The required C. L. S. C. reading for the month of February comprises the first part of Bishop Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, to page 134; the corresponding parts of Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars; and readings in Astronomy, English, Russian, Scandinavian, and Religious History and Literature, and Bible History and Literature. Bishop Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, and Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars, are in book form; the remainder of the required reading for the month is published in The Chautauquan for February. The following division is made according to weeks:
First Week—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, chapters I and II—Creative Processes, Creative Progress—to page 40.
2. Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars—the Morning Star, pages 3 and 4; Gravitation, from page 11 to page 15, both inclusive.
3. History of Russia, in The Chautauquan.
4. Readings in Religious and Bible History and Literature; Sunday Readings, in The Chautauquan, selections for February 4.
Second Week—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, chapters III and IV—Astronomical Instruments, Celestial Measurements—from page 41 to page 74, inclusive.
2. Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars—Light—pages 8, 9, and 10.
3. History and Literature of Scandinavia, in The Chautauquan.
4. Readings in Religious and Bible History and Literature; Sunday Readings in The Chautauquan, selections for February 11.
Third Week—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, chapter V—The Sun—from page 75 to page 96, inclusive.
2. Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars—The Sun—pages 5, 6, and 7.
3. Pictures from English History, in The Chautauquan.
4. Readings in Religious and Bible History and Literature; Sunday Readings in The Chautauquan, selections for February 18.
Fourth Week—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, chapters VI and VII—The Planets as Seen from Space; Shooting Stars, Meteors, and Comets—from page 97 to page 134, inclusive.
2. Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars—Comets, Meteoric Systems—from page 37 to page 41, inclusive.
3. Readings in Religious and Bible History and Literature; Sunday Readings in The Chautauquan, selections for February 25.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN, General Secretary C. L. S. C.
1. The County of Westchester, in the State of New York, which is about half the size of Attica, contains about five hundred square miles.
2. The Romans gave the name “Greeks” to the Hellenes probably for the reason that they gained their first knowledge of the country from a tribe in the northwest of Greece called Græci, and they accordingly gave the name of that tribe to the whole country, calling it Græcia.
3. The following are two examples of Spartan laconisms: “Either this, or on this.” [Either bring this, or be brought on this. Attributed to Gorgo on presenting a shield to her son.] “Let Xerxes come and take them.” The reply of Leonidas when summoned by Xerxes to surrender his arms.
4. Among the literary tidings from modern Greece that seem to foretoken close at hand a signal renaissance of Greek literature, are the following: With the establishment of the kingdom in the present century, education is spread over every corner of free Greece. In education the Greek child does not learn the grammar of the modern language, but of the ancient. Perhaps no nation now produces so much literature in proportion to its numbers. The Greeks seem restless in their desire to give expression to their thoughts. Many rich Greeks have published books at their own expense. Very frequently scholars produce their best works for periodicals, or even newspapers. Almost every literary man of eminence makes efforts in every literary direction. An American classical school has recently been opened in Athens by Prof. Goodwin, of Cambridge, Mass., on the site of an old school of philosophy. The University of Athens is assuming special prominence as a literary institution.
5. Homer was Blind Melesigenes. He was so called because he was supposed to have been born on the borders of the river Meles.
6. The Delphic Oracle pronounced Socrates “the wisest of mankind.”
7. The monk Planudes is apparently relieved of the imputation concerning the authorship of the biography of Æsop ascribed to him, by the discovery at Florence of a manuscript of this life that was in existence a century before Planudes’s time.
8. Some of the reasons for supposing that this biography is a falsifying one are as follows: His being represented as a monster of ugliness and deformity, was doubtless intended to heighten his wit by contrast. In Plutarch’s Convivium Æsop is a guest, and there are many jests on his original servile condition, but none on his appearance, and a delicacy on such points does not usually restrain ancient writers. The Athenians erected a noble statue in honor of Æsop, which they doubtless would not have done had he been deformed. Pliny states that Æsop was the Contubernalis of Rhodopis, his fellow slave, whose extraordinary beauty passed into a proverb.
9. The hecatomb was strictly the sacrifice of a hundred oxen. All hecatombs were sacred. This sacrifice is said to have been particularly observed by the Lacedæmonians when they possessed a hundred cities. The sacrifices were subsequently reduced in number, and goats and lambs substituted for oxen.
10. The ceremony of taking a prisoner by the girdle in token that he is to suffer death was, ancient writers state, a custom among the Persians. After the trial was over, instead of formally pronouncing sentence upon the accused, all the members of the tribunal arose from their seats and, turning their heads away from the prisoner, took hold of his girdle, the highest in command taking hold first. Even the relatives, if any were in the tribunal, went through the same ceremony. Those in rank below the accused continued to bow before him, notwithstanding his condemnation.
11. The scythed chariots of the Persians had two wheels with knives fastened to each axle, extending obliquely outward. They were ordinary wooden chariots, with a platform large enough for two to stand on, resting on the axles without springs. Each chariot was drawn by four horses abreast. Later, long spikes were placed in the ends of the poles, and the back parts of the chariot were armed with several rows of sharp knives. The horses were driven by a charioteer, whose duty it was to manage his steeds, and with a shield ward off the missiles of the enemy, while his chief stood behind and with his sword endeavored to hew down those who escaped the scythes.
12. The quotation, “When Greek joined Greek, then was the tug of war,” is from the play of Alexander the Great, written by Nathaniel Lee, an English dramatic writer of the latter part of the seventeenth century.
13. The Persian slingers were a part of the light-armed soldiers. Their armor consisted of a shield, a sling, and stones, or other missiles. The stone or missile was placed upon a leather disk, held by two strings, and then rapidly whirled, and just at the right time one string was dropped and the missile projected with great force through the air. Some of the missiles thus thrown weighed no less than an Attic pound, and Seneca reports that the motion was so vehement that the leaden bullets were frequently melted. These slingers were enabled to use either hand, and it is stated that they obliged their sons to strike their food from a pole before eating it.
14. The now familiar expression, “War even to the knife,” was the reply of the Spanish patriot Palafox, the governor of Saragoza, to the summons of the French to surrender, at the siege of that city in 1808. Lord Byron uses the same expression in the first canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
15. The singular effect upon the men of the eating of honeycombs, as described by Xenophon, was occasioned by the peculiar properties given to the honey, owing to its being extracted by the bees from narcotic plants. The honey of Trebizond, at the present day, when eaten, causes headache and vomiting, and possesses poisonous qualities, supposed to be derived from the rhododendron, azalea pontica.
Correct replies to all the questions for further study in the December number of The Chautauquan have been received from the Niles, Mich., circle, through the secretary, Mrs. J. S. Tuttle; Mrs. S. D. Lloyd, president, Mrs. Marion McKinney, secretary, Mrs. J. P. Henry and Mrs. F. R. Snyder, of the Arcola, Ill., circle; Rev. R. H. and Mrs. M. A. Howard, Saxonville, Mass.; Miss Maggie V. Wilcox, 605 North Thirty-fifth street, West Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. Nellie M. Rumsey, president of the Albert Lea, Minn., local circle; Miss Mary D. Eshleman, 821 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, Pa., and A. U. Lombard, Columbus, O.
Dr. Vincent: First of all, good friends, don’t let the idea prevail anywhere that the local circle is indispensable to the work of the C. L. S. C. There are individual readers who are unable to attend a local circle, who do all the work that is required by the C. L. S. C. successfully. When the idea obtains, as it often does, that to be a good C. L. S. C. member one must attend the local circle, people who would otherwise read to profit, and read through the entire course, become discouraged and give it up. Some of our very best students never saw a local circle, or knew anything about it. They are their own local circle.
Where people come together voluntarily for mutual improvement, the local circle is of very great advantage, and the more local circles we can have the better, and the more you attend the local circle the better for you. Any effort you put forth to establish a local circle is worthy of praise.
Again, small local circles are better than large ones. Where there are six persons who “take to” each other, who work easily together, they will do better work than a large circle. Where there are fifty members in one place it is better to have four or six circles than to have one, with a monthly general meeting.
In the local circle, to repeat what has been said before on this platform, avoid all long lectures and all long essays. If you want a popular lecture, get a popular lecturer. If you want a scholarly lecture, secure a scholarly lecturer, and give all the benefit of it to those who desire it; but do not attempt to burden the ordinary local circle meetings with elaborate lectures.
