Excerpt from The Fourth Reader of the Popular Series With reference to the few "Oral Exercises" found at the bottoms of pages in this and the preceding numbers, we would say, that they are not designed, in the least, to teach grammar; but to lead pupils in a natural, easy and philosophical way, and of their own efforts, to comprehend the meaning of what they read, and to explain it to others, void of technicalities. The Writing Exercises have a still higher object. They are a novel, and, as we believe, truly philosophical method of daily drill in the construction of sentences. As here planned they are exercises that will not be found at all difficult for those who go through them systematically, from the beginning of the book, while, at the same time, they will require some thought, on the part of pupils, to change the phraseology as required, - and more and more of it as the pupil advances; while in the latter part of this Fourth Reader he will find that he may exercise his judgment still further in selecting the best among several possible forms of expression. - [See the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Series of Exercises, pp. 200, 225, and 289.] It may be asked, "Why encumber a Reading Book with Exercises of this character, - and why not devote a separate work to them instead?" We answer, "Because they are very appropriately connected with lessons in reading, and really form part of them; - because they are much cheaper in this form than in any other; - and, what is most important, because they will be used extensively in this form, and without the necessity of separate classes in the school, and separate books." They are, moreover, to some extent, brief analyses of the Chapters; and hence, in addition to their main object, they serve as a kind of daily review of the reading lessons. Having long been convinced, both from our experience as a teacher and from the well-known views of prominent educators, that children are seldom provided with sufficient school-reading in their Reading Books, we have made most of the numbers of the present series somewhat larger than is usual. We have aimed, thereby, to make the gradation, from the beginning, very easy, and still to attain as high a standard in the selections of the Fifth, and the Supplementary number, as the needs of pupils require. There is little danger that the amount of interesting and useful school-reading will be too abundant. Parents can provide their children with no better, safer, or cheaper reading - considering quality and adaptability - than is generally found in their Reading Books. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.