A History of the McGuffey Readers by Henry H. Vail
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Henry H. Vail >> A History of the McGuffey Readers
A HISTORY OF THE McGUFFEY READERS.
[Illustration: WILLIAM H. McGUFFEY]
A HISTORY
OF THE
McGUFFEY READERS
By
HENRY H. VAIL.
WITH THREE PORTRAITS.
THE BOOKISH BOOKS--IV.
New Edition.
CLEVELAND
THE BURROWS BROTHERS CO.
1911
Copyright, 1911, by Henry H. Vail.
[Transcriber's Note: At the top of each page in the original is a header
line briefly describing the content on each page. In this document,
these header lines have been placed inside square brackets and move to
the start of the paragraph which begins the content so described.]
A History of the McGuffey Readers
THE BOOKS.
Before me are four small books roughly bound in boards, the sides
covered with paper. On the reverse of the title pages, two bear a
copyright entry in the year 1836; the others were entered in 1837. They
are the earliest editions of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers that have been
found in a search lasting forty years.
They represent the first efforts in an educational and business
enterprise that has for three-quarters of a century called for the best
exertions of many skilled men, and in their several forms these books
have taken a conspicuous part in the education of millions of the
citizens of this country.
But what interest can the history of the McGuffey Eclectic Readers have
to those who did not use these books in their school career? Their story
differs from that of other readers since in successive forms, adjusted
more or less perfectly to the changing demands of the schools, they
attained a wider and more prolonged use than has been accorded to any
other series.
[The Function of Readers]
By custom and under sanction of law certain studies are pursued in the
common schools of every state. Spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic,
geography, history, grammar, civics and physiology are the subjects
usually taught. The school authorities select the textbooks which shall
be used in each subject. The readers are the only texts used in all
schools affording opportunity for distinct ethical teaching. The history
of our country should give ideas of patriotism; the civics should
contain the primary notions of government; the physiologies should
instruct the pupils in the laws of health; but the reader should cover
the whole field of morals and manners and in language that will impress
their teaching indelibly upon the mind of every pupil. While the chief
aim of the school readers must be to teach the child to apprehend
thought from the printed page and convey this thought to the attentive
listener with precision, these efforts should be exerted upon thoughts
that have permanent value. No other texts used in the school room bear
directly and positively upon the formation of character in the pupils.
The school readers are the proper and indispensable texts for teaching
true patriotism, integrity, honesty, industry, temperance, courage,
politeness, and all other moral and intellectual virtues. In these books
every lesson should have a distinct purpose in view, and the final aim
should be to establish in the pupils high moral principles which are at
the foundation of character.
[Formers of Character]
The literature of the English language is rich in material suited to
this intent; no other language is better endowed. This material is fresh
to every pupil, no matter how familiar it may be to teacher or parent.
Although some of it has been in print for three centuries, it is true
and beautiful today.
President Eliot has said, "When we teach a child to read, our primary
aim is not to enable it to decipher a way-bill or a receipt, but to
kindle its imagination, enlarge its vision and open for it the avenues
of knowledge." Knowledge gives power, which may be exerted for good or
for evil. Character gives direction to power. Power is the engine which
may force the steamer through the water, character is the helm which
renders the power serviceable for good.
Readers which have been recognized as formers of good habits of action,
thought, and speech for three-quarters of a century, which have taught
a sound morality to millions of children without giving offense to the
most violent sectarian, which have opened the doors of pure literature
to all their users, are surely worthy of study as to their origin, their
successive changes, and their subsequent career.
The story of these readers is told in the specimens of the several
editions, in the long treasured and time-worn contracts, in the books of
accounts kept by the successive publishers, and in the traditions which
have been passed down from white haired men who gossiped of the early
days in the schoolbook business. Valuable information has also been
furnished by descendants of the McGuffey family, and by the educational
institutions with which each of the authors of the readers was
connected.
[Different Editions]
For half a century the present writer has had personal knowledge of the
readers. At first, as a teacher, using them daily in the class room; but
soon, as an editor, directing the literary work of the publishers and
owners. It therefore falls to him to narrate a story "quorum pars minima
fui."
