How darst thou put thyself in prees for drede?”
George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, published in 1674 a Primer in England. This was republished in Philadelphia in 1701, in Boston in 1743, and in Newport in 1769. The book was not much used except by Friends.
The text matter of Jonathan Fisher’s A Youth’s Primer, printed in 1817, followed closely the text of The New England Primer. It contained a series of short stories in alphabetical order, each followed by a religious, moral, or historical observation. The poor youngsters who were forced to read, day after day, from the pages of these early books, whose text matter was certainly lugubrious and distressing, were constantly reminded of death, the grave, a wrathful God, and a burning hell prepared for the wicked.
The text matter of the early Arithmetics, while not as gruesome as that of the Readers, was in many respects so peculiar as to be quite beyond the understanding of the twentieth century teacher. Allow me to call your attention to two or three of the puzzling things contained in “Old Pike,” as his Arithmetic was commonly known.
When tare and tret and doff are allowed:
Deduct the tare and tret, and divide the suttle by 168, and the quotient will be the cloff, which subtract from the suttle, and the remainder will be the neat.
These definitions will help you to understand the old terms:
Tare is an allowance, made to the buyer, for the weight of the box, barrel, or bag which contains, the goods bought.
Tret is an allowance of 4 lbs. in every 104 lbs. for waste, dust, etc.
Cloff is an allowance of 2 lbs. upon every 3 cwt.
Suttle is, when part of the allowance is deducted.
Neat weight is what remains after all allowances are made.
The following rule is another of Pike’s puzzles. This tells how to find the Gregorian Epact:
Subtract 11 from the Julian Epact. If the subtraction cannot be made, add 30 to the Julian Epact, then subtract, and the remainder will be the Gregorian Epact. If nothing remains, the Epact is 29.
You doubtless remember that an epact is the excess of the solar year over the twelve lunar months, or about eleven days.