Syrian Arab Republic

Damascus university
English Department
M.A. in Applied Linguistics
Research Methodology

THE USE OF LITERATURE IN THE EFL

CLASSROOM
Written by: Wessal Bara
Supervised by: Dr. Ammar Sandouk
8.9.2020
Introduction
Literature has long been used for teaching English as a foreign language
(EFL). The use of literature was spread among many teachers because they
believed it helps students to master the language. Long time ago, the focus was
on reading and writing skills which makes literature a perfect material to be used.
Furthermore, the various types of literature offer a great opportunity to teach
different linguistic forms and structures. According to Bobkina & Dominguez
(2014), the previous twenty years have been marked by “... an explosion of work
in literary and cultural theory providing a strong basis for further research on the
relationship between literature, language and education” (p. 248). Afterwards, the
study of literature within the academic curriculum was advocated. Many
language teachers admitted that literary texts help learners to develop many
aspects of a foreign language. Moreover, Literature
“… was important not only in itself, but because it encapsulated creative
energies which were everywhere on the defensive in modern “commercial”
society. In literature, and perhaps in literature alone, a vital feel for the
creative uses of language was still manifest, in contrast to the philistine
devaluing of language and traditional culture blatantly apparent in “mass
society”. The quality of a society’s language was the most telling index of
the quality of its personal and social life; a society which had ceased to
value literature was one lethally closed to the impulses which had created
and sustained the best human civilization (Eagleton, 2004, p.50).

This paper will talk about the status of literature over the years, some of
the disadvantages and advantages of using literature to teach English as a foreign
language, and a lesson where literature was used to teach EFL will be observed.

The status of literature:

The early stages of the twentieth century, as claimed by Kramsch and
Kramsch (2000), were marked by the close study of literature of a specific
language when deciding to learn it. Therefore, literature played a key role in the
traditional method for teaching EFL which is the grammar translation method as

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texts were used as examples of good writing, language structures and grammar
rules (Duff, 1990). After the grammar translation method fell into disuse, many
views started to reject the use of literature in language classrooms in the mid of
the twentieth century. Moreover, the traditional way of teaching classic texts
through translation has yield inefficient as well as insufficient for teaching
language because the trend at that time was to focus on teaching language skills
in order to achieve proper communication (Bobkina & Dominguez, 2014).
According to Carter (2007), the period between the 40s till 60s was marked by
the absence of literature from the language learning curriculum. However, the
first half of the 1960s signifies a change in regards to this. The issue of teaching
language through literature was highlighted at the king’s college conference held
in 1963 to discuss points related to education. Furthermore, this conference
stressed the importance of using literature as a helpful means for the
teaching/learning process although previous approaches that advocate the same
ideas were brought into question. Despite all of these endeavors to bring literature
back to the classroom, it was still ignored. Llach (2007) states that the structural
approaches to language teaching ignored literature and deemed it old-fashioned
for teaching language. In addition, the functional/notional method showed the
same reaction since literature does not achieve the communicative function it
looked for.

Later on, specifically in the mid of 1980s, Stern (1985) points out that
there had been some changes in attitudes towards using literature for teaching
language as learners showed incompetency in the content knowledge and skills.
Moreover, basic literary texts needed to be introduced to learners “… to teach the
necessary strategies and study habits to enable them to undergo highly demanding
reading requirements in most tertiary level courses” (Gilroy, 1983, p.1). As a
consequence, the reintegration of literature as an essential part of the

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communicative language curricula was an objective in the mid 80s (Bobkina &
Dominguez, 2014).

Today, more research is being done to show the merits of using literature
in EFL classrooms. One research done on this area was an attempt to give new
definition to the role of culture and literature in language learning for developing
language materials, syllabuses and curricula. Moreover, the effects of the
interaction between the learner and the target-language literature were key
objectives of that research, as stated by Kramsch, 2013, liddicoat & crozet, 2000,
Hanaur, 2001, (cited in Bobkina & Dominguez, 2014).

With all these conflicting views regarding whether to use literature in the
EFL classroom or not, this paper shall present some of the disadvantages that
deems literature inappropriate for teaching language as well as the advantages
that advocate the use of it as a beneficial tool for building the learner’s knowledge
of the target-language culture which will make the learning process better.

Disadvantages of using literature in the EFL classroom

As seen, many views rejected the use of literature because there are a set of
shortcomings that hinder the process of learning or make it harder for learners. A
list of some of the disadvantages of using literature is presented as follows:

1. The language itself is an essential problem. In other words, the syntax and
vocabulary used in literary texts are too complicated which in turn makes
the reading process more demanding (Bobkina & Dominguez, 2014).
2. Cultural issues may also result in some problems according to Bobkina &
Dominguez (2014). Lima (2005) argues that even when teachers insist on
adding some aspects of the-second-language culture in the EFL classroom,
these may introduce a misleading reality.

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 3. Text selection is considered one of the disadvantages for choosing the best
one requires a great effort on the part of the teacher due to many factors
involved in this process. For example, teachers should consider the age,
level of language proficiency, gender and the background knowledge of
learners, as stated by Khatib, Rezaei, Derakhshan, 2011 (cited in Bobkina
& Dominguez 2014).
4. The length of the chosen text also poses a major difficulty. On the one
hand, texts that are too long might frighten some learners thus hinder the
process of learning the language. Shorter texts, on the other hand, may be
difficult for others because they do not have enough context nor repetition
found in longer ones (Duff & Maley 1990).

Of course, nothing goes without criticism and especially an important issue

such the one discussed in this paper, nevertheless; using literature for teaching
language has a lot of merits which will be explained next.

Advantages of using literature for language teaching:

Many argue that there are a lot of benefits for the use of literature in the EFL
classroom and they will be discussed below:

1. Authenticity
The main reason for using literature in EFL classes is authenticity. In other words,
literature offers a great deal of authentic language that is not designed specifically
for the reason of teaching a language because it deals with fundamental human
issues that can be found anywhere around the world. While learners are reading
literary texts, they are given a chance to deal with a language and style that are
intended for native speakers. Moreover, they will get used to many linguistic
forms, uses, as well as conventions of the written mode such as argument,
narration, irony, and so forth. (Collie & Slater,1987).

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 2. Cultural Enrichment
According to Collie & Slater (1987), it is believed that a visit to the country where
the language to be learned is spoken will strengthen their understanding of the
life and culture there. However, for the majority of learners, this option is not
available. As a result, literature offers these learners a way to visualize what kind
of life the inhabitants of the original country have. In other words, Literature is
“… best seen as a complement to other materials used to increase the foreign
learner’s insight into the country whose language is being learnt” (Collie & Slater,
1987, p. 6). The vivid context will prompt their imagination which in turn will
help them be familiar with the codes and preoccupations that underlie a real
society.

3. Language Enrichment
Though the language used in many literary texts is old and may not be used in its
full form in everyday life, it still offers a great chance to exploit the individual
lexical and syntactic items. For as it is stated earlier, literary texts are
contextualized which will make students feel more familiar with many features
of the written language such as sentences formation and their function, the various
structures, and the different ways used to connect ideas in a text. As a
consequence, students will be able to enrich and improve their writing skills.
Furthermore, the language used in literature enhances the ability of the learners
to make inferences. It also helps intermediate and advanced learners recognize
the range of this language. In other words, “The compressed quality of much
literary language produces unexpected density of meaning. Figurative language
yokes levels of experience that were previously distinct, casting new light on
familiar sensations and opening up new dimensions of perception in a way that
can be exhilarating but also startling and even unsettling” (Collie & Salter, 1987,

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p.7). following this process of reading and appreciating, readers themselves will
start feeling creative and adventurous.

4. Personal Involvement
While readers start dealing with literary texts, they will “… ‘inhibit’ the text.”
(Collie & Salter, 1987, p.7). Put differently, they will feel immersed in the text
ignoring every single word and phrase to get the general meaning as well as how
the events will unfold. Moreover, their emotions will be at play affecting how
they receive the events. The reader also will be motivated to read more since
she/he has control over the literary text. According to Rosenblatt (1978), literary
texts are defined in the way readers interact with them. therefore, literature is just
words on paper until readers interact with them and build their own perspective
about them.

Another set of advantages is proposed by maley (1989) and they are (a)
universality: language has no existence exclusive of the oral or written literature,
(b) non-triviality: unlike other traditional forms of language input, literature
offers authentic input, (c) imagination: readers could go beyond what is written
to arrive at conclusions of their own imagination and (d) variety: literature in this
sense offers many varieties and forms of language since it discusses a great deal
of topics.

In my opinion, the advantages overweigh the disadvantages because it

revolves around truly developing learners and help them grow their linguistic
abilities. Starting from authenticity to the imagination of the learner, literature
gives an opportunity to develop higher cognitive processes.

A lesson of literature in EFL classroom:

As you enter the classroom, the teacher stands in front of the class facing students
who are seated in four groups consisting of five members for each. The instructor

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chooses to introduce a short story entitled The Other Side of the Hedge by E. M.
Foster who is an English writer to a class of upper-intermediate learners (see
Appendix, p.18). The lesson starts with the teacher asking learners to give her
their full attention. Students are told that they will be reading this story; however,
they will stop every now and then to answer some questions. These questions as
explained by the teacher will be split into three groups. First, they will be doing
pre-reading activities which are questions asked ahead of the reading process to
help them be more prepared and anticipate the topic of the reading. Second,
learners will be dealing with while-reading activities which are questions that
help students deal with the text as if it was written in their own language.
Moreover, asking students about certain points while they are reading will help
them maximize their understanding of the short story. Finally, the post-reading
activities which are very important since they help the teacher know a lot about
the way students see and feel about the whole short story.

A. Pre-reading activities:

The teacher gives students a number of activities and questions to be

answered to help them be more prepared.

1. If you read short stories, what is your favorite genre? Have you read
a mystery short story before? What was your impression about it?

As a starting point, the teacher tries to start a discussion by eliciting

different answers from the students. The genre of the short story is introduced in
the question which will help learners think more about what to expect in the text
they will be reading. This activity is very important because the instructor moves
from general to more specific questions guiding learners to talk about their
experience reading literature of that type through a whole-class discussion.

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 2. In a group of 4 members, Read the title of the short story and see what
it tells you.

Students are asked to read the title of the story which is The Other Side of
the Hedge (see Appendix, p.18). After reading the title, they are given five
minutes to brainstorm their ideas and think about what the title could refer to with
the teacher moving around the place to ensure that they are interacting with each
other. Moreover, the groups are given another five minutes to share their ideas
with the whole class. This activity helps students to pool their knowledge of the
topic through working together.

3. Discuss the following sentences with your group. What are your
opinions about each one? Do you think they are related in a way to
the title and the content of the story?

 Parting with the place we feel we belong to is hard.

 Mankind fear the concept of death.
 Acceptance is a demanding yet courageous action.

Learners are required to discuss and write their opinions about these
sentences. The teacher walks around them and steps in every now and then to
help them if there is something unclear. After five minutes, the class is asked to
stop and share their ideas. Each group starts to share ideas with the instructor
encouraging the rest to participate in a whole-class discussion. The teacher
observes how students interact and use the English language to express
conceptual ideas presented by her such as death, life, and acceptance.

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 4. Read the following sentences that are taken out from the story and
guess the meaning of the underlined words based on the context.
Check your answers in a dictionary.

a) “MY PEDOMETER TOLD me that I was twenty-five; and, though

it is a shocking thing to stop walking” (see Appendix, p.18).
b) “But I had travelled more wisely, and now it was only the monotony
of the highway that oppressed me” (see Appendix, p.19).
c) “He was a man of fifty or sixty—just the kind of age we mistrust on
the road—but there was no anxiety in his manner, and his voice was
that of a boy of eighteen.” (see Appendix, p.20).

d) “I tried to shake him off, for we had no interests in common, and his
civility was becoming irksome to me.” (see Appendix, p.23).

“Though my senses were sinking into oblivion, they seemed to

expand ere they reached it.” (see Appendix, p.23).

Having spent some minutes discussing with each other, students start
checking their dictionaries to get the accurate meaning with the teacher observing
and ensuring they are cooperating and helping them with searching. This activity
is important because it teaches students to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar
word relying on the context in the first place. Moreover, it introduces what type
of vocabularies they might find within the text.

5. Read the following quote that is taken out from the story and try to
guess how it is related to the topic of the short story.

“The laws of science are universal in their application. It must be the

water in the moat that has injured the machinery. In normal conditions
everything works. Science and the spirit of emulation—those are the
forces that have made us what we are” (see Appendix, p. 21)

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 The teacher introduced the word ‘pedometer’ and tried to prompt students’
minds to think that it is a product of science and development. This activity helps
learners to know more about what will be tackled in the story. The instructor tells
the class “I am listening to you”. They are encouraged to share their predictions
to confirm them later on while reading which will help them come up with events
that might be found within the story.

While-reading activities

Having set the students ready to start reading, the teacher begins this
process in collaboration with the whole class with pauses every now and then to
do some activities and they are as follows.

1. Read the passage below and do the following:

a. Identify the topic sentence.

b. Identify the verb tenses used and write sentences of your own.

“And I had already dropped several things—indeed, the road behind was
strewn with the things we all had dropped; and the white dust was settling
down on them, so that already they looked no better than stones. My muscles
were so weary that I could not even bear the weight of those things I still
carried. I slid off the milestone into the road, and lay there prostrate, with
my face to the great parched hedge, praying that I might give up.” (see
Appendix, p.18)

After reading the previous passage, the teacher stops and asks students to
spend ten minutes re-reading it in order to identify its topic sentence and
determine the verb tenses used in narration. The whole class is then required to
write two sentences using these tenses. This activity is important because it
enables students to scan for specific information and practice some grammar
points. Moreover, it gives them the opportunity to know the type of grammar is
used in such literary genres.

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 2. In groups of 4 members, read the second page carefully to identify the
connectors. Write the function for each.

The instructor asks learners to read the second page of the story (see
Appendix, p. 19) in pairs and highlight the connectors used. The teacher observes
this process and helps some of them when needed. After identifying these
connectors, they are asked to write what each of them refer to. This activity
introduces students to the various types of connectors. It also helps them to see
how each is used to connect sentences and paragraphs in order to achieve
cohesion in the story.

3. Read the following passage silently. Jot down the ideas it introduces.
beyond the literal meaning, what inferential meaning might this
passage, specifically some words such as “hedge”, “race”, and “road”,
hold?

“People always are astonished at meeting each other. All kinds come
through the hedge, and come at all times—when they are drawing ahead
in the race, when they are lagging behind, when they are left for dead. I
often stand near the boundary listening to the sounds of the road—you
know what they are—and wonder if anyone will turn aside. It is my great
happiness to help someone out of the moat, as I helped you. For our
country fills up slowly, though it was meant for all mankind.” (see
Appendix, p. 21).

The teacher reads the passage in a normal speed and shares some ideas
related to death, life, and how human beings live their lives as if they were
competing. After discussing these ideas, students are asked to start reading taking
those words into consideration. The importance of this activity lies in getting
students to think outside the box. In other words, they will have to abandon the
literal meaning in search of the implied meaning that is related to the real world.

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 4. The narrator was shocked that his machine stops which left him in a
state of denial. Analyze his character and try to guess what will he say
or do about this issue?

The teacher allows the class to share their prediction and guesses about
what might the narrator say or do based on his reaction as well as their analysis.
This activity is not done once rather multiple times throughout the process of
reading to provoke students’ imagination in order to think of other possibilities
and actions.

5. Read the last page carefully and place question marks whenever
something feels ambiguous. Write comments about what you are feeling in
order to share them with the whole class after finishing. Were you
surprised, satisfied, annoyed, or any of the like?

