Chapter II: The Family Parlor (5)

Can a language be taught by correspondence? Unhesitatingly, yes! Experience, though brief, gives warrant for the answer. The constantly increasing number of advertisements appearing in journals of wide circulation gives evidence that teachers at least believe instruction by this method both possible and profitable. It is in this belief that the only danger to the system lies. Incompetency in this field must fail. It can be hidden by no outward show. No would-be teacher, with text-book and printed question in hand, can parade before a class and _hear a recitation_. Only a teacher, a real teacher, can hope for success in this work, and that must come by methods entirely foreign to the ordinary methods of the class-room. Born a teacher, not made; such must be he who would successfully use the correspondence system in his work of teaching. Such teachers are rare, even in comparison with the multitudes of those who already fill the places in our hundreds of thousands of schools, and still more rare in the ranks of the throng which, filling the avenues leading to them, is expectantly awaiting the constantly occurring vacancies. For this reason we have said that the growing demand for correspondence schools constitutes their principal danger; for persons aware of this demand and allured by the hope of swelling moderate incomes, though they have no peculiar appreciation of the particular requirements demanded to fit one for the work, will yet enter the lists as competitors in this field. The inevitable results must be failure by the teacher, discouragement to honest and earnest students who can find no other means for acquiring education, distrust of the practicability of the system, and discredit for correspondence teachers as a class. To avoid this, to provide only competent instructors, and to arrange and systematize as broad and comprehensive a course of study as is furnished by an institution is one of the purposes of the Chautauqua University. In such a course languages, ancient and modern, must be taught, and must be taught by correspondence, or not at all. But while it will be conceded that instruction by correspondence is possible, in ordinary branches, yet the honest inquirer will ask in view of the peculiarities surrounding the subject of foreign languages, the question which begins this paper: Can a language be taught by correspondence? Again we answer, unhesitatingly, yes! and in no dubious way, but with a measure of success fully equal to that possible by oral instruction. The question of the time necessary to complete any given topic is not germane to this discussion. Yet in passing, it may be said, that of two persons who should be able to devote their whole time to study, one using oral and the other correspondence methods, we see no reason why the first should have any advantage in point of time required for the completion of any prescribed course of study.

We present four reasons in support of the answer we have so positively given:

FIRST—_The class of students seeking this instruction is more teachable than can be easily found elsewhere._ Its members rank in earnestness and intensity of application with the best of those pursuing post-graduate or special courses in resident and special institutions. They are men already in professional life, physicians, attorneys, pastors, journalists and teachers. They are men who, having long looked wistfully from a distance at our great educational institutions without being able to avail themselves of their advantages, suddenly find excellent educational advantages brought to their very doors and offered on terms which they can easily accept. They are young men and women who during their school days felt the necessity of making the best use of their time, and acquired habits of steady application, of critical study, and of economy in the use of spare moments; but whose school days were limited by unconquerable circumstances to the village academy or high school, or even to the less ambitious country district school. These classes are easier to teach than almost any other, since they are ready to do to the fullest extent the work which alone can make any teaching successful.

SECOND—_More skill is required in the work of preparing and assigning lessons than is ordinarily shown._ The art of assigning lessons should form a part in every scheme of pedagogical instruction. Unfortunately, the methods with which most who have memories of the class room are familiar are worthy subjects for criticism. The recitation hour passes rapidly in question and answer over the technicalities of the text. The closing moments are sufficient to direct a continuation of the advance reading, a review of previous lessons, and the assignment of certain portions from the grammar. There is no definite direction as to special points to be examined; no provision for particular work in etymology, or analysis, or comparison; no synthetic outline for the next day’s thought; no aids to help the student to test his own work or to detect his own errors before the next recitation assembly. Such methods or lack of methods in the correspondence school would surely cause its failure. How to assign lessons becomes here the crucial test of the teacher’s power. He must so lay out the work to be done that the pupil whom he has never seen will be stimulated to effort and not grow discouraged; will be led from the world of the known at his feet, into the world of the unknown in which the teacher lives; will be allowed to make no misuse of time in unprofitable study; will be wisely directed in the acquirement of lexical and grammatical knowledge, and will be enabled to test his own work with ever increasing accuracy. Such a teacher can not fail of success in his effort to teach a language by correspondence.

THIRD—_More care is required in the matter of interrogation._ Thorough mastery of the art of interrogation is an essential; almost priceless in any teaching—here it is a _sine qua non_. The presence of teacher and pupil in the class room makes questioning easy; the oral question is quickly given, quickly answered, and many questions may be used to elicit a single truth, or to impress a single lesson. But the correspondence teacher is not so favored. His questions must be so framed that one, or at the most two, shall suffice. Again, the oral teacher through lack of memory and long custom, may allow his questions to become a mere matter of routine, and daily tread the same monotonous round. We speak from memory when we assert of a college class, that it became so familiar with the questions asked during Greek hour in junior year, as to be able to answer the coming question almost before its utterance. This will not do for the correspondence teacher. His questions must be only such as his lesson directions have suggested; they must be committed to paper, in remorseless ink; they are to be subjected to scrutiny; they must not be obscure, or repetitious; and their range must be as wide as his students’ knowledge. Such questioning can not fail of success.

