Part 16
We have held two regular meetings of our circle since November 1st and we are now fairly at work. The membership has more than doubled in the last two meetings and may double again before the books are closed. There never was a time before when the circle was under half so good headway at this time of year. Members who are joining now are doing so more understandingly than it was possible to do in the experimental stage of the C. L. S. C. and the results are proportionately more reliable. We meet once in two weeks in a music store at 7:30 p. m. and close at 9 p. m. Our order of exercises is prayer, roll, minutes, business, program, adjournment. We have the geological charts and begin to realize the need of a suitable place of meeting where we can accumulate maps, charts, cabinet and museum; we need just such a room in connection with and a part of our public library, convenient of access and open to visitors on this and all other occasions. There could scarcely be found a city whose people would more appreciate such a resort. Norwalk has a very fine public library, and the librarian states that since the organization of the various reading circles there has been a revolution in the class of books in demand; that while the lighter literature is seldom called for, standard works, shelf-worn for years, are now in frequent use; that she knows from the effect on the library that a change has come over the reading public. So far as we are able to discover from reports elsewhere, our circle rather excels in developing the individual talent of its members. In our entire circle there will probably not be one who will not present one or more topics in papers or addresses during the year, as time permits, and equal opportunity is given to all. Our plan is to follow down the class roll, beginning at the top, and the leader is handed a list of ten or twelve names from which he selects six or eight persons to whom he assigns topics, the roll itself being prepared for that purpose. Each member is expected to make a minute of all the topics assigned that he may prepare for the conversation, or visiting and questioning which follows each topic. From five to eight minutes is allowed for each paper, address, selection or conversation, and the president, who keeps an open watch, is expected to give notice when the time is up to persons not otherwise aware. The roll is prepared with a margin at the top for dates, and the presence of each member is marked with a cross, while those late are marked with a diagonal line; each person who discharges program duty is marked with a dot supplementing the cross of that date. The next list is made as the first, passing over the dots, always working the roll from the top and leaving it complete. The minutes are kept on the body of each page, leaving the margin on the left of the red line for anything intended for an annual report, such as number in attendance, number of visitors, number of members and a list of those in program numbered, opposite whose names, in the regular minutes, are their topics or themes. In this way a complete record of each member is kept, and by referring from each dot to the minutes of that date an individual or annual report can be readily made which otherwise would be tedious at least. Our officers and leaders are elected by ballot and we rely entirely on the leader to conduct the exercises as he thinks best. Last year, from a list of forty-six names, thirteen were reading for diplomas; this year, with a present membership of forty-one, thirty-six are reading for seals or diplomas, twelve having graduated in 1882.
[_Not Required._]
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
ONE HUNDRED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “PREPARATORY GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH,” INCLUDING THE TOPICS: OUR AIM, THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, THEIR WRITINGS, THE START, FIRST BOOK IN GREEK, THE GREEK READER, AND XENOPHON’S ANABASIS.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
1. Q. What is the primary design of the series of books of which the “Preparatory Greek Course in English” is one? A. To enable persons prevented from accomplishing a course of school and college training in Latin and Greek, to enjoy an advantage as nearly as possible equivalent, through the medium of their native tongue.
2. Q. What is the specific object of the present particular volume? A. To put into the hands of readers the means of accomplishing, so far as this can be done in English, the same course of study in Greek as that prescribed for those who are preparing to enter college.
3. Q. What signal example in the modern world, and what still more signal example in the ancient, of the fact that extent of territory is not chiefly what makes the greatness of a great people? A. England in the modern world, and Greece in the ancient.
4. Q. What was the extent of the utmost area of Greece? A. Two hundred and fifty miles by one hundred and eighty miles. Greece was less than one-half the size of the State of New York.
5. Q. In what latitude is Greece? A. About the same as the State of Virginia.
6. Q. Of what three most famous peoples in the world are the Greeks one? A. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans.