The teacher now asks students to start reading themselves. They are given
ten minutes to read the last page of the story silently (see Appendix, pp. 22-23).
Learners start reading and doing what is required under the guidance of the
instructor. This activity is very important according to the teacher because it
makes students interact with the text adding their own feelings and ideas.

Because it is a short story of five pages, the teacher decided to read it in a

single sitting. After finishing reading, students are invited to do some post-
reading activities to ensure that they understood the short story well.

Post-reading activities:

1. In pairs, answer the following questions.

a. What kind of device does the narrator have?

b. Where is the narrator going and who has he left?

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 c. Is the narrator a science person? Where in the text does he refer
to science?
d. What does the road resemble?
e. Why does the narrator want to come back to life?
f. Was the man able to accept the fact that he is dead now? How?

To ensure that students have understood some of the major points and
events mentioned in the short story, the teacher asked them these questions.
learners are asked to write the answers in no more than 3 sentences.

2. write True or False for each of these sentences.

 The narrator crosses the hedge knowing that he will never be able
to get back.
 The narrator falls into a lake and sinks.
 The person the narrator meets is someone close to him.
 Death is not a major theme of this short story.
 The concept of acceptance flourishes as the narrator finally
understands that he is dead now.
 The narrator says that he loves spending evening meals with the
country people.

The instructor stands in front of the class and reads the previous sentences
with a high-pitched voice asking learners to answer immediately. This activity
enables both the teacher and students to check whether they remember some of
the details and analysis discussed while reading. Moreover, it gives the teacher
an insight about how focused the class was while reading the short story.

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 3. In no more than 150 words, summarize the major events in a well-
organized way.

The teacher instructs the class to form groups of 4 members before starting
the activity. This activity helps the teacher to know whether students were able
to follow the sequence of events well. Furthermore, it gives students more
freedom to reconstruct the story in their own words.

4. Skim the following passage and identify as many parts of speech as you
can. Make sure to write the function of each one.

“The road sometimes doubles, to be sure, but that is part of our discipline.
Who can doubt that its general tendency is onward? To what goal we know
not—it may be to some mountain where we shall touch the sky, it may be
over precipices into the sea. But that it goes forward—who can doubt that?
It is the thought of that that makes us strive to excel, each in his own way,
and gives us an impetus which is lacking with you. Now that man who
passed us—it’s true that he ran well, and jumped well, and swam well; but
we have men who can run better, and men who can jump better, and who
can swim better. Specialization has produced results which would surprise
you. Similarly, that girl—” (see Appendix, p. 21)

The teacher asks the class to do this activity in pairs and helps them by
identifying one leaving for the rest to be done by them. As for the importance of
such an activity, it helps learners to identify the different parts of speech and how
they occur in a piece of writing. Later on, they will be able to know that, for
example, repeating the same noun will damage the cohesion of the story.

5. Reflect on these two sentences. Speak about them using your

interpretation of the story.

“Give me life, with its struggles and victories, with its failures and hatreds,
with its deep moral meaning and its unknown goal!” (see Appendix, p.22).

14
 “This is where your road ends, and through this gate humanity—all that is
left of it—will come in to us.” (see Appendix, p.22).

For this activity, the cognitive skills of the students are provoked. Alternatively
speaking, students will have to read carefully, think deeply, and express how they
feel about important concepts like death and denial.

Conclusion

As discussed above, literature plays an important role in learning a foreign

language. Despite all of the disadvantages of the use of literature in classrooms,
the merits are the ones worth going for. For example, literature, as said earlier,
offers words and grammar in context which is contradictory to the way of
teaching used by some teachers nowadays. Moreover, it provokes the reader to
think, analyze, criticize, and even create their own version of the same story. The
lesson explained above manifests the way literature will be used. Different
vocabularies were tackled in context. Students were also asked to contribute and
reflect on some concepts. Furthermore, they knew indirectly how to write a
paragraph using different connectors and parts of speech. In my opinion,
literature should be an essential stage of the process of learning a foreign
language. Learners, one way or another, should be introduced to literary text to
discover the culture of the foreign language and build on this knowledge through
the following stages.

