NEW SPEAKER: CONTAINING CHOICE SELECTIONS OF POETRY AND PROSE, FROM SOME OF THE BEST AND MOST POPULAR WRITERS INTENDED TO FURNISH YOUTH, IN SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES, WITH A CLASS-BOOK THAT WILL AT ONCE INTEREST, GRATIFY, AND INSTRUCT. BY JOSEPH GUY, JUN., OF MAGDALEN-HALL, OXFORD, AUTHOR OF 'THE JUVENILE LETTER-WRITER," &c., &c. LONDON: WILLIAM TEGG AND CO., 85, QUEEN-STREET, 1852. 270. c. 126. PREFACE. IT 1 It may be hoped that the following Selections will, in due season, lead British youth to a perusal of the entire works of those authors from whom these extracts have been made. Nor can they form their language and their style of written composition from better models, or from purer sources. And as the various specimens are, for the most part, such as have not before appeared in any school volume, their novelty, to such a class, will afford a new stimulus and incentive to reading, of that kind which will be as instructive as it will prove entertaining. With respect to the judgment and taste, if any, exhibited in the choice of the following pieces, the author can only affirm, that, having been all his life in schools, either as learner or teacher, this compilation is the result of much experience, both as to the matter generally desired by preceptors, and as to that which is usually most attractive and pleasing to youth. 2, HOLLIS-PLACE, HAVERSTOCK-HILL, LONDON, 1852. *** IT has been thought preferable, for the purpose of occasional recitations in schools, to give only detached extracts from Shakspere, rather than entire scenes. When, however, such are also required, with the intention of making a nearer approach to theatrical representation, the volume of our great poet is of easy access. Teachers may likewise be inclined to choose for themselves; and, by so doing, give greater variety to the entertainment by selecting scenes, not only from Hamlet, and one or two others, as is generally the custom at present, but from almost any of the thirty-six Dramas of Shakspere. ELOCUTION. By elocution is meant, the utterance of those articulate sounds which are formed by the human voice; and as the object of those sounds is to communicate our ideas, it is surely of no little importance that we speak with sufficient distinctness to be well and easily understood. Nevertheless, a naturally good elocution, combined with all the requisites for making a pleasing and an impressive speaker, is, perhaps, one of the rarest gifts bestowed upon We most of us possess the necessary organs of articulation; but nature has still left much for cultivation, and for man to improve upon. man. Important, however, as the art of elocution is, it is rarely made the subject of tuition in our schools and colleges; in which a delegated professor of the art is seldom, if at all, employed. The very indistinct mode of utterance of perhaps some members of our own family circle, or of individuals at our social meetings, is often felt to be sufficiently irritating; but when, as is too frequently the case, it occurs in a public reciter, it becomes a fault of great magnitude, and may be termed a serious evil. Had many of our public speakers been early taught the principles of elocution, much annoyance from ignorance of the art would be saved both to themselves and their audience. However, the fault lies principally in the imperfect system pursued in their early instructionelocution not being one of the branches taught. In this country, where public speaking is so often and so much in request,-not only from the pulpit, in the senate, and at the bar, but also in the council chambers of our towns, and at the frequent public meetings in the most secluded localities of our isle,-to neglect so important a |