although, perhaps, one to which every teacher may not choose to conform,
may yet serve as a test by which to compare the attainments of the
pupils in any particular school with those which, according to the
codes, may be taken as the average expected from the pupils in schools
where the Standard examination is, necessarily, enforced.

The general character of the series is literary, and not technical.
Scientific extracts have been avoided. The teaching of special subjects
is separately recognised by the codes, and provided for by the numerous
special handbooks which have been published. The separation of the
reading class from such teaching will prove a gain to both. The former
must aim chiefly at giving to the pupils the power of accurate, and,
if possible, apt and skilful expression; at cultivating in them a good
literary taste, and at arousing a desire of further reading. All
this, it is believed, can best be done where no special or technical
information has to be extracted from the passages read.

In the earlier Books the subject, the language, and the moral are all
as direct and simple as possible. As they advance, the language becomes
rather more intricate, because a studied simplicity, when detected
by the pupil, repels rather than attracts him. The subjects are more
miscellaneous; but still, as far as possible, kept to those which can
appeal to the minds of scholars of eleven or twelve years of age,
without either calling for, or encouraging, precocity. In Books II.,
III., and IV., a few old ballads and other pieces have been purposely
introduced; as nothing so readily expands the mind and lifts it out of
habitual and sluggish modes of thought, as forcing upon the attention
the expressions and the thoughts of an entirely different time.

The last, or Sixth Book, may be thought too advanced for its purpose.