STANDARD SUPPLEMENTARY READERS. THE SUPPLEMENTARY READERS form a series of carefully graduated reading-books, designed to connect with any of the regular series of five or six Readers. These books, which are closely co-ordinated with the several Readers of the regular series, are : — I. Easy Steps for Little Feet: Supplementary to First Reader. In this book the attractive is the chief aim, and the pieces have been written and chosen with special reference to the feelings and fancies of early childhood. II. Golden Book of Choice Reading: Supplementary to Second Reader. This book presents a great variety of pleasing and instructive reading, consisting of child-lore and poetry, noble examples, and attractive object-readings. III. Book of Tales; being School Readings Imaginative and Emotional: Supplementary to Third Reader. In this book the youthful taste for the imaginative and emotional is fed with pure and noble creations drawn from the literature of all nations. IV. Readings in Nature's Book: Supplementary to Fourth Reader. This book contains a varied collection of charming readings in natural history and botany, drawn from the works of the great modern naturalists and travelers. V. Seven American Classics. VI. Seven British Classics. The "Classics" are suitable for reading in advanced grammar grades, and aim to instill a taste for the higher literature, by the presentation of gems of British and American authorship. Copyright, 1880, by Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Company. Dec. 20, 1918. PREFACE. In the series of SUPPLEMENTARY READERS, the plan of which is given on the opposite page, the "READINGS IN NATURE'S BOOK" is designed to follow the Fourth of any of the regular series of Readers, care being taken that such Fourth Reader is not used below the grade in which the Fourth in a series of five or six readers should be used. Specifically, the "READINGS IN NATURE'S BOOK" is intended for pupils at about the middle of their grammar-school course. That the book is unique will be manifest on examination of its contents. That it is much needed may perhaps be not less apparent from the following considerations: In the programme of school studies in most of our cities, a certain modicum of elementary nature-knowledge — embracing such topics as color, form, plants, animals, etc. — is prescribed to be taught without book under the title of "Oral Lessons.” But owing to the paucity of time allotted to these lessons, they can at best furnish the merest skeleton of science. That they afford an inadequate amount of instruction in science, is the conviction of most thoughtful educationists. At this very date of writing, the discussion, in various State institutes, of the importance of enlarging the scope of scientific instruction, is one of the hopeful and healthful signs of the times. Now, it appeared to the editors of this series that if the right kind of book could be prepared, it might have a very peculiar and double utility, as supplementing both the oral science lessons and the ordinary literary reading. But this aim, in turn, imposed a double demand: first, that the pieces in the book should be good science; and, secondly, that they should be good literature. Whether this rare conjunction has been secured, the teacher must decide; but it may not be amiss to state briefly here what the editors have had in mind to do. In the first place, the readings have been limited to two departments of nature, - plants and animals; a sufficient reason for this choice being that botany and zoology are the two chief topics of oral instruction prescribed in most programmes of public-school study. Secondly, the requirement of sound science has been secured by drawing the more systematic pieces from the recognized masters, from such sources as Gray, Audubon, Wood, Figuier, Lee, Michelet, Broderip, Darwin, Gosse, Buckland, and others, their peers on the shining bead-roll of science. So much for the scope and sources of the readings. But what gives the book its individuality is the principle on which the selections have been made. This is, in brief, to substitute the interesting in science for the technical in science, to replace the classifications and terminology of the botanist and zoologist by the living forms of nature as represented in the large intelligible views, the stimulating narratives, and the charming fancies of those who have known nature best because they loved her most. It has, for example, been left to "oral lessons" to teach pupils that an elephant is "a proboscidian pachydermatous mammifer," and that a lion is of the "order feræ, family felidæ, and genus felis;" while we follow Sir Samuel Baker to the native haunts of the "huge earth-shaker," and thrill with horror as in his |