HARVARD COLLEGE June 14, 1929 Malden Public Library Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by JOHN O. SARGENT, in the Electrotyped by New England Type and Stereotype Foundery, BOSTON. Cambridge: Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. PREFACE. IN a "Reader," properly so called, it is obvious that such exercises are most appropriate as are best for the one purpose of elocutionary practice. Regard should be had to this requirement rather than to the scientific or encyclopedical character of the lessons. The author has been influenced by these views in the preparation of the present work. It will be found to represent quite a variety of styles. The greater number of the pieces have never before had a place in any similar collection; but some will be recognized that are familiar to every cultivated taste. It is difficult to see why, in commending to the young of our day a literary standard, we should offer them one lower than that their fathers looked up to. Indeed, our best teachers of elocution generally prefer, for drilling exercises, those they are already acquainted with; such pieces as, from their marked power and superiority, can never become hackneyed. The book that is largely made up of these can not be justly set aside under the plea that |