Willson's Intermediate Fifth Reader

same relation to all written language that the four fundamental rules in Arithmetic hold to all Mathematics. The Correct Uses of Words and the “Origin of Figurative Language" are next considered, and the natural outgrowth of figures of speech is shown from inherent principles in language. Then follow, in separate divisions, brief explanations of these figures, with numerous illustrations, and separate reading lessons under each head, embracing Interrogation and Exclamation, as Figures of Thought; Simile; Allusion; Metaphor; Antithesis; Allegory and Fable; Hyperbole; Ridicule, Wit, Satire, and Irony; Personification; Apostrophe; Vision; Dialogue; Repetition, etc. Then follow brief disquisitions upon the Eloquence of Popular Assemblies, the Bar, and the Pulpit, with illustrative reading lessons under each. The principles of Poetical Composition are next explained and illustrated, and Miscellaneous Examples close the volume.

Although the space that could be devoted to these subjects in a Reading Book of the present size is necessarily very limited in proportion to what their importance would demand in any thing like a full exposition of their principles, yet it will probably be thought sufficient for the class of pupils for whom this work is intended, inasmuch as it has been sufficient to enable us to introduce a very great variety in the reading lessons. Indeed, the PLAN itself almost necessarily requires a far greater variety of superior selections, illustrative of the scope of our language, than would be likely to gain admission into any other kind of Reading Book. And while our leading purpose has been to give the most appropriate lessons in reading, they are arranged on a basis that will certainly teach something of the structure of the language, and at the same time do much to develop its rhetorical and elocutionary principles. In this we have carried out the original design of the "School and Family Readers," which was, while making the subject of good reading paramount to all others, to make the reading lessons at the same time the vehicle of as much useful information as possible. In the present work, the subjects introduced, instead of confining that information to the departments of Natural Science, extend it to the principles of RHETORIC, CRITICISM, ELOQUENCE, and ORATORY, as applicable to both prose and poetry, and as illustrated by the best models of English composition.

We have endeavored also to extend the utility of the reading lessons in other respects: first, by such explanatory notes as may be needed to give to each selection a degree of completeness in itself, as a lesson of instruction on the subject of which it treats; and, secondly, by continuous selections, when practicable, bearing upon one subject, as may be seen in the divisions entitled “Eloquence of Popular Assemblies,” “The Bar,” “The Pulpit,” etc. In fine, with the principles of good reading as the basis, we have endeavored to crowd into the work as much INSTRUCTION as our limited space and the wide range of subjects would allow.

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