The Story of Chautauqua

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

Old College Building

There comes to my own mind a vivid remembrance of that evening when for the first time I heard those magic words—"The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle." In the early spring of 1878, Dr. Vincent had just returned from an official visit to Europe, and I was no longer at Plainfield, five minutes' walk from his home, but by the revolution of the itinerant wheel a pastor, thirty miles distant. A message came asking me to spend an evening with him and talk over some new plans for Chautauqua. Of course, I obeyed the call, for I always gained more than I gave in any conversation with that fruitful mind. We sat in front of the fireplace in his study, and I listened while for an hour he talked of a new organization which he proposed to launch in the coming season, to be named The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; with a course of study to be carried through four years, with forty minutes as each day's task, for nine or ten months of each year, in the various branches of knowledge, analogous to the four years of college study. He was so full of his theme and so eloquent upon it that I could only listen to the outpouring utterances. The general purpose was clear before him, but not the details of its operation. Dr. Vincent's eyes were ever set upward toward the mountain-tops glorious in the sunlight, and he did not always think of the thickets to be cut and the path to be made from the lower plain to the summit. I could see some of the difficulties in the way, some obstacles that must be overcome, and sagely shook my head in doubt of the scheme. It was a radical departure from the earlier ideals, for thus far everything on the Chautauqua program had been along the line of Sunday School training, and this was a forsaking of the well-trodden path for a new world of secular education. Why try to rival the high schools and arouse the criticism of the colleges? How would the regular constituency of Chautauqua feel at this innovation? No doubt under the spell of his enthusiasm, some would join the proposed class in literature and science—but how could science be studied by untrained people without laboratories, or apparatus, or teachers? And after the spell of the Chautauqua season would not the pledges be forgotten at home, and the numbers in the home classes soon dwindle away to nothing?

Dr. Vincent asked me a question as we sat in the glow of the fireplace. "How many do you think can be depended on to carry on such a course as is proposed?"

"Oh, perhaps a hundred!" I answered. "People who want to read will find books, and those who don't care for reading will soon tire of serious study."

The doctor sprang up from his chair and walked nervously across the room. "I tell you, Mr. Hurlbut, the time will come when you will see a thousand readers in the C. L. S. C."

I smiled, the smile of kindly unbelief! His impulse, his dream was noble, to be sure, but so utterly impracticable. I tell this little tale to show how far below the reality were the expectations of us both. Only a few years after this conversation the enrolled members of the C. L. S. C. counted sixty thousand readers pursuing the course at one time, with probably as many more readers unregistered.

The opening evening of the Assembly was held on Tuesday evening, August 6th. The vesper service beginning, "The Day goeth away, The Shadows of evening are stretched out, Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion," etc., was read responsively in the Auditorium between the Miller Cottage and the Vincent tent, then not far from the Point, when a sudden shower fell and a general rush was made to the new Pavilion in the ravine on the west. That was the last opening service attempted out-of-doors. Since that evening, the Pavilion, soon to become the Amphitheater, has supplied the stage for the speakers, sedate or humorous, short or long,—some of them longer than the audience desired—on "Old First Night." A few lectures were given from time to time in the old Auditorium, but after the season of 1879 it was left for smaller meetings of couples in communion of soul on the seats here and there under the trees.

The inauguration of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle took place in the Pavilion on the afternoon of Saturday, August 10, 1878. On the platform, then lower than most of the seats, were a telescope, a microscope, a globe, some scientific apparatus, and a table filled with books, giving a scholastic setting to the exercises. Dr. Vincent presided, and with him were Bishop Randolph S. Foster of Boston, Dr. Henry W. Warren of Philadelphia, himself two years afterward to become a bishop, Professor William C. Wilkinson, whose pen in the following years wrote many books for the readers of the C. L. S. C., Professor James Strong of wide learning, and several other eminent men. The address of the day, unfolding the purpose and plan of the Circle, was given by Dr. Vincent. Many of us who heard him on that afternoon have thought since that this was the masterpiece of his lifetime, and it might worthily be so, for it launched a movement in education, the most influential and wide-reaching of any in the annals of the nation.

I wish that it were possible to reprint that great address as reported in full in the Assembly Herald, for never was the conception of Chautauqua at home for nine months of the year more clearly set forth, but a few quotations and outlines must suffice. He began by calling attention to four classes of people. First, those who inherit from their ancestors wealth, ease, and large intellectual opportunities, who find college doors opening almost of their own accord before them. Second, there are those born under the necessity of daily toil. For these the education of the public school is provided; but it is limited and rarely appreciated. Children go to school to get knowledge enough for bread-winning and no more. Third, there are those who, born under necessity, struggle into opportunity, fight their way up into power, and make themselves the intellectual heroes of their time. Fourth, there are many born under necessity, who lack the vision at the beginning, who enter upon a life of trade or labor which may bring them success, but who gradually awake to realize how much they have lost, without realizing that it is never too late to gain culture and that education ends only with life. This is the class in every community which our new organization aims to reach, to uplift, to inspire and stimulate. We propose to give to these people in every walk of life, both the rich, the middle class, and the poor—all in one class in their condition and their needs—the college student's outlook upon the world of thought, by short studies in literature and science, by the reading of books, by the preparation of synopses of books read, by written reports of books read, and by correspondence with experts in the several departments.