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inculcated. Children, as soon as they can speak, are remarkable for expressing their own wishes and sentiments in the genuine language of nature. Not an emphasis is misplaced-not an inflection of the voice is misapplied. But as soon as they begin to read, and express the thoughts and sentiments of others, how different is their execution. The most unnatural habits are speedily acquired, which too often attend them through life! The only way to remedy this evil, is to give children such lessons in reading as are suitable to their tender capacities, and teach them to make the sentiments as it were their own, and to express them as they would to their play-mates in telling a story. The selection of pieces in this volume is to this end; and to imbue the minds of the rising generation with the pure principles and sentiments of virtue, patriotism, and religion.

RULES FOR READING.

1. Give the letters their proper sound.

2. Pronounce the vowels a, e, i, o, u, clearly, giving to each its proper quanfity.

3. The liquids l, m, n, r, should be pronounced with a considerable degree of force.

4. Distinguish every accented letter or syllable by a particular stress of the voice.

5. Read audibly and distinctly, with a degree of deliberation suited to the subject.

6. Pause at the points a sufficient length of time, but not so long as to break that connexion which one part of a sentence has with another.

7. Give every sentence, and member of a sentence, that inflection of voice which tends to improve either the sound or the sense.

8. Before attempting to read the examples on inflections, a thorough knowledge of the two slides or inflections of the voice (see p. vi.) ought to be obtained. Without a very accurate knowledge of these two slides, no very great progress in reading can possibly be made.

9. The inflections of the voice which accompany the pauses, are the stamina of all good reading or speaking; for whether we read or speak high or low, loud or soft, quickly or slowly, with or without the tones of a particular passion, the voice must rise or fall, or proceed in a continued monotony: so that the rising and falling inflection must be considered as the axis on which the whole force and variety of reading or speaking turns. And a just mixture of these inflections is so important, that whenever they are neglected the pronunciation becomes feeble, monotonous and ungraceful. If a speaker elevates his voice too frequently, he contracts a squeaking tone; if he depresses it too often, he hurts the sense by breaking its connexion; and though a monotony may sometimes be used for the sake of variety, too frequent recourse to it would produce languor, listlessness, and inattention.

10. In reading, the principles should be gradually reduced to practice. Words that require the rising inflection may, by the pupil, be marked with a pencil with the acute (') accent; and such as require the falling inflection, with the grave () accent. Emphatical words may be marked by drawing a straight line over them; and when a rhetorical pause is admissible, a mark such as a comma may be inserted after the word.

11. The tones of the voice must, in every instance, be regulated entirely by the nature of the subject.

12. At the beginning of a subject or discourse the pitch of the voice should, in general, be low: to this rule, however, there are some exceptions, especially in poetry, and even in prose.

13. Though an elegant and harmonious pronunciation of verse will sometimes oblige us to adopt different inflections from those we use in prose, it may still be laid down as a good general rule, that verse requires the same inflection as prose, though less strongly marked, and approaching to monotony.-Whenever a sen tence or member of a sentence, would necessarily require the rising or falling inflection in prose, it ought always to have the same in poetry.

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Sec Juvenile Expositor, p. 356, 7, 8, 9, and 360, &c.

There are two kinds of pauses, viz. Grammatical and Rhetorical pauses. Grammatical pauses are denoted by certain points or marks; at which it is necessary to pause or stop a little, for the purpose of breathing and elucidating the meaning of a sentence.

Rhetorical pauses are those stops made by a reader or speaker, which, though frequently not marked, serve to beautify delivery, by giving it all that variety and ease of which it is susceptible.

The grammatical pauses are distinguished into

The Comma

The Semicolon
The Colon

The Period

marked thus

And those which are accompanied with an alteration in the tone of the voice,

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Besides these, there is another pause called the hyphen or dash marked with e

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The number of pauses may be reduced to three; namely,

The Smaller Pause

The Greater Pause answering to the
The Greatest Pause

Comma.
Semicolon and Colon.
Period.

The interrogation and exclamation points are said to be indefinite as to their quantity of time, and are used to mark an elevation of voice; and the parenthesis, to mark a moderate depression of the voice, with a pause greater than a comma, The time of the hyphen or dash is also indefinite. A 2

TABLE of the Two SLIDES, or INFLECTIONS of VOICE.*

The acute accent (') denotes the rising, and the grave accent (`) the falling inflection.

Did they act properly, or im properly?
Did he speak distinctly, or in distinctly?
Must we act according to the law, or con'-
trary to it?

Did he go willingly, or unwillingly?
Was it done correctly, or in correctly?
Did he say cau tion, or caution?
Did he say wisely, or wisely?
Did he say value, or value?
Did he say wis'dom, or wis'dom?
Did he say fane', or fame'?
You must not say fa'tal, but fa'tal.
You must not say e'qual, but e'qual.
You must not say i'dol, but i'dol.
You must not say o'pen, but o' pen.
You must not say dubious, but du'bious.

They acted prop'erly, not im'properly.
He spoke distinct'ly, not in'distinctly.
We must act accord'ing to the law, and not
con'trary to it.

He went willingly, not un'willingly.
It was done correct'ly, not in'correctly.
He said cau'tion, not cau'tion.

He said wisely, not wise ly.
He said value, not value.
He said wis'dom, not wis'dom.
He said fame', not fame'.
You must say fa`tal, not fa'tal.
You must say e'qual, not e'qual.
You must say i'dol, not i'dol.
You must say o'pen, not o'pen.

You must say dubious, not du’bious, &c.

KEY.

The figures over the letters refer to the vowels in the words, as follow: Fate får fåll fât mẻ mêt plne pỉn nò môve når nôt tùbe tåb båll dil påânce. th sharp, as in thin, thought.

TH flat as in THIS, THOUgh.

g always hard (eg) as in go, give, gone.
s always sharp (ess) as in so, such, son.
x always sharp (eks) as in ox, fox, box.
ng always sounded as in ring, bring, thing,

zh

j

sh

ch

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ial w and y sound as in we, ye.-ou and oy sound as in now, cloy, &c.

INITIAL SOUNDS.+

These orthographical exercises should be scrupulously attended to: not a word should be passed over unless it be correctly spelled, accented, and pronounced: they should even be read by the pupil till he is fully master of them before he commences the reading lessons.

1. au, at the beginning of words, sounds å, in au'burn, auc'tion, auc'tionary, au'dible, au'dibly, au'dience, au'dit, au'ditor, au'ditory, au'ditress, au'ger, aught, augment (noun), au'gur,‡ au'gury, august (n.), au'spice, aus'tral, au'thor, authorize, au'tograph, au'tumn, auctionéer, audacious, audacity, augment' (verb) augmentation, august' (adj.), aurélia, auric'ula, auric'ular, aurif'erous, aurora, aurora-boreális, auspi"cial, auspicious, austére, auster'ity, authen'tic, authen'ti

For a full and philosophic view of this subject, see Walker's Elocution, Rhetorical Grammar, &c.

†These words may serve as useful exercises, not only in orthoepy, but also in orthography. For this purpose a portion of them may be pronounced and spelled by the pupil each day, or as often as the Teacher may think proper. The Teacher will secure the attention and improvement of his pupils by accustoming them to turn to those words in some good dictionary, say Picket's Walker, and learn their meaning as an evening's exercise.-See Juvenile Expositor, p. 24, 25, 26, &c.

Participles have the accent on the same syllable as the verbs from which they are derived; thus the verb to interest, has the accent on the first syllable; the participles in'teresting, interested, derived from it, have the accent on the same syllable.

cate, authenticity, authoritative, author'ity, automʼaton, autom'atous, autop'. tical, autum'nal, auxil'iar auxil'iary.-aunt s. ant.

2. circum, s. sêr-kům, in circumam'bient, circumam'bulate, cir'cumcise, circumcision, circumduct', circum'ference, circumferen'tor, cir cylex, circum'fluent, circum'fluous, circ amfúse, circumfusion, circumja cent, eirmlocution, circumloc'utory, circumnavigation, circumrotátion, circumscribe, cir'cumspect, cir'cumstance, circumvent', circumvolution, &c.

3. co-op, s. kò-op, in co-op'erate, co-operation, co-op'erative, co-op'erator, co-optation, (co-or s. kò-ör in) co-or'dinate, co-or'dinately, co-or'dinateness, co-ordination.

4. dis, s. dis, in disability, disadvan'tage, disaffec'tion, disagrée, disallow', disappear, disapprove', disavow', discard', disclose, discontent', discourse, discreet', disembark', disincline, disobedient, disquietude, dissem'ble, dissent', dissolution, distrib'utive, distrust', disunity, &c.

