PREFACE. THE GRADUATED SERIES of READING BOOKS was originally compiled previous to the introduction of the Revised Code. In its primary form it went through several editions, and gained general approbation amongst teachers and friends of education. Although the price has already been once reduced, and some attempts made to adapt the series to the requirements of the new code, yet it has been found by experience, that a Cheap and Abridged Edition suited to the more Elementary class of Schools is still a desideratum. For these schools the price of the large edition is often found too high, and the scale of difficulty in the several Standards somewhat too advanced. It is chiefly to meet these objections that the present edition has now been issued. The matter has been so selected as to present far easier gradations from one Standard to another, and the price has been further reduced so as to bring the whole series within the reach of the poorest classes of schools in the country. THE EDITOR. |