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THE

ENGLISH READER:

OR

Pieces in Prose and Poetry,

SELECTED FROM THE BEST WRITERS,

DESIGNED TO ASSIST YOUNG PERSONS

TO READ WITH PROPRIETY AND EFFECT

TO IMPROVE THEIR

LANGUAGE AND SENTIMENTS:

AND TO INCULCATE

SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES of

PIETY AND VIRTUE.

With a few preliminary Observations

On the Principles of Good Reading,

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BY LINDLEY MURRAY,

Author of English Grammar, adapted to the different Classes of Learners,” &c.

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(From the latest English edition.)

POUGHKEEPSIE:

PRINTED BY PARACLETE POTTER,

181 1.

*** NEW YORK PUBLIC LIAÁGY

950517A

ASTCH, LENOX AND
TLEVEN FOUNDATION

1938

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lections

MANY selections of excellent matter have lately been

made for the benefit of young persons. Performances of this kind are of so great utility, that fresh productions of them, and new attempts to improve the young mind, will scarcely be deemed superfluous, if the writer makes his compilation instructive and interesting, and sufficiently distinct from others.

The present work, as the title expresses, aims at the attainment of three objects: to improve youth in the art of reading to meliorate their language and sentiments; and to inculcate some of the most important principles of piety and virtue.

The pieces selected, not only give exercise to a great váriety of emotions, and the correspondent tones and variations of voice, but contain sentences, and members of sentences, which are diversified, proportioned, and pointed with accura cy. Exercises of this nature are, it is presumed, well calcu· lated to teach youth to read with propriety and effect. A se. lection of sentences, in which variety and proportion, with exact punctuation, have been carefully observed, in all their parts as well as with respect to one another, will probably have a much greater effect, in properly teaching the art of reading, than is commonly imagined. In such constructions, every thing is accommodated to the understanding and the voice; and the common difficulties in learning to read well are obvi ated. When the learner has acquired a habit of reading such sentences, with justice and facility, he will readily apply that habit and the improvements he has made, to sentences more complicated and irregular, and of a construction entirely different.

The language of the pieces chosen for this collection, has been carefully regarded. Purity, propriety, perspicuity, and in many instances, elegance of dictión distinguish them. They are extracted from the works of the most correct and elegant writers. From the sources whence the sentiments are drawn, the reader may expect to find them connected and regulər, sufficiently important and impressive, and divested of every thing that is either trite or eccentric. The frequent perusal of such composition, naturally tends to infuse a taste for this

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