tt ART OT READING AND WRITING. or unhappy tone, by this method ; and they will better learn to pronounce well Whatsoever they read by this imitation, than by a more correction of their faults, without any example. If the master keeps several scholars to the saine lesson, this may be clone with ease ; for all may attend in their own books while the master spells or reads. The chief directions which should be given to learners, in order to read and pronounce well, are such as these : 1. Be sure you take due pains in learning to pronounce common single words well, by attaining a perfect knowledge of the nature and sound of the vowels and consonants, and especi- ally the double consonants, and the diphthongs : then it will be a very easy matter to join the syllables together in reading harder and longer words, and to join words together in reading sen- tences. 2. If you do not certainly know any word at first sight, do not guess at it, lest thereby you get a habit of miscallingwords, and reading falsely ; and he sure to spell every word and syllable before you pronounce it, if you are not acquainted with it. I confess it does not appear so well, when you are reading in company to spell letter by letter ; therefore spell any strange long word you meet with in your mind, syllable by syllable, and pronounce it slowly, step by step ; and thus you may read the longest word in the world easily, as ma- her-sha-lal-hash-baz ; Is. viii. '1. But this is merely an indulgence to those who are not able to read better. 3. Havea care of putting hem's and n's and ha's, between your words ; but pronounce every syllable distinct and clear, without a long drawling tone. Let the tone and sound of your voice in reading be the same as it is in speaking ; and do not affect to change that natural and easy sound wherewith you speak, for a strange, new, aukward tone, as some do when they begin to read ; which would almost persuade our ears that the speaker and the reader were two dif- ferent persons, if our eyes did not tell us the contrary. 4. Take heed of hurrying your words or syllables over in haste, lest thereby you are led toflutter or stammer, in speaking or reading ; it is better to read slow at first : but most children, when they come to read well, are in danger of too much hurry and speed in their pronunciation, whereby many of your lesser syllables are ready to be cut off or lost, and the language be- comes a kind of gibberish, and is scarce to be understood. 5. Children may be taught to let their voice in reading be so loud, as that every one in the saine room may hear and under- stand ; but not loud enough to reach the next room, if the doors be shut. The reader's voice should be such as may give aclear and distinct sound of every syllable to those who must hear, let the subject matter be of any kind whatsoever ; but if it be any thingpassionate or affecting, the voice may be raised alittle higher.
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