Nowhere else have I had such a vivid sense of contact with what is really and truly American. The national physiognomy was defined to me as never before; and I saw that it was not only instinct with intelligence, earnestness, and indefatigable aspiration, but that it revealed a strong affinity for all that makes for righteousness and the elevation of the race. The confident optimism regarding the future which this discovery fostered was not the least boon I carried away with me from Chautauqua.
Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, President of Wellesley College, expressed this opinion in a lecture at Chautauqua:
I could say nothing better than to say over and over again the great truths Chautauqua has taught to everyone, that if you have a rounded, completed education you have put yourselves in relation with all the past, with all the great life of the present; you have reached on to the infinite hope of the future.
I venture to say there is no man or woman educating himself or herself through Chautauqua who will not feel more and more the opportunity of the present moment in a present world.
The character of Chautauqua's training has been that she has made us wiser than we were about things that last.
Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, author of In His Steps, a story of which three million copies were sold, said:
During the past two years I have met nearly a million people from the platform, and no audiences have impressed me as have the Chautauqua people for earnestness, deep purpose, and an honest desire to face and work out the great issues of American life.
This is from the Rev. Robert Stuart MacArthur, the eminent Baptist preacher:
I regard the Chautauqua Idea as one of the most important ideas of the hour. This idea, when properly utilized, gives us a "college at home." It is a genuine inspiration toward culture, patriotism, and religion. The general adoption of this course for a generation would give us a new America in all that is noblest in culture and character.
Dr. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, Chaplain of the United States Senate, in his Tarry At Home Travels, wrote: