1. "There was a certain man in Cesarea, called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,2. "A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always."
1. "There was a certain man in Cesarea, called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
2. "A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always."
8. I suppose you know what most of the words in these verses mean, except the wordcenturionin the first verse, and the wordalmsin the second.
9. Now, if you look for the wordcenturionin the dictionary, it will tell you thatcenturionmeans a military officer, who commanded a hundred men. Thus you find that Cornelius was a soldier; and not only that he was a soldier, but that he was an officer, that commanded soldiers.
10. Again, if you look for the wordalmsin your dictionary, you will find that it means money given to the poor; and thus you find that Cornelius was a very good man, and not only prayed to God, but also gave much money to assist the poor.
11. You see, then, how useful a book a dictionary is at school, and how important it is that you should have one. If your parents cannot give you a very good one, any one is better than none.
12. But if you have no dictionary, or if you cannot find the word you wish to find in the dictionary, you must then wait for a convenient time to ask your teacher, and he will always be pleased to find that you are trying to understand the words in your lesson.
13. If you have a dictionary, and do not know how to find out the words in it, ask your teacher to show you; and when he has showed you how to use it, be sure never to pass over a single word without knowing what it means.
At table
1. Many years ago, when I lived in a small town, near the Merrimac river, a little Spanish girl came to board in the same house.
2. She could speak very well in her own language; but the people in her country speak a language very different from ours: and when she first began to speak, she heard nothing but Spanish words; and she learned no other.
3. She could not speak a word of English, and did not understand a word that was spoken to her by any of the family.
4. Her parents were very rich, but they placed her in the family, that she might learn to speak English.
5. She had no dictionary to turn to, to look out the meaning of words; and if she was hungry, she could not ask for bread, and if she was thirsty, she could not ask for water, nor milk, nor tea, for she did not know the meaning of either of the words,water,tea, normilk.
6. Perhaps you would be puzzled to tell how she could learn to speak English, if she had no one to teach her, and had no dictionary to inform her about the words.
7. But it was not many days before she could say "bread," if she was hungry, and "water," if she wanted to drink; and I was very much surprised to find how soon it was, at the dinner-table, she could ask for meat, or potato, or pudding; and, at tea-time, for tea, or milk, or sugar, or butter, or bread.
8. I have no doubt that you would like to know how this little Spanish girl learned to speak all of these words. I do not intend to tell you quite yet, but I think you will find out yourself, if you will read the next lesson.
1. About twenty years ago, I was very ill, and, for a long time, my friends thought I never should recover.
2. By the very attentive care of my physician, and by the devoted attention of my wife, I unexpectedly grew better; and the doctor said that I must take a voyage for the recovery of my health.
3. A kind friend, who was going to the West Indies, in a vessel of his own, very generously offered to take me with him, and I gratefully accepted the offer.
4. We sailed from Boston early one morning, and were soon out of sight of the land. I was quite ill during the voyage; but fortunately the voyage was a short one, and we reached the place of our destination on the fourteenth day after we sailed.
5. The island, where we landed, was a beautiful spot; and lemons, oranges, pine-apples, and many other delicious fruits, were growing out in the open air.
6. The people who lived on this island did not speak the English language; and the family with whom I was to reside could speak only in French.
7. I observed, at dinner-time, that someof the persons at the table held out their tumblers to the servant, and said something which sounded to me likeO.
8. I often heard this word; and every time it was spoken,waterwas brought, or poured out, or something was done withwater.
9. I then made up my mind that this word that I thought was O meant water; and I found out afterwards that I was right, except that I did not spell it right.
10. This I discovered by means of the Bible, from which the family used to read.
11. It was a very large one, with very large letters; and as I was very fond of hearing them read, and of looking over the book while some one was reading aloud, I noticed that whenever the reader came to the letters e, a, u, he called them O; and thus I found out that water, in their language, was called O, but was spelt e, a, u.
12. In the same manner, I found out the words, or names, which they gave to bread, and sugar, and butter, and meat, and figs, and oranges, and lemons, and pine-apples.
13. And now, perhaps, you may be able to find out how the little Spanish girl, mentioned in the last lesson, learned the meaning of English words that she had never hearduntil she came to live in the family where nothing but English was spoken.
14. She was obliged to listen, when any one spoke, and watch to see what was wanted; and in the same manner in which I found out the meaning of O, and what to call bread, and sugar, and butter, and meat, and figs, and oranges, and other fruits, she learned to call things by their English names.
15. But, in order to do this, she was obliged to listen very attentively, to try to remember every new name that she learned; and, by so doing, in less than a year she could talk almost as plainly as any one in the house.
16. It was very easy for her to learn the names of things, because she heard them spoken very often. Such words aschair,table,water,sugar,cake,potato,pudding, and other words which are the names of things she could see, she learned very quickly.
17. But such words ascomeandgo, orrunandwalk, and the little wordstoandfrom, andoverandunder, or such words asquicklyandslowly, and many other words of the same kind, she could not learn so easily.
18. In the next lesson perhaps you will find out how she learned the meaning of these words.
At Home
1. There was a small family living very near to your residence, my young friends who are reading this lesson, consisting of the father, the mother, and four young children.
2. The oldest was a boy of twelve years old, the next was a little girl of about eight, the third was another pretty little girl of six, and the youngest was an infant boy, only nine months old.
3. As you may well suppose, the baby, as he was called, was the delight, not only of the father and the mother, but also of his elder brother and his two sisters.
4. The oldest brother had a dog whose name was Guido,—an Italian name, which is pronounced as if it were spelt Gwe´do.
5. The dog had learned to love the dear little baby as much as the rest of the family; and very often, when he was lying on the floor, the baby would pull his tail, or his ears, or put his little hand into the creature's mouth, and Guido would play as gently with him as if he knew that the baby was a very tender little thing, and could not bear any rough treatment.
6. Nothing pleased the whole family, and Guido among the rest, so much, as to hear the baby try to saypapa, andmamma, andbub, andsis; for he could not saybrother, norsister, nor pronounce any other words plainly.
7. The youngest sister was very fond of making him say these words; and every time the little creature repeated them to her, she would throw her arms around his little neck, and hug and kiss him with all the affectionate love her little heart could express.
8. She often used to dress her little doll as prettily as she knew how; tying its frock on one day with a pretty blue ribbon, and on another with a red one; for she had noticed, that whenever the doll was newly dressed, the dear little baby would look very steadily at it, and hold out its little arms towards it; and then she would carry it to her little brother, and say to him, "Dolly,—pretty dolly,—bub want to see dolly?"
9. One day she had dressed her doll in a very bright new dress, with very gay ribbons, and was carrying it towards her father to show it to him, when suddenly she heard the baby cry out, "Dolly!"
10. She immediately ran with delight to her little brother, holding up the doll in its new shining dress, and repeated her usual words, "Dolly,—bub want dolly?"
11. The baby, delighted, looked up in its mother's face, and laughed, and crowed, and giggled, and in its delight again repeated the word "Dolly!"
12. Pleased with her success, the little sister was unwearied in her efforts to make her little brother repeat other words; and day by day she was gratified to find the list of words which he lisped was growing in length.
13. By the unwearied endeavors of father, mother, brother and sisters, this pretty little baby, by the time that it was three years old, could speak plainly anything that was repeated to him, and had learned the names of almost everything that he saw about the house, the yard, and the street.
14. But it was observed that Guido, the dog, although he could not speak a word, had also learned the names of many things; and when George, the oldest son, told him to go and bring his ball to him, Guido would wag his tail, and go up into George's chamber, and look about the room until he had found the ball; and then he would run down the stairs, and dropping the ball at his young master's feet, look up in his face, expecting that George would throw it down for him to catch again.
Guido
15. The baby, however, learnt words and names much faster than Guido; for although Guido knew as much as any dog knows, yet dogs are different creatures fromchildren, and cannot learn so much nor so fast as children can, because it has not pleased God to give them the same powers.
16. Now, perhaps you may wish to know who this interesting family were of whom I have been speaking; and you will probably be surprised to learn, that all I have told you about this little baby is true of every little baby, and that the manner that every infant is taught to speak is the same.
17. It is the same manner as that in which the little Spanish girl, mentioned in the seventh lesson, was taught to speak the English language.
