McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson VII · Part 2: Lessons I-XII: Storms, dawns and old tales

13. Schemes of Life Often Illusory (Samuel Johnson)

Goal: Your student follows a moral tale and states its lesson about putting off one's plans.

⏱ About 40 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, or the scan beside this guide
  • A notebook and pen
  • A dictionary

What's in the book

Johnson's story of Omar, the son of Hassan, who at the end of a long and honored life tells a young man how every plan he made was put off and never carried out. Definitions and notes follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The book defines Bagdad as a large city on the river Tigris, in the ninth century the greatest center of Moslem power and learning, and notes Zobeide, a lady of Bagdad from the Arabian Nights.

    Before reading, find these words in the selection and look up any your student does not know: successive, caliphs, terrestrial, connubial, felicity.

  2. About the author

    The book says Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), a bookseller's son from Lichfield, left Oxford without a degree because of poverty, went to London in 1737, and lived by writing. His works include The Rambler, Rasselas, the Lives of the Poets, an edition of Shakespeare and his great English dictionary.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the opening together:

    Omar, the son of Hassan, had passed seventy-five years in honor and prosperity.

    Your student reads the rest. Notice Johnson's balanced sentences:

    The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat plans did Omar make as a young man, and what happened to each one?

    SayWhy did he keep putting them off?

    SayRead "Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance." What does it mean, and how does the story prove it?

    SayWhat advice would Omar give you today?

  5. Tell it back

    Your student retells Omar's life story as Omar tells it, plan by plan.

  6. Copywork and memory

    Copy and learn:

    The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.

  7. Write (optional)

    Write a paragraph about one plan of your own you have been putting off, and when you will begin it.

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