the young: We are all imitative beings, and our habits of thought, modes of expression, moral sentiments, and intellectual character, are no less influenced by the books we read, than our social habits and common deportment are by the company we keep. Both exert a powerful influence over The one on the embellishments of the mind; the other, on the urbanity of manners. The rules and observations designed to promote correct reading are the same as found in Reader No. 2. In addition to these however, are a few very concise Rules, for the benefit of young writers in their first efforts in composition. These should be committed to memory and rendered entirely familiar. In the latter part of this Reader are a few selections suitable for declamation, or rhetorical reading. Speaking is an important exercise, and is becoming somewhat common in the primary schools generally. At the close of the Reader are ORIGINAL RULES, by which the true place of accent may be determined in most words in the language. Eleven of these Rules designate the accented syllable in entire classes of words, without even a single exception. CONTENTS Pre-eminence of our National Institutions. Bancroft, Western Movements of Civilization. Molley, Ancient Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum, Rural Life in England. Irving, Natural Bridge in Virginia. Simple Sketches, Western Emigration. Humphreys, Wier's Cave in Virginia. Simple Sketches, St. Peter's Church at Rome. Dewey, Cultivation of taste for Beauty. Channing, Advantages of Temperance. Hitchcock, Our Own Country. Every Bodies Book, The Mammoth Cave, Ky., Unknown, The Last Night of the Voyage. Shaw, PAGE. The Indian, as he was, and as he is. Sprague. The closing of the Year. Prentice. The Death of Napoleon. Mc Lellan, Escape from a Panther. Cooper, Description of a herd of Bisons. Cooper, The Villager's Winter Evening. Fields. Lament of the Cherokee. Unknown, The twenty-second of December. Bryant. Greenough's Washington. Tuckerman, Imaginary Dedication of a Heathen Temple. Ware, To a Sister who had lost her only Son. Unknown, A Finished Education. Unknown, Our Obligations as Citizens. Knowl's, Ames' Speech on the British Treaty.. Influence of Superior Minds. Sprague, The loss of National Character. Exordium of a Speech. Webster, 142 145 146 149 151 158 160 167 172 174 178 179 181 183 187 191 192 196 199 202 203 205 207 208 213 216 218 219 221 222 224 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 236 237 239 241 242 243 244 247 RULES AND OBSERVATIONS ON READING. To become a good reader is a valuable attainment. To ensure success, the first step is decision on the part of the scholar. The second is effort, and the third perseverance. The purpose of mind must be as firmly fixed to break up and abandon bad habits, as to establish and confirm good ones. Therefore, 1. Avoid a dull and drawling manner. 5. Avoid a mechanical variety_sliding the voice up and down in a kind of sing-song tone. 6. Avoid beginning a sentence on a high and strained key, and gradually sinking the tone till it tapers off in apparent faintness. 7. Avoid careless blunders in the pauses of punctuation. 8. Avoid reading every character of style alike. GENERAL HEADS. All the essential requisites in order to become a good reader or speaker, are comprised under three general heads, viz: 1. Articulation. 3. Modulation of tones.' 1. Concerning good articulation. DEFINITION. Good articulation consists in giving every letter its appropriate sound, and every syllable and word a proper and distinctive utterance. Rule 1. Take special care to give clearness of expression in the utterance of such consonant sounds as mark the distinction of words. EXERCISES. Times and Seasons. Wastes and deserts. For Christ's sake. His sister hates study. The beasts straggled through the wastes and forests. The winds strike the ship's sails. It was the severest storm of the season, but the masts stood through the gale. The steadfast stranger grasps the thistle's stalk. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw. RULE. 2. Give each vowel under accent that distinctive elementary sound the word requires, and avoid such a half-suppressed utterance of the unaccented vowels as leaves the letter unknown, or assimilates the sound to some other. EXAMPLES. I mean to say "government,” but seem to say “gove ermunt." I mean to say “proceed," but nothing is heard but prcede;" leaving it uncertain whether it was "proceed” or “precede." I mean to say "wholly," but actually do say “hully." RULE 3. Pronounce each word so as not to transfer the sound of its last letter to the succeeding word. EXAMPLES. "this is an ice house ;'' but from an indistinct articulation I am understood to say, “this is a nice house." I mean to say, That lasts till night. Such an ocean exists. Such a notion exists. RULE 4. Each syllable on which the several accents fall must be marked by its proper distinctive stress of voice. Note. The figure 1 denotes the full accent, and 2 the half accent. EXAMPLES. 1 I wish to say 1 1 1 1 1 |