1. I told you, in the last lesson, how an infant child first learned to speak, when it was taught by its father and mother, and brother and sisters.
2. I intend to show you, in this lesson, how the little child learned the meaning of a great many words himself, without the assistance of any one else.
3. He was very fond of Guido, the dog, and watched everything he did, especiallywhen his brother George was playing with him.
4. When George called Guido, and said to the dog, "Come here, Guido," the little boy could not help noticing that Guidowent toGeorge.
5. When George's father or mother called George, and said, "Come here, George," the little child saw that Georgewent tohis father, or his mother.
6. Now, nobody told the little child what George, or his father, or his mother, meant by the wordcome; but he always saw, that when any one said to another, "Come," that the one who was spoken to alwaysmoved towardsthe person who called him, and in this way the little child found out what his father or his mother meant by the wordcome.
7. It was in this way, my young friend who are reading this lesson, that you, yourself, learned the meaning of most of the words that you know.
8. When you were a little child, like the infant of whom I have been speaking, you knew no more about words, or about speaking, than he did.
9. But, by hearing others speak and use words, you learned to use them yourself; and there is no word ever used, either in books or anywhere else, that you cannot find outits meaning, provided that you hear it used frequently, and by different persons.
10. I will now give you an example, to show you what I mean. I will give you a word that you probably never heard of before; and although I shall not tell you what the word means, I think you will find it out yourself, before you have read many more lines of this lesson.
11. The wordhippoiis the word that I shall choose, because I know that you do not know the meaning of it; but I wish you to read the following sentences in which the word is used, and I think that you will find out whathippoimeans, before you have read them all.
12. In California, and in Mexico, and in most parts of South America, there are many wildhippoi, which feed on the grass that grows wild there.
13. The Indians hunt thehippoi; and when they catch them, they tame them, and put bridles on their heads, and bits in their mouths, and saddles on their backs, and ride on them.
14. A carriage, with four whitehippoi, has just passed by the window, and one of thehippoihas dropped his shoe. The coachman must take him to the blacksmith, to have the shoe put on.
15. The noise whichhippoimake is avery strange noise, and when they make it they are said to neigh (pronounced na).
16. The hoofs of cows and goats and sheep and deer are cloven; that is, they are split into two parts; but the hoofs ofhippoiare not split or cloven, and for that reason they are called whole-hoofed animals.
17. My father has in his barn fourhippoi. One of them is red, and has a short tail; another is white, with a few dark hairs in his mane, or long hair on the top of his neck; the third is gray, with dark spots on his body; and the fourth is perfectly black, and has a very long tail, which reaches almost to the ground.
18. Now, from these sentences, I think you will see thathippoidoes not mean cows, or goats, or sheep, or deer; and I do not think it necessary to tell you anything more about it, except that it is a word that was spoken by the Corinthians and the Colossians and the Ephesians, the people to whom St. Paul addressed those epistles or letters in the Bible called by their names.
19. When you have read this lesson, your teacher will probably ask you what the wordhippoimeans; and I hope you will be able to tell him thathippoimeans——[here put in the English word forhippoi.]
1. In the last lesson, I gave you a word which you had not seen before, to find out the meaning of it, without looking in a dictionary.
2. I told you, in a former lesson, how the little Spanish girl found out the meaning of words which she did not know; and afterwards informed you how the infant child was taught to speak.
3. Now, I doubt not that you can speak a great many words, and know what they mean when you use them; but I do not think that you ever thought much about the way in which you learned them.
4. Perhaps you will be surprised to hear that everybody learns to talk and to use words in the same way that the little Spanish girl and the little infant learned them; that is, by hearing others use them in different ways, just as the wordhippoiwas used in the last lesson.
5. Nobody ever told you, probably, the meaning of a great many words that you know; and yet you know them full as well, and perhaps better, than if any one had told you about them.
6. Perhaps you have a brother whosename is John, or George, or James, or a sister whose name is Mary, or Jane, or Ann, or Lucy. You have always heard them called by these names, ever since you, or they, were quite young; and have noticed that when John was called, that the one whose name is John would answer; and as each one answered when spoken to, you learnt which was John, and which was Mary, and which was Lucy.
7. So also, when a certain animal, having two large horns and a long tail, and which is milked every night and morning, passed by, you heard some one saycow; and in this way you learned what the wordcowmeans.
8. So also, when water falls from the sky in drops, little children hear people say it rains; and thus they find out whatrain, means.
9. Now, when anybody asks you what any word means, although you know it very well, yet it is a very hard thing to tell what it means,—that is, to give a definition of it,—as you will see by the little story I am about to tell you.
10. A teacher, who was very anxious to make his scholars understand their lessons, once told them he had a very hard question he wished to ask them, and that he would let the one who answered the question best take the head of the class.
11. This teacher never allowed any of his pupils to speak to him without first raising his right hand above his head, to signify that the child had something to say; and when any child raised his hand in this way, if he was not busy, he called upon the child to say what he wished.
12. In this way he prevented the children from troubling him when he was busy; and in this way he also prevented them from interrupting each other, as would be the case if several of them should speak at once.
13. On the day of which I am about to speak, he said to them, Now, children, I have a very hard question to ask you, that does not require you to study, but only to think about it, in order to answer it well; and the one who gives me the best answer shall go to the head of the class. The question is this:What is a bird?
14. Before they heard the question, they looked very sober, and thought their master intended to puzzle them, or to give them a long sentence to commit to memory. But as soon as they heard the question, they began to smile among themselves, and wonder how their teacher should call that a hard question.
15. A dozen hands were immediately raised, to signify that so many of the children were ready to answer it.
16. Well, John, said the teacher, your hand is up; can you tell mewhat a bird is?
17. John immediately rose, and standing on the right-hand side of his seat, said, A bird is a thing that has two legs.
18. Well, said the teacher, suppose some one should saw off two of the legs of my chair; it would then be a thing that has two legs; but it would not be a bird, would it? You see, then, that your answer is not correct.
19. I will not mention the names of the other children who raised their hands; but I will tell you what the answers were which some of them made to the questions, and what the teacher said about each of their answers.
20. One of the children said that a bird is ananimalwith two legs. But, said the teacher, all little boys and girls, and all men and women, are animals with two legs; but they are not birds.
21. Another child said that a bird is an animal that has wings. But the teacher said there are some fishes that have wings, and that fishes are not birds.
22. A bright little girl then modestly rose and said, A bird is an animal that has legs and wings, and that flies. The teacher smiled upon her very kindly, and told her that it is true that a bird has legs andwings, and that it flies; but, said he, there is another animal, also, that has legs and wings, and that flies very fast in the air. It is called abat. It flies only in the night; but it has no feathers, and therefore is not a bird.
23. Upon hearing this, another bright-eyed child very timidly rose and said, A bird is an animal that has legs, wings and feathers. Very well, said the teacher; but can you not think of anything else that a bird has, which other creatures have not?
24. The children looked at one another, wondering what their teacher could mean; and no one could think what to say, until the teacher said to them, Think a moment, and try to tell me how a bird's mouth looks. Look first at my mouth. You see I have two lips, and these two lips form my mouth. Now, tell me whether a bird has two lips; and if he has not, what he has instead of lips.
25. One of the children immediately arose and said, that a bird has no lips, but he has a bill; and that bill opens as the lips of a man do, and forms the mouth of the bird.
26. Yes, said the teacher; and now listen to me while I tell you the things you should always mention, when you are asked what a bird is,—
First, A bird is an animal.Secondly, It has two legs.Thirdly, It has two wings.Fourthly, It has feathers.Fifthly, It has a hard, glossy bill.
27. And now, said the teacher, you see that I was right when I told you that I had a hard question to ask you, when I asked What is a bird?
28. Now, if you will join all of these things which belong to a bird in the description which you give in answer to my question, What is a bird, you will then give a correct definition of a bird,—that is, you will tell exactly what a bird is, and no more, and no less.
29. A bird is an animal covered with feathers, having two legs, two wings, and a hard, glossy bill.
30. When you are asked what anything is, recollect what I have told you about a bird, and try to recall everything that you ever knew about the thing, and in this way you will be able to give a satisfactory answer.
31. This will also teach you to think, and that is one of the most important objects for which you go to school. It will enable you also to understand what you read; and you can always read those things best which you understand well.
1. Another important thing for which you go to school is to learn how to spell. It is not always very easy to spell, because there are so many different ways in which the same letters are pronounced in different words.
2. That you may understand what I mean, I shall give an example, to show you how many different ways the same letters are pronounced in different words; and also another example, to show you how many different ways there are of spelling the same syllable.
3. To show you, first, in how many different ways the same letters are pronounced in different words, I shall take the letters o, u, g, h.
4. The letterso, u, g, h, are sounded or pronounced like the letteroalone, in the wordthough. The letterso, u, g, h, are pronounced likeuf, in the wordtough.
5. In the wordcough, the letterso, u, g, h, are pronounced likeoff. In the wordssloughandplough, the letterso, u, g, h, are pronounced likeow; and in the wordthrough, they are pronounced likeew, or likeu.
6. In the wordhiccoughthe lettersoughare pronounced likeup—and in the wordlough, the letters are pronounced likelok.
7. There are many words which end with a sound likeshun; and this syllable is spelled in many different ways, as you will see in the following example.
8. In the wordsocean, motion, mansion, physician, halcyon, Parnassian, Christian, and many other such words, the last syllable is pronounced as if it were spelledshun.
9. You see, then, that in some words a syllable sounding very much likeshunis spelled
cean, as in ocean;in some it is spelledtion, as in nation;in some it is spelledsion, as in mansion;in some it is spelledcian, as in physician;in some it is spelledcyon, as in halcyon;in some it is spelledsian, as in Parnassian.
10. It is such things as these which make both reading and spelling very hard lessons for young children. If they think of them all at once, as the pendulum did of the eighty-six thousand times that it had to swing in twenty-four hours, it is no wonder if they feel discouraged, and say, I can't get these hard lessons.
11. But you must recollect that, as the pendulum, every time it had to swing, had a moment given it to swing in, so youalso have a moment given you to learn everything in; and if you get a little at a time, you will, in the end, finish it all, if it be ever so large.
12. You have seen the workman engaged in building a brick house. He takes one brick at a time, and lays it on the mortar, smoothing the mortar with his trowel; and then he takes another brick, and another, until he has made a long row for the side of the house.
13. He then takes another brick, and lays that on the first row; and continues laying brick after brick, until the house gradually rises to its proper height.
14. Now, if the workman had said that he could never lay so many bricks, the house would never have been built; but he knew that, although he could lay but one brick at a time, yet, by continuing to lay them, one by one, the house would at last be finished.
15. There are some children, who live as much as a mile, or a half of a mile, from the school-house. If these children were told that they must step forward with first one foot and then the other, and must take three or four thousand steps, before they could reach the school-house, they would probably be very much discouraged, every morning, before they set out, andwould say to their mothers, Mother, I can't go to school,—it is so far; I must put out one foot, and drag the other after it, three thousand times, before I can get there.
16. You see, then, that although it may appear to be a very hard thing to learn to read and to spell so many words as there are in large books, yet you are required to learn but a few of them at a time; and if there were twice as many as there are, you will learn them all, in time.
17. I shall tell you a story, in the next lesson, to show you how important it is to know how to spell.
1. A rich man, whose education had been neglected in early life, and who was, of course, very ignorant of many things which even little boys and girls among us now-a-days know very well, lived in a large house, with very handsome furniture in it.
2. He kept a carriage, and many servants, some of whom were very much better educated than he was himself.
3. This rich man had been invited out many times to dine with his neighbors; and he observed that at the dinners to which he was invited there were turkeys, and ducks, and chickens, as well as partridges, and quails, and woodcocks, together with salmon, and trout, and pickerel,—with roasted beef, and lamb, and mutton, and pork.
4. But he noticed that every one seemed to be more fond of chickens than anything else, but that they also ate of the ducks and the turkeys.
5. He, one day, determined to invite his friends to dine with him, in return for their civilities in inviting him; and he made up his mind to have an abundance of those things, in particular, of which he had observed his friends to be most fond.
6. He accordingly sent his servant to market, to buy his dinner; and, for fear the servant should make any mistake, he wrote his directions on paper, and, giving the paper, with some money, to the servant, he sent him to the market.
7. The servant took the paper and the money, and set off. Just before he reached the market, he opened the paper, to see what his master had written.
8. But his master wrote so very badly, it took him a long time to find out what waswritten on the paper; but, at last, he contrived to make it out, as follows:
9. "Dukes would be preferred to Turks; but Chittens would be better than either."
10. What his master meant by dukes, and turks, and chittens, he could not guess. No such things were for sale at the market, and he did not dare to return home without buying something.
11. As he could find nothing like dukes nor turks, he happened to see a poor woman carrying home a basket full of kittens. This was the most likechittensof anything he could find; and not being able to get what his master had written for, he thought his master meant kittens. He therefore bought the basket of kittens, and carried them home for his master's dinner.
1. There lived, a great many years ago, in Athens, one of the most renowned cities of Greece, a very celebrated orator, whose name was Demos'thenes.
2. But you will not understand what anoratoris, until you are told that it means a person who speaks before a large numberof people, to persuade them what to do, or to give them information, or good advice.
3. Thus, when a minister or clergyman preaches a good sermon, and speaks in such a manner as to please all who hear him, convincing them of their duty, and persuading them to do it, he is called an orator.
4. Demos'thenes was not a clergyman, or minister, but he spoke before large assemblies of the Athenians, and they were very much delighted to hear him. Whenever it was known that he intended to speak in public, every one was anxious to hear him.
5. Now, I wish to show you how hard he worked, and what he did, to become a great orator.
6. In the first place, then, he had a very weak voice, and could not speak loud enough to be heard by a large assembly; and, besides this, he was very much troubled with shortness of breath. These were very great discouragements, and had he not labored very hard to overcome them, he never could have succeeded.
7. To cure his shortness of breath, he used to go up and down stairs very frequently, and run up steep and uneven places; and to strengthen his voice, he often went to the sea-shore, when the waves were very noisy and violent, andtalked aloud to them, so that he could hear his own voice above the noise of the waters.
Demosthenes at the shore
8. He could not speak the letterrplainly, but pronounced it very much as you have heard some little boys and girls pronounce it, when they say awed wosefor ared rose, or awipe cherwyinstead of aripe cherry.
9. Besides this, he stammered, or stuttered, very badly. To cure himself of these faults in speaking, he used to fill his mouth full of pebbles, and try to speak with them in his mouth.
10. He had a habit, also, of making up faces, when he was trying to speak hard words; and, in order to cure himself of this, he used to practice speaking before a looking-glass, that he might see himself, and try to correct the habit.
11. To break himself of a habit he had of shrugging up his shoulders, and making himself appear hump-backed, he hung up a sword over his back, so that it might prick him, with its sharp point, whenever he did so.
Shut in a cave
12. He shut himself up in a cave under ground, and, in order to confine himself there to his studies, he shaved the hair off of one half of his head, so that he might be ashamed to go out among men.
13. It was in this way that this great man overcame all of his difficulties, and, at last, became one of the greatest orators that have ever lived.
14. Now, whenever you have a hard lesson to read, or to study, think of Demos'thenes, and recollect how he overcame all his difficulties, and I think you will find that you have few things to do so hard as these things which he did.
15. When your teacher requests you to put out your voice and speak loud, remember what Demos'thenes used to do to strengthen his voice, and you will find very little trouble in speaking loudly enough to be heard, if you will only try.
1. In one of the former lessons, you were taught how to read long and hard words, by taking them to pieces, and reading a part of a word at a time.
2. I promised you also that this book should not be filled with hard words; but I did not promise that there should be no hard words in it.
3. Having taught you how to read hard words, I propose, in this lesson, to give you a few long words to read,—not for the purpose of understanding what they mean, butonly to make you able to read such words, when you find them in any other book.
4. The best way of getting rid of all difficulties, is to learn how to overcome them, and master them; for they cease to be difficulties, when you have overcome them.
5. Demos'thenes, as I told you in the last lesson, had a very hard task to perform, before he became a great orator. You, also, can become a good scholar, if you will take pains to study your lessons, and learn them well.
6. Before you read any lesson to your teacher from this book, it is expected that you will study it over, and find out all the most difficult words, so that you may read them right off to him, without stopping to find them out, while he is waiting to hear you read them.
7. Now, here I shall place a few hard words for you to study over, to read to your teacher when you read this lesson to him; and he will probably require every one in your class to read them all aloud to him.
8. I wish you not to go up to your teacher to ask him to assist you, until you have tried yourself to read them, and find that you cannot.
9. There are some words that are notpronounced as they are spelt, as I have taught you in a former lesson.
10. Such a word asphthisic, which is pronounced as if it were spelledtis´ic, I dare say would puzzle you, if you had never seen it before; but before you go up to your teacher, to ask him any questions, you should read over the whole of your lesson, and perhaps you will find, in the lesson itself, something that will explain what puzzled you; and thus you could find it out from your book, without troubling your teacher.
11. Here are some of the long words I wish you to read.
12. Organization, Theoretical, Metaphysical, Metempsychosis, Multitudinous, Arithmetician, Metaphysician, Hyperbolical.
13. Apotheosis, Indefeasible, Feasibility, Supersaturated, Prolongation, Meridional, Ferruginous, Fastidiousness.
14. Haberdashery, Fuliginous, Exhalation, Prematurely, Depreciation, Appreciability, Resuscitate, Surreptitious, Interlocutory.
15. Sometimes the lettersa e, ando e, are printed together, like one letter, as in the words Cæsar, Cœlebs, and then the syllable is pronounced as if it were spelled withealone, as in the following words:
16. Diæresis, Aphæresis, Œcumenical, Æthiop, Subpœna, Encyclopædia, Phœnix, Phœbus, Æolus.
17. When there are two little dots over one of the letters, they are both to be sounded, as in the word Aërial, which is pronounced a-e-ri-al.
18. The lettercis one which puzzles many young persons who are learning to read, because it is sometimes pronounced likek, as in the wordcan, and sometimes likes, as in the wordcent; and they do not know when to pronounce it likek, and when to sound it likes.
19. But if you will recollect thatcis sounded likekwhen it stands before the lettersa,o, oru, and that it is sounded likesbefore the letterse,i, andy, you will have very little trouble in reading words that have the lettercin them.
20. So also the letterghas two sounds, called the hard sound, and the soft sound. The hard sound is the sound given to it in the wordgone; the soft sound is that which is heard in the wordgentle.
21. The same rule which you have just learnt with regard to the lettercapplies to the letterg. It has its hard sound beforea,o, andu, and its soft sound beforee,i, andy.
22. There are, it is true, some wordswhere this rule is not applied; but these words are very few, so that you may safely follow this rule in most words.
23. The lettersphare sounded likef. The letterschare sounded sometimes likek, as in the wordslochandmonarch, and sometimes likesh, as in the wordschaiseandcharade; and they have sometimes a sound which cannot be represented by any other letters, as in the wordscharmandchance.
24. I suppose that you have probably learned most of these things which I have now told you in your spelling-book; but I have repeated them in this book, because I have so often found that little boys and girls are very apt to forget what they have learned.
25. If you recollect them all, it will do you no harm to read them again, but it will impress them more deeply on your memory. But if you have forgotten them, this little book will recall them to your mind, so that you will never forget them.
26. I recollect, when I was a little boy, that the letteryused to trouble me very much when it began a word, and was not followed by one of the letters which are called vowels, namely,a,e,i,o,u. I knew how to pronounceya,ye,yi,yo,yu; but one day, when I was studying a lessonin geography, I saw a word which was speltY, p, r, e, s, which puzzled me very much.
27. I knew that the lettersp, r, e, s, would spellpres, but I did not know what to call they. After studying it a long time, I found that the lettery, in that word and some others, was to be pronounced like the longe, and that the word was pronouncedEpres, though it was spelledY, p, r, e, s.
28. Perhaps you will be able, when you grow up, to write a book; and to tell little boys and girls who go to school, when you have grown up, how to read hard words, better than I have told you.
29. If you wish to do so, you must try to recollect what puzzles you most now, and then you will be able to inform them how to get over their difficulties and troubles at school; and when they grow up, I have no doubt that they will feel very grateful to you for the assistance you have given them.