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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #55134 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55134)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7, by
-The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7
-
-Author: The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
-
-Editor: Theodore L. Flood
-
-Release Date: July 17, 2017 [EBook #55134]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAUTAUQUAN, VOL. 04 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
- _A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE.
- ORGAN OF THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE._
-
- VOL. IV. APRIL, 1884. No. 7.
-
-
-
-
-Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
-
-
-_President_—Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio.
-
-_Superintendent of Instruction_—Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., New Haven, Conn.
-
-_Counselors_—Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.; Rev. J. M. Gibson, D.D.; Bishop H.
-W. Warren, D.D.; Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.
-
-_Office Secretary_—Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.
-
-_General Secretary_—Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.
-
-
-
-
-Contents
-
-Transcriber’s Note: This table of contents of this periodical was created
-for the HTML version to aid the reader.
-
- REQUIRED READING
- Readings from French History
- IX.—Louis XVI. 377
- X.—The Great French Revolution (1792-1796) 380
- XI.—Napoleon I. (1796-1814) 381
- Commercial Law
- III.—Agency 382
- Readings in Art
- I.—Italian Painters and Paintings 384
- Sunday Readings
- [_April 6_] 388
- [_April 13_] 389
- [_April 20_] 390
- [_April 27_] 391
- Selections from American Literature
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson 392
- Henry James, Jr. 393
- William Dean Howells 394
- Charles Dudley Warner 394
- United States History 395
- Light at Eventide 397
- The Cooper Institute 398
- Green Sun and Strange Sunsets 400
- Anthony Trollope’s Autobiography 400
- Sabbath Chimes 402
- Eight Centuries with Walter Scott 403
- Geography of the Heavens for April 405
- Edgar Allen Poe 407
- British and American English 410
- Still Young 412
- The Gospels Considered as a Drama 412
- Prohibition in Maine 415
- The Industrial Schools of Boston 417
- Echoes from a Chautauqua Winter 419
- C. L. S. C. Work 421
- Outline of C. L. S. C. Readings 422
- Local Circles 422
- Questions and Answers 425
- Chautauqua Normal Course 426
- Editor’s Outlook 428
- Editor’s Note-Book 430
- C. L. S. C. Notes on Required Readings for April 432
- Notes on Required Readings in “The Chautauquan” 434
- Talk About Books 436
-
-
-
-
-REQUIRED READING
-
-FOR THE
-
-_Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle for 1883-4_.
-
-APRIL.
-
-
-
-
-READINGS FROM FRENCH HISTORY.
-
-By REV. J. H. VINCENT, D.D.
-
-
-IX.—LOUIS XVI.
-
-About twenty years of age, amiable, irresolute, of simple tastes and
-earnest piety, Louis XVI. succeeded to the throne at a time when these
-qualities of gentleness could avail but little against the crowning evils
-of the age, and when the supreme genius and iron will of a Cromwell or a
-Napoleon could alone have averted the destruction by which the state was
-menaced. Signs of dissolution and prophecies of woe were already abroad.
-Long wars and the lavish expenditure of the last century and a half, had
-reduced the finances of the kingdom to a deplorable condition. The public
-credit was at its lowest ebb. The treasury presented a deficit of forty
-millions. The people, over-taxed, restless, half-savage, and dangerously
-intelligent, abandoned agriculture and sought a precarious subsistence by
-smuggling and spoliation. A spirit of political and religious infidelity
-pervaded the middle and lower classes. The throne had too long been
-degraded by excess, and tarnished by scandal, to command the affection
-of the multitude. The nobles were scorned rather than reverenced, and
-not even the ancient stronghold of terror remained. The clergy, by their
-cruelties, their ignorance, and their debaucheries had alienated the
-great body of the people, and brought down upon themselves the satire
-and indignation of the enlightened. In Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu,
-and D’Alembert, the new opinions had found their chief advocates and
-leaders. Before their sweeping censures Christianity, loyalty, tradition
-had trembled, and sunk away. They were speedily reinforced by all the
-intelligence of the age. A host of distinguished men hastened to their
-support, and the innovators carried all before them—leveling good as
-well as evil, trampling upon much that was pure in their reckless hatred
-of that which was foul, and sapping the foundations of truth, mercy
-and chivalry, while compassing the necessary destruction of falsehood,
-despotism, imposition and vice.
-
-To the government of this crumbling edifice and this murmuring people
-came Louis, with his good heart, his boyish timidity, and his woful
-inexperience. His queen, Marie Antoinette, was a daughter of Maria
-Theresa, fair, generous and impetuous. Surrounded by eager courtiers, and
-saluted for the first time as king and queen, they fell upon their knees,
-and cried, weeping, “Oh God, guide us! Protect us! We are too young to
-reign!”
-
-The king’s first act was to reëstablish the parliament, and place the
-financial department in the hands of the impartial and provident Turgot.
-Unfortunately for himself and the country, Louis suffered his mind to
-be prejudiced against this able minister, and, dismissing him in 1776,
-gave his office to M. Necker, a less efficient but a less unpopular
-politician. A war with England was now proposed by the king’s ambitious
-statesmen, who beheld at this juncture an opportunity of wresting from
-their ancient rival a large proportion of her foreign commerce. England
-and her American colonies were at variance. Not much more than a year
-had elapsed since the great battles of Lexington and Bunker’s Hill,
-and the American independence was but just declared. It now became the
-obvious policy of France to foment this war, to support the rebellious
-colonists, and to transfer to the navies of Louis XVI. that maritime
-superiority which had so long been the bulwark of the English liberties.
-The king, from motives of forbearance, was unwilling to commence this
-war; but, being overruled by his ministry, signed a treaty of alliance
-with the United States in the commencement of the year 1778. This treaty
-was equivalent to a declaration of war, and the first important action
-took place by sea off the isle of Ushant on the 27th of July. The fleets
-numbered thirty sail each; not a ship was captured or sunk on either
-side; and the fortune of the day was indecisive. In the following year,
-an alliance with Spain doubled the naval strength of Louis XVI. The
-French and Spanish admirals united their fleets, and hovered about
-the coasts of England without making any descent; whilst the Count
-d’Estaings, with twelve ships of the line, took the islands of Granada
-and St. Vincent, and made an unsuccessful attack upon St. Lucia, which
-had been lately conquered by the English. On the 16th of January, 1780,
-Admiral Rodney, then on his way to the relief of Gibraltar, encountered
-and defeated a Spanish fleet commanded by Don Juan de Langara. He then
-sailed on, unopposed, to Gibraltar, and next proceeded to the West
-Indies. While there he thrice engaged with the Count de Guichen, who
-had succeeded to the command of the French fleet. None of these actions
-were productive of important results. The Count de Guichen was replaced
-in 1781 by the Count de Grasse, a man of great skill and courage, who
-defeated the English admiral, Hood, on the 28th of April, and added
-Tobago to the conquests of France. In this year another enemy rose
-against England. The Dutch declared war, and George III. was involved
-at one time, by sea and land, in four great contests, namely, with
-France, Spain, America and Holland. In the month of October, however,
-the surrender of Yorktown by Lord Cornwallis virtually ended the contest
-between England and the United States; and the four European powers
-alone carried on hostilities. The month of April, 1782, was signalized by
-a hard-fought and sanguinary engagement between the Count de Grasse and
-Admiral Rodney. They met on the 12th, off the island of Dominique, with
-nearly equal forces, and the French were disastrously defeated with a
-loss of eight ships, a terrible sacrifice of life, and the captivity of
-the Count de Grasse. England was not, however, destined to profit much by
-the victory; for, as Admiral Rodney was sailing back with his well-won
-captures, a fearful storm arose, and most of the prizes were lost. Among
-these was the _Ville de Paris_, a fine ship of 110 guns, lately presented
-to the king by the citizens of Paris. On the 13th of October, in the
-same year, the fortress of Gibraltar was made the scene of a formidable
-assault, which failed utterly. The besiegers were commanded by the Duke
-de Crillon, an officer in the Spanish service; the Count d’Artois,
-brother to Louis; and the Duke de Bourbon. Negotiations for peace were
-now commenced, and her late successes by sea enabled England to treat
-at a less disadvantage than might have been expected, considering the
-circumstances of the war. The preliminaries were signed at Versailles on
-the 20th of January, 1783. France restored to England all her conquests,
-with the exception of St. Lucia, Tobago, the establishments on the river
-Senegal, and some trifling possessions in Africa and the East Indies.
-England relinquished all that she had captured. Spain acquired the island
-of Minorca.
-
-More embarrassed than ever by the cost of the late war, the finances of
-France had now fallen into a worse state than before. The public debt
-was increased. The people exasperated by a system of taxation which
-spared the wealthy and oppressed the poor, and imbued, moreover, with
-those democratic principles which had found their way from America to
-France, became still louder in the expression of their discontent. M. De
-Calonne had by this time succeeded M. Necker. He was brilliant, fluent,
-ready with expedients. Dreading the recriminations and plain-speaking
-that must have attended a meeting of the States-general, this minister
-proposed to convene the Notables—that is to say, an assemblage of
-persons gathered from all parts of the kingdom, and chiefly from the
-higher ranks of society. This measure had been taken by Henry IV. and
-by Louis XIII.; it was not, therefore, without precedent, and much was
-hoped by the nation. They met, to the number of 137, in February, 1787.
-M. De Calonne laid before them the condition of the exchequer, and
-proposed to submit to taxation all the landed property of the kingdom,
-including that of the privileged classes. But he addressed an assembly
-composed almost exclusively of the privileged classes, and they would
-not hear his arguments. On the 9th of April, finding his position
-untenable, he resigned his office, and was succeeded by M. De Brienne.
-Still the notables refused to abate their ancient immunities, and were
-in consequence dissolved on the 25th of May. The absolute necessity
-of procuring money now compelled the king arbitrarily to register a
-royal edict, which met with strong opposition from the parliament. This
-body was then banished to Troyes, but again recalled in the month of
-September. In 1788, M. de Brienne, weary of combating the difficulties
-of his office, resigned in favor of M. Necker. This gentleman, as the
-first act of his second ministry, proposed to convoke the states-general,
-and on the 5th of May, 1789, that august assembly filled the Hall de
-Menus in the Palace of Versailles. The king, in a brief speech, spoke
-hopefully of the present and the future, trusted that his reign might be
-commemorated henceforth by the happiness and prosperity of his people,
-and welcomed the states-general to his palace. Unforeseeing and placid,
-he beheld in this meeting nothing but the promise of amelioration,
-nor guessed how little prepared for usefulness or decision were its
-twelve hundred. It soon became evident that the real strength of the
-states-general lay in the commons. They formed the third estate, and
-numbered as many members as the clergy and noblesse together. They took
-upon themselves to decide whether the deliberations of the Assembly
-should be carried on in three chambers or one—they covered their heads in
-presence of the king—they constituted themselves the “National Assembly,”
-and invited the clergy and aristocracy to join them. The timid sovereign
-sanctioned these innovations, and the Assembly proceeded to exercise its
-self-conferred functions. Supplies were voted for the army; the public
-debt was consolidated; a provisional collection of taxes was decreed; and
-the inviolability of the members proclaimed. In the meantime the nobles,
-headed by the king’s second brother, the Count d’Artois, were collecting
-in the neighborhood of the court and capital such troops as they could
-muster from every quarter of the kingdom. Necker was exiled, and it
-became evident that the king’s imprudent advisers had counselled him to
-have recourse to violence. Paris, long prepared for insurrection, rose
-_en masse_. Necker alone had possessed the confidence of the citizens,
-and his dismissal gave the signal for arms. Camille Desmoulins, a young
-and enthusiastic patriot, harangued the populace at the Palais Royal.
-
-The guards, when called out to disperse the mobs, refused to fire. The
-citizens formed themselves into a national guard. The foodless multitude
-attacked and pillaged in various quarters. The barriers were fired; and
-on the 14th of July, this wild army appeared before the walls of the
-Bastile. Stanch in his principles of military honor, the aged Marquis
-de Launay, then governor of the prison, refused to surrender, raised
-the drawbridge, and fired upon the multitude. His feeble garrison,
-consisting of eighty-two invalids and thirty-two Swiss, was menaced by
-thousands. The siege lasted four hours. The besiegers were joined by the
-French guards—cannon were brought—De Launay capitulated—the drawbridge
-was lowered, and the Bastile taken. Taken by a lawless sea of raging
-rebels, who forthwith massacred the governor, his lieutenant, and some
-of the aged invalids—set fire to the building, and razed it to the
-ground—freed the few prisoners found in the cells—garnished their pikes
-with the evidences of murder, and so paraded Paris. From this moment the
-people were supreme. The troops were dismissed from Versailles—Necker was
-recalled—the king visited Paris, and was invested at the Hotel de Ville
-with the tri-colored emblem of democracy.
-
-Then began the first emigration. The Count d’Artois, the Prince of Condé,
-the Polignacs, and other noble and royal families, deserted in the
-moment of peril, and from beyond the frontiers witnessed the revolution
-in ignoble safety. The king and his family remained at Versailles, sad
-at heart amid their presence-chambers and garden-groves, just four
-leagues from volcanic Paris. Hither, from time to time, during the few
-days that intervened between the 14th of July and the 4th of August,
-came strange tidings of a revolution which was no longer Parisian, but
-national—tidings of provincial gatherings—of burning chateaux—of sudden
-vengeances done upon unpopular officials, intendants, tax-gatherers, and
-the like. It was plain that the First Estate must bow its proud head
-before the five-and-twenty savage millions, make restitution, speak well,
-smile fairly—or die. The memorable 4th of August came, when the nobles
-did this, making an ample confession of their weakness. The Viscount de
-Noailles proposed to reform the taxation by subjecting to it every order
-and rank; by regulating it according to the fortune of the individual;
-and by abolishing personal servitude, and every remaining vestige of
-the feudal system. An enthusiasm, which was half fear and half reckless
-excitement, spread throughout the Assembly. The aristocrats rose in their
-places and publicly renounced their seignorial dues, privileges, and
-immunities. The clergy abolished tithes and tributes. The representative
-bodies resigned their municipal rights. All this availed but little;
-and should have been done many months before to have weighed with the
-impatient commons. The people scorned a generosity which relinquished
-only that which was untenable, and cared little for the recognition
-of a political equality that had already been established with the
-pike. The Assembly was at this time divided into three parties—that
-of the aristocracy, composed of the greater part of the noblesse and
-clergy; that of the moderate party, headed by M. Necker; and that of the
-republicans, among whom the most conspicuous were Lafayette, Sièyes,
-Robespierre, and the great, the impetuous, the profligate Mirabeau. But
-theirs was not the only deliberative body. A minor assembly, consisting
-of one hundred and eighty electors; a mass of special assemblies of
-mechanics, tradesmen, servants, and others; and a huge incongruous mob
-at the Palais Royal, met daily and nightly for purposes of discussion.
-These demonstrations, and the extreme opinions to which they hourly
-gave rise, alarmed the little court yet lingering around the king. They
-persuaded him that he must have military assistance, and the troops were,
-unhappily, recalled to Versailles.
-
-The regiment of Flanders and a body of dragoons came, and on the 1st of
-October the newly-arrived officers were invited to a grand banquet by
-their comrades of the royal body-guard. After the dinner was removed
-and the wine had begun to circulate, the queen presented herself
-with the Dauphin in her arms, and her husband at her side. Cries of
-loyalty and enthusiasm burst forth—their healths were drunk with drawn
-swords—the tri-colored cockades were trampled under foot, and white ones,
-emblematic of Bourbon, were distributed by the maids of honor. The news
-of this fatal evening flew to Paris. Exasperated by the arrival of the
-soldiery—by the insult offered to the tri-color—by the fear of famine
-and civil war—the mob rose in fury, and with cries of “Bread! bread!”
-poured out of Paris and took the road to Versailles. Here, sending
-messages, threats, and deputations to the king and to the Assembly, the
-angry thousands encamped for the night, in inclement weather, round
-about the palace. Toward morning a grate leading into the grand court
-was found to be unfastened, and the mob rushed in. On they went, across
-the marble court and up the grand staircase. The body-guards defended
-themselves valiantly and raised the alarm—the queen fled, half-dressed,
-to the king’s chamber—the “living deluge” poured through galleries and
-reception-rooms, making straight for the queen’s apartments. On this
-terrible day, Marie Antoinette was, above all, the object of popular
-hatred. Separated now from the revolutionists by the hall of the
-Œil-de-Bœuf, where the faithful remnant of body-guards had assembled
-to defend them to the last, the royal family listened tremblingly to
-the battering of the axes on the yet unbroken doors. At this moment of
-peril came Lafayette, with the national guard of Paris, and succeeded
-in clearing the palace, in pacifying the multitude, and in rescuing,
-for the time, the hapless group in the king’s apartments. The mob, now
-driven outside, demanded that Louis should show himself, and go to Paris
-with his family. Refusal and remonstrance were alike useless. The royal
-carriage was brought out, the king and his family took their places, the
-mob thronged round, and so, with the defeated body-guards in the midst,
-and some bloody trophies of the struggle carried forward upon pikes, the
-mournful procession went from Versailles to Paris. Lodged thenceforth in
-the Tuileries, treated with personal disrespect, and subjected to all the
-restrictions of imprisonment, Louis and his queen supported indignities
-with dignity, and insult with resignation.
-
-On the 4th of September, M. Necker relinquished his office. He had been
-so courageous as to oppose the decree of the 16th of June, by which all
-distinctions of titles, armorial bearings, and other hereditary honors
-were abolished. From having been the idol of the republicans he now
-found himself dangerously unpopular, and so retired in safety to Geneva.
-During all this time the emigration of the noblesse went on. Assembling
-upon the German frontier toward the spring-time of the year 1791, they
-formed themselves into an army under the command of the Prince of
-Condé, and adopted for their motto, “Conquer or die.” Fearful, however,
-of endangering the king’s personal safety, they took no measures to
-stay the tide of rebellion, but hovered by the Rhine, watchful and
-threatening. Soon the king and queen, their two children, and the
-Princess Elizabeth, sister to the king, were the only members of the
-royal family left in Paris. Flight had long been talked of and frequently
-delayed; but at last everything was arranged, and Monday night, June 20,
-1791, was fixed for the attempt. Eluding the vigilance of the guards,
-they stole out of the palace in disguise, and after numerous delays and
-misapprehensions, during which the queen lost her way in the Rue de Bac,
-they entered a hackney-coach driven by the Count de Fersen, and exchanged
-it, at the gate St. Martin, for a carriage and four. Thus, never pausing,
-they passed Chalons, and arrived at St. Menehould. Here they were to
-have been met by some cavalry, commanded by the Marquis de Bouillé; but
-the time fixed for their arrival was so long gone by that the escort,
-weary of waiting, had given them up, and gone on to Varennes. Stopping to
-change horses at St. Menehould, the king was recognized; and at Varennes,
-within reach of Bouillé’s soldiers, he was stopped and questioned. The
-national guard flew to arms—an aid-de-camp came up in breathless haste,
-seeking the fugitives and bearing the decree of arrest—the horses’ heads
-were turned toward Paris, and the last chance for life and liberty was
-past! After a return-journey of eight days, the king and his family
-reëntered the capital, and were received in profound silence by an
-immense concourse. More closely guarded, more mistrusted than ever, he
-was now suspended by the National Assembly from those sovereign functions
-which he had so long ceased to exercise or possess. In the meantime the
-articles of a new Constitution had been drawn up, and were publicly
-ratified by the royal oath and signature on the 14th of September. The
-National Assembly, having completed this work, dissolved itself on the
-30th, and the members of the new, or legislative assembly, took their
-seats on the 1st of October, 1791.
-
-And now the violences of late committed, and the anarchy existing not
-only in Paris, but in all districts of France, had roused the indignation
-of Europe. Francis II., Emperor of Austria, entered into an alliance
-with the king of Prussia, hostilities were threatened, and the Assembly
-declared for war, on the 20th of April, 1792. An invasion of the Austrian
-Netherlands was attempted; but the French soldiers fled upon the first
-sight of the Prussian columns, and General Rochambeau laid down his
-command. On the 25th of July, the Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the
-allies, issued a violent and imprudent manifesto, declaring himself
-authorized to support the royal authority in France; to destroy the city
-of Paris; and to pursue with the extremity of military law all those who
-were disposed to resist the policy of Europe. He at the same time put
-his immense army in motion, and advanced over the frontier with 70,000
-Prussians and 68,000 Austrians and emigrant French. Perhaps no effort
-on the part of his most eager enemy could have so injured the cause and
-periled the safety of Louis XVI. The Assembly replied by fitting out an
-army of 20,000 national volunteers, and giving the command to General
-Dumouriez. Brunswick took Verdun and Longwy, and advanced toward the
-capital, confident of victory; but, being met by the active and sagacious
-Dumouriez, was forced to retreat. Verdun was won back again on the 12th,
-and Longwy on the 18th of October. An Austrian army, engaged in the siege
-of Lille, was compelled to abandon the attempt; and Custine on the Rhine
-took possession of Trèves Spires, and Mayence. War having also been
-declared against the King of Sardinia, Savoy was taken; and the great
-victory of Jemappes, won by General Dumouriez, on the 6th of November,
-subjected the whole of the Austrian Netherlands, with the exception
-of Luxembourg, to the power of France. On all sides the national
-troops repelled the invaders, resumed the offensive, and asserted the
-independence of a victorious revolution.
-
-In the meantime, enraged at this interference of the foreign powers,
-and fluctuating (according to the reports from the scene of war) between
-apprehension and exultation, the Parisian mob and the extreme republican
-party came to regard the king with increased enmity. He was named in the
-Assembly with violent opprobrium; the mob, incited to fury by Robespierre
-and his associates, demanded the abolition of the royal authority; and on
-the 10th of August the palace of the Tuileries was attacked. The national
-guards, who had been appointed to the defence of the courtyards, went
-over to the insurgents, and pointed their cannon against the chateau.
-Only the gallant Swiss were left, and they, overpowered by numbers and
-fighting gallantly to the last, were literally cut to pieces. The king
-and his family escaped to the National Assembly, and on the 14th were
-removed to the old Temple prison. From this time the reign of terror may
-properly be said to have begun. The chronicles of September are written
-in blood. Supreme in power as in crime, the party of the Fédérés, or Red
-Republicans, secured the barriers, sounded the tocsin, and proceeded to
-clear the prisons by an indiscriminate massacre. Nobles and priests, aged
-men and delicate women, all who were guilty of good birth, loyalty, or
-religion, were slain without distinction. The inmates of the Abbaye, the
-Conciergerie, the Carmes, La Force, and the Bicêtre were all murdered,
-after a hideous mockery of trial, at which neither innocence nor evidence
-availed. The head of the beautiful and hapless Princess de Lamballe was
-paraded about Paris on a pike, and displayed before the eyes of the
-wretched prisoners in the Temple, whose confidential friend and companion
-she had been. Mademoiselle de Sombreuil only saved her father’s life by
-drinking a goblet of blood. Mademoiselle Cazotte flung herself between
-her father and the murderers. Instances of the sublimest resignation, of
-the loftiest courage, are abundant amid the records of this appalling
-period. Thirteen thousand souls are said to have been sacrificed in Paris
-alone, and similar massacres were perpetrated at Orleans, at Rheims, at
-Lyons, and at Meaux. On the 21st of September, the legislative assembly,
-having presided for the allotted space of one year, was succeeded by a
-new body of representatives, chiefly consisting of the extreme republican
-party, and known by the name of the National Convention. To abolish the
-statutes of the kings, to leave the offices of government open to men of
-every condition, to persecute the members of the more moderate faction,
-and to impeach the king before the bar of the convention, were among the
-first acts of the new government.
