What would a person's life be like if he could not respect himself? What price must he pay for winning a true self-respect? PER ASPERA THE title is Latin for "o'er the steeps." See last stanza of the "Little Song of Life" on p. 9 and notes on that poem. What does the author mean by mentioning the stars in the last line? IF RUDYARD KIPLING, the best known among British writers still living, was born of English parents in Bombay in 1865. What works of his do you know? What is to be the reward of satisfying all these “ifs"? Why does the author say, in the last line, "which is more"? In the case of each "if," what makes it hard to live up to the condition? Tell why the difficulty is no excuse for failure. Why does Kipling in the second stanza call triumph and disaster "impostors"? What is the untruth which each of these tells? (In one of his speeches to an audience of young college men, Kipling said, "Of all the liars in the world, there are none worse than your own fears." What did he mean? How may triumph also lie?) Why does Kipling call the minute "unforgiving"? Sum up in your own words the qualities Kipling thinks most important. Elsewhere in this volume, can you find qualities praised which he does not mention? TOIL AWAY JOHN JAY CHAPMAN is a New York business man who has written several volumes of biography, essay, and verse, and who has played an active part in movements for civic betterment. Every worker for progress will respond to the thought in his poem. Why? What discouragements are there? How are these to be met? Read for illustration Mr. Chapman's William Lloyd Garrison. Read also the selections in Section IX. WAGES SOME people may add to the thought in "Toil Away" the question, "And is there not also glory to win?" What is Tennyson's answer? How does he say warrior, orator, and singer, are paid? What is the glory of goodness? Why "no lover of glory she"? If no glory comes in the shape of fame, what keeps the wages of virtue from being mere "dust"? What price would a man have to pay for quitting a task in which he knew he was needed? Why must there be repeated "going on and still to be"? GROWTH JOHN RICHARD MORELAND, of Virginia, is a contemporary magazine writer. The Japanese have a proverb: "First the man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink; then the drink takes the man.' If the sin, once weak, become a hungry giant, how does the same principle fortunately work for good? Thomas à Kempis said: "Especially in the beginning is the enemy more easily overcome, if he be not suffered to enter the door of our hearts, but be resisted without the gate at his first knock." Robert Louis Stevenson said: "You cannot run away from a weakness forever; you must sometime fight it or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?" THE DEFENSE OF SOCRATES REPEAT, in Socrates' own words, what he says should be a man's main concern. Why is it an apt illustration to make that comparison with the duty of a soldier? Read "A Man Must Live," in Section VII. The statement in paragraph two refers to the fact that the sacred Oracle had declared him to be the wisest man of his day. Can you explain why he would be disobeying the Oracle if he feared to die? Why did he refuse to accept a pardon on condition of remaining silent? What was his counter-proposal to the jury? Why did he think this just? Can you gather from the account what he might have done to secure an acquittal? Why did he refuse to do those things? Note again his illustration from the life of the soldier; he had served in the Athenian army. Explain the words, "the penalty of villainy and wrong." Compare the answer which the poet Shelley makes Prometheus utter to those who torture him. "I weigh not what ye do, but what ye suffer, Being evil." Why does he ask it as a favor to have his sons "troubled" by others "as I have troubled you"? In the closing sentence of the paragraph he calls this "justice." Why? MY CREED THE best way to remember this poem is to recall just what the poet wishes to be and then to ask, in each instance, "Why?" Ask also, "Who are those that trust me?" "Who care?" What is gained by adding the word "laugh" in the last stanza? Often the last word in a poem leaves an especially strong impression. Why does the final word here deserve to be so impressed? How can the "lifting" be helped by the things mentioned in the other wishes? "A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder." |