A local circle should encourage conversation, which is the action of many minds in expression. To have one person say it all will not benefit all as much as to have all say something. Have five-minute essays where you must have essays: conversation rather than essays where you can have conversation. This may be embarrassing to begin with, but the embarrassment is easily overcome as you awaken an interest in the subject. Let a question be thrown out; ask who can answer it. “Well,” says one, “I think I can answer it.” What a benediction to a local circle is some disputed question in the hands of members who “do not care a penny what anybody thinks,” but who “speak right out,” good grammar or bad grammar. Perfectly at home themselves, they try to make everybody else at home.
When a local circle simply becomes a conversation on the appointed topic, you have the very perfection of a meeting. A Methodist class-meeting that becomes a simple, informal, spontaneous conversation on a religious subject, without any “tone” put on at all, is a profitable class-meeting.
So it is profitable to have study in a class where the teacher becomes a member of the class, and guides without reins in sight, drawing out the convictions and movements of every mind and of every tongue for half an hour, illustrating something from every mind, from every tongue, until they say: “We didn’t have a recitation to-day, we had a little conversation,” and everybody spoke and thought, and out came the thought, and speech which a formal teacher would have brought about through recitation and blackboard outlines, and all that. The simple conversation, in the interest of the result, in which everybody participates, is the highest style of teaching; and to have that, you want one ruling mind; and blessed are you if you have some one to undertake and direct that conversation.
Where the local circle is large, you will not have much general conversation, and a few will do the work which, although it is not wholly unprofitable, is not for the best interests of all.
Written Question: How shall we compute the time spent in reading and study, to be sure we have given as much time as we agreed to give?
Dr. Vincent: You read all the required reading, and you may put it down, without looking at your watch, that you have taken all the time required. [Laughter.]
Question: How many seals to be attached to the diploma can the class of 1882 secure in a year?
Dr. Vincent: You can get one white crystal seal. You may get just as many other seals as you can win. If you are a person of ample leisure you may read along and fill up the memoranda. I think you should get a seal in general history in three or four months. If you succeed in getting one seal in a year, you will do very well. Those of you who have leisure, and work as rapidly as you care to work, will secure your seals in due time.
Question: Is there any railway station at Chautauqua? The boards point to the “depot.” Is this in accordance with the Chautauqua idea?
Dr. Vincent: Every time I look at the sign pointing to the “depot,” how sorry I am that it was not made “railway station.” We have a “railway station” at Chautauqua.
Question: Please give the names for the books for the white crystal seal for graduates; also for the white seal for the third and fourth years?
Dr. Vincent: I intend to give in The Chautauquan every month one or two columns of direct counsel to the Circle; and the first thing I do will be to give the required books for the White Seal Course of the class of 1882 for the last two years.
A voice: We have a list of the books on the memoranda we have kept, and we have the names of the books and the questions, if we have read them.
Dr. Vincent: Very good. You have the list of the books required for the white seal for the last two years; but to make it quite sure, I will make mention of it.
A voice: I understood that we were to go right on and take the four years.
Dr. Vincent: The white seal of the past two years will cost you nothing, and the seals will cost you nothing. You may add the white crystal seal also. If you read up that which is required for the past two years you may add three seals this year.
A voice: I have on my diploma two white seals, and I have not read anything required in the White Seal Course.
Dr. Vincent: You read the required reading of the first and second years, when we had no white seal distinction, and for that you get the two white seals. If you read the additional books for the last two years, you may get two white seals.
Question: How many white seals can a person have?
Dr. Vincent: You can have seven crystal seals if you wish. Nearly all of you have two white seals now. You can all of you have seven white crystal seals if you will wait seven years. Or you may study that part assigned for the past four years and put on the white seals, and your crystal seal, if you should happen to win one, can go on the pyramid somewhere.
A voice: You can read but one white crystal seal during the year?
Dr. Vincent: Yes, sir, but one during the year—one white crystal seal.
A voice: What other seal would you advise?
Dr. Vincent: The seal in the department to which you “take” the most. I have no choice in that matter at all. We have the memoranda for a part of the departments ready now, and will soon have them ready for all. You must make your own selection.
A voice: Can we have the memoranda when we commence reading?
Dr. Vincent: You can have them at the beginning. Four are ready now. If you take these courses, we will try to get the memoranda ready as soon as possible. I think our committee on that is at work.
Question: Must we ask special permission to substitute another edition of Shakspere in place of Rolfe’s edition?
Dr. Vincent: No, any edition will be accepted.
Question: Must we send our diplomas to the office of the secretary for new seals?
Dr. Vincent: When you send the memoranda, the secretary will send you the seal; it will be duly stamped and forwarded by mail.
