Examination Questions for Scott's Lady of the Lake

NOTE.-At the suggestion of a prominent educator, who is using Miss Kingsley's Outline Studies in Literature, we have asked her to prepare a series of examination questions on the English Classics, calculated to make the pupil think. These questions will appear serially in the successive numbers of EDUCATION, beginning with this number.-ED. EDUCATION.

1. Give the time, place and duration of the action of the story and name the two racial types with which the narrative deals. Bring out in detail the contrast between Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu, citing episodes from the story to prove your statements. What do you learn from this poem of the relations between the Saxon and the Gael at this period?

2. Give the meaning of the title of the poem; describe its arrangement and justify the title of each canto. Why should THE LADY OF THE LAKE be called a "Metrical Romance," while other story poems which you have read have been designated simply "Narrative Poems?" Point out the different kinds of meter and the different methods of rhyming in this poem.

3. Has the story a real plot logically worked out, or is it a series of interesting episodes connected by a thread of narrative? your answer. Is the situation of affairs revealed in the first lines or does it remain obscure until the story is well under way? Prove your

answer.

4. Write in two hundred words each the story of Ellen Douglas; of the Douglas; of Malcolm Graeme; of Roderick Dhu; of James Fitz-James; stating particularly the reason why Malcolm was a prisoner at Stirling; the circumstances under which Ellen obtained the signet ring which procured his release. Which of these stories is most interesting to you? Why?

5. Describe the Chase of Canto I, stanzas 1-9, bringing into the description a careful paraphrase of the following lines: And deep his midnight lair had made, The antlered monarch of the waste, Ere his fleet career he took, Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky, A moment snuffed the tainted gale, High in his pathway hung the sun, And many a gallant stay'd perforce, With flying feet the heath he spurned, That horseman plied the scourge and steel, The wily quarry shunned the shock, Chiding the rocks that yelled again. Under what circumstances is the fallen steed seen again in the story? 6. What purpose does this detailed description of the Chase serve:

(1) in developing the plot of the story; (2) in adding to the literary value of the poem?

7. Put into your own words the picture of stanzas 11-14, omitting none of the details. What does the traveler find to-day when he visits the Trossachs? Make a list of the words used in these stanzas which could be used only in describing Scottish scenery.

8. State the circumstances under which the following facts, necessary to a clear understanding of the story, are disclosed to the reader: Roderick's identity and character; reason for his being an outlaw; the past and present condition of the Douglas; his relations with the king of Scotland; his obligations to Roderick and to Malcolm; Ellen's feeling for Malcolm Graeme.

9. Quote the lines in which the huntsman tells to Ellen his name and rank. How could he make so misleading a statement and at the same time keep strictly within the bounds of truth? What episode makes the huntsman's dream a most natural one? What purpose does this dream serve in the story?

10. What important facts in the story are revealed by the conversation between Ellen and Allan-Bane in Canto II?

11. How does the harp of Allan-Bane foreshadow the character of the narrative? With what forebodings does the music of his harp fill the minstrel? Why?

12. How is the Battle of Beal an Duine described to the reader? Do you think this method more, or less, effective than the ordinary method in which the reader would have been made a witness of the fight? How does this description of the battle connect the Roderick and Fitz-James stories with those of Douglas, Ellen, and Malcolm? What was the cause of the Battle of Beal an Duine?

13. Tell the story of the Fiery Cross, and describe from this story the relations between clansman and chief. Show the difference in character between such relations and those existing between the Scottish king and his subjects.

14. Repeat the oracle of the Taghairn, and describe the manner of its fulfillment. How had Roderick expected the prophecy to be fulfilled?

15. What part does Blanche of Devan play in the story of King James? What warning is her song intended to convey?

16. What do you consider the literary excellences of this poem? Designate those nature pictures of the poem which seem to you most beautiful and natural. Mention twelve words (not names of features

or scenery) used in the text, which would not be used were the scene of the poem laid elsewhere than in Scotland.

17. Point out those scenes which seem to you the most striking scenes of the poem. Which do you think most interesting? which most thrilling? which most dramatic? To what extent is THE LADY OF THE LAKE a love story.

18. Arrange tableaux for the following scenes, describing in detail the costume of the characters: The Meeting of Malcolm and Ellen on the Strand; Return of Clan Alpine to the Island; The Death of Blanche of Devan; The Harper Singing the Battle of Beal an Duine; Ellen in the Presence of the King.

19. Point out those features of the Combat Scene that serve to make the scene a thoroughly dramatic one. As you read, does it impress you as natural, or as overdrawn? How does the poet manage to bring the reader into such close sympathy with Roderick Dhu? Is Roderick Dhu an attractive or a repellent character to you?

