CHAPTER IV.

Thus far I have been trying to impress upon you the reasons why you should cultivate individuality and independence in word and deed. I have claimed that each one of you has a “call” to some specific work, indicated by God’s gifts to you of brain, or heart, or hand. But I would not have you only, or indeed chiefly, concerned with the evolution of your powers for your own sake. If you acquire, let it be that you may dispense; if you achieve, that others may sun themselves in the kind glow of your prosperity. The people who spend all their strength in absorbing are failures and parasites. It is alike the business of the sun and of the soul to radiate every particle of light that they can muster. There is reason to believe that this is precisely what they are for. And so, having made sure of your light, strength and discipline, strike out from the warm and radiant center of a self-poised brain and heart, into the lives about you, and you will find that “What is good for the hive is also good for the bee.” The luminous characters of history have done this, always. Losing their lives in those of other men, they have found them in the crest of the world’s gratitude and fame. What they have done on a grand scale, we, from identical motives, may do on a small one. Such natures are as different from those who cultivate their strongest gift simply for their own sake, as a _lighthouse_ is different from a _dark lantern_. “Self-culture” is much in vogue nowadays, and has for its high priests some of the most incisive minds of this or any age. But self-culture stops in the middle of the sentence I would fain help you to utter. It says: “Make the most of your powers;” it does not say “_for others’ sake_ as well as your own.” It claims that if we set the candle of our gifts upon the candlestick of modern society, its light will inevitably radiate according to its power of shining, and thus while brightening ourselves we shall have done our utmost toward lighting up the general gloom. But self-culture forgets that a candle is no type of you and me. We are human spirit-lamps, whose rays should be directed and intensified by the blow-pipe of an unceasing purpose; for we are all so made that unless we _will_ to light up other lives, we can never do so to the limit of our power. Self-culture is never base; it is often noble, but it can never be the noblest aim of all.

Why is the memory of Mrs. Browning loved beyond that of almost any poet who has sung? Because “the cry of the human” is so strong in that wondrous voice of hers. Why is the name carved deepest on the republic’s heart that of its martyr President? Because he gave their manhood back to four millions of slaves, and lived and toiled for his people’s sake, “with malice toward none, with charity for all.” Why was the lamentation well nigh universal when under the sea flashed the telegraphic message, “John Stuart Mill is dead?” Because this quiet thinker lived for other men; because he “struck out from the center,” from himself, that pitiful pivot on which so many human wind-mills turn, and measured, in the swift flight of its benignant thought, the long radius between him and the remotest circle of human need; because, more than any other philosopher of his day, he labored for the time when “all men’s weal shall be each man’s care.”

Nay, while I mourn, as I have seldom mourned for an historic character, the cloud that early dimmed, for Stuart Mill, the Star of Bethlehem, I will not, as a woman, withhold from his memory the tribute of my humble gratitude. But while I speak of all these lives, shining like beacon lights of our own day, I would not fail to point you in conclusion toward a wide-armed cross upon a lonely hillside, while I repeat his words who said, “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” Dear girls, CHRIST is the magnet of humanity, and she has found the best vocation, and the highest, who brings most souls diseased within the healing power of his immortal gospel. This is a work for which women have gifts preëminent. The Saxon word for lady means “a giver of bread,” and is full of beautiful significance, but America’s new century shall evolve another meaning, freighted with greater blessing for humanity: lady, giver of the bread of life! In later years we have had a revelation of our duty to the ungospeled masses, the “elbow heathen,” as an evangelist has called them, to the intemperate (who, as a rule, are quite beyond the hearing of the pulpit’s voice), and to the dusky dwellers in the Zenana, whose faces are misty with the unshed tears of generations passed in misery and shame. Two thirds of the Church of Christ are women. By the freer life and richer opportunity which you and I enjoy; by society’s growing tolerance, not to say its kindly appreciation, of our activities; by the heart transformed and the peace imparted through the gospel, the voice of our Redeemer pleads for our consecrated service. I would not undervalue the culture of the intellect, but would exalt the culture of the heart.

In all that has been written until now, I have simply tried to outline the new horizon opened up to the gentler sex as the supreme outgrowth of that civilization which He introduced, of whom history records the significant fact that women were “last at his cross, first at his sepulchre.” To attempt some delineation of the landscape enclosed by that far-reaching horizon is my more difficult task in the chapters now to follow. Many letters have come to me as a result of the articles thus far; they bristle with questions and are eloquent with aspiration. Later on I may ask space for a “symposium” with these “inquiring friends” in the genial pages of our tolerant CHAUTAUQUAN. One speaking with authority exhorts me to “Be practical—that’s what we want!” As if I hadn’t been! But every mind is the prisoner of its own material and method. I can but give of such things as I have; can only tell what life has told to me. According to my own habits of thought, the sequence seems logical, when I turn for a while from the presentation of the modern outlook for women, with its opportunity and hope, to the _rationale_ of this new horizon stretching so far away. Let us note the pathway that has led up to this more hopeful point of view, asking the inevitable question, “Why does that seem natural and fitting for a young woman to do and to aspire to now, which would have been no less improper than impossible, a hundred years ago?” Sweet friends, it is because _the ideal of woman’s place in the world is changing in the average mind_. For as the artist’s ideal precedes his picture, so the ideal woman must be transformed before the actual one can be. In an age of brute force, the warrior galloping away to his adventures waved his mailed hand to the lady fair who was enclosed for safe keeping in a grim castle with moat and drawbridge. But to-day, when spirit force grows regnant, a woman can circumnavigate the globe alone, without danger of an uncivil word, much less of violence. We shall never span a wider chasm than this change implies. All our inventions have led up to it, and have in nothing else wrought out beneficence so great as they have accomplished here, purely by indirection. In brief, the barriers that have hedged women into one pathway and men into another, altogether different, are growing thin, as physical strength plays a less determining part in our life drama. All through the vegetable and animal kingdoms the fact of sex does not widely differentiate the broader fact of life, its environment and its pursuits. Hence, the immense separateness which sex is called in to explain when we reach the plane of humanity, is to be accounted for largely on other purely artificial grounds. In Eden it did not exist, nor in the original plan of creation, as stated in these just and fatherly words: “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness. Let them have dominion.’ … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them, and God blessed them, and said unto them, ‘ … replenish the earth and subdue it … and have dominion over every living thing.’” After the fall came the curse, which was no part of the original design, and from which the gospel’s triumph is releasing us, for there is “neither male nor female in Christ Jesus.” I believe that the origin of evil came in with man’s supremacy over one who was meant to be his comrade, and that Paradise regained will come only when the laureate’s prophecy is realized:

“Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, Two in the noisy business of the world, Two in the liberal offices of life; Two plummets dropped to sound the abyss of science And the secrets of the mind.”

The times when a new ideal is moulded, in church, state, or society, mark the epochs of history. Amid what throes did Europe pass from that of supreme authority in the church to the incomparably higher one of supreme liberty in conscience; from the divine right of kings to the divine right of the people. But there was to come a wider evolution of the same ideal, namely, the coequal power of the copartners, man and woman, in working out the problem of human destiny. This newest and noblest of ideals marks the transition from physical force ruling, to spiritual force recognized. The gradual adjustment of everyday occupation, custom and law, to this new ideal, marks ours as a transition period. Those who have the most enlargement of opportunity to hope from the change, will, in the nature of the case, move on most rapidly into the new conditions, and this helps to explain, I think, why women seem to be climbing more rapidly than men, to-day, the heights of spiritual power, with souls more open to the “skyey influences” of the oncoming age.

More women study to-day than men; a greater proportion travel abroad for purposes of culture; a larger share are moral and religious. Half of the world’s wisdom, three fourths of its purity, and nearly all its gentleness, are to-day to be set down on woman’s credit side. Weighted with the alcohol and tobacco habits, Brother Jonathan will have to make better time than he is doing now, if he keeps step with Sister Deborah across the threshold of the twentieth century. For the law of survival of the fittest will inevitably choose that member of the firm who is cleanliest, most wholesome, most accordant with God’s laws of nature and of grace, to survive. To the blindness or fatuity which renders him oblivious of the fact that the coming woman is already here, our current writer of the W. D. Howells and Henry James school owes the dreary monotony of his “society novel.” Not more “conventional” was the style of art known as “Byzantine,” which repeated with barren iteration its placid and colorless “type,” than are the dudesque pages of this pair of literary martinets. The “American novel” will not be written until the American woman, a type now to be found in Michigan, Madison, Boston, Cornell, and other universities, shall have taken her place, twentieth century product that she is, beside the best survivals of young men in similar institutions, and wrought out the Home, the Church, the State that are to be. Measuring each other on all planes, these life partners will know each other’s value, and no appeal to the divorce court will be made to relieve them, a few years after marriage, from an incompatibility that has ripened into open war. Happy homes will dot the country from shore to shore, in which both the man and the woman will do their best to lift the world toward God.

“Self-knowledge, self-reverence, and self-control; these three alone lead life to a sovereign power,” and these are fast becoming essential to any ideal of womanly character which the modern age will recognize as the product of its institutions. Of self-knowledge, these talks have said much. Self-reverence I would fain help you to develop in your character as a woman. If my dear mother did me one crowning kindness it was in making me believe that next to being an angel, the greatest bestowment of God is to make one a woman. With what contempt she referred to the old Jewish formula in which the less refined sex rolled out the words, “I thank thee, O God, that thou hast not made me a woman,” and with what pathos she repeated the gentle prayer of the other, “I thank thee, O God, that thou hast made me as it pleased thee,” with the pithy comment, “What could have pleased Him better, I should like to know, than to make one so rare, so choice, so spiritual as woman is?” Perhaps some of you may have thought you wanted to be a boy, but I seriously doubt it. You may have wanted a boy’s freedom, his independence, his healthful, unimpeding style of dress, but I do not believe any true girl could ever have been coaxed to be a boy. Reverence yourself, then, if you would learn one of the first elements of “How to Win” in this great world race, with its “go-as-you-please” terms, but its “Lucifer-may-take-the-hindmost” penalty for failure.

What will the new ideal of woman _not_ be? She will never be written down in the hotel register by her husband after this fashion: “John Smith and Wife.” He would as soon think of her writing “Mrs. John Smith and Husband.” Why does it not occur to any one to designate him thus? Simply because he is so much more than that. He is a leading force in the affairs of the church; he helps decide who shall be pastor. (So will she.) He is perhaps the village physician, or merchant (so she will be, perhaps—indeed, they are oftentimes in partnership, nowadays, and I have found their home a blessed one). He is the village editor. (Very likely she will be associate.) He is a voter. (She will be, beyond a peradventure.) For the same reason you will never read of her marriage that “the minister pronounced them _man_ and _wife_” for that functionary would have been just as likely to pronounce them “husband and woman,” a form of expression into which the regulation reporter will be likely to fall one of these days, it being, really, not one whit more ridiculous than the time-worn phrase, “man and wife.” The ideal woman of the future will never be designated as “the Widow Jones,” because she will be so much more than that—“a provider” for her children, “a power” in the church, “a felt force” in the state. I think George Eliot is the first woman to attain the post-mortem honor of having her husband called “her widower,” John W. Cross having been thus indicated in English papers of the period. A turn about is fair play, and the phrase is really quite refreshing to one’s sense of justice. The ideal woman will not write upon her visiting card, nor insist on having her letters addressed, to Mrs. John Smith, or Mrs. Gen. Smith, as the case may be, but will, if her maiden name was Jones, fling her banner to the breeze as “Mrs. Mary Jones Smith,” and will be sure to make it honorable. She will not be the lay figure made and provided to illustrate the fashions of Monsieur Worth and lesser lights of the same guild, but will insist that the goddess Hygiea is the only true modiste, and will dutifully obey her orders. As the Louvre gallery proves that when men were but the parasites of the court they too decked themselves with ear-rings, high heels, powdered hair and gaudy garments, so the distorted figures in the detestable fashion plates of to-day are the irrefutable proofs of woman’s fractional estate; but this will not be so to-morrow, when she finds her kingdom—which is her own true self. The ideal woman will cease to heed the cruel “Thus far and no farther,” which has issued from the pinched lips of old Dame Custom, checking her ardent steps throughout all the ages past, and will be studious only to hear the kindly “Thus far and no farther” of God.

The ideal woman will play Beatrice to man’s Dante in the Inferno of his passions. She will give him the clue out of materialism’s Labyrinth. She will be civilization’s Una, taming the Lion of disease and misery. The State shall no longer go limping on one foot through the years, but shall march off with steps firm and equipoised. The keen eye and deft hand of the housekeeper shall help to make its everyday walks wholesome; the skill in detail, trustworthiness in finance, motherliness in sympathy, so long extolled in private life, shall exalt public station. Indeed, if I were asked the mission of the ideal woman, I would reply: IT IS TO MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD HOMELIKE. Some one has said that “Temperament is the climate of the individual,” but home is woman’s climate, her vital breath, her native air. A true woman carries home with her everywhere. Its atmosphere surrounds her; its mirror is her face; its music attunes her gentle voice; its longitude may be reckoned from wherever you happen to find her. But

“Home’s not merely four square walls.”

Some people once thought it was, and they thought, also, that you might as well throw down its Lares and Penates as to carry away its weaving loom and spinning wheel. But it survived this spoliation; and when women ceased to pick their own geese and do their own dyeing, it still serenely smiled. The sewing machine took away much of its occupation; the French and Chinese laundries have intruded upon its domain; indeed, men, by their “witty inventions,” are perpetually encroaching on “woman’s sphere,” so that the next generation will no doubt turn the cook stove out of doors, and the housekeeper, standing at the telephone, will order better cooked meals than almost any one has nowadays, sent from scientific caterers by pneumatic tubes, and the debris thereof returned to a general cleaning-up establishment; while houses will be heated, as they are now lighted and supplied with water, from general reservoirs.

Women are fortunate in belonging to the less tainted half of the race. Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson says that but for this conserving fact it would deteriorate to the point of failure. A bright old lady said, after viewing a brewery, distillery and tobacco factory: “Ain’t I thankful that the women folks hain’t got all that stuff to chew and smoke and swallow down!” It behooves us to offset force of muscle by force of heart, that what our strong brothers have done to subdue the material world for us, who are not their equals in physical strength, may be offset by what we shall achieve for them in bringing in the reign of “Sweeter manners, purer laws.” For the world is slowly making the immense discovery that not what woman does, but what she is, makes home a possible creation. It is the Lord’s ark, and does not need steadying; it will survive the wreck of systems and the crash of theories, for the home is but the efflorescence of woman’s nature under the nurture of Christ’s gospel. She came into the college and elevated it, into literature and hallowed it, into the business world and ennobled it. She will come into government and purify it, into politics and cleanse that Stygian pool as the waters of Marah were cleansed; for woman will make homelike every place she enters, and she will enter every place on this round earth. Any custom, or traffic, or party, on which a woman can not look with favor is irrevocably doomed. Its welcome of her presence and her power is to be the final test of its fitness to survive. All Gospel civilization is radiant with the demonstration of this truth:

“It is not good for man to be alone.”

The most vivid object lesson on history’s page is the fact that his deterioration is in exact proportion to his isolation from the home of woman’s pure companionship. To my own grateful thought, the most sacred significance of woman’s work to-day lies in the fact that she occupies the outer circle in this tremendous evolution of the Christian idea of home. Ours is a high and sacred calling. Out of pure hearts, fervently let us love God and humanity; so shall we be Christ’s disciples, and so shall we safely follow on to know the work whereunto we have been called.

“’Tis home where’er the heart is,”

and no true mother, sister, daughter or wife, can fail to go in spirit after her beloved and tempted ones, as their adventurous steps enter the labyrinth of the world’s temptations. We can not call them back.

“All before them lies the way.”

There is but one remedy; we must bring the home to them, for they will not return to it. Still must their mothers walk beside them, sweet and serious, and clad in the garments of power. The occupations, pleasures and ambitions of men and women must not diverge so widely from each other. Potent beyond all other facts of everyday experience is the rapidly increasing similarity between the pursuits of these two factions that make up the human integer. When brute force reigned, this rapport was at zero. “Impediments to the rear,” was the command of Cæsar and the rule of every warrior—women and children being the hindrances referred to. But to-day there is not a motto more popular than that of the inspired old German, “Come, let us live for our children;” and as for women, “the world is all before them where to choose.”

No greater good can come to the manhood of the world than is prophesied in the increasing community of thought and works between it and the world’s womanhood. The growing individuality, independence and prestige of the gentler sex steadily require from the stronger a higher standard of character and purer habits of life. This blessed consummation, so devoutly to be wished, is hastened, dear girlish hearts, by every prayer you offer, by every hymn you sing, by every loving errand of your willing feet and gentle hands. You are the true friends of tempted manhood, bewildered youth and every little child. The steadfast faith and loyal, patient work you are to do, will be the mightiest factor in woman’s contribution to the solution of this Republic’s greatest problem, and will have their final significance in the thought and purpose, not that the world shall come into the home, but that the home, embodied and impersonated in its womanhood, shall go forth into the world.

I have no fears for the women of America. They will never content themselves remaining stationary in methods or in policy, much less sound a retreat in their splendid warfare against the saloon in law and in politics. The tides of the mother’s heart do not change; we can count upon them always. The voice of Miriam still cheers the brave advance, and all along the line we hear the battle cry: “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.”

THE CATLIN PAINTINGS.

BY O. T. MASON.

If you will enter the National Museum at Washington, and give your cane or umbrella to the venerable gentleman at the stand, you will see some wonderful old pictures. Turn abruptly to your right, cast a patriotic glance at the clothing and camp furniture of the Father of his Country, and a few steps will bring you into the museum lecture room, whose east, south, and west walls are covered with quaint sketches of American aboriginal life, mounted in the dingiest possible black frames. This is the Catlin Collection, by far the most celebrated Indian paintings in the world, since the dreadful fire in the Smithsonian Institution burned up the Stanley portraits in 1864. A few words about this wonderful painter would certainly interest you before you begin to look at his pictures.

George Catlin was born in Wilkesbarre, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1796. His father was a lawyer, and, naturally, took every pains to educate his son for that profession, sending him at last to Yale College to finish his course. But that which has often happened to boys was true in George’s case—he loved fishing and painting more than he loved the bar. His law practice lasted two years, after which he established himself in New York and Philadelphia as a portrait painter. In the year 1832 he saw a delegation of Indians from St. Louis, a town of 25,000 inhabitants, then headquarters for the Central Superintendency (see painting 311), and was so overwhelmed by their appearance that nothing could overcome his desire to visit them in their homes. Convinced that the noble savage would rapidly decline before the advance of civilization, and realizing as if by inspiration the value which a pictorial history of the dying race would possess to future students of primitive history, he set out alone for St. Louis, with pen and brush, to accomplish this noble design. Here he became acquainted with Mr. Chouteau, a gentleman thoroughly conversant with the Indian country and character, who secured for the painter a free ride to the mouth of the Yellowstone in a little, rude steamer called the “Yellowstone.”

He devoted eight years, from 1832 to 1840, to his enterprise, visiting forty-eight tribes of Indians residing within British America, the United States and Mexico. Speaking of these years in after life he says: “I have seen them in their own villages, have carried my canvas and colors the whole way, and painted my portraits from life as they now stand in the gallery. Some of them have been taken while I have been paddling my canoe, or leading my pack-horse through trackless wilds, even at the hazard of my life.”

On his return to the East from this remarkable Odyssey, Mr. Catlin exhibited his sketches, together with such a collection of weapons, dress, ornaments and implements as it will never be possible to procure again, in Philadelphia, New York and Boston, to great crowds of visitors. The papers were filled with praises respecting it. The _United States Gazette_ says: “There can be no mistake or exaggeration in pronouncing the exhibition of these views of the scenery and natural history of the western country the most important and interesting object for public attention which has ever been offered to the eastern division of the United States.”

Many of Mr. Catlin’s friends were anxious for the government or some well founded institution to buy the collection, but nothing was accomplished.

In 1840 Mr. Catlin took his pictures abroad, prospects having been held out to him of getting a handsome price for them. The Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted the packages free of duty, and the whole was set up in a room 106 feet long, in Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London.

Numerous assemblages, comprising many of the distinguished members of the fashionable and the literary world visited the entertainments and listened to the lectures of Mr. Catlin.

It is just a little to be feared that the painter added to the genius of the artist a modicum of the showman’s vanity, in support of which theory the following is quoted from the London _Morning Post_: “This valuable collection of portraits, landscapes, scenes from savage life, weapons, costumes, and an endless variety of illustrations of Indian life, real as well as pictorial, continues to attract crowds of spectators. We are happy to find our prediction fully borne out by fact, that the exhibition only required to be made known to the public to be fully appreciated. The most pleasing attention is paid by Mr. Catlin and his assistants to gratify the curiosity of visitors, to point out the peculiarities of the various subjects through which they wander, and to explain everything which strikes the eye and attracts the observer to inquire into its use or meaning. During our visit on Saturday the company were startled by a yell, and shortly afterward by the appearance of a stately chief of the Crow Indians stalking silently through the hall, armed to the teeth and painted to the temples, wrapped in a buffalo robe, on which all his battles were depicted, and wearing a tasteful coronet of war eagle’s quills. This personation was volunteered by a nephew of Mr. Catlin, who has seen the red man in his native wilds, and presents the most proud and picturesque similitude of the savage warrior that can be conceived. His war-whoop, his warlike appearance and dignified movements seem to impress the assemblage more strikingly with a feeling of the character of the North American Indian than all the other evidences which crowded the walls. Subsequently he appeared in another splendid costume worn by the braves of the Mandan tribe, also remarkable for its costly and magnificent head-dress, in which we see the ‘horns of power’ assume a conspicuous place. The crowds that gathered around him on each occasion were so dense that Mr. Catlin could scarcely find space to explain in full detail all the costumes; but we are glad to find he is preparing a central stage where all may enjoy a full and fair sight of ‘the Red Man,’ as he issues from his wigwam, clad in the peculiar robes and ornaments of his tribe, to fight, hunt, smoke, or join in the dances, festivals, and amusements of each nation.”

This, of course, smacks a little of Buffalo Bill, but it pleased the Europeans amazingly. Mr. Catlin gave exhibitions in Waterloo rooms, Edinburgh; in the Louvre, at Paris, where Louis Philippe gave him ample space; and in many other European cities, occupying in all about eight years. During this time he published “Manners and Customs,” etc.; “The North American Portfolio;” “Eight Years’ Travels.” In 1861 he published a little work on “The Breath of Life,” certainly the funniest serious book we have ever read. In 1862 appeared “Last Rambles Among the Indians,” etc.

As many other people have done concerning their own handiwork, Mr. Catlin overestimated the intrinsic value of his paintings and specimens, and made the mistake of thinking that everybody would surely be as enthusiastic as himself. The British government did not buy the gallery. Even the platform and Mr. Catlin’s nephew could not save the ship. In Belgium financial embarrassment overtook the painter and his works. The whole material was likely to go under the hammer, when Mr. Thomas Harrison, a wealthy Philadelphian, advanced the money and took the collection as security, with the understanding that it could be redeemed. This proving beyond Mr. Catlin’s means, all of the paintings and specimens were transferred to Philadelphia and stored until Mr. Harrison’s death, when his widow presented the entire gallery to the National Museum, together with such dresses, etc., as time and moths had spared.

Perhaps you have heard that the Washington pictures are not the originals. The facts are these: After transferring his material in Belgium to Mr. Harrison, Mr. Catlin traveled throughout North America, and even in South America, making aboriginal sketches. This second collection was exhibited for a time in the west corridor of the Smithsonian. On his death, in 1872, the pictures were packed up and stored in the Smithsonian building until 1876, when they were transferred to the Philadelphia Exposition. They are now to be seen in the permanent exhibition there.

Now for the pictures. A great American ethnologist says “Catlin is the great American Indian liar;” another, quite as eminent, says that when he showed one of these pictures to a Sioux Indian, the latter was affected to tears at the recognition of a dear friend long deceased. Both were right. Recently M. Achille Collin, a French sculptor, was employed to produce several busts of celebrated Indians, from photographs and portraits, for the New Orleans Exposition. Among them was Osceola, whose portrait is in the Catlin gallery. Fortunately, the Museum has also Osceola’s death mask. M. Collin found that Catlin had placed the eyes too far apart, and had perpetrated several other little artistic outrages, yet the sculptor was able to rectify these and to produce a wonderful bust of the wily Seminole. In one sense everything is wrong in these paintings, in another sense they are teeming with life and spirit. A French critic said in the Paris _Constitutionnel_: “A professional painter is perfectly lost in the presence of a nature new to him, in such singular lands, such original colors of sky, foliage and men.” You must know a language in order to appreciate its beauties, you must know Indian life to appreciate Catlin. His images do not pose, they fly across the canvas. M. Schindler, whose lifelike portraiture of fishes has given him a world-wide reputation, and who has lived among the Sioux and painted them, has the same admiration of these savage portraitures, whose shadowy looks are ominous of their fast fading originals. A workman in the Museum whose business it is to arrange Indian costumes says that in those things which anybody can do, Catlin was careless; but in the arrangement of dress, ornaments and weapons, which nobody now knows how to fix, he is an invaluable guide. It may not be known to all that the numberless tribes formerly living within our domain belonged to a few well defined stocks, recognizable by language, institutions, and customs. East of the Rocky Mountains, where most of these pictures were painted, were the Athapascan of the north, the Algonquin and Iroquois of the east, the Cherokee and Muskokee of the south, and the Dakotan of the west. In the great interior basin were the Shoshones, and west of the Sierras the Flatheads, Chinuks, and many other little known stocks.

The Algonkin stock is represented in Mr. Catlin’s gallery by portraits and groups of Sacs and Foxes, Sheyennes, Blackfeet, Chippewas and Ottawas, Crees, Menomonees, Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, Weeahs, Peorias, Piankeshaws, Mohegans, Delawares and Shawnees.

The celebrated league of the Iroquois by representatives from the following tribes looks down upon us as Oneidas, Tuscaroras and Senecas.

John Ross, a civilized and well educated chief, with four other celebrated faces, represents the Cherokee stock. The great Muskogee or Creek confederacy includes paintings of distinguished Creeks, Choktas, Seminoles, and Yuchees. Most of the last two stocks were well instructed by Protestant missionaries, previously to their transfer into the Indian Territory. It is this fact alone which explains their steady increase while so many other tribes have melted away. It was among the Dakotas, however, that Catlin’s enthusiasm first took fire and increased most fervently. In addition to the many landscape and hunting pictures, whose scenes are laid in this romantic country, you will see staring at you from these dingy frames, men and women of many Dakotan tribes, Kansas, Osages, Ponkas, Omahas, Otoes, Missourias, Iowas, Mandans, Blackfeet Sioux, Crows, Assiniboins, Winnebagos, and Sioux proper. A few Comanches, Pawnee Picts, Weecos, Pawnees and Arikarees, Flatheads and Chinuks complete the list.

Of all the tribes visited by Mr. Catlin, the Mandans awaken the most lively interest, not only by their impressive ceremonies, but because the whole tribe were extinguished by smallpox and suicide in 1837, excepting about forty who afterward fell victims to their enemies.