I have a communication from Miss Young. I know that she is doing a good work in her present home at Hot Springs, Arkansas. She writes in reference to the founding of a public library at Hot Springs. She desires donations of books for it. She says:
“The town is in part owned by the government. We seek assistance from good people everywhere, for the work is in no sense a local one. Probably no town exists in the country having greater need in this direction. Men visit the place by thousands from all over the country, and find nothing to uplift; but saloons and gambling-houses by the score. On July 1st Congress passed a special act allowing us to purchase a lot on the government reservation for a mere nominal sum. So now we have one hundred feet on the avenue, for which we paid one hundred dollars. Upon this we propose to put a public hall worth ten thousand dollars. We are working with our plan. Any help from Chautauquans, however small, will be received. Books can be sent by mail to my address. One book from one might save some young man from an hour of temptation. May I not plead for a little help to give light and life even to Arkansas?”
This is a matter to be thought upon, and I hope that you will think, and that your thinking will result in action. Miss Young and her friends will be very grateful.
A paper: “Knowing the desire of so many of the C. L. S. C. graduates to place at Chautauqua some memorial of the first Commencement, a member of the Class of 1882 would suggest that the purchase of a bell, to add to the one already possessed by the association, would be a suitable and useful gift. Future classes might add to the number until the peal is completed. It would be easy through The Chautauquan to advertise the matter, and to whom subscriptions might be sent.”
Dr. Vincent: It is a good idea.
Question: Will a person who has never attempted to read the course, but has read some of the books in it, get credit for what he has read in it, if he takes it up?
Dr. Vincent: Certainly. You will get credit for everything you have read in our line of study.
A voice: I do not hear anything about a meeting of the Class of ’83.
Dr. Vincent: A member of the Class of 1883 is anxious to know what has become of the class. Are there no members of the Class of ’83 present? Raise your hands. Please stand up, and let us see who you are. Be seated. That was a very good showing for ’83. The most of ’83 are waiting for their time next year. ’82 did not make much of a showing last year, but they did very well this year.
I want to call your attention to a photograph. Mr. Walker did not ask me to do this. I do it because I am so delighted with the photograph which has been taken of the gate, the gate closed, the beautiful pathway, and the view from the Hall down the pathway to the gate, the gate open, and our guard, Mr. Allen, by the side of it, keys in hand. There are two views of the Superintendent of Instruction and the Counselors, which you do not want. [Laughter.] These views were taken some morning this week, and here they are already. Mr. Walker did not ask me to present them to you, or I should not have done it.
The questions relating to the local circles have all been answered. I do not think that we have wasted time. We have spent a little more time on the points about the books than I could have wished.
Has the committee of the “Society of the Hall in the Grove” had a meeting?
Rev. A. H. Gillet: They have.
Dr. Vincent: Is the committee full?
Rev. A. H. Gillet: The list of twenty-five is now complete. That committee will meet this evening. Those who are present will have power to transact business.
A voice: Were the special committees appointed by the committee of twenty-five to be appointed this year?
Dr. Vincent: Certainly.
A voice: And out of the twenty-five?
Dr. Vincent: Not necessarily. The “Guard of the Gate” and the “Guard of the Grove” must be appointed.
Dear friends, it is not quite six o’clock, and I want a few words with you. The sunlight among these leaves and branches, the great hall, your faces, the pleasant fellowship, the memories that come, and the hopes that spring up, make this a delightful hour to me. I made a suggestion the other day to this effect, that the members of this circle, however widely they differ in religious opinions, might each give the heart an up-look toward the Father of all, and offer a prayer for all the members of the Circle.
We have some people among us who are skeptical. They doubt a great deal, that many of you believe. They are not the less interesting and dear to me as a believer in humanity and in God, because they doubt, for all doubt is not guilty doubt. I would rather have only one ounce of faith, and try to live up to it, than a whole ton of accurate opinion which I sinned against in my everyday life. For out of the ounce of truth, though there be much error with it, much more will come of life and strength and divine likeness than can possibly come from the largest measure of truth which one holds in unrighteousness.
Therefore I take a peculiar interest in those members of our circle who are not “orthodox” Christians. The majority of our Circle are believers in what is called “orthodoxy.” We have some souls who hesitate when they come to definitions about doctrines; and some of the most fervent prayers that go up to the Father, who is acquainted with them and knows the measure of their faith, are the prayers that come out of hearts that want to believe, but owing to circumstances over which they have no control, are notable to believe everything that other people believe, and they simply wait and ask for light.
