After life’s endless babble they sleep well.
After life’s endless babble they sleep well.
After life’s endless babble they sleep well.
After life’s endless babble they sleep well.
Now the wordendlesshere is extremely awkward; for if the babble never ends, how can anything come after it?
To digress for a moment, I may observe that this line gives a good illustration of the process by which what is called Latin verse is often constructed. Every person sees that the line is formed out of Shakspere’s “After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.†The ingenuity of the transference may be admired, but it seems to me that it is easy to give more than a due amount of admiration; and, as the instance shows, the adaptation may issue in something bordering on the absurd.
The language of the shop and the market must not be expected to be very exact: we may be content to be amused by some of its peculiarities. I can not say that I have seen the statement which is said to have appeared in the following form: “Dead pigs are looking up.†We find very frequently advertised, “Digestivebiscuitsâ€â€”perhapsdigestiblebiscuits are meant. In a catalogue of books an “Encyclopædia of Mental Science†is advertised; and after the names of the authors we read, “invaluable, 5s.6d.;†this is a curious explanation ofinvaluable.
The title of a book recently advertised is, “Thoughts for those who are Thoughtful.†It might seem superfluous, not to say impossible, to supply thoughts to those who are already full of thought.
The wordlimitedis at present very popular in the domain of commerce. Thus we read, “Although the space given to us was limited.†This we can readily suppose; for in a finite building there can not be unlimited space. Booksellers can perhaps say, without impropriety, that a “limited number will be printed,†as this may only imply that the type will be broken up; but they sometimes tell us that “a limited numberwasprinted,†and this is an obvious truism.
Some pills used to be advertised for the use of the “possessor of pains in the back,†the advertisement being accompanied with a large picture representing the unhappy capitalist tormented by his property.
Pronouns, which are troublesome to all writers of English, are especially embarrassing to the authors of prospectuses and advertisements. A wine company return thanks to their friends, “and, at the same time,theywould assurethemthat it istheirconstant study not only to find improvements fortheirconvenience.…†Observe how the pronouns oscillate in their application between the company and their friends.
In selecting titles of books there is room for improvement. Thus, aQuarterly Journalis not uncommon; the words strictly are suggestive of aQuarterly Dailypublication. I remember, some years since, observing a notice that a certain obscure society proposed to celebrate itstriennial anniversary.
A few words may be given to some popular misquotations.
“He that runs may read†is often supposed to be a quotation from the Bible; the words really are, “He may run that readeth,†and it is not certain that the sense conveyed by the popular misquotation is correct.
A proverb which correctly runs thus: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,†is often quoted in the far less expressive form, “Hell is paved with good intentions.â€
“Knowledge is power†is frequently attributed to Bacon, in spite of Lord Lytton’s challenge that the words can not be found in Bacon’s writings.
It seems impossible to prevent writers from usingcui bono?in the unclassical sense. The correct meaning is known to be of this nature: suppose that a crime has been committed; then inquire who has gained by the crime—cui bono?for obviously there is a probability that the person benefited was the criminal. The usual sense implied by the quotation is this: What is the good? the question being applied to whatever is for the moment the object of depreciation. Those who use the words incorrectly may, however, shelter themselves under the great name of Leibnitz, for he takes them in the popular sense; see his works, vol. v., p. 206.
TheTimes, commenting on the slovenly composition of the queen’s speeches to Parliament, proposed the cause of the fact as a fit subject for the investigation of ourprofessional thinkers. The phrase suggests a delicate reproof to those who assume for themselves the title ofthinker, implying that any person may engage in this occupation just as he might, if he pleased, become a dentist, or a stockbroker, or a civil engineer. The wordthinkeris very common as a name of respect in the works of a modern distinguished philosopher. I am afraid, however, that it is employed by him principally as synonymous with aComtist.
TheTimes, in advocating the claims of a literary man for a pension, said, “He hasconstructedseveral useful schoolbooks.†The wordconstructsuggests with great neatness the nature of the process by which schoolbooks are sometimes evolved, implying the presence of the bricklayer and mason rather than of the architect.
[Dr. Todhunter might have addedfeatureto the list of words abusively used by newspaper writers. In one number of a magazine two examples occur: “Afeaturewhich had been welltaken upby local and other manufacturers was the exhibition of honey in various applied forms.†“A newfeaturein the social arrangements of the Central Radical Clubtook placethe other evening.â€]—Macmillan’s Magazine.
