SOCIAL DUTIES IN THE FAMILY.

Dr. Thomas Sheridan, who lost all chance of further preferment by choosing an unlucky text on the anniversary of George I, was an excellent scholar, but an indolent, good-natured, careless man. He was slovenly, indigent, and cheerful; ill-starred, improvident, but not unhappy. He was a fiddler, punster, quibbler, and wit; not a day passed without a rebus, a madrigal, or an anagram, and his pen and fiddlestick were in continual motion. Of the state of his house, at Quilca, his intimate friend and choice companion has left us the following lively picture:QUILCA.“Let me thy properties explain:A rotten cabin dropping rain;Chimneys with scorn rejecting smoke;Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.Here elements have lost their uses;Air ripens not, nor earth produces;In vain we make poor Shela toil,Fire will not roast, nor water boil;Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,The goddess Want in triumph reigns,And her chief officers of state—Sloth, Dirt, and Theft—around her wait.”SOCIAL DUTIES IN THE FAMILY.By FRANCES POWER COBBE.This eminent lady is the daughter of the Archbishop of Dublin, and one of the most distinguished philanthropists in England. In the following pages will be found some timely thoughts she has uttered in a lecture onSOCIAL DUTIES IN THE FAMILY.A mother’s love ought to be attuned to the very note of the love divine,—to be, in fact, its echo from the deep cave of her heart.But, with super-earthly love to light her way what does she see before her? There is, first, the duty of conducing to her child’s moral welfare, the highest of all her duties; secondly, of securing his bodily health; thirdly, of giving him that intellectual training which will enlarge his being and make his moral nature itself more robust and capable of fulfilling his duties in life; and lastly, of making him as happy as she may. These are each and all most complicated problems to many a good mother, working perhaps against wind and tide, with feeble health or limited means, or possibly with a husband who thwarts and opposes her endeavors. It would require not half a lecture, but a whole treatise, to deal with such a subject fitly, even if I possessed the experience or insight needful for the task. There is only one point on which I think ethical science may be of some utility. That point is the problem ofobedience. How far ought it to be enforced?Three things are commonly confounded in speaking of filial obedience—First—The obedience which must be exacted from a child for its own physical, intellectual, and moral welfare.Second—The obedience which the parent may exact for his (the parent’s) welfare or convenience.Third—The obedience which parent and child alike owe to the moral law, and which it is the parent’s duty to teach the child to pay.If mothers would but keep these three kinds of obedience clear and distinct in their minds, I think much of the supposed difficulty of the problem would disappear. And, if children as they grow up would likewise discriminate between them, many of their troubles would be relieved.For the first, the excellent old Dr. Thomas Brown lays down (Lectures on Ethics, p. 287) a principle which seems to me exactly to fit the case. He says that parents “should impose no restraint which has not for its object some good greater than the temporary evil of the restraint itself.” For an infant, the restraint is no evil; and at that age everything must be a matter of obedience, the babe possessing no sense or experience for self-guidance. But, as childhood advances, so should freedom advance; and, even if the little boy or girl does now and then learn by sharp experience, the lesson will generally be well worth the cost: whereas the evils of over-restraint have no compensation. Each one is bad in itself, checking the proper development of character, chilling the spirits, and also in a cumulative way becoming increasingly mischievous, as the miserable sense of being fettered becomes confirmed.In all this matter of the child’s own welfare, the mother’s aim ought to be to become the life-long counselor of her child; and a counselor is (by the very hypothesis) one who does not persist in claiming authority. Nobody thinks ofconsultinganother who may conclude their “advice” by saying, “And now Iorderyou to do as I have advised.” To drop, as completely and as early as possible, the tone of command, and assume that of the loving, sympathetic, ever disinterested guide and friend,—that is, I think, the true wisdom of every mother, as it was that of my own. Of course, there are cases so grave (especially where girls who little understand the need of caution are concerned) that it is absolutely necessary, nay, the mother’s pressing duty, to prohibit her daughter from running into danger. To apply Brown’s rule, the evil of the restraint is more than counter-balanced by immunity from deadly peril. Perhaps it is one of the principal causes of the dissatisfaction of young girls with parental control that they do not and can not understand what horrible dangers may overtake them in the still foul condition of society.Second—It is too little remembered that a parent has a moral right to exact obedience as a form ofservicefrom his child. The parent has, in strictest ethical sense, the first of all claims on the child’sspecial benevolence;i. e., on hiswill to do good. The double ties of gratitude and of closest human relationship make it the duty of the child to pay that sacred debt from first to last; and it is entirely fit and greatly for its benefit that the parent should claim that duty. The parent’sdirectionin such cases, properly translated, is not acommand, to which the response is blind obedience, but an indication of the way in which the person to whom the debt is due desires that it should be paid. There ought to be nothing in the slightest degree harsh or dictatorial in such direction. On the contrary, I can not but think that the introduction by parents of much greater courtesy to their children would be an immense advantage in this and other cases. We all ask our servants politely to do for us the services which they have contracted to do, and for which we pay them. How much more kindly and courteously ought we to ask of our children to perform services due by the blessed and holy debt of nature and gratitude, and which ought, each one, to be a joy to the child as well as to the parent! When it is rightly demanded and cheerfully paid, how excellent and beautiful to both is this kind of filial duty! When, for example, we see little girls of the working classes taught to carry their father’s dinner to the field as soon as they can toddle, and helping their mother to “mind the baby,” even if it be a “little Moloch” of a baby, we witness both the fulfillment of a legitimate claim on the part of the parents, and a most beneficent moral training for the child. I think this sort of service of the child is sadly lacking among the richer classes, and that it would be an excellent thing if mothers, however wealthy, found means of making their children more useful to themselves. Nothing can be worse for a child than to find everything done for her, and never to be called upon to do anything for anybody else. Indeed, any fine-natured child, like a dog, will find much more real pleasure in being of use, or fancying it is so, than in being perpetually pampered and amused. Of course there would be moral limits to such claims on the parent’s part, as,e. g., when they would interfere with the child’s health or education. But there is no natural termination in point of age to the parent’s right to give such directions for his own service. On the contrary, the time when the adult son or daughter has come into the full possession of his or her faculties, while the parent is sinking into the infirmities of age, is the very time when filial duty is most imperative in its obligation; and the fact that aged parents rarely attempt to give to adult sons and daughters the same directions for their comfort as they gave them when children shows how little the real nature of these sacred rights and duties is commonly understood.Third—There is theobediencewhich both parent and child owe to the eternal moral law; and this obedience again ought to be kept perfectly distinct from that which is exacted either for the child’s personal welfare or the parent’s convenience. The old and most important distinction between a thing which ismalum in seand a thing which is onlymalum prohibitumought never to be lost sight of. Even in a very little child, I think, a moral fault, such as alie, or cruelty to an animal, or vindictiveness toward its companions, ought to be treated with gravity and sadness; and, as the child grows, an importance ought to be attached to such faults wholly incommensurate with any other sort of error, such as indolence about lessons or the like. The one aim of the parent must be to make profound impression of the awfulness and solemnity of moral good and moral evil.But even here the difficulty haunts us, when is this enforcement of obedience to moral laws to cease? So long as a child is absolutely compelled to do right by sheer force and terror of punishment, its moral freedom can have no scope, and its moral life consequently can not even begin. It can not acquire thevirtuewhich results from free choice. All that the parent can do (and it is an indispensable preparation for virtue, though not virtue itself) is first to teach the child what is right,—to draw out its latent moral sense, and inspire it with the wish to do right,—and then to help its steps in the path which has been pointed out. Once a child grasps the idea of duty, and begins in its little way to try to “be good,” and displays the indescribably touching phenomena of childlike penitence and restoration, it becomes surely the most sacred task for the mother to aid such efforts—silently, indeed, for the most part, and too reverentially to talk much about it—with tenderest sympathy. It would be no kindness, of course, but cruelty, to open up hastily ways of liberty before moral strength has been gained to walk in them. The “hedging up the way with thorns” is a divine precaution, which a mother may well imitate. But the principle must be, as in the case of directions in matters not moral, gradually and systematically to exchange directions and orders for counsels and exhortations.And here, in closing these, perhaps, too tedious remarks on the moral training of children, I shall add a word which may possibly startle some who hear me,—Beware that, in earnestly seeking your child’s moral welfare, you do notforcethe moral nature with hot-house culture. To be a sturdy plant, it must grow naturally, and not too rapidly. It seems as if it were not intended by Providence that this supreme part of our human nature should be developed far in childhood and early youth, lovely as are the blossoms it sometimes then bears,—too often to drop into an untimely grave, or wither away in the heat of manhood without fruit. Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, undoubtedly made a great mistake in this matter, as one of his very best disciples, Arthur Hugh Clough, was able in later years to see. Mothers should not be unhappy, if boys are honorable and kindly and affectionate, if they should, at fifteen, prefer a game of football to a visit of charity; and I should not blame at all severely any of my young friends, if such there be here present, who may be at this moment wishing that she were playing lawn-tennis, instead of sitting still to hear a dull dissertation on moral philosophy!But, when all is done that can be done by human wisdom to help the moral growth of the young, there is a vast space left for the other and easier parental duty ofproviding for their happiness. Of course, to nine parents out of ten, high and low, it is the joy and delight of their lives to make their children as happy as possible. There is no virtue in this. Nature (or, let us say frankly, God) has so made us that in middle life nearly all direct pleasures to be enjoyed on our own account begin to pall. We are too busy or too indifferent to care much for a score of things which, when we were younger, we found quite entrancing.“It is the one great grief of life to feel all feelings die.”But, just as our sun goes down to the horizon, a moonlight reflection of pleasure, purer, calmer than the first, rises to give a sweet interest to the lives of all who are happy enough to have young creatures around them. The pleasures we can no longer taste for ourselves we taste in our children’s enjoyment. Their glee, their eagerness, their freshness of delight, stir our pulses with tenderness and sympathy. I do not know anything in the world which pulls one’s heartstrings so much as the sight of a little blue-eyed, golden-haired, white-frocked atom of humanity clapping its hands and crowing with ecstasy at the sight of a kite soaring up into the summer sky.Are we to ask parents to deny themselves and their children in the stern old way, and turn their young lives into dreary rounds of duty and work, till they hate the very name of either one or the other? God forbid! Does God, the great Parent, Father and Mother of the World, lead us up to himself by any such harsh, stern tuition? Nay, but has he not made earth so beautiful, and planted flowers by every wayside, and gladdened our hearts by ten thousand delights of the intellect, the senses, the tastes, and the affections? Fear, my friends, to make your childrenunhappy, and to love themtoo little. But never fear to make them too happy or to love them too much! There is a great, deep saying, that we must all enter the kingdom of God as little children. Surely, the converse of it is true also; and we should prepare in our homes a kingdom of God,—of peace and love and tenderness and innocent pleasure,—whenever a little child is sent to us out of heaven to dwell in it.We now come to speak of the duties of daughters. The ethical grounds of the duty of supreme benevolence toward our parents are clear. They are nearest to us of human beings. We owe them life and (nearly always also) endless cares and affection. In the case of a mother, her claims on her child—founded on the bodily agony she has borne on its behalf, and the ineffably sweet office of nursing (when she has performed it), her care in infancy, and love and sympathy in later years—make together such a cumulative title to gratitude and devotion that it is impossible to place on it any limitation.This claim is, of course, happily usually admitted in the case of daughterswho do not marry. It is understood that they are bound to do all they can for their mother’s and father’s comfort. But, may I ask, who absolved the daughters who marry from the same sacred obligation? In Catholic countries, young women often quit their aged parents, no matter how much they need them, to enter “religion,” as it is said; and we Protestants are very indignant with them for so doing. But, when it comes to our Protestant religion of matrimony, lo! we are extremely indulgent to the girl who deposits her filial obligations on what theMorning Postcalls the “Hymeneal Altar!” The daughter practically says to her blind father or bed-ridden mother: “Corban! I am going off to India with Captain Algernon, who waltzes beautifully, and whom I met last night at a ball. It is a gift by whatsoever you might have been profited by me.”Is this right or justifiable? Public opinion condones it; and the parent often consents out of the abundance of unselfish affection, thereby in a certain formal way releasing the daughter from her natural debt. But I do not think, if the parent really wants her services, that she can morally withdraw them, even with such consent, and certainly notwithoutit.We all see this remarkably clearly when the question is not of marriage, but of a girl of the higher class devoting herself to charity or art, or any kind of public work which requires her to quit her parents’ roof. Then, indeed, even if her parents be in the full vigor of life, and have half a dozen other daughters, we are pretty sure to hear the solemn condemnation of the adventurous damsel, “Angelina ought to attend to her father and mother, and not go here or there for this or that purpose.”Surely there is a very obvious rule to cover all thesecases. If either parentwantsthe daughter she ought not to leave him or her,eitherto marry or to go into a nunnery, or for any other purpose. If her parents donotwant her, then, being of age to judge for herself, she is freeeitherto undertake the duties of a wife, orany othersfor which she may feel a vocation.This may sound very hard. It is undoubtedly the demand for a very high degree of virtue, where the sacrifice may be that of the happiness of a lifetime. But every duty may sometimes claim such sacrifices. Parental duty does so perpetually. How many thousands of mothers and fathers toil all their days and give up health and every enjoyment for their children’s interests! Why should not filial duties likewise exact equal sacrifice? The entire devotion to the parent when the parent really needs it, and the constant devotion of as much care as the parent requires,—this, and nothing short of this, seems to me to be the standard of filial duty.A very difficult question arises in the case of the abnormal and scarcely sane development of selfishness which we sometimes sadly witness in old age. I think, in such deplorable cases, the child is called on to remember that, even in her filial relation, themoral welfareof the object of benevolence is before all other considerations, and that she is bound to pause in a course which obviously is tending to promote a great moral fault. Gently and with great care and deference, she ought to remind the parent of the needs of others.The great difficulty in the lives of hundreds of daughters of the upper ranks just now lies in this: that they find themselves torn between two opposing impulses, and know not which they ought to follow. On one side are the habits of a child, and the assurance of everybody that the same habits of quiescence and submission ought to be maintained into womanhood. On the other hand there is the same instinct which we see in a baby’s limbs, to stir, to change its position, to climb, to run; to use, in short, the muscles and faculties it possesses. Every young bird flutters away from its nest, however soft; every little rabbit quits the comfortable hole in which it was born; and we take it as fit and right they should do so, even when there are hawks and weasels all around. Only when a young girl wants to do anything of the analogous kind, her instinct is treated as a sort of sin. She is asked, “Can not she be contented, having so nice a home and luxuries provided in abundance?” Keble’s fine but much-misused lines, about “room to deny ourselves” and the “common task” and “daily round” being all we ought to require, are sure to be quoted against her; and, in short, she feels herself a culprit, and probably at least once a week has a fit of penitence for her incorrigible “discontent.” I have known this kind of thing go on for years, and it is repeated in hundreds, in thousands, of families. I have known it where there were seven miserable, big, young women in one little house! It is supposed to be the most impossible thing in the world for a parent to give his son a stone for bread or a serpent for a fish. But scores of fathers, in the higher ranks, give their daughters diamonds when they crave for education, and twist round their necks the serpents of idle luxury and pleasure when they ask for wholesome employment.Pardon me if I speak very warmly on this subject, because I think here lies one of the great evils of the condition of our sex and class at this time; and I feel intensely for the young spirits whose natural and whosenobleaspirations are so checked and deadened and quenched through all their youth and years of energy that, when the time for emancipation comes at last, it is too late for them to make use of it. They have been dwarfed and stunted, and can never either be or do anything greatly good.In short, the complaint we women make against men, that they persist in treating us as minors when we have attained our majority, is what daughters too often can justly make against both their fathers and mothers. They keep them in the swaddling-clothes of childhood, when they ought to set free and train every limb to its most athletic and joyous exercise. Dangers, of course, on the other side there are,—of over-emancipated and ill-advised girls who sorely need more parental guidance than they obtain; but, so far as my experience goes, these cases are few compared to those of the young women (ladies, of course, I mean, for in the lower classes such evils are unknown) whose lives are spoiled byover-restraint in innocent things. They are left free, and encouraged to plunge into the maelstrom of a fashionable season’s senseless whirl of dissipation and luxury. They are restrained from every effort at self-development or rational self-sacrifice, till, for the very want of some corrective bitter, they go and beat the hassocks in a church as a pious exercise, or perhaps finally lock themselves up in a nunnery. Small blame to them! Ritualist nunneries at present offer the most easily accessible back-door out of fine drawing-rooms into anything like a field of usefulness.Now for sisters. That brothers and sisters should give one another in an ordinary way the first-fruits of their benevolence follows obviously from the closeness of their propinquity. Usually there has also been from childhood the blessed interchange of kindnesses which accumulate on both sides into a claim of reciprocal gratitude.Miss Bremer remarks that “it is the general characteristic of affection to make us blind to the faults of those we love, but from this weaknessfraternallove is wholly exempt.” Brothers are indeed terrible critics of their sisters, and, so far, irritating creatures. But otherwise, as we all know, they are the very joy and pride of our lives; and there is probably not one duty in our list which needs less to be insisted on to women generally than that of bestowing on their brothers not only love of benevolence, but also a large amount of love of complacency. It is usually also a truly sound moral sentiment, causing the sister to take profound interest in the religious and moral welfare of her brother, as well as in his health and happiness.One mistake, I think, is often made by sisters, and still more often by mothers, to which attention should be called. The unselfishness of the sisters, and the fondness of the mother for her boy, and the fact that the boy is but rarely at home, all contribute to a habit of sacrificing everything to the young lad’s pleasure or profit, which has the worst effect on his character in after-life. Boys receive from women themselves in the nursery, and when they come home from school in the holidays, a regulareducation in selfishness. They acquire the practice of looking on girls and women as persons whose interests, education, and pleasures must always, as a matter of course, be postponed to their own. In later life, we rue—and their wives may rue—the consequences.The duties of sisters to sisters are even more close and tender than those of sisters to brothers. I hardly know if there be any salient fault in the usual behavior of English sisters to one another which any moral system could set right. Perhaps the one quality oftenest deficient in this, and other more distant family relationships, to which we need not further refer,—uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on—iscourtesy. “Too much familiarity,” as the proverb says, “breeds contempt.” The habit of treating one another without the little forms in use among other friends, and the horrid trick of speaking rudely of each other’s defects or mishaps, is the underlying source of half the alienation of relatives. If we are bound to showspecial benevolenceto those nearest to us, why on earth do we give them pain at every turn, rub them the wrong way, andfroissertheirnaturalamour propreby unflattering remarks or unkind references? For once we can do them a real service of any kind, we can (if we live with them) hurt, or else please, them fifty times a day. The individual who thinks she performs her duty to sister or niece, or cousin, while she waits to do the exceptional services, and hourly frets and worries and humiliates her, is certainly exceedingly mistaken. Genuine benevolence—the “will to make happy”—will take a very different course.It will not be necessary here to pursue further the subject of the duties arising from the ties of natural relationship, holy and blessed things that they are! I am persuaded that even the best and happiest of us only half-apprehend their beautiful meaning, and that we must look to the life beyond the grave to interpret for us all their significance.C. L. S. C. WORK.By J. H. VINCENT, D. D.,Superintendent of Instruction, C. L. S. C.The studies for March are Recreations in Astronomy, Readings in Astronomy, Chautauqua Text-Book on English History, readings in English, Russian, Scandinavian, and Religious History and Literature. Also selections from English Literature.No “Memorial Day” for March; but February 27 is the “Longfellow Day.” The March number ofThe Chautauquanmay reach our members in time to remind them of this fact.For the varying opinions concerning the existence of man on the earth see the October (’82)Chautauquan. The date in our English Bible, “4004 B. C.,” is not an inspired date. The claims of Prof. Packard in his little volume on geology, as to the long existence of man on the globe, is doubted by many men of science.Prof. Timayenis says that the author of the Chautauqua Text-book on Greek History, and the author of the Preparatory Greek Course in English, are mistaken in attributing the remark, “Then we will fight them in the shade,” to Leonidas. Prof. Timayenis says: “My authority is Herodotus, who, first of all historians, relates the Persian wars, and all subsequent historians have followed him. In Herodotus, Polymnia, paragraph 226, you will find the remark attributed to Dienekes.”What general commanded the Persian forces at the battle of Marathon? Datis and Artaphernes, by order of King Darius. At what place was St. John the Baptist imprisoned just before he was beheaded? Probably at the Castle of Machœrus, east of the Dead Sea.“What is the examination to which we are to submit?—C. L. S. C., ’86.” The examination is scarcely thorough enough to be called an “examination.” It is rather the filling out of certain “memoranda.” It would be impossible for us to provide any fair test by which to judge of the ability of our pupils. We therefore simply require them to fill out certain memoranda, that we may be assured that they have read the books.Go to some member who despairs because she can not read a large amount every day, and show her by actual reading how many minutes by the watch it takes to read slowly one page. Then put a book mark five pages on for one day, another day three pages, another six, then five. Run through at that rate for twenty-five days, and show your friend how far she would be at the end of a month by reading so much a day. A practical illustration of that kind will show the power of littles, prove to a demonstration the power of system, inspire your discouraged friend with confidence and hope, and thus in a small way you will be a teacher and a useful member of the C. L. S. C.Hold “Round-Tables” with conversations at your circle meetings. Allow no waste of words. Let the president hold everybody to the subject, and see how many things can be said by the circle of five, ten, or fifteen persons, on one subject.“Duyckinck” is pronounced Di´kink.Rev. A. B. Cristy, pastor of the Congregational church, Conway, Mass., has devised one or two very ingenious Chautauqua games, which I hope he will see fit to publish.Mr. Cristy has adopted a very ingenious plan for a local circle. He says: “I have prepared a narrative with breaks to be filled in, in order, by the answers to the one hundred questions in the October and NovemberChautauquan. One reads, and, as he comes to a break, suddenly calls for some one to read the answer fromThe Chautauquan. If the other does not find it, and begin before the reader counts ten as the clock ticks, a forfeit is to be paid to the general fund, thus insuring attention while the main points are reviewed during the game.” A very bright way of spending a little time in a local circle.A lady from Vermont writes: “Since I wrote last, my eldest brother, Dr. ——, of ——, and my own sister, Mrs. ——, have both joined the C. L. S. C. This makes four of father’s family who belong to the ‘people’s college.’ With the exception of the doctor we were all in the old home at Christmas, and as my cousins were there too, we planned to organize very quietly. We seated ourselves on the stairs in the front hall, and were proceeding to business, when the dear old mother announced that there was ‘a college being organized in the house,’ so, of course, every one had to come and look at us, and as each one said something wittier than the last had said, we were soon in an uproar of merriment—a very undignified college class. I think hereafter when they read of the C. L. S. C., they will think of the company of people on the stairs, and that is really what we are—going up one step at a time. There are five in the circle, and we have arranged to meet once in two weeks.” A good name,the On-the-Stairs circle. Our correspondent in a later letter adds: “Did I tell you that we sat near the foot of the stairs, as symbolical of the heights we hope to climb? and on the lowest step was a little girl who had left the company to be near her mother, and in her we saw a type of the coming generation, and the promise of an ever-widening circle. Do urge it upon the mothers more and more to talk over their studies with their little children. It not only helps mothers, but it gives such zest to the studies of the little ones, when they think that by-and-by they are going to study these other wonderful things which now interest their parents. Only this last week my little nine-year-old girl was having a hard time over her geography lesson; out West seemed so far away, but when I mentioned to her that Yellowstone Park was out there it was like another lesson, or like another girl studying—an interested girl.”A cultivated lady writes: “One of the most agreeable Methodist ladies in the city of New York recently asked of me some information about the Chautauqua course. She occupies a high social position in the church, and is possessed of no little intelligence, but finds her time absorbed in the cares of her domestic establishment. I gave her suchof the Chautauqua matter as I had at hand, and asked how her interest in the course had been awaked. She replied that an amiable young kinswoman, who is in the habit of visiting her yearly, endeared herself to the household, during her last visit, by the development of her intelligence, the animation of her conversation, and her greatly improved intellectual character. ‘I found a Chautauqua text-book on her dressing table,’ said my friend, ‘and guessing the secret of the marked change in her, asked her whether she knew of the Chautauqua course?’ ‘Yes, indeed!’ It had laid hold of her; she could not do without it; such a blessing and benefit it had been to her, etc. Mrs. —, my friend, thereupon came to the conclusion that she herself must have the course. ‘My reading is necessarily limited, but it need not be desultory,’ she said; ‘I want what we all want—regulated reading.’ Accordingly she has subscribed forThe Chautauquan, and begun the course. As she has two little girls, and a boy fourteen years old, the C. L. S. C. will not impart its healthful influence and stimulus to her alone. I am sure that it will prove a well-spring, refreshing and nourishing her household.”The item calling for missing numbers ofThe Assembly Heraldbrought satisfactory answers; the first from Mrs. H. M. Graham, of Garrettsville, Ohio, who sends the missing March and October numbers for 1879; the May number, and also the October, which has been returned, from Miss Jessie Brownell, of St. Louis, Mo. My cordial thanks to these kind helpers.A member writes: “I want to get a good astronomical almanac containing map or chart of the movements of the planets for the current year. Can you direct me where to find a good one, which is at the same time reasonable in price?” After consulting two of the leading astronomers in the country, I am compelled to say that such map or chart is not to be easily procured. One professor recommends any nautical almanac, in connection with any chart of the heavens; another recommends the “Connecticut Almanac,” with such chart.The hero—the reformer—your Brutus—your Howard—your republican, whom civic storm—your genius, whom poetic storm impels; in short, every man with a great purpose, or even with a continuous passion (were it but that of writing the largest folios); all these men defend themselves by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as the madman in a worse sense does; every fixed idea, such as rules every genius and every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and raises a man above the bed and board of this earth—above its dog’s grottoes, buckthorns, and devils’ walls; like the bird of paradise he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions oversleeps unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of life in his long fair dream of his ideal motherland.—Jean Paul F. Richter.C. L. S. C. SONGS.The songs used by the C. L. S. C. at the Round Table, and in all their gatherings at Chautauqua, have been a real inspiration to thousands who have heard them. Through the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Vincent we shall furnish our readers, every month, with one or more of these songs set to music. Thus local circles will have them furnished for use, inThe Chautauquan, and every member who sings, though not connected with a local circle, may adopt them as songs of the home.music[Transcriber's Note: You can play this music (MIDI file) by clickinghere.]THE WINDS ARE WHISPERING.Mary A. Lathbury.(Chautauqua Song, 1875.)Lucy J. Rider.1 The winds are whisp’ring to the trees,The hill-tops catch the strain,The forest lifts her leafy gatesTo greet God’s host again.Upon our unseen banner flamesThe mystic two-edged sword,We hold its legend in our hearts—“The Spirit and the Word.”CHORUS.God bless the hearts that beat as one,Tho’ continents apart!We greet you, brothers, face to face,We meet you heart to heart.2 We wait the touch of holy fireUpon our untaught lips;The “open vision” of the saints,The new apocalypse;We wait—the children of a King—We wait, in Jesus’ name,Beside these altars, till our heartsShall catch the sacred flame.—Chorus.Copyright, 1875, by J. H. Vincent.A SWEET SURPRISEBy MARY R. DODGE DINGWALL.We went to school, my dear old books and I—Full twenty years ago, and miles away—True, trusted friends from morn till twilight gray:I held them dear, and could not put them byWhen other work came in my strength to try;Like blocks with which the child first learns to play,I wanted them in sight both night and day.Oft in my dreams with book in hand would I,Unfettered, walk the longed-for upward way—The pleasant path that leads up Science Hill;But waking, knew for me it might not be;God’s way is best, I truly tried to say,When lo! a hand, a token of his will,And on the outstretched hand I read, C. L. S. C.!LOCAL CIRCLES.[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 have received a large number of communications from officers and members of local circles, bearing tidings of organizations effected, and of work done. There is not one prosy letter among them all. Continue to write. If your report does not appear promptly you can afford to be patient, because it will find a place in some column in the near future. No report of a circle that reaches us is overlooked. We shall do you all justice, only give us time; write to us one and all. “Never be discouraged.”—EditorThe Chautauquan.He who labors diligently need never despair. We can accomplish everything by diligence and labor.—Menander.Maine (Parks Island).—We have a local branch of the C. L. S. C. here on this little down-east island. We have but fifteen members as yet, but hope to improve in numbers another year. We did not commence work until November, and have had quite hard work to catch up with the regular course, but think we shall be able to accomplish it after a little more hard work.Maine (Lewiston).—We have three local circles in this city. They were organized this C. L. S. C. year. Most of the members began the course of reading last October. One of the circles is designated as the “Universalist,” another the “Methodist,” each of which has a membership of about twenty-five. The third, which is called the “Alpha” C. L. S. C., is much smaller, the number being limited to ten. Five of these are members of the Class of 1885. The Alpha class have been holding monthly meetings, but owing to the increased interest have decided to meet once in two weeks. Our gatherings have been very informal and pleasant at the home of one of the members. The previous month’s work is carefully reviewed, any topic not well understood is freely discussed, it being the privilege of each member to ask any question relative to the work. Essays are prepared and listened to carefully. At our December meeting two essays on “Geology” were presented—one embracing the October reading on that subject, the other the November—thus bringing into one lesson the principal features of Prof. Packard’s “First Lessons” in that science. The class enjoyed the evening very much and believe it will be a help to have the main points of a single branch of study all brought out in one evening’s work—that is as far as possible.Vermont (Rutland).—Last year we organized our circle with five members, but only three finished the reading and answered the questions. This year we have nine members, and we meet the last Monday evening in the month. Each member is given a few questions on the month’s reading to answer. After meeting a few times we hope to be a little more methodical in doing our work.Vermont (St. Albans).—We have not organized a local circle here, though there are not less than twenty persons reading the course in this city.Massachusetts (East Boston).—In East Boston a local circle was formed in October, meetings once a fortnight, and the membership has increased from seven to twenty-two. There is one graduate, one of the Class of ’84; the rest are beginners in the C. L. S. C.Massachusetts (Gloucester).—The first local circle of the C. L. S. C. in Gloucester was organized October 23, 1882. We have seventeen regular members. The committee of instruction consists of the president, vice president and secretary. We meet at different houses once a month, from 8 to 9:30 p. m. The first subject of the evening, January 15, was “Geology.” The questions inThe Chautauquanon this subject were first asked and answered, after which Miss Helen Fiske, one of our High School teachers, gave an interesting talk on the subject. Second in order came questions on “Russian History,” prepared by a member, which were followed by questions on “Scandinavian History.” Then came an interesting and enthusiastic talk on the “Greek Course in English,” the questions inThe Chautauquanbeing used. We do feel very thankful for the questions inThe Chautauquan—they are of great value in the course of study. Our programs vary. We use the questions inThe Chautauquanalways, interspersed with talks, prepared questions, etc. We find this year’s course of study very entertaining and profitable. Though our circle is at the foot of the ladder, we are ready to step upward.Massachusetts (Franklin).—Our circle—known as the Franklin Branch of the C. L. S. C.—was organized in November, 1882, and numbers twenty-three members—eight gentlemen and fifteen ladies. Of this number one is the pastor of the Congregational church, one a deacon of that church, one the editor of the local newspaper, one a physician, two are school teachers, one a wife of a Universalist minister, one a dentist, andallearnest and interested students of the C. L. S. C. We were favored on Thursday evening, Feb. 1, with the presence of our dearly beloved Dr. Vincent, who gave a public lecture under our auspices in the chapel of the First Congregational church. Subject, “That Boy.” After the lecture all the Chautauquans present had the privilege of taking him by the hand, and then were briefly addressed by him upon Chautauqua studies. Many of our members are very busy with their daily occupations, and find it difficult to keep up their course of study, but the Doctor’s stirring and encouraging words have inspired them to persevere, and we hope to be able to sit at the Round-Table at our New England Chautauqua Grounds, South Framingham, with our year’s course of study all completed, and to enroll next year a much larger membership in our circle.Massachusetts (Holbrook).—This segment of the C. L. S. C. is located at Holbrook, Norfolk Co., Massachusetts, a town of some two thousand five hundred inhabitants, incorporated in 1872. It is located fourteen miles south of Boston, on the Old Colony Railroad, and is engaged principally in the manufacture of boots and shoes, some eighty thousand cases, valued at $2,500,000, being produced annually. The circle, organized October 1, 1880, with a membership of six, and pursued that year’s course, holding fortnightly meetings for the discussion of the topics studied. The next year three joined our number, and the meetings were conducted after the first year’s method, excepting the occasional reading of papers upon subjects assigned. The closing meeting of this year (1882, July 3), anticipated the exercises held nearly two months later at Chautauqua, “a grove meeting,” a feast and camp-fire being the accompaniments. 1883 finds us increased in vigor, with a local membership of fifteen (ten Chautauquans). Our meetings thus far have been for the study of geology, George M. Smith, principal of the high school, aiding us by giving illustrated talks upon the subject. We have the promise of talks on “Greek Life and Writers” by Rev. Ezekiel Russell, D. D. Our circle fortunately has enlisted the interest and services of the educated. Its government is simple, a president and secretary, with a few rules for the conduct of business. All are encouraged to unite in the prosecution of this system of education.Massachusetts (Rockbottom).—The Hudson Circle meets every other Monday evening. We number sixteen members, and expect a few more. At every meeting the president asks the questions fromThe Chautauquan. One or two special papers on topics connected with the reading are presented by members who were appointed for that purpose. We have a critic who corrects any and all mistakes, including the pronunciation of words. If there is any spare time, it is used for social intercourse. Our last lecture was given by the Rev. T. S. Bacons, on “Geological Formations about the Hudson.”Massachusetts (West Haverhill).—A local circle was formed at West Haverhill, Mass., October 10, 1882. We meet one evening each month. Our meetings are very interesting and profitable. The exercises vary, with one exception—we usually have the questions inThe Chautauquan, as we think they help to fix the reading we have been over more firmly in our minds. We have eighteen members, and we are just commencing our studies, so we have not as interesting a story to tell as many others, but we hope in our quiet way to be better men and women because of the privileges we enjoy in the C. L. S. C.Connecticut (Niantic).—Our circle re-organized on October 2, 1882, beginning its second year. We meet every Monday evening, at the house of each of the members in turn. The circle is now as large as can conveniently meet in a private parlor, so we have obtained permission from the church authorities to meet in the Congregational church parlor. There are now twenty-seven members, five of whom belong to the national circle. This is an increase over last year, for then our number was only twenty. The exercises commence with the reading of the secretary’s report of the previous meeting, and then a collection is taken to pay postage and other expenses of the circle. After this the president asks the questions inThe Chautauquan, and the answers are either recited or read. The reading is the last thing before the motions are made and the voting and other business of the circle done, and we adjourn. We read books in the course which will interest the majority of the members. It has generally been those upon which questions and answers are prepared and published inThe Chautauquan. At the meetings we use a dictionary constantly, for every difference in pronunciation is noticed, and the word is looked up. We begin promptly at seven o’clock, and close at nine.New York (Troy).—The Rev. H. C. Farrar, president of a local circle in Troy, an old Chautauquan and successful C. L. S. C. worker, writes: In our city there are seven circles, all organized this year, numbering in membership some five hundred. Our circle numbers over two hundred members and we have had the grace to call it the “Vincent Circle.” Each circle is doing full and vigorous work, and almost weekly new members are adding themselves. The C. L. S. C. in very many ways is blessing our city. The booksellers never sold so many books of real merit as during the holidays just passed. One firm sold over a dozen Webster’s dictionaries, and all of them were Christmas presents to C. L. S. C.’s. In this vicinity about twenty other circles have been formed since October. So goes the good work bravely on. I can not forbear making an extract from a letter of Rev. J. M. Appleman, Pownal, Vermont: “Mrs. A. and myself commenced the course in October. We availed ourselves of every favorable opportunity to speak in the interest of the C. L. S. C. Many were favorably impressed, but we could not persuade any to join us. We then put the “Hall in the Grove” into the itinerant work and it found favor everywhere, and so great was the demand for it we put another copy on the circuit. I have not seen either copy for several weeks. About the first of December it fell into the hands of a prominent young man and his enthusiasm went to white heat at once and he said: ‘We must have a circle,’ and a circle we have of eleven members and the tide is still rising.” Many of our members have had a new world of thought and life opened to them through geology and Greek history and they are anticipating great things in astronomy. While studying geology we made excursions into the country and with hammer and bag practically geologized. We spent two hours at the State Geological Rooms in Albany (two hundred of us) and heard Prof. James Hall. We had one lecture on “Glaciers and theMer-de-glace.” We had frequent talks by one of our number on geology, and the interest has been rife and the profit great. We are planning most vigorously for larger and better things. We are seeking for an astronomer to speak to us who knows the stars as friends, that from the living heart words may thrill us beyond what the book can. Many adjoining towns are waking up to this C. L. S. C. work and are pledging circles for next year. Our membership in this city will be doubled.New York (Brooklyn).—Our pastor, Rev. W. C. Stiles, commenced studies with his wife, and one after another asked permission to join them, and were cordially welcomed, until we have a circle of seven members. Our studies are those laid down inThe Chautauquan. We read the entire lesson at home, and take the most important points for recitation. At the end of the book we have a written review, and find we have learned the whole thing in a very compact form. There seems to be a good deal of interest, and we find the studies very pleasant. We decided to elect a secretary every month and send a report toThe Chautauquan, so you will probably hear from us again.New York (Brooklyn).—In the January number ofThe Chautauquanyou ask if there are any local circles in Brooklyn. Besides those mentioned there is one of seventy-four members, which meets in the chapel of the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. N. G. Cheney is president; Mr. John E. Searles, vice-president, and Mr. J. Wallis Cook, associate vice-president. The circle is constantly growing, having recently absorbed part of the circle of which F. S. Holmes was president. The members of the circle are not confined to the Methodist denomination, but are representatives of several others.New York (Greenwich).—Our local circle is not only fairly launched, but is under full sail. We number twenty-four enthusiastic members from all the Christian denominations, who are reading with a determination to win. We held our second monthly meeting last evening, December 11. Nearly every member was present and several brought essays on subjects previously assigned them by the president of the circle, which were well written and well read. Very much interest was exhibited in the geological essays, illustrated by the excellent charts. The members express themselves as being gratified and surprised at the enthusiasm manifested, and at the splendid success of our first meeting. You shall hear more further on.New York (Suspension Bridge).—We have a local circle in this place which numbers twenty-five members, and the majority of them have their names enrolled at Plainfield, N. J. Our order of exercises is singing (Chautauqua hymns), roll-call, reading of minutes, program, business, adjournment. The program for each meeting is prepared by a committee of three, whom the president appoints twoweeks before, and who make their report at the meeting following their appointment. We have twenty-five questions inThe Chautauquanevery week, and some also in the Greek text-book, which are asked by the chairman of the committee that prepared the program. We are still studying the chart, and hardlyseehow we could have used the geology without it. We are taking the diagrams in course, one being explained at each meeting by the member appointed by the committee at the previous meeting. The program always includes, also, some article or articles inThe Chautauquan, which is read aloud by the members with frequent consultation of the dictionary. We observe the “Memorial Days” on the regular evening nearest memorial date. Exercises for these are also announced by the committee who prepare the regular program for the evening, and consist of a sketch of the author’s life by one member, a recitation of one of his works by another, and a short selection by each member. Our meetings are well attended, and all seem to enjoy them. We have taken for our name, “The Athenian Circle.”New York (Brocton).—A local circle was reorganized in September with a good attendance and increased interest. We now have, in this our fifth year, a membership of twenty and meet every Saturday evening. In addition to our regular officers, president and secretary, we usually elect a teacher for each subject. We are using the charts, and the Baptist clergyman, Rev. J. M. Bates has given us one lecture on geology and will soon give us another. The Class of ’82 are taking the White Crystal Seal course, and most of the members are also reading the regular course for the year. The influence of our circle is not confined to its members alone, but is felt throughout the village, winning the respect of the people and increasing their desire for solid reading.Pennsylvania (Phillipsburg).—Our circle has been having some very pleasant gatherings lately, quite out of our usual order. Some time before Christmas we first discovered we had a neighbor circle in Houtzdale, Clearfield County, a town about twelve miles from here, among the coal mines. It is a much larger place than this, having a population of between eight and ten thousand, principally miners from almost every country in Europe. Wishing to show our friendly feeling to our brethren in the Chautauqua Circle, we invited them down to visit our circle. They accepted our invitation, promising to come when the sleighing and weather were favorable. So they telephoned to us on the 18th of last month to expect them on Monday evening, the 22d. Our circle generally meets every Tuesday evening, but this time, to have a fuller attendance and suit all around, we changed the time to Monday. We met rather early and prepared to give them a warm reception. No one of us had to our knowledge met any one of them, so we had to introduce ourselves. We were rather surprised when they came to find that twelve out of the twenty-five composing their circle had ventured on the long drive, for though the moonlight made it as bright as day, the weather wasverycold. The evening passed pleasantly and quickly, and it was not till midnight that we turned our steps homeward. We departed from our usual custom this evening and had a small entertainment. A cup of coffee is very refreshing before a cold sleigh ride, and we could not think of letting the party return without breaking bread with us. Before separating we partly promised to go up to Houtzdale to hear a lecture on “Greece, Ancient and Modern,” on the following Wednesday. All depended on the weather, which seemed to be steadily growing colder. Wednesday morning the mercury went down to 14°, but as it rose rapidly, by noon we made what preparations were necessary, and a party of fifteen beside the drivers started in two large sleds, after an early supper. We reached our destination with but few mishaps and were most kindly received. We enjoyed the lecture as well as seeing the real Greek costumes very much. At the close of the meeting we went to the house of one of the members of the C. L. S. C., where we partook of a very nice entertainment before starting for home. We all agreed that the trip was quite a success and have promised, when warm weather comes, to go again to visit the circle on one of its regular meetings. We are now reading in our fifth year and feel that we can not think of giving up, even though some of us have our diplomas. The reading in regular course is good for any one, and the influence of good books and pleasant companionship drawing one out of one’s self, away, for a short time at least, from the cares and fret of every-day life, brings interest and brightness to many who might otherwise give up to the “blues” and ill-temper, which like

Dr. Thomas Sheridan, who lost all chance of further preferment by choosing an unlucky text on the anniversary of George I, was an excellent scholar, but an indolent, good-natured, careless man. He was slovenly, indigent, and cheerful; ill-starred, improvident, but not unhappy. He was a fiddler, punster, quibbler, and wit; not a day passed without a rebus, a madrigal, or an anagram, and his pen and fiddlestick were in continual motion. Of the state of his house, at Quilca, his intimate friend and choice companion has left us the following lively picture:

Dr. Thomas Sheridan, who lost all chance of further preferment by choosing an unlucky text on the anniversary of George I, was an excellent scholar, but an indolent, good-natured, careless man. He was slovenly, indigent, and cheerful; ill-starred, improvident, but not unhappy. He was a fiddler, punster, quibbler, and wit; not a day passed without a rebus, a madrigal, or an anagram, and his pen and fiddlestick were in continual motion. Of the state of his house, at Quilca, his intimate friend and choice companion has left us the following lively picture:

“Let me thy properties explain:A rotten cabin dropping rain;Chimneys with scorn rejecting smoke;Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.Here elements have lost their uses;Air ripens not, nor earth produces;In vain we make poor Shela toil,Fire will not roast, nor water boil;Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,The goddess Want in triumph reigns,And her chief officers of state—Sloth, Dirt, and Theft—around her wait.”

“Let me thy properties explain:A rotten cabin dropping rain;Chimneys with scorn rejecting smoke;Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.Here elements have lost their uses;Air ripens not, nor earth produces;In vain we make poor Shela toil,Fire will not roast, nor water boil;Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,The goddess Want in triumph reigns,And her chief officers of state—Sloth, Dirt, and Theft—around her wait.”

“Let me thy properties explain:A rotten cabin dropping rain;Chimneys with scorn rejecting smoke;Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.Here elements have lost their uses;Air ripens not, nor earth produces;In vain we make poor Shela toil,Fire will not roast, nor water boil;Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,The goddess Want in triumph reigns,And her chief officers of state—Sloth, Dirt, and Theft—around her wait.”

“Let me thy properties explain:

A rotten cabin dropping rain;

Chimneys with scorn rejecting smoke;

Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.

Here elements have lost their uses;

Air ripens not, nor earth produces;

In vain we make poor Shela toil,

Fire will not roast, nor water boil;

Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,

The goddess Want in triumph reigns,

And her chief officers of state—

Sloth, Dirt, and Theft—around her wait.”

By FRANCES POWER COBBE.

This eminent lady is the daughter of the Archbishop of Dublin, and one of the most distinguished philanthropists in England. In the following pages will be found some timely thoughts she has uttered in a lecture on

A mother’s love ought to be attuned to the very note of the love divine,—to be, in fact, its echo from the deep cave of her heart.

