[We request the president or secretary of every local circle to send us reports of their work, of lectures, concerts, entertainments, etc. Editor ofThe Chautauquan, Meadville, Pa.]
[We request the president or secretary of every local circle to send us reports of their work, of lectures, concerts, entertainments, etc. Editor ofThe Chautauquan, Meadville, Pa.]
The growth of the C. L. S. C. has been without restraint of any kind. The organization is simple, but few officers, a brief constitution, and indeed none of the paraphernalia is required which we usually find dictated from the center of a wide-spread organization. No creed to sign, no shibboleth to pronounce. A person has simply to make out an application for membership, send it to Miss Kimball at Plainfield, N. J., and then read the books. It was natural that kindred spirits, doing the same work, should invent local circles, which, while they are not required, yet are helpful to the students. Mind coming in contact with mind will produce an intellectual quickening. Students will get more out of the books by a system of questioning. Bonds of union will be created by meeting together, and the strong will have opportunity to help the weak, and the weak will learn to appreciate the local organization because of the real helps it affords them in their studies. We invite secretaries to send us carefully prepared reports of the work done in their local circles. Do this for the benefit of others. The calls upon us are numerous for information about how to conduct local circles to make them interesting and profitable. Below we furnish our readers with some suggestive items sent us from flourishing circles. They will bear studying and in most instances are worthy of imitation.
This is the fifth year of the local circle in Oswego, N. Y., and it numbers about twenty-five members of all denominations, and meets every Monday evening. We bring nearly all our studies into the circle meetings in this way. Each Monday evening a lesson is announced by the President to be studied the following week, and a member appointed to act as teacher, who conducts the lesson on the appointed evening, using maps, blackboard, etc., having a regular class drill. A good deal of enthusiasm and interest is manifested. A critic is appointed each month. We have a literary committee, which reports each week with selections from poetic or prose writers. This committee is appointed each month. We have adopted a new plan of arranging the lessons, which distributes this part of the work among the members. A member is assigned, for instance, the work on geology with instructions to divide it into lessons, which is done and a report handed to the president, with the name of member opposite each lesson to act as a teacher. We occasionally have social gatherings at the homes of members, one of the most enjoyable of which was the art social of last winter. A resolution has been adopted naming our circle “Markham C. L. S. C. of Oswego,” in honor of Rev. W. F. Markham, who organized our circle.
Members of the C. L. S. C. in Augusta, Me., made no effort to form a local circle here till April, 1882, when the Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent was present and gave us a talk on the C. L. S. C. work. The outgrowth was a strong sentiment in favor of forming a circle here, and after several preliminary meetings, a local circle was organized September 25. At the last meeting, October 10, the membership was increased to twenty-seven. On that evening we had essays, questions and conversation upon the reading in the course. The order of exercises is prepared by the committee of instruction, and is varied in character, only confining the topics to the subjects of the required reading. We have decided to hold meetings once in four weeks. The members anticipate a very interesting winter’s work.
Our circle in South Marshfield, Mass., was not organized till a year ago, although we were then beginning the third year of our course. Our organization was a direct result of the Round-Table held at Framingham Assembly. We meet every week. The required readings are divided into six parts; each member takes one, on which she prepares questions for the next meeting; the questions inThe Chautauquanare read, and parts of the little text-books. The meetings are enlivened by the reading of two or three short essays, and by relating interesting incidents suggested by the lesson. We sometimes sing C. L. S. C. songs, and have readings from standard authors. Our meetings are usually closed by playing one of the Chautauqua games, which we consider not only pleasant, but healthful, as they give us a constant review of our work. We organized our circle this year the first of September, instead of the first of October, in order that we might take up the whole of the first volume of Grecian history, and have found that our interest is continually increasing, and our meetings this year are even superior to those of the previous year. By circulating the “Hall in the Grove,” we have gained one new member, who seems intensely interested.
In Michigan City we have a membership in our local circle of twenty-eight, twenty-three of whom intend to read the entire course, and five will do as much of the work as they can. The officers are president, vice president, and secretary. Our method of work is, no doubt, similar to other circles. We meet twice a month to review the work. Members are given topics to study and to prepare to ask the circle such questions as they may formulate. In this way the work is not left for a few to carry on, but all become interested and active working members.
Our local circle of the C. L. S. C. in Bradford, Pa., is one of several in this place, and is designated the “Longfellow Class,” in distinction from the others. We have limited our number to ten members, thinking by that means to promote individual interest. We have but two officers, a president and secretary. We meet weekly, at the homes of the different members. We have no leader appointed for the year, but every four weeks one member of the class is elected conductor of exercises for the ensuing month. The manner of reviewing the lessons varies. The conductor sometimes asks questions, when the topics are freely discussed by all; sometimes the subjects are apportioned to individual members to be talked over, or a synopsis of certain portions given by them. At the close of the lesson, fifteen minutes is devoted to discussing all rhetorical errors made during the evening.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, “Centenary Circle” numbers about thirty members. The officers are president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Meetings are held at the house of the secretary on the first and third Wednesday evenings of the month. Thus far this year the president has conducted the meetings, asking each member of the class questions on the lesson, from which discussions often arise. Last year members of the class were sometimes asked to conduct the meeting. No essays were ever written, but sometimes each member was asked to be prepared on given topics to be recited at the next meeting. No concerts or public entertainments have been given, nor did we observe any of the memorial days except Longfellow’s. We were quite in the dark about the work when we commenced, but very anxious to take up some systematic course of reading, and would not give it up now for any consideration.
The Hockanum, Connecticut, C. L. S. C. met informally last year, and was organized September 25. Three yearsago there was but one member of the C. L. S. C. in the place, the year following three, and last year six. Our membership is now eighteen, and the interest both excellent and increasing. The circle meets every Monday evening at the house of the secretary. At 7 p. m. promptly a brief Scripture reading and prayer opens the meeting. After a few moments given to business, the questions in the text-book andThe Chautauquanare asked, and a record kept of those who have done the week’s required reading and memorizing. We are notified that many and varied are the household duties performed with the little text-book perched in divers nooks. The president appoints four readers and a critic for each evening. The reading is selected from some portion of the weekly required reading. This is followed by questions, remarks, or general conversation relative to the subject, etc. The reading closes at nine o’clock, after which we have music and a social chat. The circle has arranged and entered upon a course of ten public lectures on Geology, given every Wednesday evening by the president, in the vestry of the Congregational Church. The occasion is made interesting by the use of black-boards, maps, the Packard plates, neatly mounted on easels, and a cabinet of rocks and shells illustrative of Dana’s “Geologic Story Briefly Told.” The room is also made cheery by a conspicuous grouping of the class mottoes framed in gilt, and other ornamentation luminous with the monogram, C. L. S. C. The attendance is good, and the attention held closely by the youthful tyro who has won laurels by his clear and happy presentation of the subject. It is always a most instructive and enjoyable evening to the circle and their friends. Our circle early voted to observe “Memorial Days,” the observance to fall on the regular evening nearest memorial date. For Bryant’s Day we have arranged for two essays by young ladies, one on the life, the other on the works of the poet. The other members are each to give recitations of choice or favorite selections from Bryant. We are looking forward to a pleasant social time.
Norwalk, O., October 30, 1882.
