of the schools and secondarily to the energy and
skill of their publishers.
The books in their first form were strongly relig-
ious in their teaching without being denominational.
If a selection taught a moral lesson this was stated
in formal words at the close.  The pill was not
sugared. Thus at the close of a lesson narrating the
results of disobedience, the three little girls assem-
bled and "they were talking how happy it made them
to keep the Fifth Commandment." There was in the
books much direct teaching of moral principles,
with "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not." In the later
revisions this gradually disappeared. The moral
teaching was less direct but more effective. The
pupil was left to make his own deduction and the
formal "haec fabila docet" was omitted. The au-
thor and the publishers were fully justified in their
firm belief that the American people are a moral
people and that they have a strong desire that their
children be taught to become brave, patriotic, hon-
est, self-reliant, temperate, and virtuous citizens.
  In some of these books the retail price is printed.
In 1844 the retail price of the First Reader was
twelve and a half cents. It contained 108 pages. In
the same year, the Second Reader of 216 pages was
priced at 25 cents. The Fourth Reader cost 75 cents,
and contained 336 pages.
  These prices were in a market when the day's
wage of a laboring man was only fifty cents. Rela-
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