"T" is for Torrey

     Typical of the progressive leaders of Early America, Dr. Jesse Torrey, Jr., 1787-1834, a physician by vocation, was an advocate of "classical education".  He was a leader in the free library movement, and advocate of free public education, and, published several instructional readers for children.  Typical of the times, these readers advanced commonly held notions of natural law and morality.  His readers contained various guides to virtue and happiness and warnings against vice.  According to Torrey, "What is good according to the law of nature?--Whatever tends to preserve and ameliorate mankind.  What is evil?--Whatever tends to the destruction and deterioration of the human race.  What is a sin according to the law of nature?--Whatever tends to disturb the order established by nature, for the preservation and perfectability of man and of society."  Torrey, as did many other Early Americans, believed that children should study the lives and moral precepts of the most eminent ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome, a system of morality founded on natural law, the Bible, and the works of eminent German and English philosophers.  In a letter to James Madison dated Oct. 19, 1829, Torrey encourages Madison to exert his influence "in favor of securing to the present and all the future generations of Virginia, the greatest blessings that man ever yet received from man, free education, free knowledge, freedom of mind and person, virtue and happiness."  Note the association of "virtue and happiness". 
    Below, images from one of the OCHF Library's copies of various works by Torrey, Grigg & Elliot's Third Reader, 1845.  Click image for larger view.