sylphs; twelfth; twelfths; delved; elves; gulped; alps; bulbs; film'd; helms; wilt'st; fill'dst; help'st; delv'dst (?) sent wont; end find; dense once; banns dun.; tenth ninth ; ants wants; ends bonds; canst fenc'd; bronzed; tenths— routes flutes; eighth-bids adze - desk cask; fist most; lisp gasp; risked; basks; beasts fists, wastes lasts, busts costs, foists roasts; wasp; fisp'd gasp'd; ask'st; sized buzzed; schism* prism, chasm spasm, witticism ostracism scath'd froth'd; friths truths; breathed bathed; breathes paths; rhythm; breath'dst (?); sift lift; cuffs proofs; fifth; wefts; laugh'st doff'st; left'st-lived moved; doves coves; lov'st prov'st; liv'dst-heaped apt; cups fops; hop'st dup'st; copts; shap'dst (?)-ebb'd fobb'd; cubs snobs; blab'dst (?) - lamed combed; claims brooms; vamp dump; pump'd swamp'd; imps stamps; roam'dst (?); pump'st romp'dst (?)

NOTE. However perfect in articulation one may have become, it will always be found a useful practice to spell, or, at least, to pronounce, with deliberation, fulness, and force, a page or two of words, just before beginning to speak in public. A page of words without any connection of sense is best for this purpose, and the foregoing examples of combinations afford more exercise of the sort than can easily be found in the same space elsewhere.

In such practice, and in all practice, in articulation, the endeavor should not be to make the sounds with the least possible movement of the mouth. The contrary is a better rule, but that must not be allowed to change the sounds from their true forms.

*A tonic should never be inserted between the combined subtonics in schism, rhythm, &c.

THE

THIRD CLASS READER.

I. THE THREE FRIENDS.

TRUST no friend whom you have not tried. There are more of them at the festive board than at the prison door.

A man had three friends: two of them he loved much, but for the third he cared little, though he was well worthy of his affection. This man was once summoned before the judge, and strongly accused of a crime of which he was really inno"Who among you," said he, "will go with me, and give evidence in my behalf? For I have been accused without cause, and the king is angry."

cent.

The first of his friends excused himself immediately; saying that he could not go with him on account of other business. The second accompanied him to the door of the hall of justice; there he turned round and went back, through fear of the angry judge. The third, on whom he had least depended, went in, spoke for him, and testified so fully to his innocence, that the judge dismissed him unharmed.

Man has three friends in this world. How do they behave in the hour of death, when God calls him to judgment?

The gold, the friend he loves best, leaves him first, and does not go with him. His relations and friends attend him to the

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gate of the grave, and return to their homes. The third, of whom in life he took least heed, is represented by his good works. They attend him to the throne of the Judge; they precede him, plead for him, and find mercy and grace for him.

II.-TAMERLANE AND THE ANT.

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TAMERLANE, the scourge and terror of Asia, owed his power and success mainly to his energy and resolution; which were qualities so marked in him that he was called by the name of the Iron. As great results often flow from trivial.. causes, so this monarch was accustomed to trace the origin of these traits in himself to the following incident. In one of my first battles," said he, "fortune was against me; I was obliged to flee for my life, and conceal myself for many hours in the ruins of a deserted building. The fear of falling into the hands of my enemies, and the bitter reflection that, by this defeat, I had lost all the fruits of my former victories, weighed heavily upon my spirit. I became discouraged, and resolved to abandon all my enterprises. In this state of mind my attention was drawn to an ant, which was trying to drag up a small elevation a grain of wheat many times bigger than itself. The little creature would often get very near the top, and then fall back again. Sixty-nine unsuccessful attempts did I count; but the seventieth carried the grain to the desired point. This example gave me new courage; and I drew from the circumstance a lesson which has often been of service to me."

III.-THE KHAN AND THE DERVIS.

A TARTAR khan* was once riding with his nobles on a hunting party. On the way he met with a dervis, who proclaimed with a loud voice that he would give some good advice to any one who would bestow upon him a hundred pieces of gold. The khan was curious, and asked the dervis what this valuable counsel might be.

"I will tell you, O king," was the reply, "when you shall have paid me the hundred pieces of gold." The khan ordered the money to be given him; and he then said, in a very impressive manner, "Undertake nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." He then went on his way.

The followers of the khan smiled, and made merry with the counsel which he had bought at so high a price. "It is true," said he, "that the words of the dervis convey a very simple and obvious rule of prudence; but on that very account it may be the less heeded, and that is probably the reason why the dervis inculcated it so earnestly. For the future it shall always be present in my mind. I will have the words written over the doors of my palace, upon the walls of my chambers, and upon the household articles of daily use."

After some time, an ambitious governor made a plot to kill the khan and possess himself of the crown. He bribed the royal physician, with a great sum of money, to further his wicked plans; and the physician promised to bleed the khan with a poisoned lancet, as soon as an occasion offered.

The desired opportunity soon occurred. But when the attendants brought in a silver basin, to receive the blood, the physician saw engraved upon the rim the words, "Undertake nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." Reading this inscription, he started back, and with obvious

* Khan, a Tartar king, or prince.

+ Dervis, a holy man; a man employed in religious duties and meditations.

embarrassment laid down the poisoned lancet, and took up another.

The khan observed this, and asked him why he had changed the lancets. On being told that it was because the point of the first was dull, he desired to see it. The physician hesitated to reach it to him, betraying at the same time marks of great confusion; when the khan sprang up, and seized him by the throat, saying, "I read wicked thoughts in your face. If would save your life, confess every thing." The physician fell at his feet, and revealed to him the plot against his life, which had been defeated by the words on the rim of the basin. "Then I have not paid the dervis too dearly for his advice," said the khan. He pardoned the physician, ordered the wicked governor to be executed, and sending for the dervis, gave him still further rewards.

you

*

ONCE upon a time, a shah of Persia was making a tour through his kingdom. At the close of a sultry summer's day, he met under the shade of a tree a young shepherd who was playing upon his flute. The king was pleased with his appearance, and on entering into conversation with him, was much struck with the shrewdness of his remarks, and the natural though uncultivated vein of good sense which he evidently possessed. He determined to take the youth with him to his court, and give to his fine talents the education they deserved.

Abdallah-for so the youth was named-followed the king with reluctance to his palace. There his progress equalled the highest expectations that had been formed of it. The king loved him as a son; but, as a natural consequence, he

* Shah, a name by which the King of Persia is commonly called.