_And as the first impression made on the minds of youth is the most
lasting, great care should be taken to furnish them with such seeds of
reason and philosophy as may rectify and sweeten every part of their
future lives; by marking out a proper behaviour both with respect to
themselves and others, and exhibiting every virtue to their view which
claims their attention, and every vice which they ought to avoid.
Instead of this, we generally see youth suffered to read romances, which
impress on their minds such notions of Fairies, Goblins, &c. that exist
only in the imagination, and, being strongly imbibed, take much time to
eradicate, and very often baffle all the powers of philosophy. If books
abounding with moral instructions, conveyed in a proper manner, were
given in their stead, the frequent reading of them would implant in
their mind such ideas and sentiments, as would enable them to guard
against those prejudices so frequently met with amongst the ignorant._

_Nor is it possible that any person can speak or write with elegance and
propriety, who has not been taught to read well, and in such books where
the sentiments are just and the language pure._

_An insipid flatness and languor is almost the universal fault in
reading; often uttering their words so faint and feeble, that they
appear neither to feel nor understand what they read, nor have any
desire it should be understood or felt by others. In order to acquire a
forcible manner of pronouncing words, let the pupils inure themselves,
while reading, to draw in as much air as their lungs can contain with
ease, and to expel it with vehemence in uttering those sounds which
require an emphatical pronunciation, and read aloud with all the
exertion they can command; let all the consonant sounds be expressed
with a full impulse of the breath, and a forcible action of the organs
employed in forming them; and all the vowel sounds have a full and bold