Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 50

b. Animals: Sheep (mutton); bird (feathers); puppy; dog (licking its chops); wolf (howling wind); cattle.

c. Plant life: Crops; hay; apples; grapes; corn; vines; straw; cork; trees.

d. Natural phenomena: A wet summer wind blowing; gushing rain; whirling clouds; misty moonbeam; floating foam; sweeping inundation; breezes (breezy letters).

e. Rock material: Quicksilver; red sand; gray mud.

f. Natural products: Crops; apples; hay; grapes; wine; honey; corn; mutton; cork; cattle.

g. Figures of speech: (In studying figures of speech, make three points in each, viz.: _First_, the basis of the figure; _second_, the translation of the figure into literal English; _third_, the force and beauty of the figure and its effect on the meaning of the sentence. With older children the names of the figures may be given. Ill.u.s.trations of these directions will follow.)

(1) Like a beaten puppy's tail. (A beaten puppy drops his tail and drags it weakly behind him. The feather drooped down behind him and dragged limply along. The figure gives a vivid picture of the wet feather, limp and unhandsome. The figure is a comparison in the form of a _simile_.)

(2) Like a mill stream. (Rushing, roaring, fast and furious.)

(3) Licking its chops. (_First_, a dog runs out his tongue and licks his lips and the outside of his face [cheeks--chops] when he sees food brought to him. A red flame twists and waves around like the tongue of a dog. We speak of "tongues of flame" and "hungry flames devouring." _Second_, long streams of flame waved around and curled about the wood as they burned it. _Third_, how much more vivid is the picture we see of the beautiful fire. The words "rustling" and "roaring" help to strengthen the figure. This is a fine comparison, but as it is not directly expressed by the use of the words "like" or "as" we call it a _metaphor_.)

(4) Quicksilver-like streams. (Bright, shining, smoothly running, with metallic l.u.s.ter.)

(5) Like a straw in the high wind. (Rapid, uncertain, irregular motion.)

(6) A wreath of ragged cloud. (Notice the metaphor in _wreath_--also in _ragged_.)

(7) Howling wind. (A wolf howls. The figure which raises an inanimate object to the level of animate beings, or raises an animate being [a dog, for instance] to the level of a human being, is called _personification_.)

(8) Like a cork.

(9) _Swept_ away.

(10) _Breezy_ letters. (The words _swept_ and _breezy_ are somewhat metaphorical, though their frequent use in this manner makes the meaning almost literal.)

(11) Southwest Wind, Esquire. (Personification.)

B. A second lesson may confine itself more closely to the figures of speech. Naturally this study of figures belongs with language and literature, but the point we wish to make is one of correlation. There is a literary side to nature study, and a natural history side to literature. Many of the greatest authors have been ardent lovers of nature, and have drawn liberally on their knowledge of nature in beautifying what they have written. Many a reader, from lack of knowledge or from careless habits, pa.s.ses over the most delightful things, as blind and deaf as he who sees no beauty in the wild flowers and hears no melody in the songs of birds.

For the second lesson of this character we will take the second and third chapters of _The King of the Golden River_, hoping to find an abundance of figures based on nature in some of its forms. We may not find many. Some writers use few. We suspect that Ruskin used them freely; as a matter of fact he was one of the greatest lovers of nature, a man who labored hard to bring art and nature together and to find a place for them in the lives of all.

We find in the second chapter the following nature figures:

a. Southwest Wind, Esquire, page 418.

b. His relations, the West Winds, page 418.

c. It looks more like silk, page 419.

d. The hot breath of the furnace, page 420.

e. Bright tongues of fiery cloud burning and quivering about them, page 420.

f. A clear _metallic_ voice, page 420.

g. Like that of a kettle on the boil, page 421.

h. As smooth and polished as a river, page 421.

i. The prismatic colors gleamed over it, as if on a surface of mother-of-pearl, page 422.

j. In order to allow time for the consternation ... to evaporate, page 424.

In the third chapter are the following:

a. Knotty question, page 426.

b. Like a line of forked lightning, page 427.

(This whole paragraph is a wonderfully beautiful description.) c. Rose like slow smoke, page 427.

d. In feeble wreaths, page 428.

e. Shrieks resembling those of human voices in distress or pain, page 428.

f. None like the ordinary forms of splintered ice, page 428.

g. _Deceitful_ shadows, page 428.

h. Lurid lights _played_, page 428.

i. Ice _yawned_ into fresh chasms, page 428.

j. Fell _thundering_ across his path, page 429.

k. Rays _beat_ intensely, page 429.

l. Its lips parched and burning, page 430.

m. Long snake-like shadows, page 430.

n. The _leaden_ weight of the _dead_ air pressed upon his brow and heart, page 430.

o. Shaped like a sword, page 431.

p. Like a red-hot ball, page 431.

q. They shook their crests like tongues of fire, page 432.

r. Flashes of _b.l.o.o.d.y_ light gleamed along their foam, page 432.

s. An icy chill shot through his limbs, page 432.

t. The _moaning_ of the river, page 432.

u. _The Black Stone_, page 432.

CHAPTER XVI

JOURNEYS THROUGH BOOKLAND IN ITS RELATION TO THE SCHOOL--(Continued)

_Geography and History_

The connection between geography and history on the one hand and literature on the other is most intimate. In the first place nearly all our knowledge of history must come through reading, and while we learn our geography most accurately through travel and observation, but a small part of our information comes through those channels. We read incessantly of our own country and others, we fill our minds with visions of plants, animals and the peoples of foreign lands from the facts we gather from the papers, magazines and books. If most of our facts come through reading it is no less true that most of our real interest in geography and history comes not from the facts of our text-books but from the literature we have read, the literature that clothed those facts and made them real and living. Ask yourselves what gave you your first real interest in the history of Scotland and see if your answer is not, "The novels of Scott." Again, where did you get your first adequate ideas of chivalry and the feudal system if it was not from _Ivanhoe_ or some similar piece of literature? What makes the Crimean War a household word in the homes of two continents if it is not the deeds of Florence Nightingale and Tennyson's _Charge of the Light Brigade_? Who can tell most of the Battle of Waterloo, he who has read the facts of history or he who has read Byron's thrilling poem and the description by Victor Hugo? Who knows the English home as it was? He who reads Goldsmith's _Deserted Village_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLIVER GOLDSMITH MATTHEW ARNOLD JOHN RUSKIN THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY JOHN BUNYAN THOMAS DE QUINCEY CHARLES LAMB]

It is in furnishing those literary masterpieces that give life to geography and inspiration to history that _Journeys Through Bookland_ gives the best of a.s.sistance to boys and girls in their school work.

Some of its selections will give facts and many of them, but the facts form the smaller part of the contribution. History is valuable only as it enables us to understand the present, thrills us with the accomplishments of the past and teaches us how to live and act in the future. No man is so wrapped up in business that he does not heed the charm of n.o.ble deeds and fails to be moved by glorious achievement. Some histories are literature in themselves and have the inspiring quality we crave, but most of them are too dry and scientific to afford much interest to the child. So the greater part of our selections are not from the books that are called real history but from those which appeal to the imagination and stir the soul. Geographical teaching is likewise indirect in _Journeys_ but it is none the less helpful and inspiring. To prove the truth of these statements we have only to present what the books contain and show how the selections may be used.

It does not seem wise to separate the two subjects too widely, for they are closely related and intimately interwoven in almost all reading.

There are, it is true, some masterpieces that may be considered purely geographical and others that are as entirely historical, but these will be easily identified. Yet for ease and readiness in locating them we append a list of nearly one hundred selections and cla.s.sify them in a simple manner:

1. Largely geographical.

_a._ Juvenile poems with geographical allusions, or based on geographical facts: (1) _The Suns Travels_, Volume I, page 68.

(2) _Singing_, I, 83.

(3) _Foreign Lands_, I, 130.