There is a great deal of sorrow in our Circle. There are many hearts that ache. The loneliness of sorrow makes it harder to bear. The thought that those who belong to this Circle sympathizingly turn to God in prayer may make it easier to bear such burdens. There are a great many people who feel a weight of responsibility. They are conscientious up to the measure of their faith, and they are eager to be right. A prayer of all to God that this light might come to them would be a blessing to them.
I will tell you a secret: The best thing in the world for a soul that needs to be lifted up to God, is to pray for the uplifting of some other soul. It is when we become most anxious about others and try to hold them up, that the power comes down to us. Then underneath us are the everlasting arms. We are lifted up. There is great power in desire toward God for the good of others.
I have tried to avoid the obtrusion of too much religious counsel on the members of our Circle, but it would be a pleasant thing if we would agree on every Sabbath afternoon, wherever we are, at the same time, to lift prayer to God for his blessing on the members of our Circle. Some are very lowly; it might lift them up. Some feel that they stand very high; it might in God’s way bring them down where he could exalt them. The spirit of prayer diffused through the Circle would be a blessing, not only to us as individual members of it, but it would make the Circle a center of religious power wherever its individual members abide. I offer this suggestion to you and I ask that on Sabbath afternoons, at such times as the thought comes to you, you ask God’s blessing on all the other members of the Circle, rich and poor, high and low, at home and abroad, young and old, in health or sickness, in prosperity or in adversity. The wide thought will broaden you and lift you up, for a broad thought that has heart in it is a broadening thought. Let us seek such culture, culture of the heart and brain together, as we lift both heart and brain to God in the interest of others.
A voice: Is it to-morrow evening that we hold our closing meeting for this session?
A voice: There is no meeting of the Circle appointed for five o’clock.
Dr. Vincent: The closing exercises of the School of Languages takes place in the Temple, and the meeting of the Circle is omitted. The final meeting of the Round-Table will take place on Friday at five o’clock. How many can be present on Friday? I am very happy that so many can be here. How many can be here Sunday? Raise your hands. Quite a large number. Perhaps we shall be able to hold a Sunday afternoon session for prayer and song.
To those of you who are going, and can be with us no longer, we say an affectionate “Good-bye.” May God’s blessing be on you! And may you be useful in engaging a great many people in this work. And, whether you come back to us next year or not, may your lives be made all the larger, fairer and stronger, because of the delightful services we have been permitted to enjoy in this place.
[After singing, the benediction was pronounced by Dr. Vincent.]
By T. T. TIMAYENIS.
Page 158.—“The Athenians fighting in Marathon in behalf of the Greeks, laid low the power of the gold-apparelled Medes.”
Page 250.—“The Athenians gave this reward to the leaders in return for good service and noble achievements.”
Page 252.—“Ever since the deep cut asunder Europe from Asia, and impetuous Mars sought out the cities of men, no mortal heroes ever nobler achievements on land and sea combined did perform. For having destroyed many [of the enemy] in the land of the Medes, captured on sea a hundred vessels of the Phœnicians full of men, while Asia heavily groaned, being severely wounded by the might of war.”
Page 268.—Translation given in the text.
Page 281.—Translation given in the text.
Page 284.—Translation given in the text.
Page 287.—Translation given in the text.
Page 288.—Translation given in the text.
Page 294.—“Now, Perikles knowing that the people during war admire the best men by reason of the distressing needs existing, but that during peace basely plot against them, on account of the tranquillity and envy, he deemed it best to his interests to involve the city into a great war, so that the city, having need of Perikles’s valor as well as of his generalship, he (Perikles) might not incur plots directed against him.” (Other Greek passages on page 294 are translated in the text.)
Page 295.—Translation given in the text.
Page 308.—“For this was indeed the greatest commotion that ever occurred among the Greeks.”
Page 309.—Translation given in the text.
Page 322.—Translation given in the text.
Page 345.—Translation given in the text.
Page 346.—Translation given in the text.
Page 369.—Translation given in the text.
Page 376.—Translation given in the text.
Page 407.—Translation given in the text.
Page 408.—“He was the craftiest of men.”
Page 417.—Translation given in the text.
Page 422.—Translation given in the text.
