PREFACE. IN writing a Boy's Book, it is well to bear in mind the sage advice of Mrs. Glasse, touching the roasting of a hare" First catch your hare, and then," &c. Now, there are a thousand modes of instructing boys and girls; but the art of "catching boys" is in its infancy. The authors of many admirable books for children, have entirely overlooked this: their books contain much that is valuable, but they fail in 66 catching" the careless and frolicsome boy. Others have attempted "to catch their boy" with pictures: these have been very successful, in storing the memory with facts; but they cannot, they do not, make him think. I have endeavoured to "catch" my readers by the adoption of a quaint, and rather affected, table of contents. Ask a boy "Why animals can wrinkle their skins?" or, "How great is the atmospheric pressure upon an object?" and, if he be well-trained, he will pay you the compliment of looking at you, while you explain them; but, as they interest him not, your explanation is forgotten. Put the inquiry in another form. Ask a group of merry urchins Why a fly cannot ride on horseback "" or, "If a fly had a sore toe, what would happen ?" and they feel interested in the inquiry, and begin to think. In educational matters, we are not half so rational as the showman, who paints the "animal that cannot live on the land, and dies in the water," in glowing colours, outside, to tempt the young gentlemen to "walk in.” |