Chapter C: L. S. C. Memorial Days (3)

That any changes have been made under such respectable and imposing auspices is a great gain to Christian knowledge. The thing is done; the grand old text has been subjected to a revision. It is quite possible that we are entering an age of biblical revision; and it should be remembered that the Bible of 1611 closed an age of revision. It was the last in a series of revisions, each of which contributed to the perfection of the English text. We can not be content with an English Bible which employs _which_ for _who_, _wist_ for _knew_, _earing_ for _plowing_ and _ouches_ for _settings_. The American Committee was thoroughly right in desiring to use modern words in these and other cases. If any revision is to stand, it must contain such modifications of the old text. A satisfactory English text can not be attained so long as the English Christians insist upon retaining archaic forms of such insignificance as the foregoing; there must be an agreement to make an English text on Wycliffe’s principle of popular intelligibleness, before a revision can be of very high utility. The present revision breaks the ice; we have begun; some time or other we shall go on to the logical conclusion of the movement—a modern English Bible for all who use our mighty speech. The assent of the conservative to a single change concedes the principle of revision; his assent to many changes prepares the way for all that are necessary to the modernizing of the Book of Books.

SUMMER HEALTH AND PLEASURE.

The summer is looked forward to with eager desire and it is dismissed without regret by the residents of the temperate zone. The explanation lies partly, if not mainly, in our defective adaptation of ourselves to the hot season. Charles Lamb once wrote, “The summer has set in with its usual severity.” The wit covers a truth; we adjust ourselves so imperfectly to the heated term that we suffer from the high temperature. The art of living must include devices and cautions through which we get the good and shun the evil of each season. Men are slowly learning that to “enjoy life” on this planet one must pay the same price as for liberty—“eternal vigilance.” The summer of the North ought to be our golden time of health and enjoyment. We have the whole of the atmosphere to breathe from—not bits of it let into artificially heated spaces. There is shade for the noonday heats, and the evenings and mornings for exercise and refreshment of muscular energy. But the hot hours are often dangerous and the atmosphere may be poisoned by our own neglect of decaying vegetables or animal matter. We must aim to keep clean and keep all things about us clean; food should be lighter than in winter (less heat-producing); exercise should avoid the hours of fervent heat; the occupations should take a more leisurely pace; the scene of life should, if possible, be shifted for some week or weeks so as to diversify our mental interests and break the dreary monotony of long days spent in one environment of body and soul. The word which describes the art of summer life is _moderation_; but moderation is not indolence, though there is a natural tendency to drop into the laziness which characterizes barbarian humanity in hot lands. To be healthy and happy one should resist the disposition to be idle. Neither health nor happiness come to lazy people in any desirable measure. The best forms of both depend on activity; but in summer it must be moderate and regular. If, then, one has constant occupation, he should cultivate moderation of interest and exertion, shun the blazing noontide, and take his food as well as his exercise in reduced doses. Too much food, care, exercitation, these are our northern summer dangers. Our civilization is yet very imperfect in this region of art. We have attained to food, clothing, shelter. We do not quite understand how to use them all wisely; but beyond these lie the adjustment of exertion, rest, air, water, electrical and chemical instruments of vitality, and the inner forces of our own being. Happiness is the result of a complex mass of conditions and instruments of life acting upon the spirit and reacted against by the spirit. Our knowledge grows; but while it is growing we have to take for our text moderation, and elaborate the sermon each man for himself.

The great opportunities of the year come to us in summer. Nature is all alive to please and instruct us—to give us the delights of the eye and the inspiration of study. The world has been dressed with infinite art, to afford us a holiday which shall be full of instruction. We need travel to widen our vision of God’s modern Edens dressed by human art. We need an active intelligence, to see and understand the Eden world of summer. But all depends upon our care of our bodies. Health is the condition of all summer pleasures. Is it not strange that we will spend months and years learning how to use lifeless tools, and yet will not spend needed time to learn the management of this vital tool by use of which all happiness comes to us? Let us all try this time to keep the instrument of life in tune for the music of the summer; to make of the season of highest opportunity all there is in it for ourselves. Starting with that selfish purpose, we shall soon find that we need social food, and that here also, “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” Helping others to enjoyment is the healthiest of “health movements;” for no tonic is so spiritually exhilarating as the sight of other people’s happiness which we have made. The man who sends a child out of the city suffocation of summer time has a poor imagination if he can not enjoy the gambols of that child in the country meadows and groves as he never enjoyed a banquet in his own house. Doing as many generous actions as possible is one way to get both health and pleasure out of the summer.

SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL LIFE.

It is somewhat remarkable that at a time when science is indubitably failing to justify the exalted hopes of those who looked to it for a solution of the deepest questions of being, it is enlarging our sense of its value to practical every-day life. The mystery of the molecule is insoluble, but the usefulness of chemistry is rapidly increasing. Professor W. Mattieu Williams proposes to use maltose as a cooking agent to produce foods which are both more palatable and more easily digested. Those who attend the cooking school at Chautauqua this summer will probably learn how this work is to be done, and what results will follow. The theory sprang out of attempts to feed cattle on malted grain. It was found to be too expensive for cattle, and also hardly necessary, because cows have good digestive apparatus. Human beings have impaired digestion, and can afford more expensive food than the beasts have need of. The maltose cooking carries graniverous foods up into an advanced stage of nutritive condition, lessens the labor of weak stomachs, and tickles dull palates with new flavors. There is no near limit to the possible fruits of this thought. The chemist may render us incalculable services along this line. We have suffered something from the chemistry of men who adulterate our food; it is a comfort to know that the good uses of chemistry are coming forward to render us most valuable compensations.

