Continuous reading aloud for fixed periods is necessary to obtain a full command of the voice and breath, and for acquiring a habit of breathing easily, particularly through the nostrils, in the act of reading. Selections from good poetry and the higher class of prose may be committed to memory with great advantage. They purify the taste, improve the sentiment, and enlarge and ennoble the mind. The recitation of such selections is also beneficial for the improvement of the voice; and is effectual for arousing and rightly directing the sympathies of the reciter. In all recitations, vociferation, display, and affectation must be carefully guarded against. Some regard to look and gesture is, however, necessary in reciting. Here it is the office of the teacher to encourage what is natural, and to check what is formal, stiff, and merely habitual; and it should be the study of the pupil to use only such action and such expression of the eye and countenance as most naturally accord with the subject he is delivering. The eye and hand, under the direction of nature, will act simultaneously, and with mutual sympathy. Excessive and affected action is vulgar and offensive; unsuitable and merely formal aetion, or action out of time, is ineffectual and ridiculous; while a total want of action indicates a want of proper feeling, and the absence of due appreciation of the author's sentiments. III.-Didactic Pieces. Didactic or instructive pieces, and pieces intended simply to direct the action of others,-although admitting great variety of sentiment, and requiring different degrees of energy and intonation in the delivery,—are classed among the least impassioned styles of writing, and are generally read with most effect when the tones used in conversation and ordinary explanation are consistently adopted. 1. On the Law of Gravitation. The principle upon which the motions of the earth, moon, and planets are calculated, is this:-Every particle of matter attracts every other particle. That is, if there were a single body alone, and at rest, then, if a second body were brought near it, the first body would immediately begin to move toward the second body. Just in the same manner, if a needle is at rest on a table, and if a magnet is brought near it, the needle immediately begins to move towards the magnet, and we say that the magnet attracts the needle, But magnetic attraction belongs only to certain bodies: whereas the attraction, of which we speak here, belongs to all bodies of every kind,-metals, earths, fluids, and even the air and gases, are equally subject to its influence. Attraction, or (as it is technically called) the Law of Gravitation, is measured by the space through which it draws a body in one second of time after the body is set at liberty. Whenever we speak, therefore, of calculating attraction, it must be understood to mean calculating the number of inches, or feet, through which the attraction draws a body in one second of time. Now the first rule is this :-" "The attraction of one body upon another does not depend on the mass of the body which is attracted, but is the same, whatever be the mass of the body so attracted, if the distances are the same. ." Thus, Jupiter attracts the sun, and Jupiter attracts the earth also; but though the sun's mass is three hundred thousand times as great as the earth, yet the attraction of Jupiter on the sun is exactly equal to his attraction on the earth, when the sun and the earth are equally distant from Jupiter. In other words (the attraction being measured in conformity with the definition above), when the sun and the earth are at equal distances from Jupiter, the attraction of Jupiter draws the sun through as many inches, or parts of an inch, in one second of time, as it draws the earth in the same time. The second rule is this ::“Attraction is proportional to the mass of the body which attracts, if the distances of the different attracting bodies be the same." Thus, suppose the sun and Jupiter are at equal distances from Saturn; the sun is about a thousand times as big as Jupiter; then whatever be the number of inches through which Jupiter draws Saturn in one second of time, the sun draws Saturn in the same time through a thousand times that number of inches. The third rule is this:- If the same attracting body act upon several bodies at different distances, the attractions are inversely proportional to the square of the distances from the attracting body." Thus, supposing Saturn ten times as far from the sun as the earth is, the sun's attraction upon Saturn is only one-hundredth part of his attraction on the earth. The accuracy of astronomical observations is carried to a degree that can scarcely be imagined; and by means of these, we can every day compare the observed place of a planet with the place which was calculated beforehand, according to the law of gravitation. It is found that they agree so nearly, as to leave no doubt of the truth of the law. The motion of Jupiter, for instance, is so perfectly calculated, that astronomers have computed ten years beforehand the time at which it will pass the meridian of different places, and we find the predicted time correct within half a second of time.-Professor Airy. 2. Hamlet's directions for a Correct Delivery. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier had spoke my lines. And do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus-: but use all gently for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. Be not too tame neither; but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure. Now this, overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of one of which must, in your allowance, overweigh a whole theatre of others.Shakspeare. IV.-Narration and Description. Simple Narration or Description, in prose, affords little opportunity for emotional reading: it is best expressed in conversational tones, and requires only a distinct and clear enunciation, with very slight inflections of the voice, and such attention to natural pauses as will enable the hearer to understand what is read. Poetical Description comes under the ordinary rules for reading poetry. 1. A Family of Rank described. I was particularly struck with the family of a nobleman of high rank, consisting of several sons and daughters. Nothing could be more simple and unassuming than their appearance. They generally came to church in the plainest equipage, and often on foot. The young ladies would stop and converse in the kindest manner with the peasantry, caress the children, and listen to the stories of the humble cottagers. Their countenances were open and beautifully fair, with an expression of high refinement, but, at the same time, a frank cheerfulness, and an engaging affability. Their brothers were tall, and elegantly formed. They were dressed fashionably, but simply; with strict neatness and propriety, but without any mannerism or foppishness. I was pleased to see the manner in which they would converse with the peasantry about their rural concerns and field-sports. In these conversations there was neither haughtiness on the one part, nor servility on the other; and you were only reminded of the difference of rank by the habitual respect of the peasant. There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity, that never dreads contact and communication with others, however humble. It is only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive, and shrinks from every touch.— Washington Irving. 2. The Village Schoolmaster described. Beside yon straggling fence, that skirts the way |