So that you will find here
nothing that savours of a party: the children of high and low
degree, of the Church of England or Dissenters, baptized in infancy
or not, may all join together in these songs. And as I have
endeavoured to sink the language to the level of a child's
understanding, and yet to keep it (if possible) above contempt; so I
have designed to profit all (if possible) and offend none. I hope
the more general the sense is, these composures may be of the more
universal use and service.
I have added at the end an attempt or two of _Sonnets_ on _Moral
Subjects_ for children, with an air of pleasantry, to provoke some
fitter pen to write a little book of them. My talent doth not lie
that way, and a man on the borders of the grave has other work.
Besides, if I had health or leisure to lay out this way, it should
be employ'd in finishing the _Psalms_, which I have so long promised
the world.
May the Almighty God make you faithful in this important work of
education: may he succeed your cares with his abundant graces, that
the rising generation of Great Britain may be a glory amongst the
nations, a pattern to the Christian world, and a blessing to the
earth.
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