Before the conclusion of this introduction, the Compiler takes the liberty to recommend to teachers, to exercise their pupils in discovering and explaining the emphatic words, and the proper tones and pauses, of every portion assigned them to read, previously to their being called out to the performance. These preparatory lessons, in which they should be regularly examined, will improve their judgment and taste; prevent the practice of reading without attention to the subject; and establish a habit of readily discovering the meaning, force, and beauty, of every sentence they peruse. CONTENTS. PART I. PIECES IN PROSE. CHAPTER I. Select Sentences and Paragraphs. CHAPTER II. Narrative Pieces. SECT. 1. No rank or possesions can make the guilty mind, happy, 2. Change of external condition often adverse to virtue, 4. Lady Jane Grey, 5. Ortogrul; or the vanity of riches, 6. The hill of science, 7. The journey of a day; a picture of human life, CHAPTER III. Didactic Pieces. 3. On forgiveness, sessor, SECT. 1. The importance of a good education, 2. On gratitude, 4. Motives to the practice of gentleness, 6. Comforts of religion, 5. A suspicious temper the source of misery to its pos 7. Diffidence of our abilities a mark of wisdom, 8. On the importance of order in the distribution of 9. The dignity of virtue amidst corrupt examples, 10. The mortifications of vice greater than those of virtue, 12. Rank and riches afford no ground for envy, 13. Patience under provocations our interest as well as 14. Moderation in our wishes recommended, 15. Omniscience and omnipresence of the Deity, the CHAPTER IV. Argumentative Pieces. SECT. 1. Happiness is founded in rectitude of conduct, 2. Virtue man's bighest interest, 3. The injustice of an uncharitable spirit, SECT. 4. The misfortunes of men mostly chargeable on them- CHAPTER V. SECT. 1. Trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford, 5. Exalted society, and the renewal of virtuous con- nexions, two sources of future felicity, SECT. 4. Lord Mansfield's speech in the House of Lords, 1770, on the bill for preventing the delays of justice, by Page. 8. Excellence of the Holy Scriptures, 9. Reflections occasioned by a review of the blessings, 13. The influence of devotion on the happiness of life, 21. Trust in the care of Providence recommended, 22. Piety and gratitude enliven prosperity, 23. Virtue, when deeply rooted, is not subject to the in- 24. The speech of Fabricius, a Roman ambassador, to king Pyrrhus, who attempted to bribe him to his interests, by the offer of a great sum of money, |