Gems for the Fireside
Devoted to Science, Literature and Art

Front Cover/Spine:

This is a delightful vintage book. It contains various articles and illustrations. The articles encompass a number of topics and have been written by a variety of authors. The text includes prose, poetry and song. The illustrations include 12 steel engravings and 9 colored plates if I counted correctly. The book has no date, however, it appears to be circa the 1830’s to 1840s. There is a gift inscription on the front free end page dated 1859. The book was published by George Pratt, New York. The book measures 6 ľ inches by 9 7/8 inches and contains iv, 384 pages. The brown cloth cover has embossed gilt detailing. The cover shows signs of wear to the edges and corners which are worn to the boards in places. The spine has been repaired with black cloth library tape. The hinges are strong. The edges of the pages are gilt. The pages show no signs of rips. There is light foxing to the pages. Exceptions noted, the overall condition of the book itself is good to good plus.

Title Page

Title Page - Verso

Inscription on front free end page

Frontispiece – The Roman Children

Frontispiece – The Balsille

Excerpt The Christian Parlor Magazine:
To Our Readers.

In present a Magazine to the public under new auspices, it is expected that both editor and publisher will state the plan on which it is to be conducted. The original design of the Christian Parlor Magazine was to fill a place in lighter literature without the objectionable features too often connected with it. In this department, the effort has been too much to please the fancy, without cultivating the feelings or enriching the mind. Those exciting love tales which arrest and inflame the youthful heart, are apt to create an ideal world for the early dreamer, which renders practical life insipid, and its duties irksome. This evil has come so striking and apparent, that many have condemned, without distinction, all kinds of light reading. But we have our hours of relaxation as well as study – our love for the beautiful as well as for the substantial; and it is poor policy to give up the world of taste to those who will abuse it. Nature is diversified in her scenery; there are the solid cliff and the graceful vine depending from its sides – the substantial wall, and the flowers it encloses – the thunder-cloud and rainbow – the deep, broad river, and the graceful rivulet – the terrific swoop of the eagle, and the arrow-like dart of the swallow – all attractive, yet all diversified. It is the same in the wide field of literature; and if we reject every thing except that which seems made for mere utility, we reject half that the Deity has bestowed. To refine and polish it is a part of our work in the world. The mind takes its hue from the outward and real; and it inward creations are but the representation, in some form or other, of materials which the Creator has scattered around us on every side. If, with such furnished store-house before us, we cannot select objects of beauty and taste without sinking into the tameness of essay writing on the one hand, or merging into the insipidity and folly so common on the other hand, the fault lies in ourselves and our depraved inclinations…
End excerpt