Summary: The poet says that the inheritance of freedom and fame which Britons have derived from their ancestors will be worthless, unless they possess also the virtues of their fathers. Evidences of past valour and patriotic suffering avail not in the presence of oppression and slavery. Our most glorious recollection is that our sires "baffled crowned and mitred tyranny." Exercises: 1. Give instances in the history of England when rights now enjoyed were won for us by our forefathers. 66 2. Explain-"Has been proved on land and flood;" "Navies conquered;" Monuments of bravery." 3. The Latin prefix per signifies through or thoroughly-as, perforate, to bore through; persist, to stand thoroughly, to be firm; perfect, thoroughly done, complete, finished. Make sentences containing perforate, persist, perfect. LEARNING BY HEART. 1. Till he has fairly tried it, I suspect a reader does not know how much he would gain from committing to memory passages of real excellence; precisely because he does not know how much he overlooks when merely reading. Learn one true poem by heart, and see if you do not find it so. Beauty after beauty will reveal itself, in chosen phrase, or happy music, or noble suggestion, otherwise undreamed of. It is like looking at one of Nature's wonders through a microscope. 2. Again how much in such a poem that you really did feel admirable and lovely on a first reading, passes away, if you do not give it a further and much better reading!-passes away utterly, like a sweet sound, or an image on the lake, which the first breath of wind dispels. If you could only fix that image, as the photographers do theirs, so beautifully, so perfectly! And you can do so! Learn it by heart, and it is yours for ever! 3. I have said, a true poem; for naturally men will choose to learn poetry-from the beginning of home. time they have done so. To immortal verse the memory gives a willing, a joyous, and a lasting Some prose, however, is poetical, is poetry, and altogether worthy to be learned by heart; and the learning is not so very difficult. It is not difficult or toilsome to learn that which pleases us; and the labour, once given, is forgotten, while the result remains. 4. Poems, and noble extracts, whether of verse or of prose, once so reduced into possession and rendered truly our own, may be to us a daily pleasure; better far than a whole library unused. They may come to us in our dull moments, to refresh us as with spring flowers; in our selfish musings, to win us by pure delight from the tyranny of foolish castle-building, self-gratulations, and mean anxieties. They may be with us in the work-shop, in the crowded street, by the fireside; sometimes, perhaps, on pleasant hill-sides, or by sounding shores ;-noble friends and companions--our own! never intrusive, ever at hand, coming at our call! 5. Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, -the words of such men do not stale upon us, they do not grow old or cold...... Further: though you are young now, some day you may be old. Some day you may reach that time when a man lives in great part for memory and by memory. can imagine a chance renewal, a chance visitation, of the words long remembered, long garnered in the heart, and I think I see a gleam of rare joy in the eyes of the old man. I 6. For those, in particular, whose leisure time is short, and precious as scant rations to beleaguered men, I believe there could not be a better expenditure of time than deliberately giving an occasional hour it requires no more to committing to memory chosen passages from great authors. If the mind were thus daily nourished with a few choice words of the best English poets and writers; if the habit of learning by heart were to become so general, that, as a matter of course, any person presuming to be educated might be expected to be equipped with a few good pieces, I believe that it would lead, much more than the mere sound of it suggests, to the diffusion of the best kind of literature, and to the right appreciation of it; and that men would not long rest satisfied with knowing a few stock pieces......... 7. The only objection I can conceive to what I have been saying is, that a relish for higher literature may be said to be the result of cultivation, and to belong only to the few. But I do not admit that even the higher literature must belong only to the few. 8. Poetry is, in the main, essentially catholic -addressed to all men; and though some poetry requires knowledge and culture, much, and that the noblest, needs only natural feeling and common experience. Such poetry, taken in moderation, followed with genuine good-will, shared in common, will be intelligible and delightful to most men who take the trouble to be students at all, and ever more and more so. 9. Perhaps, also, there may be a fragment of truth in what Charles Lamb has said,-that any spouting "withers and blows upon a fine passage;" that there is no enjoying it after it has been "pawed about by declamatory boys and men." But surely there is a reasonable habit of recitation as well as an unreasonable one; there is no need of declamatory pawing. 10. To abandon all recitation, is to give up a custom which has unquestionably given delight and instruction to all the races of mankind. If our faces are set against vain display, and set towards rational enjoyment of one another, we need not fear that our social evenings will be marred by an occasional recitation. And, moreover, it is not for reciting's sake that I chiefly recommend this most faithful form of reading-learning by heart. 11. I come back, therefore, to this, that learning by heart is a good thing, and that it is neglected among us. Why is it neglected? Partly because of our indolence; but partly, I believe, because we do not sufficiently consider that it is a good thing, and needs to be taken in hand. We need to be reminded of it. I here remind you. Like a towncrier, ringing my bell, I would say to you, "Oyez, oyez ! Lost, stolen, or strayed, a good ancient practice the good ancient practice of learning by heart. Every finder shall be handsomely rewarded."..... 12. If you ask, "What shall I learn?" the answer is, Do as you do with tunes; begin with what you sincerely like best, what you would most wish to remember, what you would most enjoy saying to yourself or repeating to another. You will soon find the list inexhaustible. Then "keeping up" is easy. Every one has spare ten minutes: one of the problems of life is how to employ them usefully. You may well spend some in looking after and securing this good property you have won. VERNON LUSHINGTON. New Words in this Lesson. Shake-speare ap-pre-ci-a-tion gar-nered mi-cro-scope dif-fu-sion re-new-al vis-i-ta-tion Words-worth sur Be-lea-guered, besieged; 8 Cath-o-lic, universal; pleasing to all. 9 Charles Lamb (1775-1835), author 10 Ră-tion-al, reasonable; sensible. Summary:-Merely reading a passage of prose or of poetry is to let it pass without discovering the beauties which reveal themselves only after many readings and some thought. To make a piece of prose or of verse our own we must learn it by heart. Then it will be a source of delight to us at any time that we may wish to recall it; especially in old age shall we dwell with pleasure on the choice extracts we learned in youth. Nor is this all: our minds will be improved by coming into contact with the minds of those who have written words which will never die. |