Chapter IX: Part III (6)

It has been remarked that the career of original investigation with Agassiz measurably closed soon after his coming to America, and his career as an instructor began. He turned his attention to the development of the natural history of America. This he saw clearly could not be done without the aid of trained naturalists, and there were none in America. It was then his mission to create them. The establishment of a complete museum, to which all students of natural history could have access, was the first step; a museum which should not only equal, but surpass the great museums of the Old World. The design, according to Agassiz’s own plan, was so far completed before his death, that what remained to be done could be as well done by his trained assistants. He had stamped his own character and ideas upon it indelibly. Prof. Tyndall declared that there was nothing like it in the Old World. Another equally qualified to judge, familiar with all the Old World museums, declared that nowhere in his travels had he seen such an amount of original work done as here. The museum at Cambridge is an institution peculiarly American in that it is arranged without the trammels of Old World methods. In it every specimen is labeled with the name, locality, date and donor securely fastened to it, and the same duly recorded. A specimen concerning which, from whatever cause, any uncertainty has arisen as to the locality, is rejected, and consigned to the laboratory for dissection, only the best attainable specimens are retained. Unnecessary or imperfect duplicates are set aside for study or exchange. His completed plan will present a collection of the animals of the world arranged systematically, according to the principle of classification adopted by Agassiz, and exhibiting their structure. This is supplemented by minor collections showing embryonic development of the different types of animal life, synthetic relations, etc. The value of such a collection as an educational power no language can over-estimate. This museum of comparative zoölogy at Cambridge, Mass., is pre-eminently the greatest monument to his memory. The plans of instruction at the museum and at Penikese were identical in methods and principles. The first object was to bring students face to face with Nature, discarding books and recitations, substituting original observation and work. “If I can succeed in teaching you to observe,” he said, “my aim will be attained. It is not my purpose to communicate knowledge to you, but to awaken into activity a faculty which is too generally dormant, that of observing accurately for yourselves. I will teach, but I will not give information. To all intents and purposes I will be ignorant before you. Do not ask questions, for I shall not answer them, but shall so lay out your work that you will find your own path without difficulty.”

THE FIRST LESSON.

On the first day, the island itself was assigned for a lesson. Questions were suggested to be answered on the following morning. What is the nature of the soil, and what is the geological constitution of this island? What is its position with respect to the points of the compass. Take the main building as your guide, if you have no compass, for that lies east and west. What is the meaning of the curve between the island and the peninsula connected with it? What is the meaning of the loose materials about us, and the huge boulders scattered over the surface? What relation does the island bear to the adjoining islands and to the main land? When the class had again assembled he allowed each to report what he had learned, and taught how by comparison and combination to understand its full significance. He said that an exhaustive answer to each of these questions, individually wrought out, would itself be a good summer’s work. By the observations thus made and subsequently during the summer, it was fully demonstrated that Penikese and the whole range of neighboring Elizabeth islands, twenty miles in length and two or three in width, were a part of a terminal moraine—formed by the great ice sheet which covered the continent during the glacial period as it was gradually receding toward the polar seas.

Prof. Agassiz taught at Penikese partly by lectures, and these lectures, as was his custom, were always extemporaneous. No one who ever heard him need be told that beyond all comparison he was the model scientific talker of the age. Even those who have but read his lectures know what a charm lingers in the sentences which have been transferred to paper. But one must have heard him to realize the secret of his greatest power. The printed lectures carry the brilliant thoughts, the luminous and interesting facts, the flow of apt illustration; but the glow and fervor of his own profound interest in the matter of his speech, “raying out in a countenance that seemed to beam from interior light, and pervade the tones of his sympathetic and singularly expressive voice,” the “palpitating life” of his rapidly-uttered words, and back of all his intense personal magnetism, diffusing itself through the hearts of his charmed audience,—these are things that can not be transferred to paper. Writers in attempting to describe the manner of his eloquence have seemed to exhaust the vocabulary of eulogy.

At Penikese he probably excelled himself. He complimented his school by seeming to believe that he was in the midst of friends, who fully appreciated him, and who were in full sympathy with him. In 1864 it was the good fortune of the writer of this paper to hear him deliver a course of six lectures on the glaciers, before the Lowell Institute, in Boston. They were charming, popular, grand; but at Penikese, on the same subject, he seemed like a different man. All through his summer life there flowed a current of quiet but profound happiness, that lightened his step, glowed in his conversation, shone in his countenance, and gave animation and radiance to his lectures, in a manner he perhaps never before so fully exhibited. This thought was common among the students there assembled. He gave lectures almost every day, embracing full and exhaustive courses upon the glaciers, upon embryology, upon classification, upon methods of instruction, upon systematic zoölogy, upon scientific books and authors. There were also the spontaneous lectures, called out by some casual remark, the exhibition of some new and interesting specimen, or by the prominent presence of some object of natural history, which we might not think of studying at the time. For example, we were regaled one morning with some fish for breakfast. Prof. Agassiz, entering after the rest were seated, noticed the fish. Going immediately to the black-board, which at that time was near and in full view; he said: “Ladies and gentlemen: You are this morning feasting upon a very delicious fish, called the scop. Its scientific name I will write upon the board. It is Pagrus Argyrops—one of the sparoids. This species is not found north of Cape Cod, or at least, very rarely found. Its range is from Cape Cod west and southward. It is not found in the southern waters, only on the shores of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Virginia. The family is not well represented in America. Another species, called ‘sheepshead,’ is found in the South, and there are a few species in the Pacific Ocean. The Mediterranean Sea, however, abounds in species of the family. In all there are two hundred species known, and they are confined to the temperate and tropical regions. They are intensified in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, as many species being found there as in all the rest of the world.” Then he sat down, and his auditors immediately proceeded to dissect and test the qualities of their specimens, according to natural principles and with intense relish. In the regular morning lecture, after breakfast, an hour in length, he gave a more thorough scientific account of the structure of the scop, detailing its generic and specific characteristics, in a most masterly and fascinating manner, concluding his lecture by instructing in the proper method of describing any fish technically, explaining the symbols used by the most learned in that department of knowledge. On another occasion, while a group were seated engaged in social chat, a single query made as to the possibility of preserving the beautiful colors of star-fish, and other sea animals, drew from him for half an hour a flood of interesting facts concerning the colors of such creatures, their glory, their mysterious and changeful nature, and their evanescence. He deplored the want of knowledge in this direction, and encouraging his pupils to enter that field of investigation as explorers, promised sure results to such as would enter upon it in the truly scientific spirit.

HIS INTENSE LOVE OF NATURE.

This rose to the level of a passion, and was constantly revealing itself in unconscious words and actions. Once he told the story of Dürrckheim, a German naturalist, who after close investigation, wrote a monograph upon the cockchafer, a common insect of Europe, which attracted much attention from scientific men. For weeks before he went hard to work he abstained from any kind of food which was stimulating, even coffee, so that he might have full command of his nerves and steadiness of his muscles. He also so supported his person that the beating of his arteries should not interfere with his delicate dissection. Then Agassiz having held up before us this example for our imitation, gave utterance to the following memorable words: “When sitting at the laboratory table, you should give yourselves up to the work exclusively. Never trifle with Nature. The objects we study are the works of the Creator. Even materialists consider them as the works of the highest forces in Nature. A laboratory of natural history is a sanctuary in which nothing improper should be admitted or exhibited. There we are in the constant presence of Nature and its Author. _I can tolerate with less mental agony improprieties in churches._” When the student would come in from the sea with a bowl of newly-captured jelly fish, or some other equally common specimen, he would frequently see Agassiz coming down to the path to meet him. “What have you got this morning?” Looking at them tenderly—although he had seen the like thousands of times—he would exclaim, “Oh, they are beautiful; very beautiful!” This tenderness for animals extended even to those usually considered repulsive. The toads of the island he would frequently handle without a thought of disgust. A live garter snake two feet in length was brought to him in the presence of ladies who manifested their usual repugnance and fear. “Why,” said Agassiz, “of what are you afraid? It can not harm you. See! I will let it bite me.” Then taking the reptile in his hands he suffered it to coil over his wrist, and holding it gently by the neck, put his finger into its mouth. “It does not hurt me nor harm so much as the pricking of a pin. This is a very fine specimen of unusual color. It should be preserved.” He was particularly careful to forbid any wanton destruction of life, or practice of cruelty in the preparation of specimens for dissection. Abundant as the birds were on the island, only the ornithologist was allowed to shoot, and he was restricted to specimens actually needed. Even the nests so profusely scattered were sacred, and those who were engaged in the study of embryology alone were permitted to collect them. Familiarity with all the forms of life had made him exceedingly tender and watchful of their natural rights.

Thus only a glimpse has been given of the summer school at Penikese. We can but make bare mention of the other principal attractions and advantages: the daily boat excursion over the bay and sound; the rambles along the rocky shores in search of treasures cast up by the sea; the trips to Gay Head, on Martha’s Vineyard, in search of tertiary fossil shark’s teeth; the unique curiosities of the sea that were daily brought in for inspection, ever new and wonderful; the parties selected each day for dredging expeditions on the beautiful yacht “Sprite,” under the lamented Count Pourtales; the lectures and admirable practical lessons given by the other members of the faculty, Profs. Packard, Wilder, Bicknell, Arnold Guyot, Dr. Brewer, Benjamin F. Pierce; the naturalists’ “club” meetings; the quiet Sabbaths, when, in the absence of regular service, meetings for religious conversation were held; the evening gathering with Prof. and Mrs. Agassiz under the flagstaff on the summit of the island, overlooking the western sea, to watch the glories of the dying day, whiling away the hour with song and familiar converse—all these memories and many more crowd upon us for notice, but we forbear.

Alas! that the golden hopes raised by such brilliant beginning should so soon be blasted. Agassiz died during the succeeding December. No man was ever more generally, more tenderly, or more profoundly mourned. By none was his loss felt with more poignant grief than by those who were with him at Penikese. No man, after his death, felt himself capable to complete the liberal plans laid out by Agassiz, and the enterprise was abandoned. Had Agassiz lived, such was his power over men that he would have readily secured, from legislative action, and from the donations of wealthy men, all the money he would have asked, to enable him to carry forward the enterprise. His success in that direction was unparalleled.

It is impossible to conjecture what an impulse would have been given to the study of natural history and higher culture in kindred science, had he been permitted to live until he could have seen the budding promise burst into bloom of realized success. But it was not to be.

Fain would we linger still upon the thoughts which crowd upon the memory now, but we must draw the curtain. Yet his beautiful spirit, genial, loving face, beaming with kindliness and sympathy, his winning grace and charming presence, his sublime self-denial in his devotion to Nature, his grand intellectual expression with voice and pen, his overflowing heart, so tender and so true, and so constant in its blessing, can never fade from our vision, nor from our memory.

THE COMING OF SUMMER.

By HARRIET MABEL SPALDING.

We are looking for summer. Far over the hill,
Do you catch the faint sound of her hurrying feet?
Does the voice of her coming with melody thrill?
Do you strive the first breath of her whispers to greet?
She is coming. Bright garlands her pathway surround;
Her fair hands are laden with blossoms of snow.
Do you hear the soft sweep of her robe o’er the ground,
As she speaks to the flowers to awaken and glow?

Creep forth the small vines from the hedge and the wall,
So shyly they meet the glad gaze of the sun;
The brooklets sing low as they clamber and fall,
And the brown hills new mantles resplendent have won.
The spider a shimmering gossamer weaves
In the lap of the meadow, and lightly is thrown
Its faint web of gold o’er the green of the leaves,
While buds of ambrosia around us are blown.

There’s a gem in each drop of the dew on the grass,
The earth is awakened with carolings sweet;
The daisies are flashing in stars where we pass,
And the buttercups hide in the moss at our feet.
The cowslips are changing from green into gold,
On banks where the frosts of the winter have died;
The violets are seeking their hues to unfold,
And the red rose has flung its rich canopy wide.

There is blue overhead: there is emerald below,
A blending of hues in the pearl of the sky;
While garlands of azure and blossoms of snow
In gardens of beauty and loveliness lie.
She is here! she is here! the bonnie, bright June,
Like words of rejoicing in moments of grief;
Her song you may trace in the woodland’s glad tune,
Her tear in the cloud and her smile in the leaf.

* * * * *

GEN. BOLLY LEWIS, who spends midwinter in Jacksonville, Florida, and spring and fall at the Gibson House, Cincinnati, will have charge of the Hotel Athenæum at Chautauqua during the summer. He is making every preparation to furnish his guests first-class entertainment. With a hotel and furnishing that cost $125,000, all complete, even to the grounds being graded, sodded, and flowers blooming, he is sure to do it. The hotel will be open June 15, one month before the School of Languages opens. Correspondents should address General Lewis before that date at the Gibson House, Cincinnati, Ohio; after that, at Hotel Athenæum, Chautauqua, N. Y.

IN SOME MEDICAL BY-WAYS.

By ANDREW WILSON, F. R. S. E.

That the beautifying or improvement of the person, under certain circumstances, is a perfectly legitimate procedure, when judged by the common-place rules of society, is a conclusion which demands no evidence by way of support. No one would dream for a moment of disputing the assertion, to come to personal details, that a defacing wart, mole, or wen, on the face, capable of being readily removed, without danger, by surgical interference, should be so disposed of. And to take the very common and exceedingly annoying case, of a profusion of hairs attaching themselves prominently, say, to some simple skin-growth, and capable of being permanently or temporarily removed by depilatories, the same remark holds good. Such acts of personal attention need no excuse. On the ground of common personal æsthetics, apart altogether from the freedom of annoyance from marked blemishes of face or figure, the amelioration of such deformities is a bare act of justice to the individual in question. The removal of a blemish is physiologically as defensible a proceeding as the replacement of missing teeth by the aid of the dentist, and in this latter act we find the truest warrant, since, for digestive purposes, the possession of teeth or their artificial substitutes is absolutely necessary for the preservation of health. To the replacement of a maimed limb by an artificial one, there can be still less objection. The common ground of expediency, utility, and function, presents us with an unanswerable argument in favor of aiding nature, in so far as we are able, by the devices of art.

Very different, however, is the argument which would fain carry these same reasons into the domain of the peruke maker, and into that of the manufacturer of face-paints and lotions. On what grounds, æsthetic or otherwise, could a change of color in the hair be demanded or defended? Similarly, on what grounds could we justify the practice of face-enameling, or the smoothing out of the wrinkles which time writes naturally enough on our brows and faces at large? It can not be argued that a false eyebrow or curl is as justifiable as false teeth, for the purpose of the latter as aids to digestion is plain enough; whilst the only conceivable ground for the adoption of the former appendages would be “an improvement in looks”—an avowedly small-minded excuse, and one, in any sense, of doubtful correctness. To the deficiency or want of eyebrows we become accustomed, as to the whiteness of hair or other peculiarities of _physique_; but if the practice of supplying nature’s defects—justifiable enough under certain conditions, as we have seen—is to be regarded as legitimate under all circumstances, the extremes of absurdity to which such a practice may and does lead are readily enough discerned. Admitting the false eyebrow, why should we exclude the “nose machine” advertised for the charitable purpose, when worn daily (in private), of altering the unbecoming natural style to that of a becoming and, it is to be presumed, fashionable olfactory organ?