FOURTH—_More earnest and thorough study is required of the student._ He has in a certain sense the work of two persons to perform, his own and his teacher’s; his own, in that he investigates and acquires as directed; his teacher’s, in that he must prove and test that which he has done and is doing, by efforts of memory, by work of comparison, and by strict grammatical rule. He must recite to himself, ask of himself the questions which he must answer, and correct himself before finally his finished work is returned to his teacher for revision.

We think we have made sufficiently plain the possibility of success in teaching a language by correspondence. The reasons seem to us conclusive. That which remains to be said is even more potent. After all thinking, reasoning and objecting is done, after all testimony for or against has been received the established fact remains, successful teaching of languages, ancient and modern, by correspondence alone, has been done within the years just past, is now being done, and will be yet more effectively and widely done with each advancing year.

In support of these statements, which we believe are true, we present a testimonial from an experienced teacher, who has been and is a member of the College of Modern Languages in the Chautauqua University. It is as follows:

“I have been a member of the German class in the Chautauqua Correspondence School of Languages for two years, and I consider this plan of study, including the six weeks’ instruction each year at Chautauqua, superior to any other. The method is not only more comprehensive, it also advances the pupil much more rapidly, makes him more thorough, broadens his culture, enables him to become familiar with history, with literature, with art, and better than all, teaches him how to acquire knowledge.”

We add two statements of fact which can be verified as proofs of popular opinion regarding correspondence schools:

FIRST—That the Director of the Department of New Testament Greek in the Chautauqua School of Theology has students to the number of almost four hundred who rely for instruction entirely upon correspondence lessons.

SECOND—That the Dean of the Department of Hebrew in the same institution has under instruction by the same methods, in the different enterprises with which he is connected, about seven hundred students. Could there be anything more significant?

EDITOR’S OUTLOOK.

“MINOR MORALS.”

The importance of good breeding can not be too diligently insisted upon. But what is good breeding? This is hardly to be understood as synonymous with good manners, though certainly involving them. Nor is it quite the same thing as exemplary or agreeable behavior, though likely to insure it. The latter is entirely the product of constant practice. Good manners, polished behavior, are the fruit of long discipline—perfection herein being reached only when these manners become habitual, natural, instinctive.

True courtesy, meanwhile, involves something deeper than mere manners or motions. It has its seat in the heart—its root in the moral nature. Fundamentally it consists in an inward kindly, neighborly, tender feeling toward every one, an interest in, and a desire to promote everybody’s welfare. Genuine courtesy, in a word, is born of love, springs from a benevolent disposition, a brotherly, chivalric impulse.

But what is good breeding? It consists in this inward principle of good will, and the outward _habit_ of graceful demeanor combined—it consists in the aforesaid inward gracious impulse, rooted in the heart, and finding natural outward expression, or interpretation, through that disciplined elegance of deportment of which I have spoken. To the inward impulse, or sentiment, duly awakened, the outward, educated habit naturally, instinctively responds; and we have the deportment, or carriage, of the truly polished or accomplished gentleman or lady.

These twin principles, the inward nurture and the outward culture or training, working together, underlie what in the highest sense is to be understood as good breeding.

The practical value of the accomplishment under consideration can not well be overestimated. How charming, truly, this gentlemanly, lady-like conduct—this kindly, graceful, genial way of carrying one’s self socially. True courtesy, verily, is as delightful as a song. More eloquent is it, we may say, than any oratory. It is a fine art. Better still, it is Christian.

Is it not at once a privilege and a duty to promote the pleasure of others? As has just been suggested, how may we more effectually minister to the pleasure of others than by a charming behavior?

By cultivated, agreeable manners, moreover, we immensely enhance our personal influence—our power for good. A person of agreeable manners, by uniformly pleasing, will, naturally, always be popular—have hosts of friends. While, whatever one’s worth or attainments, we yet shun his presence if he be disagreeable or offensive in manner or speech; on the other hand, we instinctively covet the society of one who, in any way, delights us.

The irresistible charm of polished manners, even when cultivated solely for commercial purposes, is well illustrated by a remark said to have been made by Mr. Beecher concerning the clerks in the shops of Paris. They were, he said, so polite and engaging in their attentions that his first impression always was that he must have met them somewhere before. And who has not, indeed, under the influence of the benign spirit, the genial and engaging manners, the kindly and obliging offices of the accomplished tradesman, often felt his prejudices give way, his original intentions to purchase nothing yield, and, instead, a purpose gradually spring up in his mind to do just the opposite of what he originally designed?

Nothing can be more evident, therefore, than that this matter of manners and breeding is a no unimportant part of one’s education, constituting, truly, a no insignificant part of every true man’s character. How greatly, then, does that youth stand in his own light, who, for any cause, neglects his manners. The thoroughly courteous youth, other things equal, will surely win his way to success. Personally agreeable in all his ways, he conciliates opposing prejudices, charms the indifferent, and makes every one he meets his friend. The boorish man, on the contrary, as inevitably blocks his way to fortune by awakening, on the part of those with whom he has to do, only sentiments of aversion and disgust.

