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graphical, and Historical, which are not a little interesting in themselves, aside from the special purpose subserved by them in the present connection.

All this has been done, and more, in order to secure that kind of interest in the exercises which comes of reading what is clearly understood; and because no perfect reading is possible, where the reader himself fails to perceive the meaning of what he reads.

In the selection and adaptation of the pieces, the highest aim has been to make and to leave the best moral impression; and this, not by dull and formal teachings, but by the pleasanter, and, therefore, more powerful, means of incidental and unexpected suggestion. Admonition is then most likely to be heeded, when it comes through the channel of events and circumstances.

The direct and ostensible aim of the book, however, has been kept steadily in view; which is to furnish the best possible exercises for practice in Rhetorical reading. To this end, the greatest variety of style and sentiment has been sought. There is scarcely a tone or modulation, of which the human voice is capable, that finds not here some piece adapted precisely to its best expression. There is not an inflection, however delicate, not an emphasis, however slight, however strong, that does not here meet with something fitted well for its amplest illustration. No tenderness of pathos, no earnestness of thought, no play of wit, no burst of passion, is there, perhaps, of which the accom plished teacher of Elocution may not find the proper style of expression in these pages, and, consequently, the best examples for the illustration of his art.

The book, thus briefly described, is, therefore, given to the public with the same confidence that has hitherto inspired the author in similar efforts, and with the hope that it may reach even a higher measure of usefulness, than that attained by any of its predecessors, in the long line of works which he has prepared for the use of schools.

NEW YORK, April, 1863.

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