Of the deleterious effects of the continued application of the fashionable lotions and varnishes for the face, medical science is not slow to testify. Few readers can forget the exposures in the famous Rachel case; or the testimony then and at other times offered, to show that such “preparations” for the toilet are made, as a rule, to sell and not to use. Let Dr. Taylor, in the name of authority, speak concerning the effects of common hair-dyes. “Cosmetics and hair-dyes,” says this author, “containing preparations of lead, commonly called hair-restorers(!) may also produce dangerous effects. I have met,” he continues, “with an instance in which paralysis of the muscles on one side of the neck arose from the imprudent use of a hair-dye containing litharge. These hair-dyes, or ‘hair-restorers,’ are sometimes solutions of acetate of lead of variable strength in perfumed and colored water. In other cases they consist of hyposulphite of lead, dissolved in an excess of hyposulphite of soda. In one instance, the continued use of such a dye is reported to have proved fatal, and lead was found in the liver, and in one of the kidneys. Mr. Lacy,” adds Dr. Taylor, “has pointed out the injury to health which is likely to follow the use of white lead as a cosmetic by actors.” Doubtless “preparations” do exist, in which the metal in question is absent; but in any case, the want of certainty as to the composition of the substance, should, in itself, serve as a condition inculcating caution and suspicion in regard to the use of such nostrums.

DEATH’S CHANGED FACE.

By FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE.

Sweet Savior, since the time thy human feet
Trod thirty years our parched and dusty ways,
How hath the wilderness of life grown sweet
With flowers and warbled praise!

How hath the heavy mist that wrapt us round,
The weary mist of tears and soul-wrung sighs,
Lifted, and bared to us the blue profound
Of God’s far quiet skies!

And more than all, how hath a gracious change,
To poor scared men that slunk with fluttering breath,
Passed o’er the face, that erst was stern and strange,
Of thy strong angel, Death!

Lo, through the mazes of a tangled wood,
Nowhither bound, we groped through vistas dim,
While shadowlike amid the shadows stood
Old Death, the archer grim.

We deemed his face was pitiless and blind;
Shot all at random seemed each whirring dart,
Yet none did fail a resting-place to find
In some wrung, quivering heart.

And there, with writhen limbs and sightless stare,
Down in the drenchèd grass the victim lay,
What erst was man, erect and tall and fair,
Now shrunk and fading clay.

And over him in dull and hopeless pain
The mourners stood, sore stricken and perplexed;
“He lieth prone; he will not rise again;
And who shall fall the next?”

O sweet changed face! We see, we know him now,
Rent the thick mist that blurred our straining ken—
Death: of all angels round the throne that bow,
Most pitiful to men!

Through the dusk chamber where the watchers weep
Slowly he moves with calm and noiseless tread,
And o’er the weary one that longs for sleep
He bends his gracious head.

“Poor eyes!” he saith, “long have ye wept and waked;
I come to bid your tears and vigils cease.”
“Poor heart!” he saith, “long hast thou yearned and ached;
I come to give thee peace.”

“Be of good cheer,” he saith, “world-weary waif.
One sharp swift step, and all the way is trod:
Through the heaped darkness I will lead thee safe
To the great light of God.”

A sharp sweet silence smites the tingling ears.
How snow-like falls the peace upon his brow!
Hark! happy mourners, smiling through their tears,
Whisper, “He sleepeth now!”

CHAUTAUQUA RIPPLES.

At the opening exercises of the Chautauqua Teachers’ Retreat and Chautauqua School of Languages, on _Saturday, July 14_, addresses will be delivered by the Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent, Superintendent of Instruction, and the Rev. C. H. Payne, D.D., LL.D., president of the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio. Prof. Sherwin will conduct the concert. Day fireworks, under the direction of Prof. Hand, of Hamilton, Ontario; Readings by Prof. Cumnock, of Illinois and a reception in the parlors of the Hotel Athenæum.

* * * * *

The above item shows that the Chautauqua schools open one week later this year than in former years. It will be a great day. Perhaps we shall hear something about the new “Chautauqua University” in July.

* * * * *

Applications are numerous for documents and general information, at the office of the C. T. R. and C. S. L. Early in May it was common to fill out eighteen applications for admission in one day.

* * * * *

On June 24, Dr. Vincent, president, Lewis Miller, of Akron, Messrs. Clem. Studebaker, of South Bend, Indiana, Jacob Miller, of Canton, Ohio, vice-president F. H. Root, of Buffalo, N. Y., and J. Glidden, of Cleveland, Ohio, and the secretary, Mr. A. K. Warren, of Chautauqua, were in council at the Hotel Athenæum, at Chautauqua, providing liberal things for the accommodation and comfort of the multitudes expected at Chautauqua in July and August.

* * * * *

The drive-ways for carriages hereafter will extend a mile and a half along the lake shore, touching docks, railroad depot, ice-cream stands, hotel, croquet, and lawn-tennis grounds, and giving a beautiful view of vessels plying the lake.

* * * * *

The large correspondence received at the office of Miss Kimball, in Plainfield, N. J., by Dr. Vincent, in New Haven, Conn., Mr. Warren, at Chautauqua, and at the office of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY HERALD, in Meadville, Pa., indicate that there will be a great gathering at Chautauqua, from the North and the South, from the East and the West, the coming season.

* * * * *

It will be the tenth year of the Chautauqua Assembly, and the greatest year of all.

* * * * *

One of the new things in July will be the “Summer Trip Beyond the Sea.” The evening on the journey will be characterized by the organ, choir, fire-works, etc.

