EXCELSIOR FIFTH READER: CONTAINING A COMPREHENSIVE TREATISE ON ELOCUTION, ILLUS TO TEACHERS. Q UALIFY pupils by daily vocal drill, by special aid as required, and by general and systematic instruction, for each lesson. A reading which does not demand preparatory labor is not adapted to the needs of the class. The Lessons of Part First should be used for Reading Exercises. Require the class to commit to memory and recite the most important principles, definitions, and examples, both separately and in concert. Review the lessons, and do not commence Part Second until the pupils master them. Part Second is not simply a collection of readings, but also a dictionary and cyclcpediä, containing needful aids which are to be turned to profitable account. Never omit the Preliminary Exercises; but require the pupils to pronounce, spell, and define the words in the notes. Often require them to commence with the last word of a paragraph in the reading and pronounce back to the first. Also direct their attention to the accents and marked letters. Call into exercise their judgment and taste by requiring them to determine what principle of elocution each reading lesson is best adapted to illustrate. Before the Final Reading, be sure that the pupils understand the lesson. Adopt a simple order of examination, and let them give the leading thoughts in their own language, without formal questions: for example, first, the title of the piece; secondly, the words liable to mispronunciation, both in the notes and the reading; thirdly, the objects mentioned, and the facts concerning these objects; fourthly, the narrative or connected thoughts, and the portion illustrated by the picture, if any; and fifthly, the moral or what the lesson teaches. The Index to the Notes is of the utmost importance, and ought to be employed daily. Make special efforts to give pupils great facility in its use. The PUBLISHER of this BOOK has taken, by permission, certain Excellences of Watson's Independent Readers, including original material, classifications, arrangements, methods, and other features. Copyright, 1877. WILLIAM H. SADLIER. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF THE Electrotyped by SMITH & MCDOUGAL. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION PREFACE. HE Fifth Reader of the Excelsior Series, which is now presented to the public, will, it is con T fidently hoped, do much to justify and confirm the favorable verdict which the preceding numbers of the series have received from experienced Catholic teachers. The general principles which have governed the choice of selections for reading, are the same as those which have been acted on in arranging the earlier Readers. The final cause of a Reading-book, or a Reading class, we have assumed to be the production of good readers-of pupils, that is, who have learned to pronounce well, to modulate their voices properly, and to bring out the full thought of an author, by giving due emphasis and expression to his words. At the same time, care has been religiously taken to secure not only that no selection shall contain anything capable of wounding the purity of Catholic faith, but also that the Reader shall be a serviceable and important adjunct to the Catechism and the History. The Treatise on Elocution, more extended than in the earlier numbers of the Series, presents the subject both as a science and an art. To study it with the help of a blackboard, on which the diagrams, indicat ing the divisions and subdivisions of the subject-mat- In this edition all of Webster's marked letters are |