FOREWORD Standard Classic Reader - Book Four follows the plan of Book Three. The selections given in each part have been carefully chosen with regard to their fitness for eighth grade pupils. As in Book Three, Part I of this volume aims to furnish selections of the best literature in poetry and prose, while Part II supplies material designed to give the pupil a clearer understanding of the myths and legends of the ancients, because it furnishes the foundation upon which much of our later literature and history is built. The chief aim of the teacher in the study of the selections in Part I should be an endeavor to inculcate in the pupil a taste for good reading and to develop in him an appreciation of the beauty of the literature of the English speaking people. Part II, while somewhat more didactic in character, is nevertheless presented in well chosen language, where beauty of thought, imagery, simile and metaphor furnish abundant material for the teacher to continue to cultivate in pupils the power to enjoy good reading and to use a discriminating judgment in their selection of reading material in later years. 3 |