Narrative

Knowledge Generation

7. The Young Man’s Book of Knowledge (London: Harris; Griffin, Glasgow, 1825) is similarly wide ranging, containing religion, the works of nature, logic, eloquence, the passions, matter and motion, magnetism, mechanical powers, hydrostatics, hydraulics, optics, acoustics, electricity, galvanism, geometry, geography, astronomy, history, chronology, etc. The clear emphasis on mechanics, however, rather than ‘the artist’s assistant’, as well as the involvement of the popular publisher Harris, suggests that the work was intended more for downmarket readers aiming to achieve middle-class status than young gentlemen aiming to polish their manners. The addition of a treatise on short-hand in this new edition, as well as an index, and the advertisement for new works by another popular publisher, Thomas Tegg, again points in this direction.