SARGENT'S STANDARD SERIES.-No. 5. THE STANDARD FIFTH READER (FIRST-CLASS STANDARD READER) For Public and Private Schools. CONTAINING A SUMMARY OF RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION AND ELOCUTION; AND A COPIOUS EXPLANATORY INDEX. BY EPES SARGENT, AUTHOR OF "THE STANDARD SPEAKER," ETC. JOHN L. SHOREY. 1867. LIBRARY 46*240 SARGENT'S SCHOOL READERS. THE STANDARD FIFTH READER. THE STANDARD THIRD READER. THE STANDARD SECOND READER, Illustrated. SARGENT'S PRIMARY SCHOOL CHARTS. Twenty-two inches by thirty in size, neatly lithographed, with large, conspicuous letters, for beginners in reading, spelling, &c. SARGENT'S STANDARD SPEAKERS. THE STANDARD SPEAKER, THE INTERMEDIATE STANDARD SPEAKER, THE PRIMARY STANDARD SPEAKER, Containing the choicest pieces in the language for declamation. SARGENT'S ORIGINAL DIALOGUES. An entirely new collection, containing pieces especially adapted for representation, school exhibitions, &c. Sent, post-paid, by mail, on receipt of one dollar. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, by EPES SARGENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts. Many of the single pieces in this collection are protected by the copyright. University Press, Cambridge: Printed by Welch, Bigelow, and Company. PREFACE. "THE evils of book-making," says Lord Bacon, "are only to be cured by making more books; that is, such as shall cause the bad ones to be forgotten." An objection to many of the reading exercises selected for schools is, that they either fall below the requirements of a sound literary taste, or are not of a character to be understood by those for whom they are intended. It is a narrow experience, I am aware, that would have a pupil read nothing that is not level to his comprehension; that would leave nothing for his mind. to grow up to; but it is none the less true that he will best deliver what he best understands and feels. To satisfy at once the mature taste of the teacher, and to interest the pupil, is the desirable object in the compilation of a "Reader;" and let it not be supposed that this is any easy or irresponsible task, to be taken up lightly, and despatched hastily and superficially. I know of few literary undertakings that ought to be assumed with more ample preparation, or pursued with a more scrupulous regard to the purposes in view. The pieces that are read or declaimed at school probably exercise a more enduring influence upon the character, so far as it can be affected by the thoughts and forms of expression that literature embodies, than all that is read in after life. How important, then, that an active and |