Girls, for some reason, seem to take more naturally and kindly to graceful ways, to gentle courtesies, than boys. Young America, we think, is characteristically boorish, if not clownish. The boy of the period manifestly places no adequate value on good manners. Doubtless this matter of breeding—this careful cultivation of a genial and amiable deportment—is sadly neglected in our day. The youth of our day should be taught not only that rudeness and vulgarity never pay; but that while awkwardness is disagreeable and burdensome, the slightest approach to rowdyism is detestable and unpardonable.

Some one has very happily represented good manners as “minor morals.” And certain it is that vulgarity and vice are intimately related; that the low, vulgar fellow will ever be found but a few removes from a positively vicious one.

Love, refinement, social cultivation are all closely allied with righteousness; these, always and everywhere, constitute the true gentleman and lady.

THE COUNCILS AT BALTIMORE.

It was a noteworthy fact that two of the three great religious bodies of this country were holding councils in the same city in the last days of 1884. The city of Baltimore enjoys the distinction of being both a Catholic and a Methodist city. The former is the older claimant, since it was founded by English Catholics; but Methodism, also founded by Englishmen, has a Baltimore history which occasioned the centennial conference of last month. It was in Baltimore, Christmas 1784, that a few circuit riders organized the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is doubtless through the effectiveness of that organization that Methodism holds its position as the religious union of the largest _population_ embraced in any one organization in this country. The Catholics are ordinarily reckoned the most numerous, because they count population and Methodists count only members; but taking the former basis as a common measure, the various branches of Methodism are doubtless the most numerous; and it is probable that by the same tests the Baptists outnumber the Catholics. If the Presbyterian bodies could be counted together, and the Lutherans and Congregationalists included, we should have a third great body of Protestants which may possibly outnumber the Catholics. Two other communions, the Protestant Episcopal and the Unitarian, would be in the first rank of religious influence if we attempted to measure and compare by this test. Taking account of members only, the most difficult problem of religious statistics is to determine whether any religious organization is relatively increasing. The unattached population, and the independent Protestant organizations, have been growing in numbers for a score of years; and the Protestant communions can not count by population without including the same persons in more than one church. It is not surprising that the Catholics most easily make an imposing array in the statistical tables. The precise count is not important in this place. The Catholics and Methodists are large bodies of American Christians, and they have some common features as well as some striking contrasts.

Both communions owe their success (if we take worldly measurement) to their vigorous management and subordination of their clergy for the good of the common cause. A Methodist itinerant and a Catholic priest resemble each other very little, but they are alike in being men who are “sent,” and who “obey orders.” Their personal choices and well-being are subordinated to a service and devotion. They alike resign at the doors of the temple their rights to serve and please themselves. It may be said that all Christians should do this; but this self-surrender is to the priest and the itinerants _objective_ as well as _subjective_. It means that they go where they are sent by a human authority which they identify with the divine will. They are sacrificed to the general good; they suffer that others may rejoice—always under an external and visible authority. Another point of resemblance is the _practical_ liberty of laymen in both churches. Theoretically the Catholic and the Methodist laymen are both bound to considerable service and duties. Methodism began in a rigor of religious duties which makes one wonder how John Wesley missed founding a new Catholic order of world-renouncing priests and lay brothers. Catholicism is theoretically even more rigorous. In the progress of this century, both laities have achieved more liberty than is good for them; the priest and the itinerant serve and sacrifice for all. A bright-eyed Methodist editor called attention some years ago to the fact that his church tolerates no heresy in ministers and pays little attention to the doctrinal vagaries of its laymen. It is doubtless true of both Catholics and Methodists; though neither church is prepared to make any admission of the sort or ever will be. The theory in each case calls for sound believing; and it is probably a just judgment which says that liberty is the atmosphere required for the growth of sound faith.

Another point of resemblance between Catholic and Methodist is that both communions have had a great mission to preach to the poor; and that they have preached to such effect that large numbers of their poor have become rich, not so obviously in faith as in worldly goods. We mean not to sneer, but to put our finger on the _objective_ reality which lies before us. He is a careless man who fails to see that Methodism and Catholicism have produced industry, thrift, temperance and wealth in classes of people who were miserably poor at the outset. The fact has long been understood of Methodists; a special fact has obscured this large one among Catholics. There has been a steady inflow of poverty from the Old World and the Catholics have received into their communion a very large portion of this poverty. Their needy have been most abundantly recruited and continue to be. But at the same time their poor have grown wealthy all over the land. The Puritan farmer is disappearing in New England and the Irish Catholic is taking his place. Wealthy Catholics abound in all the large cities.

There are many points of contrast between the two communions. We suggest a single one, still looking at externals and not at creeds. While Methodism has for a quarter of a century been one of the most influential factors in politics—not at all as a machine, but altogether as an influence—Catholicism has during the same period almost lapsed out of sight as a political element. This resulted from the foreign character and training of the majority of the priests and people, and from wise avoidance of occasions of odium by the Catholic prelates. We suggest this contrast without drawing any inferences from it. For the near future, it is safe to predict a change on the Catholic side. Their Baltimore council will, by force of associations which are full of significance, tend to produce change. In Baltimore the Catholic may properly remember his claims to be and live an American of the Americans. That church has had a vast body of foreigners to naturalize; it has done the work under an array of obstacles which seemed too formidable to be overcome. It is a near day when the Americanism of the Catholics of this country will come to the proof of its quality and value. At Baltimore the thoughtful priest must have been moved to remember what claims he has on the country and what claims the country has on him. We shall as a people suffer some bitter trials and humiliations if the Catholics are not to be genuine Americans and ardent patriots. They are too many to be neutral or hostile.