7. Q. Of the three for what were the Greeks by far the most remarkable? A. For the variety and versatility of their genius.
8. Q. By what name did the Greeks speak of themselves, and what was their name for the land in which they lived? A. Hellenes, and Hellas was their name for the land in which they lived.
9. Q. When trustworthy history begins, what were the three chief divisions of the Hellenic stock? A. The Dorians, the Æolians and the Ionians.
10. Q. Give the names of four prominent cities of Greece. A. Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth.
11. Q. Of all that the Greeks did in the world, what remains to us recognizably in the form given it by their cunning brain and hand? A. A few coins, architectural remains and sculpture, and some masterpieces of literary composition.
12. Q. For what two things is the literature of Greece equally remarkable? A. For its matter and for its form.
13. Q. What is said of the form of Greek literature? A. There never has been elsewhere in the world so much written approaching so nearly to ideal perfection in form as among the Greeks.
14. Q. Under what limitations did the ancient Greeks do their work? A. They were pagans. They groped for truth, and they missed it oftener than they found it, at least in the case of their philosophy.
15. Q. In what departments of literature do we have, without reserve, to acknowledge the supremacy of the Greeks? A. In eloquence, and in the literature of rhetoric, of taste, and of criticism.
16. Q. What was the golden age of Greek literature, Greek art and Greek arms? A. The age of Pericles.
17. Q. What is said of the pronunciation of their language by the ancient Greeks? A. Nobody knows with certainty exactly how the ancient Greeks pronounced their language.
18. Q. What has been the general rule for scholars in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To pronounce it somewhat according to the analogy of their own vernacular.
19. Q. What attempt, only partially successful, has recently been made to introduce uniformity in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To secure the common adoption of the pronunciation prevalent in Greece at the present day.
20. Q. What method, devised at first for facilitating the study of modern languages, has more lately been applied in various modifications to both Latin and Greek? A. What is called the Ollendorff method.
21. Q. What two things determine largely what Greek text-books shall be used? A. The patronage of leading colleges, and the books issued by leading publishing houses.
22. Q. What four Greek grammars are mentioned as perhaps the best? A. Hadley’s, Goodwin’s, Crosby’s, and Sophocles’.
23. Q. To what sources of Greek learning do all these manuals acknowledge their indebtedness? A. To German sources of Greek learning.
24. Q. Who is the most recent of the great German authorities in Greek grammar? A. Curtius.
25. Q. What two other German authorities, now a little antiquated, were each a great name in his day? A. Kühner and Buttman.
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26. Q. In what dialect are the books chiefly written from which the selections are taken in making up Greek readers? A. The Attic dialect; that is the dialect spoken in Attica, of which Athens was the capital.
27. Q. By way of comparison what does our author say Athens was to Greece in literature? A. What Paris is, and always has been, to France.
28. Q. Where is a singularly beautiful passage found descriptive of Athens in her imperial supremacy of intellect? A. In Milton’s “Paradise Regained.”
29. Q. How many chief dialects were there of the Greek language, and how were they created? A. There were three, created in part by differences of age, and in part by differences of country.
30. Q. In whose writings is the Ionic dialect exemplified, and how is it characterized? A. In the writings of Homer and Herodotus, and is characterized by fluent sweetness to the ear.
31. Q. In what dialect were the most of the greatest works in Greek literature composed? A. The Attic.
32. Q. What is said of the Attic dialect? A. It is the neatest, most cultivated and most elegant of all the varieties of Greek speech.
33. Q. To whom are the fables commonly attributed that are generally found in Greek readers? A. Æsop.
34. Q. When was Æsop born? A. About 620 B. C.
35. Q. What is said of the fables that go under his name? A. They are mainly the collection of a monk of the fourteenth century.
36. Q. What is said of the sources of the anecdotes found in Greek readers? A. They are culled from various sources, Plutarch, the biographer, furnishing his full share.