But, with super-earthly love to light her way what does she see before her? There is, first, the duty of conducing to her child’s moral welfare, the highest of all her duties; secondly, of securing his bodily health; thirdly, of giving him that intellectual training which will enlarge his being and make his moral nature itself more robust and capable of fulfilling his duties in life; and lastly, of making him as happy as she may. These are each and all most complicated problems to many a good mother, working perhaps against wind and tide, with feeble health or limited means, or possibly with a husband who thwarts and opposes her endeavors. It would require not half a lecture, but a whole treatise, to deal with such a subject fitly, even if I possessed the experience or insight needful for the task. There is only one point on which I think ethical science may be of some utility. That point is the problem ofobedience. How far ought it to be enforced?

Three things are commonly confounded in speaking of filial obedience—

First—The obedience which must be exacted from a child for its own physical, intellectual, and moral welfare.

Second—The obedience which the parent may exact for his (the parent’s) welfare or convenience.

Third—The obedience which parent and child alike owe to the moral law, and which it is the parent’s duty to teach the child to pay.

If mothers would but keep these three kinds of obedience clear and distinct in their minds, I think much of the supposed difficulty of the problem would disappear. And, if children as they grow up would likewise discriminate between them, many of their troubles would be relieved.

For the first, the excellent old Dr. Thomas Brown lays down (Lectures on Ethics, p. 287) a principle which seems to me exactly to fit the case. He says that parents “should impose no restraint which has not for its object some good greater than the temporary evil of the restraint itself.” For an infant, the restraint is no evil; and at that age everything must be a matter of obedience, the babe possessing no sense or experience for self-guidance. But, as childhood advances, so should freedom advance; and, even if the little boy or girl does now and then learn by sharp experience, the lesson will generally be well worth the cost: whereas the evils of over-restraint have no compensation. Each one is bad in itself, checking the proper development of character, chilling the spirits, and also in a cumulative way becoming increasingly mischievous, as the miserable sense of being fettered becomes confirmed.

In all this matter of the child’s own welfare, the mother’s aim ought to be to become the life-long counselor of her child; and a counselor is (by the very hypothesis) one who does not persist in claiming authority. Nobody thinks ofconsultinganother who may conclude their “advice” by saying, “And now Iorderyou to do as I have advised.” To drop, as completely and as early as possible, the tone of command, and assume that of the loving, sympathetic, ever disinterested guide and friend,—that is, I think, the true wisdom of every mother, as it was that of my own. Of course, there are cases so grave (especially where girls who little understand the need of caution are concerned) that it is absolutely necessary, nay, the mother’s pressing duty, to prohibit her daughter from running into danger. To apply Brown’s rule, the evil of the restraint is more than counter-balanced by immunity from deadly peril. Perhaps it is one of the principal causes of the dissatisfaction of young girls with parental control that they do not and can not understand what horrible dangers may overtake them in the still foul condition of society.

Second—It is too little remembered that a parent has a moral right to exact obedience as a form ofservicefrom his child. The parent has, in strictest ethical sense, the first of all claims on the child’sspecial benevolence;i. e., on hiswill to do good. The double ties of gratitude and of closest human relationship make it the duty of the child to pay that sacred debt from first to last; and it is entirely fit and greatly for its benefit that the parent should claim that duty. The parent’sdirectionin such cases, properly translated, is not acommand, to which the response is blind obedience, but an indication of the way in which the person to whom the debt is due desires that it should be paid. There ought to be nothing in the slightest degree harsh or dictatorial in such direction. On the contrary, I can not but think that the introduction by parents of much greater courtesy to their children would be an immense advantage in this and other cases. We all ask our servants politely to do for us the services which they have contracted to do, and for which we pay them. How much more kindly and courteously ought we to ask of our children to perform services due by the blessed and holy debt of nature and gratitude, and which ought, each one, to be a joy to the child as well as to the parent! When it is rightly demanded and cheerfully paid, how excellent and beautiful to both is this kind of filial duty! When, for example, we see little girls of the working classes taught to carry their father’s dinner to the field as soon as they can toddle, and helping their mother to “mind the baby,” even if it be a “little Moloch” of a baby, we witness both the fulfillment of a legitimate claim on the part of the parents, and a most beneficent moral training for the child. I think this sort of service of the child is sadly lacking among the richer classes, and that it would be an excellent thing if mothers, however wealthy, found means of making their children more useful to themselves. Nothing can be worse for a child than to find everything done for her, and never to be called upon to do anything for anybody else. Indeed, any fine-natured child, like a dog, will find much more real pleasure in being of use, or fancying it is so, than in being perpetually pampered and amused. Of course there would be moral limits to such claims on the parent’s part, as,e. g., when they would interfere with the child’s health or education. But there is no natural termination in point of age to the parent’s right to give such directions for his own service. On the contrary, the time when the adult son or daughter has come into the full possession of his or her faculties, while the parent is sinking into the infirmities of age, is the very time when filial duty is most imperative in its obligation; and the fact that aged parents rarely attempt to give to adult sons and daughters the same directions for their comfort as they gave them when children shows how little the real nature of these sacred rights and duties is commonly understood.

Third—There is theobediencewhich both parent and child owe to the eternal moral law; and this obedience again ought to be kept perfectly distinct from that which is exacted either for the child’s personal welfare or the parent’s convenience. The old and most important distinction between a thing which ismalum in seand a thing which is onlymalum prohibitumought never to be lost sight of. Even in a very little child, I think, a moral fault, such as alie, or cruelty to an animal, or vindictiveness toward its companions, ought to be treated with gravity and sadness; and, as the child grows, an importance ought to be attached to such faults wholly incommensurate with any other sort of error, such as indolence about lessons or the like. The one aim of the parent must be to make profound impression of the awfulness and solemnity of moral good and moral evil.

But even here the difficulty haunts us, when is this enforcement of obedience to moral laws to cease? So long as a child is absolutely compelled to do right by sheer force and terror of punishment, its moral freedom can have no scope, and its moral life consequently can not even begin. It can not acquire thevirtuewhich results from free choice. All that the parent can do (and it is an indispensable preparation for virtue, though not virtue itself) is first to teach the child what is right,—to draw out its latent moral sense, and inspire it with the wish to do right,—and then to help its steps in the path which has been pointed out. Once a child grasps the idea of duty, and begins in its little way to try to “be good,” and displays the indescribably touching phenomena of childlike penitence and restoration, it becomes surely the most sacred task for the mother to aid such efforts—silently, indeed, for the most part, and too reverentially to talk much about it—with tenderest sympathy. It would be no kindness, of course, but cruelty, to open up hastily ways of liberty before moral strength has been gained to walk in them. The “hedging up the way with thorns” is a divine precaution, which a mother may well imitate. But the principle must be, as in the case of directions in matters not moral, gradually and systematically to exchange directions and orders for counsels and exhortations.

And here, in closing these, perhaps, too tedious remarks on the moral training of children, I shall add a word which may possibly startle some who hear me,—Beware that, in earnestly seeking your child’s moral welfare, you do notforcethe moral nature with hot-house culture. To be a sturdy plant, it must grow naturally, and not too rapidly. It seems as if it were not intended by Providence that this supreme part of our human nature should be developed far in childhood and early youth, lovely as are the blossoms it sometimes then bears,—too often to drop into an untimely grave, or wither away in the heat of manhood without fruit. Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, undoubtedly made a great mistake in this matter, as one of his very best disciples, Arthur Hugh Clough, was able in later years to see. Mothers should not be unhappy, if boys are honorable and kindly and affectionate, if they should, at fifteen, prefer a game of football to a visit of charity; and I should not blame at all severely any of my young friends, if such there be here present, who may be at this moment wishing that she were playing lawn-tennis, instead of sitting still to hear a dull dissertation on moral philosophy!

But, when all is done that can be done by human wisdom to help the moral growth of the young, there is a vast space left for the other and easier parental duty ofproviding for their happiness. Of course, to nine parents out of ten, high and low, it is the joy and delight of their lives to make their children as happy as possible. There is no virtue in this. Nature (or, let us say frankly, God) has so made us that in middle life nearly all direct pleasures to be enjoyed on our own account begin to pall. We are too busy or too indifferent to care much for a score of things which, when we were younger, we found quite entrancing.

“It is the one great grief of life to feel all feelings die.”

But, just as our sun goes down to the horizon, a moonlight reflection of pleasure, purer, calmer than the first, rises to give a sweet interest to the lives of all who are happy enough to have young creatures around them. The pleasures we can no longer taste for ourselves we taste in our children’s enjoyment. Their glee, their eagerness, their freshness of delight, stir our pulses with tenderness and sympathy. I do not know anything in the world which pulls one’s heartstrings so much as the sight of a little blue-eyed, golden-haired, white-frocked atom of humanity clapping its hands and crowing with ecstasy at the sight of a kite soaring up into the summer sky.

Are we to ask parents to deny themselves and their children in the stern old way, and turn their young lives into dreary rounds of duty and work, till they hate the very name of either one or the other? God forbid! Does God, the great Parent, Father and Mother of the World, lead us up to himself by any such harsh, stern tuition? Nay, but has he not made earth so beautiful, and planted flowers by every wayside, and gladdened our hearts by ten thousand delights of the intellect, the senses, the tastes, and the affections? Fear, my friends, to make your childrenunhappy, and to love themtoo little. But never fear to make them too happy or to love them too much! There is a great, deep saying, that we must all enter the kingdom of God as little children. Surely, the converse of it is true also; and we should prepare in our homes a kingdom of God,—of peace and love and tenderness and innocent pleasure,—whenever a little child is sent to us out of heaven to dwell in it.

We now come to speak of the duties of daughters. The ethical grounds of the duty of supreme benevolence toward our parents are clear. They are nearest to us of human beings. We owe them life and (nearly always also) endless cares and affection. In the case of a mother, her claims on her child—founded on the bodily agony she has borne on its behalf, and the ineffably sweet office of nursing (when she has performed it), her care in infancy, and love and sympathy in later years—make together such a cumulative title to gratitude and devotion that it is impossible to place on it any limitation.

This claim is, of course, happily usually admitted in the case of daughterswho do not marry. It is understood that they are bound to do all they can for their mother’s and father’s comfort. But, may I ask, who absolved the daughters who marry from the same sacred obligation? In Catholic countries, young women often quit their aged parents, no matter how much they need them, to enter “religion,” as it is said; and we Protestants are very indignant with them for so doing. But, when it comes to our Protestant religion of matrimony, lo! we are extremely indulgent to the girl who deposits her filial obligations on what theMorning Postcalls the “Hymeneal Altar!” The daughter practically says to her blind father or bed-ridden mother: “Corban! I am going off to India with Captain Algernon, who waltzes beautifully, and whom I met last night at a ball. It is a gift by whatsoever you might have been profited by me.”

Is this right or justifiable? Public opinion condones it; and the parent often consents out of the abundance of unselfish affection, thereby in a certain formal way releasing the daughter from her natural debt. But I do not think, if the parent really wants her services, that she can morally withdraw them, even with such consent, and certainly notwithoutit.

We all see this remarkably clearly when the question is not of marriage, but of a girl of the higher class devoting herself to charity or art, or any kind of public work which requires her to quit her parents’ roof. Then, indeed, even if her parents be in the full vigor of life, and have half a dozen other daughters, we are pretty sure to hear the solemn condemnation of the adventurous damsel, “Angelina ought to attend to her father and mother, and not go here or there for this or that purpose.”

