III.-GUIDE FOR A PROSE SELECTION.

11. The following summary of points to be exacted in a prose selection, or even some poems, may prove useful where the "Guide Analysis" would be impracticable:

I. Points relative to Substance.

1. A general knowledge of the purport of the passages and line of argument pursued.

2. An exact paraphrase of parts of the whole, producing exactly and at length the author's meaning.

3. The force and character of the epithets.

4. The meaning of similes, and expansions of metaphors. 5. The exact meaning of individual words.

II. - Points with regard to Form.

1. General Grammar rules; if necessary, peculiarities of English grammar.

2. Derivations: (1) General laws and principles of derivations, including a knowledge of affixes and suffixes. (2) Interesting historical derivation of particular words.

III. — The knowledge of all Allusions.

IV. A knowledge of such Parallel Passages and Illustrations as the teacher has supplied.

EXPLANATION.

1. To be able to elicit from the pupil or to point out to him how one part tells upon the other, and what the connection and argument are.

2. Such paraphrases should bring out precisely the full meaning of a passage; extreme brevity need not be required, so long as the whole thought, both of the passage as a whole and of the individual words, is produced.

3. To be able to show how some epithets are merely ornamental, while others are absolutely essential to the meaning of the passage; how in some cases they are in fact more impor

tant than the word they qualify; and how, lastly, they are not unfrequently whole compressed clauses.

4. A very large number of words are used metaphorically: that is they are, as it were, condensed similes. As such they cannot be expressed by any one equivalent word; but are capable of being expanded so as to exhibit their original uncompressed meaning.

5. If a full knowledge of the allusions which occur so plentifully in all standard writings be added to the above points, there will be found ample material for exact, useful, and interesting study.

6. There is one point for which it is impossible to give short rules, and on which, nevertheless, stress should be laid. This is what may be summed up under the word "style." The amount and completeness of criticism which can be usefully employed will depend on the capacity of teacher and pupil; at the same time no author could be satisfactorily studied, unless the reader's attention were drawn to his chief peculiarities of thought and language, to the place he occupies in the history of literature, and the influences which seem to have affected him most.

NOTE. Short simple prose pieces should be selected by the teacher with which to illustrate this or a similar guide-analysis.

IV.-QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

12. Probably there is no one thing in teaching English literature which is the source of so much perplexity, as the matter of asking questions on the text of an author. The whole method of teaching this branch has been so completely revolutionized within a few years, that unless a teacher has some natural inclination for the study, or has kept posted on the radical changes in instruction, and had the opportunity to put them to a practical test in the class-room, he finds himself sadly in the rear in successfully conducting an extended course in the English classics. Fortunately the cheap editions of our standard authors, ably edited

with full notes and explanations, are readily obtained; and with the aid of other miscellaneous helps one may readily improve and correct his method of teaching.

It is almost impossible to supply in print practical questions in this branch. At the most they can only prove suggestive. Hence such questions have been given in this book as are only intended to give a hint, to awaken a thought, and to suggest to the reader the idea of a question, which can be readily clothed in words. The student is presumed to thoroughly understand the ordinary principles of grammar and rhetoric, and to know something of the history of the English language. We have not seen fit to enter into any doubtful questions pertaining to grammar, philology, derivation, and similar points which do not properly belong to elementary work. The college student may do well to understand these matters, but in our opinion they should be debarred from the ordinary high-school or academy work. Should the student wish to go into the matter of philology, and the most exact and critical method of teaching English on this plan, he is referred to Francis A. March's Method of Philological Study of the English Language; several works by Hiram Corson, especially the Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the English Language and Literature; and Homer B. Sprague's Masterpieces of English Literature.

V.-ORAL AND WRITTEN TRANSLATIONS.

13. One great object of our studies in the English classics is to so thoroughly read and understand the English Text that we may unconsciously assimilate the words and ideas into our own vocabulary and thought. To this end, there can be nothing more useful than

to translate and retranslate, both by oral and written exercises, choice passages from standard authors. The importance of this study has been realized by those who have sought to enrich their vocabulary, and acquire a wide command of our language. Pitt, in his student days, translated again and again the sermons of Barrow, one of the great masters of the English language; Prescott, the historian, pursued a similar plan with the earlier writers. We read of Burke, notwithstanding his great fondness for ancient classical literature, that Shakespeare was his daily study; that he read the essays of Bacon again and again; and that of all authors, Milton commanded his highest reverence. Fisher Ames committed to memory large portions of Shakespeare, while Rufus Choate was familiar with every line of his writings. Webster made a special study of this same author; and Curran, the great Irish orator, recited selections before his mirror; while Bowditch, the navigator, Dr. Arnold of Rugby, John Q. Adams, Hawthorne, and Lincoln, were life-long students of this great classic. The splendid diction of Erskine, -England's greatest advocate,-blossomed out of two years' devotion to Shakespeare. We are told that he could almost, like Porson, the famous Greek scholar, have held conversation on all subjects in the phrases of the great dramatist. Every school-boy is familiar with the fact that Benjamin Franklin ascribed his singularly pure and graceful style to repeated translations from Addison's Spectator.

It is a good plan to begin with a short, simple poem, as Southey's Battle of Blenheim, or The Inchcape Rock; Wordsworth's We are Seven, or Lucy Gray; and Longfellow's Phantom Ship, or Wreck of the Hesperus. One of these poems having been selected and studied before

hand, an attempt should be made to translate it orally, expanding, contracting, and changing the phraseology, so as to express in the vocabulary of the pupil the substance of the poem. For the next exercise, the same poem may be selected for a written paraphrase, to be prepared at home. Beginning thus with short prose or poetical selections, the pupil is gradually trained to prepare from memory well-written translations from a variety of good authors. We have given selections from Hume and Lewes for illustration; others, especially poems, are readily obtained from the school readingbooks.

EXAMPLES.

LAST MOMENTS OF GOETHE.

"The following morning,-it was the 22d of March, 1832, he tried to walk a little up and down the room, but, after a turn, he found himself too feeble to continue. Reseating himself in the easy chair, he chatted cheerfully with Ottilie [his daughter-in-law] on the approaching spring, which would be sure to restore him. He had no idea of his end being so near. The name of Ottilie was frequently on his lips. She sat beside him, holding his hand in both of hers. It was now observed that his thoughts began to wander incoherently. 'See,' he exclaimed, the lovely woman's head, with black curls, in splendid colors, a dark background!' Presently he saw a piece of paper on the floor, and asked them how they could leave Schiller's letters so carelessly lying about. Then he slept softly, and, on awakening, asked for the sketches he had just seen, the sketches of his dream. In silent anguish they awaited the close, now so surely approaching. His speech was becoming less and less distinct. The last words audible were, More light! The final darkness grew apace, and he whose eternal longings had been for more light, gave a parting cry for it as he was passing under the shadow of death. He continued to express himself by signs, drawing letters with his forefinger in the air while he had strength; and finally, as