THE

GRADUATED SERIES

OF

READING-LESSON BOOKS

FOR ALL CLASSES OF ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

IN FIVE BOOKS

BOOK THE SECOND.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS.

LONDON

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.

NEW-STREET SQUARE

PREFACE.

THE lessons of Book II. of the Graduated Series are arranged in three groups, under the heads of Miscellaneous, Stories of Animals, and Adventure. To these a small collection of simple Ballads has been added.

In this, as in the other books of the series, the grand end aimed at has been to cultivate a taste for reading by presenting to the pupil only that sort of material which he is capable of assimilating in an easy and healthy manner. A glance at the subjects of the pieces in the present volume will show that the Editor has made a diligent endeavour to furnish, in ample variety, some congenial food for those faculties whose ascendancy at the age for which the book is intended the teacher should accept as a fact in mental physiology—a fact not to be ignored or suppressed, but to be taken hold of as a means of culture. Thus, for instance, it will be perceived that the Miscellaneous section is enriched with a due amount of the imaginative element.

The Stories of Animals are preliminary to the Natural History division of the Third Book. They have reference chiefly to domestic animals, but also to a few tropical ones which possess features of rare interest for children.

The lessons given under the head of Adventure consist of one or two graphic sea-sketches, followed by a succession of vivid pictures from "Robinson Crusoe." It is believed and hoped that these last will pave the way for an early acquaintance with the famous original itself.