The Bending of the Twig. A Lecture on Home Influence in the Education of the Young
Albury, Printed by G. Adams at the 'Banner' General Printing Office [presumably for The Author], 1871.
Small octavo 165 x 107 mm, [ii], 42 (last blank) pages.
Later overlapping plain wrappers with the title and author in ink on the front cover (a small piece of the original pale blue wrappers remains on the last page); essentially a fine uncut copy.
The later wrappers, and the inscribed details, we know to be the work of Edward Edgar Pescott (1872-1954), horticulturalist, naturalist, author, bibliographer and book-collector of some consequence. Not in Ferguson; not in Trove. Fortunately, on the third page of this pamphlet, much is revealed in a short article reprinted from the 'Albury Banner' of 8 April 1871. The lecture was delivered at Wahgunyah on 1 April 1871, in aid of the Corowa Parsonage Fund. One might anticipate the florid literary style and high moral tone of the period, but his finger is on the pulse as he concludes his lecture: 'What will be the future of the land we have made our home is an unsoluble problem. We may hazard a thousand conjectures, and none may come near the truth. We may raise a host of bright anticipations, and none may ever be realised; we may imagine the great Federation, now dawning in the minds of public men, an accomplished fact; we may imagine our descendants a powerful and united people, living under one Government, serving under one flag, and trading under one tariff; we may imagine our national wealth incalculably increased, our commerce extending over the inhabitable globe; and our manufactures spreading through the length and breadth of the land; we may imagine the seas crowded with our white-winged ships bearing the produce of our fields and vineyards to less productive climes; we may imagine the wilderness reclaimed from its savage state, fertilized by industry, and covered with innumerable homesteads nestling amidst orange trees and vines, smiling with peace and plenty and resounding with the happy music of children's voices. If this is to be a faithful picture of our future state ...'.
Item #105992
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