-
-On the 11th of December, 1792, Louis, still placid and dignified,
-appeared before the tribunal of his enemies. He was accused of plots
-against the sovereignty of the people—of intrigues with the European
-powers—of tampering with Mirabeau, since dead—in short, of everything
-that might be construed into an effort for life, liberty, or prerogative.
-His trial lasted for more than a month, and during that time he was
-separated from his family. Hitherto Louis and his wife had at least
-shared their sorrows, and, by employing themselves in the education
-of the Dauphin, had beguiled somewhat of the tedious melancholy of
-prison life. Now it was over, and they were to meet but once again—to
-bid farewell. On Christmas day the king drew up his will, and on the
-following morning was summoned to the Convention for the purpose of
-making his defense. This paper was read by his counsel, and, at its
-conclusion, Louis spoke a few simple words relative to his own innocence
-and the affection which he had always felt toward his people. He was
-then conducted back to the Temple, and the discussions went on till the
-15th of January, 1793, when it was resolved to put to the vote the three
-great questions of culpability, of the expediency of an appeal to the
-people, and of the nature of the punishment to be inflicted. On Tuesday,
-the 15th, the first two questions were put, and the replies recorded.
-By all the king was voted guilty, and by a majority of two to one the
-appeal to the people was negatived. On Wednesday, the 16th, the question
-of punishment was in like manner propounded. The agitation of Paris was
-something terrible to witness. A savage mob gathered about the doors
-of the Assembly, heaping threats upon all who dared to be merciful.
-Even those who most desired to save the king became intimidated, and
-some who had spoken bravely in his favor the day before now decreed his
-death. From Wednesday to Sunday morning this strange scene lasted. Seven
-hundred and twenty-one members, in slow succession, with trembling, with
-confidence, with apologetic speech, or fierce enforcement, mounted the
-tribune one by one, gave in their “Fate-word,” and went down to hear the
-judgment of their successors. Paine, the English democrat, entered his
-name on the side of mercy. Louis Égalité, Duke of Orleans, and father
-to the late Louis Philippe, had the unparalleled infamy to vote for
-death. Even the brave President Vergniaud, who had pleaded for Louis
-with passionate earnestness only a day or two before, wavered in his
-allegiance at the last, and spoke the fatal word. At length, when all
-had voted, death was found to be decreed by a majority of twenty-six
-voices. The king’s counsel appealed against the sentence; but the appeal
-was rejected, and the Assembly recommenced voting, to fix the time of
-execution. Death without delay—death within four-and-twenty hours, was
-the result. On Sunday morning, January the 20th, the messengers of the
-Convention told Louis he must die. A priest, a delay of three days, and
-an interview with his family, was all that he asked. They granted him
-the first and last request; but the delay was refused. In the evening
-he was permitted to see his wife, sister and children. They met in a
-chamber with glass doors, through which the municipal guards watched
-all the cruel scene. Falling into each other’s arms, they were for
-some time speechless with sorrow, and the conversation that ensued was
-interrupted by cries and sobs. Then the king rose, promising to see
-them again on the morrow, and so ended this agony of two hours. About
-midnight, having recovered his serenity, and prayed with his confessor,
-the Abbé Edgeworth, he went to bed and slept soundly. Waking at five, he
-heard mass and received the sacrament. At eight the municipals summoned
-him to execution, and, willing to spare the feelings of those whom he
-loved, he left without a second farewell. There was a silence of death
-upon all the city. Silent were the lines of soldiers—silent the gazing
-multitudes—silent the eighty thousand armed men who guarded with cannon
-the space around the scaffold. Through all these rolled the solitary
-carriage, and to these the king, advancing suddenly as the last moment
-came, said in an agitated voice, “Frenchmen, I die innocent. I pardon
-my enemies, and I hope that France.…” At this moment he was seized by
-the executioners, the drums beat and drowned his voice, and in a few
-seconds he was no more. All at once the strange silence was broken—the
-executioner upheld the severed head—the shouts of the wild populace
-filled the air—and then they gradually cleared off, and the business of
-the day went on in Paris as if no unusual thing had been done. Such was
-the end of Louis XVI., a virtuous and well-intentioned sovereign, on the
-21st of January, 1793.—_Edwards._
-
-
-X.—THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION (1792-1796).
-
-The government, after the king (Louis XVI.) was deposed, was placed
-in the hands of the National Assembly—or Convention, as it now called
-itself—of deputies chosen by the people.
-
-There is nothing but what is sad and terrible to be told of France for
-the next four or five years, and the whole account of what happened would
-be too hard for you to understand, and some part is too dreadful to dwell
-upon.
-
-The short account of it is that, for years and years before, the kings,
-the nobles, and some of the clergy too, had cared for little but
-their own pride and pleasure, and had done nothing to help on their
-people—teach, train, or lead them. So now these people were wild with
-despair, and when the hold on them was a little loosened, they threw it
-off, and turned in furious rage upon their masters. Hatred grew, and all
-those who had once been respected were looked on as a brood of wolves,
-who must be done away with, even the young and innocent. The king, queen,
-his children, and sister (Madame Elizabeth), were shut up in a castle
-called the Temple, because it had once belonged to the Knights Templar,
-and there they were very roughly and unkindly treated. A national guard
-continually watched them, and these men were often shockingly rude and
-insulting to them, though they were as patient as possible. Great numbers
-of the nobles and clergy were shut up in the other prisons; and when news
-came that an army of Germans and emigrant nobles was marching to rescue
-the king, a set of ruffians was sent to murder them all, cutting them
-down like sheep for the slaughter, men and women all alike. The family in
-the Temple were spared for the time, but the emigrant army was beaten at
-Jemappes; and the brave nobles and peasants who had risen in the district
-of La Vendée, in hopes of saving them, could not make head against the
-regular French army, all of which had joined in the Revolution, being
-angered because no one not of noble birth could be an officer. All his
-friends did for the king only served to make his enemies hate him trebly;
-and three men had obtained the leadership who seemed to have had a
-regular thirst for blood, and to have thought that the only way to make
-a fresh beginning was to kill every one who had inherited any of the
-rights that had been so oppressive. Their names were Marat, Danton, and
-Robespierre; and they had a power over the minds of the Convention and
-the mob which no one dared resist, so that this time was called the Reign
-of Terror. A doctor named Guillotin had invented a machine for cutting
-off heads quickly and painlessly, which was called by his name; and this
-horrible instrument was set up in Paris to do this work of cutting off
-the old race. The king—whom they called Louis Capet, after Hugh, the
-first king of his line—was tried before the Assembly, and sentenced to
-die. He forgave his murderers, and charged the Irish clergyman, named
-Edgeworth, who was allowed to attend him in his last moments, to take
-care that, if his family were ever restored, there should be no attempt
-to avenge his death. The last words of the priest to him were: “Son of
-St. Louis, ascend to the skies.”
-
-The queen and her children remained in the Temple, cheered by the piety
-and kindness of Madame Elizabeth until the poor little prince—a gentle,
-but spirited boy of eight—was taken from them, and shut up in the lower
-rooms, under the charge of a brutal wretch (a shoemaker) named Simon, who
-was told that the boy was not to be killed or guillotined, but to be “got
-rid of”—namely, tormented to death by bad air, bad living, blows and rude
-usage. Not long after, Marie Antoinette was taken to a dismal chamber
-in the Conciergerie prison, and there watched day and night by national
-guards, until she too was brought to trial, and sentenced to die, eight
-months after her husband. Gentle Madame Elizabeth was likewise put to
-death, and only the two children remained, shut up in separate rooms; but
-the girl was better off than her brother, in that she was alone, with her
-little dog, and had no one who made a point of torturing her.
-
-Meanwhile the guillotine was every day in use. Cart-loads were carried
-from the prisons—nobles, priests, ladies, young girls, lawyers, servants,
-shopkeepers—everybody whom the savage men who were called the Committee
-of Public Safety chose to condemn. There were guillotines in almost every
-town; but at Nantes the victims were drowned, and at Lyons they were
-placed in a square and shot down with grape shot.
-
-Moreover, all churches were taken from the faithful. A wicked woman was
-called the Goddess of Reason, and carried in a car to the great cathedral
-of Notre Dame, where she was enthroned. Sundays were abolished, and
-every tenth day was kept instead, and Christianity was called folly
-and superstition; in short, the whole nation was given up to the most
-horrible frenzy against God and man.
-
-In the midst, Marat was stabbed to the heart by a girl named Charlotte
-Corday, who hoped thus to end these horrors; but the other two continued
-their work of blood, till Robespierre grew jealous of Danton, and had
-him guillotined; but at last the more humane of the National Convention
-plucked up courage to rise against him, and he and his inferior
-associates were carried to prison. He tried to commit suicide with
-a pistol, but only shattered his jaw, and in this condition he was
-guillotined, when the Reign of Terror had lasted about two years.
-
-There was much rejoicing at his fall; prisons were opened, and people
-began to breathe freely once more. The National Convention governed more
-mildly and reasonably; but they had a great deal on their hands, for
-France had gone to war with all the countries round; and the soldiers
-were so delighted at the freedom they had obtained, that it seemed as
-if no one could beat them, so that the invaders were everywhere driven
-back. And thus was brought to light the wonderful powers of a young
-Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, who had been educated, at a
-military school in France, as an engineer. When there was an attempt of
-the mob to rise and bring back the horrible days of the Reign of Terror,
-Colonel Bonaparte came with his grape shot, and showed that there was a
-government again that must be obeyed, so that some quiet and good order
-was restored.
-
-Some pity had at last been felt for the poor children in the Temple.
-It came too late to save the life of the boy, Louis XVII., as he is
-reckoned, who had for the whole ninth year of his life lain alone in
-a filthy room, afraid to call any one lest he should be ill-used, and
-without spirit enough to wash himself, so that he was one mass of sores
-and dirt; and he only lingered till the 8th of June, 1795, when he died,
-thinking he heard lovely music, with his mother’s voice among the rest.
-In the end of the same year his sister was released, and went to Russia
-to join her uncle, who had fled at the beginning of the Revolution, and
-was now owned by the loyal among the French as Louis XVIII.
-
-In the meantime the French army had beaten the Germans on the frontier,
-and had decided on attacking their power in the north of Italy. Bonaparte
-made a most wonderful passage of the Alps, where there were scarcely any
-roads but bridle-paths, and he gained amazing victories. His plan was to
-get all the strength of his army up into one point, as it were, and with
-that to fall upon the center of the enemy; and as the old German generals
-did not understand this way of fighting, and were not ready, he beat them
-everywhere, and won all Lombardy, which he persuaded to set up for a
-republic, under the protection of the French.
-
-All this time, the French were under so many different varieties of
-government, that you would not understand them at all; but that which
-lasted longest was called the Directory. People were beginning to feel
-safe at last; the emigrants were coming home again, and matters were
-settling down a little more.—_Yonge._
-
-
-XI.—NAPOLEON I. (1796-1814.)
-
-When Bonaparte had come back from Italy, he persuaded the Directory to
-send him with an army to Egypt to try to gain the East, and drive the
-English out of India. He landed in Egypt, and near Grand Cairo gained
-the battle of the Pyramids, and tried to recommend himself to the people
-of Egypt by showing great admiration for Mahomet and the Koran. But his
-ships, which he had left on the coast, were attacked by the English
-fleet, under Sir Horatio Nelson, and every one of them taken or sunk
-except two, which carried the tidings home. This was the battle of the
-Nile.
-
-The Sultan of Turkey, to whom Egypt belonged, fitted out an army against
-the French, and Bonaparte marched to meet it half way in the Holy Land.
-There he took Jaffa, cruelly massacred the Turkish garrison, and beat
-the Sultan’s army at Tabor: but Acre was so bravely and well defended,
-under the management of a brave English sailor, Sir Sidney Smith, that
-he was obliged to turn back without taking it. He led his troops back,
-suffering sadly from hunger and sickness, to Egypt, and there defeated
-another Turkish army in the battle of Aboukir. However, he there heard
-news from home which showed him that he was needed. The French had,
-indeed, gone on to stir up a revolution both in Rome and Naples. The pope
-was a prisoner in France, and the king of Naples had fled to Sicily; but
-the Russians had come to the help of the other nations, and the French
-had nearly been driven out of Lombardy. Beside, the Directory was not
-able to keep the unruly people in order; and Napoleon felt himself so
-much wanted, that, finding there were two ships in the port, he embarked
-in one of them and came home, leaving his Egyptian army to shift for
-themselves.
-
-However, he was received at home like a conqueror; and the people of
-France were so proud of him, that he soon persuaded them to change the
-Directory for a government of three consuls, of whom he was the first.
-He lived in the Tuileries, and began to keep something very like the old
-court; and his wife, Josephine, was a beautiful, graceful, kind lady,
-whom every one loved, and who helped very much in gaining people over to
-his cause. Indeed, he gave the French rest at home, and victories abroad,
-and that was all they desired. He won back all that had been lost in
-Italy; and the battle of Marengo, on the 14th of June, 1800, when the
-Austrians were totally routed, was a splendid victory. Austria made peace
-again, and nobody was at war with France but England, which conquered
-everywhere by sea, as France did by land. The last remnant of the French
-army in Egypt was beaten in Alexandria, and obliged to let the English
-ships transport them to France; and after this there was a short peace
-called the peace of Amiens, but it did not last long; and as soon as
-Bonaparte had decided on war, he pounced without notice on every English
-traveler in his dominions, and kept them prisoners till the end of the
-war.
-
-He had made up his mind to be Emperor of the French, and before declaring
-this, he wanted to alarm the old royalists; so he sent a party to seize
-the Duke d’Enghien (heir of the princes of Condé), who was living at
-Baden, and conduct him to Vincennes, where, at midnight, he was tried
-by a sham court-martial, and at six in the morning brought down to the
-courtyard, and shot, beside his own grave.
-
-After this every one was afraid to utter a whisper against Bonaparte
-becoming emperor, and on the second of December, 1804, he was crowned
-in Notre Dame, with great splendor. The pope was present, but Bonaparte
-placed the crown on his own head—a golden wreath of laurel leaves; and
-he gave his soldiers eagle standards, in memory of the old Roman Empire.
-He drew up an excellent code of laws, which have been used ever since
-in France, and are known by his name; and his wonderful talent did much
-to bring the shattered nation into order. Still, England would not
-acknowledge his unlawful power, and his hatred to her was very great. He
-had an army ready to invade England, but the English fleet never allowed
-him to cross the Channel; and his fleet was entirely destroyed by Lord
-Nelson, at the great battle of Trafalgar, on the 21st of October, 1805.
-
-But Napoleon was winning another splendid victory at Ulm, over the
-Austrians; and not long after, he beat the Prussians as entirely at Jena,
-and had all Germany at his feet. He was exceedingly harsh and savage
-to the good and gentle queen Louisa, when she came with her husband to
-try to make better terms for her country, thus sowing seeds of bitter
-resentment, which were to bear fruit long after. The Russians advanced
-to the aid of Germany, but the battles of Eylau and Friedland made them
-also anxious for peace. There never, indeed, was a much abler man than
-Napoleon; but he had no honor, honesty or generosity, and had very
-little heart amid all his seeming greatness. He made his family kings
-of conquered countries. His brother Louis was King of Holland; Jerome,
-of Westphalia, and the eldest brother, Joseph, King of Naples; but in
-1808, he contrived to cheat the King of Spain of his crown, and keep
-him and his son prisoners in France, while Joseph was sent to reign in
-Spain, and General Murat, the husband of his sister Caroline, was made
-King of Naples. The Portuguese royal family were obliged to flee away to
-Brazil; but the Spaniards and Portuguese would not submit to the French
-yoke, and called the English to help them. So year after year the Duke
-of Wellington was beating Napoleon’s generals, and wearing away his
-strength; but he still went on with his German wars, and in 1809, after
-two terrible battles at Aspern and Wagram, entered Vienna itself. Again
-there was a peace; and Napoleon, who was grieved to have no child to
-leave his empire to, had the wickedness and cruelty to decide on setting
-aside his good, loving Josephine, and making the Emperor Francis, of
-Austria, give him his young daughter, Marie Louise. In 1810, the deed was
-done; and it was said that from that time all his good fortune left him,
-though he had one little son born to him, whom he called King of Rome.
-
-He set out with what he named the Grand Army, to conquer Russia; and
-after winning the battle of Borodino, he entered Moscow; but no sooner
-was he there than the whole town was on fire, and it burnt on, so that it
-was not possible to stay there. Winter was just coming on, the Russian
-army was watching everywhere, and he could only retreat; and the unhappy
-Grand Army, struggling in the snow, with nothing to eat, and beset by the
-enemy everywhere, suffered the most frightful misery. Napoleon left it
-in the midst, and hurried home; but no sooner had this blow been given
-him, than the Germans—the Prussians especially, to whom he had been
-so harsh—rose up and banded together against him. France was worn out
-with the long wars; and though Napoleon still showed wonderful skill,
-especially at the battle of Leipsic, he was driven back, inch by inch,
-as it were, across Germany, and into France, by the Emperors of Austria
-and Russia and King of Prussia; for though each battle of his was a
-victory, force of numbers was too much for him. He went to the palace of
-Fontainebleau, and tried to give up his crown to his little son, but the
-Allies would not accept this; and at last, in the spring of 1814, he was
-forced to yield entirely, and put himself into the hands of the English,
-Prussian, Russian, and Austrian sovereigns. They decided on sending him
-to a little isle called Elba, in the Mediterranean Sea, where he was
-still to be treated as a prince. His deserted wife, Josephine, loved him
-so much that she died of grief for his fall; but Marie Louise returned to
-her father, and did nothing to help him.—_Yonge._
-
-
-
-
-COMMERCIAL LAW.
-
-By EDWARD C. REYNOLDS, ESQ.
-
-
-III.—AGENCY.
-
-Agency is one of the most common relations of individual to individual.
-It is a delegation of power that few can avoid, in a greater or less
-degree of importance. The wife who purchases goods for household purposes
-in her husband’s name, is acting purely as his agent; and the clerk who
-sells the articles to her acts, in the transaction, as agent for the
-merchant in whose employment he is.
-
-The legal maxim, _Qui facit per alium, facit per se_, which we will make
-read here, “What one does by another he does himself,” is the essential
-idea of agency; that is, it places on sure foundation the question of
-responsibility, at least, as to where it belongs. This is the whole
-doctrine so far as responsibility or liability is concerned.
-
-That it is particularly necessary in business life to have this
-delegation of power, and this centralization of responsibility, needs
-no explanation. The publisher of this magazine could be a publisher only
-in imagination without it, for he would have no influence in his own
-sanctum, except with himself; and we should feel no security in dealing
-with a company with no recognized and responsible manager.
-
-We have to deal with a fixed fact. Agency exists. The owners of
-magnificent stores, the stockholders in the railroad and steamship lines
-are all indebted to an army of agents whose active brains and eager
-efforts keep cars and steamers in motion, purchase and sell goods, and
-keep the accounts of the business world in proper balance.
-
-How is an agency established? Our readers probably could answer this
-question in part; try it and see if we are not right.
-
-We must answer by remarking that it depends somewhat upon what is wanted
-of an agent. Thus, if one be possessed of real estate, situated in some
-distant place, and is desirous of making a sale, and of selecting and
-commissioning some one to represent him in such a transfer of property,
-the appointment would be by a power of attorney, executed as described in
-our later article on real estate, “to which reference is hereby made.”
-
-To represent another in ordinary business transactions one may act by
-virtue of a written or verbal agreement. Thus, if A places goods in B’s
-hands for the purpose of selling through B, this will be sufficient to
-constitute an agency, and for the purposes of this business B is A’s
-agent, and all would be protected in dealing with him in such capacity.
-A bookkeeper in the counting room of his employer is fairly presumed to
-have authority to receipt bills, to pay bills, render accounts, and in
-some cases to make purchases, particularly if such part by him done has
-been sanctioned by the merchant in the past. But he has no authority
-to sign his employer’s name to notes, bills or checks unless specially
-authorized.
-
-A minor, though not capable of being a party to a contract himself,
-may do so for an employer, and thus be an agent, and his principal is
-responsible for his acts in such capacity, unless they be _tortious_, or
-wrongs in themselves. There would obviously be no security for innocent
-parties in fixing upon any other solution of the question of liability,
-because if A permits B, though a minor, to act for him and thereby takes
-advantage of his services in that capacity when they are favorable to his
-interests, it would be inequitable for him to shift the responsibility
-when it becomes onerous.
-
-While the principal is responsible for the acts of his agent, when not
-beyond the authority given, it is the duty of the agent to obey the
-instructions of his principal. This he is always to do unless some
-unforeseen situation presents itself, which requires the exercise of a
-discretionary power and immediate action. And then, an agent would be
-justified in acting contrary to instructions, or without instructions
-only when reasonable foresight and experience would approve of the
-course pursued by him. This for legitimate pursuits, our readers always
-remembering that an agent is not justified in doing an illegal or immoral
-act, and that, even though specially instructed so to do. The agency must
-be apparent and known to exist, that third parties may know themselves
-to be dealing with one in such capacity, and that agents may not be
-made to assume responsibilities which do not belong to them. This may
-be accomplished by advertising in and transacting all business in the
-principal’s name; or where the name of the principal is not necessarily
-made use of in the course of the business, the fact of the agent’s
-business employment being known as such would doubtless be sufficient.
-
-A clerk having occasion, in the course of business, to sign his
-employer’s name to letters, in receipting bills and such routine
-business, does it in this manner:
-
- E. E. EMMONS,
- _Per S._
-
-Where special authority is given to sign checks, notes and accept bills
-in his principal’s or employer’s name, the agent will add his own name,
-with the word “Attorney.”
-
-It must be remembered that an agency, so far as an agency transaction
-is concerned, must stand by itself, and not be associated with agent’s
-private business; that principal’s and agent’s property should be kept
-entirely distinct.
-
-A commission merchant, although an agent so far as his dealings with his
-principal or consignor, is not such in relation to other parties, since
-he does business in his own name, and is recognized as a merchant and not
-an agent, although his business may be largely a commission business.
-He is bound to obey instructions of his principal or consignor, whom he
-charges a percentage for the handling of the goods consigned, incidental
-expenses, and, in cases where he assumes the indebtedness resulting from
-the sales, an extra commission.
-
-Since mention has been made of commission merchants, we must
-individualize once more, and mention brokers. A broker simply effects
-a sale or purchase, as of merchandise or stocks. Unlike commission
-merchants they neither have, for the purpose of effecting the one, nor
-acquire by the accomplishment of the other, absolute possession of the
-chattels bought or sold.
-
-In whatever capacity as special agent for another, one is acting, he is
-ever bound to keep and render proper account of the business entrusted to
-his care; to keep his principal properly informed regarding it; to use
-due diligence in business; to treat the property of his principal with
-same care and handle with same prudence, as a man of ordinary carefulness
-and forethought would his own. All this means only, that he should act
-with ordinary skill, and should render to his principal fair and honest
-service.