* * * * *

The complete Chautauqua program for 1883 will appear in the advance number of the ASSEMBLY HERALD, a copy of which we shall send to every subscriber with the July number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

The CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY HERALD is the official organ of the Chautauqua Assembly. It is a daily, published on the grounds at Chautauqua every morning. _It will contain full reports of the meetings and from sixty to seventy-five lectures in the volume._ The first number will be issued on Saturday morning, August 4, and every day thereafter (Sundays excepted) till August 27. Price, $1.00 for the season. Address T. L. Flood, editor and proprietor, Meadville, Pa.

* * * * *

“Minnehaha,” “Hiawatha,” “Winona,” “Buffalo,” and the “Assembly,” are among the new names of steamers on Chautauqua Lake.

* * * * *

The large steamers will be provided with stewardesses to look after the comfort and welfare of lady passengers. This is a new provision and one that will be highly appreciated.

* * * * *

New families commenced moving to Chautauqua early in June, and every day scores new arrivals.

* * * * *

The Governor of Tennessee is in lively sympathy with the “Chautauqua Idea.” He is giving encouragement to the Monteagle Assembly, in the South, and hopes soon to visit Chautauqua. General Lewis says there will be a large representation from the South at Chautauqua the present season. The more the better.

* * * * *

Grocery stores, meat stores, furniture stores, and even a millinery store, may be found at Chautauqua.

* * * * *

“Tell us which will be the great days at Chautauqua?” This question comes to us nearly every day. It is hard to answer. Dr. Talmage, Rev. D. H. Wheeler, LL.D., president of Allegheny College, Bishop Warren, Dr. Vincent, Joseph Cook, Rev. A. Wheeler, D.D., of Pittsburgh, presidents of a half-dozen colleges and universities, eminent editors, great preachers, and splendid musicians from all parts of this country and Canada will be there. And then C. L. S. C. Commencement Day, which will be the _golden day_ of ’83 (Saturday, August 18), with an oration by the Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., addresses by Dr. Vincent and Lewis Miller; concerts by the big choir, great organ, little organs, pianos, bass viol, cornet; cantatas, solos, duets, choruses, etc.; stereopticon exhibitions, fireworks by day and fireworks by night, spelling matches, Greek lights, C. L. S. C. bonfires and bonfires for children, croquet, lawn tennis, rowing, sailing, excursions on the steamers, receptions and processions. The best way to get the great days is to bid your friends who must stay at home good-bye, and go to Chautauqua for the season.

* * * * *

If you can’t go for the season, don’t fail to be present on _Tuesday evening, August 7_, when the tenth Assembly opens. Then the Chinese lanterns will be lighted, cottages illuminated, a peal of bells will ring, cannon be fired, flags will wave, vespers (the old songs) will be sung, orators of other years on this sod and new ones from many States and Canada will speak. The lake will glow with beauty, as the steamers illuminated with many colored lights come and go with their crowds of people, and the fireworks glare on the shore, and shooting into the air redden the dome of the sky and reflect the glory of their colors in the waters below. At Chautauqua every day is a great day.

* * * * *

The cost of living is not high. A room can be rented in a cottage, for the season, for $12.00; it will be furnished with bed, chairs, etc.; at such a price the occupant must take care of it herself. Table-boarding may be secured for the season at $5.00 per week. A better room, furnished with more conveniences, costs more. A party of a dozen people, more or less, coming from a distance, may rent a cottage for $125.00 or $150.00 (or a larger party a larger cottage for more money), and then board themselves. By bringing their own servant and taking a lady or gentleman through _free_—if they will do the buying and preside over the house—board is reduced to the minimum price. If, however, individuals or families prefer to go to a regular boarding-house, that is, a cottage kept by a private party (and _some of these_ are well kept, and make pleasant homes), they may secure room and boarding in the same cottage for $8.00, $9.00 and $10.00 per week, and perhaps less. The Hotel Athenæum is a magnificent institution—with dining-rooms facing the lake, and a capacity for seating five to six hundred people at one time. It will accommodate from four to five hundred guests. The price per day and week is higher, but the fare is the best and worth all that is asked. Write to Mr. A. K. Warren, secretary, Chautauqua, Chautauqua County, N. Y., for information about rooms, cottages, boarding, or anything you desire to know about living at Chautauqua, and your questions will be answered promptly and satisfactorily.

CHAUTAUQUA SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES.

HINTS TO BEGINNERS IN THE STUDY OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK.—III.

By REV. ALFRED A. WRIGHT, A.M.[M]

HELPS—IN THE LANGUAGE ITSELF.

1. _It is easily learned by any one who can easily learn anything._ A lady complained to her pastor that she was greatly in doubt about her Christian character, because she could not recollect Bible passages, though she had just read them. The pastor did not tell her the old story of a similar case where the hermit answered by pouring water into a basin; wiping it dry, he said, “You see the basin holds none of the water, yet it is cleaner.” But he instantly suspected the true state of the case. “How much of anything you read do you retain in mind?” “Why, nothing,” she replied; “I’ve been that way always.” Here was mental defect, not moral obliquity. She couldn’t learn Greek any more readily than anything else.

Now to all persons not mentally incapable of learning anything, Bible Greek presents special helps to enthusiasm, and hence to success.

2. _It is the language God chose as the vehicle of his Gospel._ There must be in it the qualities suited to the needs of an Apocalypse of God, or he would have selected a language more capable of containing and of expressing such a revelation. Hence this fact is inspirational as a sentiment. We study the very words of God. We come nearest and most directly to the oracle, to the secrets of Deity.