We have held two regular meetings of our circle since November 1st and we are now fairly at work. The membership has more than doubled in the last two meetings and may double again before the books are closed. There never was a time before when the circle was under half so good headway at this time of year. Members who are joining now are doing so more understandingly than it was possible to do in the experimental stage of the C. L. S. C. and the results are proportionately more reliable. We meet once in two weeks in a music store at 7:30 p. m. and close at 9 p. m. Our order of exercises is prayer, roll, minutes, business, program, adjournment. We have the geological charts and begin to realize the need of a suitable place of meeting where we can accumulate maps, charts, cabinet and museum; we need just such a room in connection with and a part of our public library, convenient of access and open to visitors on this and all other occasions. There could scarcely be found a city whose people would more appreciate such a resort. Norwalk has a very fine public library, and the librarian states that since the organization of the various reading circles there has been a revolution in the class of books in demand; that while the lighter literature is seldom called for, standard works, shelf-worn for years, are now in frequent use; that she knows from the effect on the library that a change has come over the reading public. So far as we are able to discover from reports elsewhere, our circle rather excels in developing the individual talent of its members. In our entire circle there will probably not be one who will not present one or more topics in papers or addresses during the year, as time permits, and equal opportunity is given to all. Our plan is to follow down the class roll, beginning at the top, and the leader is handed a list of ten or twelve names from which he selects six or eight persons to whom he assigns topics, the roll itself being prepared for that purpose. Each member is expected to make a minute of all the topics assigned that he may prepare for the conversation, or visiting and questioning which follows each topic. From five to eight minutes is allowed for each paper, address, selection or conversation, and the president, who keeps an open watch, is expected to give notice when the time is up to persons not otherwise aware. The roll is prepared with a margin at the top for dates, and the presence of each member is marked with a cross, while those late are marked with a diagonal line; each person who discharges program duty is marked with a dot supplementing the cross of that date. The next list is made as the first, passing over the dots, always working the roll from the top and leaving it complete. The minutes are kept on the body of each page, leaving the margin on the left of the red line for anything intended for an annual report, such as number in attendance, number of visitors, number of members and a list of those in program numbered, opposite whose names, in the regular minutes, are their topics or themes. In this way a complete record of each member is kept, and by referring from each dot to the minutes of that date an individual or annual report can be readily made which otherwise would be tedious at least. Our officers and leaders are elected by ballot and we rely entirely on the leader to conduct the exercises as he thinks best. Last year, from a list of forty-six names, thirteen were reading for diplomas; this year, with a present membership of forty-one, thirty-six are reading for seals or diplomas, twelve having graduated in 1882.
[Not Required.]
ONE HUNDRED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “PREPARATORY GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH,” INCLUDING THE TOPICS: OUR AIM, THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, THEIR WRITINGS, THE START, FIRST BOOK IN GREEK, THE GREEK READER, AND XENOPHON’S ANABASIS.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN,General SecretaryC. L. S. C.
1. Q. What is the primary design of the series of books of which the “Preparatory Greek Course in English” is one? A. To enable persons prevented from accomplishing a course of school and college training in Latin and Greek, to enjoy an advantage as nearly as possible equivalent, through the medium of their native tongue.
2. Q. What is the specific object of the present particular volume? A. To put into the hands of readers the means of accomplishing, so far as this can be done in English, the same course of study in Greek as that prescribed for those who are preparing to enter college.
3. Q. What signal example in the modern world, and what still more signal example in the ancient, of the fact that extent of territory is not chiefly what makes the greatness of a great people? A. England in the modern world, and Greece in the ancient.
4. Q. What was the extent of the utmost area of Greece? A. Two hundred and fifty miles by one hundred and eighty miles. Greece was less than one-half the size of the State of New York.
5. Q. In what latitude is Greece? A. About the same as the State of Virginia.
6. Q. Of what three most famous peoples in the world are the Greeks one? A. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans.
7. Q. Of the three for what were the Greeks by far the most remarkable? A. For the variety and versatility of their genius.
8. Q. By what name did the Greeks speak of themselves, and what was their name for the land in which they lived? A. Hellenes, and Hellas was their name for the land in which they lived.
9. Q. When trustworthy history begins, what were the three chief divisions of the Hellenic stock? A. The Dorians, the Æolians and the Ionians.
10. Q. Give the names of four prominent cities of Greece. A. Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth.
11. Q. Of all that the Greeks did in the world, what remains to us recognizably in the form given it by their cunning brain and hand? A. A few coins, architectural remains and sculpture, and some masterpieces of literary composition.
12. Q. For what two things is the literature of Greece equally remarkable? A. For its matter and for its form.
13. Q. What is said of the form of Greek literature? A. There never has been elsewhere in the world so much written approaching so nearly to ideal perfection in form as among the Greeks.
14. Q. Under what limitations did the ancient Greeks do their work? A. They were pagans. They groped for truth, and they missed it oftener than they found it, at least in the case of their philosophy.
15. Q. In what departments of literature do we have, without reserve, to acknowledge the supremacy of the Greeks? A. In eloquence, and in the literature of rhetoric, of taste, and of criticism.
16. Q. What was the golden age of Greek literature, Greek art and Greek arms? A. The age of Pericles.
17. Q. What is said of the pronunciation of their language by the ancient Greeks? A. Nobody knows with certainty exactly how the ancient Greeks pronounced their language.