-
-What terminates the agency? Death or insanity of either party;
-completion of work undertaken; expiration of time agreed upon; by
-express declaration of either party at pleasure, the other having due
-notification, and by such action acquiring a valid claim for whatever
-damages result on account thereof.
-
-
-Partnership.
-
-It is of constant occurrence that persons deem it advisable to unite
-themselves together for the prosecution of some general or particular
-business, paying their respects, by such act, to the old saw, “In union
-there is strength.” They agree by such an association to undertake
-the business, which induced them to unite their efforts with the hope
-of attaining to better results. The partners may or may not equally
-participate in the activities of the business to be undertaken, and may
-or may not stand on equal footing so far as relates to the sharing of
-the gains and losses. All of this is governed by their agreements at the
-outset, and its subsequent mutually agreed upon changes.
-
-Like other species of contracts, the conditions of partnerships may be
-agreed upon verbally, may be in writing, and may result by implication.
-Of the three, which? Regarding this and all other engagements, establish
-a rule to which adhere rigidly. The rule: Have a thorough understanding
-with all parties with whom you contract; reduce it to writing, and
-have all interested parties sign. In this way the difficulties of
-misunderstandings and convenient forgetfulness will be less troublesome.
-It is worth all it costs to bear this precaution in mind.
-
-Partners assume different relations and responsibilities as regards the
-partnership and the business world. There are the ostensible partners
-who boldly advertise themselves as such, and as such assuming the
-hazards incident to commercial enterprises; then the nominal partner who
-seeks to help a partnership by lending it his name, and thereby holding
-himself out as a member of it and making himself liable to creditors for
-partnership debts, providing credit was given, because of his supposed
-connection with the firm, as a regular partner; secret partners, who keep
-their names from the public, seeking by this means to avoid liability,
-but at same time sharing with the other partners the profits arising from
-the business. If such partnership becomes known to creditors, they may
-enforce collection of claims due from the partnership, as against the
-property of the secret partner; and the special partner, recognized by
-the laws of some of the states, which limit his liability to the amount
-of his investment, on condition that he gives public notice of such
-partnership agreement in a manner prescribed.
-
-The partnership is organized, the partners assuming such relation to
-the partnership as they mutually agree upon, bearing in mind the above
-description of liabilities.
-
-The element agency becomes quite conspicuous here, for each partner
-is an agent of the partnership and invested with plenary power to
-bind the other partners by his acts, when within the business sphere
-of the firm. It will be observed that we say in the line of the
-copartnership business, because otherwise it would not be sanctioned.
-As an illustration: A member of a partnership engaged in the flour
-trade would not have authority to bind his partners, if he attempted to
-involve them in stock speculations, unless previous similar enterprises
-by him had been approved by them, in which case there might be a fair
-presumption that such authority existed. This leads us to the question of
-liability; and liable they are, each and every partner, unless by virtue
-of exception previously mentioned, exempted. Their individual property,
-in the event of there being insufficient partnership assets to liquidate
-the indebtedness of the firm, must respond to the creditors’ call.
-
-Now, since the acts of a partner may result in a manner disastrous to all
-associated with him, it is his duty to act with all fidelity and perfect
-good faith; to give his attention carefully to the business, acting as
-his best judgment may advise for the benefit of all. While, however, a
-breach of these obligations creates a liability for such misfeasance or
-wrong act as a partner may be guilty of, it does in no way affect outside
-parties, unless cognizant of and participating in same.
-
-Gains and losses how shared? The object of our partnership is the hope of
-gain; its effect may be the realization of loss.
-
-This question of division ought to be solved by reference to the articles
-of agreement, which should have expressed the whole partnership contract,
-and have been signed by all the partners. This not done? Well then, we
-say, all should share in equal proportions the gains or losses, first
-making unequal investments equal by an allowance of interest on net
-investments, and equalizing individual ability and experience by allowing
-each partner that salary to which, measuring his services by comparison
-with those rendered by other partners, he seems to be fairly entitled.
-Where capital and skill are equal, an equal sharing in the gains or
-losses is equitable.
-
-
-Dissolution.
-
-The following conditions serve to dissolve a partnership:
-
-The expiration of the time for which the partnership was organized;
-ordinarily the completion of the business for the purpose of
-accomplishing which the partnership was formed;
-
-The misfeasance of a partner; whenever a partner fails to act in harmony
-with his associates, or disposes of his interest in the partnership
-affairs;
-
-By the death of any one of the partners;
-
-By decree of the court ordering the same;
-
-By the consent of all the partners at any time.
-
-After the dissolution, a partner acts no longer for his former copartners
-to the extent of entering into or incurring new obligations. Each partner
-however has full power to collect debts due the firm, signing the firm
-name to receipts, and also to liquidate outstanding obligations of the
-firm, unless by special agreement these powers are conferred on one
-partner alone. This is an arrangement which affects the partners only,
-third persons being protected in a settlement with any member of a late
-partnership dissolved.
-
-After the business is wholly settled, all liabilities being paid, and not
-till then, is a partner entitled to his share of the partnership funds.
-
-Notice of the dissolution of a partnership should be publicly given, it
-being necessary in the case of one or more retiring from the firm, in
-order to secure them from future liability. Individually this notice
-is given by mail to all with whom the firm has been dealing. This, in
-addition to ordinary publication of notice in newspaper, is sufficient.
-
-
-SALES—Personal Property.
-
-A sale is the transfer of certain property from one to another for a
-certain sum paid or to be paid, those being parties to it, to make it
-valid, who are competent to enter into a contract.
-
-A sale effected entitles the purchaser to possession of the goods on
-payment of price agreed upon; or, if purchaser be given credit, at once,
-unless there be some special agreement to the contrary.
-
-In the case of goods shipped to a purchaser who becomes insolvent before
-they have been delivered, the vendor may order the carrier to hold them
-subject to his (vendor’s) order, thereby exercising a privilege given him
-by law, and called the right of stoppage _in transitu_.
-
-All sales are not made with an actual knowledge on the part of the vendee
-of the quality of his purchase, some being by sample. Sales in this
-manner give credence to the inference that the samples constitute a part
-of the goods sold, and therefore the goods must be of same quality as
-the samples, else the vendor does not comply with the conditions of the
-contract to which he is a party, and the purchaser may refuse to complete
-the sale by acceptance of the goods.
-
-The quality of goods sold must be as represented by the vendor, if he
-warrants them by such representation, in order to secure a sale. In sales
-each one is supposed to be on his guard. “Let the purchaser beware,” is
-the maxim. And if, without actual fraud, concealment or misrepresentation
-on the part of the vendor, the vendee is deceived in a purchase because
-of poor judgment, he alone must suffer the consequences and take the
-loss. A warranty of an article puts the vendor under the necessity of
-making compensation to vendee, if the article is defective wherein
-warranted.
-
-A purchase of stolen property gives to the purchaser no title as against
-the true owner, or the one from whom the property was stolen, even though
-the purchase be made in good faith, and for a full consideration. “Let
-the purchaser beware.”
-
-There is but one species of personal property to which this will not
-apply, and that negotiable commercial paper.
-
-Some contracts regarding sales must be in writing, and signed by the
-party to be charged, or his agent. What are they? See article on
-contracts.
-
-
-
-
-READINGS IN ART.
-
-
-I.—ITALIAN PAINTERS AND PAINTINGS.
-
-The present paper has been abridged from “Italian Paintings,” by Edward
-J. Poynter, R. A., and Percy R. Head.
-
-Italian painting is divided into a number of schools, each of which has
-some illustrious artist as its founder, and a train of skillful and exact
-workmen following his methods. To study the style and methods of the
-master is to study the school. The most famous of these artists have been
-selected to represent the Art of Italy, the first of whom, the father of
-Italian painting, is
-
-
-GIOTTO.
-
-Giotto was born near Florence, in 1266. Employed as a boy in watching
-sheep, he is said to have been one day discovered by the artist Cimabue,
-as he was sketching one of his flock upon a stone. The painter, surprised
-at the promise shown by the boy, who was not more than ten years old,
-took him to Florence, and made him his pupil. Giotto’s earliest works
-were executed at Florence, and at the age of thirty he had already
-attained such fame that he was invited to Rome by Pope Boniface VIII.,
-to take part in the decoration of the ancient Basilica of Saint Peter.
-The _Navicella_ mosaic which he there executed, representing the
-Disciples in the Storm, is preserved in the vestibule of the present
-Saint Peter’s. The famous story of “Giotto’s O” belongs to this episode
-in his career. When the envoy sent by the pope to engage his services
-begged for some drawing or design which might be shown to his holiness in
-proof of the artist’s talent, Giotto, taking an ordinary brush full of
-color, and steadying his arm against his side, described a perfect circle
-on an upright panel with a sweep of the wrist, and offered this manual
-feat as sufficient evidence of his powers. The story shows the importance
-attached by a great artist to mere precision in workmanship, and teaches
-the useful lesson that genius, unsupported by the skill only to be
-acquired by discipline and labor, is wanting in the first condition which
-makes great achievements possible. This visit to Rome took place about
-1298; soon afterward we find Giotto engaged on his frescoes in the church
-of Saint Francis at Assisi, a series of allegorical designs illustrating
-the saint’s spiritual life and character. In 1306 he was working at the
-fine series of frescoes in the Arena Chapel at Padua, which represent
-thirty-eight scenes from the lives of the Virgin and of Christ. We here
-see Giotto in the fulness of his powers; the incidents are treated with
-a charming simplicity and sentiment for nature, and he rises to great
-solemnity of style in the more important scenes. Important works by
-Giotto are found in many other places beside those mentioned above,
-including especially Naples, Ravenna, Milan, Pisa and Lucca. Perhaps
-the finest are those which have been discovered of late years in the
-Church of Santa Croce at Florence under coats of whitewash which happily
-had preserved them almost intact; the “Last Supper,” in the refectory
-of the convent attached to the church, is in remarkable preservation,
-and is a magnificent example of the style of the time. The twenty-six
-panels which he painted for the presses in the sacristry of the same
-church are good illustrations of his method of treatment; natural and
-dignified with the interest concentrated on the figures; the background
-and accessories being treated in the simplest possible manner, and hardly
-more than symbols expressing the locality in which the scene is enacted.
-Giotto was the first of the moderns who attempted portrait-painting with
-any success, and some most interesting monuments of his skill in that
-branch of art have been preserved to us. In 1840, discovery was made,
-in the chapel of the Podestà’s palace at Florence, of some paintings by
-Giotto, containing a number of portraits, among them one of his friend,
-the poet Dante; the portraits being introduced, as was usual among the
-early painters, and indeed frequent at all periods, as subordinate actors
-in the scene represented. Giotto was not only a painter; as a sculptor
-and architect he was also distinguished. Giotto died at Florence in
-January, 1337, and was buried with public solemnities in the cathedral.
-His style, though marked by the hardness and quaintness of a time when
-chiaro-scuro and perspective were very imperfectly understood, displays
-the originality of his genius in its thoughtful and vigorous design, and
-shows how resolutely the artist relied, not on traditions, but on keen
-and patient observation of nature.
-
-
-FRA ANGELICO.
-
-The earliest of the great fifteenth-century painters belongs in the
-character of his works rather to the preceding century. The monk Guido
-di Pietro of Fiesole, commonly called Fra Angelico from the holiness and
-purity which were as conspicuous in his life as in his works, was born
-in 1387 at Vicchio, in the province of Mugello. At the age of twenty he
-entered the order of the Predicants at Fiesole, and took the name of
-Giovanni, by which he was afterward known. His first art work was the
-illumination of manuscripts. Quitting the monastery in 1409, he practiced
-as a fresco-painter in various places until 1418, when he returned to
-Fiesole, and continued to reside there for the next eighteen years. In
-1436 he again quitted his retreat, to paint a series of frescoes on the
-history of the Passion for the convent of San Marco in Florence. This
-work occupied nine years, and on its completion Angelico was invited to
-Rome. The chief work which he undertook there was the decoration of a
-chapel in the Vatican for Pope Nicholas V. In 1447 he went to Orvieto to
-undertake a similar task, but returned in the same year, having done only
-three compartments of the ceiling, and leaving the rest to be afterward
-completed by Luca Signorelli. He then continued to reside in Rome, where
-he died and was buried in 1455. The most striking characteristics of
-Angelico’s art spring from the temper of religious fervor with which he
-practiced it. He worked without payment; he prayed before beginning any
-work for the Divine guidance in its conception; and believing himself
-to be so assisted, he regarded each picture as a revelation, and could
-never be persuaded to alter any part of it. His works on panel are very
-numerous, and are to be found in many public and private galleries;
-of the finest of these are, a “Last Judgment,” belonging to the Earl
-of Dudley, and the “Coronation of the Virgin” in the gallery of the
-Louvre. After his death he was “beatified” by the church he had served
-so devotedly—a solemnity which ranks next to canonization; and Il Beato
-Angelico is the name by which Fra Giovanni was and is most fondly and
-reverently remembered. His style survived only in one pupil who assisted
-him at Orvieto.
-
-
-LEONARDO DA VINCI.
-
-Leonardo da Vinci belonged to the Florentine school, the fifteenth
-century, of which he was the first great example. Leonardo was the son
-of a notary of Vinci, near Florence, and was born at that place in the
-year 1452. He became the pupil of Andrea Verrocchio, the Florentine
-sculptor and painter, and progressed so rapidly that he soon surpassed
-his master, who is said to have thereupon given up painting in despair.
-Leonardo’s studies at this time ranged over the whole field of science
-and art; beside being a painter and a sculptor, he was a practiced
-architect, engineer, and mechanician; profoundly versed in mathematics
-and the physical sciences; and an accomplished poet and musician. The
-famous letter in which he applied to the Duke of Milan for employment,
-enumerates only a few of his acquirements; he represents himself as
-skilled in military and naval engineering, offensive and defensive, and
-the construction of artillery, and as possessing secrets in these matters
-hitherto unknown; he can make designs for buildings, and undertake any
-work in sculpture, in marble, in bronze, or in terra-cotta; and “in
-painting,” he says, “I can do what can be done as well as any man, be
-he who he may.” He concludes by offering to submit his own account of
-himself to the test of experiment, at his excellency’s pleasure. He
-entered the Duke’s service about the year 1482, receiving a yearly salary
-of 500 scudi. Under his auspices an academy of arts was established in
-Milan in 1485, and he drew round him a numerous school of painters. Of
-the many works executed by Leonardo during his residence at Milan, the
-greatest was the world renowned picture of the “Last Supper,” painted in
-oil upon the wall of the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle
-Grazie. Whether it was the fault of the wall or the medium used by the
-painter, the great picture rapidly faded, and by the end of fifty years
-had virtually perished. It is still shown, but decay and restoration have
-left little of the original work of Leonardo. The best idea of it is to
-be got from the old copies, taken while the picture was yet perfect; of
-these the most valuable is the one executed in 1510 by Marco d’Oggione,
-now in the possession of the Royal Academy of London. His other important
-achievement, while at Milan, was a work of sculpture, which unfortunately
-perished within a few years of its completion. It seems to have occupied
-him at intervals for eleven years, for the completed model was first
-exhibited to the public in 1493. All that we now know of it is from the
-numerous sketches in the Royal Collection at Windsor. The model was
-still in existence in 1501, after which nothing more is recorded of it.
-He also at this time made a model for the cupola of Milan Cathedral,
-which was never carried out. In 1499 Leonardo left Milan and returned to
-Florence. He received a commission in 1503 to paint the wall at one end
-of the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, the decoration of the other
-end being at the same time entrusted to Michelangelo. Leonardo’s picture
-was never completed, and Michelangelo’s apparently never begun; but the
-cartoons for their two compositions, known respectively as the “Battle of
-the Standard” and the “Cartoon of Pisa,” excited the greatest admiration,
-and were termed by Benvenuto Cellini “the school of the world;” both
-have been lost or destroyed; all that we know of Leonardo’s composition
-is gained from a drawing of it by Rubens in black and red chalk in the
-gallery of the Louvre, to which, though spirited enough, he contrived
-to impart the coarse Flemish character with which all his work is
-disfigured. In 1514 Leonardo visited Rome, and was to have executed some
-work in the Vatican, had not an affront put upon him by the pope given
-him offence and caused him to leave Rome. He went to the King of France,
-Francis I., who was then at Pavia, took service with him, and accompanied
-him to France, in the early part of 1516. He was, however, weakened by
-age and in bad health, and did little or no new work in France. In a
-little more than three years’ time, in May 1519, he died, at Cloux, near
-Amboise, at the age of sixty-seven.
-
-Those pictures of Leonardo, which we may regard with confidence as the
-work of his own hand, fully justify the exceptional admiration with which
-he has always been regarded. He was excessively fastidious in his work,
-“his soul being full of the sublimity of art,” and spent years over the
-execution of some of his works. The painting of the portrait of Madonna
-Lisa is said to have extended over four years, and to have been then
-left incomplete. His mind also was at times equally bent on scientific
-matters, and for long periods he was entirely absorbed in the study of
-mathematics. For these reasons he produced but few pictures; if, however,
-he had left none, his drawings, which fortunately exist in large numbers,
-would suffice to account for the enthusiasm which his work has always
-excited. It is certain that we do not see his pictures in the state in
-which they left his easel; from some causes, unnecessary to discuss, they
-have blackened in the shadows, and the colors have faded. Vasari praises
-beyond measure the carnations of the Mona Lisa, which, he says, “do not
-appear to be painted, but truly flesh and blood;” but no trace of these
-delicate tints now remains.
-
-Leonardo was the author of many treatises, some of which only have been
-published. The most celebrated is the “Trattato della Pittura,” still a
-book of high authority among writings on art.
-
-
-MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
-
-Was born at Castel Caprese, near Arezzo, in 1475. In 1488 he entered
-the school of Ghirlandaio, the master giving a small payment for the
-boy’s services. His precocious abilities soon attracted the notice
-of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and until the death of that prince in 1492,
-Michelangelo worked under his especial patronage. His earliest drawings
-show a spontaneous power which made Fuseli say that “as an artist he
-had no infancy;” but for many years he confined himself almost entirely
-to sculpture; and some of his greatest achievements in that kind of art
-were executed before he undertook his first considerable work with the
-pencil. This was the “Cartoon of Pisa,” finished in 1505, and intended as
-a design for a mural picture to face that of Leonardo in the Council Hall
-at Florence. This cartoon is lost, but a copy in monochrome, containing
-probably the whole of the composition, exists in England. During its
-progress he had broken off to visit Rome, and execute some sculptural
-work for the pope; and in 1508 he went to Rome again to begin the
-great achievement of his life, the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. The
-paintings of the ceiling illustrate the Creation and the Fall of Man,
-together with other scenes and figures typical of the Redemption. The
-middle part of the ceiling is divided into nine compartments, containing
-the “Creation of Eve” (placed in the center, as symbolizing the woman
-of whom the Messiah was born), the “Creation of Adam,” the “Temptation,
-Fall and Expulsion” in one composition, the “Separation of Light from
-Darkness,” the “Gathering of the Waters,” the “Creation of the Sun and
-Moon,” the “Deluge,” the “Thanksgiving of Noah,” and the “Drunkenness
-of Noah.” At the corners of the ceiling are four designs of the great
-deliverances of the children of Israel, the Brazen Serpent, David and
-Goliath, Judith with the head of Holofernes, and the punishment of
-Haman. There are six windows on each side of the chapel; the lunettes
-which surround them, and the spaces above them, are occupied by groups
-of the ancestors of Christ. Between the windows, at the springing of
-the vault, are colossal seated figures of the Prophets and Sibyls who
-foretold the coming of the Savior. They are arranged alternately as
-follows:—Jeremiah, Persian Sibyl, Ezekiel, Erythræan Sibyl, Joel, Delphic
-Sibyl, Isaiah, Cumæan Sibyl, Daniel, Libyan Sibyl; Jonah and Zachariah
-are placed one at each end of the chapel, between the historical
-compositions at the angles of the ceiling. These single figures are
-the most striking features of the design, and calculated skilfully to
-help the architectural effect. The side walls of the chapel, below the
-springing of the vault, had already been decorated with frescoes executed
-by Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, and
-Perugino. Michelangelo’s frescoes were finished toward the end of the
-year 1512. Vasari’s statement that he painted them all in twenty months
-without any assistance is undoubtedly exaggerated; it possibly refers to
-the completion of the first half of the ceiling.
-
-For the next twenty years Michelangelo did little or nothing in painting;
-but in 1533, at the age of fifty-nine, he began the cartoons for the
-fresco of the “Last Judgment” on the wall behind the altar in the Sistine
-Chapel. This celebrated composition is entirely of nude figures, no
-accessories being introduced to add to the terror of the scene. Each
-figure throughout this vast composition has its appropriate meaning,
-and the power of design and mastery of execution are unsurpassed and
-unsurpassable. The picture was finished in 1541. Two frescoes in the
-neighboring Pauline Chapel, the “Conversion of Saint Paul,” and the
-“Crucifixion of Saint Peter,” which were finished in 1549, were his last
-paintings. He had accepted, in 1547, the position of architect of Saint
-Peter’s, stipulating that his services should be gratuitous. He continued
-to carry the building forward, altering materially the original design of
-Bramante, until his death, which took place in February, 1564. His body
-was taken to Florence, and buried in Santa Croce.
-
-Although the genius of Michelangelo has exercised a vast and widely
-diffused influence over all subsequent art, yet this master, unlike
-Raphael, formed no school of his own immediate followers. It must be
-admitted that Raphael owes him much, for he never found his full strength
-until he had seen Michelangelo’s works at Rome, when his style underwent
-immediate improvement. None of those who worked under Michelangelo dared
-to walk directly in his steps; there is in his style, as there was in
-the character of the man himself, a certain stern individuality which
-gives the impression of solitary and unapproachable greatness. Of his
-assistants, the most eminent was Sebastiano del Piombo.
-
-
-RAFFAELLO SANZIO,
-
-Always called Raphael, was born at Urbino in 1483. His father died
-when he was eleven years old, and the boy was placed by his uncles,
-who became his guardians, with Perugino. His handiwork at this time
-is no doubt to be traced in many of Perugino’s pictures and frescoes;
-and, as may be seen, he was an important coadjutor with Pinturicchio
-at Siena. The earliest picture known to be painted entirely by himself
-is a “Crucifixion,” in the collection of Lord Dudley, done at the age
-of seventeen, which closely resembles the style of Perugino. In 1504
-he first visited Florence, where he enjoyed the friendship of Francia
-and Fra Bartholommeo, and made acquaintance with the works of Leonardo
-and Michelangelo—new influences which considerably affected his style.
-With the exception of short visits to Perugia, Bologna, and Urbino, he
-was resident in Florence until 1508. In that year he went to Rome at
-the invitation of Pope Julius II., and was for the rest of his life
-continually in the employment of that pontiff and his successor, Leo
-X. Raphael died on his birthday, the 6th of April, 1520, aged exactly
-thirty-seven years.
