THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

BY OLIVER W. LONGAN.

The word “department,” as used in connection with the principal divisions through or by which the executive affairs of the government are administered, has very little if any significance, because it applies as well to the smallest subdivisions as to the three coördinate powers of our republic. Still another use was given it by a candidate for government appointment who, in response to a requirement of the Civil Service Commission to name the three great departments of the government, introduced a new application of the word by writing, “the Republican, the Democratic, and the Independent.” And so with the name “War Department,” its use applies it with equal propriety to the organization which administers the military affairs of the government and to the building in which its offices are located, just as the word church applies to the building and to the society of people which worships in it.

The War Department is one (the third in point of classification) of the seven divisions of the executive branch of the government whose chief officers form the President’s cabinet. It comprises, beside the office of the Secretary of War, ten minor divisions called “staff departments,” or “bureaus,” each under the direction of an officer who holds the rank and position of a brigadier-general in the United States army, and including a military force of officers of the several ranks from captain up to colonel, some of whom are on duty in the offices in Washington, but a majority performing the duties appertaining totheir respective bureaus at military posts, or at the headquarters of the military geographical departments and divisions, or elsewhere as they may be directed by the Secretary of War. Each bureau has also a force of civilian employes who perform the clerical duties of the department under the direction of their respective officers. The clerks are divided into grades as follows, the salaries being determined by the grades: Chief clerks, $2,000; clerks, class four, $1,800; class three, $1,600; class two, $1,400; class one, $1,200; clerks, $1,000; copyists, $900; the other employes being messengers, assistant messengers, watchmen, mechanics, laborers, etc. The names of the subdivisions are the Adjutant-General’s, the Inspector General’s, the Judge Advocate-General’s, the Quartermaster’s, the Subsistence, the Medical, the Pay, and the Ordnance Departments, the Corps of Engineers and the Signal Corps. The business of these bureaus will be mentioned in their order.

During the first year of the revolutionary war, and before the colonists had abandoned all hope that their difficulties with the mother country might be settled by a just recognition of their rights as English subjects, the colonial army under Washington was directed by the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. Ten days prior to the first anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, a resolution to absolve all allegiance to the British crown was introduced in Congress, and five days thereafter a resolution was adopted to appoint a “Board of War and Ordnance,” to consist of five members of the Congress, to be organized as a war office which was to be the channel for military correspondence and orders, and an office of record to which the officers commanding in the army were required to send reports of the condition and disposition of troops. Washington wrote in reply to a dispatch from the President of the Congress, informing him of the institution of the board, that it “is certainly an event of great importance, and in all probability will be recorded as such in the historic page.” As a beginning it possesses the interest to us to-day which attaches to all our institutions whose history can be traced up to the present degree of efficiency and finished organization which we regard with such pride and satisfaction, and which brings the feeling of security we enjoy in the midst of the most trying times of uncertainty. After a little more than one year of administration of military affairs by the Board of War and Ordnance as an advisory committee to Congress, a new organization was made called the “Board of War,” consisting of three persons not members of the Congress, and the number was soon afterward increased to five members, who are frequently mentioned in the resolutions pertaining to the conduct of the war as Commissioners of the War Office, and the board is sometimes mentioned under the old, and sometimes under the new name. A review of the instructions and resolves of Congress to the board, and through it to the army, making regulations, appointing committees, creating offices for the control of supplies, money and war material, conferring or restricting authority and responsibility, reveals the character of the times and the inexperience of men better than the history of their individual acts can do it, and increases the marvel that success was ever reached through such apparent confusion; but it must have been a grand period for men who did not hesitate to undertake and plan and execute without the aid of “precedent,” that potent influence which gives shape to a large proportion of executive administration to-day. But the time approached when the question of national organization must be settled, and although the prospect at the time (early in 1781) appeared to afford no more promise of final success than at any time during the struggle there seemed to be an intuition which led to a disposition of military affairs, so that the details might be gradually relinquished by the Congress to the charge of one executive officer in addition to the Commander-in-Chief whose authority was never curtailed by a department up to the hour he returned his commission to the body which had conferred it upon him. Early in 1781 the Congress undertook a plan for the establishment of executive departments, and one of the offices created was that of “Secretary at War”—notice the preposition—with powers similar to those of the “Board of War,” but enlarged in their scope, and released in a measure from supervisory direction. The board continued to act, however, for several months, probably because the Congress was unable to select the right man to fill the new office, but on the 30th of October, 1781, the officer who, ten days before, had received the sword of the defeated British general at Yorktown, was elected Secretary at War. The coincidence of surnames justifies the remark here that the first Secretary at War and the present Secretary of War bear the same. Step by step for a few succeeding years the duties and powers of the office were specifically defined by legislation, but at such intervals as to make the rules appear fragmentary, until on the 27th of January, 1785, a revision was made and all the loose lines were gathered into one instrument, which had for its enacting clause, “Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled,” and directed the Secretary at War to “keep a public and convenient office in the place where Congress shall reside,” and that office for the first time was dignified with the name “Department of War.” The resolves of Congress began also to take the form of instructions to the Secretary at War to issue his orders to the army, thus indirectly raising his position in the scale of authority and control to one not yet specifically recognized. An even administration follows until the end of the confederation and the new organization of executive departments under the constitution of the United States. A report made to Congress October 2, 1788, by a committee which had been appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the business of the Department of War, shows that the number of employes then in the department was four, whose aggregate annual compensation was $1,500. To-day the force of more than fifteen hundred employes, receiving the gross sum of $1,820,830, makes a notable contrast, and indicates the volume of increase in the business and the wonderful change of values.

The new government, under the constitution, went into operation practically on the 30th of April, 1789, when Washington was inaugurated at the old City Hall in New York as the first President of the United States, and became the “commander-in-chief of the army and navy.” The first act of Congress relating to military affairs, to be approved by him, was the act of August 7, 1789, which directed “that there shall be an executive department, to be denominated the Department of War; and that there shall be a principal officer therein to be called the Secretary for the Department of War.” This officer was to perform such duties as the President should direct relating to military commissions, land or naval forces, ships, or warlike stores, or Indian affairs, or the granting of bounty lands, or “such other matters respecting military or naval affairs as the President of the United States shall assign to said department.” He was also authorized to appoint a chief clerk, who in the event of the removal of the Secretary, or the occurrence of a vacancy, should have charge of the records, books, and papers of the department (naval affairs, public lands, Indian affairs, and pensions were afterward transferred to other departments).

The title of “Secretary of War” appears to have been adopted as a matter of choice by the first Secretary appointed by Washington, the only change from the old title, it will be noticed, being the use of the prepositionofforat, a change which we will agree could not to-day be reversed without provoking a liberal amount of criticism, both serious and humorous, if judgment may be taken from the notice universally given to trifling matters for the purpose of seasoning the news as we season our food, to give it a relish which an educated but not always cultivated taste demands.

During a period of years succeeding the establishing of the War Department, up to the war of 1812, it appeared to be anagency, simple in organization and limited in authority, which is rarely mentioned in legislative acts, for it is a notable fact that the acts of Congress during this period relating to military affairs were almost all addressed to the President of the United States. Time and the progress of events brought to the Department other and more important matters than the clerical work of correspondence and keeping records, and the work not only of obtaining and preserving all manner of army supplies, but of providing for their production, led to the establishment of minor agencies, each one as it was brought into existence, adding to the functions of the Secretary of War, and giving him a superior directing authority. These agencies became subordinate to the War Department, but were liable to and did share with the army in the legislation which from time to time created or disbanded the active forces as the circumstances required. The departmental divisions of business were continued, however, and when one and another of the offices which corresponded with our present staff departments were discontinued the duties were maintained by provisional means until they were restored, or others of similar nature were created to take their places. In the course of time the bureaus became permanently established, and formed the links which connected the War Department, a civil office, with the army, and the Secretary of War, whose position in the beginning was simply that of an agent of the President for the administration of military affairs has come to be recognized as holding discretionary power and authority, although no change has taken place in his relations to the President on the one hand, or to the army on the other, except that in later years the laws and resolves of Congress relating to the business which he administers are addressed to him directly, instead of to the President, as in former years.

The interval which we must make here in the history of the department might be filled with items indicating its place and power during the period omitted, but the line of progress has been direct, and regularly approaching the condition which makes it possible at any time to accelerate its operations for the prosecution of active warfare, or to permit them to sink to the dream of peace, without, in either case, disturbing the perfect system of business.

That portion of the business of the War Department transacted under the immediate direction of the Secretary of War and the chief clerk of the Department, comprises divisions of records, correspondence, requisitions and accounts, advertising accounts, miscellaneous supplies, and connected therewith is a library of about sixteen thousand five hundred volumes, from which any employe of the Department may obtain books for temporary use. No proper idea of the business can be given in a written description without taking too much space for this article. As the central office of the Department, and having direction of the affairs of the several bureaus, all important matters connected therewith pass through it for the action of the Secretary.

The Adjutant-General now has charge of the records which in the early days were received and preserved in the War Office. He publishes all orders and conducts all correspondence from the Secretary of War and the commanding General to the army, issues appointments and commissions, receives, records and arranges for use and preservation rolls, reports and other official papers pertaining to the personal history of every officer and soldier in the army, from the day of appointment or enlistment up to the date the service ceases, from whatever cause; has charge of the business pertaining to the military academy, the military prisons, the recruiting service, the military reservations, and the records of bureaus and commands which existed during the war of the rebellion, and have since been discontinued; and from the records in his department the information necessary to the settlement of pension and other claims of officers and soldiers, of whatever nature, growing out of their service, is furnished.

The duties under the Inspector-General are the inspection of military posts and troops, particularly with reference to material, supplies, disbursing accounts, and any matters connected with the military establishment or pertaining to military laws or regulations upon which reports or advice may be required by the Department for the promotion of discipline, the proper performance of duty, or the reformation of abuses.

The Judge Advocate-General receives, reviews and records the proceedings of all military trials, and furnishes reports and information therefrom whenever required, and gives opinions upon such questions of law as may be referred to him by the Department.

The Quartermaster’s Department is charged with the duty of furnishing transportation for troops, materials of all kinds, and all supplies; horses for cavalry and artillery; all camp and garrison equipage, forage, fuel and buildings; in a word, all manner of supplies except food, medicines, arms, and ammunition. The national cemeteries are under charge of the officers of this department.

The Subsistence Department provides all the food for the army, being charged with the duty of purchasing, distributing and issuing to all the stations occupied by troops. It also keeps in store for sale to officers many articles of regular supply not included in the ration table. The office of the Commissary-General of Subsistence occupies the building half a square north of the Treasury Department, in which Mr. Seward lived when he was Secretary of State under President Lincoln, and where the attempt was made to take his life on the same night the President was assassinated.

The Pay Department is just what its name indicates. From its officers every person in the military service, from the commanding General to the recruit receives his salary or pay. All persons in government employ immediately connected with the army, who are not paid by the Quartermaster’s Department, receive their pay from the Pay Department.

The Medical Department, under the direction of the Surgeon-General, is charged with the care of the sick and wounded, and for this purpose procures all medicines, medical and surgical appliances, and other supplies appertaining to that special branch of the service. It is also an office of record, receives reports of all cases of disease, wounds or injury in the army, and furnishes information therefrom upon claims for pensions. It also furnishes artificial limbs to persons entitled to them, or pays a commutation in lieu thereof, to those who prefer it. The Department has collected a library of sixty-five thousand seven hundred bound volumes, forty-seven thousand pamphlets, and thirty-eight thousand dissertations upon subjects pertaining to the medical profession, which, with a medical museum of great value, occupies the building in which President Lincoln was assassinated.

The Corps of Engineers is a distinct arm of the service as well as a division of the War Department, and enjoys the distinction of an organization since 1802, when it was constituted the Military Academy, and held its connection with it for more than sixty years. Among the duties performed by the corps are the construction of sea coast defenses, fortifications, survey and construction of river and harbor improvements, geographical and lake surveys, and any other duties in the line of engineering, whether connected with the military establishment or not, to which its officers may be assigned by competent authority.

The Ordnance Department is charged with duties appertaining exclusively to the military establishment, the manufacture and storage of every description of gun or firearm, large or small, and of all kinds of warlike weapons, projectiles, and ammunition; of all equipments pertaining to the artillery arm of the service; with the experimental tests of all improved guns, and with the care of armories and arsenals. The injunction “in time of peace prepare for war” is practically heeded by this department.

The Signal Corps is an organization of comparatively recent date, but well known through the daily reports of indications or probabilities of the weather. In time of war the duties of the corps have been the transmission of messages by signal flags, colored lights, or the telegraph. In time of peace the instruction of officers and men in the use of signals and the telegraph and the construction of field telegraph lines is carried on. The limited space allowed for this article will not admit of a description of the service in connection with the observations of the weather, but these observations will be made the subject of a future article.

All the subordinate departments which are charged with the purchase of supplies have, as the Pay Department also has, the disbursement of very large appropriations, and the accountability for the funds and the property obtained is under a perfect system, governed by regulations which apply equally to all. The reports and returns pertaining thereto, which are made monthly and quarterly, are first examined in the bureaus of the War Department, and are then transferred to the accounting officers of the Treasury Department, where they are finally audited and settled.

The present home of the War Department is in the new granite building known as the “State, War, and Navy Building,” immediately west of, and about the length of one square from the President’s mansion. The Department occupies the north wing, and will occupy the west and court-yard wings when completed. These “wings” are the divisions of the building, which form four sides, as four complete buildings might be placed to form a rectangle, with a large court in the center which is intersected by the fifth or court-yard wing. The whole area covered by the building, its approaches and courts is nearly four and one half acres. The cost of the completed portion has been about eight and one half million dollars. The office of the Secretary of War, and a portion of the office of the Adjutant-General is all that has yet found permanent quarters in the building, the east wing occupied by the Navy Department, and the south wing by the State Department. A full description of the structure may be postponed till its completion.

BY WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON.

On the illuminated calendar of the C. L. S. C. appears this month the illustrious name of Milton. There remains hardly anything at the same time new and true to be said of the author of “Paradise Lost.” It has, however, occurred to me that the members of our ever widening Circle might be glad to see what a rich garland he wears as poets’ poet. This title has at different times been given to several different English names. Spenser was perhaps the first to receive it. Milton deserves it not less than Spenser. More, perhaps—for beside being a favorite poet with poets, Milton has happened also to be made the subject of poetical description and ascription beyond, as I should suppose, the fortune of any rival whatever.

It will, perhaps, be interesting, if not instructive, to gather here into a sheaf some of the laurels that have thus been wreathed around the brow of Milton by the laureate company of the poets since his day. The subject will be poetry, and poetry, too, will be the main part of the discussion.

Of course there is no way but to begin with Dryden’s famous hexastich:

Three poets in three distant ages bornGreece, Italy, and England did adorn;The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;The next in majesty; in both the last.The force of nature could no further go;To make a third, she joined the other two.

Three poets in three distant ages born

Greece, Italy, and England did adorn;

The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;

The next in majesty; in both the last.

The force of nature could no further go;

To make a third, she joined the other two.

The foregoing is not very good poetry, but it is very good epigram, as might have been expected—for Dryden is a master epigrammatist, if but an indifferent poet. Do not scrutinize the present epigram too nicely, and how admirable it is! The last two lines are the gist of it. What precedes is only preparation for these two. Necessary preparation, but as criticism, not ideal. For though “loftiness of thought,” answering for sublimity, may doubtfully do to stand as the chief characteristic of Homer, and though Virgil’s quality may fairly well be expressed in the single word “majesty,” these two things, conceived as different from one another, can not be said to compose together the character of Milton. Milton surpasses in sublimity, no doubt, and he is surpassingly majestic; but you would hardly balance the one attribute against the other to express summarily his complement of qualities. The two attributes, sublimity and majesty, resemble each other too much to be good antitheses. But this paper is not to be a criticism.

Let us have a sharp contrast next. Gray in his ode on the “Progress of Poets:”

Nor second he,

(The poet means not second to Shakspere, whom he has just celebrated)

Nor second he, that rode sublimeUpon the seraph wings of ecstacyThe secrets of the abyss to spy.He passed the flaming bounds of place and time,The living throne, the sapphire blaze,Where angels tremble while they gaze,He saw; but blasted with excess of lightClosed his eyes in endless night.

Nor second he, that rode sublime

Upon the seraph wings of ecstacy

The secrets of the abyss to spy.

He passed the flaming bounds of place and time,

The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where angels tremble while they gaze,

He saw; but blasted with excess of light

Closed his eyes in endless night.

Gray’s method is nowhere better exemplified than in this resplendent tribute to Milton. The very terms in which he glorifies his subject are with fine adaptation borrowed from that subject himself. The coincidence upon which here we chance is too good to be disregarded. Let us digress enough to bring in Gray’s sympathetically varied characterization of Dryden which immediately follows in the text of the ode:

Behold where Dryden’s less presumptuous careWide o’er the fields of glory bearTwo coursers of ethereal raceWith necks in thunder clothed, and long resounding pace.

Behold where Dryden’s less presumptuous care

Wide o’er the fields of glory bear

Two coursers of ethereal race

With necks in thunder clothed, and long resounding pace.

The equaling of Milton with Shakspere by Gray reminds of Tennyson in his “Palace of Art:”

And there was Milton, like a seraph strong,Beside himShakspere bland and mild.

And there was Milton, like a seraph strong,

Beside himShakspere bland and mild.

But Tennyson has something more elaborate on Milton. This happens to be in one of his experimental pieces. Trying that master hand of his—turned “’prentice” on this occasion—at alcaics, a meter not often attempted in English, he makes Milton his inspiration:

O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies,O skill’d to sing of Time or Eternity,God-gifted organ-voice of England,Milton, a name to resound for ages,Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,Starr’d from Jehovah’s gorgeous armories,Tower, as the deep-domed empyreanRings to the roar of an angel onset—Me rather all that bowery loneliness,The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,And bloom profuse and cedar archesCharm, as a wanderer out in ocean,Where some refulgent sunset of IndiaStreams o’er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,And crimson-hued the stately palm woodsWhisper in odorous heights of even.

O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies,

O skill’d to sing of Time or Eternity,

God-gifted organ-voice of England,

Milton, a name to resound for ages,

Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,

Starr’d from Jehovah’s gorgeous armories,

Tower, as the deep-domed empyrean

Rings to the roar of an angel onset—

Me rather all that bowery loneliness,

The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,

And bloom profuse and cedar arches

Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean,

Where some refulgent sunset of India

Streams o’er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,

And crimson-hued the stately palm woods

Whisper in odorous heights of even.

From one poet laureate of England to another is an easy transition. Run we back to Wordsworth. Of Wordsworth’s sonnet to Milton I need give only the last six lines:

Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart,Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;Pure as the naked heavens—majestic, free,So didst thou travel on life’s common wayIn cheerful godliness; and yet thy heartThe lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart,

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;

Pure as the naked heavens—majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life’s common way

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Very different in spirit from anything hitherto given is that burst of Shelley’s in his “Adonais,” allusive to Milton. It is curious how Shelley, in his unchastised youth of eager beating against the bars of convention and law, found his sympathy with Milton as much in ideas political as in ideas poetical:

He diedWho was the sire of an immortal strain,Blind, old, and lonely, when his country’s pride—The priest, the slave, and the liberticide.Trampled and mocked with many a loathed riteOf lust and blood; he went, unterrified,Into the gulf of death; but his clear spriteYet reigns o’er earth; the third among the sons of light.

He died

Who was the sire of an immortal strain,

Blind, old, and lonely, when his country’s pride—

The priest, the slave, and the liberticide.

Trampled and mocked with many a loathed rite

Of lust and blood; he went, unterrified,

Into the gulf of death; but his clear sprite

Yet reigns o’er earth; the third among the sons of light.

It is the triumph of Milton as poet that he keeps his empire undisputed over minds that kicked with utmost energy against those religious sentiments which not only Milton the man held dearest, but which Milton the poet insisted on making of the very fabric of his verse. Byron, too, and this amidst the ribald freedom of his “Don Juan”—amidstthe freedom of it, andwiththe freedom of it—says of Milton:

A little heavy but no less divine.

It will provide a conclusion conformed to a canon of ancient art in letters which forbade climax at the close, if now we present some lines from Byron, remarkable indeed, rather for ingenuity of adaptation than for high poetry, but still illustrative of the esteem compelled from their author for the sublime genius of Milton. The lines to be cited belong to Byron’s “Hints from Horace,” a work generally neglected, but certainly of notable merit, if not comparatively so good as Byron himself accounted it—who, I believe, preferred this satirical paraphrase of Horace to his “Childe Harold.” For the full appreciation of the passage following, one rather needs to have before him for comparison the corresponding text of Horace. Byron paraphrases and satirizes, the reins flung loose on the neck of his foaming Pegasus. Bowles and Southey have just been named for contempt, when, in contrast, the modesty and majesty of Milton’s opening is referred to:

Not so of yore awoke your mighty sireThe tempered warblings of his master lyre;Soft as the gentle breathings of the lute“Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit”He speaks, but, as his subject swells along,Earth, heaven and Hades echo with the song.Still to the midst of things he hastens on,As if we witnessed all already done;Leaves on his path whatever seems too meanTo raise the subject, or adorn the scene;Gives, as each page improves upon the sightNot smoke from brightness, but from darkness light;And truth and fiction with such art confounds,We know not where to fix their several bounds.

Not so of yore awoke your mighty sire

The tempered warblings of his master lyre;

Soft as the gentle breathings of the lute

“Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit”

He speaks, but, as his subject swells along,

Earth, heaven and Hades echo with the song.

Still to the midst of things he hastens on,

As if we witnessed all already done;

Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean

To raise the subject, or adorn the scene;

Gives, as each page improves upon the sight

Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness light;

And truth and fiction with such art confounds,

We know not where to fix their several bounds.

“There is more of poetry,” says Moore, “in these verses upon Milton than in any other passage throughout the paraphrase.” And more truth than poetry at that, one might justly add.

The subject is not exhausted, but enough has been produced to show that, in an eminent sense, Milton is a poets’ poet. I bespeak for my favorite among all the bards of all time a joyous and grateful observance of his annual day from every loyal Chautauquan.

BY PROF. M. B. GOFF,Western University of Pennsylvania.

Since much that we know about the heavenly bodies, has been revealed to us through the medium of the telescope, it may be advisable to give some slight account of this instrument. As early as 1608 it appears to have been invented in Holland by a professor of mathematics named James Metius, though the honor is claimed by their friends for several other parties, among them Lipperhey and Jansen, spectacle makers in the town of Middleburg. The claims of Jansen were supported by Peter Borelli, in a small volume published in 1655, entitled “De Vero Telescopii Inventore,” and he was for a long time regarded as the inventor. The story runs that Jansen had shown a telescope sixteen inches long to Prince Maurice and Archduke Albert, who realizing the importance of such an invention in war, induced him to keep it a secret. But the narrative given by Borelli rested on such a slight foundation, that it obtained but little credence. Later evidence shows that Hans Lipperhey, on the 2d of November, 1608, made application to the states-general of Holland for a patent for “an instrument to see with at a distance,” but was refused on the ground that the invention was already known. While there is little doubt but that the discovery was, as claimed, made in Holland, it is also highly probable that great efforts were put forth for some time to keep the matter a profound secret. At least, no results were published to the world until made known by Galileo in the manner thus related by Professor Newcomb: “About six months after the petitions (for patents to the states-general of Holland) of Lipperhey and Metius, Galileo was in Venice on a visit, and there received a letter from Paris, in which the invention was mentioned. He at once set himself to the re-invention of the instrument, and was so successful that in a few days he exhibited to the astonished authorities of the city a telescope magnifying three times. Returning to his home in Florence, he made other and larger ones which revealed to him spots on the sun, the phases of Venus, the mountains of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, the seeming handles of Saturn, and some of the myriads of stars, separately invisible to the naked eye, but whose combined light forms the milky way. But the largest of these instruments magnified only about thirty times, and was so imperfect in construction as to be far from showing as much as can be seen with a modern telescope of the same power.”

The telescope has been aptly compared to an eye. In the eye nearly parallel rays of light fall on a lens, and this lensthrows an image. In the telescope, nearly parallel rays of light fall on a lens, and this lens throws an image, and then another lens enables the eye to form an image of that image by again rendering the rays parallel; these parallel rays entering the eye just as rays do in ordinary vision. The efficiency of the telescope depends on its power of illuminating and magnifying. If the object glass (in a “refractor,” as an ordinary spy-glass, the lens next the object viewed) be twenty times greater than the pupil of the eye, it receives twenty times more light, and forms an image theoretically twenty times as bright (though practically much of the light is lost by reflection from and passage through the object glass). The magnifying power depends on the relative focal length (the distance from the lens to the image) of the object glass and the eye-glass (the lens next the eye). For example, if the focal length of the object glass be twenty-five inches, and that of the eye-glass one-half inch, then the magnifying power is represented by the quotient of twenty-five by one-half, which is fifty. In order to obtain a good image the illuminating power must be good and the magnifying glass (eye-piece) perform its work well.

Since the time of Galileo, refracting telescopes have been of course much improved. Their size also has increased until they are now constructed with object glasses twenty-six inches in diameter; and it is reported that one is projected for the Lick Observatory in California, which is to have an objective thirty-six inches in diameter. Reflecting telescopes, so called because instead of refracting or bending the rays of light, they reflect them from a concave mirror, have been constructed with circular mirrors six feet in diameter, and it is believed by some makers that they can be successfully operated when the mirrors are as much as seven or eight feet in diameter.

