74
XIX. On his Blindness 74
XX. To Mr. Lawrence 75
XXI. To Cyriack Skinner 76
XXII. To the Same 76
XXIII. On his Deceased Wife 77
Notes 79

PREFACE.

The purpose held in view by those who place the study of Milton in high
school English courses is twofold: first, that youth may seasonably
become acquainted with a portion of our great classic poetry; and,
secondly, that they may in this poetry encounter and learn to conquer
difficulties more serious than those they have met in the literature they
have hitherto read. It is for the teacher to see to it that both these
aims are attained. The pupil must read with interest, and he must expect
at the same time to have to do some strenuous thinking and not to object
to turning over many books.

The average pupil will not at first read anything of Milton with perfect
enjoyment. He will, with his wonted docility, commit passages to memory,
and he will do his best to speak these passages with the elocution on
which you insist. But the taste for this poetry is an acquired one, and
in the acquisition usually costs efforts quite alien to the prevailing
conceptions of reading as a pleasurable recreation.

The task of pedagogy at this point becomes delicate. First of all, the
teacher must recognize the fact that his class will not, however good
their intentions, leap to a liking for Comus or Lycidas or even for the
Nativity Ode. It is of no use to assign stanzas or lines as lessons and
to expect these to be studied to a conclusion like a task of French
translation. The only way not to be disappointed in the performance of
the class is to expect nothing. It will be well at first, except where
the test is quite simple, for the teacher to read it himself, making
comment, in the way of explanation, as he goes on. Now and then he will
stop and have a little quiz to hold attention. When classical allusions
come up requiring research, the teacher will tell in what books the
matter may be looked up, and will show how other poets, or Milton
elsewhere, have played with the same piece of history or mythology. Thus
a poem may be dealt with f