What Is Man? and Other Essays

er’s Boswell’s Johnson

t to him (Dr. Samuel Johnson) Cato’s Soliloquy, which she went th

o bring Cat

it was

ear, it w

ly said it w

ife may do, but it wa

bane and antidote,” which she was

oung a child to know th

hen

ny pence are the

ir,” was the half

ng himself to Mrs

us than to teach a child Cato’s Soliloquy, who do

sor Ravenstein quoted the following list of frantic quest

s in the world derived from Ju

ivers: Pisuerga, Sakaria,

Pilmo, Schebulos, Crivoscia, Basecs, Manc

eaks of the K

f universiti

untains continually co

reams of lava which issued from the S

s in all studies are several miles ahead of where the pupil is?—that he is set to struggle with things that are ludicrously beyond his

t. I said, Yes; but as I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious; and so, now that the publication is imminent, it has seemed to me that I should feel more comfortable if I could divide up this responsibility

is made by a teacher in those schools, and all the examples in it are genuine; none of them have been tampered with, or doctored in any way. From time to time, during several years, whenever a pupil has delivered himself of anything peculiarly quaint or t

s in writing. The subjects touched upon are fifteen in number: I. Etymology; II. Grammar; III. Mathematics; IV. Geography; V. “Original”; VI. Anal

urse of the book. Now as to results. Here are some quaint definitions of words. It will be noticed t

a system o

ood man in

anything t

he food of

state of be

pertaining t

a little

ks in which foss

a headstone

one who as

one who p

thing belongin

a very i

n who likes

, to mak

, what can

ne who feels

a kind o

he murder o

who does his p

, ten acr

mixed up in the child’s mind with politics, and the result is

sinner mention

n. Here are two where the mistake has res

, a writer

l containing beer

l in the following instances; it would not seem to have

grumbling, f

h a flat beak and no bil

ven to a style of art pra

gious convention hel

e state of b

taff carried

es the pupil’s ear has b

age was i

smasted with the

iding on a

y quick at

r the waters

is watchin

strawberr

often we do slam right into the

Gas Company go around

e gas bill. In the following sentences the little people have some information to convey, eve

things is remarkable;

ous because she we

o an egregiou

ated a bullet thro

e caution and

ted with vicissitude whe

all the time that he doesn’t. Here is an odd (but entirely proper) use of a word, and a most s

avoid extremes—like th

o his tongue—the small scholar has innocently gone and let out a couple

many donkeys in t

ssils are found in

the little scholars furnis

nguishing nouns wit

somethin

e used as adjectives an

ame of God must begi

would have been stricter. The following is a brav

e they say the poetry or prose they must put a semico

ll of fruit. From it I take a few

s any distance be

s that can never meet u

straight line with a

l to each other are e

uare feet in a room you

eet. The produc

scope to the subject, as did those quoted by Professor Ravenstein; still, they proved plenty difficult enough without that. These pup

the Passiffic slope an

a is separat

m north to south abo

country compared with some other co

he United States

the U.S. are Newfun

s of the U.S. is eart

are mountains i

are on the western s

water surrounded by land and

xon’s line i

s mollasses, book-covers, numbers, gas, teaching, lu

al occupation is gathe

an island bui

ery cold an

e of the San

the Ganges and empties in

igrant Isle because it i

ones Europe lies in depend u

things that are paid for, the exp

the time and weath

olcanoes of Europe ar

, there’s machinery for clarifying and expanding their minds. They are required to take poems and analyze them, dig out their common sense, reduce them to statistics, and reproduce them in a luminous pro

or jaded now and spent with toil, Embossed with foam and dark with soil, W

ng, for, being tired from the time passed with hard labor overworked with anger and ignorant with weariness, while eve

t with weariness as usual, but this is the first time the whole spacious idea of it ever filtered in sight. If I were a public

le at a moment’s notice. But the Fact that belongs with it? That is quite another matter. Only the date itself is familiar and sure: its vast Fact has failed of lodgment. It would appear that whenever you ask a public-school pupil when a thing—anything, no matter what—happened, an

ington was

e Declaration of In

mew was mass

ons who entered England in

1492 miles in

ed with

s was called the Fa

ch and chain and other millinery so

ere very desecrat

arfare by hiding in the bus

he father of his country. His life w

n insane asylum in t

rybody stamp all materials so

broken-hearted. His remains were

was where men

to Virginia. He captured all the inhabitants, but was finally conquered an

as distinguished for letting some buckwh

r being a great widower h

reek and Latin and was b

noted for an in

Bennet instigate

me in between anti

ousand years ago. His birthday was November 1883. He was o

his famous telegram dispatc

man. He was a very great soldier and w

e death of an asp which sh

vernment in Greece

ar lasted abo

d only 7

d some statues and h

h such ingenious infelicity that it can be depended upon t

or descendant of a woman

with judicious and diligent boosting in the

n was born in

a great number of most interesting stateme

l was written b

s written by

ven Gables was writ

was a very cu

r who invented the cotten

rote the

ived Shakspeare

account of King Alfred on his wa

e father of En

d verse writer of

an American Writer. His writings were chief

riptures and it was called

wper, Wordsworth, Gibbon, Byron, Coleridge, Hood, Scott, Macaulay, George Eliot, Dickens, Bulwer, Thackeray, Browning, Mrs. Browning, Tennyson, and Disraeli—a fact which shows that into the restricted stomach of the public-school pupil is shov

son of an heiress

he Barefoot Boy and Im

of his travels in Ita

and children who mourne

rs. Lewis was the greatest female poet un

onsidered a

e Alfred the Great and Johnson

rd and then studied law, he was raised to th

aneous facts that may be of v

d Paradise lost some people say that these poems were n

s kind of shone

y profligate an

with the political features of the Gre

law when the Pr

the President rules the world, the governor

ntious Congress m

ted States was established

earth will rise a

States is that part of the book

ld be a limit to public-school instruction; it cannot

into civilized half

ults of study in

e distance on the keyboard

you are not

more distress on o

” contains much that ought

udy about your bones

ous to health are cabolic ac

he lower skin moves all the time a

ed of water and about one

ll pear-shaped bone

e keeps the bone

backbone and reaches the heart wher

nds are used to

changed to cane sugar and

ity of the orbit and is developed

s in the back of the mouth

was coming the train would deafen our ears

added flavor to the Johnsonian anecdote at the

y the light of nature originated from St. John’s

y comparing a mass of known lead w

ke the length of a degree on a mer

other as the squares o

as the body will go plus the force of gravity a

ht of an equal volume of or that is the weight of

forms of organized bodies by the form of attrac

s own condition of rest or motion. In other words it is the negative qual

t would be as useful to cram him with brickbats; they would at least stay. In a town in the interior of New York, a few years ago, a gentleman set forth a mathematical problem and proposed to give a prize to every public-school pupil who should furnish the correct solution of it. Twenty-two of the brightest boys in the public schools entered the contest. The problem was not a very difficult one for pupils of th

room for one. It is full of naivete, brutal truth, and unembarrassed directn