B3 22-1118-2500-227 University of Texas Bulletin No. 1862: November 5, 1918 THE ENGLISH BULLETIN Number 5 Published by the University .six times a month and entered as second-class-matter at the postoffice at AUSTIN. TEXAS . The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally dift'used through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free govern­ment. Sam Houston Culti"t•ted mbid is tb.e guardian genius o( democracyi . • . • It is the only dictat.or that freemen' acknowl­edge and· .t:b~ only ~ority that free­men desire; Mblaheau B. Lamar The English Bulletin Number 5 Editors: KILLIS CAMPBELL E. M. CLARK L. W. PAYNE, JR. The English Bulletin is intended as an organ for the expression of opinion by teachers of English in Texas concerning pedagogical and other problems that arise in their work. It will appear from one to three times a year. Copies of this bulletin will be sent free, on application, to any teacher of English in Texas. Address the Chairman of the Publica­tion Committee, University of Texas, Austin, Texas. CONTENTS CODDLING IN ENGLISH, by J. Paxton Simmons............ . . 5 ORAL READING IN THE IDGH SCHOOLS, by Leonidas War­ren Payne, Jr...... : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 THE BEST BOOKS ABOUT MILTON, by E. M. Clark . . ........ 20 THE BEST BOOKS ABOUT TENNYSON, by A. C. Judson. . . . . . 25 THE BEST BOOKS ABOUT BROWNING, bf' J.B. Wharey ..... 31 CODDLING IN ENGLISH• BY J. PAXTON SIMMONS, M. A., PRINCIPAL OF THE ALLAN HIGH SCHOOL, AUSTIN, TEXAS Reasoning from the standpoint that "composition should be a constructive and not ·a destructive process,'' there seems to be a growing school of so-called educators who advise the sparing use of red ink in the grading of papers in English composition. These people insist that much red ink is evi­dence of a cold and unsympathetic criticism, and they shed copious tears because of the thorny path that such teachers make of the climb to knowledge. They would make it a primrose path of dalliance instead, much to the delectation of the earnest (n little pilgrim on the way. It is as protest to this attitude of coddling on the part of many who are wielding a considerable influence in education that this paper is written. It is a genera)ly known fact that students just entering college are notably deficient in composition. If° such a policy as that just described is followed in the teaching of high­school composition, does one have to seek far for the reason~ It seems an odd fact that students who have spent eleven or twelve years in the so-called study of English composition should not be able to write fairly good sentences, should not be able to punctuate properly, and should misuse the English grammar in a truly pitiable fashion. Yet such is the condition of about 50 per cent of them at a low estimate, as most college teachers of English can testify. One wonders that with all the reading of "classics" that the student has done in the high school he has not automatically absorbed some, at least, of the general principles of language construction. Furthermore, under the necessity and stimulus of college conditions the student usually learns to write fairly well by the end of his Freshman year. What has been done with the eleven or twelve years preceding? It seems that we have •Reprinted, with •slight revisions, from The Eng'lish Journal for December, 1916. University of Texas Bulletin come to the conclusion that what a student can learn in college he need not learn in the high school, and that it is all right for him to wait until he gets to college for his first real course in composition. But is this a reasonable·conclusion, and is it one that the high schools themselves are willing to accept as the measure of .their work in English composition~ From the statements contained in a number of high-school handbooks and outlines of courses from all over the country recently examined, it would seem that the aim of their courses is altogether different. Most of them .have substantially the following :,:;tatement with regard to their courses in compo­sition: "The course in c.omposition and literature is designed to give the graduate of the high school an acquaintance with the literature of the language and to . enable him to . express himself in clear and coherent idiomatic English, so that he can make himself readily understood in both writi1rn and speak­ing." This is indeed a very laudable ambition, but it is just this expressing of himself so that he can be readily understood that the average !;ltudent,who comes to .college cannot Q.o, with any degree of ease .and fluency at any rate. Now, there seem to be just two assignable causes for such a condition:. first, the high school is insincere in its statement of its standard and does not ,mean what it ~ays; or, secondly, it has not the ability to accomplish the task it has set itself. It would seelll too harsh to accept the first hypothesis, and furthermore it is .certain that the high schools are endeavoring sincerely and earnestly to keep up with their standards, and