BEFKllKY UHlvetftlTY DUCATIOH Lin« ^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fifthreaderofschOOwillrich $•1 ™,1llWE'i/]^^ \/ \,K HARPER'S SERIES. THE la if k OF TUK mnmi mm wmm BY MARCXUS WILLSON, ZUTI.'OU OF PRIMARY HISTOKY ; HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES ; AMERICAN HISTORY ; AND OUTUKES OF GENERAL HISTOKY. ^\ ^X-4F "^'^PE'^ ^ BROTHERS, £a^vJP franklin square. NEW Y O B K . 1 8C 3. TO THE TEACHER. O'er wayward childhood wouldst thou hold firm rule', And sun thee in the light of happy faces', Love', Hope', and Patience'," these must be thy graces' ; And in thine own! heart* let them first keep schoor. For as old Atlas on his broad neck places Heaven's starry globe', and there sustains it', so Do these upbear the little world below Of education* — Patience', Love', and Hope\ Methinks I see them group'd in seemly show*, The straiten'd arms upraised*, the palms aslope\ And robes that touching as adown they flow, Distinctly' blend*, like snow emboss'd in snow*. Oh part them never* ! If Hope prostrate lie'. Love too will sink and die*. y But Love is subtle*, and doth proof derive From her own life' that Hope is yet alive* ; And bending o'er', with soul-transfusing eyes', And the soft murmurs of the mother dove', Woos back the fleeting spirit*, and half supplies* ; Thus Love repays to Hope' what Hope first gave to Love\ Yet haply there will come a weary day. When, overtask'd at length, Both Love and Hope beneath the load give way\ Then with a statue's smile*, a statue's strength*, Stands the mute sister. Patience*, nothing loth*. And both supporting', does the work of both*. COLESIDOE. /- I'r. rflM Entered, according to Act of Congress, in tho year one thoosand eight hundred and Bixty-one, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New Yoric GIFT rt- PREFACE. The Fifth Reader of the " School and Family Series" more fully devel- ops the plan of the author than the preceding numbers. While we have aimed to compile a series of books in every respect adapted to give all needed instruction in the art of reading, we have also endeavored to make them the medium of conveying, in as interesting a form as possible, a large amount of useful knowledge ; and it is with a great degree of confidence that all practical educators will acknowledge the possibility of harmonizing these two objects in a reading-book for schools, that the present volume is submitted to them. What better 7-eading-lessons could be given than the numerous poetical extracts which are used to illustrate the lessons in Bot- any, where we find such gems as "The Moss Rose" (p. 150) ; Roscoe's ad- dress to "The Camellia" (p. 154); Leigh Hunt's "Chorus of Flowers" (p. 157) ; Mrs. Southey's "Night-blooming Cereus," or "Unpretending Worth" (p. 159) ; Dickens's " Ivy Green" (p. 163) ; Emerson's " Rhodora" (p. 171) ; Mary Howitt's "Corn-fields" (p. 194); that fine moral story of "The Fern and the Moss," by Eliza Cook (p. 201); and Longfellow's tribute to the " Drifting Searweed" (p. 210) ? And why should not Holmes's beauti- ful description of " The Living Temple" (see p. 85) be both a more useful and a more interesting reading exercise when appropriately made a lesson in Physiology than when read as an isolated piece, dissevered from its natural connections ? And where can be found better reading exercises than such as we have used to illustrate and give interest to Physical Ge- ography, among which are found Mrs. Sigourney's description of " The Coral Insect" (p. 371) ; Bryant's description of mountain scenery, and of "The Prairies" (p. 372, 379); Willis Gaylord Clark's address 'to "The Alps" (p. 375) ; Prentice's " Mammoth Cave" (p. 384) ; Coleridge's " Val- ley of Chamouni" (p. 388) ; Proctor's, and Percival's, and Byron's descrip- tions of "The Ocean" (p. 394-7); and the several descriptions given of the "Falls of Niagara" (p. 405-7)? Such selections, every one must ad- mit, are far more interesting and instructive when they are used to illus- trate, and are themselves illustrated by, important facts and principles in science, than when they appear in miscellaneous collections merely as " Orient pearls at random strung.'' It is only when the subjects to which they refer are understood that such pieces are duly appreciated. As variety, within the limits of good style, and embracing both prose and poetry, is correctly considered an essential requisite of a good reading-book for advanced pupils, we may justly urge that the plan of the present work has peculiar advantages in this respect ; for not only do the illustrative se- lections to which we have alluded give great variety to the scientific divi- sions, but each of these departments of knowledge has a literature of its own ; each has its peculiar words, and its forms of expression, as well as its principles, with which not only every scholar, but every general reader 377 IV PREFACE. should be familiar, but none of which would be presented in a miscellaneous reading-book that should omit all notice of the subjects themselves. But, to meet all possible demands for suitable variety, we have given "Miscella- neous Divisions" also, and in these have endeavored to make good what- ever may be wanting in the more scientific portions. In Part I. we have given a pretty full elucidation of some of the higher principles of elocution, with abundant examples for illustration ; and in Part XI. we have made such a selection of reading-lessons, in great part poetical, as will present, in chronological order, the outlines of Ancient History. Of the amount of useful knowledge which the plan adopted in these reading-books is calculated to impart, we need only remark that we have aimed to present the leading truths of science^in a form as attractive as possible, and have therefore avoided the dry details and technicalities which would have been required in a complete scientific text-book. Our object has been to present a pleasing introduction to science rather than to give any thing like a full exposition of any one department. The great mass of pupils in our schools know nothing whatever of many of the subjects here treated, nor is there any possibility of their becoming acquainted with them by any other method than by the one here adopted. It is thought, if all the pupils in our schools should acquire some knowledge of these sub- jects while attending to their ordinary reading-lessons, and become inter- ested in the wonderful truths with which they abound, they will, in most Austances, be stimulated to seek a farther acquaintance with them, and that 2he foundations may thus be laid for a wider dissemination of scientific knowledge, and a higher degree of popular education than has hitherto been thought attainable. We might refer to the Natural History illustrations in the present volume as surjiassing any thing of the kind ever before published in this country ; but while their beauty — for which we are indebted to the jjcncil of a Par- sons — will be acknowledged by all, it is their vtiliti/, as objects of interest and instruction to pupils, to which we would more particularly call atten- tion ; for not only does an accurate and striking illustration of an object often give a more correct idea of it than pages of description, but so maps it upon the memory that, by the most interesting of all associations, the very description itself is indelibly pictured there. The admirable system of ^* object teaching," whose principles should be carried throughout the entire educational course of eveiy individual, could scarcely receive better aids than those furnished in the illustrations here given. For valuable aid in several of the scientific divisions of the present work, it affords me pleasure here, as in the preceding volume, to acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof. N. B. Webster, of Virginia; and while doing this I would take occasion to express the hope that, however much the citizens of different states and sections may differ in their political views, in the sacred cause of science and popular education they may ever be united. M. WiLLSON. N«w YoM, M»7 15th, 18flt CONTENTS. [Explanatory. — Tliose lessons designated by italicfi, or the authors of -which, in whol« or in part, are so designated, are poetical selections ; the names of authors in small capi- tals denote prose selections; and those marked "Adapted" are occasionally original, but mostly adapted orcoiMiiled from various sources.] PART I. ELOCUTIONARY. Page I. Inflections ; Elementary Rules 11 II. Higher Principles of Elocution IS Lesson FIRST MISCELLANEOUS DIVISION. I. Green River Bnjant. 