University of Virginia Library

From the Committee of the Board of Education.

Dear Sir: In compliance with a resolution of the Board of Trustees of
the Lancaster School Society, of this city, we have examined, with as much
care as the time allowed would permit us to bestow, the series of Grammatic
Readers (Nos. I., II., and III.), of Mr. Edward Hazen; and, from
such examination, are enabled to say, that the series is well adapted to attain
the object Mr. Hazen has had in view in its preparation, viz.: that of
enabling the scholar to understand the English language while learning to
read it.

With the gradations, and systematic and illustrative arrangement, of the
Readers, we are much pleased, and believe they will prove to be a very valuable
aid to Teachers of Common Schools, in instructing and interesting
their scholars in that branch of learning to which the series is devoted.

We shall not only report in favor of authorizing the introduction of the
Grammatic Readers into the schools under the care of the trustees, but
shall recommend their introduction as speedily as practicable.

From the Teachers of the Public Schools.

Dear Sir: We have briefly examined Hazen's Grammatic Readers
(Nos. I. and II.), which you kindly presented to us, and believe that they
are well calculated for the object which the author has in view. There can
be no doubt that children will learn more rapidly a correct pronunciation
of words, arranged according to this system, than they will in many of the
books which we have in our schools. And there can be no reason why the
first principles of grammar may not be taught at the same time that the
scholar is learning to read. In short, we think the work worthy of the notice
of the friends of popular education.

“J. S. Redfield, of Clinton Hall, has just published the Grammatic
Readers, Nos. I. and II., by Edward Hazen, A. M., and we conceive them
to be the most elegant books of juvenile instruction ever issued in this or
any other country. The author's ability and qualifications for the task he
has undertaken have been already shown in `Hazen's Speller and Definer,'
and a most satisfactory further development of his system of imparting an
accurate knowledge of the elements of our vernacular will be found in the
book now under notice. It is, however, to its typographical and illustrated
character to which we referred, when speaking of the unsurpassed `elegance'
of this little school-book. It is printed on firm, thick paper, with
handsome open type, and contains sixty-eight engravings, from original
drawings by Chapman, which are among the most spirited sketches that
ever came from the pencil of that accomplished artist; and these are engraved
with a degree of skill and high finish that would befit an illustrated
edition of Gray or Goldsmith.

“Compared with this, the miserable wood-cuts with which young folks
have hitherto been obliged to be content in the volumes published, whether
for their amusement or instruction—they mark a new era in publications
addressed chiefly to the young. Taste, that delicate quality of the trained
intellect (and which, with its twin-brother discrimination, makes a feeler to
the mind as important to some of its operations as is the trunk of the elephant
to the purveyance of the creature's proper food), true taste is ministered
to in these drawings, at the season of life when it is most susceptible
of gentle and unconscious training. Boston, which we believe has hitherto
been the most famous city for its juvenile books, will doubtless, with its
readiness to appreciate a good thing, instantly acknowledge that the enterprise
of Mr. Redfield has given New York so much the lead that it will require
great efforts to rival her in this department of book-making.”