If the Drawing does not admit of the teaching suggested, the Language Lesson, ever hospitably inclined, may be extended to include the study of the picture. Every teacher knows best what pictures she desires to present to her class, but, from common experience, a few inferences may be made.
Certainly the picture chosen for initial study should be one whose subject is interesting to the children, a picture which represents action or suggests a story. Such pictures are Schreyer’s “Imperial Courier,” Meyer von Bremen’s “Little Nurse,” Millet’s “Angelus,” Landseer’s “Saved.” After the children have become interested in the picture they will wish to learn who painted it, just as they desire to know about the poet, after they have come to enjoy the poem. Then they are ready to look at the reprints of the other works of the artist, regardless of subject, and to ask questions about the artist and his works. So the interest deepens and the study grows, following this natural order.
Fortunately the abundance of cheap good reprints, and the careful illustration of text-books, place the means for such study within the reach of every teacher and pupil. It will not be long before the picture will take its proper place with the song and the poem as a factor in elementary education.
He that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, so in all fortunes.
—Isaac Burrows.
