The Chautauqua University has no purpose of swelling Chautauqua ranks at the expense of established resident institutions. It offers no allurement to turn young men or young women away from college. It seeks to foster the college spirit, to create a desire for intimate knowledge of the liberal arts. It would see college graduates numbered not by tens, but by hundreds. It holds high the banner of college education. On it are inscribed the immortal names of Edwards, Hopkins, Woolsey, Dwight, and the long illustrious list of those who have made illustrious the institutions with which they were connected. It bids the young men of the nation to range themselves beneath their standard, if they can. But for those who can not, the young, gifted, anxious, who are longing to stand beside their former companions, but can not; for those also who could not, the mature, with vigorous powers, who by earnest labor and economic care have escaped the environments of early days, and are able now to give a leisure hour to study; for those, too, who would not, and who to-day regret and would atone for the mistake of by-gone days; for all these we raise the standard of the Chautauqua University, and bid them range themselves beneath it. Tandem fit surculus arbor—“The sapling has at last become a tree.”
But while Chautauqua takes this last step upward she forgets and abandons nothing of her past. The Assembly, with its years of wonderful influence, goes on to widen that influence. Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, serving a purpose of wide usefulness goes on to enlarge that usefulness with ever increasing numbers. The methods which have made her past so successful and memorable will characterize her future. The annual pilgrimage of tens of thousands to the shores of the beautiful lake will continue. Sermon and lecture, discussion and conversation, representations of the treasures of art, and the wonders of science, study and recreation, pathos and zest will still instruct, delight, arouse and rest her summer multitudes. But all this does not complete Chautauqua’s work for the world. There is a higher summit to be reached, and on its crest is reared the University, and only accurate learning and close scholarship can speak the open sesame that will give entrance to her inmost shrines.
It has been the burden of this article to impress our readers with the idea that diplomas in the Chautauqua University can not be had on call, but will be awarded only to high attainment after strenuous toil. But while we would speak on this subject in language that shall not be misunderstood, we would not go to the other extreme, and deter any from entering upon the work. Though our standards are high, they are not too high to be reached. Art may be long, and time fleeting; but art is not too long and time is not too fleeting to allow an earnest man or woman within their time to measure the length and breadth of the treasures art may hold.
The Chautauqua University appeals to a mighty constituency. There are a hundred thousand readers who, glancing over the columns of their daily or weekly paper, will stop to read with attentive interest the article or item which contains the word “Chautauqua.” The circle into which their lines of influence radiate is almost without circumference. That appeal has been answered. From this constituency, within the month just ending, hundreds of inquiries, prompted by the article in the October issue of The Chautauquan, have reached the University office. They come from the farthest eastward province of the Dominion of Canada, and from the remotest southern and western states of the American Union. Chief among the inquiries has been one concerning the courses of study to be pursued for the attainment of specific degrees, prompted, no doubt, by the following paragraph from our preliminary circular:
DEGREES.
Among the degrees to be conferred by the Chautauqua University on the satisfactory completion by the candidate of prescribed courses, are the following:
A. B.—A Full Academic Course.
A. M.—A Post-Graduate Course in approved liberal studies.
B. S.—An Elective Course in Science, Art, and English.
Ph. B.—An Elective Academic Course.