"I shall finish these general remarks, by laying down a plain distinction between the two sorts of reading, the grammatical and the rhetorical.

"Grammatical reading,* as I have just intimated, respects merely the sense of what is read. When performed audibly, for the benefit of others, it is still only the same sort of process which one performs silently, for his own benefit, when he casts his eye along the page, to ascertain the meaning of its author. The chief purpose of the correct reader is to be intelligible; and this requires an accurate perception of grammatical relation in the structure of sentences; a due regard to accent and pauses, to strength of voice, and clearness of utterance. This manner is generally adopted in reading plain, unimpassioned style. The character and purpose of a composition may be such, that it would be as preposterous to read it with tones of emotion, as it would to announce a proposition in grammar or geometry in the language of metaphor. But though merely the correct manner suits many purposes of reading, it is dry and inanimate, and is the lowest department in the province of delivery. Still the great majority, not to say of respectable men, of bookish men, go nothing beyond this in their attainments or attempts. "Rhetorical reading has a higher object, and calls into action higher powers. It is not applicable to a composition destitute of emotion, for it supposes feeling. It does not barely express the thoughts of an author, but expresses them with the force, variety, and beauty, which feeling demands."

but

The following is an extract from Professor Nichol's Translation of Wilhm's excellent work, "Education of the People:"+

OF READING.

"Formerly, much time was lost in merely learning to read; and, in most cases, it was only imperfectly learned, since what was read was seldom understood. One of the chief reasons of this want of successbesides the teaching being quite individual was the system of spelling, founded on the custom of giving the letters names expressing very imperfectly their pronunciation.

"It is not enough to be able to read mechanically: children must be taught to read with expression; and to attend to the pauses, which the sense and punctuation require. For this purpose, they must be made to understand what they read; that is to say, they must be made to read only what is within their reach, and can be explained to them without difficulty or danger.

*Grammatical Reading is another name for Intellectual Reading. "The Education of the People, a practical Treatise on the means of extending its sphere, and improving its character. By T. WILHM, Inspector of the Academy of Strasburg."

"This is not the place to inquire what reading books are proper to put into the hands of children; that is a question connected with the whole of their education: but I must observe, that as soon as the children can read with some degree of facility, they ought to be allowed to read only what they are able to understand, aided by a few explanations. If the pupils in elementary schools too often read without observing the necessary pauses, it is not always a proof that they do not understand what they read; but it always proves that they do not pay attention to the meaning of the words they utter. This inattention may proceed, in the less advanced pupils, from their still having to struggle with the difficulties of reading, and from their minds being fully occupied in deciphering the words; but, in the case of others, it is probably more the fault of the teachers than of the pupils. The inattention with which children read even that which they do understand, and, consequently, the want of expression and logical accuracy which result, proceed most frequently from their being made at first to read what is above their comprehension --what was mere words to them, and not ideas to be seized and retained. We cannot, therefore, begin too early-the first difficulties being overcome to render children attentive to the meaning of what they read; and then they will themselves give the proper tone to their reading, dividing the sentences according to their meaning and to the punctuation; in this way the study of languages would begin, as well as that of realities.

"Children must be early accustomed to read as they speak; and to give up, as much as possible, purely mechanical reading."

The following SUGGESTIONS on the subject of READING are in accordance with the views we have taken. They appeared in "The Christian's Penny Magazine," addressed to a Mother, by a writer under the name of "Clericus."

PRONUNCIATION.

"The rules for a correct pronunciation are few and simple.

"1st. Let attention be paid to your child's pronunciation and your own, that no provincialism of accent cling to the vowels. It is in the proper enunciation of the vowels, whether single or in combination, that purity of speech greatly consists.

"2dly. Let every letter of a word have its due pronunciation, as distinctly though not so prolonged, as it would have in the recital of the alphabet.

3dly. Let the letters, whether vowels or consonants, which terminate a word, be distinctly pronounced.

READING.

Closely connected with pronunciation is reading, upon which you will perhaps allow me to offer you a few observations.

"Books abound with a variety of directions as to the art of reading well, and dilate considerably upon tone, emphasis, pronunciation, manner, &c. All these rules, however, appear to me to be practically comprehended under the following, which are all that are necessary to be attended to, at least during the first years of education.

"1st. Endeavour to communicate the habit to your child of reading slowly. This rule is exhibited in those well-known words:

"Learn to read slow: all other graces

Will follow in their proper places.'

"The philosophy of this rule is this: that under the method of reading slow, there is time for the reader to remember and to keep in view all the other directions as to good reading with which his mind has been furnished. Besides which it is to be remembered, that reading has reference to other persons rather than to the reader himself. The use of the eyes is all that is needful to the solitary reader; but as reading aloud has regard to other persons, who may be situate at distances more or less remote from the reader, the habit recommended in those lines is the best adapted that can be imagined to secure his being heard and understood by them all. This rule, of course, ought not to be carried to an extreme; nor will it, if the following be attended to in conjunction with it, namely.—

"2dly. That the reader, whatever may be the composition which he is to enunciate, should make it his first and most imperative rule, to understand most thoroughly what he is about to read to others;-then let him put himself into the mental attitude (so to speak) of the writer; and the more he observes these two rules, and the more he disregards all attention to tone and manner, the more natural, and therefore the more pleasing and forcible, will his manner become.

