PREFACE. THE compiler of this Class-book has aimed above all things at judicious omission. He has had in view the collecting together in a classified form of all the more difficult words in common use. Words difficult, but rarely met with by the ordinary reader, are better learned as they occur in the course of reading, and after the pupil has obtained an accurate knowledge of the great mass of words that occur in daily conversation, in newspapers and in current literature. It is presumed that the pupil, into whose hands this book is put, has already been accustomed to spell from his daily lessons for some years, and also to write simple sentences from dictation. He will find here a revisal of the knowledge acquired, and a test and extension of it. The Spelling Rules have been reduced to three. The dictation-exercises in this book have been so constructed as to convey knowledge as well as to teach spelling. The pupil is understood to learn the columns of words by heart as a home-task, and to copy on his slate, either at home or during school-hours, the dictation-exercises,--writing them afterwards from the dictation of the master. Writing from dictation will be successfully taught only when the preparation of dictation lessons becomes a home-task. Masters will find that a dictation-book of this kind will afford much better material for the daily writinglessons than the wearisome and unmeaning repetition of words commonly found in copy-books. As soon as a scholar can write small text fairly, his copy should frequently at least, if not always, be a portion of his dictation-book. In this way he will not only gain a more sure and rapid mastery over the art of writing, but he will learn other things at the same time. It is scarcely necessary to apologize for the etymological portion of the volume, as a knowledge of prefixes and affixes have a close connexion with accurate and intelligent spelling. The compiler has, except in this one respect, carefully avoided the almost universal error of confounding a spellingbook proper with either a reading-book on the one hand, or a bad dictionary of significations on the other. EDINBURGH, October 1864. If any errors have escaped attention in carrying the sheets of this book through the press, Teachers will confer a favour by communicating them to the Publisher. |