66 66 SMITH, S. F. SOUTHEY, ROBERT SOUTHEY, CAROLINE A. B. . .An April Day. .. The Pauper's Deathbed. .V. 62 .V. 107 THE work to be done by the pupil is included under: I. Biographical, historical, geographical, scientific, and literary allusions or references. The notes under this head are intended to suggest topics for discussion in the recitation, and the pupil is not required to study these, although he may read them with some profit. II. Spelling and pronunciation. In the Appendix to this volume will be found suggested a method of teaching spelling by analysis. If preferred, the old method of oral or written spelling will suffice. III. Language lesson on the principles of written or printed language as found in the lesson. If carefully learned, the pupil will acquire a practical knowledge of grammatical forms, without the usual technicalities. He will learn to write and speak correctly. But the logic of language as given in technical grammar is not attempted here. IV. Definitions, synonyms, and paraphrases, to be given by the pupil in his own language, i. e., in such words as he uses in everyday life, and not in words borrowed from the dictionary. He must find the words in the piece and study their connection with the rest, and give the special sense of the words as there used, not the general definition. This method will secure the most rapid mastery of good vocabulary on the part of the pupil. (Numbers II., III., and IV. are to be studied by the pupil, and he may be held responsible for the work required.) V. Style and thought of the piece. The notes under this head should be read and discussed in the recitation, and they will answer a useful purpose in sharpening the pupil's faculty of criticism, even if the thoughts advanced are condemned and refuted. It is evident that each selection from classic literature furnishes work enough for three, four, or five recitations. First, the pupil should learn the spelling, pronunciation, peculiarities of form, and meaning of the words in the lesson (II., III., IV.); second, the references and allusions made in the piece (I.); third, the thought and the style of expression (V.); fourth, the proper rendering of it as taught in the lessons on elocution. The work here suggested is intended only as an auxiliary, and may be omitted for other topics presented by the teacher. Only a few hints are risked on the more important phases of each piece, and no attempt is made to exhaust the proper field of inquiry. It is safe to say that a thorough study of each literary piece in the higher Readers will be of more benefit to the pupil, in giving him an insight into human life, and directive power and influence among his fellow-men, than all that he will or can learn from the other branches taught in the schools. FIFTH READER. I-THE HOUSE OF USHER. 1. During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone on horseback through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy house of Usher. 2. I know not how it was, but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable, for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable because poetic sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. 3. I looked upon the scene before me-upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain -upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant, eye-like windows-upon a few rank sedges, and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with an utter depression of soul, which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after dream of the reveler upon opium-the bitter lapse into everyday life, the hideous dropping off of the veil. 4. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought, which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it-I paused to think-what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the house of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. 5. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn, that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down, but with a shudder even more thrilling than before, upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, the ghastly tree stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. 6. Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country-a letter from him, which, |