.... 75 Earthquake of Hayti, in 1842 80 Migration of the Creek Indians 85 Inundation in Holland, 1825 36 The Same Subject, concluded. 87 Lines for Berkshire Jubilee PREFACE. The following work is designed, in accordance with its title, to precede the American Common-School Reader,-a previous publication by the authors of the present volume, and designed for the use of advanced classes. The pieces now offered as reading lessons, being adapted to younger pupils, are selected from more familiar subjects, and embrace a larger amount of narrative and descriptive, than of didactic and oratorical composition. Regard was paid, in compiling the Reader, to such elevation in the sentiments and sty 'e of the extracts, as the highest and concluding stage of popular education seemed to require. The preliminary Rules of Elocution, contained in that volume, were also designed for the use of classes whose maturity of mind, and whose progress in education, rendered it desirable that they should make the rules and principles of good reading a subject of systematic study; since it is a result so important to the community, that all young persons should leave our Common Schools not only duly prepared to read well, but competent to give thorough instruction in reading. The principles of elocution presented in this Introduction, are such as belong to an elementary course. They are designed for practical training on the rudiments of orthoëpy, the department of elocution which was reserved for the present volume, so as to present in the Reader and the Introduction, a brief but complete course of instruction on all the essential points of the subject. Our endeavor has been to select such principles only, as are of immediate use and practical application, without excluding any portion of systematic information which is important to thorough teaching and intelligent practice. The authors hope that the two books now prepared, will be found to Furnish, in the rules and exercises which they contain, the means of an |