LITERATURE 



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LITERATURE 



some on languages, ancient or modern; but no 

 school attempts to plan a course of study which 

 omits literature, for no one questions for a 

 moment its supreme importance. To present 

 reasons why it should be studied seems like 

 gilding refined gold or perfuming the violet 

 the very definition describes it as "the best 

 utterance of the human mind," and it surely 

 needs no argument to convince anyone that he 

 should, so far as possible, acquaint himself with 

 this best. In the first place, the study of litera- 

 ture gives more genuine pleasure than almost 

 any other study, and is so adaptable that it fits 

 the requirements of every student, be he child 

 or man. One person has no liking for fiction. 

 Why spend time reading about a lot of people 

 who never lived and a lot of things that never 

 happened? he demands. For him, then, there 

 is history no less exciting than a novel, but with 

 the saving grace of truth. There is Prescott's 

 Conquest of Mexico, parts of which no boy can 

 read without a thrill ; there are Parkman's tales 

 of the fascinating pioneer days in the western 

 regions of North America; there is Motley's 

 Rise of the Dutch Republic; and there are 

 scores and hundreds of other books which will 

 acquaint the fact-hungry reader with the story 

 of the world's life. 



Another reader finds history "dry," but de- 

 lights in poetry, which is literature at its high- 

 est and best; another finds pleasure in essays 

 grave or gay, in which thoughtful men have 

 given their views on subjects of wide interest; 

 still another finds most attractive the study of 

 types of human character as set forth in great 

 novels. But wide as are the variations in hu- 

 man tastes, the variations in literature are even 

 wider, and no honest seeker for literary pleas- 

 ure need go away unsatisfied; moreover, there 

 is a constant volume coming from the presses. 



Another thing which literature gives is infor- 

 mation. A person cannot travel everywhere, 

 meet people of all types, converse with men of 

 all minds; but by means of the printed page he 

 may do all that, even journeying back into the 

 past and making the acquaintance of great men 

 who have lived in all times. "What would we 

 not give," someone sighs occasionally, "if there 

 had been cameras in the days of Caesar that 

 we might know just how he looked; if there had 

 but been phonographs in the time of Lincoln, 

 that we might hear his very words ! " But Cae- 

 sar's writings give a more accurate estimate of 

 the man than could any camera, and Lincoln 

 still speaks in the sayings which literature has 

 preserved for us. 



But by no means the least of the reasons for 

 studying literature concerns its inspirational 

 power. It is impossible to estimate in any way 

 the good that literature has done in this way. 

 This does not mean that it actually urges to 

 effort; "didactic" literature, or that which 

 strives to teach, is by no means the highest 

 type. But literature presents, both in history 

 and in fiction, types of men who have achieved ; 

 it shows the motives which have guided the 

 world's great men, the forces of which they 

 have made use in overcoming their obstacles. 

 And this is not all. Merely by filling the mind 

 with lofty thoughts, even if it touches not at 

 all on the so-called "practical" side of life, it 

 makes for better character, for higher ideals. 

 Such lines, for instance, as these of Phoebe 

 Cary's- 



If a task is once begun, 

 Never leave it till it's done ; 

 Be the labor great or small, 

 Do it well or not at all, 



have a very obvious lesson to teach, and it may 

 be that just that compact, rhymed way of put- 

 ting the matter may be helpful to some read- 

 ers; but there is no less inspiration in sheer 

 beauty, in such lines, for instance, as these of 

 Henley's 



A late lark twitters from the quiet skies, 



And from the west, 



Where the sun, his day's work ended, lingers 



in content, 

 There falls on the old gray city an influence 



luminous and serene, 

 A shining peace. 



How Literature May Be Studied. This is a 

 broad topic, too broad for complete discussion 

 here; but a number of general suggestions may 

 be offered. Studying a piece of literature is a 

 different thing from merely reading it, aiming 

 as it does at getting from it all that it contains ; 

 but one precaution should be observed. Any 

 writing, whether poetry or prose, should never 

 be studied so long and so closely that the stu- 

 dent is bored and loses all feeling of pleasure. 

 Such a danger is greater with poetry than with 

 prose. Perhaps the child in fifth or sixth grade 

 has a favorite poem it may be Bryant's jolly 

 little Robert of Lincoln. When he finds that 

 the ckss is to make a study of the poem he is 

 delighted it gives him a pleasant sense of ease 

 and familiarity. This persists for a time, but 

 as he is compelled to study the poem for rhyme 

 and for rhythm, to trace every unusual word to 

 its source, to look up the habits of the bird 

 that he may know whether the poet has de- 

 scribed them correctly, to find the meaning of 



