Then the clay was content, and silently thanked its maker, because, though an earthen vessel, it held so great a treasure. CLASS ACTIVITIES I. Show how the services of the clay resemble the services of the trees, the flowers, and the river? 2. Find and read aloud the paragraph which might refer to the school life of boys and girls? What part might refer to getting started in a business or a profession? 3. Read aloud the part that refers to the sorrows and sufferings of life. 4. After all its trials the clay became only a common flower-pot. What does this suggest about the humble duties of life? 5. Did the clay itself become great? Explain. 6. How does "A Handful of Clay" carry out the meaning of the Introduction, p. 402? READING DIRECTIONS Turn to the Table of Contents on p. 403. Notice the four main divisions of the unit; they are all parts of the main unit topic. Remember that every one of the selections is in its place because its central idea or purpose fits in with the meaning of the divisions A, B, C, D. Now turn to p. xiii, and see the six units into which the whole book is divided. In reading a book, as in taking a journey, it is always well to know where you are, and what the next station is. 2. THE BUILDERS HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW All are architects of fate, Working in these walls of time; Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; Strengthens and supports the rest. For the structure that we raise, Time, is with materials filled; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. Truly shape and fashion these; In the elder days of art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; For the gods see everywhere. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen; Make the house where gods may dwell, Beautiful, entire, and clean. Else our lives are incomplete, Build to-day, then, strong and sure, Thus alone can we attain To those turrets, where the eye Sees the world as one vast plain, And one boundless reach of sky. CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. Name the materials with which Longfellow says we build. With what materials does Longfellow build the poem? 2. What parts of a building may seem to be "an idle show"? Are there any parts of your school life which might seem to be an "idle show"? Apply the meaning of the second stanza. 3. How can our "to-days" and "yesterdays" be building-blocks? 4. How might one leave a "yawning gap" in his school life? 5. Explain the grammatical construction of "broken stairways" in the seventh stanza. 6. Of what "turrets" does the last line speak? 7. Select three stanzas in the poem that you like best. 8. What is the purpose of this poem? What is its relation to "Making the Best of One's Self"? 9. Topics for oral or written work: a. “Each thing in its place is best." b. A building-block from my science work. c. An "unseen" but necessary part in a building made of " crete." d. How a foundation for a large building is laid. con Volunteer work. Find and read aloud to the class one of the following poems: Robert Browning, "Hervé Riel"; Felicia Hemans, "Casabianca"; Alice Cary, "Nobility"; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Psalm of Life"; Joaquin Miller, "Columbus"; Robert W. Service, "Carry On"; Ralph Waldo Emerson, "A Fable"; William E. Henley, "Invictus"; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Legend Beautiful"; Alfred Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott"; William Cullen Bryant, "To a Waterfowl." 3. THE GREAT STONE FACE NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Read the story silently to get a bird's-eye view of it. Whenever you are reading "just for the story," you ought to proceed much more rapidly than when you are studying a textbook. Some boys and girls read so rapidly that they skip over many good parts; others read so slowly that they waste valuable time. Allow yourselves about fifteen minutes for the first silent reading of this story. If you finish before that time, you have probably read too rapidly; if you exceed that time, you have probably read too slowly. I One afternoon when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. The Great Stone Face was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance. There was the broad arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections. As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their cottage door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it. The child's name was Ernest. "Mother," said he, while the titanic visage smiled on him, "I wish that it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice must be pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a face I should love him dearly." "If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we may see a man, sometime or other, with exactly such a face as that." "What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired Ernest. "Pray tell me all about it!" So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her, when she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, not of things that were past, but of what was yet to come. The story said that at some future day a child should be born hereabouts who was destined to become the greatest and noblest man of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear a resemblance to the Great Stone Face. "O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above his head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him!" His mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it was wisest not to discourage the hopes of her little boy. She only said to him, "Perhaps you may." And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It was always in his mind whenever he looked upon the Great Stone Face. He spent his childhood in the log cottage where he was born, and was dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this manner, from a happy yet thoughtful child, he grew to be a mild, quiet, modest boy, sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more intelligence in his face than is seen in many lads who have been taught at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, save only that the Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of kindness and encouragement in response to his own look of veneration. II About this time there went a rumor throughout the valley that the great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It seems that, many years before, a young man had left the valley and settled at a distant seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had set up as a shopkeeper. His name - but I could never learn whether it was his real one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success in life was Gathergold. |