The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of Expression Vol. I by Charles Wesley Emerson

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Title: The Evolution of Expression Vol. I

Author: Charles Wesley Emerson

Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4942] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 2, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF EXPRESSION ***

Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

EVOLUTION OF EXPRESSION

BY CHARLES WESLEY EMERSON

FOUNDER OF EMERSON COLLEGE OF ORATORY, BOSTON

A COMPILATION OF SELECTIONS ILLUSTRATING THE FOUR STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN ART AS APPLIED TO ORATORY IN FOUR VOLUMES, WITH KEY TO EACH CHAPTER

THIRTY-THIRD EDITION

VOLUME I—REVISED

TO MY STUDENTS Whose need has been my inspiration and whose understanding my rich reward, these volumes are affectionately DEDICATED

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION ANIMATION ANALYSIS SMOOTHNESS VOLUME FORMING THE ELEMENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE TEA-KETTLE AND THE CRICKET Charles Dickens
THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN Robert Browning
GROUP OF LYRICS:
  PIPPA PASSES Robert Browning
  THE SNOWDROP Alfred Tennyson
  THE THROSTLE Alfred Tennyson
  ONE MORNING, OH, SO EARLY Jean Ingelow
FREEDOM John Ruskin
A LAUGHING CHORUS
THE CHEERFUL LOCKSMITH Charles Dickens
HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD Robert Browning
LOCHINVAR Sir Walter Scott
THE POLISH WAR SONG James G. Percival

CHAPTER II.

THE VILLAGE PREACHER Oliver Goldsmith
TO THE DAISY William Wordsworth
PSALM XXIII David
EXTRACT FROM EULOGY ON
 WENDELL PHILLIPS George William Curtis
THE BROOK Alfred Tennyson
OLD AUNT MARY'S James Whitcomb Riley

CHILD VERSE:
 MY SHADOW Robert Louis Stevenson
 THE SWING Robert Louis Stevenson
 THE LAMPLIGHTER Robert Louis Stevenson
WAITING John Burroughs

CHAPTER III.

 THE REVENGE Alfred Tennyson
 THE OCEAN Lord Byron
 SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS
  AT CAPUA Rev. Elijah Kellogg
 TELL TO HIS NATIVE MOUNTAINS, James Sheridan Knowles
 BATTLE HYMN Karl Theodor Korner
 SELF-RELIANCE Ralph Waldo Emerson
 ADAMS AND JEFFERSON Daniel Webster
 THE DEFENCE OF LUCKNOW Alfred Tennyson

SONNETS:

KEATS

WORDSWORTH

MILTON

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
IS THERE FOR HONEST POVERTY Robert Burns

CHAPTER IV.

HAMLET TO THE PLAYERS William Shakespeare

THE BOY AND THE ANGEL Robert Browning

SPEECH AND SILENCE Thomas Carlyle
THE RICH MAN AND THE POOR
MAN Khemnitzer

GATHERING OF THE FAIRIES Joseph Rodman Drake

THE SONG OF THE RAIN Spectator

HEARTY READING Sidney Smith

IVRY Lord Macaulay

THE DAFFODILS William Wordsworth

CHEERFULNESS J. H. Friswell

APRIL IN THE HILLS Archibald Lampman

INTRODUCTION.

    Teach me, then,
    To fashion worlds in little, making form,
    As God does, one with spirit,—be the priest
    Who makes God into bread to feed the world.
    —Richard Hovey.

The revised edition of the "Evolution of Expression" is issued in response to frequent requests from teachers and students for a formulation of those principles upon which natural methods in the teaching of expression are based. It is hoped that the brief explanatory text introducing each chapter may aid teacher and pupil to avoid arbitrary standards and haphazard efforts, substituting in their place, psychological law. Growth in expression is not a matter of chance; the teacher who understands nature's laws and rests upon them, setting no limit to the potentialities of his pupil, waits not in vain for results.

No printed text, however, can take the place of a discerning teacher. A knowledge of the philosophy of education in expression avails little without the ability to create the genial atmosphere conducive to the development of the student. The teacher is the gardener, his service—his full service—is to surround the young plant with favorable conditions of light and soil and atmosphere; then stand out of its way while it unfolds its full blossom and final fruitage.

The tendency of modern education is towards the discovery and perfection of methods. The thought of leading educators is turned from the what to the how; to the development of systems of progressive steps through which the pupil may be led to a realization of himself. This trend is best shown in the multiplicity and excellence of recent pedagogical treatises and in the appearance of carefully graded and progressive text-books. The ancients believed that their heroes were born of gods and goddesses. They knew of no means by which the mind could be developed to the compass of greatness. The ancient theory to account for greatness was preternatural birth; the modern theory is evolution. To-day the interest of the child is awakened, his mind is aroused, and then led onward in regular steps.

The study of all forms of art, so far as methods are concerned, should be progressive. For correct guidance in our search for the best methods, we must understand the order of the development of the human mind. A child, before he arrives at an age where he can be taught definitely, is simply a little palpitating mass of animation. Soon he begins to show an attraction toward surrounding objects. Next he begins to show a greater attraction for some things than for others. His hands clutch at and retain certain objects. He now enters the period of development where he makes selections, and thus is born the power of choice. Objects which, at first, appeared to him as a mass now