11. There are certain peculiar difficulties connected with the reading of longer classics which are much less frequently met with in the usual school readers. These difficulties are of such a real and serious kind that many teachers are apt to be discouraged before success is attained. Complete classics like Webster's speeches, "Julius Cæsar," "Snow-Bound," "Marmion," and "Evangeline" have been regarded as too long and difficult for school purposes. We have found, however, that the greater length, if rightly utilized, only intensifies the effect of a masterpiece. The chief objection is the greater language difficulty (hard and unusual words, proper names, etc.) of the longer classics. This is a real obstacle and must be fairly met. It is impossible to grade down the language and thought of a great writer. It is necessary to bring the class up to his level rather than bring him down to theirs. This requires time and skill and perseverance on the teacher's part, and labor and thought in the children. It may require a week or a month to get a class well under way in "Lady of the Lake," "King of the Golden River," or the "Sketch-Book." But when well done it is a conquest of no mean importance. The language, style, and characteristics of the author are strange and difficult. The scales must drop from children's eyes before they will appreciate Ruskin or Tennyson or Emerson. The wings of fancy, the æsthetic sense, do not unfold in a single day. But if these initial difficulties can be overcome, we shall emerge soon into the sunlight of interest and success. It takes a degree of faith in good things and patience under difficulties to attain success in classic readings. Even when the teacher thinks he is doing fairly well, the parents sometimes say the work is too hard and the verbal difficulties too great. Generally, however, parents are satisfied when children work hard and are interested. Again, children whose reading in the lower grades has been of the information order lack the imaginative power that is essential to the grasp and enjoyment of any masterpiece. The sleeping or dulled fancy must be awakened. The power to image things, so natural to the poet, must be aroused and exercised. The lack of training in vivid and poetic thought in early years is sure to make itself felt in deficient and languid thought and feeling in the higher grades. But we cannot afford to give up the struggle. We may be forced to begin lower down in the series of books, but anything less than a classic is not fit for the children.