Many of the lessons in the _Ontario Readers_ should be preceded by preparatory work in geography, history, or nature study. Poems such as _Jacques Cartier_, _The Charge of the Light Brigade_, _The Burial of Sir John Moore_, and _The Armada_ cannot be fully appreciated unless the historical setting is known. There are famous pictures that will increase the pupil's interest in these poems. In the lessons on art, there are studies of pictures that suggest feelings and thoughts characterized by universality, permanency, and nobility--pictures that stir men to nobler thought and higher aspiration. Often, such pictures are the painter's method of expressing in colours, thoughts that the poet has expressed in words. Lessons such as _Dandelions_, _Bob White_, and _The Sandpiper_ require a preliminary acquaintance with certain facts of nature, and therefore should be taken, if possible, when these can be obtained through personal observation by the pupils. _Wolfe and Montcalm_ and Drake's _Voyage Around the World_ demand, in addition to historical facts, certain geographical data. These facts and data should be communicated at some time before the lessons in literature are taken, in order that the latter may not descend into lessons in history, geography, or natural science. The extracts mentioned above are not placed in the Readers to teach certain historical, geographical, or scientific facts. They are placed there, as has been said, primarily because they have some value as literature. Hence the literature lesson should require few digressions, the necessary preparatory work having been done in previous periods. But while history, geography, nature study, and art frequently assist in the interpretation of a poem or prose selection, these subjects, on the other hand, may be reinforced and strengthened by selections drawn from the fields of literature. The facts of the history lesson will be given an additional attractiveness if the pupil is directed to some well-written biography or drama embodying the same facts, or if the teacher reads or recites to the class some spirited ballad, such as _Bonnie Dundee_, bearing upon the lesson. The interest in the observations made in nature study will be intensified by reading some nature story written in good literary form.