FORMING PART III. OF A SERIES OF READING AND BY WILLIAM RUSSELL, TEACHER OF ELOCUTION, ED. AM. JOUR. EDUCATION, (FIRST SERIES,) SECOND EDITION. BOSTON: CHARLES TAPPAN, 114 WASHINGTON STREET. HARVAR Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, BY WILLIAM RUSSELL, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE A. CURTIS, N. ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, BOSTON. CONTENTS. PAGE *Pieces which are neither ascribed to any author, nor marked by THE PRIMARY READER. THIS Volume, the concluding one of the present elementary series, has been prepared with reference, strictly, to what its title implies, a book of juvenile reading lessons. The compiler, in preparing it, has directed his attention, chiefly, to the following points. 1st. To avoid, in the selection of lessons, unintelligible matter and language, and dull, formal style, as worse than useless to young readers,-as positively injurious to their elocution, not only in childhood, but in subsequent life. 2d. To select such pieces as seemed best adapted, by simplicity and vividness of expression, to secure the attention of the juvenile mind, and to produce an intelligent and animated style of reading, as a habit, in early years. 3d. To furnish frequent suggestions to teachers, on the best mode of securing a distinct enunciation of words, and a correct and spirited utterance of sentiment. 4th. To exert an influence on the heart and habits of the reader, by the selection of pieces tending to cherish sentiments of love, truth, and piety. 5th. To aid the early formation of good taste, by avoiding low subjects, low characters, and low forms of expression, in the pieces selected for reading lessons. The pieces presented in the Reader, have been selected with reference to the wants and wishes of children. They are such as many years' experience in the teaching of reading, has indicated as interesting to young readers, and conducive to their progress in elocution. The selections have been made in strict accommodation to the capabilities of childhood, as regards the act of expression. The rule of selection has been, that the pieces should not only be perfectly intelligible in thought and language, and pleasing in subject and style, but that both matter and manner should be such as children incline to express in speech. |