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MARYARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON
JANUARY 25, 1924

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1845, by
PAINE & BURGESS,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern Dis

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PREFACE.

SPEECH is one of the highest attributes of man; and in a free government its cultivation becomes an object of paramount importance to those who aspire to a career of extensive usefulness, or honorable distinction. Every year in our country's history enhances this importance, and affords additional reasons in favor of preparing our youth to meet the emergencies of the present and coming times. Questions of vital interest to our religious, civil and social institutions, are agitated with fearful success by the advocates of error; the demagogue, as well as the schoolmaster, "is abroad in the land," and the question at issue is, which shall triumph,—whether the schoolroom or the political conclave shall prevail, whether our free institutions shall be sustained by the conservative power of the former, or be undermined by the selfish machinations of the latter. There is a growing demand for men, who know, and knowing dare maintain in public assemblies, with all the power of eloquence, the true interests of their country. To the School, to the Common, as well as the High-school, we must look for future men who are to advocate and sustain the purity of our public morals, the important interests of learning, and the noble fabric of our civil policy-under which, as a nation, we have thus far flourished.

One of the chief glories of our country is the encouragement given to learning, and the general diffusion of knowledge. But half the education of our young men is lost by neglecting the study and practice of this branch, which gives to all the rest a tenfold value. Thousands of men, otherwise well educated, are often heard to lament their neglect of Elocution during their school-boy days, and their consequent inability to

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