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 Reference list:

Bobkina, J. & Dominguez, E. (2014). The use of literature and literary texts in
the EFL classroom: between consensus and controversy. Australia: Australian
International Academic center. 3(2), 248-260. Retrieved 18, July, 2020 from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270449942_The_Use_of_Literature_a
nd_Literary_Texts_in_the_EFL_Classroom_Between_Consensus_and_Controv
ersy
Carter, R. (2007). Literature and language teaching 1986-2006: a review.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 17 (1), 3-13.

Collie, J. & Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom: a Resource

Book of Ideas and Activities. Cambridge: CUP.

Duff, A., Maley, A. (1990). Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Eagleton, T. (2004). After Theory. Ashville, NC: Basic Books.

Gilroy-Scott, N. (1983). Teaching Literature Overseas: Language-Based

Approaches. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Kramsch, C. & O. Kramsch (2000). The avatars of literature in language study.

The Modern Language Journal 84 (1), 553-573.

Lima, C. (2005). Is the rest silence … ? IATEFL (186). Retrieved 21 july, 2020
from https://associates.iatefl.org/pages/materials/voicespdf/ltskills11.pdf

Llach, P. A. (2007). Teaching language through literature: the waste land in the
esl classroom. Odisea (8), 7-17. Retrieved 21 july, 2020 from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0fcf/2a24137db90f3d9f4d56895b3dd8c5cf8b1
6.pdf

Maley, A. (1989). Down from the Pedestal: Literature as Resource. In Literature

and the Learner: Methodological Approaches. Cambridge: Modern English
Publications.

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Stern, S. (1985). Teaching Literature in ESL/EFL: an Integrative Approach. Los
Angeles: University of California.

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 Appendix

The Other Side of the Hedge

by E. M. Forster (1911)

MY PEDOMETER TOLD me that I was twenty-five; and, though it is a shocking

thing to stop walking, I was so tired that I sat down on a milestone to rest. People
outstripped me, jeering as they did so, but I was too apathetic to feel resentful,
and even when Miss Eliza Dimbleby, the great educationist, swept past, exhorting
me to persevere, I only smiled and raised my hat.

At first I thought I was going to be like my brother, whom I had had to

leave by the roadside a year or two round the corner. He had wasted his breath on
singing, and his strength on helping others. But I had travelled more wisely, and
now it was only the monotony of the highway that oppressed me—dust under
foot and brown crackling hedges on either side, ever since I could remember.

And I had already dropped several things—indeed, the road behind was
strewn with the things we all had dropped; and the white dust was settling down
on them, so that already they looked no better than stones. My muscles were so
weary that I could not even bear the weight of those things I still carried. I slid
off the milestone into the road, and lay there prostrate, with my face to the great
parched hedge, praying that I might give up.

A little puff of air revived me. It seemed to come from the hedge; and,
when I opened my eyes, there was a glint of light through the tangle of boughs
and dead leaves. The hedge could not be as thick as usual. In my weak, morbid
state, I longed to force my way in, and see what was on the other side. No one
was in sight, or I should not have dared to try. For we of the road do not admit in
conversation that there is another side at all.

I yielded to the temptation, saying to myself that I would come back in a

minute. The thorns scratched my face, and I had to use my arms as a shield,
depending on my feet alone to push me forward. Halfway through I would have
gone back, for in the passage all the things I was carrying were scraped off me,
and my clothes were torn. But I was so wedged that return was impossible, and I
had to wriggle blindly forward, expecting every moment that my strength would
fail me, and that I should perish in the undergrowth.

Suddenly cold water closed round my head, and I seemed sinking down for
ever. I had fallen out of the hedge into a deep pool. I rose to the surface at last,
crying for help, and I heard someone on the opposite bank laugh and say:
“Another!” And then I was twitched out and laid panting on the dry ground.

