THE

COMMON SCHOOL SPEAKER.

LESSON I.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GENERAL EDUCATION.

The ancients were accustomed to divide their orations into six parts, viz.-1. The Exordium, or Introduction: 2. The Narration, or Statement of the case: 3. The Division of the subject: 4. The Argument, or Proof: 5. The Refutation of objections: 6. The Peroration, or Conclusion. Less attention is paid to this order now than was paid by the ancients, and some parts are often entirely omitted. The following piece forms part of the Peroration of an Address delivered at the request of the City of Boston, on the 4th of July, 1842, by the Hon. HORACE MANN, Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts.

Remember, then, the child whose voice first lisps to-day, before that voice shall whisper sedition in secret, or thunder treason at the head of an armed band. Remember the child whose hand, to-day, first lifts its tiny bauble, before that hand shall scatter firebrands, arrows and death. Remember those sportive groups of youth, in whose halcyon bosoms there sleeps an ocean, as yet scarcely ruffled by the passions, which soon shall heave as with a tempest's strength. Remember, that, whatever station in life you may fill, these mortals,--these immortals, are your care. vote, expend, consecrate yourselves to the holy work of their improvement. Pour out light and truth, as God pours sunshine and rain. No longer seck knowledge as the luxury of a few, but dispense it amongst all as the bread of life. Learn only how the ignorant may learn; how the innocent may be preserved; the

De

vicious reclaimed. Call down the astronomer from the skies; call up the geologist from his subterranean explorations; summon, if need be, the mightiest intellects from the council chamber of the nation; enter cloistered halls, where the scholiast muses over superfluous annotations; dissolve conclave and synod, where subtle polemics are vainly discussing their barren dogmas ;--collect whatever of talent, or erudition, or eloquence, or authority, the broad land can supply, and go forth, AND TEACH THIS PEOPLE. For, in the name of the living God, it must be proclaimed, that licentiousness shall be the liberty, and violence and chicanery shall be the law, and superstition and craft shall be the religion, and the self-destructive indulgence of all sensual and unhallowed passions, shall be the only happiness of that people who neglect the education of their children.

LESSON II.

THE LAND OF MY BIRTH.

MISS E. COOKE, the authoress of several short poems remarkable for their strength and beauty, is a native of England. This poem belongs to the class of Lyric Poems, so called because they were originally adapted to the Lyre. Hymns, songs, and odes generally belong to this class.

There's a magical tie to the land of our home,

Which the heart can not break, though the footstep may roam:

Be that land where it may, at the line or the pole, It still holds the magnet that draws back the soul. 'Tis loved by the freeman, 't is loved by the slave, 'Tis dear to the coward, more dear to the brave! Ask of any the spot they like best on the earth, And they'll answer with pride, ""T is the land of my birth!"

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My country! thy wild shores are dearer to me
Than all the famed coasts of a far foreign sea;
What emerald can peer, or what sapphire can vie,
With the grass of thy fields, or thy summer-day sky?
They tell me of regions where flowers are found,
Whose perfume and tints spread a paradise round;
But brighter to me can not garland the earth

Than those that spring forth in the land of my birth!

My country, I love thee!-though freely I'd rove Through the lands of the east, or the sweet orange

grove;

Yet warmly my bosom would welcome the gale,
That bore me away with a homeward-bound sail.
My country, I love thee!—and oh, mayst thou have
The last throb of my heart, ere 't is cold in the grave;
Mayst thou yield me that grave in thy own daisied
earth,

And my ashes repose in the land of my birth!

LESSON III.

HOME.

The following piece has no great poetic merit, but it belongs to a class much needed by young pupils just commencing the art of oratory. It is easily committed to memory, and but little action is required. The author is unknown.

"Where is thy home?" I asked a child,
Who in the morning air,

Was twining flowers most sweet and wild
In garlands for her hair.

"My home," the happy heart replied,

And smiled in childish glee,

"Is on the sunny mountain side,

Or where I chance to be."

O! blessings fall on artless youth,
And all its rosy hours,

When every word is joy and truth,
Its home among the flowers.

"Where is thy home? thou lonely man,"
I asked a pilgrim grey,

Who came, with furrowed brow and wan,
Slow musing on his way.

He paused, and with a solemn mien,
Upturned his holy eyes,

"The land I seek thou ne'er hast seen;
My home is in the skies.”

O blest-thrice blest the heart must be
To whom such thoughts are given,
That walks from worldly fetters free,-
Its only home in heaven!

LESSON IV.

THE FOX AND THE CROW.

This old Fable is prettily told, and is a good exercise for a young pupil. In reply to some persons who have objected to such Fables, that they lead children into error, it may be said in the words of Cowper;

"'Tis clear that beasts were always able

To hold discourse, at least in fable;

And any child, who knows no better,

Than to interpret, by the letter
The story of a Cock and Bull,

Must have a most uncommon skull."

The fox and the crow, we very well know,
Many good little children rehearse;
Perhaps it will tell pretty nearly as well,
If we try the same fable in verse.