mar, — orthoëpy, orthography, and etymology so far only as regards derivation. The examples of explanatory oral instruction, are accordingly limited to these branches, and are carried no farther, in these, than is necessary for the intelligent performance of the exercises. Introductory Explanations, designed for very young Pupils.* LESSON I.- GRAMMAR. Questions, by the Teacher. How many of this class know what botany is. What does it teach us? Answer, by the Pupils. About flowers.-Q. Yes; and about trees, and shrubs, and vegetables, and weeds. By what one word may we call all these? A. Plants.-Q. How many know what astronomy is? What does it teach us? A. About the stars.-Q. If I were going to teach you botany, what must I do? A. Give us books with pictures that would tell us all about flowers.-Q. Might I not rather bring some flowers, and show them to you, so that you might see all their parts, and be able to describe them yourselves, and then hear what more I could tell you about them, and what the books would tell you? A. That would be best.-Q. If I were going to teach you astronomy, what must I do? A. Give us books * A useful and interesting course of elementary lessons and exercises on words, may be advantageously commenced, long before pupils have attained the age at which it would be advisable to propose systematic lessons from any treatise on grammar. Children at the age of six or seven years, may, if the author of this manual may judge from repeated experience, be easily led to take an interest as earnest and as intelligent in the study of words, as in that of the most attractive specimens in natural history. - † In the earliest stages of instruction, there is no impropriety in the answer to a question being given by the teacher, when it cannot be obtained from the pupils themselves. It is preferable, however, to vary the form of a question, and even to put leading questions, if the subject is at all accessible to the pupil's own mind. full of figures, and pictures of the stars.-Q. Should you not understand better, if I should have you come to me, on clear evenings, and have you look at the stars, while I pointed them out to you, and told you what I knew about them? A. Yes.-Q. Should you not then understand the figures and pictures in your books much better? A. Yes. Q. How many of this class know what grammar is? What do we learn when we study grammar? A. How to talk right, how to write letters,—how to write compositions. — Q. Yes; how to speak and write correctly. I once heard a little boy say, "The cars is comin'." Was that speaking correctly? A. No. -Q. What should he have said? A. "The cars are coming." Q. Yes; and when that boy has studied grammar, he will know why he should not say, "The cars is comin'," and why he should say, “The cars are coming.” --- LESSON II.- LANGUAGE. Q. You said grammar teaches us how to talk correctly and write correctly. Now, can any one tell me a word which I may use correctly, if I mean either speaking or writing, and that will do for the one just as well as for the other? A. No.-Q. Well, if you cannot tell me one, let me tell you one. [The teacher writes or prints, on the blackboard, "Grammar teaches us to speak and write correctly."]-What have I done? A. You have written, "Grammar teaches us to speak and write correctly."-Q. [After uttering the words, "Grammar teaches us to speak and write correctly."] What have I done now? A. You have said, "Grammar teaches us to speak and write correctly."-Q. [Pointing to the blackboard.] You call this written what? A. Written words.-Q. What do you call this? [Repeating the words orally.] A. Spoken words.-Q. Should you understand me, if I called this, [pointing to the words on the blackboard,] written language, and this, [repeating the words, orally,] spoken language? A. Yes.-Q. Should you understand me, then, if I said, "Grammar teaches us to use language correctly," or, "the correct use of language?" A. Yes.-Q. Now can you tell me what word means the same thing as spoken words or written words? A. Language. LESSON III.-WORDS. Q. If I am to teach you grammar, or the correct use of language, what must I do? Can I give you anything to handle and examine, as I would hand you a flower, if I were going to teach you botany? Can I show you language, in any way? A. You can show us words.-Q. How? A. You can speak words; and we shall hear them.-Q. Can I show you words in any other way? A. You can write words on the blackboard for us to see.- -Q. Can I show you words in any other way? A. You can show them to us in books. — Q. [Showing a book.] What is this? A. A book.-Q. [Showing a page of a music-book.] What do you see in this book? A. Marks for singing,-notes. Q. [Showing a page of a reading-book.] What do you see in this book? A. Words.-Q. Some of you said the music-book has marks for singing. What may we say the reading-book has ? A. Marks for reading.