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In the selected part, he has endeavoured to present such pieces as are calculated to cultivate the taste, enlighten the understanding, improve the judgment, and establish the morals of the young, and, at the same time, to inspire them with a fondness for reading, and a desire to excel in the science of elocution.

In conclusion, it affords the author no small degree of pleasure to acknowledge the obligation he is under to Dr. James Rush, who, with a liberality peculiar to superiour minds, and a courtesy exercised only by accomplished men, tendered to the author, in the compilation and arrangement of his work, such a use of his own, admirable treatise on the Philosophy of the Human Voice," as he might think proper to make. This remark will sufficiently explain to the reader, the grounds of that license by which the author has drawn so many of his best materials from the rich depository alluded to.*

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

MANKIND are more frequently swayed by prejudice than reason. Reason has a clear eye; but prejudice is blind, and either clings tenaciously to old doctrines and time-worn systems, or gropes forward in imminent danger of stumbling upon the dark mountains, of errour. Hence, new systems generally meet with more opposers than advocates; and hence, too, bad systems and false doctrines, on their first promulgation, gain as many proselytes as those that are genuine and useful. We need not wonder, then, that philosophers have been imprisoned, statesmen banished, poets starved, apostles beheaded, and that the Saviour of men was crucified, while dupes and impostors have been countenanced, honoured, and even deified. Nor need we be astonished that every successful improvement in science and the arts, has gained its popularity only by slow degrees. That reformer, therefore, who would succeed, must not attempt, at once, any great innovation. It is in accordance with this maxim, that I have undertaken to do but a little in the following Essay.

They who have long groped in the darkness of a dungeon, cannot bear to be suddenly ushered into the full glare of a noonday's sun. How can it be expected, then, that those who have hitherto been content to read, or rather, try to read, without a knowledge of any of the principles of reading, can be persuaded to adopt, at once, all the principles of the science? Believing it better to do a little good, than no good, have contented myself, for the present, with presenting to the publick, only those principles of elocution that I deem most important in practice, leaving it for a future opportunity, or to those who may succeed me,

* It is the design of the Author to publish, in the course of a year or two, a SEQUEL to this work, and soon to follow that by a treatise on RHETORICK. He may likewise deem it advisable to publish an INTRODUCTION to this Essay.

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ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

to give a more extensive and complete treatise upon the subject. To a man who is wandering in the dark, a farthing candle is better than no light.

Inattention to principles in our systems of instruction, has long been complained of by the discerning few; and, although some slight reformation in regard to this point, has taken place in our schools, yet the great importance of it, is still, both by teachers and parents, too generally overlooked. That the examination and investigation of princi ples, in any art or science, are highly calculated to call into active exercise the reasoning faculties, is universally admitted. How inconsistent is it, then, to think of teaching children to read, without causing them to pay attention to the principles of reading!—It is hoped that so gross an absurdity as this, will not much longer disgrace our schools and seminaries of learning.

The investigation and application of the principles of elocution, as well as the study of the principles of grammar, arithmetick, philosophy, phrenology, and so forth, tend not only to develop and expand the intellectual powers, but, also, in a pre-eminent degree, to cultivate the taste, and refine the mind.

We boast of our liberal institutions, and of our admirable form of government: nay, more; of our intelligence. It is admitted that we have done much for the cause of learning; but who cannot perceive, that much remains to be done before we can justly lay claim to that noble and refined excellence which ought to adorn a great, a prosperous, and a free people? Who will deny, that, in the general scramble after wealth, most of our citizens overlook the refined, the beautiful, in their too eager pursuit of the useful? Who will deny, that, with us, even at the present day, the standard value of every discovery and improvement in science and the arts, is not, (as it ought to be,) the amount it will add to the happiness of man-is not, its tendency to enlighten, to refine, to liberalize him, and elevate him in the scale of being; but -its ability to improve his condition in the mere matter of dollars and cents?-and that most of our systems of education, as well as the branches taught in our schools, are exclusively shaped to this end?— INTELLIGENCE! And is this our standard of intelligence, flowing from our boasted principles of enlightened freedom? Has refinement, has elegance, nothing to do with national excellence, with national greatness? Shall it any longer be said, that the breath of liberty blights the fine arts, and banishes refinement? Shall American freemen merit the reproach of being a nation of misers ?—I leave it to the legislators and statesmen of our country to answer these interrogatories, and to say, whether a state of prosperity has not arrived, which would justify a more liberal course of policy in regard to our school-systems and the encouragement of the fine arts-a course embracing, not only the useful, but, also, the elegant:-and especially to decide, whether refinement of manners (which would naturally flow from such a course of policy) would be dangerous to the liberties of our country.

To the teacher it may be proper to remark, that one hundred and eighty pages of this third edition, exactly correspond with the same pages of the second edition; but that other parts of the work have been enlarged, and slightly altered, and, it is hoped, for the better. In order to prevent farther alterations, however, the work has been stereotyped.

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Dr. Johnson, 160

164

Burns, 164

Shakspeare, 166

PART II.-SELECTIONS IN PROSE AND POETRY.

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Westminster Ab-

Hohenlinden,

Shakspeare, 189
Campbell, 190
The Burial of Sir John Moore,
Wolfe, 191
Messiah,
Pope, 192
On receiving his Mother's Picture,
Cowper, 195

Man was made to Mourn, a

Dirge

To the Skies,
Musick of the Ocean,

Burns, 198
Bryant, 200

National Gazette, 201
The Ocean at the Resurrection

Morn,

Pollok, 202

Address to the Ocean,

Byron, 204

Colloquial Powers of Doctor

Franklin,
Intellectual Qualities of Milton,

Wirt, 207

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To the Characters Employed in this Work.

The Falling Inflection of the voice is indicated by the grave accent:

thus,

The Rising Inflection, by the acute accent:

The Circumflex or Wave, by the circumflex:

A tonick or vowel sound that is to be prolonged, by this

charac-

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ter - placed over the vowel: thus,

A short vowel sound, by this placed over the vowel: thus,

The shortest Rhetorical Pause, by two dots: (..)

A longer Rhetorical Pause, by three: (...)

A longer still, by four: (....)

Words italicised, are to receive a moderate degree of emphatick

force; as,

Words in SMALL CAPITALS, a higher degree of the same:

Words in CAPITALS, a degree still higher :

man

MAX

MAN

IN PART II.

The Figured Vowels employed in pronouncing words at the bottom of the
pages, are used in accordance with Mr. Walker's Key, as adopted in Cobb's
Dictionary: thus,

Fåte, får, fåll, fât,—mè, mêt,—pine, pin,-nd, move, når, nôt,

-tube, tub, båll-811-påånd-thin, THIS.

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