Look along on the wall until you find the pictures numbered 504, 505, 506 and 507. In these, by a series of tableaux, the painter presents to us the annual ceremony of initiation, called the Sun dance by the modern Dakotas, and witnessed two years ago by Miss Alice Fletcher. This ceremony continues four days and nights in succession, in commemoration of the subsiding of the flood, and also for the purpose of conducting all the young men, as they arrive at manhood, through an ordeal of voluntary torture, which when endured entitles them to the respect of the chiefs, to the privileges of going on war-parties, and of taking a wife. The floor and sides of the medicine lodge are ornamented with green willow boughs. The young men who are to do penance by torture lie along the sides of the lodge, their bodies covered with clay of different colors, their respective shields and weapons hanging over their heads. In the middle of the lodge the medicine man prays to the Great Spirit and watches the young men through their four days’ fast, preparatory to the torture. Near the medicine man lies a scalping knife, and a bunch of splints which are to be passed through the flesh of the novitiates like belaying pins. The Buffalo dance takes place several times each day outside the lodge in which the young men lie. The principal actors in this dance are eight men with the skins of buffaloes around them and a bunch of green willows on their backs. The evil spirit, Okeehedee, enters the village from the prairie, alarming the women, who cry for assistance and are relieved by the old medicine man. Okeehedee is at length disarmed of his lance, which is broken by the women, and he is driven by them in disgrace out of the village. On the fourth day of the festival the young men are subjected to the torture, which in many forms amounts essentially to this: Two gashes, parallel and near together, are cut quite through the skin, either on the breast, back or arms, looking for all the world like those on the sides of a sheep dressed for market. A wooden pin is thrust from gash to gash, under the intervening strip of skin. One end of a long and strong rawhide line is wrapped or belayed around this peg securely. Now comes the tug of war, the problem always being either to tear this peg out by breaking the strip of flesh or to see how much pain the sufferer can stand. He is hauled up to the roof of the lodge, suspended from an elastic sapling, or dragged around the camp; finally having fastened the end of the line farthest from him to a post, he tugs away with might and main until his flesh is torn loose.

Turn now away from this dreadful scene and take a look at the funny side of Indian life. Here is a fellow whose eager haste after a buffalo ends in being thrown on the monster’s back and taking a bison ride over the prairie. There the clans contend nip and tuck for mastery in the ball play. On this canvas a celebrated archer is showing how many arrows he can shoot before the first one falls. Perhaps your delicate sensibility will not enjoy the dog dance, where the Sioux braves are dancing up grotesquely and biting off pieces of a heart taken raw and bleeding from a dog. Well, here is a sham battle of Mandan boys, their school of practice every morning at sunrise, and just there a prairie-dog village. This picture, No. 337, is the celebrated Pipestone quarry on the Couteau des Prairies, 300 miles northwest of the Falls of St. Anthony, on the divide between the St. Peters and the Missouri. Here is where from time immemorial the Indians have obtained for making pipes that beautiful red steatite, which the mineralogists now call _catlinite_, after our hero. There are many more just as strange and interesting stories hanging about this dear old Smithsonian, and some day THE CHAUTAUQUAN may let you into the secret. You notice here and there that the fatal pointer has gone quite through the noble brave, and that accounts for solicitude about your cane and umbrella at the beginning. You will find them at the door, and don’t fail to reclaim them with your check.

GEORGE BANCROFT.

BY PROF. W. W. GIST.

George Bancroft is the Nestor of American men of letters. Born October 3, 1800, he received his early training at Exeter Academy, and graduated at Harvard in 1817. He is now eighty-four years old, and his life has touched every administration in the history of our nation except Washington’s. What mighty changes have been wrought in the land since George Bancroft, a manly youth, stepped forth from his _alma mater_ a full-fledged graduate! Two generations have passed away and a third is now on the stage of action. Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Benton had not yet reached the zenith of their power. These men have passed away, and another group, equally great, of whom Abraham Lincoln was the central figure, became conspicuous leaders in the most thrilling period of our history, and have passed away likewise. Indeed, there are thousands of voters to-day who were born during the exciting events of Lincoln’s administration. At the time George Bancroft graduated which, in the general acceptation of the term, marked the commencement of his life’s work, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Blaine, Cleveland, and Generals Sherman and Sheridan had not been born. Some of these have won never-fading honors in events that have attracted the attention of the whole world, and are numbered among our heroes. At that time Harvard was a very different institution from what it is now; American literature was in its infancy; Washington Irving had scarcely gained a recognition on the other side of the waters.

Forty-five years ago Bancroft held a government office and secured for Nathaniel Hawthorne an appointment in the Boston Custom House. Hawthorne was then a literary man with some reputation, but his pen did not afford him a livelihood. His great masterpieces were written during the next quarter of a century, and twenty years have passed since the announcement of his death cast a gloom over the literary world, while his friend and benefactor still survives in the full vigor of his intellectual powers.

Macaulay and Bancroft were born in the same year; the former has been dead nearly twenty-five years; the latter is giving finishing touches to his great history, which merits a place with Macaulay’s and Gibbon’s.

George Bancroft’s father was the Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D.D., who as a young man participated in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, and who in later years won an honorable name as a theologian and man of letters, his “Life of Washington” attracting considerable attention in Europe. The son inherited many of the admirable characteristics of the father.

After his graduation at Harvard, George Bancroft spent five years in Europe, receiving a degree from the University of Göttingen, mastering the principal modern languages, giving special attention to the study of history, visiting the most important nations of the continent, and above all communing with some of the greatest minds of the age. It was his rare privilege to meet, and to enjoy the friendship of, such men as Wolf, the distinguished classic scholar, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Goethe, Cousin, Alexander von Humboldt, Chevalier Bunsen, Niebuhr, and others scarcely less distinguished.

Returning to his native land in 1822, he spent one year as tutor of Greek in Harvard, and afterward assisted in establishing a preparatory school at Northampton. The subject of United States history already absorbed his mind, and the next few years were spent in special study for his great work.

Bancroft has held a number of offices. In 1838 President Van Buren appointed him collector at the port of Boston, and he discharged the duties of the office with marked ability. In 1845 he entered President Polk’s cabinet as Secretary of the Navy. A number of important events of this administration are linked with his name. Through his influence the naval academy at Annapolis was established, and he introduced many needed reforms into the naval service. He ordered the United States fleet to assist Captain Fremont in taking possession of California, and as Acting Secretary of War he issued orders for the United States army to march into Texas at the commencement of the Mexican war. In 1846 he was appointed minister to England, and held the position for three years. While in England unusual courtesies were extended to him, and every facility was granted for carrying on his historical researches, official state papers and many valuable private libraries being accessible. He also visited Paris for the purpose of study, and received valuable assistance from Guizot and Lamartine. In 1867 he was appointed minister to Berlin and remained abroad a number of years, calling forth a special commendation from President Grant for his wise diplomatic services.

Mr. Bancroft has done considerable literary work in addition to writing his “History of the United States.” When a young man he published a volume of poems; he has contributed a great many articles to magazines, and has delivered a number of memorial addresses on prominent Americans. In 1859 he prepared a paper on “Prescott” for the New York Historical Society; also one on “Washington Irving.” In 1860 he delivered an address in Cleveland at the unveiling of the statue of Commodore Oliver H. Perry, and February 12, 1866, he delivered before the two houses of Congress a memorial address on President Lincoln.

Bancroft is known most widely, however, as an historian, and his noble history is a monument more durable than granite. He brought to his task a mind philosophic in character, broad in grasp, impartial in judgment, believing firmly in God’s superintending care, rich in scholarship, and with enough of the imaginative and poetical to quicken and vivify all his intellectual powers. He has bestowed nearly sixty years of conscientious labor on this great historical work, the first volume of which appeared in 1834, fifty years ago.

The historian requires peculiar talent for his work. He must have such patience and energy as will enable him to carry on any research that will throw light on the subject he is investigating; he must weigh all evidence as coolly as the most unprejudiced judge; he must not assume the part of an advocate until he has examined the subject from every standpoint and reached an unbiased conclusion; he must grasp the real ideas and principles that underlie the events and are hastening the progress of civilization; he must have sufficient imagination to see the events as real, and to make his readers see them as such; in addition, he must have a copiousness of illustration and a fluency of language that will enable him to present his subject in an attractive form. In short, he must be a scholar, an explorer, a philosopher, and a rhetorician. Few, if any, have possessed all these qualifications in a preëminent degree; Bancroft certainly possesses them all in no small degree.

Gibbon will doubtless ever hold an honorable place as an historical writer; and yet he attempts to account for the rapid spread of Christianity entirely on human grounds, and refuses to recognize the greatest force then at work in effecting changes among the nations of the world. Macaulay well says of Gibbon: “He writes like a man who had received some personal injury from Christianity and wished to be revenged on it and all its possessors.” No such charge can be made against George Bancroft. He is a firm believer in God, recognizes Christianity as the most powerful factor in the progress of civilization, and continually evinces his unfaltering belief in God’s superintending care over human affairs. The opening paragraph of his address on President Lincoln may be taken as his creed on God in history. Notice how clear his statement and triumphant his faith:

“That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science. On the great moving power which is from the beginning hangs the world of the senses and the world of thought and action. Eternal wisdom marshals the great procession of the nations, working in patient continuity through the ages, never halting and never abrupt, encompassing all events in its oversight, and ever effecting its will, though mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose with madness. Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics flourish and wither, dynasties pass away as a tale that is told; but nothing is by chance, though men, in their ignorance of causes, may think so. The deeds of time are governed, as well as judged, by the decrees of eternity.”

A quotation from his history will show his estimate of Christianity:

“To have asserted clearly the unity of mankind was the distinctive character of the Christian religion. No more were the nations to be severed by the worship of exclusive deities. The world was instructed that all men are of one blood; that for all there is but one divine nature and but one moral law; and the renovating faith taught the singleness of the race, of which it embodied the aspirations and guided the advancement.”[E]

Notice also this noble tribute to Christianity in his history:

“The colonists, including their philosophy in their religion, as the people up to that time had always done, were neither skeptics nor sensualists, but Christians. The school that bows to the senses as the sole interpreter of truth had little share in colonizing our America. The colonists from Maine to Carolina, the adventurous companions of Smith, the proscribed Puritans that freighted the fleet of Winthrop, the Quaker outlaws that fled from jails with a Newgate prisoner as the sovereign—all had faith in God and in the soul. The system which had been revealed in Judea—the system which combines and perfects the symbolic wisdom of the Orient and the reflective genius of Greece—the system, conforming to reason, yet kindling enthusiasm; always hastening reform, yet always conservative; proclaiming absolute equality among men, yet not suddenly abolishing the unequal institutions of society; guaranteeing absolute freedom, yet invoking the inexorable restrictions of duty; in the highest degree theoretical, yet in the highest degree practical; awakening the inner man to a consciousness of his destiny, and yet adapted with exact harmony to the outward world; at once divine and human—this system was professed in every part of our widely extended country, and cradled our freedom. Our fathers were not only Christians; they were, even in Maryland by a vast majority, elsewhere almost unanimously, protestants. Now the Protestant Reformation, considered in its largest influence on politics, was the awakening of the common people to freedom of mind.”[F]

In a recent private letter to Dr. Buckley, of the _Christian Advocate_, Bancroft uses these words quoted in that paper:

“Certainly our great united commonwealth is the child of Christianity; it may with equal truth be asserted that modern civilization sprung into life with our religion; and faith in its principles is the life-boat on which humanity has at divers times escaped the most threatening perils.”

And again:

“The principles that govern human affairs, extending like a path of light from century to century, become the highest demonstration of the superintending providence of God.”[G]

But it is not necessary to multiply quotations illustrative of his faith in the Deity. Throughout the whole of his writings he manifests a devout, reverential state of mind, and keeps constantly before the reader the idea that God is the great power back of those mighty movements that stir the nations of the world.

The philosophic cast of his mind is clearly revealed in all his discussions of causes and results. He firmly believes that “the problems of politics can not be solved without passing behind transient forms to efficient causes,” and he ever seeks to find the real origin of an event. He dates the American Revolution back to the Reformation under Luther and Calvin, and in relating the events that led to a separation from the mother country he discusses with great clearness and elaborateness three points essential to the proper understanding of the subject: In the first place he speaks of the emancipation of the mind at the Reformation, and the consequent birth of the idea of freedom. In the second place he discusses the growth of this idea of freedom in the nations of Europe and on this continent. In the third place he describes with wonderful fairness the violent discussions that arose in England and in this country when the colonists raised a protest against the tyrannies of the mother country. Referring to the origin of our present liberty, he says explicitly:

“The Reformation was an expression of the right of the human intellect to freedom.”[H]

He thus speaks of the influence of Luther and the Reformation: “At his bidding truth leaped over the cloister walls and challenged every man to make her his guest; aroused every intelligence to acts of private judgment, changed a dependent, recipient people into a reflecting, inquiring people; lifted each human being out of the castes of the middle age, to endow him with individuality, and summoned man to stand forth as man. The world heaved with the fervent conflict of opinion. The people and their guides recognized the dignity of labor; the oppressed peasantry took up arms for liberty; men reverenced and exercised the freedom of the soul. The breath of the new spirit moved over the earth; it revived Poland, animated Germany, swayed the north; and the inquisition of Spain could not silence its whispers among the mountains of the Peninsula. It invaded France; and, though bonfires of heretics, by way of warning, were lighted at the gates of Paris, it infused itself into the French mind, and led to unwonted free discussions. Exile could not quench it. On the banks of the Lake of Geneva, Calvin stood forth the boldest reformer of his day; not personally engaged in political intrigues, yet, by promulgating great ideas, forming the seed-plot of revolution.… Calvinism was revolutionary; wherever it came it created division.… By the side of the eternal mountains and perennial snows and arrowy rivers of Switzerland, it established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.… It entered Holland, inspiring an industrious nation with heroic enthusiasm; enfranchising and uniting provinces; and making burghers, and weavers, and artisans, victors over the highest orders of Spanish chivalry, the power of the inquisition, and the pretended majesty of kings. It penetrated Scotland, and while its whirlwind bore along persuasion among glens and mountains, it shrunk from no danger, and hesitated at no ambition; it nerved its rugged but hearty envoy to resist the flatteries of the beautiful Queen Mary; it assumed the education of her only son; it divided the nobility; it penetrated the masses, overturned the ancient ecclesiastic establishment, planted free parochial schools, and gave a living energy to the principle of liberty in a people. It infused itself into England, and placed its plebeian sympathies in daring resistance to the courtly hierarchy; dissenting from dissent, longing to introduce the reign of righteousness, it invited every man to read the Bible, and made itself dear to the common mind, by teaching, as a divine revelation, the unity of the race and the natural equality of man.”[I]

It is evident that Bancroft has studied the Reformation, not simply in its outward political aspect, but so as to understand the different shades of theological belief that influenced the minds of the great reformers. His parallel between Luther and Calvin is a fine specimen of composition, noted for its vigorous English, clear, discriminating judgments, and polished style: “Both Luther and Calvin brought the individual immediate relation with God; but Calvin, under a more stern and militant form of doctrine, lifted the individual above pope and prelate, and priest and presbyter, above Catholic church and national church and general synod, above indulgencies, remissions and absolutions from fellow-mortals, and brought him into immediate dependence on God, whose eternal, irreversible choice is made by himself alone, not arbitrarily, but according to his own highest wisdom and justice. Luther spared the altar, and hesitated to deny totally the real presence; Calvin, with superior dialectics, accepted as a commemoration and a seal the rite which the Catholics revered as a sacrifice. Luther favored magnificence in public worship, as an aid to devotion; Calvin, the guide of republics, avoided in their churches all appeals to the senses as a peril to pure religion. Luther condemned the Roman Church for its immorality; Calvin for its idolatry. Luther exposed the folly of superstition, ridiculed the hair shirt and the scourge, the purchased indulgence, and dearly bought, worthless masses for the dead; Calvin shrunk from their criminality with impatient horror. Luther permitted the cross and the taper, pictures and images, as things of indifference; Calvin demanded a spiritual worship in its utmost purity. Luther left the organization of the church to princes and governments; Calvin reformed doctrine, ritual, and practice; and, by establishing ruling elders in each church, and an elective synod, he secured to his policy a representative character, which combined authority with popular rights. Both Luther and Calvin insisted that, for each one, there is and can be no other priest than himself; and, as a consequence, both agreed in the purity of the clergy.”[J]

While the rhetoric of Bancroft is not faultless, it certainly deserves a place in our classic English. In the discussion of grave historical and philosophical questions, his stateliness of expression and his dignity of style challenge our admiration. His descriptions are very fine, and suggest a mind keenly alive to the beautiful and the poetical; but they do not reveal that spontaneity so characteristic of Irving, nor that indefinable symmetry so noticeable in Hawthorne. If his style is sometimes declamatory, I think it is generally in a connection such that the cultivated taste will pronounce it admissible.

Thoroughly versed in the historic lore of this and other countries, broad in his general scholarship, remarkably free from prejudice, an uncompromising American, and yet not an American in a narrow and bigoted sense, careful and systematic in his methods of labor and recreation, unswerving in his belief in the superintending providence of God, George Bancroft justly merits the high place of honor and esteem so willingly accorded to him, and his noble example should be a never-failing source of inspiration.

[E] Vol. III., p. 6.

[F] Vol. II., p. 177.

[G] Hist., Vol. II., p. 545.

[H] Hist., Vol. III., p. 183.

[I] Hist., Vol. III., p. 99.

[J] Hist., Vol. I., p. 212.

* * * * *

GOING TO THE BOTTOM THE ONLY WAY TO REACH THE TOP.—First go to the bottom of everything which you have to do. Know all its principles. If it be a trade, know not only its rules, but the reasons for them. If it be merchandise in raw materials, or in one or more manufactured articles, be sure to learn the whole process, from the planting of the seed, or the digging of the ore, to the completed fabric. Do this by observation, conversation with the heads of departments, and with workmen in different specialties. This was the plan of the late William E. Dodge.—_From Dr. J. M. Buckley’s “Oats or Wild Oats.”_

HOW PERSEUS BEGAN TO BE GREAT.

BY ELIZABETH P. ALLAN.

Fair Perseus slept upon enchanted ground, And to him came, but with no stir or sound, The goddess Pallas, whose clear, shining eyes Read all men’s hearts that are beneath the skies.

“Many there be,” she cried, “who dwell at ease, Who neither do nor dare—art thou of these? Or dost thou to some glorious deed aspire? Hast thou a heart of clay, or soul of fire?”

Then answered Perseus, vehement, “But I Would do great deeds, though for them I should die. Point me, O goddess, to the monster’s lair, And give me leave to show what I can dare!”

“Nay,” said the voice divine, “thy stripling arm Must first set free from danger’s fierce alarm _Thy mother’s life!_” With this young Perseus woke, Nor knew the peril whereof Pallas spoke.

But straight to Seriphus he hied with speed, To find his Mother Danæ in sore need, And rescuing her from danger and from dread, _Then_ went he forth to win the Gorgon’s head.

O, sons and daughters of our happy land, Whose waking dreams are filled with actions grand, Ere yet in search of these afar you roam, Free every burdened heart that sighs at home!

CANADA OF TO-DAY.

BY M. VICTOR DU BLED.

An Abridged Translation for THE CHAUTAUQUAN, from the _Révue des deux Mondes_.

Canada, for so long a time apparently forgotten by her mother country, came out from her isolation and again called back to herself the attention of France by sending to the Exposition of 1855 specimens of her products. In 1856 M. de Belveze, commander of the French frigate “Capricieuse,” was sent into Canadian waters. His mission resulted in the establishment of a French consulate, and the reduction of the tariff which permitted the two countries to enter upon commercial relations.

From 1854 to 1862 material and intellectual progress here marched by the side of great political progress. Public works, canals, and interior colonization, all, during this time received a vigorous impulse.

There is no such thing as spontaneous generation in politics any more than in natural history. Questions give rise to other questions, and the philosophy of history shows them springing up, one after another, from some mysterious source, obeying a sort of atavism, and producing often a most unexpected result. Excitement over representation, fixed according to the population of the country, gave birth to the confederacy. On October 1, 1864, a conference assembled at Quebec, composed of delegates from the maritime provinces, and from the Canadian government. After a long and stormy session, during which threats of resorting to arms were now and then heard, the cause of the confederation triumphed by a large majority. A basis of federal union was submitted to the several legislatures for ratification, and on July 1, 1867, the confederacy was established in the midst of public rejoicings. They gave to the united provinces the name of the Dominion of Canada. Lower Canada was called Quebec, and Upper Canada Ontario.

The Legislature is composed of a Governor-general, a sort of a constitutional viceroy, named by the crown; of a Senate, and a House of Commons. The Senate consists of seventy-six members, appointed for life by the crown, of whom twenty-four each are from Quebec and Ontario. The House of Commons is representative, its members being elected for five years. The Dominion now includes Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward’s Island, British Columbia, Manitoba, and the territory of the North-West, or Hudson’s Bay Territory. Thus it is fulfilling the prediction of the great American statesman, William H. Seward: “Canada is destined to become the seat of a great empire, the Russia of North America, but a Russia with civilization more advanced than the Russia of Europe.” An illustrated paper of the Dominion has published a patriotic caricature representing the Canadian Gulliver with a debonair and placid figure, without any implements save his own gigantic arms and hands, seizing and swallowing the greater part of the American continent, while a crowd of Lilliputians, armed to the teeth, Turks, Yankees, Germans and Italians, survey him with an envious and astonished air.

In order to develop her resources, and to open the way for immigration, that her immense tracts of unused land may more rapidly become the granary of the world, Canada is furrowing her domains with canals and interlacing them with lines of railroads. The Grand Trunk railway, traversing the country from Portland, Me., to Detroit, has been built, with its Victoria bridge (one of the most noted structures in the world) crossing the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. Immense sums of money have been spent in order to convert the St. Lawrence into a canal. And now she is constructing a transcontinental road, which, binding the two oceans from Port Moody to Halifax, will cross the entire confederation. They expect to finish this route in 1886, and it is estimated that the journey from Liverpool or Havre to Japan will be a thousand miles shorter by this road than by the transcontinental routes of the United States.

Almost in the middle of the Dominion, at an equal distance from the pole to the equator, lies the territory of Manitoba. There lived in 1869, a population half nomadic, called the half-breeds, sprung from marriages between the French Canadians and the Indians. They spoke the French language, and professed the Catholic religion. After the delivery of this country by the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Dominion, the government determined to direct toward it a stream of English emigration. They sent a governor and some surveyors to reside at Winnipeg, the capital. But the natives warned them they might look for trouble if they attempted to place, without consulting them, new inhabitants upon the land which they and their ancestors, from time immemorial, had held and enjoyed. The government was not to be frightened, and so the conflict came. The half-breeds obliged the governor to leave, and constituted a provisional government, with a president at its head. They then drew up a declaration, of which the following is the preamble:

“We, the representatives of the people, assembled in council at Fort Garry, November 24, 1869, after having invoked the God of nations, … solemnly declare, in the name of our constitution and in our own name, before God and men, that we refuse to recognize the authority of Canada, which pretends to have the right to command us and impose upon us a despotic form of government.”

Later, however, they changed their opinion, and entered into negotiations with the federal government. But at the moment when all things had been arranged without bloodshed, the English colonists, who were very numerous around Lake Winnipeg, rose in insurrection against the half-breeds. The president of the latter, Louis Riel, who took upon himself the _rôle_ of dictator, had the leading mutineers seized, and their chief, named Scott, was tried, condemned and shot. Far from establishing his authority, this execution discouraged the natives themselves, and when two battalions of militia under Col. Wolseley arrived on the ground, they were welcomed as liberators by the half-breeds, and Riel, with his leading accomplices, fled to the United States. A compromise was then effected, and Manitoba was annexed to the Dominion as an autonomous province. It sends to Parliament two senators and five representatives. Winnipeg contains 30,000 inhabitants, and property has increased its value to an extraordinary degree, as the following anecdote will show: A parishioner of Archbishop Taché, obliged to leave the country, sought the archbishop, and excusing himself for not being able to pay the rent of his church pew, offered as part payment a small piece of land; “scarcely what would pay for a low mass,” timidly said the poor man. Ten years later that land brought $14,000.

In spite of the expenses occasioned by her canals and railroads, the people of the Dominion are, perhaps, among all the tax-payers of the civilized world, those upon whom the smallest rates are levied. There is no standing army, only a simple militia of about 50,000 men. The total expenses of government in 1884 amounted to $28,730,157. The receipts for the same year were $36,800,000. The minister of finances, in making out his estimates for the year 1885 placed them as follows: Expenses, $29,811,639; receipts, $31,000,000, which were to be raised as follows: Duties, $20,000,000; excises, $5,500,000; postoffice returns, $1,900,000; public works, $3,000,000; interest on investments, $750,000; other sources, $800,900. Duties on goods supply the source of two thirds of all the receipts. In 1880 they adopted a very strict system, which, without any distinction, exacts duties from English goods as from any other nation. On the other hand, England has granted to them the right of concluding treaties of commerce with foreign nations.

The only difference of opinion in regard to the question of tariff existing between the two parties is that the liberals wish the laws of entrance to be more moderate than the conservatives have made them, but neither of them will adopt the cosmopolitan theories of European free trade. The English compare protection to a bullet, Canadian tariff to a museum of instruments of torture, and declare that in following the example of the United States, the Dominion has forgotten the fable of the frog which wished to become as large as an ox. The Canadians hold that they shall do what they think best for their country, and that duties are the taxes least inconvenient to raise; that they save national work; and that they not only have made up the deficits of the past, but have put into the treasury an excess, so they have been able to reduce them to the amount of two and one-fourth millions dollars. The tariff for protection has become a tariff for revenue.

Since 1853 especially, public instruction has made great progress. These people who, under the patronage of the crown of England, have realized the ideal conception of a conservative and Christian republic, hold that public schools are among the luxuries of a young nation, and do not hesitate to impose upon themselves heavy sacrifices, as they believe they will result in good to their children. In the province of Quebec alone, government expended during the year 1882-83, $350,000 for school buildings, while the contributions paid directly by the people amounted to more than $2,000,000. In a population of 1,359,027 inhabitants, statistics show that there are 5,039 schools of different grades; 7,211 professors and teachers, and 245,225 scholars, making an average of one scholar for every six inhabitants. As to universities and colleges, they do not come under the school regulations, but are independent institutions, which, however, may receive appropriations from the government on condition of making a report each year to the superintendent. When in a school district there live a number of families who profess a different religion from that of the majority, they have the right to have for their children separate schools, under the care of three officials, chosen by them. Thus Catholics and Protestants have equal privileges, and everything is done to secure respect for religion, independence to the citizen, and his active and constant interest in educational matters. The circulars of the present superintendent, M. Ouimet, define in clear terms the spirit of the school laws in Quebec: “In our system of primary instruction we first teach the children the catechism of true religion, in order that they may know how to serve God; then the manuals of agriculture and of design, in order to put them in condition to serve their country. _For God and country!_ Behold the words which the Canadian legislature has inscribed on the walls of her educational institutions. The state unites itself to the two systems of religion in the matter of education, and does not authorize any school to be atheistical, but demands of it to be Christian before it accords help. It does not provide that one church shall be helped rather than another. Full and entire liberty it demands, and from this comes perfect harmony among the people.”

Religious liberty marches by the side of educational liberty. Each church supports itself; the state no longer takes cognizance of clergy or congregations, to protect them, to annoy them, or to persecute. They can, as the citizens, found a university, a college, or a school.

Men such as Labelle and Racine have accomplished wonderful results in planting in the most barren regions, at the peril of their lives, strong and flourishing colonies. “Go west,” incessantly repeated Horace Greeley to young Americans. “Go north, French Canadians and Catholics,” said Father Labelle, with a prophetic foresight.

Canadian literature only dates back to 1840. Before that time it was made up of songs. Such a literature was absolutely essential to the gay and sociable race who consoled itself, in all its troubles, with stanzas. There was a time when France held the government under control by her songs. Did any Canadian patriot attract attention by some great deed? At once a song was written. Was the question that of elections? They addressed themselves to some crude poet, and sharp, malign couplets soon overran the country. The festival of St. Jean Baptiste has furnished many a contribution to this list, and Sir George Cartier owes in great part his popularity to the fact that he composed one for the first banquet, in 1834. Often among the remote rural districts are found people possessing magnificent tenor voices, which would make the fortune of an impressario who would come from the other side of the water to look them up.

“We are yet amateurs,” said one of their writers to me. Without endorsing this very modest judgment, one can but admit that up to the present time our American cousins have been more occupied with making history than with writing it. Action has absorbed thought. They have run, closely pressed on all sides, to the conquest of political liberties. The books which they published during their unsettled national history partook of the character of the times, as the great work of Garneau will show, which was a revelation to his countrymen, and was of more value to them than an army, since it assured them of a nation’s faith and the certainty of success. The greater part of the writers have been obliged to tax their ingenuity for a livelihood, and too often politics, that deceptive siren, keeps them from those severe studies which alone will bring talent to maturity.

