LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. a.38088 Copyright, 1890, by HARPER BROTHERS. All rights reserved. PUBLISHERS' NOTE. THE present volume, completing Harper's series of School Readers, contains selections from the works of British authors only. The reading-lessons being so nearly of the same grade as those in the Fifth Reader of the same series, this book may be used either alternately with that volume or as a sequel to it; and, indeed, in schools where an early acquaintance with British authors is thought desirable, its study may be taken up at once upon the completion of the Fourth Reader. The design of a School Reader for advanced classes differs essentially from that of a work on English Literature, and still more from that of the ordinary popular collection of choice extracts. Such a Reader, by reason of its careful compilation and gradation, should lead, as do the earlier numbers of the series, to a steady improvement in the art of oral reading; the wonderful flexibility of the English language, as shown in the widely varying styles of expression employed by the greatest writers, should find ample illustration in its pages; its contents should be so diversified and pleasing as to cultivate and foster a healthy love of reading, and the selections should be of that order which tends to develop in the minds of students a critical discrimination that is satisfied with only the best literature; its lessons, while abounding in instructiveness, should be such as provoke inquiry and awaken thought and encourage investigation, rather than mere cyclopædic statements or barren narratives of fact; it should, without betraying any partisan or sectarian tendencies, introduce the student to discussions upon |