386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Tlie last fifteen minutes of each day were devoted to literature. 

 Selections with biography and anecdote constituted the materials 

 for these lessons. Advantage was taken of birthdays, anniversa- 

 ries, and natural phenomena. Storms furnished accompaniments 

 to Lowell's The First Snow-fall, portions of Whittier's Snow- 

 bound, Longfellow's Rainy Day, Bryant's Rain, Shelley's Cloud, 

 etc. Flowers brought by the children were related to readings 

 from Burns, Wordsworth, Emerson, Lowell, Bryant, Whittier, and 

 Longfellow. Emerson's Rhodora was committed to memory and 

 recited, a cluster of the purple blossoms being in sight. Selections 

 were made with primary reference to their value. Biography was 

 usually employed to heighten interest in literature ; for its own 

 sake when embodying noble sentiments — as Scott's struggle 

 against debt, Sidney's gift of water to the soldier. By such tales 

 of heroic effort and action it was hoped to develop courage, honor, 

 and devotion to duty. 



Aside from clear language in narration, accompanied by pict- 

 ures of persons and places, and such reading as expresses the 

 rhythm and meaning, no effort was made to have biography or 

 selection understood. Many children have such an appreciation 

 of melody that a fine poem well read will hold their attention. 

 Just before Christmas, in our first year, I read a portion of Mil- 

 ton's Hymn on the Nativity, and said, " I hope you will some day 

 read the whole, and like it." " Please read it all now," said sev- 

 eral voices. So it was all read, and the children listened intently. 

 Milton's picture was put away, and nothing said of him for a year. 

 When his picture was again put on the easel, a hand was at once 

 raised. " What is it, Tracy ? " "I know who that is." " Who ? " 

 *' Mr. John Milton." " What do you remember about him ? " 

 " He gave his eyes for liberty " — an expression which, so far as my 

 knowledge of the child went, he had not heard from any one, but 

 was his own terse summing up of the narrative he had heard a 

 year before, when barely six years old. Most children have such 

 an appreciation of justice and heroism that they will even walk 

 more erectly after listening to a tale involving these qualities. I 

 shall not forget how gravely and proudly fifty children withdrew 

 from the school-room after listening to the story of Sidney's death. 

 An unspoiled child has usually a vivid imagination ; and it is as 

 pernicious to meddle with the formation of his mental pictures in 

 literature, as in science lessons to keep telling him what he can 

 get from his specimens. The child's mind should be brought into 

 direct contact with the realities in history and literature, and left 

 to work at them with the least possible interference and guidance. 

 If a child attempted to repeat a quotation or fact, accuracy was 

 required, but he was not urged to remember. Much in the litera- 

 ture lessons was above the children's comprehension ; but it was 



