Another comes from Felicity, Ohio: “Our ‘Pleiades’ circle mourns the loss of Miss Flora Carver, of the class of 1884. She was one of our enthusiastic members, ever trying to keep the spirit of our mottoes. When she became too weak to keep up the Course of Reading, she still readThe Chautauquan, and in July, with kindling eye and glowing cheek she spoke of the comfort a perusal of Dr. Townsend’s lecture on the “Employments of Heaven” had given her. Hers was a Christian life, and her last days were spent in patient endurance of severe suffering, and joyful contemplation of a happy future.”
ONE HUNDRED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON FIRST PART OF PREPARATORY LATIN COURSE IN ENGLISH—FROM COMMENCEMENT OF BOOK TO PAGE 167.
By A. M. MARTIN,General Secretary C. L. S. C.
1. Q. What is the general purpose of the series of four books, of which the present is the second in order of preparation and publication? A. To conduct the readers by means of the English tongue alone, through substantially the same course of discipline in Greek and Latin Literature as is accomplished by students who are graduates from our American colleges.
2. Q. What does this second volume of the series seek to do? A. To go over the ground in Latin literature usually traversed by the student in course of preparing himself to be a college matriculate.
3. Q. What three elements may be said to be in any body of literature? A. A substance, a spirit, and a form, somewhat separate one from another.
4. Q. Of these three elements, what two is it the hope of the author to communicate to his readers? A. The spirit as well as the substance, so far as they are separable one from another.
5. Q. By whom was the literature called Latin produced? A. By a people called Roman, chiefly in a city called Rome.
6. Q. Over what does the name Roman lord it exclusively? A. Over everything pertaining to Rome, except her language and her literature.
7. Q. What may this circumstance be taken to indicate in reference to Rome? A. What is indeed the fact, that literature was for her a subordinate interest.
8. Q. When was the city of Rome founded? A. An unreckoned time before the history of the city began.
9. Q. According to the fable followed by Virgil, by whom was Rome founded? A. By Æneas, escaping with a trusty few from the flames of Troy.
10. Q. According to a second legend, lapping on and piecing out the first, who was the founder of Rome? A. Romulus, whose father was Mars, the Roman god of war.
11. Q. What legendary line of rulers succeeded Romulus? A. A line of legendary kings, followed by a Republic.
12. Q. What may be assumed as the starting-point of Roman history, worthy to be so called? A. The war with Pyrrhus, which broke out two hundred and eighty-one years before Christ.
13. Q. After Rome had absorbed Italy into her empire, with what African city was a prolonged war waged? A. With Carthage.
14. Q. What three names were prominent on the Carthaginian side during this war? A. Hamilcar, Hasdrubal and Hannibal.
15. Q. Give three prominent names on the Roman side? A. Regulus, Fabius and Scipio.
16. Q. After the subjugation of Carthage, what is said of the dominions of Rome? A. Her dominions were rapidly extended in every direction until they embraced almost literally the whole of the then known world.
17. Q. When was the Augustan age of Latin literature? A. During the reign of Augustus Cæsar.
18. Q. What is said on the whole of the fame of ancient Rome? A. It is the most famous city of the world.
19. Q. What is stated in regard to the natural advantages of Rome? A. Its remove from the coast secured it, in its feeble beginning, against pirates, while the navigable stream of the Tiber made it virtually a seaboard town.
20. Q. What was the height of the buildings that covered much of the extent of ground within the limits of the city of ancient Rome? A. Six and eight stories in height.
21. Q. At what has the population of Rome at its maximum been estimated? A. From two to six million souls.
22. Q. For what was a large area reserved, inclosed between the Quirinal hill and the river? A. Exclusively to public buildings, and here there was an almost unparalleled accumulation of costly, solid, and magnificent architecture.
23. Q. What is now one of the chief spectacles in modern Rome to excite the wonder and awe of the tourist? A. The Coliseum, a roofless amphitheater for gladiatorial exhibitions, built of stone, and capable of seating more than eighty thousand spectators.
24. Q. From what people were the Greeks and Romans descended? A. The Aryan or Indo-European, a people having its original home in Central Asia.
25. Q. How did the Romans conquer and govern the world? A. By being conquerors and governors.
26. Q. For what did the Romans all live? A. For the state.
27. Q. What was the one business of the state? A. Conquest, in a two-fold sense: first, subjugation by arms; second, consequent upon subjugation, rule by law.
28. Q. What is said of the cultivation of letters by Rome? A. Letters she almost wholly neglected until her conquest of the world was complete.
