THE HUNDRED DIALOGUES, NEW AND ORIGINAL; DESIGNED FOR READING AND EXHIBITION IN SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, AND PRIVATE CIRCLES, BY WILLIAM BENTLEY FOWLE, Author of Familiar Dialogues; The Common School Speaker BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY MORRIS COTTON, 1860 January 7 List of the compile Jany 7, 1960 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1854, BY MARIA ANTOINETTE FOWLE, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE scarcity of scenes, suitable for School Dialogues, in our standard Dramatic writers, and the almost entire neglect of this department by literary men, would imply that there is a difficulty in the subject, and this, the author hopes, will secure to him an unusual measure of indulgence, should this attempt not prove to be all that is desired. Grateful for the favor which has been shown to his former efforts, the author regrets that he has reason to complain of so many compilers of school books, who, without the ceremony of a request, or the poor remuneration of an acknowledgment, have appropriated to themselves a large number of his original dialogues, not again be excused. a trespass that will The position long ago assumed by the author, that the use of Familiar Dialogues is the best means of introducing a natural style of reading, has been confirmed by thirty years' experience, and he believes, that, in no other way can the teacher so effectually banish that stiff and sometimes ridiculous mannerism, which prevails in too many schools. It is a pleasant circumstance, that, as this book is intended to be a supplement to other works, it will not be necessary to displace any other to make room for this. It was the intention of the author to print just a hundred dialogues, and hence the title adopted; but it was found necessary to modify the original design, not, however, by reducing the number, but by greatly increasing it. All the pieces in the book are original, and all but seven are now published for the first |