BY CHANCELLOR J. H. VINCENT, D.D.
Beyond the “Inner Circle,†which leads to the “Upper Chautauqua,†we come to the Uppermost Chautauqua—the University proper, with its “School of Liberal Arts,†and its “School of Theology.†Here we find provision made for college training of a thorough sort. Students all over the world may turn their homes into dormitories, refectories, and study rooms, in connection with the great University which has its local habitation at Chautauqua. Thus “hearers†and “recipients†in the Assembly, “readers†in the C. L. S. C., “student readers†in the “inner circleâ€â€”the “League of the Round-Table,†may go beyond, even to the School of Liberal Arts, thebona fideCollege of Chautauqua.
Chautauqua exalts the college. She believes that the benefits of a college training are manifold.
1. The action by which a youth becomes a college student—the simple going forth—leaving one set of circumstances and voluntarily entering another, with a specific purpose—is an action which has educating influence in it. It is a distinct recognition of an object and a deliberate effort to secure it. The judgment is convinced, the will makes a decision, and corresponding action follows. We have the thought, the aim, the standards, the resolve, the surrender, and the embodiment of all in an actual physical movement. There must follow these activities a reflex influence on the youth himself. It becomes a “new birth†in his life. He has gone to another plane. His everyday conduct is modified by it. He looks up and on. According to the standard he has set, the idea he entertains of education, and the motives which impel him will be the subjective effects of his action—the real power of his new life.
2. There is educating power in the complete plan of study provided in the college curriculum, covering as it does the wide world of thought, distributed over the years, with subdivisions into terms, with specific assignments of subjects, with a beginning and an ending of each division, and many beginnings and endings, with promotions according to merit, and final reviews, recognitions, and honors. There is great value in the enforced system of the college. It tends to sustain and confirm new life, begun when the student made his first movement toward an institution.
3. The association of students in college life is another educating factor. Mind meets mind in a fellowship of aim, purpose, and experience. They have left the same world; they now together enter another world. They look up to the heights and to the shining of crowns which await the gifted and faithful. They are brothers now—one “alma mater†to nourish them. They sing their songs—songs which, although without much sense, have power to awake and foster sympathy. Even a man of sense loves to listen to them. He laughs at the folly, and, though himself a sage, wishes he were one of the company of singers. The laws of affinity work out. Soul inspires soul. Memories grow apace. Attachments that endure, adventures seasoned with fun or touched with sadness, absurdities, failures, heroisms, triumphs, are crowded into the four years, and like fruitage of bloom and fragrance from a conservatory may go forth to bless many an hour of wandering, of sorrow, of reunion, of remembrance, in the later years. There was something pathetic in the return of the famous Yale College class of 1853 to their alma mater two summers ago. As they wandered about the scenes of their youth, under the old elms, through recitation rooms and chapel, singing the old songs, reviving the old friendships, recalling faces to be seen no more, no wonder that tears fell down furrowed cheeks from eyes unused to weep. Is there any stronger or sweeter friendship than that born under the ivied towers and spreading elms of college hall and campus?
In college mind meets mind in the severe competition of recitation and annual examination. The bright boy—one of a small class at home, who had it all his own way there—now finds a score or more of leaders whose unvoiced challenge he is compelled to accept, and how he does knit his brow, close his eyes, summon his strength, school his will, force his flagging energies, and grapple problems that he may hold his own, outstrip his rivals, and win prize and place for the sake of his family’s fame and for his personal satisfaction!
There is nothing that so discovers to a youth the weak points of his character as the association of college life. There are no wasted courtesies among students. Folly is soon detected, and by blunt speech, bold caricature, and merciless satire exposed. Sensitiveness is cured by ridicule, cowardice never condoned, and meanness branded beyond the possibility of concealment or pardon. College associations stimulate the best elements in a man, expose weak and wicked ones, and tend to the pruning and strengthening of character.
4. Then there is in college life association with professors and tutors, and this is, I confess, sometimes of little value, as when teachers are mere machines, but in it, at its best, are distinguishing benefits. When teachers are full men, apt men, and enthusiastic men—as college professors, and for that matter all teachers ought to be—the place of recitation soon becomes a center of power. Tact tests attainment, exposes ignorance, foils deceit, develops strength, indicates lines of discovery, and inspires courage. A living teacher supplies at once model and motive. He has gone on among the labyrinths, and up the steeps of knowledge; has tried and toiled and triumphed. He sought and heis. And now by wise questioning, by judicious revelation, by skillful concealment, by ingenious supposition, by generous raillery, by banter, by jest, by argument and by magnetic energies, the teacher stirs the student into supreme conditions of receptivity and activity. Such teachers make the college. As President Garfield said: “Give me an old school house, and a log for a bench. Put Mark Hopkins on one end, and let me, as student, sit on the other, and I have all the college I need.†When an institution is able to employ men of superior knowledge, power, and tact, students must be trained, and all their after lives affected by the influence. For memory magnifies the worth of a true teacher, and the hero of the college quadrennium becomes a demigod through the post-graduate years. A dozen men of this mold, if once they could be gotten together, would make a college the like of which has not yet been seen on the planet. Shall Chautauqua one of these days find them?
5. The college life promotes mental discipline. It drills, and drills, and draws out. It compels effort, and effort strengthens. It provides a system of mental gymnastics. What was difficult at first, soon becomes easy, until severer tests are sought from the very delight the student finds in concentration and persistency. Thus development takes place in the varied faculties of the soul. The student acquires power to observe with scientific exactness, to generalize wisely from accumulated data, to project hypotheses, to watch psychical processes, to reason with accuracy, to distinguish between the false and the true, both in the inner and the outer world; to grasp protracted and complicated processes of mathematical thought; to trace linguistic evolutions—remembering, analyzing, philosophizing; to studythe students of the ages, and the products of their genius in art, poetry, jurisprudence, and discovery, in the facts of history and the great principles of sociology. All the powers employed in this manifold work during the college term are trained and thus prepared for work after the college term is ended. It is not so much the amount of knowledge acquired during the four years, as it is the power at will ever after to acquire knowledge, that marks the benefits of the college course.
6. With discipline comes the comprehensive survey of the universe. The college outlook takes the student backward along the line of historical development. It shows him the heights and the depths, the manifold varieties and inter-relations of knowledge. It gives him tools and the training to use them, and a glance at the material on which he is to use them. The student through college is a traveler, sometimes examining in detail, sometimes superficially. He gives a glance and remembers; he takes notes and thinks closely. He sees the all-surrounding regions of knowledge, and although he may make but slight researches in particular lines, he knows where to return in the after years for deeper research and ampler knowledge.
7. College life leads to self-discovery. It tests a man’s powers, and reveals to him his weakness. It shows him what he is best fitted to do, and the showing may not be in harmony either with his ambitions or his preconceived notions. A boy born for mercantile pursuits, who comes out of college a lawyer or preacher, proves that the college failed to do its legitimate and most important work for him. Professors who merely glorify intellectual attainment, and who neglect to show students their true place in the world, are little better than cranks or hobbyists. College life is the whole of life packed into a brief period, with the elements that make life magnified and intensified, so that tests of character may easily be made. It is a laboratory of experiment, where natural laws and conditions are pressed into rapid though normal operation, and processes otherwise extending over long periods of time are crowded to speedy consummation. Twenty years of ordinary life, so far as they constitute a testing period of character are, by college life, crowded into four years. A boy who is a failure then, would, for the same reasons, be a failure through the longer probation, unless the early discovery of peculiar weakness may be a protection against the perils which this weakness involves. Therefore it is a good thing for a youth to subject himself thus early to a testing, for from it may come self-discovery, when latent powers may be developed, and impending evils avoided.
Of other advantages of educational institutions I shall not now speak. They are manifold. Our youth of both sexes, whatever their callings in life, would do well to seek these advantages. Therefore parents, primary teachers, and older persons who influence youth, should constantly place before them the benefits of college education, and inspire them to reach after and attain it. Arguments should be used, appeals made, assistance proffered, that a larger percentage of American youth may aspire after college privileges, or at least remain for a longer term in the best schools of a higher grade. Haste to be rich, restiveness under restraint during the age of unwisdom, inability to regulate by authority at home the eager and ambitious life of our youth, together with false, mercenary notions of parents, who “can not afford to have so much time spent by the young folks in studying, because they must be doing something for themselvesâ€â€”these are some of the causes of the depreciation and neglect of the American college—a neglect lamentable enough, and fraught with harm to the nation.
Chautauqua lifts up her voice in favor of liberal education for a larger number of people. She would pack existing institutions until wings must be added to old buildings, and new buildings be put up to accommodate young men and maidens who are determined to be educated.
Chautauqua would exalt the profession of the teacher until the highest genius, the richest scholarship, and the broadest manhood and womanhood of the nation would be consecrated to this service.