29. Q. In what way did the Romans make peace with other nations? A. They never made peace but as conquerors.
30. Q. What course did the Romans take in regard to whatever superior features they found in the military scheme of other nations? A. They did not hesitate to transfer and adopt it into their own.
31. Q. What nations in turn enjoyed the honor of furnishing to the Romans the model for their sword? A. The Spaniards and the Gauls.
32. Q. From whom did Rome learn how to order her encampment? A. From Pyrrhus.
33. Q. From what people did Rome learn to build ships? A. From the Carthaginians.
34. Q. As soon as Rome had conquered a people what did she make that people? A. Her ally.
35. Q. What phrase has Rome made a proverb to all time of false dealing between nations? A. “Punic faith.”
36. Q. At whose expense did Rome do her conquering and her governing? A. At the expense of the conquered and the governed.
37. Q. What effect did war have upon the wealth of Rome? A. She never herself became poorer, but always richer, by war.
38. Q. What was all that enormous accumulation of public and private resources which made Rome rich and great? A. It was pure plunder.
39. Q. What is a momentous fact in regard to the population of the Roman Empire? A. That in the end over one-half the population were slaves.
40. Q. Notwithstanding the injustice of Rome, how did she govern as compared with other ancient nations? A. She governed more beneficently than any other ancient nation.
41. Q. What blessing did she extend to all the countries she conquered? A. The blessing of stable government, of an administration of law at least comparatively just and wise.
42. Q. What effect did Rome have upon the civilization of those she subjugated? A. After her fashion she civilized where she had subjugated.
43. Q. What did Rome do that is to be accounted an immeasurable blessing to mankind? A. She made the world politically one, for the unhindered universal spread of Christianity.
44. Q. Who are some of the historians mentioned as having written works on the history of Rome, that are commended to the reader? A. Creighton, Leighton, Liddell, Mommsen, Merivale, Arnold and Gibbon.
45. Q. What work on the literature of Rome is spoken of as perhaps the best manual of Latin letters? A. Cruttwell’s “History of Roman Literature.”
46. Q. During what period was Roman literature produced, that is usually termed classic? A. From about 80 B. C. to A. D. 108, covering a space of 188 years.
47. Q. What writer begins, and what one ends this period? A. Cicero begins and Tacitus ends it.
48. Q. Who may be regarded as the beginner of Latin literature? A. Livius Andronicus, a writer of tragedy about twenty-four years before Christ.
49. Q. Who wrote a sort of epic on the first Punic war, esteemed by scholars one of the chief lost things in Roman literature? A. Nævius.
50. Q. What is the next great name in Latin literature, and what is said of his influence and example? A. Ennius, and his influence and example decisively fixed the form of the Latin poetry.
51. Q. Who were two great Roman writers of comedy? A. Plautus and Terence.
52. Q. What form of composition in verse may be said to be original with Rome? A. The satire.
53. Q. What seems to be a general fact in literary history, in regard to the first development of a national literature? A. That verse precedes prose.
54. Q. Who was the creator of the classic Roman satire? A. Lucilius.
55. Q. Who were the great Roman masters of satire? A. Horace and Juvenal.
56. Q. What English writers have written brilliant imitative satires with the essential spirit of Horace and Juvenal? A. Dryden, Pope and Johnson.
57. Q. To whom may be attributed the merit of being the founder or former of Latin prose? A. Cato, the Censor.
58. Q. Who among the Romans, with Demosthenes among Greeks, reigns alone as one of the two undisputedly greatest masters of human speech that have ever appeared on the planet? A. Cicero.
59. Q. Who among Romans were eminent writers of history for Rome? A. Cato, Sallust, Livy and Tacitus.
60. Q. In what age, and by whom, was the great epic of Rome produced? A. The Æneid, in the age of Augustus, by Virgil.
61. Q. Who by eminence was the Roman poet of society and manners? A. Horace.
62. Q. What is any Latin Reader, like any Greek, pretty sure to contain? A. Its share of fables, of anecdotes, of historical fragments, of mythology, and of biography.
63. Q. What revived plan of making up Latin Readers is among the late changes in fashion introduced by classical teachers? A. Of making up Latin Readers that consist exclusively of selections credited to standard Latin authors.
64. Q. What two writers sometimes find a place in these Latin Readers, that are sometimes wholly omitted in the course of Latin literature accomplished by the college graduate? A. Sallust and Ovid.
65. Q. What three historical works did Sallust write? A. The “Conspiracy of Catiline,” the “Jugurthine War,” and a “History of Rome from the death of Sulla to the Mithridatic War.”
