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It must not be imagined that any advocate of more sense training in education expects to diminish the exercise of the reasoning powers or of the motive powers which distinguish man from the other animals, or to impair man's faith in the spiritual unity of the world, or his sense of duty toward fellowmen, or his sympathies with them. The devotees of natural and physical science during the last 150 years have not shown themselves inferior to any other class of men in their power to reason and to will, and have shown themselves superior to any class of men in the value of worth to society of the product of those powers. The men who have done most for the human race since the nineteenth century began, through the right use of their reason, imagination, and will, are the men of science, the artists, and the skilled craftsmen, not the metaphysicians, the orators, the historians, or the rulers. In modern times the most beneficent of the rulers have been men who have shared in some degree the new scientific spirit, and the same is true of the metaphysicians. As to the real poets, teachers of religion, and other men of genius, their best work has the scientific quality of precision and truthfulness; and their rhetorical or oratorical worl is only second best. The best poetry of the last three centuries perfectly illustrates this general truth. Shakespeare wrote:

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows.

The florists now tell us that thyme will not thrive except on a bank. George Herbert wrote:

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright;

The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,
For thou must die.

Precision of statement could go no further; thought and word are perfectly accurate.

said to the rhodora:

The selfsame power that brought me here, brought you.

Emerson

A more accurate description of the universal Providence could not be given. Even martial poetry often possesses the same absolute accuracy:

Oh! Tiber, Father Tiber,

To whom the Romans pray,

A Roman's life, a Roman's arms,
Take thou in charge this day!
Cannon to the right of them,

Cannon to the left of them,
Volleyed and thundered,
Into the jaws of Death

Rode the six hundred.

When human emotions are so stirred, and human wills inspired, it is the accurate, perfectly true statement which moves most, and lasts longest:

Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.

The most exact, complete, satisfying, and influential description of true neighborliness in all literature is the parable of the Good Samaritan:

Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, Go and do thou likewise.

It is a great lesson to be drawn from The Great War that under the passionate excitement and tremendous strain of the wide spread disaster the medical profession and the nurses of all countries are holding firmly to that exact definition of the neighbor, and are obeying strictly the command, 'Do thou likewise.' These are men and women who have received thorough training of the senses without suffering any loss of quick sympathy or of human devotion.

Rhetorical exaggeration, paradox, hyperbole, and rhapsody doubtless have their use in moving to immediate action masses of ordinary men and women; but they are not the finest weapons of the teacher and the moralist:

Speaks for itself the fact,

As unrelenting Nature leaves
Her every act." (47)

(47) U. S. Bureau of Education, pp. 6-14. (Charles W. Eliot.)

.The knowledge-getting side of education and the "spiritual possibilities" stored up in humanity should be closely correlated in literature. The essential principles which guide us in the instruction in English Language and Literature are: (1) To develop the sense of ability to speak, read, and write with facility and correctness; (2) to develop the objective and the subjective meaning of the message.

The first principle has to do, primarily, with Constructive English and with Technical English while the second principle has to do with Literature.

As to the objective meaning of the message of the selection in literature the pupil must see what facts the writer is trying to impart and he must translate the arbitrary signs which we call words into concepts, or notions.

Tolstoi says that, practically, the aim of art is to communicate feeling from one soul to another. This transfer of feeling is construed or couched in such a way as to embody his emotions so as to arouse in others the same or similar feelings. This concrete something may be a cathedral, a picture, or a poem, etc. The feeling kindled by a landscape may be imparted by means of a painting or as shown by Ruskin in a word-picture, while Millet conveys the same feeling by means of a picture, "The Man With the Hoe”. communicate feelings one uses details and suggestive words.

I. Words.

Το

"All the words in our language, or in any language, are either Prose Words, that is, words which denote knowledge mainly, or Emotional Words, that is, such as express mainly feeling. There are well-marked divisions of the Second or Emotional class of words. ***

All objects tend either to enhance the forces of the soul, or to obstruct and waste them. Hence the ideas of things, so far as they are spiritually discerned, sustain or relax the tone of consciousness; they raise the pressure of the blood in the brain or depress it." (36)

Literature has to do, primarily, with the emotional meanings rather than with the intellectual or logical meanings. We may then say that we have words of power, or words that inspire, or move and words of knowledge, or words that inform.

All emotional reactions come from the degree to which the type-forces, or ideals, or inner senses, are satisfied with the type-qualities involved.

Intellectual meanings do not satisfy. The definitions of words, as given in the dictionary, do not give us the real meaning. The International Dictionary defines the word "lily" as "an endogenous bulbous plant having a regular perianth of six colored pieces, six stamens, and a superior three-celled ovary". This is not the real meaning of "lily" for the real meaning is to be identified in the effect "lily" has upon the sensibilities or ideals. Such a plan for the study of words has been outlined by Dean L. A. Sherman in the Supplement to the Nebraska High School Manual, 1914. He says:

The

"A literary sensitiveness and consciousness must be developed. The sensibilities can be exercised by realizing the sentiment connotation of ideas and words, just as an arithmetical or a musical consciousness can be built up by practicing combinations of numbers or of tones. study of the feeling aspects of things, begun in the kindergarten, must not be left to chance, but continued in the grades. Only a little attention, week by week, is necessary, but that little is imperative. If the work is not done before the student reaches the high school, it should be

(36) Sherman, pp. 3-28.

administered there. A few systematic exercises in bringing home to the pupils the aesthetic aspects of things, through the analysis of words, phrases and figures, will open the world of sentiment and poetry to neglected and backward students, and supply, in a working measure, this fundamental need. Surprising quickness of imagination has been developed, by these means, in unresponsive, unpromising pupils of foreign birth. The study of characterization, by imaginative appeals, will greatly enlarge the significance of literature, and may be taught along with the analysis of ideas and figures. ***

The sensibilities of literature pupils must therefore be trained intensively. As Professor Tolman has said, in the sentences quoted from his Circular, the poetry of Shakespeare must be studied at first hand. Of course all other poetry must be studied, not less than Shakespeare's, at first hand. This can hardly be done by questions. The unit is too small. We need to analyze sentences, to find the thought. We must analyze ideas and words, to find the sentiment out of which poetry is constructed." (25)

(For complete treatment of analysis of words see Numbers 25 and 36 in Bibliography.)

Some Devices for Words.

WORD-PICTURES.

These

Word-pictures, or words calling up different pictures in different pupil's minds may be employed quite effectively in training the sensibilities. may be reproduced in a drawing or painting or used for a story. The suggestiveness of the word will differ according to the individual and his environment. Some suggestive words that may call up a picture in the pupil's mind from which he may tell a story are:

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Pictorial Word-Signs which may symbolize or suggest certain qualities as:

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In the Vocational work especially, Trade-Marks and Trade Names may be found very interesting and suggestive. The Trade-Mark is said to be, and really is a Business Asset, as is shown by the following:

"It is said, on good authority, that the Royal Baking Powder Company considers its trademark worth just $1,600,000 a letter. This is, perhaps, the most valuable trade-mark in existence. though it is rivaled in value by 'Kodak', 'Uneeda', 'Ivory' (as applied to soap), 'Coca-Cola', the name 'Gillette' used in connection with safety razors, and a half dozen others. Each of these trade-marks has become a national institution. To displace them in the mind would require competition of unheard-of magnitude and energy.

The name 'Coca-Cola' is worth at least five million dollars; ***

(25) Nebraska High School Manual. Supplement in English, pp. 24-26.

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