Text: N. P. Willis (?), Notice of Cobb's North American Reader, Evening Mirror (New York), January 21, 1845, vol. 1, no. 90, p. 2, col. 5

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COBB’S NORTH AMERICAN READER. — We do not design to enter upon a discussion of the merits of this work in detail. It is one of those productions which would, perhaps, require an elaborate analysis to explain its excellence and its practical bearings upon the youthful mind. TO read well and to understand what is read, is certainly a desideratum. The standard works on elocution are rather of a critical character, and are unintelligible excerpt to cultivated parts of education, and it lies at the foundation of all acquirement. The child that cannot read, cannot learn. What is to be done? We all admit that the readers, which have been popular in our common schools, have been very carelessly prepared. There is an utter want of system in their methods. The child may have gone through every lesson, and yet be but little wiser than at the commencement of his study. The books used in the American schools have also been a heterogeneous mass of extracts from foreign writers, without any moral, without any design, without any particular influence. They have been selected without any regard to American principles or feelings, and have no strong impression on the mind of the young scholar. He may not ever have known the definition of the words he has uttered!

In the North American Reader all the defects of the previous readers are obviated. A most perfect system has been adopted by which it is rendered almost impossible for a child to go wrong.

In advance of each lesson is a series of definitions in which each important word of the lesson is explained, spelled and accented. As he proceeds, new words are presented, such as he has not seen before, and his progress through the book is a series of triumphs over difficulties for which he is duly prepared.

As regards the selections, they are from the best authors, chiefly American, and if they are not all of the most perfect kind, they are nearly so, and will, in this respect, compare with those of any other work.

Two striking features, however, deserve particular attention. One is, that there are no extracts which will confuse or endanger the opinions of the scholar with regard to fact, either in moral, religious, or philosophical points of view. There are no fictitious dialogues between animals, none between mock heroes, no falsification of history — no imaginary illustration of truth.

There is nothing in the Reader which is not true and reliable — while the child learns to read, his mind is trained, strengthened, and improved. There is nothing which his teacher would wish him to pass by or forget. In this the American Reader displays a vast superiority over all other works of the kind; and we need not new fear that instruction in the art of reading will carry with it any bad consequences, in opinions, in words, or in conduct.

We are happy to learn that the whole series of Mr. Cobb's reading books was adopted by the Board of Control in Philadelphia, on Tuesday last. This movement will be found one of the most important and beneficial ever yet made in the State of Pennsylvania.