"Observe too most carefully to instil into your pupil's mind, that he is to transfer his m in conversing into his leading. Never, under any circumstances, allow him to lieve, that an assumed manner can be half as good as that which is natural to him. Thoroughly disgust him with the idea of putting on a different manner when he is about to read, from what he would have in conversation on the same subject. Let it be your cardinal rule with him, that the more truly natural he can be, the more truly excellent his manner will become. Let him however be taught not to think about being natural. He will become unnatural if he strives to be natural. The best plan, for him and for every one, in reading, is not at all to think about manner, but to begin; to force, to cultivate, to affect nothing. If he should not succeed, it is because his mind is not so active as at other times; he is tired, sleepy, or out of health, &c., &c. He will do better at another time, when these circumstances are different.

3dly. Habituate him to read in a moderately loud tone. This will conduce to his health, as constituting an exercise to his lungs: it wil compel him to attend to distinctness and propriety of pronunciation; indistinctness and impropriety being far less discernible in a low and muttering mode of reading. It will also contribute to that manly and frank address, which is the charm of innocence and youth.

"4thly. I utterly dissuade you from the use of all Speakers, as they are called, or those books containing specimens of the different styles of composition, such as didactic, vehement, mournful, animated, &c. The human feelings cannot thus change into so many varied and even opposite states in the course of a few pages. Your pupil cannot feel those different passages from different authors, he therefore cannot read them well. Finding this to be the case, were you to compel him to try, he would imitate feeling, and this would be to teach him a lesson in deception. He would succeed wretchedly after all; nothing being so frigid as forced feeling. Rather let him read to you some story or history continuously one day after another; then he will become interested in its details, and his voice and manner will, insensibly to himself, vary sufficiently to constitute good reading. The more he feels what he is reading with a genuine, unsophisticated emotion, the better he will read."

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR BEGINNERS.

ARTICULATION.

To habituate children to a clear, distinct, and easy ARTICULATION, the method practised by Pestalozzi will be found most effectual. This method has been described in page 17 of this Introduction. It is almost unnecessary to observe that it is the power of articulation which constitutes the great difference between the human voice and that of the lower animals. They can only utter inarticulate or indistinct sounds; but man, as the poet Homer has long since described him, is "an articulately-speaking animal." The great importance of a just and clear articulation is, therefore, obvious. In fact, it would be impossible for us either to read or speak well if our articulation be defective. In some cases, bad articulation arises from defects in some of the organs of speech. For example, if the tongue be too large or too small, the lips too thick or too thin, the teeth too closely set or too few in number, the articulation must, in any of these cases, be defective. In nine cases out of ten, however, it will be found that bad articulation arises from the careless and indistinct modes of utterance to which so many children are habituated in their early years. The plan of Pestalozzi was therefore an excellent one. In fact, it is only in youth, when the organs of speech are peculiarly pliant and imitative, that a just, and distinct, and natural articulation can be acquired. The difficulty which a grown-up person feels in learning to speak a foreign language is an illustration of this.

*We do not agree with all the opinions expressed in this paragraph. It is only the artificial system of teaching to read we are opposed to. So far we disapprove of the use of Speakers.

CONSONANT SOUNDS.

It is in the consonant sounds that articulation essentially consists; and hence, the pupil should be well exercised in pronouncing such sounds, particularly those which he finds diffi cult to his organs.

But, as it must be irksome even to children to dwell upon unmeaning sounds, they should, after a few preparatory exercises, proceed to the pronunciation of such words and phrases as the teacher may think suitable for the purpose. All words of difficult or peculiar pronunciation should be brought before the pupils in this way. Short sentences, too, in which such words occur should be selected for the same purpose.

Such examples as the following will furnish the teacher with materials for practical exercises in articulation. The difficulty in such cases obviously arises, not from the pronunciation of the words themselves, but from their position in the sentence.*

1. Wastes and deserts.

2. Look on this spot.

3. Goodness centres in the heart.

4. Luxurious soil.

5. Chaste stars.

6. Such a notion exists.

7. To obtain either.

8. He discovered an egress there.

9. His cry moved me.

10. The same arrow. 11. A sad dangler.

12. A languid dame.

Waste sand deserts.
Look on this pot.

Goodness enters in the heart.
Luxurious oil.

Chased tars.

Such an ocean exists.

To obtain neither.

He discovered a negress there.
His crime moved me.

The same marrow.

A sad angler.
A languid aim.

In such combinations as the preceding (and they are of frequent occurrence) the sound of the final syllable of the word that precedes is the same as the initial sound of the word which follows, and hence arises a practical difficulty in pronunciation. For it is difficult to pronounce the same or similar sounds in succession, when no pause can be admitted between them for

* A good ARTICULATION consists in giving every letter in a syllable its due proportion of sound, according to the most approved custom of pronouncing it; and in making such a distinction between the syllables of which words are composed, that the ear shall, without difficulty, acknowledge their number, and perceive at once to which syllable each letter belongs. Where these points are not observed the articulation is proportionably defective. A good articulation is to the ear in speaking, what a fair and regular hand is to the eye in writing; and exactness in sounding the words rightly corresponds to propriety in spelling.— Sheridan.