43 II. The best Kind of Revenga Chambees. 44 III. A viodest Wit Anonymous. 40 IV. The Eloquence of Action Webster. 47 V. Use plain Language La Beoyere. 48 VI. The Three Black Crows Buront. 48 VII. What is a Gentleman ? G. W. Doane. 49 VIII. What is Time f Marsden. 50 PART II. HERPETOLOGY, or THE NATURAL HISTORY OF REPTILES. I. Introductory View Adapted. 51 II. A Letter about the Chelonians, or Turtles Adapted. 64 III. A second Letter about Turtles Adapted, 57 IV. A Letter about the Saurians Goodeicii ; Adapted. 61 V. T'he Crocodile and the Ichneumon Mrs. J. L. Graf/. 67 Vr. A Letter about the Ophidians Virijil; Southey; Adapted. 68 VII. A Letter about the Amphibians Adapted. 72 SECOND MISCELLANEOUS DIVISION. I. To a Girl in her Thirteenth Year Sidney Walker. 75 II. The Love of Country Grimkb. 76 III. A noble Revenge Thomas pe Quincey. 77 IV. HanUeVft Soliloquy Shakspmre. 78 V. The Folly of Castle-building Addison. 79 VI. The Stranger and his Friend Montqomery. 80 VII. Scene between Brutus and Cassius Slvakspeare. 82 PART III. SECOND DIVISION OF HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. I. The Window of the Soul Adapted. 83 Our Sight the most delightful of all our Senses Addison. 84 II. The Livin'j Temple Oliver Wendell Nobnef). 85 III. The Brain : the Nerves of Voluntary Motion and the Nerves of Feeling. Adapted. 87 IV. Other Forms of Nervous Action Adapted. 93 V. Spirit, the Motive Power of the Body Laednee! 96 VL Variou.^ Phenomena of the Nervou3'Sy:?tem Adapted. 98 1. What is necessary to Sensation and Voluntary Motion , 98 2. Nei-vous Paralysis 99 3. No Feeling in the Nerves of Motion, in the Brain, or in the Heart" .".'.* .'.'.' 100 4 The Reunion and Healing of nevered Nerves 101 VII. Intemperance the Prime Minister of Death Anonymous. 102 VIII. Look iwt upon the Wine N. p. Willis. 103 IX. The Water-drinker E. Johnson. 104 X. How the Mind speaks through the Nerves and Mu^^cles Adapted. 105 XI. The Language of the Countenance Tasao ; Shakspeare; Spenser; Adapted. 107 XII. Uses of Anatomy and Physiology to the Painter Sir Charles Bell. Ill XIII. Marvels of Human Caloric Eclectic Review. 112 XIV. Lines on a Skeleton London Morning Chronicle. 116 XV. Education of the Muscles of Expression Adapted. 117 Expresfdon of the Countenance after Death Byron. 119 XVL Disorders of the Nervous System: Visions, Apparitions, and Dreams.. Adapted. 119 Yl CONTENTS. Lewon P*R« XVII. A Dream, and its Explanation Dbapeb. 1j3 XVIII. The Health of the Brain Adapted. 125 XIX. The FooVs Covij^laint Anommujuii. 12T XX. Rules for Mental Exercise • Adapted. 128 XXI. Advice to a hard Student Charles Mackay. 129 XXII. Neglect of Health Samuel Johnson. 130 The Joys of Health Gay; Thonuon. 131 THIRD MISCELLANEOUS DIVISM)N. L The Village School of Olden Time Goldsmith. 132 n. The Righteous never Forsaken New York Speotatok. 133 III. The FavMi) Meeting Charles Sprague. IS.'S IV, Tact and Talent London Atlab. 136 V. Rain upon the Roof A nonynums. 133 VI. Good Advice Anonymous. 139 VII. True Knowledge Bisuop Mant. 139 PART IV. SECOND DIVISION OF BOTANY. L The Study of Botany Crabbe. Adapted. 140 n. Clasaification of Plants Milton, Adapted. 141 m. Natural Method of Classiiication Adapted. 143 The Floral Kingdom Thomson. 145 May Flowers Barrington. 146 FIRST DIVISION OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM : EXOGENS. IV. The Rose Family Cowley ; Carey, and others. Adapted. 147 To the Rose Mrs. Uemans. 14T The Feast of Roses Moore. 149 The Moss Rose From the German. 160 V. Our Common Fruits Thomson; Moore; Virgil; Wordsworth. Adapted. 151 To the A Imond Blossom Edwin A mold. 153 VI. Camellia, Mallow, and Citron Families Goethe. Adapted. 154 I'o the Camellia W. Roscoe. 155 VIL Chorus of Flowers Leigh Hunt. 157 VIII. The Cactus Family Adapted. 15S Cactus Blossom Mrs. Sigoumey. 15S Night- Blooming Cereus A nonymous. 159 Unpretending Worth Mrs. SouUiey. 159 IX, Leguminousand 'Umbelliferous Plants..