Edici T 759.02.509 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF MARCH 17, 1927 THE PLAN OF THE LEE READERS The aim of the author is twofold: First, to represent the best literature and best thought of the South, Second, to give, in a carefully graded basal series of readers, a definite, TO THE CHILDREN IN former books you have had fables, tales, and poems from juvenile classics. Now you are entering into companionship with the mighty masters of literature and with the creatures of their fancy. Here you are introduced to Portia, Rip Van Winkle, David Copperfield, the Primroses, and other charming people of the book world, with the hope that you will like them too well to confine your acquaintance within the brief limits necessary in this book. If you have access to a library, you may read the books from which these selections are taken, but do not be content with that. Begin now to form a library of your very own, remembering that it is better to have a few good book friends than many casual acquaintances, and that you do not really own a book until you possess its inside as well as its outside. Collect a heart library as well as a home library, storing in your memory beautiful poems and noble prose. In this book you have a brief introduction to Greek life and art. There are no more beautiful tales than the old Greek legends of gods and heroes; there is no more interesting story than the history of this handful of men, who two thousand years ago ruled the known world, and who to-day dominate the world of thought and of art. It is as much a part of a good education to become familiar with the masterpieces of art as with the masterpieces of literature. True, the originals of most of the Greek marbles are in English, French, and Italian galleries, but there are good photographs and casts to be had at reasonable prices. Just as you have your own books, you may have your own pictures, representing the world's masterpieces. As in the preceding books of this series, a few authors are chosen for special study. It is hoped that the brief biographical studies and the selections will be supplemented by as full study as possible of the lives and works of these authors. The selections in this book have such literary and explanatory notes as are necessary, and suggestions for supplementary reading. It may be well to repeat here the advice given as to the mechanics of reading. While reading you should sit or stand erect, and breathe naturally. Deep, full breaths through the nostrils are good for the health as well as for the voice. Learn to let your voice come from the lungs instead of from the vocal chords. When we use the vocal chords too much, the voice is shrill and harsh on the higher notes; and the throat muscles soon become tired, and are, perhaps, strained and diseased. The lung tone is deeper and fuller. Instead of injuring the vocal organs, it benfits them and the general health. You must learn to use, as well as to produce, your voice properly. Practice exercises in enunciation and emphasis; but when you read, think not of enunciation and emphasis, but of the author's meaning, and try to convey it to others. It is well to read a story once only, and then shut the book and tell it in your own words. Of a poem or a difficult prose selection, you may read a page, or even only a stanza or a paragraph, as slowly as necessary, to grasp the thought on the first reading. Afterward you may read the selection one or many times to get what you have missed, to enjoy its beauty, or to render it better. But avoid sluggish mental habits, and train your mind and memory to work with a will. Train, also, your powers of observation. In this book you will read about some of the things which loving, watchful eyes have seen in the world of nature. That world is before you, full of interesting, wonderful things, which you may discover for yourself. Have you watched the changes of butterfly life? Do you know the names and habits of familiar flowers and trees? What do you know about birds, stones, and stars? Open your eyes; see! Unstop your ears; hear! Train, too, your mental eyesight. See the scene, enter into the thought and feeling of the story or poem which you read. Without this power of mental vision, this image-making, creating power, which we call imagination, you can never read well because you can never understand well. Perhaps you have wished for the gifts of the old fairy tale, the magic glass through which one saw distant objects and the magic rug on which one was borne to far-off scenes. Both these gifts are yours in this wonderful power of imagination. How important it is that they be used always in behalf of the true, the beautiful, and the good! |