We are admitted to the _sanctum sanctorum_ of his counsels, who spake in Jesus Christ and his apostles the “wonderful words of life.” But we need not rely upon the sentimental virtues of Bible Greek inspiration for evidence in proof that the language itself helps the student of it.

3. _Bible Greek, like Bible Hebrew, is essentially the vehicle of spiritual conceptions and of spiritual truths._ The spiritual in man can find no loftier expressions of “what is in man,” than in New Testament Greek.

4. _The very construction of the language, its idioms, the mental view points involved in its structure and mechanism, are themselves helps._ With the Greeks thought was not indefinite as too largely is the case with us. They never dealt in that commodity of which certain æsthetes recently in this country appeared to have possessed the monopoly; _i. e._ “unthunk thoughts.”

The Greeks did not think “about” things. They thought at things, or they thought out things, or they thought things. Thucydides said that the Greeks could not bear to think of things future as though not already within their grasp. Hence we find their language largely uses the present for the future tense. This present tense mode of thought, bringing everything directly before their eyes, contributed not a little to that definiteness of conception and of expression which characterizes the language throughout. It was both the cause and the effect of Greek exactness and of tetheredness in thought and speech.

Every preacher should at least read Blackstone: if possible, he should take the full law course, not alone to know the principles of common law, but also and especially for style’s sake; to know how to state things exactly, economically. Verbiage is expensive. It burdens speed. It weakens force. It is the mark of a mind untrained. Bible Greek helps the preacher just at this point. Let him master the language and he will unconsciously think in the very channels along which the tides of Greek thought, feeling, emotion, and sentiment glide, never overflowing their banks into the flat and boundless marshes of nowhereness.

FASCINATIONS OF THE JOURNEY.

1. _The Bible Greek student is continually helped in his studies by the fascinations of his journey._ On every side arise new friends to call him blessed. It is no arid desert which invites his footsteps. The land flows with milk and honey. No wild beasts are there: no enemy. It is God’s land: his Eden where he walks and talks with the true Adam.

Here, for example, is a grand plane of literary observation and loftiness. The air is bracing, a tonic to weak chests surfeited with library hot house forcings and environments. Then too the moral upliftings which one gets! The sense of presences invisible to eye, unheard, untouched: presences recent from heaven. Oh how one’s littlenesses and inferiorities, one’s shortcomings and dwarfedness feel the rebuke of loftier spirits, speechless, but loftier. Here are theologic forests and drives through green carpeted woods that smell of myrrh and balsam, even as though his footsteps and his garments had just passed.

Yonder is an apocalyptic plateau, an island of the sky, from whose top all heaven is visible. Are not these things helps? to preacher? teacher? scholar? Hear just one word from Paul. It puts us on that plateau yonder. He tells the Romans (i:20), “For the invisible things of him, since the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being perceived through the _things that are made_, even his everlasting power and divinity.” He tells the Ephesians (ii:10), “For we are his _workmanship_, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” In these two passages the italicized words are the same. They are not found elsewhere in all the Bible. The word is _poiema_. From its plateau we discover the harmonies and the unity of the uni-verse of God—the oneness of Deity with us dirt. God is discovered, _un_-covered in the _poiema_—the poem of Nature: so that the heathen are excuseless. We are God’s _poiema_—the poem of Grace recreated in Jesus Christ.

Ah, to find that one word, to stand upon its apocalyptic summit and to see, is worth four years’ climbing, though it should be harder than up Katahdin’s gorges, steeper than the icy sides horrific of Mt. Blanc.

But, in addition to this telescopic vision-range, the Greek student gets at the infinities below him. The water drop is essentially, if not integrally, an ocean. Infinity is unthinkable in any direction: just as unthinkable when one thinks along the diameter towards the center of a sphere as when one thinks in reverse direction.

So there is here philological microscopy; of words and letters even: all valuable, sometimes necessary to any knowledge, always disciplinary. Paul writes to Timothy, (iii: 16) “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” Thus some Mss. But others make Paul say, “Great is the mystery, etc., he who was manifested in the flesh.” The Mss. differ only in a letter, scarcely that. The difference is just that between an Ο and a θ. Hair splitting? Yet on that one hair hangs doctrine, and duty, and destiny. And Ellicott has split this hair out of the Alexandrine Ms. One case of intricate and extraordinary surgery well performed, establishes the surgeon’s fame and fortune in a day. Ellicott’s treatment of this passage—fascinating as a romance, and romantic in its fascination, the very quality of reading which the ill-trained judicial faculties of some pastors need—his treatment of this passage is one of the triumphs of philological microscopy. Of no utility? Do this kind of work and the use will appear in one’s own self.

[To be continued.]

EDITOR’S OUTLOOK.

“THE CHAUTAUQUAN.”