37. Q. Give the names of some of the eminent persons about whom anecdotes are usually related in these collections. A. Diogenes, Plato, Zeno, Solon, Alexander, and Philip of Macedon.
38. Q. What Greek writer of the second century after Christ is more or less quoted from in the ordinary Greek reader? A. Lucian.
39. Q. What famous dialogues did he write? A. Dialogues of the Dead.
40. Q. Of what have these dialogues been the original? A. Of several justly admired imitations.
41. Q. In what direction did Lucian exercise his wit? A. In ridiculing paganism.
42. Q. Mention some of the kinds of other matter that goes to make up the Greek reader. A. Bits of natural history and fragments of mythology.
43. Q. From what work of Xenophon do Greek readers often embrace extracts? A. His Memorabilia of Socrates.
44. Q. What was the design of this work? A. To vindicate the memory of Socrates from the charges of impiety and of corrupting influence exerted on the Athenian youth, under which he had suffered the penalty of death.
45. Q. What is the plan of the work? A. It is largely to relate what Socrates did actually teach.
46. Q. What work by a Christian writer does pagan Socrates in large part anticipate? A. “Natural Theology,” by Paley.
47. Q. Who was the wife of Socrates? A. Xanthippe.
48. Q. In what way has the fame of Socrates associated the name of Xanthippe with his own? A. As perhaps the most celebrated scold in the world.
49. Q. What was the chief characteristic trait of the method of Socrates in teaching? A. His art in asking questions.
50. Q. Why is it that Greek readers sometimes edit the text of their extracts from the authors who furnish the matter? A. Because they sometimes contain expressions such as a strict Christian, moral or æsthetic judgment would prefer to expunge.
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51. Q. What is the book usually adopted in sequel to the reader for giving students their Greek preparation to enter college? A. Xenophon’s Anabasis.
52. Q. In what two respects is this work highly interesting? A. First, as a specimen of literary art, and second, as strikingly illustrative of the Greek spirit and character.
53. Q. What is the meaning of the word “Anabasis?” A. “A march upward,” that is, from the sea.
54. Q. Of what is the book an account? A. Of an expedition by Cyrus the younger into central Asia, and the retreat of the Greek part of his army.
55. Q. Who accompanied Cyrus on this expedition? A. An oriental army of about 100,000, and a body of Greeks numbering about 13,000.
56. Q. What was the object of this invasion on the part of Cyrus? A. To obtain possession of the Persian throne, occupied by his brother Artaxerxes.
57. Q. When the two Persian brothers finally met in the collision of arms who was slain? A. Cyrus.
58. Q. What did the Greeks now have for their sole business? A. To secure their own safety in withdrawing homeward from the enemy’s country.
59. Q. In what does the main interest of the Anabasis as a narrative lie? A. Rather in the retreat than in the advance.
60. Q. From what does the whole matter of the famous advance and retreat of the ten thousand derive grave secondary importance? A. From the fact that it resulted in revealing to Greece the essential weakness and vulnerableness of the imposing Persian empire.
61. Q. When was Xenophon, the author, born and with whom was he not far from contemporary? A. He was born about 431 B. C., being thus not far from contemporary with the Hebrew prophet Malachi.
62. Q. What did Xenophon’s presence of mind and practical wisdom give him in the retreat? A. A kind of leadership which he maintained until a prosperous issue was reached on the shores of Greece.
63. Q. Among the other chief works of Xenophon what one is prominent? A. The Cyropædia.
64. Q. What is the story of the Anabasis in large a part? A. An itineracy, that is a journal of halts and marches.
65. Q. What was the starting point of the expedition? A. Sardis.
66. Q. At what time was the start made? A. In the spring of the year 401 B. C.
67. Q. In what supposition does Xenophon say Artaxerxes indulged which prevented him from suspecting Cyrus of plotting against him? A. That Cyrus was raising troops for war with Tissaphernes, a Persian governor of certain parts near the satrapy of Cyrus.
