PRACTICAL LOYALTY—C. L. S. C. BOOKS.
The C. L. S. C. text-books are adapted to the peculiar method of C. L. S. C. work. They are the result of efforts to meet the wants of the main body of our members, and there has been no hap-hazard in their selection, but careful, patient and abundant thoughtfulness. Sometimes a member desires to substitute some book not in the course for one of ours. Sometimes his request may be granted; often it may not be granted. In the first place, it is desirable that there should be uniformity in the work done, and this we secure, for the most part, by uniform text-books. In a college, the uniformity is secured by the living teacher; we must secure ours by the printed page. Our need of common text-books is therefore peculiar and imperative. If we granted all the requests for substitutions which might be made, we should end by frittering away our course of study. We might seriously impair it by granting only those requests which seem to those who make them to be entirely reasonable. There must be hard and fast lines in any system of instruction; in our system the uniform text-books make one of those lines. It is our means of keeping together, of easily communicating with each other, of simplifying examinations and assisting our members in overcoming difficulties. In a rare case, a substitution may be allowed; but the substituted book must be equally good and equally fresh. Very few old text-books are now good. The subjects have undergone changes of importance either in the principles or the modes of illustrating them. A good text-book must be a fresh book. Furthermore, our books are specially adapted to private study; the ordinary school-books are made to be interpreted by a living teacher. The full meaning of this difference will not be grasped at once by those who have not thought about it. We have had to think about it. Our success depended upon our thinking about it to some purpose. The result of much thinking and careful planning is the Chautauqua system of text-books. We find it more and more important to adhere to our own books. The books are our teachers.
We hope, therefore, that those who have desired changes to meet their special wants will remember the reason why their wishes can not be consulted. There is a call for loyalty on their part to the system. It depends on their loving it enough to forego some personal feelings or interests. We are in special and numerous ways dependent upon the affectionate respect of our members for the invisible authority of this institution—just as colleges depend on a like feeling toward the visible authority in their work. The colleges select their text-books; we select ours. In each case, substitutions ought to be very rare. If the disappointed applicant for a change of book has a loyal feeling toward the C. L. S. C. he will cheerfully sacrifice his preferences or his convenience to the welfare of the whole body. The whole body must move on common lines to common ends; and the individual members keep step, because a great army can not march in any other way—the individual must coöperate in the movement according to a common plan. We therefore appeal to the loyalty of our members to aid us in all reasonable ways to maintain our system of uniform books. We see more clearly than they possibly can that this uniformity is vital to the C. L. S. C. organization.