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HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
*474172.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1833,

BY PERKINS & MARVIN,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

THE present compilation is intended as an Introduction to the Eclectic Reader. In making the selections for both volumes, the compiler has been guided by the same general principles. It has been his endeavor to furnish specimens which would serve as models of correct composition, of enlightened sentiment, and of humble piety, and, at the same time, such as are free from all formality and stately adherence to rule. Elevated conceptions and pure taste can certainly be combined with a direct, practical, popular mode of writing.

Nearly all the selections in the Introduction will certainly have the advantage of novelty. The compiler has taken but one from any other reading book: that one is an article on agriculture, from the Appendix to the excellent Political Class Book of the Hon. William Sullivan.

A great variety of descriptive articles are inserted, illustrating the geography, and physical and moral condition, of various portions of the globe. Materials of great value, for this purpose, may be found in the journals of Christian missionaries. The compiler has

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