"Trip upon Trenchers Dance upon Dishes My mother sent me for some Barm, some Barm. She bade me tread Lightly And leave again Quickly, For fear the Young Men should do me some Harm. Yet! don't you see? What naughty tricks they put upon me! They broke my Pitcher And spilt my Water And huffed my Mother And chid her Daughter, And kiss'd my Sister instead of me. "What a Succession of Misfortunes befell this poor Girl? But the last Circumstance was the most affecting and might have proved fatal." --WINSLOW'S _View of Britain_. According to the notion of humor of the day, the notion of Goldsmith, or some other book-hack-wag, these notes were all ascribed as quotations from some profound author, just as the cuts in _Goody Two Shoes_ were said to be by Michael Angelo, and the text from the Vatican. Thus after the rhymes, "See-saw, Margery Daw," etc., is the sober comment, "It is a mean and Scandalous Practice in an author to put Notes to a Thing that deserves no Notice. Grotius." After the "Three Wise Men of Gotham," which ends with the lines-- "If the bowl had been stronger My tale had been longer," is the sententious note "It's long enough. Never lament the Loss of what is not worth having. Boyle." Puffendorf, Coke on Littleton, Pliny, Bentley on the _Sublime and Beautiful_, Mapes' _Geography of the Mind_, are other authors and books that are soberly cited. [Illustration: "Caroline, or a Lesson to Cure Vanity," from _The Looking Glass for the Mind_] A very priggish little book was entitled _Cobwebs to Catch Flies_. The tone of its text may be shown in the dialogue about "The Toss About." The brothers who attended a country fair had been forbidden by their mother to ride in the Merry-go-round. Dear Ned wished to try the fun. Dear James said with propriety, "Dear Ned, I am sure our mamma would object to our riding in this Toss-about." Ned answered, "Dear James, did you ever hear her name the Toss-about?" "No, dear Ned, but I am certain that if she had known of it she would have given us the same caution as she did about the Merry-go-round." Ned paused a moment, then said, "How happy am I to have an elder brother who is so prudent." Whereupon James replied, "I am no less happy that you are so willing to be advised," etc. A distinctly American book for children was printed in Philadelphia in 1793, a _History of the Revolution_. It was in Biblical phraseology. This sort of writing had been made popular by Franklin in his famous _Parable against Persecution_ which he wrote, committed to memory, and pretended to read as the last chapter in Genesis. [Illustration: "Sir John Denham and his Worthy Tenant," from _The Looking Glass for the Mind_]