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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1893)
TjKsSBSSS iiiftiiiiwiiiii iiifil ii Ti i'ii'iS 10 THE HESPERIAN experiences are but the ronction of the cn vironment upon the protoplasm of the nerv ous system. The receptive first years of our life are made up of such a set of experi ences, more or less agreeable or unpleasant. These experiences become so associated with the words that name them that the occur ence of the latter in poetry recalls tho former in much of their first vividness. The skill of the poet lies in choosing those words that stand for tho most intense experiences and associations. The chapters on Associations of Words, Tone, Colorings, Force, and Poetic Words are the development of this idea. These chapters, of course, deal with poetry in its strictly literal and unfignrative aspects. The treatment of the much larger figurative side of poetry differs to an equal degree from the methods usually pursued. Pleas ure physical, mental, and moral, comes, in the biological point of view, from the full and free exercise of the powers of body and mind. Given a trained imagination, and tho highest form of delight possible comes from the exercise of that imagination. The power of Shakespeare for instance is duo to the presentation of ''effects1' for which the im agination is made to find adequate causes. The power of Tennyson is due to the con centration of the mediaeval form of allegory in all its devious length into a single word, thus enabling in a second's time all the pleasure formerly obtainable only by hours of reading. But it is in the classification of figures that tho deviation from the usual methods of treatment is most marked. Ref erence to the mental process behind the figure is in each case insisted on. The par ticular form of presentation upon the printed page is simply a manifestation of an author's individuality. If the thought be allegorical in its nature, evidently the presentation of it in the mediaeval form, the sustained form, the clause, phrase, or word form is due sim ply to peeuliaritiess of mind, condition, or time. But just as the feats of skill in a gymnasium presuppose adequate muscular strength, so tho appreciation of poetry pre supposes adequate powers of imagination. Tho pleasure in both instances comes from tho conscious exercise of power. But while these discoveries are interesting and valuable in thomselves, the giving of them to the world is not tho main purpose of tho book. Tho Analytics primarily makes use of tho principles above hinted at for the more rational teaching of literature. It is first a text book. A writer in tho Nation some fifteen months ago doubted that liter ature could, strictly speaking, be taught at all. In tho sense that real literary power is a gift, literature cannot, of course, be taught. Neither can tho musical gift of a Mozart be acquired by any course of instruction how ever scientific. But the small class of stu dents that are specially gifted in any direc may be left out of consideration. What they get they probably acquiro by methods peculiar ly their own. Throughout tho country, how ever, the great mass of pupils pass through the course in literature uninfluenced and for the most part without any real profit. It is only here and there, where the enthusiasm and genuine ability of tho teacher compensates for the lack of rational methods, that results of any value are obtained for the great body of students. The problem that confronts the teacher of literature is the same that confronted the teachers of music and paint ing a century ago. How shall the student without any special literary bent be made to feel somewhat of the power in letters ? The appreciation of Tennyson or Browning de pends upon well trained powers of imagina tion, just as the appreciation of Herbert Spencer depends upon well trained intellect ual powers. While the matter of a progressive training of the intellect has been reduced to a score of system no method of objective study has yet been devised for the training of the imagination and the higher powers in general. Such a system the Analytics of Literature attempts to formulate by the ap plication of tho laboratory method, by the presentation of tho subject inductively, and especially by the resolution of poetic power into its elements. Tho laboratory method of instruction in