5. dis, s. diz, in disable, disarm', disas'ter, disas'trous, disband', disbark', dishur'den, disburse', disburse'ment, discern', discern'ible, discern'ing, discern' ment, disdain, disdainful, disease, disgorge', disgrace, disgraceful, disgracefully, disgrácious, disguise, disguisement, disgust', disgust'ful, dishon'est, dishonesty, dishon'our, dishon'ourable, disin'terested, disjoin', disjoint', disjunct', disjunc'tion, disjunctive, dislike, disliken, dislimb', dislodge', disloy'al, disloyalty, dis'mal, disman'tle, dismask', dismast', dismáy, dismem'ber, dismiss', dismiss'ion, dismort'. gage, dismount', disor'der, disor'derly, disor'dinate, disown, disrel'ish, disrep'utable, disrobe, disrup'tion, dissolv'able, dissolve', dissolv'ent, dissolv'able, disvaluátion, disval'ue, disuse, (n.), disvouch', (di befores, s dè in) dishev'elled, dispread', (disme s. dime.)

6. ea s. è in each, éager, éagerly, éagerness, eagle-eyed, earless, éar-ring, éarwax, easily, éasiness, easterly, éastern, eastward, easy, eatable, éaves-dropper, (earl s. êrl in) earl'dom, ear'liness, early earn, ear'nest, ear'nestly, earth, earth'en, earth'ling, earth'ly, earth'-quake, earth'y. (ead &c. s. êd in) dead, lead, head, deaf, deaf'ness, deaf'ly.

7. ex, s. êgz, in exact', exactly, exac'tion, exact'ness, exaggerate, exa"ggerátion, exa"gitate, exalt', exaltation, exámen, examination, exam'ine, exam'ple exanʼimate, exas'perate, exasperation, exec'utive, exec'utor, exec'utrix, exem'plar, exem'plary, exemplification, exem'plify, exempt', exemp'tion, exert', exer'tion, exhále, exhálement, exhaust', exhaust'less, exhib'it, exhil'erate, exhort', exile (v.), exist', exis'tence, exis'tency, exis'tent, exon'erate, exoneration, exor'bitance, exor'bitant, exor'dium, exotic, exuberance, exuberant, exult', exult'ance, exultation, exúviæ. (ex, in the beginning of almost all other words, sounds, eks) ex'cellence, excep'tion, exclaim, excommúnicate, excur'sion, exhalation, expect'ant, explóre, expulsion, extinc'tion, extravagant, ex'tricate, &c.

8. h is silent in heir, heiress, heir less, heir'ship, herb, herb'age, herb'y, hon'est, hon'estly, honesty, hon'orary, hon'our, hon'ourable, hon'ourably, hos'pital, host'ler, hour, hour glass, hourly, hum'ble, húmorist, húmorous, húmorously, húmour.

9. or, s. or, in orb, orb'ed, or'chard, or'chestre, or'deal, or'der, or'derless, or'derly, or'dinal, or'dinance, or'dinary, or'dinate, ord'nance, or'donnance, or'dure, or'gan, or'ganism, or'ganist, or'ganize, or'gies, or'nament, or'namental, or'nate, or'phan, or'thodox, or thoepist, or'thoepy, orbic'ular, orchestra, ordain, ordination, organ'ic, organ'ical, organization, orgil'lous, ornament'al, ornithology, orthog'rapher, orthograph'ically, orthog'raphy. (ori s. ò in) oriental, ori'ginal, originally, ori"ginary, ori"ginate, orac'ular, orac'ulous, oration, óral, orient (or s. or in) or'acle, or'ange, or'ator, oratórial, orator'ical, oratory, or'rery, or'ris, or'ifice, or'igin, or'ison.

10. pre, s. prè, in preacher, précept, prédal, prédial, préfect, préfix, (n.) prémier, prémium, préscience, préscient, préscript, prétor, prévious, préviously, precárious, precéde, precep'tive, precipitate, precise, preclúde, preconceit, predestinarian, predict', predispose, predom'inant, pre-establish, prefer', prejúdicate, premature, prepar'ative, prerog'ative, prescrip'tion, presúme, presumption, presump'tive, presumptuous, preternatural, prevail, preven'tion,

&c.-prey s. prà.-(pre is shut, in) preb'end, preb'endary, precedáneous, precedent, precious, pre"epice, pred'atory, pred'ecessor, pred'icable, predicant, pred'icate, predication, pref'ace, pref'atory, pref'ecture, pref'erable, pref'erence, prej'udice, prejudi"cial, prel'acy, prel'ate, prel'ude (n.), prem'ises, preparation, preposition, pres'byter, presbyterian, pres'bytery, pres'ence, pres'ent (adj.), presentation, presentée, pres'ently, preservation, pres'idency, president, press'gang, press'man, press'money, press'ure, pres'to, pret'tily, pret'tiness, pret'ty, prev'alence, prev'alent, (presage s. prẻs'-ȧje (n.), or prẻ-saje' (v.)

