NARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. THE present work aims to furnish an unusual variety in the reading exercises, and such as is calculated to interest pupils of the grade for whom a Fourth Reading Book is designed. Much of the matter is emotional, and is thus specially adapted to illustrate the Rules of good reading found in the Introductory article. Throughout the whole, also, a leading idea has been to introduce a great variety of characters, in different circumstances and positions in life, that their conduct might be made available to teach important MORAL LESSONS; and especially to enforce, by example, the principles of right and duty. sons. We would also call the attention of teachers to the series of brief Notes throughout the work, explanatory of the lesTheir object is to make prominent the character, design, and tendency of each lesson, in addition to its rhetorical use, and thereby to aid the teacher in questioning the pupils, and in enforcing upon them the truths designed to be taught, and the principles to be inculcated. The reading of every lesson should be followed by questions to the pupils, and explanations by the teacher, which should not be limited to what is actually contained in the lesson, but should be extended to what is appropriately suggested by it also. |