throughout the volume, and a certain space has been devoted to a topic universally popular among children-the study of Animals. The "WEBSTER READER, SERIES I.," is intended as a steppingstone to more extended knowledge. The subjects introduced therein are continually referred to and elaborated in the Second and Third Reader, it having been considered important that the Series should be progressive in character. In some cases, where it was impossible thoroughly to embody information in a single lesson, the subject is carried on through several articles. The endeavour, however, has been to render each lesson, as far as possible, complete in itself. Lest any young Reader should feel aggrieved, on a comparison of the number of illustrations contained in this work with the mass of pictures in the "WEBSTER SPELLING BOOK," the Publishers would beg to remind their little Friends that, having done with the Spelling Book, they should now devote more attention to the reading, and less to the picture part of the work; also, that it would have been impossible to include so large an amount of information for them in one Book, if too much space had been devoted to engravings. That the pictorial portion has, nevertheless, not been disregarded, our young Readers will no doubt allow, when they have looked at the quality of the illustrations provided for them. IT is proposed that the series of "WEBSTER READING BOOKS" should present the feature which constituted the chief novelty in the "ILLUSTRATED WEBSTER SPELLING BOOK;" namely, the application of pointed letters or characters as a guide to the true pronunciation of words. The object in view being, however, not to introduce any phonetic system, but simply to help little readers over difficulties of pronunciation, and to call their attention to deviations in the sound of the same letter, it has been considered necessary to select only a few words from each lesson for accentuation according to Dr. WEBSTER'S system. These words (printed at the foot of each page) should be committed to memory by the pupil, before the lesson to which they refer is read. A child will soon learn to distinguish and remember the significations of the various signs-to perceive that letters printed in italics are not to be sounded, &c. The system of causing a child to learn by heart the words at the foot of each page, before allowing it to read the page itself, possesses obvious advantages; it removes the chief difficulty experienced by all young learners, namely, the occurrence in almost every sentence of words, the deciphering of which requires so long a time, and such a concentration of attention, that the sense of each passage is lost in the attempt to master its mechanism. With the "hard words" of the lesson already understood and deciphered, the child will approach the task of reading any one of the short articles, of which the following pages are made up, with more cheerfulness and greater confidence. It is, of course, not supposed that every difficult word has been given at the foot of the page to which it belongs. The teacher will have to exercise his or her judgment, and to select, from the lesson in hand, according to the capacity of the pupil to be instructed, any words which it may appear desirable to spell and learn by heart in advance. The object to be kept in view is, that the child may derive from each lesson a certain amount of information, and may thus be brought to regard his First Reader as something beyond a number of sentences strung together at random, merely that he may learn to spell and pronounce words of various degrees of length. It is intended, in the more advanced "Readers," to insert Questions for Examination, many teachers having expressed themselves in favour of this plan. It is necessary that the system of pointed and accented words should be explained. This is best done in Dr. WEBSTER's own words, and the teacher can, if he consider it desirable, simplify the explanation to the pupils who may use the work. The accented syllable of words is determined by this mark' or by a pointed vowel. When the mark of accent immediately follows a vowel, that vowel is long; as in fa'tal, e'qual, i̇'dol, po'et, hu'man, defy'. The same sound is designated by this mark over the letter, face, meet, ice, cold, rūde, cry. When the mark of accent follows a consonant, the preceding vowel, if single and not pointed, is short; as in ab'sence, defend', predict', construct', alledg'e, convuls'e. When the mark of accent occurs after a syllable that contains a pointed vowel or a diphthong, that vowel or diphthong has its proper sound; as in debär', remöv'e, adjoin', annoy', avow', abound', rejoice'. The vowel e at the end of words forms no syllable in any word of English origin; but when it follows a consonant with a single vowel preceding, that vowel, except the dotted i, is long, as in fate, mete, rite, note, tune, ġyve. When it follows two or more consonants, the vowel of that syllable is usually short, as in abridg'e, lodge. The dotted i is always short. A double accent before ci or ti indicates that these letters are pronounced like sh, and close the syllable, as vicious, factitious, which are pronounced vish'ous, factish'ous. Letters form syllables, syllables forms words, and words form sentences. |