Most beautiful are such phrases as the following:

"The phantom circle of a moaning sea." "Some whisper of the seething sea.' "Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful." "Let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day." "And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes As in a picture."

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Clothed with his breath."

"A cry that shiver'd to the tingling stars." Note how the following phrases give color to the poem:

"that day when the great light of heaven Burn'd at his lowest in the rolling year."

"Among the mountains by the winter sea.' "The winter moon,

Brightening the skirts of a long cloud."

Observe the pictorial power of these quotations:

"Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight."

"Straining his eyes beneath an arch of hand. "One black dot against the verge of dawn." Most forceful are the following phrases:

"And the days darken round me, and the years, Among new men, strange faces, other minds." "From the great deep to the great deep he goes."

"Authority forgets a dying king."

"An agony

Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills

All night in a waste land, where no one comes, Or hath come, since the making of the world."

There never was a more beautiful comparison than the following:

"Like some full-breasted swan

That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs.'

CHAPTER X

CLOSE READING OR STUDY

T is largely because story reading may so easily become careless reading, that prejudice against fiction is found in many minds. In the preceding pages there have been suggested many ways by which story reading may be made profitable, and yet all these methods may be used without calling for that close, intensive reading which we usually call study. You may lead a child to read Rab and His Friends for all the purposes we have suggested, and yet he may have passed over without understanding them many a word, phrase or even sentence. It is possible that there are whole paragraphs that convey little meaning to him. This is certainly not an unmixed evil, for it is well that a child should not exhaust the possibilities of such a masterpiece when he first reads it. In fact, it is a good thing for children frequently to read great literature even when much of it is quite beyond their comprehension. It will pique their curiosity, and some time they will return with wiser minds and broader experience to interpret for themselves the things that were once obscure. It is no sin for a child sometimes to pass over a word he cannot pronounce or does not understand. There could be few more certain ways of destroying his taste for reading than to require him to

stop and find the meaning of every new word he meets. Sometimes the meaning will become evident a little later from the context, and in other instances he will understand well enough without the troublesome word.

What has been said does not signify that the habit of skipping new words or of avoiding difficult paragraphs is a good one. It does mean, however, that sometimes the practice should be tolerated, and that close reading should be required at the proper time and in the proper way. In the arithmetic or geography lesson the young must always read very closely, and in their perusal of the classics there are many fine opportunities for exercises of the same character, that should not be neglected. Descriptive passages, arguments, and essays of all kinds require to be read with exceeding care, and often there are passages even in light fiction that repay this kind of study.

Words and phrases are the subjects of consideration in close reading, and the mastery of thought is the object to be attained. The study of words may be made very interesting, and gathering the meaning of phrases may become a fascinating pastime.

An illustration may prove the case. Take the paragraph from Rab and His Friends (Volume VI, page 361) in which death approaches Ailie: "The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord was fast being loosedthat animula blandula, vagula, hospes comesque was about to flee. The body and the soul

companions for sixty years—were being sundered and taking leave. She was walking, alone, through the valley of the shadow, into which one day we must all enter and yet she was not alone, for we knew whose rod and staff were comforting her."

A cursory reading will suggest to any young person that the paragraph says Ailie is going to die, and that she does not fear death; but how much more it means to him who can understand it all. The end was drawing on-Ailie was going to her death. The golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord was fast being loosed. Turn to your Bible (Ecclesiastes xii, 3-7), and read what is said. That "animula blandula, vagula, hospes comesque" was about to flee. That sweet but fleeting life, friend, companion and sojourner with her, was about to leave. She was walking alone through the valley of the shadow. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Into which one day we must all enter. May we be equally fearless of evil! She was not alone. Her God was with her every moment, and in her hours of consciousness she knew Him to be present. We knew whose rod and staff were comforting her. "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Like the Psalmist of old she leaned upon the arm of her God, and as she thus approached the dark valley, the light of her faith shone into our souls.

The Latin quotation and the allusions to the Bible are skilfully used to give solemnity to the idea of death, to show how inevitable it is,