In poetry, MM. Crémazie and Louis Fréchette have left behind them all rivals. High inspiration, poetic fervor, appreciation of nature, and love of country have made them true poets. One can not read without emotion some of the productions of M. Crémazie. His patriotic songs, which seem to have been breathed from the very heart of the country itself, in a language harmonious and vibrating, do not for an instant decline in interest or power. The verses of M. Fréchette are written in a graceful style, and possess a youthful freshness. In history, MM. l’Abbé Casgrain, Benjamin Sulte and Joseph Tassé have become distinguished. M. Tassé, in his book “Canadians of the West,” tells of the pioneers of the American continent, those who penetrated into the icy regions of the pole, who crossed the Rocky Mountains, and spread over the fertile plains of Mexico; and has shown that of them all the French in the Canadian settlements were the only ones who treated the Indians honorably and kindly, and who succeeded in winning their respect and affection.

The group of prose writers and romancers is increasing every day. One of the best, without doubt, is M. J. C. Taché, the author of three legends, each of which characterizes an epoch in the history of the Indians. M. de Gaspé, with his “Ancient Canadians,” and M. Joseph Marmette, with his historic romances have acquired a well merited reputation.

What, then, shall be the aim in the future of Canadian literature? To acquire new strength and vigor without ceasing the study of the past; to revive the glorious annals; to gather with a pious care its legends; to identify itself also with the present; to paint the manners and the contemporaneous social life; to note and to report the majestic symphony of their land; never to lose sight of the thought of Carlyle, that the universe is a temple as well as a workshop. Such will be the duty of Canadian writers.

The Canadians through all the years since their country passed out of the hands and the control of the French, have clung to them with great affection, drawn by some profound and mystic instinct, by the lines of heredity, the power of traditions, the religion of memory. They are not ignorant of the fact that if they had remained united to France, they would not now have, in all probability, their free social and religious institutions; they would likely have formed an administrative colony such as Algeria. They know that it was England who sent them, under hard circumstances, perhaps, to the school of liberty, and to her they are indebted for their prosperity, but they look to France still as their mother country. Why should not that country give them some more solid proof of its affection? While with South America the annual exchanges of France are counted by the hundred million, and great numbers of French people emigrate there, her total commerce with Canada does not exceed $15,000,000, and it is with great difficulty that she has commenced to send thither a few of her citizens. Why should not French emigration direct itself toward a country where wages are good, the soil fertile, where property offers itself to all, and where a welcome is awaiting them? Why should not the French go to visit the Canadians and learn of them how a people became and remain free?

SOME AMERICAN MUSEUMS.

BY CLARENCE COOK.

Under this heading it is intended to give in successive numbers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN descriptions of the principal Art Museums of our country: The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. We begin in the present number with the Boston Museum.

In the year 1870 the trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts were organized under a charter from the Massachusetts legislature. It was not, however, until 1876 that a building was erected in which the pictures, casts, antiquities, engravings and objects of curiosity which formed the nucleus of its present extensive collections could be exhibited to the public.

Up to the time when the first portion of the present building was erected, the amateur or the student of the fine arts in Boston or its neighborhood had been obliged to take a good deal of trouble, and to spend much time, if he would see the few objects that existed there—in public institutions or in private houses—in the domain of painting, sculpture, antiquities, or in that of the minor arts—now classed together in popular speech under the incorrect title of bric-a-brac.

Beside the permanent exhibition of the pictures which belonged to it, the Athenæum Library had generously devoted some of its rooms every season for several successive years to the exhibition of pictures painted by American artists, an exhibition answering to those held yearly by the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Beside these regular exhibitions, there had been many occasional ones of importance, such as that of the Spanish pictures belonging to the Duc de Montpensier, which gave to those of us who had not visited Europe, the opportunity of seeing respectable specimens of the works of Zurbaran, Herrera, Morales, Murillo, Ribalta and Velasquez. There was also in the Athenæum a small but well selected collection of plaster-casts of antique sculpture, so that for a long time this institution was an art center of no little value and importance. The Athenæum was not, however, an art institution, but a library, and the time came when the increase of the library made it necessary to give up its art collections and devote all its space to books.

The collections of the Athenæum were the most important, both in number and in value, to be found in Boston, but there were many interesting objects scattered about which it was felt would be of much greater service to the community if they could be brought together under one roof, and made to work in common for the education of the whole community. The late Francis C. Gray had bequeathed to Harvard College his large and valuable collection of engravings together with a fund for its maintenance, and it was found that its usefulness, whether for purposes of enjoyment or as a means of education was very much restricted by its being so far away from the capital. Yet it had been impossible to find a proper place for it in Boston, and it therefore remained shut up in Cambridge. The Institute of Technology had formed, under the direction of Prof. William R. Ware, a collection of architectural ornament, but as this was lodged in the Institute building it could only be seen and studied at such times as suited the convenience of the professors and their pupils. The Social Science Association had called the attention of the public to the need that existed of a large and complete collection of casts of antique sculpture. But—what to do with such a collection, could it be brought together?

In a city like Boston, a want so deeply felt could not long remain unsatisfied, and the matter having been widely discussed, and a general interest created in the public mind, the first steps were taken with generous unanimity, and as has been stated, a charter was procured from the legislature, the Museum was organized by the naming of trustees, and the city having given a site, no difficulty was met with in raising a subscription of $261,000 toward a building. The plans of Messrs. Sturgis and Brigham, submitted in competition, were selected, and on the 3d of July, 1876, one wing of the front of the building was opened to the public. This was filled by the collections of the Athenæum, and by the Gray collection of engravings, both permanently loaned to the Museum, by the casts of antique sculptures purchased with funds bequeathed by the late Charles Sumner, the Egyptian collections presented by Mr. C. Granville Way, and valuable gifts from Mr. Lawrence and other persons. The space at the disposal of the trustees was soon overcrowded, and in 1878 a fresh subscription of $126,000 having been raised, the front was completed and opened to the public in 1879. At the present time of writing the need is seriously felt for more room, and it is hoped that the means may soon be provided for taking a third step toward the completion of the original plan of the building.

The building containing the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art is constructed of red brick and terra cotta on a basement of granite. It stands in the new quarter of the city, and is built like all other structures in that part of the city, on piles. It is rather ornate in its character, and compared with its massive neighbor, Trinity Church, has a somewhat effeminate look, but it is solidly built, and planned with great good sense, and with a steady view to convenience. On entering, the visitor finds himself in a large hall, in the center of which rises an ample staircase conducting to the second floor. At the right and left are doorways leading to the rooms containing the casts from antique sculpture. By taking either of these doorways we can make the circuit of the whole series of apartments, but as the present arrangement is only temporary, awaiting the completion of the building for a logical disposition of the material, it may be better to pass at once to the rear of the hall, and taking the door at the left hand, enter

THE EGYPTIAN ROOM.

The contents of this room were chiefly collected between the years 1828 and 1833, by a Scotch gentleman, Mr. Robert Hay. After his death they were purchased by Mr. C. Granville Way, of Boston, and presented to the Museum in 1872. Several fine pieces of sculpture, collected in Egypt in 1835 by the late Mr. John Lowell, the founder of the Lowell Institute, have been added to this room by the gift of Mr. Lowell’s heirs. The valuable and interesting casts from bas-reliefs and statues are the gift of General Charles G. Loring, the director of the Museum, to whose zeal and efficiency the institution owes so much of its usefulness.

The room is finely lighted by large windows, and General Loring, who is much interested in botany, generally keeps here a few fine specimens of tropical plants, especially such as belong to Egypt. Thus, on the occasion of my last visit, I had the pleasure of seeing there a fine specimen of the papyrus plant waving its graceful fans in salute to Pasht and Amenophis, hard by. The giant figure of Amenophis III., the Memnon of the Greeks (1500 B. C.) is a cast from the granite original in the British Museum. Near it is the statue of Pasht, the Cat-headed, in black granite, with the cartouch of Amenophis III., and there are also several blocks of red granite, probably portions of a throne, with a few fragments of sculpture—the colossal head of a king, pieces of the lid of a sarcophagus in green basalt, and two capitals cut out of sandstone, showing the lotos and papyrus forms. In the center of the room are several mummy cases, and in glass cases are disposed mummied heads, skulls, hands and feet, with mummies of animals, the cat, the dog, the dog-faced ape, the hawk and the ibis. In one of these cases is a hand still bearing a ring on the fourth finger. The remaining cases contain very interesting specimens of mummy-cloth of various dates and quality, one of the most important being a robe of justification supposed to be worn in the trial of the deceased before Osiris. It is sixteen feet in length by six feet nine inches in width, and has a fringe. The remaining contents of this room consist of various objects gathered from the tombs and from the mummy cases in such number and variety as to make it impossible to describe them in the narrow space at my command. But while there can be no doubt as to the value of the collection as a means of study in a field of wide interest and importance, it may be said, so far as art is concerned, the Way collection is of less value than the Abbott collection in the Historical Society of New York City. Each collection, however, supplements the other in a most interesting way, and taken together, they enable a student to make a fair beginning in the study of Egyptian antiquity.

THE FIRST GREEK ROOM

Opens directly from the Egyptian Room, and contains casts of archaic and early Greek sculpture. Here will be found the Lions from the gate of Mycenæ, the funeral slabs of Orchomenos, of Aristion, and of the soldier of Marathon, the Dresden Pallas, the relief of Demeter, Persephone, and Triptolemus, from Athens, and the so-called Leucothea, and the infant Bacchus from the Villa Albani, with several interesting archaic reliefs from the same collection. There have lately been added to the Museum a number of the funeral slabs or _stele_ discovered at Athens and preserved in the museum there, objects of great beauty and interest, properly belonging, either in this room or in immediate connection with it, but placed for temporary convenience, in the Roman and Renaissance Room. The most important objects in this First Greek Room are the casts from the sculptures of the eastern and western Pediments of the Temple of Minerva at Egina, consisting of five figures from the eastern pediment and ten from the western, arranged as they are believed to have been originally. Passing from this room to

THE SECOND GREEK ROOM

We find ourselves in the midst of a group of statues, most of them of the Praxitelean type and making too sharp a contrast by their grace and sensuous refinement to the hardness and severity of the contents of the room just left. It must be remembered, however, that owing to the small space at the command of the Museum authorities it has not been possible to follow a strict chronological order, and we must therefore be content for the present to follow the arrangement of the separate rooms. We have, therefore, here, the casts from the Parthenon frieze, the Theseus and the Fates from the eastern and the Ilissus from the western Pediment of the same building, with the Torso of the Victory, also from the eastern Pediment, together with several figures from the temple of the Wingless Victory (Nikè Apteros) on the acropolis. But space fails us to enumerate all the casts contained in the rooms devoted to antique sculpture; and why attempt a mere catalogue? The Venus of Milo is here, and the lately discovered Hermes with the infant Dionysus, the Niobe and her daughter, the Ludovisi Mars, the Diana of the Louvre, the Apollo Belvidere, the Eirene and Plutus, the Faun of Praxiteles, and the glorious mask of the Ludovisi Juno. Indeed, we miss few works of prime importance, and there are many casts here that can not be found elsewhere in America, and which are yet essential to even a superficial study of the rise and progress of Greek sculpture. Passing on, we come to the other rooms where are the Laocoön, the Dying Gladiator, the younger Agrippina, the Sophocles, the Demosthenes, the Menander, the Æsculapius, the Discobulus, the Silenus and the infant Bacchus, and the Boy taking a Thorn from his Foot (the Spinario), with many another famous and less famous work, enabling us to carry on the study until the stream dies away to rise again in new beauty in the art of the early Italian Renaissance. While no capital piece can be said to be wanting to this collection there remain many pieces to be added which are needed for fullness of knowledge, but every year sees important acquisitions, and there can be no doubt, judging from the past history of the Museum, that if the wished for addition to the building could be made, the missing gaps in the sculpture would speedily be filled up by gift. But before leaving the antique rooms we must mention the two sarcophagi from Vulci, now deposited in the Museum, and which, it is earnestly to be hoped, will become its property, since they are not only deeply interesting in themselves, but have an added value from their great rarity. They represent the bodies of two married pair reposing upon the lids of the two sarcophagi, as on the marriage-bed. The finer of the two groups is carved in alabaster, the other is in travertine; the one in alabaster has a monumental beauty and sweet dignity that is surpassed by nothing of the kind that exists, and considering its great beauty and rarity it is said there is only one other example of this treatment of the subject, and that is in the Vatican.

Crossing the Hall of Entrance, to which we have returned, we find ourselves in the last of the antique sculpture rooms, where are placed some of the most interesting of the Roman works just enumerated. Nothing would be gained by an attempt to catalogue the rooms at present, as their contents are likely to be changed at any time when the projected enlargement of the Museum is carried out. The space in this portion of the building, the addition built in 1879, answering to that occupied in the older portion by the first and second Greek Rooms, is here thrown into one large apartment filled with the

CASTS OF ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTS.

The principal object here is the cast of the Caryatid Portico of the Pandroseion, one of the portions of the complex structure generally called the Erechtheium, from the name of one of its parts dedicated to the worship of Erechtheus. The Portico with its Caryatids is given here of the full size of the original, and is so placed (until the great court can be built in which these large objects are to be shown) that a good view of it can be obtained from a considerable distance, while it is well lighted by a large window at one side. The remaining objects in this room are casts in great numbers from Greek and Roman architectural ornament, from the ornament of the Italian Renaissance, from the Alhambra, from the Gothic buildings of France, Germany and England, the specimens from England including twelve out of the thirty angels composing the so-called angel choir of Lincoln Cathedral. These figures of angels playing on musical instruments are of the thirteenth century, and are among the most beautiful works of their time. In this room again we find it impossible to do justice to our subject; the variety is too great and the range of artistic development covered by the example too extensive to be dismissed in less than an entire article, and even that would be insufficient. Turning to the right at the end of this room we come to

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE,

Where the works of Michelangelo, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, and a few other such names meet us in some of their best works. Here is the Lorenzo of Michelangelo with the statues of Day and Night, the David of Donatello, the Cupid of Michelangelo with his unfinished bas-relief of the Virgin and Child, the Mercury of John of Bologna, and various bas-reliefs of the time with the singing boys of Donatello and those of Luca della Robbia. Here, too, is the cast of the trial plate, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” made by Ghiberti in competition with Brunelleschi and Donatello for the Florence Baptistery Gates, interesting in itself, and in connection with that most important event in the history of modern art.

The last room on this floor is filled with specimens of Greek, Roman, and Asia Minor pottery, with a sufficient number of examples of the sculpture, pottery, and glass of Cyprus, a small but well-chosen group of figurines from Tanagra, and the results of the late researches at Assos by the members of the American Society of Archæology. This room is full of interesting objects, but it is uncomfortably crowded and necessarily ill-arranged. In the next article we shall describe the contents of the second floor of the Museum.

NATURAL HISTORY AND PEOPLE OF BORNEO.

Report of a lecture delivered March 7th in the National Museum of Washington, D. C., by Mr. Wm. T. Hornaday, Chief Taxidermist of the Museum.

The island of Borneo is the home of the Head-hunter, the land of the orang-utan, the Garden of the Sun, and perhaps even the sepulchre of the missing link. There is a possibility of its being the cradle of a great empire which shall be at the zenith of its glory when the greatness of the United States shall have passed away, like that of Greece and Rome, and Washington have become the Athens of America. The center of human progress will probably eventually move into regions now peopled by savages only, and the Kaffir or Dyak of the thirtieth century will perhaps study the archæology of the Yankee with the same interest that we now bestow upon the ruins of Carthage and Mycenæ.

Borneo is situated nearly in the middle of the Malay Archipelago. Its greatest length is 850 miles, greatest width 630 miles, and its area is 192,000 square miles. The whole of New England, the Middle States and Virginia could be set down in the evergreen forests, which everywhere cover its surface, and still be surrounded by a wide belt of jungle. The whole interior is very mountainous. The rivers and creeks are the highways of Borneo, and other roads are practically unknown. Nothing could be more arduous, and full of risk to life and limb, than overland travel through such dense forests and over such rugged mountains as confront the explorer at every step. The interior is practically an uninhabitable wilderness. Even in this age of daring and persevering travelers, no white man has ever crossed the island from one side to the other. The interior is still a land of mystery, whence come marvelous accounts of a race of men with tails, with detailed descriptions of their appearance and habits, stories implicitly believed by many natives. The climate of Borneo is what one would least expect, considering its equatorial position. The temperature is very agreeable all the year round. The mercury usually stands at 80° Fahrenheit in the morning, 88° at midday, seldom reaching 90°, and never exceeding 93°. The annual variation of temperature is only 24°—from 69° to 93°. Usually there are about 200 rainy days in the year, and from 158 to 178 inches of rain.

The vegetation of Borneo is probably unsurpassed by that of any other country in the world, either in luxuriance, economic value, or, the possession of wonderful forms. On the spurs of Mount Kina Balu are found four species of pitcher plants (Nepenthes), of marvelous size and form and gorgeous colors. The largest pitchers of _Nepenthes rajah_ measure thirteen inches in length, twenty in circumference, and hold five pints of water. Among the curiosities of vegetation is the tapang tree, which, in lieu of spur roots, throws out enormous slab-like buttresses. The _cocoa_ palm bears a bountiful crop of nuts, which in turn yield oil and a coarse kind of sugar. The _sago_ palm yields the valuable pearl sago of commerce. The _areca_ palm produces the betel-nut, which, together with a fresh pepper-leaf and a bit of moist lime, is in the mouth of nearly every East Indian native in lieu of tobacco. The _nipa_ palm yields salt, toddy, excellent syrup and sugar, and the leaves are made into kadjangs for boat awnings and roofing material for houses. The _gomouti_ palm produces the best toddy, and the cabbage is esteemed by the natives as food. The _nibong_ palm is valuable for its timber. The primeval forests are rich in timber trees, one of which, the _bilian_, furnishes wood which seemingly never decays. Bamboo grows abundantly in the interior, and is of great use to the natives.

Of the many fruits of the forest we can only refer to the durian. In size and shape it resembles a roundish pineapple, and is set all over with sharp conical spines, three fourths of an inch long, and stout enough to pierce the hide of a rhinoceros. When the fruit is ripe, the pod opens of its own accord. Although the smell of the pod is most offensive, we find inside four or five large cells, in each of which are from three to five horse-chestnuts, coated thickly with the most delicious paste that ever tickled the palate of man.

The agricultural products consist of sago, gambier, rice, sugar-cane and cotton, which is grown to a limited extent by the Dyaks. The cultivation of coffee is now engaging the attention of enterprising English planters, and may eventually become the most important industry of the island.

The whole island teems with animal life in great variety of forms. It would appear, judging from the success of Mr. A. R. Wallace, to be a paradise for the entomologist. This gentleman once collected seventy-six species of beetles in one day, many of which were new and of remarkable form, and during his stay of fifteen months in Sarawak he took over 500 species. There are a number of handsome species of butterflies, including the magnificent _Ornithoptera Brookana_. This butterfly is eight inches in width, and of a rich, velvety black color, on which is a broad band of metallic green scales, resembling a humming-bird’s feathers. Of all insects Borneo is richest in moths. At one place, on a mountain top, Mr. Wallace took 200 specimens in a single night, representing 130 species. In the same place he took in twenty-six nights 1,300 specimens of moths.

The fishes include quite a variety of fresh-water species, among which may be mentioned the curious tree-climbing perch, the thread-fish, the celebrated _gourami_, the jumping-fish, or _Periophthalmus_, which hops about on land in search of small crustaceans stranded by the receding tide; and the very rare and curious little fish known to icthyologists as _Luciocephalus pulcher_. The Malays capture a great many fish in small streams by poisoning the water with an extract made from the pounded roots of the tuba plant, and either spearing or netting the fish when they rise to the surface to breathe.

Among the reptiles, the most important is the crocodile, which attains a maximum length of seventeen feet, and is very destructive to human life. It seldom happens that a person escapes or is rescued, after being seized in this burly reptile’s powerful jaws. Some years ago the Sarawak government began a war of extermination against the crocodiles, by offering a reward of 35 cents a foot for all killed in the Territory. In 1878, 266 crocodiles were killed, and $738 paid out in rewards. I discovered a crocodile’s nest containing fifty-five eggs. The native crocodile hunters use hook and line. The hook, or _alir_, as it is called by the Malays, is a simple contrivance made of wood, tied at the end of a tough bark rope. Another saurian, the gavial, is found in Borneo. It is not unlike that of the Ganges, called by Dr. Gray, _Tomistoma schlegelli_. This species inhabits the headwaters of some of the rivers, and is rarely seen. In the swampy forest near the coast, small reptiles are very abundant. There are pythons in Borneo twenty-four feet long. Two twelve-foot specimens were brought to me, and a monster python twenty feet six inches long, I purchased alive in a cage, and put to death for its skin and skeleton.

Notwithstanding the contrary opinion of many observers, I think it can not be said with truth that Borneo is rich in bird-life. There are 392 species on the island. The finest bird is the argus pheasant. In life its plumage has a soft, velvety richness which is never seen in a dry specimen. These birds are extremely shy, and are taken by the natives in snares. Hornbills of several varieties are numerous. A bird of great commercial value is the swallow which builds the edible nest, so dear to the palate of the Chinese mandarin. These nests are built in caves, and are of a gelatinous substance resembling white glue. Their shape is like a small soup ladle with a broad, flat handle about an inch long. There are two kinds of nests, the white and the black, the former being most prized. A picul (133 pounds) of these is worth from two to three thousand dollars.

Borneo is favored with a great variety of very interesting mammals. So far as is at present known, there are ninety-six species, thirty-three of which are not found elsewhere. In apes and monkeys the island is especially rich. At the head of the list is the huge, red-haired orang-utan, of which we will speak presently. Then comes the long-nosed monkey, with its immense flabby proboscis. The _Nasalis_ is a large species of monkey, found in the same localities as the orang, always over the water, and usually in large troops. It is something marvelous to watch a troop of monkeys, when terrified by an attack with firearms. They head directly away from the danger, and gallop madly through the tree-tops along the larger branches. Another interesting mammal is the long-armed ape, _Hylobates concolor_. This animal is extremely wary, and so rapid in its flight as to render pursuit exceedingly difficult. The flying lemur is also found here. Another curious monkey is the tarsier, a small, nocturnal animal. The krah, _Macacus cynomolgus_, actually swarms in the low trees along the river banks. The clouded leopard, the otter-cat, and civet cats of two species occur, and also several other small members of the cat tribe. Two species of bear are found, the smallest known. The Indian elephant occurs in the extreme northeastern part of the island; also the rhinoceros and tapir. These three are very rare. The thin-haired deer is very common in Sarawak Territory, and is frequently noosed by the natives. The muntjac, or rib-faced deer, is occasionally met. Wild hogs are very abundant and destructive. They sometimes measure forty inches at the shoulder, and are good swimmers. Many beautiful squirrels are found here, and also, remarkable bats, the bear cat, otter, porcupines, and other small mammals which fall an easy prey to the hunter-naturalist.

The orang-utan is found only in Borneo and Sumatra, but is more abundant in the former island. It is most numerous in the Sarawak Territory. This animal occupies the fourth highest place in the animal kingdom—first, man; second, gorilla; third, chimpanzee; and fourth, orang-utan. This name signifies “Jungle-man,” and is derived from two Malay words, “orang,” man, and “utan,” jungle. The latter word is usually corrupted into “otang” or “outang.” The animal itself is rare and difficult to find. In August, 1878, I went on a hunting expedition for orangs to the Sadong River, at the mouth of which I settled and commenced prospecting. One day two men arrived from the headwaters of the Simujan River. They said they had seen two _mias_ (orangs), and suggested that I should go up to their village for a week or so. This I did, and was very successful, taking thirty-one orangs during my first month. In my visit of three months I secured forty-three orangs. Of these twenty-seven fell to my rifle, the remainder being shot for me by natives. Our plan of hunting was to paddle leisurely up and down the streams in a Malay sampan, or dug-out canoe, and watch the tree-tops on both sides as far back as we could see. I was armed with a Maynard rifle and field glass, while three stout Malays or Dyaks furnished the motive power at the paddles. Once in sight of an orang it was a comparatively easy matter to send a ball into its breast. On one occasion, while paddling up the Simujan River on a bright forenoon in September, the Malay suddenly exclaimed “Mias! Mias! Tuan!” The other paddlers backed water at once, but we saw nothing until the boat had been backed several yards. Then we espied simply the knee of a large orang which was lying asleep on a branch about twenty feet above the water, and twenty yards from us. Its body was completely hidden by the foliage, so I stood up in the boat and fired at its leg to arouse it. It started up instantly, growling hoarsely with pain and rage, and started to swing away with a reach that was surprising in its length. Fortunately, the water was deep; there were no screw-pines to hinder our progress, and in a moment our sampan was directly under the old fellow, who then climbed high into the tree-top to escape us. It was a huge old mias chappin, the species with the expanded cheeks, long-haired, big and burly. It growled savagely at us, and one of my Malays kept saying, “Chappin! Mias Chappin! Fire, sir, fire! That’s Mias Chappin. Big—big.” My companions were all intensely excited, but I knew the old fellow was ours, and waited for a good shot. In a moment the opportunity came, and I fired twice in quick succession at the orang’s breast. It stopped suddenly, hung for a moment by its hands, then its hold gave way, and it came plunging downward, snapped off a large dead limb on the way, and fell broadside into the water, with a tremendous splash which sent the spray flying all over us. As we seized the arms and pulled the massive head up to the surface of the water, the old fellow gave a great gasp, and looked reproachfully at us out of his half-closed eyes. I will never forget the strange, and even awful sensation with which I regarded the face of the dying monster. There was nothing in it in the least suggestive of anything human, but I felt as if I had shot some grim and terrible gnome or river-god—a satyr, indeed. It was a perfect giant in size, larger than even the natives had ever seen before. Its head, body and limbs were of grand proportions, and its weight could not have been much, if any, less than 190 pounds. This individual is now in the National Museum, to the extreme left of the group of orangs in the Mammal Hall. The tallest specimen I secured measured four feet six inches, but my largest one, that just described, measured half an inch less in height.

There are two species of orang found in Borneo: _Simia Wurmbii_, characterized in the males by very broad, flat cheek calossities, and _Simia satyrus_. English naturalists recognize a third species, _Simia morio_, but without any tenable grounds for doing so.

Orangs in a state of nature are seldom if ever seen on the ground. At night this animal builds a nest in the forks of a tree or on the top of a small sapling, by breaking off a quantity of green boughs, and piling them in the crotch. On these he lies upon his back, grasping with hands and feet the largest branches within reach. Orangs are perfectly harmless to human beings unless brought to bay on the ground. They are then as fierce as tigers. Their food consists of wild fruits, particularly the durian when in season, the tender shoots of the _Pandanus_, and the leaves of certain trees.

Although the aboriginal inhabitants of Borneo are divided into several tribes and scores of sub-tribes or clans, they may with reasonable exceptions be described as one body, or sub-race, viz.: Dyaks. In general terms, a Dyak may be described as a Bornean semi-savage, of Malay extraction, with straight black hair, a yellowish brown complexion, and smooth face of the Malay type. He is rather below medium stature, but athletic, and of active and warlike disposition. He is usually clad only in a bark loin-cloth, but sometimes wears a sleeveless jacket, and particularly in war, on which occasions it is made of skins or padded cloth. He is armed with sword and spear, and possibly the _sumpitan_ also for blowing poisoned arrows. He invariably lives in the jungle, in a long house-village set up high on posts. Although he has no religion whatever, and worships nothing, he has profound regard for the rights of property, respects his wife, and treats her and his children with the highest consideration. His sustenance is rice, fowls, pigs and fruit grown by himself, wild animals slain in the forest, and wild fruit, supplemented by a few things which he receives in exchange for wax, gum, rattans and gutta, although these are generally given for brass-wire, beads, cloth and other ornaments. He has no written languages, builds no monuments, makes no pottery, and only one kind of coarse cloth, carves rather neatly in wood, and works but little in iron. His bearing is independent, dignified, respectful. He is a trustworthy friend, but a dangerous foe.

In my judgment the aboriginal inhabitants of Borneo may be divided into four great tribes: The Kyans, Mongol Dyaks, Land Dyaks and Sea Dyaks. This classification differs very widely from any hitherto proposed.[K]

The Kyan tribe is numerically the greatest, probably exceeding a quarter of a million. They are less civilized than the other tribes, are exceedingly warlike and aggressive. They decapitate their slain enemies, and keep the cleaned skulls as trophies.

The Mongol Dyaks inhabit northeastern Borneo. They have been greatly influenced by contact with the Chinese, with whom they have intermarried. In appearance they resemble the other Dyaks.

The Land Dyaks inhabit the country lying between the Sadong River and the headwaters of the Sambas, extending southward to the Kapurce, and an unknown distance beyond. They live inland, and differ in certain customs from their neighbors, the Sea Dyaks. The Land Dyaks are the only people in Borneo who burn their dead. The warriors, though brave, are not fond of war for its own sake, nor are they possessed with an insatiable desire for plunder, as are the Kyans, and formerly the Sea Dyaks also. Their social customs closely resemble those of the Sea Dyaks.

The Sea Dyaks consist of seven clans, and occupy all the territory between the Rejang and Sadong rivers, from the sea-coast southward to the Kapurce. The Sarawak government estimates their number at 90,000, and the Land Dyaks at 35,000. The color of a typical Sea Dyak is dark brown, with a strong tinge of yellow. His hair is long and of a glossy black, and falls on his shoulders in graceful locks.

The Dyaks are happy and contented. Their wants are few, their diseases fewer, and their crimes fewer still. In hospitality, human sympathy and charity, they are not outranked by any people living, as far as I know, and their morals are as much superior to ours as our intelligence is beyond theirs. If happiness is the goal of human existence, the Dyak is much nearer to it than we. In this instance, at least, the highest civilization has not evolved the most perfect state of society. Is it possible that man reaches his highest moral development in a state of savagery? Is it then really true that as we increase in civilized intelligence, our capacities and propensities for wickedness increase likewise, and if so, will this always be the case with mankind?

[K] For elaborate discussions of these tribes the reader must consult Mr. Hornaday’s book, “Ten Years in the Jungle, with Rifle and Knife,” which has been announced by its publishers, Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons, as nearly ready for circulation.

* * * * *

I am here because God has sent me to do a work that no other being could do but myself. Had there not been room for me, God had not made me. Had I not been needed in America, God had not placed me in America. Had I not work in the nineteenth century, I had not been born.… I have a place—am sent of God on a mission, and if I perform it God shall acknowledge that I have done His will.—_From Sermons by Bishop Simpson._

THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB.[L]

The ordinary village fails to get the best out of life. A candid examination of average boys or girls of the town or country, brought up without the influence of outside advantages, too often reveals the fact that they are not, in refinement, in resources or in thought, the equal of city young people. There is a painful feeling that they are narrow. Indeed, they feel this themselves, and complain that they have “no opportunities.” At the same time the narrow life does not shield them from temptation, and there are almost as many young men in America going to ruin under the narrowing influences of country and town life as in the whirl of cities.

Among women the influence is evident. They are, it is true, largely free from the temptations of frivolity, extravagance and dissipation, but they are subject to temptations of no light weight. Their few interests lead them to gossiping, prying and criticising. Lines of class distinction are drawn so painfully tight that their lives become narrow in sympathies and associations. Very largely they lack independence of spirit to help them dare untried lines of conduct. Many of our American villages and “corners” are the most trying places in the land in which to live. Few dare to try improvements, enthusiasm meets little or no response, ideas travel slowly. Village life _looks_ ideal to one wearied by the rush and wickedness of a city, but there is in it a peculiarly benumbing influence which is all the more difficult to contend against because so silent in its action. Yet there are two of the best conditions for high living in the surroundings of town and country. There are leisure and quiet. Anything which will impregnate this rare life with enthusiasm and energy will furnish the happiest conditions for noble action and steady growth.

It is not an easy problem for a reformer in such a locality, but we believe Mrs. Campbell in her “What-to-do Club” offers a solution which will rarely fail among girls and women. “The What-to-do Club” is an unpretending story, but it has a practical grip on this question. It introduces us to a dozen or more village girls of varying ranks. One has had superior opportunities; another exceptional training; two or three have been “away to school;” some are farmers’ daughters; there is a teacher, two or three poor self-supporters—in fact, about such an assemblage as any town between New York and Chicago might give us. But while there is a large enough company to furnish a delightful coterie, there is absolutely no social life among them. The differences in their opportunities they have exaggerated until they feel that their interests are as unlike as those of Fijis and Bostonians. They look at each other with curiosity merely, and all of them are bored by the dullness of their lives. Mrs. Campbell puts a wise woman into their midst. This woman’s experience has taught her that the barrier between women of different sets is largely their ignorance of each other, their belief that they have nothing in common. She finds something in common for these girls. By a little tact, exerted at a village gathering, she interests them in herself. A second stroke of policy finds them gathered in her parlor and she clinches her work by giving them an insight into practical employments—not pleasures, mind you—but work, for women at home. The interest excited quickens them all. They become alert, capable, quick-witted, and suddenly see in each other much of which they had never before dreamed. The false barriers between women invariably fall before a common interest. Show them how strangely their minds and lives are alike and the sympathy of similarity makes friends of them. So the girls of the “What-to-do Club” found, at any rate. Their meetings became voyages of discovery. Their discoveries were El Dorados to many a one of their number perplexed by the want of pin-money, or worse still, of bread-money. Simple, practical, at-home occupations for leisure hours was the first study, and it is marvelous what a number they found. One young lady undertakes strawberry culture, and in a single season clears, off a quarter of an acre, $154.65. Better still, her vigorous out-of-door life transforms a pair of pale, hollow cheeks until they are rosy and plump, and awakens healthful interest which soon makes a happy heart out of a very discontented one. A half acre put into small fruits, currants, raspberries and blackberries, opens the way for an active young philanthropist to start a fund for a future kindergarten for her father’s employés. It does more. It opens the young lady’s eyes to the dignity of work, puts a bond of sympathy between her and the people who work for her, and strengthens the common sense of her whole family. Our strawberry girl tries poultry and finds it the most delightful of employments. It pays her, too, one season’s work yielding a clear profit of $86.56 on an expenditure of $73.40. Bees, with their fascinating history, their exciting family affairs, their industrious honey making, and their clear, unfailing profit came in for one young Busybody’s attention, and in a single season this young merchant clears $113.94. One girl tries silk worms and sends to the club this report of her summer’s work:

One ounce of eggs $5 00 Fixtures for cocoonery 5 00 ------ $10 00

36 pounds stifled cocoons at $1 per pound $36 00 ------ Profit $26 00

One of the best discoveries which the club makes is of the possibilities in fruit canning, jelly making, and, best of all, fruit evaporating. Like “Dorothy” of the “club,” when we read of the wonders of the latter we burned to “live in an orchard and evaporate everything that grows.” How wonderful it seemed to these girls to whom fruit preserving had been bounded by the limits of the fruit closet and the demands of the table, to put up jelly for market, to “take in” canning for people too busy to do their own, to dry fruit in that wonderful evaporator, which would sell in any market in the country.

It is not strange that these new ideas put into their lives new possibilities. It showed them that there was something to do at home, something which was more than a paying employment. For these out-of-door interests are more. They are health-giving, awakening pursuits. The girl that engages in such enterprises wins more than a few dollars; she cultivates the business faculty and arouses a dormant independence which makes a new creature out of her. This new interest in the lives of Mrs. Campbell’s girls gave them an interest, at first in purely money making enterprises, but it soon knit them into friends. Their friendship spread until they found themselves reading, studying, planning, as one body. The influence in the story energizes the community. It is, perhaps, quite possible that in a real club we might meet with more discouragements, but it is impossible that we fail entirely.

Town and country need more improving, enthusiastic work to redeem them from barrenness and indolence. Our girls need a chance to do independent work, to study practical business, to fill their minds with other thoughts than the petty doings of neighbors. A What-to-do Club is one step toward higher village life. It is one step toward disinfecting a neighborhood of the poisonous gossip which floats like a pestilence around localities which ought to furnish the most desirable homes in our country.

[L] The What-to-do Club. A Story for Girls. By Helen Campbell. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1885.

CRITICISMS.

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

The “Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle,” with the general Chautauqua movement, has had its share of criticism. Its advantages have been pointed out, and sometimes magnified. Its managers have had their attention called to the dangers and defects of the system. Personally, I enjoy adverse criticism and the practical counsel which it has brought quite as much as words of praise, for praise may paralyze effort, while the goad of the critic is likely to stimulate both ingenuity and resolution.

The members of the C. L. S. C. have from the beginning been encouraged to express freely to the Superintendent of Instruction their dissatisfaction with either text-books or methods. As a result of this freedom, vigilance has been promoted, and many improvements have been from time to time introduced.

The aims of the C. L. S. C. are unique. The provision of text-books precisely adapted to these unique aims has been one of the ever-present problems. If our readers were children in the school room, and daily recitations were practicable, it would be easy to find suitable text-books on every subject in the curriculum. If these readers were chiefly high school or college graduates desiring advanced courses of reading, it would be comparatively easy to provide standard works written by specialists for specialists, and assuming on every page a large measure of knowledge already possessed by the reader. If it were the aim of the C. L. S. C. to study one subject at a time, and that for a long time, exhaustively, from its alphabet to its “last word,” it would not be difficult to find numerous text-books on that subject adapted to every variety of capacity and attainment.

The C. L. S. C. is not, however, designed for school children, nor for advanced readers, nor for specialists. It has enrolled but few names of members under eighteen years of age. Its members are “out of school.” It rejoices in thousands of college graduates, but these take up its readings not for advanced study as post-graduates, but to review under favorable conditions the scholastic studies of former years, and in some cases, perchance, to make amends for carelessness and superficiality during those years of unappreciated opportunity.

The C. L. S. C. is therefore a “school of reading at home” for college graduates who desire, whatever the motive, to review the college course, and for people who, having been deprived of early educational opportunity, desire by a general course of reading to place themselves in sympathy with the school and college world; to know something of the educational courses now being pursued by their children; to test their own powers by a survey of the varied field of letters, and thus by our four years’ superficial course of reading prepare for special studies further on. The C. L. S. C. aims to provide, therefore, first for the four years’ general course, and afterward for the special studies.

The scope of the four years’ course is the usual college curriculum. With this aim we began. To this aim we adhere. The success of the scheme in promoting intellectual quickening and activity has been attested by thousands who have tried it for several years.

Here lies the chief cause of our embarrassment. It is difficult to provide books precisely adapted to the needs of our peculiar constituency. The Superintendent of Instruction and the Counselors have felt this from the beginning. Heavy and elaborate books discourage a class which we are anxious to lure into the love of literature. Books too much abridged fail to satisfy more mature minds. Old books may be behind the times, or, although acknowledged to be standards, may not for the reasons above given be fully adapted to our readers. As for new books—every one knows how hard it is to secure them, and how easily a flippant criticism may destroy the confidence of the uninitiated in them. Notwithstanding these embarrassments we have tried to do our best, providing old books where the council could agree upon them, and new books where they seemed to be absolutely necessary.

It is not to be expected that any book, especially any new book, will meet with universal approval. As for criticism—well, who knoweth the ways of critics with the new books! Did not Samuel Taylor Coleridge say of Burke’s essay on “The Sublime and the Beautiful,” “It seems to me a poor thing?” Did not Horace Walpole call Goldsmith “an inspired idiot?” Did not Dr. Johnson pronounce Fielding a “blockhead?” Does not Hume affirm that “no page of Shakspere is without glaring faults?” Was not the manuscript of Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” rejected because the critic to whom it was submitted pronounced it “without interest?”

Some books of the C. L. S. C. have excited unfavorable criticism—religious books by those who do not care to read religious books at all, and think it an impertinence to obtrude them upon the general reader; certain scientific books because “not up to the times,” or the critic being himself a scientific specialist is certain that the views of our specialist are “unsound.”

Concerning one of the books on the list, a correspondent says:

“It is useless—worse than useless; it is harmful. Its style is involved, obscure, bombastic, florid, ‘highfalutin’,’ diffuse, disfigured by straining after effect, by the effort for fine writing, and by many evil features carefully to be avoided.”

I do not quote the above as a specimen of classic English, but as indicating the temper of the writer, whose letter is accompanied by nineteen manuscript pages of closely written criticisms upon the condemned volume.

Concerning this same book, a high authority in English to whom it was submitted, has said: “It is a clear, compact, and readable statement of the laws and principles of speech.” A Boston writer of ability had said: “This little volume is the very best text-book for any one desiring to perfect himself in the laws and principles of speech. It is grammar, rhetoric and composition combined, and is doubly worth its price.” A Philadelphia critic had said: “A better treatise could not be placed in the hands of a student who has not been initiated into the intricacies which make prose composition an intolerable bore to the young.”

Other and equally strong commendations of this book might be quoted, commendations which were received from trustworthy authorities before it was placed on our list. I submitted the volume to one of the best literary critics in the country, who called attention to some errors which needed correction. Owing to the illness of the author, or for some other reason, his attention was not called to the corrections required, and therefore numerous minor defects, which would have been carefully remedied by its competent and scholarly author, appeared in the new edition. Dr. Johnson made six thousand alterations in the second edition of “The Rambler.” But for the oversight, for which I fear I must acknowledge myself responsible, the volume under consideration would have been thoroughly revised.

Many local circles have as leaders men of literary ability and scholarship who, prepared for such wise service by the humility which comes from years of educational experience, have pointed out these defects, at the same time fairly representing the true value of the book, and putting emphasis upon its admirable instructions which, by hyper-criticism, may have been lost sight of.

Concerning another book on the course, a critic says:

“As a close student of the classics for years past, I must say that I think there is very little scholarship displayed or employed in Prof. Wilkinson’s work on Greek literature.… Further, the arrangement is senseless, even harmful. Literature is a growth, and largely the reflex of the people’s life and thought. It must then be treated historically, and not in the topsy-turvy fashion of Prof. Wilkinson.”

The same writer proposed another series of works on ancient Greek literature, as a substitute for the two volumes of Prof. Wilkinson. The series he proposed, however, contained an amount of matter which would prove utterly discouraging to our readers and which would cost ten times as much as the more condensed work of Dr. Wilkinson. Besides all this, the work of Dr. Wilkinson meets the object of the C. L. S. C.

When one gets into the world of criticism, he finds himself among “doctors” who “disagree.” I have quoted one view of Dr. Wilkinson’s text-books, presented by our unknown critic. Now for another. Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York, a most finished scholar and close critic, and a judge of both English and Greek literature, says: “Dr. Wilkinson’s Greek course is clear, attractive, judicious in its treatment of the subject, and fills a valuable place in literature.” Of the second volume, the same scholar says: “The new volume is thoroughly attractive. It is fully up to the high standard of the other.” Such commendation as this sustained our earliest judgment of the works in question. Prof. Frieze, of the Latin Department of the University of Michigan, says: “I have not yet seen the ‘Preparatory Latin Course in English,’ though I was favored with a copy of the Greek. I have only to say that if the Latin equals the Greek it can not fail to be a contribution to classical culture both for classical and English scholars, of very great value. I have been delighted with a perusal of Prof. Wilkinson’s critical notices, his own translations, and his selections of the translations of others, and I sincerely congratulate him on the admirable style in which he has presented the matter, as well as the character of the matter itself, and the plan of the whole work.”

Prof. A. C. Kendrick, D.D., head of the Department of Greek in the University of Rochester, says:

“The plan of the work is quite unique, yet certainly adapted to the wants of a large and increasing class of young persons in our country. Its execution seems to me very felicitous; it is marked by the taste and scholarship which were to be expected from its accomplished author.”

Dr. Alvah Hovey, President of the Theological Institution, writes to Dr. Wilkinson:

“In these latter days I do not often read a volume through from beginning to end without omitting a chapter, paragraph, or sentence. But I have read in this way your ‘Preparatory Greek Course,’ simply because it is so instructive and captivating a volume that I could not persuade myself to pass over any word of it unread.”

The Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D., LL.D., late of Harvard University, writes:

“I have looked through Mr. Wilkinson’s ‘Preparatory Greek Course in English,’ and am prepared to give it my warmest commendation. It supplies a need which is more and more felt from year to year, for two reasons, one for which I rejoice, the higher standard of culture that prevails in society at large; the other, inevitable, yet to me a subject of regret, the diminishing disposition on the part of well-educated people to study the classical languages.”

The Boston _Watchman_ adds to such commendations as the above the following testimony:

“The plan is an ingenious one, and is carried out with spirit. It need not be said that the fine literary taste and critical acumen of Prof. Wilkinson are shown to much advantage. Only by a fair trial can the practical worth of such a series be proved. We have found pleasure in reading the volume.”

In suggesting to Dr. Wilkinson the idea of this “After-school Series,” I requested him:

1. To give in two volumes the substance of what the college boy in his preparatory and college course would learn of Greek literature—not the language, but the literature;

2. To put into his books as far as possible the method and spirit of the college recitation room, discussing collateral topics, introducing biographical and classical incidents, and employing illustrations from modern life and literature; to put his individuality into the work, so that teacher and pupils might be brought into friendly relations, and thus something of the animation and enthusiasm of the recitation room be enjoyed by solitary students.

It is Dr. Wilkinson’s attempt to realize this idea that produces the impression upon one critic of the “uninstructive chattiness” of the author. To a man who has just spent eight years in the study of the classics, and who makes them a specialty, there may be some things in Dr. Wilkinson’s book which are not instructive; to people for whom the book was written, there is not an uninstructive page in the book. Perfection in the recitation room may not be possible. Qualities in the _viva voce_ teacher which attract and delight and benefit one student may not so favorably impress, and may sometimes almost annoy, another. A member of the Circle writes (in reference, no doubt, to Dr. Wilkinson’s book): “One author frequently converses, as it were, with the reader, telling him in a friendly way of the many things he will relate after a while.… The book has caused the Circle to be ridiculed, and I could not think it was not without cause.”

I can readily see how a college graduate, just released from the recitation room, with lofty ideals of scholarship, and with really a vast amount of knowledge, might depreciate with a tone of contempt such a work as that of Dr. Wilkinson. I can see, too, how that smile of contempt from a scholar with local reputation might annoy and afflict less cultivated people belonging to a local circle who, devoted to an institution, are anxious that it and its text-books should receive the commendation of cultivated men. Just such commendation Dr. Wilkinson’s books have received. There may be now and then a slight tone of “chattiness.” There may be too frequent “forecasting of plan and purpose,” but on the whole the Professor’s work is admirably done, and has received the unqualified approval of our best students, men and women of the highest culture, eminent professors of Greek and Latin who fully understand and appreciate the aim of the author. I can assure my correspondent that there is nothing in Dr. Wilkinson’s books to cause the Circle or the books to be “ridiculed” by any true scholar.

A recent university graduate, and I have no doubt a brilliant scholar, writes:

“I wonder if it is safe to hint that, while the Chautauqua Idea is a noble and praiseworthy one, it is possible that the working out of the Idea may be defective?… When the members of the Circle read so faithfully the works prescribed, giving in many cases time that can ill be spared, it is but just that the very best should be given them to study, that alone will be of profit to the members, and help them to grow.”

The same writer pleads for “vigorous supervision by scholars and authorities on the respective subjects as the only thing that will enable the Chautauqua Idea to be carried out in a way that will help, and make them better and stronger in thought and life.”

This sentiment meets my heartiest approval. Indefatigably and conscientiously have the Superintendent of Instruction and the Counselors sought to do this very work for the readers who seek their direction.

It would surprise our friends to examine our budget of criticisms _pro_ and _con_, from all classes of people; from public school teachers, college professors, ministers, post-graduates, classicists, scientists, so called “self-made men,” and people who, professing to know almost nothing, seek advice and offer counsel. We have diligently sought to profit by the things which have been said.

Our readers must see the difficulties which encompass us; the wide diversity of opinion concerning certain books, and the impossibility of securing works which will receive universal approval.

There are persons who do not believe in popular education at all. A recent correspondent, a man of immense wealth, wrote: “Mechanics and sewing women should confine themselves to industrial education, and not aspire to the knowledge of literature and art.” Would it be possible to produce works on literature and art for the people which a man of that type could approve?

An author of some pretensions, without much reputation in literary lines, tried to place a work of his own on the list of the C. L. S. C. _in lieu_ of one on the same subject already adopted. Failing to win a place for his own, he proceeded in another book savagely to criticise the preferred volume. Would it be possible for this disappointed author to approve any book on his specialty that might be placed upon our course?

A certain youthful professor in an American college sneered at the idea of anybody enjoying the poetry of Homer or of Virgil unless he could read it in the original. Would it be possible for this literary fop to appreciate the books which seek to present the best thoughts of the old authors in classic English?

Dear fellow-student: Feel free to offer criticisms which may be helpful to the Board of Counsel. We do not modify our policy for every criticism received. But we weigh conscientiously and carefully all that is said in favor of or against the prescribed books. From year to year our course has been modified. I stand ready at all times to accept the best books; to abandon the best we have for anything better that may be placed within our reach. And as our experience broadens, helpful criticisms multiply, and authors understand our peculiar needs, we shall approach more and more nearly to the ideals which now shine above us.

Do not, I beseech you, fail to protest against false, querulous and impertinent criticisms, and against that hyper-criticism which delights in nothing so much as in pointing out faults and defects, losing sight of the great things in excessive eagerness to detect slight inaccuracies.

Remember that no book is placed upon the course that does not have the personal approval of the best critics, and remember, moreover, that it will never be possible to provide a book which is above criticism. As one of our Counselors writes:

“Good books have always been criticised upon some points adversely. Plato freely criticises Homer. Quintilian criticises Cicero. Cicero criticises Demosthenes. Addison criticises Milton. And in each instance no doubt real faults were pointed out. The most enlightened French critics used to pooh-pooh Shakspere. They did likewise with Dante.”

College students, with all their admiration for the professors under whom they moved through four years of study, have some foibles and defects to report and laugh at; but on the whole they honor the men who made them and led them. The authors of our text-books are our professors. On the whole they have done their work well. It is proper to note their faults and avoid them, but in defending them, and in being proud of them, and in rejoicing in the course of reading which they have provided, we have the endorsement of wise, scholarly and experienced educators.

Finally, let us learn the characteristics of the true critic, and according to the measure of our ability let us seek to possess them:

“A critic must have breadth, accuracy, sympathy, reverence, and love. He must have no partialities, and no aversions. He must not be captious, but just.”

OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.

OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READINGS FOR JUNE.

_First Week_ (ending June 8).—1. “The Mechanism of English,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for June 7, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Second Week_ (ending June 15).—1. “Easy Lessons in Animal Biology,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for June 14, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Third Week_ (ending June 22).—1. “Home Studies in Chemistry,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for June 21, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Fourth Week_ (ending June 30).—1. “The Heart Busy with Things About Us,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for June 28, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

PROGRAMS FOR LOCAL CIRCLE WORK.

FIRST WEEK IN JUNE.

1. A Review Lesson—The History of Alexander.

2. Selection—“The Prayer of Agassiz.” By Whittier.

3. Reading—Story of “Perseus.” From “The Heroes.” By Charles Kingsley. [See “Talk About Books,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for May, 1885; also poem in present number.]

Music.

4. _Conversazione_—The Cause of the Trouble between England and Russia.

5. Selection—“Davie; an Epistle to a Brother Poet.” By Burns.

6. Critic’s Report.

SECOND WEEK IN JUNE.

1. Selection—Alcibiades. From “Plutarch’s Lives,” or from “The Young Folks’ Plutarch.”

2. A Paper on Our Local Birds.

3. Recitation—“Pegasus in Pound.” By Longfellow.

Music.

4. Essay—Alchemy. [Beside giving definition and history, allusion might be made to its introduction into fiction. See Goethe’s “Faust,” Scott’s “Kenilworth” and “Antiquary,” Bulwer’s “Last Days of Pompeii,” Hawthorne’s “Birth Mark,” Hoffman’s “Sand Man” in “Weird Tales,” and many other works which these will suggest.]

5. A General Talk on the Rebellion in the Canadian Provinces.

6. A Paper on Richard Grant White.

THIRD WEEK IN JUNE.—MONTHLY PARLOR MEETING.

Music.

1. A Paper on the Practical Education of American Girls.

2. A Character Sketch—Louis Agassiz.

Music.

3. Selection—“The Tragedy of the Night Moth.” By Carlyle.

4. A Sketch of “Edie Ochiltre,” the Beggar in Scott’s “Antiquary.”

Music.

5. Essay—The Parthenon; its History, Description, and Scattered Remains.

6. A Talk on Alaska.

Music.

FOURTH WEEK IN JUNE.—CLOSING EVENING.

1. A Report Presenting a Summary of the Year’s Work.

2. Selection—“Song of the Greeks.” By Thomas Campbell.

Music.

3. Essay—Science and Art in Housekeeping.

4. Recitation—The Dinner Hour. From “Lucille,” Part I., Canto II., 23d and 24th stanzas.

Music.

5. A Paper on Schliemann’s Researches in Troy.

6. A Half-hour Good-by Social.

The following suggestions are also offered for the closing exercises:

A C. L. S. C. banquet followed by toasts.

A luncheon party and charades.

Readings connected with any part of the year’s work, illustrated by tableaux.

An evening of games, such as “Characters” or “Twenty Questions,” in which one of the company selects a character or an object, and is then to be questioned by all the rest until they find out what he has in mind. The questions must be asked in such a way that the reply can be “yes,” “no,” or “I don’t know.” The company who can not guess rightly before the twentieth question is to be considered dull.

“Throwing Light” is also interesting. One of the party begins to tell a story, concealing all names. When any one thinks he knows what it is about he raises his hand, takes up the story, and goes on with it until a third is enlightened and proceeds with the narrative, and so on until it is evident to all in the room.

LOCAL CIRCLES.

C. L. S. C. MOTTOES.

“_We Study the Word and the Works of God._”—“_Let us keep our Heavenly Father in the Midst._”—“_Never be Discouraged._”

C. L. S. C. MEMORIAL DAYS.

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.

* * * * *

The great value in doing solid reading is that it enhances the value of all other experience. A member of the class of ’87, writing from ROME, ITALY, says: “I think the course for this year particularly interesting, especially for our party, which is to spend the spring months among the ruins of that noble capital, Athens.” The reading our friend has been doing has recommended itself to her foreign friends, who have made many inquiries about the course of reading, even wishing to be enrolled as members of our great Circle. The teacher over seas, like the tourist, finds benefit in the work. A member of the class of ’83, writing from BULGARIA, says: “The time from six to seven in the morning is all that I can spare from my other work, but it makes the day brighter to begin it in this way, and so I read and study and think, and get charming glimpses of home circles. _Next year_ I mean to have a circle here, and hope to know enough of the language to put some of the best things into Bulgarian.”

On the home side of the Atlantic, circle life seems to be vigorous and growing. The organizations of past years hold to the work, and many new fields are opened monthly. At BROCKVILLE, ONTARIO, the “Island City” branch of thirteen members was organized last October. A simple but very effective method of work has been followed, that of appointing examiners on each subject, different members being appointed from time to time, so that all may be kept interested. They have had for president a college graduate to help them over tough places in their classics, and a practical chemist is proving the marvels of chemistry to them.

