taught here from the beginning who have been thoroughly devoted to this
method of instruction. Hence the success of the schools, which have
already attained to very large numbers, and have secured enthusiastic
interest in all those who have attended them. Though the number of last
year exceeded that of any that preceded it, it was but an earnest of
what is yet to come. Any prediction of the future outcome of these
schools, which would be recognized as at all moderate by others,
would fall far short of what is confidently expected of them by those
familiar with this natural method of instruction, and with the success
with which it has met in the Chautauqua schools.
William Penn and His Policy.
The recent celebration of the bi-centennial of the landing of William
Penn on this continent has once more attracted public attention to the
founder of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Penn was a prominent
personage during his lifetime and figured largely both in England
and this country. His character was an odd mixture of fanaticism and
moderation, and in his public career he managed to so blend Quaker
simplicity and worldly wisdom that he was a great light in his sect and
at the same time was possessed of great influence in court circles,
especially during the reign of James II.
He received his patent for the territory now forming the State which
bears his name from the crown, in payment of a debt of £16,000 due to
his father, who had been an admiral in the English navy during the
reign of Charles II. When he came to this country in 1682 to take
possession of his grant, he did not endeavor to drive out by force
the Indian tribes which occupied it, but formed a treaty of peace
and friendship with them on such terms that the land made over to
him by the crown was ceded to him and his colonies by the consent of
the aboriginal inhabitants. In all his relations with the Indians he
treated them with such justice and benevolence that his colonies were
never molested by them, but enjoyed uninterrupted peace and prosperity.
Of this treaty made by Penn with the Indians Voltaire said that it was
“the only treaty never sworn to and never broken.”
Penn’s treatment of the Indians was as anomalous as it was wise and
statesmanlike. Had a similar policy characterized the leaders and
members of other colonies this country would have been spared many
scenes of horror and years of bloodshed, and the story of the red men’s
wrongs would never have disgraced its records. Penn’s course in this
matter was all the more remarkable in that it was utterly foreign to
the spirit of the age in which he lived. War was the trade of kings and
their representatives. Its rude alarms were preferred to the “piping
sounds of peace,” and the sword was deemed a more honorable emblem than
the olive branch. Penn showed his greatness by rising completely above
the spirit and temper of his times in the policy he pursued in relation
to the Indians.
The world has grown wiser with the flight of time, and now, after the
lapse of two centuries, the peace policy which Penn adopted in his
treatment of the Indians is becoming more and more the policy of the
nations toward one another. War has been found to be the most costly
and cruel method of settling national difficulties. Besides causing
the slaughter of millions of men, it has been the means of loading
the states of Europe, as well as our own country, with burdensome
debts which the coming generations of peace-loving men must pay. As
the world becomes more thoroughly civilized and Christianized war
will be looked upon as a relic of barbarism, and will be shunned as a
horrid crime. National differences will be settled by arbitration and
mutual concessions instead of by an appeal to arms, and the prophetic
declaration that men “shall beat their swords into plough-shares and
their spears into pruning hooks” will be fulfilled in spirit if not in
letter.
PERICLES.—A sonnet by the Rev. Theodore C. Pease:
His grave, impassive face was stern and cold;
Upon his brow majestic calmness sate;
The fine curve of his lips, as firm as fate,
Of deep resolve and fast persuasion told.
No features his of coarse or common mold,
But first of men in the world’s foremost state,
Even at her highest,—he among the great,
Excelled by brow and breast the men of old,
And unto us who, through the sight of years,
See men like shadows move along the dim
Horizon’s verge, high o’er them all appears,
Clearer than all beside, the shape of him
Who gave his name to Athens’ noblest age,
Whose life gave history her brightest page.
EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.
Hail the night, all hail the morn,
When the Prince of Peace was born;
When amid the wakeful fold,
Tidings good the angel told.
Now our solemn chant we raise
Duly to the Savior’s praise;
Now with carol hymns we bless
Christ the Lord, our righteousness.
—_From the German._
General Neal Dow, the famous Prohibition leader, is now about
seventy-eight years old, but he is so well preserved that he does not
look to be more than sixty. He is of medium height, rather stout, and
wears heavy side whiskers, which, like his hair, are silvered with age.
