Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/306

296 of a comedy, an ode, a ſatire, a letter, blank verſe, Hudibraſtic, heroic, &c. But let ſuch leſſons be choſen for reading, as contain ſome uſeful inſtruction, whereby the underſtanding or morals of the youth may at the fame time be improved. It is required that they ſhould firſt ſtudy and underſtand the leſſons, before they are put upon reading them properly to which end each boy ſhould have an English dictionary, to help him over difficulties. When our boys read Engliſh to us, we are apt to imagine they underſtand what they read, becauſe we do, and becauſe it is their mother tongue. But they often read, as parrots ſpeak, knowing little or nothing of the meaning. And it is impoſſible a reader ſhould give the due modulation to his voice, and pronounce properly, unleſs his underſtanding goes before his tongue, and makes him maſter of the ſentiment. Accuſtoming boys to read aloud what they do not firſt underſtand, is the cauſe of thoſe even ſet tones ſo common among readers, which, when they have once got a habit of uſing, they find ſo difficult to correct; by which means, among fifty readers we ſcarcely find a good one. For want of good reading, pieces publiſhed with a view to influence the minds of men, for their own or the public benefit, loſe half their force. Were there but one good reader in a neighbourhood, a public orator might be heard throughout a nation with the ſame advantages, and have the ſame effect upon his audience, as if they ſtood within the reach of his voice.