such literary, biographical, and historical facts, as would be suited to the class. Let the chosen authors and dates on the monument be used like pegs in the hall-rack, on which to hang a variety of valuable facts without any risk of confusion.

IX.-FLEAY'S DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS.

17. F. G. Fleay, in his recent work, Guide to Chaucer and Spenser, gives the following sensible advice to teachers of English literature:

"The points to be specially kept in view, because they are often neglected, are the following:

"1. If possible, a period of literature should be studied as a whole, along with contemporary politics, manand historical events.

ners,

"2. Not only the life of the special author whom we are studying, but also the lives of his friends, rivals, and otherwise connected contemporaries, should be carefully examined.

"3. The works of any author should be read in the order in which they were written, and with reference to his contemporaries.

"4. No doubtful critical point should ever be set before the student as ascertained. One great advantage of these studies is the acquirement of a power of forming a judgment in cases of conflicting evidence. Give the student the evidence; state your own opinion, if you like, but let him judge for himself.

"5. No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The capability of appreciating a whole work as a whole, is one of the principal aims in æsthetic culture.

"6. It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem, than to know details about all the dramatists and poets. The former trains the brain to judge of other plays or poems; the latter only loads the memory with details that can at any time be found when required, in books of reference. Hence sketches of universal history and summary views of a country's literature, are inevitably failures if they aspire to be more than tables of

reference. This kind of surface knowledge is much encouraged by our present methods of teaching and examination, and I regret to see that many text-books, written by men of no small ability, are fostering the evil.

"7. It is highly desirable that, along with the study of any great work, some secondary contemporary work on the same or a similar subject, should be combined. Our present practice of confining our pupils to the very highest authors is a mistake. It gives them no data for comparison, and prevents their forming a sufficiently high estimate of our best men.

"8. It is not desirable to do too much for our pupils. No man likes to be treated as a child, and no boy likes to have done for him what he can readily do for himself. I have seen in some text-books long quotations from the Old Testament given in full. Better give a reference, and let the boy look it up. Similarly in other

matters.

"9. For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as thorough as our classical studies used to be. No difficult point in syntax, prosody, accidence, or pronunciation; no variation in manners or customs; no historical or geographical allusion, must be passed over without explanation. This training in exactness will not interfere with, but aid the higher aims of literary training."

X.-STUDY OF HIGHER ENGLISH.

18. The following excellent suggestions on the "Study of Higher English in the Schools," by J. M. Buchan, Inspector of High Schools, Ontario, Canada, in the shape of a letter, contain so much valuable advice,

that its reproduction will be acceptable to students generally.

After referring to the introduction of the study of English literature as distinguished from that of the history of English literature, and mentioning the authors from whom selections had been made, the writer says:

"It is impossible, and, were it possible, it would not be desirable to lay down a set of rules for the guidance of teachers in teaching the works named in the preceding paragraph, which would meet the case of every teacher and of every class. Not only do teachers differ in their mental constitution; not only do classes vary in ability, thoroughness of training, and in other respects, but the selections to be read differ in length, in subject, in form, and in character. Some are in prose, some in verse. Of those in verse, one is dramatic, another lyrical. All that I can do is to state the principles which should, in my opinion, be acted upon by teachers of English literature. The application of these principles must be made by the teachers themselves.

"With all classes of pupils alike, the main thing to be aimed at by the teacher is to lead them clearly and fully to understand the meaning of the author they are reading, and to appreciate the beauty, the nobleness, the justness, or the sublimity of his thoughts and language. Parsing, the analysis of sentences, the derivation of words, the explanation of allusions, the scansion of verse, the pointing out of figures of speech, the hundred and one minor matters on which the teacher may easily dissipate the attention of the pupil, should be strictly subordinated to this great aim. The masterpieces of our literature were written, not to serve as texts whereon exercises of various kinds might be based,

but to convey to others, in the most attractive form, an account of the thoughts and feelings which pervaded the minds of their authors; so that if we wish to benefit in the highest degree by their perusal, we must make ourselves at home with their writers, and inhale for a time the mental atmosphere which they breathed. It is essential that the mind of the reader should be put en rapport with that of the writer. There is something in the influence of a great soul upon another soul which defies analysis. No analysis of a poem, however subtle, can produce the same effect upon the mind and heart as the reading of the poem itself.

"But though the works of Shakespeare and Milton and our other great writers were not intended by their authors to serve as text-books for future generations, yet it is unquestionably the case that a large amount of information may be imparted, and a very valuable training given if we deal with them as we deal with Homer and Horace in our best schools. Parsing, grammatical analysis, the derivation of words, prosody, composition, the history of the language, and, to a certain extent, the history of the race, may be both more pleasantly and more profitably taught in this than in any other way. It is advisable for other reasons, also, that the study of these subjects should be conjoined with that of the English literature. Not only may time be thus economized, but the difficulty of fixing the attention of flighty and inappreciative pupils may more easily be

Overcome.

"In order that it may be understood in what way the study of the subjects mentioned in the preceding paragraph may be carried along with that of an English classic, I shall now detail at some length the work which an advanced class ought to do. I shall give a