SELECTIONS IN PROSE, POETRY, AND DIALOGUES, FOR DECLAMATION AND RECITATION: SUITED TO THE CAPACITIES OF YOUTH, AND INtended for the SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. Ellustrated. BY GEORGE R. CATHCART, A. M. NEW YORK AND CHICAGO: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington PREFACE. IN N the preparation of this volume the compiler has had three things mainly in view. 1. To make a book of selections suitable to the "Exhibition Day" requirements of Common Schools and Academies ; 2. That the selections should be adapted to the understanding of the younger pupils; and 3. To present, as far as practicable, pieces that are fresh, or that have not heretofore been used in a book of this kind. An attempt has been made in the part under the head of "Selections in Prose" to insert none but pieces of a highly rhetorical character, though in two or three instances this rule has not been adhered to. The compiler's own personal observations have convinced him of the fact, and he has been assured by many of the most accomplished teachers that it is a fact, that a boy will memorize more easily, and speak more naturally and forcibly, a richly colored descriptive or didactic passage, than an exercise of simple puerile construction; and his utmost care has been given to selecting such as are free from ambiguous expressions, and long, complicated sentences. The selections under this head will be found |