Part 19

Ten years ago the First Assembly offered to the world the Chautauqua Idea. It promised an almost ideal summer life, where health and thought and brotherly love should abound. Ten years have passed, and now the question is, has the scheme been carried out? Is the Assembly a practical idea, and is it a permanency? The answers are most decided. The original plan has not only been put into practice, but, when enlarged an hundred fold, has been proven practicable. Is it a permanency may be a harder question, but the tenth Assembly has, we believe, in many ways proven it so. First, the character and growth of all departments of Chautauqua work show them to be needed institutions, and necessary institutions, as a rule, become permanent. The steady, healthy growth of the different branches of work shows how enduring is the Idea; the Normal department increased its alumni this year to over 1,200; its plans for future work are much more elaborate than ever before, its course of study much superior. The annual report from the School of Languages shows a steady increase. Over two hundred full tickets were sold in the school this year, and twenty-six different states were represented.

The Teachers’ Retreat for 1883 shows a great increase over previous years:

In 1879 there were enrolled 15 members.

In 1880 there were enrolled 133 members.

In 1881 there were enrolled 105 members.

In 1882 there were enrolled 76 members.

In 1883 there were enrolled 223 members.

The C. L. S. C. has reached the enormous membership of nearly 50,000. Besides the advance in the different schools, the attendance at the Assembly was unprecedented. In the earlier years of an institution this might mean very little—a boom, and nothing more—but in the tenth year, when the place has become well-known, it does mean a great deal. These people, too, were not all new friends. Chautauqua has been able to keep its old friends, while every season it has added hosts of new ones. The whole exterior showed it. When streets are lighted by the electric light, and houses are built on stone foundations, lathed and plastered, and furnished with modern improvements, a town has reached a period of durability. Things are built to stay. Chautauqua puts up no more shanties. It has become a city, not of a day but for all time.

The genuine hearty enthusiasm which animates the workers and friends of the movement is, to us, a most excellent reason for believing the institution lasting. There is a feeling among many that enthusiasm is a weakness, a quality not exactly in good form, not in keeping with cultured minds. This is a mistake. Enthusiasm, combined with good sense and industry, is the best equipment for any enterprise. As Emerson says, “A man is at his best when enthusiastic,” and we believe Chautauqua is most successful when most enthusiastic—most sure of permanence because capable of always inspiring others with enduring enthusiasm.

The great Assembly opens its doors to every one, but few realize the real value of the idea, or appreciate the conditions of society which make feasible such an idea. Said an eminent German, after having studied the Assembly thoroughly: “You Americans do not appreciate this wonderful plant of yours. In my country we could not have a Chautauqua; no other country under the sun could support such an institution. It is peculiarly American.” We do not appreciate the Idea. It is too ideal for the practical minds of the day. But though we may not grasp its full meaning, the Tenth Assembly has proven that people are beginning to understand the practicability, the breadth, and the permanence of the Chautauqua Idea.

THE C. L. S. C. AN EDUCATIONAL NECESSITY OF THE TIMES.

Necessity is a word which in its use depends on circumstances. What is necessary to a people in one age may not have been to their ancestors a generation earlier. Time was when the masses of men were not required to act with intelligence of their own, but to follow the decree of the privileged few or obey the behest of the autocratic individual. Illustrations of such a state of society remain. They are to be found wherever the autocracy or oligarchy, whether political or ecclesiastical, continues its sway.

Under such conditions it is easily seen that the only education required is obedience, blind and unquestioning. All that goes beyond this only makes the individual unhappy and embarrasses authority. Hence, since her ambition has been absolute power, the wisdom of that favorite motto of the Romish church, “keep the people in ignorance,” a motto which she has done her best to put in practice.

But our age and civilization have fallen upon other conditions. Obedience is still required, and indeed ever must be, but it is no longer with eyes tight shut, but open; and we are not only encouraged, but by the very conditions of society, are required to ask questions concerning the very grounds of obedience. Something has taken the place of infallible Church and infallible State. That something is enlightened conscience and educated judgment.

In this country the corner-stone of whose stability and permanence must rest on obedience born of intellectual and moral enlightenment, some things have become, and daily are becoming more and more apparent. It is apparent that universal education of a certain kind, a kind that includes to no small degree both head and heart, must go with universal suffrage. It is neither treason nor heresy to say that in the light of experience and of the signs of the times, neither our common schools on the one hand, nor our academies, colleges and universities on the other, are competent to meet and provide for all the educational needs of the American people. Too much can not be said in praise of these institutions. They have been the conservators of our national ideas in the past. But we are growing, and citizenship means higher responsibilities and higher obligations than aforetime. The common school which fits a man for the transactions of ordinary business and prepares the foundation for a higher development, does a great work; but the man who settles down to life without further inspiration and opportunity can hardly be fitted for the higher work and duties of the home and society. Whence then comes, or can come, this inspiration and better preparation? Thus far in our history it has come through the seminary and college. But it is evident that not more than one in twenty of the American youth can have these higher advantages. Reduce the expense to the minimum and there are still insurmountable barriers in the way. It needs no argument, therefore, to show that an organization with the plans, aims and methods of the _Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle_ has a mission which bears the sanction of necessity. The wide gap between the common school and the college must be filled, and only can be filled by that which brings the means of education to the home; to the youth learning his trade, to the man or woman in the midst of daily duties and employments. The demand is for that which will fill the atmosphere about life with aspiration and the spirit of inquiry. It is for that which will furnish suggestions, a plan and a guide to lead the inquiring mind. Precisely this is the C. L. S. C. Here is its mission and here its _necessity_—and the necessity likewise of all kindred similar organizations which are yet to spring up and follow in her course.

THE SHAKSPERE CONTROVERSY.

It is strange how sometimes an opinion altogether untenable, which some one has broached, is taken up by others, and comes in time to be accepted as true by a considerable number. It was some twenty-five years ago that a Miss Delia Bacon published an elaborate argument whose end was to show that not William Shakspere, but Lord Francis Bacon, was the author of the immortal plays which bear the former’s name. She first gave her discovery—unquestionably of the highest importance, if correct—to the world in a magazine article; but afterward embodied it in quite a large volume, to which Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote an introduction, though he did not accept the writer’s theory. This was the beginning of a controversy which is still alive. Perhaps the number has never been very large of those who believe that the glory of Shakspere belongs to Bacon; but there have always been some to entertain the preposterous notion, from Miss Bacon to Mrs. Henry Pott.

The latter lady has recently issued a book which has excited some interest. The title—somewhat drawn out—is, “The Promus of Formularies and Elegancies (being private notes, _circa_ 1594, hitherto unpublished) of Francis Bacon, illustrated and elucidated by passages from Shakspere.” Mrs. Pott’s undertaking is one more in the line of Miss Delia Bacon. By a comparison of the Bacon notes, in forms of expression and thought, with passages of the Shakspere tragedies and comedies, she endeavors to verify the theory that the great English philosopher—author of the “Novum Organum,” and characterized by Pope as “the greatest, wisest, and meanest of mankind”—is also author of the works accorded to the Bard of Avon. That she succeeds in her task she herself evidently entertains no doubt, but probably not many will agree with her. She finds correspondences and similarities in passages compared where her readers will try in vain to find them; and it is putting the matter mildly to say that her undertaking is a great failure.

Considerable ingenuity and much enthusiasm have been shown by advocates of the theory which makes Lord Bacon the author of the works of Shakspere; but the theory is an absurd one, with nothing whatever to support it. The internal evidence, contained in the works of the two authors, not only gives the theory no support, but is alone enough to a sane mind completely to demolish it. The whole cast of Bacon’s mind, as shown by his known writings, was as unlike as it could be to that of the person who wrote the Shakspere dramas and sonnets. And what other evidence is adduced by those who would have us transfer to another the laurels of the man who was easily the greatest mind in all literature? None whatever. The truth is, it is the improbability from the nature of the case—or, as some would say, the impossibility—that such a person as William Shakspere, the son of a Stratford yeoman, with limited educational opportunities, whose youth was by no means promising, should have produced the works to which for two centuries his name has been attached, which is at the bottom of the theory which gives the authorship to another. This, and nothing else, originated the idea, and keeps it alive. We are told that to believe in Shakspere as the author of these works, universally acknowledged as unapproached and unapproachable, is to believe a miracle. “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” it is asked, as was asked of the Divine Man; and we are reminded that the stream never rises higher than the fountain. Shakspere could not have produced the works—the power was not in him, it is reasoned, but the wise Bacon might have done it; therefore people search for the wherewithal to substantiate an assumption giving the authorship to the latter. But we must believe the miracle; there is no escape. Did Milton write the “Paradise Lost,” and Lord Bacon the “Novum Organum?” Is the Iliad the work of Homer? It is just as certain that the Shakspere writings were the offspring of Shakspere’s genius. We admit the marvel, but there is no setting aside of the fact. And when we are asked to explain how this man could have acquired the power to produce these prodigies of human genius, we can only say, the Maker gave it to him.

EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.