It is a matter of course that in this field we shall often be disappointed; but so many solid gains are secured that we shall readily excuse some fanciful experiments. In lighting public streets and buildings, electricity has made it possible to turn night into day; chemical studies have perfected the grinding of flour; a hundred more of small and great practical advances in scientific living are secure. We shall go on. It is very noticeable that the conveniences of modern life have triumphed in unexpected ways over natural difficulties. The zone of comfort for human life has been widened toward the pole and toward the equator. The gains are more slowly harvested southward; any reader who feels the languor of this season will know why we do not march so triumphantly toward the equator as we do toward the north pole. Moral energy is in larger demand, as we go south, to resist the tendency to idleness. The north wind puts spurs into us and whips us into action. We shall therefore find the northward limit of vigorous life before we find the south boundary of it. And naturally our science, invention and discovery bear upon cold rather than heat. We have the means now of living in higher latitudes, in full moral and mental activity, than were good for body or brain a hundred years ago. We know how to build for warmth in zero weather, and we have cheap fuel and cheap light for the frosts and the dark of the North.

An enthusiastic writer says that natural gas is to be the fuel of the immediate future—the next fuel. We have as yet found it only here and there on the earth; but we are not done searching for it. Imagine, then, that we have found this gas all round the shores of Hudson’s Bay, and calculate the consequences. A new Mediterranean is opened in a region which has always been reckoned uninhabitable. Poets and philosophers flourish far up toward Doctor Warren’s original Eden! For what but a cheap and abundant fuel and light is needed to make possible a large and flourishing empire around Hudson’s Bay? Migration, which is said to move on parallel lines, has been trending northward for twenty-five years. The wheat fields of America are a hundred and fifty miles nearer the pole than they were fifty years ago. The Dakota and British Northwest which we were willing to leave to the Indians fifty years ago, are eagerly coveted for the plow of the wheat farmer. We are undeniably moving north; the limit of that movement will be fixed for us by devices, discoveries, sciences, which will enlarge our fields toward the eternal ice—on principles similar to those which have already extended our domain in that direction. For several generations the silk grown in Lombardy has been packed on the backs of horses or in carts and transported across the Alps to be spun and woven in Switzerland. Why should not our cotton travel by sea to the shores of Hudson’s Bay to be spun and woven? Give them power, heat and light in one natural agent, and the people of the American Mediterranean might excel in any industry. And in default of natural gas, who will now dare to say that the chemist may not solve the problem in a more intellectual way than by the use of the drill? We write here only of a _possible_ expansion of the human domain by the services of science.

A more practicable matter is that the age of steam, out of which, into something better, we are probably to pass at a day not distant, has been a very prodigal one. Waste is its great fault. It wastes three fourths of the coal it consumes; it therefore wastes infinite sums of human energy. It wastes everything, nature and man, the streams, the forests, the vitality and the hopes of men. Its motto is _concentration_. It herds human beings in towns; it makes transit laborious and long. The age of economies has begun, and new agents, such as electricity and gas, have for their mottoes _disperse_ and _distribute_. It is probably not extravagant to say that mankind are wasting every week enough of natural bounties to sustain them for a month, perhaps for a year. If science, then, shall only barely help us to the economic use of all natural bounties, it will have enriched human life (for the mass of mankind) at least four-fold. It will probably be well for us if this enrichment comes gradually and is preceded by a moral preparation for the use of abundance. We have never, as a race, been good enough to be safely rich. We have no poets from the equatorial regions. It may be many generations before we are good enough to grow philosophy and high bred cattle in the torrid zone. Perhaps we do not any where keep up in moral training with the march of science.

THE COURSE OF READING FOR 1885-86.

The student about to enter college has scarcely a pleasanter task than that of examining the course he is about to begin. The prospect of future achievements, how fascinating it is! That Livy which he has heard discussed by learned seniors and professors will soon be his property, too. The problems that are historical among his big brothers and cousins, and sisters as well, sometimes, he will soon grapple with. Whole fields of unknown literature and science and art open to him in his brief glance. He enjoys familiarizing himself with the names of the authors of the text-books, in marking among the elective studies his choice, in looking up the old text-books in the library, in preparing note-books for the next year, in picking up random bits of information. Getting ready for his college course often becomes quite as engrossing as the actual work. The C. L. S. C. student will experience this same interest in looking over what he is going to do another year. The course is now ready, and he will have the entire summer for contemplating his coming conquests. Enjoy the prospect to the full; it is certainly a goodly one. The bone and sinew of next year’s course is to be Roman History and Literature. The place Greece and its men filled in the course of 1884-85 will be taken by Rome. While the subject is equally interesting, the course of the coming year has one great advantage. Greece has no modern history of particular importance, its heroes died with Corinth’s destruction, its literature and art and philosophy faded with its loss of patriotism. Where Rome stood, now Italy stands. The history of the decadence of Roman rule and the growth of Italian freedom is one of the most thrilling chapters in the world’s history. A literature, an art, and a science belong to this new growth. In studying Rome’s life we have a modern chapter that keeps up our interest. The course happily provides for us papers on “Modern Italy” and “Italian Biography,” in addition to the works on the History of Rome, the “Preparatory Latin Course in English,” the “College Latin Course in English,” and “A Day in Ancient Rome.” A practical turn is given to the work by a study of the relations of Rome to modern history.

The more general work of the course is selected from the wide fields of philosophy, science, art and religion. Dr. Geo. M. Steele has prepared a work on “Political Economy,” which will furnish some of the liveliest reading for the year. This subject will be supplemented by two series of papers on “Parliamentary Practice” and “International Law,” to be published in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

Robert Browning in “Pomegranates from an English Garden” will be the representative of English poetry. It will be seen that, as in the case of Robert Browning’s poems, several studies are introduced to brighten the more solid work; for this purpose we have “In His Name,” by Edward Everett Hale, read in connection with a book by Dr. Townsend on “The Bible and the XIXth Century,” and a series of studies, to appear in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, on “God in History.”

One work which will be a real treat to everybody is “Studies in Human Nature,” by Dr. Lyman Abbott. The additional readings in THE CHAUTAUQUAN are: “Wars and Rumors of Wars To-day,” “The Age we Live In,” “Religion in Art,” “Art Outlines,” “Studies in Mathematics,” “Moral Philosophy,” studies on “How to Live,” by Edward Everett Hale, papers on the past, present and future of electricity, and “Home Studies in Physical Geography.” A better course has never been presented to the members of the C. L. S. C.

EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.

The July issue of THE CHAUTAUQUAN closes the fifth volume of the magazine. In October the sixth volume will begin. The outlook for THE CHAUTAUQUAN for 1885-86 is much brighter than ever before. We shall offer our friends a much improved magazine. The place of THE CHAUTAUQUAN will be taken in the summer by the _Assembly Herald_. The _Herald_ for 1885 will contain full reports of the work of the Assembly for the summer. A glance at the elaborate program printed in this impression will convince the reader of the value of a paper containing such a course of lectures as that of the Chautauqua platform. Besides the lectures many suggestive and useful reports will be printed, which members of the C. L. S. C. in particular will find helpful. Those who may wish to subscribe for both THE CHAUTAUQUAN and _Herald_ will find it profitable to take advantage of our COMBINATION OFFER, found in another column of this impression.

* * * * *

The war rumors of a month ago have subsided almost as quickly as they were aroused. The cries of “On to Khartoum” and “Smash the Mahdi” have died out. Instead of running the frontier below the Soudan, the English have been content to fix it at Wady Halfa. After all the excitement over Afghanistan, peace has been established between Russia and England. The Americans, most of them, have come home from Panama. Riel has been captured. The comparatively easy settlement of misunderstandings between nations is our best hope for the future. Each new victory of arbitration over “bad blood,” even if it be at the sacrifice of a little of our pride and possessions, is so much of a stride toward the millennium.

* * * * *

For the third time Mr. James Russell Lowell has been called upon to speak in Westminster Abbey. This time at the unveiling of the bust of the poet Coleridge. In summing up his remarks he said: “Whatever may have been his faults and weaknesses, he was the man of all his generation to whom we should most unhesitatingly allow the distinction of genius, that is, of one authentically possessed from time to time by some influence that made him better and greater than himself. If he lost himself too much in what Mr. Pater has admirably called ‘impassioned contemplation,’ he has at least left us such a legacy as only genius, and genius not always, can leave. It is for this that we pay him this homage of memory.”

* * * * *

A series of statistics most suggestive to those interested in the temperance question have of late been published. According to this table there was drunk in the United States twenty-five years ago over 86,000,000 gallons of spirituous liquor, while now, with a population almost doubled, the consumption is decreased by about 15 per cent. To balance this comes in the enormous consumption of light liquors, nearly six times as great as in 1860. But it must be remembered that a large proportion of the latter is consumed by the foreign element introduced since 1860.

* * * * *

The tragic fate of the town of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, is one more melancholy example of the result of breaking Nature’s laws. There is no doubt but that an epidemic of typhoid fever is a crime traceable to somebody’s neglect. In Plymouth the refuse from a house situated at the head of the stream which supplied the village with drinking water was allowed to poison the water. This outrageous state of affairs is to be seen in many other towns, and in parts of our cities. If after Plymouth’s suffering a repetition occurs in any part of the country, public sentiment ought to be strong enough to hunt down and punish the guilty authorities that will hold human life and God’s law so lightly.

* * * * *

There is one sure way of securing sanitary reform in every city or town with dilatory health board or indifferent council. Arouse the women. The Ladies’ Health Protection Society, of New York City, has done work in that community during the past six months, before which its large Board of Health seemed perfectly helpless. If cleanliness and purity are not to be secured by the civil authorities, there is no more suitable public work for women than to constitute themselves the guardians of the health of their home towns.

* * * * *

At the recent commencement of the Union Theological Seminary, of New York, the alumni association elected as president an Indian of pure Choctaw blood, now a pastor in the Indian Territory. His son was a member of the graduating class of this year. We are growing broader.

* * * * *

The position that Mr. Phelps will take at the Court of St. James has been agitating the English correspondent of one of our great dailies. He finds that being a minister merely, Mr. Phelps must come in among the ministers, after all the seven ambassadors; and that, alas! he will be literally at the foot of this class of twenty-three. Ministers take social rank according to the length of time they have held their positions, so Mr. Phelps and the stars and stripes trot along after Guatemala and Columbia and Siam and Hayti.

* * * * *

The teachers who tried Chautauqua last summer for their vacations, found the spot so suitable for their uses, so delightful for recreation, that they have spread abroad the rumor of her beauty, and in July of the coming summer two State Teachers’ Associations—that of Ohio and that of New York—will meet there.

* * * * *

There are very few people unfamiliar with law and its phrases, who have not been bewildered over the complicated expressions and seemingly useless repetitions found in almost all documents. This “iteration in law” has lately been made the subject of some interesting computations by David Dudley Field. By his counting every deed contains 860 superfluous words, and every mortgage 1,240. The people of New York State, he calculates, pay every year $100,000 for the recording of useless words. The next reform in law should be rhetorical.

* * * * *

Mr. John Ruskin, of Oxford, and Prof. J. Rendel Harris, of Johns Hopkins, have resigned their professorships in their respective universities because, it is stated, vivisection is practiced in the institutions. There is no reason in such hyper-sympathy. The abuse of vivisection is quite probable, but that does not lessen the force of the fact that vivisection has done much to alleviate human misery, and will in the future undoubtedly do more. The question is, if man or beast must suffer, which life is the more precious.

* * * * *

Houghton Farm, the headquarters of the Chautauqua Town and Country Club, has an interesting history. Several years ago 1,000 acres of land lying about nine miles from Newburgh, N. Y., were purchased by a Mr. Valentine as an experimental farm. About thirty buildings, adapted to every kind of farm work, were erected; the best of stock, the most skillful laborers were secured. The farm soon became a kind of educational institution. Farmers were invited to inspect its work, and to listen to lectures from the learned managers; children had days set apart for their enjoyment. Orange county has been educated by the Houghton Farm. Now its generous hearted proprietor has extended the work by opening its advantages to all those who will join the Chautauqua Town and Country Club.

* * * * *

The strange fascination lurking in dangerous feats which so powerfully affects some minds, was never more forcibly manifested than in the case of Robert E. Odlum, who jumped from the Brooklyn bridge not long ago. For some time the thought had been a passion with him, and although the police were watching to prevent the attempt, he escaped their vigilance and took the fatal leap. His body was three and one-fourth seconds in making the descent of 140 feet, thus corroborating almost exactly the law of falling bodies. He breathed only a few times after he was picked up, being inwardly literally “mangled to death.” His is only one more name added to the list of those who, by their folly, may teach others lessons of wisdom, and so, perhaps, have not died utterly in vain.

* * * * *

Although war-like preparations have ceased in the Soudan, and no more troops are to be transported thither to help “smash the Mahdi,” the railroad across the desert is progressing slowly but surely. The correspondent of the _Times_ telegraphs the following: “The construction of the railway is a curious and interesting sight. In advance is a picket of cavalry, while far off on either side the videttes scout in the bush. At the immediate head of the line is a battalion of infantry echeloned, and advancing as the rails are laid. Streams of coolies carry the sleepers from the trucks, and teams of four artillery horses drag up the rails, two at a time, to the navvies, who lay them in a twinkling, and drive the spikes. In the rear are gangs who complete the line, and further back the ballasting parties.”

* * * * *

Visitors to Niagara Falls this summer will enjoy their trip as never before. Everything that tends to mar the beauty of the natural scenery is to be removed, and after July 15th, access to all points of interest is to be free of charge. To bring about this happy consummation which during so many long years past has been devoutly wished by all right-thinking men, required a long and hard-fought battle against willful ignorance and greed of gain.

* * * * *

General Gordon’s “Life and Letters,” recently published, prove him to have one accomplishment of rare beauty and usefulness, but too often nowadays neglected. He was a good letter writer, and that under circumstances the most trying. Here is the picture his biographer draws of the surroundings under which many of his letters were written: “The temperature is over 100°; the ink dries on the pen before three words are written; books curl, as to their backs; mosquitoes are busy at the ankles under the table, and the hands and wrists above; prickly heat comes and goes. How one realizes, for instance, the whole scene in the over-wakeful traveller’s night: ‘I am writing in the open air by a candle-lamp, in a savage gorge; not a sound to be heard. The baboons are in bed in the rocks.’” The letters which the most of us write under the most favorable circumstances are limited to the narrowest space possible. What we would do in Gordon’s place it is difficult to say.

* * * * *

The most beautiful celebration of the month of June is Children’s day. With every season Protestant churches give more time and money to their preparations for it, and it bids fair to take rank in importance with Christmas and Easter. Certainly no day comes at a season when it is more easy to decorate, it being the very heyday of the flower season, and no cause is more worthy our efforts than the children’s.

* * * * *

An important discussion has been going on for a few weeks in the New York papers, concerning the advisability of closing the dry goods stores on Saturday afternoons. Clerks have no day for recreation or for improvement except Sabbath. The same is true of nearly all classes of laboring people. The result is that the Sabbath, instead of being a day of religious rest, is turned into one of pleasure, and often of extra work. A half holiday would enable busy workers to prepare for Sabbath. It is a reform in the arrangement of time that is worthy the attention of Christian people particularly.

* * * * *

There is a capital hint in the following story, told by a lady prominent in mission school work in one of our large cities: “We had some of our Chinese pupils at a church sociable a few nights ago, and we had at supper some candies which are rolled up in paper with printed couplets inclosed—some of them extremely silly. The Chinese boys read them and looked surprised, but were too polite to say anything. Soon afterward they gave an entertainment, and the same sort of candies were provided; but when we unrolled the papers we found they had taken out the foolish verses and had substituted texts of Scripture printed on little slips of paper.”

* * * * *

Here are a few of M. Bartholdi’s interesting figures about his great Statue of Liberty: “The forefinger is 96½ inches in length, and 56½ inches in circumference at the second joint. The nail measures 17¾ inches by 10½ inches. The head 13¾ feet in height. The eye is 25½ inches in width. The nose is 44 inches in length. About forty persons were accommodated in the head at the Universal Exposition of 1878. It is possible to ascend into the torch above the hand. It will easily hold twelve persons.” Compared with other colossi it far outstrips them all, being about three times the height of both the statue of Bavaria and of the Virgin of Puy, and about 58 feet higher than the Arminius in Westphalia.

* * * * *

The French Republic would not allow the remains of Victor Hugo to be placed in the Pantheon until that celebrated structure was again secularized. The priests were allowed just forty-eight hours to vacate the sacred precincts which, as a church, they had held uninterruptedly since 1877. This action plainly shows the position of the Republic toward the Church. “French skeptics,” says _The Nation_, “are not content, like English or German skeptics, with ceasing to go to church.… They insist on proclaiming in every possible way their hostility to the clergy.” The fact that the Pantheon is again restored to its primitive design as “a last resting place for distinguished public men” can but be pleasing to all.

TALK ABOUT BOOKS.