LIVERPOOL, NOVA SCOTIA, sends an encouraging word of the progress of their circle, formed in 1883, and now boasting twelve active members. The plan for the evening’s work in this circle is very good. Introductory exercises of prayer, minutes of last meeting, roll call, responded to by quotations, and a select reading, precede the evening drill, which is an informal conversation on one or more of the C. L. S. C. studies, conducted by a leader.——We quite agree with our friend at NIAGARA, who thinks that Chautauquans ought to know that there are other places in ONTARIO beside Toronto where circles are doing good work, and that their town is one of them. If all the Ontario towns have as bright and brave circles as Niagara, we most certainly hope we shall hear from them. “In December, 1882,” so their history runs, “we formed a triangle, with angles of various degrees of acuteness or obtuseness, but did not commence work till January, and being three months behind time we found the work rather heavy, but in proof of our zeal can report that not one of us that year ever missed any of our fortnightly meetings. In October, 1883, we were joined by another member, not less acute, and ‘stood four-square to all the winds that blow.’ We expected to form a real circle, with all our angularities smoothed off, but find ourselves this year with the original three, but from sickness and other reasons have had our meetings sadly broken in upon, so that we need to use our motto, ‘Never be discouraged.’ So far we have all enjoyed the work. We all lead busy lives, without our Chautauqua studies, but we hope that they will give to our lives sweetness and strength, and breadth and power. Many of us have done more reading each year than the course, but then such reading is apt to be desultory, and the fact of studying with others gives greater interest. We have generally kept the memorial days, and we all hope to visit Chautauqua some time.”

A step has been taken in western MAINE to form a Chautauqua association. AUBURN, LEWISTOWN and adjoining towns have many members of the C. L. S. C. In March a meeting was held in Auburn, and after a banquet a motion was passed providing for an associated circle of all the C. L. S. C.s of Western Maine. True to the Chautauqua instinct, they are going to have a summer meeting. MARANOCOOK is the chosen place, and June is the time. Western Maine Chautauquans have the hearty good wishes of us all for a delightful summer session. At their March meeting, these friends passed a just and appreciative resolution of gratitude to Chancellor Vincent for the happy thought that conceived the Chautauqua Idea, and the untiring and well directed zeal that has made it so efficient.——At WOODFORDS, MAINE, the “Arlington” circle of fourteen members held twenty-five meetings during the winter. Such zealous work justifies their claim that they possess the “enchanted number” for a circle. The Arlington proposes a parlor entertainment for a near day.

GREENLAND N. H. has two very strong Chautauqua organizations, the “Baketel” circle and the “Spare Minute Class.” Founder’s Day was celebrated with great _éclat_ by these warm admirers of Chancellor Vincent. A public meeting was held in the town hall, with exercises of song, recitation, reading and tableaux. The last tableau was so characteristic it deserves a description. It was “The Chautauquans at Home,” and represented the entire local circle and spare minute class at work. One was rocking the cradle and reading, another was at the ironing table with an open book, and several were sewing and studying at the same time. A happy close to the evening was a presentation to the honored president of the circle, the Rev. O. S. Baketel, of an elegant easy chair.

Among the senior circles it is pleasant to be able to count in that of NORTH GROTON, N. H. The secretary says: “The ‘Angle’ has kept silent since 1882, thinking that only two was a small number to report as a local circle, yet all this time we have met at every opportunity, for reading and questioning. We had long wished for guidance in home study, and the ‘course’ was eagerly taken as soon as heard of. This year two earnest ’88s have joined us. With us ‘Chautauqua has come to stay.’ ‘For,’ as Dr. Vincent said at Framingham, ‘goals yet grander wait our winning on the mountains by and by.’”

And now we have a nautical circle. The first mate, so we imagine, has sent us notes from the log-book, running over their whole course. Perhaps their sailing may guide another crew: “We have read in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, from month to month, many interesting reports from local circles, which have been like fresh breezes to our own sails. One would judge from reading that _success_ was stamped upon _all_ methods of circle work. We have thought sometimes that a part of the unwritten history of such work might be helpful. We suspect that—way back in the annals—some things were undertaken that did not turn out just right, and a few chapters from out that experience might save many a small boat from going to pieces in dangerous waters. In general, the ‘Vincent’ circle, of WEST BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT, has had fair sailing from port to port, set down on the C. L. S. C. line of travel. Four years ago a few of us began floating, not knowing enough ourselves of whither we were bound, to give a general invitation for ‘all aboard.’ At last, reinforced, we tried to go in two separate boats, which kept just near enough together, and just far enough apart, to render such a division of the crew unnecessary, to say the least. One year we failed to set sail soon enough, and came in late at every port. This year we make one crew, under one efficient captain, a few only compelled by circumstances, or preferring to go in their own little skiffs. October 1, 1884, we set sail, and made directly for the shores of Greece. Landing under the direction of two well chosen generals, we scattered to spy out the land, bringing in such reports as we were able, at the time appointed. On the evening of November 3d we gathered to do reverence to the memory of one who had wished us ‘Godspeed.’ About that time experiments in chemistry furnished us with illumination. Since the observance of that memorial day, we have known that we were still landed upon the shores of Greece, but reports concerning the country and its people, past and present, have been few, for finding ourselves in danger of forgetting, rather never having known, our ‘mother tongue,’ we have spent some time in practice of the ‘art of speech,’ and, loyal to our native land, we have observed some of its festivals, and repeated to each other words from those we all delight to honor.”

For faithful work few circles can exceed that in FRANKLIN, MASS. The circle numbers sixty-six members, nineteen of them being of the class of ’88. Meetings are held fortnightly. Not one regular meeting has been omitted since October 1, 1883. The president, although pastor of a large church, has been absent but five times since the circle was formed—November, 1882. The work done at these meetings is solid review of past readings. “Founder’s Day” was observed by accepting an invitation from the “Star” circle, FOXBORO, MASS., to visit them and engage in a “Question Match” on Greek History, after which a bountiful collation was served, and a social time enjoyed by all. Each heart felt grateful to Chancellor Vincent for the C. L. S. C.——At ROCKPORT, MASS., the circle has fallen from fifteen to five, but the five faithful seem to enjoy their work too well to need any commiserating. They are so interested in their studies they actually don’t realize they have grown smaller—a method of taking things which removes the stings from all falls in fortune. The “Granite” circle turns each alternate meeting into a Round-Table, and finds that the plan works capitally. The circle is anticipating the pleasure of going in a body to Framingham Assembly this summer.

MASSACHUSETTS is the banner State again. At COCHESETT twenty-four members form a circle of “Plymouth Rocks.” The Longfellow memorial was their first experience with special days; a successful experiment, too, we judge, for they have decided to continue the plan for the remainder of the year. Cochesett is an Assembly offspring—a child of Framingham, which gave the first interest to its zealous founder.——The “Philomaths,” of NEW BEDFORD, send greetings to all our fraternity. Since their reorganization in October the circle has resolved itself into groups of six or seven, which hold weekly round-tables for thorough study.——It is wonderful what enormous interest some circles get on their investments. Here is the “Bryant,” of WORCESTER, MASS., actually making 100 per cent. in less than two years. In the fall of 1883 they began with twenty members, to-day they number forty. Is it far-fetched to attribute something of their success to the “question basket,” which forms an important part of their program?——The “Alphas,” thirty-two in number, of ATTLEBOROUGH, send us some capital hints for our programs. At a Greek evening recently, ten of their number were selected to give brief descriptions of Greek heroes—the rest of the company guessed the hero described. A half hour was also spent at the Mardigras, and a friend, fresh from the carnival scenes, described his experiences among the merry masqueraders. At an hour of electrical experiments a very happy device was exhibited recently before the circle. The electricity played over tin-foil, with grooves an eighth of an inch apart, and through a stencil-like arrangement showed to the surprise of the circle the illuminated letters, “C. L. S. C.”——_The Saturday Union_, of LYNN, MASS., is doing most effective work for the Chautauquans of its vicinity, and a strong body of workers it has to serve. By a late issue we notice that there are in the city six circles, and the list of Chautauquans, which appears with their residences in the same paper, includes 114 names. This “goodly companie” has given a course of lectures this winter; the seventh in the course was on “Electricity”—and by a lady who, we are happy to say, illustrated her talk by apparatus of her own making. Our Chautauqua women! How proud we are growing of their ability, their pluck, their womanliness!——NORTH BROOKFIELD’S circle has recently been favored by a poem on “The Chautauqua Idea,” also by a woman.——It would be unjust to allow a mistake, which found its way into last month’s “Local Circles,” to go uncorrected. At the Longfellow celebration held by the Chautauquans of Boston and vicinity, there were five hundred instead of fifty persons present.

The treasurer of the “Hall on the Hill” to be erected at Framingham this year, paid a well deserved compliment to the “Clio” circle, of PROVIDENCE, R. I., when he said that he wished there were more circles like the “Clio.” These energetic friends took Chancellor Vincent at his word last summer, when he promised to lecture for any circle which would pledge $200 to the “Hall on the Hill.” They raised the money, had their lecture, and are satisfied. Their hard work seems to have only whetted their intellectual appetites, for they have had a long list of brilliant talks by distinguished men in addition to regular circle work. By the way, the New England branch of the class of ’87 was to hold a meeting in Providence in April, and the “Clio” was to act as hostess. What was done? A Providence neighbor of the “Clio” is the “Channing” circle of twenty-five members. We notice that these Providence friends use a very pretty and appropriate heading on their letter paper. At the top of the sheet, in the corners, appear the names of president, vice president and secretary, and below “Headquarters of the Channing Circle of the C. L. S. C.”

A party of DANBURY, CONN., Chautauquans went abroad one night not long ago to see “Athens in the Golden Age.” A delightful time these tourists had. They made the passage of the Mediterranean Sea, and at Athens visited the Acropolis, went to the Areopagus to listen to Pericles, called on Xantippe, and did a hundred more interesting things, at last coming home via “Plymouth Rock.” The “Nestors,” however, do much beside travel. They have an excellent method of working the question box, which is an inevitable part of their program. The questions are gathered just before adjournment, and shuffled, each member drawing one. The first exercise after roll call at the next meeting is the answering of these queries. The imaginary trips which our Danbury friends like so well, the “Alpha” circle, of NORWICH, makes a part of each evening’s work. When they journeyed from Boston to New York they went with Howells in a “Sleeping Car.” They have lived over, on paper, all the preparations for the trip abroad, the life on the steamer, and have done the sight-seeing of the British Isles. These tourists have enlivened their travels by many a happy device. Once it was a _conversazione_, and again, in preparation, perhaps, for their visit to Athens, a pronouncing match on Greek proper names. What wonder they have had a phenomenal growth! Last year there was not a circle in Norwich, now there are six. When the “Alpha” organized last fall, it was with eleven members, to-day they have fifty. Nothing to be surprised at, perhaps. It seems to have been “good growing weather” for the C. L. S. C., throughout New England.——MERIDEN, CONN., has had the common experience, the circle having increased to sixty-six members. They have found the key to the mastery of the Greek names and chemical terms. The pronouncing matches have unlocked the doors and the fortunate Meridenites are able to talk glibly on their Grecian rambles. A second circle, “Hanging Hills Class,” was organized last fall in Meriden. It has grown to twenty members, who are doing superior work. This class observed Longfellow’s Day appropriately. The ’89 outlook must be very promising in Meriden.——“A small twig of the great New England branch,” the “Endeavor,” of STRATFORD, calls itself, and a healthy fruit-bearing twig, if small, we should call any circle that can double its membership, as it has done, in less than a year.

A splendid move has been made by the Chautauquans of NEW YORK CITY. The circles had never united there for public work until, April 9th, after a deal of planning and much labor the various local circles in the city, with one from JERSEY CITY, held a public meeting at the Broadway Tabernacle. Chancellor Vincent was secured to deliver the address. A large and enthusiastic audience, numbering about 1,200 persons, was present. “School after School, or the Every-day College” was the theme of the address. The friends who had prepared the meeting were more than jubilant over the way the interesting lecture “took” among their guests, and declared that though some of them had long been members of the C. L. S. C. all of them received new vistas of the work. After the lecture the Chancellor held a reception, at which the members of the following New York circles were received by him: The “Garfield,” “Irving,” “Unique,” “Spare Moment,” “Central,” “Park Avenue,” and the “Round-Table,” of Jersey City.——BROOKLYN has a “Pierian” spring, at which twenty-five devotees of the muses “drink deep” and joyously. Essays, debates, recitations, quizzes, poems, and chemical experiments are the draughts these friends draw from their well. So happy are they in their festivities that another year they hope to see a sister welling up by their side.——At RANDALL’S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY, there is one of those steady, hard-working circles, which by their fruits so favorably impress the people who watch them. The “Excelsior” has been in existence for two years and has a roll of seventeen persons. A program full of good points is carried out at their regular sessions, which are interrupted only by Memorial services. The secretary finds, he writes, that the influence and example in regard to Chautauqua work is shown by an increased attendance and membership.——When circles increase in geometrical ratio—and a little over—year after year, it is not strange that a time should come when the leader inquires “What _shall_ we do?” At GLENS FALLS four graduates, eleven ’86s, twenty-three Pansies, and fifty-nine Plymouth Rocks—ninety-seven in all—form the circle. It is an unwieldy number to study together, but, writes the secretary, “We are fearful that division into smaller circles will greatly lessen the membership. We are considering for next year this plan: We shall have our general meetings as at present and encourage the formation of sections for special meetings, making the leaders of the sections, together with the officers of the general circle, an executive committee.” The plan is good, and if the monthly joint meetings are made “state occasions,” there will be but little danger of the sections losing ground.——At TROY the monthly meetings are conducted in an admirable way—not one of the least of the secrets of their success is their habit of sending out cards with the program, and some such stirring word as this:

“We hope every member will be prepared with some facts on No. 6 [“No. 6” was a _conversazione_ on “Our Territories”]. Let us make it a success. Our whole course is highly remunerative to one who reads. Make your hours count for profit. We have all the time there is. Not everything that comes to us and asks a little of our time should be granted audience or gratification.”

A similar plan is followed by the “Mettowee” circle, of GRANVILLE, N. Y. A “Round-Table” on a recent program was, “What we have seen (mentally or otherwise) during the past week.” If the Glens Falls people will make their monthly meetings big enough to arouse the pride of the members of the section, the result will not be doubtful.——SHUSHAN, N. Y., has two circles. The younger of the two is reported as “fast becoming one of the fixed and instructive institutions of the village,” a state that the three-year-old circle of DEANSVILLE is already in, we surmise, from the report of the work of its membership. The Deansville circle holds an annual public meeting, at which an entertainment is provided and refreshments served. Preparations are being made for this year’s meeting.——A “Crescent” has appeared in KNOXBORO since the year 1885 began. Though so late in beginning that they are obliged to devote almost all their time to the readings, and are too busy to prepare elaborate programs, the interest has not flagged since the start. The “Crescent” has ten members.——SYRACUSE has always been one of the most interesting of the local centers of the C. L. S. C. Their graduates, of whom one is the genial Secretary of Chautauqua, Mr. W. A. Duncan, have organized a chapter of the “S. H. G.” They propose to hold monthly meetings, and to pursue one of the special courses of study. The membership of this new class is eleven now, and there will be yearly “more to follow.”——The “Philomathean,” of LANCASTER, N. Y., opening with 10 members, has grown to fifteen beside honorary and local members. Constant variety in programs, no “set way,” and hard work have been the maxims of their success.

The “Broadway” circle, of CAMDEN, N. J., puts in after a program of remarkably good timber, and the outline of their thorough organization, this healthy testimony: “‘Broadway’ circle is busily engaged in promoting this home study, and the older we grow the more we are able to discern the many blessings derived from it; the more we read and study the books the more does it stimulate our interest and thirst for knowledge.”——At PHILLIPSBURG, N. J., the circle has met this year with a sad loss in the death of Mrs. F. B. Holbert. Mrs. Holbert was a member of the class of ’84, the president of the circle in Phillipsburg at the time of her death, and a most zealous friend of the C. L. S. C. To her the circle at Phillipsburg owes its existence.——At BRIDGEPORT a circle of eight was organized in October, 1884. A faithful leader has helped to keep them interested and alive, and already they write that a taste for solid reading has been acquired by the members.——A local circle has been organized at EAST ORANGE, with eighteen members. The favorite name, “Alpha,” has been given the class. One of their late meetings of unusual interest was the celebration of Longfellow’s birthday, at which, among other exercises, we notice what must have been a particularly pleasing number, “The Better Land,” illustrated by tableaux.

The genial, kindly associations of circles are one of their greatest charms. How the kindly attention, the pleasant surprises kindle the hearts and knit the affections! CARLISLE, PA., circle has recently experienced all the delight of doing one of these pleasant deeds. The birthday of their president, Dr. Whitney, was celebrated by a genuine surprise. A game of chess at a neighbor’s was the bait which enticed him from home, where, on his return, the Chautauquans of his circle, thirty-one strong, greeted him with good cheer and good wishes. It pays to slip into our Chautauqua life many of these pleasant little affairs.——Several notices of Longfellow celebrations held by PENNSYLVANIA circles reached us too late for the May issue of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. At BETHLEHEM, where there is a “thoroughly congenial” circle of ten, the day was appropriately observed. This circle has found a scheme of study which it reports works very well for them. The time from 7:30 to 10:00 p. m. on the evening of meeting is divided into half-hour periods. These periods are all but one devoted to quizzes on the subjects laid down in THE CHAUTAUQUAN outline, the extra period being given to a discussion of the works of some well known author.——At PITTSBURGH the “Hiawatha” observed the day with an excellent program, carried out before many friends. This circle—fifteen in number—is one of last fall’s harvest. Their motto, “Bound to Win,” tells the stuff they’re made of.——The wide-awake circle at NEW WILMINGTON, PA., prepared a program covering Founder’s day, and Longfellow’s, and reported a “royal good time” for their trouble. There are twenty-four members in the circle; their unanimous verdict is: “The C. L. S. C. has been a source of intellectual growth to us. And we have been led by it to take a wider view of the possibilities of life.”——A very good program of a Longfellow service comes from PLYMOUTH. We notice an analytical study among the numbers, and would commend such services to the circles as particularly profitable.——The LOCK HAVEN circle, at its Longfellow evening, paid a high compliment to the circle at RENOVO, by reading the program carried out by the latter on a previous evening, and sending their greetings and congratulations to the Renovo Chautauquans, that they have grown so strong and enthusiastic in but one year’s readings.——We are always sorry to miss in geography, but we will “own up;” we did in the April issue. The “Golden Flower” is not a Tennessee, but a Pennsylvania blossom, and HATBORO is a Keystone town. The “Golden Flower” has sent a series of really model programs recently.——From a friend at GILMORE, PA., we learn of the “Foster Brook” circle. This class was organized in October, 1882, with twenty-one members, but in a few months its course was rudely broken by the death of one of their young but zealous members, Mr. Henry Howe, of the class of ’86. The work was again taken up, but February, ’84, Mr. H. F. Howe, father of the former, and a member of the same class, was laid away by the side of his son. Though so tried by sorrow our friends have bravely followed their work, saddened, yet rejoicing.——It is an experience that many circles have, we imagine, this of the TUNKHANNOCK circle, of finding that their second year’s reading goes much more easily than the first, and that they have time for many things in their circle which once they did not have. One good thing that the “Tunkhannock” occasionally slips in is important items of news from the secular press.——The “Mountaineers,” of CLEARFIELD, is one of the many, many circles brought into the field by Chancellor Vincent’s kindling fervor. It is an ’88 circle, and numbers fifteen members. Reviews, readings, and conversation supplement the programs of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The reviews, particularly, they have found valuable. Each book is taken up after being read, questions made out on it, and answers given by the circle. Outlines of the books are also sometimes prepared. This latter plan we do not remember to have noticed in the reports before, but we know it to be a very effective method for reviewing the facts or arguments in a book.——We rarely open our monthly budget of letters without finding a WASHINGTON, D. C., representative. This month we have a program from the “Wesley Chapel” circle, a good one, of course, like all the Chautauqua work done in Washington. An interesting item on it is “The Public Buildings of Athens,” illustrated by photographs.

A MIDDLETOWN, MD., letter suggests a new way of managing a local circle. “We are the ‘Mayflower’ circle, numbering five,” our friend writes, “As we are active members of a literary society, which meets weekly, we have no circle meetings, but talk over our readings, and Chautauqua in general, when opportunities offer. We are earnest and interested, and expect to enter upon next year’s work with increased knowledge, zeal, and numbers.”

A bed of KENTUCKY Pansies is filling all the air of HARDINSBURG with sweetest fragrance. “Of all the red letter days in our circle calendar,” writes one of them, “Longfellow’s day is the brightest. We send you a program of our last celebration, and a delightful evening we had carrying it out. A year ago we thought we could not have another Longfellow’s evening as pleasant as was that. We feel assured that the evening just passed was more nearly what such an evening should be. In looking back from this standpoint upon the past year, we are inspired for renewed energies and work for the years to come.”——Another Pansy of Kentucky, from BEWLEYVILLE, writes: “The C. L. S. C. has been of immense benefit to me. My irregular habits of study and desultory reading, instead of strengthening, had enervated my mind.… My CHAUTAUQUAN and books are a great source of pleasure to some of my acquaintances who are not pursuing the course.”

CHILLICOTHE, OHIO, has, in the Walnut Street M. E. Church, an enthusiastic band of twenty-two workers, who report themselves as “progressing finely.” At a recent meeting a lecture on the “Art of Speech,” by the able Episcopalian rector of the city, was greatly enjoyed by the class.

It must be that a millennium has reached the circle of ERIE, MICHIGAN. If there is another circle in the country that can say as much, we should like to know where they are and how they do it. The Eries are forty-five in number, and though some of the members live six miles apart, and the meetings are held at the houses, yet through all the past long and dreary winter there was an average attendance of more than three fourths of the membership. “And,” thus writes our correspondent, “each member is expected to do whatever the committee may assign him. We never have a failure. The program is always carried out to the letter.”——At CASNOVIA, a circle of nine was organized in October last. Like nearly all our students, they are extremely busy people, but yet thorough in their work. They hold informal meetings for discussions and conversation on the readings of the month.——The first of January a circle was organized at MILFORD, Michigan, composed of twelve ladies, not all of them ’88s, there being a sprinkling of graduates and seniors to give direction to “Plymouth Rock” enthusiasm.——“One more Michigan circle” is heard of at JONESVILLE. The circle started out with twelve members, and is keeping up a working membership of nine. The meetings are very enjoyable, every one taking part in the most interesting and informal way.——Last October a wave of Chautauqua enthusiasm passed DUNDEE, Michigan, which resulted in organizing a C. L. S. C. of six members. They call the new organization “Longfellow’s” circle, and hope with the next year the numbers will increase. The circle has observed all memorial days, which have proved of great benefit and interest.——Evidently the “wave” has not left Michigan yet, for we have just received a card telling of the organization and election of officers of a new circle at GREENVILLE. Success to their efforts.——A sample of the work which the C. L. S. C. helps the student to do, the GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, circle furnishes in a recent program. The exercises included, in brief, papers which took “broad, quick views.” Articles upon Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, Herodotus, Sappho, Greek Mythology, British Association for the Advancement of Science, American Soil, Life of Longfellow, and a review of Longfellow’s novel, “Hyperion.” This circle has made a big stride since last year, its membership having increased from twenty-three to thirty-seven.——The new pronoun which troubled some of our students has been employed by a correspondent from the circle at JACKSON, MICH. Perhaps his zeal to fill up this “long felt want” in language will make more clear to our readers the use of “thon.” These circle notes are very suggestive: “We meet weekly at the home of one of the members, a system we have found to be an improvement on that of meeting in a public hall. Chautauqua’s special sphere of influence is in the home; it is here ‘thon’ expects to do work which will be lasting, and eventually permeate every department of life. It will then be easily understood why ‘thon’ should find home and its associations a more congenial place of meeting than a public hall. Our meetings are conducted much in the usual manner, except, perhaps, our mode of managing a ‘discussion.’ To this feature we make special claim as being the originators. The leader of these talks, whose duty it is to ‘keep the ball rolling,’ is, with the subject, chosen a week beforehand. Each of the members is expected to inform ‘thonself’ on the topic thus allotted, and to be prepared to give an opinion or ask questions. Richard Grant White’s language articles, ‘The Art of Speech,’ and ‘The Temperance Teachings of Science,’ have already been dealt with in this profitable and interesting way.”

We are glad to be able to introduce INDIANA this month with a clipping from a private letter to the lady here so honored:

“WABASH, IND.

“I want to tell you how our local circle of the C. L. S. C. honored itself last night in deciding to be called the ‘Frances Willard’ circle, and, furthermore, to observe your birthday as a memorial day.… We have in our circle, as you may suppose, a number of ladies active in the work of the W. C. T. U. Our circle numbers thirty-two. It was organized in ’79, but never christened until last night. The vote on the name was unanimous.”

From ALBION, INDIANA a friend writes: “We have organized a circle here consisting of twenty-four members. Prof. E. C. White, superintendent of schools, is our leader; and is greatly interested in our circle and its work. We meet each week, at the residences of the members, taking them alphabetically. The majority of the teachers in our public schools belong to the circle, and all the members are much interested in their work.”——And still another from the same state, from FOWLER, says: “We organized in October, 1884, with nine members; the circle now numbers fourteen members, of four different classes. One item of each program is a question drawer, questions to be taken from suggestions of the weekly readings. If any question is not answered by the circle, it is assigned to some member to be answered at the next meeting. I find this stimulates all to read carefully, as no one can know just what part of the week’s reading is to be investigated. This is a most interesting feature, and we can get those to engage in this who will do nothing else. We have two members living at a distance who are only present in person occasionally, but always present in manuscript when on program, so we call them our ‘paper members.’”——A Chautauqua circle was organized at LIGONIER, Indiana, in October, 1884, with a membership of seventeen, and named the “Ligonier Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.” In it are represented three denominations. The programs are so varied as to avoid monotony in the exercises. One night the committee gave topics for brief essays, on another, questions to be answered at next meeting. The members of the circle pronounce the prescribed course of study excellent and interesting in its details, and feel grateful for a plan so far-reaching and so beneficent in its results. Bryant’s, Milton’s, and Longfellow’s days were observed by devoting to them and their works the entire evening. A knot of cardinal and old gold ribbon constitutes the circle’s badge. The circle is highly pleased with the motto “Let us be seen by our deeds,” and many of the members express themselves satisfied with their name, “Plymouth Rocks.”——We have received the list of names of the members, fifteen in all, which form the circle of BROOKVILLE, Ind. We are hoping to receive some of the Brookville circle’s experiences soon.

The “Peripatetics” of CHICAGO, ILL., is an organization formed last fall. There are twelve members. The circle, we fear, is not using the local circles’ reports right, if, when they read them, they feel almost discouraged at the little they have accomplished. The whole spirit of Chautauqua is, “what has been done can be done,” and our work is mainly to show by actual example what has been done. The “Peripatetics” have too many opportunities for doing superior work, living as they do, in such a city as Chicago, to grow discouraged.——The death of Richard Grant White has been a great loss to Chautauquans. His admirable “Studies in English” had met the warmest reception, and when they were cut short by his death all our readers felt they had met a personal loss. It was this feeling that led a Chicago circle to add to their resolutions of respect passed upon Mr. White’s death, a clause stating that as a feeble expression of their regard and, as a token of respect to his memory, their local circle be hereafter known as the “Richard Grant White.”——For novel diversions, commend us to the “Alpha,” of QUINCY. This circle has sandwiched a great amount of fun in with its solid work this winter, nor has it been to the injury of the work. On College day they had a sleigh ride, not long after a mock trial; they have introduced a paper, the _Symposium_, which gives an opportunity for numberless hits, and on Valentine’s day the _Symposium_ furnished the entertainment, each member having sent to the editor an anonymous piece of poetry.——A circle was organized in STERLING last October, and has now nine members. They have no officers, and each meeting is conducted by the lady at whose house it is held. Their informal way of doing things has some advantages. An invalid member is mentioned, who, like many others, finds relief in affliction by having something to do, and doing it religiously.