18. Q. What has been the general rule for scholars in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To pronounce it somewhat according to the analogy of their own vernacular.
19. Q. What attempt, only partially successful, has recently been made to introduce uniformity in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To secure the common adoption of the pronunciation prevalent in Greece at the present day.
20. Q. What method, devised at first for facilitating the study of modern languages, has more lately been applied in various modifications to both Latin and Greek? A. What is called the Ollendorff method.
21. Q. What two things determine largely what Greek text-books shall be used? A. The patronage of leading colleges, and the books issued by leading publishing houses.
22. Q. What four Greek grammars are mentioned as perhaps the best? A. Hadley’s, Goodwin’s, Crosby’s, and Sophocles’.
23. Q. To what sources of Greek learning do all these manuals acknowledge their indebtedness? A. To German sources of Greek learning.
24. Q. Who is the most recent of the great German authorities in Greek grammar? A. Curtius.
25. Q. What two other German authorities, now a little antiquated, were each a great name in his day? A. Kühner and Buttman.
26. Q. In what dialect are the books chiefly written from which the selections are taken in making up Greek readers? A. The Attic dialect; that is the dialect spoken in Attica, of which Athens was the capital.
27. Q. By way of comparison what does our author say Athens was to Greece in literature? A. What Paris is, and always has been, to France.
28. Q. Where is a singularly beautiful passage found descriptive of Athens in her imperial supremacy of intellect? A. In Milton’s “Paradise Regained.”
29. Q. How many chief dialects were there of the Greek language, and how were they created? A. There were three, created in part by differences of age, and in part by differences of country.
30. Q. In whose writings is the Ionic dialect exemplified, and how is it characterized? A. In the writings of Homer and Herodotus, and is characterized by fluent sweetness to the ear.
31. Q. In what dialect were the most of the greatest works in Greek literature composed? A. The Attic.
32. Q. What is said of the Attic dialect? A. It is the neatest, most cultivated and most elegant of all the varieties of Greek speech.
33. Q. To whom are the fables commonly attributed that are generally found in Greek readers? A. Æsop.
34. Q. When was Æsop born? A. About 620 B. C.
35. Q. What is said of the fables that go under his name? A. They are mainly the collection of a monk of the fourteenth century.
36. Q. What is said of the sources of the anecdotes found in Greek readers? A. They are culled from various sources, Plutarch, the biographer, furnishing his full share.
37. Q. Give the names of some of the eminent persons about whom anecdotes are usually related in these collections. A. Diogenes, Plato, Zeno, Solon, Alexander, and Philip of Macedon.
38. Q. What Greek writer of the second century after Christ is more or less quoted from in the ordinary Greek reader? A. Lucian.
39. Q. What famous dialogues did he write? A. Dialogues of the Dead.
40. Q. Of what have these dialogues been the original? A. Of several justly admired imitations.
41. Q. In what direction did Lucian exercise his wit? A. In ridiculing paganism.
42. Q. Mention some of the kinds of other matter that goes to make up the Greek reader. A. Bits of natural history and fragments of mythology.
43. Q. From what work of Xenophon do Greek readers often embrace extracts? A. His Memorabilia of Socrates.
44. Q. What was the design of this work? A. To vindicate the memory of Socrates from the charges of impiety and of corrupting influence exerted on the Athenian youth, under which he had suffered the penalty of death.
45. Q. What is the plan of the work? A. It is largely to relate what Socrates did actually teach.
46. Q. What work by a Christian writer does pagan Socrates in large part anticipate? A. “Natural Theology,” by Paley.
47. Q. Who was the wife of Socrates? A. Xanthippe.
48. Q. In what way has the fame of Socrates associated the name of Xanthippe with his own? A. As perhaps the most celebrated scold in the world.
49. Q. What was the chief characteristic trait of the method of Socrates in teaching? A. His art in asking questions.
50. Q. Why is it that Greek readers sometimes edit the text of their extracts from the authors who furnish the matter? A. Because they sometimes contain expressions such as a strict Christian, moral or æsthetic judgment would prefer to expunge.
51. Q. What is the book usually adopted in sequel to the reader for giving students their Greek preparation to enter college? A. Xenophon’s Anabasis.
