Excerpt from English Reader, or Pieces in Prose and Verse, From the Best Writers: Designed to Assist Young Persons to Read With Propriety and Effect; Improve Their Language and Sentiments, and to Inculcate the Most Important Principles of Piety and Virtue; With a Few Preliminary Observations on the Principles of Good Reading

TO read with propriety is a pleasing and important attainment; produc tive of improvement oth to the understanding and the heart. Itis essential to a comp cte reader, that he minutely perceive the.ideas, and enter into the t'eclin s of the author, whose sentiinents he professes to repeat: for how is it possib e to re resent clearly to others, what we have but faint or inaccurate conception o ourselves? F there were no other benefits resulting from the art of reading well than the necessity it lays us under, of precisely ascertain ing the meaning of what we read and the habit thence acquired, of dcmg lilib with facility, both when readin silently and aloud they would consti tute a sufficient compensation for al the labour we can bestow upon the sub iect. But the pleasure derived to ourselves and othersi from a clear com inuuication of ideas and feelings; and the stron and durab e impressions made thereb on the minds of the reader and the a so, are considerations, which give ditional importance to the study of this necessary and useful art. The perfect attament of it doubtless requires great attention and practice, 'oined to extraordinary natural powers; but as there are many degrees of exce lance in the art, the student whose aims fall short of perfection, will find himself amply rewarded for every exertion he may think proper to make.

To 'give rules for the man cment of the voice in reading, by which the necessary pauses; emphasis, tones, may be discovered and put in prac tice, is not possible. After all the directions that can be offered on these points, much will remain to be taught by the living instructor: much will be attains ble by no other means than the force of exam lo, influencing the imitative powers of the learner Some rules and princip es on these heads will, how ever, be found useful, to prevent erroneous and vicious modes of utterance to give the young reader some taste for the subject and to assist him in ac quiring a just and accurate mode of delivery. The observations which we have to make, for these par 9, may be comprised under the following heads: Prayer Loudness of aicc; Distinctnsss Slowness Pnpriety qf Pronunciation; Emphasis; Tones Pause: and Mode of Reading Verse.

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