Whatever may
have been the practice of parents in regard to their own reading, they
wished that of the nursery to show not only an educational and moral,
but a religious tendency. The books for American children therefore
divided themselves into three classes: the denominational story, to set
forth the doctrines of one church; the educational tale; and the moral
narrative of American life.
The denominational stories produced by the several Sunday-school
societies were, as has been said, only a kind of scaffolding upon which
to build the teachings of the various churches. But their sale was
enormous, and a factor to be reckoned with because of their influence
upon the educational and moral tales of their period. By eighteen
hundred and twenty-seven, fifty-thousand books and tracts had been sent
out by one Sunday-school society alone.[204-A] There are few things more
remarkable in the history of juvenile literature than the growth of the
business of the American Sunday School Union.
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