THE CHAUTAUQUAN is nearly three years old. In honor of its fast-approaching birthday it has donned a new cover, and comes to its readers asking for the approval of not only its contents but of its improved appearance also. The cover has been carefully selected. It is sincerely hoped that it will meet with the approval of our friends—we feel sure that it will. The design will be full of meaning to every ardent Chautauquan. Not fancy alone, but a tender memory of the “Society of the Hall in the Grove,” the “League of the Round-Table,” “The Order of the White Seal,” “The Guild of the Seven Seals,” and, above all, the dearly-loved C. L. S. C., has suggested the really beautiful and chaste design. The cover has not only artistic value, but, by it, the size of the magazine is increased four pages: thus we give our readers seventy-six instead of seventy-two pages. From the first THE CHAUTAUQUAN has aimed at keeping its price down, while in a healthy, vigorous way, it increased in value. When in September, 1880, the first number of the magazine was issued, it contained forty-eight pages; since, we have increased to seventy-two; now, we offer seventy-six—but we make no increase in price. We believe that both in appearance and contents THE CHAUTAUQUAN will now compare favorably with any magazine of its age in the world, and certainly its cost is far below that of any magazine of equal merit.

To be an efficient and useful organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle has been its aim. The enthusiastic reception with which it has met leads us to believe that it has not failed. We say enthusiastic reception, for THE CHAUTAUQUAN finds, on looking over its visiting list, that it numbers tens of thousands. It goes into every one of the States and Territories to regular subscribers; also across the Atlantic, in Europe, it goes to England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Sweden, Germany and Italy; it is sent to the East and the West Indies, to Africa, China, India, New Zealand, and the Sandwich Islands. The number of post offices receiving it in the United States is as follows: New York 819, Pennsylvania 500, New Jersey 128, Ohio 456, Illinois 345, Iowa 239, Indiana 179, Michigan 219, Minnesota 67, Wisconsin 140, Maine 151, New Hampshire 92, Rhode Island 35, Connecticut 160, Massachusetts 373, Vermont 109, Virginia 25, West Virginia 16, Maryland 26, North Carolina 10, South Carolina 24, Georgia 24, Alabama 15, Tennessee 28, Florida 27, Louisiana 5, Mississippi 25, Arkansas 15, Kentucky 26, Delaware 12, District of Columbia 3, Texas 42, Missouri 70, California 137, Oregon 15, Nebraska 55, Kansas 110, Dakota 37, Idaho 10, Montana 8, Colorado 42, New Mexico 4, Arizona 2, Washington Territory 13, Wyoming Territory 5, Indian Territory 3, Utah 7, Nevada 6, Canada 210, giving a total in the United States and Canada of 6,069. In short, THE CHAUTAUQUAN goes to more than six thousand post offices; nor does this represent our circulation. During the present volume we have printed twenty-six thousand copies each month.

We call the attention of our readers to the combination offer. As the Assembly approaches, and THE ASSEMBLY HERALD will be issued as a daily, we offer the _daily_ for 1883, and the _fourth_ volume of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for two dollars and twenty-five cents, providing the subscription price be sent before the first of August; after that time the price will be two dollars and fifty cents.

THE C. L. S. C. COURSE OF STUDY FOR 1883-84.

This number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN brings the announcement of the C. L. S. C. course for the coming year. With no little interest will the members, young, old, and prospective, read and compare with those of the preceding years. Without disparagement of the past, it is safe to say that the course for next year will be the best of all thus far. We expect to be able to say the same a year hence with reference to the course for ’84-’85, for experience is ever suggesting where changes and modifications may be made, which are entitled to be called improvements. Thus it is hoped that each new year will have greater attractions and greater facilities and benefits to offer.

It will be observed that the next year’s course is divided into five general departments. At the head of the list, as heretofore, stands history. This is the logical order, for history is the map or guide book to the student in all other fields of inquiry. With it as the chart, or lamp, in hand, the student is ready to begin the study of the literature, art, science or religion of a people. A wide range of historical readings, including Roman, German, French, and American, will be published in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. Several of the now famous Chautauqua text-books of history will be used, and those attractive “stories” in English history will continue, and will be edited by C. E. Bishop, Esq., already favorably known by his work in the course of this year.

In the studies of science and literature it is the aim to secure, if possible, even more thorough work than ever before. The superintendent of instruction and his counselors, whilst adhering to the design to give to the student the widest and best “outlook,” have kept steadily in mind the quality as well as the quantity of the work, and it is their purpose not to sacrifice the former for the sake of the latter. In each of these departments will be found names of authors of established reputation, who, either as writers of special text-books, or of articles for THE CHAUTAUQUAN, are to be teachers in the school of the C. L. S. C. for the year to come.

The department of distinctively religious readings still holds the large place that ever has and ever will be assigned it in the C. L. S. C. course. It has never been disguised that the culture at which this organization aims is Christian culture. It is the inspiration and reward of him whose brain and heart have toiled unceasingly in its behalf, that such an aim is being now realized in thousands of homes. It will be gratifying to those who have perused the Sunday Readings in THE CHAUTAUQUAN this year to know that they are to go on through the next year, and that the same taste and discrimination will characterize their selection.

There is also to be a department of readings described as general. This includes works about the arts and artists, and descriptions of their master-pieces. It will also contain articles on commercial law, and various questions of political economy. Taken all in all, here is a plan for a year’s study which is self-commending. It is clear that the C. L. S. C. has long since passed beyond the domain of experiment, and is become an established fact. The coming year, like each successive year in its history, will witness a widening of its sphere of influence and good.

THE ENGLISH-IRISH TROUBLES.

For many months the hostile attitude assumed by the leaders of the Irish people toward the British government has been the most exciting topic of the current news. It has been the most important as well as the most perplexing problem with which the present British ministry have had to deal. The serious nature of the disturbances which have arisen is evident from the fact that they seem to increase rather than diminish with the lapse of time.

