in having the wisest and most conservative action on this important subject. Within the past nine years the text-book contracts awarded by this board have amounted to many millions of dollars. In this important branch of its work the board is controlled at every step by the statute. All adoptions and changes in texts are made in strict accordance with the text-book law. As citizens of the state, interested in its highest welfare, and deeply concerned with whatever may affect the state's great educational system in any of its departments, we should deprecate any changes in the organization of this body that would render it in any degree less representative of the state's school system, less free from political and other improper influences or that would in any way impair its usefulness to the public schools.

5. The law of 1895 placed the control of the State Library in the hands of the State Board of Education. It charged the board with the election of a librarian and the general management of the library. While not so directly affecting the common-school interests of the state, the State Library may become, and is rapidly coming to be, an important agency in the state's system of educational forces.

From this brief statement it will be seen that, under the law, beyond the election of the State Librarian and the confirmation of his appointment of assistants, this board has no positions of any

kind to bestow, does not even recommend teachers to superintendents and employing officers, and has no duties to perform aside from those involved in the practical administration of the state's public-school system. To discharge these duties in the most intelligent and efficient manner is its sole duty and aim.

It is not the purpose of this statement to present an argument on the subject of the organization or the reorganization of the State Board of Education, nor to answer objections made to the work of the Board. Least of all, is it intended to recognize and combat the many charges that in the past two years have been uttered by persons ignorant of or prejudiced against the work it has done. The sole object is to give such information in regard to the organization and work of the board as may be conveyed in brief form to the people of the state, whose servants the State Board of Education must be, whatever the principles of the board's organization.

Respectfully submitted,

INDIANA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION,
DAVID M. GEETING, President.
DAVID K. Goss, Secretary.

NOTE.-The above was unanimously adopted at a meeting of the State Board of Education, held November 19, 1898, all members being present except President James H. Smart, who was absent on account of illness.

N the preceding articles in THE EDUCATOR I have endeavored to emphasize the fact that the end of all reading is the bringing of the mind of the reader into intimate touch with the thoughts and feelings of the author as he has expressed these in permanent forms by means of language. Any kind of exercise or drill which stimulates the mind of the child to grasp with more clearness and with a wider comprehension the thought of the author is a good one. It should be noted here that it is not the business of the teacher to spend the recitation period elaborating the thought of the poem and explaining it to the class. It is the business of the teacher to devote himself to stimulating the mind of the pupil so that

it, of its own free activity, may grasp with the least waste of energy the thought and feeling of the poem.

II.

Most teachers I think will agree with me at once in the statement that the most troublesome thing that they have to contend with in reading is the inability of the child to grasp details. This is, of course, not peculiar to children, since it is the difficulty with which every reader has to contend. The great trouble with people who attempt to master one of Shakespeare's plays is their inability to grasp the significance of details, to give to each detail the full measure of emphasis which belongs to it. For instance, in the study of Macbeth

the attention may be fixed upon some minor point in his character, and this may occupy so much of the reader's attention that he will fail altogether to note the more significant points which suggest an altogether different interpretation.

The play mentioned is one of the best illustrations of how the complete understanding of a character may be reversed as the result of a change of emphasis. The character of Macbeth, as held by many competent students of Shakespeare at the present day, is diametrically opposed to that understanding of his character which all of the older interpreters advanced. Perfect literary interpretation is possible only after a student is able to grasp fully the separate details in the work studied, and give the proper amount of emphasis to each. Literary interpretation, it must never be forgotten, is nothing more than the elaboration of a theory which explains or accounts for a certain set of facts. If a fact is misunderstood or lost sight of the theory must to that extent be weak. The theory of evolution, for instance, is valuable because it offers the most perfect explanation of an observed set of facts. It will hold favor just as long as it seems to offer the only satisfactory solution of this set of facts. If, however, there should be discovered a single item which the theory will not explain, that moment the theory becomes invalid. The conclusion is, therefore, that the first thing a reader must be taught to do is to recognize the facts or elements, or details of the selection which he is attempting to read.

III.

The thoughts suggested above are elaborated at great length and illustrated by particular studies in Moulton's Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. The general theory of literary study is treated particularly in the introduction to this work.

To illustrate just what is meant, have the children attempt to tell the story of any poem in their readers. Some will perhaps do it well, some will, apparently, have no proportionate view of the things presented. One item in their minds is just as important as another. It is a very common experience with teachers to find that certain important items in the course of the story are entirely overlooked, and that certain other items of no importance whatever are emphasized to a very great and disproportion

"Where Salisbury's level marshes spread
Mile-wide as flies the laden bee."

It will be interesting to take specific examples like these mentioned in connection with the reading of the poem and press for definite explanations of their meaning. How many, for instance, will confuse the word "moose" with the term "muse"? How many in a class of ten or fifteen will understand what is meant by

"Mile-wide as flies the laden bee"?

How many, in fact, will know just how the "laden bee" flies?

IV.

To recapitulate, the one great purpose of reading is to think the thoughts of the author with the same clearness, and feel the emotion that was actuating him with the same force that he thought and felt when he wrote. The first necessity to this end is the ability to grasp and understand the separate details of the poem. The exercises that have been given in the two preceding papers have been based upon these thoughts. It has been the suggestion that the method by which a piece of literature is to be studied is found in the piece of literature itself. A piece of literature is the expression of a human mind, and is therefore developed and elaborated in accordance with the laws light of the order found in the poem itself of mind; hence, to work through it in the

is to follow the natural mode of the mind's own activity.

V.

As a short exercise to conclude this paper and as a lesson quite in keeping with the season of the year, let us look briefly at Longfellow's Christmas Bells:

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" Then pealed the bells more loud and deep; "God is not dead; nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

VI.

The thought of the poem clusters around the ringing of the bells, which express the rejoicing at the presence in the world of the significant message which Christ came to bring; namely, "Peace on earth, good-will to men." This message, it will be noticed, forms the last line of each of the six stanzas in the poem and acts, therefore, as a kind of refrain to keep the thought continually be

fore us.

As the poet thinks of the Christmas carols and their significance, there comes into his mind the thought that as the dawn of the Christmas day has passed from the east toward the west it has been accompanied by the ringing forth of joyous peals in celebration of the day. All Christendom had rolled along the unbroken song. The world, it occurs to him, is full of this great idea and actuated by this great principle of "Peace on earth, good will to men." The presence of this idea is concretely expressed by the continued peal of the bells. Thus, the first three stanzas.

But this poem was written during the course of the Civil War, and the thought mentioned above had hardly taken possession of his mind when there suddenly flashed into it the idea that he had failed to take account of the great fratricidal strife then waging, and which meant certainly something other than "Peace on earth, good-will to men." As the universal pres

ence of the Christian idea on earth was embodied in the wild ringing of the bells, so now the thought of the presence of the opposite idea, that of hatred, is expressed in the thundering of cannon. It seems that this thundering is so heavy that the sound of the bells is completely overcome and blotted out, and that the one thing in the universe is the thundering of cannon (presence of hate and wrong). Under the influence of this feeling he bows his head with the thought that there is no Peace on earth, and that hate is stronger than love.

Thus, the second group of stanzas, composed of the fourth and fifth.

It will be seen that up to this point there has been a very definite movement in the experience of the writer. First, the expanded idea of hopefulness, the thought that perfection has at last come to reign in the world, followed, in the second place, by the thought that this was only a mistaken view, and that the real law which prevails in the world is not perfection but its opposite.

VII.

If the poem had stopped here it would have been pessimistic and untrue to one of the most fundamental traits of human nature. However discouraging circumstances may be around us, however dark and gloomy the actual present may be or the outlook for the future may seem, there is deep down in the human soul the thought, rather, we may say, the definite feeling, that in the end good will somehow prevail. Lowell has expressed this feeling when he says:

"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne:

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."

So the discouraging thought noted above had hardly taken possession of the poet's mind before this inspiring idea rises up to force it out; the feeling that in the end

right must prevail and that wrong must go down takes hold of him. This change of feeling is embodied in the fact that the bells once more by their loud and deep pealing ring above the sound of the cannon, the instruments of hatred and wrong. The poem has therefore given expression in this concrete way to one of the deepest convictions of the heart.

VIII.

What is the impression that Longfellow wishes to make upon his reader by this poem? How does he suggest the complete prevalence of the Christmas idea in the world? How does he suggest that this first view is probably not a correct one? By having the sound of the cannon rise into prominence and obscure the ringing in the bells. How does he show finally that the idea first in mind is the correct view? By having the bells gradually drown out the sound of the cannon and remain the one sound which is brought to the ear of the listener.

It will be noted that this movement is in accordance with the deep thought mentioned which sways the heart of man, and that the first and second states of mind suggested by the poem are both due to immature and incomplete views. For instance, the first three stanzas represent the view of

those well-meaning but mistaken optimists who refuse to recognize the presence in the world of elements making toward evil.

The second mood, expressed in the fourth and fifth stanzas, represents the view of those pessimists in the world who labor under the impression that everything is "going to the dogs" because there are some elements in the world making for evil.

The third mood expresses the right view, by taking into account both of these conditions, by recognizing that we are in the midst of a struggle between the forces of "Peace on earth, good-will to men" and the forces of wrong, and that victory must in the nature of things, by the very constitution of the universe, rest finally with the forces of right.

IX.

I have purposely thrown this discussion into the form of a rather dogmatic statement of what seems to have been present in Longfellow's thought as he wrote. It is well to stop and ask ourselves when we are inclined to take an extreme view on either side, whether or not we see the whole truth. And so, I take it, no better Christmas sermon could be preached, no clearer insight into the truth revealed, no surer faith in the final triumph of the good induced, than this little poem preaches, and reveals, and induces.

meadow, with green grass, and waving boughs, and country air,-fifty acres of "common." He makes a call in a row of monotonous stone or brick houses in the suburbs, and presto, rounding a corner, comes upon the most rural of spots, with huge "pudding-stones" to left of him, to right of him, in front of him;-a veritable bit of Colorado transplanted.

He goes into the "slums," expecting to see only squalor and sordid, ugly poverty. But here is a Colonial doorway, massively pillared, with beautiful carving and noble outlines still intact, and yonder, near the entrance of the court filled with gorgeously head-dressed Italian women, is Paul Re

vere's house. A stone's throw away is the narrow passage through which it was Governor Hutchinson's wont, it is said, to pass in going to church; and beyond, its Christopher-Wren-like spire rising high above the surrounding buildings, is the "Old North Church."

Apropos of this historic landmark, the myth which the Italians have woven around it may be mentioned. They tell, how, many years ago, when Boston was not so good as it is now, when in fact it was desperately wicked, that the Virgin Mary descended and hung lanterns from the spire, to remind the

interesting spot. One could spend a day within its borders, and still have much to see and think upon. It was here that the British batteries were planted during the Revolution, and here that Gage and Burgoyne watched the battle of Bunker Hill. Many bullets are imbedded in the tombstones. Indeed, it is said that the British soldiers made targets of the slabs during the Revolutionary period.

There are many quaint epitaphs. Among them is that of Robert Newman, Paul Revere's friend, who hung the lanterns in the church tower on that memorable 19th of April. It is,

"Though Neptune's waves and Boreas' blast,
Have tost me to and fro,

Now well escaped from all their rage,
I'm anchored here below."

people of "heaven and hell and God and the angels and the saints." And it is to commemorate this event, they say, that the people gather here every year and hang out lanterns.

Here "lies

Copp's Hill burying ground is up the hill directly in front of the church. buried in a Stone Grave 10 feet deep Cap. Daniel Malcom, Mercht, who departed this life October 23d, 1769." Here lie Cotton, Increase, and Samuel Mather, and here is the huge pile of earth which encloses the bones of the unsaved-because unbaptizedinfants of ye olden days. Here, also, is the tomb of Nicholas Upshall, who was persecuted because he opposed the cruel course adopted toward the Quakers, and finally was fined a large sum of money and banished from the county because he bribed the jailor to give food to two Quaker women who would have starved, else. It is a most