66. Q. In the midst of what was the residence Sallust occupied in Rome? A. In the midst of grounds laid out and beautified by him with the most lavish magnificence.
67. Q. What did these grounds subsequently become, and what name do they still bear? A. They subsequently became the chosen resort of the Roman emperors, and they still bear the name of the Gardens of Sallust.
68. Q. With what is Sallust’s “Jugurthine War” commenced? A. With a sort of moral essay, or homily, not having the least particular relations to the subject about to be treated.
69. Q. What is the subject of the “Jugurthine War”? A. The war which the Roman people carried on with Jugurtha, king of the Numidians.
70. Q. What are the names of three Romans who took prominent part in the Jugurthine war? A. Metellus, Marius and Sulla.
71. Q. With what did the war end? A. With the capture of Jugurtha by the Romans through the treachery of Bocchus, his father-in-law.
72. Q. Where and when was Ovid born? A. In northern Italy, in 43 B. C.
73. Q. With what did the youth of Ovid coincide? A. Either with the full maturity, or with the declining age, of the great Augustan writers, Virgil, Livy, Horace and Sallust.
74. Q. By whom was Ovid banished from Rome? A. By Augustus.
75. Q. What may be considered as the chief work of Ovid? A. His “Metamorphoses.”
76. Q. What does this title literally mean? A. Changes of form.
77. Q. What is Ovid’s idea in the poem? A. To tell in his own way such legends of the teeming Greek mythology as deal with the transformations of men and women into animals, plants, or inanimate things.
78. Q. What has this poem been to subsequent poets? A. A great treasury of material.
79. Q. What episode, taken from the second book of “Metamorphoses,” is given by our author? A. Phæton driving the chariot of the sun.
80. Q. In what is the legend of Phæton conceived by many to have had its origin? A. In some meteorological fact—an extraordinary solar heat perhaps, producing drought and conflagration.
81. Q. Of what two other stories from the “Metamorphoses” does our author present a translation? A. The story of Daphne’s transformation into a laurel, and the tragic story of Niobe.
82. Q. What American writer has quite extensively treated Ovidian topics in a way that is at once instructive and delightful? A. Hawthorne.
83. Q. Ovid’s verse in the “Metamorphoses” is the same as what? A. As that of Virgil and Homer, namely, the dactylic hexameter.
84. Q. What has the general agreement of thoughtful minds tended to affirm in regard to Julius Cæsar? A. The sentence of Brutus, as given by Shakspere, that he was “the foremost man of all this world.”
85. Q. What is the principal literary work of Cæsar that remains to us? A. His “Commentaries,” which is an account he wrote of his campaigns in Gaul.
86. Q. With the exception of a few instances, in what person does Cæsar write? A. In the third person.
87. Q. From whom did the ancient patrician family of Cæsar claim derivation? A. From Iulus, son of Trojan Æneas.
88. Q. The word Cæsar was made by Caius Julius a name so illustrious that it came afterward to be adopted by whom? A. By his successors in power at Rome, and finally thence to be transferred to the emperors of Germany, and to the autocrats of Russia, called respectively Kaiser and Czar.
89. Q. With whom was Cæsar associated in the first triumvirate? A. Pompey and Crassus.
90. Q. Out of the eight books comprised in Cæsar’s “Gallic Commentaries,” how many is the preparatory student usually required to read? A. Only four.
91. Q. With what two series of military operations on Cæsar’s part does the first book principally occupy itself? A. One directed against the Helvetians, and one against a body of Germans who had invaded Gaul.
92. Q. Of what is Cæsar’s tenth legion, that became famous in history, still a proverb? A. For loyalty, valor and effectiveness.
93. Q. In the second book Cæsar gives the history of his campaign against whom? A. The Belgians, made up of different tribes.
94. Q. Who were esteemed the most fierce and warlike of all the Belgian nations? A. The Nervians.
95. Q. After Cæsar’s successful campaign against the Belgian tribes, what was decreed for his victories? A. A thanksgiving of fifteen days, an unprecedented honor.
96. Q. In the third book an account is given of a naval warfare against whom? A. The Veneti.
97. Q. What is the first thing of commanding interest in the fourth book of Cæsar’s “Commentaries?” A. The case of alleged perfidy, with enormous undoubted cruelty, practiced by Cæsar against his German enemies.
98. Q. What famous feat on the part of Cæsar is narrated in the fourth book? A. That of throwing a bridge across the river Rhine.
99. Q. What were the dimensions of this bridge? A. It was fourteen hundred feet long, furnishing a solid roadway thirty or forty feet wide.