Page 425.—Translation given in the text.
Page 428.—Translation given in the text.
Page 435.—Translation given in the text.
Page 437.—Translation given in the text.
To the readers of The Chautauquan:
Dear Friends:—By the generosity of our editor I am permitted to use a little space for the purpose of making here a quasi-personal statement as to a matter in which I am myself greatly interested, and in which I should greatly like to interest you.
From early boyhood I have been a student of the life, character, and works of Daniel Webster. I never saw the great man’s face; I never heard his voice; he never knew even of my being in the world. My interest in Webster is entirely removed from the influence of considerations merely personal of whatever sort; but I have learned to reverence, nay, to love the man. I owe his memory a great debt, for he has been of inestimable service to me individually, apart from the service that, in his public capacity, he rendered to all Americans in common. I have received as much inspiration to moral excellence from Webster as from any uninspired man. I catch a breath of elevating influence from his works as often as I open to read them.
During many years this sense of indebtedness on my part to Webster was much modified by an impression received, I hardly know whence, that there were serious deductions to be made from his moral worth on account of certain vicious habits into which, in his later years, he lapsed. This impression so much abated my reverence for Webster’s character that, as long as I retained it, I took but moderate pleasure in contemplating his intellectual greatness. Circumstances led me, a number of years ago, to enter somewhat deeply into a study of the facts of Webster’s life, and, to my equal delight and surprise, I found that the common fame which I had trusted, bore flagrant false witness against Webster. For this there was a reason, and that reason, after having some time been obliged to content myself with merely conjecturing it, I was able to discern and verify in a manner highly satisfactory and conclusive. The conviction that Webster was thus suffering in general esteem, undeservedly as to himself, and with great injury as to his countrymen, became at length to me a powerful motive to do what I could to vindicate and restore him to the admiration and veneration of mankind. I have read or examined everything I could hear of, accessible in print, pertaining to this great man. I have corresponded widely; I have taken journeys, and secured personal interviews; in short, I have spared no pains to arrive at the truth concerning the private character and the personal motives of Webster. The resultant estimate of his genius, character, and achievements, I have embodied in a poem which The Chautauquan has advertised as published in a volume with notes, from the press of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
I should like to have my friends, the readers of The Chautauquan, as far as possible, see this book. I shall hardly dare follow the example of contemporary German authors, or even that of the great Sir Walter Scott, and here review my own production. But I may, perhaps, without impropriety, say that the poem is the fruit of long and deep study of the subject, and much loving labor in construction and composition. It is not a piece of tinkling rhyme; but to any one who knows of Webster, even only what the notes themselves will teach, the ruggedness, the severity, the simplicity of the ode, will perhaps sufficiently justify themselves, as fit and required by the theme. There must too be passion in the song, for there certainly was passion, the passion of conviction and of indignant zeal, in the singer. The illustrative notes, at least, must interest any reader.
Now, dear friends, readers of The Chautauquan, I want you all with me to do what you can to restore a great example to the young men of our country. It is an immeasurable mischief to our aspiring young men in the law, in politics, in journalism, in literature, to think, as they have been misled to think, that they have Webster for example in joining to brilliant gifts of intellect, dissoluteness of moral character. Such a false impression on the part of our young men works a harm to them that it is impossible to calculate. It is an impression with them, and it is a false impression. We shall be doing our generation a true service to take away Webster from among the splendid lures that draw our young men into looseness of life. Webster was not immaculate, but he was on the whole a great and shining beacon to virtue and religion. Let us cleanse away the mists of foul aspersion that confuse his beneficent light.
Your friend and fellow-lover of the truth,
William C. Wilkinson.
This is an age of educational activity. Universities, colleges and seminaries are being multiplied. The public school system is being perfected and in some form is in effective operation in all parts of the Union. Lectures on science, literature and religion impart instruction to the masses, so that this generation is highly favored with facilities for acquiring knowledge. The result of these advantages is already seen in the increased intellectual quickening of the times, in the wide diffusion of information among all classes, and in the spirit of intelligence which characterizes the average citizen.
Among these educational forces the C. L. S. C. has won its place. It is of recent origin, but its growth has been rapid and vigorous, and its power is being felt everywhere. Institutions of learning exert a direct educational influence mainly upon those who are, or have been, enrolled as actual students in their various departments. This number must always be comparatively small, inasmuch as but few persons can command the time and means necessary to enable them to pursue the courses of study laid down in a college curriculum. And if any desire to do this, they must be present in college halls and at educational centers. Hence the educational force of schools of learning is for the most part confined to the locality where they exist, and even there are concentrated mainly upon those enrolled as students.
But the influence of the C. L. S. C. is felt in almost every hamlet in the land. Every circle, however small, is an educational center, which exerts an educational influence, not on its members alone, but on the community as well, through the books and periodicals used, lectures given, and the higher culture attained by the individual members.
The attendance at each of the higher educational institutions in this country will not average more than three hundred students per annum, if it does that. But the C. L. S. C. has on its rolls more than forty thousand names, so that, compared as to its direct influence on the student classes, it is equal in influence to not less than one hundred and twenty educational institutions. From this standpoint, it must be recognized as one of the greatest educational forces of the age.
It has, however, been urged against the C. L. S. C. that its course of study is but meagre when compared with college curriculums, and for this reason its educational tendencies are of but little worth, or even deleterious. We are not of those who believe that a “little learning is a dangerous thing,” but rather think that a “little learning” is far better than absolute ignorance, and that it will always exert a benign influence on its possessor. Whatever affords opportunities for the intellectual awakening and improvement of the people, is worthy of being classed among the educational forces of the age. Certain it is, that many humble artisans, toiling mothers, and overworked seamstresses have found in the C. L. S. C. a force that has elevated them above the drudgery of their daily toil, and has inspired their mental faculties for a new and worthy work, while it has also been the means of bringing increased cultivation and refinement into many homes.
We urge as another reason for regarding the C. L. S. C. as an educational force, that it begets habits of study independent of direct oversight and supervision. Many of the students in our institutions of learning are kept at their tasks with regularity, only by the pressure brought to bear on them by the presence of professors and tutors, and by class rivalries, and whenever they are removed from their college surroundings, and from these constraining forces, they at once relinquish their pursuit of knowledge, and cease to make any further efforts after intellectual development. Such is not the case with the C. L. S. C. Its students are carried forward in their course, not by an impulse from without, but from within, which is continually active, and which is ever operating on their mental energies to secure a more thorough training. But the C. L. S. C. is by no means to be looked upon as a rival to the regular institutions of learning. Far otherwise! It has already become a valuable helper to the schools, and every circle may become a recruiting station from which the colleges and universities may draw many of their best and brightest students. Without doubt many of the young people who enter upon the course of study prescribed for the C. L. S. C. will have such an intense thirst for knowledge created in their souls that they will be impelled to pursue more extended courses of study, and will turn to the colleges and universities to obtain all the advantages they have to offer.
Ex-Mayor Grace, of New York, deserves much credit and honor for his refusal to grant Mr. Salmi Morse a license to produce his Passion Play. With all the world’s past and present progress, we are not without here and there signs of degeneracy. The Passion Play, which began in motives of religious devotion with the ignorant villagers of Ober Ammergau two hundred and fifty years ago, is now sought to be produced in the metropolis of the foremost Christian nation, for the degraded motive of money-making. Surely some things progress downwards. The superstitious population of Ober Ammergau made a vow that if they were allowed to escape the then prevalent plague they would every ten years perform a play representing the passion and death of the Savior. Accordingly, during twelve consecutive Sundays of the summer season, continuing from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m., with three hundred and fifty actors and an orchestra and chorus of eighty members, the play has been produced. It has attracted the attention of the Christian world because it is the only one of the miracle plays once so common which continues to be performed. But this and all the miracle plays enacted by monks and friars in the middle ages differ radically from the proposed enterprise of Mr. Morse. The passion and events of the life of our Lord were represented by them to make them real to ignorant and illiterate people, but Mr. Morse proposes to cater to the low and morbid class, in order to make money. There is no reason to believe that the effect of such representations, even when performed with a view to religious instruction and impression, has ever been of a salutary character. The only effect to-day is to shock and outrage the refinement, intelligence, and reverence of the average class of American society. The human heart has human loves and affections too sacred to be placarded before the public eye, or even to be given utterance by human lips. It has feelings and sentiments associated with the divine tragedy of Calvary which make it revolt at the scene of coarse and vulgar persons attempting to re-enact the tragedy which revealed the infinite depths of heaven’s love for the race.