52. Q. In what two respects is this work highly interesting? A. First, as a specimen of literary art, and second, as strikingly illustrative of the Greek spirit and character.
53. Q. What is the meaning of the word “Anabasis?” A. “A march upward,” that is, from the sea.
54. Q. Of what is the book an account? A. Of an expedition by Cyrus the younger into central Asia, and the retreat of the Greek part of his army.
55. Q. Who accompanied Cyrus on this expedition? A. An oriental army of about 100,000, and a body of Greeks numbering about 13,000.
56. Q. What was the object of this invasion on the part of Cyrus? A. To obtain possession of the Persian throne, occupied by his brother Artaxerxes.
57. Q. When the two Persian brothers finally met in the collision of arms who was slain? A. Cyrus.
58. Q. What did the Greeks now have for their sole business? A. To secure their own safety in withdrawing homeward from the enemy’s country.
59. Q. In what does the main interest of the Anabasis as a narrative lie? A. Rather in the retreat than in the advance.
60. Q. From what does the whole matter of the famous advance and retreat of the ten thousand derive grave secondary importance? A. From the fact that it resulted in revealing to Greece the essential weakness and vulnerableness of the imposing Persian empire.
61. Q. When was Xenophon, the author, born and with whom was he not far from contemporary? A. He was born about 431 B. C., being thus not far from contemporary with the Hebrew prophet Malachi.
62. Q. What did Xenophon’s presence of mind and practical wisdom give him in the retreat? A. A kind of leadership which he maintained until a prosperous issue was reached on the shores of Greece.
63. Q. Among the other chief works of Xenophon what one is prominent? A. The Cyropædia.
64. Q. What is the story of the Anabasis in large a part? A. An itineracy, that is a journal of halts and marches.
65. Q. What was the starting point of the expedition? A. Sardis.
66. Q. At what time was the start made? A. In the spring of the year 401 B. C.
67. Q. In what supposition does Xenophon say Artaxerxes indulged which prevented him from suspecting Cyrus of plotting against him? A. That Cyrus was raising troops for war with Tissaphernes, a Persian governor of certain parts near the satrapy of Cyrus.
68. Q. During the march the army plundered what city where four hundred years later the Apostle Paul was born? A. Tarsus.
69. Q. When they reached the river Euphrates what did Cyrus openly tell the Greek captains as to the object of the expedition? A. That he was marching to Babylon against the great king Artaxerxes.
70. Q. What was the result of this disclosure when made to the men? A. They felt, or feigned, much displeasure, but by lavish promises the majority were prevailed upon to adhere to Cyrus.
71. Q. The remainder of the advance of Cyrus lay along the left bank of what river? A. The Euphrates.
72. Q. What Persian commander among the forces proved a traitor and met with a tragic death? A. Orentes.
73. Q. Where did the armies of Cyrus and of Artaxerxes finally encounter each other? A. At Cunaxa.
74. Q. In what way did Cyrus meet with his death? A. While engaged in a personal contest with Artaxerxes Cyrus was struck with a javelin under the eye and slain.
75. Q. During the truce that followed what five generals among the Greeks were enticed into the tent of Tissaphernes, made prisoners, and afterwards put to death? A. Clearchus, Proxenus, Menon, Agias and Socrates.
76. Q. What was one of the first steps now taken to secure the safety of the Greeks? A. A general meeting was called of all the surviving officers and new commanders were chosen to take the places of those lost, Xenophon being put in the place of his friend Proxenus.
77. Q. After this had been done what action was taken as to the rank and file? A. The men were called together and stoutly harangued by three men in succession, Xenophon being the last.
78. Q. What was one of Xenophon’s heroic propositions that was agreed to? A. To burn everything they could possibly spare on the homeward march.
79. Q. What answer did they return to Mithradates, a neighboring Persian satrap, when asked to know what their present plan might be? A. If unmolested, to go home, doing as little injury as possible to the country through which they passed, but to fight their best if opposition was offered.
80. Q. Being convinced that the mission of Mithradates was a treacherous one, what resolution did the Grecian generals take? A. That there should be no communication with the enemy by heralds.
81. Q. What was the general direction taken by the Greeks in the first part of their retreat? A. A northerly direction toward the Black Sea.
