EDITED BY MAURICE PATERSON, B.A., ETC., LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, 49 & 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.; GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN PREFACE. THE SIXTH READER is specially adapted for the Highest Standards of the New Code. It will also be found to be serviceable in the Junior Sections of Higher Class Schools. In the Editor's judgment the most important and valuable feature of the Reader is that, without at all sacrificing the simplicity and interest which are essential in a School Reading Book, he has been able, by the generous kindness of the publishers of the great modern Histories, to furnish a sufficient number of extracts from the writings of men like Macaulay, Alison, Arnold, Freeman, Carlyle, Prescott, Bancroft, and others. The pupils will thus have an opportunity of knowing their mother-tongue as it has been used by some of the best English writers, whilst the interest which the extracts will show to attach to their treatment of historical personages and events may induce them to peruse these and similar works for themselves. In the selection of Poetical pieces the Editor has been guided by the same principles. He desires that the Reader, while furnishing all the needful material for school work, may prove a help and encouragement to the study and enjoyment of the great Poetical Literature in which our country is so rich. For Elocutionary purposes a few passages of a more Rhetorical character have been introduced. As the best preparation for the after use of a Dictionary the meanings of difficult or unusual words have been arranged in the form of a Vocabulary at the end of the Book, and not, as in the earlier Readers, in connection with the several lessons in which they occur. A short course of Etymological Lessons has been added as in the Fifth Reader. |