[Illustration: Phoenician Early Greek Early Latin English GROWTH OF LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET] A PLAN OF STUDY. The discovery of America was made in 1492, at the beginning of what we call Modern Times. Before Modern Times were the Middle Ages, lasting about a thousand years. These began three or four hundred years after the time of Christ or what we call the beginning of the Christian Era. All the events that took place earlier we say happened in Ancient Times. Much that we know was learned first by the Greeks or Romans who lived in Ancient Times. It is in the Middle Ages that we first hear of peoples called Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Dutchmen, Italians, Spaniards, and many others now living in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. We shall learn first of the Greeks and Romans and of what they knew and succeeded in doing, and then shall find out how these things were learned by the peoples of the Middle Ages and what they added to them. This will help us to find out what our forefathers started with when they came to live in America. QUESTIONS 1. What does the emigrant from Europe bring to America besides his baggage? 2. Why are all Americans emigrants? 3. What did the earliest emigrants from Europe to America bring with them? 4. Which do you think the more useful invention--the telephone or the art of writing? Who invented this art? Find Egypt on the map. How did Egyptian writing look? 5. Why was it a help to Columbus that gunpowder and guns were invented before he discovered America? 6. When did the Christian Era begin? What is meant by Ancient Times? By the Middle Ages? By Modern Times? In what Times was the art of writing invented? In what Times was the compass invented? In what Times was the telephone invented? EXERCISES 1. Collect from illustrated papers, magazines, or advertising folders, pictures of ocean steamships. Collect pictures of sailing ships, ships used now and those used long ago. 2. Collect from persons who have recently come to this country stories of how they traveled from Europe to America, and from ports like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to where they now live. 3. Let each boy and girl in the schoolroom point out on the map the European country from which his parents or his grandparents or his forefathers came. 4. Let each boy and girl make a list of the holidays which his forefathers had in the "fatherland" or "mother country." Let each find out the manner in which the holidays were kept. Let each tell the most interesting hero story from among the stories of the mother country or fatherland. Let each find out whether the tools used in the old home were like the tools his parents use here. CHAPTER II OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS