communicated except by the of such passages as that quoted above student should bring to the class a statement of what he regards as the chief thought in each paper as it comes up � not the moral of the paper but the chief end which the writer seems to have in view the thought which most strongly strikes the reader opinions be talked over in class and from them one produced which at least the majority of the class are willing to accept no pupil however should be discouraged from holding to his own original proposition or from a view at with that of the majority always if possible � and personally i should make it possible even at the sacrifice of other things � the paper should last of all be read as a hole without interruption the fact should always be kept before the minds of the that the essay is not a collection of detached facts or thoughts but it is a whole and that it can fairly be received only in its to stretch out illustrations of the teaching of particular books would only be tedious and trust i have enough to make evident what i believe the study of prose should be the spirit of work done in the of prose in the secondary schools the matter is of comparative simplicity as contrasted with the handling of poetry and i have therefore reserved most of my space for the latter no one knows better than i that a method real and work and what i have written be i largely inspired by a knowledge that many are at a loss to any rational method at all while others i am forced sorrowfully to add seem never even to have perceived that any method is � � i j xii the study op the may be the entrance and whatever the prescribed course in the way of fiction i should begin the study o� the novel with a modern b to hold the attention of the majority of modem children long enough for them to form any of the and of any work of the length of an ordinary novel long enough for them to gain an idea which of the work as a whole and not as a collection of detached scenes and scraps is sufficiently difficult in any case it should not be made more difficult by selecting as a text a book requiring effort in the understanding of point of view setting and the rest is good in its place but it is not adapted to use as first aid to the it ia probable that a class after sufficient experience in fiction may be able to handle and it is apparently fated by the powers that be that they must struggle with the of but they certainly need preliminary practice before they are set to with so remote from their daily lives they should begin with something as near their own world as possible and treasure island the scene laid in the land of boyhood s is the study of the novel an example of the sort of story which may well be used to introduce to the serious consideration of thia branch of literature a li talk may well the actual reading the teacher should be that the class has a fair idea of what is � a matter generally of little difficulty � and of the social conditions under which the tale begins the actual geography of the romance need not he considered much although students lose nothing if they are trained to the habit of knowing accurately the of such real places as are named in any but the imaginary geography of the tale the of the island should be well mastered beyond this the teacher should have prepared a list of words to be learned before any reading is done this should include all those in the first that are likely to bother the child in the first going over of the text in the opening chapter for instance such words as these title of part i bars dry m in this chapter are a couple of allusions to the costume of the time but as they are intelligible only when as sentences they may be left for the reading in class talks on teaching literature one of of hia having fallen down the neat bright with lis powder as white as snow when the class comes together the is to be taken up as a solid and task and after that ia of the text may follow it is generally impossible to give the time to the reading aloud of an entire novel but i am inclined to believe that at the opening chapters the portion of the story which must be most deliberately considered if the young reader is to go on with the tale in full possession of the atmosphere and the characters as they are introduced should always be thus taken up the portions for each lesson must be at first but may wisely increase as the interest grows and familiarity with personages and situations is enlarged the first chapter then having been read aloud the class may make a list of the characters introduced squire dr the old not yet named the father the i who is telling the story the who brings the chest and the neighbors are obviously of no permanent importance these characters the class should e so much of an impression as they have obtained from this chapter this is simple with the fairly easy in regard to dr and the inn keeper but more difficult in the case of the boy the paragraph beginning how that personage haunted my dreams i need scarcely tell you � the study of the novel and the opening sentence of the following paragraph but i was so terrified by the idea of the man with one leg i was far less 