Chautauqua would give munificent salaries and put a premium on merit, sense, tact, and culture in the teacher’s office. She would turn the eyes of all the people—poor and rich, mechanics and men of other, if not higher degree, toward the high school and the college, urging house builders, house owners, house keepers, farmers, blacksmiths, bankers, millionaires, to prepare themselves by a true culture, whatever niche they fill in life, to be men and women, citizens, parents, members of society, members of the church, candidates for immortal progress.
To promote these ends the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was organized. By its courses of popular reading it gives a college outlook to the uncultivated, and exalts the higher learning. It is, as I have elsewhere said, a John the Baptist preparing the way for seminary and university.
The managers of the Chautauqua movement, however, recognize the fact that there are thousands of full-grown men and women who are at their best intellectually, and who, with some leisure and much longing, believe they could do more than read. They want to study; to study in downright earnest; to develop mental power; to cultivate taste; to increase knowledge, to make use of it by tongue and pen and life. There are tens of thousands of young people out of school by necessities commercial and filial, who are awakened to the power within and the possibilities beyond. They believe they could learn a language, and enjoy the literature of it. They believe they could think and grow, speak and write. They are willing, and eager to try. Out of minutes they could construct college terms. They have will enough, heart enough, brain enough to begin, to go on, to go through, and all this, while the everyday life continues with its duty for this hour and for that. They believe that into the closely woven texture of everyday, home and business life, there may be drawn threads of scarlet, crimson, blue and gold, until their homespun walls become radiant with form and color worthy to decorate the royal chamber—the chamber of their king, God the Father of earnest souls.
Chautauqua denounces the talk of certain rich men about the “poor having their place,†and that it would be “better for working people to confine themselves to work, or at best to understand subjects bearing entirely on their everyday duties in field or shop, and let science and literature alone.†Chautauqua would make working men cultivated, and give them recreation from manual toil in realms of wonder, taste, science, literature and art. Chautauqua would spread out over the lot of the toiler a dome, vast, radiant, rich and inspiring.
Therefore the Chautauqua School of Liberal Arts has been organized, and chartered with full university powers, for non-resident pupils, who, by correspondence with competent instructors, may study what they please, when they please, and as they please, eliciting suggestion, and giving answer and thesis, taking all the time they need, passing final examination in writing in the presence of witnesses, and having their examination papers subjected to the scrutiny of competent and impartial critics. When, after the required standard in the several departments which constitute the college course has been attained, whether in four, or ten, or fourteen years, the successful candidate shall have his diploma and his degree; and through this window he has constructed out of all these fragments of time—fragments picked up from dusty floor and pavement, from mine, and field, and shop—through this window the light shall shine in its beauty, and people shall see what genius, industry and persistent will can do with the cast away fragments of spare moments and random opportunities.
I have thus described the “Upper Chautauqua.†By reason of the action of the Board of Managers, elsewhere reported, the plan of gradation is slightly changed from that laid down in the previous article on the “Upper Chautauqua,†and the followingsuccessive steps are found in the scheme of the Chautauqua University:
1. TheAssembly, including the summer meetings, the “Platform,†“the American Church Sunday-school Normal Course,†the “School of Languages,†and the “Teachers’ Retreat.â€
2. TheCircle, embracing the “C. L. S. C.â€
3. The “Inner Circle,†to which they belong who, having seven seals on their diploma, are members of the “League of the Round-Table.â€
4. The “University Circle,†with its “School of Liberal Arts,†and the “School of Theology.â€
New Haven, Conn., February 6, 1885.
First Week(ending March 8).—1. “College Greek Course,†from page 187 to 216.
2. “Chemistry,†chapters IX and X.
3. “The Circle of the Sciences,†inThe Chautauquan.
4. Sunday Readings for March 1 and 8, inThe Chautauquan.
Second Week(ending March 16).—1. “College Greek Course,†from page 216 to 239.
2. “Chemistry,†chapters XI, XII and XIII.
3. “Temperance Teachings of Science,†inThe Chautauquan.
4. Sunday Readings for March 15, inThe Chautauquan.
Third Week(ending March 24).—1. “College Greek Course,†from page 239 to 260.
2. “Chemistry,†chapters XIV and XV.
3. “Home Studies in Chemistry and Physics,†inThe Chautauquan.
4. Sunday Readings for March 22, inThe Chautauquan.
Fourth Week(ending March 31).—1. “College Greek Course,†from page 260 to 284.