82. Q. By whom were they followed and almost daily attacked during the first portion of their retreat? A. Tissaphernes and a Persian army.
83. Q. What hostile tribe of barbarians violently opposed their march through their territory near the headwaters of the Euphrates? A. The Carduchians.
84. Q. What Persian governor did they encounter in Armenia? A. Tiribazus.
85. Q. With what foes in the elements did they next meet? A. Deep snow and a terrible north wind.
86. Q. In one portion of Armenia at what kind of a village did the Greeks find rest and food after a prolonged march through the snow? A. At an underground village.
87. Q. What do travelers tell us at the present time as to the manner in which the Armenians of that region build their houses? A. That they still build them under ground.
88. Q. Into what country did the Greeks next advance? A. The country of the Taochians.
89. Q. With what difficulty did they here meet? A. Great difficulty in obtaining a supply of provisions.
90. Q. At what mountain did the Greeks get the first view of the Black Sea? A. Mount Theches.
91. Q. At what place did they reach the sea two days afterwards? A. At Trebizond.
92. Q. What universal desire did the sight of the sea awaken in the army? A. To prosecute the remainder of their journey on that element.
93. Q. On what mission did Chirisophus go forward to Byzantium? A. To endeavor to procure transports for the conveyance of the army.
94. Q. While awaiting the transports how were the ten thousand employed? A. In marauding expeditions, and in collecting all the vessels possible.
95. Q. Chirisophus delaying to return, how did they continue their journey? A. Partly by land and partly by water.
96. Q. When they were finally joined by Chirisophus, what did he bring with him? A. Only a single trireme.
97. Q. At what place did the Greeks pass into Europe from Asia? A. At Byzantium.
98. Q. Afterwards whom did the army engage to serve in a war against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus? A. The Lacedæmonians.
99. Q. To what number was the army now reduced? A. To six thousand.
100. Q. After the incorporation of the remainder of the ten thousand with the Lacedæmonian army, where did Xenophon go? A. To Athens.
For the month of December the Required C. L. S. C. Reading comprises the first part of Prof. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, and readings in English, Russian, and Religious History and Literature, studies in Ancient Greek Life, and readings from Russian Literature. The reading in Prof. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English is from the commencement of the book to page 124. The remainder of the reading for the month is found inThe Chautauquan. The following is the division according to weeks:
First Week—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from the commencement of the book to page 33—Our Aim, the Land, the People, their Writings, the Start, First Books in Greek.
2. Studies in Ancient Greek Life, inThe Chautauquan.
3. Sunday Readings, inThe Chautauquan, selection for December 3.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 1 to No. 25.
Second Week—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from page 35 to page 58—the Greek Reader.
2. Sunday Readings, inThe Chautauquan, selection for December 10.
3. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 26 to No. 50.
Third Week—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from page 59 to page 96—Xenophon’s Anabasis—Introductory, and first and second books.
2. History and Literature of Russia, inThe Chautauquan.
3. Sunday Readings, inThe Chautauquan, selection for December 17.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 51 to No. 75.
Fourth Week—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from page 96 to page 123—Xenophon’s Anabasis—third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh books.
2. Pictures from English History, inThe Chautauquan.
3. Sunday Readings, inThe Chautauquan, selections for December 24 and 31.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 76 to No. 100.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN,General SecretaryC. L. S. C.
1. How large is the county of Westchester, in the State of New York, which is about half the size of Attica? [Page 7.]
2. Why did the Romans give the name “Greeks” to the Hellenes? [Page 12.]
3. Give two examples of Spartan laconisms of speech. [Page 13.]
4. What are the literary tidings from modern Greece that seem to foretoken close at hand a signal renascence of Greek literature? [Page 20.]
5. Who was blind Melesigenes? [Page 36.]
6. Who was pronounced the wisest of men by an oracle, and by what oracle, and in what words? [Page 37.]
7. How is the monk Planudes apparently relieved of the imputation concerning the authorship of the biography of Æsop ascribed to him? [Page 39.]
