READING AND DECLAMATION. HAVING been unexpectedly called on to supply the place of the individual who was appointed to deliver the lecture assigned to this hour, I feel it due to the audience and to myself to offer a word of explanation, before entering on the subject which has been announced.* I come, of course, unprepared for the occasion. But it has been suggested to me, that, as the Institute has hitherto expressed a desire to have the addresses on such occasions as this embody, as much as may be, the results of experience, and the practical observations arising from these, I might be permitted to offer a few remarks on a branch of education which practice has made familiar to me. It is necessary, however, that, in taking up the subjects of reading and declamation, I should advert, for a moment, to the eloquent and interesting lecture to which we have already list *The writer of this lecture was, during the session of the Institute, requested to occupy the hour assigned to one of the gentlemen regularly appointed, whom unforeseen business had detained from the annual meeting. Want of time for preparation placed the lecturer under the necessity of offering, instead of a methodical composition, a few extemporaneous statements on the branch of instruction in which he is principally occupied. This explanation will, it is hoped, account for omissions of memory, or other variations from the lecture as orally delivered, as well as for the want of systematic connexion in its topics, and for the controversial aspect of some parts of it, in which views are maintained at variance with those advanced in the lecture on Elocution. The theory of instruction adopted by the author of the lecture now offered, having been assailed by the lecturer on Elocution, became necessary to assert and maintain its accuracy, before entering on practical details. |