On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
REVIEW-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Art . L— - The Lady of the Manor : a Series of Conversations on the Subject of Confirmation * Intended for the Use of the Middle and Higher Ranks of Young Females . In 4 vols . 12 mo . pp . 303 . By Mrs . Sherwood , Author of Little Henry and his Bearer , &c . Mrs . Sherwood writes religious tales and tracts with astonishing rapidity and great success . In the course of about ten or twelve years , she has published at one press alone upwards of fifty different works ; she has been Editor of a Magazine , called Mrs . Sherwood's Magazine ; besides employing
her pen for Tract Societies . Out of the number of her tales for children , some have had a large circulation in India , where she resided for several years ; some have been translated into French ; all have reached third and fourth , many eleventh and twelfth , and one or two twentieth and twentythird editions ! A writer who has commanded so large a share of public attention , must be worthy of some notice : and when it is taken into the
account that there is not a single tale or tract of Mrs . Sherwood ' s which does not contain an assertion , more or less strong , of the vital importance of belief in certain peculiar doctrines , and , moreover , that children and uneducated persons are the chief readers for whom most of her publications are intended , it is clear that she has long possessed large opportunities of doing both good and barm , and that all Christians are interested in knowing how she has used them .
But leaving IVfrs . Sherwood for a while , we would briefly remark the / change which has taken p lace in the mode of communicating religious instruction among those who hold certain religious opinions with peculiar strictness . No one could read the lives of some of our excellent Puritan forefathers without pitying from his heart the weary destiny of their children , so cruelly bereft of all pleasurable religious instruction . To sit out , with invincible patience or stupidity , sermons of two hours in length ; to
jrepeat Catechisms and passages of Scripture , selected with little regard to the learner ' s capacity ; to disguise the vacancy of the mind by a look of affected solemnity , —were the natural , though possibly not invariable , consequences of the discipline of those timas . Now , however , a better light has broken upon us , and Calvinism itself is setting an example of the adoption of more rational , more pure , more pious principles and modes of recommending piety and religion to the youthful mind . It is found out that it
will not do to place religion on one side and enjoyment on the other . The power of pleasurable association—the advantage of drawing the mirid gently to the obedience of the gospel by mild and winning representations , is seen , ? an « d our Saviour ' s example is , in this respect at least , acknowledged to be worth y of imitation . We hope the time is not far distant when the religious libraries of young people of all denominations will be better supplied with
books at once interesting and useful . Hitherto , even among Unitarians , who have been Jess apqetic in their system , there has not been sufficient reference jna ^ e to the ta $ t < es of children themselves . Bopks read and admired by the parents are top hastily imposed upon their children as things which they mtujt read and acjmire too , and which it is a kind of disgrace not to like , Thj * is not the way we act with regard to other subjects ; we rather avoid
Untitled Article
( 194 )
Review-
REVIEW-
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 194, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/34/
-