Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 12

In fact, you will find in every chapter of this volume something to help you in making your way into the thoughts and the hearts of your family, and we know that as the years pa.s.s away and manhood comes to your boys they will look back upon the hours spent in reading with you as the most momentous of their lives. Do you want your son to say in his manhood, "I look upon Mr. A or Mr. B as the person who most influenced my life"? Do you want him to say, "I might have been a cultured man with a wide range of interests if my father had given to me a little of the time he spent at his club"? Do you want your boy to think that he was a wanderer from home, because he could not find in that home the manly sympathy that his soul craved? In many a family there is no trouble in keeping the boys off the streets. There is no place half so attractive as the home and for them no inclination to seek among others the fun and intellectual stimulus they crave as they crave their food.

Usually the reading habit must be formed early or not at all. A man in middle life will not acquire the habit easily unless there is some stimulus which keeps him reading for a time, in spite of himself. In the active minds of his boys he may find just that stimulus, and in his declining years when time weighs heavily upon his hands and great activities are denied him he will find in his later acquirement an unfailing source of enjoyment. In such hours will come to recollection the days he spent with his boys and his heart will fill with joy that he did not neglect his rich opportunities.

CHAPTER VII

MEMORIZING

Whenever children are interested in any selection, it is well to encourage them to commit it to memory, if it be brief, or if they find in it phrases or sentences which seem to them beautiful or filled with meaning. If, however, the young people are driven to memorizing selections of any kind, the practice is of little value, and it is likely to create a prejudice against the very things for which they should feel admiration. By a show of interest, however, the parents may, without difficulty, lead the children to learn a great deal of the best literature, and thus not only strengthen their knowledge but improve their style of writing as well, for unconsciously the young will follow the style of those whom they admire. Moreover, it frequently happens that some of the inspiring thoughts which children have learned become rules of action to them in after life. If the practice is begun early enough children will form the habit of learning those things which they like, and such a habit is of greatest value. In many schools, during certain years, the learning of "memory gems" is a daily practice; it should be no less a practice at home.

Some of the many things in these books which may well be learned in their entirety are the following:

Volume I, page 66. _A Thought._ Volume I, page 67. _The Swing._ Volume I, page 83. _Singing._ Volume I, page 110. _Rain._ Volume I, page 133. _Little Blue Pigeon._ Volume I, page 144. _The Land of Counterpane._ Volume I, page 204. _Sleep, Baby, Sleep._ Volume I, page 246. _Norse Lullaby._ Volume I, page 262. _Wynken, Blynken and Nod._ Volume I, page 339. _The Owl and the p.u.s.s.y Cat._ Volume I, page 340. _Time to Rise._ Volume I, page 410. _The Reaper and the Flowers._ Volume II, page 11. _The Baby._ Volume II, page 32. _Lullaby._ Volume II, page 123. _Windy Nights._ Volume II, page 121. _Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks._ Volume II, page 87. _Picture Books in Winter._ Volume II, page 119. _Seven Times One._ Volume II, page 403. _The First Snowfall._ Volume II, page 481. _In Time's Swing._ Volume III, page 347. _Barbara Frietchie._ Volume IV, page 82. _Footsteps of Angels._ Volume IV, page 126. _Nearer Home._ Volume IV, page 127. _Pictures of Memory._ Volume V, page 396. _The American Flag._ Volume V, page 399. _Battle Hymn of the Republic._ Volume VI, page 119. _Annie Laurie._ Volume VI, page 122. _Sweet and Low._ Volume VI, page 133. _The Bugle Song._ Volume VII, page 1. _The Daffodils._ Volume VII, page 4. _To the Fringed Gentian._ Volume VII, page 340. _Those Evening Bells._ Volume VII, page 395. _To a Waterfowl._

While usually it is better to allow each person to learn the lines that most appeal to him, yet some help should be given children. No two people will select all of the same things, though probably all would agree on some few things as being of the highest excellence. Some lines should be learned because of their beauty in description, others because of beauty in phraseology, and still others because of beauty in sentiment. Search should be made, too, for those things which are inspirational, and which will be strong aids in the building of character.

