Thomas Day

Thomas Day 1748-89, English social reformer and author. He supported the American Revolution and the abolition of slavery and was interested in improving the lot of the small farmer. His moralistic History of Sandford and Merton (3 vol., 1783-89) contrasts the "natural" education of the virtuous Sandford with the conventional one of the objectionable Merton. In Lichfield he was a member of the literary group centering about Anna Seward .

Day, Thomas (1748–89), an admirer of Rousseau, was keenly interested in educational theory and natural upbringing. He was the author of the celebrated children's book The History of Sandford and Merton (3 vols, 1783–9), which was intended to illustrate the doctrine that many may be made good by instruction and by an appeal to reason; in a series of episodes the rich and objectionable Tommy Merton is contrasted with the upright and tender-hearted Harry Sandford, a farmer's son. Day also wrote The History of Little Jack (1787), the story of a young wild boy suckled by goats.