100. Q. With the relation of what enterprise does the fourth book close? A. The invasion by Cæsar of Great Britain.
Season of 1884.
ByRev. J. L. HURLBUT, D.D., and R. S. HOLMES, A.M.
1.It is an ancient land.—Before Rome was cradled by Tiber—before the storied strifes of the Gods in Hellas, before Troy and the great glory of the Trojans were, even before history was this wonderful land.
2.It is an historic land.—Much of the world’s destiny has been decided in this little strip of coast and mountain land, between the Jordan and the sea. Here armies have camped and battles have been fought. The restless feet of merchant traders have beaten its highways, the white wings of merchant vessels have flitted to and from its ports with the wealth of the world.
3.It is a diminutive land.—A little triangle bounded by the sea, the Jordan and her mountains, and the desert, it seems hardly large enough for all the mighty events that have occurred within it; 180 miles from farthest north to south, and 90 miles for its greatest breadth from west to east, measures the country in all its extent.
4.It is a storied land.—Where such a treasure house of tales as in that old Bible? The land and its book have figured in all the literatures of theOccidentalages. Knights and paladins have trod its vales and mountains; saint and crusader have watched at night beneath its stars.
5.It is a land of famous mountains.—Ebal and Gerizim, Hor and Nebo, Olivet and Tabor, Gilboa and Hermon. What scenes rise to the mind as we name them! Carmel and Quarantania; struggle and victory; Elijah, Immanuel.
6.It is a land of remarkable waters.—A single river—the Jordan, from north to south—rising in the extreme north from springs so hidden as to have long been unknown, loses itself in that sea of desolation, Lake Asphaltites, the Dead Sea. The mid-world sea, the mother sea of great nations, washes the western shores, and Galilee shines like a diadem in her mountain setting.
7.It is a land of many names.—The land of Canaan, the land of the children of Heth, Philistia, Palestine, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, the land of Judah, Immanuel’s Land.
8.It is an impregnable land.—Its hills, rock-ribbed, rise one upon another, covering the whole face of the land, and forcing all travel of army or caravan through the few passes in which the great northern plain terminates. Hence Esdrelon became of necessity the country’s battle ground. A united people made the country a fear to its force.
9.It was a populous land.—Beyond belief almost are the records of the people who lived within these few square miles. Cities and villages laid so close to each other that their environs almost met. The people thronged in them, and in the well tilled country about them, so that centuries of war, foreign and civil, and repeated depletions left them still in their decadence a troublesome foe to the veterans of Rome.
10.It was a productive land.—Shrubs and trees were in abundance. Pine, oak, elder, dogwood, walnut, maple, willow, ash, carob, sycamore, fig, olive and palm. Fruits in great variety were ripened beneath its sun; grapes, apples, pears, apricots, quinces, plums, mulberries, dates, pomegranates, oranges, limes, bananas, almonds, and pistachios. Many kinds of grains were cultivated, such as wheat, barley, rice, sesamum, millet and maize.
11.It was a land of a remarkable climate.—Thirty degrees variation from mountain to plain was its daily range. With the isothermal lines of our Florida and California, it yet had snow and ice as in our northern climates. Heavy rainfalls were characteristic; so were long periods of drought. Heavy dews, fierce siroccos, cloudless skies, oppressive heat, steady sea breezes, burning valleys, cool mountain summits were all characteristics of this land of the Bible.
Under the headings now given let the student give:
1. Ten dates which cover its history, and mark its principal events.
2. Give five events which have occurred in this land, that have direct bearing in the world’s history.
3. Give its geographical dimensions and natural features which mark its boundaries.
4. Give ten events in its history which have made it an enchanted land.
5. Give the event which has made the mountains mentioned memorable.
6. Give the event which makes each of the waters of the Bible memorable; Galilee, Jordan, Kishon, the Salt Sea.
7. Give the origin of the names by which the land is known.
8. Give the principal routes of travel through this land; and name the defensible passes.
9. Give its ten principal cities.
10. Give the Bible references which mention any of the trees, shrubs, fruits or grains here specified.
11. Give reasons why the climate should be as described.
That they are possible is assumed. That they are probable is likewise assumed. That they are real is a fact of personal experience. Mistakes anywhere are mischievous. In Sunday-school they are often ruinous. Let us classify them. They arefirst, mistakes of manner and method;second, mistakes of purpose and expectation;third, mistakes of thought and action. Let us examine our classification:
I. Manner and Method.
It is a mistake (a) to recognize differences in social position or station between members of a class. In the Sunday-school all meet on a common level. There is no rank in the Christian kingdom. All are peers of the realm, and Jesus Christ is the only Lord.
(b) To be in any degree partial to any scholar. All should be favorite scholars in this school.
(c) To seem uninterested in anything pertaining to the general interest of the school. If the teacher is devoid of interest the scholar will be.
(d) To scold or threaten in the class, even under provocations such as do occur in Sunday-school. Scolding always exercises an ill effect, and a threat is but a challenge.
(e) To pretend to be wiser or better versed in Bible lore than one really is. In Bible teaching, real knowledge is real power—buta manner that assumes to know what it does not is only the lion’s skin on the ass’ head.
(f) To neglect thorough study. Wherever there is good teaching there will be at least two students. One will be the teacher. Witness Dr. Arnold, of Rugby.
(g) To neglect private prayer in the teacher’s preparation. Said old Martin Luther, “Bene arâsse est bene studuisse.”
(h) To depend upon lesson-helps in the class. Crutches are not becoming to an able bodied man. But some teachers bring out the lesson crutches on Sunday morning and hobble through Sunday-school on them.
(i) To expect the superintendent to discipline each class. He is no more responsible for class order than a commanding general for the order of a corporal’s guard.
(j) To use the lesson verse by verse, ending each with the Æsopian interrogation, “Hæc fabula docet?”
II. Purpose and Expectation.
It is a mistake (a) to seek only for a scholar’s conversion. If growth does not follow birth, death will. Upbuilding in Christ is one great purpose of the school.
(b) To seek only to create interest in the lesson. There may bedeep intellectual interest created, and no spiritual interest.
(c) To teach for the purpose of performing duty. That robs the teacher of one chief essential to success—heartiness.
(d) To teach for the purpose of inculcating one’s own peculiar religious views. Paul’s purpose was the right one—“to know nothing save Christ and him crucified.”
(e) For the teacher to expect the pupil’s interest in the Gospel theme to equal his own. It is contrary to sinful nature.
(f) To expect home work by pupils, unless it has been prepared for by patient effort.
(g)To expect conversion as the immediate result of teaching, and to grow discouraged and abandon the work because the expectation is not at once realized. God’s way and time are his own.
(h)Not to expect conversion as the ultimate result of teaching; and hence to fail to direct every effort to that end.—“In the morning sow thy seed,” etc.
III. Thought and Action.
It is a mistake (a)to think teaching easy. It has taxed the noblest powers of the noblest men.
(b) To think it an insignificant or puerile employment. The two greatest names of the ages, heathen and Christian, were nothing if not teachers: Socrates—Immanuel.
(c) To think the Sunday-school a children’s institution only. The three great Christian institutions are the home, the church, the Sunday-school, and the constituency of each is the same.
(d) To be irregular in attendance at Sunday-school.
(e) To be unpunctual.
(f) To be lax in discipline.
(g) To fail in example, whether in connection with school work or daily life.
The degree of interest in work depends largely upon the degree of its variety. A class which nods over the same day-in-and-day-out routine of questions and answers, wakes up, smiles, thinks and becomes animated when a new way of doing even familiar work is proposed. Local circle life and strength depends very largely upon wide-awake schemes and novel plans. Unless something fresh is continually arousing interest, a circle will lose ground. There are many workers who are continually developing new enterprises; there are others who never have anything to report but the number of members, the names of officers, and the place and time of meeting. Such societies are dwarfed by their own lack of ingenuity. The kind and variety of work which is to be done in all circles can not be better told than it is in an open letter before us from Newton Highlands, Massachusetts:
“We are a mutual club. Our plan of work is very informal. Our officers have been only a president and secretary. We meet every Monday at the house of one of our number, alternating as we please. We commence precisely on time, viz.: 2:30 o’clock p. m., and continue till 5:30, or later. For the first two years our president was our leader. Since that time we have taken our turn in order, as leaders, and asked questions in order around the circle, on the subject of the former week’s work, taking the lesson up by paragraphs, faithfully examining each, and often incidentally bringing in (for drawing out of the members) much information bearing upon the lesson. Often a subject was allotted to a member, on which she thoroughly prepared herself and contributed the information at the next meeting, either verbally or by reading a paper. The memorial days were faithfully kept, though not always on the identical day; but we selected a day most convenient for the club during the month—for we are all housekeepers.
“For these memorial days great preparation was made. In the first place we all assembled two hours earlier than usual, with the preparations for a banquet, at the home of the lady who had invited us to dine with her.
“Each carried whatever she had previously pledged, or what had been suggested to her; and here the ladies had ample opportunity to exhibit their skill in the culinary line, which they did not fail to improve; so that one of the suggestions, not yet acted upon, was to publish a C. L. S. C. Cook Book.
