E. T. STEVENS, A.K.C. LONDON, Head Master of the Cathedral Grammar School, Bristol; AND CHARLES HOLE, F.R.G.S. Head Master of the Loughborough House Collegiate School, Brixton; late 6 6 EDITORS OF THE GRADE LESSON BOOKS, ADVANCED LESSON BOOK,' ETC. BOOK IV.-THE SENIOR CLASS READER. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1868. 398%. 0.24/3 PREFACE. C THE EDITORS, in bringing the series of the Complete Reader' to a close, think it well to refer to the plan they laid down for accomplishment when it was commenced. The object they had in view was to present a thoroughly graduated course of teaching to read and spell, in Four Books, which should serve a twofold end: (1.) They sought to make the learning of the Art of Reading an attractive and interesting process to the pupil, by the most careful graduation of thought and language, so that the young learner should never be discouraged by undue difficulties, and by the selection of such attractive matter as should induce in the pupil a pleasure in the exercise. (2.) They sought, by an anxious selection of matter carefully drawn from the best writers of our language, to cultivate in the pupil not only elevation of moral principle, but also a pure literary taste. They thought that if, in the process of learning to read, the pupil could have constantly brought under his notice, in a manner suited to the gradual development of his intellectual faculties, the thoughts and language of some of the best parts of our literature, they should do much towards furnishing him with so correct a standard and so pure a taste as would cause the low-class literature which so abounds at the present day to |