2. “Chemistry,†chapters XVI and XVII.
3. “Studies in Kitchen Science and Art,†inThe Chautauquan.
4. Sunday Readings for March 29, inThe Chautauquan.
1. Blackboard illustration and full explanation of the Greek theater, special attention being given to the arrangement of the stage. If preferred, charts or pictures can be substituted for the blackboard. As aids to this work Donaldson’s “Greek Theater,†containing charts and illustrations, and Mahaffy’s “Classical Greek Literature†will be found very helpful.
2. Essay—George W. Cable and his Works.
Music.
3. Selection—“The Gorgon’s Head,†found in Hawthorne’s “Wonder Book.†This story can be read “turn about†by the members. Reference is made to the headless Gorgon, on page 210 of “College Greek Course.â€
4. Essay—Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, as observed in New Orleans.
5. A Paper on Great Salt Mines and Springs.
6. Critic’s Report.
1. Essay—Sir Humphrey Davy.
2. Selection—“An Account of Sappho.†By Addison.
3. A Paper on Canadian Winter Sports.
Music.
4. A Half-hour’s Quiz on the Readings of the Month.
5. Essay—The Life of Euripides.
6. Question Box.
1. Fifteen Minutes’ Talk on Balloons and their Uses.
2. Selection—“On Great Natural Geniuses.†By Addison.
3. Character Sketch—Ignatius Loyola.
4. A Paper on the Athenian Orators.
Music.
5. General Conversation on the News of the Day.
6. The Questions and Answers for the Month inThe Chautauquan.
Music.
1. Roll call—Quotations from Greek Authors.
2. A Map Exercise. Trace Philip’s conquering march, as indicated by Demosthenes in his third Olynthiac oration.
3. Essay—Demosthenes.
Music.
4. An Analysis of Tennyson’s “Princess.â€
5. A Paper on the Famous Women of Greece.
Music.
6. Debate—Resolved, that the effects of the modern theater compare unfavorably with those of the ancient.
Music.
It may not be amiss to follow our programs—which are intended to be merely suggestive—with a very short exposition of our program-philosophy. It is not a heavy philosophy; indeed, it is so simple that we half suspect we may be laughed at for calling it a philosophy at all, but its principles, we believe, are true and useful; as such we offer them. According to our ideas there are four subjects which should be represented on each C. L. S. C. program; first in the list and in importance is the week’s or month’s reading, its prominent features, its suggestions, its facts, its practical lessons; second, the world’s work of to-day, not merely its events of public interest, its schemes and disasters, but its science, invention, art, literature, morals, social life, civilization, its men and its manners; to follow both exercises and clinch what has been suggested, “good talk†ought to be an invariable part of each evening’s work. Take care that talk, free, genial, interested talk, follows every performance, or every program, and be sure that always
“Music dwellsLingering and wandering on as loth to die.â€
“Music dwellsLingering and wandering on as loth to die.â€
“Music dwellsLingering and wandering on as loth to die.â€
“Music dwells
Lingering and wandering on as loth to die.â€
These are the four elements necessary to a good program. As to how they shall be treated we have also a theory. Its first principle is let everything be well done; while thorough, do not go astray in dates and statistics, but go to the point which you desire to make. Then be bright and interesting, the third essential in each performance. Withal, suit your theme and your treatment of it to your audience. Let the subject be of common interest, the matter neither so commonplace as to seem puerile nor so technical as to be “over the heads†of your auditors. Such is our program-philosophy. A better you will undoubtedly formulate by practicing this.
“We Study the Word and the Works of God.â€â€”“Let us keep our Heavenly Father in the Midst.â€â€”“Never be Discouraged.â€
1.Opening Day—October 1.2.Bryant Day—November 3.3.Special Sunday—November, second Sunday.4.Milton Day—December 9.5.College Day—January, last Thursday.6.Special Sunday—February, second Sunday.7.Founder’s Day—February 23.8.Longfellow Day—February 27.9.Shakspere Day—April 23.10.Addison Day—May 1.11.Special Sunday—May, second Sunday.12.Special Sunday—July, second Sunday.13.Inauguration Day—August, first Saturday after first Tuesday; anniversary of C. L. S. C. at Chautauqua.14.St. Paul’s Day—August, second Saturday after first Tuesday; anniversary of the dedication of St. Paul’s Grove at Chautauqua.15.Commencement Day—August, third Tuesday.16.Garfield Day—September 19.
1.Opening Day—October 1.
2.Bryant Day—November 3.
3.Special Sunday—November, second Sunday.
4.Milton Day—December 9.
5.College Day—January, last Thursday.
6.Special Sunday—February, second Sunday.
7.Founder’s Day—February 23.
8.Longfellow Day—February 27.
9.Shakspere Day—April 23.
10.Addison Day—May 1.
11.Special Sunday—May, second Sunday.
12.Special Sunday—July, second Sunday.
13.Inauguration Day—August, first Saturday after first Tuesday; anniversary of C. L. S. C. at Chautauqua.
14.St. Paul’s Day—August, second Saturday after first Tuesday; anniversary of the dedication of St. Paul’s Grove at Chautauqua.
15.Commencement Day—August, third Tuesday.
16.Garfield Day—September 19.
Regularity is necessary to permanency. Whatever undertaking we desire to make a permanent success, we must make regular; whatever we wish to do successfully, we must do regularly. A tiresome, prosaic quality we are apt to consider it, and one which restricts our freedom. The regular return of small duties often makes them annoying, yet in large affairs regularity adds dignity and strength. It is essential for the establishment of any institution. A trite truth this may be, but trite truths are not always applied, and it is for the application of this homily to local circles that we sue.
It is most desirable that your local circle should become durable. Not a club, to which you can run in as you have leisure, or which can be adjourned for other engagements; which shall run this winter, and “perhaps,†“if nothing happens,†go on next winter. Not at all. There is a higher idea embodied in the plan. The true ambition of each member of a circle should be to make ittheliterary association of the community, the leader in practical ideas, clear thinking, intelligent talk and refined manners; but to reach this goal the circle meeting must be considered too valuable to be omitted for any occasion whatever. Its object is equal to that of any institution in the town. If you wish to develop this idea, to establish your circle, to secure for it recognition as a well founded organization, regularity in meeting and attendance must be secured. It is true that a social or religious event sometimes happens for which courtesy seems to demand an adjournment. In such a case it is quite possible to select another night. The one idea upon which we would insist is that the circle be considered and conducted as a permanent institution, that it be made the intellectual center of your life. How wonderful an impetus to thought and culture is such an organization, only those who lack its influence can tell. Some of the earnest letters which come to us from time to time give a suggestion of what a circle might be to lone readers. Is there not, indeed, in this delightful letter fromBulgaria, a hint of the real value of a circle, a value which we so often fail to appreciate? It comes from an old Chautauqua friend—Miss Lenna A. Schenck, now a missionary atLoftcha, Bulgaria: “How gladly would we report to you from this out-of-the-way corner of the earth the organization of a flourishing local circle. But, alas! alas! we can not boast of even a triangle or a straight line, only a point, a mere dot, but a thoroughly loyal one, keenly enjoying the good things ofThe Chautauquan, that most welcome and highly prized of all the white-winged friends that come to us by mail. Though so few in number, we keep the vesper hours and the memorial days, and begin each day happily by devoting the time from six to seven in the morning to Chautauqua reading, and so we are inspired by glimpses of charming circles away in the homeland, and by memories of delightful summers with our blessed alma mater, Chautauqua herself. Before another year rolls round, we hope to have at least a local triangle here at Loftcha, and perhaps a Bulgarian translation of some of Chautauqua’s best ‘ideas.’ Many things might be said of our new home and new work, but we remember the delicate suggestion given in the November ‘Local Circle,’ that ‘no one could stay very long,’ so with heartful greetings to the class of ’83 and to all good Chautauquans the world over, we bid you adieu.â€
Are not such friends of Chautauqua the prophecy of a time when the work shall encircle the earth? Each month brings signs of its growth. Particularly do we notice this month the spread of the work inCanada. The press is particularly friendly to the movement in the Provinces; for example, theEducational Weekly, ofToronto, quotes theGlobeof that city as saying: “The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is now pretty well known. It has been in operation since 1878, and has done a great deal of good. The yearly reunions at Chautauqua have come to be very pleasant and very profitable. We understand that a similar summer resort is to be instituted in Canada, in connection with the reading circles already established in the Dominion. We wish the enterprise all success.†Much of the interest in Toronto is undoubtedly due to the hearty work of Mr. E. Gurney, and Mr. Lewis Peake, president and secretary of the “Central†circle. This circle has recently had the pleasure of hearing a lecture on “Athenian Literature†from Professor Hutton, of the University College.Londonhas also a very flourishing circle, dating from the fall of 1883, when it was organized with a membership of about forty. It is a most healthy sign of growth, when reorganization finds a circle larger than when it disbanded. The “Central†circle had this fortune. They began the present year with a membership of forty eight. Their plans have been most happy; the vesper services in the Chautauqua song books are used at every meeting, and quotations as responses to roll call; chemical experiments are performed for them by a professor of practical chemistry, who is a member of the circle, and their programs are full of variety. So important to them is their circle that they made Christmas the occasion of a special meeting, at which they used the Christmas vesper and praise service which appeared inThe Chautauquanfor December. The service was followed by an address and several entertaining exercises. This is exactly the work which enhances the value of the circle, both for the members and for the community. It raises a circle to the point where it becomes the medium through which all extra social occasions may be observed. It makes it not only a reading club, but a factor in the social, religious and intellectual life of a community.
