The selections from the writings of Longfellow, Whittier, For the use of other valuable copyrighted matter the publishers PREFACE It is hoped that the selections in the Fifth Reading Book of the Columbus Series will commend themselves to both teachers and pupils. While it has been the aim to make the lessons of high literary value, matter that would be too difficult for students of this grade of advancement has been avoided. Properly very many of the authors are Catholic, but other sources have not been overlooked. It is believed that the grading and the matter will be found satisfactory. Notes, explaining obscure meanings or giving necessary information, will be found at the foot of the page. It was not the intention to make the notes contain all that every teacher would deem advisable. Much is left to the individual teacher-the only one who can fully understand the varying needs of each particular class; but it is hoped that the notes will be useful and suggestive. At the beginning of most lessons will be found a portrait of the author and a brief sketch of his life. The portraits should arouse a personal interest in the writer which will aid in giving vivacity to the lessons, while the biographies should serve to assist in placing the author in literature and to give an outline of information which will have an effect on the general culture of the student. At some stage of the pupils' growth it is necessary to present complete literary wholes. School Readers have been criticised as giving to children literary scraps. While the experience of teachers still commends readers to childhood it is unquestionably true that the readers should lead to the study of literature. Pupils of a fifth reader grade should be capable of grasping some of the masterpieces of writing. For this reason the Columbus Fifth Reading Book contains a number of selections that are complete and of greater length than the ordinary reader gives. Teachers will find this feature of great value in the transition from short lessons to the study of literature in general. The matter of these longer selections and their value in arousing and satisfying the imagination will commend them to teachers who know by experience the difficulties which pupils encounter when, without due preparation, they are cast upon the wide sea of literature. Literary interest, if aroused by this reader, will extend beyond the matter here presented. Properly understood, to teach pupils to read is to teach pupils to study. The aim and object of both reading and study is to get the thought, to hold the thought, and to express the thought. To get the thought is to understand the meaning which the author wants to convey; to hold the thought is to form a mental image or picture of whatever is expressed and to keep it before the mind until the image is complete in all its parts; to express the thought is to convey to another the ideas which are in our own mind; and these are the necessary things to be done in the study of all subjects. To teach reading correctly is to induce proper habits of study. LESSON CONTENTS III. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD IV. THE ISLE OF SAINTS AND SCHOLARS V. ANCIENT IRISH SCRIBES AND BOOKS Thomas Campion XXIX. DON QUIXOTE AND THE WINDMILLS |