McGuffey, William Holmes, L. L. D. McGuffey’s New Sixth Eclectic Reader: exercises in rhetorical reading, with introductory rules and examples. Cincinnati: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., 1866. (first copyright 1857)
PREFACE
This book is presented to the public as the SIXTH in the remodeled series of Eclectic Readers.
As it is designed for advanced pupils, most of the means adopted in the other volumes for aiding the learner, such as Questions, Spelling, &c., are here dispensed with, and the student is left to his own judgment.
The PRINCIPLES of ELOCUTION, in the introductory article, are explained and illustrated in a more extended, systematic, and complete form, than in the preceding volumes.
The READING EXERCISES, so far as to page 204, are especially adapted to illustrate the principles explained in the introductory treatise. For example, the first five lessons are selected for their especial adaptation to practice in Articulation, although it must be borne in mind that every word in every lesson is an exercise in Articulation.
The INFLECTIONS are illustrated, and a guide to their proper are furnished, by an appropriate notation in most of the Reading Exercises as far as the 73d, on page 204. Among them, some are, also, adapted to exemplify emphasis, some, the reading of poetry, and others are appropriate to practice in cultivating the voice, in its high, low, or medium tones.
From the 74th exercise onward, rhetorical notation is dispensed with, the learner being left to his own judgment, except such aid as the teacher may think proper occasionally to give, it being supposed that, in the several volumes of this series, all, that could be profitably contained in books, has been furnished.
In the preparation of this work, free use has been made of the writings of standard authors upon Elocution, such as Walker, McCulloch, Sheridan Knowles, Ewing, Pinnock, Scott, Bell, Graham, Mylins, Wood, Rush, and many others.
In the selection of articles for Reading Exercises, great care has been taken to present variety of style and subject, to attract by interest of matter, to elevate by purity and delicacy of sentiment, and especially to furnish the mind with valuable information, and to influence the heart by sound moral and religious instruction.
Considerable liberty has been taken with the articles selected, in order to adapt them to the especial purpose for which they are here designed. Much change and remodeling have been necessary. The lessons are therefore credited as taken “from” the author named.
Table of Contents (available through the University of Pittsburgh digital library)