It must not be supposed, however, that in general the greater the telescope, the more successful the observations. Both calculation and experience indicate a limit beyond which increase in size, even if it affords greater power, diminishes in clearness. And it is of little value to us that we bring the moon apparently within forty miles, if we can not distinguish its features—if the face of the “man in the moon” should be a mere blur, like a blot on a piece of paper. It is, in fact, exceedingly doubtful whether the moon has ever been seen through the telescope so well as it would be seen with the naked eye at a distance of 500 miles.

To afford an idea of what has been done in the manufacture of these instruments we mention the following: Of refractors, the one in the United States Naval Observatory at Washington has an object glass twenty-six inches in diameter; that of Mr. R. S. Newall, Gateshead, England, an object glass of twenty-five inches; Observatory of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., fifteen inches; Allegheny Observatory, connected with the Western University of Pennsylvania, at Allegheny, Pa., thirteen inches; Michigan University, at Ann Arbor, Mich., twelve and five-tenths inches; Middletown University, Connecticut, eleven inches. Of reflectors, the one constructed by the Earl of Rosse, at Parsontown, Ireland, has a mirror six feet in diameter; the Observatory of Melbourne, Australia, four feet; and Mr. S. Lassell, Marblehead, England, two feet in diameter.

During this month makes us his shortest visit. This he does on the 21st, making his stay about 9h. 16m. in length. Winter begins theoretically the same day at 4:51 a. m., when the sun stands still before he starts on his northern journey, and the astronomers say that the sun entersLibra. On the 24th at 2:00 p. m., sun is 90° east of Uranus, that is, is quartile with this planet; on the 12th, at 2:00 a. m., he is 180° from Jupiter, that is, in opposition; on the 31st, at 11:00 p. m., nearest the earth; on the 1st, 16th and 30th he rises at 7:05, 7:18 and 7:24 a. m., and sets at 4:34, 4:35 and 4:44 p. m., respectively. Twilight ends on the 16th at 6:17 p. m.

Presents the ordinary phenomena of its changes as follows: Full on the 2d, at 1:51 p. m.; last quarter on the 9th, at 6:22 a. m.; new on the 17th, at 8:16 a. m.; first quarter on the 25th, at 8:13 a. m. It rises on the 15th, at 6:08 a. m., and sets on the 1st and 30th, at 5:21 a. m. and 5:13 a. m. respectively. Is nearest the earth on the 2d, at 9:30 p. m., and again on the 31st, at 10:48 a. m. Is farthest away from the earth on the 16th, at 11:06 p. m. Runs highest on the 4th, on which date its altitude equals 68° 1′ 33″; and on the 31st, when its altitude amounts to 68° 1′ 56″. It runs lowest on the 17th, when the elevation is 30° 56′ 19″ in latitude 41° 30′ north.

Presents us this month with an unusual number of phenomena, none of which, however, are of a striking character. He rises on the 1st at 8:28 a. m.; on the 16th, at 8:55 a. m.; on the 31st, at 7:48 a. m.; sets on the corresponding days at 5:16, 5:53 and 5:20 p. m.; that is, during the entire month setting from one-half hour to one and one-third hours later than the sun; and thus being visible to a careful observer for perhaps ten or twelve days both before and after the 17th, the day on which he reaches his greatest distance (20° 12′) east of the sun. His motion during the first seventeen days is 30° 33′ 44″ direct, and for the remaining fourteen 5° 9′ 55.5″ retrograde. Diameter increases from 5.2″ to 9.6″. At 3:00 p. m. on the 4th he is 1° 26′ south of Mars; on the 19th, at 6:34 a. m., 6° 27′ south of the moon; on the 25th, at 10:00 a. m., stationary; at midnight on the 29th, 2° 25′ north of Mars; and on the 30th, at 5:00 a. m., reaches its nearest point to the sun.

Is now on the wane, decreasing from 14.2″ to 12.4″ in diameter, though still an object of beauty in the morning sky. She rises at 4:03 a. m. on the 1st; at 4:36 a. m. on the 16th, and at 5:10 a. m. on the 31st. Her motion is direct and equals 38° 30′ of arc. On the 14th, at 4:37 a. m., she is 1° 15′ south of the moon.

Makes a very poor showing, his diameter being small, only about 4.2″, and his rising and setting nearly the same as that of the sun. At 8:35 a. m. he rises and at 5:33 p. m. sets on the 1st; on the 16th, rises at 8:25 a. m., and sets at 5:25 p. m.; and on the 31st, rises at 8:11 a. m., and sets at 5:21 p. m., remaining above the horizon on an average of about nine hours each day. His motion is direct and amounts to 25° 57′ of arc. On the 18th, at 1:35 p. m., he is 5° 59′ south of the moon. His declination on the 1st is 24° 17′ south, and on the 31st, 22° 58′ south.

Is morning star throughout the month, rising November 30th at 11:07 p. m., and setting December 1st, at 12:19 p. m.; on the 15th, rising at 10:10 p. m.; setting next day at 11:22 a. m.; and on the 30th rising at 9:10 p. m., and setting on the 31st at 10:23 a. m. Direct motion 31′ 39″; retrograde motion 12′ 22″. Diameter increases from 36.2″ to 39.6″. On the 8th, at 10:52 a. m., 4° 10′ north of the moon; about midnight on the 20th, stationary.

During the former part of the month will be a morning star, but during the latter and greater part an evening star, though shining during most of the night time. He rises on the 1st at 5:19 p. m., and sets on the 2d at 7:57 a. m.; rises on the 16th at 4:14 p. m., and sets on the 17th at 6:52 a. m.; rises on the 31st at 3:11 p. m., and sets on the first day of the new year at 5:47 a. m. His motion, 2° 39′ 15″ of arc, is retrograde; and his diameter diminishes about two-tenths of a second of arc. On the 3d, at 5:48 a. m., 3° 15′ north of the moon; on the 12th, at 2:00 a. m., 180° west of the sun; and on the 30th, at 1:48 p. m., 3° 16′ north of the moon. As mentioned in a former number ofThe Chautauquan, from this time for several months will be the most favorable for seeing the rings (the “handles” of the seventeenth century) of this planet.

Has a direct motion of 35′ 1″ of arc during the month, and its diameter increases two-tenths of a second. On the 10th it will be found, at 11:08 a. m., 1° 37′ north of the moon; and on the 24th, at about 2:00 p. m., 90° west of the sun. It will also appear as an evening star, rising at 1:28 a. m., and setting at 1:26 p. m. on the 1st; rising at 12:30 a. m., and setting at 12:28 p. m. on the 16th; and rising at 11:33 p. m. on 30th, and setting at 11:39 a. m. on 31st.

