ng and expression are able to work so strongly upon the immature minds of children, how much deeper the influence upon the mature and thoughtful minds of teachable teachers! They above

the reception of the best. And how deep and wide and many-

and women, the source and incentive of great movements and struggles toward the light. Literature does not make the study of history superfluous, but it puts a purpose into history which l

d rigid qualities of the Puritan, while John Alden and Priscilla touch a deeper universal sympathy, and body forth in

s a strong political side. It grasps with a master hand those questions which involve true patriotism. It

the principles for which Samuel Adams and the other patriots struggled at the opening of the Revolution. Webster's speech at Bunker Hill is a graph

be able to discriminate between those events which are trivial and those of lasting concern. The study of our best Amer

Sense in Education and T

d interpreted and made articulate the spirit of the times in which they lived. The most notable facts in the history of the times of Edward III, of Elizabeth, and of Victoria are that Chaucer and Shakespeare and Tennyson and the

erary and General Essays" (p.

is very reason English literature is the best, perhaps the only, teacher of English history, to women especially. For it seems to me that it is principally by t

on and usage, its snares and pitfalls, its wise men and fools. The child is to learn to look the world in the face and understand it, to know himself and to be master of himself and of his conduct, to appreciate other people in their moods and characters, and to adapt himself prudently and with tact to the practical needs. The gentleman whom Locke sets up as his ideal is not a fashion-plate figure, not a drawing-room gallant, but a clear-headed man who understands other people and himself, and has been led by insensible degrees to so shape his habitual conduct as most wisely to answer his needs in the real world. Emerson, with

ent men and women, social insight and culture, the ability to appreciate each in his in

e so are Dickens and Eliot and Shakespeare and Goethe. To study these authors is not simply to enjoy the graphic power of an artist, but to look into the lives of so many varieties of men and women. They lay bare the heart and its inward promptings. Our appreciation for many forms of life under widely differing conditions is awakened. We come in

conventionalities and externalities. But in the works of the best novelists, dramatists, and poets, we may look abroad into the whole world of time and place, upon an infinite variety of social conditions, and we are permitted to see directly into the inner

d the master of the human heart. A readiness to remark the mind's fainter and involuntary utterances, and the power to expre

o the king and the beggar, the hero and the pickpocket, the sage and the idiot, speak and act with equal truthfulness; not only does he transport himself to distant ages and foreign nations, and portray with the greatest accuracy (a few apparent violations of costume excepted) the spirit of the ancient Romans, of the French in the wars with the English, of the English themselves during a great part of their hi

inent degree is true to a marked exten

ourse, a smiling fortune that has placed a teacher's early life in a happy and cultured atmosphere, where the social sympathies and graces are absorbed almost unconsciously. But even where the earlier conditions have been less favorable, the opportunity for rapid social development and culture is most promising. The numberless cases in our country in which young people, by the strength of their energetic purpose and desire for improvement, have raised themselves not only to superior knowledge and scholarship, but also to that far greater refinement of social life and manner which w

constantly draw upon his own experience in interpreting the characters portrayed in books. No stupid or unobservant person will be made wise through books, be they never so choice. Even the student who works laboriously at his text-books, but has no

to the utmost limit to take in the message of a great writer. One feels the old barriers giving way and the mind expanding to the conception of larger things. Speaking of the ancient drama

h variety of the inner life, to act effectively upon the complex conditions and forces of the outer world. The teacher whose inner life is t

a teacher social opportunities, give him the best of our literature, let these two work their full influence upon him,-then, if he cannot be

follies or foibles, to one who can reflect. It has a mult

sels as ith

terature which it is often interesting and entertaining for him to ponder.

ggling fence tha

ed furze unp

oisy mansion, s

ster taught hi

he was, and s

ll, and every

ding tremblers

asters in his

augh'd, with cou

kes, for many

busy whisper,

ismal tidings

nd, or, if se

re to learning

l declar'd how

e could write,

easure, terms an

tory ran that

o, the parson

vanquish'd he co

earned length an

zing rustics

gaz'd, and stil

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scription of the schoolmistress and the school near two hundred years ago in his native village, is very diverting. Charles Dickens's description of sc

convenient compilation from many sources, the literature bearing directly upon the schoolmaster. Even the comic representations and

ach above the inspirations from high sources which he himself has felt. Those teachers who have devoted themselves solely to the mastery of the texts they teach, who have read little from our best writers, are drawing upon a slender capital of moral resource. Not even if home influences have laid a sound basis of moral

rks are so profound in this respect that they offer a still wider range of study to the teacher. Even

key-note to a silent but sweeping change in education. He adds, "Doubtless for thoughtful persons this fact argues, not a decline of interest in the fundamental principles of right living, but a desire to study these principles as they are made flesh

mps of Architecture," George Eliot's "Romola," Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter," Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables," Te

er than put themselves within earshot of these resonant voices. Their heart-strings will vibrate and their intellects will be stretched to a full tension, not simply by the music, but by the truth which surges up and bursts into utterance.

