He has great confidence in the favourable reception of this work, from the circumstance, that it will present to the American youth a selection of pieces, a portion of which is from American writers, none of this class being in the English Reader, the book most generally in use in the schools of this country; and pride for the literary reputation of our own country, should, it would seem, dictate to us the propriety of inserting in the books of our primary schools, specimens of our own literature.

Believing, that no advantage could possibly arise from a methodical arrangement of the lessons, he has preferred variety to system, so that the reader will have a number of subjects for each week's reading; and, he has spared no pains to render the work, in all respects, worthy of the generous patronage which a liberal publick has bestowed on his former publications.

New York, May 15, 1832.

LYMAN COBB.

COBB'S SEQUEL.

LESSON I.

Education.

1. WHAT a fine acquirement; how productive of good, and how replete with excellence and importance to man is educa tion. It is one of the brightest ornaments which can gild his passage through this world, or which can make him appear to any advantage in it. It places within his reach all those comforts and pleasures which, as man, he can possibly enjoy, and affords him an opportunity of dissipating the clouds of ignorance, and thereby contributing to the welfare of his fellow beings.

2. Education leads man from the path of ignorance into that of knowledge, guides his reason and understanding, restrains and acts as a rein to his passions, by keeping them within all due and proper bounds. It teaches him to contemn and despise the meanness of the ignorant; to look down with indig nation upon their presumption and self-sufficiency; to treat with cool indifference the low and sordid motives by which they are generally actuated, and which characterize their every

action.

3. Education is an acquisition far more valuable than riches. The man of wealth is liable, through the vicissitudes and changes of fortune, to lose it, and to be reduced to poverty; but he who is endowed with, and possesses education, will never be deserted by it. It will attend him as well in adversity as in prosperity; it will follow him from the mansion to the hovel; will accompany him when mixing among the cir cles of the fashionable and great, and descend with him to the habitations of penury and distress.

4. Even should he be consigned to a dungeon, by the lawless hand of oppression, there, also, will it be his companion,

cheering and consoling him, affording him fortitude to bear his hapless fate with patience and resignation. In whatever station of life man is placed; if he has once obtained education it will always attend him, whether in affluence or poverty, greatness or obscurity. It will accompany him along the airy path of youth, and will retire with him beneath the evening shade of old age, cheering and enlivening him, and rendering the last stage of his existence less irksome and tedicus than it otherwise would be.

5. Education may be ranked as one of the most valuable gifts which man can have bestowed upon him; without it he passes through life almost unnoticed and disregarded; and not having a mind sufficiently bright to guide him, is subject to ridicule, and is obliged, and necessitated to be wholly influenced and directed, and governed by those who have drank of, and whose minds have been well watered and cultivated by the Pierian Spring."

6. Under the influence of education, civilization is introduced, by which governments have been formed, and laws enacted for the purpose of regulating and ruling the actions of men; a social and regular intercourse established between mankind, which has a tendency to render them of mutual and reciprocal benefit to each other.

7. What would the world be without civilization? It would be without regularity; it would present a sickening picture of confusion and tumult, disorder and irregularity; some of the worst and most pernicious passions would be gratified without shame or restraint; some of the most heinous and glaring crimes would be committed with impunity; dark ignorance, with all its tendencies and destructive consequences, would prevail. 8. Without civilization man would be sunk in the lowest depths of barbarism; he would be upon a level with the brute creation. It is certain that through the medium of education, civilization is effected, for without the former, the latter could not be properly appreciated. Surely an ignorant man could not enumerate the many benefits and blessings consequent to, and attendant on a civilized state, nor point out the many disadvantages and inconveniences which follow in the train of an uncivilized one.

9. It is, therefore, the man of education, and only him, who can point out to, and bring before the view of his uncivilized brother, the many advantages and comforts arising out of, and flowing from humanized society; it is only him who can make the inhabitant of the forest fully sensible of the numerous dangers and difficulties to which his mode of life is liable.