* * * * *
The _London Echo_, which has been a most active sympathizer with Arabi
Pasha, suggests the following lines as applicable to him:
Rebel or Patriot? Well, heads or tails!
Define the terms, and this is how it reads:
A Rebel is—a Patriot who fails;
A Patriot is—a Rebel who succeeds.
* * * * *
C. L. S. C. students will find the following item of special interest
in connection with this year’s course of study: Of all Scandinavian
men of letters, none, perhaps, commands a wider, deeper influence
than Dr. Gorg Brandes, whose name has become familiar in many lands
by his personal association with leading thinkers and writers in
England, France, and Germany, his manful contests with ecclesiastical
prejudices, and his persistent efforts to introduce modern ideas
into the hide-bound universities of the North. Ten years ago, after
a determined struggle, he obtained the nomination to the chair of
Literature in the University of Copenhagen, but was rejected at
last through the influence of the metropolitan bishop. Since then
he has been living in Berlin, and the university chair has remained
unoccupied. At last, however, a committee of private citizens has
been formed, and has raised enough money to assure Dr. Brandes a
comfortable salary for ten years, if he will return to Copenhagen as
resident lecturer on literature at the University. Although the salary
thus offered him is not nearly as large as the one he now receives
at Berlin, he has accepted the proposition, and will begin his first
course of lectures in Copenhagen about Christmas next. There is room
for hope that the influence of his thought and scholarship will so aid
the progress of toleration and liberal ideas that when the ten years
expire the Church will offer no opposition to his occupying the chair
that has so long been awaiting him.
* * * * *
The necessary sum for the Garfield monument ($10,000) at Cincinnati has
been raised by dollar subscriptions. The statue is to be of bronze,
full length, of heroic size, and mounted on a granite pedestal.
* * * * *
The geological diagrams prepared for the C. L. S. C. are in the form of
landscapes. They may be used to great advantage in local circles. It
is the object method of teaching applied to geology, and it makes this
seemingly dry study fascinating and profitable. Dr. Vincent becomes
enthusiastic over teaching geology by this method. Ten diagrams cost a
member of the C. L. S. C. only $5.
* * * * *
_Zion’s Herald_, of Boston, Mass., puts individual responsibility in a
nutshell in this item: “Who can tell the importance of one vote? It is
said that when the war of 1812 was declared, the measure was carried
in the United States Senate by one majority. One of those senators was
elected, in the Rhode Island Legislature, by one majority, and one
member of that legislature was detained at home unexpectedly, who, if
he had been present, would have voted against that senator. He was
about getting on the stage to go to the legislature in the morning of
the day of the vote, when, casually looking around, he saw that his
pigs had got out of the pen and were in mischief. He stopped at home
to take care of them and could not reach the legislature that day. One
vote changes many currents. Massachusetts once had a governor elected
by one plurality. Every good man should be counted on the right side.”
* * * * *
Our English cousins have resolved to place a bust of Longfellow in the
poets’ corner of Westminster Abbey. £500 have already been subscribed
toward the erection of the memorial. Longfellow will be the first
American thus honored at Westminster.
* * * * *
London _Truth_: “The aim of illustrated newspapers ought to be to give
pictorial realization of passing events. Their merit is in proportion
to their accuracy. Of late, however, they have taken to fancy sketches.”
* * * * *
Longfellow, on being introduced to the late Nicholas Longworth, of
Cincinnati, a quick-witted old gentleman, who dearly loved a joke,
reference was made to the similarity of the first syllables of their
names. “_Worth_ makes the man and want of it the _fellow_,” replied Mr.
Longfellow, quoting Pope’s famous line.
* * * * *
The recent elections vindicate the memory of the lamented ex-President
James A. Garfield. They demonstrate that there is no dominating moral
principle in the creed of any of the great political parties, and that
the voters who believe in principles rather than offices or men, hold
the balance of power in our civilization. A little philosophy fully
explains the present political condition of the American people.
* * * * *
The _Watchman_ says: “How to get people to church, is a much discussed
question in these days. When Mr. Spurgeon was asked how he succeeded
so wonderfully in keeping his church full, he replied, ‘I fill the
pulpit, and let the people fill the pews.’ Dr. Chalmers told a part of
the secret when he said, ‘A house-going preacher makes a church-going
people.’”