“Distance lends enchantment to the view.” Our imagination may readily picture a huge ball having a diameter of 34,500 miles, and a density of 1.15 times that of water, at a distance of 2,775 millions of miles from the sun, and making its way around it in a period of about 165 years, at the rate of about 3.36 miles per second; but methinks most of us would prefer to remain where we are rather than migrate to a “land of liquids” and spend our lives in swimming through oceans of liquefaction. Neptune rises on the 1st at 3:34 p. m., and sets on the 2d at 5:30 a. m.; rises on the 16th at 2:35 p. m., sets on the 17th at 4:29 a. m.; rises on the 31st at 1:35 p. m., sets on January 1st at 3:29 a. m. Retrogrades 40′ 35″ of arc. Diameter, 2.6″.

BY BISHOP JOHN F. HURST.

In no European country has there been, in the last half century, such a thorough coming up of liberal sentiment concerning all that regards the rights of the citizen and the Christian as in Norway. Lying at the northwest corner of the continent, far removed from the excitements and jealousies common to the nervous central countries, Norway has moved on in its even way, and cared little for the general current of these lands. But these Norwegians have not been asleep. Nor has there ever been a time when they have slept, from the hazardous day when their Vikings invaded Britain, and became forever a part of the bone and fiber of Scotland in eastern England, down to our century. All Norwegian history is a romance, whether in former or recent times. The unexpected change happens on those mountain sides and in those happy valleys, and when a new movement does begin there it is apt to overthrow the whole of Scandinavia. Norwegian impulses, as a rule, have such abundant vitality in them that no resistance can be made successfully against them. They are as invincible with their new liberal policy, in state and church, as was their Harold the Fair-Haired, who fought and slew twenty-two hostile kings of Norway, in the one battle of Stavenger, and made the land first and for the whole future one and strong, and then took for his queen the fair lady who had declared she would never marry him until he became king of United Norway. He laid deep plans, and then both wise and believing, waited ten long years, and so came the Norway of to-day, stretching from North Cape down to Land’s Nose.

Here is an instance of the old and the anticipated never taking place in Norway. When the country separated from Denmark in the year 1814, and became consolidated with Sweden, it produced its own constitution, and has ever since been independent of either Scandinavian country, and produces all the liberal political and ecclesiastical sentiment in northern Europe, so far as the continent is concerned. But Norway has the same king as Sweden, and the two constitute the kingdom of Sweden and Norway. There is, however, nowhere a parallel to their internal arrangements. While the countries are one, there is a broad strip of felled forest, or open land, which marks the boundary line between them. They have two different postal systems, and two classes of postage stamps. The crowning of the king in Stockholm does not make him king of Norway. He must go five hundred and twenty-seven miles northwest, and be crowned in the cathedral of the ancient capital of Norway, Trondhjem, and be blest by Norwegian clerical hands, and benedictions rung out by Norwegian bells, before he is king of Norway. Then, too, he must have not only a Swedish cabinet and court, resident in Stockholm, and his two houses of Parliament as well, but must have the same double headed arrangement in Christiania, the capital of Norway. He must have his palace and court, his upper and lower houses of Parliament, and his Ministry. Sweden can not make a law for Norway, nor the latter for the former. The king has two sets of men for everything, and unlike most kings, has duplicate critics on every question of royal action.

The Norwegian Parliament, or Storthing, has always been a troublesome thing to handle, by both kings and nobility. It is made up of rich and poor alike—all men who prove themselves worthy of the popular confidence. Until 1869 it met only triennially, and as soon as it had fought a few months for the people it could say no more for so long a time that there was ample opportunity for its legislation to be half forgotten, and, where there was a will, to be often evaded. But so rapidly did the liberal sentiment grow throughout the land that a law was at last made requiring the Storthing to meet annually. This was the fatal day for the rule of the aristocratic and bureaucratic spirit in Norway. When, in 1869, for the first time, the parliament of the country found itself compelled to come together every year, to revise the affairs of the country, it began a series of legislative acts which covered all the great and overlooked needs of the people, and, without treading upon the authority of the throne, did pursue such a course as the kings had been accustomed to think belonged only to them. In 1872 the Storthing went so far as to order that the king’s ministers, who hitherto had been shut out from all participation in the proceedings of both houses, might appear, and in case of need must appear, and give all needful information concerning the points at any time under discussion. They must be “interpellated” without let or hindrance, and in this way be held responsible to the popular representations. But the king would not sign this law. His ministers were antideluvian and conservative, and strongly advised him not to do it. The Storthing could do nothing. Here was a violent clash between the people and the throne, and the relation was strained more violently than at any other time in the last thirty years. The fact is, the people had waked up, and were moving on. The Storthing adjourned, and the members went home.

Now began a strong current of liberal sentiment, which overspread the entire country. In five years, or by 1877, there was such a liberal Storthing in session that the law requiring the ministry to appear in person and give account of their discharge of official duty, was again passed, with an overwhelming majority. But the king and his ministry refused again to favor it. The royal signature was withheld, and so the law remained a dead letter. The same thing took place in 1879. The same refusal knocked it to pieces. In 1882 matters began to culminate. The Storthing passed the same law, by a vote of one hundred and five to eight, and determined to see it signed and executed. The king lost all patience. His ministers advised him not only not to sign it, but to veto it. This they supported, as his right, by a false interpretation of an articleof the constitution. The Law Faculty of the University of Christiania indorsed the veto as constitutional, and so for the moment things seemed to be settled. Here was a case, however, where the people stepped in, and formed themselves masters of the king and his willing instruments. The next Storthing boldly declared that the new law was valid, with or without the king’s sanction, that he had no right to absolute veto at all, and demanded the government to promulgate the new law without ceremony, as a part of the laws of the land. This the ministers refused to do. This procedure, with several other unconstitutional acts, caused the Odelsthing, or select body of the Storthing, to remove the ministers before the Rigsret, which is the supreme court. From August 1883 until January 1884 the court deliberated on the case, and at last pronounced its verdict. We venture to say that no such excitement has been seen in Norway since it dropped off from Danish rule. By this verdict the entire ministry, including the prime minister, Selmer, were declared to have forfeited their right to be royal advisers, and two of the number were fined eight thousand crowns, as penalty for disobeying the laws.

