events and circumstances.

The direct and ostensible aim of the book, however, has been kept
steadily in view; which is to furnish the best possible exercises for
practice in Rhetorical reading. To this end, the greatest variety of
style and sentiment has been sought. There is scarcely a tone or
modulation, of which the human voice is capable, that finds not here
some piece adapted precisely to its best expression. There is not an
inflection, however delicate, not an emphasis, however slight, however
strong, that does not here meet with something fitted well for its
amplest illustration. No tenderness of pathos, no earnestness of
thought, no play of wit, no burst of passion, is there, perhaps, of
which the accomplished teacher of Elocution may not find the proper
style of expression in these pages, and, consequently, the best examples
for the illustration of his art.

The book, thus briefly described, is, therefore, given to the public
with the same confidence that has hitherto inspired the author in
similar efforts, and with the hope that it may reach even a higher
measure of usefulness than that attained by any of its predecessors, in
the long line of works which he has prepared for the use of schools.

NEW YORK, April, 1863.




CONTENTS.