Another death has caused a profound, world-wide sensation. The life of Leon Gambetta, the great French orator and statesman, went out in the last moments of the old year. At five minutes before twelve o’clock on New Year’s eve he breathed his last. His death, like that of our late lamented President, was due to pyæmia. In November last he received a gun-shot wound, in regard to which there are conflicting stories. Though the case is not clear, it is very generally understood that the disease had its origin in this wound. His suffering in his last days was intense, and drew from his lips, shortly before his death, the exclamation which will be long remembered: “I am lost—it is useless to dissimulate,—but I have suffered so much it will be a deliverance.”
Gambetta was born April 2, 1838, in Cahors, in Southern France, and was therefore only in his forty-fifth year when he died. His father, Joseph Gambetta, was an Italian, and in business a grocer. The early educational advantages of the future statesman were good, and were well improved. When very young he was distinguished in school for his powers of oratory and his retentive memory. He graduated from a lyceum, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the age of eighteen, and was the winner of the first prize for French dissertation, in the competition for which five lyceums were represented. His studies were first directed with a view to his entering the priesthood; later he had medicine in mind as a profession; but finally he entered upon the study of law, and was admitted to practice in Paris in 1859. His first law case, in which he was an assistant in the defense of a man tried for conspiracy against the Emperor, gave him distinction, and he became one to whom persons in difficulty on account of Republican sentiments and hostility to imperialism looked for powerful legal aid. In 1868 certain French journals which had incurred the displeasure of the government, were persecuted, and Gambetta was engaged to defend the Réveil. His plea in this trial sent a thrill throughout France. A master-piece of oratory, it held spell-bound those who were gathered in that Paris court room. He spoke bold, fiery words against the empire and in favor of popular government. In spite of all precautions taken, the address was published and circulated everywhere. Other occasions were improved in a similar manner. His vehement, treasonable utterances produced a powerful effect. He became a popular idol, and leader of French Republicans.
He was elected to the Legislature of France in 1869, and entered it the foremost of the sworn foes of the empire. Soon came the war with Prussia, and the collapse of the government of Napoleon III. Gambetta became a prominent member of the Government of National Defence, and served for a time as both Minister of War and Minister of the Interior. In this time of confusion and transition, when France was at war with a powerful nation, and had no established government, he performed herculean labors for his country. Escaping from beleagured Paris in a balloon, he joined himself to the army and directed its operations. His was the master-mind, more than any other, which ruled France. He appointed generals, raised re-enforcements for the army, and negotiated loans. Though defeat followed defeat, he urged that the war should be pushed on, and was bitterly opposed to the conclusion of a peace with Prussia. When, in 1871, the National Assembly convened at Bordeaux, voted to accept the enemy’s terms and make peace, Gambetta, in wrath, withdrew from the hall, followed by certain of his colleagues. The new elections of the same year sent him back to the Assembly, where he continued the peerless orator, and firm and brave champion of Republicanism. When President MacMahon, in 1877, supplanted the old Republican ministry with one of another character, Gambetta led the attack upon him, which resulted in his retirement. In the period which followed, until 1881, this statesman’s star was in the ascendant. His influence was greater than ever before. In the Assembly he had a strong Republican majority at his back. He was “the power behind the throne.” Deferred to by those at the head of the executive department of the nation, he governed while others did so in name. In the Autumn of 1881 he became Premier, but the defeat of one of his measures compelled his retirement in a few weeks.
Leon Gambetta was easily the most brilliant man of the Third Republic. He is the one man of genius we discover in recent French political life. As an orator he has had few equals. He possessed a magnificent voice, a commanding presence, a remarkable command of rich language, a rapid, fiery utterance, and his eloquence at times was overwhelming. He is spoken of as an editor, but his work in this character was probably small. His paper, La République Française, was perhaps chiefly edited by other hands, but became a very influential journal. He was a man of great courage, and that audacity which men admire. He loved his country, and rendered her services for which she should be ever grateful. He has been accused of aiming at a dictatorship for himself. There seems little ground for the charge, and for doubting that he was, his life through, true to Republican principles. He was a good hater, and never ceased to long for an opportunity for France to revenge herself upon Germany. His private life it is best to pass over with few words. It is not one, like that of our own great statesman whose death and his own were so strangely alike, to admire and to copy. He was destitute of moral and religious principle. We are left to believe that he passed out of life without faith in God or a future state, and another illustration he furnishes that, “With the talents of an angel man may be a fool.”