The king still hesitated. He claimed that he had the right of veto, and was going to exercise it. The old and impeached ministry went out, of course, but the new one was a question. He chose, as his next ministry, the same kind of men he had been having. They were known in the country as enemies of the people’s rights, and the storm of indignation was violent throughout the country. In this chaotic condition, Sweden came in with its advice. The ministers over in Stockholm saw that there was danger of losing Norway entirely, and they plainly told the king that he must make peace there at all hazards. The king now looked at the status of things with great care, and seems to have feared for his crown. He turned suddenly about, and chose a new ministry, with the renowned liberal leader, Johan Sverdrup, as his premier. For thirty-three years this man had been an advocate of the people’s rights, and during all that time had been a member of the Storthing. He was known in every valley and on every mountain in the land of the midnight sun, as the one man who could be trusted to defend the poor and fight for the largest liberty to every one. He had been for at least a quarter of a century the most powerful man of the country. He was feared and hated by every despotic and aristocratic spirit in the land, and not one even dared to attack his patriotism and honor. That King Oscar should choose Sverdrup as his prime minister was infinitely more of a revolution than when Queen Victoria took Gladstone in place of Beaconsfield, to select a new ministry and preside over it.

The changes consequent upon this new and happy resolution of the king to make peace with the liberals, have been complete, and of great numbers. The question of the king’s veto of a law passed by the Storthing is settled forever. He can not do it. The Storthing is king, in fact. No sooner were the new ministry in power than they appeared in Parliament, took part in all debates, answered all questions concerning the policy of the government, and, to cap the climax, enlarged the right of suffrage to such an extent that forty thousand citizens could participate in all the canonical and political elections, for the first time. As to the work done, the Storthing now did more business in one week than had been done in months before.

This change in the political structure of Norway is the most significant event in Scandinavian history since 1814. It not only covers the past, but promises grandly for the future, to see the coming of the people to the front, in the land of our old Norse ancestors. And we may depend upon it that in Norway there will be no going backward. The king has had a hard task, but when the critical hour came, he chose discretion and the interests of the people. This assertion by the people, that they are supreme, means more than merely political liberation. It means that the day is not far distant when the Norwegian state church will be placed away among the rest of the useless antiquities.

BY CHANCELLOR J. H. VINCENT, D.D.

The C. L. S. C. is an institution. It has an aim, a plan, an organization, officers and members. It began, has grown, and will continue to grow. The ends it proposes are useful and much needed. They lay hold of personal character. They reach society in the family, in the community, in the church. They are ends intellectual, moral, domestic, social, and religious. Every reason that can be urged in favor of general education, of refined manners, of cultivated tastes, of religious principles, of personal influence in favor of the true, the beautiful and the good, may be presented in behalf of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Its enthusiastic alumni, its undergraduates and outside persons of sound judgment who have studied its philosophy and watched its progress have said many strong and beautiful things in commendation of it. And there is no danger of saying too much, for however crude the beginnings of the movement, one may easily see in it the most splendid possibilities. The universal praise which the scheme has elicited is all deserved. The C. L. S. C. is a great institution.

But it must be remembered that institutions, however lofty in purpose and practical in organization, can not grow or work by virtue of mere aim and plan. Ideals and artistic apparatus are essential, but without personal genius and labor are impotent in the world of art. Something more is necessary to a transatlantic passage than a dock at Liverpool and a seaworthy steamer in New York. Between the two lie the conditions of success in human enterprise and effort. The C. L. S. C. needs appreciation as a scheme, but it needs also work—wise, unremitting, indefatigable work, on the part of those who believe in it.

The problem before us now is: How may we help the C. L. S. C.? Every member who receives benefit from it, and who believes in its value to others, may become an advocate and representative and thus may induce numbers to test its worth. This service, voluntary and uncompensated, is due to the Circle. I propose to show how it may be most effectively rendered.

1. There are multitudes of people who would welcome the C. L. S. C. as an angel of strength and comfort, if its existence were but made known to them. They have no definite idea about it. The mystic letters which represent it they have often seen, but having “no interest in secret societies” have not even asked what the C. L. S. C. is. They have seen the word “Chautauqua,” and know that Chautauqua County is famous “for butter and for Republican majorities.” Or they have heard about a “camp meeting at Chautauqua,” which being a camp meeting must of course be Methodist—and in “Methodist camp meetings they have never taken much interest”—indeed, they have a “prejudice against such things.” As for a “Sunday-school Assembly” at Chautauqua, if they do not think of it as “a big picnic with lots of children and barrels of peanuts,” they class it among “the pious conventions which only very good people care to attend.” Thus the widespread nameof Chautauqua means half a dozen different things, according to the measure of the hearer’s ignorance. Now, members of the C. L. S. C. can do a world of good to people who would welcome and enter the Circle if they knew about it, by telling of its aims to persons whom they casually meet, by distributing the “Popular Educational Circular,” and by handing out judiciously copies of “The Green Book.” Thus they could soon disabuse minds which hold the superficial views of the movement above indicated and convince them that Chautauqua is not merely a “creamery,” that it is not a camp meeting, that it is not Methodist, that it is not a children’s or Sunday-school picnic at all, that Sunday-school work has a place, but a comparatively small place in the great Chautauqua Idea and movement, and that Chautauqua is CHAUTAUQUA—peculiar, instructive, broad, far-reaching—a place and an idea, a school and a society, a life and a power, representing all that is high in human aims, all that is delightful in human fellowship, all that is ennobling in broadest culture, all that is sanctifying in intelligent and reverent worship. A few words would do all this, for hosts of people who need and long for the very ministry our noble cause fulfills. Speak the words, then, dear fellow students, and distribute widely the circulars which spread this information.

2. Having sown the seed watch the growth. Urge the friend to whom you broach the subject to join the Circle. Take his or her name and address; a postal card later on may be a reminder. Insist upon prompt action in sending for blank form of application. Elicit questions. Remove difficulties. Answer objections. Be earnest and urgent, and from the seed by the wayside may come up quite a harvest of good. You can not be too urgent or emphatic. The cause and the institution justify your zeal, and those whom you win to the experiment will soon give it unequivocal indorsement, and will add a vote of thanks, for your suggestion and importunacy. Personal interest in people always pays. In a good work this interest yields the best results. And this is a good work. The young man you follow up with circulars and solicitations and offers of help will finally yield through your very earnestness in his behalf. And the more you help, the more zeal in the cause of the C. L. S. C. you will develop in him. The discouraged woman to whom the world of letters seems as inaccessible as the royal palace at Windsor, will believe your testimony because of the faith and fervor you show, and having had the door opened to her will enter in, and at every step will give thanks for what she finds, and for the thoughtful, sympathetic soul that pointed her to Temple of Knowledge.

