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AMERICAN SELECTION

OF

Lessons in Reading and Speaking.

CALCULATED TO

IMPROVE THE MINDS AND REFINE THE
TASTE OF YOUTH.

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED

RULES IN ELOCUTION,

AND

DIRECTIONS FOR EXPRESSING THE PRINCIPAL PASSION
OF THE MIND.

BY NOAH WEBSTER, Esq.

A New Edition.

From Sidney's Press, New-Haven for
I. BEERS & Co. AND I. COOKE & Co.

1804.

THE R PUBLI

882906

882306

ASADVERTISEMENT TO THE REVISED EDITION, TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R

1919

THE American Selection, tho' well received and much used in schools,has been thought susceptible of improvement; the compiler has therefore made some alterations, omitting some pieces which are believed to be less adapted to interest young minds, and substituting others, which cannot fail to be as entertaining as useful. The present editition comprehends a great variety of sentiment, morality, history, elocution, anecdote and description; and it is believed, will be found to contain as much interesting matter, as any compilation of the size and price.

NEW-HAVEN Sept. 1804.

Diftria of Connecticut, fs.

BE it remembered that on the thirtienth day of January in the twenty eighth year of the Independence of the United States of America, NOAH WEBSTER Jun, of said District Esq. hath depofited in this office the title of a book the right whereof be claims as author, in the words following, viz. "An American Selection of Leffons in Reading and Speaking, calculated to improve the minds and refine the taste of youth-To which are prefixed Rules in Elocution and directions for expreffing the principal passions of the mindBy NOAH WEBSTER Jun. Author of Differtations on the English Lan guage, Collection of Effays and Fugitive Writings, the Prompter, c." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning by fecuring the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of fuch copies, during the times therein mentioned. Charles Denifon, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

Connecticut, fs.
District Clerk's Office. Jan, 30, 1804.
A true Copy of Record. Att.

CHARLES DENISON, Clark,

RULES FOR READING AND SPEAKING.

RULE I.

Let your articulation be clear and distinct.

A GOOD articulation consists in giving every letter and

syllable its proper pronunciation of sound.

Let each fyllable, and the letters which compose it, be pronounced with a clear voice, without whining, drawling, lifping, ftammering, mumbling in the throat, or speaking through the nofe. Avoid equally a dull drawling habit, and too much rapidity of pronunciation for each of these faults destroys a diftinct articulation.

RULE II.

Obferve the Stops, and mark the proper Pauses; but make no paufe where the fenfe requires none.

The characters we ufe as ftops are extremely arbitrary, and do not always mark a fufpenfion of the voice. On the contrary, they are often employed to feparate the feveral members of a period, and fhow the grammatical conftruction. Nor when they are defigned to mark pauses, do they always determin the length of thofe paufes, for this depends much on the fenfe and the nature of the fubject. A femicolon, for example, requires a longer pause in a grave difcourfe, than in lively and fpirited declamation. However as children are incapable of nice distinctions, it may be best to adopt, at first, some general rule with refpect to the paufes, and teach them to pay the fame attention to thefe characters as they do to the words.* They should be cautioued likewise against paufing in the midst of a member of a fentennce, where the fenfe requires the words to be closely connected in pronunciation.

RULE III.

Pay the fricteft attention to Accent, Emphafis, and CadenceLet the accented fyllables be pronounced with a proper ftrefs of voice; the unaccented, with little stress of voice, bụt disinctly.

* See my American Spelling book, in which the paufes of the comma, femicolon, colon, and period, are fixed at one, two, four, fix.

Gold 123m

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