For more than seventy years the McGuffey Readers have held high rank as
text-books for use in the elementary schools, especially throughout the
West and South. But during this time these books have been revised five
times and adjusted to the changed conditions in the schools. In each one
of these revisions the marked characteristics of the original series
have been most scrupulously retained, and the continued success of the
series is doubtless owing to this fact. There has been a continuity of
spirit.
[Contents of the Books]
The First and Second Readers were first published in 1836. In 1837 the
Third and Fourth Readers were printed. For reasons elsewhere explained
these books were "improved and enlarged" in 1838. In 1841 a higher
reader was added to the series which was then named McGuffey's
Rhetorical Guide. In the years 1843 and 1844 the four books then
constituting the series were thoroughly remodeled and on the title pages
were placed the words "Newly Revised" and the Rhetorical Guide was
annexed as the Fifth Reader. Ten years later the entire series was made
over and issued in six books. These were then called the New Readers.
From 1853 until 1878 the books remained substantially unchanged; but in
the latter year they were renewed largely in substance and improved in
form. These readers as copyrighted in 1879 were extensively used for
more than a quarter of a century. Changing conditions in the school room
called for another revision in 1901. This latest form now in extensive
use is called The New McGuffey Readers.
Each of these revisions has constituted practically a new series
although the changes have never included the entire contents. In the
higher readers will be found today many selections which appeared in the
original books. The reason for retaining such selections is clear. No
one has been able to write in the English language selections that are
better for school use than some written by Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon,
and other early writers. The literature of the English language has not
all been written in the present decade nor in the last century.
As at first published, the lower books of the McGuffey Readers had no
trace of the modern methods now used in teaching the mastery of
words--even the alphabet was not given in orderly form; but the
alphabetic method of teaching the art of reading was then the only one
used. The pupil at first spelled each word by naming the letters and
then pronounced each syllable and then the word.
[First Editions]
The following stanza is copied from page 61 of the edition of 1844 to
illustrate the method of presenting words:
I like to see a lit-tle dog,
And pat him on the head;
So pret-ti-ly he wags his tail
When-ev-er he is fed.
The First Reader was mostly in words of one syllable. In this book we
find the story of the lame dog that, when cured, brought another lame
dog to be doctored: of the kind boy who freed his caged bird; of the
cruel boy who drowned the cat and pulled wings and legs from flies; of
Peter Pindar the story teller, and the "snow dog" of Mount St. Bernard;
of Mr. Post who adopted and reared Mary; of the boy who told a lie and
repented after he was found out; of the chimney sweep who was tempted to
steal a gold watch but put it back and was thereafter educated by its
owner; of the whisky boy; and of the mischievous boy who played ghost
and made another boy insane. Nearly every lesson has a moral clearly
stated in formal didactic words at its close.
In the Second Reader we find the story of the idle boy who talked with
the bees, dogs, and horses, and having found them all busy, reformed
himself; of the kind girl who shared her cake with a dog and an old man;
of the mischievous boys who tied the grass across the path and thus
upset not only the milk-maid but the messenger running for a doctor
to come to their father; of the wise lark who knew that the farmer's
grain would not be cut until he resolved to cut it himself; of the wild
and ravenous bear that treed a boy and hung suspended by his boot; and
of another bear that traveled as a passenger by night in a stage coach;
of the quarrelsome cocks, pictured in a clearly English farm yard, that
were both eaten up by the fox that had been brought in by the defeated
cock; of the honest boy and the thief who was judiciously kicked by the
horse that carried oranges in baskets; of George Washington and his
historic hatchet and the mutilated cherry-tree; and of the garden that
was planted with seeds in lines spelling Washington's name which removed
all doubt as to an intelligent Creator. There were also some lessons on
such animals as beavers, whales, peacocks and lions.
[Favorite Selections]
The Third Reader will be remembered first because of the picture, on
the cover, of Napoleon on his rearing charger. This book contained five
selections from the Bible; Croly's "Conflagration of the Ampitheatre
at Rome;" "How a Fly Walks on the Ceiling;" "The Child's Inquiry;"
"How big was Alexander, Pa;" Irving's "Description of Pompey's Pillar;"
Woodworth's "Old Oaken Bucket;" Miss Gould's "The Winter King;" and
Scott's "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps," commencing "'Is the route
practicable?' said Bonaparte. 'It is barely possible to pass,' replied
the engineer. 'Let us set forward, then,' said Napoleon." The rearing
steed facing a precipitous slope in the picture gave emphasis to the
words. There were also in this reader several pieces about Indians and
bears, which indicate that Dr. McGuffey never forgot the stories told
at the fireside by his father of his adventures as an Indian scout and
hunter.
