A Little Catechism With Little Verses and Little Sayings for Little Children

Mason, John, 1646？-1694Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
11K words
Chapters
2

Tags

English Originals ReligionChildren's Literature Childhood EducationMoral EnlightenmentAphorismsRhyming and MemorabilityRhyming VersesCatechismClassic SayingsReligious EducationParent-Child ReadingChildren's Instruction

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Little Catechism; With Little Verses and Little Sayings for Little ChildrenAuthor: Mason, John, 1646?-1694,Language: English, Class: BT: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Doctrinal theology, God, Christology, Release Date: Aug 25, 2004

Editor's review

A Little Catechism With Little Verses and Little Sayings for Little Children is a small Christian catechism by John Mason (1646?–1694), aimed at children and conveying basic faith content through short questions and answers, verses, and sayings. The book belongs to the category of doctrinal theology, is in English, and has been prepared as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies in presenting a genre form of early religious education for children: using brief questions and answers and rhyming lines to help children memorize core doctrines. For readers studying the history of education, religious literature, or early English children's books, this is a concrete and compact historical source. Readers should note its historical context; the ideas and expressions in the book bear the characteristics of seventeenth-century religious education and it should not be used directly as a contemporary children's book. The overall length is short, making it suitable for quick browsing or selected reference rather than continuous reading.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. It can be read in selected excerpts as a historical source, with attention to the educational function of the question-and-answer form and verses.
  2. Before reading, learn about seventeenth-century Puritan or Christian educational background for easier understanding.
  3. If used for research, excerpt typical questions and answers and verses for comparative stylistic analysis.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2

FAQ

Is this book suitable for children today? The materials show that it is a seventeenth-century children's catechism whose language and ideas bear the marks of its time; it is more suitable for research purposes and is not recommended as a direct contemporary children's book.
What is the main content form of this book? According to the title and the materials, it contains little questions and answers, little verses, and little sayings, conveying basic Christian doctrine to children and belonging to the category of doctrinal theology.
Who is the author John Mason? The materials provide only the approximate dates of birth and death, 1646 to 1694, and give no further biographical information, so his detailed experiences cannot be confirmed; his writing audience can only be understood from the content of this book.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Mason, John, 1646？-1694 Author · English

Mason, John (1646?–1694), was an English clergyman and religious poet. His birth year can only be conjectured as about 1646, and he died in 1694; other details of his life are limited in publicly available sources and difficult to verify. One work of his is held in this collection, A Little Catechism With Little Verses and Little Sayings for Little Children. Judging from the title and the author's calling, the book was intended for children, teaching the basics of religion through brief questions and answers, verse, and maxims, serving both instruction and recitation. Mason also wrote devotional collections such as Spiritual Songs, which suggests that his writing centered on themes of faith, in plain language meant to be easily memorized by ordinary readers, especially children. Overall, he belongs among writers who used simple verse in the service of religious education; his works are brief but reflect the Puritan practice of combining doctrine, poetry, and the instruction of children.