8. What are some of the reasons for supposing this biography is a falsifying one? [Page 39.]
9. What is meant by “the Sacred Hetacomb?” [Page 45.]
10. Describe the ceremony of taking a prisoner by the mantle in token that he is to suffer death. [Page 81.]
11. Describe the scythed chariots of the Persians. [Page 83.]
12. From what author is the quotation, “When Greek joined Greek, then was the tug of war?” [Page 88.]
13. Describe the Persian slingers.
14. What is the origin of the familiar expression, “War even to the knife?” [Page 99.]
15. What occasioned the singular effect upon the men of the eating of honeycombs as related by Xenophon? [Page 119.]
[Note.—Answers are not required to questions for further study. The questions here given relate to subjects alluded to in the required reading for the month. After each question the page is given of Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, on which a reference is made to the subject. Members who are able to procure answers to all the questions for further study in this number ofThe Chautauquanwill receive an acknowledgment if the replies are forwarded to Albert M. Martin, General Secretary C. L. S. C., Pittsburg, Pa., so as to reach him by the first of January. Answers will be published in the February number ofThe Chautauquan. The answers should be brief, and need not be sent unless to all the questions.]
Dr. Wm. M. Blackburn, of Cincinnati, was at once introduced, and delivered the following address:
Several persons have asked me in regard to the method of studying history by maps, that is, by making your own maps as you go along. If I had time I would like to talk about that, and I will explain it to anybody who wishes to know more about it. What I would do is this: if I were studying, for example, the history of Greece, I would read over some period, some particular part of it, an epoch—no matter what you may call it. I would get a good map of Greece, lay some thin paper over it, and trace the map over it in colored inks. Upon that map you put the events of that period or era, and then make another map of another period or era; stitch them all together. Perhaps you will never look at them again, but you have got them in your mind. That is all you want.
Now to the lecture. We have seen in outline how Britain became English, and how England became Christian; how the Church was unified; and how the unification of the English people was fairly begun. So we have an English Church, and an English Nation, with a capital “N.” Now, how were these to be carried through the Middle Ages? Let that be our main question to-day.
In general the means were these: wiser kingship, resistance to enemies, incorporation of new national elements (do not gnash on me if I do not always “nash” that way), improvement of the constitution, as seen in the Magna Charta and the House of Commons, and the reforms in the church. These means I shall treat under seven points, and if I do not get through the seven I will get through as many as I can.
1. Wider, broader and superior kingship. This begins with Alfred, the first really great king, and the only Christian king that was ever styled the Great. All his life was one of illness, yet he always maintained a cheerful, a devout spirit, and a busy hand. He reminds us of King David in his various trials and activities.
Now some of the things which Alfred did were these: in national affairs he tried to rescue, defend, unify, and greatenEngland. He was an organizer; he created a navy. He made good roads. He repaired fortresses. He brought London from the ashes; he started it on its way to universal commerce. His long-lost and curious jewel bears the words “Alfred made me.” And this might almost be said of England. Her realms became one nation, that is the southern realm. The old Britons were in the west.
Thomas Hughes has written a life of Alfred the Great; this is the best one you will find concerning him. I presume you have read it. He worked his way out of ignorance; he gave an impetus to popular education and literature; I do not believe that he was unable to write. Why, in those days it was not considered to be the manly and royal thing for a man to write his own name; he had a servant to do that. Sometimes he simply put a sign there; the sign of the cross, a mark. Now that is what is meant by a man signing his name. It does not mean that he could not write it, but the man who can write subscribes his name.
His schemes of education were vast; they were the last vigorous attempt at popular enlightenment in the Middle Ages. I have not time to dwell on all these things, but you will remember that Alfred gave a great impetus to the study of the Scriptures, and that from him and his co-laborers came a version of the Psalms and other portions of the Scriptures. Then his education recognized the supremacy of the moral law. He believed in the ten commandments and he worked them into the laws. Labor on Sundays was forbidden. Women of every class were carefully protected from insult; monks must not be idle and vicious; they must go to work educating people in the villages. He made out a rule for his aldermen to attend the schools or resign their offices; and that was a good thing for the aldermen. If they would not go to school, they resigned; and that was a good thing for the people. The clergy must have wives; bishops must visit among the dioceses, visit and preach to some purpose. In all respects his laws were designed for the greatest good of the greatest number. Judges must be hung if they caused the scales of justice to be swayed by bribes. He probably did not introduce, but probably modified, trial by jury. In those days the jury was formed in this way: they took the men who knew the most about an act or a crime, the men who had been eye-witnesses; they called them together and got what they knew about it, and made up the decision. In our day they take the men who know the least about it, and the biggest fools in all the land; (I hope one thing will come, and that is this—I do not suppose anybody here has been on a jury, or I would not make this remark—I hope the day will come when we will have such times as this, that you can get a jury who will not let a scoundrel off and perjure themselves. Let us reform the jury laws. The Chautauqua Circle might accomplish much in that way).
One account of his death is this: When he was dying, in 901, he called to his side Edward, and said: Now, my dear son, sit down beside me and I will deliver to you the true counsel. I feel that my hour is near: my face is pale; my days are nearly run; we soon must part; I shall go to another world and thou shalt be left alone with all my wealth. I pray thee, for thy heart, my dear child, strive to be a father and a lord to thy people. Be the children’s father, the widow’s friend, comfort the poor, shelter the weak, and with all thy might do thou right whatever is wrong. And, my son, govern thyself by law, and then the Lord shall love thee, and God, above all things, shall be thy reward.
And so departed the peaceable, the truth-teller, England’s darling. His bones are dust, his good sword rust, his soul is with the saints we trust.
And Edward followed him, a truly great ruler. He held all the realm south of the Humber. He claimed the lordship over Northumbria, Wales and Scotland. That lordship came to be contested. For the first time all the isle of Britain came to be united under one monarch. And he was a West Saxon. Thus the unity of England was virtually established.
There were fierce struggles by the succeeding king, but one final result was that the Scots gained some ground, some territory. Their southern line was brought down to about here [pointing], that is from the Solway to Berwick, where it remains, and where a new basis was laid for Scottish civilization. In that portion of the country is the border land so long renowned for many a story, for many a fight, for many a poem. Walter Scott celebrates many of the marches in many of his stories and songs.
Now a third thing: The incorporation of the Danes. If England would retain her national character, she must have power of absorption and a Christian spirit. What was to be done with the Danes—with all the Danish element here in the Danelagh. That same Danish element was here when you have the map even in this form. There were some other people mingled with them, but the Danes held the controlling power, and those Norse settlers, in some parts of it, may have been few, but still they had the power. Now they gradually learned English, English manners, and acquired the English spirit. They learned English Christianity, and gradually conformed in everything. And here is one remarkable fact: the Scandinavian people, the people of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, have always been a people disposed to conform to the people with whom they lived. In France they became Frenchmen; in Russia they became Russians; in Italy they became Italians; in Ireland they became intensely Irish, and so now in this country, they become Americans more readily and more gracefully than the Germans.
About 911 a viking left Norway, left his two little isles, and sailing about came down here [pointing]. Alfred warded him off. He sailed about for some time and then he entered the Seine (911), got possession of this valley, married a French princess, put on white robes and for a few days acted as a Christian gentleman. He invited all sea-rovers into this valley, and they made a splendid country of it. Still more and more of these settlers came, and thus Normandy rose among the nations. It became a tremendous power. Not so much at first with her sword as with her civilization. It may seem rather strange that this Norse colony should take the lead in western Europe, should take the lead in civilization, in culture, learning, architecture, scholarship; yet that is the fact. Norman will, both of the noble and weak kind, had its way in enlarging this realm during the sway of four successive dukes.
Then we come to Robert the Magnificent, who wedded the sister of Canute. He attempted to invade England and failed. He was father of William. He would not fail, and the enterprise with which the father had been unsuccessful remained as an inheritance for the son. His father died on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1035. He was left ruler over some of the most lawless and turbulent barons in Europe. He was scarcely eight years old, and his record of thirty years while reorganizing Normandy and in bringing the nobles to order is a proof of his real greatness. He fought his way, he gained his dukedom, he broke up nests of treason, he destroyed castles, he upset conspiracies, he showed what one young man could do, when he had definite aims, wise plans, fixed principles, and industry and resolution, courage and firmness, and the ability to keep what he had gained.
William was a hard man, austere, exacting, persevering. His heavy hand made the English themselves comprehend their own national unity through a unity of suffering. Ifthey had not perished for a moment, they would not have survived for ages. My time is spent or we would leap from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, and emphasize our last points,resistance to the Pope, and organization of the House of Commons. But these you can think of at your leisure.