THE

YOUNG GENTLEMEN AND LADY'S

MONITOR,

AND

English Teacher's Assistant;

BEING

A COLLECTION OF SELECT PIECES

FROM OUR BEST MODERN WRITERS;

CALCULATED TO

Eradicate vulgar Prejudices and rusticity of manners; Improve the Understanding; Rectify the Will; Purify the passions; direct the Minds of Youth to the pursuit of proper Objects; and to facilitate their Reading, Writing, and Speaking the English Language, with Elegance and Propriety.

Particularly adapted for the use of our eminent Schools and Academies, as well as Private Persons, who have not an opportunity of perusing the Works of those celebrated Authors, from whence this Collection is made.

DIVIDED INTO SMALL PORTIONS

For the Use of Reading in Classes.

BY J. HAMILTON MOORE,

Author of the Practical Navigator, and Seaman's new Daily Assistant.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY DANIEL D. SMITH,

No. 190 Greenwich-street.

1824.

S. MARKS, PRINTER.

WOR 20JUN 34

PREFACE.

AS the design of Learning is to render persons agreeable companions to themselves, and useful members of society; to support solitude with pleasure, and to pass through promiscuous temptations with prudence; it is presumed, this compilation will not be unacceptable; being composed of pieces selected from the most celebrated moral writers in the English lan⚫ guage, equally calculated to promote the principles of religion, and to render youth vigilant in discharging the social and relative duties in the several "ations of life; by instilling into their minds such maxims of virtue and good breeding, as tend to eradicate local prejudices and rusticity of manners; and at the same time, habituate them to an elegant manner of expressing themselves either in Writing or Speaking,

And as the first impression made on the minds of youth is the most lasting, great care should be taken to furnish them with such seeds of reason and philosophy, as may rectify and sweeten every part of their future lives; by marking out a proper behaviour both with respect to themselves and others, and exhibiting every virtue to their view which claims their attention, and every vice which they ought to avoid. Instead of this, we generally see youth suffered to read romances, which impress on their minds such notions of Faries, Goblins, &c. that exist only in the imagination, and being strongly imbibed, take much time to eradicate, and very often baffle all the power of philosophy. If books abounding with moral instructions conveyed in a proper manner, were given in their stead, the frequent reading of them would plant in their minds such ideas and sentiments, as would enable them to guard against those prejudices so frequently met with amongst the ignorant.

Nor is it possible that any person can speak or write with elegance and propriety, who has not been taught to read well, and in such books where the sentiments are just and the language pure.

An insipid flatness and languor is almost the universal fault in reading; often uttering their words so faint and feeble, that they appear neither to feel nor understand what they read, nor have any desire it should be understood or felt by others. In order to acquire a forcible manner of pronouncing words, let the pupil inure themselves, while reading, to draw in as much air as their lungs can contain with ease, and to expel it with vehemence in uttering those sounds which require an emphatical pronunciation, and to read aloud with all the exertion they can command; let all the consonant sounds be expressed with a full impulse of the breath, and a forcible action of the organs employed in forming them; and all the vowel sound have a full and bold utterance.

These reasons, and to inspire youth with noble sentiments, just expressions, to ease the teacher, and to render a book cheap and convenient for schools, as well as private persons who have neither time nor opportunity to peruse the works of those celebrated authors from which this collection is made, was the cause of the following compilation

And as speeches in both houses of parliament, pleadings at the bar, instructions in the pulpit, and commercial correspondence, are delivered and carried on in the English Language; the clothing our thoughts with proper expressions, and conveying our ideas, either in writing or speaking, agreeably, cannot fail of making an impression upon the hearer or reader For, a man's knowledge is of little use to the world, when he is not able to convey it properly to others; which is the case of many who are endowed with excellent parts, but either afraid or ashamed of writing or speaking in public, being conscious of their own deficiency of expres. ing themselves in proper terms.