THE USEFUL KNOWLEDGE READING BOOKS ADAPTED TO THE USE OF BOARD-SCHOOLS AND EDITED BY THE REV. E. T. STEVENS, B.A. WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD, FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE CATHEDRAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BRISTOL ; AND THE REV. CHARLES HOLE, F.R.G.S. HEAD MASTER OF NORTH CHEAM HOUSE SCHOOL, SURREY, EDITORS OF THE GRADE LESSON BOOKS' &c. BOYS' FOURTH STANDARD. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. THE EDITORS venture to call the attention of Teachers and Managers of Schools to their INTRODUCTORY LESSON BOOK, embracing READING, WRITING, and ARITHMETIC, as pre paratory to the First Standard under the New Code, 1871. They also beg to refer to their series of GRADE LESSON BOOKS, especially adapted to the New Code, 1871, and embracing READING, SPELLING, WRITING, and ARITHMETIC. These books will be found very suitable for use alternately with the USEFUL KNOWLEDGE SERIES, as required by the Committee of Council on Education. They are also specially adapted as Home Lesson Books in all the essential subjects of the Code Examinations. The Editors desire to call the attention of Teachers to the notices on pages viii and xii of this volume. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE READING BOOKS. SERIES FOR BOYS. SERIES FOR GIRLS. IN SIX STANDARDS EACH. THE EDITORS of these Series have been led to undertake their production by the fact that, for our Elementary Schools, there is an acknowledged want of books combining facility in teaching to read with the inculcation of such useful knowledge as is calculated to prepare the young to enter upon the practical duties of life with intelligent and well-furnished minds. In attempting to produce such a work, the chief difficulty is that of supplying useful knowledge in a form sufficiently attractive, and so suited to the capacities of children as to awaken their interest and excite in them a thirst for knowledge; in truth, to effect a threefold object, namely, to teach them to read, to cultivate in their minds a love of reading, and, at the same time, to impart sound and useful instruction in those matters relating to every-day life, for which no special times can be set apart in the daily routine of an elementary school. Hitherto this difficulty has seemed insuperable; and this has led to the production of books addressed almost exclusively to the imagination-the moral and emotional nature of children to the almost total omission of subjects of practical utility. Although it must be allowed that a very gratifying degree of success has attended the use of such books, and it cannot be wished that they should be superseded, as they certainly fulfil a very important office in the training of the children in elementary schools, the Editors believe it is generally felt by all thoughtful friends of elementary education, that the school means of training the young will be very insufficient, unless, in addition to books of this class, others be supplied which shall afford more practical information. Also, it is found in the working of a school that a double set of reading-books is very advantageous, and teachers will readily confess that the benefit derived from an occa sional change of books more than counterbalances the slight additional expense which is entailed. The great difficulty, however, which has been mentioned above, has not, as far as the Editors' knowledge extends, hitherto been overcome. For the most part, those reading-books which aim at giving useful information to their young readers, have failed in presenting what is attractive and interesting, and adapted to the minds of children. The present Editors believe that this comparative failure may be explained partly on the ground that the books are written rather by theorists than by persons practically acquainted, as teachers, with the minds of children, and partly that the extracts are taken from writers whose ideas and language fly far above their heads; while not unfrequently too many lessons are prepared by the same hand, and thus the books acquire a monotonous and wearisome character. A further mistake in such books has been made by the introduction of subjects involving technical teaching, which the Editors feel sure can be imparted effectually only through manuals specially treating the several subjects. The Useful Knowledge Reading Books, therefore, aim chiefly at giving information that shall be valuable in itself, and that shall also lay a firm basis for any special technical |