18
 Even when the water was out of my eyes, I was still dazed, for I had never
been in so large a space, nor seen such grass and sunshine. The blue sky was no
longer a strip, and beneath it the earth had risen grandly into hills—clean, bare
buttresses, with beech trees in their folds, and meadows and clear pools at their
feet. But the hills were not high, and there was in the landscape a sense of human
occupation—so that one might have called it a park, or garden, if the words did
not imply a certain triviality and constraint.

As soon as I got my breath, I turned to my rescuer and said:

“Where does this place lead to?”

“Nowhere, thank the Lord!” said he, and laughed. He was a man of fifty or
sixty—just the kind of age we mistrust on the road—but there was no anxiety in
his manner, and his voice was that of a boy of eighteen.

“But it must lead somewhere!” I cried, too much surprised at his answer to thank
him for saving my life.

“He wants to know where it leads!” he shouted to some men on the hill side, and
they laughed back, and waved their caps.

I noticed then that the pool into which I had fallen was really a moat which
bent round to the left and to the right, and that the hedge followed it continually.
The hedge was green on this side—its roots showed through the clear water, and
fish swam about in them—and it was wreathed over with dog-roses and traveler’s
Joy. But it was a barrier, and in a moment I lost all pleasure in the grass, the sky,
the trees, the happy men and women, and realized that the place was but a prison,
for all its beauty and extent.

We moved away from the boundary, and then followed a path almost
parallel to it, across the meadows. I found it difficult walking, for I was always
trying to out-distance my companion, and there was no advantage in doing this if
the place led nowhere. I had never kept step with anyone since I left my brother.

I amused him by stopping suddenly and saying disconsolately, “This is perfectly

terrible. One cannot advance: one cannot progress. Now we of the road—”

“Yes. I know.”
“I was going to say, we advance continually.” “I know.”

“We are always learning, expanding, developing. Why, even in my short life I
have seen a great deal of advance—the Transvaal War, the Fiscal Question,
Christian Science, Radium. Here for example—”

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I took out my pedometer, but it still marked twenty-five, not a degree more.

“Oh, it’s stopped! I meant to show you. It should have registered all the time I
was walking with you. But it makes me only twenty-five.”

“Many things don’t work in here,” he said. “One day a man brought in a Lee-
Metford, and that wouldn’t work.”

“The laws of science are universal in their application. It must be the water in the
moat that has injured the machinery. In normal conditions everything works.
Science and the spirit of emulation—those are the forces that have made us what
we are.”

I had to break off and acknowledge the pleasant greetings of people whom
we passed. Some of them were singing, some talking, some engaged in gardening,
hay-making, or other rudimentary industries. They all seemed happy; and I might
have been happy too, if I could have forgotten that the place led nowhere.

I was startled by a young man who came sprinting across our path, took a
little fence in fine style, and went tearing over a ploughed field till he plunged
into a lake, across which he began to swim. Here was true energy, and I
exclaimed: “A cross-country race! Where are the others?”

“There are no others,” my companion replied; and, later on, when we passed some
long grass from which came the voice of a girl singing exquisitely to herself, he
said again: “There are no others.” I was bewildered at the waste in production,
and murmured to myself, “What does it all mean?”

He said: “It means nothing but itself”—and he repeated the words slowly, as if I
were a child.

“I understand,” I said quietly, “but I do not agree. Every achievement is worthless

unless it is a link in the chain of development. And I must not trespass on your
kindness any longer. I must get back somehow to the road, and have my
pedometer mended.”

“First, you must see the gates,” he replied, “for we have gates, though we never
use them.”

I yielded politely, and before long we reached the moat again, at a point
where it was spanned by a bridge. Over the bridge was a big gate, as white as
ivory, which was fitted into a gap in the boundary hedge. The gate opened
outwards, and I exclaimed in amazement, for from it ran a road—just such a road

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as I had left—dusty under foot, with brown crackling hedges on either side as far
as the eye could reach.

“That’s my road!” I cried.

He shut the gate and said: “But not your part of the road. It is through this gate
that humanity went out countless ages ago, when it was first seized with the desire
to walk.”

