moral feelings. Whenever these become dead or callous, they may be assured that they will read and speak with less power and less success. 168. "The sentiments and dispositions particularly requisite for them to cultivate are the love of justice and order, and indignation at insolence and oppression; the love of honesty and truth, and detestation of fraud, meanness, and corruption; magnanimity of spirit; the love of liberty, of their country, and the public; zeal for all great and noble designs, and reverence for all worthy and heroic characters. A cold and sceptical turn of mind is extremely adverse to eloquence, whether of reading or of speech; and no less so is that cavilling disposition which takes pleasure in depreciating what is great, and ridiculing what is generally admired. 169. "Such a disposition bespeaks one not very likely to excel in any thing, but least of all in oratory. A true orator should be a person of generous sentiments, of warm feelings, and of a mind turned towards the admiration of all those great and high objects which mankind are naturally formed to admire. Joined with the manly virtues, he should at the same time possess strong and tender sensibility to all the injuries, distresses and sorrows, of his fellow-creatures; a heart that can readily enter into the circumstances of others, and can make their case his own." QUESTIONS. -155. What of bad habits of reading verse? 156. One of the peculiarities of poetry? 157, 158. The first and most important rule in reading? 159. Illustrate the importance of understanding what you read. 160. What of the metrical structure of verse? 161. What is a Verse? a Couplet? a Quatrain? a Stanza? '162. The Cæsura? 163. How must the Cæsural and other pauses be made? 165. What of the reading of a parenthesis? a simile? 167, 168. What moral helps are there to elocution? THE STANDARD FIFTH READER. PART II. EXERCISES IN READING. Small figures placed at the terminations of words refer to paragraphs in Part I. numbered with corresponding figures; the letters E similarly placed indicate that the words thus distinguished may be found in the Explanatory Index, at the end of the volume. Pupils should be required to attend to these marks of reference, and to answer questions upon the information thus pointed out. To enable them to do this, they should have an opportunity of reading to themselves every Exercise before reading any part of it aloud. The names of the authors of pieces, although not designated by any mark of reference, will be found in the Explanatory Index. 1. IN Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, there was a celebrated academy, one of the rules of which was as follows: "Members will meditate much, write little, and talk the least possible." The institution was known as "The Silent Academy;" and there was not a person of any literary distinction in Egypt who was not ambitious of belonging to it. 95 2. Akmed, a young Egyptian of great erudition and exquisite judgment, was the author of an admirable treatise, entitled "The Art of Brevity." It was a masterpiece of condensation and precision, and he was laboring to compress it still more, when he learned, in his provincial seclusion, that there was a place vacant in the Silent Academy. 3. Although he had not yet completed his twenty-third year, and although a great number of competitors were intriguing for the vacant place, he went and presented himself as a candidate at the door of the celebrated academy. A crowd of gossiping loungers in the portico I speedily gathered around the taciturn stranger, and plied him, all at once, with a multitude of ques ΕΙ (55) tions -a species of inquisition to which new comers were generally subjected. . 4. Without proffering a word in reply, Akmed proceeded directly to the object he had in view, and, approaching one of the ushers, placed in his hands a letter, addressed to the President of the august 78 institution, and containing these words: “Akmed humbly solicits the vacant place." The usher delivered the letter at once; but Akmed and his application had arrived too late. The place was already filled. 54 5. By a system of intrigue and management," which even academies sometimes find irresistible, the favorite candidate of a certain rich man had been elected. The members of the Silent Academy were much chagrined when they learned what they had lost in consequence. The new member was a glib and garrulous pretender, whose verbose jargon was as unprofitable as it was wearisome; whereas Akmed, the scourge of all babblers, never gave utterance to a word which was not sententious and suggestive. 6. How should they communicate to the author of "The Art of Brevity" the unpleasant intelligence of the failure of his application? They were at a loss for the best mode of proceeding, when the President hit upon this expedient: he filled a goblet with water, but so full that a single drop more would have caused it to overflow. Then he made a sign that the candidate should be introduced. 