And when, at length, through the agency of geography and the other means
at hand, our young people have achieved the endowment of appreciation,
life will be for them a fuller and richer experience and they will be
better fitted to play their parts as intelligent, cultivated men and
women. The gateways will stand wide open through which they can enter into
the palace of life to revel in all its beauteous splendor. They will
receive a welcome into the friendship of the worthy good and great of all
ages. When they have gained an appreciation of the real meaning of
literature, children who have become immortal will cluster about them and
nestle close in their thoughts and affections,--Tiny Tim, Little Jo,
Little Nell, Little Boy Blue, and Eppie. A visitor in Turner's studio once
said to the artist, "Really, Mr. Turner, I can't see in nature the colors
you portray on canvas." Whereupon the artist replied, "Don't you wish you
could?" When our pupils gain the ability to read and enjoy the message of
the artist they will be able to hold communion with Raphael, Michael
Angelo, Murillo, Rembrandt, Rosa Bonheur, Titian, Corot, Andrea del Sarto,
Correggio, Fra Angelico, and Ghiberti. In the realms of poetry they will
be able to hold agreeable converse with Shelley, Keats, Southey, Mrs.
Browning, Milton, Victor Hugo, Hawthorne, Poe, and Shakespeare. And when
the great procession of artists, poets, scientists, historians,
dramatists, statesmen, and philanthropists file by to greet their gaze,
entranced they will be able to applaud.
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