On one of the last evenings of September, a few Morrisonians met and organized the “Alpha Society,” of MORRISON, ILLINOIS. They number fifteen, and have accomplished much by the winter’s work. The plan has been to take the outline of required reading, as laid down in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and prepare the lesson as thoroughly as possible by the use of books and encyclopædias. At the meetings the class recites the lessons learned the week before. Occasionally they have an essay, or select reading.——A circle of twenty members was organized in JACKSONVILLE, Ill., last October, with the Rev. H. E. Butler, pastor of Congregational Church, as president. They have given special attention thus far to the Greek course, enlarging the reading, and bringing in other authors as far as possible. Now that the Greek is nearly finished the circle is bringing chemistry into prominence.——The “Oakland” circle, of CHICAGO, Illinois, was organized in February, 1884, and belongs to the “Pansy” class. It has a good _constitution_, and hopes to survive till the graduation of its members. This circle is composed entirely of ladies, among whom are representatives of six churches in the South Division of the city. The meetings, which are held semi-monthly at the houses of the members, are well attended. Absent members are informed by postal cards of the place of the next meeting, the parts assigned them on the program, and the author from whom quotations are to be given. Those who are absent three times in succession are expected to present a suitable excuse to the society. At the close of the year a reception was given, to which each member invited a gentleman friend. A fine literary and musical program was rendered, and refreshments were served. The guests, among whom were ministers, lawyers, army officers, and members of the Chicago Board of Trade, were called upon to express their opinions of the C. L. S. C. A most enjoyable evening was spent.

A flourishing circle has existed at PORTAGE, WISCONSIN, for three years. It is only one of three, however, for last year the pastor of the M. E. Church organized a circle which is still active, and this year the Presbyterian pastor started a third. The _mother_ circle is undenominational, as best becomes her position. One feature of this circle’s year is its annual reception. Let the secretary tell how it is managed: “We have heretofore held a reception at the close of each year, to which were invited the people of the place presumed to be most interested in education. The exercises have always been highly commended, and our work well appreciated by those in attendance—indeed, we consider our best missionary work has been done by this means—and many members added through the instrumentality of a sugar-coated dose of hard work (or its results, rather). Many people would attend a party, to whom a literary meeting of any kind is a ‘delusion and a snare.’”

THE C. L. S. C. CLASSES.

CLASS OF 1885.—“THE INVINCIBLES.”

“_Press on, reaching after those things which are before._”

OFFICERS.

_President_—J. B. Underwood, Meriden, Conn.

_Vice President_—C. M. Nichols, Springfield, Ohio.

_Treasurer_—Miss Carrie Hart, Aurora, Ind.

_Secretary_—Miss M. M. Canfield, Washington, D. C.

_Executive Committee_—Officers of the class.

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After Commencement, what? More of the same sort, undoubtedly—of a better sort, if possible. The members of the class of ’85 are now near enough to the “finish” to arrive at some more or less mature conclusions as to the future. They find that the word “commencement” is to be no misnomer, and is not even to be criticised. For after four years of reading and study the students find that they have not come to the end, but only to the beginning. The matter selected for them has been so good, so substantial, and really so inspiring, as a whole, that an immortal, if not divine, sort of hunger for the best in literature, science, art, philosophy, has been created in their minds, and they could hardly stop if they desired. The aggregate amount of literary and scientific information which has been acquired is really large, and much of it has been retained as a permanent fund of knowledge, but this has proved to be but a small part of the benefit that has been derived. Thousands of people have just begun to find out how little they really know, and how much they ought yet to learn, to satisfy their own ideas and notions as to what is required to make one, not learned, indeed, but reasonably well informed! And what they think they need to know, they feel sure that they have now discovered how to learn, and have acquired habits of reading and thinking which will make the processes easy and enjoyable, instead of laborious and tiresome. They have already looked beyond bounds into the green fields and pastures new of that which is best, most beautiful, and grandest in the domain of thought, and suggestion, and philosophical research and discovery, as brought out by poets, philosophers, statesmen and philanthropists, and they are likely to pass through the Golden Gate and out from the Temple on the hill into a still broader fraternity of thought and action, whose limits will correspond with those of the world itself.

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A breezy letter from the plains of Dakota contains the following: “I have been studying entirely alone, and have found the course a blessing that can not be valued. Here, quite removed from society, while winter winds howl round my cabin home, I find help, companionship and pleasure in the studies of the dear ‘Home College.’ The most attractive corner of my little room is the one where my beloved books lie on the home-made shelves. My little ones love them too, and there is scarcely a time when I need help but what I can find it in my books.”

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One young lady from Massachusetts, who hopes to hear the “Chautauqua Chimes,” writes: “I have a class of girls in Sunday-school, and want so much the help I think I shall be able to find at Chautauqua. The course has been just what I needed, and I know I have grown, mentally and morally, since joining the C. L. S. C.”

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This from a gentleman in Kansas: “If health will permit I hope to be one to enter in under the Arches among the ‘Invincibles.’ I must be one of the oldest of the ’85s. I was fifteen days old at the battle of Waterloo, and, if I am spared till my next birthday, I shall have arrived at the bounds allotted to man in the Bible.”

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One ’85 writes: “I hope to receive my diploma at Chautauqua, but, I am a busy mother with six children, and can not always plan so long ahead. I have had the greatest pleasure and satisfaction in the course, for, with a family of wide-awake boys and girls about me, I have found it is very necessary to refresh myself and keep well informed on all subjects.”

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One enthusiastic lady from Texas writes: “I have gathered through four years of delightful reading an intellectual bouquet, whose fragrance I hope to wear about me when I pass, not only through the Arches at Chautauqua, but when I pass through the ‘Beautiful Gates’ to the Celestial City.”

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Another testifies: “I am one of the busy mothers and housekeepers who pursue the C. L. S. C. course under numerous and varied difficulties, but find my enthusiasm increasing as the four years draw to a close.”

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From Massachusetts: “I intend to still ‘press on’ after I graduate—in fact, I hope always to be a Chautauquan.”

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Wisconsin contributes: “I like our motto and our name, and I love the C. L. S. C. Though reading alone, it has always been an inspiring thought that many thousands are reading the same course.”

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Another: “I regret that the course is so nearly finished, but the spirit it has awakened within me has enabled me to ‘Press on, reaching after those things which are before.’”

CLASS OF 1886.—“THE PROGRESSIVES.”

“_We study for light, to bless with light._”

CLASS ORGANIZATION.

_President_—The Rev. B. P. Snow, Biddeford, Maine.

_Vice Presidents_—The Rev. J. T. Whitley, Salisbury, Maryland; Mr. L. F. Houghton, Peoria, Illinois; Mr. Walter Y. Morgan, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Delia Browne, Louisville, Kentucky; Miss Florence Finch, Palestine, Texas.

_Secretary_—The Rev. W. L. Austin, New Albany, Ind.

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The “Progressives” of New England are true to their name, and most encouraging reports are received from circles and those who are studying alone. A young man teaching school in a remote village in Connecticut writes: “I feel far below the standard of our class, but am determined to do the best I can, God helping me. Leisure moments are delightfully spent in reading or meditation. Hope to complete the course in 1886, and then go on with extra readings.”

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The class of 1886 is deeply bereaved by the removal to higher duties and joys of a most worthy member, Mrs. Emma Webster Darling, wife of the Rev. J. K. Darling, of Chelsea, Vermont. She died on the morning of Easter Sunday.

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One of our busy workers, A. M. T., of Ontario, Canada, has made an attractive little devotional book, “My Work, or Conditional Promises,” for every day in the month.

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A young lady from Boston writes: “I have devoted to C. L. S. C. work at least forty minutes every day since I have been a member, and would gladly do more if time would allow.”

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From the snow hills of Maine comes this cheerful testimony: “I sometimes envy people their riches, but am thankful for the C. L. S. C. every day of my life, for I am a farmer’s daughter, and so situated that I am debarred from the enjoyments of most young people, and would often be very lonely were it not for the books of the C. L. S. C.”

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The Hopkinton tent, at Framingham, has been secured for headquarters, and will be made comfortable. If the ladies of ’86 who contemplate visiting Framingham next summer will remember that they are a “committee of the whole” on decorations, the tent can doubtless be made homelike and attractive at little expense. Bring something to brighten it, if only a penny Japanese fan.

CLASS OF 1887.—“THE PANSIES.”

“_Neglect not the gift that is in thee._”

OFFICERS.

_President_—The Rev. Frank Russell, Mansfield, Ohio.

_Western Secretary_—K. A. Burnell, Esq., 150 Madison Street, Chicago, Ill.

_Eastern Secretary_—J. A. Steven, M.D., 164 High Street, Hartford, Conn.

_Treasurer_—Either Secretary, from either of whom badges may be obtained.

_Executive Committee_—The officers of the class.

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The New England Pansies seem to be more active of late than their fellow blossoms farther west. The following report of their reunion represents something of their enthusiasm: The New England branch of the class of 1887 C. L. S. C. held its spring meeting in the chapel of Union Congregational Church, Providence, April 3d, 1885. About one hundred members were present. After a short time spent in social intercourse, the meeting was called to order by the president, the Rev. F. M. Gardner, for Rhode Island. The C. L. S. C. study song was sung, which was followed by the secretary’s report of the meeting in Boston; the minutes were duly approved. It was voted that the committee on headquarters be increased by the addition of Mr. Jeffers, of Pawtucket, and Mrs. Morrill, of Allston. Mr. Gardner, in his own bright manner, gave some account of the efforts of the committee in preparing for class headquarters at Lakeview, and stated reasons why the plan suggested at the Boston meeting should be postponed, though not abandoned. Inasmuch as several members of our class have been afflicted by the loss of loved ones from their homes, it was voted that a committee be appointed to present resolutions at this meeting expressing the sympathy of the class with them in their bereavement. The musical and literary exercises were opened with a fine piano solo, which was followed by a pleasing quartette. Then an address on “The C. L. S. C. _vs._ Social Pastimes,” by the Rev. N. T. Dyer, of Middleboro, was delivered. Mr. Dyer being unable to be present because of illness, Mrs. Dyer most creditably took his place. The address was a convincing statement of the advantages of the C. L. S. C., and could it be circulated among those not interested in the course, would undoubtedly influence many to enroll in the Circle. Mrs. Emily C. Fletcher, of Pawtucket, read a poem written for the occasion, from which we extract the following, referring to the influence of the C. L. S. C.:

“It has cleared the brow of discontent, Made happy the lowly one, Cheering the home and its social hall, Enliv’ning the tasks begun.

“It takes from age the mournful thoughts, That often the heart will shroud, It lifts the life to a higher sphere, Silvering ev’ry dark cloud.”

After music, and an address on Lakeview, resolutions of sympathy to those of the circle who had met with bereavements were adopted. The association then adjourned, after which a delightful reunion was enjoyed by the members.

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Two members of the class of ’87 have recently left us for the “better life:” Miss Grace F. Cook, who died March 22, at Vilas, Wisconsin, after a protracted illness, and Mrs. Rev. E. S. Osborne, of Kingston, New York, who died at her home, March 16th.

CLASS OF 1888.—“THE PLYMOUTH ROCKS.”

“_Let us be seen by our deeds._”

CLASS ORGANIZATION.

_President_—The Rev. A. E. Dunning, D.D., Boston, Mass.

_Vice Presidents_—Prof. W. N. Ellis, 108 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.; the Rev. Wm. G. Roberts, Bellevue, Ohio.

_Secretary_—Miss M. E. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio.

_Treasurer_—Miss M. E. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio.

All items for this column should be sent, in condensed form, to the Rev. C. C. McLean, St. Augustine, Florida.

Class badges may be procured of either President or Treasurer.

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Our circle in Ouray, Colorado, in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, numbers ten. The picturesque spot where live these ’88s is about a day’s journey from the railroad. They name themselves after the Indians, “Uncompahgee,” who once wigwamed there. They have their “round-table,” and keep up their weekly meetings.—Another circle, of three, has been organized among the “Rockies,” at Gunnison, Colorado, and meets weekly. Our ’88s have reached the Indian Territory. At Chouteau we have one hard worker, who, having commenced in February, has nearly caught up with the class.—At the confluence of the Missouri and Vermillion Rivers we have an enthusiastic class of ten. Lawyers, teachers, journalists, milliners, and busy wives, with a “Pansy” for the president, compose the class. They conduct their class weekly, on the “conversational plan,” which they claim affords grand opportunity for interchange of opinions and sentiments.—A circle of five ladies and one lone gentleman compose the “Clio,” of Clark, Dakota. So delighted are they that they never adjourn for any other engagements.—The “Kankakee,” of Illinois, thirty-eight regular and four honorary members, meets fortnightly. Their Shakspere program was so full that a portion was postponed until the next meeting. An honorary member has delighted them with an address upon “Water.”—The twelve members of “Calumet,” Carthage, Ill., were favored with a visit and instructive talk from Chancellor Vincent.—We were greatly surprised to receive a letter from our old friend, the Rev. W. H. Hyatt, president of our circle in Whiteland, Ind.—Ten young persons of Dubuque, Iowa, compose the “Circle of Athens.” An excellent motto have they selected: _Sapientiam petimus_. That their search for wisdom is eager is evinced by the fact that they have in a most interesting manner pursued the studies in spite of all allurements. The memorial days have been appropriately observed, and Longfellow’s day celebrated by a banquet.—Seven constitute “Alpha,” of Barnesville, Ohio. They began January 1, and have nearly completed their studies. They expect to begin on time next year.—The “Athena,” of Wanskuck, Providence, R. I., is composed of fifteen busy people, who are delighted with the studies.—From the programs of the “Hamilton,” of Lowell, Mass., we are satisfied that the forty members are truly among our liveliest coming Chautauquans. They have largely experimented in chemistry and electricity. This circle mourns the loss of one of its best members in Mrs. Benjamin Robinson, who endeavored to brave a New England storm, in order to attend one of the meetings, and lost her life.—Seventeen regular and three honorary members represent a circle in Joplin, Mo. Nothing but illness has caused an absence at “roll call.” Once a week they follow Chautauqua program. Success has marked their public as well as private meetings.—One from Maine has taken fresh courage since reading Chancellor Vincent’s article in the April CHAUTAUQUAN, “How to Work Alone.”—The “Riversides,” of Milford, N. H. (eight members), have finished the year’s studies.—“Zeta Phi,” of Buffalo, N. Y., are seven “zealous learners.” They observe all special days, having essays upon given subjects.—A zealous lady of ’87 class organized seven earnest and hopefuls into the “I. X. L.,” of Newport, Ky.—Clamida (state not named) boasts of two enthusiastic circles. The secretary of one strongly objects to our name, repudiating the idea that we have anything in common with the “Pilgrim Fathers.” She is even tired of a reference to their trials, and believes, with another, that the “Pilgrim Mothers” are more worthy of “toasting,” closing with “Seriously, why were we thus afflicted?”

THE CHAUTAUQUA UNIVERSITY.

A TEACHING METHOD.

BY PROF. RICHARD S. HOLMES, A.M.

I desire in this paper to make some very plain answers in a very plain way to a question which has come to me in varying forms, from various sources. It is a practical question, and concerns the possibilities of that department of Chautauqua work which aims to bring the advantages of the higher education within the reach of those large classes of our population which have been hitherto debarred from them. Naturally, the question originates with the very people whom the enterprise seeks to aid, and strangely enough is shared by those whose culture and education should have been a barrier to such a doubt.

Men who would gladly avail themselves of any real advantages for education brought within their reach, and within their means, yet unwilling to make the pecuniary outlay which the effort might involve, until convinced that the correspondence system offers real advantages, hesitate, and say: “We are favorably impressed with the idea as given in your announcements, but are not sure that it can be put into practical operation; before attempting the work it may demand, we are compelled to ask, how is the work to be done? how can teaching by correspondence be made practically successful? Show us the method, that we may understand.” Still others, men of advanced education, of approved excellence of judgment, men engaged in professional life, have said, “We concede that education by the means you propose is possible under certain favorable conditions, but we doubt the practicability of attempting by such a means to cover the wide field of general education.” Straightway they fall to instancing particular subjects as illustrations of the truth of their statement. Now the proof of the pudding is in the eating; and if this paper succeed in furnishing tastes of this particular pudding which shall be palatable and shall create a favorable opinion as to the worth of the whole, the service rendered to the cause will be valuable. I propose, therefore, without invading the province of any of the gifted teachers who act as Directors of the different Departments and Schools in the Chautauqua School of Liberal Arts, as we shall hereafter call what has been known as the University, to show, if possible, how a person of good natural endowment, at the maximum of his mental strength, and with earnest devotion to his work can acquire a knowledge of a language, literature, or science by correspondence alone.

I will make three preliminary remarks. First, the student must bring to this work the same earnestness that he gives to that pursuit of his daily life upon which he has been or may be dependent for his livelihood. Second, in the study of language by correspondence, the path marked out by the experience of the ages is the path in which the correspondence student must go. The gateway of that path is the grammar of the language; and no student can pass through it till he possess the key which shall unlock its bars. To own a grammar is therefore a necessity. I am ready to believe that in oral teaching of a language, actual study of grammar, as grammar, may be put over into the final years of the course, giving the early years to the undisputed control of synthetic methods; but for the correspondence student, a grammar is an essential. Third, the student must be willing to follow the most minute directions of his teacher, without question, no matter how simple or how difficult a matter their performances may seem to be. To obey is the first essential to success.

Let us now look at a _method_ for learning a language or science. It is not given as _the method_ in use in the schools, but only as a means of showing that the thing proposed is possible. There should be for the beginner four papers for every lesson; or four kinds of work to be done.

_First_—There should be a paper _stating principles to be learned_, and adding complete references to the text-book upon which they are based, that the student may add to his teacher’s dictum, the confirmation of his own research. Let it be distinctly noted that this paper is _to contain statements of principles to be learned_, and is not to be a mere budget of directions to paragraphs and sections of a text-book. The advantages to be gained by such a method of study are too obvious to need elaboration here.

_Second_—There should be a paper giving abundant and apt illustrations of those principles, derived from the best sources, adapted to the pupil’s knowledge, and different from any which have been otherwise brought to his notice. These illustrations of principles should be memorized by the student and should form the basis of the paper containing the test of the student’s work.

_Third_—There should be a paper giving examples for practice in these same principles; examples for transliteration, phonic representation, or translation in case of a foreign language, examples for experimentation, classification, or analysis in case of a science or literature.

_Fourth_—There should be a paper of examination or question, for the purpose of testing the student and revealing the character of the work he has done. These questions should be framed with the utmost care and skill of which the teacher is master, and should act as a quickening impulse to the student. This paper should be in a sealed envelope, and should not be opened till all the work of the other three papers has been done, and the student feels that his lesson is learned. In addition to what has been suggested, there should be required in the study of language, as soon as the student can correctly pronounce, a regular exercise in memorizing from some standard author, and daily repetitions aloud of what is thus given to the memory. In the case of English, Latin, and Greek, this seems to me indispensable. This last suggestion, it will be noticed, contains a hint that the pronunciation of a language can be taught by correspondence. It is a hint which I am prepared to assert as a proposition, and to defend as far as the Latin and Greek languages are concerned. The amount of matter given in the lesson should be enough to require one week for its preparation by a student able to devote from one to two hours daily to study.

When the papers of a lesson have been fully mastered, and the student feels that all he can do upon it is done, the whole work should be at once sent back to the teacher. Now, to guard against loss of time, such as would occur were the student compelled to wait without work after he has forwarded his lesson recitation to the teacher until the necessary exchange by post has been made, two lessons should be sent out by the teacher at the first assignment. This plan would wholly avoid what might be costly delay where student and teacher were separated by the width of the continent or the ocean.

As soon as the first recitation paper reaches the teacher’s hand, his immediate duty is to forward the next lesson of the series, and so regularly through the whole course of instruction. He will now at his leisure examine the paper which has come into his possession, while the student is engaged upon the second of his lessons. What shall be the teacher’s work with this returned paper? Certainly not one of correction. Now begins his real work of teaching. First, there must be a careful and painstaking inspection of each line of the student’s work. Second, every error must be plainly marked, so that the eye of the student will not fail to observe it. Third, plain reference should be made to those sections and paragraphs of the grammar or text-book which have been violated. Fourth, a word of encouragement, advice, suggestion, or warning should be added to each paper, drawn from the teacher’s wide and varied experience, and which will be practically helpful to the pupil. It must be carefully noted that in this treatment of the recitation paper, the teacher has made no correction, has told nothing, but has simply indicated errors, and thrown the student back upon his own resources to correct his own work. This is one of the elements of true teaching.

The return of this critically marked paper to the student brings us to consider another important process in this work, and that is the review by the student of his first lesson work, or his second period of study upon it. There has enough time elapsed since it was last in his hands to have it come now with all the force of a new lesson, and to enable him to look at it judicially. The critical investigation which follows has a three-fold value. First, it is a review. Second, it is a means for accurate self-test. Third, it is a monitor, under whose warning all future lesson work is subjected to the careful scrutiny which the former criticism suggests. Two things still remain to be done with the returned lesson paper. One to make a separate classified list of the errors it contained; the other to date it, file it, and lay it carefully away for reference. The classified list of errors will serve as a check against the commission of like errors, or an aid in detecting any that may have been carelessly made. At first the list will be large, but after a little it will grow less and less rapidly, till finally its utter lack of growth will be the surest mark of the pupil’s excellence of attainment. Such is an outline for a possible method of conducting educational work by correspondence. It presents a method which I believe is practical, which is drawn from an experience of years in the class room, and which is in harmony with established principles of educational philosophy.

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A touching bit of experience has been sent us by a member of the class of ’88. The writer had persuaded his son to join a circle, but, as he writes, “He attended one meeting of the circle and came home very much discouraged, declaring that he would not attend another meeting, urging as his reasons that he compared unfavorably with others, and that he would never be able to pronounce those horrid Greek names, etc. I tried to encourage him and advanced several arguments trying to show him what a great advantage this course of reading would be to him, but finally gave it up, fearing if I urged him so strongly he would become disgusted. I determined then to take the four years’ course of study myself, thinking that by having the books in our home, and sometimes relating anecdotes, incidents and historical facts gathered from these readings, that my boys might become interested for themselves. It is impossible for me to give my children the advantages of a liberal education, as my heart longs to do, and by getting them interested in the C. L. S. C., I hope to make up to them in some degree their loss of a college education.”

EDITOR’S OUTLOOK.

AN AMERICAN DIPLOMAT.

There is very general regret, at home and abroad, that the new administration has removed Professor James Russell Lowell from the office of American minister at the court of St. James. There is no disposition to complain; but there is some natural wonderment. Mr. Lowell was an ideal American diplomat; he represented worthily the people as well as the government of the United States. It is no disparagement to his successor to say that no other American can quite fill the place Mr. Lowell has made for himself. It should be remembered that we, fortunately, have very little proper diplomatic business anywhere in the world; and whenever any serious negotiation is to be undertaken, it can be done at Washington. Our important treaties are made in the national capital; and our gravest foreign affairs are always directly administered by the Secretary of State. Since Franklin it has seldom happened that a minister has been entrusted with any grave duties or burdened with any serious responsibilities. Even during the civil war Mr. Seward managed at Washington the more serious business of the foreign department.

In this generation, we have had some successful foreign ministers; but their success has in every case been in non-official or extra-official lines. Mr. E. B. Washburne, our minister in Paris during the Franco-German war, won a high reputation, not as a diplomat of his country, but as an American minister entrusted, by an act of international courtesy, with the rights and welfare of Prussians in Paris. As the agent of the Berlin government during the war and siege, Mr. Washburne endeared himself to the large German population of Paris by his kindness, common sense, and energy in caring for a body of subjects of a hostile country. No one but a typical American could have done this work at all well. A man trained to diplomacy would have failed. It needed a man who could put his character and American office into a breach made by war, and devise means of providing for an extemporaneous necessity. Most men would have failed; Washburne succeeded because he was a typical American of the largest pattern—able, frank, tireless, resourceful.

In England, Mr. Lowell has, under different circumstances, developed a new line of diplomatic representation. He has represented the character and culture of the American people. The average politician supposes himself to be the typical American; the fact that we are ashamed of him is the sufficient proof that he is thoroughly mistaken. In what do Americans broadly differ from most other, if not all other, peoples? Is it not in this, that we are the great reading nation of the world? Our culture goes down to the bottom and reaches out to the extremities of our life. We have no class distinctions, no titled magnates, no rights of birth-privilege; and in the school rooms of the land the rich and the poor meet together, and our great newspapers go into the hands of both rich and poor. We are not so distinctly a nation of commercial people as we are a nation of people under an unexampled influence of general culture. A Professor who was much more than a professor; a man of the world who was also a man of books; an alert and quick, practical man who was also a poet; a gentleman who was, first of all, manly; a diplomat who was at home in a school room, could lecture on any literary theme, could instruct the educated Englishman in the history of his own men of letters; an American who knew Shakspere, Milton, Bunyan, the English Bible, and every shred of English art and song and event by heart—such a man has Mr. Lowell been in England. He was at home there on those levels of life and heights of achievement which are common to us and Englishmen; and his leadership there in literature and learning conferred honor on us in the precisely most honorable things in our character as a people. We simply are not philistines—hard dogmatists of dollars and precedents—we are a thoughtful, informed, studious and brainy people who despise wealth which is not held for the service of truth, well-being and progress. No man could represent us so well as a poet, teacher, essayist and scholar like Mr. Lowell. He could represent us at the level of those ideals and achievements of which we are not ashamed. We despise nothing so heartily as illiterate wealth; no other people on earth equal us in contempt for the commerce which has only sordid aims and results. The American merchant builds schools, museums, churches, asylums, hospitals—if he does not we despise him.

The problem in selecting the best foreign representatives is to secure men who will represent our national character. Our diplomacy is unimportant. Such as we have to do can be carried on at Washington. We want ministers abroad who will be typical Americans, whose conspicuous position will display in them the best and truest results of our unique social and political system. If they are honored abroad, as Mr. Lowell has been in unusual ways and measure, the honor is given to us and glorifies us. There is always a fool to say that our minister is more English than American—simply because Englishmen respect him. It is a poor kind of criticism, and fortunately there is less and less of it in the press. We all stand better abroad, command more honest respect, are better understood in our best characteristics, because James Russell Lowell has represented us in London. May his successor succeed to the full measure of this representative office.

The most distinguished honor ever conferred upon an American has come to Mr. Lowell. The English press, representing the best public opinion of that nation, invites him to remain., in England “as the unofficial representative of American literature, learning, manners, and knowledge of the world.” Nothing like that can be found in the long history of diplomacy. “He has been,” says one great journal, “a sort of guest-friend of England,” and it then describes him as “the most eminent American of this generation,” and adds, “Englishmen of all ranks and stations recognize in Mr. Lowell a faithful and jealous guardian of the interests of his country, and a type of all that is best in its intellectual and moral character.” There is not a word in all these encomiums which is not a eulogy of the American people.

THE CHOLERA.

The disease called Asiatic Cholera is at home in India. It travels, at long intervals, into Europe. There have been eight: or nine of these visitations during the century. The disease travels with man and his belongings; and since intercourse between Asia and Europe has become more swift and abundant, there is a tendency to more frequent visits of the dreaded scourge. In fact, however, this tendency has been overcome by sanitary science. Until last year, cholera had not been in Europe for sixteen years. It arrived the last previous time in 1866 and tarried into the next year. During all the intervening years, there was cholera on the Ganges, and an increasing flow of humanity between the two continents; yet sixteen years elapsed between the visits. Last year cholera landed from ships at Toulon and Marseilles in southern France, and produced general alarm in Europe. It swept around all the European coasts of the Mediterranean, and in the especially filthy towns caused a large mortality. It has doubtless wintered in Europe, and its second year is usually the worst. It can begin early and use the long summer for its desolating work. This is the second summer. It is probable that cholera will be a large feature of the health and mortuary reports of the year. European travel will be restricted by the caution which the prevalence of this disease inspires. American resorts for Americans will be unusually popular.

Will cholera visit us? In previous European visits it has always looked in upon us, sometimes the first, sometimes the second year. In 1866, it did not come, but did come in 1867. But the visit of that year was less baneful than any other we have had. In 1884, we escaped; can we escape in 1885? No doubt exists that we _can_. It is only a question of effective quarantine. The faithful discharge of their duties by all health officers at ports would exclude the unwelcome guest. And, at our principal port, where the danger is greatest, there is good reason to believe that the fidelity, wisdom and vigilance are equal to the emergency. Cholera is more likely to penetrate to us by some little-used door; the front gate will be securely guarded. At the smaller doors, there ought to be no danger. But there _is_ danger, and it is probably too much to hope that there will be adequate watchfulness. There is, even at New York, a long line of accidents to be reckoned with. It would not be surprising, however, if cholera got a foothold among us from the West Indies, landing in some southern port.

