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344 collateral remark. Wiser art thou now than we, young student in the lore of heaven!

Not satisfied with the style in which school-books were usually printed in those times, I decided to adventure an edition of each of the two last-named works, with a fair, large typography, in substantial binding. I therefore made my contracts with paper manufacturers, pressmen, etc., and brought out four thousand volumes, of three hundred pages, which might be perused without injuring the eyesight, or, as some writer has said, "not being secretly in league with the craft of spectacle-makers." The enterprise was financially a loss, yet I never regretted it. Even now, some of its remnants mingle with gifts for schools in our new western settlements. Compends for reading, being easily selected from the writings of others, grew numerous, and the ground became preoccupied. By these competitors a work consisting of original articles was not greeted, possibly was undervalued. Still, these two works, in a smaller form, and with the condensed sobriquets of "Boy's Book," and "Girl's Book," are published by Carter & Brothers, of New York, adorned with some unartistic plates, and meeting a moderate sale.