The C. L. S. C. received special attention at the summer Assemblies. By referring to the reports published elsewhere in this number, our readers will learn how the Chautauqua spirit spreads, and how the organization is being strengthened in all parts of the land.

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Recent Presidents of the United States have shown their taste for recreation very positively. Ex-President Grant was fond of good horses and rapid driving; ex-President Hayes visited colleges during the commencement season, and loved his farm as a quiet retreat; President Arthur turns from his arduous labors to the rod and line and long journeys, such as he has made to Florida and the West during the past year.

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We can supply complete sets of the CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY DAILY HERALD for 1883, for $1.00, postage paid by us. Also complete sets of THE CHAUTAUQUAN of volume two and three.

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Prophecies are numerous from newspaper men as to who will be the candidates for the presidency in 1884. Ex-Secretary Blaine is reported as having turned his attention to literature, and announces that he is not a candidate; Mr. Tilden has retired to the privacy of Gramercy Park; ex-Secretary Windom, it is said by the wise ones, went out of the succession when he failed of a re-election to the Senate. Reports are rife in influential political circles that the Secretary of War is likely to be one of his martyred fathers’ successors, but time alone will show us the true successor.

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THE CHAUTAUQUAN opens the fourth volume in a new dress. Our printer does the work on copper-faced type, prepared with especial reference to the neat and attractive typographical appearance of the magazine.

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Mr. A. M. Sullivan, in a recent number of the _Nineteenth Century_, discusses “Irish Emigration as a remedy for Irish trouble in Ireland.” He says: “Of the group of dynamite conspirators who stood in the dock at Newgate the other day—men whose frightful purpose was to bury London in ruins—not one was born on Irish soil. All were the sons or grandsons of men swept away from ‘congested districts,’ and sent or driven to America ‘for the good of those who went, and of those who were left behind.’ Whoever has recently traveled in America must have been struck with the fact that animosity toward England often displays itself more strongly in the second and third generations of Irish Americans than in the men who were actually driven forth.”

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The present administration is not all-powerful in a certain kind of its political movements. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Folger, was defeated for Governor of New York in the election last fall, and recently Mr. Chandler, Secretary of the Navy, failed of an election to the United States Senate in the New Hampshire Legislature.

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Chautauqua grows in favor with the public. The Ohio State Teacher’s Association held their annual convention there in July last, and with social gatherings, lectures, and discussions on live questions, in the educational world, they made it an interesting and profitable session. The Pennsylvania State Teacher’s Association will hold their convocation at Chautauqua Lake for 1884. It is an endorsement of Chautauqua when large bodies of educators go from their own States into another to hold their most important gatherings. The National Teacher’s Association met at this center once, and the Ohio people have been there twice. It is this sort of gatherings that the Chautauqua authorities are especially pleased to welcome to the parks, public buildings, and all the privileges of the classic groves.

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The Royal Humane Society, in its recently issued report, gives the following advice to swimmers and bathers: “Avoid bathing within two hours after a meal. Avoid bathing when exhausted by fatigue, or from any other cause. Avoid bathing when the body is cooling after perspiration. Avoid bathing altogether in the open air if, after having been a short time in the water, it causes a sense of chilliness with numbness of the hands and feet. Bathe when the body is warm, provided no time is lost in getting into the water. Avoid chilling the body by sitting or standing undressed on the banks or in boats after having been in the water. Avoid remaining too long in the water; leave the water immediately if there is the slightest feeling of chilliness.”

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The West promises to set a good example to the East in more than one question of morals. The case deserving of mention now is where Governor Crittenden, of Missouri, and Governor Glick, of Kansas, and their Attorney-Generals, notified the two prize-fighters, Slade and Mitchell, that even training for a prize-fight would send them to the State prison. This so alarmed them that they quit the United States and went to Mexico. The laws of the older States are as severe on this brutal practice as those of Missouri and Kansas, but the laxity in the enforcement of the laws is the only license that prize-fighters find to justify their training in New York, Boston, and other old cities. Some of our authorities could profitably “go West” to study how to enforce civil law.

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Dr. John Roche, an English physician who has had remarkable experiences, gives as his conclusion that cholera is purely and simply a specific fever, only inferior in its ravages to yellow fever, and closely allied to it. Cholera has a period of incubation varying from two to fourteen days; prone to attack the enervated and those subject to depression from any cause. It is contagious, and liable to occur periodically about every ten years in some parts of India. It seems to have visited the British Isles about every sixteen years, and as the period has elapsed since the last outbreak, it is more than likely to occur this year. Those persons who indulge in no enervating habits, and take nothing internally which would arrest the secretions nor too drastically stimulate them, and partake of nothing which is highly fermentable, may safely feel that they are cholera-proof during an epidemic.