If it comes, what then? It should not be very successful in its work of death. It could be stamped out in any city with a well organized health force. In New York, a few cases would not be cause for any alarm—not half so much as if the cases were in some small and careless community. Still it is most probable that if it effects a landing it will travel over the country. We have had warning enough. It is a filth disease which can be cornered and killed by cleanliness, if the cleanliness foreruns it. If we wait to clean up filthy quarters in our towns until the disease arrives, it will then be too late to clean. We shall have a good measure of the sanitary condition of our cities, if the cholera visits them. It will do its terrible work in the unclean quarters of unclean towns. It will not stop there. Once established in a filthy quarter, cholera easily thrusts its arms into adjacent clean places. If the long and loud warning has been heeded, there will be little to fear from cholera. The cleanliness of our towns will discourage and expel the intruder.

What can individuals do? Keep cool and in good health. All epidemic diseases fix upon the infirm, the debilitated, and the fearful. The mortality from cholera is only about one death for four cases. In some epidemics of it, the rate is one in three cases; but among people who are well fed and in fair conditions of comfort, and have proper care, there are five chances of recovery to one of death. The high rate of mortality in some towns results from want of care and medicine. Popular rumor exaggerates the danger of death from cholera. It is a case of _ogne ignotum pro magnifico_—we know so little about it that we magnify the danger beyond all warrant of the actual facts. Some of our danger—perhaps most of it—will come from the enthusiasm of the reporters. Last January these enthusiasts discovered genuine Asiatic cholera in St. Louis. They were sure of it. The evidence was perfect, they said. Of course there never was, and never will be, a case of Asiatic cholera in St. Louis in January. But after summer begins, the “Lo here” will begin to alarm the timid. There are sure to be many false reports; the true one may be in the bundle. Let us hope it will not be—and keep cool.

We hope that inland quarantines will not be resorted to if the disease appears among us. They are useless as well as inhuman. They shut the intruder out of the gate, and he crawls under the fence. If cholera gets upon this continent, safety will be secured only by cleanliness of streets and houses. Clean people may die in clean streets, but it will be because there are unclean people in neighboring streets to receive and breed the disease. Nor should the well fly from the sick. The nurses and priests are safest in Italian cities. Those who fly, do so when it is too late, and carry the disease with them. And, after all, cholera may not visit us in 1885.

A REVIEW OF THE CHAUTAUQUA YEAR.

A very marked indication of the success of the Chautauqua Idea is the increase of imitations of our work; and this runs parallel with an increase of efforts to promote systematic culture among grown people. Dr. Samuel Johnson used to say that he did all his hard study when he was a boy, and he very properly lamented it. It is one of the strangest things in modern civilization that, except among a small body of professors and specialists, the world does its studying entirely in early life. If the chance to study, or the compulsion to study, be wanting in the first twenty years, the door is supposed to be shut forever. The Chautauqua movement tried to expose the folly of this method, and to show that persons whose education was neglected in youth may secure culture in middle life, or even in old age. History gave us examples enough; but Chautauqua has made thousands of new examples to illustrate the perfect practicalness of adult study. The success of Chautauqua has drawn general attention to the subject. A variety of plans for promoting the education of adults are coming before the public. We do not regard any of them as rivals; they will enlarge our public as well as make smaller centers of such culture.

The members of the C. L. S. C. who have gone with us over the subjects of this year will do well to look back over the road and see precisely what they have gone over. They will probably notice that their study and reading has not interfered with their regular pursuits and duties. They have been able to add these studies to their customary tasks and interests. It is a kind of gratuity, therefore, which they have received. It is so much in addition to other results of annual effort. They will further see that the amount of this study and reading is considerable. Good method has made odd minutes yield a bulk which would require weeks of consecutive and unbroken effort. The effect on the mind is better and more permanent because the study has been continued through a year. A college man of our acquaintance says that Professor Time does better work than any of his colleagues. Our C. L. S. C. members have had the instruction of Professor Time. Those who are finishing the course will do well to remember that they have learned how to learn without a living teacher. This is the best thing the C. L. S. C. has done for you—this helping you to study alone. A power of this sort ought to be cultivated and kept. The contents of any course of education should be small in comparison with the attainments which it renders possible. This large, broad, life-long self-education lies in the power to study alone without the fear of a master or the ordeal of an examination before one. This power colleges fail to give, and it is one of their weaknesses that they can not give it. When the taskmaster stopped, Samuel Johnson said that he stopped learning. We may doubt it, but in a sense Johnson was right. If any reader has acquired the power to _go on alone_ by pursuing the course, he has a rare piece of wealth, a capital which may produce the widest and best culture.

“LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD.”

The New York _World_ has done wondrously well to raise $30,000 by a popular subscription for the setting up of the Bartholdi statue in New York harbor. Our readers know that this colossal statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World” is a present from the French people, but that there has been no provision made for the cost of setting up the great work of French art. Various attempts to raise the necessary $100,000 have yielded but small results, and when the _World_ took hold of the matter the failure had become a very disagreeable joke for the press. Other newspapers have engaged in public enterprises. The New York _Herald_ sent a ship into the Arctic Ocean in search of the Pole. The New York _Tribune_ maintains by the subscriptions of its readers a “Fresh-Air Fund” which gives thousands of children an outing in the country during the hot months. The enterprise of the _World_ is, if possible, more praiseworthy, and its success in rescuing a lost cause is as honorable as it is unexpected. The subscriptions have been made by people of all conditions and fortunes, by boys and girls, by merchants, artists and laborers. A popular interest in the subject has been created, a great deal of information imparted, many mistakes corrected, and a popular support secured for a work of art. The work is in the line of large and healthy philanthropy, and the _World_ deserves unstinted credit. Let us all hope that it will carry the cause through to entire success.

We are, as a nation, still poor in public statuary. We have some good pieces and not a few failures. Perhaps many persons have feared that the Bartholdi statue is another monstrosity. Let them take courage; the _World_ has presented excellent evidence that the work is equal to its mission. The French people are to have a small edition of it set up in Paris, and eminent French critics are unsparing in their praise of it. Of course we can not be too confident of the effect of a statue higher than Trinity steeple or the pillars of the East River bridge, set up so as to face the sea and meet the eyes of the world entering the harbor of New York. On that point there is excellent artistic judgment in favor of the success of the audacious conception of the artist. We may now regard the plan as certain to be carried out at no distant day, and if it succeeds it will be one of the wonders of the world. A statue rising to the height of three hundred and seventeen feet above the waves—the familiar figure of Liberty confronting the world in our chief American city—will be a unique and impressive piece of art, if it be not an utter failure. The _if_ is not a large doubt; only the small doubt which attends the most perfect human work which is as yet untried. The _World’s_ popular subscription had passed $35,000 when these lines were sent to press, on the 28th of April.

EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.

A highly successful “Chautauqua Day” has been carried out at the New Orleans Exposition, under the leadership of Prof. E. A. Spring, Prof. W. F. Sherwin and the Rev. A. H. Gillet. An audience of over 5,000 people met in Music Hall to hear Bishop Mallalieu on “The Relation of Chautauqua to the Home and Society,” Prof. Sherwin on “The Story of Chautauqua,” talks from Wallace Bruce and the Rev. Mr. Gillet, and music from the Mexican Band. The great crowd was given Chautauqua badges and C. L. S. C. circulars, and taught the Chautauqua salute—the latter in compliment to Señor Payen, the leader of the Mexican Band, and the pet of the Exposition. One of the audience remarked on leaving the hall: “I have been at every day entertainment here since the beginning, and this has been the most successful, the best managed, the most interesting occasion there has been.”

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There has been an almost breathless attention given throughout the world during the past month to the attitude of England and Russia. Words have been weighed and steps measured with the nicest exactness. Affairs which in other times would take up columns are given corners. The prevalent opinion has been that war must come, though peace negotiations are being vigorously pushed. Could war be held off twenty years it might be that we should be so much wiser that arbitration might be made to prevail.

* * * * *

The most active business which the United States Navy has had for years was caused by the Isthmus troubles. Our treaty with New Granada guarantees free and uninterrupted passage across the Isthmus. To secure this a force of 500 men and four ships was placed at Aspinwall after the insurgents had burned the city. They thence proceeded to Panama, which they succeeded in restoring to order. Not an easy thing to do, with the natives sympathizing generally with the rebels, and very suspicious of the “Gringoes,” as they call us, and with the French determined to have the credit of whatever restoration could be made.

* * * * *

M. de Lesseps is firmly convinced of the advantages to America of the Panama Canal, prophesying in a recent letter that it will reanimate our merchant marine, will greatly enlarge our internal business, and make us, in short, commercial kings. It can hardly be doubted that were any one of the great schemes for interoceanic communication in operation, our whole system of exchange would be modified and our business multiplied. The chief question seems to be now, is the Panama Canal, Mr. Eads’s Tehuantepec Ship Railway, or the Nicaragua Canal likely to be the best for the United States?

* * * * *

The recent conviction of two “saints” charged with polygamy is having a wholesome effect. The law which makes such a decision possible in Utah is the Edmunds bill, by which a man believing it right to have more than one living or undivorced wife at a time maybe challenged as a juryman. Under this law it is extremely difficult for a Mormon brought to trial to escape sentence, and the sentence is such that the fear of it will more than probably take a great deal of charm out of the doctrine of “spiritual wives.”

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The biographical department of the scrap-book compiler has had great opportunities to grow rich in anecdotes of General Grant this past month. His prolonged illness and the wonderfully sustained interest and sympathy of the public have led to many letters and stories getting into print which otherwise might never have been known. All of this matter but shows more and more clearly how just is our love and reverence for “our hero.”

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For the benefit of the international copyright there were held in New York recently, on two afternoons, Authors’ Readings. A notable galaxy of literary characters gathered on the stage. Among them were George William Curtis, Professor Charles Carroll, Julian Hawthorne, Will Carleton, W. D. Howells, the Rev. Robert Collyer, Prof. H. H. Boyesen, Bishop Potter, Mark Twain, Edward Eggleston, Henry Ward Beecher, and others. The audience which greeted the readers was large and appreciative.

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One of the most horrible accidents of the month of April was the collapse of eight nearly completed tenement houses in New York City. Twelve persons were injured in the fall. The investigation discloses a deliberate intention on the part of the contractor to use the poorest material obtainable, and a criminal—whether intentional or not—neglect on the part of building authorities to prevent his plan. Indeed, contractors who are honest in their work, state the commission cares more for the fee which puts a contract through than for the material put into the building. A vigorous public sentiment which would put a few such criminals into State prison might prove beneficial.

* * * * *

“Arbor Day” is extending its conquests. Its latest subject is none other than the Province of Ontario, whose Minister of Education sends out a communication to all teachers asking that in the interest of sanitation and æsthetics the 8th of May be set apart as a holiday in every rural and village school, for grading school grounds, laying out walks, and setting out trees.

* * * * *

Hon. B. G. Northrop, in a letter dated April 4th, writes: “Sixteen states have adopted ‘Arbor Day,’ and to that result the article in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and extracts quoted from it, have greatly contributed.”

* * * * *

The Bureau of Education sends out a pamphlet on “Arbor Day.” It will help many a teacher to an interest in the scheme, and will tell him what trees to select, how to plant them, and how to arrange a program suitable for the holiday.

* * * * *

The trouble which we have with foreign tongues sometimes enables us to heartily appreciate the blunders of the foreigner who tries our English tongue. We can not possibly make worse blunders with French than a late number of the aristocratic _Révue des deux Mondes_, when in its attempts to express in English the idea of a candidate favoring a railway it said, “_My politic is railway_.”

* * * * *

One might almost call Lord Tennyson’s verses on “The Fleet” the literary sensation of the month. It is rather difficult to see just why the verses deserve the unstinted ridicule American papers have given them. Certainly they are tame, but Lord Tennyson is an old man—a man whom this generation ought to honor for the noble pleasure he has left to it and to its posterity. Were his lines much worse, courtesy demands that we remember that with age comes decay.

* * * * *

The new Minister of Education in Greece, where the four Gospels are used as a reading book by the advanced classes in the primary department of the public schools, proposes to introduce them into the higher schools. The purity of the diction of the four Gospels makes them, regardless of other considerations, most desirable reading for children who are just forming their literary style.

* * * * *

It is a sort of fashion which common sense people will be glad to adopt—the run on plain food which London society is said to be having. The Prince of Wales began it by cutting down every _ménu_ over which he presided, and he has had a larger following than usual—both the people who always follow and those whose good sense decides what they do, taking up the custom. It would be a wise lesson for both dinner givers and hotel keepers to learn that the quality of a dinner can not possibly depend upon the number of dishes.

* * * * *

Bringing out a successful novelty in flowers or vegetables, is to a nurseryman what a bonanza mine is to a westerner, or a flowing well to an oil producer. The present season has several: There is a new lettuce with leaves like the oak, a red celery, a celery which blanches naturally and bears leaves like an ostrich plume; a pansy with blossoms two and one fourth inches in diameter; a zinnia round as a ball, and a mignonette with spikes twelve to fifteen inches in length, and of pure white. Perhaps the greatest novelty about the business this spring is the fact that in the cities the safe deposit vaults are receiving thousands of pounds of invaluable seeds for keeping—treasures quite as priceless to the seedsmen as the jewels which repose beside them are to their owners.

* * * * *

Another compliment to America! When M. de Lesseps, the new member of the French Academy, was installed, in April, he delivered, it is said, the shortest speech ever delivered by an incoming Academician. Thereupon M. de Rénan complimented him on adopting the pithy, pointed style of _l’Amerique_.

* * * * *

We are very glad to introduce the Chautauqua Town and Country Club, a new branch of the C. L. S. C., for the study of agriculture. Everybody is expected to do something in this novel society of practical out-of-door work. Everybody must raise a plant, or cultivate a bed, or care for an animal. A well known Orange Co., N. Y., farm is to be the working headquarters of the new organization, and its course of reading and experiment is under the control of Mr. Charles Barnard. Chancellor Vincent honors the organization with his supervision, a guarantee of success, and the headquarters of the C. L. S. C. have been extended to take in the business of the C. T. C. C. In July we hope to give our readers a broader look at this charming club.

* * * * *

We called attention recently to Dr. Warren’s entertaining theory of the whereabouts of the garden of Eden. And now we have another explorer for this land-one Moritz Engel, of Dresden, who locates it about seventy miles southwest of Damascus. Herr Engel makes his theory almost as entertaining and plausible as does Dr. Warren his.

* * * * *

The article on the “Natural History and People of Borneo,” which appears in this issue of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, is in reality an outline of a book, “Ten Years in a Jungle,” written by Mr. Hornaday, and soon to be published by Messrs. Scribner’s Sons. This work is to be fully illustrated and furnished with maps, and will give much desirable information on many of the points but lightly touched in the article.

* * * * *

One of the most magnificent pieces of architecture in the world is about to be erected in St. Petersburg as a votive chapel commemorating the murder of the Emperor Alexander II., of Russia. It stands over the spot where he fell, is to be erected by donations from the entire nation, will cost $10,000,000, and will be completed, it is expected, in 1891.

* * * * *

Mr. James Anthony Froude says in a recent article that the best histories are those which are written by men who hate “moral evil” and love “moral good,” and who are “afraid to tell lies” to defend their theories; as examples, he mentions, Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, and Carlyle.

* * * * *

The readers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN are familiar with the _Chautauqua Assembly Daily Herald_, the organ of the Chautauqua meetings. The forthcoming volume will contain all the best things said on the Chautauqua platform and in all the meetings during the coming session, with comments on the great men who frequent Chautauqua during the months of July and August. In short, it will depict in all its interesting details the unique life of the great Assembly. This paper, with its nineteen issues, is the necessary supplement to the THE CHAUTAUQUAN, just as the Assembly is the supplement to the work of the year. Every reader of the C. L. S. C., every reader of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, every lover of Chautauqua should have the _Assembly Daily Herald_. For rates and address see advertisement in this impression.

* * * * *

Evening High Schools are becoming a permanent feature in the school system of a number of our large cities. They deserve the heartiest support of educators and municipal authorities. In Cincinnati there is an evening high school similar in requirements to the upper grade grammar school; in St. Louis one which prepares students for the Polytechnic school of Washington University; one in New York which, in 1883, had an average attendance of 951 pupils; another in Boston which, in October 1884, enrolled 1,592 pupils. The character and the patronage are proofs sufficient that such institutions are in demand. A late circular from the Bureau of Education declares that “it is an institution which has come to stay, and that it has a more important future than can now be understood.”

* * * * *

A hopeful sign to temperance workers is the favor with which the scientific temperance education bill has been meeting in the legislatures of various states. During the winter of 1884-5 this bill became a law in Nevada, Alabama, Wisconsin, Missouri, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Kansas, making in all fourteen states which require instruction in public schools concerning the physiological effects of stimulants and narcotics.

C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR JUNE.

Inoculation for cholera is the latest preventive. A number of people have tried it in Valencia, Spain, and with perfect success, the authorities contend. Cholera virus is used. The patient becomes prostrated with a tumor in about twenty-four hours, but usually recovers in a couple of days. Certainly, if as sure as speedy, humanity has found a boon. It will be wiser, however, to wait until the cholera attacks Valencia before trusting too implicitly to inoculation for cholera.

* * * * *

Unbounded curiosity has been displayed at the New Orleans Exposition, over the “Woman’s Department.” In spite of fate Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and her co-workers have succeeded in making it a success, and in getting a fair representation of what women can do. They have a literary department filled with scores of volumes written by women, a woman’s exchange, samples of ten thousand kinds of fancy work, of course, and, better than that, of engraving, wood-carving, drawing, silk culture and weaving; a novel niche is made by a display of patents taken out by women, and by blacksmith work and forging done by women. Could they transport a cottage with its inmates and let the work of home-making go on day after day, they would add the crown to their department.

* * * * *

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the _North American_ makes the remarkable statement that women have never been benefited by Christianity, but that their elevation is altogether due to the spread of Teutonic respect for noble women. One must naturally conclude that Mrs. Stanton has not studied her history thoroughly. Her statements sound very much like an attempt to build up a theory without respect to the facts in the case. Certainly no fact is better established than that with the spread of the doctrines of Christ came the elevation of women.

CHEMISTRY.

1. “De Saussure,” sō-sür, Horace Benedict. (1740-1799.) A Swiss naturalist who traveled extensively and made valuable contributions to science. Much of his time and attention were given to mountain researches. He constructed the best hygroscope, the instrument which indicates a change in the degree of moisture in the atmosphere. The cyanometer, an instrument for measuring the degrees of blueness in the sky, was also invented by him.

2. “Osmose.” The tendency of fluids, when placed in contact, to mix.

3. “Cotyledons.” The seed lobes which surround and nourish young plants. Endogenous plants, or inside growers, such as Indian corn, have only one cotyledon, while exogens, or plants that grow by making external additions, have two, as seen in the young pea.

4. “Hales,” Stephen. (1677-1761.) An English clergyman who gave much time to scientific study. He was the author of several works, among which was a book on the physiology of vegetables, entitled “Statical Essays,” which has been translated into several languages.

5. “Dean Trench,” Richard Chevenix. (1807-⸺.) A British clergyman. In 1856 he was made Dean of Westminster, and in 1864 Archbishop of Dublin. His publications are numerous, including poetical, theological, philological, and historical works.

6. “Venus fly-trap,” or dionæa. This curious plant is a native of the sandy bogs of North Carolina. It is a perennial plant, whose leaves grow from its roots. In the midst of them there grows a leafless stem, about six inches high, which terminates in a cluster of white flowers. The long, slender leaves bear at their extremities a second leaf, which has been compared to two eyelids joined at their bases; this leaf is fringed with stiff, bristly hairs, and on the upper surface there are three very delicate bristles on each side, so placed that a fly can not walk over the leaf without touching one of them. As soon as touched the two parts of the leaf instantly close over the victim and hold it in their embrace until death follows, and the insect is partly absorbed. The sensitiveness of the plant resides entirely in these bristles on the surface of the leaves. The juice from the glands attracts the insects, and the plant receives nourishment from their bodies, which are partly dissolved in a liquid which exudes from the leaves.

7. “Nepenthes,” or pitcher plants. A genus of plants whose leaves form receptacles for water. The plants are natives of the swamps in the East Indies and Australia. The linear-lanceolate leaves have at their extremities a long, spiral stem, at the end of which is attached an urn, or pitcher, of narrow cylindrical form, from six to twelve inches long, in the different species, which are of the same color as the leaves, in some varieties, in others spotted with red, and still others are of a blood red color. The pitcher is terminated by a lid which is sometimes closed. The pitcher is always partly filled with watery liquid. Honey is secreted around the mouth of the pitcher, and insects are found within it, which have been lured by the honey. These are supposed to contribute to the nourishment of the plant. For further description, see the article on “Borneo,” in the present number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. There are some varieties of the pitcher plant found in the United States.

8. “Diatoms,” A species of microscopic plants belonging to the Algæ or sea weeds, growing in both salt and fresh water. For a long time they were thought to belong to the animal kingdom, and were classed among the animalcules, as they had the strange power of secreting from the water silicious shells. They grew in some places in such abundance as to form large beds of their shelly remains, the material of which is used for the polishing powders known under the name of tripoli. The species found now are exactly like the fossils. Ehrenberg says: “Species are to be found, in a living state, in situations where they have been propagated from times far anterior to the existence of man.” They may be obtained by allowing the water in which they grow to stand for a time, and then pouring off all but the slimy part at the bottom. The diatoms may often be seen to move a little in the water, from which it was supposed they belonged to the animal kingdom. Professor Bailey describes one very interesting species, as follows: “At one moment the needle-shaped frustules lie side by side, forming a rectangular plate; suddenly one of the frustules slides forward a little way, the next slides a little also, and so on through the whole number. These motions are constantly going on, and with such rapidity that the eye can scarcely follow them. The cause of the motion is wholly unknown, but it is probably mechanical and not vital.” One species in its growth takes on a fanlike appearance and is exceedingly beautiful. Fossil diatoms have been found in all the strata of rock formations. These with some of the minute creatures of the animal kingdom have left greater records of themselves than most of the higher forms of life. Extensive deposits of their silicious shells are found in various parts of the world. The city of Richmond, Va., stands on a layer of them which is eighteen feet in thickness.

ERRATA.—The first line of the second experiment, page 441 of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for May, should read: “A body is buoyed up in water by a force equal to the weight of the water it displaces.”

SUNDAY READINGS.

1. “Summerfield,” John. (1798-1825.) An American divine. He was born in England, and moved to New York in 1821. He visited many of the large cities, where his eloquence drew crowds to listen to his sermons. He founded the American Tract Society.

2. “Krumacher,” Friedrich Adolph. (1768-1845.) An eminent German theologian, pastor of the Reformed Church at Crefeld, and later pastor at Bremen. He was the author of many works, both in prose and poetry.

ANIMAL BIOLOGY.

1. “Batrachia,” bā-trāˈkĭ-ä.

2. “Ophidia,” ō-fidˈĭ-ä.

3. “Lacertilia,” lā-ser-tilˈĭ-ä.

4. “Iguanodon,” i-guāˈnō-don. This gigantic fossil reptile was discovered in the year 1882, in the Wealden beds of Kent and Sussex, also in the Isle of Wight, by Dr. Mantell. The enormous bones were very abundant, and from a close study of them, it has been estimated that the extreme length of the reptile must have been twenty-eight or thirty feet, of which the head was three, and the tail thirteen feet. It stood higher above the ground than any reptile now in existence. The teeth, which bear a remarkable resemblance to the teeth of the American lizard, the iguana, from which it was named, show that the animal was herbivorous. It probably fed on the trees growing along the borders of swamps and streams, and was able to lift its body for this purpose on its hind legs.

5. “Megˌa-lo-sauˈrus.” The word comes from the Greek, as do nearly all the words in this list, and means great lizard. The bones found in the rocks of the Oolite formation, the one next below the Wealden, show the animal to have been terrestrial and carnivorous. It fed upon smaller reptiles and the young of the larger orders. Its huge body was supported on four large, strong legs, the hind ones being estimated to have had a length of nearly six feet. The length of the animal must have been thirty or forty feet. In the first estimates made of all these saurians, their size was overestimated, the body of the iguanodon having been given as seventy feet in length, and the megalosaurus as sixty or seventy feet.

6. “Pleˌsi-o-sauˈrus.” The word means like a lizard. It is a remarkable fossil sea-reptile, which shows a long, snake-like neck, in which there are thirty-three vertebræ, ten more than in the longest neck of any bird. The body and head are comparatively short. Its whole length, when living, was probably twenty-five or thirty feet. Buckland describes it as follows: “To the head of a lizard it united the teeth of a crocodile, a neck of enormous length, resembling the body of a serpent, a trunk and tail having the proportions of an ordinary quadruped; the ribs of a chameleon, and the paddles of a whale.” There were fifty teeth in each jaw. Conybeare says of it: “That it was marine is evident from its paddles; that it may have occasionally visited the shore, the resemblance of its extremities to those of the turtle may lead us to conjecture; its motion must have been, however, very awkward on land; its neck must have impeded its progress through the water. May it not therefore be concluded—since, in addition to these circumstances, its respiration must have required frequent access to the air—that it swam upon or near the surface, arching back its neck like the swan, and occasionally darting it down at the fish which happened to float within its reach? It may, perhaps, have lurked in shoal water along the coast, concealed among the sea weed, and, raising its nostrils to the surface from a considerable depth, may have found a sure retreat from the assaults of dangerous enemies, while the flexibility of its neck may have compensated for the want of strength in its jaws and its incapacity for swift motion through the water, by the suddenness and agility of the attack which it enabled it to make on every animal fitted for its prey which came within its reach.”

7. “Ichˈthy-o-sauˈrus” (fish-lizard). This animal, which also is known only by its fossil remains, must have been about thirty feet long. It had enormous eyes, a long and large head, a mouth armed with powerful teeth, and a short neck. The body was fish-like in form, and the four paddles, resembling those of a whale, were comparatively small. The tail was long and gradually flattened toward the end; it was the principal organ of locomotion. They were very active in their movements, and consequently were dangerous enemies to all other animals living in the sea. Their food consisted chiefly of fishes.

8. “Chelonia,” kē-loˈnĭ-ä.

9. “Loricata,” lŏrˌi-cāˈtä.

10. “Aves,” āˈvēs.

11. “Anchylosed,” angˈkī-losed. United; made fast; stiffened.

12. “Esophagus,” e-sofˈa-gus. The passage leading to the stomach, through which the food and drink pass.

13. “Raptores,” rap-tōˈres.

14. “Insessores,” in-ses-sōˈres.

15. “Cursores,” cur-sōˈres.

16. “Grallatores,” gralˌ-lā-toˈres.

17. “Natatores,” natˈ-a-tōˈres.

18. “Monotremata,” monˈo-tremˈa-tä.

19. “Edentata,” ē-denˈta-tä.

20. “Armadillos,” ar-ma-dilˈlōs.

21. “Sirenia,” sī-rēˈni-ä.

22. “Cetacea,” sē-tāˈsē-ä.

23. “Cheiroptera,” kī-ropˈte-rä.

24. “Rodentia,” rō-denˈshĭ-a.

25. “Ungulates,” unˈgū-lates.

26. “Pinnigrades,” pinˈni-grades.

27. “Plantigrades,” plantˈĭ-grades.

28. “Digitigrades,” digˈi-ti-grades.

* * * * *

Those who wish to carry on further the study of Animal Biology will find a wide range of reading on the subject awaiting them. We append a list, but are unable to give publishers and prices: “Comparative Zoölogy,” by James Orton; “Methods of Study in Natural History,” by Agassiz; “Principles of Zoölogy,” by Agassiz and Gould; “Elementary Biology,” by Huxley and Martin; Wood’s “Illustrated Natural History;” Jones’s “Animal Creation;” “Elements of Zoölogy,” by Holder; Packard’s “Zoölogy;” Nicholson’s “Manual of Zoölogy;” “Winners in Life’s Race: or, The Great Backboned Family,” by Arabella B. Buckley; “Life and her Children: or, Glimpses of Animal Life from the Amœba to the Insects,” by Miss Buckley.

