NORTH AMERICAN FIRST CLASS READER; THE SIXTH BOOK OP TOWER'S SERIES FOR COMMON SCHOOLS; IN WHICH THE HIGHER PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION ARE EXPLAINED BY DAVID B. TOWER, A. M., AND CORNELIUS WALKER, A. M., PRINCIPAL OF THE WELLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BOSTON. THIRTEENTH EDITION. BOSTON: SANBORN, CARTER, BAZIN & CO., 25 & 29 CORNHILL. HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress. In the year 1848, ty DAVID B TOWER in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. NEW EDITION, entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by DAVID B. TOWER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. In the preparation of the Series, the last Reader of which is now offered to the public, it has been a leading object to present Elocution in all its importance, to define and illustrate its essential points in a lucid and comprehensive manner, and to arrange it in such a system as will best exhibit its natural order and developments. Devotedness to a particular subject, a familiarity with its details, and a consequent knowledge of its principles and elements, — a perception of what is best adapted to the purposes of instruction, and an intimacy with the various departments of literature, are, we are well aware, indispensable prerequisites for the successful accomplishment of what we have undertaken. These prerequisites will enable one to distinguish between what is useful as a step to something farther, and that which is neither important to an end, nor has any reference to the result to be attained. We are sensible, on the one hand, that from a desire to be brief and comprehensive, we may have passed over much in a cursory and perhaps in an incidental manner, which might require a more full explanation and detail; and, on the other hand, from an anxiety to establish our opinions and fortify our position, we may have dwelt on some points, which, perhaps, may be considered as useless and unimportant by those who have not made elocution a study, and literature the business of their lives. School committees and teachers are requested to read the essay and remarks on the first thirteen pages of the Introduction to the Elocutionary Principles in this book; where our opinions in reference to the character of a reading book, its influence on the mind, |