And the dark rock pines, like tossing plumes,
Over his bier to wave;

And God's own hand, in that lonely land,

To lay him in the grave."

These three principles of emphasis go hand in hand, and an intelligent attempt to apply them cannot fail to improve the reading.

Pupils can easily understand that, in reading poetry, we are called upon to notice what Sidney Lanier calls "stopped" and "continued" lines.

"A stopped line," says he, "is a line of poetry at the end of which we may pause without marring the sense.'

A continued line is one at the end of which we should not make a perceptible pause.

Read the following lines with a pause at the end of each, and then read them continuing the first, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh lines:

"All too soon these feet must hide

In the prison-cells of pride;

Lose the freedom of the sod,
Like a colt's for work be shod;
Made to tread the mills of toil
Up and down in ceaseless moil;
Happy if their track be found
Never on forbidden ground;
Happy if they sink not in

Quick and treacherous sands of sin;
Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy

Ere it passes, barefoot boy!"

It is worthy of note, also, that of two words which rhyme, only one should be made emphatic. "If we desire variety let us study the principle of relation, so that our objects may not kill each other in expression."

This principle of

stanza of dullness.

"Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime;
And departing leave behind us
Foot-prints on the sands of time."

"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing leave behind us
Foot-prints on the sands of time."

reading if applied mechanically only, at once relieves the

But now, lest we neglect a matter which often puzzles earnest teachers, let us consider whether a teacher should ever read in order that the pupil may imitate. I believe that he should. The imitative faculty is strong in childhood, and it is strong for a purpose. It is a faculty which can be utilized in the reading class. After a thorough course in such imitative reading as may be practiced from short sentences, responsive expressions like "Class?" "What, sir?" uttered with every variety of intonation, and elementary

sounds used in the same way, the class will read in easier style, and with better emphasis and inflection.

In dealing with selections and paragraphs, the teacher should be careful to set "patterns" only so far as to stimulate the mind of the pupil to greater activity, or to show him what he can do if he will try. These patterns need be set in hard places only. As a general thing they will not be needed in ordinary work if there has been plenty of drill on short sentences, sounds, contrasts, etc. But it will be well for the teacher to read to the class occassionally, and, especially in supplementary reading, to read as a member of the class-taking up dull passages here and there-or places where fine examples of expressive reading can be given. The frequent doing of this will prevent pupils from "studying ahead" and preparing their lessons after they come into the class room.

As to the management of the reading-class, it should be conducted very much as one would conduct a reading-circle in his own parlor. There should be the same politeness, the same freedom, the same consideration for the dull and the timid members. These should be especially brought out and encouraged, and shown how to improve. The work should be frequently varied. If a search for contrasts has been the task for a week or two, let the class take up a story from the supplementary reading. If similes and personifications have formed the drill for a while, let them change to some good poem for the practice of expressive reading. If short sentence drill has formed part of the lesson for some time, turn their attention to exercises in pronunciation. Excellent ones may be adopted from Dr. Abernethy's "Academy Orthoepist." Some of his devices are extraordinarily good. But it should be remembered, however, that all studies in the reading-class, whatever be their character, are only means to an end; and that the end is the enabling of the pupils, the majority at least, all if possible, to meet most of our standard authors, gaze at them face to face and commune with them soul to soul."

There is one other consideration which should not be neglected, and that is what the Rev. Wm. R. Alger calls "The Place and Power of Personality in Expression," The "personality," says this gentleman in a lecture on the subject, "consists in the unity of (1) the sum of a man's bodily proportions, (2) the sum of his spiritual powers, (3) the sum of his accumulated experiences and accomplishments, or the wealth which he holds in store for communication. These three sums, fused into the unity of his personality, determine the style of each man's performance, and gives to it its weight, its value, and its charm." It is this factor which makes one pupil a better reader than another; which makes one pupil more appreciative than another; which enables one, after stumbling along in a careless, vexatious way for a long while, to transform himself gradually into an earnest and intelligent, if not an entirely skillful, reader.

A pupil who loafs about street corners, smoking the stub-ends of forgotten cigars, sneaking now and then into some saloon to revel in the conversation he will hear there, can scarcely be persuaded to throw himself heartily into a passage of reading which deals with lofty thought and noble feeling. If he can be, there are chords in his nature which respond to the touch of beauty, of goodness and of love, and he can be weaned away from his lower self.

How may one's style be most speedily beautified and improved? "First," says Mr. Alger, "by opening the soul to broader influxes of love, of wisdom and of power. Secondly, by improving the harmonic force and freedom with

which the manifestation of these play through one's organism. In other words, he who would be an artistic master of expression, must first enrich the contents of his being, and next improve his skill in manifesting them through the bodily environment."

Then it becomes the duty of every teacher who would make of his pupils more appreciative and more expressive readers, to leave no way untried by which the value of the personality of each may be increased. Let him remember that when he has opened the channels by which love flows through the child's nature, the soul can be aroused to faith and the sight of truth. And Mr. Alger says that the sort of expression which can never fail to make the "wild blood start in its mystic springs' comes from the terrible fearlessness and straight-onward power of a soul possessed with faith in God, love for man, and the sight of truth." Awaken the pupil's love for "worthy objects" and his salvation is achieved.

One word alone, but that the master-word,

In angelic writ blazed Love!' Now his soul stirred;
With eyes transformed, as clouds the sun breaks through,
'Hope, aim aspire,' he sang, 'and dream, dare, do!'

Into large splendor swelled the luminous sign,
Earth's vault was opened into arcs divine;

All thoughts and deeds and hopes shone clear and true;
'Behold,' saith Love, 'tis I make all things new.'"

DISCUSSION.

