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THE

YOUNG LADIES' CLASS BOOK.

LESSON I.

On Elocution and Reading.-N. A. REVIEW.

E business of training our youth in elocution must be enced in childhood. The first school is the nursery. , at least, may be formed a distinct articulation, which first requisite for good speaking. How rarely is it in perfection among our orators! Words, says one, ng to articulation, should "be delivered out from the s beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint; deeply ccurately impressed, perfectly finished, neatly struck by -oper organs, distinct, in due succession, and of due t." How rarely do we hear a speaker, whose tongue, and lips do their office so perfectly as, in any wise, to r to this beautiful description! And the common faults culation, it should be remembered, take their rise from ry nursery. But let us refer to other particulars. ce in eloquence-in the pulpit, at the bar-cannot be ted from grace in the ordinary manners, in private life, social circle, in the family. It cannot well be superinupon all the other acquisitions of youth, any more that nameless, but invaluable quality, called good ng. You may, therefore, begin the work of forming ator with your child; not merely by teaching him to m, but, what is of much more consequence, by observd correcting his daily manners, motions and attitudes. 1 can say, when he comes into your apartment, or ats you with something, a book or letter, in an awkward lundering manner, "Just return, and enter this room " or, "Present me that book in a different manner," or,

"Put yourself into a different attitude." You can explain to him the difference between thrusting or pushing out his hand and arm, in straight lines and at acute angles, and moving them in flowing, circular lines, and easy, graceful action. He will readily understand you. Nothing is more true than that "the motions of children are originally graceful;" and it is by suffering them to be perverted, that we lay the foundation for invincible awkwardness in later life.

We go, next, to the schools for children. It ought to be a leading object, in these schools, to teach the art of reading. It ought to occupy three-fold more time than it does. The teachers of these schools should labor to improve themselves. They should feel, that to them, for a time, are committed the future orators of the land.

We had rather have a child, even of the other sex, return to us from school a first-rate reader, than a first-rate performer on the piano-forte. We should feel that we had a far better pledge for the intelligence and talent of our child. The accomplishment, in its perfection, would give more pleasure. The voice of song is not sweeter than the voice of eloquence and there may be eloquent readers, as well as eloquent speak ers. We speak of perfection in this art; and it is something, we must say in defence of our preference, which we have never yet seen. Let the same pains be devoted to reading, as are required to form an accomplished performer on an instrument; let us have-as the ancients had the formers of the voice, the music-masters of the reading voice; let us see years devoted to this accomplishment, and then we should be prepared to stand the comparison.

It is, indeed, a most intellectual accomplishment. So is music, too, in its perfection. We do by no means undervalue this noble and most delightful art; to which Socrates applied himself, even in his old age. But one recommendation of the art of reading is, that it requires a constant exercise of mind. It demands continual and close reflection and thought, and the finest discrimination of thought. It involves, in its perfection, the whole art of criticism on language. A man may possess a fine genius, without being a perfect reader; but he cannot be a perfect reader without genius.

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