A POOR MAN’S MOTOR.

The labor problem has not yet received a solution. Its central difficulty is to secure to workmen a fair share of the blessings of life. No one supposes that, taking the world together, they do now receive a fair share. In this country, workmen have fared uncommonly well; but there is a belief, resting on some facts, that the actual rewards of labor, as measured in the blessings of life, are rapidly declining, and must go on declining under the existing industrial system. Some theories on the subject are no longer tenable. The workman’s theory that capital robs him is not sound. Money, once worth ten per cent., has fallen to three per cent. for perfectly safe loans; when higher interest is paid, it is paid for conducting the business of lending (as in banks) or for risks of the loans. The government can borrow a thousand and more millions at two and one-half to three per cent.—and this shows what a hard time of it capital is having. The risks of manufacturing probably bleed labor; but the bleeding is not in the form of which the workman thinks. It is not profit but loss which drives the lancet in to the hilt. Political economists have shown (and they are entirely unanimous) that the high profits produce a competition which brings down profits. Capital is cheap; large profits can be made only in conditions which are monopolistic.

Our system of industrial exchange has one very weak place, called _credit_. This credit is a hole in the net through which industrial gains are dropped into the bottomless sea; and the system is so fixed upon us that there is no hope of reform in our day. To pay when we buy more and more offends something in our make-up. A wise man proposed that one, two and five dollar bills be abolished, in order that we might circulate, as the French do, a large amount of silver. A member of Congress immediately amended the suggestion thus: “No. Put this silver in the United States Treasury, and let us use ‘silver notes.’” We insist upon having even a credit money, and object to “the trouble” of handling coin. This refined and transcendental sentiment, or taste, or æstheticism about coin runs through us. The man who always pays, as well as the sneak who never pays if he can avoid it, says, “Charge it,” when he buys goods. Goods are sold by the manufacturer to the jobber on credit; the jobber sells to the wholesale houses on credit; the wholesale dealers sell to retailers on credit; the retailers sell to consumers on credit. It is within the mark to say, that more is lost in these four credit traps than capital gets—much more. It is not, in fact, the capitalist, but the well-dressed and the shabbily-dressed thieves who cheat and rob labor.

At first sight, the reader will wonder how the losses of the four credits come home to labor. We reply: they are merely the aggregate of the risks incurred in making staple goods—all other risks being insignificant in such manufacturing. The order of things is like this: what the jobber loses the manufacturer loses by the failure of the jobber. The jobber loses what the dealers between him and the consumers lose. Not quite all, perhaps, for the capitals of the dealers must be of some worth; but the consumer has, in the end, to pay all these losses, and the result is an enhanced price. In other words, a bale of goods starts out with a burden of risk which grows as it travels, and adds to the cost of goods so much that the consumer can not buy as much as he needs. The from 250 to 300 or more failures each week tell a part of the workman’s trouble; another vast body of his losses does not go to record at all. It is the fifty-cents-on-a-dollar compromise system between wholesalers and retailers.

Workmen ought to get what consumers pay, less three per cent. on capital and about as much more for risk of ordinary kinds and a fair cost of handling goods. We maintain a system of extraordinary risks, called a credit system, which consumes two or three times as much as capital. It is plain that workmen can not get (we write of such staples as cotton cloth) pay for lost goods. Wherever they are lost, the sums lost can not reach labor. We do not enter into the details of this argument; we have suggested reasons for believing that a cash system would stop one of the great leaks of the industrial system.

There are other great wastes in the existing forms of industrial management which, like the credit system, come out of the bones and blood of the workman. We pass them by to suggest that the industrial system has gone wrong, and can never go right, under the empire of steam. Steam is a centralizer. It concentrates industry, and by packing laborers into a small compass _enhances the cost of living_ and enlarges the area of losses on sales and of distress in hard times. And to go at once to our solution of the labor problem, we will describe it as decentralization. A writer in _MacMillan’s Magazine_ suggests that electric motors may prove to be the decentralizing force. Of course, it is not in the power of any material agent to effect great changes except as it coöperates with our inclinations. The expensiveness of steam machinery coöperated with our inclination to congregate in cities. We have congregated there. The larger half of our growth is in towns. The result is dear food, dear rent, pestilential diseases, moral degradation. When we grow sick of the experiment of building a modern Babel, our inclinations may coöperate with a motor energy which is plebeian and democratic. Let us suppose, then, that a workman can make any of the innumerable small articles which have iron or steel for a material. This workman has his bits of machinery and tools in his house. They do not cost more than a carpenter’s chest of tools. He has the skill; he has the tools; he wants power. But a neighbor tells him that he can buy in quart or gallon cans stored-up electricity, and by a little contrivance, which may cost fifty cents, he can attach his machinery to this democratic motor and be an independent workman, with all the advantages of machinery. He can make all these iron and steel contrivances in the middle of a prairie and sell them to his neighbors for cheap food and cheap rent. The _divisibility_ of electric power may make it the poor man’s friend. You can not buy five cents’ worth of steam; there is now no reason to doubt that electric power may be sold in five-cent packages if there is a demand for it in such form. There is a vast aggregate of small manufacturing. Of course there are great industries to which our solution would not apply; but if half the laborers of the country could work profitably, each man by himself, in his own house—just as cobblers work—then the strain on the large industries, such as iron and steel making, would be so far reduced that workmen in those branches would probably command, permanently, excellent wages.

