THE

A WORK OF HUMBLE IMPORT;

YET

CLAIMING THE ATTENTION OF ALL RANKS, As having for its object the

Prevention of Crimes,

And being calculated to ensure the

PEACE, COMFORT, AND SECURITY OF SOCIETY; By alluring the Young and Thoughtless

TO A TASTE FOR READING SUBJECTS OF REAL UTILITY, Having a tendency to counteract the

BANEFUL INFLUENCE OF DEPRAVED HABITS; Promote the interests of Religion, Virtue, and Humanity; ENCOURAGE A SPIRIT OF INDUSTRY, ECONOMY, AND FRUGALITY;

AND

Dispel the shades of Ignorance, Prejudice, and Error, particularly from among the lower orders of mankind:

CONSISTING OF

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS AND SELECT EXTRACTS, Invariably adapted to answer some of the above important purposes, and brought forward in such a pleasing manner, as likely to excite and arrest the attention of the juvenile mind.

IT IS BETTER TO PREVENT CRIMES THAN TO PUNISH THEM.

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old be will not depart from it.

man who gives bis children a habit of industry and frugality, provides for them better than by giving them a stock of money.

Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.

VOL. I.

HADDINGTON:

INTED AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE MILLER AND SON.

PREFACE.

THE shocking scenes that disgraced the streets of Edinburgh at the commencement of last year, and their melancholy consequences, are still fresh in the memory of us all; and to remedy, in some degree, such alarming evils by an humble effort towards preventing their recurrence in future, was the object of the publication of The CHEAP MAGAZINE.

Owing to the wide and beneficial diffusion of parochial schools which bring the means of instruction as it were to the very doors of the lower orders of society in Scotland, and leaves those parents without excuse who do not secure to their little ones the unspeakable advantage of being early taught to read, the projector of the following work could not help entertaining the opinion, that the present dissoluteness of manners, and laxity of morals amongst a proportion of the lower classes, was not so much to be ascribed to the want of the rudiments of education or power of obtaining further information, as to the influence of evil example; the culpable negligence of parents in neither manifesting a taste for reading themselves, nor encouraging it in their offspring before mischievous and indolent habits are formed;-the natural thoughtlessness and levity of youth, together with the difficulty they labour under of coming at proper books, and the facility with which they have been accustomed to procure" those of a contrary description.

Impressed with these ideas, he conceived, that any thing having a tendency to counteract the baneful influence of idle and depraved habits to awaken the feelings of parents in behalf of the best interests of their children; to allure the young and thoughtless to a taste for reading works of real utility, and adapted to supplant that insipid and pernicious trash which had so long found an easy admittance within the walls of the cottage, and been widely scattered among the dwellings of humble life,would be a desirable publication in the present day, and meet with the cordial co-operation and encouragement of ALL RANKS who wish well to the amélio ration of the human race, the moral improvement of the lower orders, and the peace, comfort, and security of society.