Bøker i Cambridge Library Collection - Education-serien

In this 1765 printing of her 1749 original, Sarah Fielding (1710-68) traces the development of nine girls under the guidance of their governess, Mrs Teachum. The first English novel intended for children, the book attempts to encourage young women to pursue lives of virtue, friendship and benevolence.

The scientist Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817), educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford, was known for his significant mechanical inventions. He was a Member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, where he exchanged ideas with other scientists, including James Watt. However, Edgeworth was also greatly interested in education: drawing on his own experiences of raising twenty children (by his four wives), in 1788 he published, with his daughter, the poet Maria Edgeworth, his famous two-volume Practical Education (also reissued in this series). The work was very influential, and led to this book, published in 1809, a series of essays on professional education (again written in co-operation with Maria), dealing with the nature of different occupations in a state. He discusses education for the professions, including the Church, the Army and the Law, but also refers to the education of statesmen, gentlemen and even princes.

Displaying her intellectual and literary abilities from a young age, 'Mrs Taylor of Ongar' (1757-1830) enjoyed writing all her life. She had eleven children, of whom six (four of them writers) survived to adulthood. Her published works began with advice books for her own daughters, produced when increasing deafness made ordinary conversation difficult for her. Given the difficulty of providing advice equally appropriate to girls at all levels of society, this 1815 work is addressed to 'females in the middle ranks'. It is assumed that a girl's aspiration, as well as her destiny, is to be a wife and mother: conduct towards the husband, and the rearing of children, are of prime importance. But there is also a chapter for the husband, pointing out his reciprocal duties to his wife as an equal partner in their relationship. The book offers fascinating insights into the middle-class ideal of domestic happiness.

This work on the theory of education was first published in 1839. The five writers had been chosen as the winners in a competition for an essay on the 'Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator in Society', organised by the Central Society of Education, founded in 1837 to promote state funding of education, at a time when the 'monitor' system, whereby older children taught younger ones, was seen as an effective (and money-saving) method. The journalist John Lalor (1814-56) won first prize with a wide-ranging consideration of all the aspects of education, comparing the status of teachers through history and across several countries, and championing their 'sacred mission'. The runners-up were the writer John A. Heraud, the Unitarian minister Edward Higginson, the lawyer and author James Simpson, and Mrs Sarah Porter, prolific writer on education and sister of the political economist David Ricardo.

In this 1835 work, Sarah Porter, nee Ricardo (1790-1862) shows her enthusiasm for arithmetic, and her concern for teaching it in a way that will develop the pupil's mind: 'There is no branch of early education so admirably adapted to call forth and strengthen the reasoning powers.' She uses the device of a conversation between pupil and teacher, popularised by Jane Marcet (several of whose works are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), to guide young Edmund from the written symbols for numbers through addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, proportion, and square and cube roots. Answers to the questions are provided at the end of the book. A member of the Central Society of Education, which promoted imaginative theories of education instead of rote learning, Mrs Porter reworked her book in 1852 as Rational Arithmetic, a more conventional and less entertaining textbook for use in schools.

This innovative aid to the study of Italian was published in 1867 by Maria Francesca Rossetti (1827-76), the older sister of Dante Gabriel, William Michael and Christina. A scholar and teacher of Italian, she was later to publish A Shadow of Dante, a guide to the Divine Comedy, also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Her purpose here, as she explains in her preface, is to demonstrate idiomatic Italian usage by providing short passages translated very literally into English, so that the 'unnatural' English phraseology demonstrates the correct Italian construction. The passages are to be translated back into Italian, with the help of some supplied vocabulary and an opening chapter which elucidates some of the more difficult aspects of Italian grammar, often by comparing Italian with French usage. The technique had long been used for Latin and Greek prose composition, but was innovatory for modern languages.

Originally published in 1773 in two volumes, and now reissued here together in one, this work by the writer Hester Chapone (1727-1801), a renowned proponent of female education, contains advice delivered in the form of letters to her niece. The first volume deals primarily with matters of religion and morality, while the second volume addresses questions of behaviour and schooling. Unusually for self-improvement books of this era, Chapone recommends that a young woman should have a rigorous education in a wide variety of subjects, including ancient history and geography, as well as instruction in ladylike deportment and mastery of household matters. She exhorts young ladies to avoid vanity and other vices through devoted study of scripture, and writes of the importance of choosing worthy and sensible friends who can be trusted to offer good advice. Chapone's posthumously published works, in two volumes, are also reissued in this series.

One of the foremost authors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) made the project of women's education the pillar of her career. Letters for Literary Ladies (1795), her first published work, takes up this question in earnest, offering a staunch defence of women's intellectual training and an impassioned warning against its neglect. The first two letters likely draw from an exchange between Richard Edgeworth, Maria's father, and his friend Thomas Day, presenting arguments for and against educating young women in the sciences and philosophy. The 'Letters of Julia and Caroline' illustrate this debate in epistolary form, dramatising both sides of the argument. The final 'Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification' serves as a wry critique of women's own self-deceptions. Complex and provocative, Letters for Literary Ladies demonstrates Edgeworth's early exploration of the subject that would define her career.

Sarah Trimmer was an experienced Sunday and charity school educator, remembered for her popularization of images and fables in children's textbooks. Trimmer's ideas were already well respected during her lifetime and many of her books saw multiple editions, eliciting the interest of such figures as Queen Charlotte and the Dowager Countess Spencer. Her Reflections upon the Education of Children in Charity Schools, first published in 1792, was one of several books she wrote to advise her readers on how to approach the Christian education of the poor. In it, Trimmer passionately advocated for the utility of charity schools, provided that they followed a more age-appropriate and critical curriculum, which she conveniently published as separate editions. Those interested in the history of education, social history, the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, or the changing voice of female authorship will benefit from this book.

