PREFACE.

THE New London Readers are prepared with a view to meet the requirements of the New Code, and the instructions issued by the Education Department to Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools.

In the text, small Arabic numerals are placed to mark phrases needing more explanation than can be given in a vocabulary. Notes on these phrases will be found in Appendix I.

Brief memoirs of standard authors, whose works are quoted in this book, are given in Appendix II. Small asterisks in the text point out words which are explained in the Vocabulary, Appendix III.

The publishers have to express their grateful acknowledgments to His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, and also to Mr. Ruskin, for permission to insert extracts from their works. They also desire to thank Messrs. Blackwood & Sons for their kindness in permitting the use of a passage from "The Mill on the Floss," by the late George Eliot.