INFANT TEACHER'S ASSISTANT, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE FAMILIES; OR, Scriptural and Moral Lessons for Enfants, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE MANNER OF USING THEM. TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE SITUATION AND DIMENSIONS OF INFANT SCHOOLS, PLAN OF ORGANIZING, AND THE CAUSES OF SOME FAILURES. BY T. BILBY, AND R. B. RIDGWAY, "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not."-Gal. vi. 9. For soon will the season of labour be o'er; Sink down in the regions of endless despair. The Third Edition, enlarged. BIBL MAY BE HAD OF T. BILBY, Infant School, Markham Street, King's Road, Chelsea; And of R. B. RIDGWAY, Infant School, Hart Street, Long Acre. BOARDS, 3s. 6d. 1834. ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. It is with much gratitude for past favours, the Compilers present this, their Third Edition, to the Benevolent Patrons and Supporters of Infant Schools, and the Public at large. In this Edition the Hymns are omitted, being printed separate from the general work ;* but they have, in their place, substituted some observations on the situation and dimensions, plan of organizing, and some causes of the failure of Infant Schools, with a few hints to Teachers, which, it is hoped, will be deemed by their friends as well as by themselves of equal importance. The Compilers beg to present the following notices of their little work to the attention of the reader : "We most cordially recommend this little volume, which displays much industry and judgment in its arrangement. Brief and appropriate texts from Scripture-hymns-short poems, containing some simple lesson of morality, or something of general information-questions on different points of sacred history-the first elements of arithmetic-various branches of common and useful knowledge are here collected in the most plain and distinct form, such as the most childish capacity would be capable of comprehending. The writers well remark on the difficulty of fixing, without wearying, infant attention; and we must say, the methods here set forth appear to us to be excellent. Few persons but must be aware of the existence of those admirable institutions the Infant Schools. The anxiety spared the parents, the benefits conferred on the children, are too obvious to need prolonged mention. This little work is the production of two Masters, who thus submit to the public the results of a plan they have themselves found to work well; and we must say, it is simple, attractive, and various. We would particularly call to it the attention of our country readers. To many a village school, a volume whose lessons are so easily understood and adopted, as are those of the one before us, it would be invaluable."Literary Gazette, No. 740, March 26, 1831. "Messrs. Bilby and Ridgway have laid the public under great obligations by the publication of this volume, which we sincerely recommend to parents as well as 'leachers, for whom, especially, it has been prepared,”—Christian Penny Magazine, No. 36, Feb. 1833. * These may be had of the Compilers, 3d each. Printed by WIDOW TILLING, Grosvenor Row, Chelsea. 1 TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF GORDON. MADAM, THE subject which we now crave permission to bring before your Grace, with an earnest appeal to your Christian philanthropy, is one requiring very little recommendation beyond the silent pleading of its own obvious importance, and admirable adaptation to the great purpose to which all our labours should ultimately tend—the diffusion of that spiritual light which can alone guide the footsteps of man into the paths of moral rectitude, can alone conduce to individual happiness, and to national prosperity here, while opening to the eye of faith a glorious futurity. The importance, the actual necessity of education, is now so generally recognized that we need only to direct your Grace's attention to that particular branch of it which the following pages are intended to promote. Our field of labour is the tender and ductile soil of infancy; of which it has been forcibly said by one well competent to form a correct judgment, that "if any check is to be given to the progress of crime, it will be-under the Divine Blessingby pre-occupying the infant mind with the knowledge and |