Rare. ESTC records BL, Cambridge and Union Theological Seminary only. A second edition was published in the same year (a reissue with a new title-page) with copies recorded at BL, Cambridge; Boston Athenaeum and Union Theological Seminary. Only the present copy is recorded on Rare Book Hub: sold as part of a large group lot at Lyon and Turnbull in 2019 and previously in the sale of John and Monica Lawson’s collection of books on education at Bonhams in 2008.
A rare book on the religious education of children, dedicated to the author’s own mother.
Benjamin Dawson (1729-1814) was born in Halifax in Yorkshire to a Presbyterian minister and later educated at Glasgow University. Dawson was appointed rector of Burgh near Suffolk around the time of the publication of this work. Although at first a seemingly dry essay on the importance of religious education for children (taking as its cue the quotation “Train up a child in the way he should go—”) there is also an emphasis on the way that children should be taught with Dawson stipulating that parents not only encourage their children to read but to back this up with explanation so that the child develops a deeper understanding of scripture. He also reminds the eager parent to start slowly:
“…one very obvious direction that occurs on this head is, that you instruct them gradually, beginning with the plainest things, and not being eager to have your child appear uncommonly forward in having learnt many things soon…” (p.11).
Despite being a firm moralist Dawson is aware that children will also learn better if they’re taught in a “familiar, easy and affectionate manner…” (p.14) and concludes: “It therefore highly concerns parents to understand well the natural propensities and leading desires of their children, that they may manage them artfully, breaking them insensibly to that course of action, and accustoming them to those objects, which are worthy the pursuit of rational and intelligent beings.” (p.15)
Provenance: John Lawson (1932-2018), book dealer, his neat label on the front pastedown.