that no one deprecates more than do the high~school . people the lack of ability in composition of the ordinary college Fresh­man. The other hypothesis, then, remains; namely, that for some reason which the high schools . themselves cannot ascer­tain they are failing to accomplish the thing they are most earnestly striving to accomplish'. · In all fairness it should be said that not all of the schools are so na'ive with regard to the correction of errors in c?m_po­ sition as some of the so-called directions to teachers of English composition might indicate. Many of them, beginning·in most instances in.the fourth grade, insist on the preparation of at least weekly themes. A number of them also insist that errors be care­ The English BUlletim fully looked out for an(l corrected all along the line. N everthe­less, there is a class of them, quite numerous enough to give cause for alarm, that advise the treatment of errors in frankly cod­dling fashi,on, for fear, forsooth, that teacher may hurt poor little Johnnie's feelings, or make poor little Sarah go home and tell mama and papa what a "nasty teacher" she has. Well, a few hurts to Johnnie's fe.elings will not hurt Johnnie, and if little Sarah is the least bit of a wise little girl and has the least bit of a wise papa and mama, she will come some day to bless that teacher's memory who corrected her errors, even if she was ''putting forth her best efforts.'' Johnnie will not always have to deal with a fond teacher who is afraid of hurting his feelings, nor will Sarah always have the cotton wool wrapped about her little body. Both of them will at some time have to face conditions quite different, and they had both better be glad to have a teacher who is earnest in her desire to see that they learn what they ·are supposed to learn, even though they do have to get it at the expense of a few tears. Furthermore, is not that why they are at school at alH Were they sent there to be allowed merely to do their best and to be patted on the back when they have done that? Suppose we carry this sort of reasoning back to the day when Johnnie and Sarah entered school. They came into the room a bit recalcitrant, perhaps, and a bit frightened. Teacher set them .a task, and they went about it with all the eagerness of their young minds, endeavoring in their best way to do the task set. But they made mistakes, as they always will. Now, should teacher h~ve ~aid, "Johnnie and Sarah, you have done your best, and you need not ~ry any more. Here is another task for you to do, and I know. you will like it, for it is soll1e­thing new. All little children love to do new things. The way you do. this will depend up?n how well you did the o.ther thing a while ago, but as a reward for your doing your best and. trying. so hard, Lam not going to tell you what was wrong with the other, but I am going to give you a perfect mark and put your name a~ the top of the list, in pretty red chalk on the honor roU. See ?'' And the little i:mes go on, each of them trying to do his best, anq teacher, for foar of discour­ University of Texas Bulletin aging them, is resolutely determined not to tell them what they have done wrong. After a bit, however, Johnnie and Sarah become more worldly-wise, and discover that teacher has many more in class who are also trying "to do their best." Why, they begin to reason, can we not do just a little bit less than our best? for teacher is so busy that she will never know. And so that teacher has implanted in their minds a wrong habit that, like all wrong habits, will take deep root and soon grow into a rank and shnking weed. We all see how foolish such a procedure would be, and how very wrong, and certainly there is nobody who would in seriousness advise such a measure. But in what way is this unlike the method of some teachers and some supervisors of teachers of English composition? The result is a habit im­planted in the pupil that by the time he reaches college has grown to such proportions that he finds great difficulty in eradicating it. Oan one for a moment think that a pupil wiU bless the memory of a teacher who allows him to do as he pleases merely because he is doing his best? Not a bit of it. Often students have come in perplexity and almost in despair to the writer and said: ''If only I had been taught in the beginning to do this thing right. Instead of that I have been allowed to go as I pleased throughout my school course, and nobody has told me before that that was an error." Can one imagine a more inexcusable situation? Is there any­thing more pathetic than to have a student say: "I just can't learn to do that thing right. I have been doing it wrong for so long that I forget every time. I know just as soon as you mention it what is the matter, but I have got the habit, and it is a mighty hard thing to break myself of.'' It is true enough that the grade teachers have many diffi­culties to contend with. It is also true that the high-school teacher has, as a rule, many more students and consequently many more papers to grade than does the college