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THE

JUVENILE MENTOR,

OR

SELECT READINGS;

BEING

AMERICAN SCHOOL CLASS-BOOK,

No 3.

CONTAINING

PROGRESSIVE LESSONS

IN

ORTHOEPY, READING AND SPEAKING ;

ADAPTED

TO THE COMPREHENSION OF YOUTH.

BY A. PICKET,

President of the Incorporated Society of Teachers, and Member
of the Historical Society, in New-York; Senior Principal of
Manhattan School,

AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL CLASS-BOOKS, &c.

STEREOTYPED BY B. AND J. COLLINS.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY CALEB BARTLETT, No. 76 BOWERY, AND BY
JOHN GRAY & co. No. 59 FULTON-STREET.

NOTICE.

The Subscribers having purchased the Copy Right of Picket's School Class Books, for a part of the United States, intend keeping a constant supply on hand, which they offer to their friends and the public, wholesale and retail, on reasonable terms.

CALEB BARTLETT,
JOHN GRAY & CO.

ance.

TO THE CONDUCTORS OF SCHOOLS.

The present edition of this work is a fair specimen of its future appearThe "Mentor" is now brought to a standard, which will prevent the discordancy in schools, occasioned by frequent alterations and emendations. This, as well as the Author's other Class-Books, viz. the Juvenile Primer, Parent's Manual, Juvenile Spelling Book, Instructer, Expositor, and Walker's Dictionary, are all stereotyped, and will be kept on paper of a superior quality, and bound in the best manner for school use.

District of New-York, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fitfh day of August, in the fortyfifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, ALBERT PICKET, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author and proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"The JUVENILE MENTOR, or Select Readings; being American School Class Book, No. 3. Containing Progressive Lessons in Orthoepy, Reading and Speaking; adapted to the comprehension of Youth. By A. PICKET, President of the Incorporated Society of Teachers, and Member of the Historical Society, in New-York. Senior Principal of Manhattan School, Author of the American School Class-Books, &c."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled an "Act supplementary to an Act, entitled an act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

GILBERT LIVINGSTON THOMPSON,
Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

THAT so much labour should be bestowed upon the initials and terminations inserted in this volume, when most of them are to be found the Author's other progressive books, may be a matter of wonder to many persons, who will very naturally inquire into the utility of them. To these it may be answered, that the words of our language seem more nearly related to each other by their initials and terminations than at first sight may appear, and that the classing of them according to their beginnings and endings seems to exhibit a new view of them which is both curious and useful: for as their accent and quantity depend so much on their terminations, such an arrangement appears to give a more definite and compre hensive idea of their pronunciation than it is possible to give by the common classification. This end was so desirable as to induce the Author to spare no pains to promote it; and to endeavour to show, at one view, nearly all the words of the same class differently accented, by which means the rule and exception may be found, and by seeing them contrasted, are imprinted more strongly on the inemory, and are the more easily recollected. When words are sounded nearly alike, we can recollect them better than when they are promiscuously mingled with the rest of the words in the language. By frequently repeating them as they stand together, the ear will gain a habit of placing the accent pro perly without knowing why it is so. Children learn the pronunciation of words much easier, and with greater facility by the ear, and by correct oral instruction, than by any formal rules. Let instructers pronounce and read correctly, and their pupils will readily imitate them.

It is unnecessary to observe, that the first preparatory step to correct reading is a just and elegant pronunciation; but this cannot be obtained without care and attention. The practice of requiring children to read, before they can pronounce words correctly, is an errour which ought to be avoided. To this end, the Author has collected, arranged, and accented all the words which are liable to be mispronounced, and so simplified them by analogical classifications that their true pronunciation cannot well be mistaken.*

The variety of sounds, however, which the vowels and dipthongs make in different words, render it extremely difficult to acquire a correct pronunciation. It is indispensably requisite, therefore, for all persons who would become complete inasters of orthoepy to make themselves acquainted with the sounds of the letters, especially the vowels and dipthongs; to exemplify them in a variety of ways, copious illustrations are inserted.

I is deemed unnecessary to make any further remarks on this subject, the reader on a perusal, will readily perceive the full scope and bearing of the work.

In teaching the art of reading, it should be the first object of every Preceptor to make his pupils talk correctly and naturally on book; and to sweeten their tone of voice by an elegant pronunciation and just inflection. A good reader (says a correct writer,) is one who can perfectly comprehend, and readily enter into the feelings of his author; consequently, he is one who has learned to THINK, a species of knowledge seldom thought of, in our schools, though it ought to be the first

* In this, as in the Author's other progressive books, he has followed the judicious Walker.