-Q. Can we look at these marks, and examine them, and so understand what they mean? A. Yes. — Q. When we look at a flower and examine it, so as to know every part of it, what are we studying? A. A flower. ·Q. What science did you say teaches us about flowers? A. Botany. -Q. May we say rightly, that, when we are studying a flower, we are learning botany? A. Yes.-Q. When we are looking at a word, and are trying to understand and read it rightly, what are we studying? A. A word.-Q. What did you say we may call written or printed or spoken words? A. Language.- Q. What science teaches us about language? A. Grammar. — Q. When we are studying words, then, what are we learning? A. Grammar.-Q. Why do we learn grammar? A. To be able to speak and write correctly.—Q. To speak and write what? A. Words.-Q. To learn grammar, then, we must study what? A. Words. 19* LESSON IV.-COMPOUND WORDS. Q. If I were teaching you botany, and we were examining a flower, we would look carefully at every part of it. Can you tell me the names of some of the parts of a flower? A. Yes; the root, the stalk, the leaves, the blossom.-Q. Well, words have several parts which we can examine. [After writing, on the blackboard, the word sunshine.] How many parts has that word? A. Two,- — sun and shine.-Q. How many parts has each of these words, Moonshine, sunlight, moonlight, lamplight, schoolroom, pathway? A. [accordingly.] — Q. Can you name some words of two parts like those which we have been dividing? A. [accordingly.] Q. Can you divide these words, — Uphold, uplift, sheepfold, vineyard, manful, highland, lowland, treetop, blackboard, goodnatured? A. [accordingly.]-Q. Into how many parts have you divided all these words? A. Into two.-Q. Can you divide these words into parts,- Foretopmast, gentlemanlike, foretopgallantsail? A. [accordingly.]-Q. Into how many parts have you divided these? A. Two into three, and one into four. Q. Do the parts of these words all make words by themselves if we separate them from one another? A. Yes.- Q. Shall I tell you the name by which we call all words of this kind? They are called compound" words, because they are compounded, or made up of simple or single words. Can you tell me anything else, besides words, which is compounded, or made up, of single things? What is this book compounded of? A. Paper and leather.-Q. What kind of book is it? A. A spelling-book. - Q. What sort of word is spelling-book,—simple or compound? A. Compound.-Q. Why? A. Because it is compounded of spelling and book.-Q. [After writing on the blackboard the word treetop.] Have I divided this word into parts, or written it as one word? A. As one word.-Q. [After writing the word spelling-book.] Have I written spellingbook as one word, or divided it into two? A. You have divided it into two.-Q. How ? A. By that little mark.-Q. Would you like to know its name? We call it a "hyphen." Can you show, in any page of your Reader, compound words divided by a hyphen? A. [accordingly.-Q. How did you divide the compound word uphold? A. [accordingly.]Q. What does uphold mean? A. To hold up.-Q. Can you divide all the other words, and tell me their meanings? A. [accordingly.]—Q. Do you observe that when we divide such words we see their meaning more plainly? A part of the study of words then, you observe, is to divide compound words into the simple words of which they are made up, so as to understand the meaning of compound words more fully. Can you divide these compound words, and tell their meaning, Milkman, newsboy, housemaid, haystack, homestead, farmhouse, door-bell, fire-shovel, barn-yard, housetop, hillside, roof-tree, bellringer? A. [accordingly.] LESSON V.SYLLABLES. Q. You have divided compound words into parts according to their meaning. Can you think of any other way in which words may be divided? [After writing on the blackboard the word Speaker.] Can you read this word very slowly and distinctly? A. [accordingly.]—Q. Into how many parts do you divide the word? A. Two. -Q. [After writing the word thus, Have I written the word as you on the blackboard, Spea-ker.] divided it, when you read it? No.- Q. [After writing the word thus, Speak-er.] Have I divided it rightly now? A. Yes. Q. You see, then, that we may divide spoken words by the voice, although they are not compound words, and that we may divide written words by the hyphen into the same parts which they would have, if they were spoken words. Now, can you tell me why we must divide this word speaker, by the voice, into two parts, one ending with k, and the other beginning with e? A. The sounds seem to go so, themselves.-Q. Yes; that is the easiest way to pronounce the word. Can you divide, in this way, these words, — Unkind, manly, goodness, delay, before, advance, return, unkindness, manliness, delaying, advancement, retreating, unmusical, recovery, ingratitude, indiscreetly, imprudently, uninteresting, disinterested, ungenerously, unintelligible, incomprehensible, incontrovertibly? A. [ac |