In the Fourth Reader there were seventeen selections from the Bible;
William Wirt's "Description of the Blind Preacher;" Phillip's "Character
of Napoleon Bonaparte;" Bacon's "Essay on Studies;" Nott's "Speech on
the Death of Alexander Hamilton;" Addison's "Westminster Abbey;"
Irving's "Alhambra;" Rogers's "Genevra;" Willis's "Parrhasius;"
Montgomery's "Make Way for Liberty;" two extracts from Milton and two
from Shakespeare, and no less than fourteen selections from the writings
of the men and women who lectured before the College of Teachers in
Cincinnati. The story of the widow of the Pine Cottage sharing her last
smoked herring with a strange traveler who revealed himself as her
long-lost son, returning rich from the Indies, was anonymous, but it
will be remembered by those who read it.
These selections were the most noteworthy ones in the first editions of
these readers.
The First and Second Readers of the McGuffey Series were substantially
made new at each revision. A comparison of the original Third Reader
with an edition copyrighted in 1847, shows that the latter book was
increased about one-third in size. Of the sixty-six selections in the
early edition only forty-seven were retained, while thirty new ones were
inserted. Among the latter were "Harry and his Dog Frisk" that brought
to him, punished by being sent to bed, a Windsor pear; "Perseverance," a
tale of kite-flying followed by the poem, "Try, try again;" the "Little
Philosopher," named Peter Hurdle, who caught Mr. Lenox's runaway horse
and on examination seemed to lack nothing but an Eclectic spelling book,
a reader and a Testament--which were promised him; "The Colonists," in
which men of various callings offered their services, and while even the
dancing master was accepted as of some possible use, the gentleman was
scornfully rejected; "Things by Their Right Names," in which a battle
was described as wholesale murder; "Little Victories," in which Hugh's
mother consoled him for the loss of a leg by telling him of the lives of
men who became celebrated under even greater adversities; "The Wonderful
Instrument," which turned out to be the eye; "Metaphysics," a ludicrous
description of a colonial salt-box in affected terms of exactness
designed to ridicule some forms of reasoning. Those who used this
edition of the third reader will surely remember some of these
selections.
[The Bible]
In the Fourth Reader printed in 1844 there were thirty new
selections--less than one-third of the book; but some of these were
such as will be remembered by those who read them in school. There was
"Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded," in which a barber of Bath had become
so poor because he would not shave his customers on Sunday, that he
borrowed a half-penny to buy a candle Saturday night to give light for
a late customer, and was thus discovered to be the long-lost William
Reed of Taunton, heir to many thousand pounds; "The Just Judge," who
disguised himself as a miller and, obtaining a place on the jury,
received only five guineas as a bribe when the others got ten, and who
revealed himself as Lord Chief Justice Hale and tried the case over in
his miller's clothing; Hawthorne's "The Town Pump;" Mrs. Southey's
"April Day."
"All day the low-hung clouds have dropped
Their garnered fullness down.
All day a soft gray mist hath wrapped
Hill, valley, grove and town."
Bryant's "Death of the Flowers;" Campbell's "Lochiel's Warning;" and the
trial scene from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. All these became
favorite reading exercises in later years.
As late as 1840 the Bible was read daily in all the schools of the
West. Although sectarian or denominational teaching was not permitted,
religious instruction was desired by the great majority of school
patrons.
Even up to the opening of the Civil War, whatever the faith or the
practice of the adult inhabitants of the country, the Bible story and
the Bible diction were familiar to all. The speeches of the popular
orators of that day were filled with distinct allusions to the Bible
and these were quickly and clearly apprehended by the people. It may be
questioned whether popular speeches of the present day would have equal
force if based on the assumption that everybody knows the Biblical
stories. Indeed it is a common remark made by professors of English in
the higher institutions of learning that pupils know little of the
Bible as a distinctly formative and conservative element in English
literature. In the texts authorized for the study of English classics,
Biblical allusions are very common. These have little meaning to pupils
who have not read the Bible, unless the passage is pointed out and
hunted up.
[Dr. Swing's Opinion]
From the pages of these readers the pupils learned to master the printed
word and obtain the thought of the authors. Without conscious effort
they received moral instruction and incentives toward right living.
Without intent they treasured in their memories such extracts from the
authors of the best English Literature as gave them a desire to read
more.
[Books as Teachers]
In one of his sermons Dr. David Swing of Chicago said: "Much as you may
have studied the languages or the sciences, that which most affected you
was the moral lessons in the series of McGuffey. And yet the reading
class was filed out only once a day to read for a few moments, and
then we were all sent to our seats to spend two hours in learning
how to bound New Hampshire or Connecticut, or how long it would take a
greyhound to overtake a fox or a hare if the spring of each was so and
so, and the poor fugitive had such and such a start. That was perhaps
well, but we have forgotten how to bound Connecticut, and how to solve
the equation of the field and thicket; but up out of the far-off years
come all the blessed lessons in virtue and righteousness which those
reading books taught; and when we now remember, how even these moral
memories have faded I cannot but wish the teachers had made us bound the
States less, and solve fewer puzzles in 'position' and the 'cube root'
and made us commit to memory the whole series of the McGuffey Eclectic
Headers. The memory that comes from these far-away pages is full of the
best wisdom of time or the timeless land. In these books we were indeed
led by a schoolmaster, from beautiful maxims for children up to the
best thoughts of a long line of sages, and poets, and naturalists. There
we all first learned the awful weakness of the duel that took away a
Hamilton; there we saw the grandeur of the Blind Preacher of William
Wirt; there we saw the emptiness of the ambition of Alexander, and there
we heard even the infidel say, 'Socrates died like a philosopher, but
Jesus Christ like a God.'"
This public recognition of the influence of these readers upon the mind
and character of this great preacher is again noted in Rev. Joseph Fort
Newton's biography of David Swing in which the books which influenced
that life are named as "The Bible, Calvin's Institutes, Fox's Book of
Martyrs and the McGuffey Readers;" and the author quotes David Swing as
saying that "The Institutes were rather large reading for a boy, but to
the end of his life he held that McGuffey's Sixth Reader was a great
book. For Swing, as for many a boy in the older West, its varied and
wise selections from the best English authors were the very gates of
literature ajar."
One of the most eminent political leaders of the present day attributes
his power in the use of English largely to the study of McGuffey's Sixth
Reader in the common schools of Ohio.
[How a Japanese Learned English]
At a dinner lately given in New York to Marquis Ito of Japan, the
marquis responded to the toast of his health returning thanks in
English. He then continued his remarks in Japanese for some eight
minutes. At its close Mr. Tsudjuki, who was then the minister of
Education in Japan, traveling with Marquis Ito as his friend and
companion, and who had taken shorthand notes of the Japanese speech,
rose and translated the speech readily and fluently into good English.
One of the guests asked how he had learned to speak English so
correctly. He replied that he had done so in the public schools of Japan
and added, "I learned my English from McGuffey's Readers, with which you
are no doubt familiar."
[The Authorship]
It is not unusual to see in the literary columns of a daily newspaper
inquiries as to where certain poems may be found of which a single
stanza is faintly recalled. Many of these prove to be fragments of
pieces that are found in the McGuffey Readers. Quite lately Theodore
Roosevelt made the public statement that he did not propose to become a
"Meddlesome Matty." This allusion was perfectly clear to the millions of
people who used the McGuffey Readers at any time after 1853.
When the Fourth Reader was issued in 1837 it contained a preface of
three closely printed pages setting forth and defending the plan of
McGuffey's books. In this he said: "In conclusion, the author begs leave
to state, that the whole series of Eclectic Readers is his own. In the
preparation of the rules, etc., for the present volume he has had the
assistance of a very distinguished Teacher, whose judgment and zeal in
promoting the cause of education have often been commended by the
American people. In the arrangement of the series generally, he is
indebted to many of his friends for valuable suggestions, and he takes
this opportunity of tendering them his thanks for the lively interest
they have manifested for the success of his undertaking."
The sole author of the four readers first issued as the Eclectic Readers
was William Holmes McGuffey. He was responsible for the marked qualities
in these books which met with such astonishing popular approval in all
these years. What these qualities are is well known to those who have
used the books and the users are numbered by millions.
