“HOW TO CONDUCT LOCAL CIRCLES.”
DR. VINCENT: First of all, good friends, don’t let the idea prevail
anywhere that the local circle is indispensable to the work of the
C. L. S. C. There are individual readers who are unable to attend a
local circle, who do all the work that is required by the C. L. S. C.
successfully. When the idea obtains, as it often does, that to be a
good C. L. S. C. member one must attend the local circle, people who
would otherwise read to profit, and read through the entire course,
become discouraged and give it up. Some of our very best students never
saw a local circle, or knew anything about it. They are their own local
circle.
Where people come together voluntarily for mutual improvement, the
local circle is of very great advantage, and the more local circles
we can have the better, and the more you attend the local circle the
better for you. Any effort you put forth to establish a local circle is
worthy of praise.
Again, small local circles are better than large ones. Where there are
six persons who “take to” each other, who work easily together, they
will do better work than a large circle. Where there are fifty members
in one place it is better to have four or six circles than to have one,
with a monthly general meeting.
In the local circle, to repeat what has been said before on this
platform, avoid all long lectures and all long essays. If you want
a popular lecture, get a popular lecturer. If you want a scholarly
lecture, secure a scholarly lecturer, and give all the benefit of it to
those who desire it; but do not attempt to burden the ordinary local
circle meetings with elaborate lectures.
A local circle should encourage conversation, which is the action
of many minds in expression. To have one person say it all will not
benefit all as much as to have all say something. Have five-minute
essays where you must have essays: conversation rather than essays
where you can have conversation. This may be embarrassing to begin
with, but the embarrassment is easily overcome as you awaken an
interest in the subject. Let a question be thrown out; ask who can
answer it. “Well,” says one, “I think I can answer it.” What a
benediction to a local circle is some disputed question in the hands of
members who “do not care a penny what anybody thinks,” but who “speak
right out,” good grammar or bad grammar. Perfectly at home themselves,
they try to make everybody else at home.
When a local circle simply becomes a conversation on the appointed
topic, you have the very perfection of a meeting. A Methodist
class-meeting that becomes a simple, informal, spontaneous conversation
on a religious subject, without any “tone” put on at all, is a
profitable class-meeting.
So it is profitable to have study in a class where the teacher becomes
a member of the class, and guides without reins in sight, drawing
out the convictions and movements of every mind and of every tongue
for half an hour, illustrating something from every mind, from every
tongue, until they say: “We didn’t have a recitation to-day, we had a
little conversation,” and everybody spoke and thought, and out came
the thought, and speech which a formal teacher would have brought
about through recitation and blackboard outlines, and all that. The
simple conversation, in the interest of the result, in which everybody
participates, is the highest style of teaching; and to have that, you
want one ruling mind; and blessed are you if you have some one to
undertake and direct that conversation.
Where the local circle is large, you will not have much general
conversation, and a few will do the work which, although it is not
wholly unprofitable, is not for the best interests of all.
WRITTEN QUESTION: How shall we compute the time spent in reading and
study, to be sure we have given as much time as we agreed to give?
DR. VINCENT: You read all the required reading, and you may put it
down, without looking at your watch, that you have taken all the time
required. [Laughter.]
QUESTION: How many seals to be attached to the diploma can the class of
1882 secure in a year?
DR. VINCENT: You can get one white crystal seal. You may get just as
many other seals as you can win. If you are a person of ample leisure
you may read along and fill up the memoranda. I think you should get
a seal in general history in three or four months. If you succeed in
getting one seal in a year, you will do very well. Those of you who
have leisure, and work as rapidly as you care to work, will secure your
seals in due time.
QUESTION: Is there any railway station at Chautauqua? The boards point
to the “depot.” Is this in accordance with the Chautauqua idea?
DR. VINCENT: Every time I look at the sign pointing to the “depot,” how
sorry I am that it was not made “railway station.” We have a “railway
station” at Chautauqua.
QUESTION: Please give the names for the books for the white crystal
seal for graduates; also for the white seal for the third and fourth
years?
DR. VINCENT: I intend to give in THE CHAUTAUQUAN every month one or two
columns of direct counsel to the Circle; and the first thing I do will
be to give the required books for the White Seal Course of the class of
1882 for the last two years.
A VOICE: We have a list of the books on the memoranda we have kept, and
we have the names of the books and the questions, if we have read them.
DR. VINCENT: Very good. You have the list of the books required for the
white seal for the last two years; but to make it quite sure, I will
make mention of it.
A VOICE: I understood that we were to go right on and take the four
years.
DR. VINCENT: The white seal of the past two years will cost you
nothing, and the seals will cost you nothing. You may add the white
crystal seal also. If you read up that which is required for the past
two years you may add three seals this year.
A VOICE: I have on my diploma two white seals, and I have not read
anything required in the White Seal Course.
DR. VINCENT: You read the required reading of the first and second
years, when we had no white seal distinction, and for that you get the
two white seals. If you read the additional books for the last two
years, you may get two white seals.
QUESTION: How many white seals can a person have?
DR. VINCENT: You can have seven crystal seals if you wish. Nearly all
of you have two white seals now. You can all of you have seven white
crystal seals if you will wait seven years. Or you may study that part
assigned for the past four years and put on the white seals, and your
crystal seal, if you should happen to win one, can go on the pyramid
somewhere.
A VOICE: You can read but one white crystal seal during the year?
DR. VINCENT: Yes, sir, but one during the year—one white crystal seal.
A VOICE: What other seal would you advise?
DR. VINCENT: The seal in the department to which you “take” the most. I
have no choice in that matter at all. We have the memoranda for a part
of the departments ready now, and will soon have them ready for all.
You must make your own selection.
A VOICE: Can we have the memoranda when we commence reading?
DR. VINCENT: You can have them at the beginning. Four are ready now. If
you take these courses, we will try to get the memoranda ready as soon
as possible. I think our committee on that is at work.
QUESTION: Must we ask special permission to substitute another edition
of Shakspere in place of Rolfe’s edition?
DR. VINCENT: No, any edition will be accepted.
QUESTION: Must we send our diplomas to the office of the secretary for
new seals?
DR. VINCENT: When you send the memoranda, the secretary will send you
the seal; it will be duly stamped and forwarded by mail.
I have a communication from Miss Young. I know that she is doing a
good work in her present home at Hot Springs, Arkansas. She writes
in reference to the founding of a public library at Hot Springs. She
desires donations of books for it. She says:
“The town is in part owned by the government. We seek assistance
from good people everywhere, for the work is in no sense a local
one. Probably no town exists in the country having greater need in
this direction. Men visit the place by thousands from all over the
country, and find nothing to uplift; but saloons and gambling-houses
by the score. On July 1st Congress passed a special act allowing us
to purchase a lot on the government reservation for a mere nominal
sum. So now we have one hundred feet on the avenue, for which we paid
one hundred dollars. Upon this we propose to put a public hall worth
ten thousand dollars. We are working with our plan. Any help from
Chautauquans, however small, will be received. Books can be sent by
mail to my address. One book from one might save some young man from an
hour of temptation. May I not plead for a little help to give light and
life even to Arkansas?”
This is a matter to be thought upon, and I hope that you will think,
and that your thinking will result in action. Miss Young and her
friends will be very grateful.
A PAPER: “Knowing the desire of so many of the C. L. S. C. graduates
to place at Chautauqua some memorial of the first Commencement, a
member of the Class of 1882 would suggest that the purchase of a bell,
to add to the one already possessed by the association, would be a
suitable and useful gift. Future classes might add to the number until
the peal is completed. It would be easy through THE CHAUTAUQUAN to
advertise the matter, and to whom subscriptions might be sent.”
DR. VINCENT: It is a good idea.
QUESTION: Will a person who has never attempted to read the course, but
has read some of the books in it, get credit for what he has read in
it, if he takes it up?
DR. VINCENT: Certainly. You will get credit for everything you have
read in our line of study.
A VOICE: I do not hear anything about a meeting of the Class of ’83.
DR. VINCENT: A member of the Class of 1883 is anxious to know what
has become of the class. Are there no members of the Class of ’83
present? Raise your hands. Please stand up, and let us see who you are.
Be seated. That was a very good showing for ’83. The most of ’83 are
waiting for their time next year. ’82 did not make much of a showing
last year, but they did very well this year.
I want to call your attention to a photograph. Mr. Walker did not ask
me to do this. I do it because I am so delighted with the photograph
which has been taken of the gate, the gate closed, the beautiful
pathway, and the view from the Hall down the pathway to the gate,
the gate open, and our guard, Mr. Allen, by the side of it, keys in
hand. There are two views of the Superintendent of Instruction and the
Counselors, which you do not want. [Laughter.] These views were taken
some morning this week, and here they are already. Mr. Walker did not
ask me to present them to you, or I should not have done it.
The questions relating to the local circles have all been answered. I
do not think that we have wasted time. We have spent a little more time
on the points about the books than I could have wished.
Has the committee of the “Society of the Hall in the Grove” had a
meeting?
REV. A. H. GILLET: They have.
DR. VINCENT: Is the committee full?
REV. A. H. GILLET: The list of twenty-five is now complete. That
committee will meet this evening. Those who are present will have power
to transact business.
A VOICE: Were the special committees appointed by the committee of
twenty-five to be appointed this year?
DR. VINCENT: Certainly.
A VOICE: And out of the twenty-five?
DR. VINCENT: Not necessarily. The “Guard of the Gate” and the “Guard of
the Grove” must be appointed.
Dear friends, it is not quite six o’clock, and I want a few words with
you. The sunlight among these leaves and branches, the great hall, your
faces, the pleasant fellowship, the memories that come, and the hopes
that spring up, make this a delightful hour to me. I made a suggestion
the other day to this effect, that the members of this circle, however
widely they differ in religious opinions, might each give the heart
an up-look toward the Father of all, and offer a prayer for all the
members of the Circle.
We have some people among us who are skeptical. They doubt a great
deal, that many of you believe. They are not the less interesting and
dear to me as a believer in humanity and in God, because they doubt,
for all doubt is not guilty doubt. I would rather have only one ounce
of faith, and try to live up to it, than a whole ton of accurate
opinion which I sinned against in my everyday life. For out of the
ounce of truth, though there be much error with it, much more will come
of life and strength and divine likeness than can possibly come from
the largest measure of truth which one holds in unrighteousness.
Therefore I take a peculiar interest in those members of our circle who
are not “orthodox” Christians. The majority of our Circle are believers
in what is called “orthodoxy.” We have some souls who hesitate when
they come to definitions about doctrines; and some of the most fervent
prayers that go up to the Father, who is acquainted with them and
knows the measure of their faith, are the prayers that come out of
hearts that want to believe, but owing to circumstances over which they
have no control, are notable to believe everything that other people
believe, and they simply wait and ask for light.
There is a great deal of sorrow in our Circle. There are many hearts
that ache. The loneliness of sorrow makes it harder to bear. The
thought that those who belong to this Circle sympathizingly turn to God
in prayer may make it easier to bear such burdens. There are a great
many people who feel a weight of responsibility. They are conscientious
up to the measure of their faith, and they are eager to be right. A
prayer of all to God that this light might come to them would be a
blessing to them.
I will tell you a secret: The best thing in the world for a soul that
needs to be lifted up to God, is to pray for the uplifting of some
other soul. It is when we become most anxious about others and try to
hold them up, that the power comes down to us. Then underneath us are
the everlasting arms. We are lifted up. There is great power in desire
toward God for the good of others.
I have tried to avoid the obtrusion of too much religious counsel on
the members of our Circle, but it would be a pleasant thing if we would
agree on every Sabbath afternoon, wherever we are, at the same time,
to lift prayer to God for his blessing on the members of our Circle.
Some are very lowly; it might lift them up. Some feel that they stand
very high; it might in God’s way bring them down where he could exalt
them. The spirit of prayer diffused through the Circle would be a
blessing, not only to us as individual members of it, but it would
make the Circle a center of religious power wherever its individual
members abide. I offer this suggestion to you and I ask that on Sabbath
afternoons, at such times as the thought comes to you, you ask God’s
blessing on all the other members of the Circle, rich and poor, high
and low, at home and abroad, young and old, in health or sickness,
in prosperity or in adversity. The wide thought will broaden you and
lift you up, for a broad thought that has heart in it is a broadening
thought. Let us seek such culture, culture of the heart and brain
together, as we lift both heart and brain to God in the interest of
others.
A VOICE: Is it to-morrow evening that we hold our closing meeting for
this session?
A VOICE: There is no meeting of the Circle appointed for five o’clock.
DR. VINCENT: The closing exercises of the School of Languages takes
place in the Temple, and the meeting of the Circle is omitted. The
final meeting of the Round-Table will take place on Friday at five
o’clock. How many can be present on Friday? I am very happy that so
many can be here. How many can be here Sunday? Raise your hands. Quite
a large number. Perhaps we shall be able to hold a Sunday afternoon
session for prayer and song.
To those of you who are going, and can be with us no longer, we say
an affectionate “Good-bye.” May God’s blessing be on you! And may you
be useful in engaging a great many people in this work. And, whether
you come back to us next year or not, may your lives be made all the
larger, fairer and stronger, because of the delightful services we have
been permitted to enjoy in this place.
[After singing, the benediction was pronounced by Dr. Vincent.]