Adapted to the latest requirements of the Education Department. CASSELL'S READABLE READERS. An entirely new Series of Reading Books, prepared to meet the latest require- FIRST INFANT READER. 32 pages, limp cloth (red) SECOND INFANT READER. 48 BOOK I. 112 pages, limp cloth boards (blue) 6d. very stiff cloth boards (red) d. 24d. II. 128 III. 192 Iid. 8d. IV. 192 » IS. od. V. 224 Is. id.; * IS. 3d. VI. 224 " IS. 3d, Cassell's Modern School Reading Sheets. THREE SERIES, each containing Twelve Sheets. Printed on Paper, 2s. each; Cassell's Modern School Infant Readers. FIRST INFANT READER 3d. THIRD INFANT READER Cassell's Modern School Readers. FIRST READER Stand. I. (Enlarged Edition) CASSELL & COMPANY'S EDUCATIONAL CATALOGUE, containing particulars of CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, Ludgate Hill, London. FOURTH READING BOOK Aaaptea to the latest Requirements of the Education Department. CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE, [ALL RIGHTS Reserved.] 8 OCT 85 OXFORD PREFACE. IN the selection of stories and extracts for these volumes the Editors have borne in mind that children must enjoy what they read, if the process of learning is to be pleasant and rapid; and they have endeavoured to include nothing that is not wholesome in tone, well written, and suitable for the purposes of a literary reading book; the chief aim of which, as it seems to them, should be, not so much to increase the bulk of a child's knowledge, as to teach insensibly the lesson of good feeling and good taste. Such a book should encourage reading for its own sake-as the one secular pursuit of the young which appeals to their highest faculties-rather than reading for instruction, which under the New Code is otherwise sufficiently provided for. Narrative prose, of a cheerful and spirited sort, has been preferred, as a rule, to pathetic tales or purely descriptive passages; the usual short and disconnected lessons read in Standards I. and II. are replaced by continuous stories of some length; and continuity of subject has been studied as far as possible in the succeeding volumes. The poetry has been chosen mainly for two qualities-attractiveness to the young, and literary fitness for recitation-and for the most part from the great storehouse of English lyric verse. Lyrics appeal most readily to young people, are best understood, and have the paramount advantage of oneness and completeness in themselves. Yet, many pieces which are often regarded as par excellence children's poems have been omitted. Of such pieces "Lucy Gray" is a type. They are, indeed, verbally simple, but they are founded on a parental instinct which only comes with later years, and which stands outside the range of children's ideas. The warmest thanks of the Editors are due to Mr. Alfred Austin, Mr. Robert Buchanan, and Dr. Charles Mackay, for permission to insert in this volume copyright poems of which they are the authors; to the representatives of the late Miss F. R. Havergal for "Sunbeam and Dewdrop," and to those of Mr. G. W. Thornbury for "The Blackbird's Song"; to Messrs. F. Warne & Co. for "Sunshine and Shower," and to Messrs. George Routledge & Sons for "The Boy and the Birds," and for "The Story of the Year"; to Dr. Gordon Stables (author) and Messrs. Partridge & Co. (publishers) for "Toby: the Story of a Sailor Sheep," and "Sindbad, the Dog of Penellan." |