THE editor of the following work has collected, as the intelligent reader will at once perceive, all that is really valuable in nursery literature, from the time of Adam to that of David Crockett. For this purpose it has been necessary of course to consult all the great libraries in the world, as for example, the Bodleian Library, the Library of the British Museum, the Royal Library at Paris, the Library of the Escurial, of Harvard College, of Meadville College, and the private Library of Tom Thumb, Esq.

The editor has, of course, been under the necessity of reading through a great many thousand volumes; and he now with a feeling of what he hopes may be considered pardonable pride presents the result of his labours, which he

verily believes may be justly considered the quintessence of Nursery Literature-the very Ne plus ultra of Infant Poetry.

The pictures will be recognised by the Cognoscenti as a selection from the first galleries in Rome, Florence, and London, including the most celebrated works of Raffaelle, Guido Reni, and George Cruikshanks. The editor would speak in commendation of particular pictures in the book, but he apprehends that any thing said by himself in commendation of the work might be considered inconsistent with that shrinking modesty which has in fact always been his chief fault.