The Tudor writer Roger Ascham (c.1514-1568) was royal tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Ascham is best known for his works Toxophilus (1545) and The Scholemaster (1570) which were edited, together with his Report of the Affairs and State of Germany (1570), by the renowned literary scholar William Aldis Wright (1831-1914) and published in 1904 as part of the Cambridge English Classics series. Toxophilus, a Ciceronian dialogue between Philologus (the lover of study) and Toxophilus (the lover of the bow), articulates the importance of physical training to a gentleman's education. The Scholemaster, which was published posthumously, consists of two books. The first describes the character and teaching methods of the ideal tutor and the second advocates teaching languages by double translation. Ascham's English prose came to be seen as a model for how classical principles of form and organisation could be applied to the vernacular.

Throughout his career as a theologian, deacon, priest and cardinal, John Henry Newman (1801-1890) remained a committed believer in the value of education. A graduate of Trinity College, Oxford, his own academic experiences shaped his friendships, politics and faith. His Discourses (1852), delivered initially as a series of lectures when he was rector of the newly-established Catholic University of Ireland, inspired a generation of young and talented Catholic scholars. Providing an intelligent but accessible analysis of the relationship between theology and other academic disciplines, the lectures were celebrated in the popular press for dispensing instruction to those who 'had no traditions to guide them in forming a correct estimate of what a university ought to be'. Newman argued that a university should foster the 'diffusion and extension of knowledge' rather than religious or moral training, and that it should prepare students for life in the world.

This short book of improving tales by the physician and medical reformer Thomas Percival, originally written for his own children, first published in 1777 and revised and enlarged in 1779, contains lessons on obedience to parents, family affection, and kindness to animals, among many other examples of moral instruction.

In this 1889 work, the educationalist and feminist Maria Grey looks back, offering to the young 'the results of her life's thought and experience', and endeavouring to help late-Victorian school-leavers answer the questions 'Where are we going? What was the object of all this school work?'

This 1862 book considers the theory and purpose of education, and the particular issues of its application to girls, before suggesting appropriate curricula for each age group from seven to eighteen, with a final chapter on life after the classroom and 'some peculiarities of woman's social position'.

This 1796 book on botany, a science which 'contributes to health of body and cheerfulness of disposition' but is difficult to study because of its Latin nomenclature, offers a simple introduction for children through the medium of letters, as 'Felicia' shares with 'Constance' her growing understanding of plant science.

A clergyman and prolific author, William Fordyce Mavor (1758-1837) first published this hugely popular work in 1801. Reissued here is the corrected and improved 1843 edition. Intended to 'sow the seeds of useful learning', it is both a reading primer and a compendium of general knowledge.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth's influential two-volume work of 1788, written with his daughter Maria, derives its authority and innovative features from Edgeworth's own experiences of raising twenty children. Arguing for the formative character of early childhood experiences in general, Volume 1 deals with areas including play, obedience and learning.

The mathematician Isaac Todhunter (1820-84) was an examiner for the University of Cambridge and a successful textbook author. In this collection of six essays, first published in 1873, he expresses his views on various facets of mathematical education in England, which was the object of intense debate in the nineteenth century.

This three-volume work was originally serialised in Dickens' magazine Household Words between 1851 and 1853 and published in book form in the same period, although each volume was post-dated to the following year. The work was popular with readers, and was used in British schools well into the twentieth century.

This three-volume work was originally serialised in Dickens' magazine Household Words between 1851 and 1853 and published in book form in the same period, although each volume was post-dated to the following year. The work was popular with readers, and was used in British schools well into the twentieth century.

First published in 1844, these two volumes present a collection of letters by Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), Head of Rugby School and Professor of History at Oxford. The letters in Volume 1 reveal Arnold's early life, his career at Rugby up to 1835, and his ideas for educational reform.

Theodore Stanton's intention in this 1884 work had been to get from each European country the collaboration of women who had participated in some phase of the women's movement. Among the contributors are many famous names in the struggle for women's rights at the end of the nineteenth century.

The educationalist Hannah E. Pipe opened her first school in Manchester, but moved to London in 1856. Stoddart, formerly a member of the staff of her enormously successful school, published this fascinating account of an inspiring teacher, pioneer of girls' education and philanthropist in 1908.

First published in 1810, this report on the current state of science was commissioned by Napoleon I and written by French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). It includes discoveries made by French scientists and in the wider Napoleonic empire.

Emily Davis (1830-1921) was an English feminist and campaigner for women's education. First published in 1866, this volume discusses the state of education and explores the contemporary attitudes towards female education. This volume also includes two 1854 pamphlets discussing female education and legal restrictions of married women.

Hannah More (1745-1833) was highly influential in her lifetime, publishing a wide variety of successful works, including social and moral tracts and religious fiction. This two-volume work (1799) is her definitive study on women's education, outlining her belief that women's conduct determined the moral state of a nation.

Compiled by the London-born author and publisher Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), this accessible encyclopaedia is a fascinating catalogue of curiosities across the world. It includes a survey of mountains, rivers and lakes across the world, present and past architectural wonders, as well as exotic animals and vegetation.

John Locke (1632-1704) is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers. This volume contains two of John Locke's essays concerning education, edited by J. W. Adamson. Locke's views on education were highly influential and were considered authoritative for over a century after their first publication.

Collects together in one volume the most important historical documents relating to the origins and development of British educational institutions: from the earliest cathedral schools, through the universities, to the foundation of the late Victorian Schools Trusts.

Published for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in 1899, this first volume of a two-volume survey by the historian Arthur Francis Leach (1851-1915) documents the early history of York, Beverley and Ripon schools, with a wealth of primary sources (many in Latin), accompanied by an introductory narrative account.