The attitude of the Irish toward England betokens the most intense hatred and the bitterest rancor. It is indicative of an uncompromising determination to accomplish their purposes, even by the most foul and unscrupulous methods. Assassination, boycotting, deeds of violence of every sort, are the deliberately chosen weapons. The ultimate design of the Irish leaders is not only to obtain redress for present grievances, but also to deliver Ireland from English rule, and to establish its independence. But it is by no means necessary to perpetrate revolting crimes in order to secure a country’s liberty. When the American colonies determined to free themselves from what they considered the oppressive tyranny of Great Britain, there was no resort to assassination in all its horrid forms; there were no Guy Fawkes plots, no boycotting, no bloody deeds of violence, but the simple and determined uprising of an united people in might and majesty. The assassin’s dagger, infernal machines and dynamite explosives are poor arguments with which to convince the world that the Irish people are deserving of being freed from English rule, or are fitted for taking a place among the nations of the earth. The spirit which has been manifested by the representatives of the Irish people in carrying out their plans is not only hostile to England, but also to the welfare of society in general, and to government of all kinds. England has sought with patient forbearance and wise legislation to modify or eradicate the evils of which its Irish subjects justly complain. All its overtures have been met of late with threats of violence, or vandal attempts to destroy the public buildings of the realm.

The sympathy which has been manifested toward the Irish people since the outbreak of the present troubles by many of those familiar with the story of their ancient wrongs is steadily decreasing, because of the violent measures adopted by the would-be champions of the Irish cause. The barbarous methods which have been employed to carry out their designs have not only alienated the sympathies of the civilized world, but have also demonstrated that the Irish, at present at least, are utterly unfit for self-government. If, by any combination of circumstances, they should be able to secure national independence, the result would doubtless be productive of a state of anarchy, or even of a return to barbarism. Only the utmost cruelty and tyranny exercised by a government toward its subjects can justify violence in order to secure what they think to be their rightful liberties.

The facts are, that not liberty, but license and lawlessness are the necessary outcome of the methods employed by the unprincipled and unscrupulous men who now are in the ascendant in Irish affairs. If the Irish people would meet the overtures of the English government with a like conciliatory spirit, and heartily second the efforts of the present administration to secure a speedy and thorough redress of all grievances; would cast the mantle of oblivion over the past, and devote their energies to developing the varied resources of their beautiful island, in a very brief time peace and harmony would be restored to their distracted country; Ireland would enter upon a career of prosperity that would rival, if not excel, anything ever recorded in its previous history.

PROHIBITION IN POLITICS.

The political parties are beset with moral reforms—prominent among these is the temperance cause. The friends of prohibition propose to introduce their principles into the dominant political party; or, if they fail, to grow a party of their own. This has been the policy of a certain class of temperance people in some sections of the country for several years. As an independent party they have never polled a very large vote for a National or State ticket, nor do we think that they expect ever to do so. But they have, in many elections, held the balance of power, particularly where the great parties were evenly balanced. On account of this the prohibitionists have compelled the Republican party to legislate in the interest of temperance. The radical temperance people, who have bolted the Republican ticket where prohibition has been denied them, or when men unfriendly to the cause have been set up as candidates for office, have done more for temperance by what they failed to do, than the independent temperance organization has done. It is this policy which has caused the Republican party to become the prohibition party in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa, and Kansas, and other states. We have no reason to believe that this party would have enacted temperance laws but for the proposed action of temperance voters. Its fundamental doctrines as a party were on another line of reform: both the leaders and the rank and file had to learn the prohibition lesson. This the temperance people have been teaching them, and with marked success. But what of the future? Will this policy win, or will temperance people be obliged to adopt a new plan of campaign, a new method of work? The cause of prohibition is just. The traffic in spirituous liquors must be struck at the root; but how? How to get prohibition into law, and keep it there, is the problem that no politician, statesman, or philanthropist has yet solved. However just the cause may be, it is hard to deal with old party leaders, trained, as they have been, in the political schools of the past twenty years, and entrenched in strong organizations. A good cause deserves wise management, especially so when it is beset with tacticians who are backed by the power of money and of great organizations. Temperance leaders must consider carefully before going much farther; for the sake of the cause they must be cautious. All signs in the political world point to the breaking up of the old political organizations—certainly, neither one of them is cemented by a grand moral question. The party of the future must have some law of right in its creed before it can depend upon the support of the masses. Is prohibition a broad enough platform for a great national party to stand on, is a question that will be settled in the near future.

EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.

The price of THE CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY DAILY HERALD, for August 1883, and THE CHAUTAUQUAN for the coming year, will be $2.25, provided the subscription is sent in before August 1. After that date the price for both periodicals for one year to one address will be $2.50. The ASSEMBLY HERALD is a 48 column daily published every morning (Sundays excepted) during the Chautauqua Assembly. The first number will be issued on Saturday, August 4. Price of the ASSEMBLY HERALD for the season, $1.00. In clubs of five or more at one time, 90 cents each. The HERALD will contain full reports of all the Chautauqua meetings. Six stenographers and six editors, besides several reporters, are employed every day to mirror the proceedings at Chautauqua in the ASSEMBLY HERALD. It will contain a complete report of the C. L. S. C. Commencement exercises. Please send in your subscriptions early, before the busy season at Chautauqua opens.

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