11. se, s. sè, in sea, seaboat, seaborn, séaboy, séachart, (sea s. sè in all its compounds) seal, sealingwax, seam, seamless, séarcloth, season, séasonable, seasonably, seasoning, seaward, sécant, secrecy, sécret, sécretly, (see and sei s. se,) seed, seedcake, seedpearl', seedtime, seedling, seedsman, seedy, seeing séesaw, séignior, séignory, seine, seize, séizin, séizure, sénior, séquel, séquence, séquent, séries, sérious, sériously, sérous, sérum, séton, secéde, secession, seclude, seclusion, secréte, secrétion, secrétory, secure, securely, security, sedan', sedáte, sedátely, sedateness, sedition, seditious, sedúce, seducement, sedúcible, seduc'tive, seduc'tion, sedúlity, select', selec'tion, senior'ity, sepul'chral, sepul'chre (v.), sequácious, sequa" city, seques'ter, seques'trable, seragl'io, seraph'ic, seréne, serénely, seréneness, serenity, setáceous, sevére, severely, sever'ity. (ser. s sår in ser'geant.-sew s. so.)

sewer, s. so'ûr, one who uses a needle.

sewer, s. så år, an officer who serves up a feast.
sewer, s. shore, a passage for water.

in most other words the e in se is shut or joined to the next letter, thus-sec'ona, rec'retary, sed'ulous, sel'dom, sem'blance, sensation, ser'mon, ser'vitude, set'tlement, &c.

12. sky, s. skyl, sky, sky'ey, sky'colour, sky'coloured, sky'dyed, sky'ed, sky' ish, sky'lark, sky'light, sky'rocket, (kind s. kylnd in) kind, kindly, kindness, unkind, unkindly, unkindness, gav'elkind, mankind, wom'ankind, húmankind.

13. su, s. su, in supine (adj.), supinely, supineness, suprem'acy, su préme, suprémely, supine (n.)

14. super, s. super, in superabun'dance, superadd', superan'nuate, superb', supercar'go, superceles'tial, supercil'ious, superem'inent, superex'cellent, superficies, superfine, superfluous, superintend', superior'ity, supérior, super'lative, supernatural, supernumerary, superscrip'tion, superstitious, superven'tion, supervisor, superable, súperfice, súperflux, &c.

15. th, s. th, in thane, thank, thank'ful, thank'less, thanks'giving, theatre, the oc'racy, theod'olite, theologian, théory, thermom'eter, thésis, thick'et, thief, think' ing, this'tle, thorax, thor'ough, &c. (th s. TH in) than, that, the, their, them, then, thence, thence forth, thencefor'ward, there, there'about, thereby', there'fore, therefrom', therein', thereintó thereof', thereon', thereto, thereunto, thereupon', these, they, this, thither, thith'erto, thith'erward, those, thou, though, thus, thy, thyself'. (thyme s. time.)

16. thr, s. thr, in thrall, thral'dom, thrap'ple, thrash, thrash'er, thread'bare, threat'en, threefold, threescore, thresh'old, thrift'ily, thrift'less, thrift'y, thrill, thrive, throat, throb, throe, &c.

17. trans, s. trâns, in transact', transcend', transcribe, transfig'ure, transfuse, trans'it, trans"ition, translate, transmit', transpire, tránsverse, &c. (transi s. trấn-shè in) transient, transiently, transientness.

18. un, s. an, in unalterable, unbound', uncer'tain, unconcern', undaunt'ed, undirect'ed, unequal, unexplored, unfortunate, ungen'erous, unhap'py, &c. (u s. ù before n in) únicorn, uniform, uniformly, union, únison, únit, unity, universe, unanim'ity, unan'imous, uniformity, unite, unitedly, uni'tion, univer'sal, universal'ity, univer'sally, univer'sity, univ'ocal, (unc s ẳng in) un'cle, unc'. tion, unc'teous.

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