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choose a particular time-sunrise or sunset, spring or winter, moonlight, in a fog, etc. Geographies and guide-books should not be copied, but may be consulted to verify any point.

An account of a holiday at the sea-side, or in a yacht, a walking or cycling tour, etc., might supply material for a diary. Keep a journal for a week, noting what you do and see, any adventures, and so on.

An essay may profitably be written on a visit to a coal-mine, a quarry, a farm, a fishmarket, a fruitmarket, a cotton mill, a shipbuilding yard, a museum, a picture gallery, a warship, Woolwich Arsenal, The Tower, The Mint, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's, Salisbury Cathedral, York Minster, Edinburgh Castle, Liverpool Docks, Stonehenge, the Zoological Gardens, a country fair, and so on.

Most boys and girls have hobbies. They need not discuss the value of a hobby, but they should describe their own particular hobby and tell how it interests them, whether it is collecting stamps, butterflies, birds' eggs; or carpentry; or keeping pets, etc.

Botany, geology, chemistry, electricity, geography, history, or any other subject in the curriculum will supply material—to be treated, of course, in a literary not a technical way-some botanical excursion, some chemical experiment, some historical problem: e.g. Why did Monmouth fail in 1685, William of Orange succeed in 1688?

A good exercise is to study a picture and write a description of it. One way of doing so is shown in the following passage from Borrow's Lavengro. He is narrating an incident of his life when he was between six and seven years of age.

I now took up the third book: it did not resemble the others, being longer and considerably thicker; the binding was of dingy calf-skin. I opened it, and as I did so another strange thrill of pleasure shot through my frame. The first object on which my eyes rested was a picture; it was exceedingly well executed, at least the scene which it represented made a vivid impression upon me, which would hardly have been the case had the artist not been faithful to nature. A wild scene it was-a heavy sea and rocky shore,

with mountains in the background, above which the moon was peering. Not far from the shore, upon the water, was a boat with two figures in it, one of which stood at the bow, pointing with what I knew to be a gun at a dreadful shape in the water; fire was flashing from the muzzle of the gun, and the monster appeared to be transfixed. I almost thought I heard its cry....I turned over various leaves till I came to another engraving; a new source of wonder—a low sandy beach on which the furious sea was breaking in mountain-like billows; cloud and rock deformed the firmament, which wore a dull and leaden-like hue; gulls and other aquatic fowls were toppling upon the blast, or skimming over the tops of the maddening waves"Mercy upon him! he must be drowned!" I exclaimed, as my eyes fell upon a poor wretch who appeared to be striving to reach the shore; he was upon his legs, but was evidently half smothered with the brine; high above his head curled a horrible billow, as if to engulf him for ever. "He must be drowned! he must be drowned!" I almost shrieked, and dropped the book. I soon snatched it up again, and now my eye lighted on a third picture; again a shore, but what a sweet and lovely one, and how I wished to be treading it ; there were beautiful shells lying on the smooth white sand, some were empty like those I had occasionally seen on marble mantel-pieces, but out of others peered the heads and bodies of wondrous crayfish ; a wood of thick green trees skirted the beach and partly shaded it from the rays of the sun, which shone hot above, while blue waves slightly crested with foam were gently curling against it; there was a human figure upon the beach, wild and uncouth, clad in the skins of animals, with a huge cap on his head, a hatchet at his girdle, and in his hand a gun; his feet and legs were bare; he stood in an attitude of horror and surprise; his body was bent far back, and his eyes, which seemed starting out of his head, were fixed upon a mark on the sand—a large distinct mark—a human footprint."

See also "Notes on Art" in Dr John Brown's Horae Subsecivae. A century-old newspaper or magazine will afford material for contrasting the present and the past.

CHARACTERS. Pupils reading Goldsmith's Deserted Village, The Spectator, Chaucer's Prologue, or any history or biography containing sketches of character, should be required to reproduce some of these.

Then when they are studying a drama or novel or romantic poem, they should note the sayings and the doings of some one of the personages and also how the others speak of him. From these materials they should compose a sketch of his character. There is, however, a difficulty here in the abundance of editions

giving a cut-and-dry character-sketch, which pupils are apt to reproduce.

Original portraying of characters may next be attempted. That is, on the model of The Spectator or of Chaucer, sketch characters from present-day life.

IMAGINATIVE WORK. An easy beginning is this. Read to the pupils part of an anecdote, or dictate the outline of part. Let them tell the story fully and graphically, completing it as each chooses. The anecdote of the farmer and of the broken flower-pot (pp. 170, 171) could be so employed. The latter might be the starting-point for another problem-How did Pisistratus make good the loss of the pot?