Among the books belonging to the “Famous Women Series,” the biography of Harriet Martineau[B] takes a leading place. The life of this remarkable woman is written by one whose clear insight into human character, and keen appreciation of that which tends to make it noble and strong, render her eminently qualified for such an undertaking. The style of the book is simple, unadorned, direct. No step has been neglected which could add to the author’s information, or, as she quaintly expresses it, could help her “get touch” with her subject. That Mrs. Miller is something of a hero worshiper is evident from the fact that, with but one or two slight exceptions, she justifies all the facts of the life she relates. The rigor of Harriet Martineau’s early home; the longings of the young girl for freedom from a needless restraint, and the desire to read and study, which led her to steal the time for it in the early morning and late at night, might convey a lesson to many a mother who now insists upon having her daughters follow the conventional methods of living. One can but rejoice in the advanced position women have attained as he reads of Harriet Martineau, the statesman, and sees that she is as thoroughly understood and appreciated in this aspect of her life by her biographer as in the more womanly elements and instincts of her nature, which were never in the least violated by her study of political interests. Excepting the skepticism which marked all the mature years of Harriet Martineau’s life, one finds in her a good type of strong, noble womanhood. Christian readers can but deprecate this fact, and also that it is justified by Mrs. Miller.

A volume of the prose writings of N. P. Willis[C] will be received by the reading public in much the same manner as the work of a new author, so little are they known. His reputation rests almost entirely upon his poems and a few Scriptural sketches, which it seems natural to think of as belonging to the early periods of American literature. It will probably strike most people with a feeling of surprise to recall that his death occurred so recently as 1867, and that he was therefore contemporary with Bryant and Longfellow. Just why this recent oblivion has fallen upon his writings is hard to tell, for the collection in this volume shows that they deserve a better fate. The character sketches are fairly drawn; and the bits of description indicate powers of a high order in this particular. The personality of the author is manifest in all the articles; the reader is conscious of constantly looking through the writer’s eyes. The wild, unchecked bent of his imagination is shown in such pieces as “The Lunatic’s Skate,” and “The Ghost-Ball at Congress Hall,” somewhat resembling the more intense works of Poe. Aptness in illustration, implying a delicate perception of resemblances, and a happy faculty of associating ideas is a marked characteristic. He fails to touch the deeper emotions of one’s nature, and there is a lack of both strength and plot in all he writes. Whether Mr. Beers succeeds in making Willis’s works live or not, he has by his selections and editing, and by his introductory memoir, given to the public a very interesting work.

Perhaps no one ever more perfectly caught the spirit of all things Egyptian than Professor Ebers. The _genius_ of the country which brings under its sway all that comes within its domain, affecting them to such a degree that one can but fancy even the sphynx would be less gloomily impressive in any other land, gained such an influence over him, and so makes itself felt in his books, that it is almost impossible to imagine him otherwise than as a man wrapped round with that somber, mysterious air which constantly hints of the power to reveal things more and more wonderful. From the beginning to the end of Serapis[D] one is conscious of being under some spell that fascinates and charms. The little party introduced at the beginning gives rise to a sense of the vast possibilities hidden away in each life—even that of little Dada, the merry-hearted, seemingly thoughtless, young girl—and the sequel reveals in each one these possibilities realized. The story is laid in the times of the Roman emperor, Theodosius I., and its interest centers in the destruction of the Serapeum, the Alexandrian temple containing the statue of Serapis, the great Egyptian divinity, which was also mutilated and torn down. A description of the races is given in such a way as to render readers virtually eye-witnesses of the scene, and it is with an effort that one keeps himself from rising with the crowd as the decisive moment nears, and shouting in the general frenzy of excitement. The author lacks the power of putting his readers into nearer relation with his characters than that of mere acquaintances, in whose welfare a general sympathetic interest is taken. One prizes the book for its impressive historical facts and beautiful descriptions.

“Troubled Waters”[E] is a novel with a purpose. The question of capital and labor is discussed, and the plan of coöperation is upheld as the key which is to unlock the difficulties thickening fast and threateningly around the business interests of to-day. The dangers lurking in the fact of poorly compensated labor, as it watches the fast increasing gains of capital amassed at its expense, are vividly set forth. In the strike of the Tradelawn mill hands, will be seen a faithful picture of what transpires in many a similar town. The style of the book is vigorous, independent, and clear. The number of persons introduced, and the characterization of some of them, particularly Mr. Thomas Street, reminds one of Dickens. In the web of adverse circumstances enmeshing and ever tightening about the really noble Robert Croft, until he is driven to the very verge of desperation and crime, the greatest power of the author is shown. Of course all ends well, and as one leaves all the hands in the new mills, in which every worker is a stockholder, contented and happy, there remains with him a conviction that coöperation is the right principle.

One of the most attractive of all the books of its kind is “The Chautauqua Birthday Book”[F] just issued. Daintily bound, and containing illustrations of the places so familiar and endeared to all Chautauquans, it can not fail to receive a warm welcome at their hands. The “Prefatory Note” is written by Chancellor J. H. Vincent. The selections made of the best things said by the best authors. As one turns the pages bearing the dates, the eye lights upon the names of many familiar friends, and the pleasing memories that instantly arise make one glad for the happy thought that originated so genial a souvenir.

No undertaking more deserves the thoughtful consideration and hearty support of every community than that of the introduction of a line of classics for children into the public schools. Mr. Ginn has already edited for the use of scholars of from nine to fourteen years of age, a number of very attractive books, among which are “Tales from Shakspere,” by Charles and Mary Lamb, and Scott’s “Tales of a Grandfather.”[G] The original works have been changed very little. A few verbal alterations were required, and the parts beyond the comprehension of a child were omitted. A young boy or girl after reading these editions will have practically the same knowledge that the older acquire from the unabridged works, and they certainly will be equally as much interested in them.

[B] Harriet Martineau. By Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1885. Price, $1.00.

[C] Prose Writings of Nathaniel Parker Willis. Selected by Henry A. Beers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

[D] Serapis. By George Ebers. New York: William S. Gottsberger, 11 Murray Street. 1885. Price, paper cover, 50 cents.

[E] Troubled Waters. A Problem of To-day. By Beverly Ellison Warner. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. 1885. Price, $1.25.

[F] The Chautauqua Birthday Book. Arranged by Annie M. Cummings. Buffalo, N. Y.: H. H. Otis. Price, $1.00.

[G] Tales from Shakspere. By Charles and Mary Lamb. Tales of a Grandfather, Vol. I. Being the History of Scotland. By Walter Scott. Abridged and edited by Edwin Ginn. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1885.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Valeria. By the Rev. W. H. Withrow. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.00.

The Sentence and Word Book. By James Johonnot. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885.

Vain Forebodings. By E. Oswald. Translated from the German by Mrs. A. L. Wister. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1885. Price, $1.25.

Pestalozzi’s Leonard and Gertrude. Translated and Abridged. By Eva Channing. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1885.

Dante. A Rare Collection of Texts, Commentaries, etc., of Dante’s Divina Commedia. Cincinnati: Anton Bicker.

The Meisterschaft System for the Italian Language. By Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal. Part I. Boston: Meisterschaft Publishing Company.

General Gordon: The Christian Hero. By the author of “Our Queen,” “New World Heroes,” etc. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

Pulpit and Easel. By Mary B. Sleight. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

Hearing and How to Keep It. By Charles H. Burnett, M.D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1885.

Dogma No Antidote for Doubt. By a member of the New York Bar. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1885.

Catechism on Alcohol. (In German.) By Julia Colman. New York: National Temperance Society. 1885.

Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education. No. I.—1885. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Planting Trees in School Grounds and the Celebration of Arbor Day. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1885.

The Russian Revolt. By Edmund Noble. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885. Price, $1.00.

From the Golden Gate to the Golden Horn. By Henry Frederick Reddall. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.25.

CHAUTAUQUA IN JAPAN.

BY WM. D. BRIDGE.

Japan moves to the front, for _Chautauqua_ has taken firm root in Japan. The Chautauqua Idea is an ecumenical idea, and it is the province of this article to show the workings of this idea in Japan during the past six months.

Late in the summer of 1884 Mrs. A. M. Drennan (C. L. S. C. class of ’82), a resident missionary in Japan, at Osaka, entered into correspondence with Chancellor Vincent as to the possibility of translating valuable English materials in the line of the “C. L. S. C.” into the Japanese vernacular. Among the material tracts, papers, etc., sent, was one which she put into the hands of an educated native, well versed also in English, who said on reading it: “If that book can be put into the hands of the young men, Tom Paine and other infidels must leave Japan.”

Chancellor Vincent, on reviewing the necessities of the field, and marking the wondrous developments of that newborn nation, arranged with Mrs. Drennan for the translation of the “Required Reading” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN into Japanese, guaranteeing a prescribed sum per month for expenses of translating for one year.

March 30, 1885, Mrs. Drennan writes: “I wish I could convey to you something of an idea of the enthusiasm in reference to our Chautauqua Society here. In much less than a week after the first advertisement in the papers, our secretary had received nearly three hundred letters of inquiry, and, on application, had given out every one of the first five hundred copies of the ‘Hand-Book.’ A second edition of five hundred was made, and now, in less than a week, only two hundred copies remain.”

The “Hand-Book” referred to is the first number of a magazine, in book form, containing articles from THE CHAUTAUQUAN, viz.: “Mosaics of History,” “Africa,” “Alexander the Great,” “One Hundred Questions,” “World of Science,” and “The Results of the Discovery of America.”

Mr. C. S. Hongma, of Osaka, a native Japanese, President of the “Japanese Literary and Scientific Circle,” writes to Chancellor Vincent, in good English, a letter full of hope, and expressing his delight in aiding to organize the circle, and asking help and prayers for its success.

The laws of Japan require six months’ notice to be given of intention to publish a magazine, and but one month’s notice for publishing a book. The quotations from THE CHAUTAUQUAN are therefore given the book form.

Mrs. Drennan says the natives will pay the expense of advertising the movement in Japanese papers, and will, ere long, pay the cost of translation.

April 13, 1885, Mrs. Drennan writes: “It would take a long letter to tell you the good things about our J. L. S. C. We have just received to-day from the press our third edition of the ‘Hand-Book;’ this makes twenty-five hundred printed. Our secretary is preparing to-night a list of the paid-up members. There have been over three hundred applicants for membership, but only one hundred and fifty have as yet paid all dues. You know there is the house rent (for place of meeting of the local circles), and the fixing up, lights, etc., to give us a comfortable place of meeting. These, with most of the advertising and other expenses, have been met by the members; and with your kind aid for a little while we will have an influence that will spread over this entire land, doing great things for this people. Our secretary has answered over _seven hundred letters of inquiry_. Applications have come from several cities for the privilege of organizing branch societies.

“The first article in our ‘Hand-Book’ is an editorial by the editor of the largest paper in this part of Japan. He is a very fine writer and highly educated. He is perfectly enthusiastic over the work. It is an argument for this plan, giving his views as to the good it will accomplish in Japan. The second article explains the object and aim of the Society.

“My heart has been thrilled with delight on receiving letters and applications for membership from some soldiers in a distant city. It has been a punishable offense for any teacher of Christianity, or Bible reader, to go into the army or among the soldiers. I thought, if this course of reading spread among them, who can compute its influence, who can tell the result of this silent teacher for Christ!”

The new members are not satisfied with Japanese cards of membership, but are anxious for enrollment at the Central Office of the C. L. S. C., Plainfield, N. J., and for cards of membership from America.

Mrs. Drennan, under date of April 14th, says: “One hundred and seventy-five names of members have just been given me, fifty new names being added last evening. [She sends for three hundred membership cards.] I never saw such an interest created by anything in any country. Oh that God may bless it to the good of this people, and make it a permanent organization for all time! Pray for us.”

