6 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
religious bent naturaUy led him to attempt to promote the systematic study of the Bible. "The first Sunday School in Boston and perhaps New England was organized by me with the assistance of the late Rev. Daniel Chesman. In 1820, or the year following, I prepared for the use of the Sunday Schools in Boston, a small bode called Sunday School In- structor."^*
As a writer of elementary school books, Kelley met with considerable favor, if we are to judge by the number and variety of editions. First came The Instructor's First Book.^^ Diligent search has failed to bring to light a single copy of this work, and its date of publication is unknown. It was doubtless the same as the First Spelling Book, Or Child's Instructor, the eighth edition of which was published in 1827. In 1825 ap- peared The American Instructor, Second Book, which accord- ing to the title page was "Designed for the common schools in America; containing the elements of the English language; lessons in orthogfraphy and reading, and the pronunciation of Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary; all made easy by the arrangement and division of words, and an improved use of figures and letters." A second edition was published in 1826. A fifth edition, published in 1827, bore the title Kelley's Second Spelling Book. There was a further change of title in 1832, when The Western Spelling Book was published in Qncinnati.
The American Instructor contains selections for reading on geography, agriculture, architecture, mechanics, astronomy, and prosody, with special attention to Thomson's poetry. Its frontis- piece shows Minerva, book in hand, directing two boys to the "temple of fame" on a nearby height ; a globe, a compass, and
i6Kelle7> Explanatory Remarks, Ms. attached to a copy of Kelley's Second Spelling Book, presented to the Amherst allege library about 1869.
"In 18 18 provision was made for the instruction of children from four to seven years of age. The primary schools established for this purpose seem to have originated in a general desire ot our citizens to relieve the Sunday-schools from the great amount of secular instruction received there, which was fast crowding out uie religious trainins that should be the ol^ect of such institutions." — ^Dillaway, Education, in Winsor, Mtmorial Hist, of Boston, IV, 24s.
17 S^tUment of Oregon, 9.
