After singing, by the choir, “Arise and Shine,” and “The Winds are
Whispering,” Dr. Vincent said: “I greet you. We are glad that so many
of us are able to be present this afternoon. We are here to-day for a
practical question or two in connection with our work as local circles,
and then to answer some questions relating to the exercises of the
coming Saturday. It is a question of much importance to all who are
connected with local circles: How may we promote profitable reading? A
local circle is not designed for much reading, but is a place to guide
people in reading at home; to make suggestions; to correct blunders;
to give new ideas that reading may be prosecuted with economy of
time. A large part of almost any book may be omitted by every reader,
and yet he may after a fashion read the parts he “omits.” There is a
rapid way of running over half a dozen pages when they contain but the
expansion or illustration of a thought. You see what the author is
after; you have read the half-dozen pages; you have all that is for you
in those pages, and saved your time for a page that you can not finish
in fifteen minutes or half an hour. It is often the case that when
out of a book of three hundred pages you have read forty pages of it
studiously, you have the essence of that book.
There are very few men who can write a book, every page of which is
worth the concentrated attention of the average reader. Many a book
that costs one dollar and a half contains only a half-dollar’s worth.
Learn to find and make your own that half-dollar’s worth.
It may be well occasionally in a local circle for one member to read
a chapter, or paragraph, or section, of one, two, three, four, or
more pages, and let the rest listen, noting every word, watching his
pronunciation, or trying to take in all that they can while he reads.
The habit of attention while another reads may be more profitable
than reading for oneself. When the page has been read in the hearing
of the other two, if the circle be a triangle, or the other twenty,
if the circle be a very large circle, then let one, two, or three, as
many as you have time to hear, try to repeat the substance of what was
read. We had at Island Park the other day in a round-table conference,
a very interesting exercise of that kind. I took up a book, the
newest and last—it was Hatton’s account of a trip through America. I
read to them a page of that. I read it so rapidly that it was almost
impossible for anybody to follow me. They heard me. I pronounced
every word distinctly, but read as rapidly as I could. And there was
precious little to recall. And then I read another part of the book
very slowly. There were a great many dates in it. It was an account
of the settlement of Kansas, and the growth of Kansas and Missouri,
and the settlement of Nebraska. I read the figures slowly, but did not
repeat. When I finished I closed the book, and then recalled through
the class the substance of what I had read. It was very gratifying to
find how much they could remember, and to me it was very gratifying to
see how many forgot dates, and it was exceedingly gratifying to find
one old Presbyterian minister, whose life certainly was not a failure,
able to remember all the figures, and _he_ felt very much gratified.
Now, an exercise of that kind will do good to everybody in the class,
the reader doing his best to give to all the rest a few facts for
recollection, and the listeners trying to recall. And what one fails to
recall, the others recall, and at last you get out of a class of ten
or twenty the substance of all that was read in the hearing of all the
members.
Sometimes the reading for the next week or month may be anticipated
in a little class. We are, for example, to read a certain chapter
this week from Timayenis’s Greek History. “Now, as I have read that
chapter,” says the leader, or one of the members, “I find general
great ideas, or periods, or points. They are as follows:” Now, no one
but himself has read that chapter. He gives them the general great
thoughts, or centers, of that chapter or book, which they are to read
the coming week. All the members going from that local circle will
take up that chapter and read it that week with greater profit than
if they had not enjoyed the preview. In the same way have a review of
the reading of the last week. Get members to read with thoughtfulness,
and with the intention of presenting again what they read. When I
read up for entertainment, I read rapidly and with fifty per cent. of
my attention. When I read up with a view of reinforcing my position,
or preparing myself for a discussion of a subject, I read with one
hundred per cent. of my attention. When people read because it must be
read, they will read it in one way. When people read for the sake of
telling it again, they read it another way, and that other way is the
way to read. [Laughter.] And the local circle encouraging the habit of
expression, whether in writing or otherwise at the time, will promote
attention in reading.
Once in awhile in a local circle, one may read as an illustration of
the most profitable way of personal and private reading. For example,
let Mr. A. B. take two pages of Timayenis’s Greek, or of the little
book on Geology, and let him read two pages, stopping and talking to
himself aloud, as he would if alone. He finds a word that he does not
understand. He says, “I do not know the meaning of that word. I think
it has some reference to so and so.” He turns to his dictionary and
finds out what it means. He finds a classical allusion and says, “I
do not think I can tell what it means, or how to pronounce that word.
I must look in the dictionary. Here is an obscure thought I can not
fully understand.” And he reads it over. When a thoughtful man or woman
has read through one page of a book in that way, revealing all his
thoughts and processes while he reads, he helps other people to read
intelligently, slowly, thoughtfully, and they learn the art of reading
alone with a mastery of the attention. There might also be five minute
synopses of the book. Divide a book that has been read into periods or
sections. Miss A. gives a five-minute synopsis of a certain period,
Miss B. another, Miss C. another. This review helps everybody to
remember.
I think it would be a very good plan for each member of a local circle
to mark in his book passages which most impress him. I never read a
book which I own, and never a book owned by a friend of mine, whom I
know with a tolerable degree of intimacy, without marking it. I have
marked the passages that impressed me in every book in my library which
I have read. When I mark a book the passages marked are the things in
that book that belong to me. I can re-read it in a very short time.
