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CALCUTTA: PRINTED AT THE BAPTIST MISSION PRESS.

MADRAS: RE-PRINTED AT THE AMERICAN MISSION PRESS,
FOR THE MADRAS SCHOOL BOOK SOCIETY.

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Reading looks

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

739848 A

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R

1934

L

THE

ENGLISH INSTRUCTOR.

No. III.

To the Readers.

As you have learned far enough to begin this new book, your teachers hope, that by this time, you have found what pleasant work reading is.

Now you may be sure, that it will become more and more pleasant, as you go on. If you learn what you do learn, thoroughly, every new book will seem easier than the one read before it.

You now begin to know many words and sentences of the English language-that language in which such a number of books is written, fit to make men wise. But do you understand what you read? It is of no use to know that dog, in English, means the same thing as kukur in Bengalee, if you do not know what that thing is-whether it is a dog,

a bird, a cow, or a stool. A man who knows two languages, is something like a man with two tongues; but still, if he do not think, he is like a man without brain; and to such a man, what use would a dozen tongues be? You, then, should mind this, and think what things the words mean: if not, you will become parrots, chattering without thinking, instead of wise men, such as your masters wish to see you. Never think your lesson done, until you understand every word and every sentence.

In this book you will find many lessons which we hope will please you, and at the same time make you wise. Some, such as the Fables of the Monkey and the Cats, and the Fox and the Stork, will make you laugh. Others will tell you things about this great earth, on which we live, so wonderful, that to know them is well worth the trouble of learning to read. But there are some lessons which are too grave for you to laugh at, and about things, too plain for you to wonder at. Yet these will be so useful, in teach-. ing you the way to be loved and honoured of men, and accepted of God, that they should have the most attention of all. A wicked man is not loved, or honoured, though he have much learning. Of this last sort of lessons are the hymns, which were written by Doctor Watts.

He was a man learned enough to teach other men, and yet he loved children so much, that he laboured very hard to write what they could read, and understand. If his hymns should seem a little harder than the other lessons, you must think of this, and work harder, for these hymns are worth being learned, and remembered.

You must also come to school every day: not stay away, as some do, because they are a little sick, or a little-idle. The boy that really wishes to learn, will be seldom absent, or late; and, partly, by this very mark, your master knows the good boy from the bad boy. Remember this,

The Idle Boy.

1. There was a little boy, who was not higher than the table, and his father sent him to school.

2. It was a very pleasant morning; the sun shone, and the birds chirped on the trees.

3. Now this little boy did not love his book much, for he was but a silly little boy.

4. If he had been a big boy, I suppose he would have been wiser; but he had a great mind to play instead of going to school.

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