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CASSELL & COME

London.

1

SECOND READING BOOK.

Adapted to the latest Requirements of the Education Debartment.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE.

8 CT85

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. William Allingham, Mrs. Hawtrey, and to the author of "John Halifax," for their kind permission to insert in this volume the poems to which their names are appended.