Price 50 Cents. SELECTIONS FOR READING AND SPEAKING, FOR THE HIGHER CLASSES IN COMMON SCHOOLS. BY JOSHUA LEAVITT. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT & CO. NO. 17 AND 19 CORNHILL. 1850. HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by JOSHUA LEAVITT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. LEAVITT'S READING SERIES, Published by John P. Jewett & Co., 23 Cornhill, Boston. I. -LEAVITT'S PRIMER. II. - LEAVITT'S EASY LESSONS IN READING. III. - LEAVITT'S READING LESSONS. IV.-LEAVITT'S LESSONS IN READING AND SPEAKING. Stereotyped by GEORGE A. CURTIS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. PREFACE. THE plan of this Series of Readers was formed more than twenty-five years ago; and the little book called "Easy Lessons," as a part of the series, was published in the year 1823. It is needless to refer to the various causes which so long delayed, or to those which have now induced, the completion of the original plan. The original design embraced two principal improvements upon the reading-books then in use in our schools: -first, a more systematic and practical set of instructions in the principles and rules of elocution, including all that is appropriate to the use of Common Schools in the results of scientific investigation; and, secondly, a more attractive set of Reading Lessons, adapted not only to interest the minds of children, but to lead them naturally into habits of good reading. The "Easy Lessons" answered these ends for its part, in a most satisfactory degree, in its day. But, in a quarter of a century, the science of elocution has made great advances, and many improvements have been introduced in the modes of teaching the elementary principles, and training the vocal organs for easy, graceful and forcible delivery. The compiler has endeavored to keep himself acquainted with these successive changes, and is now completing his long-cherished plan; and has arranged a series of reading-books for Common Schools, containing all the elementary instructions that seemed appropriate to the object, with a selection of progressive reading-lessons, which he confidently hopes will be found to be both attractive and instructive, and adapted to the one leading object in view, that of learning to read. The series embraces the following books, viz. : |