it worth while, for future serviceableness, to put down, may be made a part of the process of assimilation through reflection. We have found it convenientin the study of Shakespeare and Milton especially to get students to classify the most significant words in this wise:

In the case of Gray's "Elegy" the student may be asked what words or phrases remind him of Milton

(if he has read the shorter poems); or in Goldsmith's poems what words recall the usage of earlier poets, or have changed their meaning in any way since Goldsmith's time.

Studies in plot are tabulated and diagrammed, — e.g. the plot of "Silas Marner" in double columned table showing the interplay of the "Marner" and "Cass" threads; that of the "Merchant of Venice" and "As You Like It" in five columns showing to excellent purpose the more complex web of those plots; while the plot of "Macbeth" may be diagrammed after the pyramidal manner adopted by Freytag in his "Technique of the Drama," and followed, after Freytag's pattern, by Miss Woodward in her volume on the drama.

So, too, character-groups, pairs, contrasts, foils, are graphically presented in intersecting circles, enchainments, etc., according to the students' preferences and ingenuities. Places associated with authors or works, and journeys like Quentin Durward's, or Milton's or Goldsmith's travels, may be located on outline maps. All such devices, we repeat, should be designed to throw upon the pupil tasks of selecting and organizing his material with scientific purpose. Special attention should be paid to note-taking and note-making in the first year of High School work.

After this necessary digression we may resume the consideration of our main topic, the treatment of the works selected for the first year.

We are now to pass, in our first year's work, from the short story to the epic or narrative poem; but not, let us note, without some work of a descriptive, expository, and critical nature in connection with the study of Hawthorne's life and personality. In this biographical work our principle of progressive development from year to year may be followed; and in it, too, the point to be kept to the fore, in the selection of data, is the relative value of the facts. We shall ask: What events are important in Hawthorne's Milton'sGray's - Goldsmith's-life? Why? One biographical formula, we must point out, will not do for all types of life and character: the influences of parentage and place, of nature and books, of society and solitude, of health or sickness, of early education or its neglect, of romance or routine, of ease or hardship,— these influences may count for much or for little; and we must help our students to seize and interpret those dominant characteristics of a person and his career which reflect themselves in the works we examine.

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In dealing now with the epic or narrative poem — be it one of Scott's or the Phæacian episodes from the "Odyssey," or Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum" or "Balder Dead". we shall drive home in new ways the principles of construction studied in the short story; and we shall try to bring out the differences between prose and poetry as vehicles. Here are a few leading questions: What can the poet do, as story-teller

and plot-maker, that the prose writer does not and cannot do? and why? For instance, what liberties may the poet take in the way of descriptive amplifications and digressions? What magic of musical witchery does he employ to check the flow of his story and to detach our interest for a time from the main matter? Why can he impose upon us these catalogues of names, these repetitions, these little asides, these long-drawn similes, these cameos of irrelevant description? Why are we so ready to lend an ear to his "Ah! that reminds me"? How much is Scott or Homer, Arnold or Morris (if we glance at his "Jason" or "Atalanta's Race") or Tennyson given to these things? Let us see what, in Scott's "Marmion" or "Lady of the Lake," is of capital plot interest, and what is of subordinate, episodic interest? Where are we delayed? Let us take stock of the nature of these delays—show them in a table or diagram. Where are there musical interludes, as in an opera? Are they worth while? Do they justify themselves?

This is the direction we should take, and how far we shall go in this direction must depend upon circumstances. Can we do anything better than work along these lines to enable the student to get a grip at once on the plot, on character and scenic interest, and on the style of the work? We believe not. These things hang together; they give meaning to one another; they illustrate the prime principles of unity and variety in unity, and the

meaning and the limited application of the canon of Esthetics, that beauty is its own excuse for being, -

as nothing else can.

Following these lines, we may consider wherein our treatment of Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel" would differ from that we have suggested in Chapter X for the higher Grammar Grades. We shall work in a larger way. After the first rapid reading in the manner therein indicated, the vocal rendering of the finer parts by the teacher being the leading feature, we shall diagram or outline the plot in such a way as to show the firm, clear course of the main story, and the branching of the subordinate episodes, digressions, asides, etc. These we shall discuss. Would we omit or skip any of them? Does this or that one seem to be mere padding, or a freakish indulgence of poetic high spirits? The dull and unappreciative will be for omitting; the more susceptible will insist that this seeming digression is necessary for the light it sheds on the circumstances of the action or on a character, or is a small but indispensable link in the chain of events. This real digression, idyllic or lyric or reflective, is justified by the fact that it restfully lowers the pitch of excitement for a moment, or prepares us the better for the stress that is to follow; while this other we would not dispense with because it is so those two lines make it worth while!"

fine, — "

"Why,

And so con

siderations of structure will lead us on to considera