s observed with the eye of the poet and scientist, and the ?sthetic side of poetry and rhythmic prose, its charm and graces of style, its music and eloquence, work their influence upon the reader. Literature is

iritual life. It is not simple knowledge, it is knowledge energized, charged with potency. It is knowledge into which the poet has breathed the breath of life

f weariness. Who would dream of enlivening leisure hours or vacation rest with text-books of grammar, or arithmetic, or history, or science? But the poet soothes with music, solemn or gay, according to our choice. If we go to the

g pines and t

of the hun

thed bloodhou

up the r

om farther di

e clanging ho

of receiving abundant entertainment or hearty inspiration from Warner's "How I killed a Bear," or Tennyson's "Enoch

their well-merited place. But there are higher spiritual fountains from which to draw. Read the lives of Scott, Macaulay, Irving, Haw

in the grades, handle their subjects from the concrete, graphic, picturesque side. They not only illustrate abundantly from nature and real things in life; they nearly always individualize and personify their ideas. Virtue to a poet is nothing unless it is impersonated. A true poet is never abstract or dry or formal in his treatment of a subject. It is natural for a literary artist, whether in verse or prose, to create pictures, to put all his ideas into life forms and bring them close to the real ones in nature. Homer's idea of wisdom is Minerva, war is Mars, strength is Ajax, skill and prudence are Ulysses

s put the breath of reality into his work by an infusion of concreteness, of graphic personification. The poet's fancy, building out of the abundant materials of sense-experience, is what gives color and warmth to al

de of the abstract with a heavy thud. Not that object lessons will save us. They only parody the truth. For the object lesson as a separate thing we have no use at all. But to ground every id

fancy builds better than the cold reason. It adorns and ennobles t

n in the now empty shell washed up from the deep, his fancy discovers

e stately mansi

wift sea

low-vaul

emple, nobler

heaven with a

at lengt

rown shell by life

room? No wonder that true literature has been called the literature of power, as distinguished from the literature of knowledge (supplementary readers, pure science, information books, etc.). The lives and works of our best wr

in primary grades are peculiar in quality, and fit those pupils better than older ones. In intermediate classes the boyhood spirit, which delights in myth, physical deeds of prowess, etc., shows itself, and many of the stories, ballads, and longer poems breathe this spirit. In gra

s to exactly suit the wants, that is, the spiritual wants, of the children. It will vary, of course, in different schools and classes. Now, it is a problem for our serious consideration to determine what stories to use and just where each belongs, within reasonable limits. Let us inquire where the best culture effect can be realized from each book used, where it is calculated to work its best and strongest influence. To accomplish this result it is necessary to study equally the temper of the children and the quality of the books, to seek the proper food for the growing mind at its different stages. This is not chiefly a matter of simpl

e children of nine to eleven years. In connection with this theory it is observed that the greatest poets of the world in different countries are those who have given poetic form and expression to the typical ideas and characters of certain epochs of history. So Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Scott. The best literature is, much of it, the precipitate of the thought and life of historical epochs in race development. Experiment has shown that much of this literature is peculiarly adapted to exert strong culture influence upon children. Emerson, in his "Essay on History," says: "What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art, and poetry, in all its periods, from the Heroic or Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuri

offers a broad perspective of history, also enters deep into the psychology of

sympathy, interest, and feeling. The teacher who is about to undertake the training of these children may not know much about children of that age. How can she best put herself into an attitude by which she can meet and understand the children on their own ground? Not simply their intellectual ability and standing, but, better still, their impulses a

y or purpose of mature life, he should allow the memories and sympathies of childhood to revive. The insight w

le to reawaken his interest in the literature that goes home to the hearts of children has prima facie evidence that he is not qualified to stimulate and guide their mental movements. The human element in letters is the source of its deep and lasting power; the human element in children is the centre of their educative life,

hant of Venice" have had an astonishing power to bring teacher and children into near and cherished companionship. It is not possible to express the profound lessons of life that children get from the poets. In the prelude to Whittier's "Among th

eye to see an

the joy withi

e loves and

re free

g minds with the fountains of song lives and breathes. If a teacher desires to fit herself for primary instruction, she can do nothing so well calculated to bring herself en rapport with little children as to read the nursery rhymes, the fairy tales, fables, and

tories. There is a certain hearty, wholesome social spirit in the enjoyment of humor which diffuses itself like sunlight through a school. It contains an element of kindliness, humanity, and good fellowship which lubricates all the machinery and takes away unnecessary stiffness and gravity in conduct. Best of all it is a sort of mental balance-wheel for the teacher, which enables him to s

agic; it stands at an equal elevation and possesses equal extent and profundity.... Not only has he delineated man

in dealing with children and young people a versatile perception of the humorous is very helpful. Many of the pupils possess this quality o

acher's own moral and ?sthetic and religious ideals are constantly lifted and strengthened by the study of classics. Such reading is a recreation and relief even in hours of weariness and solitude. It is an expansive spiritual power rather than a burden. Literary artists are also a standing illustration of the graphic, spirited ma

lue of literature for teachers, and in some cases even lay out

at Books and Life Teacher

oets and Problems. (Ho

n Literature. (The

Essays. (G. P.

e. Books and Culture

e Book Lover. (A.

Comedy and Satire. (

on's

Art and Literature

Lilies, and Seven La

inson, Book and Heart

eroes and H

g of Books. Van Dyke. (

Essays. Charles Kings