REMINDING THE HEN

"It's well I ran into the garden,”

Said Eddie, his face all aglow,

"For what do you think, Mamma, happened?
You never will guess, I know.

"The little brown hen was there clucking;
'Cut-cut,' she'd say quick as a wink,
Then 'cut-cut' again, only slower;
And then she would stop and think.

"Then she flapped, and said 'Cut-cut-ca-daw-cut.' She remembered just how it went then.

But it's well I ran into the garden ·

With wings spread out it flies so fast

It leaves the waves all white with foam.
Just whisper to me, blowing past,
If you have seen it sailing home.
I feel your breath upon my cheek,
And in my hair, and on my brow,
Dear winds, if you could only speak,
I know what you would tell me now.
My father's coming home, you'd say,
With precious presents, one, two, three;
A shawl for mother, beads for May,

And eggs and shells for Rob and me.

The winds sing songs where'er they roam;
The leaves all clap their little hands;
For father's ship is coming home

With wondrous things from foreign lands.

Gabriel Setoun

Here is a child who talks to the winds, tells them about the leaves clapping their hands, the birds singing, and talking to the flowers and trees. Then she asks about her father's ship. Her voice must be resonant and tenderly express love for her father. How she must expand and give heartiness of tone when she proudly describes her father's vessel with masts "taller than the trees!"

Possibly the most important characteristic of sympathetic attention or of this dramatic insight and realization of experience is found in the fact that it is needed to appreciate the spirit of poetry and literature. We must not only see and feel each successive object and event but create a complete whole. Dramatic insight demands that we receive a living impression from each object of attention. It is the aim of all poetry and true literature to convey a true impression and our dramatic imagination is needed to penetrate to the heart and to see things as living.

Generally the impressions we receive and the feelings that are awakened are our own. We must first be ourselves and feel everything in our own way. The first poem of fancy is lyric. From this we may rise to an appreciation of all other kinds of poetry.

For dramatic insight, however, this is not enough. We must see things as others see them. We must even see

ourselves as others see us. We must take the point of view of others. We must realize that every person sees something peculiar to himself and that the motives and characters of people differ. If we see things for ourselves alone, we become narrow and selfish. Only as we see things as others see them do we have enlarged sympathy and enter into participation with the life of our fellowman. The necessity of dramatic insight is illustrated in the sympathetic story. Observe the following in the fifth chapter of II Kings.

THE CAPTIVE MAID

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honored, because by him the Lord had given victory unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress: Oh would that my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! Then would he recover him of his leprosy.

And one went in, and told his lord, saying: Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said: Go now, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying: And now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said: Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? but consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

And it was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying: Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said:

Behold, I thought He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said: My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee: Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; now therefore, I pray thee, take a present of thy servant. But he said: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.

And Naaman said: If not, yet I pray thee let there be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth; for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto Jehovah. In this thing Jehovah pardon thy servant: when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, Jehovah pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said: Behold, my master hath spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw one running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said: Is all well? And he said: All is well. My master hath sent me, saying: Behold, even now there are come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of raiment. And Naaman said: Be pleased to take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of raiment, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and bestowed

them in the house; and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master.

And Elisha said unto him: Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said: Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him: Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and menservants and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow,

Here you find a story of a little maiden whose name is not given, who had been saved by her master from captivity. We can easily imagine how the bands of Syrians carried off this little girl. The General, we can see the great General, discovering and sympathizing with the beautiful little girl. He bought her from the rough soldiers, the robbers, and brought her home to wait upon his wife. Naturally, she would be grateful to her benefactor and would sympathize with his misfortune — his leprosy. We realized this, not as we would feel, but as she would feel it. We sympathize with her innocence, her simplicity, her loveliness, and identify ourselves with her feelings for her master.

We must appreciate every event in the story. With our imagination we must penetrate to the heart of the king of Syria and realize the spirit in which he wrote to the king of Israel. Then we must realize the spirit in which the king of Israel received the letter. We must identify ourselves with him whether we approve of him or not. This is dramatic insight.

Next we must sympathize with the old prophet. When his message comes to Naaman we must realize Naaman's anger. The rivers of Damascus are clear and beautiful. The Jordan is muddy and runs below the level of the sea. Naaman's contempt for it is therefore natural.

We realize his great dignity and the courage it took for his servants to approach him, and we must realize their great devotion and sympathy. The expression "My father" indicates the great tenderness they had for him.