For special studies: Lyell’s “Antiquity of Man;” Blumenbach’s “Natural History of Man;” Huxley’s “Elementary Lessons in Physiology;” “Sea-side Studies in Natural History,” by Agassiz; Taylor’s “Half-hours at the Seaside;” Dana’s “Corals and Coral Islands;” Duncan’s “Transformation of Insects;” Packard’s “Guide to the Study of Insects;” Coues’s “Key to North American Birds;” Jordan’s “Popular Key to the Birds, etc., of the Northern United States;” “Birds of North America,” by Baird, Brewer and Ridgeway; Baird’s “Mammals of North America;” Scammon’s “Marine Mammals of North Pacific;” Coues’s “Fur-bearing Animals of North America;” Huxley’s “Manual of Vertebrates;” “Tropical Nature,” by Wallace (a work on reptiles); “Check List of North American Reptiles and Batrachians,” by E. D. Cope; “Game Fishes of the United States,” by G. Brown Goode; “Blind Fishes of the Mammoth Cave,” in “American Naturalist,” vol. vi., p. 6; Holder’s “American Fauna;” Agassiz’s “Development of Osseous Fishes;” Gunther’s “Introduction to the Study of Fishes;” Packard’s “Guide to the Study of Insects,” also his “Half Hours with Insects;” Wood’s “Strange Dwellings,” “Natural History,” and “Homes Without Hands;” Burmeister’s “Entomology;” Lubbock’s “Ants, Bees, and Wasps;” McCook’s “Agricultural Ants of Texas;” “Crustacea of the United States Exploring Expedition,” by J. D. Dana; “The Lobster and Lobster Fishing,” by W. W. Wheildon; “Barnacles,” by J. S. Kingsley; “The Cray Fish,” by Huxley; “Terrestrial Air-breathing Mollusks of the United States,” by W. G. Binney; “Our Sea Anemones,” by A. E. Verrill; “The Atlantic and Depths of the Sea,” by Thompson; Leidy’s “Fresh Water Rhizopods;” Pritchard’s “Infusoria.”

Serial publications containing much matter in regard to these subjects are _Popular Science Monthly_, _American Journal of Science_, _American Naturalist_, _Smithsonian Contributions_, _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_, and _Nature_.

COURSE OF READING FOR 1885-6.

Roman History and Latin Literature.

Studies in Italian History, Biography, and Art.

Political Economy.

Studies in Human Nature.

Studies in Robert Browning.

Electricity.

Philosophy, International Law, etc., etc.

The books for the course will soon be announced.

J. H. VINCENT.

NEW HAVEN, CT., April 27, 1885.

PARAGRAPHS FROM NEW BOOKS.

“Look there, my dearies!” and she pointed to a little blue and white tea-pot on the high mantel-shelf above the hearth, on which they were sitting. “Last night, when they’d taken Ben away, and I couldn’t finish t’ psalm, and I couldn’t do much more praying than a little bairn thet’s flayed and troubled in t’ dark night, I lifted my eyes to thet tea-pot, and I knew t’ words thet was on it, and they wer’ like an order and a promise—a’ in one; and I said, ‘There! thet’s enough, Lord!’ and I went to my bed and slept, for I knew there ’ud be a deal to do to-day, and nothing weakens me like missing my sleep.”

“And did you sleep, Martha?”

“Ay, I slept. It wasn’t hard wi’ t’ promise I’d got.”

Then Phyllis took a chair and stood upon it and carefully lifted down the tea-pot. It was of coarse blue and white pottery, and had been made in Staffordshire when the art was emerging from its rudeness, and when the people were half barbarous and wholly irreligious—one of half a dozen that are now worth more than if made of the rarest china, the “Blue Wesley Tea-pot;” rude little objects, yet formed by loving, reverential hands to commemorate the apostolic labors of John Wesley in that almost savage district. His likeness was on one side, and on the other the words, so often in his mouth, “In God we trust.”—_From “The Hallam Succession,” by Amelia E. Barr._

* * * * *

Discriminate in the use of AND and TO. Instead of saying “Go _and_ see them before you leave;” “Try _and_ help him obtain a place;” “Come _and_ meet our friends at my house;” say “Go _to_,” “Try _to_,” and “Come _to_.”

Discriminate in the use of the word ARTIST. Keep _artist_ to designate the higher order of workmen; as painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, and the like. Don’t use it to designate barbers, laundrymen, tailors, etc.

Discriminate in the use of BAD. Don’t say “I have a _bad_ cold;” say “a _severe_ cold.” As colds are never _good_, we should not say they are _bad_. We can have _slight_ colds, or _severe_ colds, but not _bad_ colds.

Discriminate between BAD and BADLY. Don’t make the mistake, so frequently made, of saying “I feel very _badly_.” Use _bad_. _Badly_ is an adverb, and should not be employed. One might as well say “I feel _happily_,” instead of _happy_.

Discriminate between BALANCE and REMAINDER or REST. Don’t say “The _balance_ of the library remained unsold;” “He spent the _balance_ of the evening at home;” “The _balance_ of the money he left in their keeping;” “We will now have the _balance_ of the toasts.” Use _rest_ or _remainder_. Balance denotes the excess of one thing over another.

Discriminate in the use of DEPOT. The best critics contend that we should not call a _railway-station_ a _depot_. A _depot_ is a place where goods or stores of any kind are kept.

Discriminate between HAD RATHER and WOULD RATHER. Don’t say I _had rather_ not do it; say I _would rather_ not do it.

Discriminate in the use of POLITE and KIND. Don’t say “your _polite_ invitation was received;” “You are very _polite_ in being so obliging;” “They gave us a _polite_ reception.” Use _kind_.

Discriminate in the use of SUCH and SO. Don’t say, “_Such_ a handsome bonnet;” “_Such_ a lovely girl;” “_Such_ a rough road.” Use _so_ handsome, _so_ lovely, etc.—_From “Discriminate.”_[M]

* * * * *

ONE MEANS OF HELPING RUSSIA.—But there is no obstacle which can not be overcome by energy, spirit of sacrifice, and courage. The Russian despotism must and will be destroyed; for it is not permitted to the stupid obstinacy of one, nor to the infamous egotism of a few, to arrest the progress and light of a nation of a hundred million souls. We can only wish the mode of execution of the unavoidable may be the least disastrous, least sanguinary, and most humane. And there is a force which can strongly contribute to this—it is the public opinion of European countries. It is strange, but quite true; Russian governmental circles are much more impressed by what is said about them in Europe than by the wailing of all Russia from the White Sea down to the Euxine.—_From “Russia Under the Tzars,” by Stepniak._

* * * * *

THE GOLDEN PRIME OF ’49.—A knowledge of the characteristic features of the mining days of 1849 is essential to a full appreciation of the good sense and political wisdom shown by the miners as a class. Merchants, mechanics, farmers existed but to supply the miners; and the gold of the mines was the chief resource of California. Four fifths of the able-bodied male population were living in the mineral belt, or were on their way thither, when the working season of 1849 opened. Only four years before there had been but five hundred Americans in California; in February, 1848, but two thousand; by December, 1848, this number had grown to six thousand; by July, 1849, to fifteen thousand; and by December, 1849, to fifty-three thousand. Chiefly owing to the gold rush of 1848-53 the center of population of the United States moved eighty-one miles farther west. Within four years after the spring of 1849 the population of the new state was 300,000, and more than $260,000,000 had been dug from the gold fields.—_From Charles Howard Shinn’s “Mining Camps.”_

* * * * *

THE WISE MAN’S VIEW OF LIFE.

“Look on the Spirit as the rider! take The Body for the chariot, and the Will As charioteer! regard the Mind as reins, The Senses the steeds, and the things of sense The ways they trample on. So is the Soul The Lord that owneth spirit, body, will, Mind, senses, all; itself unowned. Thus think The wise!

“He who is unwise drives with reins Slack on the neck o’ the senses; then they romp, Like restive horses of a charioteer.

“He that is wise, with watchful mind and firm, Calms those wild Fire, so they go fair and straight, Like well trained horses of a charioteer.”

—_Edwin Arnold’s “The Secret of Death.”_

* * * * *

AMY ALLSTON’S REPORT OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE.—On the 27th of May Janet and I picked our first berries for market, and from that time on we were truly busybodies. We worked early and late, being careful to have dresses short enough not to injure the vines. It was hard work for our bent, weary backs, as it grew warm, but we knew it must be done. Mother, Janet, Will and Pete did good service, and little Cecy cheered us from her wagon under a neighboring tree.

In about five weeks the harvest was over, and after taking breath, we counted our gains.

DR.

Cost of plants (3,630) $11 80 Cost of picking 10 25 ------ Total $22 05

CR.

By 1,178 quarts of berries, at an average of 15c. per qt. $176 70 ------- Net profit on one quarter acre $154 65

If we had to pay expenses of plowing, weeding, manure, etc., it would have greatly lessened the profits. On the other hand the season was backward, and the yield was not large, they tell me, in consideration of the fine condition of the plants and the cultivation they received, which was better than we could give a larger plot. At all events we set out half an acre more the August after.—_From Helen Campbell’s “What-to-do Club.”_

[M] Discriminate. A Companion to “Don’t.” A Manual for Guidance in the Use of Correct Words and Phrases in Ordinary Speech. By Critic. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885. Price, 30 cents.

TALK ABOUT BOOKS.

A happy thought was carried into successful execution in the publication of “The Hundred Greatest Men.”[N] The editor conceived the idea that a “natural history of civilization ought to be, not so much a narration of events, as a description of men and things,” and hence for many years busied himself in making a collection of portraits and antiquities as a preparation for his work. The great men of all ages have been grouped into eight classes, and treated under the following divisions of the book: Poetry, art, religion, philosophy, history, science, politics, and industry. Introductions have been written for these different departments by Matthew Arnold, Taine, Max Müller, Rénan, Noah Porter, Dean Stanley, Prof. Helmholtz, J. A. Froude, and John Fiske. The general introduction is by Emerson. Only those characters have been selected who have stood the test of time without diminution of fame. A portrait accompanies each sketch, and many of these have been obtained at great expense of time and trouble. The sketches themselves are word-paintings of the character, the life, and the times of the men, and the wonder is that in such brief space so much information can be given. The volume is a veritable art gallery.

A story of much delicacy of touch, and with some strong delineation of character, is “The Hallam Succession”[O] of Amelia C. Barr. The placing of the story could hardly be more picturesque. Mrs. Barr opens with English life of the first of the present century, carries us to a plantation near New Orleans, through “Sam” Houston’s Texan struggles, and finally to the long, low, verandahed house of a Texas plantation. The varied setting gives the variety to a story of faithful love and devotion. The many pleasing touches given in the descriptions of the characters are the finest features of the book. A fair example is the paragraph quoted on another page of this impression, which in its true and delicate pathos is rarely equaled.

One or two selections taken from “The Harnt that Walks the Chilhowee,” one of the eight stories that make up the volume, “In The Tennessee Mountains,”[P] will show the style and aim of these unique writings, which are just now attracting so much attention. This “harnt,” or ghost, was supposed to be that of a poor, deformed little creature, who some time before had been shot, and, as every one thought, killed. He himself had been falsely accused of taking a man’s life. His death, however, had been a mistake, and it was the real man who walked the mountain in search of food. Simon Burney, an “uncouth and densely ignorant” mountaineer, sought out the helpless, forlorn little specter, for whose capture $200 reward had been offered, and said: “I ain’t a-goin’ ter help no man break the law an’ hender jestice; but ef ye will go an’ stand yer trial I’ll take keer of ye. An’ arter the jury hev done let ye off, ye are welcome ter live along o’ me at my house till ye die.” And after the trial and the clearance, this rough friend was as good as his word, and “ungrudgingly gave of his best … and worked early and late that there might be enough to divide.” “A prince could not have dispensed hospitality with a more royal hand.” The author closes by saying: “The grace of culture is, in its way, a fine thing, but the best that art can do—the polish of a gentleman—is hardly equal to the best that nature can do in her highest moods.” All of the stories are full of interest, and show great love for humanity. The author, in a bright, cheery way, true to the life which she represents, portrays the strong and noble natures found in the lowest walks of life.

“A Book of Sermons,”[Q] by Bishop Simpson, will meet with a warm welcome everywhere. To those who have heard him preach, who have listened to his eager, impassioned words, and have been borne onward by the tide of his eloquence, it may seem that to merely read the words—to have them without the powerful influence, the magnetic personality, behind them—is to possess the letter without the spirit. But such will be happily surprised. The book bears witness that Bishop Simpson was a great sermonizer, as well as a great speaker. By the aid of a little imagination as one reads, he can see again the spare form, and the face lighted up with enthusiasm and love; can hear the voice rapidly and earnestly uttering the words which point out plainly and simply the way of life. While, without this help, those who never heard him will find great pleasure and profit in reading the book.

No one who knows Dr. Buckley but expects good things from his pen, and he has given to young men a particularly useful volume in “Oats or Wild-Oats?”[R] Advice is as difficult a thing to prescribe judiciously as it is to take pleasantly. It is very liable to be insipid, preachy, to lack _verve_ qualities, which young men particularly abominate; it is very little of it readable. But these talks of Dr. Buckley’s abound in readable qualities. They are directly to the point, and full of clear-cut common sense. They advise young men in the practical matter of choosing a profession, and in making a success of it. The talks come from a man who, even if he “never worked a half day on a farm in his life,” has observed and conversed with hundreds of farmers; who knows from what he has heard and learned from their confessions to him just where they make their business, social, intellectual, and religious mistakes; and who is not afraid to express what he believes to be their dangers, and their strong points. As with farming, so with all the trades and professions. He knows his ground, and treats it in a tone a trifle blunt, perhaps, but nevertheless full of force and conviction.

Mr. Marvin, an Englishman who for several years has lived in Russia, and is thoroughly acquainted with the character, the policy, and the wishes of that government, has, in writing “The Russians at the Gates of Herat,”[S] tried to impress more deeply upon the English people the necessity of immediate effort in order to secure themselves in the possession of the entrance to India. The steady advance of Russia for years past toward this empire has been carefully traced, and all the treacherous devices by which she has gained ground are exposed. The popular opinion that colossal mountain ranges lie between the Russian possessions and India has been shown to be an error; the new route over which they are passing is such that one could “drive all the way four-in-hand.” “No surrender,” must be the motto of every Englishman as regards Penjdeh, and “Hands off,” in respect to all places leading directly to Herat, says the author. A careful study of this book will give one a clear idea of this complicated movement.

The “Old Farm”[T] was one that had been for years without a tenant, for its owner feared to lease it lest its old fashioned house and belongings might not suit the new comer, and he would want it changed. At last one was found willing, glad to take it just as it was. One bright October day a business man from the great city, broken down in health, took possession of it with his family. “A year of retirement and rest will restore his vigor and save him for the future,” said the doctor. Very soon the early tastes of the naturalist, for such he had been, awoke, and the days were spent in seeking, gathering and studying specimens of minute animal life, or “the other tenants of the farm,” as he called them. The conversations held regarding them make up the main part of the work. Spiders, moths, bees, wasps, and ants are among those described at length; their history and habits are very accurately given. The blending of the story with the natural history makes an exceedingly interesting book.

[N] The Hundred Greatest Men. With Portraits, reproduced from Fine and Rare Steel Engravings. Edited by Wallace Wood, M.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885. Price, $6.00.

[O] The Hallam Succession. A Tale of Methodist Life in Two Countries. By Amelia E. Barr. New York: Phillips & Hunt. 1885.

[P] In the Tennessee Mountains. By Charles Egbert Craddock. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, $1.25.

[Q] Sermons by Bishop Matthew Simpson. New York: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square. 1885.

[R] Oats or Wild-Oats? Common Sense for Young Men. By J. M. Buckley, LL.D. New York: Phillips & Hunt. 1885. Price, $1.50.

[S] The Russians at the Gates of Herat. By Charles Marvin. With Maps and Portraits. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885. Price, 50 cents.

[T] Tenants of an Old Farm. By Henry C. McCook, D.D. Illustrated from Nature. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. 1885. Price, $2.50.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

The Women of the Reformation. By Mrs. Annie Wittenmyer. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $2.00.

Preparation for Reading Xenophon. By James M. Whiton, Ph.D., and Mary B. Whiton, A.B. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1885.

Assyriology; Its Use and Abuse. By Francis Brown. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885.

Elias Power, of Ease-in-Zion. By John M. Bamford. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, 85c.

Wondrous Love. A Collection of Songs and Services for Sunday-schools. By Geo. F. Root and C. C. Case. Cincinnati: The John Church Publishing Co., 74 West Fourth Street.

The _Century Magazine_, Vol. XXIX. New Series, Vol. VIII. New York: The Century Co.

Composition and Rhetoric. By G. P. Quackenbos, LL.D. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1885.

The Spinning Wheel of Tamworth. By the Rev. W. A. Smith. New York: National Temperance Society and Publishing House, 58 Reade Street. 1884.

The Secret of Death and Other Poems. By Edwin Arnold. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1885. Price, $1.00.

Delivered from Afar. By Ralph Roberts. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.50.

A Child’s Garden of Verses. By Robert Louis Stevenson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885.

Harriet Martineau. By Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1885.

Grammar of Old English. By Edward Sievers, Ph.D. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1885.

Hygiene for Young People. By A. B. Palmer, M.D., LL.D. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1885.

Krusi’s Drawing Tablets. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885.

Select Spelling and Pronouncing Lessons. New York; D. Appleton & Co.

Hygiene and Physiology. By J. D. Steele, Ph.D. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1885.

One of the Duanes. By Alice King Hamilton. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1885. Price, $1.25.

Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography. Edited by Maria Weston Chapman. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 1885.

Russia Under the Tzars. By Stepniak. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885.

Twenty-eight Breakfasts. By Emily Raymond. Toledo: Blade Printing and Paper Co. 1885. Price, 10 cents.

Graded Review Questions. By W. M. Giffin and David Maclure. New York: A. Lovell & Co., 16 Astor Place. 1885.

Leonard and Gertrude. By Pestalozzi. Translated and abridged by Eva Channing. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1885.

Herbert Spencer’s Philosophy. Examined by James McCosh, D.D., LL.D. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Redemption in Prophecy. By John G. Wilson. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1885. Price, $1.25.

The Handy Companion. J. R. Holcombe & Co., Publishers. Cleveland, O.

Personal Traits of British Authors. By E. T. Mason. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885. Price, $1.50.

A Hand-Book of the United Brethren in Christ. By E. L. Shuey, A.M. Dayton, O.: United Brethren Publishing House. 1885.

Anthè. By Mrs. G. W. Chandler. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.00.

At the Sign of the Blue Boar. A Story of the Reign of Charles II. By Emma Leslie. New York: Phillips & Hunt. 1885.

Life of Edward Thompson, D.D., LL.D., late a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By his son, Edward Thompson, M.A. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885.

SPECIAL NOTES.

C. L. S. C. STATIONERY.—An entirely new design in stationery will be sold at Chautauqua and other Assemblies this season. It is the only authorized C. L. S. C. stationery. A new and uniform Chautauqua badge has also been devised, and will be on sale at the various Assemblies. This badge bears different emblematic designs, suitable for the different orders in the C. L. S. C. It will take the place of all other badges, except the garnet badge of the graduates, worn on Commencement day.—R. S. HOLMES.

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In the April issue of THE CHAUTAUQUAN we gave the credit of the management of the School of Cookery at Lake de Funiak to Mrs. Emma P. Ewing. We were wrong. Mrs. Ewing was not at the Florida Chautauqua, but Mrs. Sophie W. Knight, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was, and a very delightful series of lessons in the art of cookery she gave.

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Chautauqua never fails to provide something new for its devotees. This summer the novelty is a mineral spring. The waters have been in the laboratory of an eminent chemist, and are pronounced rich in healthful qualities.

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ERRATA.—The name of L. W. Sabin appeared among the graduates in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for February under Missouri; it should have appeared under Iowa.

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TO THE CLASS OF ’88.—So much having been written _pro_ and _con_, respecting our class name, it is proposed to have the entire class vote for or against the name. The circles will send their vote, giving the number in favor and against present name. Those who are not in circles can send their votes as individuals. In order to insure insertion the vote must be sent to the Rev. C. C. McLean, St. Augustine, Fla., before the 1st of June.

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CHAUTAUQUA DAY AT OCEAN GROVE.—At Ocean Grove, N. J., arrangements have been made to graduate all Chautauquans who have completed the course of study and prefer to receive their diploma there; and the 29th of July next has been set apart as a “Chautauqua day,” for the graduation ceremonies and other exercises appropriate to the occasion. Chancellor Vincent, Superintendent of Instruction, and other officers of the C. L. S. C. will be present, and a large number of the pupils of the young and vigorous “People’s College,” representing all parts of the country, from the ocean to the Rocky Mountains, are expected to witness and take part in the interesting exercises while enjoying the amenities of that charming seaside town. There is, at Ocean Grove, a local circle comprising a membership of nearly sixty. Many of the members are as full of enthusiasm as our honored superintendent, with all his deep devotion to the institution he has conducted to such a high degree of prosperity and usefulness, can desire, and the necessary preparations for the “Chautauqua day” will be made under its direction. The president of the Ocean Grove Association, the Rev. Dr. E. H. Stokes, is also president of the local circle. He is a zealous Chautauquan, and to his influence and example must be attributed much of the zeal, industry and enthusiasm that have made the local circle so interesting and profitable to members and visitors. All members of the class of ’85 who can not go to Chautauqua to receive their diplomas within the sacred shades of our beloved _alma mater_, but may be able to make a visit for the purpose to Ocean Grove, will be cordially welcomed, and it is suggested that they will do well to give as early notice as practicable of their intentions in that regard. Communications on the subject should be addressed to the Secretary of the Ocean Grove Local Circle, Mrs. Lulu Pile Little.

IMPORTANT TO MEMBERS OF THE C. L. S. C.

The _Chautauqua Assembly Daily Herald_ will be printed in the grove at Chautauqua, and issued as a morning paper in August, 1885. It will begin Saturday, August 1, and continue every day for nineteen days. Nobody can keep well informed on the Chautauqua movement without the _Assembly Herald_. It will tell you nearly everything that is done. It will cost $1.00 for the season, and it will contain stenographic reports of all the scientific, philosophical, and other lectures delivered at the Chautauqua meetings, together with elaborate reports of all meetings held there the coming season. The price is very low. The _Assembly Daily Herald_ and THE CHAUTAUQUAN at one time, $2.25. This offer is good only till August 1st. Members of the C. L. S. C. will find a great many valuable hints and suggestions in the reports of meetings published in the _Assembly Daily Herald_, also more than seventy splendid lectures. Some “local circles” use the _Herald_ to assist them in conducting their work during the winter months. Send in your names early, before the press of business is upon us at Chautauqua.

CHAUTAUQUA SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES, 1885.

LEWIS MILLER, _Pres’t._ J. H. VINCENT, D.D., _Sup’t of Instruction_.

CHAUTAUQUA SCHOOL OF HEBREW.

INSTRUCTORS AND LECTURERS.

WILLIAM M. HARPER, Ph.D., Principal. Professor in Baptist Union Theological Seminary, Morgan Park, Illinois.

CHARLES R. BROWN, Professor in Newton Theological Institution, Newton Center, Massachusetts.

DAVID A. M’CLENAHAN, M.A., Pastor of United Presbyterian Church, New York City.

J. J. ANDERSON, M.A., Professor in Theological Institute, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

REGULAR COURSES OF INSTRUCTION.

1. _The Elementary Class_ will be made up of those who have no knowledge of the language. It will make about sixty recitations, three each day (one on Saturday).

2. _The Intermediate Class_ will be made up of those who have once studied Hebrew, but desire to renew this study from the beginning. The class will begin with the first principles, and the work will differ from that of the Elementary Class rather in amount than in character.

3. _The Progressive Class_ is intended for those who have had training in the elementary principles of Hebrew, but who wish to become familiar with the details of the language.

4. _The Advanced Class_ will do work of an advanced character. It is intended for those who are thoroughly familiar with the grammar of the language, who have at command a large vocabulary, and who have read large portions of the Hebrew Bible.

The members of the Intermediate, Progressive and Advanced Classes will be divided into four Extempore sections, each of which will read, during the four weeks, forty hours under the care of an instructor.

_I. Special Courses._

In the Chautauqua School of Hebrew, instruction will be given, if desired, in the following special courses:

1. _Aramaic._—One hour a day with Professor William R. Harper, Ph.D., Morgan Park, Ill.

2. _Advanced Hebrew Grammar._—One hour a day with Professor William R. Harper, Ph.D.

3. _Hebrew New Testament._—One hour a day with Professor J. J. Anderson, of Tuscaloosa, Ala.

_II. Lectures._

In the various courses of lectures given at Chautauqua, during the session of the Summer School, there will be a number bearing upon topics relating to Old Testament study.

The principal of the school will, in addition, give a series of ten studies on “Modern Criticism of the Hexateuch.”

_III. General Information._

Attention is invited to the following items:

_Time._—The Chautauqua School of Hebrew will open August 4th, at 2 p. m., and continue until August 31st, at 12 m.

_Tuition Fee._—The tuition fee will be $10.00, payable to the Secretary of the Chautauqua Assembly. This sum includes admission to the grounds. Boarding can be obtained at from $4 to $6 per week.

_Books._—The books needed for the several classes will be furnished at the opening of the school, or may be obtained in advance from the American Publication Society of Hebrew, Morgan Park, Ill. Books for the Special Courses must be ordered in advance.

_Correspondence._—Those who desire further information, are requested to correspond with the _Principal_,

WILLIAM R. HARPER, Morgan Park, Ill.

COLLEGE OF ENGLISH.

W. D. M’CLINTOCK, A.M., Director.

_Summer Term, 1885._

I. ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

1. Anglo-Saxon.

(_a_) Beginners.—Sweet’s “Anglo-Saxon Primer.”

(_b_) Advanced.—Sweet’s “Anglo-Saxon Reader,” and Lounsbury’s “English Language.”

2. Essentials of English. Introduction of the Scientific Study of English Grammar.

Ten lectures during Teachers’ Retreat.

II. ENGLISH LITERATURE.

1. Shakspere, Hamlet. Four weeks.

2. English Lyric Poetry. Studies in the Analysis and Criticism of Poetry. Two weeks.

THE CHAUTAUQUA COLLEGE OF MODERN LANGUAGES.

PROF. J. H. WORMAN, PH.D., Director. PROF. A. LALANDE, Associate, School of French.

The College of Modern Languages, under the direction of the distinguished teacher and author, Dr. J. H. Worman, will open July 11th, and continue in session for six weeks.

For full information concerning the COLLEGE OF MODERN LANGUAGES for the coming season, address as follows: German, Italian, and Spanish, Dr. J. H. Worman, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., for French, Prof. A. Lalande, Bridgeport, Conn.

ACADEMIA OF LATIN AND GREEK.

EDGAR L. SHUMWAY—Principal.

For information concerning the “Academia of Latin and Greek,” see the announcements in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for April and May, or address

EDGAR L. SHUMWAY, Rutgers College, N. J.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

Page 513 (illustration caption), “paletta” changed to “patella” (S, femur; T, patella; U, tibia;)

Page 519, “nterspaces” changed to “interspaces” (cavernous interspaces where trickling springs)

Page 521, “be” added (from which it will be seen)

Page 524, “Picadilly” changed to “Piccadilly” (Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London)

Page 528, “Calvanism” changed to “Calvinism” (Calvinism was revolutionary)

Page 534, “durion” changed to “durian” (we can only refer to the durian)

Page 541, repeated word “of” removed (a method of taking things)

Page 545, “gradest” changed to “grandest” (best, most beautiful, and grandest)

Page 548, “unfaverably” changed to “unfavorably” (he compared unfavorably with others)

Page 558, “Chautauquo” changed to “Chautauqua” (printed in the grove at Chautauqua)