' search for one upon my own part has so far resulted in failure. A second edition was printed by Saur the same year, of which there is a copy in the library of the German Society of Philadelphia. In 1861, the Mennonites of Ohio published an edition, reprinted from a copy of the second edition, at the office of the “Gospel Visitor,” at Columbia, in that State. This publication also met with an accident. A careless printer, who was setting type by candle light, knocked over his candle and burned up one of the leaves of the original. The work was stopped because the committee having the matter in charge could find no other copy. Finally, in despair, they wrote to Mr. A. H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pa., who, without hesitation, took the needed leaf from his copy and sent it to them by mail. Mirabile dictu! It was scrupulously cared for and speedily returned. It is difficult to determine which is the more admirable, the
- ↑ It is always treading on dangerous ground to say of a thing that it is the first of its kind, and especially is this true of books, whose numbers are infinite. I know of no publication on the subject written earlier, and the bibliography of the American Antiquarian Society shows none. If there be any in New England or elsewhere to dispute priority with that of the Pennsylvania Dutchman, let it be produced.