I denied this, observing that the part of the road I myself had left was not
more than two miles off. But with the obstinacy of his years he repeated: “It is
the same road. This is the beginning, and though it seems to run straight away
from us, it doubles so often, that it is never far from our boundary and sometimes
touches it.” He stooped down by the moat, and traced on its moist margin an
absurd figure like a maze. As we walked back through the meadows, I tried to
convince him of his mistake.

“The road sometimes doubles, to be sure, but that is part of our discipline. Who
can doubt that its general tendency is onward? To what goal we know not—it
may be to some mountain where we shall touch the sky, it may be over precipices
into the sea. But that it goes forward—who can doubt that? It is the thought of
that that makes us strive to excel, each in his own way, and gives us an impetus
which is lacking with you. Now that man who passed us—it’s true that he ran
well, and jumped well, and swam well; but we have men who can run better, and
men who can jump better, and who can swim better. Specialization has produced
results which would surprise you. Similarly, that girl—”

Here I interrupted myself to exclaim: “Good gracious me! I could have sworn it
was Miss Eliza Dimbleby over there, with her feet in the fountain!”

He believed that it was.

“Impossible! I left her on the road, and she is due to lecture this evening at
Tunbridge Wells. Why, her train leaves Cannon Street in—of course my watch
has stopped like everything else. She is the last person to be here.”

“People always are astonished at meeting each other. All kinds come through the
hedge, and come at all times—when they are drawing ahead in the race, when
they are lagging behind, when they are left for dead. I often stand near the
boundary listening to the sounds of the road—you know what they are—and
wonder if anyone will turn aside. It is my great happiness to help someone out of
the moat, as I helped you. For our country fills up slowly, though it was meant
for all mankind.”

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“Mankind have other aims,” I said gently, for I thought him well-meaning; “and
I must join them.” I bade him good evening, for the sun was declining, and I
wished to be on the road by nightfall. To my alarm, he caught hold of me, crying:
“You are not to go yet!” I tried to shake him off, for we had no interests in
common, and his civility was becoming irksome to me. But for all my struggles
the tiresome old man would not let go; and, as wrestling is not my specialty, I
was obliged to follow him.

It was true that I could have never found alone the place where I came in,
and I hoped that, when I had seen the other sights about which he was worrying,
he would take me back to it. But I was determined not to sleep in the country, for
I mistrusted it, and the people too, for all their friendliness. Hungry though I was,
I would not join them in their evening meals of milk and fruit, and, when they
gave me flowers, I flung them away as soon as I could do so unobserved. Already
they were lying down for the night like cattle—some out on the bare hillside,
others in groups under the beeches. In the light of an orange sunset I hurried on
with my unwelcome guide, dead tired, faint for want of food, but murmuring
indomitably: “Give me life, with its struggles and victories, with its failures and
hatreds, with its deep moral meaning and its unknown goal!”

At last we came to a place where the encircling moat was spanned by

another bridge, and where another gate interrupted the line of the boundary hedge.
It was different from the first gate; for it was half transparent like horn, and
opened inwards. But

through it, in the waning light, I saw again just such a road as I had left—
monotonous, dusty, with brown crackling hedges on either side, as far as the eye
could reach.

I was strangely disquieted at the sight, which seemed to deprive me of all

self-control. A man was passing us, returning for the night to the hills, with a
scythe over his shoulder and a can of some liquid in his hand. I forgot the destiny
of our race. I forgot the road that lay before my eyes, and I sprang at him,
wrenched the can out of his hand, and began to drink.

It was nothing stronger than beer, but in my exhausted state it overcame

me in a moment. As in a dream, I saw the old man shut the gate, and heard him
say: “This is where your road ends, and through this gate humanity—all that is
left of it—will come in to us.”

Though my senses were sinking into oblivion, they seemed to expand ere
they reached it. They perceived the magic song of nightingales, and the odour of
invisible hay, and stars piercing the fading sky. The man whose beer I had stolen

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lowered me down gently to sleep off its effects, and, as he did so, I saw that he
was my brother.

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