* * * * *
A deputation of astronomers from Germany has come to this country to
witness the transit of Venus on December 6.
* * * * *
The ladies are responsible for this: In the last five or six years New
York city’s trade in ostrich feathers has increased from about half a
million dollars a year to nearly five million dollars.
* * * * *
Mr. Bancroft, the historian, rises at 5 o’clock in the morning. His
breakfast is a light one, usually consisting of a cup of chocolate,
some fruit, an egg and a roll. He eats nothing more until dinner, which
is always a substantial meal. Few men, he believes, can perform good
brain work with a full stomach. He spends the morning dictating to his
secretaries, and revising the work of the preceding day. From 1 until
2:30 he receives visitors. The latter part of the afternoon he spends
in the saddle, riding from twenty to thirty-five miles, and managing
his steed, mounting and alighting with the agility of a young man,
although he completed his eighty-second year more than a month ago.
* * * * *
The season has come for members of the C. L. S. C. to use the local
papers, in towns and cities. While you are at work over your books and
in your local circles, you are making items of news which, if you will
write up and hand to the editors they will thank you and publish them
gladly. You may thus extend a knowledge of the C. L. S. C. among the
people without. You may induce many to take up the course of reading.
You may banish ignorance from a great many homes, and you may awaken
talents, that now sleep, in young men and women who are in ignorance
and idleness because nobody cares for them. Write up the C. L. S. C.
work for the local papers, and tell who you are and what you are, and
why you are connected with this great Circle.
* * * * *
The Chautauqua School of Languages is growing into a school of
correspondence. Prof. Lalande and Dr. Worman invite their students
in French and German to adopt this method in pursuing their studies.
They hold that the art of reading and writing can be as well taught by
letter as in the school room. In England and Germany correspondence
schools have long existed, and been remarkably successful. The
Chautauqua school is growing in numbers and interest, and we look for a
large increase through the new plan.
* * * * *
In response to requests from a number of our readers we give below a
list of Memorial Days:
1. _Opening Day._ October 1. Read psalms i, viii, and xxiii, and Mr.
Bryant’s “Letter on the C. L. S. C.,” page 47. [At noon on October 1,
and on every other “Memorial Day” during the year, the Chapel Bell at
Chautauqua will ring. Every true Chautauqua heart will hear and heed
the call.]
2. _Bryant’s Day._ November 3. [Bryant born November 3, 1794.] Read
“Thanatopsis,” “A Forest Hymn,” and “The Planting of the Apple-Tree.”
3. _Special Sunday._ November—Second Sunday. Read Job xxviii.
4. _Milton’s Day._ December 9. [Milton born December 9, 1608.] Read
“Hymn of the Nativity,” and “Satan.”
5. _College Day._ January—last Thursday. This is the day of prayer for
colleges usually observed in the churches.
6. _Special Sunday._ February—Second Sunday. Read Psalm xix.
7. _Shakspere’s Day._ April 23. [Shakspere born April 23, 1564.]
Read “Fall of Cardinal Wolsey,” (Henry VIII, act iii, scene 2,) and
“Hamlet’s Soliloquy on Death,” (Act iii, scene 1.)
8. _Addison’s Day._ May 1. [Addison born May 1, 1672.] Read the “Vision
of Mirza,” and “Omnipresence and Omniscience of the Deity.”
9. _Special Sunday._ May—Second Sunday. Read Matt. xxv.
10. _Special Sunday._ July—Second Sunday. Read 1 Cor. xiii.
11. _Inauguration Day._ August—First Saturday after First Tuesday.
Anniversary of C. L. S. C., at Chautauqua.
12. _St. Paul’s Day._ August—Second Saturday after First Tuesday.
Anniversary of the Dedication of St. Paul’s Grove at Chautauqua. Read
Acts xvii, 10-34.
SPECIAL NOTE.—Let each member of the C. L. S. C. prepare a brief
memorandum, for his own use, on the birth, life, times, and influence
of Bryant, Milton, Shakspere, and Addison.
* * * * *
It is a pleasant surprise to read the proceedings of the recent
national convention of the W. C. T. U., held in Louisville, Ky.
This is certainly one of the most complete and efficient temperance
organizations this nation ever produced. The women have divided
their work into several departments: temperance literature, the
evangelistic work, prison and police station work, the Southern
work, the German work, work among colored people, the young women’s
work, hygiene, legislative department, etc., etc. The convention
was entertained handsomely by the good people of Louisville. Its
session was harmonious, and its proceedings will create a stronger
temperance sentiment wherever they are read. Miss Frances E. Willard
was re-elected president, receiving every vote of every delegate in
the convention, and there were more than thirty States represented.
Elsewhere in this number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN our readers will find an
article that was read before the convention, which traces the history
of the W. C. T. U. back to Chautauqua as the place of its origin. The
W. C. T. U., with its fifty thousand workers, can say of Chautauqua, “I
was born there.”
* * * * *
The _Advance_ puts our “winter work” in these words: “It presses
now—what is it? First and chiefly, at least for ministers, to edify
believers in holy character; for the perfecting of the saints, the
edifying of the body of Christ. For it is Christian character which
converts sinners to Christ, which burns with a holy evangelistic zeal,
and is likely to secure conversions even without directly aiming at
them. It is consecrated character which has power with God and with
men.”
* * * * *
Mr. Bezkrovoff, a Russian engineer, is in this country. He said to a
reporter recently: “Our government ordered me to study your ways and
means of transportation. We have a costly system of canals uniting our
seas, the Baltic, the White, the Caspian, and the Black; we have many
great navigable rivers, and, besides, we have built tens of thousands
of versts of railroads, and yet transportation in our country is in
its infancy. Thousands of tons of grain rot annually at our railroad
stations, for there are no stores. In the southern part of Russia there
is abundance of fish, meat, vegetables, and other provisions, and yet
in the northern part of the country the people can not afford to buy
those provisions, for the cost of transportation puts it beyond their
means. We have plenty of coal and kerosene, but at St. Petersburg, and
even at Moscow, the English coal and the American kerosene are cheaper
than the Russian. Our canals and railroads don’t pay to the government
the cost of keeping.”
* * * * *
There are very few who have not been puzzled how to pronounce
some out-of-the-way word which has suddenly sprung into common
use. A bewildered reader writes to a Boston paper saying that the
pronunciation of Whittier’s “Maud Muller” has long been such a
puzzle to him. “When I was a little fellow,” he says, “I pronounced
it phonetically, of course, Mul-ler. Well, shortly after I heard a
literary gentleman—a judge, too—read the poem at an evening gathering,
and I noticed particularly he pronounced it Mü-ler. I made a note of
it and carried that pronunciation with confidence for a long time,
until one day in High School the teacher informed us that the proper
pronunciation of that name was ‘Mwë-ler.’ So I changed my colors again
and sailed under Mwëler for quite a while, until one day I got into
conversation with a young physician, a good German student. ‘Oh, yes,’
said he, ‘I can tell you how to pronounce that name! Whenever you see
a German word with two dots over the letter u, it is always pronounced
as if immediately followed by an r, thus: ‘Murl-er, Maud Murler.’ By
this time I had lost all confidence in everyone and decided to let the
young lady severely alone, but the other day I happened to run across a
German fresh from the old country, and I said: ‘Do you have any people
over in your land called Muller? M-u-l-l-e-r!’ ‘Oh, yes, plenty.’
‘Well, what do you call them—how do you pronounce it?’ ‘Miller,’ said
he. ‘It’s a very common name—Miller.’ I thanked him and left, and now
if there is another way in which that word can be pronounced I should
like to hear it. I am honestly seeking for information.”
* * * * *
The first volume of THE CHAUTAUQUAN is out of print, but the second
volume, beginning with October, 1881, and closing with July, 1882, may
be obtained by sending the price, $1.50. We can supply THE CHAUTAUQUA
ASSEMBLY DAILY HERALD for 1882. There are nineteen numbers in the
volume, which contain more than sixty lectures and addresses on live
questions of the day—philosophy, literature, the sciences, history,
practical life, etc. Price, $1.00.
* * * * *
A provoking error occurs in the first line on page 156 of this
number. It should read “The history of the origin of,” etc. The words
“history of the” were dropped out by mistake, and the omission was not
discovered until the form was entirely printed.
* * * * *
At a recent meeting of the “Parker” C. L. S. C., in Washington, D. C.,
Dr. H. A. Dobson illustrated how ice will move downward by pressure of
its own weight, applicable to the glacial chapter of Packard’s Geology.
In the top of a wooden bucket or tub, drive two tacks or small nails
on opposite sides, and about two inches apart. Stretch across two fine
iron wires—such as is used for wax flowers will do—winding the wires
around the tacks so as to be kept in position. Upon the wires place a
piece of clear ice, about six inches long, four inches wide and two
inches thick, placing the thin edge in contact with the wires. Almost
instantly the wires will be imbedded in the ice, and in the course
of an evening the downward movement of the ice will be so great as
to cause the wires to pass entirely through the block of ice, which,
strange as it may seem, unites again below the wires, and though it is
actually severed by the wires in three parts by its course downward, it
falls into the vessel a solid piece, leaving no trace of the path the
wires made. An interesting question for C. L. S. C. readers to solve,
after repeating the experiment, is, Why does the ice re-unite?
* * * * *
The Hon. Hiram Price, of Iowa, one of the Commissioners of Indian
Affairs, comments severely on the iniquity of the liquor traffic among
the Indians, and quotes instances of trouble arising from it. He
reports the total number of Indians in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska, as being 262,366.
* * * * *
The work of revising the Old Testament is going on under the direction
of Dr. Philip Schaff as chairman of the American portion of the
committee. They are now engaged on the third and last revision,
which will be completed in about a year from this time. The American
committee meet on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of each
month, in Dr. Schaff’s study, in the Bible House, New York. The English
committee meet in Jerusalem Chapel, in Westminster Abbey. The Bishop of
Winchester is chairman.
* * * * *
We shall furnish our readers with a complete list of the names of the
C. L. S. C. graduates for 1882 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for February.
* * * * *
Messrs. CASSELL, PETTER, GALPIN & CO., 739 and 741 Broadway, New York,
have in press for immediate publication, “Evangeline—The Place, The
Story and the Poem.” By Prof. Noah Porter, President of Yale College.
To be issued in an elegant large folio volume, limited to 500 copies,
numbered and signed by Prof. Porter, containing nineteen magnificent
original illustrations by Frank Dicksee, A. R. A., fifteen of which
are elegantly reproduced in photogravure by Messrs. Goupil & Co., of
Paris, and four are proof impressions on India paper from the original
blocks, beautifully illustrating Longfellow’s poem of Evangeline. The
publishers claim that this will prove the handsomest artistic gift book
of the season.
EDITOR’S TABLE.
[We solicit questions of interest to the readers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN to
be answered in this department. Our space does not always allow us to
answer as rapidly as questions reach us. Any relevant question will
receive an answer in its turn.]
Q. Where is the Panthéon located in which Mirabeau’s body was placed?
A. The Panthéon is in Paris. The foundation stone of the present
edifice was laid by Louis XV in 1764, and the church was dedicated
to St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. In 1791 the convention
resolved to convert it into a kind of memorial temple, which they
named the Panthéon and inscribed on it the words, “_Aux grands hommes
la patrie reconnaissante_.” The old inscription still remains and the
familiar name is still popularly applied to the church. Mirabeau was
the first person whose remains were deposited in the vaults.
Q. Which branch of mathematics should be taken up after arithmetic,
algebra, or geometry?
A. Algebra, which is the key to all the higher mathematics.
Q. What is the name of the River Jordan now?
A. Arab geographers call the river either El-Urdon, which is equivalent
to the Hebrew name, or Esh-sheriah, which signifies “the watering
place.” The latter is the name generally used by the modern Syrians.
Q. In the course of study for this year is it obligatory to buy Rolfe’s
edition of Hamlet and Julius Cæsar, if one has some other edition?
A. It is not obligatory. Any edition will be acceptable.
Q. What is the origin of the term Huguenots?
A. It is a name of uncertain origin, first applied by the Roman
Catholics of France to all partisans of the Reformation, but afterwards
restricted to the Calvinists. Some derive it from one of the gates of
the city of Tours, called _Hugons_, at which these Protestants held
some of their assemblies; others from the words _Huc nos_, with which
their protest commenced; others from _aignos_, a confederate. Prof.
Mahn, in his _Etymologische Untersuchungen_, quotes no fewer than
fifteen different derivations.
Q. What is Salmagundi, and from what is the name derived?