teacher. Besides, the college teacher is usually a specialist_in his line, has nothing else but English to teach, and so learns automat­ically to find and correct many errors that take all the efforts of the conscious mind of the already weary and fagged sec­ondary teacher. But the remedy for this condition is in the The English Bulletin hands of the superintendents of schools who overload their teachers, of the boards of trustees who are niggardly in their appropriations, and of the people themselves who do not freely vot·e their taxes for the education of their children. Hence, there is no need to break Quixotic lances over this condition, for the remedy for it will come only in the course of a long time. Meanwhile, the secondary-school teacher must make the best of things as they are, and endeavor to better such con­ditions as can be bettered. And there are many such. For example, it is inexcusable that a teacher should consciously allow herself to overlook errors, no matter by whom the advice may be given to do so_ No teacher in any grade should ever assign an exercise in English, any part of the construction of which cannot be sat­isfactorily explained to the pupil. What can be explained t0> the pupil he can consciously imitate, and by drill he may be­come perfect in the application of the principle, so that it becomes a part of his mental habits and enters into his sub­conscious activities. This may seem a bold statement, but i11 will bear consideration. When one comp-ares, for instance, the papers receiv.ed in Freshman English with the requirements in composition in the primary and grammar grades, as set forth by most of the schools, he wonders if there is much in the majority of these papers that the eighth-grade pupil is supposed to do better than it is done here. There are but two explanations for such a condition: either the student is not taught the composition required in the course of study, or else his teachers have failed to correct his mistakes as he has made them. From the admis­sion of most failing students it would seem that the latter is the case. But someone says: ''The schools have to undo the work of the home and of the home influence. We teach right form, but when the pupil goes home he hears poor langnage used and sees poor letters written,· and is confronted on all sides· with bad English. Thus all the work that we have done is· torn down and is of no avail.'' The answer to all such is simply this: If the schools cannot undo the uneducating influences at work in the home (and'. University of Texas Bulletin that 'they exist is not denied), then the schools are absolutely failing to do what they are planned for; and this arraignment, which comes from the mouths iof school people themselves, is one of the worst that cari be brought against them. It is an undeniable fact that where the uneducating influence is most at work, namely, in the homes of ignorance, the schools have the most influence. In these homes what "teacher" says is pretty likely to be taken for gospel. Nor is it any excuse that the teachers are overworked and so cannot do their duty in the tiring task of grading papers. Nor, certainly, can we bring the charge that our teachers are uneducated. It must be, then, that the teacher ''spares the red ink too much" and thus spoils the child's chances for an education. She does it either because she is too lazy to do otherwise or because she has been told that it is the wrong kind of pedagogy riot to do so. It is unquestionably and unequivocally the wrong.kind of pedagogy to do so, and the sooner this lesson is learned the better. Surely it would not be the right kind of pedagogy to ''spare the red ink'' in arithmetic. Why should it be any different in English~ For whatever may be thought to the contrary, the rules of English composition are quite as logical and quite as easily explained, and consequently imitated, as are the rules of mathematics. · The English Bulletin ORAL READING IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS* BY L. W. PAYNE, JR., Pu. D., AssoCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS It is .a <;1.eplorable fact that in expanding and enlarging our gram:qiar-grade and .high-school curricula to meet the con­stantly broadening .demands of our complex modern civiliza­tion, .we have in .many instances immoderately cramped or almost ent~rely crowded out some. o:f the fundamental and vital processes. of cultural education. New. subjects have been in­serted. one after another until we have in our course of study for the public schools a large number of superfluous activities based upon no broad principles or fundamental outlines. No implication 9f discredit upon the industrial and utilitarian topics pet: se is here intended; •but the very novelty of many of the topics introduced into. the schools within the past decade has attracted .to .them unque importance and an over­emphasis w:l;lich has caused a harwful neglect of some of the more fundamental. topics. . . Particularly has o.raL or in,terpretative reading suffered in this contraction of the fundamentals and expansion of the superfluities in our .educational scheme. It is frequently the case that as soon:as our pupils .begin the study of history; they are. allowed to ..drop formal re;i,ding under criticism. From this point on, the_child is supposed to be able to proceed alone. No further exereises for study or practice in oral reading are set. Of course a great deal of so-.called required reading is assigned, but this is usually to be done by the pupils without directi.on ,or suggestion from ,the teacher, and as Librarian H. L. Koopman of Brown University has recently shown, this. reading, even by college students, is done in the most desultory and superficial fashion in the majority of cases. Along with the English-course, . in addition to the text-book assignments in formal rhetoric and in the history of American and English literature, assignments in the "classics" are made partially for *A paper read before the Virginia Association of Teachers of Eng­lish in November, 1916. Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Alabama Polytechnic ·1nstitute for October, 1917. · University of Texas Bull.etin classroom recitation and partially for outside reading; but the aim is no longer the development of good taste and facility in oral reading. Occasionally a pupil is called on to read a. passage in the. study o,f the assignment in literature, but the purpose is to get the passage before the class for analysis or discussion, and no criticism or suggestion upon the manner of the rendition is offered, and no attempt is made to grade the pupils on their ability to read accurately and effectively. Many superintendents are beginning to realize that one of the chief weaknesses in their high-school courses is the lack of training in oral reading. For several years it has becomd a noteworthy fact that high-school students have retrograded rather than advanced in their ability to read -aloud intelligently. It has been observed that many pupils entering from the sixth· and seventh grades have come out of the high school with a· much poorer ability to read aloud than they had when they entered upon the course. This is due largely to the fact that oral reading under criticism has been almost if not entirely neglected through the years of the high-school training. Students come up to the colleges and universities not only with an ignorance of the laws and practice of effective oral read­ing, but with a lack of confidence in their own ability, which makes them -ashamed to express themselves freely in oral reci­tation and absolutely overwhelmed and nonplussed when th<:y are called upon to read a passage in class. Timidity, retice11ce, stage-fright, shame, possess them utterly, and they take refuge in low voice, shrinking demeanor, incoherent mumbling, artd in some· cases in absolute refusal to attempt the exercises. The only possible cure for this condition is constant, consistent, persistent practice in oral reading throughout 1hc high-school years. One reason for the neglect of simple, natural oral reading, no doubt, has been the employment in some schools of profes­sional teachers ·of elocution or " ·exprESsion." The tendency of instruction has been in the past largely toward formal, artifi­cial, and unnatural recitation of set pieces for public display. Reams and reams of good white paper have been spoiled by the printing of these special, made-to-order "pieces,'' and hours of good study time expended by the pupils in memorizing this The English Bulletin melancholy trash. Heretofore pupils have b.een sent to the elocution teacher by fond parents to be taught to ''recite'' in the most overdrawn, melodramatic, and unnatural fashion. ']'he discounting of simple, intelligent, unaffected reading has naturally followed; unless the pupil be taught to "spout" and rage, or whine and condole, or do some extraordinary bodily and facial contortions to express violent and' dramatic emotion, the prevailing popular opinion has been that he has not had his money's worth from the teacher of ''Expression.'' Through the general diffusion of intelligence and sound culture, this sort of tl1ing is now happily passing away. Teachers and well-educated parents have already for some time been decry­ing the methods of professional elocutionists, and the reversion has now come in favor of the milder and saner type of simple, interpretative reading._ This condemnation of the professional el:ocutionist does not mean that we are to dispense with all the aids of expression taught by the legitimate science of elocution. Whatever aid may be drawn from a careful study of the laws of oral expression should b.e freely used in our teaehing and practice in oral rea.ding. Oral reading demands mure skill, more energy, more art, more soul power in the teaching process than does any other branch in the curriculum, and in many cas~ our teachers are not trained to meet them. Because of its psychological complexity in form and its subtlety of appeal, vocal expression really makes a profound demand upo.n the resourcefulness of the teacher and the responsiveness of the pupils. In the first place, to teach an art is in the very nature of the case nio.re difficult than ·to teach a science. When the teacher has a definite system of facts to impart or de.finite principles to estab­lish, she goes about her task with an assurance based upon her own clear knowledge of both the subject and the end to be attained. In the reading period, however, the teacher is tr.ying to develop in her pupils a sense for art and an ability in artistic self-expression. In the second place, to teach an art like rea,d­ing is extremely difficult, because of the very intangibility and indefiniteness of the_· subject, and ·because it must be taught chiefly by suggestion and example. Hence the instruction is likely to be extremely vague and even confusing to the pupils, University of Texas Bulletin and frequently unsatisfactory to the tea·cher on account of her consciousness of her own lack of ability on the expressive side. What the teacher of reading chiefly needs, then:, is 'to ·estab­lish certain broad principles which she can keep constantly 1n mi:Ud during her preparation and during the teaching hour, and upon which she can confidently base her ow:ri interpreta­tive reading and her own method of teachl.ng oral reading to her pupils. We shall try in the follciwing paragraphs to out­line briefly the fundamental criteria in the tec:qnique of oral reading. · First of.all, the aim of the reading recitation must be clearly understood. It certainly is.not mere glibness in the. pronun­ciation of words, nor isit mere facility and rapidity in thpught­getting. A great deal pf stress .i$ being laid in this practical anrt <;onunercial age on rapid sight.reading, on.rapid silent reading; and even more upon.rapid skimming to get the mere on1ljne of the thought content of books. .This Il1ay be all very well in so far as the reading of a certain clas:s ofmodern books is c intellectual, emotional, and imag­inative equipment. Clear enunciation and correct pronunciafo:m may ·be laid down io be the essential mechanical requirements of good oral reading; These can only be acquired by constant and, we might say, interminabl'e drill. ·In this regard the price of good oral reading is, like the price of liberty, eternal vigilance. The dictionary is, of course, the reference book here, and it shouk~ bP used constantly by the pupils in the preparation of the reading lessons, both for the meaning and for the pronuncia­tion of new and difficult words. Naturally the child is likely to hear more incorrect pronunciation and indistinct and faulty enunciation from his associates outside the school than his teacher can counteract by mere clasnroom work, but the con·­stant example of correct pronunciation and careful enuncia­tion in all classroom work will go far towards establishing The English BUlletin at least a model toward which the pupil in his more ambitious moments may aspire. And here the teacher must be warned that it will not rlo to enforce too rigidly upon the children of any given secticn of our country, the pronunciation or quality of the vowel and consonant sounds heard in another, even though these have the sanction of the dictionary. For example, it will be unwise in most of our Southern States to insist on the broad sound of a in such a phrase as ''half past,'' where the local pronun­ciation is almost universally short. This would be but to culti­vate a conscious pedanticism in ·pronunciation and would attract to the mere sound of the words a large part of the child's attention and thus dissipate his thought energy and cause him to neglect the real meaning and emotional value of the passage before him. Realizing and admitting this weakness in reading in their high-school course, many thoughtful superintendents are be­ginning to devise means of correcting it. Special teachers of English are being employed in the high school. It is already an established practice to employ special teachers of oral reading in the grades, but it is something of an innovation to place a special teacher of oral reading in the high school. Another method of meeting the demands of the situation is to call upon the teachers of English to prepare themselves to do special work in oral reading with their classes, devoting at least one period a week to pure oral recitations in the interpre­tation of the ''classics,'' and paying particular · attention to oral reading in all the work in English. Especially should the pupils be made to realize that their ad".,ancement and their stand­ing in the class are to depend largely upon their ability to prove by good interpretative oral reading that they are doing their silent and private reading thoroughly and intelligently. There is no use to argue the value of this practice as an educational process. The inability of college freshmen to read well has been mentioned, but it is not to prepare students for intelligent reading in freshman classes that oral reading in the high school should be eonsistently demanded. It is to prepare them for intelligent