AtDartmouth, Nova Scotia, we learn from a local paper, there is also an energetic circle. They have done good work in introducing the C. L. S. C. to the public, securing a notice of a public vesper service, an explanation of the work they are doing, mention of the circles in the vicinity, and followingtheir information by announcing their next meeting with a cordial invitation to the public to be present.
In November last two new circles were formed inMaine. A “Pine Tree†circle, of twenty-seven members, coming fromDoverandFoxcroft. These beautiful villages are closely connected by covered bridges—the Piscataquis river flowing between, though it is a hard matter for a stranger to see where one begins or the other ends, so much like one village are they. A friendly way to live, is it not? These classmates have evidently learned what Thackeray found out in London long ago—that “A man ought to like his neighbors, to be popular with his neighbors. It is a friendly heart that has plenty of friends.†But we all learn that in the C. L. S. C. The second is the “Simpson†circle atAuburn, where the Rev. G. D. Lindsay is president. Sixteen enthusiasts make up the circle which, so far, finds the work suggested inThe Chautauquansufficient for its needs.
One of the most interesting and prosperous, though not largest of Chautauqua circles, is the “Baketel†circle, atGreenland, N. H.It is named in honor of its founder and leader, Rev. O. S. Baketel, an old Chautauquan of the class of ’82. The organization is very simple. The leader prepares the program for each evening, and the members come promptly. No inflexible rule is adhered to, but as much variety given as possible. That the plan is most successful we know from a recent letter from a friend, in which he says of the work: “Our members vary in age from eighteen years to fifty-three, and none are more enthusiastic than the oldest ones. It makes one of the most interesting gatherings ever brought together in the community, and is furnishing help to some whose advantages in early life were very limited. Every member feels like exclaiming ‘All hail C. L. S. C.’â€â€”—The “Webster†C. L. S. C., ofFranklin, N. H., is enjoying its second year of existence. A good interest was maintained throughout last year, and they began this year’s work promptly in October, with twenty-two active members. To them the dining room table has revealed its wonderful power to stimulate sociability and “good talk.†They have discovered its genial ways, how it will always stretch to make room for more and still more, and how it seems to be always saying: “Stretch out your arms; don’t mind just how you sit. I shield your position, I am here to help you all, to bring you close together, to hold your books, to forbid your parting, to compel you to be a circle.†Indeed, we are glad the “Webster†circle has learned the virtues of a dining room for study and for friendliness. Maybe if they but analyzed their devotion to their circle that stout, wooden friend would deserve not a little of the honor, and perhaps, too, it has helped not a little in bringing in the children, which, they write, are crowding into the Chautauqua work until the circle boasts even grandchildren.
The “Clio†club of twenty members atNewport, Vt., kindly remembersThe Chautauquanwith one of the programs used at a recent public meeting. The dainty, tasseled souvenir they send us bears a list of exercises of unusual richness and variety.
Massachusettsis getting her circles into the press. Scarcely a paper from within her borders comes to our sanctum which does not contain at least one item of Chautauqua import. TheMelrose JournalofMelrosereports the organization of a circle of fifteen members in that city.——TheWoburn Journalnotices the work of the circle there in a very appreciative notice: “The fortnightly meetings of the First Woburn Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle are being well attended and the exercises are very profitable intellectually and the students are doing good work. Two weeks ago the Rev. Charles Anderson gave a very interesting talk on Prof. Schliemann’s recent explorations in Mycenæ, and Hissarlik, the supposed site of ancient Troy. At some meeting in the near future the Rev. A. E. Winship, a true Chautauquan, connected with the ‘New West Education Commission,’ a thorough scholar and a very interesting speaker, will lecture on ‘Literary Clubs’ before the members of the circle.â€â€”—TheSaturday Union, ofLynn, speaks of the thorough work their circle is doing in chemistry.——TheIpswich Chroniclehighly commends the Milton memorial held by the “Masconomo†circle of that city. By the way, the name of this circle brings back an interesting bit of early Massachusetts history. It was the Indian Masconomo, or Masconnomet—from whom the circle is named—who, in 1638, “sold his fee in the soil of Ipswich†for £20, to John Winthrop, Jr. And here was established the town which the Indians called Agawan (“fishing stationâ€), and to which the white men gave the name of Ipswich.——TheSalem Gazette, too, gives notices of two branches of the C. L. S. C. in that city. About forty members are in each of these societies.——Several new circles we have the pleasure of adding to our visiting book. AtMerrimaca circle of seventeen members has been formed, with the happy title of the “Hale†circle. The first circle, so far as we know, which has honored itself by assuming the name of our esteemed counselor. They should be glad they waited; so good a name does honor to anybody, and ought to be an omen of future prosperity.——The “Eaton†circle, named in honor of the Rev. G. F. Eaton, begins life with seventy members. Its home isWaltham—city of watches. If the spirit of the town is to be the spirit of the circle, wonderful results will certainly be forthcoming.——Last October a few of the many students in the C. L. S. C. inWorcesterorganized a local circle. By the perseverance of these few, others have been persuaded to take the course, until the circle numbers about sixteen. They have taken the name of the “Warren†local circle, in honor of Bishop Warren.——AtProvincetowna company of ten, five ladies and five gentlemen, met on the evening of the sixteenth of December last, to form a local circle. The meetings have occurred every week since; the circle has adopted the name of “Mayflower.†The meetings are full of interest, and the members are busy trying to make up the reading of the past months. All are members of the class of ’88 except one, who belongs to the class of ’85.——South Gardenreports a circle organized a year ago, but which has never been noticed inThe Chautauquanbefore. It is a “Pansy†class—all the fifteen members belonging to the class of ’87.——“Not Chautauquans for four years only, but Chautauquans for life,†the friends atHolbrooksubscribe themselves. Their motto grew out of the ardor of a lady member of the circle who, when at a recent meeting something was said about a four years’ course, said: “I shall not consider that I have finished the course at the end of four years. I for one am going to be a Chautauquan as long as I live.†A right royal motto, is it not?——TheWakefieldcircle sends a program of a meeting in which we are glad to notice that present affairs go side by side with discussions of Grecian history and art and literature. The subjects for essays include a “Review of Current Affairs in Massachusetts,†“The Pension Problem,†etc. The history that is making certainly deserves our attention, as well as the history of the past.——North Cambridgealso sends the program which they prepared for the January meetings of the “Longfellow†circle. In addition to their regular work, they added the novel feature of a talk on newspaper work, from a practical newspaper man.——The last of this month’s Massachusetts reports contains a most capital hint.Auburndaleis the home of a flourishing circle, which among its other good features has a constitution. One of the articles of this constitution is the suggestion which it will please us to have you all ponder. It reads: “A short report of the condition of our society shall be forwarded twice a year toThe Chautauquan.†Do you all take the hint? Perhaps one secret of this energetic article is the nearness of Auburndale to Framingham—so near is it that all the members of the circle went to the Assembly last year. To Massachusetts, too, belongs the honor of the following merry Chautauqua feast, of which a friend fromProvidence, R. I., has written us: “Spending a few days inRockland, Mass., I was invited to visit the ‘Sherwin’ Chautauqua Circle, and being a true-blue member of the ‘Clio’ C. L. S. C. of Providence, I was joyful in accepting. The exercises were of a most novel and interesting kind, and unusually pleasing to me, as I was an old acquaintance of Prof. Sherwin. Since this society was instituted, some two years ago, but one representative of the posterity of the circle has been born, and the members of this enterprising circle showed their appreciation of Prof. Sherwin’s noble work in the good cause by naming this gift after him. An elegant gold lace pin had been made to order, with the initials C. L. S. C. neatly engraved upon it, and that evening the presentation was made. After Chautauqua greetings had been exchanged, the baby Sherwin was called for, and made his appearance, riding on his mother’s arm, as wise and dignified in behavior as a youthful Solon. One of the frolicsome Chautauqua dames then read the following formal rhyme: