“HOW TO CONDUCT LOCAL CIRCLES.”
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.]
[A TRANSLATION]
OF ALL THE GREEK PASSAGES FOUND IN VOLUME I OF TIMAYENIS’S HISTORY OF GREECE.
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.
[DANIEL WEBSTER.]
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.