EDUCATION THROUGH READING X43 



story, or touch him with a live coal of patriotic verse like Oliver 

 Wendell Holmes's 



Ay, tear her tattered ensign down. 



Long has it waved on high. 

 And many an eye has danced to see 

 That banner in the sky. 



With this poem should always go a brief historical account of its 

 interesting origin and effects. 



No matter, at first, how ill-written the novel may be, if only it is 

 fetching. One of Conan Doyle's "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" 

 would well fulfill this office. If a man were not interested in these 

 pieces you would be justified in giving him up. But most would be 

 interested. The story would catch the mind and launch it, and the 

 good work would be begun. Well begun would in this case be far 

 more than half done. From the short story the learner would pass to 

 higher and better story themes out into prose fiction at large and into 

 poetry. After a while he would need no more attention, as the novel 

 he began with might lead to the reading of historical novels, histories 

 and essays, placing him upon a literary life, proving independent and 

 happy in that direction. 



Let us now go on to inquire how we can effectively respond to the 

 incentives impelling us to read, how utilize the facilities for reading 

 made available by modern conditions, how gain the mental advance- 

 ment which reading may bring. 



One precept to this end is : save the scraps of your time. Diligently 

 hoard and use those odds and ends of hours which so easily run to 

 waste and which most people let run to waste. Five minutes once or 

 half a dozen times a day, after rising, before retiring, waiting for meals, 

 at recess or during some other lull in school work, now pass unim- 

 proved, which are probably salvable by nearly every one. Such bits of 

 time are eminently suitable for memorizing choice verse. One reader 

 thus imbibed the following draught of nectar from an Irish poet 

 named Davis: 



Sweet thots, bright dreams my comfort be, 



I have no joy beside; 

 Oh, throng around and be to me, 

 Power, country, fame and bride 1 



On holidays many throw away whole hours together. In most 

 cases such lost instants make up in the course of a year several days, 

 perhaps weeks, which ought to be turned to profitable account. 



Few can afford the eyesight strain necessary to read in railway car- 

 riages; but a well-lighted railway station, if you happen to be detained 

 in it, is an eminently fit place for reading. Against such occasions, 

 more or less frequent in every life, always go equipped with a pocket 