citizenship and to insure their steady progress in their intellectual, social, religious, and polit­ i6 University of Texas Bulletin ical life after they leave the high school. Who can estimate the student's increased facility in the usG of the mother tongue., in correct pronunciation, in accurate spelling, in logical thinking, in precise writing, from this persistent exercise in oral reading under criticism? Oral reading in the home, in the school, in business life, in public position, is a basic requirement for the best success and highest attainment of the individual. Blessed is the home where there are good oral readers who practice the art over the morning Bible lesson and around the evening fireside over newspapers, books, and magazines. The posses­sion of a sympathetic voice trained in oral expression is a priceless boon, not only to the one possessing it, but to all those who are associated with him. It is to be understood that mere mechanical oral reading is not the sole desideratum. Perhaps too large a proportion of the time in the early grades is devoted to training children in the mere oral pronunciation of words with little or no attention to the thought. Thought-getting is the· essential element in all reading, whether it be oral or silent. So flagrant has been the error of overemphasizing the mere oral calling of words without the attendant thought-getting that some writers have been led to decry the value of oral reading in the grades and to attack the place of reading as the central subject of all our elementary course of study. The teaching of mere words irrespective of the ideas which they convey is certainly a pernicious practice and one that should be rem~died at all hazards. Mr. E. 0. Vaile, of Oak Park, Ill., in a recent article on this subject emphasizes the point that under our present system of teaching, the children do not learn to read for the thought. He quotes one principal of a city high school as say­ing: "ThE' principals of our grammar schools would resent It should I say it to their faces, but the fact is, I am disgusted in one respect with the pupils they send us. They cannot read. Not only do they not comprehend the language of their books, but they do not know that they do not comprehend it." Mr. Vaile gives may ludicrous examples to show that the pupils do not really comprehend what they so glibly read. One of these will suffice for our point. ''In an average city school a class had read with considerable glibness, if not with The English B1iUetin. expression, 'The Old Oaken Bucket.' In an innocent way the question was put to the head pupil, 'How many buckets do you think hung in the well?' The answer was 'Three,' meaning 'the old oaken,' the 'iron bound' and the 'moss-:covered' buckets. The rest of the class concurred without exception. To the question, 'In the line, "With emblem of truth o'er:flowing," what does the poet allude to ?' no answer was forthcoming for some moments. At length one pupil ventured to suggest, 'It must }}ave been an eagle.' '' If the truth is to be. fairly faced, we shall have to admit that it is not the pupils who do all this superficial, mechanical reading; many of onr teachers of several years' experience not only cannot read intelligently, but cannot interpret an assigned piece of literature without some assistance. On one occasion in an American literature class of seventy or more prospective applicants for the permanent State teacher's cer­tificate, I found hy actual test that only two of the applicants could read an assignment like Poe's "The Haunted Palace" and give an intelligent interpretation of the meaning of the poem. The fact is, if you come right down to bed rock and question a class of teachers as to the full meaning of many a ''classic'' that they have skimmed over dozens of times with their classes and in many cases have memorized for concert recitation with their pupils, you will find that they possess but a hazy and inadequate conception of the thought in many of the sentences. Poe's ''The Bells," Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," and Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" are examples in point. A distinguished city superintendent informed me not long ago that as a boy he had memorized Poe's " The Bells" under an expert elocution teacher, but that he had never until recently comprehended that the poem was an interpretation of human life, the sleigh bells representing the joys of youth, the wedding bells expounding the period of married life, the fire bells setting forth the trouble and trial that come into every life to make it stronger and better, and the tolling bells symbolizing the last stages of all, ~ld age and death. Another teacher suggested to his class that ''mournful numbers" in the first line of the "Psalm of Life" probably referred to the dates engraved on tombstones. The fact is, that University of Texas Bulletin our teachers as well as our pupils need help in the literary interpretation of the mas,terpieces i~ our literature, and until the teachers ~earn to read reflectively and intelligently, we need not expect the pupils to do so. Silent rending with oral summary has been suggested as one remedy for this fundamental weakness in our system of teaching reading. This certainly is a wise suggestion. A whole class can be kept profitably engaged in reading a para­graph or stanza, all reading silently for pure thought-getting. 