Surely there is a very obvious rule to cover all thesecases. If either parentwantsthe daughter she ought not to leave him or her,eitherto marry or to go into a nunnery, or for any other purpose. If her parents donotwant her, then, being of age to judge for herself, she is freeeitherto undertake the duties of a wife, orany othersfor which she may feel a vocation.

This may sound very hard. It is undoubtedly the demand for a very high degree of virtue, where the sacrifice may be that of the happiness of a lifetime. But every duty may sometimes claim such sacrifices. Parental duty does so perpetually. How many thousands of mothers and fathers toil all their days and give up health and every enjoyment for their children’s interests! Why should not filial duties likewise exact equal sacrifice? The entire devotion to the parent when the parent really needs it, and the constant devotion of as much care as the parent requires,—this, and nothing short of this, seems to me to be the standard of filial duty.

A very difficult question arises in the case of the abnormal and scarcely sane development of selfishness which we sometimes sadly witness in old age. I think, in such deplorable cases, the child is called on to remember that, even in her filial relation, themoral welfareof the object of benevolence is before all other considerations, and that she is bound to pause in a course which obviously is tending to promote a great moral fault. Gently and with great care and deference, she ought to remind the parent of the needs of others.

The great difficulty in the lives of hundreds of daughters of the upper ranks just now lies in this: that they find themselves torn between two opposing impulses, and know not which they ought to follow. On one side are the habits of a child, and the assurance of everybody that the same habits of quiescence and submission ought to be maintained into womanhood. On the other hand there is the same instinct which we see in a baby’s limbs, to stir, to change its position, to climb, to run; to use, in short, the muscles and faculties it possesses. Every young bird flutters away from its nest, however soft; every little rabbit quits the comfortable hole in which it was born; and we take it as fit and right they should do so, even when there are hawks and weasels all around. Only when a young girl wants to do anything of the analogous kind, her instinct is treated as a sort of sin. She is asked, “Can not she be contented, having so nice a home and luxuries provided in abundance?” Keble’s fine but much-misused lines, about “room to deny ourselves” and the “common task” and “daily round” being all we ought to require, are sure to be quoted against her; and, in short, she feels herself a culprit, and probably at least once a week has a fit of penitence for her incorrigible “discontent.” I have known this kind of thing go on for years, and it is repeated in hundreds, in thousands, of families. I have known it where there were seven miserable, big, young women in one little house! It is supposed to be the most impossible thing in the world for a parent to give his son a stone for bread or a serpent for a fish. But scores of fathers, in the higher ranks, give their daughters diamonds when they crave for education, and twist round their necks the serpents of idle luxury and pleasure when they ask for wholesome employment.

Pardon me if I speak very warmly on this subject, because I think here lies one of the great evils of the condition of our sex and class at this time; and I feel intensely for the young spirits whose natural and whosenobleaspirations are so checked and deadened and quenched through all their youth and years of energy that, when the time for emancipation comes at last, it is too late for them to make use of it. They have been dwarfed and stunted, and can never either be or do anything greatly good.

In short, the complaint we women make against men, that they persist in treating us as minors when we have attained our majority, is what daughters too often can justly make against both their fathers and mothers. They keep them in the swaddling-clothes of childhood, when they ought to set free and train every limb to its most athletic and joyous exercise. Dangers, of course, on the other side there are,—of over-emancipated and ill-advised girls who sorely need more parental guidance than they obtain; but, so far as my experience goes, these cases are few compared to those of the young women (ladies, of course, I mean, for in the lower classes such evils are unknown) whose lives are spoiled byover-restraint in innocent things. They are left free, and encouraged to plunge into the maelstrom of a fashionable season’s senseless whirl of dissipation and luxury. They are restrained from every effort at self-development or rational self-sacrifice, till, for the very want of some corrective bitter, they go and beat the hassocks in a church as a pious exercise, or perhaps finally lock themselves up in a nunnery. Small blame to them! Ritualist nunneries at present offer the most easily accessible back-door out of fine drawing-rooms into anything like a field of usefulness.

Now for sisters. That brothers and sisters should give one another in an ordinary way the first-fruits of their benevolence follows obviously from the closeness of their propinquity. Usually there has also been from childhood the blessed interchange of kindnesses which accumulate on both sides into a claim of reciprocal gratitude.

Miss Bremer remarks that “it is the general characteristic of affection to make us blind to the faults of those we love, but from this weaknessfraternallove is wholly exempt.” Brothers are indeed terrible critics of their sisters, and, so far, irritating creatures. But otherwise, as we all know, they are the very joy and pride of our lives; and there is probably not one duty in our list which needs less to be insisted on to women generally than that of bestowing on their brothers not only love of benevolence, but also a large amount of love of complacency. It is usually also a truly sound moral sentiment, causing the sister to take profound interest in the religious and moral welfare of her brother, as well as in his health and happiness.

One mistake, I think, is often made by sisters, and still more often by mothers, to which attention should be called. The unselfishness of the sisters, and the fondness of the mother for her boy, and the fact that the boy is but rarely at home, all contribute to a habit of sacrificing everything to the young lad’s pleasure or profit, which has the worst effect on his character in after-life. Boys receive from women themselves in the nursery, and when they come home from school in the holidays, a regulareducation in selfishness. They acquire the practice of looking on girls and women as persons whose interests, education, and pleasures must always, as a matter of course, be postponed to their own. In later life, we rue—and their wives may rue—the consequences.

The duties of sisters to sisters are even more close and tender than those of sisters to brothers. I hardly know if there be any salient fault in the usual behavior of English sisters to one another which any moral system could set right. Perhaps the one quality oftenest deficient in this, and other more distant family relationships, to which we need not further refer,—uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on—iscourtesy. “Too much familiarity,” as the proverb says, “breeds contempt.” The habit of treating one another without the little forms in use among other friends, and the horrid trick of speaking rudely of each other’s defects or mishaps, is the underlying source of half the alienation of relatives. If we are bound to showspecial benevolenceto those nearest to us, why on earth do we give them pain at every turn, rub them the wrong way, andfroissertheirnaturalamour propreby unflattering remarks or unkind references? For once we can do them a real service of any kind, we can (if we live with them) hurt, or else please, them fifty times a day. The individual who thinks she performs her duty to sister or niece, or cousin, while she waits to do the exceptional services, and hourly frets and worries and humiliates her, is certainly exceedingly mistaken. Genuine benevolence—the “will to make happy”—will take a very different course.

It will not be necessary here to pursue further the subject of the duties arising from the ties of natural relationship, holy and blessed things that they are! I am persuaded that even the best and happiest of us only half-apprehend their beautiful meaning, and that we must look to the life beyond the grave to interpret for us all their significance.

By J. H. VINCENT, D. D.,Superintendent of Instruction, C. L. S. C.

The studies for March are Recreations in Astronomy, Readings in Astronomy, Chautauqua Text-Book on English History, readings in English, Russian, Scandinavian, and Religious History and Literature. Also selections from English Literature.

No “Memorial Day” for March; but February 27 is the “Longfellow Day.” The March number ofThe Chautauquanmay reach our members in time to remind them of this fact.

For the varying opinions concerning the existence of man on the earth see the October (’82)Chautauquan. The date in our English Bible, “4004 B. C.,” is not an inspired date. The claims of Prof. Packard in his little volume on geology, as to the long existence of man on the globe, is doubted by many men of science.

Prof. Timayenis says that the author of the Chautauqua Text-book on Greek History, and the author of the Preparatory Greek Course in English, are mistaken in attributing the remark, “Then we will fight them in the shade,” to Leonidas. Prof. Timayenis says: “My authority is Herodotus, who, first of all historians, relates the Persian wars, and all subsequent historians have followed him. In Herodotus, Polymnia, paragraph 226, you will find the remark attributed to Dienekes.”

What general commanded the Persian forces at the battle of Marathon? Datis and Artaphernes, by order of King Darius. At what place was St. John the Baptist imprisoned just before he was beheaded? Probably at the Castle of Machœrus, east of the Dead Sea.

“What is the examination to which we are to submit?—C. L. S. C., ’86.” The examination is scarcely thorough enough to be called an “examination.” It is rather the filling out of certain “memoranda.” It would be impossible for us to provide any fair test by which to judge of the ability of our pupils. We therefore simply require them to fill out certain memoranda, that we may be assured that they have read the books.

Go to some member who despairs because she can not read a large amount every day, and show her by actual reading how many minutes by the watch it takes to read slowly one page. Then put a book mark five pages on for one day, another day three pages, another six, then five. Run through at that rate for twenty-five days, and show your friend how far she would be at the end of a month by reading so much a day. A practical illustration of that kind will show the power of littles, prove to a demonstration the power of system, inspire your discouraged friend with confidence and hope, and thus in a small way you will be a teacher and a useful member of the C. L. S. C.

Hold “Round-Tables” with conversations at your circle meetings. Allow no waste of words. Let the president hold everybody to the subject, and see how many things can be said by the circle of five, ten, or fifteen persons, on one subject.

“Duyckinck” is pronounced Di´kink.

Rev. A. B. Cristy, pastor of the Congregational church, Conway, Mass., has devised one or two very ingenious Chautauqua games, which I hope he will see fit to publish.

Mr. Cristy has adopted a very ingenious plan for a local circle. He says: “I have prepared a narrative with breaks to be filled in, in order, by the answers to the one hundred questions in the October and NovemberChautauquan. One reads, and, as he comes to a break, suddenly calls for some one to read the answer fromThe Chautauquan. If the other does not find it, and begin before the reader counts ten as the clock ticks, a forfeit is to be paid to the general fund, thus insuring attention while the main points are reviewed during the game.” A very bright way of spending a little time in a local circle.

A lady from Vermont writes: “Since I wrote last, my eldest brother, Dr. ——, of ——, and my own sister, Mrs. ——, have both joined the C. L. S. C. This makes four of father’s family who belong to the ‘people’s college.’ With the exception of the doctor we were all in the old home at Christmas, and as my cousins were there too, we planned to organize very quietly. We seated ourselves on the stairs in the front hall, and were proceeding to business, when the dear old mother announced that there was ‘a college being organized in the house,’ so, of course, every one had to come and look at us, and as each one said something wittier than the last had said, we were soon in an uproar of merriment—a very undignified college class. I think hereafter when they read of the C. L. S. C., they will think of the company of people on the stairs, and that is really what we are—going up one step at a time. There are five in the circle, and we have arranged to meet once in two weeks.” A good name,the On-the-Stairs circle. Our correspondent in a later letter adds: “Did I tell you that we sat near the foot of the stairs, as symbolical of the heights we hope to climb? and on the lowest step was a little girl who had left the company to be near her mother, and in her we saw a type of the coming generation, and the promise of an ever-widening circle. Do urge it upon the mothers more and more to talk over their studies with their little children. It not only helps mothers, but it gives such zest to the studies of the little ones, when they think that by-and-by they are going to study these other wonderful things which now interest their parents. Only this last week my little nine-year-old girl was having a hard time over her geography lesson; out West seemed so far away, but when I mentioned to her that Yellowstone Park was out there it was like another lesson, or like another girl studying—an interested girl.”

A cultivated lady writes: “One of the most agreeable Methodist ladies in the city of New York recently asked of me some information about the Chautauqua course. She occupies a high social position in the church, and is possessed of no little intelligence, but finds her time absorbed in the cares of her domestic establishment. I gave her suchof the Chautauqua matter as I had at hand, and asked how her interest in the course had been awaked. She replied that an amiable young kinswoman, who is in the habit of visiting her yearly, endeared herself to the household, during her last visit, by the development of her intelligence, the animation of her conversation, and her greatly improved intellectual character. ‘I found a Chautauqua text-book on her dressing table,’ said my friend, ‘and guessing the secret of the marked change in her, asked her whether she knew of the Chautauqua course?’ ‘Yes, indeed!’ It had laid hold of her; she could not do without it; such a blessing and benefit it had been to her, etc. Mrs. —, my friend, thereupon came to the conclusion that she herself must have the course. ‘My reading is necessarily limited, but it need not be desultory,’ she said; ‘I want what we all want—regulated reading.’ Accordingly she has subscribed forThe Chautauquan, and begun the course. As she has two little girls, and a boy fourteen years old, the C. L. S. C. will not impart its healthful influence and stimulus to her alone. I am sure that it will prove a well-spring, refreshing and nourishing her household.”

The item calling for missing numbers ofThe Assembly Heraldbrought satisfactory answers; the first from Mrs. H. M. Graham, of Garrettsville, Ohio, who sends the missing March and October numbers for 1879; the May number, and also the October, which has been returned, from Miss Jessie Brownell, of St. Louis, Mo. My cordial thanks to these kind helpers.

A member writes: “I want to get a good astronomical almanac containing map or chart of the movements of the planets for the current year. Can you direct me where to find a good one, which is at the same time reasonable in price?” After consulting two of the leading astronomers in the country, I am compelled to say that such map or chart is not to be easily procured. One professor recommends any nautical almanac, in connection with any chart of the heavens; another recommends the “Connecticut Almanac,” with such chart.

The hero—the reformer—your Brutus—your Howard—your republican, whom civic storm—your genius, whom poetic storm impels; in short, every man with a great purpose, or even with a continuous passion (were it but that of writing the largest folios); all these men defend themselves by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as the madman in a worse sense does; every fixed idea, such as rules every genius and every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and raises a man above the bed and board of this earth—above its dog’s grottoes, buckthorns, and devils’ walls; like the bird of paradise he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions oversleeps unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of life in his long fair dream of his ideal motherland.—Jean Paul F. Richter.

The hero—the reformer—your Brutus—your Howard—your republican, whom civic storm—your genius, whom poetic storm impels; in short, every man with a great purpose, or even with a continuous passion (were it but that of writing the largest folios); all these men defend themselves by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as the madman in a worse sense does; every fixed idea, such as rules every genius and every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and raises a man above the bed and board of this earth—above its dog’s grottoes, buckthorns, and devils’ walls; like the bird of paradise he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions oversleeps unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of life in his long fair dream of his ideal motherland.—Jean Paul F. Richter.

The songs used by the C. L. S. C. at the Round Table, and in all their gatherings at Chautauqua, have been a real inspiration to thousands who have heard them. Through the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Vincent we shall furnish our readers, every month, with one or more of these songs set to music. Thus local circles will have them furnished for use, inThe Chautauquan, and every member who sings, though not connected with a local circle, may adopt them as songs of the home.

The songs used by the C. L. S. C. at the Round Table, and in all their gatherings at Chautauqua, have been a real inspiration to thousands who have heard them. Through the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Vincent we shall furnish our readers, every month, with one or more of these songs set to music. Thus local circles will have them furnished for use, inThe Chautauquan, and every member who sings, though not connected with a local circle, may adopt them as songs of the home.

music

[Transcriber's Note: You can play this music (MIDI file) by clickinghere.]

Mary A. Lathbury.(Chautauqua Song, 1875.)Lucy J. Rider.

1 The winds are whisp’ring to the trees,The hill-tops catch the strain,The forest lifts her leafy gatesTo greet God’s host again.Upon our unseen banner flamesThe mystic two-edged sword,We hold its legend in our hearts—“The Spirit and the Word.”CHORUS.God bless the hearts that beat as one,Tho’ continents apart!We greet you, brothers, face to face,We meet you heart to heart.2 We wait the touch of holy fireUpon our untaught lips;The “open vision” of the saints,The new apocalypse;We wait—the children of a King—We wait, in Jesus’ name,Beside these altars, till our heartsShall catch the sacred flame.—Chorus.

1 The winds are whisp’ring to the trees,The hill-tops catch the strain,The forest lifts her leafy gatesTo greet God’s host again.Upon our unseen banner flamesThe mystic two-edged sword,We hold its legend in our hearts—“The Spirit and the Word.”CHORUS.God bless the hearts that beat as one,Tho’ continents apart!We greet you, brothers, face to face,We meet you heart to heart.2 We wait the touch of holy fireUpon our untaught lips;The “open vision” of the saints,The new apocalypse;We wait—the children of a King—We wait, in Jesus’ name,Beside these altars, till our heartsShall catch the sacred flame.—Chorus.

1 The winds are whisp’ring to the trees,The hill-tops catch the strain,The forest lifts her leafy gatesTo greet God’s host again.Upon our unseen banner flamesThe mystic two-edged sword,We hold its legend in our hearts—“The Spirit and the Word.”

1 The winds are whisp’ring to the trees,

The hill-tops catch the strain,

The forest lifts her leafy gates

To greet God’s host again.

Upon our unseen banner flames

The mystic two-edged sword,

We hold its legend in our hearts—

“The Spirit and the Word.”

CHORUS.God bless the hearts that beat as one,Tho’ continents apart!We greet you, brothers, face to face,We meet you heart to heart.

CHORUS.

God bless the hearts that beat as one,

Tho’ continents apart!

We greet you, brothers, face to face,

We meet you heart to heart.

2 We wait the touch of holy fireUpon our untaught lips;The “open vision” of the saints,The new apocalypse;We wait—the children of a King—We wait, in Jesus’ name,Beside these altars, till our heartsShall catch the sacred flame.—Chorus.

2 We wait the touch of holy fire

Upon our untaught lips;

The “open vision” of the saints,

The new apocalypse;

We wait—the children of a King—

We wait, in Jesus’ name,

Beside these altars, till our hearts

Shall catch the sacred flame.—Chorus.

Copyright, 1875, by J. H. Vincent.

By MARY R. DODGE DINGWALL.

We went to school, my dear old books and I—Full twenty years ago, and miles away—True, trusted friends from morn till twilight gray:I held them dear, and could not put them byWhen other work came in my strength to try;Like blocks with which the child first learns to play,I wanted them in sight both night and day.Oft in my dreams with book in hand would I,Unfettered, walk the longed-for upward way—The pleasant path that leads up Science Hill;But waking, knew for me it might not be;God’s way is best, I truly tried to say,When lo! a hand, a token of his will,And on the outstretched hand I read, C. L. S. C.!

We went to school, my dear old books and I—Full twenty years ago, and miles away—True, trusted friends from morn till twilight gray:I held them dear, and could not put them byWhen other work came in my strength to try;Like blocks with which the child first learns to play,I wanted them in sight both night and day.Oft in my dreams with book in hand would I,Unfettered, walk the longed-for upward way—The pleasant path that leads up Science Hill;But waking, knew for me it might not be;God’s way is best, I truly tried to say,When lo! a hand, a token of his will,And on the outstretched hand I read, C. L. S. C.!

We went to school, my dear old books and I—Full twenty years ago, and miles away—True, trusted friends from morn till twilight gray:I held them dear, and could not put them byWhen other work came in my strength to try;Like blocks with which the child first learns to play,I wanted them in sight both night and day.Oft in my dreams with book in hand would I,Unfettered, walk the longed-for upward way—The pleasant path that leads up Science Hill;But waking, knew for me it might not be;God’s way is best, I truly tried to say,When lo! a hand, a token of his will,And on the outstretched hand I read, C. L. S. C.!

We went to school, my dear old books and I—

Full twenty years ago, and miles away—

True, trusted friends from morn till twilight gray:

I held them dear, and could not put them by

When other work came in my strength to try;

Like blocks with which the child first learns to play,

I wanted them in sight both night and day.

Oft in my dreams with book in hand would I,

Unfettered, walk the longed-for upward way—

The pleasant path that leads up Science Hill;

But waking, knew for me it might not be;

God’s way is best, I truly tried to say,

When lo! a hand, a token of his will,

And on the outstretched hand I read, C. L. S. C.!

[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.]

We have received a large number of communications from officers and members of local circles, bearing tidings of organizations effected, and of work done. There is not one prosy letter among them all. Continue to write. If your report does not appear promptly you can afford to be patient, because it will find a place in some column in the near future. No report of a circle that reaches us is overlooked. We shall do you all justice, only give us time; write to us one and all. “Never be discouraged.”—EditorThe Chautauquan.

He who labors diligently need never despair. We can accomplish everything by diligence and labor.—Menander.

Maine (Parks Island).—We have a local branch of the C. L. S. C. here on this little down-east island. We have but fifteen members as yet, but hope to improve in numbers another year. We did not commence work until November, and have had quite hard work to catch up with the regular course, but think we shall be able to accomplish it after a little more hard work.

Maine (Lewiston).—We have three local circles in this city. They were organized this C. L. S. C. year. Most of the members began the course of reading last October. One of the circles is designated as the “Universalist,” another the “Methodist,” each of which has a membership of about twenty-five. The third, which is called the “Alpha” C. L. S. C., is much smaller, the number being limited to ten. Five of these are members of the Class of 1885. The Alpha class have been holding monthly meetings, but owing to the increased interest have decided to meet once in two weeks. Our gatherings have been very informal and pleasant at the home of one of the members. The previous month’s work is carefully reviewed, any topic not well understood is freely discussed, it being the privilege of each member to ask any question relative to the work. Essays are prepared and listened to carefully. At our December meeting two essays on “Geology” were presented—one embracing the October reading on that subject, the other the November—thus bringing into one lesson the principal features of Prof. Packard’s “First Lessons” in that science. The class enjoyed the evening very much and believe it will be a help to have the main points of a single branch of study all brought out in one evening’s work—that is as far as possible.

Vermont (Rutland).—Last year we organized our circle with five members, but only three finished the reading and answered the questions. This year we have nine members, and we meet the last Monday evening in the month. Each member is given a few questions on the month’s reading to answer. After meeting a few times we hope to be a little more methodical in doing our work.

Vermont (St. Albans).—We have not organized a local circle here, though there are not less than twenty persons reading the course in this city.

Massachusetts (East Boston).—In East Boston a local circle was formed in October, meetings once a fortnight, and the membership has increased from seven to twenty-two. There is one graduate, one of the Class of ’84; the rest are beginners in the C. L. S. C.

Massachusetts (Gloucester).—The first local circle of the C. L. S. C. in Gloucester was organized October 23, 1882. We have seventeen regular members. The committee of instruction consists of the president, vice president and secretary. We meet at different houses once a month, from 8 to 9:30 p. m. The first subject of the evening, January 15, was “Geology.” The questions inThe Chautauquanon this subject were first asked and answered, after which Miss Helen Fiske, one of our High School teachers, gave an interesting talk on the subject. Second in order came questions on “Russian History,” prepared by a member, which were followed by questions on “Scandinavian History.” Then came an interesting and enthusiastic talk on the “Greek Course in English,” the questions inThe Chautauquanbeing used. We do feel very thankful for the questions inThe Chautauquan—they are of great value in the course of study. Our programs vary. We use the questions inThe Chautauquanalways, interspersed with talks, prepared questions, etc. We find this year’s course of study very entertaining and profitable. Though our circle is at the foot of the ladder, we are ready to step upward.

Massachusetts (Franklin).—Our circle—known as the Franklin Branch of the C. L. S. C.—was organized in November, 1882, and numbers twenty-three members—eight gentlemen and fifteen ladies. Of this number one is the pastor of the Congregational church, one a deacon of that church, one the editor of the local newspaper, one a physician, two are school teachers, one a wife of a Universalist minister, one a dentist, andallearnest and interested students of the C. L. S. C. We were favored on Thursday evening, Feb. 1, with the presence of our dearly beloved Dr. Vincent, who gave a public lecture under our auspices in the chapel of the First Congregational church. Subject, “That Boy.” After the lecture all the Chautauquans present had the privilege of taking him by the hand, and then were briefly addressed by him upon Chautauqua studies. Many of our members are very busy with their daily occupations, and find it difficult to keep up their course of study, but the Doctor’s stirring and encouraging words have inspired them to persevere, and we hope to be able to sit at the Round-Table at our New England Chautauqua Grounds, South Framingham, with our year’s course of study all completed, and to enroll next year a much larger membership in our circle.

Massachusetts (Holbrook).—This segment of the C. L. S. C. is located at Holbrook, Norfolk Co., Massachusetts, a town of some two thousand five hundred inhabitants, incorporated in 1872. It is located fourteen miles south of Boston, on the Old Colony Railroad, and is engaged principally in the manufacture of boots and shoes, some eighty thousand cases, valued at $2,500,000, being produced annually. The circle, organized October 1, 1880, with a membership of six, and pursued that year’s course, holding fortnightly meetings for the discussion of the topics studied. The next year three joined our number, and the meetings were conducted after the first year’s method, excepting the occasional reading of papers upon subjects assigned. The closing meeting of this year (1882, July 3), anticipated the exercises held nearly two months later at Chautauqua, “a grove meeting,” a feast and camp-fire being the accompaniments. 1883 finds us increased in vigor, with a local membership of fifteen (ten Chautauquans). Our meetings thus far have been for the study of geology, George M. Smith, principal of the high school, aiding us by giving illustrated talks upon the subject. We have the promise of talks on “Greek Life and Writers” by Rev. Ezekiel Russell, D. D. Our circle fortunately has enlisted the interest and services of the educated. Its government is simple, a president and secretary, with a few rules for the conduct of business. All are encouraged to unite in the prosecution of this system of education.

Massachusetts (Rockbottom).—The Hudson Circle meets every other Monday evening. We number sixteen members, and expect a few more. At every meeting the president asks the questions fromThe Chautauquan. One or two special papers on topics connected with the reading are presented by members who were appointed for that purpose. We have a critic who corrects any and all mistakes, including the pronunciation of words. If there is any spare time, it is used for social intercourse. Our last lecture was given by the Rev. T. S. Bacons, on “Geological Formations about the Hudson.”

Massachusetts (West Haverhill).—A local circle was formed at West Haverhill, Mass., October 10, 1882. We meet one evening each month. Our meetings are very interesting and profitable. The exercises vary, with one exception—we usually have the questions inThe Chautauquan, as we think they help to fix the reading we have been over more firmly in our minds. We have eighteen members, and we are just commencing our studies, so we have not as interesting a story to tell as many others, but we hope in our quiet way to be better men and women because of the privileges we enjoy in the C. L. S. C.

Connecticut (Niantic).—Our circle re-organized on October 2, 1882, beginning its second year. We meet every Monday evening, at the house of each of the members in turn. The circle is now as large as can conveniently meet in a private parlor, so we have obtained permission from the church authorities to meet in the Congregational church parlor. There are now twenty-seven members, five of whom belong to the national circle. This is an increase over last year, for then our number was only twenty. The exercises commence with the reading of the secretary’s report of the previous meeting, and then a collection is taken to pay postage and other expenses of the circle. After this the president asks the questions inThe Chautauquan, and the answers are either recited or read. The reading is the last thing before the motions are made and the voting and other business of the circle done, and we adjourn. We read books in the course which will interest the majority of the members. It has generally been those upon which questions and answers are prepared and published inThe Chautauquan. At the meetings we use a dictionary constantly, for every difference in pronunciation is noticed, and the word is looked up. We begin promptly at seven o’clock, and close at nine.

New York (Troy).—The Rev. H. C. Farrar, president of a local circle in Troy, an old Chautauquan and successful C. L. S. C. worker, writes: In our city there are seven circles, all organized this year, numbering in membership some five hundred. Our circle numbers over two hundred members and we have had the grace to call it the “Vincent Circle.” Each circle is doing full and vigorous work, and almost weekly new members are adding themselves. The C. L. S. C. in very many ways is blessing our city. The booksellers never sold so many books of real merit as during the holidays just passed. One firm sold over a dozen Webster’s dictionaries, and all of them were Christmas presents to C. L. S. C.’s. In this vicinity about twenty other circles have been formed since October. So goes the good work bravely on. I can not forbear making an extract from a letter of Rev. J. M. Appleman, Pownal, Vermont: “Mrs. A. and myself commenced the course in October. We availed ourselves of every favorable opportunity to speak in the interest of the C. L. S. C. Many were favorably impressed, but we could not persuade any to join us. We then put the “Hall in the Grove” into the itinerant work and it found favor everywhere, and so great was the demand for it we put another copy on the circuit. I have not seen either copy for several weeks. About the first of December it fell into the hands of a prominent young man and his enthusiasm went to white heat at once and he said: ‘We must have a circle,’ and a circle we have of eleven members and the tide is still rising.” Many of our members have had a new world of thought and life opened to them through geology and Greek history and they are anticipating great things in astronomy. While studying geology we made excursions into the country and with hammer and bag practically geologized. We spent two hours at the State Geological Rooms in Albany (two hundred of us) and heard Prof. James Hall. We had one lecture on “Glaciers and theMer-de-glace.” We had frequent talks by one of our number on geology, and the interest has been rife and the profit great. We are planning most vigorously for larger and better things. We are seeking for an astronomer to speak to us who knows the stars as friends, that from the living heart words may thrill us beyond what the book can. Many adjoining towns are waking up to this C. L. S. C. work and are pledging circles for next year. Our membership in this city will be doubled.

New York (Brooklyn).—Our pastor, Rev. W. C. Stiles, commenced studies with his wife, and one after another asked permission to join them, and were cordially welcomed, until we have a circle of seven members. Our studies are those laid down inThe Chautauquan. We read the entire lesson at home, and take the most important points for recitation. At the end of the book we have a written review, and find we have learned the whole thing in a very compact form. There seems to be a good deal of interest, and we find the studies very pleasant. We decided to elect a secretary every month and send a report toThe Chautauquan, so you will probably hear from us again.

New York (Brooklyn).—In the January number ofThe Chautauquanyou ask if there are any local circles in Brooklyn. Besides those mentioned there is one of seventy-four members, which meets in the chapel of the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. N. G. Cheney is president; Mr. John E. Searles, vice-president, and Mr. J. Wallis Cook, associate vice-president. The circle is constantly growing, having recently absorbed part of the circle of which F. S. Holmes was president. The members of the circle are not confined to the Methodist denomination, but are representatives of several others.

New York (Greenwich).—Our local circle is not only fairly launched, but is under full sail. We number twenty-four enthusiastic members from all the Christian denominations, who are reading with a determination to win. We held our second monthly meeting last evening, December 11. Nearly every member was present and several brought essays on subjects previously assigned them by the president of the circle, which were well written and well read. Very much interest was exhibited in the geological essays, illustrated by the excellent charts. The members express themselves as being gratified and surprised at the enthusiasm manifested, and at the splendid success of our first meeting. You shall hear more further on.

New York (Suspension Bridge).—We have a local circle in this place which numbers twenty-five members, and the majority of them have their names enrolled at Plainfield, N. J. Our order of exercises is singing (Chautauqua hymns), roll-call, reading of minutes, program, business, adjournment. The program for each meeting is prepared by a committee of three, whom the president appoints twoweeks before, and who make their report at the meeting following their appointment. We have twenty-five questions inThe Chautauquanevery week, and some also in the Greek text-book, which are asked by the chairman of the committee that prepared the program. We are still studying the chart, and hardlyseehow we could have used the geology without it. We are taking the diagrams in course, one being explained at each meeting by the member appointed by the committee at the previous meeting. The program always includes, also, some article or articles inThe Chautauquan, which is read aloud by the members with frequent consultation of the dictionary. We observe the “Memorial Days” on the regular evening nearest memorial date. Exercises for these are also announced by the committee who prepare the regular program for the evening, and consist of a sketch of the author’s life by one member, a recitation of one of his works by another, and a short selection by each member. Our meetings are well attended, and all seem to enjoy them. We have taken for our name, “The Athenian Circle.”

New York (Brocton).—A local circle was reorganized in September with a good attendance and increased interest. We now have, in this our fifth year, a membership of twenty and meet every Saturday evening. In addition to our regular officers, president and secretary, we usually elect a teacher for each subject. We are using the charts, and the Baptist clergyman, Rev. J. M. Bates has given us one lecture on geology and will soon give us another. The Class of ’82 are taking the White Crystal Seal course, and most of the members are also reading the regular course for the year. The influence of our circle is not confined to its members alone, but is felt throughout the village, winning the respect of the people and increasing their desire for solid reading.

Pennsylvania (Phillipsburg).—Our circle has been having some very pleasant gatherings lately, quite out of our usual order. Some time before Christmas we first discovered we had a neighbor circle in Houtzdale, Clearfield County, a town about twelve miles from here, among the coal mines. It is a much larger place than this, having a population of between eight and ten thousand, principally miners from almost every country in Europe. Wishing to show our friendly feeling to our brethren in the Chautauqua Circle, we invited them down to visit our circle. They accepted our invitation, promising to come when the sleighing and weather were favorable. So they telephoned to us on the 18th of last month to expect them on Monday evening, the 22d. Our circle generally meets every Tuesday evening, but this time, to have a fuller attendance and suit all around, we changed the time to Monday. We met rather early and prepared to give them a warm reception. No one of us had to our knowledge met any one of them, so we had to introduce ourselves. We were rather surprised when they came to find that twelve out of the twenty-five composing their circle had ventured on the long drive, for though the moonlight made it as bright as day, the weather wasverycold. The evening passed pleasantly and quickly, and it was not till midnight that we turned our steps homeward. We departed from our usual custom this evening and had a small entertainment. A cup of coffee is very refreshing before a cold sleigh ride, and we could not think of letting the party return without breaking bread with us. Before separating we partly promised to go up to Houtzdale to hear a lecture on “Greece, Ancient and Modern,” on the following Wednesday. All depended on the weather, which seemed to be steadily growing colder. Wednesday morning the mercury went down to 14°, but as it rose rapidly, by noon we made what preparations were necessary, and a party of fifteen beside the drivers started in two large sleds, after an early supper. We reached our destination with but few mishaps and were most kindly received. We enjoyed the lecture as well as seeing the real Greek costumes very much. At the close of the meeting we went to the house of one of the members of the C. L. S. C., where we partook of a very nice entertainment before starting for home. We all agreed that the trip was quite a success and have promised, when warm weather comes, to go again to visit the circle on one of its regular meetings. We are now reading in our fifth year and feel that we can not think of giving up, even though some of us have our diplomas. The reading in regular course is good for any one, and the influence of good books and pleasant companionship drawing one out of one’s self, away, for a short time at least, from the cares and fret of every-day life, brings interest and brightness to many who might otherwise give up to the “blues” and ill-temper, which like

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