20. Compare the impression made upon you by the Clan Alpine Boat Song with that produced by the Coronach.

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If this story were in prose, would Roderick and Fitz-James use the same kind of speech? How would their language differ? In the construction of a mediæval romance, the two devices most frequently employed were: (1) the device of concealed identity; (2) the solution of intricate situations by means of supernatural agencies. To what extent are these two devices employed in THE LADY OF THE LAKE? Show that the whole plot of the story hangs upon a device of the first kind.

23. What have you learned from this poem concerning the manners and customs of the Highlanders? How are the miseries inflicted by Roderick, during his predatory raids, brought to the notice of the

reader?

24. Write a short paper on the effect produced on you by this poem, mentioning the various emotions which are aroused as the different scenes of the narrative are unfolded.

25. Is the Douglas of this poem an historical or a fictitious character? Do the facts of history give Scott any justification for his character-delineation of King James?

HERE is an admirable article in the Century Magazine for Octo"The

Common Schools and the Farm-Youth," which should be read by all educators. He arraigns our present and past methods of schooling as based largely on wrong principles and as unpedagogical and wasteful. Instead of giving children books, and requiring them to learn therefrom ideas and theories, he would give them things and let them learn facts at first hand. From these facts he thinks they will get their theories for themselves later on, and then they will be made ready for books, which are a record of other men's observations and theories. He traces the rise and progress of this "experience teaching," which he says, "has now come to be one of the conspicuous phases of current educational work," expressing itself in nature-study, kindergartens, manual training and the like. He thinks it a wholly desirable change in sentiment, which is destined to work a revolution in our entire school system. "The old educational procedure seemed to be to make children as like as two peas. In fact, this procedure is still in vogue, and this accounts for much of the deadness of school work." The new method is expected to develop personal responsibility, originality, initiative. In an interesting way he applies the fundamental idea of the new method to geography, arithmetic, reading and even to manual training itself, which, he says, "needs a new direction as it touches country life." He claims that all these subjects can be so taught by the new method" as, in ten years, to start a revolution in the agriculture of any commonwealth."

With the principles which Professor Bailey so clearly states, we find ourselves quite in sympathy. But we regard them as supplementary to rather than subversive of the principles of the old education. We think it will be a long day before books are abolished even from the primary stages of schooling. Attention may well be withdrawn from them in part and a larger place given to the actual things that make up the child's environment. But the books themselves are very real facts, and are among the most valuable and vital of the elements of his environment. Moreover, it is not well to disparage too readily the educational systems of a former time. We should stop to remember that they produced grand men and women, and a highly vitalized type of civilization. They were well adapted to their day and generation. The type of men needed for the present age may be somewhat different, because the work to be done now is of another kind from that

of an earlier and rougher age. By this measure the educational methods should be modified. But probably the methods now approved would have been as unsuitable to that time as some of those earlier methods are now thought to be for the present age. Let the new day dawn, but let it bring with it pleasant memories and accumulated treasures of yesterday.

UNITED

TNITED with a healthy body, as described in last month's EDUCATION, the ideal teacher will possess a sound mind. Mens sana in corpore sano has become a proverb, and denotes an ideal condition. What are the signs of a sound mind? First, an ever present and insatiable hunger for truth. This lies at the very basis of all true intellectual life. The teacher who has a hungry mind will never sink into mediocrity. Whatever the environment there will always be something to minister to this divine instinct. There will be no stagnation, no dead levels, no "finished" education; but constant aspiration and steady growth. This will be felt as a stimulating influence by all the pupils, and it will probably reproduce itself in some of them, thus adding to the total of the world's true scholarship. If, then, a teacher finds himself uninterested in study, disinclined to thought and investigation, indifferent to books and good professional periodical literature, and uninspired by contact with other minds in educational gatherings, he should take himself in hand and try to find out what is the matter with him. If the condition becomes permanent he is professionally dead, and should be decently buried. Only life can beget life.

Other signs of a sound mind, closely related to this divine hunger and thirst for knowledge, are intellectual humility, honesty and teachableness. The ideal teacher does not think that "he knows it all," that his education has made him a superior being who can never make a mistake. He not only longs to know more, but is also willing to learn from any source, however humble. He has a receptive mind, and when he has made a mistake is willing to acknowledge and correct it, instead of persisting in the error to save his own dignity. Children are keen to detect intellectual dishonesty, conceit and stubbornness. We may deceive ourselves, but nine times out of ten we shall not deceive them. To urge no higher motive, it is good policy to be frank and honest. It wins respect in the long run.

Another sign of mental soundness is enthusiasm. Not to admire anything, never to lose one's self in ecstacy of enjoyment of a newly discovered truth, or an old friendship, or a beautiful landscape, or a sublime act of heroism, is to be a stick and to forfeit one's influence with