Or again, re-tell fully and vividly the stories suggested in the following:

I. The chief of a band of outlaws is imprisoned in the upper story of a lofty tower, one side looking sheer down into a deep valley, the other defended by moat and drawbridge, with a strong garrison, the commander of which has orders to slay the prisoner if the tower is attacked. How might his escape be effected?

2. A hunter, chased by a bear, climbs a tree and crawls along a branch, closely pursued by the bear. How does the hunter get rid of his pursuer ?

The teacher will easily find other suitable stories; e.g. Whang the miller (Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, Letter LXIX.): The Capture of Dumbarton Castle (Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, ch. XXXII.).

More advanced imaginative work is suggested in these quotations from Dickens and Scott.

"What an interesting book," says Dickens in his Sketches, "a hackney-coach might produce, if it could carry as much in its head as it does in its body! The autobiography of a broken-down hackneycoach would surely be as amusing as the autobiography of a brokendown hackneyed dramatist; and it might tell as much of its travels with the pole as others have of their expeditions to it."

In a letter to Joanna Baillie, Scott says:

"I have Rob Roy's gun, a long Spanish-barrelled piece, with his initials, R. M. C., for Robert Macgregor Campbell, which latter name

he assumed in compliment to the Argyle family, who afforded him a good deal of private support, because he was a thorn in the side of their old rival house of Montrose. I have, moreover, a relic of a more heroic character; it is a sword which was given to the great Marquis of Montrose by Charles I., and appears to have belonged to his father, our gentle King Jamie. It had been preserved for a long time at Gartmore, but the present proprietor was selling his library, or great part of it, and John Ballantyne, the purchaser, wishing to oblige me, would not conclude a bargain, which the gentleman's necessity made him anxious about, till he flung the sword into the scale; it is, independent of its other merits, a most beautiful blade. I think a dialogue between this same sword and Rob Roy's gun might be composed with good effect."

Acting on those hints, we might have autobiographies of a hansom, a motor-car, a railway carriage, a steamship, an iceberg, a log of pinewood, a mahogany table, a penny, a sovereign, a five-pound note, an umbrella, a walking-stick, a hat, a volume of Caxton's, a coin of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Mons Meg in Edinburgh Castle, the Mace of the House of Commons, the Regalia of Scotland, the Koh-i-nur or other famous stone; and so on.

Temple Bar, the Cliffs of Dover, the Solent, the Nore, the Goodwin Sands, Plymouth Sound, Londonderry, the Tower, Westminster Abbey, Gibraltar, Carisbrooke Castle, Whitehall, and other places might describe some of the incidents they have seen.

Dialogues might be composed between the Stone of Destiny in Westminster Abbey and Edward I.'s grave; between "Puffing Billy," or "The Rocket,” and a modern locomotive; etc.

In dialogue or otherwise, historical problems might be discussed: as, Which side would you adopt, and why, if you were living in England in 1642? in Ireland in 1689? in Scotland in 1745? in America in 1775?

ABSTRACT THEMES. It is unwise to set subjects like "Ambition" indiscriminately. Yet abstract themes need not be altogether avoided. Most people know something about procrastination. Pupils who have been studying the history of England in the seventeenth century and have read such poetry as Wordsworth's

"Two voices are there," Barbour's "A! fredome is a noble thing!" Byron's "Clime of the unforgotten brave!" should be well equipped to write an essay on "Liberty." A class reading Cicero de Amicitia could be referred to the story of David and Jonathan, to In Memoriam, and to essays by Bacon, Addison and Johnson; and would then easily write on "Friendship."

CHRIA. It is not uncommon to find the theme proposed for an essay to be a proverb, as "A stitch in time saves nine," or a quotation, as Wordsworth's "The child is father of the man.” The young writer is often puzzled how to proceed. The method of the Greek and Latin "chria" will be found worth trying. A saying of known authorship was discussed in this way:

(1) a panegyric on the author;

(2) a full paraphrase of the saying to bring out the meaning;

(3) the underlying principle was set forth and its truth established (a) positively; (b) negatively; i.e. by assuming it to be not true and showing what would follow;

(4) comparison with similar, and contrast with dissimilar thoughts;

(5) examples from history;

(6) quotations in support from standard authors;

(7) conclusion: e.g. a practical exhortation.

It must be understood that this model is recommended-like all plans for essays-as "a track not a groove." Use it as a servant to assist, do not let it rule as a master.

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