NORTH AMERICAN SECOND CLASS READER; THE FIFTH BOOK OF TOWER'S SERIES FOR COMMON SCHOOLS; DEVELOPING PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION, PRACTICALLY ILLUSTRATED BY ELEMENTARY EXERCISES, WITH READING LESSONS, IN WHICH REFERENCES ARE MADE TO THESE PRINCIPLES. BY DAVID B. TOWER, A. M., AND CORNELIUS WALKER, A. M., PRINCIPAL OF THE WELLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BOSTON. SEVENTEENTH EDITION. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY DANIEL BURGESS & CO. Educ T 958.55.878 BAPMECO COLLEGE LIBRARY GELAGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845 by DAVID B. TOWER in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. NEW EDITION, entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by DAVID B. TOWER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AT THE PREFACE. IT is a fact universally conceded, not only by the State and County Superintendents and School Committees, but even by teachers themselves, that the reading in our schools is generally bad; meaning, by this expression, that it is indistinct, inaudible, monotonous, unexpressive, unmeaning. Teachers of emi nence, and those who have made elocution a study, are fully of the opinion, that the evil complained of will not be removed, unless some text-book is put into the hands of both teacher and scholar, wherein the principles of reading, and the essential points of elocution, are properly arranged, clearly defined, and well illustrated. With the intention of meeting the case, the North American Second Class Reader has been prepared for the express purpose of giving the younger children in our schools, the advantage of becoming acquainted with the principles of Inflection, Stress, Emphasis, and Pause. These principles have been carefully deduced, and are so simplified as to be easily comprehended by the most ordinary teacher. When the pupil is exercised on the examples under any principle, he will then perceive what movement, stress, and inflection of the voice, will give the highest degree of impressiveness to the intended meaning of the author, and he will thence infer that other passages, expressive of similar sentiments, are to be read in a similar manner. The business of learning to read will, in this way, be much facilitated, and the |