This article aims to do nothing more than to open a window of hope. We shall need to change a great deal; but the poor man’s motor will probably help us to change. A good many monopolies have grown up because steam favored their growth; others are the fruits of general ignorance. Under the sway of ignorance, the trade-mark becomes a tyrant, a grasping monopolist. For example, there are no patents on sewing machines, but machines of certain firms, wearing a certain trade-mark, command a monopoly price. Any good mechanic can build a good sewing machine for ten dollars. There might be men in every town engaged in supplying the local wants in the matter of sewing machines. No large factories, no heavy transportation bills, no eloquent traveling agents would be needed. There are thousands of things to which the same rule will apply when there is a poor man’s motor and such a diffusion of intelligence that the poor man can make, and people will buy, the home-made articles. The empire of the trade-mark will disappear when the motor and the intelligence come along, and both seem to be coming. It will not be necessary—if the motor arrives—to herd people together like cattle, or to transport goods long distances. The workmen will carry their kits of tools to the villages and live independently and cheaply in the midst of their customers. Is this a dream? But why should it not come true?

REFORMED CRIMINALS.

The French government is considering a proposition to restore the custom of deporting criminals. It is remarkable that the practical argument on this subject is decidedly favorable to this system. The argument against it is a sentimental one. The unsettled question about punishments for other than capital offenses is, how to secure the reform of criminals. Under the best managed prisons, reform of a lasting kind is rare. The best management seems to succeed until the prisoner is set at liberty. Then the reformed man finds himself an object of suspicion to orderly people and of special interest and sympathy to the criminal classes. The former will not employ him and the latter will. The result is, in most cases, that he relapses into crime. Perhaps there is some hope that the better classes may improve in their habits; but unless they do, it is well nigh useless to reform criminals in prison. The poor men who come out into an unsympathetic world which does not believe in their reformation, and in which unreformed ex-convicts are numerous enough to keep the general distrust of their class alive, have nothing like a fair chance to begin the world over again. If there were any hope that prisons could be perfected so as to reform all convicts, public prejudice could be broken down; but it is too much to expect that the general public will acquire a habit of distinguishing between good and bad ex-convicts. This is the difficulty for which no device has yet been found which will take it out of the path of humanitarian prison discipline. No faith is more stable than that which, among the public at large, affirms the total depravity of _some_ men; especially of ex-convicts.

Turning to penal colonies, experience is most favorable to the belief that it opens the road to reform. The reports on the British penal colonies are especially cheerful from this point of view. The majority of the criminals sent abroad during three centuries reformed their lives. Australia ought to be the most disorderly country on the globe, if deporting criminals to a colony could produce a bad society. But notwithstanding the fact that England sent a large criminal population to that colony, Australia is one of the most orderly and respectable of the English dependencies. The only possible explanation is that the official reports are true, and that the convicts did actually reform. If Botany Bay did not reform them, the honest opportunities of that vast island did coöperate with their good purpose and promote their reform. England deported criminals from 1597 to 1867—a period of 270 years. During the War of Independence she suspended deportation and enrolled her convicts in the armies sent to subjugate us. In 1838 more than 100,000 criminals had been sent to Australia. An official report sets forth that in 1850 an enumeration of ex-convicts in Australia accounted for 48,600, and that all of them except an insignificant fraction were living honestly. But it will be said that Australia protested against the continuance of the system. This is not the exact fact. In dealing with the question, the English government threw upon the Australians all the expense of the surveillance of the deported criminals. The colonial government demanded, most righteously that England should pay this bill of expense; but rather than pay it the English Parliament chose to abolish the system of deportation. The colonists did make sentimental objections to receiving convicts, but they did so on the ground that the cost of watching the criminals of England was unjustly thrown upon them. A French writer remarks that in this case, as in the quarrel with us, the money question was allowed to prevail over statesmanship. The British ex-convict is worse off than our own because there are fewer opportunities for men under the reproach of prison service.

The French proposition to resort again to penal colonies, or rather to dumping ship-loads of criminals on new and undeveloped countries, suggests the seriousness of the question. Every French colony will object to receiving the vicious cargoes of humanity; but the objections will lose their violence if the home government shall send a proper proportion of French gold with each cargo. The testimony on the subject seems to show that if the transported men are such as to give signs of real reform, ninety-five per cent. of them will make good citizens. The open country, the new moral scenery, the necessities of that new world, conspire with good resolutions to maintain reformed habits. What shall _we_ do with our reformed prisoners? It is not improbable that in a few years England will imitate France and restore the system of deportation. Why should not we make an experiment? Alaska, at least, might safely be used for the purpose. It would not be difficult to devise a system under which the best class of reformed men should be offered land and a small outfit in some remote corner of our country. By selecting the best, and making their removal voluntary, we might save to society the larger part of the men whom our prisons reform. We do not wish to disguise the fact that, however remote the place, the men who have lived by crime and escaped punishment would endanger the virtue of the ex-convict. But the criminal classes do not flow to the farthest frontiers except in scanty streams; and the Alaskan territory is as yet as safe as a wilderness can be. Some scheme of the sort is worth the devising. We are making little headway under our present best systems, simply because the ex-convict has no chance. Can he be given a fair chance?

EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.

The Civil Service Reform League—and every reform is dependent upon an organization—has addressed a letter to President-elect Cleveland, asking him what he proposes to do about removals from office. Mr. Cleveland answers, with full information, that he believes in the doctrine of civil service reform. We think that the practical application of the letter to the civil service will make a real and safe basis for judgment. Till we see this, we deem it wise not to express an opinion.

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The old “Liberty bell,” which was on exhibition during the Centennial at Philadelphia, has been taken to the New Orleans Exposition in charge of a committee. The council of Philadelphia passed a resolution authorizing its removal from Independence Hall for that purpose.

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Our national Congress is the subject of a shameful scandal, and the worst feature of it is, our Senators and Representatives know it, but fail to correct it themselves. It is this: By figures prepared by the Public Printer, it appears that during the last four congresses nearly six hundred speeches have been published in the “Congressional Record” as a part of the debates and proceedings of Congress, but not one of them was ever delivered in the House of Representatives. Here is a number of printed but undelivered speeches of Senators. This is an unnecessary expense entailed on the government. It is a falsehood and makes the “Record” a lie, for you can not tell by reading it what has been said or done in Congress. Senator Vest has introduced a resolution into the Senate to abolish the practice, but it is still an open question whether a body of men who do such things will have the moral courage to vote their undelivered speeches out of the “Record.”

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Our readers will find the article by General John A. Logan, elsewhere in this impression, full of interesting and very remarkable statements concerning rudimentary education in the different states. We think his points concerning the common schools in the Southern states will be a surprise to many people. Another article on the subject from the General’s pen will appear in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for March.

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A number of _Bradstreet’s_, issued in the latter part of December, shows that at that time the whole number of men out of employment in the United States, because the establishments had shut down, and by reason of strikes, etc., was 316,000, or thirteen per cent. of the whole number employed in 1880, which was 2,452,749.

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Concerning General B. F. Butler, it is announced that he has signed an agreement with a publishing house to write his political reminiscences, in two volumes, for which he is to receive $50,000 in cash and a royalty beside. The advent of Messrs. Blaine and Butler into the literary world is suggestive. It is altogether probable that both of these men regard literary fame, when compared to political favor, as a more substantial and enduring quantity, and believe that their names will live longer in literature than in politics. Of course, there may be other motives prompting them, but to some men _fame_ hath its peculiar charms.

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It was a surprise and sorrow to Christian people to learn that the management at New Orleans had decided to keep the Exposition open on the Sabbath. The very liberal—perhaps we ought to say lax—ideas about the observance of the Sabbath which prevail throughout the country deserve serious thought. Certainly to extend opportunities for making sight seeing and pleasure seeking part of the day’s work should be emphatically discouraged.

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One of Chautauqua’s staunchest friends and most devoted workers, the Rev. S. McGerald, has entered a new field of work. In a recent issue of the Buffalo _Christian Advocate_ we find his name announced as the future editor of that paper. Mr. McGerald’s new and important position is sure to be well filled. He has the hearty good wishes of all Chautauquans in his new enterprise.

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The Indians of Arizona made an exhibit at the recent fair of that territory, which ought to open the public mind to the degree of civilization which some Indians have attained, and suggest, as well, the possibility of such civilization for all Indians. The first premium for the best modern plow displayed was awarded them, and to show their taste for the antique as well as the modern, it may be mentioned that a wooden plow was displayed which was an exact counterpart of those used 2,000 years ago in the valley of the Nile.

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There is no doubt of it—the cause of much human failure and misery is insomnia. Mr. Gladstone has found the only panacea in Christendom which prevents and cures this dread disease, and he gave the secret to the world recently, when he said: “I never allow business of any kind to enter my chamber door. In all my political life I have never been kept awake five minutes by any debate in Parliament.”

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Now that Mark Twain is attempting to become his own publisher, it may be of interest to read the record of his occupations. He has been in turn, practical printer, steamboat pilot, private secretary, miner, reporter, lecturer and book-maker. Should he succeed in his publishing scheme, he may start a fashion among successful writers which will be hard on publishing houses.

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A winter resort where the thermometer falls frequently to 40° below zero, is fully launched at Saranac Lake, in the Adirondacks. The hotels are reported full, and prices of lots have gone up with the usual nimbleness which characterizes embryo resorts. If peculiar, this new fashion may serve as a blessing to the idle and half sick people who are apt to patronize fashionable resorts by bringing into use many vigorous and healthful winter sports.

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The wonderful Fish River caves, discovered last year in New South Wales, have been given a new name by the government of that country, and will henceforth be known as the Jenolan caves. Astonishing discoveries are reported to have been made there recently. Our own Kentucky wonder begins to dwindle before the reports of these new subterranean palaces and gardens.

