The Wreck of the Arctic.

criticising. Some teachers will make a single paragraph suggestive of numerous useful questions, and of much valuable information. It will be well, so far as possible, to have your pupils give a sketch of the author of the piece they are about to read, and an account of the circumstances under which it was written. This will tend to bring the subject home to their hearts, and, as it were, make the piece their own. This is essential. Take, for example, the following beautiful and expressive extract from "The Wreck of the Arctic," written by Rev. H. Ward Beecher, and see how many pertinent questions may be raised in reference to it.

"It was autumn. Hundreds had wended their way froin pilgrimages; from Rome and its treasures of dead art, and its glory of living nature; from the sides of the Switzer's mountains, from the capitals of various nations; all of them saying in their hearts, 'We will wait for the September gales to have done with their equinoctial fury, and then we will embark; we will slide across the appeased ocean, and in the gorgeous month of October we will greet our longed-for native land, and our heart-loved homes.'

“And so the throng streamed along from Berlin, from Paris, from the Orient, converging upon London, still hastening toward the welcome ship, and narrowing every day the circle of engagements and preparations. They crowded aboard. Never had the Arctic borne such a host of passengers, nor passengers so nearly related to so many of us.

"The hour was come. The signal ball fell at

Questions on the Exercise.

Greenwich. It was noon also at Liverpool. The anchors were weighed; the great hull swayed to the current; the national colors streamed abroad, as if themselves instinct with life and national sympathy. The bell strikes; the wheels revolve; the signal-gun beats its echoes in upon every structure along the shore, and the Arctic glides joyfully forth from the Mersey, and turns her prow to the winding channel, and begins her homeward run. The pilot stood at the wheel, and men saw him. upon the prow, and no eye beheld him.”

Death sat

How much of interest and profit may be obtained from the few lines above quoted, by asking the following questions, and others that may be suggested by them:

What do you know of the author of this piece? What was the Arctic? Where was she? Whither was she bound? What is the meaning of "wended"? of "pilgrimage"? Where is Rome? What is meant by "the treasures of dead art"? Where does the Switzer live? What are his mountains called? What is meant by "September gales"? by "equinoctial"? What is meant by "we will slide over the ocean"? Meaning of "appeased"? What is meant by the "appeased ocean"? Meaning of "gorgeous"? Why is October called a gorgeous month? Can you give some other sentence containing the word "gorgeous"? Where is Berlin? Paris? London? The Orient? Meaning of "converging"? Why spoken of as "welcome ship"? "The hour was come,"

what hour? Where is Greenwich?

Another Illustration.

What is meant by the expression, "the signal-ball fell at Greenwich"? Where is Liverpool? What would be the course of a vessel from New York to Liverpool? What is meant by the expression, "the anchors were weighed"? What is meant by "national colors"? What and where is the Mersey? Why the expression "the Arctic glides joyfully "? What is the meaning of "prow"? Who is the pilot, or what are his duties? What is meant by "Death sat upon the prow"? etc.

The same plan is recommended in the following extract from a well-prepared article in The Massachusetts Teacher.

"Imagine a class of sixteen or eighteen girls, ready to begin their recitation, their reading-books open at a description of the river Nile. One of them reads as follows:

"For many an hour have I stood upon the citycrowning citadel of Cairo, and gazed unweariedly upon the scene of matchless beauty and wonder that lay stretched beneath my view, -cities and ruins of cities, palm-forests and green savannas, gardens, and palaces, and groves of olive. On one side, the boundless desert with its pyramids; on the other, the land of Goshen, with its luxuriant plains, stretching far away to the horizon. Yet this is an exotic country. That river winding through its paradise, has brought it from far regions, unknown to man. That strange and richly varied panorama has had a long voyage of it! Those quiet plains have tumbled down the cataracts: those demure gardens

Subject continued.

have flirted with the Isle of Flowers, five hundred miles away; and those very pyramids have floated down the waves of the Nile. In short, to speak chemically, that river is a solution of Ethiopia's richest regions, and that vast country is merely a precipitate.'

"After analyzing the sentences and defining the more important words, various questions are asked. For example: Give some account of Cairo. What is a pyramid? Describe the Egyptian pyramids. What do you know of the land of Goshen? What

is an exotic, and what is meant by an exotic land? In what form did those plains come down the cataracts? Give us some account of the Cataracts of the Nile. How were those vast pyramids floated down the river? In short, to speak chemically, that river is a solution of Ethiopia's richest regions, and that vast country is merely a precipitate.' Explain this sentence. What is it to speak chemically? What is a solution and a precipitate? Why is it correct to use such terms here?

"Another paragraph describes the annual inundation of the Nile:

"The stream is economized within its channel until it reaches Egypt, when it spreads abroad over the vast valley. Then it is that the country presents the most striking of its Protean aspects; it becomes an archipelago, studded with green islands, and bounded only by the Libyan Hills and the purple range of the Mokattan Mountains. Every island is covered with a village or an antique temple, and

Another Example.

shadowy with palm-trees, or acacia groves. Every city becomes a Venice, and the bazaars display their richest and gayest cloths and tapestries to the illuminations that are reflected from the streaming streets.'

"Many interesting questions are here suggested. What are Protean aspects, and why so called? Where are the Libyan Hills and the Mokattan Mountains? Describe an Arab village, an ancient Egyptian temple, — a palm-tree, — an acacia. Give some account of Venice. How does every city become a Venice? What is a bazaar?

6

"We followed the study of The Nile' with that of the poetical' Address to the Mummy in Belzoni's Exhibition.' The manner of treating the first stanza will show the way in which the whole was studied.

'And thou hast walked about how strange a story!

In Thebes' streets, three thousand years ago;

When the Memnonium was in all its glory,

And time had not begun to overthrow
Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous,
Of which the very ruins are tremendous.'

"The class are asked if they know anything of the author of these lines, and of the traveller Belzoni; and having stated such facts as they have been able to procure respecting them, one is called upon to explain the first words of the poem.

"And thou hast walked about.' The writer speaks as if the mummy were actually before him, while writing. Do you think that this was the case? Lucy may answer.