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“The Old South Lectures for Young People” is a pleasing and successful plan for teaching the History of America. Lectures are held Wednesday afternoon at the “Old South Meeting House,” Boston, and the subjects illustrate well the tenor of the meeting. Thus for September the topics are “Franklin,” “How to Study American History,” “The Year 1777,” “History in the Boston Streets.”

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In the C. L. S. C. Commencement report the Lutheran has been omitted from the list of denominations represented in the class of ’83.

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On Sunday, the ninth day of September, the steamship “Nevada” landed 682 Mormons at New York, being the fourth company that has been brought over this year. H. H. Evans, the secretary, said that there were in the company 269 British, 106 Swiss and Germans, 284 Scandinavians, and 23 returning missionaries. “Every emigrant,” he added, “paid his or her passage over. No aid is afforded them by the Mormon Church. The majority have a little money with them, enough to establish themselves in America. They will locate in sixteen towns in Utah. All we do is to protect them while traveling from Liverpool to Utah. Some of these immigrants have been years laying up money to pay their passage to this country.” One of the Mormon immigrants did not go through to Utah. Her name is Regina Andersen. She is a Swedish woman, spinster, thirty-five years of age, and is afflicted with blindness. Her brother Leander and her sister Anna, who live in Philadelphia, had heard of her intention to go to Utah and were at Castle Garden to intercept her before the “Nevada” arrived. They insisted upon talking with their blind sister, and soon succeeded in persuading her to abandon the Mormon proselytes and prepare to go with her relatives to Philadelphia. The Mormon missionaries were strongly opposed to the woman leaving the party, but the matter was brought before Superintendent Jackson, and the woman was permitted to go to Philadelphia with her brother. She had prepaid her passage to Salt Lake and did not receive her money back. In conversation with a reporter the woman appeared not to know anything about the peculiar institution of the Mormon Church—polygamy. Congress could quite as consistently, and with better results to the country, enact a law to prevent this kind of emigration, than the one they have leveled against the Chinese. Why not meet Mormonism at New York harbor and prevent this infamous traffic in human lives?

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The Rev. Henry A. Powell, in his Congregational church in Williamsburg, on a Sunday in September discussed “The sorrows of the Free Thinkers as revealed at their recent convention,” from this suggestive text: “The show of their countenances doth witness against them.” He stated that over their platform were hung the pictures of Thomas Paine, R. G. Ingersoll, and D. M. Bennett—Paine author of a book against the Bible—Ingersoll, dispenser of blasphemy—Bennett, who not long since served a term in the penitentiary for sending foul literature through the mails. “How much better than such visionary wanderings is the old story of a living Father in heaven, of a Savior who suffered on the cross, and angel visitants to lead us from the life mortal to the life immortal.”

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We call the attention of our readers to the notice elsewhere in this number of the “Chautauqua School of Languages,” the different departments of which are to be organized into schools of correspondence, so that students may, at their homes, study Hebrew, German, French, etc., by corresponding with competent teachers. This is a rare opportunity for members of the C. L. S. C., or any others who desire, to study the languages, but are denied the privileges of the schools. Next month we shall introduce the “Normal Work” into THE CHAUTAUQUAN, in a few initial chapters, from the pens of Rev. Dr. Hurlbut and Prof. R. S. Holmes, and thus extend to our readers through the year the privilege of pursuing this course, which is a main feature of the summer assemblies.

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The telegraph operators have by their strike provoked a general discussion in the press of the telegraph system of the country, besides exciting the attention of Postmaster-General Gresham, who promises to discuss in his annual report to Congress the practicability of the general government assuming control of all telegraph lines as it does of the postal service. It ought to work as well in the United States as it does in England. Mr. Fawcett, Postmaster-General of Great Britain, reports that “the number of telegraph messages sent in the United Kingdom during the last year was 32,092,026.” Mr. Fawcett says that it has been decided that as soon as the necessary increase of plant can be made, the minimum charge for inland telegrams will be reduced from 24 to 12 cents.

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A correspondent says, under date of September 9: “The last spike on the Northern Pacific Road was driven this afternoon on the Pacific slope of the Rocky Mountains, 2,500 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and 800 miles from the Pacific, and 91 years after the idea of a highway from the Lakes to the Pacific was first suggested by Thomas Jefferson.”

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Analogous to the Normal Class Bible work of the Chautauqua University is a new movement in Russia. An organization called the _Stundists_ bind themselves to devote an hour (_stunde_) every day to the study of the Bible. The society has grown to immense proportions, and is said to have reclaimed whole villages from drunkenness and crime.

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