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A reading people we know ourselves to be, but it is rather astonishing to discover that we publish twelve times as many daily papers as the United Kingdom. _The Athenæum_ calls attention to the fact that while the United States has one daily paper to every 10,000 inhabitants, the English have one to every 120,000. It would be gratifying if we could feel sure that the quality stood in the same ratio.

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The work of the Chautauqua University is attracting attention far and wide. In a recent issue of the _Irish Christian Advocate_, published in Belfast, we notice in answer to a correspondent’s query, as to “What is the Chautauqua University?” a long and enthusiastic article upon the plan. The adaptation of the “Chautauqua Idea” to all people and all countries is very wonderful.

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A lady is said to have recently offered $50,000 to the Boston school authorities, to be devoted to the filling of the teeth of children whose parents were too poor to employ dentists. Should she devote her money to the purchase of tooth brushes and toothpicks, and employ a police of teeth, who would compel their daily use by children from babyhood up, she would confer an inestimable benefit upon future generations.

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Frances Power Cobbe, well known to the readers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, concludes her powerful article on “A Faithless World,” in the December issue of _The Contemporary Review_, with these strong words: “We have been told that in the event of the fall of religion, ‘life would remain in most particulars and to most people much what it is at present;’ it appears to me, on the contrary, that there is actually _nothing_ in life which would be left unchanged after such a catastrophe.”

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A wise thing is being done in London. A series of popular lectures upon the subject of precautions—national, local and personal—to be taken against cholera, has been begun. Now that the menace of this dread disease hangs over our own country, it would be a sensible plan for cities and villages to provide a similar course of instruction. It could be easily arranged, too.

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We are happy to extend congratulations to a well known contributor to THE CHAUTAUQUAN, Mr. C. E. Bishop. Mr. Bishop was married in Buffalo, December 31st, to Miss Emma Mulkins, of that city. As the former editor of the Jamestown (N. Y.) _Journal_, of the Buffalo _Express_, and at present of _The Countryside_, of New York, as an editorial writer on _The Assembly Herald_, as the author of “Pictures in English History,” and of frequent entertaining articles in our columns, Mr. Bishop is widely and favorably known.

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The assignee’s sale of the stock of imported books and fine art publications of Mr. J. W. Bouton, of New York, is now advertised. It is a real shock to know that this rare collection must be sacrificed. For years his rooms have been a resort for book lovers, and a liberal education to the loiterers about his counters. Perhaps there is no collection in America, outside of the libraries, the sale of which would cause such general regret.

C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR FEBRUARY.

COLLEGE GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH.

Articles on Plato may be found in the following works: Plato’s “Republic,” De Quincey; “Plato,” Encyclopædia Britannica; Smith’s “Greek and Roman Biography,” at the beginning of the various editions of his works; Mahaffey’s “Classical Greek Literature;” Müller’s “Literature of Ancient Greece;” “Against the Atheists,” _Christian Examiner_, vol. xl, p. 108; “Life of Plato,” _Methodist Quarterly_, vol. xx, p. 368; “On the Immortality of the Soul,” _Christian Repository_, vol. xxii, p. 507; “Platonism,” _Baptist Quarterly_, vol. i, p. 22; “Ethical Philosophy,” _American Church Repository_, vol. xxii, p. 175.

P. 86.—“Cicero,” etc. The “De Republica” was a dialogue on what is the best form of the state; the “City of God” treats of the body of Christians in distinction from the City of the World, or those out of the church. St. Augustine wrote this book after the sack of Rome by Alaric to answer the assertion that the destruction of the country was a punishment for the desertion of the pagan deities; “Utopia” is the story of an imaginary land supposed to have been discovered by a companion of Amerigo Vespucci, where the laws were perfect; the “New Atlantis” was an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where Bacon represents himself to have been shipwrecked, and where he found societies for cultivating art and the sciences.

P. 96.—“Dæmon.” “This demon or genius of Socrates, which was not personified by himself, was regarded by Plutarch as an intermediate being between gods and men, by the fathers of the church as an evil spirit, by Le Clerc as one of the fallen angels, by Ficino and Dacier as a good angel, and by later writers as a personification of conscience or practical instinct, or individual tact.”

P. 98.—“Origen.” (185?-254?) This eminent writer of the early church fathers made an effort to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, and in his commentaries on the Scriptures used the allegorical method almost entirely. “The literal sense is always secondary; and the critic never fails where it is possible to find in the simplest fact or the plainest exhortation some hidden meaning.”

P. 99.—“Lemma.” When in demonstrating a proposition a second proposition is introduced and assumed as true, or demonstrated for immediate use, it is called a _lemma_.

P. 100.—“Oneida Community.” A society founded at Oneida, New York State, by one John Humphrey Noyes, a perfectionist. He introduced into this community his peculiar views, persuading them to practice a community of women and of goods, to allow women equal business and social privileges with the men, and to live in a “unitary home.”

P. 104.—“Silenus.” An attendant of Bacchus. He is represented as a very ugly old man, fat, with a bald head and pug nose, and always intoxicated. Generally he rode an ass or was carried by the satyrs. Silenus was also represented as an inspired prophet. When drunk and asleep he was in the power of mortals who could compel him to sing and prophesy by surrounding him with chains of flowers.

