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As late with open mouth it lay,

And basked it in the sunny ray;

Stretched at its ease, the beast I viewed,
And saw it eat the air for food."
"I've seen it, sir, as well as you,
And must again affirm it BLUE,
At leisure I the beast surveyed,
Extended in the cooling shade."

"'T is GREEN, 'tis GREEN, sir, I assure ye!"
"GREEN!" cries the other in a fury,

"Why, sir, d'ye think I've lost my EYES?"

"'T were no great loss," his friend replies,
"For, if they always serve you thus,

You'll find them but of little use."

EMPHATIC INFLECTIONS.

Antonio. - Well, Shylock', shall we be beholden to you'? Shylock. Seignior Antonio', many a time', and oft',

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In the Rialto you have ra-ted me

About my mon-eys', and my u-sances':

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug`;

For suf-ferance is the badge of all our tribe'.

You call me . . . misbe-lie-ver', cut-throat, DÔG`,

And spit upon my Jewish gabardine';

And all for use of that which is my own'.
Well, then', it now appears' you need my help'.
Go to, then', you come to me', and you say',
"Shylock', we would have môn-eys'." You say so`;
You', that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And fôôt me', as you spurn a stranger cur

Over your threshold":

môn-eys is your suit'.

What should I say to you?

Should I not say',

"Hath a DôG'. . môn-eys'? is it pos-sible'

A CUR..
can lend three-thou-sand duc-ats'?”" or',
Shall I bend low, and in a bond-man's key',

With 'bated breath', and whispering hum-bleness',
Say this',

“Fair sir, you spêt on me on Wednesday last';

You SPURNED me such a day'; another time

You called me'. . . DOG`; and for these coûr-tesies
I'll lend you thus much môn-eys'."

CONCLUSION.

Having thus given lessons and examples for training the voice with a general idea of accent, pitch, slide, and emphasis, it might be expected that there should be a system of rules and examples for the application of these principles. But it is thought that a proper understanding of the rules and nice distinctions of finished elocution had better be reserved for pupils who are more advanced; and that the readers of these "Lessons" should be trained into correct habits of speech by the care and skill and example of the teacher.

If the pupil has gained the control of his vocal powers, and will understand the piece he reads, and try to enter into the spirit of the writer, and read as if it was real, throwing his soul into it, as if he was speaking it for himself, he will make continual progress in reading; and by following the dictates of nature, will be more likely to be correct than by all the rules of art, without real intelligence and feeling.

LESSONS FOR READING AND SPEAKING.

CHAPTER I.

THE NEW READING BOOK.

1. An attempt was made to introduce better school books, especially as reading books. Most of the schools had been confined to the New Testament, the American Preceptor, the English Reader, the Columbian Orator, or Webster's Elements of Useful Knowledge, for a long series of years. Indeed, there was scarcely a pupil then in the schools who had ever known, in his own day, any change.

2. Some of these books are respectable books for higher classes; but others are hardly suitable for any. But good, bad, or indifferent, they were read with no sort of interest; and I was extremely anxious to introduce some new book, which, while its tendency and style were excellent, should at the same time please the pupil.

3. Long experience in teaching had shown me, what the experience of every teacher and parent must inevitably confirm, that children will make twice the progress in learning to read, from a book which is in some measure intelligible to them, than from one whose style and sentiments are beyond their capacity or their years.

4. I am far from being friendly to that affectation of childish simplicity in the style of some of our children's books which has become of late so common. A real child-like style is like any other style, except that a choice of words is made

whose meaning is a little more obvious. There is an adap tation of ideas rather than of language to the child's apprehension.

5. A boy who will not understand a very eloquent speech, which he reads in a school book, will understand nearly the same words of the language arranged in the form of a simple story, or an account of some person, place, or animal. The reason is plain. In the former case, the subject is one on which he has not thought. He has not yet entered upon politics. In the other—the latter instance, he is more or less familiar with the subject; and hence the same words, in their appropriate combination, are quite intelligible to him.

6. After much conversation with teachers and others, an effort was made to introduce into all the schools in town a new reading book. It was principally designed for the middle classes; but neither the older nor the younger were to be prohibited its use.

7. The children were pleased with the book, and it answered, in many instances, a valuable purpose. I believe more real progress was made in reading, through its instrumentality, in one year, than had been made in two years before.

8. Still it did not give entire satisfaction to the parents. It was a story book. And although they were no less deeply interested in its perusal at home than their children were at school; though they loved its simplicity, and wept at the moral lessons it conveyed, yet-what? Oh, it did not seem to them like a very good school book. They could give no reason for the feeling; they could only say it seemed to them so.

9. And such was the opposition to it, that it finally went into disuse, in most of the schools; not, in most instances, sooner than it ought to have done, it is true, provided its place had been supplied, as it should have been, with another. The practice of reading the same book in a school year after year-I had almost said century after century—is very bad policy, and no better economy.

10. There was one man a political opponent of my own -who, by his sneers, did more to destroy the influence of the book, and to discourage the practice of often changing our class books for reading, than any other person. He thought the child ought to read a certain sort of books - the very books which had been so long in vogue—whether they understood them or not. A strange mistake! And yet it is a general one.

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