3. Use the local press in the interest of the Circle. The columns of any paper in the land will be open to occasional items concerning the Chautauqua movement and its courses of reading. Editors who want news will be glad to receive your communications. Editors who believe in popular education will take a personal interest in the matter. They will cheerfully write editorials on some phases of the subject. They will report meetings of your local circle. They will publish choice literary extracts in the line of the current required reading. Suppose the subject for the month is Greek history and literature. Find some gem from the critics, some exquisite translation of a passage from Homer, Plato or Æschylus, some word-picture from the historians or from modern travelers; copy carefully, send to the editor, and ask its publication, and you will be surprised to find how glad editors will be to enrich their pages through your skill, taste and services. Every such item of news or passage from literature, if connected with Chautauqua or the C. L. S. C. will advertise the Circle and increase its membership.

4. Use the public schools. Secure the coöperation of teachers, especially high school principals and superintendents. Do not try to induce pupils to join the Circle. They have enough to do already, at school and at home. But watch the high school graduates, and those young people dropping out of the various grades, “giving up school,” as so many thousands do. Talk to them about what the C. L. S. C. will do for them. Tell them all about the “college outlook,” the “diploma,” the “seals,” the “societies,” and “degrees.” Urge them to enter this “Home College.” Press upon them the advantages. And if the arguments you present be so strong as to determine them not to give up school, but to keep on and enter college, you can afford to excuse them from entering the C. L. S. C. for this is the highest end of our Circle: To awaken an interest in college education, and to induce young people to secure it. Do not be disheartened if now and then a public school superintendent or teacher looks disapprovingly or with a faint touch of scorn on the C. L. S. C. It will be because he does not understand it. No scholar of a high order, who knows what we aim at and are doing, can disapprove the movement. He may object to this book or that. About what book are there no differences of opinion? He may find fault with the relative proportions of literature and science in our course. All curriculums are subjected to such criticisms. He may smile at our desires for promoting theesprit de corps. College societies, college athletics, college exhibitions have been often severely denounced as puerile, dissipating, and all that. And one has read college songs that have not been wholly weighted with wisdom or composed in conformity with highest rhetorical standards. No wise teacher can afford to sneer at the C. L. S. C. The most eminent educators of the country are in sympathy with it. Give your public school teachers a knowledge of the system and they will coöperate with you in the promotion of its interests.

5. Get the college men of your place enlisted. They are bound to help it. The C. L. S. C. is among all the educational movements of the age the best friend of the college system. It is a John-the-Baptist, going in advance and preparing the way in a wilderness-age of mercenary ambition, and among masses of people apathetic concerning especially the higher education. It goes into a household and captures parents while the children are yet young or unborn. It gives intellectual hope, confidence and ambition to those full grown men and women who supposed having left school their education had been finished. It gives them a new world to live in, a world of good books, a world of high art, a world of refined society. And into this world the children are born, and in this world they are trained, and because of this larger, nobler world they go to college. What put those better books and better pictures into the home? The C. L. S. C. What inspired the literary ambition in these mature people? The C. L. S. C. What filled the house with college atmosphere and college longings? The C. L. S. C. What led the mother to say and sing over and over again to the smiling infant in her arms, “My darling is going to college one of these days?” The C. L. S. C. If any people on the continent should honor and further the C. L. S. C. it is the college people, and as they learn its work they see its worth and give it sympathy and help. Our most enthusiastic friends are college presidents and professors.

Therefore make a point of enlisting college people in the enterprise. They will be glad to join. It will do them good after these years of neglect to read up Greek-in-English with Dr. Wilkinson, or to have Professor Appleton and Dr. Edwards tell them in their clear way what additions have been made to the science of chemistry since it was studied in the old college laboratory. There is not a subject or a book in the C. L. S. C. course that it would not pay any college graduate to read over again. And the really wise ones among them will do it. We have thousands of college graduates on the record lists of the Circle.

Where these men and women may not care to join for their own sakes they may be induced to giveprestigeto the movement for the sake of others. This is a power they have. They may well be proud of it; and if by putting themselves side by side with less favored people as fellow-students, they can helpwithout seeming to do it, they may add to the influence and profit of the Circle. Stir up and use the college people.

6. And now for the ministers! No class has greater influence in matters pertaining to education. To hear some wiseacres talk one would suppose that churches and ministers were afraid of education. The fact is that both popular and higher education owes more to the church than to any other organization on earth, and college presidents and professors have for the most part been clergymen or active laymen ready for Christian service. The most efficient factor in the educational movements of the world is Christianity.

The ministers are able to do more for the C. L. S. C. than any other class. They have influence over the homes, and especially over the youth of their congregations. If they do not it is their own fault; and I have sometimes felt that the Chautauqua plan was a providential appliance adapted to the age, by which pastors may secure a firmer hold upon the young people, and keep them in more perfect sympathy with the social and spiritual ideas which it is the business of the church to set forth. What intellectual dissipation and what moral weakening follow the loose reading habits of the age! How can a minister of Christ bring people to an appreciation of stability, purity, thoughtfulness, by sermons on one day of the week while all the other days are filled (what time is left from business) with sensational and demoralizing stories, unreal in their pictures of life and fearfully false in the ethical and theological principles they embody? How can a minister train his people to solidity and self-sacrifice and spirituality, whose highest ideas of “society” are expressed in the sensuous and dangerous pleasures in which a frivolous world delights, and which by its consciousless requirements are made “fashionable?” Priestly prohibition is worthless. Bitter denunciation is worse. Appeals to higher tastes are useless—while the higher taste is lacking. There is only one way out of the difficulty. It is by “the expulsive power of a new affection.” To learn to loathe the low, one must learn to love the high and holy. To banish bad books we must create a delight in good books. To make worldly society seem the sensuous and senseless thing it often is, we must create a taste for refined, elevating and rational society. To put dignity and stability into a life we must feed it on truth, and cause it to delight in serving others. The C. L. S. C. is the pastor’s helper in all these lines. It puts good books into the hands of youth and age. It opens broad fields for exploration. It discovers and develops personal aptitude. It gives high ambitions. It makes conversation with rational and cultivated people more agreeable than frivolous amusements which have neither ideas nor useful inspiration in them. It quickens conscience. It gives dignity to life. It makes usefulness more desirable than self-gratification. It supplements Sunday aspiration by week-day effort, and increases the power—intellectual, social and spiritual—of every life and of every home into which it comes. All this our ministers should feel. If they knew they would feel. Then cause them to know. By talk and by circulars stir them up.

When new tastes are developed among their young people, tastes sanctified by prayer and fostered by lectures and lessons, and books and conversation, the ministers seeing the good work will appreciate the agency, and thank you for calling their attention to the C. L. S. C.

These are some of the radical ways of helping the C. L. S. C.

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