I believe there is a strange law of mental affinity, by which a soul
takes hold of the thoughts in a book that are for him. I believe if
the members were some evening to bring their books, were to have the
marked passages read, on given pages, the comparison, the variety and
the repetition would all make the exercise extremely interesting and
profitable.
Have you additional hints to give about reading in our local circles to
profit? Let me hear from you now.
MR. MARTIN: How are we to examine the dictionary when the scheme of the
first two months of the next year in the required time allows only two
minutes to the page?
A VOICE: Let them take more time.
DR. VINCENT: Mr. Martin, will you read to me the books that are
required from this list?
MR. MARTIN: The Historical Course of Timayenis, parts 3, 4, and 5.
DR. VINCENT: You have two months for that; 125 to 380. What next?
MR. MARTIN: “Chautauqua Text-book of Greek History,”’ and “Geology”
by Packard. The remaining reading for October and November is to be
published in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. You see that more than half is in THE
CHAUTAUQUAN.
DR. VINCENT: That is an estimate of Dr. Flood for some other year.
MR. MARTIN: It is published in this article.
DR. VINCENT: It may be that during the year there will be as much
in THE CHAUTAUQUAN as in all the books for the year, but I am very
doubtful if you will double the reading for October and November in
THE CHAUTAUQUAN. I say that in a local circle one may examine all the
classical allusions, one may examine all the difficult words, or a
committee may be appointed for that purpose, and you can economize time
by a division of labor. That is one of the benefits of local circles.
How many pages of required reading in THE CHAUTAUQUAN?
A VOICE: About thirty.
DR. VINCENT: About sixty pages, then, in October and November. Now for
December. What are we to read during that month?
MR. MARTIN: The “Preparatory Greek Course in English.” That is to be
read in December and January, with THE CHAUTAUQUAN for these two months.
DR. VINCENT: February?
MR. MARTIN: Warren’s “Astronomy,” and his little text-book on the
stars. That extends over two months, February and March, and for April
we have the Hampton Tracts.
DR. VINCENT: They are very small, and can be read in an hour. Go on.
MR. MARTIN: In May is “Evangeline;” in June you have nothing but the
little Chautauqua Text-book on China.
DR. VINCENT: That is all. My friends, we do not have a very difficult
course for the next year. You will have plenty of time to examine the
difficult points.
MR. MARTIN: I only asked the question for October and November.
DR. VINCENT: It may be a little more difficult in October and November.
REV. J. A. FOSTER: Suppose a person with plenty of time can take the
four years in three years, have you any objection?
DR. VINCENT: There is a little objection. We prefer to occupy the time
with the four years, because there are so many studies possible. Let
the person who has so much time take the special courses and thus make
the diploma at the end of the four years so much more valuable. I do
not like to crowd the four years into three. There have been a few
cases in which that has been done.
A VOICE: Can a graduate of 1882 commence and take the course over again?
DR. VINCENT: Yes, sir. I hope the most of them will, and get a white
crystal seal on the diploma every year, reading a certain part of the
books, not all of them. The current course is prescribed in the circle.
A VOICE: If the ’82s come on as rapidly for the four years to come as
in the four years past, where will we be then? [Laughter.]
DR. VINCENT: Nearer heaven. [Laughter.] You will have, for example,
this admirable history of Greece in two volumes. You will have this
series of four books in Latin and Greek. And what delights me is that
the college people are charmed with this “Preparatory Greek Course
in English.” It is a marvelous book. I did not write it. A scholarly
man, who examined it the other day, said, “Why, every boy who goes to
college should read that before he goes.” There is the substance of
all that the boy studies in the grammar school and preparatory school
before he enters college; there it is all in English, and in a more
available form than that in which the boy gets it. I do not mean to
say that you have more than the boy. He secures the mental drill and
a foundation of linguistic knowledge. He gets what you can not get,
but you secure an intelligent view of the college world through which
he passes as a student of Greek. The questions for further study,
published in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, were of much value in our local circles.
Can we have something like it next year? Those who request Dr. Flood to
make arrangements for the publication in THE CHAUTAUQUAN of a series of
questions for further study, raise your hands. Down. Best raise them in
a numerous request.
WRITTEN QUESTION: Is a new four years’ course to commence now?
DR. VINCENT: The new four years’ course is the old four years’ course
revised, and with many modifications. We take astronomy, the same
text-book somewhat revised. We take English history with not so much
attention to it. We took a little Greek history before, too; now we
take a good deal of Greek.
WRITTEN QUESTION: If one has read the four years’ course and sent in
only the first year’s papers, but has all the other papers partly made
out, what will that person do?
DR. VINCENT: Send in, as you ought to have done, that little two-page
slip, giving all the books you have read, answer “R” or “E.” Persons
having done that will meet the requirements of the Circle. This paper
we sent to every member of the class of ’82, for testimony concerning
the amount of reading that has been done. I do hope that representative
local circles will supply themselves with these geological charts,
which are so admirable for use in local circles, in Sunday-schools,
in lecture rooms, and at home. Indeed, they are a good thing to have
about the house for a private family. With this book in hand the mother
may be a lecturer in geology, and have the pictures to represent these
matters. I hope we can encourage the publishers of the geological
charts, who went to great expense in the preparation of these, so that
we can have other charts in the other matters.
A VOICE: Can a person who has not taken the regular course take up any
special course and receive a certificate?
DR. VINCENT: Persons who have never taken the regular course may take
any special course and receive a certificate to that fact, but they
will miss the circles, and the Hall in the Grove, and the arches, and
the central office.