Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ELOCUTION AND ORATORY, Best Things, Vol. 2 PREFACE. No subject within the range of English education has given more evidence of progress within the last ten years than that of oral expression. This progress has shown itself not only in the greater attention which is bestowed upon popular recitation, but also in a demand on the part of artist and teacher for a purer literature and a truer art. It has been the conscientious aim of the editor, in the several numbers of BEST SELECTIONS which have succeeded the numbers comprising BEST THINGS, No. 1, to follow faithfully the most healthful demand, and to stimulate in young and old an appreciation of the true, the beautiful, and the good. BEST THINGS, No. 2, combines Nos. 4, 5, and 6 of BEST SELECTIONS. Its leading features are uniform with No. 1, where they have been defined as follows: 1. LITERARY CHARACTER. The "best things from the best authors" has been a conscientious thought in making the selections throughout all the |