PREFACE. No apology is necessary for presenting a new, revised, and improved edition of Dr. AIKIN and Mrs. BARBAULD'S Evenings at Home. The well-earned and long-established popularity of the work has entitled it to every attention on the part of the publisher; and so far as regards paper and print, binding and pictorial illustration, he is happy in the opportunity of offering to his young friends a Gift-Book for the Season-for ANY season-worthy of their acceptance. In bringing the present edition before the world, the advance of time, and the consequent advance of literature, science, and the arts, called for some editorial application. Accordingly, obsolete and rugged expressions have been modernised or polished; and, wherever it may have been judged necessary, new and useful information has been inserted. With the original plan or tendency of the work, however, not the slightest liberty has been taken. All that has been attempted is to render it more in accordance with the general and improved taste of the age. Thus, happily interspersing and blending instruction with amusement, Evenings at Home will, under the present form of arrangement, be found to contain an almost exhaustless store of interesting material for the unfatiguing exercise of mind, from the state of infancy to that of adolescence. In the perusal of this volume, brothers and sisters may alike aid each other and facilitate their mental studies; and with yet greater advantage, by a little occasional assistance from Papa or Mamma, the Tutor or the Governess. The new and beautiful series of illustrations cannot fail to prove additionally attractive to all. |