, and vagueness that are suggested by "old,
unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago", and by such possible
situations of English travellers in remote parts of the world, and
should show that these elements are suitable for the circumstances under
which the poet sees the girl. He who questions merely to find out the
meaning of the poem, the relation to that of its subordinate parts, and
the meaning of the words and phrases, is using a very heavy tool on a
very delicate mechanism. Such works must be treated deftly and lightly.

EXTENSIVE READING

The class of literature that we have described in the preceding methods
is condensed literature, where thought is large in proportion to the
number of the words. It must be read by a process of close thinking, in
an analytic, exhaustive manner. There must be a clear comprehension of
the central ideas, and a strong grasp of minor thoughts or details, and
the relation of these to the central ideas. While this power to grasp
thought intensively is very valuable, we should also have the power to
grasp the thought rapidly and comprehensively.

In some works, the thought is not so condensed and confined. Here, the
main effort of the reader is to grasp the thoughts successively in a
rapid, clear, and comprehensive manner. He must be able to read a book
chapter by chapter and grasp the central ideas, to hold paragraph after
paragraph, chapter after chapter, in his consciousness, so that each
gives added illumination to the main thought and, at the end, the whole
of the work stands out in its entirety. He must learn to grasp the
central thought in each section as he proceeds--to sift the wheat from
the chaff. The minor details have been of value in giving him the main
thought, but the real ability of the good reader consists in dropping
these minor details from the mind and holding steadily on to the more
important facts.

This method gives a greater power of sustained attention and a wider
acquaintance with good literature. Most of our reading is done in this
way. It would be impossible otherwise to get a wide range, as time does
not permit of minute analysis, and many of our longer works are so
diffuse that they would not repay such careful study.

The supplementary, or extensive, reading may be given as seat work or
home work. As seat work, it can come as a grateful relief from the
arduous tasks in the ungraded school and will keep many an active mind
from getting into mis