“We had our post-prandial exercises too, though care was taken to send each member the toast to which she was to respond, that she might not be taken unawares, and having never had any training in that line we were allowed toreadour responses, if we chose. Then at the usual time we gathered for our work.
“After having celebrated the birthday of each of those selected by C. L. S. C. for two years, we have since introduced other names to our list, as Walter Scott, George Eliot.
“Once we had aRoman day, and one of our party wrote a description of our imagined entrance into Rome, and locating us at a hotel, took us daily trips to different parts of the city; each member describing one or more interesting objects to be found on the way. A map of Rome hung up before us, so that the imaginary excursion could be easily traced. The members brought in any engravings or illustrations, medallions, etc., which were helpful, and our neighbors who had traveled abroad were happy to aid us by loaning their precious mementoes. Our excursions, too, as a club, have been very enjoyable and profitable.
“While studying geology we made an excursion to Harvard College and spent the day in looking over the buildings and listening to the curator, who kindly explained the articles in the Agassiz Museum, and then delivered a lecture to us on “Ancient Mounds,” etc.
“After completing the History of Art, we made an excursion to the Art Museum in Boston, and examined everything in the rooms which had been referred to in the Art Book, thus fixingthe knowledge already acquired by seeing its representation. We also, through the kindness of friends, had the privilege of visiting the State House, and examining the original charters and ancient letters of Washington, Arnold, etc., also the Acts and Resolves in the archives of the state.
“On our return, our president proposed to one of our members, whose father had been in the legislature, and was well acquainted with all the technical terms and methods in use there, to write an article for the club, introducing a bill into the legislature, noting the steps necessary for its passage through both houses, and tracing it even till it became a law.
“This afforded us considerable amusement, as the sister was progressive (?) and recognized in her look into futurity some of our club as members of the different houses! and the bills were such as had an amusing local significance.
“A trip to Wellesley College also was made.
“But time and your patience would fail me to tell of all our doings. One thing more, however, I must not omit, and that is that our clubwrote a book. We will not call it a Romance, though it was the ‘Bridal Trip’ of a couple of young Americans. Each chapter, written by a different member, constituted a part of the journey, and included an account of the points of interest in or around some principal city. The couple journeyed through Scotland, England, France, Italy and Germany.
“Of course it was necessary for a committee to act as editors, and write these chapters so that it would read like a continuous story. Then one afternoon we met and had the whole read aloud by the editors.
“We felt the attempt was an exceedingly great undertaking at first, but as each one had a certain part allotted to her, and was allowed to gather all the ideas she pleased from research, and use them in her own way—fearing no accusation of plagiarism—we found it was not so difficult after all.”
The newspaper reader, for one or another reason, regards crime as important news because he is full of morbid curiosity regarding whatever is abnormal in human conduct. A crime is something strange and fascinating because passions play through it, and secret places in human life are uncovered by it. It interests us because we are human, with strange forces of evil coming up now and again into consciousness and suggesting our brotherhood to the thief and the murderer. Many a man reads in a story of defalcation, things he has himself done without being found out. Many a woman reads in the story of a murder, passages from her own life where she alsomighthave taken the fatal step beyond the line of safety. Try as much as we may, we cannot divest ourselves of the curiosity and the unconscious sympathy which make us look over the crime record with more interest than we give to any other part of a newspaper.
The newspapers are reproached for publishing all about crimes; but the average reader, perhaps we might say the best reader, peruses even the details with absorbing interest. He may be ashamed of himself for his curiosity, but he has the curiosity. The fact is not complimentary to us, and we lash the press when we know we ought to lash ourselves. For the reason just given, the remedy for the daily feast of passion and blood is not an easy one to find. A newspaper needs great merits to be able to omit the crime record; and though it should be accepted without that record, many a subscriber of it would look for the record elsewhere. The remedy is difficult because the public has to cure itself—the newspaper can not cure it—of the desire to know “the evil that is in the world through lust.” The world, the flesh and the devil take up a commanding position in our anxieties, solicitudes, curiosities, and sympathies. We must be a great deal better as a people before we shall be content to live in ignorance of any badness which breaks through the calm surface of life and rises into a billow of crime. It is true that the curiosity may be educated out of us—not entirely, but in large degree—and yet it is also true that we do not display any serious desire to be so educated. We want this kind of news. We want to know at least the motives of the crimes, how they were committed and whether they were punished or not. The newspaper may give us these outline facts discreetly and briefly, but the mass of us will secretly hunger for more. The moral of the business may be left to the pulpit; it is tolerably plain to the pews.
