McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXI · Part 3: Lessons XIII-XXIV: Dickens, Gray and Patrick Henry

27. Ironical Eulogy on Debt

Goal: Your student recognizes irony in a mock-praise essay and explains what the writer really means.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 6 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

A humorous essay that pretends to praise debt and debtors and to pity creditors.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Before reading, find these words in the selection and look up any your student does not know: ironical, eulogy, antiquity, creditor, rapacious.

  2. Read it aloud

    Read the opening together:

    Debt is of the very highest antiquity.

    Your student reads on, in a serious, admiring tone that makes the joke work. Find:

    A debtor is a man of mark.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhat does "ironical eulogy" mean? Why is it a fitting title?

    SayRead: "Many persons, it will be observed, following the natural procedure, would die before they would pay their debts." What is the joke?

    SayWhy does the writer say no one ever speaks of "the poor creditor"?

    SayWhat does the writer really think of debt?

  4. Tell it back

    Your student lists the "reasons" the essay gives for admiring debt, and then says what the writer truly believes.

  5. Copywork and memory

    Copy:

    Debt is of the very highest antiquity.

  6. Write (optional)

    Write a short ironical eulogy of your own on a bad habit (putting things off, losing things).

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