P. 105.—“Marsyas.” See C. L. S. C. Notes, page 57 of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for October.

“Corybantian reveler.” So called from the Corybantes, the priests of Cybele in Phrygia. They celebrated her worship in the wildest, most frenzied dances. The drum and cymbal accompanied this dance.

P. 107.—“Brasidas.” The most famous of the Spartan leaders in the Peloponnesian War. After taking many Athenian cities in Macedonia he was killed at Amphipolis, where he defeated Cleon. He was honored by the inhabitants as a hero.

“Nestor.” An aged Greek hero of the Trojan war, whose wisdom and advice were considered equal to the gods. “Antenor” held a position among the Trojans similar to that of Nestor among the Greeks. His advice, however, was not followed by his countrymen, and he offered to deliver the city to the Greeks. Upon the capture of Troy he was spared by the victors.

P. 108.—“Boreas.” The North Wind was fabled to live in Thrace. The allusion here is to the story that he carried away Orithyia, the daughter of the king of Attica, for his wife.

“Agra;” the demus south of Attica was called Agra. It contained two temples; one to Diana, the other to Ceres.

“Typhon.” A monster born of Tartarus and Gæa, who attempted to revenge the overthrow of the Titans. His head reached to heaven, his eyes poured forth flame, and serpents were twined about his body. Jupiter killed him with lightning.

P. 109.—“Agnus Castus,” or the “chaste tree,” the name given to a plant native to the Mediterranean countries, which became associated with the idea of chastity, it is said, from the similarity of the name _agnus_ to the Greek word _chaste_. Grecian matrons strewed their couches with its leaves during the feast of Ceres, and in the convents of Southern Europe a syrup made of its fruit was used by the nuns.

“Achelous.” A river god—a son of Oceanus—from the earliest times worshiped generally throughout Greece. At one time he took the form of a bull in a fight with Hercules, who conquered him and took one of his horns. This horn the Naiads afterward changed into the horn of plenty.

P. 118.—“Sunium.” The promontory forming the southern extremity of Attica; a town of the same name stood upon it.

P. 121.—“Swan’s Utterance.” Referring to the fable told of the swan, that it sings its sweetest song at death—“the sweetest song is the last he sings.” Thus in “Othello,” “I will play the swan and die in music.”

P. 127.—The chapter on Æschylus may be supplemented by the following readings: “Theory of Greek Tragedy,” De Quincey; Müller, Mure, and Mahaffy on Æschylus, in their histories of Greek Literature; Talfourd’s “Tragic Poets of Greece,” from “History of Greek Literature;” Symond’s “Studies of the Greek Poets,” _Christian Examiner_, Vol. xliii, p. 140; _Contemporary Magazine_, Vol. iii, p. 351; _Biblia Sacra_, Vol. xvi, p. 354; _North American Review_, Vol. lxvii, p. 407.

P. 129.—“Cyprid.” A poem, author unknown, called Cyprid or _Cypria_, “either because the author came from Cyprus, or because it celebrated the Cyprian goddess, Aphrodite, and detailed from the commencement her action in the Trojan war.… The poem was an introduction to the ‘Iliad,’ telling a vast number of myths and leading the reader from the first cause of the war up to the tenth year of its duration. It is easy to see that such a vast subject, loosely connected, must have failed to afford the artistic unity which underlies the course of the ‘Iliad.’”

“Little Iliad.” A poem by Lesches, a Lesbian. It relates the complete story of the sack of Troy, from the contest of Achilles to the fall of Troy. The “Competition for the Arms,” we have had in the “Iliad.” “Philoctetes” was the chief archer of the Greeks, having been instructed by Hercules in the use of the bow. On the voyage to Troy he was bitten by a snake and left on the island of Lemnos. In the tenth year of the war the oracle declared the city could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules. Philoctetes was brought, and having slain Paris, the city was taken. “Neoptolemus,” a son of Achilles, was one of the warriors that the oracle declared necessary for the capture of Troy. He was one of the heroes concealed in the wooden horse. “Eurypylus” who came from Ormenion to Troy, played a prominent part in battle, slaying many Trojans; he was wounded by Paris. “Ulysses Mendicant,” the story of the wanderings of Ulysses. “Lacæna,” the Lacedæmonian woman, referring to Helen. “Illii-persis,” treats of the plundering of Troy after the capture, and “Apoplus,” of the sailing away of the ships. “Sinon.” After the wooden horse was finished, Sinon mutilated his body and allowed himself to be captured by the Trojans. He told them that he had been maltreated by his countrymen, and that if they (the Trojans) would drag the horse into the city they would conquer the Greeks. After the Trojans had followed his advice he let the Greeks out of the horse. “Troades,” the Trojans.

P. 134.—“Trilogy.” A set of three dramas. Each one is in itself complete, but the three are related, one event following or growing out of another, as in Shakspere’s Henry VI.

P. 137.—“New made kings.” This allusion will be explained by reading the story of Cronos and Zeus on page 77 of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for November.

P. 144.—“Sweet Muse-Mother.” See page 73 of “Brief History of Greece.”

P. 145.—“Mantic.” Prophetic; derived from the Greek word for prophetic.