Argument by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You're correct in pointing that out. This piece serves as a pedagogical preface — it's a teacher's introduction to a school edition of Longfellow's Evangeline. It's probably credited to Longfellow because it’s included in an edition of his work, but the actual text is prose guidance composed by an editor or educator, rather than a lyric poem by Longfellow.

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847) is a narrative poem that tells the story of a young Acadian woman named Evangeline. She becomes separated from her fiancé Gabriel when the British expel the Acadian people from Nova Scotia in 1755. The poem follows her lifelong quest to find him across North America. It’s crafted in dactylic hexameter—the same meter used in Homer's Iliad—which imparts an epic, sweeping quality to the verse.

They were a series of guided study questions found in the school edition of Evangeline, which this preface introduces. The goal was to provide students with specific aspects to focus on and consider, instead of allowing them to read without any guidance. You can think of them as the nineteenth-century version of today’s study guides or reading worksheets.

It's a thoughtful reworking of a familiar complaint. Rather than pointing fingers at students for being lazy, the author suggests that the underlying issue is structural — students lose interest when they fail to understand the purpose of their work. This perspective on student motivation is both empathetic and surprisingly contemporary for a text that's more than a hundred years old.

The author suggests reading Evangeline two times: the first time to grasp the story and characters, and the second time to delve into the language, beauty, and ethical themes. The idea is that you can’t truly appreciate a poem’s craft until you understand its narrative. This is a practical and well-regarded method for tackling complex literature.

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American school curricula started to standardize the texts assigned to each grade level. Evangeline was viewed as a good introduction to serious narrative poetry—long enough to warrant careful study, yet not as challenging as Milton. Seventh grade was thought to be the ideal time to begin this level of literary exploration.

In this context, 'ethical values' refers to the moral lessons and human truths found in Evangeline — themes such as loyalty, endurance, faith, and the cost of injustice. During the nineteenth century, literary education focused significantly on literature as a means of moral instruction, rather than solely for aesthetic enjoyment.

It's the author recognizing that no written guide can cover everything. A lesson plan can outline a class, but it can't ensure a teacher engages with the material or builds connections with students. The final point emphasizes that the real bond between teacher and student is what truly makes learning effective — the plan is merely a framework.