ways: first by reading the passage aloud; second by giving any formal instruction as to modulation.

The reading lesson really begins with the assignment of the lesson. This should be done with great care. A story involving the background of the piece may be told. This is to arouse interest; but it should not forestall the main point of the lesson. Thus a vivid word-picture might be briefly drawn after this spirit before the children study Markham's "Two Taverns":

Edwin Markham one time spent a summery afternoon in the hills back of the city of Oakland, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate. He was resting on a bank of poppies intently watching the shiny yellow petals and the insect visitors to the pollen of the flowers. It was a scene to enchant and he remained till late in the afternoon when the cool winds from the bay told the coming of eve. As the sun lowered and the clouds reddened over Golden Gate, the poet saw a bee light on one of the big poppies. As sundown passed and night came on the bee still drank of the flower sweets while the petals gently closed around it. At last the insect was caught in the petals and shut in. Markham went away leaving it in this curious lodging for the night.

The vivid points of the Columbus Story could succinctly be recalled before a study of Miller's "Columbus."

Very often biography may be interestingly interwoven in these preliminary stories. For example, a very real picture of the poet William Wordsworth is shown in the following which may be used to introduce a lesson on "The Daffodils."

One time this writer, as was his custom, took a long walk among the hills about his home in Westmoreland,

England. About the middle of the afternoon he came to the top of a hill overlooking a little valley, in the bottom of which was a small lake. A soft breeze was blowing and the lake was covered with rippling waves which glistened in the warm sun.

Along the shores of the lake were some tall trees something like we know as oaks; and beneath these and scattered also along the banks were thousands of flowers and these danced and waved in the wind. It seemed to the poet that these flowers were like stars. As he looked upon this beautiful scene he thought it one of the most striking his eye had ever rested upon. That afternoon as he went home he began the writing of the pretty poem which we know as "The Daffodils," beginning,

"I wandered lonely as a cloud."

Reference later on is made to this interesting piece. A rule to be followed giving out a lesson is "Be definite." Point out specifically the six or eight or more words the children are to look up the meaning of. Sometimes it is best for the teacher to become "dictionary" and explain the meanings. Sometimes a word is best explained by comment on the text. There are at times figures of speech which the dictionary, of course, will give no help on and which the teacher must explain. Here are some specific points to keep in mind:

(a) Review and re-review.

(b) The rhythm of a line of poetry is an important clue to the pronunciation of difficult words.

(c) Criticism should be positive, not negative, and children should not be allowed to carpingly criticise each other, nor should a child be interrupted by another while he is reading.

ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.

Prehistoric literature was undoubtedly poetic in form. Our vision of the first literary artist is of a man rather old, who journeyed from patriarchal family to patriarchal family, or from hamlet to hamlet, carrying to man the only formal message of those times; for in the primitive there was but one means of literary dissemination— by word of mouth. Just how the old bard presented his theme it is difficult to picture: It is certain he was an adept at oral expression. The rhythm of his lines he chanted and rechanted 'till it became the essense of song, and the music of his voice he accompanied with the lyre or the harp which he himself played. When he sang he took great care in enunciation; for to make himself clearly understood was very necessary. Combined with all these agencies of expression the primitive bard was a master of the art of gesture. But gesture, then, was not as we understand it now. Not only movement of hand and arm and not only facial expression, but every muscle of the body was brought into play and through its movement, made to aid in the expression of the thought. Thus the bard used the combined arts of music, the recitative, and expressive bodily action.

To the people of the patriarchal camp or the hamlet the tales of the bard took the place of newspaper, magazine, drama, book, library, lecture, reading-club. His advent was looked to as the sole source of news and discussion. He was the only professional purveyor of information.

Thus his art became the starting point of the world's literary life. From it was finally differentiated all the various literary forms as we now know them. It may be

assumed that love, war and the gods were in the main the themes of the Bard-stories. No doubt the bard learned to adjust his song to the love-lorn, to the hunter or soldier, or to the religious devotee; or perhaps the lover or warrior or prophet himself turned bard, and so had his own peculiarly colored tale to sing or tell. Thus gradually the bard-story became differentiated. Music more fittingly adorned the expression of certain passions and thus the resultant became lyrical; or other stories abounded in strong action, and the bard, with his followers, gave himself up to the most violent rhythmical physical contortions; and so gesture became the prevailing element in the expression, and thus the dramaticstory developed.

Again the pure recitative prevailed to the greater or less exclusion of the music and action elements, and the tale became more truly epic.

Thus from the primitive bard-matrix has been shaped modern poetry. At the same time it must be remembered, no piece of literature is truly poetic in which any of the ancient elements is lacking. Every true poem has music; it advances an idea, and is dramatic.

The more modern bard of which Sir Walter Scott tells in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" and "The Lady of the Lake," is a partial survival of the ancient bard. AllanBane is both poet and prophet; but one must believe that the old man's, dependence on the Douglass family was not at all characteristic of the untrammeled life of the ancient musician who was free from alliances with particular towns or hamlets or families, and traveled to the end of his life bearing his message of love or war. Scott, however, rang down the curtain on the life-play of the last of the bards; bidding him adieu in words that are as sure of immortality as any Scott wrote:

The way was long, the wind was cold,
The minstrel was infirm and old;
His withered cheek, and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy.
The last of all the bards was he,
Who sang of border chivalry;
For, well-a-day! their date was fled,
His tuneful brethren all were dead;
And he, neglected and oppressed,
Wished to be with them, and at rest.
No more, on prancing palfrey borne,
He caroled light as lark at morn;
No longer courted and caressed,
High placed in hall, a welcome guest,
He poured, to lord and lady gay,

The unpremeditated lay;

Old times were changed, old manners gone,—

A stranger filled the Stuart's throne;

The bigots of the iron time

Had called his harmless art a crime.

A wandering harper, scorned and poor,
He begged his bread from door to door;
And tuned, to please a peasant's ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.

There is a striking analogy between the line of development of the child, in its attitude to literature, and that of the race. The race's first appreciation is of rhythm; so is the child's. Jack London, the novelist, in "Before Adam" gives his idea of the primitive race's first invention of a piece as follows: