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TO TEACHERS.

THE references at the commencement of every reading-lesson will, it is believed, answer most of the questions that are likely to arise in regard to disputed spellings or modes of pronunciation, obscure allusions, the authors of the pieces, &c. The mark § refers to the numbered sections in the introductory part of this volume, where faults of pronunciation, &c. are carefully pointed out. It is hoped that teachers will faithfully use these references, as well as the Explanatory Index, till they become familiar to pupils. A good plan is to have the biography of the writer of the piece read before the piece itself is entered upon.

For exercises in pitch, force, emphasis, pause, quality of voice, time, &c., it is recommended that the copious selections, beginning at page 31, should be frequently used. The advantage of our classification of these will soon be recognized, if the teacher will cause them to be practiced for specific purposes. For instance, if a pupil is disposed to be languid or spiritless in his delivery, drill him in those exercises in high pitch or loud force requiring great energy and animation of utterance. Or, if the pupil is disposed to exaggeration, select for him those passages requiring a calm, level, or colloquial manner. If he is at fault in his inflections, let him be drilled on the exercises illustrating the slides, &c.; or if his imaginative faculty is torpid, set him upon some of those exercises in personation where his imitative powers will be called forth.

In order to secure the attention of a whole class, while the exercise of reading is going on, it will be well to call upon all the pupils to note such faults in pronunciation, inflection, &c., as may occur to them. This they may signify by holding up the hand, either at the moment the error is detected, or after the reader, who may be on trial, has completed his allotted portion.

Care should be taken to have every pupil, while reading aloud, stand in the right posture, erect but easy, with the chest properly thrown out, and the head vertical. A skillful management of the breath, so that it may be gathered and economized at the right intervals of the period, should also be insisted on. See remarks, § 2, page 11.

PART II.

LESSONS IN READING.

The numbered references are to the Sections in Part I. The Index referred to forms Part III. of the volume.

I. THE COUNSELS OF WASHINGTON.

Do not slight the sound of unaccented e before r in ENERGY, GovernMENT, LIBERTY; of the long vowel before r in INJURIOUS, SECURITY (injoor'ri-us, se-kure'ri-ty); of long u in INDIVIDUAL, PERPETUATE, REGULAR, VALUE, VIRTUE; of sts in EXISTS. See 7, 11, 23. For ADVANTAGE, see § 22; POSSESS, § 17; ROOT, § 9; WITH, § 19. The sound of e in COUNSEL is not dropped.

See in Index (Part III.) ARE, BEEN, IDEA, MACHINATION, REAL, TOWARD, WASHINGTON.

Delivery. The style of most of the passages of this Lesson is exhortative or didactic. They should be read in the middle pitch, with moderate force, medium time, and a pure quality of voice.

1. BORN in a land of liberty; having early learned its value, having engaged in the perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent establishment in my own country, my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes are irresistibly attracted, whensoever in any country I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.

2. ... . . My policy, in our foreign transactions, has been to cultivate peace with all the world; to observe treaties with pure and absolute faith; to check every deviation from the line of impartiality; to explain what may have been misapprehended, and correct what

may have been injurious to any nation; and, having thus acquired the right, to lose no time in acquiring the ability to insist upon justice being done to ourselves.

3. . . . . Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature.

...

4. There is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists, in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity.

...

5. ... The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

6. . . . . This government, the offspring of our choice uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in

its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of liberty.

7. . . . . The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, — all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe, the regular deliberations and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency.

8. .... Let us unite in imploring the Supreme Ruler of nations to spread his holy protection over the United States; to turn the machinations of the wicked to the confirming of our constitution; to enable us, at all times, to root out internal sedition, and put invasion to flight; to perpetuate to our country that prosperity which His goodness has already conferred, and to verify the anticipations of this government being a safeguard of human rights.

II. — OBJECT TEACHING.

CHARLES DICKENS.

For HANDS, MINDS, see § 25; for DOZEN, ELEVEN, LESSON, PENCIL, § 10; FIRST, HEARD, THEREFORE, WERE, § 9; CLASS, PASS, § 22; INSTITUTE, MULTITUDE, VENTURE, § 23; INQUIRY (in-quire'ry), § 11.

See in Index IDEA, PYRITES, SIMULTANEOUS, SUGGEST; FAWKES, ALBERT, NAPOLEON, PEEL, WELLINGTON, DICKENS.

Delivery. The style of this piece is narrative, colloquial, playful, and It should be read accordingly. See Remarks, §§ 47, 48, 52.

1. It is but a stone's throw from the High Court of Chancery to the London Mechanics' Institute in Southampton Buildings. After a ramble among lawyers in

their wigs and gowns, and a good choke in the thick atmosphere of chancery itself, we stepped in at once, one day not long ago, among a multitude of children in pinafores and jackets. There they were, one or two hundred strong, taking their time from a teacher, clapping their hands, and singing "Winter is coming," and a great many more songs.

2. They suggested much better ideas of harmony than the argument of our learned brother, whom we had left speaking on the question, whether money bequeathed to be distributed in equal shares to John and Mary Wilson and James Brown - John and Mary being man and wife was to be divided into two parts.

or into three.

3. The children, when we went among them, were just passing from one class into another, and met in the great lecture-room to sing together while they were about it. Some filed in, and some filed out; some were on the floor, some in the gallery; all seemed to be happy enough, except one urchin at the extreme corner. of a gallery. He displayed an open copy-book before him to the public gaze, by way of penance for transgressions in the writing lesson, but he looked by no means hopelessly dejected.

4. There are three hundred and fifty children in attendance on this school, which is conducted by five teachers. The children here, we were informed, are classed in the first instance according to their ages, in three divisions, the first taking in those under eight years old; the second, those between eight and eleven; the third, children older than eleven.

5. In each of these three divisions, the children are subdivided for the purpose of instruction into two classes, the quick and the slow, which receive lessons suited to their respective capacities. It is obvious that, without punishment, five teachers could not preserve discipline among three hundred and fifty boys;

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