THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 9 1 



specimens of English literature that were brought to our notice were 

 only produced as reading pieces, or else, what was most uninteresting 

 of all, to be analysed, and nothing could be more likely to make the 

 average scholar detest a selection of poetry than this attempt to find 

 the subject and predicate in a specimen of Milton's blank verse. 

 Having then my own experience in this respect in view I would beg 

 my friends the professional educators to see to it that there is nothing 

 in their methods to create a distaste for the author whose works may 

 furnish the literature for the year's examination, but on the contrary 

 encourage them to make a study of the same author when at home. 



The next subject I would refer to is one that I approach with 

 fear and trembling, and that is grammar. During my school days I 

 had at least three different text books on the subject as far as Eng- 

 lish grammar is concerned, and ftom what I can gather there have 

 been several since, while it is doubtful to my mind if it is really 

 properly taught yet. And here I think that the best instruction is to 

 be had in the home circle, and that it will be found that the best 

 grammar is spoken by those who have the best ear and have been 

 taught from their earliest years to almost think it a crime to use bad 

 grammar. There are two particular bugbears whose use has probably 

 been a puzzle to us all, those little words " shall " and " will." My 

 mother, who was English, used to proudly tell me that an English- 

 man never made a mistake in their use, while she would intimate to 

 mc that as my father was Irish it was very doubtful whether I would 

 ever learn to use them properly. In one of J. M. Barrie's works he 

 makes one of his characters, a London editor, say to the hero, who 

 is being given a position as a leader writer : " You are Scotch, are 

 you not ? How are you on the use of ' shall ' and ' will ' ? " To 

 which he is bound to reply that he is not at all certain as to their 

 proper use. 



There are two other branches which are liable to be thought 

 dry and uninteresting, viz : geography and history. These, I think 

 could be made more attractive if the domestic school was more ap- 

 pealed to, and also if in teaching the former we did not simply teach 

 the names of rivers, lakes, and seas, islands, peninsulas and capes, 

 cities, towns and villages, and state the boundaries of the countries, 

 but on the contrary endeavored to point out the historical points of 

 interest connected with them. 



