thought was thus heard, no questions were needed. The test of reading orally is the communication of thought by the reader to the intelligent and attentive hearer, and the words of the author carry this message more accurately than can any other words the pupil may select.

The selections in the Rhetorical Guide were made, first of all, to teach the art of reading. There was therefore great variety. Second, to inculcate a love for literature. Therefore the selections were taken from the great writers,—poets, orators, essayists, historians, and preachers. The extracts are wonderfully complete in themselves,—one does not need to read the whole of Byron's Don Juan to appreciate the six stanzas that describe the thunder-storm on the Alps. Of the poetical extracts all the users of this book will remember Southey's "Cataract of Lodore" with its exacting drill on the ending,—"ing," Longfellow's "Village Blacksmith" and the "Reaper and the Flowers;" Bryant's "Thanatopsis" and "Song of the Stars;" Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John Moore;" Gray's "Elegy;" Mrs. Hemans's "Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers;" Cowper's "My Mother's Picture;" Jones's "What Constitutes a State;" Scott's "Lochinvar;" Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris;" Drake's "American Flag;" and Mrs. Thrale's "Three Warnings." As an introduction to the thought, imagery and diction of Shakespeare, there were "Hamlet's Soliloquy," "Speech of Henry Fifth to his Troops," "Othello's Apology," "The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey" and his death, the "Quarrel of Brutus and Cassius" (often committed to memory and spoken) and Antony's Oration over dead Caesar. The extracts from orations were chosen largely for their relation to great events in history. There were Patrick Henry's "Speech before the Virginia Convention," Walpole's "Reproof of Mr. Pitt," and Pitt's reply. Who cannot remember "The atrocious crime of being a young man," and go on with the context? There were extracts from Hayne's "Speech on South Carolina," and Webster's reply defending Massachusetts; a part of Burke's long speech on the Trial of Warren Hastings prefaced by Macaulay's description of the scene; Webster's "Speech on the Trial of a Murderer," ending with "It must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession;" Webster's speech on the Importance of the Union with its concluding sentiment, "Liberty and Union, now and forever; one and inseparable." There was also Fox's "Political Pause" with its wonderful requirements of inflection to express irony; Sprague's "American Indians," "Not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared." Did you not commit it to memory and speak it? Then there was Webster's Speech in which he supplied John Adams from his own fervid imagination that favorite of all patriotic boys, "Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish; I give my hand and my heart to this vote." At its close, "it is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment; independence now, and independence forever."

From the essayists there was Lamb's "Eulogy on Candle Light;" that delightful "Eulogy on Debt" from an unknown author; Addison's "Allegory on Discontent," and "Westminster Abbey;" and Jane Taylor's "Discontented Pendulum." Only seven selections were taken from the Bible; but one of these was Paul's Defense before Agrippa. There were, however, quite a number of articles of strongly religious tendency, like Dr. Spring's "Observance of the Sabbath."

The book contained two hundred and thirty-five selections and of this number nearly one-half appeared in all subsequent revisions.

This Rhetorical Guide or Fifth Reader is the book that by its careful selection of specimens of the best English literature in prose and verse contributed most to the training of its readers toward the appreciation of true beauty in literature. It contained many pieces of solid and continuous worth,—many that relate closely to the great historical eras of the United States.

In the latest revision of the highest reader, made in 1879, one hundred and thirty-eight selections composed the book. Of this number sixty-one were in the original book as prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey.

It was an admirable collection of much material that is still prized and which, when carefully read by pupils hungry for thoughtful language, made a deep and lasting impression. In many cases the inmost thought of the author may not have been at once fully apprehended by the young readers; but with advancing years and wider experience in life the stored words became instinct with thought and feeling.

THE AUTHORS.

Dr. William Holmes McGuffey was born September 28, 1800, on the southern border of Washington county, Pa. The family descended from William and Anna (McKittrick) McGuffey who came from Scotland, and landed at Philadelphia. They made a home in the southern part of York county, at which, during the Revolution, General Washington often stopped to refresh himself. In 1789 this family removed to Washington county, Pa.

Alexander McGuffey, the father of Dr. McGuffey, was six years old when the family came to America in August, 1774. In 1790, when he was twenty-two years of age, he and his friend, Duncan McArthur, afterward a governor of Ohio, were selected from five young men who volunteered to act as scouts against the Indians in Ohio who were then threatening the frontier settlements in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania. These two young men were selected after tests by Samuel Brady to find which could run the fastest, shoot most accurately, and were least afraid of Indians. Alexander McGuffey served in the army three years, venturing his life with small bodies of scouts in the Indian country. He took part in several fights with the Indians. When General St. Clair in 1792 marched north from Cincinnati to meet the Indians, this body of scouts was one day concealed in a swamp near the spring of Castalia, Ohio. There they saw great numbers of Indians passing to meet General St. Clair, and three of the scouts hastened through the Indian country to inform the general. They traveled only at night and hid during the day. One night they marched forty miles. They told General St. Clair what they had seen and again went out to watch the collecting Indians. Three days later St. Clair was defeated. These scouts were then twelve miles away but the retreating soldiers soon overtook them and then the "woods were alive with Indians." The scouts turned eastward and in due time reached Logstown, near Wheeling.

The next year McArthur, McGuffey and George Sutherland were again sent out by General Wayne to spy the Indians. When only seven or eight miles from Wheeling and west of the Ohio river, they came upon a trail which led to a deer lick. Just at dusk McGuffey, who was leading the party, saw in the path the gaily decorated head-dress of an Indian. It had been placed there by the Indians who were in ambush close by and were ready to shoot any white man who should stop to pick it up. McGuffey saw through the stratagem instantly; without halting, he gave it a kick and shouted "Indians!" Several Indians fired at once and one of the balls smashed McGuffey's powder horn, and passed through his clothing, but did not wound him. The three scouts retreated in safety, and the Indians did not follow them.

The wars with the Indians in that region closed in 1794, and Alexander McGuffey then married Anna Holmes, of Washington county, and became a settler. His eldest son was William Holmes McGuffey. When this son was but two years old the family moved to Trumbull county, Ohio. Here, in the care of a pious