HOW TO READ TOGETHER PROFITABLY.
After singing, by the choir, “Arise and Shine,” and “The Winds are Whispering,” Dr. Vincent said: “I greet you. We are glad that so many of us are able to be present this afternoon. We are here to-day for a practical question or two in connection with our work as local circles, and then to answer some questions relating to the exercises of the coming Saturday. It is a question of much importance to all who are connected with local circles: How may we promote profitable reading? A local circle is not designed for much reading, but is a place to guide people in reading at home; to make suggestions; to correct blunders; to give new ideas that reading may be prosecuted with economy of time. A large part of almost any book may be omitted by every reader, and yet he may after a fashion read the parts he “omits.” There is a rapid way of running over half a dozen pages when they contain but the expansion or illustration of a thought. You see what the author is after; you have read the half-dozen pages; you have all that is for you in those pages, and saved your time for a page that you can not finish in fifteen minutes or half an hour. It is often the case that when out of a book of three hundred pages you have read forty pages of it studiously, you have the essence of that book.
There are very few men who can write a book, every page of which is worth the concentrated attention of the average reader. Many a book that costs one dollar and a half contains only a half-dollar’s worth. Learn to find and make your own that half-dollar’s worth.
It may be well occasionally in a local circle for one member to read a chapter, or paragraph, or section, of one, two, three, four, or more pages, and let the rest listen, noting every word, watching his pronunciation, or trying to take in all that they can while he reads. The habit of attention while another reads may be more profitable than reading for oneself. When the page has been read in the hearing of the other two, if the circle be a triangle, or the other twenty, if the circle be a very large circle, then let one, two, or three, as many as you have time to hear, try to repeat the substance of what was read. We had at Island Park the other day in a round-table conference, a very interesting exercise of that kind. I took up a book, the newest and last—it was Hatton’s account of a trip through America. I read to them a page of that. I read it so rapidly that it was almost impossible for anybody to follow me. They heard me. I pronounced every word distinctly, but read as rapidly as I could. And there was precious little to recall. And then I read another part of the book very slowly. There were a great many dates in it. It was an account of the settlement of Kansas, and the growth of Kansas and Missouri, and the settlement of Nebraska. I read the figures slowly, but did not repeat. When I finished I closed the book, and then recalled through the class the substance of what I had read. It was very gratifying to find how much they could remember, and to me it was very gratifying to see how many forgot dates, and it was exceedingly gratifying to find one old Presbyterian minister, whose life certainly was not a failure, able to remember all the figures, and he felt very much gratified. Now, an exercise of that kind will do good to everybody in the class, the reader doing his best to give to all the rest a few facts for recollection, and the listeners trying to recall. And what one fails to recall, the others recall, and at last you get out of a class of ten or twenty the substance of all that was read in the hearing of all the members.
Sometimes the reading for the next week or month may be anticipated in a little class. We are, for example, to read a certain chapter this week from Timayenis’s Greek History. “Now, as I have read that chapter,” says the leader, or one of the members, “I find general great ideas, or periods, or points. They are as follows:” Now, no one but himself has read that chapter. He gives them the general great thoughts, or centers, of that chapter or book, which they are to read the coming week. All the members going from that local circle will take up that chapter and read it that week with greater profit than if they had not enjoyed the preview. In the same way have a review of the reading of the last week. Get members to read with thoughtfulness, and with the intention of presenting again what they read. When I read up for entertainment, I read rapidly and with fifty per cent. of my attention. When I read up with a view of reinforcing my position, or preparing myself for a discussion of a subject, I read with one hundred per cent. of my attention. When people read because it must be read, they will read it in one way. When people read for the sake of telling it again, they read it another way, and that other way is the way to read. [Laughter.] And the local circle encouraging the habit of expression, whether in writing or otherwise at the time, will promote attention in reading.
