INTRODUCTION

THE selections in this Eighth Reader are a moderate, but distinct, advance over those in the Seventh Reader, in thought, in language, and in literary construction.

The teacher may continue to place emphasis on the literary side of the reading, pointing out beauties of language and thought, and endeavoring to create an interest in the books from which the selections are taken. Pupils will be glad to know something about the lives of the authors whose works they are reading, and will welcome the biographical sketches throughout the book. These can be made the basis of further biographical study at the discretion of the teacher.

The word lists at the end of the selections contain all necessary explanations of the text.

A basal series of readers can do little more than broadly outline a course in reading, relying on the teacher to carry it forward. If a public library is within reach, the children should be encouraged to use it; if not, the school should exert every effort to accumulate a school library of standard works to which the pupils may have ready access.

The primary purpose of a reading book is to give pupils the mastery of the printed page, but through oral reading it also becomes a source of valuable training of the vocal organs. Almost every one finds pleasure inlistening to good reading. Many feel that the power to give this pleasure comes only as a natural gift, but an analysis of the art shows that with practice any normal child may acquire it. The qualities which are essential to good oral reading may be considered in three groups:

First—An agreeable voice and clear articulation, which, although possessed by many children naturally, may also be cultivated.

Second—Correct inflection and emphasis, with that due regard for rhetorical pauses which will appear whenever a child fully understands what he is reading and is sufficiently interested in it to lose his self-consciousness

Third—Proper pronunciation, which can be acquired only by association or by direct teaching.

Clear articulation implies accurate utterance of each syllable and a distinct termination of one syllable before another is begun.

Frequent drill on pronunciation and articulation before or after the reading lesson will be found profitable in teaching the proper pronunciation of new words and in overcoming faulty habits of speech.

Attention should be called to the omission of unaccented syllables in such words as history (not histry), valuable (not valuble), and to the substitution of unt for ent, id for ed, iss for ess, unce for ence, in for ing, in such words as moment, delighted, goodness, sentence, walking. Pupils should also learn to make such distinctions as appear between u long, as in duty, and u after r, as in rude; between a as in hat, a as in far, and a as in ask.

The above hints are suggestive only. The experienced teacher will devise for herself exercises fitting special cases which arise in her own work. It will be found that the best results are secured when the interest of the class is sustained and when the pupil who is reading aloud is made to feel that it is his personal duty and privilege to arouse and hold this interest by conveying to his fellow-pupils, in an acceptable manner, the thought presented on the printed page. 5ZAtrYufQ4Irm21R6dGRiBup1YqVMqV23gfIV5rgXbtXUdELJDvaXCvRM19F4i/5

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS

Stories

King Arthur and Excalibur

The Flight in the Heather

A Formidable Vassal

Th e Famous Mr. Joseph Addison

Sir Roger de Coverley

Heroes of the Mutiny

Poems

The Coming of Arthur

The Forsaken Merman

Sonnet on his Blindness The Passionate Shepherd to

his Love

Reply to Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”

Henry V. before Battle

The Battle of Agincourt

A Song for St. Cecilia’s DayLa Belle Dame sans Merci

Falstaff and the Thieves

Sohrab and Rustum

She walks in Beauty

An Adventure of the Red Cross Knight

The Triumph of Charis The Greatness of God’s

Works

Sonnets 29 and 73

Ulysses

Tennyson

L’Allegro

Kubla Khan

History, Adventure, and Nature Study

The Northman

The Valley of Desolation A Brilliant Geographical

Contrast

Agincourt

The Bird

Swallow-time

Louis XI.

A Discourse upon Certain Vices and Virtues of Louis the Eleventh

First Bunker Hill Ora-

tion. ASelection

The Storming of Delhi

Michael Angelo and Cellini John Milton

Miscellaneous

Hearty Reading

Norse Stories

Vindication of Ireland

Cairo Fifty Years Ago

The Teacher’s Vocation

The Casting of the Statue of Perseus

A Nation in its Strength 5ZAtrYufQ4Irm21R6dGRiBup1YqVMqV23gfIV5rgXbtXUdELJDvaXCvRM19F4i/5