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inculcated. Children, as soon as they can speak, are remarkable for expressing their own wishes and sentiments in the genuine language of nature. Not an emphasis is misplaced-not an inflection of the voice is misapplied. But as soon as they begin to read, and express the thoughts and sentiments of others, how different is their execution. The most unnatural habits are speedily acquired, which too often attend them through life! The only way to remedy this evil, is to give children such lessons in reading as are suitable to their tender capacities, and teach them to make the sentiments as it were their own, and to express them as they would to their play-mates in telling a story. The selection of pieces in this volume is to this end; and to imbue the minds of the rising generation with the pure principles and sentiments of virtue, patriotism, and religion.

RULES FOR READING.

1. Give the letters their proper sound.

2. Pronounce the vowels a, e, i, o, u, clearly, giving to each its proper quantity.

3. The liquids l, m, n, r, should be pronounced with a considerable degree of force.

4. Distinguish every accented letter or syllable by a particular stress of the voice.

5. Read audibly and distinctly, with a degree of deliberation suited to the subject.

6. Pause at the points a sufficient length of time, but not so long as to break that connexion which one part of a sentence has with another.

7. Give every sentence, and member of a sentence, that inflection of voice which tends to improve either the sound or the sense.

8. Before attempting to read the examples on inflections, a thorough knowledge of the two slides or inflections of the voice (see p. vi.) ought to be obtained. Without a very accurate knowledge of these two slides, no very great progress in reading can possibly be made.

9. The inflections of the voice which accompany the pauses, are the stamina of all good reading or speaking; for whether we read or speak high or low, loud or soft, quickly or slowly, with or without the tones of a particular passion, the voice must rise or fall, or proceed in a continued monotony: so that the rising and falling inflection must be considered as the axis on which the whole force and variety of reading or speaking turns. And a just mixture of these inflections is so important, that whenever they are neglected the pronunciation becomes feeble, monotonous and ungraceful. If a speaker elevates his voice too frequently, he contracts a squeaking tone; if he depresses it too often, he hurts the sense by breaking its connexion; and though a monotony may sometimes be used for the sake of variety, too frequent recourse to it would produce languor, Istlessness, and inat

tention.

10. In reading, the principles should be gradually reduced to practice. Words that require the rising inflection may, by the pupil, be marked with a pencil with the acute (') accent; and such as require the falling inflection, with the grave () accent. Emphatical words may be marked by drawing a straight line over them; and when a rhetorical pause is admissible, a mark such as a comma may be inserted after the word.

11. The tones of the voice must, in every instance, be regulated entirely by the nature of the subject.

12. At the beginning of a subject or discourse the pitch of the voice should, in general, be low: to this rule, however, there are some exceptions, especially in poetry, and even in prose.

13. Though an elegant and harmonious pronunciation of verse will sometimes oblige us to adopt different inflections from those we use in prose, it may still be laid down as a good general rule, that verse requires the same inflection as prose, though less strongly marked, and approaching to monotony.-Whenever a sentence or member of a sentence, would necessarily require the rising or falling in. flection in prose, it ought always to have the same in poetry.

INTRODUCTION.

OF PAUSES OR POINTS.

See Juvenile Expositor, p. 356, 7, 8, 9, and 360, &c.

There are two kinds of pauses, viz. Grammatical and Rhetorical pauses. Grammatical pauses are denoted by certain points or marks; at which it is necessary to pause or stop a little, for the purpose of breathing and elucidating the meaning of a sentence.

Rhetorical pauses are those stops made by a reader or speaker, which, though frequently not marked, serve to beautify delivery, by giving it all that variety and ease of which it is susceptible.

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And those which are accompanied with an alteration in the tone of the voice,

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Besides these, there is another pause called the hyphen or dash marked with a

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The number of pauses may be reduced to three; namely,

The Smaller Pause
The Greater Pause

The Greatest Pause

answering to the

Comma.
Semicolon and Colon.
Period.

The interrogation and exclamation points are said to be indefinite as to their quantity of time, and are used to mark an elevation of voice; and the parenthesis, to mark a moderate depression of the voice, with a pause greater than a comma.-The time of the hyphen or dash is also indefinite,

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