'Then the teacher may call upon one or more pupils to repro­duce orally, not literally or verbatim, but substantially, the content of the passage. By question or comment, or better still, by elicitin' questions and comment from the pupils themselves, the teacher may clear up misconceptions and put new life into the reading recitation. But the advocates of silent reading sometimes go too far. They insist that oral reading be almost or altogether dis­pensed with and that silent reading or simple thought-getting and oral summary be made the basis of all reading in the more advanced grades. It is perfectly true that the ideal reading lesson in the seventh, eighth, and the higher grades should be primarily one of thought-getting, .through analysis, synthe­sis, summary, and suggestive application to life. But the final capstone of all this training should be beautiful, apprecia­tive, intelligent oral rendition of the literary masterpiece as a whole and in its own language. Summary and paraphrase, whether·written or oral, are valuable exercises, but in no case should these be allowed to usurp the place of the masterpiece in its own pristine form. One of my most thoughtful pupils -0nce gently reproved me for requiring a paraphrase of Words­worth 's "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality from Recol­lections of Early Childhood.'' She commented about as follows: "It is a sacrilege to transform the poet's beautiful language into my tom-tom prose, but since you seem to prefer tin-pan beating to the music of the ~heres, take my .effort for what it is worth.'' The end and aim of these exercises, then, should be perfect, or as nearly perfect as we can hope to get, oral reading by the pupils after the analysis and thought-getting pro~ess have been completed. The English Bulletin A good lesson plan would. be, first, to have the pupils read the selection through rapidly for technical oral reading, taking ca.re to have the words pronounced correctly and in distinct enunciation; second, to study ;the literary and thought values of the selection by methods of question and analysis; third, to determine the criteria of time, pitch, quality, and force required for effective oral rendition of the whole selection and its various parts; fourth, to call for the final full interpretation of the selection in expressive oral reprodu'ction by the pupils.· Certainly every lesson in the literary study of a masterpiece · should end in oral rendition. The final process of the oral reading of literary master­pieces is to be found in oral reproduction from memory. There is a sort of. recrudescence of the old-time Friday after­noon exercises in the modern debating and declamation leagues, and the value of oral English in our educational scheme is now being more and more fully recognized. The thorough memorizing of selections of poetry and literary prose is un­doubtedly one of our very best devices, not only for improving the child's power of expression and for enlarging his vocab­ulary, but also for inculcating a sense of the finer qualities of the rhythm and melody of language as there .are crystalized in the literary masterj>ieces of our language. There is no surer or quicker way of teaching literary appreciation than by assigning to the pupils choice selections for memorizing after these have been thoroughly studied and analyzed from the literary point of view. And in this connection it may be well to remind the teacher that no slipshod or half correct repro­duction should be tolerated. The exact words of the author in their perfect order and in the best possible 'interpretative rhythm and movement, quality, pitch, and force should be sedulously demanded. Here, as in all other educational processes, absolute fidelity to·the original should be the aim. In the working of a mathematical problem we demand absolute accuracy. The accurate reproduction of a poem or a prose selection is no less important as an educative process. 20 University of Texas Bulletin THE BEST BOOKS ABOUT MILTON* BY EVERT MORDECAI CLARK, PH. D., ADJUNCT PROFESSOR Ol~ ENGLISH, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS. The best of all books about Milton are Milton's own prose and verse, in English, Latin, and Italian ; for these reflect directly and faithfully the poet's mind and heart and lifetime activity. Yet one seldom finds that as many as five per cent. of college students undertaking a course in Milton have pushed beyond the Minor Poems and the first books of Paradise Lost; and not every cne who essays to teach Milton in high-school and college is en­ tirely familiar with Milton's prose. I therefore venture tO sug­ gest that the reading of Milton's works in their entirety would be an excellent beginning for one who would make an adequate preparation in the Milton field. And here the road is straight and clear so far as knowing what to read is concerned. 1But when one turns to the books about Milton, their multiplicity is likely to prove bewildering, and choosing the best becomes a matter in which it may be possible to give some helpful advice. What, then, are the most reliable editions of Milton's writings, and what commentaries throw most light upon their form and content? What biographies reveal most truthfully the lif·e and character of Milton? What books best picture the history and atmosphere of his age? These are the general lines along which some suggestions will be made. F or the stirring events in England during the Jacobean, Caro­line, Commonwealth, and Restoration periods any standard Eng­lish histrory m11y be consulted. Succinct accounts may be found in the Cambridge Modern History.1 Gardiner's The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution2 is a concise and authori­tative volume. The atmosphere of the age, that spirit which vi­talizes for us the bare chronicle of events, may best be sensed ir:. the numerous and .excellent seventeenth-century diaries and memoirs. Evelyn's Diary gives one· the point of view of a consci­ *This is the first of a series of articles to be published in the Eng­lish Bulletin, devoted to the best books about the chief writers and the chief movements in English and American literature. The English Biilletin entious and high-minded Royalist. No finer picture of the con­servative Puritan gentleman has ever been drawn than that of her husband in Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs of Colonel lhttchin­son.R Pepys' Diary3 is entirely faithful and infinitely gossi\py and entertaining. The History of Thomas Ellwood, Written by Him­self' reveals the simple piety and fortitude of the Quakers under persecution, and is invaluable because of Ellwood's intimacy with Milton. The fires of the Puritan revolution blaze fiercely in Scott's The Legend of Montrose. Scott's Woodstock also deals. imaginativdy with this' period. Jenks' In the Days of Milton5 sketches simply and pleasantly the social, political, and religious. background of Milton's life. Mead's lrlilton's England possesses the additional charm of having excellent illustrations. A some­what heavier but more scholarly volume is Dowden 's Puritan and Angli.can.1 Useful expositions of the literary background of Milton's works are found in Masterman's The Age of Milton,3­The Cambridge History of English Literature/ Wendell's The Temper of the 17th Century in English Literature,8 and Child's The Literature of Nie English Restoration Including Milton (in Cambridge 1lfodern Ristory,1 vol. 5). In seeking authentic information about the authol' himself, one should remember that Milton took the trouble to write an autobiography. The student will find it interesting to assemble from Milton's poetry and prose the thirty-odd autobiographic passages, which are, of course, of the highest authority, or he may find them collected for him in Corson's An Introduction to. the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton.9 Four scrappy and gossipy but historically important seventeenth-century biog­raphies of Milton are reprinted in Lockwood's Milton's OfEdu­cation, and should not be overlooked. Among modern biographies Masson's The Life of John Mi1ton, Narrated in Connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, anld Literary History of His Time9 is, and will always be, the standard authority. In six large vol­umes, it is quite as compendious as its title indicates, and con­stitutes an imperishable monument of painstaking research and sympathetic interpretation. A brief biography by the same author may be· found in his three-volume edition of Milton's poems. Pattison 's Milton, an Account of His Life and W orksD University of Texas Bulletin is concise, vigorous, and independent, but less trustworthy in its interpretation and criticism than Garnett's Life of M ilton.11 Trent's John Milton, His Life and Works is a glowing and some­what extravagant appreciation, quite successful m its frank attempt to be ''dontagious'' in its enthusiasm. The books about Milton and his age are numerous; many of them are excellent; collectively they meet every need. Ahnost as much can be· said of books about his poems. Milton's prose, however, has been greatly neglected; no scholarly collective edi­tion exists. St. John's (the Bohn edition) is poor enough but the best we have. Lockwood's Milton's Of Education, Areopa­gitica; The Commonwealth10 is a well-edited little volume. Gar­nett's The Prose of Milton: Selected and Edited, with an In­trodiwtion12 is a more representative collection, but is without notes. A few of the prose treatises, Areopagitica,18 The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates,14 The Ready and Easy Way to Estab­lish a Free Commonwealth/+ Of Reformation Touching Church Discipline,14 have been edited separately, with comprehensive in­troducti