eeps on repeating itself in the ears, so a
beautiful thought makes an impression upon the mind that may never be
effaced. Charles Eliot Norton says:--

"Poetry is one of the most efficient means of education of the moral
sentiment, as well as of the intelligence. It is the source of the
best culture. A man may know all science and yet remain uneducated.
But let him truly possess himself of the work of any one of the great
poets, and no matter what else he may fail to know, he is not without
education."

The inspiration and delight derived from familiarity with the best
poetry is one of the most precious results of education. The child
should be made to understand that school training is but the
preparation for the broader education which it is his duty and should
be his pleasure to acquire for himself; and to this end it is
essential that he be so taught that after leaving school he may look
not to the newspaper and the last novel for his ideals, but to the
high and worthy thoughts of the classics and especially of the poets
of America. Many of the most inspiring deeds of our history have been
embodied in poems like Paul Revere's Ride with which every child
should be familiar. The works of Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell and
Holmes abound in teachings of the highest form of American patriotism
and in character studies of the great men who have made our country
what it is. The poetry that we have known and loved in childhood has
from its very association a strength and sweetness that no other can
have. It is to be regretted that children are by no means as familiar
with poetry as they should be and that the old-time custom of
committing poetry to memory is not more general. Bryant has wisely
remarked that "the proper office of poetry in filling the mind with
delightful images and awakening the gentler emotions, is not
accomplished on a first and rapid perusal, but requires that the words
should be dwelt upon until they become in a certain sense our own, and
are adopted as the utterance of our own minds." The value of reading
poetry aloud is very great. Few school children do it well, and it is
especially difficult for them to avoid reading in a sing-song way with
a decided pause at the end of every line. "Accuracy of diction," says
Ruskin, "means accuracy of sensation, and precision of accent,
precision of feeling." Reading poetry aloud is therefore an
accomplishment worthy of earnest cultivation. "Of equal honor with him