To one examining the society notes of the various cities, it is very evident that never before were we, who are in society, living so sumptuously as at present. Our dinners have become banquets, our teas feasts. The magnificence, the notoriety, the cost, are astounding. One involuntarily rubs his eyes and looks to see some gallant dissolving pearls for his liege lady. This elaborate effort to feast one’s guests is not only prevalent among the millionaires and epicureans of our cities, it is a feature of entertaining which prevails even in small communities. In a village of some six hundred people, well known to us, we have had the opportunity to study the effect of extravagant hospitality upon the society. The people almost without exception are well-to-do, well educated, congenial, a set in every way suited to form a pleasant society. Among them are a few wealthy families. In such a town one would expect to find almost ideal social life—full of good will, of pleasant thought, new amusements, not overcrowded, thoroughly enjoyable; but to our surprise we found very little. A few evenings out, a few questions, and we understand the cause. At a small party given by a leading lady, we were astounded to be called out to a table loaded with every conceivable delicacy; meats, salads, cakes, creams, fruits in every variety. The supper was a work of art, a mammoth undertaking, and it had been prepared by the lady herself and her one servant, with such assistance as is to be found in a small village, off the railroad. Further experience taught us that when any one entertained friends there such refreshments were considered necessary. The effects upon the social life of the town were disastrous. Where there was the possibility of most delightful companionships there was an absolute dearth of social gatherings. A lady of culture remarked: “I can not entertain, simply because I can not afford it. If it were possible I should receive weekly, but our customs demand such outlays for all social affairs that I am obliged to deny myself what otherwise would be a pleasure.” Another, a lady of wealth remarked: “I am handicapped in my social life by the extravagant habits of our people. What I would be glad to do, were I in a city where I could obtain efficient help, it is impossible to do with our servants. I can not prepare my own dinners, and our town requires such extensive preparations for even a small company, that I have ceased entertaining.” But even this feature is not the worst. Social life is virtually killed when the table becomes the feature of the evening, when on the merits of pastry and salads depends the social status of the family. The hostess comes to her guest’s room, worn with the care of the thousand details of a great dinner. The possibility of friction or failure destroys the ease, the mirth, the abandon, that makes her charm. Her spirit oftentimes is contagious, and her guests, too, feel the responsibility which oppresses her. It comes to be true that the most elaborate dinner-givers are the poorest entertainers, that instead of new ideas, pleasant memories and the ring of music, all one carries away from the house where they have been feasted is indigestion and theirmenucard.
This extravagance is a feature of social life which sensible people can not afford to countenance. There is too great danger that by it the truly desirable and helpful features will be injured; that while epicureans will support the elegance, people of simple habits will be driven in a measure from society; that social life will be changed to feasting, and conversation, wit and music placed a step below eating and drinking.
It would be a strange thing if the public schools of the country gave entire satisfaction. They are so numerous, they cost so much, such large hopes are built on them, they so pervasively affect the most sensitive social regions—those of the family—that a very large amount of criticism, a huge aggregate of discontent, would be properly and naturally expected. The wonder is that there is so little dissatisfaction. Perhaps the most sensitive spot just now is the pass examinations—or the system of regulating the rise of pupils from one department to another. It is affirmed, for example, that in New York and other cities the teachers are constantly employed in coaching their pupils for examinations. It is declared that there is very little of proper teaching, that most of the work is simply cramming for the sake of passing, and that the pupils really learn very little, and are not in any proper sense being educated. The whole mass of these children are being crowded up a stairway—and the getting up, by whatever means, into the higher grades is the sole object of teachers and pupils.
It is easy to see that there must be much use of the spirit of emulation, and the pride of standing, in teaching great masses of young people. There are owlish philosophers who would have children and young people act from the motives that are supposed to regulate the lives of their grandfathers. A public school boy or a college boy is often, perhaps commonly, spoken of as though he were a companion of Socrates and George Washington. This kind of critic assumes that the lad knows all wisdom and only needs to select some bits of knowledge and chew them with the relish of a Plato. The critic can not put himself in the boy’s place. He can not realize that the boy does not know everything, and does not much care to learn anything. This critic has the practical teacher at a great advantage; knowing boys and girls as saints and philosophers, he can condemn the practical instructor who has never met any such boys and girls. The teacher wants to get work out of his pupils; and he goes about it practically, and does get the work done. At the end of his work, the pupils are doubtless very unsatisfactory. In fact, we are all of us, always more or less unsatisfactory.
In New York, there is no doubt that the pass system has developed some bad features. Perhaps some trace of these features will be found everywhere in graded schools. It would be difficult to secure ambitious and industrious pupils without running some risks. You must awaken the desire to rise, even though the desire to rise dishonestly may develop itself in some pupils.
The gravest charge against the schools is that they kill the pupils with hard work. Every city has its story of a pupil (always a girl) murdered by the severe tasks of the school. The simple truth is that negligent mothers are more guilty than the schools. It is a mother’s business to know all about her children—to know when they are overworked—and it is also the mother’s duty to put a stop to hurtful work. We do not hire teachers to take the place of parents. We could not afford to pay enough teachers for this service. The public school system assumes that mothers attend to their duties, and retain their authority. If school work is hurtful to a young girl, the mother has the right to remove the child from the school. Ifshedoes not find out that the work is too hard, how can she expect the teacher to discover it? The general health of public school children proves that the system is not too severe; but it will often happen that young girls are physically unfit for study. It is the business of their mothers—not of their teachers—to know when such disabilities exist.
We love to read the letters of great men, who in letters, art, science, statesmanship, theology, have held a front rank. They discover their personality, and bring us into acquaintance with the men themselves, as nothing else does. We say to the biographer: “Let your subject, as far as may be, tell us of himself; give us any fragments of autobiography or journals which may be in existence; print copiously of his letters.” The wise writer of biography does so; and the most valuable portions of the life of a man of note are those in which he speaks himself. Let Michael Angelo, with candle stuck in his pasteboard cap, teach those who undertake to show us a character in whom there is a public interest; let them keep their own shadows off the canvas. “The Life of Frederick W. Robertson,” by Stopford A. Brooke, and the “Life of Dr. Arnold,” by Dean Stanley, are models of biography. The letters of Robertson and of Arnold are their most prominent feature, and are a priceless treasure, both because of the light they throw upon the personality of the men, and the rich thought with which they sparkle. Mr. Parke Godwin, in his “Life of Bryant,” has done his work well. To have omitted the scrap of autobiography which occupies the first thirty-eight pages of the work would have been a great blunder. It is most charming. And the letters of the great poet and editor are interspersed generously through the two volumes. No one will say that they fill too large a space. Fame came to Bryant early, and he was permitted to live, with his reputation continually widening, and his honors augmenting, until nearly four-score-and-four years had passed over his head; and to die, like Moses, with his eye undimmed and his natural force not abated. It could not have been a difficult matter to secure letters of his in abundance for the purposes of biography; and these the world wants.
We have them here in these volumes of Mr. Godwin; letters written in all periods of life; letters to acquaintances, friends and strangers; letters upon literature, politics, and matters personal; letters to persons well known in letters and public affairs; letters written here and there at home, and from various points in his frequent journeyings in other lands. As might have been expected, we find always, as we read them, the same clear and beautiful style. Bryant could not write, even upon trivial matters, without writing well. It was said of him that “he never said a foolish thing.” No foolish thing is found in these letters, and whatever is said is said clearly and well. The poet was not a humorist; the editor was not. And the element of humor, wanting in his poems and editorials, seldom appears in his letters. They do not sparkle with drollery and wit like those of Dickens. Sometimes, in writing to his old pastor and warm friend, Rev. Dr. Dewey, he unbends and is somewhat playful and jocose; and a letter written to his mother, when a young man, telling her of his marriage, is, for him, rather funny; but as a rule, the letters are of a grave and serious tone. Bryant thelitterateurand the politician, appears in his correspondence more prominently than any other character. His interest in politics from early life was evidently very great. Letters are given which he wrote upon state and national affairs, when a boy, to the congressman of the district at Washington; and letters full of wise reflections, written by the mature and sagacious man to President Lincoln and other eminent statesmen. As a matter of course, the man is far more modest, is much less positive, and knows far less than the boy! And numerous and highly interesting are the letters to many associates of his in the field of letters. Richard H. Dana, the senior, gave him valuable aid at the beginning of his literary career, and became his close, life-long friend. Perhaps to him more of the letters of these volumes are addressed than to any other one person. Mr. Bryant’s home-life was beautiful, and his letters to members of his family discover the fact, and his strongly affectionate nature. The death of his wife, for whose recovery to health the climate of different parts of Europe was tried in vain, was keenly felt, and the shadow of the bereavement was upon him the balance of his years. Among the letters, we find that written to Dr. Vincent, in his last years, in which his interest in the C. L. S. C. and its objects was so beautifully expressed, and which has become familiar to all the members of the Circle.