That our readers may know of what “stuff” this earnest C. L. S. C. worker is made, I will say that she has charge of a Girls’ School at Osaka, teaches young men three hours per day, teaches a Bible class of young men (twenty-five in number) on Sabbath evenings, and for a year and a half has kept up a Chautauqua circle among the English speaking people and others. In order to secure government permission to publish the Chautauqua literature, permanent resident officers must be chosen; therefore the existing local circle suspended, and was reorganized with such officers as the government will recognize.

One of the members is now translating “Outline Study of Man,” another “Cyrus and Alexander,” and two others are at work on THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

Mrs. Drennan sends an itemized financial statement, showing three eighths of the expenses (total, $66.25) paid by the Japanese to date and five eighths by the Central Office, with the assurance that hereafter the heaviest part will be borne by the enthusiastic natives. God bless a work like this in young Japan, and God bless Mrs. Drennan and her associates!

PROGRAM OF POPULAR EXERCISES.

TWELFTH SUMMER ASSEMBLY AT CHAUTAUQUA.

_Saturday, July 11._

10:00 a.m.—Organ Prelude, Mr. I. V. Flagler, of Auburn, N.Y.

10:30 a.m.—Opening Address before the “Chautauqua Teachers’
Retreat” and “Chautauqua Schools of Language,”
by Chancellor C. N. Sims, of Syracuse University.

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilee Singers.

8:30 p.m.—Parlor Reception, C. T. R. and C. S. L.

10:00 p.m.—Night Songs—Flotilla on the Lake.

_Sunday, July 12._

9:30 a.m.—Sunday-school and Assembly.

11:00 a.m.—Opening Sermon, by Chancellor C. N. Sims.

2:00 p.m.—Platform Meeting—Addresses by Dr. C. N. Sims
and Dr. J. H. Vincent.

4:00 p.m.—Society of Christian Ethics.

5:00 p.m.—Vesper Service of the C. L. S. C.

7:30 p.m.—Evening Song, conducted by W. A. Duncan, Esq.,
assisted by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

_Monday, July 13._

8:00 a.m.—Adjustment of Classes, and Beginning of C. T. R.
and C. S. L. Work.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. C. H. W. Stocking. Subject: “Venice,
the Faded Queen of the Adriatic.”

_Tuesday, July 14._

11:00 a.m.—First Organ Recital, Mr. I. V. Flagler.

1:30 p.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilee Singers.

5:00 p.m.—First Tourists’ Conference.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. C. H. W. Stocking. Subject: “Florence,
the Athens of Italy.”

_Wednesday, July 15._

11:00 a.m.—Lecture: John Alabaster, D.D., “Michel Angelo.”

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilees.

7:00 p.m.—Vesper Service.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. John Alabaster: “Leonardo Da Vinci.”

_Thursday, July 16._

11:00 a.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilee Singers.

2:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. John Alabaster: “Naples, Pompeii
and Vesuvius.”

5:00 p.m.—Second Tourists’ Conference.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. C. H. W. Stocking. Subject:
“Rome;” first lecture.

_Friday, July 17._

11:00 a.m.—Second Organ Recital, I. V. Flagler.

2:00 p.m.—Lecture: “From Chautauqua to Casamicciola,”
by Prof. J. C. Freeman.

7:00 p.m.—A Popular Lesson in Music, Prof. A. T. Schauffler.

8:30 p.m.—Lecture, C. H. W. Stocking. Subject: “Rome;”
second lecture.

_Saturday, July 18._

Excursion to Niagara Falls, at Reduced Rates, for Members of the C. T. R. and C. S. L.

11:00 a.m.—Lecture: “Around Vesuvius,” Prof. J. C. Freeman.

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilee Singers.

5:00 p.m.—C. L. S. C. Round-Table.

7:00 p.m.—Sunday-school Teachers’ Meeting.

8:00 p.m.—Readings, Prof. A. Lalande.

_Sunday, July 19._

9:30 a.m.—Sunday-school and Assembly.

11:00 a.m.—Sermon by ——

2:00 p.m.—Sermon by Dr. B. G. Northrop: “The Bible as an
Educator.”

4:00 p.m.—Society of Christian Ethics.

5:00 p.m.—C. L. S. C. Vesper Service.

7:30 p.m.—Song Service, Fisk Jubilees.

_Monday, July 20._

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Dr. B. G. Northrop: “Memory, and
How to Train It.”

7:00 p.m.—Latin Symposium.

8:00 p.m.—Spelling Match.

_Tuesday, July 21._

11:00 a.m.—Third Organ Recital, I. V. Flagler.

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Meigs Sisters Vocal Quartette, and
Chas. F. Underhill, Elocutionist, all of New York.

5:00 p.m.—Third Tourists’ Conference.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Leon H. Vincent: “A Trip through Italy.”

_Wednesday, July 22._

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Dr. G. C. Lorimer, of Chicago: “Philanthropy
of Humor.”

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Meigs Sisters Vocal Quartette, and
Chas. F. Underhill.

7:00 p.m.—Vesper Service.

8:00 p.m.—Parlor Soirée.

_Thursday, July 23._

11:00 a.m.—

2:00 p m.—Fourth Organ Concert, I. V. Flagler.

5:00 p.m.—Fourth Tourists’ Conference.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. D. H. Wheeler: “Memories of Life
in Italy.”

_Friday, July 24._

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Miss Kate Field: “The Mormon Creed.”

2:00 p.m.—The Rev. Dr. H. C. McCook, Lecture: “The
Homes and Habits of Ants.”

7:00 p.m.—Lecture on “The Oil Regions.”

8:00 p.m.—Pronouncing Match.

_Saturday, July 25._

Excursion to Oil City, Pa.

