This brightly colored image depicts two boys running joyfully past a toy merchant. The reader is left to imagine where they are going. The playful movement of these children underscores the Miscellany’s mission: “the instruction and amusement of youth.” On the facing page, the image of a boy reading is accompanied by a quotation from a Wordsworth poem that reminds young readers never to lose sight of their childhood understandings of nature and God, as their innocence brings them closer to both.

Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts