Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 26

"Authority forgets a dying king."

"An agony Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills All night in a waste land, where no one comes, Or hath come, since the making of the world."

There never was a more beautiful comparison than the following:

"Like some full-breasted swan That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood With swarthy webs."

FOOTNOTES:

[189-1] _Haec fabula docet_ means _This fable teaches_. It is with these words that the "Morals" of the old Latin fables begin.

CHAPTER IX

CLOSE READING OR STUDY

It is largely because story reading may so easily become careless reading, that prejudice against fiction is found in many minds. In the preceding pages there have been suggested many ways by which story reading may be made profitable, and yet all these methods may be used without calling for that close, intensive reading which we usually call study. You may lead a child to read _Rab and His Friends_ for all the purposes we have suggested, and yet he may have pa.s.sed over without understanding them many a word, phrase or even sentence. It is possible that there are whole paragraphs that convey little meaning to him. This is certainly not an unmixed evil, for it is well that a child should not exhaust the possibilities of such a masterpiece when he first reads it.

In fact, it is a good thing for children frequently to read great literature even when much of it is quite beyond their comprehension. It will pique their curiosity, and some time they will return with wiser minds and broader experience to interpret for themselves the things that once were obscure. It is no sin for a child sometimes to pa.s.s over a word he cannot p.r.o.nounce or does not understand. There could be few more certain ways of destroying his taste for reading than to require him to stop and find the meaning of every new word he meets. Sometimes the meaning will become evident a little later from the context, and in other instances he will understand well enough without the troublesome word.

What has been said does not signify that the habit of skipping new words or of avoiding difficult paragraphs is a good one. It does mean, however, that sometimes the practice should be tolerated, and that close reading should be required at the proper time and in the proper way. In the arithmetic or geography lesson the young must always read very closely, and in their perusal of the cla.s.sics there are many fine opportunities for exercises of the same character, that should not be neglected. Descriptive pa.s.sages, arguments, and essays of all kinds require to be read with exceeding care, and often there are pa.s.sages even in light fiction that repay this kind of study.

Words and phrases are the subjects of consideration in close reading, and the mastery of thought is the object to be attained. The study of words may be made very interesting, and gathering the meaning of phrases may become a fascinating pastime.

An ill.u.s.tration may prove the case. Take the paragraph from _Rab and His Friends_ (Volume VI, page 99) in which death approaches Ailie: "The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord was fast being loosed--that _animula blandula, vagula, hospes comesque_ was about to flee. The body and the soul--companions for sixty years--were being sundered and taking leave. She was walking, alone, through the valley of the shadow, into which one day we must all enter--and yet she was not alone, for we knew whose rod and staff were comforting her."

A cursory reading will suggest to any young person that the paragraph says Ailie is going to die, and that she does not fear death; but how much more it means to him who can understand it all. _The end was drawing on_--Ailie was going to her death. _The golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord was fast being loosed._ Turn to your Bible (_Ecclesiastes_ xii, 3-7), and read what is said. _That "animula blandula, vagula, hospes comesque" was about to flee._ That sweet but fleeting life, friend, companion and sojourner with her, was about to leave. _She was walking alone through the valley of the shadow._ "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." _Into which one day we must all enter._ May we be equally fearless of evil! _She was not alone._ Her G.o.d was with her every moment, and in her hours of consciousness she knew Him to be present.

_We knew whose rod and staff were comforting her._ "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

Like the Psalmist of old she leaned upon the arm of her G.o.d and as she thus approached the dark valley, the light of her faith shone into our souls.

The Latin quotation and the allusions to the Bible are skilfully used to give solemnity to the idea of death, to show how inevitable it is, and how for long ages it has been met with the same serene faith and deep religious feeling that made Ailie beautiful in the face of death. Yes, there is more in the paragraph than the statement that Ailie was going to die and that she was not afraid.

To ill.u.s.trate a different style of close reading and a method of securing it by questioning, we will quote part of a paragraph from _Braddock's Defeat_ (Volume V, page 379) by Benjamin Franklin: "Our a.s.sembly apprehending, from some information, that he [Braddock] had conceived violent prejudices against them, as averse to the service, wished me to wait upon him, not as from them, but as postmaster-general, under the guise of proposing to settle with him the mode of conducting with most celerity and certainty the despatches between him and the governors of the several provinces with whom he must necessarily have continual correspondence, and of which they proposed to bear the expense."

The questions designed to bring out the meaning of the above paragraph, to which the answers are usually quite obvious, might be as follows:

Is "our a.s.sembly" the Albany convention mentioned in the note at the head of the selection, or is it the a.s.sembly of Franklin's own colony?

What is the meaning of _apprehending_? Do you like it better than _thinking_? What do you suppose was the nature of the "information" the a.s.sembly had received? Do you think that someone had told them that Braddock was prejudiced, or did they infer it from actions of Braddock which had been described to them? Who was averse to it? What is the meaning of "wait upon him"? Do we use that phrase frequently now? What might we say now? What do you understand by "not as from them"? Can you put into that phrase one word that will make its meaning clear? Was Franklin then postmaster-general of his colony? Was he ever postmaster-general of the United States? What is the meaning of _guise_?

What is meant by "under the guise"? Does _celerity_ mean more than _quickness_? Is there any shade of difference in the meanings of the two words? Do you think Franklin used the best word he could find when he wrote _celerity_? What are "despatches"? What kind of despatches would pa.s.s between Braddock and the governors of the different provinces? How many different provinces were there for Braddock to help defend? What were they? Who proposed to pay the expense? Does _propose_ in this case have a different or larger meaning than that in which you are in the habit of seeing it used? Of what did they propose to pay the expense?

If a young person can answer all the questions in the preceding paragraph, he undoubtedly understands the pa.s.sage upon which they are based. The questioner must watch the answers and be ready to detect mistakes. Often the answer shows why the person fails to understand, and a different question will then bring out the correct reply. The questions always should be so worded that they do not antic.i.p.ate the answer, yet so the person questioned will thoroughly understand what is expected. A little help now and then is appreciated by anyone, certainly by those who are being led to think.

Carried to excess, close reading is wearisome; and parents, remembering this, should be discriminating in their selections for study and not too exacting in their requirements. Everything may be lost by dwelling too long upon even the most delightful selections. Left to himself, almost every child will be fond of _The Village Blacksmith_, but it may be read and "studied" till the very thought of it is obnoxious to the young reader.

_Industry and Sloth_

(Volume I, page 300)

To bring out the thought in this selection, study it as follows:

What is the meaning of _jocosely_? (Flippantly.) What is a court? (A place where disputes between persons are settled by a judge, or by a judge and jury.) What is a jury? (A company of men, usually six or twelve, who hear the evidence and decide on the facts.) What are cases?

(The dispute or disagreement is called a _case_, when it is brought to court to be decided or settled.) What are damsels? (Young girls.) What were the names of the young damsels the young man said he saw? Why do the words "Industry" and "Sloth" begin with capital letters? (Because they are the names of girls.) Were they real girls? What does _industry_ mean? (Work.) What does _sloth_ mean? (Laziness.) Were these real girls?

Then what does this mean? (The young man thinks of fondness for work and fondness for idleness as though they were girls.) When we write of qualities, or feelings, as though they were human beings, the words become proper nouns and we begin them with capital letters. Do you know what we call this process of lifting something that is lower to the level of human beings? No? We call it _personification_. Here industry and sloth are personified and made the equals of human beings. What does _entreats_ mean? What does _persuades_ mean? (That means _teases_ or _begs_.) Which is the stronger word, entreats or persuades? (_Entreats_ means _begs strongly_; _persuades_ means _begs and makes me believe what is said_. I think the latter is really the stronger word.) What does _alternately_ mean? (First one and then the other.) What does _impartial_ mean? (Fair; without any favoritism.) What does _detained_ mean? (Kept.) What does _pleadings_ mean? (Where a case is tried in court the lawyers on each side try to persuade the court or jury to decide in favor of the man [client] who has hired them. The written papers and the speeches the lawyers make are called _pleadings_.)

Do you think the young man was really serious? Do you think he really tried to decide anything as he lay in bed, or was he just trying to make up an excuse for his laziness? Was there any reason why the young man should lie in bed? Did he think there was? Could you find any better reason than he gave? Do you think he was a bright young man? If you had listened to him would you have taken his excuse? Why? Was it really truthful? Did you ever lie in bed and think, "Well, I must get up; no, I'll lie a little longer. But I must get up. What's the use? But I ought to get up. Yes, I really ought to get up," etc., etc., and finally discover that you had wasted a great deal of time without really intending it? Were Industry and Sloth pleading with you then? Do you think that some people waste much time trying to decide useless questions? Does it sometimes happen that men and women waste so much time in this way that they never accomplish a great deal of anything?

_Why the Sea Is Salt_

(Volume II, page 484)

In this pleasing fairy story Mary Howitt has told the tale of the curious explanation offered by the peasants of Denmark and Norway for the saltness of the sea. It naturally raises in a child's mind the question, why is the sea salt? The question can be answered in this manner:

The rain falls down in little drops, some of which soak into the ground, while others make rivulets that run into brooks that in time join the rivers that flow into the sea. Much of the water that soaks into the ground finds its way again to the surface in springs that feed the brooks and keep them alive when no rain is falling. Of course the sun when it s.h.i.+nes turns some of the water into vapor that rises again to the sky. Sometimes on a cool morning you can see the mist or vapor too heavy to rise out of sight and too light to fall as rain. Wherever there is water, some of it is rising into the air, especially when the sun s.h.i.+nes and it is warm and the wind blows. The sea is so big that great quant.i.ties of vapor are rising from it all the time and being blown over the land to be cooled, to gather into rain and to fall again where it will refresh the earth and make the plants grow.

So you see water is traveling through the air all the time, up from the earth, the streams and the seas, through the air, back to the earth and through it into the sea again in a great series of everlasting circuits.

We are hardly ever conscious of the moisture except when it falls as rain or snow and spoils our plans.

When the water is pa.s.sing through the land it dissolves and gathers up various substances, especially salt, which "melts" in water very easily.

This salt and the other bitter and brackish substances are carried little by little, sometimes pausing, but always on and on till they reach the sea, beyond which they cannot go, for the sea is in the lowest parts of the earth. Now come the sun, the heat and the winds and evaporate the water; that is, draw up the vapor to start on its new circuit. But, notice this, the vapor that rises is pure water. The salt and other substances are left in the sea. At first it was only a little that was left, then more, always a little more till the water couldn't hold it all and it sank to the bottom and made deposits of salt and other things. But the streams always bring more sediment and the heat and the winds carry off pure water and leave the rest salty and bitter.

And that is the real reason why the sea is salt.

_Faithless Sally Brown_

(Volume III, page 92)

It is a thankless task to try to explain a joke, but some of the fun in these jolly old rhymes depends upon facts that are not generally known or that may have been forgotten. A few words here may help to answer questions.

Stanza II. "Fetched a walk." This is an application of a nautical term, as in "to fetch headway."

"Press Gang." To secure recruits for her navy, England at one time permitted her men to be seized and forcibly carried on board s.h.i.+p, where they were compelled to perform sailors' duties on long cruises. The bands of cruel men who captured the recruits were known as "press gangs."

Stanza III. A boatswain is one of the minor officers of a s.h.i.+p. He usually has charge of one of the small boats, such as would carry off a recruit to the big s.h.i.+p.

Stanza VIII. John Benbow was a famous English Admiral who died in 1702 from wounds received in a four days' fight with the French fleet in the West Indies. His captains refused to obey orders and Benbow was unable to win the battle. When his right leg was shot off he refused to go below but continued to direct the conflict from the deck. "I had rather have lost both legs," he said, "than have seen this dishonor brought on the English nation. But, hark ye--if another shot should take me off, behave like men and fight it out." Two of his captains were tried, convicted and shot. The Admiral himself died after three or four months of suffering.

Stanza IX. A tender is a s.h.i.+p that carries supplies or conveys messages from one to another of the s.h.i.+ps in a squadron.

Stanza XI. "The Virgin and the Scales." The Virgin (Virgo) and the Scales (Libra) are two constellations known to the ancients. A person born while these constellations were to be seen in the sky (from near the end of August to near the end of October) was said to be born under them and was believed to have certain characteristics. In the case of Sally Brown the stars were cruel. She could not follow her beau, Ben, but must walk about raising her voice in wailing.

Stanza XV. "To pipe his eye" is a slang phrase meaning to look sharply.