7. Akmed entered the hall, where the academicians EI were all assembled. With slow and measured steps, and that genuine modesty of demeanor which ever accompanies true merit, he advanced. At his approach, the President politely rose, and, without uttering" a word, pointed out to him, with a gesture 95 of regret, the fatal token of his exclusion. 8. Smiling at the emblem, the significance of which he at once comprehended, the young Egyptian was not in the least disconcerted. Persuaded that the admission of a supernumerary member would be productive of no harm to the academy, and would violate no essential law, he picked up a rose leaf which he saw lying at his feet, and placed it on the surface of the water so gently that it floated without causing the slightest drop to overflow. 9. At this ingenious and readily intelligible response, a general clapping of hands spoke the applauding admiration of the assembled members of the academy. By unanimous consent they suspended their rules so as to make an exception in favor of Akmed's admission. They handed him their registry of names, and he inscribed his own name at the end. MISCHIEFS OF FALSE PRIDE. 96 57 10. It now only remained for him to pronounce, according to custom, an address of thanks; but he was resolved to act consistently with that principle of the academy which enjoined the utmost parsimony of words. On the margin of the column where he had written his name, he traced the number 100, representing his brethren of the academy and the number to which they had been limited. Then placing a cipher before the figure 1 (thus, 0100), he wrote underneath, "Their number has been neither diminished nor increased." ΕΙ 11. Delighted at the laconic ingenuity and becoming modesty of Akmed, the President shook him affectionately by the hand; and then, substituting the figure 1 for the cipher which preceded the number 100 (thus, 1100), he appended these words: "Their number has been increased tenfold." ORIGINAL PARAPHRASE EI FROM THE FRENCH. EI 1. MR. JAMES BURFORD, a Bristol merchant, becoming bankrupt through unforeseen misfortunes, retired into Wales while his affairs were in the way of being arranged, and there lived for some time on the small income arising from his wife's fortune, practising the greatest economy, and hopeful that as soon as he could obtain a discharge from his creditors he would be taken into partnership by Sir James Amberry, a London merchant. Mr. Burford had a daughter, named Amelia, who was sixteen years of age, and who, having been brought up indulgently by her grandmother, could not bear to think that her father and other relations were now poor people. 2. Travelling in a stage coach to her father's cottage, in company with three gentlemen, Amelia spoke of herself as one who still lived in affluence; talked of her maid, her little carriage, and the fine house in which her father dwelt. It chanced that two of the gentlemen were creditors of her father, and had all along suspected him of retaining much of his former means, so that they had hitherto refused to sign his discharge. Hearing his daughter talk thus, they were confirmed in their suspicions; but, to make sure, they inquired if her father was Mr. Burford, the bankrupt merchant, and if he really lived in the fine style she spoke of. 3. She would now have denied what she formerly said, if she could have done it without confessing herself to be a boasting and lying girl. Not having the candor to make this confession, she repeated all she had said, and thus so completely convinced the two gentlemen of her father's dishonesty, that they not only refused to accede to his discharge, but told what they had heard to Sir James Amberry, who, in consequence, wrote to Mr. Burford, declining to take him into partnership, and stating that he had preferred another, whom he believed to be an honester man. 4. Thus had this conceited girl blighted all her father's prospects by her vanity and falsehood. Mr. Burford, though unwell, immediately proceeded to London, to clear his character; and, being unable to afford a seat in the coach, he was obliged to walk. The fatigue increased his illness, and he was laid up at an inn on the wayside in a raging fever. Meanwhile, Sir James Amberry and his lady, travelling to Wales, put up at the same inn for a night, and learning that a poor traveller was lying very ill there, they charitably went to see him. 94 5. Sir James was surprised to find that it was the unfortunate Burford, and still more to hear the sick man raving about the mischiefs which his daughter had brought upon him by her talk in the stage coach. In short, an explanation was thus brought about. Sir James Amberry, convinced of his innocence, spared no expense to secure his recovery; and Mr. Burford was soon restored quite well to his family. But the opportunity for beginning business again as a merchant had been lost through his wicked daughter, and he afterwards was obliged to content himself with a less lucrative employment. We may thus see what dangers lurk around us when we venture on the least departure from truth. MRS. OPIE. 1. O! TIMELY happy, timely wise, 2. New 33 every morning is the love 3. New mercies, each returning day, |