9:00 a.m.—Conference on “Visible Speech” and “Phonetics,”
Dr. J. W. Dickinson.

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Miss Kate Field: “Political and Social
Crimes of Utah.”

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Mr. A. T. Schauffler, of New York, conductor.

7:00 p.m.—Sunday-school Teachers’ Meeting.

8:00 p.m.—

_Sunday, July 26._

9:30 a.m.—Sunday-school and Assembly.

11:00 a.m.—Sermon by the Rev. Dr. George Dana Boardman,
of Philadelphia.

2:00 p.m.—Sermon by the Rev. Dr. H. C. McCook, of Philadelphia.

4:00 p.m.—Society of Christian Ethics.

5:00 p.m.—C. L. S. C. Vesper Service.

7:30 p.m.—Sermon by the Rev. George W. Miller, D.D., of
Philadelphia.

_Monday, July 27._

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Geo. W. Miller, D.D.: “Martin Luther.”

2:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. G. D. Boardman: “The Graphic Art.”

3:30 p.m.—Public Exposition Chautauqua School of Modern
Languages and Methods.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. J. T. Edwards: “The Telephone and
Edison’s Inventions.”

_Tuesday, July 28._

11:00 a.m.—Fifth Organ Recital, I. V. Flagler.

2:00 p.m.—Public Readings, Prof. R. L. Cumnock.

5:00 p.m.—Public Chautauqua Teachers’ Retreat Question Drawer.

8:00 p.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilees.

_Wednesday, July 29._

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Dr. George Sexton, of England.

2:00 p.m.—Lecture, the Rev. Robert Nourse: “Blighted Women.”

5:00 p.m.—C. L. S. C. Round-Table.

7:00 p.m.—Vesper Service.

8:00 p.m.—First Lecture on “Khartoum and the Soudan,” by
the Rev. Dr. Henry M. Ladd, with Stereopticon.

_Thursday, July 30._

10:00 a.m.—Sixth Organ Recital, I. V. Flagler.

11:00 a.m.—Sermon by Dr. J. M. King: “The Dignity of
Small Duties.”

2:00 p.m.—Concert—Fisk Jubilees.

8:00 p.m.—Second Lecture on “Khartoum and the Soudan,”
by Dr. H. M. Ladd, with Stereopticon.

_Friday, July 31._

11:00 a.m.—Concert, A. T. Schauffler, conductor.

2:00 p.m.—Sermon by Dr. J. M. King: “Paris, and a Chapter
on Cæsarism.”

4:00 p.m.—Closing Exercises C. T. R.

4:00 p.m.—C. Y. F. R. U. Round-Table.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Philip Phillips: “Around the World,”
with Stereopticon.

_Saturday, August 1._

“Mid-Season Celebration.” Excursion to Panama Rocks.

9:00 a.m.—First Woman’s Missionary Conference: 1. “Best
means of creating an interest in missions.” 2. “How
can we increase the zeal and efficiency of present
methods of work?”

11:00 a.m.—Lecture: “Wm. Carey,” by the Rev. J. W. A.
Stewart, of Hamilton, Ont.

2:00 p.m.—Concert, Fisk Jubilees.

4:00 p.m.—First General Missionary Conference: “How can
the work for Missions, being done in every church by
a minority of its members, be presented for the
consideration of the church _en masse_?”

7:00 p.m.—Sunday-school Teachers’ Meeting.

8:00 p.m.—Lecture, Philip Phillips: “Around the World.”

_Sunday, August 2._

9:30 a.m.—Sunday-school and Assembly.

11:00 a.m.—Sermon by the Rev. J. W. A. Stewart.

2:00 p.m.—Second General Missionary Conference: Addresses
by Dr. George Sexton, the Rev. C. C. Creegan, and Dr.
William Butler. Topic: “The Ability and Responsibility
of the Church to Evangelize the World.”

4:00 p.m.—Second Woman’s Missionary Conference: Mrs.
D. R. James, of Washington, D. C.: “The Future of
Our Country.”
Society of Christian Ethics.

5:00 p.m.—C. L. S. C. Vesper Service.

8:00 p.m.—Service of Song, Philip Phillips.

_Monday, August 3._

9:30 a.m.—Third Woman’s Missionary Conference: “The
Immediate and Pressing Necessity for Home Mission
Work.”

11:00 a.m.—General Missionary Meeting: Address by the Rev.
Dr. Wm. F. Johnson, of Allahabad, India.

2:00 p.m.—Songs of the South, Fisk Jubilees.

4:00 p.m.—Third General Missionary Conference: “The
Present and Pressing Emergency for Increased Activity
in Home Missionary Work, how can we meet it?”

7:00 p.m.—Missionary Prayer Service.

8:00 p.m.—Anniversary “Chautauqua Missionary Institute:”
Addresses by the Rev. William Kincaid and Dr.
William Butler.

_Tuesday, August 4._

“OPENING DAY.”

9:00 a.m.—Fourth Woman’s Missionary Conference: 1. “The
Importance of Missionary Training, especially
for the young.” 2. “The Relation of Missionary
Literature to successful Missionary Work.”

11:00 a.m.—Lecture, Mr. H. K. Carroll, editor New York
_Independent_: “A Lost Doctrine.”

2:00 p.m.—Lecture, Dr. George Sexton.

4:00 p.m.—Fourth General Missionary Conference: 1. “Active
Service,” Dr. William Butler. 2. “Systematic
Giving,” the Rev. C. C. Creegan.

7:00 p.m.—Chautauqua Bells.

7:30 p.m.—Chautauqua Vesper Service.

8:00 p.m.—Chautauqua Reunion: Addresses; Music by Fisk
Jubilees, Miss Dora Henninges, Mr. Hutchins, of
Chicago, cornetist, etc.

9:30 p.m.—Fireworks.

_Wednesday, August 5._