The works of genius are the precious gifts which have been given to us for our moral and intellectual improvement. They cannot cast, too soon, their inspiring rays upon the mind and heart of childhood. Through a long and varied experience in the schoolroom, I always found those scholars who were accustomed to the general reading of good authors, invariably possessed of the best manners and the most trustworthiness. The following selections have been compiled with a view to their especial suggestiveness to growing minds. Something can here be found suited to all grades, as their range embraces more than four hundred standard authors. A few biographical eulogies and full poems have been inserted as being suitable for three-minute recitations and declamations. An opening exercise of ten minutes each morning, devoted to either individual or concert recitation, would, in the course of a year, fill the children's minds with an attractive store of grand and ennobling thoughts calculated to give them correct rules of action, to inspire them with higher aspirations of life, to lead them into pure fields of English literature, and to teach them to love and reverence our great authors." 66 Most books of quotations are so general in their scope, and so comprehensive, as to make them cumbersome for daily use. It is hoped that the seed-grain here garnered may prove worthy of sowing; and that the size and compactness of this volume is such that it may find constant and most profitable use in thousands of schoolrooms. J. B. H. |