WINTHROP B.. SMITH, CINCINNATI,
Retail Price 75 cents.

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JUST PUBLISHED,

McGUFFEY'S RHETORICAL GUIDE; or Fifth Reader of the Eclectic Series; 480 pages, 12mo.-containing copious and minute rules, examples and exercises in articulation, inflection, emphasis, accent, quantity, rhetorical pause, modulation, expression, reading of poetry, rhetorical dialogue, gesture, and their collateral subjects, to which are added a great variety of elegant reading lessons, (about one half prose and half poetry,) selected from the most classic writers; furnishing entertaining and instructive specimens of various styles of composition. This work has been prepared with very great care, and with reference to making it a useful, practical, and standard book. The publisher confidently hopes, that the Rhetorical Guide of Mr. McGuffey is well adapted to supply the wants of classes in rhetorical reading in our Academies, High Schools and Colleges.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-four, by WINTHROP B. SMITH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Ohio.

Stereotyped by Shepard & Co.

PREFACE.

This volume treads in the steps of its predecessors, so far as principle is concerned, The main difference between this and the "Third Eclectic Reader" is, that the rules are more specific-the exemplifications more numerous - the list of errors more extended- and the interrogations more copious, embracing a wider range, and requiring a more vigorous exercise of thought, in order to intelligent, and intelligible answers. The selections are of a higher grade of literary and intellectual excellence. The mind of the pupil is presumed to have improved, and expanded, as he advanced through the preceding numbers of the " Series," or its equivalent in other books. In this, therefore, he is to expect, that higher claims will be made upon his powers of thought; and larger contributions levied upon what he may, (or ought to) have learned from

other sources.

All he knows, and, not unfrequently, more than he knows, will be put in requisition by the questions appended to the lessons. It is deliberately intended to lead the mind of the pupil, as often as practicable, beyond the pages of the book in his hands. Let him not think this unfair. Nor will he, for a moment, entertain such an opinion, if his mind is sufficiently active and vigorous to take delight in new efforts, and fresh acquisitions.

norance.

It may even happen, that some of the questions cannot at once be intelligently answered by the instructor. And what then? Is a teacher never to admit that there are some things which he does not know? The teacher who never dares to say "I do not know" in reply to the questions of his pupil, must be conscious of extreme ig"He must be poor indeed, who would be bankrupted by the loss of a farthing." Still, there is nothing to be met with, in the following pages, but what an intelligent teacher of a "common school" might be expected to know, or might, at least, easily acquire. Nothing is so well taught, as that which the teacher has most recently acquired. This book is intended to aid and stimulate the teacher, as well as the pupil. The author ventures to predict, that if any of the lessons shall be found unintelligible to the younger classes of readers, it will not be those of the highest character for thought and diction: and especially in the selections from poetry. Nothing is so difficult to be understood as "nonsense." Nothing is so clear and easy to be comprehended, as the simplicity of wisdom.

The compiler will rejoice to know, that those who use his books, ask more intelligent questions, and in much greater numbers, than are to be found in the pages before them. This is the very design of that part of his labors. His wish is, to incite the teacher to the interrogative method orally, and then he cares not whether he asks a single question that is printed in the book.

It may, perhaps, be expected, that the author should here add something in expla nation of the principle, or in defense of the plan which he has adopted, and pursued in this series of books. But, as in every instance of intelligent criticism which has met his eye, both have been approved, he infers that both have been understood, and that neither requires to be explained or defended here.

From no source has the author drawn more copiously in his selections, than from the Sacred Scriptures. For this, he certainly apprehends no censure. In a Christian country, that man is to be pitied, who, at this day, can honestly object to imbuing the minds of youth with the language and spirit of the Word of God.

The student of the Bible will, it is believed, be pleased to find a specimen of the elegant labors of Bishop Jebb, and some specimens of sacred poetry, as arranged by Dr. Coit, in which the exact words of our authorized translation are preserved, while the poetic order of the original is happily restored.

To the present remodeled and enlarged edition, are added an introductory article upon the subject of reading, and definitions of the more difficult words in each lesson, in which the proper pronunciation is indicated, and the part of speech is denoted by the usual abbreviations. The proper inflections and emphasis are also denoted to a considerable extent, as explained in the note to the first lesson. Numerous questions it is believed, will be found profitable. and explanations upon this subject are added, indicating the kind of examination, which,

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