Teachers' Outlines for Studies in English Part 18

FORM.--Basing your answers on a few specific paragraphs, tell what you find about the unity of the paragraphs, the clearness of their development, regularity of sentence structure.

Do you find the words specific or general? forceful and full of feeling, or conventional?

How much use is made of figurative language?

Does the style seem finished as though the work had been revised with care, or rough as though written at white heat and not revised?

Ill.u.s.trate.

THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR.--What do we know of Carlyle's parents? his education? the simplicity and severity of his early life?

his perplexity in choosing his life work? his friendship with Edward Irving? his early manhood struggles with doubt, poverty, and sickness?

his courage? his faith in himself? the slow recognition of his work?

his literary successes? his life in London? his friends? his last years?

What characteristics made Carlyle disagreeable to live with?

What characteristics made him enthusiastically admired by a mult.i.tude of men?

What did Carlyle see in the life of Burns to attract him so strongly?

Why does it seem somewhat remarkable that he should have written sympathetically of Burns?

Point out pa.s.sages in this essay that indicate that Carlyle was a man of deep emotion, of sympathy, of sincerity, of strong moral force.

OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF MACAULAY'S LIFE OF JOHNSON

I. Preparation

The more a student knows of life in London during Johnson's time, and especially of the life of literary men, the more he will get from this essay; nevertheless, it is interesting in itself without that knowledge.

It is probable that any boy or girl who takes up the book will have read _The Vicar of Wakefield_, or at least have studied the life of Goldsmith and have learned of the "Literary Club." To review some of the facts about the members of this club and about the life in London at that time will be comparatively easy, but to attempt more before reading the essay does not seem necessary.

II. Reading and Study

The first reading should enable the student to make a simple outline to be filled in later. The teacher might take part of the recitation periods to introduce the cla.s.s to Boswell's _Life of Johnson_.

The second reading should make the cla.s.s thoroughly familiar with the matters treated in the essay and with the important features of Macaulay's style.

III. Study of the Book as a Whole

The students should be required to write in their notebooks outlines and short paragraphs on topics based on the essay. Most of the following topics have been used for this purpose:

CONTENT.--The story of Johnson's life; boyhood and education, his thirty years of struggle, his mature years, his decline and death.

His appearance.

Hindrances to his success--in the time in which he lived, in his surroundings, in himself.

Preparation for his life work: inherited tastes and tendencies, his education, circ.u.mstances by which he was surrounded.

His friends and a.s.sociates: patrons, friends in his poverty, friends in his success, his dependents.

His writings: political, critical, poetical, biographical miscellaneous.

(Mention the separate writings in each division, characterize his work, and compare his success in one line with that in another.)

Johnson's travels.

Johnson the writer and Johnson the talker.

The Literary Club.

Macaulay's treatment of Boswell.

A detailed outline of the essay.

A character sketch of Johnson showing the weaknesses as well as the strength of his character.

RHETORICAL FEATURES.--Examine the opening sentence in each of the paragraphs, pp. 57-69, to see how Macaulay secures coherence in his essay.

Examine the paragraphs on pp. 64-66, to find the plan of structure.

Find pa.s.sages in this essay where Macaulay aims to secure emphasis by the use of the following devices: inverted order in the sentences, the use of particular terms where the general would be more accurate, the use of superlatives, striking comparisons, repet.i.tion of ideas, contrast, balanced expressions, succession of short sentences, biblical language.

Define the following words and use them in sentences: railed, maundered, c.o.xcomb, parasite, conclave, turgid, folio, overture.

THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR.--What do we know of Macaulay's childhood? his precociousness? his education? his tastes and acquirements while at college? his entry into politics? his parliamentary life? his life in India? his literary work? his habits?

his principles?

As we compare him with other literary men what were his special talents?

his limitations?

Compare him with Carlyle with reference to character, if you have studied the _Essay on Burns_.

What characteristics of Macaulay can you trace in this essay?

OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION

I. Preparation

This work is usually found to be the most difficult book of the course in English; yet in the opinion of many the results of its study are most valuable. The fact that it is difficult leads the teacher to exercise great care in planning his work, especially in the matters that he presents to his cla.s.s in preparation for the actual reading. The first difficulty lies in the fact that pupils are only vaguely acquainted with the conditions to which Burke constantly refers. The long story of the quarrel between the Colonies and the Mother Country is known to them in a superficial way. Any exhaustive study of the history of the time is out of the question; so, unless the cla.s.s have been studying history recently enough to make a rapid review profitable, the best plan seems to be to a.s.sign definite topics for individual study and cla.s.s report.

The following is a suitable list for this purpose: