Another branch of religious literature which shows a conspicuous decline is that of "Family Prayers." Years ago, no bookseller's shop would be complete without a copy of Oxenden's, Bickersteth's, Villiers', or Thornton's "Family Prayers"; and such old-fashioned volumes as Hawker's "Daily Portion," "The New Week's Preparation," Jenk's "Devotions," Fletcher's "Family Devotion," and the "Family Prayers" of Toplady and Reven, were all in constant demand. With these are associated a number of volumes of private devotion, Bishop Wilson's "Sacra Privata" and "Pietas Quotidiana" being the most popular. These, like the "Family Prayers," show a great decline both in their production and sale. It is difficult to suggest a reason for this decline other than that of the general evolution in religious thought which is continually changing the course of human progress and action. Religion is undoubtedly the greatest factor in influencing the character of a nation, so from this foundation there will probably spring up in the future a broad, reasonable, and intelligent class of writings which in their development and thought will be more cosmopolitan than doctrinal, and which will deserve to be classed as English literature. In comparing the educational literature of this period the changes have also been very great; those were the days when the works edited by Dr. Smith took the lead in the higher branches of education. Colenso's Arithmetic was the most popular book on that subject, while Cornwell's Geography and his other books were great sellers. The "Child's Guide to Knowledge" sold in its thousands, Chambers's educational books were very popular, as were also Brewer's Guides, "Stepping Stones to Knowledge," Weale's Series, Pinnock's, Guy's, and Wilson's Catechisms and Gleig's School Series. Of not quite the same character but greatly used for educational purposes were "Line upon Line" and "Peep of Day." Of the latter, some 250,000 copies were sold in the early days of its publication. Spelling books were then a most important part of educational literature, the most popular being Butter's, but the following also had large sales, Guy's, Mavor's and Vyse's. The copyright of Vyse's sold for £2,500, with an annuity to the author of £50 per year. The change in this class of educational literature has been very great.