SUPERINTENDENT E. L. BRIGGS, Grand Haven, said:

The problem of the reading class is one with which every earnest teacher in the common schools has to struggle.

Unfortunately few make for themselves a satisfactory solution, and no one seems able to give to the world one that can be accepted as final. That the problem is having a careful consideration is manifest from the unrest everywhere apparent in methods of instruction and materials employed.

This is shown in the large supply of supplementary text-books in reading furnished in many schools; in the special attention to elocutionary drill given in others. It is seen in the furnishing of free reading material to all pupils that a great variety may be

secured; and in the adoption of the plan of individual reading instead of class exercises. If there were no other evidence of the diverse and unsettled conditions prevailing the prolific production of materials for the reading classes by school book publishers would of itself be convincing.

That so exact outlines will ever be made for the work that each teacher can follow them with an undeviating conformity, is neither to be expected nor desired. It seems difficult for progressive teachers not to be in some respects extremists. The momen tum acquired in their quest for the better way carries them past that golden mean where their work might be brought into perfect equipoise.

Each, however, in his specialty illustrates the possibilities in his line of development. That one who can cull from others the best fruits of their growth will gain from them effective strength.

I do not think the importance of reading in the schools has been overestimated. I do believe there is a strong tendency to undervalue the subject; that there is a deplorable failure on the whole to attain results commensurate with the time and effort given to the work.

The art of reading must take precedence of all the accomplishments which come from a familiarity with books. That our pupils may be successful in their efforts and fairly economical of their time in the pursuit of their study of literature, history, the natural sciences, or even mathematics, they must have mastered to a considerable degree, the power of interpreting readily written language.

Time is being constantly wasted in school duties because the pupils cannot gain more promptly the exact thought which is designed to be conveyed in the various texts they are pursuing.

In the early training to read, therefore, the teacher is developing the most efficient instrumentality for his future use in the education of the child.

The reading exercises in school, it seems to me, should result in a threefold accomplishment, (1) the ability to apprehend mentally the thoughts and feelings of the author; (2) the power to give accurate and natural oral expression to these thoughts and feelings, and (3) a growing taste for that which is purest and best in the literature of the world.

The first two of these accomplishments, though distinct arts, are very closely related in their pursuit. In the school room they go along hand in hand, but the possession of the one does not necessarily imply the possession of the other. Not infrequently the ability to give quite accurately the oral expression to the thought is secured while the ideas are still vague in the mind of the reader. Many a public man reads tormentingly poor his hymns, scriptures, documents, or addresses, who gives unquestionable evidence of being an extensive, accurate, and appreciative mental reader.

That a thorough training in both phases of the art, or both arts, if you prefer, should be given the pupils of the public schools, is beyond a question.

Not long since a young minister, educated in some of the best colleges and seminarles of this and other lands, was heard to deplore the fact that in all his preparation no attention had been given to the cultivation of his voice for pleasing and effective speaking.

If the colleges and especially the professional schools, in which men are being trained for the bar, the pulpit, and the rostrum, are indifferent to the culture of the organs of speech, we can scarcely look with surprise on the indifference of the lower schools.

More recent years have, however, seen the institution of courses in elocution in many of our foremost colleges and universities.

Though Emerson says, "Think the thought and the expression will take care of itself," many a profound thinker fails to realize but a small part of his possible power with the public, because of his inability to give pleasant and forcible expression to his thoughts.

Careful and systematic physical drill should be an accompaniment of the work in reading throughout all the grades. I would have included in this breathing exercises, that the lungs may receive the development and power that will enable the reader, with ease, to deliver complex and prolonged sentences, drill in posture, that he may be trained to take naturally and gracefully an erect, firm, unconstrained position; drill of the organs upon elementary sounds, that the ability to enunciate all sounds and articulate with distinctness all words may be secured; drill upon stress, pitch, movement and modulation that the voice may be given compass, and that the power to express diverse thoughts and varied feelings may be acquired. Such exercises, if frequently and systematically employed for even a very brief part of the time of the recitation, will so invigorate a class as to quicken mental activity, and give to the remaining moments greatly increased value.

Oral reading is an art of which every one avails himself in this age. The voice is the most flexible of all sound producing instruments, and that outline of reading work which ignores all efforts at its cultivation is unworthy the schools of Michigan in their present state of development.

Said Ruskin: "If I could have a son or daughter possessed of but one accomplishment it should be that of good reading."

But this training should be rational, not a mere matter of imitation further than that mechanical drill that is essential to a good physical development of the organs.

For the expression of thought there must be the fullest possible appreciation of the author's meaning, which can result only from an ability to comprehend and a thorough study. That good oral reading in a general sense can result without a substratum of good thinking is the conclusion of a serious fallacy. That by much imitative drill it may result in specific cases is apparent.

On this side of the art of reading, I am firmly of the opinion that schools in general should do far more to enable their pupils to give accurate and natural expression, in clear, strong, sonorous voices, to the ideas and emotions underlying the productions they study.

But the other phase, the silent gleaning of the ideas which the printed page presents, is the study of chiefest importance. It is this power which puts us into communion with all ages and gives to us the acquaintance and inspiration of the great and good of all times. It enables the soul to drink in the accumulated wisdom of the past, and to feel the pulsations that are throbbing in the heart of humanity to-day.

Ability to read aright implies ability to know and to appreciate.

How to aid the pupils of our schools to attain to the highest possible accomplishment in this work is the question which earnest teachers are every where asking. Much depends upon the habits formed in the earliest use of books.

The primaries must be held responsible for many evils which, incorporated into early habits, are eradicated, if ever, only by persistent effort against great difficulties. From the first every word should be made to yield its fullest possible meaning to the mind of the child.