Both the unseen and the seen:
Make the house, where gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.”
It is not necessary to preach while teaching this poem. The lesson impresses itself upon the children if they are rightly prepared for it. They will make their own application, but we should not forget that a valuable lesson like this is not measured by ease in recitation or accuracy in reading. If in the days to come the memory of the poet’s words gives strength in the hour of temptation, or incites to honest work when the hand inclines to careless shirking, the lesson will have counted for good. In selecting our poems for our children, and in directing their reading, such hope should guide our choice. The words of the poem or story will recur again and again when the memory of the school-room has faded. We should be assured that the minds of our pupils are furnished with thoughts worth remembering. “Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
III.—Study of the Reading Lesson.
ILLUSTRATIVE LESSON.
LITTLE BELL.
Piped the blackbird on the beechwood spray,
“Pretty maid, slow wandering this way,
What’s your name?” quoth he,—