OUR INHERITANCE OF FREEDOM

A REVIEW

Wherever a tyrant has raised his sword, there ideals of freedom have flourished, for men and women have ever stood ready to defend these ideals with their very lives. You read in the Introduction on page 219 that the growth of freedom has been slow; what reasons for this are given? You read also how we came to have our freedom in America; what is meant by "our inheritance of freedom"? Tell briefly how each of the following contributed to the free life that we enjoy in America: Leonidas; Robert the Bruce; Sir Richard Grenville and other English sea captains of his time. What double service did Washington render to the cause of freedom?

You learned in the Introduction on page 220 that others besides soldiers played their part in making our inheritance of freedom what it is; mention some of these men, and tell how they contributed to our free life. Compare Burns's influence on the cause of liberty, through such a poem as "Bannockburn," with the influence of a soldier. Discuss in class the quotation, "The pen is mightier than the sword." How did Sir Walter Scott show his great love for Scotland? What like service did Hawthorne render America?

Show that we owe a debt of gratitude to those heroes whose struggles for freedom made possible our own free life in America. Which poem in Part III shows that the Englishman's willingness to die, if need be, for ideals of freedom was the same as ours? Name the English poet who said to England,

"Be proud of those strong sons of thine

Who wrench'd their rights from thee!"

In the Introduction on page 221 what English statesman is

mentioned who rejoiced that America would no longer yield to British oppression? What was the prophecy made by this English statesman and how has it been fulfilled?

Look at page 217 and give the title for Part III. Quote the lines from Lowell found on page 217 and explain their meaning. Why is this quotation an apt introduction to Part III? Why is the picture on page 218 a suitable introduction to a group of selections that deal with "our inheritance of freedom"? Which authors represented in Part III were new to you? Which one is a present-day writer? Compare your speed and comprehension in silent reading with that of your classmates and with the seventh grade standard.

Which Theme Topic was discussed with greatest interest and profit? Which one was best illustrated with pictures, sketches, or objects? What suggestions for library reading were you able to carry out? Make a list of titles of the books or stories reviewed in class. What suggestions for Class Reading proved most enjoyable to you? What did you learn from Part III that will help you to be a good citizen? Prepare a program for "Citizenship Day" from selections found in this book. Read the last paragraph of the Introduction on page 222, and tell how you can "show that you are worthy of the sacrifices made by the brave men of long ago who fought that we might have this inheritance of freedom."

PART IV

LITERATURE AND LIFE IN THE HOMELAND

"One flag, one land, one heart, one hand,

One Nation evermore!"

-Oliver Wendell Holmes.

AN INTRODUCTION

It is a hard thing to picture to ourselves our homeland. Is America just a lot of cities and towns and farms, or a collection of so many thousands of square miles of prairies and mountains, the sort of thing we should see from an airplane if we could get up high enough and had good enough eyes? Or is it a collection of states with queer boundary lines that look plainer on a map than they do when we cross them in the train? There are people who try to find America in some motto or symbol. One of our great cities has for its motto the words, "I will," and the people who live in that city like to think that the enterprise by which they build great industries is the expression of their Americanism. And some people see in the Statue of Liberty in the New York harbor the symbol that best expresses the spirit of America. Both the motto and the statue help us to see our country as something more than a part of a book called "Geography" or "History." Both of them express what America had always been to its citizens and what it became to the world in 1917. When it became necessary for us to enter the World War no true American hesitated. There were great difficulties: an army to raise and equip and train; an army to be transported over three thousand miles of water, a terrific task at any time, but made a hundred-fold harder by the monsters that lurked under the sea waiting to sink a transport. And once across, there were docks and railroads to be built. But the will of America was triumphant, and the task was done. And the statue, like the "I will," is a symbol of the spirit in America that has helped the spirit of liberty everywhere, so that we now know the day is coming when all peoples shall be free. We can make a beginning, then, in our effort to realize what America means, by thinking of this Statue of Liberty and these words of high purpose, "I will.”