68. Q. During the march the army plundered what city where four hundred years later the Apostle Paul was born? A. Tarsus.
69. Q. When they reached the river Euphrates what did Cyrus openly tell the Greek captains as to the object of the expedition? A. That he was marching to Babylon against the great king Artaxerxes.
70. Q. What was the result of this disclosure when made to the men? A. They felt, or feigned, much displeasure, but by lavish promises the majority were prevailed upon to adhere to Cyrus.
71. Q. The remainder of the advance of Cyrus lay along the left bank of what river? A. The Euphrates.
72. Q. What Persian commander among the forces proved a traitor and met with a tragic death? A. Orentes.
73. Q. Where did the armies of Cyrus and of Artaxerxes finally encounter each other? A. At Cunaxa.
74. Q. In what way did Cyrus meet with his death? A. While engaged in a personal contest with Artaxerxes Cyrus was struck with a javelin under the eye and slain.
75. Q. During the truce that followed what five generals among the Greeks were enticed into the tent of Tissaphernes, made prisoners, and afterwards put to death? A. Clearchus, Proxenus, Menon, Agias and Socrates.
* * * * *
76. Q. What was one of the first steps now taken to secure the safety of the Greeks? A. A general meeting was called of all the surviving officers and new commanders were chosen to take the places of those lost, Xenophon being put in the place of his friend Proxenus.
77. Q. After this had been done what action was taken as to the rank and file? A. The men were called together and stoutly harangued by three men in succession, Xenophon being the last.
78. Q. What was one of Xenophon’s heroic propositions that was agreed to? A. To burn everything they could possibly spare on the homeward march.
79. Q. What answer did they return to Mithradates, a neighboring Persian satrap, when asked to know what their present plan might be? A. If unmolested, to go home, doing as little injury as possible to the country through which they passed, but to fight their best if opposition was offered.
80. Q. Being convinced that the mission of Mithradates was a treacherous one, what resolution did the Grecian generals take? A. That there should be no communication with the enemy by heralds.
81. Q. What was the general direction taken by the Greeks in the first part of their retreat? A. A northerly direction toward the Black Sea.
82. Q. By whom were they followed and almost daily attacked during the first portion of their retreat? A. Tissaphernes and a Persian army.
83. Q. What hostile tribe of barbarians violently opposed their march through their territory near the headwaters of the Euphrates? A. The Carduchians.
84. Q. What Persian governor did they encounter in Armenia? A. Tiribazus.
85. Q. With what foes in the elements did they next meet? A. Deep snow and a terrible north wind.
86. Q. In one portion of Armenia at what kind of a village did the Greeks find rest and food after a prolonged march through the snow? A. At an underground village.
87. Q. What do travelers tell us at the present time as to the manner in which the Armenians of that region build their houses? A. That they still build them under ground.
88. Q. Into what country did the Greeks next advance? A. The country of the Taochians.
89. Q. With what difficulty did they here meet? A. Great difficulty in obtaining a supply of provisions.
90. Q. At what mountain did the Greeks get the first view of the Black Sea? A. Mount Theches.
91. Q. At what place did they reach the sea two days afterwards? A. At Trebizond.
92. Q. What universal desire did the sight of the sea awaken in the army? A. To prosecute the remainder of their journey on that element.
93. Q. On what mission did Chirisophus go forward to Byzantium? A. To endeavor to procure transports for the conveyance of the army.
94. Q. While awaiting the transports how were the ten thousand employed? A. In marauding expeditions, and in collecting all the vessels possible.
95. Q. Chirisophus delaying to return, how did they continue their journey? A. Partly by land and partly by water.
96. Q. When they were finally joined by Chirisophus, what did he bring with him? A. Only a single trireme.
97. Q. At what place did the Greeks pass into Europe from Asia? A. At Byzantium.
98. Q. Afterwards whom did the army engage to serve in a war against Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus? A. The Lacedæmonians.
99. Q. To what number was the army now reduced? A. To six thousand.
100. Q. After the incorporation of the remainder of the ten thousand with the Lacedæmonian army, where did Xenophon go? A. To Athens.
OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. STUDIES FOR DECEMBER.
For the month of December the Required C. L. S. C. Reading comprises the first part of Prof. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, and readings in English, Russian, and Religious History and Literature, studies in Ancient Greek Life, and readings from Russian Literature. The reading in Prof. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English is from the commencement of the book to page 124. The remainder of the reading for the month is found in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The following is the division according to weeks:
FIRST WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from the commencement of the book to page 33—Our Aim, the Land, the People, their Writings, the Start, First Books in Greek.
2. Studies in Ancient Greek Life, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
3. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selection for December 3.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 1 to No. 25.
SECOND WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from page 35 to page 58—the Greek Reader.
2. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selection for December 10.
3. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 26 to No. 50.
THIRD WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from page 59 to page 96—Xenophon’s Anabasis—Introductory, and first and second books.
2. History and Literature of Russia, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
3. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selection for December 17.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 51 to No. 75.
FOURTH WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from page 96 to page 123—Xenophon’s Anabasis—third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh books.
2. Pictures from English History, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
3. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selections for December 24 and 31.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from No. 76 to No. 100.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
1. How large is the county of Westchester, in the State of New York, which is about half the size of Attica? [Page 7.]
2. Why did the Romans give the name “Greeks” to the Hellenes? [Page 12.]
3. Give two examples of Spartan laconisms of speech. [Page 13.]
4. What are the literary tidings from modern Greece that seem to foretoken close at hand a signal renascence of Greek literature? [Page 20.]
5. Who was blind Melesigenes? [Page 36.]
6. Who was pronounced the wisest of men by an oracle, and by what oracle, and in what words? [Page 37.]
7. How is the monk Planudes apparently relieved of the imputation concerning the authorship of the biography of Æsop ascribed to him? [Page 39.]
8. What are some of the reasons for supposing this biography is a falsifying one? [Page 39.]
9. What is meant by “the Sacred Hetacomb?” [Page 45.]
10. Describe the ceremony of taking a prisoner by the mantle in token that he is to suffer death. [Page 81.]
11. Describe the scythed chariots of the Persians. [Page 83.]
12. From what author is the quotation, “When Greek joined Greek, then was the tug of war?” [Page 88.]
13. Describe the Persian slingers.
14. What is the origin of the familiar expression, “War even to the knife?” [Page 99.]
15. What occasioned the singular effect upon the men of the eating of honeycombs as related by Xenophon? [Page 119.]
[NOTE.—Answers are not required to questions for further study. The questions here given relate to subjects alluded to in the required reading for the month. After each question the page is given of Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, on which a reference is made to the subject. Members who are able to procure answers to all the questions for further study in this number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN will receive an acknowledgment if the replies are forwarded to Albert M. Martin, General Secretary C. L. S. C., Pittsburg, Pa., so as to reach him by the first of January. Answers will be published in the February number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The answers should be brief, and need not be sent unless to all the questions.]
C. L. S. C. ROUND-TABLE.[F]
Dr. Wm. M. Blackburn, of Cincinnati, was at once introduced, and delivered the following address:
“HOW ENGLAND MAINTAINED HER NATIONALITY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.”
Several persons have asked me in regard to the method of studying history by maps, that is, by making your own maps as you go along. If I had time I would like to talk about that, and I will explain it to anybody who wishes to know more about it. What I would do is this: if I were studying, for example, the history of Greece, I would read over some period, some particular part of it, an epoch—no matter what you may call it. I would get a good map of Greece, lay some thin paper over it, and trace the map over it in colored inks. Upon that map you put the events of that period or era, and then make another map of another period or era; stitch them all together. Perhaps you will never look at them again, but you have got them in your mind. That is all you want.