CHAPTER IX

CLOSE READING OR STUDY

T is largely because story reading may so easily become careless reading, that prejudice against fiction is found in many minds. In the preceding pages there have been suggested many ways by which story reading may be made profitable, and yet all these methods may be used without calling for that close, intensive reading which we usually call study. You may lead a child to read Rab and His Friends for all the purposes we have suggested, and yet he may have passed over without understanding them many a word, phrase or even sentence. It is possible that there are whole paragraphs that convey little meaning to him. This is certainly not an unmixed evil, for it is well that a child should not exhaust the possibilities of such a masterpiece when he first reads it. In fact, it is a good thing for children frequently to read great literature even when much of it is quite beyond their comprehension. It will pique their curiosity, and some time they will return with wiser minds and broader experience to interpret for themselves the things that once were obscure. It is no sin for a child sometimes to pass over a word he cannot pronounce or does not understand. There could be few more certain ways of destroying his taste for reading than to require him to stop and find the meaning of

every new word he meets. Sometimes the meaning will become evident a little later from the context, and in other instances he will understand well enough without the troublesome word.

What has been said does not signify that the habit of skipping new words or of avoiding difficult paragraphs is a good one. It does mean, however, that sometimes the practice should be tolerated, and that close reading should be required at the proper time and in the proper way. In the arithmetic or geography lesson the young must always read very closely, and in their perusal of the classics there are many fine opportunities for exercises of the same character, that should not be neglected. Descriptive passages, arguments, and essays of all kinds require to be read with exceeding care, and often there are passages even in light fiction that repay this kind of study.

Words and phrases are the subjects of consideration in close reading, and the mastery of thought is the object to be attained. The study of words may be made very interesting, and gathering the meaning of phrases may become a fascinating pastime.

An illustration may prove the case. Take the paragraph from Rab and His Friends (Volume VI, page 99) in which death approaches Ailie: "The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord was fast being loosed-that animula blandula, vagula, hospes comesque was about to flee. The body and the soul— companions for sixty years-were being sundered and taking leave. She was walking, alone, through the valley of the shadow, into which one day we

must all enter—and yet she was not alone, for we knew whose rod and staff were comforting her."

A cursory reading will suggest to any young person that the paragraph says Ailie is going to die, and that she does not fear death; but how much more it means to him who can understand it all. The end was drawing on-Ailie was going to her death. The golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord was fast being loosed. Turn to your Bible (Ecclesiastes xii, 3-7), and read what is said. That "animula blandula, vagula, hospes comesque" was about to flee. That sweet but fleeting life, friend, companion and sojourner with her, was about to leave. She was walking alone through the valley of the shadow. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Into which one day we must all enter. May we be equally fearless of evil! She was not alone. Her God was with her every moment, and in her hours of consciousness she knew Him to be present. We knew whose rod and staff were comforting her. "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

Like the Psalmist of old she leaned upon the arm of her God and as she thus approached the dark valley, the light of her faith shone into our souls.

The Latin quotation and the allusions to the Bible are skilfully used to give solemnity to the idea of death, to show how inevitable it is, and how for long ages it has been met with the same serene faith and deep religious feeling that made Ailie beautiful in the face of death. Yes, there is more in the paragraph than the statement that Ailie was going to die and that she was not afraid.

To illustrate a different style of close reading and a method of securing it by questioning, we will quote part of a paragraph from Braddock's Defeat (Volume V, page 379) by Benjamin Franklin: "Our Assembly apprehending, from some information, that he [Braddock] had conceived violent prejudices against them, as averse to the service, wished me to wait upon him, not as from them, but as postmaster-general, under the guise of proposing to settle with him the mode of conducting with most celerity and certainty the despatches between him and the governors of the several provinces with whom he must necessarily have continual correspondence, and of which they proposed to bear the expense.'

The questions designed to bring out the meaning of the above paragraph, to which the answers are usually quite obvious, might be as follows:

Is "our Assembly" the Albany convention mentioned in the note at the head of the selection, or is it the Assembly of Franklin's own colony? What is the meaning of apprehending? Do you like it better than thinking? What do you suppose was the nature of the "information" the Assembly had received? Do you think that someone had told them that Braddock was prejudiced, or did they infer it from actions of Braddock which had been described to them? Who was averse to it? What is the meaning of "wait upon him"? Do we use that phrase frequently now? What might we say now? What do you understand by "not as from them"? Can you put into that phrase one word that will make its meaning clear? Was Franklin then postmaster-general of his colony?

Was he ever postmaster-general of the United States? What is the meaning of guise? What is meant by "under the guise"? Does celerity mean more than quickness? Is there any shade of difference in the meanings of the two words? Do you think Franklin used the best word he could find when he wrote celerity? What are "despatches"? What kind of despatches would pass between Braddock and the governors of the different provinces? How many different provinces were there for Braddock to help defend? What were they? Who proposed to pay the expense? Does propose in this case have a different or larger meaning than that in which you are in the habit of seeing it used? Of what did they propose to pay the expense?

If a young person can answer all the questions in the preceding paragraph, he undoubtedly understands the passage upon which they are based. The questioner must watch the answers and be ready to detect mistakes. Often the answer shows why the person fails to understand, and a different question will then bring out the correct reply. The questions always should be so worded that they do not anticipate the answer, yet so the person questioned will thoroughly understand what is expected. A little help now and then is appreciated by anyone, certainly by those who are being led to think.

Carried to excess, close reading is wearisome; and parents, remembering this, should be discriminating in their selections for study and not too exacting in their requirements. Everything may be lost by dwelling too long upon even the most delightful selections. Left to himself, almost every child will be fond of The Village Blacksmith,