[The Rhetorical Guide]
The Rhetorical Guide was prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey, and his name
alone was on the early editions. In 1844 the book was revised by the
author and Dr. Pinneo, and was given the alternate title "or Fifth
Reader of the Eclectic Series." The work of revision occupied two years.
The title page carried the name of its author until, for reasons of his
own, he asked to have it removed.
As usual when revisions of schoolbooks are made, the older edition was
continued in publication so long as a distinct demand for it existed.
But the issuance of a revised edition always suggests the question of
change, which competing publishers promptly seek to bring about. The
publishers of the "Newly Revised McGuffey Readers," therefore, sought
to replace the older edition wherever it was in use and to displace
competing books wherever possible. The edition of 1843 acquired large
sales over a very wide territory in the central West and South. It is
the edition generally known by the grandfathers of the school boys of
the present day.
It may be interesting to name some of the selections in this Rhetorical
Guide issued in 1844 since in modified form the work has been the
highest reader of the series.
[Selections of Value]
As a guide toward rhetorical reading the book contained a carefully
prepared collection of rules and directions with examples for practice
in Articulation. Inflection, Accent and Emphasis, Reading Verse, for the
Management of the Voice and Gesture. These pages were intended for drill
work, and in those days the teachers were not content with the dull
monotonous utterance of the words or with mere mastery of thought, to
be tested by multitudinous questioning. If the pupil obtained from the
printed page the very thought the author intended to convey, the pupil
was expected to read orally so as to express that thought to all
hearers. If the correct thought was thus heard, no questions were
needed. The test of reading orally is the communication of thought by
the reader to the intelligent and attentive hearer, and the words of the
author carry this message more accurately than can any other words the
pupil may select.
[Noted Selections]
The selections in the Rhetorical Guide were made, first of all, to teach
the art of reading. There was therefore great variety. Second, to
inculcate a love for literature. Therefore the selections were taken
from the great writers,--poets, orators, essayists, historians, and
preachers. The extracts are wonderfully complete in themselves,--one
does not need to read the whole of Byron's Don Juan to appreciate the
six stanzas that describe the thunder-storm on the Alps. Of the poetical
extracts all the users of this book will remember Southey's "Cataract
of Lodore" with its exacting drill on the ending,--"ing," Longfellow's
"Village Blacksmith" and the "Reaper and the Flowers;" Bryant's
"Thanatopsis" and "Song of the Stars;" Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John
Moore;" Gray's "Elegy;" Mrs. Hemans's "Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers;"
Cowper's "My Mother's Picture;" Jones's "What Constitutes a State;"
Scott's "Lochinvar;" Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris;" Drake's "American
Flag;" and Mrs. Thrale's "Three Warnings." As an introduction to the
thought, imagery and diction of Shakespeare, there were "Hamlet's
Soliloquy," "Speech of Henry Fifth to his Troops," "Othello's Apology,"
"The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey" and his death, the "Quarrel of Brutus and
Cassius" (often committed to memory and spoken) and Antony's Oration
over dead Caesar. The extracts from orations were chosen largely for
their relation to great events in history. There were Patrick Henry's
"Speech before the Virginia Convention," Walpole's "Reproof of Mr.
Pitt," and Pitt's reply. Who cannot remember "The atrocious crime of
being a young man," and go on with the context? There were extracts
from Hayne's "Speech on South Carolina," and Webster's reply defending
Massachusetts; a part of Burke's long speech on the Trial of Warren
Hastings prefaced by Macaulay's description of the scene; Webster's
"Speech on the Trial of a Murderer," ending with "It must be confessed,
it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide,
and suicide is confession;" Webster's speech on the Importance of the
Union with its concluding sentiment, "Liberty and Union, now and
forever; one and inseparable." There was also Fox's "Political Pause"
with its wonderful requirements of inflection to express irony;
Sprague's "American Indians," "Not many generations ago, where you now
sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life,
the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole
unscared." Did you not commit it to memory and speak it? Then there was
Webster's Speech in which he supplied John Adams from his own fervid
imagination that favorite of all patriotic boys, "Sink or swim, live
or die, survive or perish; I give my hand and my heart to this vote."
At its close, "it is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God,
it shall be my dying sentiment; independence now, and independence
forever."