COBWEBS TO CATCH FLIES.
“Here is a pretty, new book, made to catch the attentionof my darling.”
COBWEBS
TO
CATCH FLIES:
OR,
Dialogues in Short Sentences.
ADAPTED TO CHILDREN FROM THE AGE OF THREE
TO EIGHT YEARS.
A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ILLUSTRATED.
NEW YORK:
C. S. FRANCIS & CO., 252 BROADWAY.
BOSTON:
J. H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON STREET.
1851.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The writer of these volumes was advised by a friendto prefix an Advertisement to them, explaining theirdesign. Her answer to that friend was to this effect:
“Those for whom they are designed will not need anexplanation; and others will not regard it. The mother,who is surrounded by smiling prattlers, will enter withspirit into my first Dialogues: will declare that theyare such as she has wished for a thousand times; andthat she esteems herself obliged to me, for having condescendedto march in shackles, for the sake of keepingpace with her infant; she will be aware of some difficultyin the task; she will (to pursue the metaphor)allow that it is not easy to move gracefully, when weshorten our steps to those of a child. She will, therefore,pardon such inaccuracies as arise from the necessityof confining the language to short words.
“For the rest, I am persuaded (from experience and[Pg vi]the remarks of the most judicious mothers) that a bookof this kind will be acceptable.
“The mother who herself watches the dawn of reasonin her babe; who teaches him the first rudiments ofknowledge; who infuses the first ideas in his mind;will approve my Cobwebs. She will, if she be desirousof bringing her little darling forward; (and where it canbe done with ease and satisfaction, who is not?) she willbe aware of the consequence of the first lessons, wherenothing meets the eye of the learner but objects withwhich he is already familiar; nothing arises to his mind,but subjects with which he begins to be acquainted; sentimentslevel to his capacity, explained in words whichare suited to his progress.
“Such is the Cobwebs designed to be; if such it be,it will meet the smile of Mothers. It was written toplease a set of children dear to the writer; and it didplease them; and in the hope that it may be agreeableto other little pe