Once in awhile in a local circle, one may read as an illustration of the most profitable way of personal and private reading. For example, let Mr. A. B. take two pages of Timayenis’s Greek, or of the little book on Geology, and let him read two pages, stopping and talking to himself aloud, as he would if alone. He finds a word that he does not understand. He says, “I do not know the meaning of that word. I think it has some reference to so and so.” He turns to his dictionary and finds out what it means. He finds a classical allusion and says, “I do not think I can tell what it means, or how to pronounce that word. I must look in the dictionary. Here is an obscure thought I can not fully understand.” And he reads it over. When a thoughtful man or woman has read through one page of a book in that way, revealing all his thoughts and processes while he reads, he helps other people to read intelligently, slowly, thoughtfully, and they learn the art of reading alone with a mastery of the attention. There might also be five minute synopses of the book. Divide a book that has been read into periods or sections. Miss A. gives a five-minute synopsis of a certain period, Miss B. another, Miss C. another. This review helps everybody to remember.
I think it would be a very good plan for each member of a local circle to mark in his book passages which most impress him. I never read a book which I own, and never a book owned by a friend of mine, whom I know with a tolerable degree of intimacy, without marking it. I have marked the passages that impressed me in every book in my library which I have read. When I mark a book the passages marked are the things in that book that belong to me. I can re-read it in a very short time. I believe there is a strange law of mental affinity, by which a soul takes hold of the thoughts in a book that are for him. I believe if the members were some evening to bring their books, were to have the marked passages read, on given pages, the comparison, the variety and the repetition would all make the exercise extremely interesting and profitable.
Have you additional hints to give about reading in our local circles to profit? Let me hear from you now.
Mr. Martin: How are we to examine the dictionary when the scheme of the first two months of the next year in the required time allows only two minutes to the page?
A Voice: Let them take more time.
Dr. Vincent: Mr. Martin, will you read to me the books that are required from this list?
Mr. Martin: The Historical Course of Timayenis, parts 3, 4, and 5.
Dr. Vincent: You have two months for that; 125 to 380. What next?
Mr. Martin: “Chautauqua Text-book of Greek History,”’ and “Geology” by Packard. The remaining reading for October and November is to be published in The Chautauquan. You see that more than half is in The Chautauquan.
Dr. Vincent: That is an estimate of Dr. Flood for some other year.
Mr. Martin: It is published in this article.
Dr. Vincent: It may be that during the year there will be as much in The Chautauquan as in all the books for the year, but I am very doubtful if you will double the reading for October and November in The Chautauquan. I say that in a local circle one may examine all the classical allusions, one may examine all the difficult words, or a committee may be appointed for that purpose, and you can economize time by a division of labor. That is one of the benefits of local circles. How many pages of required reading in The Chautauquan?
A Voice: About thirty.
Dr. Vincent: About sixty pages, then, in October and November. Now for December. What are we to read during that month?
Mr. Martin: The “Preparatory Greek Course in English.” That is to be read in December and January, with The Chautauquan for these two months.
Dr. Vincent: February?
Mr. Martin: Warren’s “Astronomy,” and his little text-book on the stars. That extends over two months, February and March, and for April we have the Hampton Tracts.
Dr. Vincent: They are very small, and can be read in an hour. Go on.
Mr. Martin: In May is “Evangeline;” in June you have nothing but the little Chautauqua Text-book on China.
Dr. Vincent: That is all. My friends, we do not have a very difficult course for the next year. You will have plenty of time to examine the difficult points.
Mr. Martin: I only asked the question for October and November.
Dr. Vincent: It may be a little more difficult in October and November.
Rev. J. A. Foster: Suppose a person with plenty of time can take the four years in three years, have you any objection?
Dr. Vincent: There is a little objection. We prefer to occupy the time with the four years, because there are so many studies possible. Let the person who has so much time take the special courses and thus make the diploma at the end of the four years so much more valuable. I do not like to crowd the four years into three. There have been a few cases in which that has been done.
A Voice: Can a graduate of 1882 commence and take the course over again?
Dr. Vincent: Yes, sir. I hope the most of them will, and get a white crystal seal on the diploma every year, reading a certain part of the books, not all of them. The current course is prescribed in the circle.
A Voice: If the ’82s come on as rapidly for the four years to come as in the four years past, where will we be then? [Laughter.]
Dr. Vincent: Nearer heaven. [Laughter.] You will have, for example, this admirable history of Greece in two volumes. You will have this series of four books in Latin and Greek. And what delights me is that the college people are charmed with this “Preparatory Greek Course in English.” It is a marvelous book. I did not write it. A scholarly man, who examined it the other day, said, “Why, every boy who goes to college should read that before he goes.” There is the substance of all that the boy studies in the grammar school and preparatory school before he enters college; there it is all in English, and in a more available form than that in which the boy gets it. I do not mean to say that you have more than the boy. He secures the mental drill and a foundation of linguistic knowledge. He gets what you can not get, but you secure an intelligent view of the college world through which he passes as a student of Greek. The questions for further study, published in The Chautauquan, were of much value in our local circles. Can we have something like it next year? Those who request Dr. Flood to make arrangements for the publication in The Chautauquan of a series of questions for further study, raise your hands. Down. Best raise them in a numerous request.
Written question: Is a new four years’ course to commence now?
Dr. Vincent: The new four years’ course is the old four years’ course revised, and with many modifications. We take astronomy, the same text-book somewhat revised. We take English history with not so much attention to it. We took a little Greek history before, too; now we take a good deal of Greek.
Written question: If one has read the four years’ course and sent in only the first year’s papers, but has all the other papers partly made out, what will that person do?
Dr. Vincent: Send in, as you ought to have done, that little two-page slip, giving all the books you have read, answer “R” or “E.” Persons having done that will meet the requirements of the Circle. This paper we sent to every member of the class of ’82, for testimony concerning the amount of reading that has been done. I do hope that representative local circles will supply themselves with these geological charts, which are so admirable for use in local circles, in Sunday-schools, in lecture rooms, and at home. Indeed, they are a good thing to have about the house for a private family. With this book in hand the mother may be a lecturer in geology, and have the pictures to represent these matters. I hope we can encourage the publishers of the geological charts, who went to great expense in the preparation of these, so that we can have other charts in the other matters.
A Voice: Can a person who has not taken the regular course take up any special course and receive a certificate?
Dr. Vincent: Persons who have never taken the regular course may take any special course and receive a certificate to that fact, but they will miss the circles, and the Hall in the Grove, and the arches, and the central office.
[THE STUDY OF FRENCH.]
By Prof. A. LALANDE, Professor of French in the Chautauqua School of Languages.
From the beginning I have followed as scrupulously as possible the most natural method of teaching, and I propose to continue this method in the School of Languages at Chautauqua.
At the same time I desire to unite with my system of teaching a new manner of studying the French language, to which I call the attention of the curious and intelligent public which meets every year in our schools.
I will assemble every day in my class-room those who do not know a word of French and those who have already studied French, but who can not yet speak it. We will read together either a part of a fable from La Fontaine, or a few lines from some other well-known French author.
In the beginning I will translate the passage literally, then after being quite certain that each word is thoroughly understood, we will read together the text, slowly at first, syllable by syllable, and then more rapidly, uniting the words and giving to them the musical cadence peculiar to the French tongue. Afterward I will question the scholars in French upon the lesson.
Each day the scholars will read the same fable or the same passage, until the pronunciation is good, and commit a few lines to memory, not, however, before they are able to give the passage that harmony which can only come from a page well understood.
These recitations (which are essential) will not only strengthen the memory, but will teach them the grammar and dictionary of the French language, at the same time familiarizing them with the best authors.
If after a few weeks they commit to memory several fables and pages from our great writers, they ought to gradually become able to read and understand without the aid of the teacher’s translation.
Will I succeed?
Time will show, but failure is hardly possible when one is inspired by the spirit which reigns at Chautauqua, and encouraged by a public as intelligent as that which assembles in our schools.
One can scarcely be insensible of the advantages derived from the study of French. From the early mediæval ages it has been the language of poetry and refinement, and one can scarcely lay claim to a finished education unless familiar with this tongue.
Too much can not well be said in its favor, as it is not only a polite and musical language, but a familiarity with its great authors will open an avenue of the highest enjoyment to students of good literature; for it is a well-known fact that the beauties of any language are lost by translation.