angry and wrathful God the Father to the embrace of the gentle and loving Jesus Christ. Contents of the Primer Two of the most famous example verses are as follows Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take. —1784 ed. In Adam's Fall, we sinned all. The text for L is alluded to in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: . . . "like the lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold" ... Editions and reprints There have been many reprints of The New England Primer. New England Primer: Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English: To Which Is Added the Assembly of Divines, and Mr. Cotton's Catechism (1991, WallBuilders; note that this is the 1777 edition). New England Primer: 1996, A Family & Homeschool Textbook. The 1843 Updated Edition with Lesson Plan. (© 1996, Richard E. Klenk Sr.; ) A book, orig. a prayer book, used in teaching children to read or spell; hence, an elementary textbook. See also Early American publishers and printers Alphabet book Basal reader Hornbook References Fort, Paul Leicester. The New-England Primer (NY, 1899) Monaghan, E. Jennifer (2006) Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America Roberts, Kyle B. "Rethinking The New-England Primer," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 104 (Dec. 2010) 489–523 Smith, N. B. (2002) American reading instruction / Nila Banton Smith ; [with prologue by Richard D. Robinson, epilogue by Norman A.Stahl, and history of reading since 1967 by P. David Pearson]. Watters, David H. "'I Spake as a Child': Authority, Metaphor and the New England Primer," Early American Literature, Dec 1985, Vol. 20 Issue 3, pp 193–213 Citations External links 1777 ed. online 1843 ed. online Images from the 1843 edition Books about Christianity New England Puritanism Alphabet books American children's books Textbooks 18th-century American literature Basal readers Learning to read Reading (process)