754 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 
emotions, language.’ Poetry, according to Wordsworth, 
being the outcome of strong feeling, must also stir feeling in 
the reader; it must stir or soothe; it must influence the 
feelings. This will fit in admirably with Mi§ll’s Lesson. 
Without classifying or defining poetry any further for the 
present, I would say then that all true poetry must make an 
appeal to the feelings, must stir or soothe. It would be 
superfluous for me to emphasise the fact that the higher 
feelings are meant; some of the finest art work of English 
poets must be a sealed book to youth because they appeal 
to the lower rather than to the higher feelings. I must 
consider as subsidiary and beside my subject all the inci- 
dental teaching which poetry may supply. I shall not dwell 
upon the fact that history may be studied in Shakespeare, 
ancient cosmology in ‘‘ Paradise Lost,” Middle English phon- 
ology and grammar in Chaucer, and a fine old rugged 
foreign tongue in Beowulf. Poetry has already suffered 
much by performing the office of a whetstone. The outcry 
against the modern “ annotated editions” of our classics is 
already so loud that I need not pause here to add my com- 
plaint to its volume. I am dealing here only with the 
influences of poetry itself unannotated yet understood, upon 
the mind and heart of youth. And I think I may take it 
as a good general rule that all poetry which does not stir the 
higher feelings may be neglected so far as the best and most 
essential kind of training of youth is concerned. 
Taking this as a general rule I may now proceed to 
examine the various kinds of poetry which are open to the 
teacher to choose from. I must premise that I am now to 
speak of poetry for boys and girls. The University ‘“ man ”’ 
must of course fend for himself, and all classes of poetry 
are, or should be, open to him. 
To begin with the oldest kinds—the genuine epic, the 
epic of Homer, is most admirably suited for the education 
of youth. Kinglake’s eloquent testimony to the effect of its 
magic upon his childish mind would be enough to prove 
this. But the reflected or “deliberate” epic, “ Paradise 
Lost,”’ for example, is by no means so suitable. I believe 
most young people of both sexes learn to dislike Milton 
violently from being obliged to read ‘‘ Paradise Lost” at 
school. No author so lends himself to the arts of the anno- 
tator and the prospective examinee. I must confess that 
I should like to see “ Paradise Lost.’ banished from the 
schools (if it be not so already), and I do not think that 
Milton’s fame would suffer by its banishment. Other epics 
we have none. Homer may be read in Pope’s Translation : 
youth is not likely to be very critical about diction, and it 
