THE NATIONAL FIFTH READER: CONTAINING A TREATISE ON ELOCUTION; EXERCISES IN READING AND DECLAMATION; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, AND COPIOUS NOTES. ADAPTED TO THE USE OF STUDENTS IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE. BY RICHARD G. PARKER, A. M., J. MADISON WATSON. A. S. BARNES & Co., 111 & 113 WILLIAM STREET, SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS, GENERALLY, THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. 1866. UNIV. OF MINNESOTA LIBRARY The Most Uniform and Progressive Series. Parker and Watson's National School Primer...18mo, 64 pages. National Elementary Speller..18mo, half bd., 160 National Pronouncing Speller. 12mo, 66 66 66 188 46 National First Reader... No other READERS yet offered to the public have met with such general favor, or been attended with such general and uniform increase in circulation. Since the completion of the ENTIRE SERIES, they have been recom mended in nearly all the Normal Schools-State and Countythroughout the Middle and Western States, and at this date they have attaired a circulation second to but two other series in the United States-these two having been twenty years longer before the public. NEW YORK, January, 1863. BARNES & BURR. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by A. S. BARNES & CO.. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York Paan PREFACE IN the preparation of this volume, we have aimed to make it a complete and sufficient work for advanced classes in Reading, Elocution, and English and American Literature; to furnish, in an available form, such an amount of biographical, historical, classical, orthoëpical, and miscellaneous matter, as to render it highly valuable as a book of reference; and to present a collection of pieces so rich, varied, perspicuous, and attractive, as to suit all classes of minds, all times, and all occasions. JAN 25 99 2 EXCHANGE COP M KINDERY SEP 20:29 Miche Part First, in two chapters, embraces a simple, complete, and eminently practical Treatise on Elocution. The principles and rules are stated in a succinct and lucid manner, and followed by examples and exercises of sufficient number and extent to enable the student thoroughly to master each point as presented, as well as to acquire a distinct comprehension of the parts as a whole. In Part Second, the Selections for Reading and Declamation contain what are regarded as the choicest gems of English literature. The works of many authors, ancient and modern, have been consulted, and more than a hundred standard 'writers of the English language, on both sides of the Atlantic, have been laid under contribution to enable the authors to present a collecion, rich in all that can inform the understanding, improve the taste, and cultivate the heart, and which, at the same time, shall furnish every variety of style and subject to exemplify the principles of Rhetorical delivery, and form a finished reader and elocutionist. These selections have been arranged in a regularly graded course, and strictly classified with regard to the nature o the subjects. Although we have not been studious of novelty, presenting only what we regarded as suitable, intrinsically excellent, and most truly indicating the mode and range of thought of the writer, it will be seen that a large proportion of this collection is composed of pieces to be found in no similar work. 449042 Much care and labor have been devoted to the orthoëpical department. The pronunciation of all words liable to be mispronounced is indicated once in each paragraph, or at the bottom of the page where they occur. With respect to the words about the pronunciation of which orthoëpists differ, we have adopted the most recent and reliable authority. Classical and historical allusions, so common among the best writers, have in all cases been explained; and if the authors have not been deceived, every aid has been given in the notes, that the reader may readily comprehend the meaning of the writer. This has been done in a manner more full and satisfactory than they have seen in any other collection, and in every instance at the bottom of the page where the difficulty occurs, so that the reader may not be subjected to the trouble of turning to an index, or consulting a dictionary,—a work which, in general, if done at all, is done with extreme reluctance, even by advanced pupils. In order that the student may still more thoroughly understand what he reads, and for the convenience of that large class of readers who have not leisure to peruse voluminous memoirs of distinguished men, and yet would be unwilling to forego all knowledge of them, we have introduced concise Biographical Sketches of authors from whose works extracts have been selected, and of persons whose names occur in the Reading Exercises. These sketches, presenting a clear and distinct outline of the life, and producing a clear and distinct impression of the character, furnish an amount of useful and available information rarely surpassed by memoirs of greater extent and pretension. Lists of the names of authors, both alphabetical and chronological, have also been introduced, thus rendering this a convenient text-book for students in English and American Literature. |