innumerable material do we not find there for imitation by means of the chromo-lithographic press! If we glance over the department of history, how much shall we meet with that has not been depicted yet, and how much that has already been delivered to oblivion! If we glance over our other collections of art and important monuments, how few shall we find that have been copied, to remain as memorials for the benefit of either the native or foreigner! In what other country are greater beauties of nature to be found than in our extensive empire, but where are the figurative representations of them?! Where do we meet with a figurative natural history, which, in handsome representations and cheap editions, would make boys and girls acquainted foremost with their native country and then with foreign countries? Why are men tortured – commencing from boyhood through their youth up to manhood - with the study of numerous volumes that only serve to fatigue them and make them lose all pleasure for study, if they could acquire the same knowledge in a more natural and agreeable manner in a hundredth part of the time that is required at present – whilst the desire of acquiring new knowledge would by this means be raised, instead of which the study is now effected by means of coercive measures, in order that the acquired knowledge may be easily forgotten again, and thus time, trouble, expence, and a precious human life be wasted in vain?
A few moments of contemplation over a Bower that is prettily painted, or printed without blemish, – or over any other object that is represented figuratively – furnish to the eye and the memory what the child is unable to learn, amidst tears, from a description many sides long. Let it not be replied, There is already many a thing of the kind extant; for I should be obliged to say again, True, but in homeopathic doses. For a few wealthy families, perhaps, there are picture-books and figurative representations extant; but let us ask – without mentioning that their execution is often anything but correct — what their price is, and we shall find that, if for example a folio-leaf of paper on which mushrooms
