Reader

  Yesterday I posted the first lesson and today, some 200 pages later, the last.  I didn't include the word list for either lesson.  The focus is on reading properly, speaking correctly and articulation.  Each lesson provides a moral as well, concluding with the following lesson, to inspire a young boy to reflect, improve and develop his charactor

Strive to Excel  (Sander's 1853)

All the great and good men in the world have once been boys, and why may not all boys become great and good men?

If you seek for honor and renown, rise from the dust, from which thou wast made, and aim at great and worthy deeds.

The tall oak, that now spreads its branches broad and high, was once a small acorn, hid in the bosom of the earth.

Strive to be the first in thy calling, be it what it may.  Be the nimblest at play and the best at study; yet envy not the merit of others; but seek to improve your own talents.

In striving to excel by just conduct, the spirit of a man is roused within him; he pants after fame, and is eager to gain the object of his pursuit.

He rises like a palm tree, in spite of those burdens that tend to keep him down; and an eagle in the sky, he soars aloft, and fixes his eye on the glories of the sun.

The deeds of great men are in his dreams by night, and it is his chief delight to follow them all the day.

He forms great and good designs, and pursues them with ardor, until success crowns his efforts.  If you aim be good, despair not of success.

No one knows what he can do until he tries, and he who faithfully exerts himself to a noble and worthy object, can hardly fail to accomplish it, although, at first, it might appear entirely beyond his power.

Be not content with present attainments; but, while you are digging your little garden and sowing seeds there, cultivate your heart and your head at the same time; for the seeds which you sow there, shall spring up, blossom, and yield rich fruit when you are a man.