PREFACE. THE illustrations of this volume are by different hands. Some of them appear so helpful in interesting the reader as to call for cordial acknowledgment from the editor. Many poems naturally looked for in a collection like this are omitted, because found in our School Readers. The arrangement of these selections is intended to be elastic, changing from easier to harder pieces, and back again. It is also meant to be suggestive of the likeness. or the difference between one poem and another, so as to quicken thought and feeling. Let us hope that every child in our Primary and Grammar classes will find something here to please him, and that the teachers will encourage the children, first, to read only what is suited to them, and, next, to commit what they read to memory, as the best means of exercising that faculty and kindling the whole intelligence. May the love of poetry, and of the good that poetry teaches, be the portion of our children! |