2. Reading
The general purpose and the character of the reading in the second year are the same as in the first. During the first part of the year narrative and descriptive material should be read, and during the second semester some of the simpler types of essays may be used as a basis of a study of exposition. As has already been indicated in connection with the composition, the pupils’ attention should be directed to the use of words and figures of speech in the masterpieces. The plot and its development, and the form in which the story is told can be studied in more detail than in the first year.
Methods of describing persons and places and of delineating character, taken up in connection with description, will frequently be exemplified in the reading. Direction may be given to the study of essays by considering them as examples of exposition. All this analytical work ought to be carried on with a view not only to developing inductively or illustrating the principles of composition which it is desired to have the pupils apply in their own writing, but also to having the pupils understand the author’s purpose and the methods which he uses to accomplish it; that is, to understand fully what they are reading.
The following may be taken as typical of the character of the reading best adapted for the purposes outlined: Irving’s “Sketch Book” and “Tales of the Alhambra”, Poe’s “Gold Bug”, Thoreau’s “The Succession of Forest Trees”, Burroughs’ “Birds and Bees” and “Sharp Eyes”, Macaulay’s “Lord Clive” and “Life of Samuel Johnson”, Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Speech.” If at the end of the first semester the pupils have learned to read prose of average difficulty, it is often advantageous during the second semester to study a play of Shakespeare’s, and “Merchant of Venice” or “Julius Caesar” is well adapted for this purpose. Narrative poetry such as Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”, Arnold’s “Sohrab and Rustum”, Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner”, or Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” may also be used successfully during the second semester.