We append a few pages of quotations taken at random from the volumes.

They will prove handy when the parent or teacher is pressed for time, and the references to volume and page will enable the busy person readily to find the context, if that seems desirable.

The quotations below are arranged in the order of their appearance in _Journeys Through Bookland_. This will enable anyone to locate them easily. The lines cover a wide range of thought and will furnish an endless variety of material for stories, comment, question and conversation. Some of them cannot be appreciated without a knowledge of their setting in the original poem or prose selection, while others are complete and perfect as they stand.

One of the best ways to teach a poem or selection is to begin by creating an interest in a quotation from it. For instance, "Write me as one who loves his fellow men," will lead the way to an acquaintance with the old favorite _Abou Ben Adhem_. In fact, only after the poem has been read and appreciated will a person get the full force of the idea, "Write me as one who loves his fellow men."

_One Hundred Choice Quotations_

(Volume I)

Early to bed, and early to rise, Is the way to be healthy, wealthy and wise. --Page 48.

Had it not been for your buzz I should not even have known you were there. --Page 70.

The Rock-a-by Lady from Hushaby street, With poppies that hang from her head to her feet. --Page 94.

I saw the dimpling river pa.s.s And be the sky's blue looking-gla.s.s. --Page 130.

In through the window a moonbeam comes, Little gold moonbeam with misty wings. --Page 133.

Oh, the world's running over with joy. --Page 147.

The honorable gentleman has not told us who is to hang the bell around the Cat's neck. --Page 197.

Here is the mill with the humming of thunder, Here is the weir with the wonder of foam, Here is the sluice with the race running under-- Marvelous places, though handy to home. --Page 349.

Then she smooths the eyelids down Over those two eyes of brown-- In such soothing, tender wise Cometh Lady b.u.t.ton-Eyes. --Page 367.

One must be content with the good one has enjoyed. --Page 379.

Oh, not in cruelty, not in wrath, The Reaper came that day; 'Twas an angel visited the green earth, And took the flowers away. --Page 411.

It matters nothing if one is born in a duck yard, if one can only be hatched from a swan's egg. --Page 427.

(Volume II)

Did you ever hear of a bird in a cage, that promised to stay in it?

--Page 2.

The very violets in their bed Fold up their eyelids blue. --Page 32.

Rejoice in thy youth, rejoice in thy fresh growth, and in the young life that is within thee. --Page 70.

You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot-- You can love and think, and the Earth cannot. --Page 67.

Thank him for his lesson's sake, Thank G.o.d's gentle minstrel there, Who, when storms make others quake, Sings of days that brighter were. --Page 214.

You must expect to be beat a few times in your life, little man, if you live such a life as a man ought to live. --Page 242.

Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be. --Page 247.

Reckon not on your chickens before they are hatched. --Page 376.

He saw the rocks of the mountain tops all crimson and purple with the sunset; and there were bright tongues of fiery cloud burning and quivering about them; and the river, brighter than all, fell, in a wavering column of pure gold, from precipice to precipice, with the double arch of a broad purple rainbow stretched across it, flushing and fading alternately in the wreaths of spray. --Page 420.

(Volume III)

In darkness dissolves the gay frost-work of bliss. --Page 96.

Peace and order and beauty draw Round thy symbol of light and law. --Page 349.

Lips where smiles went out and in. --Page 386.

All the little boys and girls, With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls, And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls. --Page 391.

(Volume IV)

Prince thou art,--the grown up man Only is republican. --Page 3.

O'er me, like a regal tent, Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent, Purple-curtained, fringed with gold, Looped in many a wind-swung fold. --Page 6.

Now in memory comes my mother, As she was long years agone, To regard the darling dreamers Ere she left them till the dawn. --Page 8.

I chatter over stony ways, In little sharps and trebles, I bubble into eddying bays, I babble on the pebbles. --Page 60.

For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever. --Page 61.

And looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man. --Page 86.