-
-Raphael’s manner as a painter is divided into three styles, corresponding
-with the broad divisions of his life’s history. Unlike Michelangelo,
-whose genius and individuality is stamped on the earliest works from
-his hand, Raphael gained, as his experience of what had been done by
-his contemporaries was enlarged, a deeper and further insight into his
-own powers. His first, or Peruginesque style, characterizes those works
-which he produced while still the companion of his master, before his
-first visit to Florence; of these pictures the most important are the
-“Sposalizio” (or “Marriage of the Virgin,”) at Milan, and the “Coronation
-of the Virgin,” in the Vatican. His second, or Florentine, style covers
-the four years from his arrival in Florence in 1504, to his departure for
-Rome in 1508; here the manner of Fra Bartholommeo had great influence
-upon him; to this period belong the “Madonna del Cardellino” (“of the
-Goldfinch,”) in the Uffizi, “La Belle Jardinière,” of the Louvre, the
-“Madonna del Baldacchino,” in the Pitti (which was left incomplete by
-Raphael, and finished by another hand), and the “Entombment” in the
-Borghese Gallery, at Rome, his first attempt at a great historical
-composition. It is in his third, or Roman, style that Raphael fully
-asserts that sovereignty in art which has earned him the name of Prince
-of painters, and appears as the head of his own school, which, generally
-called the Roman School, might perhaps, as he collected round him
-followers from all parts of Italy, more fitly be termed the Raphaelesque.
-This third period includes all his great frescoes in the Vatican, with a
-host of easel pictures; for, short as Raphael’s life was, his works are
-wondrously numerous, and our space permits mention of only a few of even
-the most celebrated.
-
-It has been questioned whether Raphael’s art gained by what he learnt
-from Michelangelo, some critics affirming that his earlier style is
-his best. This, however, must be considered to be entirely a matter of
-taste. Most painters—unless, like Fra Angelico, so entirely absorbed in
-the mystical side of their art as never to change their style—as they
-gain in power of expression, lose something of their youthful emotional
-fervor; and it is possible to assert that in the magnificent design of
-the “Incendio del Borgo” the dramatic element is more in evidence than
-in the “Disputa.” But what is lost on the emotional and religious side
-is compensated for by the gain in power of representation; and it is
-difficult to stand before the cartoon of “The Miraculous Draught of
-Fishes,” and not to confess that Giotto himself could not have imparted
-a more implicit trustfulness and childlike belief in the power of the
-Redeemer to the look and gesture of St. Peter; and while the magnificent
-simplicity of the youths drawing the net is conceived in an equal spirit
-of truthfulness to nature, the grandeur of style and the knowledge
-displayed in the drawing is so much pure gain on his earlier manner.
-
-The Loggie, or open corridors of the Vatican, were also adorned by
-Raphael’s scholars with a series of fifty-two paintings of Biblical
-subjects from his designs; the whole series was known as “Raphael’s
-Bible.”
-
-In 1515 he was commissioned to design tapestries for the Sistine Chapel;
-of the ten cartoons (distemper paintings on paper) for these tapestries
-three have been lost; the other seven after many dangers and vicissitudes
-came into the possession of Charles I. of England. They are perhaps the
-most remarkable art treasures belonging to England, and are at present
-exhibited, by permission of Her Majesty, in the South Kensington Museum.
-
-Among the greatest oil pictures of Raphael’s third period may be
-enumerated the “Madonna di Foligno” in the Vatican; the “Madonna della
-Sedia” in the Pitti Palace at Florence; the “Saint Cecilia” at Bologna;
-the “Madonna of the Fish,” and the picture of “Christ Bearing His Cross,”
-known as the “Spasimo,” in the splendid collection at Madrid; the
-“Madonna di San Sisto” at Dresden, which obtained for the artist the name
-of “the Divine;” and finally the “Transfiguration” at the Vatican, the
-sublime picture on which his last working hours were spent, and which was
-carried at his funeral before its colors were dry.
-
-
-TIZIANO VECELLIO,
-
-Commonly called by the anglicised form of his Christian name, Titian, was
-born at Cadore, near Venice, in 1477. His studies in art began at the age
-of ten, under a painter named Zuccato, from whose studio he passed to
-Gentile Bellini’s, and from his again to that of his brother Giovanni.
-Space forbids us to do more than indicate the chief landmarks in Titian’s
-long, eventful, and illustrious life. When his reputation as a great
-artist was new, before he was thirty years old, he visited the court of
-Ferrara, and executed for the duke two of his earliest masterpieces, the
-“Tribute Money,” now at Dresden, and the “Bacchus and Ariadne,” in the
-National Gallery of London. In 1516 he painted his great altarpiece, the
-“Assumption,” now removed from its church to the Accademia at Venice,
-and was at once placed by this incomparable work in the highest rank of
-painters. The “Entombment” of the Louvre was painted about 1523; and in
-1528 he executed another magnificent altarpiece, the “Death of St. Peter
-Martyr,” in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, which was destroyed in
-the fire of 1867. In 1530 Titian was invited to Bologna, to paint the
-portrait of the Emperor Charles V.; and he is supposed by some writers
-to have accompanied the emperor shortly afterward to Spain. Owing to the
-patronage which Charles V. and his son Philip II. liberally conferred on
-the artist, Madrid possesses a collection of his works second in number
-and importance only to the treasures of Venice. The “Presentation in
-the Temple,” in the Accademia at Venice, dates from about 1539, and the
-“Christ at Emmaus,” in the Louvre, from about 1546. In 1545 he painted at
-Rome the celebrated portrait of “Pope Paul III.,” in the Naples Museum.
-Titian continued active in his art even up to the time of his death,
-which occurred in 1576, at the great age of ninety-nine. His style, as
-is to be expected, changed considerably in the course of his long life,
-and the pictures painted in his last years, though full of color, are
-infirm in drawing and execution; in the full vigor of his powers he was
-a draughtsman second to none, though never aiming at the select beauty
-of form attained by the Florentine school, and by Raphael. It was this
-that led Michelangelo to say that, with a better mode of study, “This man
-might have been as eminent in design as he is true to nature and masterly
-in counterfeiting the life, and then, nothing could be desired better
-or more perfect;” adding, “for he has an exquisite perception, and a
-delightful spirit and manner.”
-
-The splendid artistic power of Titian may perhaps be better discerned
-in his portraits than in the more ambitious works of sacred art. He
-stands unquestionably at the head of portrait painters of all ages and
-of all schools; not even Velasquez equaling him at his best. Beside
-religious pictures and portraits he painted a great number of subjects
-from classical mythology. Among the most famous, beside the “Bacchus
-and Ariadne,” mentioned above—the pride of the English collection—may
-be named the “Bacchanals” of Madrid, the two of “Venus” in the Uffizi,
-at Florence, the “Danae,” at Naples, and the often repeated “Venus and
-Adonis,” and “Diana and Callisto.” He is seen at his very best in the
-“Venus” of the Tribune, at Florence, perhaps the only work of his which
-has escaped retouching, and in the exquisite allegory called “Sacred and
-Profane Love,” at the Borghese Palace, at Rome. As a landscape painter,
-he possessed a sentiment for nature in all its forms which had never
-before been seen, and his backgrounds have never been equaled since.
-The mountains in the neighborhood of his native town, Cadore, of which,
-as well as of other landscape scenes, numerous pen and ink drawings by
-his hand are in existence, inspired him, doubtless, with that solemn
-treatment of effects of cloud and light and shade and blue distance for
-which his pictures are conspicuous.
-
-It is unnecessary to deal with the school of painting which exists in
-Italy at the present day. It would be paying it too high a compliment
-to regard it as the legitimate successor of the art of those great
-epochs whose course we have tried to sketch. The modern Italian school
-is little more than an echo of the modern French. And seeing that
-there is no principle clearer or more certain than this, that a great
-national school of art can flourish only when it springs from a sane and
-vigorous national existence, it is not to be wondered at if a country
-so convulsed by the political passions and so vulgarized by the social
-triviality and meanness of modern times, should be in this respect cast
-down further than her more fortunate neighbors by the same causes which
-have soiled even the best art of the nineteenth century with something of
-dilettantism and affectation.
-
-
-
-
-SUNDAY READINGS.
-
-SELECTED BY THE REV. J. H. VINCENT, D.D.
-
-
-[_April 6._]
-
-THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION.
-
- Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If
- any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.—I.
- John, ii:15.
-
-There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace
-from the human heart its love of the world—either by a demonstration
-of the world’s vanity, so that the heart will be prevailed upon simply
-to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it, or by
-setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment,
-so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old
-affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange
-an old affection for a new one. My purpose is to show that from the
-constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent
-and ineffectual, and that the latter method will alone suffice for the
-rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that sometimes
-domineers over it. After having accomplished this purpose, I shall
-attempt a few practical observations.
-
-Love may be regarded in two different conditions. The first is when the
-object is at a distance, and then it becomes love in a state of desire.
-The second is when its object is in possession, and then it becomes love
-in a state of indulgence. Under the impulse of desire, man feels himself
-urged onward in some path or pursuit of activity for its gratification.
-The faculties of his mind are put into busy exercise. In the steady
-direction of one great and engrossing interest, his attention is recalled
-from the many reveries into which it might otherwise have wandered; and
-the powers of his body are forced away from an indolence in which it else
-might have languished; and that time is crowded with occupation, which
-but for some object of keen and devoted ambition, might have driveled
-along in successive hours of weariness and distaste, and though hope does
-not enliven, and success does not always crown this career of exertion,
-yet in the midst of this very variety, and with the alternations of
-occasional disappointment, is the machinery of the whole man kept in a
-sort of congenial play, and upholden in that tone and temper which are
-most agreeable to it. Insomuch, that if through the extirpation of that
-desire which forms the originating principle of all this movement, the
-machinery were to stop, and to receive no impulse from another desire
-substituted in its place, the man would be left with all his propensities
-to action in a state of most painful and unnatural abandonment.
-
-A sensitive person suffers, and is in violence, if, after having
-thoroughly rested from his fatigue, or been relieved from his pain, he
-continues in possession of powers without any excitement to these powers;
-if he possess a capacity of desire without having an object of desire;
-or if he have a spare energy upon his person, without a counterpart,
-and without a stimulus to call it into operation. The misery of such
-a condition is often realized by him who is retired from business, or
-who is retired from law, or who is even retired from the occupations
-of the chase and of the gaming table. Such is the demand of our nature
-for an object in pursuit, that no accumulation of previous success can
-extinguish it, and thus it is that the most prosperous merchant, and
-the most victorious general, and the most fortunate gamester, when the
-labor of their respective vocations has come to a close, are often
-found to languish in the midst of all their acquisitions, as if out of
-their kindred and rejoicing element. It is quite in vain with such a
-constitutional appetite for employment in man, to attempt cutting away
-from him the spring or the principle of one employment, without providing
-him with another. The whole heart and habit will rise in resistance
-against such an undertaking. The else unoccupied female, who spends the
-hours of every evening at some play of hazard, knows as well as you, that
-the pecuniary gain, or the honorable triumph of a successful contest, are
-altogether paltry. It is not such a demonstration of vanity as this that
-will force her away from her dear and delightful occupation. The habit
-can not so be displaced as to leave nothing but a negative and cheerless
-vacancy behind it—though it may be so supplanted as to be followed up by
-another habit of employment to which the power of some new affection has
-constrained her. It is willingly suspended, for example, on any single
-evening, should the time that was wont to be allotted to gaming require
-to be spent on the preparation of an approaching assembly.
-
-The ascendant power of a second affection will do what no exposition,
-however forcible, of the folly and worthlessness of the first, ever
-could effectuate. And it is the same in the great world. You never will
-be able to arrest any of its leading pursuits, by a naked demonstration
-of their vanity. It is quite in vain to think of stopping one of these
-pursuits in any way else, but by stimulating to another. In attempting
-to bring a worldly man, intent and busied with the prosecution of his
-objects, to a dead stand, you have not merely to encounter the charm
-which he annexes to these objects, but you have to encounter the pleasure
-which he feels in the very prosecution of them. It is not enough, then,
-that you dissipate the charm by your moral, and eloquent, and affecting
-exposure of its illusiveness. You must address to the eye of his mind
-another object, with a charm powerful enough to dispossess the first of
-its influence, and to engage him in some other prosecution as full of
-interest, and hope, and congenial activity, as the former. It is this
-which stamps an impotency on all moral and pathetic declamation of the
-insignificance of the world. A man will no more consent to the misery of
-being without an object, because that object is a trifle, or of being
-without a pursuit, because that pursuit terminates in some frivolous
-or fugitive acquirement, than he will voluntarily submit himself to
-the torture because that torture is to be of short duration. If to be
-without desire and without exertion altogether, is a state of violence
-and discomfort, then the present desire, with its correspondent train of
-exertion, is not to be got rid of simply by destroying it. It must be
-by substituting another desire, or another line of habit or exertion in
-its place, and the most effectual way of withdrawing the mind from one
-object, is not by turning it away upon desolate and unpeopled vacancy,
-but by presenting to its regards another object still more alluring.
-
-These remarks apply not merely to love considered in the state of desire
-for an object not yet attained. They apply also to love considered
-in its state of indulgence, or placid gratification, with an object
-already in possession. It is seldom that any of our tastes are made
-to disappear by a process of natural extinction. At least, it is very
-seldom that this is done by the instrumentality of reasoning. It may be
-done by excessive pampering, but it is almost never done by the mere
-force of mental determination. But what can not be thus destroyed may
-be dispossessed, and one taste may be made to give way to another, and
-to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection of the mind. It is
-thus that the boy ceases, at length, to be the slave of his appetite,
-but it is because a manlier taste has now brought it into subordination,
-and that the youth ceases to idolize pleasure, but it is because the
-idol of wealth has become the stronger, and gotten the ascendency—and
-that even the love of money ceases to have the mastery over the heart of
-many a thriving citizen, but it is because drawn into the whirl of city
-politics, another affection has been wrought into his moral system, and
-he is now lorded over by the love of power. There is not one of these
-transformations in which the heart is left without an object. Its desire
-for one particular object may be conquered; but as to its desire for
-having some one object, or other, this is unconquerable. Its adhesion
-to that on which it has fastened the preference of its regards, can not
-willingly be overcome by the rending away of a single separation. It can
-be done only by the application of something else, to which it may feel
-the adhesion of a still stronger and more powerful preference. Such is
-the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have something
-to lay hold of—and which, if wrested away, without the substitution
-of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy
-as painful to the mind as hunger is to the natural system. It may be
-dispossessed of one object or of any, but it can not be desolated of all.
-Let there be a breathing and a sensitive heart, but without a liking and
-without affinity to any of the things that are around it, and in a state
-of cheerless abandonment, it would be alive to nothing but the burden
-of its own consciousness, and feel it to be intolerable. It would make
-no difference to its owner, whether he dwelt in the midst of a gay and
-goodly world, or placed afar beyond the outskirts of creation, he dwelt
-a solitary unit in dark and unpeopled nothingness. The heart must have
-something to cling to—and never, by its own voluntary consent, will it
-so denude itself of all its attachments that there shall not be one
-remaining object that can draw or solicit it.
-
-
-[_April 13._]
-
-The misery of a heart thus bereft of all relish for that which is wont
-to minister to its enjoyment, is strikingly exemplified in those who,
-satiated with indulgence, have been so belabored, as it were, with
-the variety and the poignancy of the pleasurable sensations that they
-have experienced, that they are at length fatigued out of all capacity
-for sensation whatever. The disease of ennui is more frequent in the
-French metropolis, where amusement is more exclusively the occupation
-of higher classes, than it is in the British metropolis, where the
-longings of the heart are more diversified by the resources of business
-and politics. There are the votaries of fashion, who, in this way, have
-at length become the victims of fashionable excess, in whom the very
-multitude of their enjoyments has at last extinguished their power of
-enjoyment—who, plied with the delights of sense and of splendor even to
-weariness, and incapable of higher delights, have come to the end of all
-their perfection, and, like Solomon of old, found it to be vanity and
-vexation. The man whose heart has thus been turned into a desert can
-vouch for the insupportable languor which must ensue, when one affection
-is thus plucked away from the bosom, without another to replace it.
-It is not necessary that a man receive pain from anything in order to
-become miserable. It is barely enough that he looks with distaste at
-everything—and in that asylum which is the repository of minds out of
-joint, and where the organ of feeling as well as the organ of intellect,
-has been impaired, it is not in the cell of loud and frantic outcries
-where you will meet with the acme of mental suffering. But that is the
-individual who outpeers in wretchedness all his fellows, who throughout
-the whole expanse of nature and society, meets not an object that has at
-all the power to detain or interest him; who neither in earth beneath,
-nor in heaven above, knows of a single charm to which his heart can
-send forth one desirous or responding movement; to whom the world, in
-his eye a vast and empty desolation, has left him nothing but his own
-consciousness to feed upon—dead to all that is without him, and alive to
-nothing but to the load of his own torpid and useless existence.
-
- * * * * *
-
-We hope that by this time you understand the impotency of a mere
-demonstration of this world’s insignificance. Its sole practical effect,
-if it had any, would be to leave the heart in a state which to every
-heart is insupportable, and that is a mere state of nakedness and
-negation. You may remember the fond and unbroken tenacity with which
-your heart has often recurred to pursuits, over the utter frivolity
-of which it sighed and wept but yesterday. The arithmetic of your
-short-lived days, may on Sabbath make the clearest impression upon
-your understanding, and from his fancied bed of death may the preacher
-cause a voice to descend in rebuke and mockery on all the pursuits of
-earthliness, and as he pictures before you the fleeting generations of
-men, with the absorbing grave, whither all the joys and interests of
-the world hasten to their sure and speedy oblivion, may you, touched
-and solemnized by his argument, feel for a moment as if on the eve of a
-practical and permanent emancipation from a scene of so much vanity.
-
-But the morrow comes, and the business of the world, and the objects of
-the world, and the moving forces of the world, come along with it, and
-the machinery of the heart, in virtue of which it must have something
-to grasp, or something to adhere to, brings it under a kind of moral
-necessity to be actuated just as before, and in utter repulsion toward
-a state so unkindly as that of being frozen out both of delight and
-of desire, does it feel all the warmth and the urgency of its wonted
-solicitations, nor in the habit and history of the whole man can we
-detect so much as one symptom of the new creature, so that the church,
-instead of being to him a school of obedience, has been a mere sauntering
-place for the luxury of a passing and theatrical emotion; and the
-preaching which is mighty to compel the attendance of multitudes, and
-which is mighty to still and to solemnize the hearers into a kind of
-tragic sensibility, and which is mighty in the play of variety and vigor
-that it can keep up around the imagination, is not mighty to the pulling
-down of strongholds.
-
-The love of the world can not be expunged by a mere demonstration of the
-world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that
-which is more worthy than itself? The heart can not be prevailed upon
-to part with the world by a single act of resignation. But may not the
-heart be prevailed upon to admit into its preference another, who shall
-subordinate the world, and bring it down from its wonted ascendancy? If
-the throne which is placed there must have an occupier, and the tyrant
-that now reigns has occupied it wrongfully, he may not leave a bosom
-which would rather detain him than be left in desolation. But may he not
-give way to the lawful sovereign, appearing with every charm that can
-secure his willing admittance, and taking unto himself his great power
-to subdue the moral nature of man, and to reign over it? In a word, if
-the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great and
-ascendant object, is to fasten it in positive love to another, then it is
-not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the
-mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter, that all things are to
-be done away, and all things are become new.
-
-To obliterate all our present affections by simply expunging them,
-so as to leave the seat of them unoccupied, would be to destroy the
-old character, and to substitute no new character in its place. But
-when they take their departure upon the ingress of others, when they
-resign their sway to the power and the predominance of new affections,
-when, abandoning the heart to solitude, they merely give place to a
-successor who turns it into as busy a residence of desire, and interest,
-and expectation as before—there is nothing in all this to thwart or
-to overthrow any of the laws of our sentient nature—and we see how,
-in fullest accordance with the mechanism of the heart, a great moral
-revolution may be made to take place upon it.
-
-This, we trust, will explain the operation of that charm which
-accompanies the effectual preaching of the gospel. The love of God, and
-the love of the world, are two affections, not merely in a state of
-rivalship, but in a state of enmity—and that so irreconcilable that they
-can not dwell together in the same bosom. We have already affirmed how
-impossible it were for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to
-cast the world away from it, and thus reduce itself to a wilderness. The
-heart is not so constituted, and the only way to dispossess it of an old
-affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. Nothing can exceed the
-magnitude of the required change in a man’s character, when bidden, as he
-is in the New Testament, not to love the world; no, nor any of the things
-that are in the world, for this so comprehends all that is dear to him in
-existence as to be equivalent to a command of self-annihilation. But the
-same revelation which dictates so mighty an obedience, places within our
-reach as mighty an instrument of obedience.
-
-It brings for admittance, to the very door of our heart, an affection
-which, once seated upon its throne, will either subordinate every
-previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world, it places before the
-eye of the mind Him who made the world, and with this peculiarity, which
-is all its own—that in the gospel do we so behold God, as that we may
-love God. It is there, and there only, where God stands revealed as an
-object of confidence to sinners—and where our desire after Him is not
-chilled into apathy by that barrier of human guilt which intercepts every
-approach that is not made to Him through the appointed Mediator. It is
-the bringing in of this better hope whereby we draw nigh unto God—and to
-live without hope is to live without God, and if the heart be without
-God, the world will then have the ascendancy. It is God apprehended
-by the believer as God in Christ, who alone can disport it from this
-ascendancy. It is when He stands dismantled of the terrors which belong
-to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we are enabled by faith, which
-is his own gift, to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and to
-hear His beseeching voice, as it protests good will to men, and entreats
-the return of all who will, to a full pardon and a gracious acceptance—it
-is then that a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length
-expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when
-released from the spirit of bondage, with which love can not dwell, and
-when to the number of God’s children, through the faith that is in Christ
-Jesus, the spirit of adoption is found upon us; it is then that the
-heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection,
-is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and in the only way
-in which deliverance is possible. And that faith which is revealed to us
-from heaven, as indispensable to a sinner’s justification in the sight of
-God, is also the instrument of the greatest of all moral and spiritual
-achievements on a nature dead to the influence, and beyond the reach of
-every other application.
-
-
-[_April 20._]
-
-Thus may we come to perceive what it is that makes the most effective
-kind of preaching. It is not enough to hold out to the world’s eye the
-mirror of its own imperfections. It is not enough to come forth with a
-demonstration, however pathetic, of the evanescent character of all
-its enjoyments. It is not enough to travel the walk of experience along
-with you, and speak to your own conscience and your own recollection of
-the deceitfulness of the heart, and the deceitfulness of all that the
-heart is set upon. There is many a bearer of the gospel message who has
-not shrewdness of natural discernment enough, and who has not power of
-characteristic description enough, and who has not the talent of moral
-delineation enough, to present you with a vivid and faithful sketch
-of the existing follies of society. But that very corruption which he
-has not the faculty of representing in its visible details, he may
-practically be the instrument of eradicating in its principle. Let him be
-but a faithful expounder of the gospel testimony; unable as he may be to
-apply a descriptive hand to the character of the present world, let him
-but report with accuracy the matter which revelation has brought to him
-from a distant world, unskilled as he is in the work of so anatomizing
-the heart, as with the power of a novelist to create a graphical or
-impressive exhibition of the worthlessness of its many affections—let
-him only deal in those mysteries of peculiar doctrine, on which the best
-of novelists have thrown the wantonness of their derision. He may not be
-able, with the eye of shrewd and satirical observation, to expose to the
-ready recognition of his hearers the desires of worldliness—but with the
-tidings of the gospel in commission, he may wield the only engine that
-can extirpate them. He can not do what some might have done, when, as if
-by the hand of a magician they have brought out to view, from the hidden
-recesses of our nature, the foibles and lurking appetites which belong to
-it. But he has a truth in the possession, which, into whatever heart it
-enters, will, like the rod of Aaron, swallow up them all—and unqualified
-as he may be, to describe the old man in all the nicer shading of
-his natural and constitutional varieties, with him is deposited that
-ascendant influence under which the leading tastes and tendencies of the
-old man are destroyed, and he becomes a new creature in Jesus Christ our
-Lord.
-
-Let us not cease, then, to ply the only instrument of powerful and
-positive operation, to do away from you the love of the world. Let us try
-every legitimate method of finding access to your hearts for the love of
-Him who is greater than the world. For this purpose, if possible, clear
-away that shroud of unbelief which so hides and darkens the face of the
-Deity. Let us insist on His claims to your affection, and whether in
-the shape of gratitude or in the shape of esteem, let us never cease to
-affirm that in the whole of that wondrous economy, the purpose of which
-is to reclaim a sinful world unto Himself, He, the God of love, so sets
-Himself forth in characters of endearment, that naught but faith, and
-naught but understanding are wanting, on your part, to call forth the
-love of your hearts back again.
-
-And here let me advert to the incredulity of a worldly man; when he
-brings his own sound and secular experience to bear upon the high
-doctrines of Christianity, when he looks upon regeneration as a thing
-impossible, when feeling as he does the obstinacies of his own heart,
-on the side of things present, and casting an intelligent eye, much
-exercised, perhaps, in the observations of human life, on the equal
-obstinacies of all who are around him, he pronounces this whole matter
-about the crucifixion of the old man, and the resurrection of a new man
-in his place, to be in downright opposition to all that is known and
-witnessed of the real nature of humanity. We think that we have seen such
-men, who, firmly trenched in their own vigorous and homebred sagacity,
-and shrewdly regardful of all that passes before them through the week,
-and upon the scenes of ordinary business, look on that transition of
-the heart by which it gradually dies unto time, and awakens in all the
-life of a new felt and ever growing desire toward God, as a mere Sabbath
-speculation; and who thus, with all their attention engrossed upon the
-concerns of earthliness, continue unmoved to the end of their days,
-amongst the feelings and the appetites, and the pursuits of earthliness.
-
-If the thought of death, and another state of being after it, comes
-across them at all, it is not with a change so radical as that of
-being born again, that they ever connect the idea of preparation.
-They have some vague conception of its being quite enough that they
-acquit themselves in some decent and tolerable way of their relative
-obligations; and that upon the strength of some such social and domestic
-moralities as are often realized by him in whose heart the love of God
-has never entered, they will be transplanted in safety from this world,
-where God is the Being with whom it may almost be said that they have
-had nothing to do, to that world where God is the Being with whom they
-will have mainly and immediately to do throughout all eternity. They
-admit all that is said of the utter vanity of time, when taken up with
-as a resting place. But they resist every application made upon the
-heart of man, with the view of so shifting its tendencies that it shall
-not henceforth find in the interests of time, all its rest and all its
-refreshment. They in fact regard such an attempt as an enterprise that
-is altogether aerial, and with a tone of secular wisdom caught from the
-familiarities of every-day experience, do they see a visionary character
-in all that is said of setting our affections on the things that are
-above, and of walking by faith, and of keeping our hearts in such a love
-of God as shall shut out from them the love of the world, and of having
-no confidence in the flesh, and of so renouncing earthly things as to
-have our conversation in heaven.
-
-Now, it is altogether worthy of being remarked of those men who thus
-disrelish spiritual Christianity, and, in fact, deem it an impracticable
-acquirement, how much of a piece their incredulities about the doctrines
-of Christianity are with each other. No wonder that they feel the work
-of the New Testament to be beyond their strength, so long as they hold
-the words of the New Testament to be beneath their attention. Neither
-they nor any one else can dispossess the heart of an old affection, but
-by the impulsive power of a new one, and, if that new affection be the
-love of God, neither they nor any one else can be made to entertain it,
-but on such a representation of the Deity as shall draw the heart of the
-sinner toward Him. Now, it is just their unbelief which screens from the
-discernment of their minds this representation. They do not see the love
-of God in sending His Son into the world. They do not see the expression
-of his tenderness to men, in sparing him not, but giving him up unto
-the death for us all. They do not see the sufficiency of the atonement,
-or of the sufferings that were endured by him who bore the burden that
-sinners should have borne. They do not see the blended holiness and
-compassion of the Godhead, in that He passed by the transgressions of
-His creatures, yet could not pass them by without an expiation. It is
-a mystery to them how a man should pass to a state of godliness from a
-state of nature—but had they only a believing view of God manifest in the
-flesh, this would resolve for them the whole mystery of godliness. As it
-is, they can not get quit of their old affections, because they are out
-of sight from all those truths which have influence to raise a new one.
-They are like the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, when required
-to make bricks without straw—they can not love God, while they want
-the only food which can aliment this affection in a sinner’s bosom—and
-however great their errors may be, both in resisting the demands of the
-gospel as impracticable, and in rejecting the doctrines of the gospel as
-inadmissible, yet there is not a spiritual man (and it is the prerogative
-of Him who is spiritual to judge all men) who will not perceive that
-there is a consistency in these errors.
-
-
-[_April 27._]
-
-But if there be a consistency in the errors, in like manner is there
-a consistency in the truths which are opposite to them. The man who
-believes in the peculiar doctrines will readily bow to the peculiar
-demands of Christianity. When he is told to love God supremely, this
-may startle him to whom God has been revealed in grace, and in pardon,
-and in all the freeness of an offered reconciliation. When told he
-should shut out the world from the heart, this may be impossible with
-him who has nothing to replace it—but not impossible with him who has
-found in God a sure and a satisfying portion. When told to withdraw his
-affections from the things that are beneath, this was laying an order of
-self-extinction upon the man who knows not another quarter in the whole
-sphere of his contemplation, to which he could transfer them—but it were
-not grievous to him whose view has been opened up to the loveliness and
-glory of the things that are above, and can there find, for every feeling
-of his soul, a most ample and delighted occupation. When told to look
-not at the things that are seen and temporal, this were blotting out the
-light of all that is visible from the prospect of him in whose eye there
-is a wall of partition between guilty nature and the joys of eternity—but
-he who believes that Christ has broken down this wall, finds a gathering
-radiance upon his soul, as he looks onward in faith to the things that
-are unseen and eternal. Tell a man to be holy—and how can he compass such
-a performance, when his alone fellowship with holiness is a fellowship of
-despair? It is the atonement of the cross, reconciling the holiness of
-the lawgiver with the safety of the offender, that hath opened the way
-for a sanctifying influence into the sinner’s heart, and he can take a
-kindred impression from the character of God now brought nigh, and now at
-peace with him.
-
-Separate the demand from the doctrine, and you have either a system of
-righteousness that is impracticable, or a barren orthodoxy. Bring the
-demand and the doctrine together, and the true disciple of Christ is able
-to do the one through the other strengthening him. The motive is adequate
-to the movement, and the bidden obedience of the gospel is not beyond
-the measure of his strength, just because the doctrine of the gospel is
-not beyond the measure of his acceptance. The shield of faith, and the
-hope of salvation, and the Word of God, and the girdle of truth—these
-are the armor that he has put on; and with these the battle is won, and
-the eminence is reached, and the man stands on the vantage ground of
-a new field and a new prospect. The effect is great, but the cause is
-equal to it—and stupendous as this moral resurrection to the precepts of
-Christianity undoubtedly is, there is an element of strength enough to
-give it being and continuance in the principles of Christianity.
-
-The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience, and
-to purify his heart; and it is of importance to observe that what mars
-one of these objects, mars the other also. The best way of casting out
-an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and by the love of what is
-good, to expel the love of what is evil. Thus it is, that the freer the
-gospel, the more sanctifying the gospel; and the more it is received as
-a doctrine of grace, the more will it be felt as a doctrine according to
-godliness. This is one of the secrets of the Christian life, that the
-more a man holds of God as a pensioner, the greater is the payment of
-service that he renders back again. On the tenure of “Do this and live,”
-a spirit of fearfulness is sure to enter; and the jealousies of a legal
-bargain chase away all confidence from the intercourse between God and
-man; and the creature striving to be square and even with his Creator,
-is, in fact, pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead of God’s
-glory, and with all the conformities which he labors to accomplish, the
-soul of obedience is not there, the mind is not subject to the law of
-God, nor indeed under such an economy ever can be. It is only when, as
-in the gospel, acceptance is bestowed as a present, without money and
-without price, that the security which man feels in God is placed beyond
-the reach of disturbance, or that he can repose in him, as one friend
-reposes in another, or that any liberal and generous understanding can
-be established betwixt them—one party rejoicing over the other to do him
-good—the other finding that the truest gladness of his heart lies in the
-impulse of a gratitude, by which it is awakened to the charms of a new
-moral existence. Salvation by grace—salvation on such a footing is not
-more indispensable to the deliverance of our persons from the hand of
-justice, than it is to the deliverance of our hearts from the chill and
-the weight of ungodliness.
-
-Retain a single shred or fragment of legality with the gospel, and you
-raise a topic of distrust between man and God. You take away from the
-power of the gospel to melt and to conciliate. For this purpose, the
-freer it is, the better it is. That very peculiarity which so many dread
-as the germ of Antinomianism, is in fact the germ of a new spirit, and a
-new inclination against it. Along with the light of a free gospel, does
-there enter the love of the gospel, which in proportion as you impair
-the freeness, you are sure to chase away. And never does the sinner find
-within himself so mighty a moral transformation, as when under the belief
-that he is saved by grace, he feels constrained thereby to offer his
-heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness.
-
-To do any work in the best manner, you would make use of the fittest
-tools for it. And we trust that what has been said may serve in some
-degree for the practical guidance of those who would like to reach the
-great moral achievement of our text—but feel that the tendencies and
-desires of nature are too strong for them. We know of no other way by
-which to keep the love of the world out of our heart, than to keep in
-our heart the love of God—and no other way by which to keep our hearts
-in the love of God, than building ourselves up on our most holy faith.
-That denial of the world which is not possible to him that dissents from
-the gospel testimony, is possible, even as all things are possible to him
-that believeth. To try this without faith, is to work without the right
-tool or the right instrument. But faith worketh by love; and the way of
-expelling from the heart the love that transgresseth the law, is to admit
-into its receptacles the love which fulfilleth the law.
-
-Conceive a man to be standing on the margin of this green world; and
-that, when he looked toward it, he saw abundance smiling upon every
-field, and all the blessings which earth can afford scattered in
-profusion throughout every family, and the light of the sun sweetly
-resting upon all the pleasant habitations, and the joys of human
-companionship brightening many a happy circle of society—conceive of
-this as being the general character of the scene upon one side of his
-contemplation; and that on the other, beyond the verge of the goodly
-planet on which he was situated, he could descry nothing but a dark and
-fathomless unknown. Think you that he would bid a voluntary adieu to all
-the brightness and all the beauty that were before him on earth, and
-commit himself to the frightful solitude away from it? Would he leave
-its peopled dwelling places, and become a solitary wanderer through the
-fields of nonentity? If space offered him nothing but a wilderness, would
-he abandon the homebred scenes of life and of cheerfulness that lay so
-near, and exerted such a power of urgency to detain him? Would not he
-cling to the regions of sense, and of life, and of society?—and shrinking
-away from the desolation that was beyond it, would not he be glad to keep
-his firm footing on the territory of this world, and to take shelter
-under the silver canopy that was stretched over it?
-
-But if, during the time of his contemplation, some happy island of the
-blest had floated by; and there had burst upon his senses the light
-of its surpassing glories, and its sounds of sweeter melody; and he
-clearly saw that there a purer beauty rested upon every field, and a more
-heartfelt joy spread itself among all the families; and he could discern
-there a peace, and a piety, and a benevolence, which put a moral gladness
-into every bosom, and united the whole society in one rejoicing sympathy
-with each other, and with the beneficent Father of them all. Could he
-further see that pain and mortality were there unknown, and above all,
-that signals of welcome were hung out, and an avenue of communication was
-made for him, perceive you not, that what was before the wilderness,
-would become the land of invitation; and that now the world would be
-the wilderness? What unpeopled space could not do, can be done by space
-teeming with beatific scenes and beatific society. And let the existing
-tendencies of the heart be what they may to the scene that is near and
-visible around us, still, if another stood revealed to the prospect of
-man, either through the channel of faith, or through the channel of his
-senses—then, without violence done to the constitution of his moral
-nature, may he die unto the present world, and live to the lovelier world
-that stands in the distance, away from it.
-
-
-
-
-SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE.
-
-
-THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.
-
- Quiet and fair in tone; condensed to the last point, and still
- perfectly clear; written in such pure English that the youngest
- reader can understand, yet free from an affectation of baby talk,
- which is often considered indispensable in children’s books—the
- “Young Folks’ History of the United States” makes a refreshing
- contrast to the kind of school book with which Abbott and Loomis,
- and men of their stamp have inundated the country. Not that these
- latter, in spite of bombast and dryness, may not have served a
- purpose in their day and generation, no better men having come
- forward heretofore, but that a more thoughtful and scientific age
- demands better work.—_Scribner’s Monthly._
-
-
-Criticism on “Back-Log Studies.”
-
-In “Back-Log Studies” there are, no doubt, some essentially inartistic
-things—some long episodes; for example, such as the “New Vision of Sin”
-and the “Uncle in India,” which are clearly inferior in texture to the
-rest, and not quite worth the space they occupy; but, as a whole, the
-book is certainly a most agreeable contribution to the literature of the
-Meditative school. And it is saying a great deal to say this. To make
-such an attempt successful there must be a lightness of touch sustained
-through everything; there must be a predominant sweetness of flavor,
-and that air of joyous ease which is often the final triumph of labor.
-There must also be a power of analysis, always subtle, never prolonged;
-there must be description, minute enough to be graphic, yet never carried
-to the borders of fatigue; there must also be glimpses of restrained
-passion, and of earnestness kept in reserve. All these are essential,
-and all these the “Back-Log Studies” show. If other resources were
-added—as depth of thought, or powerful imagination, or wide learning, or
-constructive power—they would only carry the book beyond the proper ranks
-of the Meditative school, and place it in that higher grade of literature
-to which Holmes’ “Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” belongs. Yet it may be
-better not to insist on this distinction, for it is Mr. Warner himself
-who wisely reminds us that “the most unprofitable and unsatisfactory
-criticism is that of comparison.”
-
-It is as true in literature as in painting that “it is in the perfection
-and precision of the instantaneous line that the claim to immortality
-is made.” The first and simplest test of good writing is in the fresh
-and incisive phrases it yields; and in this respect “Back-Log Studies”
-is strong. The author has not only the courage of his opinions, but he
-has the courage of his phrases, which is quite as essential. What an
-admirable touch, for instance, is that where Mr. Warner says that a
-great wood-fire in a wide kitchen chimney, with all the pots and kettles
-boiling and bubbling, and a roasting spit turning in front of it, “makes
-a person as hungry as one of Scott’s novels!” Fancy the bewilderment of
-some slow and well-meaning man upon encountering that stroke of fancy;
-his going over it slowly from beginning to end, and then again backward
-from end to beginning, studying it with microscopic eye, to find where
-the resemblance comes in, until at last it occurs to him that possibly
-there may be a typographical error somewhere, and that, with a little
-revision, the sentence might become intelligible! He does not know that
-in literature, as in life, nothing venture, nothing have; and that it
-often requires precisely such an audacious stroke as this to capture the
-most telling analogies.
-
-There occurs just after this, in “Back-Log Studies,” a sentence which
-has long since found its way to the universal heart, and which is worth
-citing, as an example of the delicate rhetorical art of under-statement.
-To construct a climax is within the reach of every one; there is not a
-Fourth-of-July orator who can not erect for himself a heaven-scaling
-ladder of that description, climb its successive steps, and then tumble
-from the top. But to let your climax swell beneath you like a wave of the
-sea, and then let it subside under you so gently that your hearer shall
-find himself more stirred by your moderation than by your impulse; this
-is a triumph of style. Thus our author paints a day of winter storm; for
-instance, the wild snow-drifts beating against the cottage window, and
-the boy in the chimney-corner reading about General Burgoyne and the
-Indian wars. “I should like to know what heroism a boy in an old New
-England farm-house, rough-nursed by nature, and fed on the traditions
-of the old wars, did not aspire to—‘John,’ says the mother, ‘you’ll
-burn your head to a crisp in that heat.’ But John does not hear; he is
-storming the Plains of Abraham just now. ‘Johnny, dear, bring in a stick
-of wood.’ How can Johnny bring in wood when he is in that defile with
-Braddock, and the Indians are popping at him from behind every tree?
-There is something about a boy that I like, after all.”
-
-I defy any one who has a heart for children to resist that last sentence.
-Considered critically, it is the very triumph of under-statement—of
-delicious, provoking, perfectly unexpected, moderation. It is a
-refreshing dash of cool water just as we were beginning to grow heated.
-Like that, it calls our latent heat to the surface by a kindly reaction;
-the writer surprises us by claiming so little that we concede everything;
-we at once compensate by our own enthusiasm for this inexplicable
-lowering of the demand. Like him! of course we like him—that curly-pated,
-rosy-cheeked boy, with his story books and his Indians! But if we had
-been called upon to adore him, it is very doubtful whether we should
-have liked him at all. And this preference for effects secured by quiet
-methods—for producing emphasis without the use of italics, and arresting
-attention without resorting to exclamation points—is the crowning merit
-of the later style of Mr. Warner.
-
-
-HENRY JAMES, Jr.
-
- Mr. Henry James, Jr., inherits from his father a diction so rich
- and pure, so fluent and copious, so finely shaded, yet capable
- of such varied service, that it is, in itself, a form of genius.
- Few men have ever been so brilliantly equipped for literary
- performance. Carefully trained taste, large acquirements of
- knowledge, experience of lands and races, and association with
- the best minds have combined to supply him with all the purely
- intellectual requisites which an author could desire.—_Bayard
- Taylor._
-
- As a story-teller, we know of no one who is entitled to rank
- higher, since Poe and Hawthorne are gone, than Mr. James.
- His style is pure and finished, and marked by the nicety of
- expression which is so noticeable among the best French writers
- of fiction.—_Louisville Courier-Journal._
-
- The “Portrait of a Lady” is a very clever book, and a book of
- very great interest. We do not know a living English novelist who
- could have written it.—_Pall Mall Gazette._
-
-
-Carlyle’s Letters to Emerson.
-
-Carlyle takes his place among the first of English, among the very first
-of all letter-writers. All his great merits come out in this form of
-expression; and his defects are not felt as defects, but only as striking
-characteristics and as tones in the picture. Originality, nature, humor,
-imagination, freedom, the disposition to talk, the play of mood, the
-touch of confidence—these qualities, of which the letters are full, will
-with the aid of an inimitable use of language—a style which glances at
-nothing that it does not render grotesque—preserve their life for readers
-even further removed from the occasion than ourselves, and for whom
-possibly the vogue of Carlyle’s published writings in his day will be to
-a certain degree a subject of wonder.
-
-Carlyle is here in intercourse with a friend for whom, almost alone among
-the persons with whom he had dealings, he appears to have entertained a
-sentiment of respect—a constancy of affection untinged by that humorous
-contempt in which (in most cases) he indulges when he wishes to be kind,
-and which was the best refuge open to him from his other alternative of
-absolutely savage mockery.
-
-It is singular, indeed, that throughout his intercourse with Emerson he
-never appears to have known the satiric fury which he directed at so
-many other objects, accepting his friend _en bloc_, once for all, with
-reservations and protests so light that, as addressed to Emerson’s own
-character, they are only a finer form of consideration.… Other persons
-have enjoyed life as little as Carlyle; other men have been pessimists
-and cynics; but few men have rioted so in their disenchantments, or
-thumped so perpetually upon the hollowness of things with the idea of
-making it resound. Pessimism, cynicism, usually imply a certain amount of
-indifference and resignation; but in Carlyle these forces were nothing if
-not querulous and vocal. It must be remembered that he had an imagination
-which made acquiescence difficult—an imagination haunted with theological
-and apocalyptic visions. We have no occasion here to attempt to estimate
-his position in literature, but we may be permitted to say that it is
-mainly to this splendid imagination that he owes it. Both the moral and
-the physical world were full of pictures for him, and it would seem to be
-by his great pictorial energy that he will live.
-
-
-Anthony Trollope.
-
-His great, his inestimable merit was a complete appreciation of reality.
-This gift is not rare in the annals of English fiction; it would
-naturally be found in a walk of literature in which the feminine mind has
-labored so fruitfully. Women are delicate and patient observers; they
-hold their noses close, as it were, to the texture of life. They feel
-and perceive the real (as well as the desirable), and their observations
-are recorded in a thousand delightful volumes. Trollope therefore, with
-his eyes comfortably fixed on the familiar, the actual, was far from
-having invented a _genre_, as the French say; his great distinction is
-that, in resting there, his vision took in so much of the field. And then
-he _felt_ all common, human things as well as saw them; felt them in a
-simple, direct, salubrious way, with their sadness, their gladness, their
-charm, their comicality, all their obvious and measurable meanings.
-
-
-Du Maurier.
-
-He is predominantly a painter of social, as distinguished from popular
-life, and when the other day he collected some of his drawings into a
-volume, he found it natural to give them the title of “English Society
-at Home.” He looks at the “accomplished” classes more than at the
-people, though he by no means ignores the humors of humble life. His
-consideration of the peculiarities of costermongers and “cadgers” is
-comparatively perfunctory, as he is too fond of civilization and of the
-higher refinements of the grotesque. His colleague, the frank and as the
-metaphysicians say, objective, Keene, has a more natural familiarity with
-the British populace. There is a whole side of English life, at which du
-Maurier scarcely glances—the great sporting element, which supplies half
-of their gayety and all their conversation to millions of her Majesty’s
-subjects. He is shy of the turf and of the cricket field; he only touches
-here and there upon the river. But he has made “society” completely his
-own—he has sounded its depths, explored its mysteries, discovered and
-divulged its secrets. His observation of these things is extraordinarily
-acute, and his illustrations, taken together, form a complete comedy of
-manners, in which the same personages constantly re-appear, so that we
-have the sense, indispensable to keenness of interest, of tracing their
-adventures to a climax. So many of the conditions of English life are
-picturesque (and, to American eyes, even romantic), that du Maurier has
-never been at a loss for subjects. We mean that he is never at a loss for
-pictures. English society makes pictures all round him, and he has only
-to look to see the most charming things, which at the same time have the
-merit that you can always take the satirical view of them.
-
-
-WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS.
-
- He is equal as an artist to the best French writers. His books
- are not only artistically fine, but morally wholesome.—_Magazin
- für die Literatur des Auslandes._
-
- The great body of the cultivated public has an instinctive
- delight in original genius, whether it be refined or sensational.
- Mr. Howells’s is eminently refined. His humor, however vivid in
- form, is subtle and elusive in its essence. He depends, perhaps,
- somewhat too much on the feelings of humor in his readers to
- appreciate his own. He has the true Addisonian touch; hits his
- mark in the white, and instead of provoking uproarious laughter,
- strives to evoke that satisfied smile which testifies to the
- quiet enjoyment of the reader. His humor is the humor of a
- poet.—_E. P. Whipple._
-
- Mr. Howells has been compared to Washington Irving for the
- exquisite purity of his style, and to Hawthorne for a certain
- subtle recognition of a hidden meaning in familiar things. A more
- thoroughly genial writer, certainly, we have not, nor one more
- conscientious in the practice of his art.—_Scribner’s Monthly._
-
-
-The Young Editor, from “A Modern Instance.”
-
-“Hullo!” he cried, with a suddenness that startled the boy, who had
-finished his meditation upon Bartley’s trowsers, and was now deeply
-dwelling on his boots. “Do you like ’em? See what sort of a shine you can
-give ’em for Sunday-go-to-meeting-to-morrow-morning.” He put out his hand
-and laid hold of the boy’s head, passing his fingers through the thick
-red hair. “Sorrel-top!” he said with a grin of agreeable reminiscence.
-“They emptied all the freckles they had left into your face—didn’t they,
-Andy?”
-
-This free, joking way of Bartley’s was one of the things that made him
-popular; he passed the time of day, and would give and take right along,
-as his admirers expressed it from the first, in a community where his
-smartness had that honor which gives us more smart men to the square
-mile than any other country in the world. The fact of his smartness had
-been affirmed and established in the strongest manner by the authorities
-of the college at which he was graduated, in answer to the reference
-he made to them when negotiating with the committee in charge for the
-place he now held as editor of the Equity _Free Press_.… They perhaps
-had their misgivings when the young man, in his well-blacked boots, his
-grey trowsers neatly fitting over them, and his diagonal coat buttoned
-high with one button, stood before them with his thumbs in his waistcoat
-pockets, and looked down over his mustache at the floor, with sentiments
-concerning their wisdom which they could not explore; they must have
-resented the fashionable keeping of everything about him, for Bartley
-wore his one suit as if it were but one of many; but when they understood
-that he had come by everything through his own unaided smartness, they
-could no longer hesitate. One, indeed, still felt it a duty to call
-attention to the fact that the college authorities said nothing of the
-young man’s moral characteristics in a letter dwelling so largely upon
-his intellectual qualifications. The others referred this point by a
-silent look to ’Squire Gaylord. “I don’t know,” said the ’Squire, “as
-I ever heard that a great deal of morality was required by a newspaper
-editor.” The rest laughed at the joke, and the ’Squire continued: “But
-I guess if he worked his own way through college, as they say, that he
-hain’t had time to be up to a great deal of mischief. You know it’s for
-idle hands that the devil provides, doctor.”
-
-“That’s true, as far as it goes,” said the doctor. “But it isn’t the
-whole truth. The devil provides for some busy hands, too.”
-
-“There’s a good deal of sense in that,” the ’Squire admitted. “The worst
-scamps I ever knew were active fellows. Still, industry is in a man’s
-favor. If the faculty knew anything against this young man they would
-have given us a hint of it. I guess we had better take him; we shan’t do
-better. Is it a vote?”
-
-
-CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
-
- Humor he has, and of the very highest order. It is as delicate
- as Washington Irving’s, and quite as spontaneous. But humor is
- hardly his predominant quality. He has all the wit of Holmes,
- and all the tenderness of Ik Marvel. He is often charmingly
- thoughtful, earnest and suggestive.—_San Francisco Bulletin._
-
- There is only one other pair of microscopic eyes like his owned
- by an American, and they belong to W. D. Howells. These two men
- will ferret out fun from arid sands and naked rocks, and in one
- trip of a league, less or more, over a barren waste, see and hear
- more that is amusing and entertaining than the rest of the world
- will discover in crossing a continent. Such men should do our
- traveling for us.—_Chicago Tribune._
-
-
-From “Back-Log Studies.”
-
-The fire on the hearth has almost gone out in New England; the hearth has
-gone out; the family has lost its center; age ceases to be respected;
-sex is only distinguished by the difference between millinery bills and
-tailors’ bills; there is no more toast-and-cider; the young are not
-allowed to eat mince pies at ten o’clock at night; half a cheese is no
-longer set to toast before the fire; you scarcely ever see in front of
-the coals a row of roasting apples, which a bright little girl, with many
-a dive and start, shielding her sunny face from the fire with one hand,
-turns from time to time; scarce are the grey-haired sires who strop their
-razors on the family Bible, and doze in the chimney corner. A good many
-things have gone out with the fire on the hearth.
-
-I do not mean to say that public and private morality have vanished
-with the hearth. A good degree of purity and considerable happiness are
-possible with grates and blowers; it is a day of trial, when we are all
-passing through a fiery furnace, and very likely we shall be purified
-as we are dried up and wasted away. Of course the family is gone as an
-institution, though there still are attempts to bring up a family round
-a “register.” But you might just as well try to bring it up by hand as
-without the rallying-point of a hearth-stone. Are there any homesteads
-now-a-days? Do people hesitate to change houses any more than they do
-to change their clothes? People hire houses as they would a masquerade
-costume, liking, sometimes, to appear for a year in a little fictitious
-stone-front splendor above their means. Thus it happens that so many
-people live in houses that do not fit them. I should almost as soon
-think of wearing another person’s clothes as his house; unless I could
-let it out and take it in until it fitted, and somehow expressed my own
-character and taste.
-
-
-From “Being a Boy.”
-
-It is a wonder that every New England boy does not turn out a poet, or a
-missionary or a peddler. Most of them used to. There is something in the
-heart of the New England hills to feed the imagination of the boy and
-excite his longing for strange countries. I scarcely know what the subtle
-influence is that forms him and attracts him in the most fascinating and
-aromatic of all lands, and yet urges him away from all the sweet delights
-of his home to become roamer in literature and in the world a poet and a
-wanderer. There is something in the soil and in the pure air, I suspect,
-that promises more romance than is forthcoming, and that excites the
-imagination without satisfying it, and begets the desire of adventure.
-
- * * * * *
-
-What John said was, that he didn’t care much for pumpkin pie; but that
-was after he had eaten a whole one. It seemed to him then that mince
-would be better. The feeling of a boy toward pumpkin pie has never been
-properly considered.… His elders say that the boy is always hungry; but
-that is a very coarse way of putting it. He has only recently come into
-a world that is full of good things to eat, and there is on the whole
-a very short time in which to eat them; at least he is told, among the
-first information he receives, that life is brief. Life being brief, and
-pie and the like fleeting, he very soon decides on an active campaign.
-It may be an old story to people who have been eating for forty or fifty
-years; but it is different with a beginner. He takes the thick and thin
-as it comes—as to pie, for instance. Some people do make them very thin.
-
-
-
-
-UNITED STATES HISTORY.
-
-
-SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK.
-
-The most favorably situated, and, for its extent, the most valuable
-region of the country was first settled by the Dutch, Hollanders and
-Swedes.
-
-For some ten years there had been a trading post and small village on
-Manhattan Island; and, in 1623 the “Dutch West India Co.,” with a charter
-covering the whole coast from the Strait of Magellan to Hudson’s Bay,
-landed a colony of thirty families at New Amsterdam.
-
-The first colonists were mostly Protestant refugees from Belgium, who
-came to America to escape the persecutions endured in their own country.
-A part of the colonists took up their abode at New Amsterdam; others went
-down the New Jersey coast, and landed on the eastern shore of the Bay
-of Delaware. The same year a colony of 18 families ascended the Hudson,
-and located at or near Albany. This was the most northern post, and was
-called Fort Orange.
-
-A civil government was established for New Netherlands, in 1624,
-Cornelius May being the first governor.
-
-In 1626 Peter Minuit was appointed governor, and during his
-administration he purchased of the native inhabitants the whole of
-Manhattan Island, containing more than 20,000 acres, for forty dollars.
-
-Some settlements were also made on Long Island. The Dutch of New
-Amsterdam and the Pilgrims of New England were early friends, and helped
-each other. Both enjoyed a good degree of prosperity, and the population
-steadily increased.
-
-For more than ten years the Indians, with few exceptions, received the
-strangers who came among them kindly and in good faith. When injured
-and wronged their resentment was kindled, and terribly did they avenge
-themselves on their enemies. The first notable instance was at Lewistown,
-on Delaware Bay, where Hosset, a governor of violent temper and little
-sagacity, seized and put to death a chief, who in some way offended him.
-The tribe was aroused, and assailed the place with such violence that
-not a man was left alive. When the next ship-load of colonists arrived,
-instead of a thrifty town, and friends eagerly waiting to receive them,
-they found but the bones of the slain, and the ashes of the homes that
-had sheltered them. Afterward there was not, for many years, the same
-sense of security; and in 1640 New Netherlands became involved in a
-general war with the Indians of Long Island and New Jersey, a war that,
-on both sides, was far from honorable, and marked with treachery,
-cruelty, and murders most revolting. If the whites were surprised and
-massacred by the Indians, there were as terrible massacres of Indians by
-the whites, who were, too often, the aggressors. An impartial historian
-says: “Nearly all the bloodshed and sorrow of those five years of war may
-be charged to Governor Kief. He was a revengeful, cruel man, whose idea
-of government was to destroy whatever opposed him.” For his headstrong
-course and cruelty he lost his position, and, to the great relief of the
-colonists, who had suffered much on his account, sailed for England. But
-the ship was wrecked on the coast of Wales, and the guilty governor found
-a grave in the sea. He was succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant, a resolute
-man, of more ability than most who preceded him. He, for seventeen
-years, managed the affairs of the colonists successfully. He conciliated
-the savages, settled the boundaries of his territory, and enforced the
-surrender of New Sweden, which became a part of his dominion. There was
-afterward some difficulty with the Indians, but more from a quarter
-whence no danger was expected. Lord Baltimore, of Maryland, claimed,
-under his charter, all the territory between the Chesapeake and Delaware
-Bay. Berkley claimed New Sweden, while Connecticut and Massachusetts were
-equally aggressive on the territories adjacent to their lines.
-
-In 1664 the unscrupulous king of England, Charles II., issued patents
-to his brother, the Duke of York, covering the territory called New
-Netherlands, and more beside. It was in utter disregard of the rights
-of Holland, and of the West India Co., who had settled the country. No
-time was given for protest against the outrage. An English squadron soon
-appeared before New Amsterdam, and demanded the immediate surrender of
-the country, and the acknowledgment of the sovereignty of England. No
-effectual resistance could be made, and the indignant old governor,
-his council ordering it, had to sign the capitulation; and, on the 8th
-of September, 1664, the English flag was hoisted over the fort and
-town. The Swedish and Dutch settlements likewise capitulated, and the
-conquest was complete. From Maine to Georgia, in every settlement near
-the coast, the British flag was unfurled. This high-handed injustice,
-which robbed a sister state of her well earned colonial possessions, was
-but slightly mitigated by the fact that the armament was insufficient to
-enforce submission without the shedding of blood. The capitulation was
-on favorable terms, and with fair promises, that were never fulfilled.
-The government was despotic, and the people were sorely oppressed. The
-policy of the tyrannical governor was to tax the people till they could
-do nothing but think how possibly to pay the amount assessed.
-
-In 1673, England and Holland being at war, the latter sent a small
-squadron to recover the possessions wrested from her in America. When
-the little fleet appeared before New York, the governor was absent, and
-his deputy, either from cowardice, or, knowing the people preferred to
-have it so, at once surrendered the city, and the whole province yielded
-without a struggle.
-
-But the re-conquest of New York by the Dutch, gave them no permanent
-possession, as the war was soon closed by a treaty of peace, in which all
-the rights of Holland in America were surrendered.
-
-The Dutch and Swedes again became subject to English authority. Popular
-government was overthrown, and the officers appointed by the crown,
-directly or otherwise, with few exceptions, were unjust and tyrannical.
-Their oppressive measures were met with resistance, and, so intense
-was the hatred excited, that obstructions were thrown in the way of
-everything that was attempted. The people, when not repelling the attacks
-of the French and the Indians, or carrying the war into the territory
-of the invaders—campaigns in which much was sacrificed and nothing
-gained—were in a constant struggle with the royal governors, intent on
-collecting the revenues and enriching themselves, but careless of the
-best interests of the people.
-
-
-PENNSYLVANIA.
-
-In 1681 William Penn, a man of convictions, who, with other Quakers, had
-suffered persecution on account of his religious convictions, obtained a
-charter with proprietary rights, for a large tract of American territory.
-Geographically its position was nearly central as regards the original
-colonies, but at first somewhat indefinitely bounded. In the final
-adjustment of colonial limits it was made a regular parallelogram, a
-small addition being made to give access to Lake Erie, and a good harbor.
-The average length is 310 miles; the width, 160 miles. In naming his
-territory the proprietor modestly omitted any allusion to himself. He
-suggested Sylvania, because of the extensive and almost unbroken forest.
-The clerk prefixed “Penn.” From this he appealed to the king, who decided
-the prefix should be retained; but, as a relief to the wounded modesty of
-the Quaker, said it would be in honor of the Admiral, his friend, and the
-deceased father of William. For whomever the compliment was intended, the
-citizens of the commonwealth have always liked the name.
-
-The liberal plan for the government of West New Jersey, previously
-drawn up by Penn, was adopted, and the colonists encouraged to govern
-themselves. The powers conferred on him personally were never used in
-selfishness, or to advance his personal interests, but only to further
-the complete establishment of freedom, justice, and the best interests of
-the people.
-
-To the Swedes and others who had settled within his territory before
-he took possession, he introduced himself in a way so conciliatory and
-assuring that their friendship was at once won. His first message as
-governor was an admirable document—plain, honest, sensible in its every
-utterance. Its brevity allows it to be printed in full. “My friends, I
-wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These words are to let you
-know that it hath pleased God, in his providence, to cast you in my lot
-and care. It is a business that though I never undertook before, yet God
-hath given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest heart to do it
-uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change and the king’s
-choice; for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to
-make his fortune great. You shall be governed by laws of your own making,
-and live a free, and if you will, a sober, industrious people.…”
-
-Before the proprietor’s arrival, with three shiploads of Quaker
-colonists, his deputy, as instructed, had respected the rights of all
-the settlers, of whatever nationality or religious faith, and had been
-specially careful to cultivate friendly relations, and form treaties
-with the Indian tribes located in or near the territory. The offers
-of friendship, honestly made, were received in the same kindly spirit
-that prompted them, and neither fraud nor violence was feared. Not long
-after Penn came, a general council was called of the chiefs and sachems,
-anxious to see him of whom they had heard, and whose promises, reported
-to them, they had believed. He met them, with a few friends, unarmed as
-they all were, and spoke kind words by an interpreter.
-
-It was not his object to purchase lands, or to lay down rules to govern
-them in trading, but honestly to assure the untutored children of the
-forest of his friendly purposes and brotherly affection.
-
-The covenant then made, not written with ink, nor confirmed by any oath,
-was sacredly kept. No deed of violence or injustice ever marred the peace
-or interrupted the friendly relations of the parties. For more than
-seventy years, during which time the province remained under the control
-of the Friends, the peace was unbroken. Not a war-whoop was heard, nor
-any hostile demonstration witnessed in Pennsylvania.
-
-In December, 1682, a convention was held of three days’ continuance, and
-all needful provision made for territorial legislation.
-
-The generous concessions of the proprietor harmonized the views of the
-assembly, and the results of the convention were eminently satisfactory.
-
-After a month’s absence, during which there was a visit to the
-Chesapeake, and an amicable conference with Lord Baltimore, about the
-boundaries of their respective provinces, Penn returned, and busied
-himself in locating and making a plot of his proposed capital. The
-beautiful neck between the Schuylkill and Delaware was wisely chosen; the
-land purchased of the Swedes, who had begun a settlement there, and map
-of the city provided. Three or four cabins were the only dwellings on the
-site, and the lines of the streets were indicated by marks on the trees.
-Thus in the woods was founded Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.
-
-From the inception of his American enterprise, Penn showed himself
-a true philanthropist, not seeking his own aggrandizement, but the
-good of others. The oppressed and persecuted trusted him and were
-not disappointed. He promised them freedom, the love of which was a
-master passion with him, and the charter of their liberties dated at
-Philadelphia, and adopted by the first General Assembly, was even more
-generous than they expected. He conceded all the rights of legislation
-to the representatives of the people, reserving for himself only the
-right to veto any hasty and objectionable enactments of the council.
-His administration as executive met with much favor, and the tide of
-prosperity was for years unabated. Such was the condition of affairs
-in Pennsylvania when King James II. abdicated his throne. Penn, being
-a friend of the Stuarts, and having received his liberal charter from
-Charles II., sympathized with the fallen monarch, and, though loyal,
-had less confidence in William and Mary. For his sympathy and supposed
-adherence to the cause of the exiled king, he was persecuted, several
-times arrested and cast into prison. But investigations showed the
-suspicions of disloyalty unfounded; and his rights, so unjustly and to
-the great grief of his colonists, wrested from him, were fully restored.
-The new sovereign was a Catholic, and his fellow-communicants, like
-other dissenters from the Establishment, had suffered much. His anxiety
-to restore to them all the immunities of citizenship disposed him to
-listen to the logic and eloquence of the accomplished Quaker, who boldly
-contended for the toleration of all creeds, and the unlimited freedom of
-conscience. His influence during these years, in keeping up the tide of
-immigration to America, and especially to Pennsylvania, was something
-wonderful.
-
-In 1699 he again visited his American colony, now grown into a state—the
-increase in population and all the resources of a prosperous community
-far exceeding his expectations.
-
-In 1701, having carefully and satisfactorily arranged all his affairs
-in America, Penn bade a final adieu to his many friends, and returned
-to England. He left them, largely through the influence of his teaching
-and example and spirit, at peace among themselves and with all their
-neighbors.
-
-About this time a measure was proposed in England that, if passed, would
-seriously affect the colonists in all parts of the country. The ministers
-formed the design of abolishing all the proprietary estates, with the
-view of establishing royal governments in their stead. The presence of
-Penn was greatly needed in England to prevent the success of this scheme,
-and not without much effort was the purpose defeated. It required a man
-of power and influence in the king’s court to do it. From this time
-the government, though still in Penn’s right, was administered by his
-deputies, some of whom disappointed him. John Evans, an ambitious man,
-and not true to the peace principles of the Friends, greatly troubled the
-province by purchasing military equipments, and attempting to organize
-a regiment of militia. The council and citizens protested so strongly
-against his proceedings as irreconcilable with the policy of Penn, that
-Evans was removed from the office, and another appointed. His charge to
-the deputies appointed had been, “You are come to a quiet land; rule
-for him under whom the princes of this world will one day esteem it an
-honor to govern in their places.” Those who heeded the charge had peace
-and prosperity in their borders. As proprietor of his vast possessions
-in America, Penn was not faultless; but his mistakes bore an amiable
-character. Conscious of his own integrity and freedom from cupidity,
-he placed too much confidence in the untried virtue of others, and
-exposed inferior men in the way of temptation to dishonesty that they
-were not able to resist. The rascality of his agent, Ford, whose false
-accounts involved the honest proprietor in debt to a large amount, well
-nigh accomplished his financial ruin. He was imprisoned, and after weary
-months of confinement was released by influential friends, who compounded
-with the creditors in whose power the crafty agent had placed him.
-
-The simplicity of his Quaker habits and enthusiasm for religion seemed
-inconsistent with his great influence in the corrupt court of the king,
-and he was suspected of acting a double part—was thrice arrested, charged
-with treasonable intentions, and as often acquitted. But the strain
-was too great. His natural force abated, and the infirmities of age
-came on him rapidly. His acquittal, and the complete vindication of his
-character cast a bright light on the clouds, and its radiance gave a kind
-relief for the six years of feebleness and suffering that remained after
-life’s mission seemed mostly accomplished. The attacks of enemies and
-contemporary rivals are more readily condoned. But the abortive attempt
-of Lord Macaulay to asperse the character of the deceased governor, whose
-enterprise in the New World eclipsed all others, reflects little honor on
-the name of the great historian. Certainly the great Quaker’s record on
-this side of the Atlantic can never be tarnished, and his principles of
-liberty and equality are better understood and appreciated by American
-freemen.
-
-The colonial possessions of Penn were bequeathed to his three sons, by
-whom, and their deputies, the government was administered until the
-American Revolution. Afterward, in 1779, the entire claim of the Penn
-family to the soil and jurisdiction of the state, was purchased by the
-legislature for a hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling. The early
-history of the Keystone state is one of special interest and pleasure.
-The reader lingers over it because it recounts bloodless victories, and
-the triumph of kindness and right over violence and wrong.
-
-When nations grow mercenary and grasping, the strong justifying their
-aggressions and conquests by the false plea that success, and the
-probable hereafter of the conquered races justify their assaults, the
-early annals of Penn’s state will stand a perpetual protest against
-fraud and violence, however successful for a time. Might does not make
-right, even when the highest civilization confronts the lowest barbarism.
-Even savages had rights that the most cultured Englishmen were bound to
-respect.
-
-The brotherhood of man includes those of lowest estate. So thought the
-founder of the great state that bears his name. With his charter in
-hand he fearlessly plunged into the vast wilderness, saying, “I will
-here found a free colony for all mankind.” The words had the true ring,
-and the asylum was opened for men of every nation who loved liberty and
-hated the oppressor’s wrongs. And it was a most fitting thing that the
-“bells of his capital should ring out the first glad notes of American
-independence.”
-
-
-GEORGIA.
-
-Every philanthropist must take satisfaction in the founding of the
-colony in Georgia; for, perhaps beyond any other, it had its origin
-in the spirit of pure benevolence. The unfortunate debtor in England
-was by the laws liable to imprisonment; and thousands were, for this
-cause alone, languishing in prisons. The miserable condition of debtors
-and their desolate families, was at length thrust on the attention of
-Parliament. In 1728 a commission was appointed to inquire into the state
-of the poor, and report measures of relief. The work was accomplished,
-the jails thrown open, and the prisoners returned to their families.
-But, though liberated, they and their friends were in no condition
-to maintain themselves respectably in the land of their birth. There
-was a land beyond the sea where debt was not a crime, and poverty not
-necessarily a disgrace. To provide somewhere a refuge for the poor
-of England, and the distressed Protestants of other countries, the
-commission appealed to George II. for the privilege of planting a colony
-of such persons in America. A charter was issued giving the desired
-territory to a corporation, for twenty-one years, _to be held in trust
-for the poor_. In honor of the king the new province was named Georgia.
-The high-souled philanthropist who initiated and went steadily forward
-in this enterprise was James Oglethorpe. Born a loyalist, educated at
-Oxford, a high churchman, a soldier, a member of Parliament, benevolent,
-generous, full of sympathy, and far-sighted in comprehending the results
-of his enterprise, he sacrificed much, giving the best position of a life
-so full of energy and promise to the noble charity of providing homes
-for the poor, under such conditions that the largest benefit could be
-received by them without any sense of degradation. Ridpath says: “The
-magnanimity of the enterprise was heightened by the fact that he did
-not believe in the equality of men, but only in the duty of the strong
-to protect the weak, and sympathize with the lowly. Oglethorpe was the
-principal member of the corporation, and to him the personal leadership
-of the first colony planted on the banks of the Savannah was naturally
-intrusted. His associations were with cultured people, and his refined
-tastes would be subjected to some crucial tests by the rude scenes in the
-wilderness, and his association with unlettered men. But he was not a man
-to shirk responsibility, and promptly determined to share the privations,
-hardships, and dangers of his colony.
-
-“With one hundred and twenty emigrants, in January, 1735, he safely
-reached the coast, proceeded up the river, and selected, for the site
-of his first settlement, the high bluff on which Savannah was built.
-There, amidst the pines, was soon seen a village of tents and rude
-dwellings, the nucleus of the fine city, intended for the capital of a
-new commonwealth, in which there would be freedom of conscience and no
-imprisonment for debt.”
-
- [End of Required Reading for April.]
-
-
-
-
-LIGHT AT EVENTIDE.
-
-By E. G. CHARLESWORTH.
-
-
- I met an old man in my way;
- For many years the light of day
- Had been to him but memory;
- Poor, blind, half-deaf, and lame was he:
- My heart was bent to sympathize,
- I looked toward the dead closed eyes,
- Hopeful, by some apt words, a light
- To bring to mingle with his night.
-
- A falling tide was on the sand.
- Slowly, that he might understand,
- I said,
- “The ebbing tide, and then the flood;
- The darkest hour, then the dawn;
- Death, then——”
- Some inner sun’s streaks in his face
- Shone on this image of his case,
- And twice, with Faith and Hope’s sunshine,
- He brightly filled my shortened line—
- _Death, then the morn—Death, then the morn!_
-
- * * * * *
-
-For though you might not be able to break or bend the power of genius—the
-deeper the sea, the more precipitous the coast—yet in the most important
-initiatory decade of life, in the first, at the opening dawn of all
-feelings, you might surround and overlay the slumbering lion-energies
-with all the tender habits of a gentle heart, and all the bands of
-love.—_Richter._
-
-
-
-
-THE COOPER INSTITUTE.
-
-By the REV. J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D.
-
-
-Among the monuments and illustrations of the spirit of philanthropy—the
-noblest distinction between ancient and modern civilization—the Cooper
-Institute has stood for a quarter of a century, an object of interest
-proportionate to the intellectual and moral elevation of those who behold
-it.
-
-The early struggles, great success and marked mental progress of its
-founder, no less than a liberality as beautiful as it was then rare,
-invest his life with a peculiar charm. Nor did he retain his possessions
-until death loosened his grasp, employing in beneficence only that which
-he could no longer retain. Thus he became the ancestor of many who are
-their own executors. “May their tribe increase!” To these qualities was
-added a simplicity which made it impossible not to feel that Peter Cooper
-was a kind of universal “Uncle.” It pleased Almighty God in a providence,
-which was no strain upon faith, as it seemed preëminently in harmony with
-the sense of fitness, to allow him to live until he had seen the desire
-of his heart, and could not doubt either the perpetuity, the wisdom or
-the success of his plans for promoting the welfare of the people. To
-comparatively few philanthropists on so large a scale, has this privilege
-been vouchsafed; for most of them are old before their accumulations
-justify large responsibilities.
-
-The death of Peter Cooper gave to New York the opportunity, which was
-itself a blessing, of showing by spontaneous tributes whose reflex
-influence strengthens every spring of virtue, counteracting the
-barbarizing tendencies of the struggle for bread or riches or honors, and
-the weakening effects of mere idleness and the prevailing distrust of
-human goodness, its estimate of disinterestedness. The opportunity was
-improved, for never within the memory of the oldest inhabitant has the
-death of a private citizen evoked more tender exhibitions of respect and
-affection than that of the patriarchal Peter Cooper.
-
-It is my purpose to describe this institution; to tell all about it, so
-that those who read and have not seen may know what those who have seen
-are pleased to recall.
-
-On the 29th of April, 1859, Peter Cooper executed a deed in fee simple of
-the property known as the Cooper Institute without any reservation, to
-six trustees, upon the conditions specified in the act of the legislature
-authorizing the gift to be made, “that the above mentioned and desirable
-premises, together with the appurtenances and the rents, issues, income,
-and profits thereof shall be forever devoted to the instruction and
-improvement of the inhabitants of the United States in practical science
-and art.”
-
-The location of the property and its dimensions are thus described by the
-founder in his letter to the trustees accompanying the trust deed:
-
- “GENTLEMEN:—It is to me a source of inexpressible pleasure, after
- so many years of continued effort, to place in your hands the
- title of all that piece and parcel of land bounded on the west
- by Fourth Avenue, and on the north by Astor Place, on the east
- by Third Avenue, and on the south by Seventh Street, with all
- the furniture, rents and income of every name and nature, to be
- forever devoted to the advancement of science and art in their
- application to the varied and useful purposes of life.”
-
-That the spirit of Peter Cooper and the purposes which he had in this
-munificent gift may be the more fully understood, and the reader may
-judge how near the trustees have come to fulfilling the same, I shall
-quote some salient passages from that unique letter. “The great object I
-desire to accomplish by the establishment of an institution devoted to
-the advancement of science and art is to open the volume of nature by
-the light of truth—so unveiling the laws and methods of Deity that the
-young may see the beauties of creation, enjoy its blessings, and learn
-to love the Being ‘from whom cometh every good and perfect gift.’ My
-heart’s desire is, that the rising generation may become so thoroughly
-acquainted with the laws of nature _and the great mystery of their
-own being that they may see, feel, understand and know that there are
-immutable laws designed in infinite wisdom, constantly operating for our
-good—so governing the destiny of worlds and men that it is our highest
-wisdom to live in strict conformity to these laws_.”
-
-The italics are his. Mr. Cooper felt a special interest in the
-advancement of women; nor did this interest take a mere sentimental, much
-less an unpractical, form. It did not effervesce in honeyed compliments
-or futile denunciation of the existing state. It was thus expressed: “To
-manifest the deep interest and sympathy I feel in all that can advance
-the happiness and better the condition of the female portion of the
-community, and especially of those who are dependent upon honest labor
-for support, I desire the trustees to appropriate two hundred and fifty
-dollars yearly to assist such pupils of the Female School of Design as
-shall, in their careful judgment, by their efforts and sacrifices in the
-performance of duty to parents, or to those that Providence has made
-dependent on them for support, merit and require such aid. My reason for
-this requirement is, not so much to reward, as to encourage the exercise
-of heroic virtues that often shine in the midst of the greatest suffering
-and obscurity, without so much as being noticed by the passing throng.”
-
-In prescribing rules for the practice of debate, and the facilities
-for the hearing of lectures, he says: “To aid the speakers, and those
-that hear, to profit by these lectures and debates, I hereby direct to
-have placed in the lecture room, in a suitable position, full-length
-likenesses of Washington, Franklin and Lafayette, with an expression of
-my sincere and anxious desire that all that behold them may remember that
-notwithstanding they are dead they yet speak the language of truth and
-soberness.”
-
-Here follows a provision far in advance of his time, but now becoming
-common, if not popular: “Desiring as I do that the students of this
-institution may become preëminent examples in the practice of all the
-virtues, I have determined to give them an opportunity to distinguish
-themselves for their good judgment by annually recommending to the
-trustees for their adoption such rules and regulations as they, on mature
-reflection, shall believe to be necessary and proper to preserve good
-morals and good order throughout their connection with this institution.”
-
-The letter contains an account of the religious opinions which had taken
-an “irresistible possession” of his mind. These—which may be inferred
-from the extracts made—and the offer of ten thousand dollars additional,
-to the board of trustees, for which they were to draw at their pleasure,
-as fast as the same could “be wisely used to advance the interests of the
-institution,” conclude this remarkable letter.
-
-Mr. Cooper continued to assist the Institute in every possible way until
-his death. In his will he bequeathed to it $100,000. Soon after his death
-his children notified the trustees that “in accordance with what they
-understood to be Mr. Cooper’s final wishes, they would in a few months
-contribute the sum of $100,000 in addition to the bequest of $100,000
-contained in his will.”
-
-The trustees—of whom not one has died in the long period of their
-service, the only death being that of the President, Peter Cooper—give
-the following succinct statement of the principles upon which they
-proceeded in the execution of so weighty a trust. They say that they
-laid down as the fundamental basis of their operations the following
-principles:
-
-First, that the details of the institution in all the departments should
-be arranged with especial reference to the intellectual wants and
-improvement of the working classes. And, second, that as far as might be
-consistent with the first principle, all interference with the plans or
-objects of other existing institutions in the city should be avoided.
-Guided by these principles the trustees arrived at the following broad
-scheme, as best calculated to instruct, elevate, and improve the working
-classes of the city:
-
-1. Instruction in the branches of knowledge which are practically applied
-in their daily occupations, by which they support themselves and their
-families.
-
-2. Instruction in the laws by which health is preserved and the sanitary
-condition of families improved; in other words, in personal hygiene.
-
-3. Instruction in social and political science, by virtue of which
-communities maintain themselves, and nations progress in virtue, wealth
-and power.
-
-4. Instruction addressed to the eye, the ear, and the imagination, with
-a view to furnish a reasonable and healthy recreation to the working
-classes after the labors of the day.
-
-In pursuance of these objects and in harmony with the above comprehensive
-principles the following departments are maintained at the present time
-in most effective operation:
-
-1. Free Reading Room and Library. Here between 430 and 440 periodicals
-are kept on file, and upward of 17,000 volumes are upon the shelves. In
-1883 the number of books used was 194,963, the number of patent office
-reports examined 8,324, and the number of visitors to the patent office
-room 1,487. In all 559,707 persons visited the Free Reading Room and
-Library during 1883.
-
-2. Free Art School for Women. There were no less than 1,450 applications
-for admission during the year, a number far in excess of the
-accommodations; 275 were admitted to the morning classes, of whom 202
-remained at the close of the term, and 160 received certificates. There
-are also a “pay class” for pottery painting in this department, and a pay
-class for drawing in the afternoon; 43 were in the pottery class, and 221
-in the drawing class.
-
-3. Free School for Women in Wood Engraving. Thirty-two students were
-received during the year 1882, of whom 28 continued to the close of the
-term.
-
-4. Free School of Telegraphy for Women. The number of applicants was 160,
-of whom 55 were admitted.
-
-5. Free Night School of Science. In this important department are classes
-in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical geometry, descriptive
-geometry, differential and integral calculus, elementary mechanics,
-natural philosophy, engineering, astronomy, elementary chemistry,
-analytical chemistry, geology, mechanical drawing, oratory and debate.
-One thousand one hundred and sixty-nine were admitted into the School
-of Science, 705 remained till the close of the year, and 405 obtained
-certificates.
-
-6. The Free Night School of Art. Here is taught perspective drawing,
-mechanical drawing, architectural drawing, drawing from cast, form
-drawing, industrial drawing, ornamental free hand, rudimental free hand,
-modeling in clay. In this school were 1,797 pupils.
-
-In addition to these departments a course of ten free lectures is given
-in the great hall on successive Saturday evenings for ten weeks. The
-lecturers are men of considerable eminence and generally specialists.
-Probably the most interesting ever delivered was the course by the
-famous naturalist, the Rev. J. G. Wood, of London, England. This course
-crowded the hall, and was concluded January 19th of the present year by a
-lecture, with illustrations, on “The Ant.”
-
-The term begins in the free Night Schools for Science and Art on the 1st
-of October, and closes term work in April. Applications for admission
-must be made during the month of September on Tuesday, Wednesday,
-Thursday, and Friday evenings, and on Thursday evenings afterward.
-Each applicant must be at least fifteen years old, and bring a letter
-of recommendation from his employer. Ladies are admitted to any of the
-classes in the School of Science for which they are fitted, but not to
-the School of Art. The regular course of study requires five terms, and
-to those who successfully complete it the Cooper medal and diploma are
-awarded.
-
-The annual term in the Woman’s Art School begins October 1st and ends May
-30th. Ladies desiring admission must apply in person or writing, and give
-a written responsible reference as to character, fitness, and inability
-to pay for instruction. The ages are from sixteen to thirty-five years.
-Pupils who do not exhibit proficiency after two months’ trial will be
-dropped. The morning classes are reserved for those who do not pay.
-But to meet the wants of those who wish to study as an accomplishment,
-“paying classes” are organized for the afternoon. Lessons are given
-in elementary drawing from objects, cast drawing, life drawing, oil
-painting, engraving. Lessons of two hours in length are given three times
-a week. Terms, $15 for thirty lessons.
-
-The rules of admission to the Free School in Telegraphy for Women are
-that the candidates shall present themselves for examination on the first
-Tuesday in October. They will be examined in reading poor manuscript,
-writing from dictation, penmanship and spelling. They must be at least
-sixteen years old, and _positively_ not over _twenty-four_.
-
-In the report for 1882, published in May, 1883, Mrs. Carter the Principal
-of the Woman’s Art School, says: “One hundred and twenty-six present
-pupils are learning. Of these fifty-four are in the photograph classes,
-and eighteen in the engraving class. Twenty-six now in the school are
-teaching drawing, and three of these are in nineteen public schools in
-this city. One young woman who left the art school in the winter teaches
-twenty-five hours a week in eight public schools here at two dollars an
-hour.”
-
-The form of application to the Cooper Union includes name of applicant,
-residence, age, occupation, name of employer, place of business.
-Parents or guardians, in the case of minors, fill out the blanks, but
-applications must be made in person. It only remains to say that the
-applications are in advance of the capacity of the Institute, but that
-the democratic principle of “first come first served” is rigorously
-applied. Applications do not hold over from one year to another, but must
-be renewed. It is possible for persons from any part of the country to
-avail themselves of the facilities here afforded. Board for gentlemen can
-be obtained at very reasonable rates, not far from the Union. Two rooming
-together and lunching at restaurants can live well at a low rate. Ladies
-also can procure board in Brooklyn, or in the suburban towns, or even in
-the city itself, at a rate far below what is generally supposed possible.
-
-Passing the Cooper Institute, as the writer does nearly every day, he
-looks with undiminished interest upon the young men and young women who
-go in and out of the building; while to attend one of the lectures is a
-pleasure far greater than that of merely listening. If it were possible
-to assemble in one place all who have been helped upward and onward here,
-among them would be found men and women now in the most influential
-positions, and the intelligence visible in the countenances of those who,
-though still earning their bread by the sweat of the brow, are filled
-with elevating thoughts, and are consciously members of the aristocracy
-of intellect, would be an ample reward to founder, trustees and teachers,
-for all their work and labor of love. Nor is this all; these pupils will
-transmit influences through their posterity to the end of time. Peter
-Cooper, like Washington, Lafayette, and Franklin, still speaks “words
-of truth and soberness.” He shakes hands with every aspiring young man,
-saying: “My son, I will help you;” with every young woman who cherishes
-a high ambition: “My daughter, I have a deep sympathy with you.” It is
-useless to say, “Long may his memory endure!” It can not die.
-
-In concluding this paper the writer must be permitted to express his
-satisfaction that the sketch is to appear in a magazine called into being
-by an institution which on another principle, equally efficient and
-much more widely diffused in the sphere of its influence, promotes the
-advancement of Science and Art by bringing them within the reach of all
-aspirants, without distinction of race, sex, age, or previous condition
-of servitude.
-
-
-
-
-GREEN SUN AND STRANGE SUNSETS.
-
-
-During the first half of September, the sun in Ceylon and India, and also
-in the West Indies, presented at rising and setting the appearance of a
-green or greenish-blue disc. Even when at his highest the sun appeared
-pale blue in Ceylon (from the other places no account of the sun’s aspect
-at high noon has reached me). On September 2, at Trinidad, the sun looked
-like a blue globe after five in the evening, “and after dark,” says
-the report, “we thought there was a fire in the town, from the bright
-redness of the heavens.” At Ongole, as the sun approached the horizon,
-his disc passed from a bluish tinge to green, which became tinged with
-yellow as he approached the horizon. “After he had set, light yellow and
-orange appeared in the west, a very deep red remaining for more than an
-hour after sunset; whereas, under ordinary conditions, all traces of
-color leave the sky in this latitude,” says the narrator, “within half
-an hour after the sun disappears.” These accounts, from both the eastern
-and western hemispheres, seem clearly to associate the green sun which
-attracted so much attention in the tropics early in September, with the
-remarkable sunsets seen in Arabia, in Africa (North and South), and
-throughout Europe during October and November. For we see that whatever
-may have been the explanation of the green sun, the phenomenon must have
-been produced by some cause capable of producing after sunset a brilliant
-red and orange glow, for a time much exceeding the usual duration of
-the twilight afterglow. The occurrence of the afterglow, with the same
-remarkable tints and similar exceptional duration elsewhere—though some
-weeks later—shows that a similar cause was at work.
-
-Two points are clear. First, the cause alike of the greenness of the
-sun and the ruddy afterglow was in the air, not outside; and, secondly,
-the matter, whatever it was, which made the sun look green when he was
-seen through it, and which under his rays looked red, was high above the
-surface of the earth. It can readily be shown, so far as this last point
-is concerned, that matter at a lower level than sixteen miles could not
-have caught the sun’s rays so long after sunset as the glow was seen. On
-the other point it suffices, of course, to note that if some cause in the
-sun himself had been at work, the whole earth would have seen the green
-sun, while the afterglow would have found no explanation at all.
-
-As to the actual cause to which both phenomena are to be ascribed, we
-must, I think, exculpate Krakatoa from all part or share in producing
-these strange effects. The appearance of a blue sun at Trinidad, followed
-two or three days later by a green sun in the East Indies, can not
-possibly be associated with the occurrence of an earthquake on the Javan
-shore a few days earlier. Beside, it must be remembered that we should
-have to explain two incongruous circumstances; first, how the exceedingly
-fine matter ejected from Krakatoa could have so quickly reached the
-enormous height at which the matter actually producing the afterglow
-certainly was; and, secondly, how having been able to traverse still air
-so readily one way, that matter failed to return as readily earthward
-under the attraction of gravity. Again the explanation, which at first
-seems a most probable one, that unusually high strata of moist air, with
-accompanying multitudes of ice particles, caused the phenomena alike
-of absorption and of reflection, seems negatived—first, by the entire
-absence of any other evidence of extraordinary meteorological conditions
-in September, October and November last; and, secondly, by the entire
-absence of any of the optical phenomena which necessarily accompany the
-transmission of sunlight through strata of air strewn with many ice
-particles.
-
-We seem obliged then to adopt a theory, first advanced, I believe, by Mr.
-A. C. Ranyard, that the phenomena were caused by a cloud of meteoric
-dust encountered by the earth, and received into the upper regions of
-the air, thence to penetrate slowly (mayhap not till many months have
-passed) to the surface of the earth. Mr. Ranyard calls attention to
-the circumstance that probably the early snows of the winter 1883-’84
-would bring down the advanced guard of such meteoric dust; and even as I
-write I learn that Mr. W. Mathieu Williams has followed the suggestion.
-He carefully collected the snow which fell in his garden, eighty yards
-from his chimneys and half a mile from any to windward. Slicing off a
-top film of the snow with a piece of glass he thawed it, and found a
-sediment of fine brownish-black powder. Ferrocyanide of potassium added
-to the snow-water produced no change of color, showing the absence of
-iron in solution, nor was there any visible reaction on the black dust
-till he added some hydrochloric acid. Then the blue compound indicating
-iron was abundantly formed all round the granules, and presently, as
-their solution was effected, a bluish-green deposit was formed, and the
-whole liquid deeply tinged with the same color. “It was not,” says Mr.
-Williams, “the true Prussian-blue reaction of iron alone, but just the
-color that would be produced by mixing small quantities of the cyanide of
-nickel (yellowish green) and the cyanide of cobalt (brownish white) with
-a preponderating amount of Prussian blue.”
-
-If this explanation of the green sun and the extraordinary sunsets should
-be confirmed, it appears to me that a most interesting result will have
-been achieved. Of course, it is no new thing that as the earth rushes
-onward through space she encounters yearly many millions of meteoric
-bodies, large and small; nor ought it to be regarded as strange that
-beside these separate bodies, millions of millions in the form of fine
-cosmical dust should be encountered; but the actual evidence, derived
-from the behavior of sunlight (the red and yellow rays reflected and
-relative superabundance of green and blue rays therefore transmitted),
-would be an interesting and important addition to our knowledge of
-matters meteoric.—_The Contemporary Review._
-
-
-
-
-ANTHONY TROLLOPE’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
-
-By W. W. GIST.
-
-
-A peep into a literary workshop is always interesting. There is
-always some curiosity to know how a man of letters does his work.
-This fascinating autobiography gives us a clear insight into Anthony
-Trollope’s manner of study, and states many other facts that are
-intensely interesting.
-
-Anthony Trollope’s parents were both of a literary turn of mind. His
-father had no business capacity, and everything he attempted went wrong.
-His mother and brother came to America and opened a bazar at Cincinnati,
-hoping to amass a fortune. This proved a failure, and upon returning to
-England, Mrs. Trollope wrote a book on America, which brought a fair
-compensation. For years she supported the family by her pen. There is
-indeed something heroic in her watching by the bedside of her dying
-husband and son, and writing her books during the intervals that the sick
-did not demand her attention. Her first book was written when she was
-fifty years of age. She wrote in all one hundred and fourteen volumes.
-
-Anthony Trollope’s school advantages were poor, and the trials of his
-childhood were greater than those of the average youth. In 1834, at the
-age of nineteen, he entered the postal service and continued in it for
-thirty-three years, effecting many valuable reforms and proving himself
-an efficient government officer.
-
-His literary work was done in such a manner as not to interfere in the
-least with his duties as inspector of postoffices. Few men have the power
-of will to hold themselves to the rigid, exacting plan of study that he
-imposed upon himself. He hired a man to call him at 5:30 each morning,
-and his literary work was done between that hour and 8:30, before he
-dressed for breakfast. He did not, however, spend the whole of the three
-hours in writing. During the first half hour he read aloud what he had
-written the day before, so that his ear could detect any lack of harmony
-in expression, and that he might catch the spirit of his last day’s work.
-Can anything be more systematic than his method of writing a book, as
-told in his own language:
-
-“When I commenced a new book I always prepared a diary, divided into
-weeks, and carried it on for the period which I allowed myself for the
-completion of the work. In this I have entered, day by day, the number
-of pages I have written, so that if at any time I have slipped into
-idleness for a day or two, the record of that idleness has been there
-staring me in the face and demanding of me increased labor, so that the
-deficiency might be supplied.… I have allotted myself so many pages a
-week. The average number has been about forty. It has been placed as low
-as twenty, and has risen to one hundred and twelve. And as a page is an
-ambiguous term, my page has been made to contain two hundred and fifty
-words; and as words, if not watched, will have a tendency to straggle, I
-have had every word counted as I went. In the bargains I have made with
-publishers, I have—not, of course, with their knowledge, but in my own
-mind—undertaken always to supply them with so many words, and I have
-never put a book out of hand short of the number by a single word. I may
-also say that the excess has been very small. I have prided myself on
-completing my work exactly within the proposed dimensions. But I have
-prided myself especially in completing it within the proposed time—and I
-have always done so. There has ever been the record before me, and a week
-passed with an insufficient number of pages has been a blister to my eye,
-and a month so disgraced would have been a sorrow to my heart.”
-
-He was not satisfied to hold himself rigidly to specified hours. Much
-of the time he wrote with his watch open before him, and his task was
-to complete a page every fifteen minutes. “I have found that the two
-hundred and fifty words have been forthcoming as regularly as my watch
-went.” He seems to feel that the one only who has acquired a facile
-style can expect to produce a given quantity in a given time. “His
-language must come from him as music comes from the rapid touch of the
-great performer’s fingers; as words come from the mouth of the indignant
-orator; as letters fly from the fingers of the trained compositor; as the
-syllables tinkled out by little bells form themselves to the ear of the
-telegrapher.”
-
-In comparing himself with the authors who follow no systematic method of
-work, he says: “They have failed to write their best because they have
-seldom written at ease. I have done double their work—though burdened
-with another profession—and have done it almost without an effort. I have
-not once, through all my literary career, felt myself even in danger of
-being late with my task. I have known no anxiety as to copy.”
-
-In another connection he speaks of having three unpublished novels in
-his desk, and adds: “One of these has been six years finished, and has
-never seen the light since it was first tied up in the wrapper which now
-contains it. I look forward with some grim pleasantry to its publication
-after another period of six years, and to the declaration of the critics
-that it has been the work of a period of life at which the power of
-writing novels had passed from me.”
-
-His method in writing enabled him to produce books quite rapidly, and
-this accounts in part for the unpublished works on hand. Only once did he
-permit a story to appear as a serial. In all other cases the story was
-completed before the printer saw any part of it.
-
-He defends his habit of work as follows: “I have been told that such
-appliances are beneath the notice of a man of genius. I have never
-fancied myself to be a man of genius, but had I been so I think I might
-well have subjected myself to these trammels. Nothing, surely, is so
-potent as a law that may not be disobeyed. It has the force of the
-water-drop that hollows the stone. A small daily task, if it be really
-daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.”
-
-His duties as a government officer required him to travel a great
-deal, and he soon learned to do much of his literary work while on his
-journeys. He wrote on a tablet while riding in the cars; one story was
-written while traveling on three different continents; “Lady Anna” was
-written while making a voyage from Liverpool to Australia.
-
-Anthony Trollope had very positive views on the subject of criticism.
-Early in his literary career he reached this conclusion: “I made up my
-mind then that, should I continue this trade of authorship, I would have
-no dealings with any critic on my own behalf. I would neither ask for nor
-deplore criticism, nor would I ever thank a critic for praise, or quarrel
-with him, even in my heart, for censure.” A critic of the _Times_ once
-commended his books very highly. The critic afterward ventured to inform
-Mr. Trollope that he was the author of the criticism. The blunt reply
-was to the effect that he was under no obligations for the complimentary
-notice.
-
-He once censured a professional critic for accepting a handsome present
-from an author whose works the critic had commended. His idea was that
-the man who has received a present for praising a book will not feel free
-to criticise adversely the next book by the same author. He states his
-views at length on this point: “I think it may be laid down as a golden
-rule in literature that there should be no intercourse at all between an
-author and his critic. The critic, as critic, should not know his author,
-nor the author, as author, his critic.… Praise let the author try to
-obtain by wholesome effort; censure let him avoid, if possible, by care
-and industry. But when they come, let him take them as coming from some
-source which he cannot influence, and with which he should not meddle.”
-
-He once made an earnest plea that the critic’s name should be appended to
-his article, believing that this would make the writer more careful both
-of his censure and praise, and that the reader could determine the value
-of the criticism. On the subject of critical dishonesty he says: “If the
-writer will tell us what he thinks, though his thoughts be absolutely
-vague and useless, we can forgive him; but when he tells us what he does
-not think, actuated either by friendship or animosity, then there should
-be no pardon for him. This is the sin in modern English criticism of
-which there is most reason to complain.”
-
-Anthony Trollope thinks that it is wrong that a literary name should
-carry so much favor with it. He says: “I, indeed, had never reached a
-height to which praise was awarded as a matter of course; but there were
-others who sat on higher seats, to whom the critics brought unmeasured
-incense and adulation, even when they wrote, as they sometimes did write,
-trash which from a beginner would not have been thought worthy of the
-slightest notice. I hope no one will think that in saying this I am
-actuated by jealousy of others. Though I never reached that height, still
-I had so far progressed that that which I wrote was received with too
-much favor. The injustice which struck me did not consist in that which
-was withheld from me, but in that which was given to me. I felt that
-aspirants coming up below me might do work as good as mine, and probably
-much better work, and yet fail to have it appreciated.”
-
-Mr. Trollope is undoubtedly right in his general statement. While as a
-rule literary productions stand on their merits, the name of Tennyson
-or some other writer of equal fame will insure the sale of an article
-which, if written by an unknown writer, would be promptly rejected. Young
-writers need not complain of this. Distinguished names render articles
-marketable, and give them a commercial value that publishers can not
-ignore. To test the correctness of his theory, Mr. Trollope wrote two
-novels anonymously, which were not received with favor.
-
-Mr. Trollope’s success in a pecuniary point of view was very slow.
-During the first ten years of his literary career he did not receive
-compensation enough to buy the pens, ink and paper he used. Twelve years
-passed before he received any appreciable increase of salary from his
-books. From that time his compensation was good. His books brought him in
-all something like $350,000.
-
-The chapter that he devotes to the English novelists of his day is very
-interesting. He places Thackeray first, George Eliot second, and Dickens
-third. Most readers would perhaps reverse this order. Of Thackeray’s
-great work he says: “I myself regard ‘Esmond’ as the greatest novel in
-the English language, basing that judgment upon the excellence of its
-language, on the clear individuality of the characters, on the truth
-of its delineations in regard to the time selected, and on its great
-pathos.” He pays a high tribute to Charlotte Bronte, and then adds:
-“‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Esmond,’ and ‘Adam Bede,’ will be in the hands of
-our grandchildren, when ‘Pickwick’ and ‘Pelham’ and ‘Harry Lorrequer’
-are forgotten; because the men and women depicted are human in their
-aspirations, human in their sympathies, and human in their actions.” He
-commends Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade quite highly, but thinks the
-latter has no clear conception of literary honesty.
-
-Mr. Trollope relates an amusing incident concerning one of his favorite
-characters. He was seated in a club room, when two clergymen entered
-and commenced to criticise his works. “The gravamen of their complaint
-lay in the fact that I introduced the same characters so often. ‘Here,’
-said one, ‘is the archdeacon whom we have had in every novel he has
-ever written.’ ‘And here,’ said the other, ‘is the old duke whom he
-has talked about till everybody is tired of him. If I could not invent
-new characters, I would not write novels at all.’ Then one of them
-fell foul of Mrs. Proudie. It was impossible for me not to hear their
-words, and almost impossible to hear them and be quiet. I got up, and
-standing between them, I acknowledged myself to be the culprit. ‘As to
-Mrs. Proudie,’ I said, ‘I will go home and kill her before the week is
-over.’ And so I did. The two gentlemen were utterly confounded, and one
-of them begged me to forget his frivolous observations. I have sometimes
-regretted the deed, so great was my delight in writing about Mrs.
-Proudie, … and I still live much in company with her ghost.”
-
-Mr. Trollope made a number of visits to the United States, and was in
-Washington at the time of the Mason and Slidell controversy. Mr. Sumner
-was opposed to giving up the men. Mr. Seward’s counsel prevailed with
-President Lincoln, and the men were released. He says that this “was the
-severest danger that the Northern cause encountered during the war.” He
-describes a visit to Brigham Young as follows:
-
-“I called upon him, sending to him my card, apologizing for doing so
-without an introduction, and excusing myself by saying that I did not
-like to pass through the territory without seeing a man of whom I had
-heard so much. He received me in his doorway, not asking me to enter, and
-inquired whether I were not a miner. When I told him that I was not a
-miner, he asked me whether I earned my bread. I told him I did. ‘I guess
-you’re a miner,’ said he. I again assured him that I was not. ‘Then how
-do you earn your bread?’ I told him that I did so by writing books. ‘I’m
-sure you’re a miner,’ said he. Then he turned upon his heel, went back
-into the house, and closed the door. I was properly punished, as I was
-vain enough to conceive that he would have heard my name.”
-
-This autobiography is a delightful book. The candor with which the writer
-speaks of his own books, pointing out their defects and calling attention
-to their merits, the freedom with which he speaks of his early struggles,
-his method of work, and his success, the spirit of fairness with which he
-criticises his contemporaries—all these reveal a mind healthy in tone,
-and call forth our hearty admiration.
-
-
-
-
-SABBATH CHIMES.
-
-By PHEBE A. HOLDER.
-
-
- O’er the city’s restless surges,
- Heaving like the ocean tide,
- Steals the night with hush of silence,
- And the waves of toil subside.
- Noiseless drops the soft, dark curtain,
- While the mighty throbbings cease,
- Starry eyes watch o’er the city
- Sleeping in the depths of peace.
-
- Comes the morning fair and radiant,
- Bathed in sunshine—breathing balm,
- Heaven’s blue dome a benediction,
- With its pure, unspotted calm,
- Like Jerusalem, the golden,
- Coming down to earth from heaven,
- Clad in robes of bridal beauty
- Seems this morn the Lord has given.
-
- As I tread the streets, still peaceful,
- Turning to the house of God,
- Drinking in this wondrous beauty,
- And this glory of the Lord,
- Through the crystal air of morning
- Ring the bells with mellow chime,
- In a strain of sweetest music,
- Hallowed as the Sabbath time.
-
- Like the songs I heard in childhood,
- Or a sainted mother’s psalm,
- Fell those chimes upon my spirit
- With a holy, restful calm.
- Like the tones of angel voices,
- Sounding from seraphic choir,
- Seemed this call our God to worship
- In this holy house of prayer.
-
- Still entranced I paused to listen
- To the chiming, silvery, clear—
- When the thrilling strain had ended
- Yet I waited—fixed to hear;
- While upon my listening spirit
- Came a sense unfelt before,
- Of our Lord’s most precious blessing
- In the Sabbath’s holy power.
-
- Coming like a guest from heaven
- To our earthly, toil-worn lives,
- A sweet influence, pure, uplifting,
- To our struggling souls it gives.
- Pointing with prophetic finger
- To the perfect Sabbath rest
- In the fair, Celestial City
- Of the sainted and the blest,—
-
- As with angel voice it calls us,
- Now to seek that home of light
- Where the gates of pearl shall open
- To the pure with garments white.
- Day beloved! thy blessed service
- In the temple of our God,
- Draws us nearer—ever nearer,
- To our glorious, risen Lord.
-
- Still that soft and mellow cadence
- Lingers like a sacred charm,
- Resting on my waiting spirit
- With a touch of heavenly calm.
- Like a sweet-toned voice still calling
- From our home that is to be,
- While from out its unseen glory
- Floats celestial harmony.
-
-
-
-
-EIGHT CENTURIES WITH WALTER SCOTT.
-
-By WALLACE BRUCE.
-
-
-Queen Elizabeth died March 24, 1602. James the Sixth, of Scotland, became
-James the First of the United Kingdoms. According to ancient prophecy
-the Scottish kings were to follow the Stone of Scone, which, it will be
-remembered, was removed to London by Edward the First. The prophecy was
-three hundred years in being fulfilled. The same strange Nemesis of fate,
-which, in the last generation, placed the grandson of Josephine upon the
-throne of France, handed the scepter of the haughty Elizabeth to the son
-of her unfortunate rival, Mary, Queen of Scots. But the good fortune
-of James only emphasizes the general misfortune of the Stuart family.
-His ancestral record was not a cheerful retrospect. James the First of
-Scotland was murdered. James the Second was killed by the bursting of a
-cannon. James the Third was privately slain. James the Fourth fell on the
-disastrous field of Flodden. James the Fifth died of a broken heart. Mary
-was beheaded. His father Darnley was murdered.
-
-Could he have foreseen the history of the next three generations—the
-execution of his son, Charles the First; the debauched reign of his
-grandson, Charles the Third, after his return from exile; and the
-banishment of James the Second, he would have found the outlook even more
-sad than the retrospect. The lines of the Stuart family did not fall in
-pleasant places. Some writer has observed that they suffered for the
-crimes of the Tudors. It may be that England had piled up a century of
-wrong which demanded atonement, but, without prejudice, the proverb was
-emphatically true, “Sufficient unto each reign was the evil thereof.”
-It must also be remembered that all Europe was in a ferment. The
-celebrated Thirty Years’ War was raging in Germany. Religious enthusiasm
-was asserting its power in Britain. The English and Scotch people were
-jealous of their political rights. The reign of a Scottish-born king,
-after so many centuries of bitter hate, could not be entirely acceptable
-to the English race. Both sides accused the king of partiality. Needy
-lords and nobles poured down from the north, and London resembled our own
-National Capital at the inauguration of a new president. The king was
-supplicated in Court, in the street, on horseback, at every doorway; ay,
-the very plate that contained his food was adorned with urgent request
-from some impatient relative of fifteenth or twentieth cousinship. As the
-Court had removed from Edinburgh and Scotland it seemed that Edinburgh
-and Scotland had removed to the Court. The ancient prejudice between Scot
-and English broke out in street, palace and inn. These are the historic
-events which preface the “Fortunes of Nigel,” and the fray between the
-Scottish servant and the ’prentice boys of London, at the opening of the
-volume, strikes the keynote of universal discord.
-
-It was a constitutional defect of James the First to be without money.
-As Nigel, the Scottish lord, happened to need the loan which his father
-had made to the king, he presented himself with the old fashioned
-assurance of a man justly demanding his rights, although at the hands of
-a monarch. The king was incensed, but the young lord fortunately falls in
-with George Heriot, the wealthy Scotch jeweler “to His Majesty,” whose
-princely bequests still adorn the city of Edinburgh; but, unmindful of
-good counsel, he gradually lapses from duty, becomes a murderer in what
-he considers a matter of honor, is compelled to find refuge in Alsatia or
-Whitefriars, a sort of privileged den of iniquity. The portrayal of his
-experience in this nest of outlaws is true to the London of 1620.
-
-It is this blending of Scott’s dramatic and descriptive power which
-gives even to his minor works an enduring value. We have, as it were, a
-photograph of the great city as it appeared two hundred and sixty years
-ago. We see the Strand, a quiet street, unlike the noisy thoroughfare
-of to-day, lined on the river-side with palaces and pleasure grounds
-reaching to the Thames. We see Whitehall, with its rich gates designed
-by Holbein, and stately court planned by Inigo Jones. We walk in the
-park with the courtly Duke of Buckingham, talk face to face with the
-king in the palace, on the chase, in the parlor of the wealthy Londoner;
-and at the close of the volume we feel that Scott has justly summed
-up his character in this striking paragraph of the fifth chapter: “He
-was deeply learned, without possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in
-many individual cases, without having real wisdom; fond of his power,
-yet willing to resign the direction of that, and himself, to the most
-unworthy favorites; a big and bold asserter of his rights and words, yet
-one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds; a lover of negotiations,
-in which he was always outwitted; and one who feared war, where
-conquest might have been easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was
-perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity; capable of much public
-labor, yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though
-a pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant
-and uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not uniform; and there
-were moments of his life, and those critical, in which he showed the
-spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler where
-serious labor was required; devout in his sentiments, and yet too often
-profane in his language; just and beneficent by nature, he yet gave way
-to the iniquities and oppressions of others.”
-
-“Rokeby,” a poem, comes next in historic order. The scene is laid at
-Rokeby, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, and the date is immediately
-subsequent to the great battle of Marston Moor, July 3, 1644. It was here
-that the bold cavaliers learned a lesson never to be forgotten, at the
-hand of Puritan and Roundhead. The poem abounds with notable and vigorous
-passages. It throws light on the stormy years of the great Civil War; but
-so many of Scott’s novels are related to this period that we must dismiss
-the poem with a single quotation—a tribute to the genius of Chaucer:
-
- “O for that pencil, erst profuse
- Of Chivalry’s emblazoned hues,
- That traced of old in Woodstock bower
- The pageant of the Leaf and Flower,
- And bodied forth the tourney high,
- Held for the hand of Emily!
- Then might I paint the tumult broad,
- That to the crowned abbey flowed;
- Paint the dejected cavalier,
- Doubtful, disarmed and sad of cheer;
- And his proud foe, whose formal eye
- Claimed conquest now and mastery;
- And the brute crowd, whose envious zeal
- Huzzas each turn of Fortune’s wheel.”
-
-“The Legend of Montrose” takes us once more into the Highlands of
-Scotland, where the same deadly feuds divide the clans which we witnessed
-in reading the “Fair Maid of Perth.” The Northern Highlanders, under the
-leadership of Montrose, espouse the side of King Charles. The Western
-Highlanders, under Argyle, rally on the side of Parliament. The picture
-of these two leaders is admirably drawn, as well as the character of
-their bold followers, who seemed unconscious of hardship; who were
-not only willing “to make their couch in the snow, but considered it
-effeminate luxury to use a snow-ball for a pillow.”
-
-The principal character of the book is Captain Dalgetty. A critic in
-the Edinburgh _Review_ complained that there was perhaps too much of
-Dalgetty; that he engrossed too great a proportion of the work. But
-in the very next line he says that “the author has nowhere shown more
-affinity to that matchless spirit, who could bring out his Falstaffs and
-his Pistols, in act after act, and play after play, and exercise them
-every time with scenes of unbounded loquacity, without exhausting their
-humor, or varying a note from its characteristic tone, than in his large
-and reiterated specimens of the eloquence of the redoubted Dalgetty.”
-Like many of the Scottish soldiers the captain had served under Gustavus
-Adolphus, king of Sweden, and never lost his enthusiasm for the Lion
-of the North, the bulwark of the Protestant faith. Dalgetty is a rare
-specimen of Scotch “canniness,” willing to hire out to the side that
-paid the most, but true to his contract when made. To him war was a sort
-of drama, and he merely engaged himself as one of the “star actors.”
-We dismiss the captain with reluctance, and we imagine the reader will
-likewise when he closes the volume.
-
-In one of the last chapters Scott treats us to a specimen of the lofty
-eloquence and undying hate of an old highland chief in his last words
-to his grandson: “In the thicket of the wilderness, and in the mist of
-the mountain, keep thou unsoiled the freedom which I leave thee as a
-birthright. Barter it neither for the rich garment, nor for the stone
-roof, nor for the covered board, nor for the couch of down—on the rock or
-in the valley, in abundance or in famine—in the leafy summer, and in the
-days of the iron winter—son of the mist! be free as thy forefathers. Own
-no lord—receive no law—take no hire—give no stipend—build no hut—enclose
-no pasture—sow no grain; let the deer of the mountains be thy flocks and
-herds—if these fail thee, prey upon the goods of our oppressors—of the
-Saxon and of such Gael as are Saxon in their souls. Remember those who
-have done kindness to our race, and pay their services with thy blood,
-should the hour require it. Farewell, beloved! and mayst thou die like
-thy forefathers, ere infirmity, disease, or age shall break thy spirit.”
-
-Robert Aytoun in his poem on the “Execution of Montrose,” which occurred
-a few years subsequent to our story, caught the true spirit of the Gael,
-in the Highlander’s address to Evan Cameron:
-
- “’Twas I that led the Highland host
- Through wild Lochaber’s snows,
- What time the plaided clans came down
- To battle with Montrose.
- I’ve told thee how the Southrons fell
- Beneath the broad claymore,
- And how we smote the Campbell clan
- By Inverlochy’s shore.
- I’ve told thee how we swept Dundee,
- And tamed the Lindsey’s pride;
- But never have I told thee yet
- How the great Marquis died.
-
- A traitor sold him to his foes;—
- O deed of deathless shame!
- I charge thee, boy, if e’er thou meet
- With one of Assynt’s name—
- Be it upon the mountain side,
- Or yet within the glen:
- Stand he in martial gear alone,
- Or backed by armed men—
- Face him, as thou wouldst face the man
- Who wronged thy sire’s renown;
- Remember of what blood thou art,
- And strike the caitiff down!”
-
-Between the “Legend of Montrose” and “Woodstock” stands a scaffold: a
-window is opened in the Palace of Whitehall; a brave but fickle king, who
-never lost his dignity, and rarely kept a promise, walks forth attended
-by two executioners: he speaks but one word to his attendant, places his
-head upon the block, and by the bravery of his death half atones for the
-crimes and mistakes of his life. As to his private character historians,
-for the most part, regard Charles the First as a brave, virtuous and
-religious man; but he entertained “extravagant ideas of the royal power,
-unsuitable to the time in which he lived.” His attempt to establish a
-National Church, to force upon the Presbyterians of Scotland the Common
-Prayer, and introduce a Liturgy similar to that used in England produced
-its logical result. The Star Chamber with its arbitrary arrests and
-punishments, and his idea of kingly prerogative, were not suited to
-the temper of his people; and finally he alienated his best friends by
-disregarding his word and most solemn contracts. The House of Commons,
-led by bold and determined men, asserted the supreme doctrine of liberty,
-so grandly emphasized one hundred years later in our Declaration of
-Independence, that “The power of the king, like any other power in the
-Constitution, was limited by the laws; and was liable to be legally
-resisted when it trespassed beyond them.”
-
-It must also be remembered, before we read the story of “Woodstock,” that
-the party which controlled the Parliament of England and finally brought
-the king to the scaffold, was divided into two factions: Presbyterians
-and Independents. Among the Independents were Sir Harry Vane, John Milton
-and Oliver Cromwell. So much for the introduction to “Woodstock,” which
-opens with a picture showing the cavaliers crushed under the iron heel
-of Cromwell. The time of the tale is 1652; and the story begins with
-a rather discordant service in the church or chapel of St. John. The
-defaced walls and broken windows reveal the fanaticism or spite which too
-often attends the spirit of liberty. We are presented with a rude scuffle
-between a Presbyterian and Independent preacher in a pulpit formerly
-belonging to the Established Church, in which the Independent preacher
-wins the victory; and the chapter is symbolic of the great struggle, not
-only in the religious, but also in the political condition of Britain.
-The incident is a fitting preface to the book, in which Independent,
-Presbyterian and Royalist are shaken together as in a kaleidoscope.
-
-The story humorously gives us the old-time belief that Woodstock was
-a haunted spot; and Scott refers in his preface to a book, printed in
-London in the year 1660, bearing the sombre title of “The Just Devil of
-Woodstock; or a true narrative of the several apparitions, the fights
-and punishments inflicted upon the rumpish commissioners sent thither to
-survey the manors and houses belonging to his Magestie.” The sad story of
-the fair Rosamond, murdered here by Queen Eleanor, was well calculated to
-make the ghostly apparitions more real; at least, the place was tragic
-enough to impress the superstitious of that generation. But the great
-value of this novel, apart from the picture of the times, consists in
-the portrayal of a living, breathing Cromwell; such a Cromwell as no
-history gives, but _the_ Cromwell who appears as the resultant of them
-all; a man of deep emotion, wary in council and unwavering in execution,
-a man without a single grace of oratory, who, by the force of character,
-assumed and kept the leadership of the House of Commons; in whose
-presence the bravest men stood lost in fear and wonder. Or, as Scott
-beautifully puts it: “So true it is, that as greater lights swallow up
-and extinguish the display of those which are less, so men of great,
-capacious, and overruling minds, bear aside and subdue, in their climax
-of passion, the more feeble wills and passions of others; as, when a
-river joins a brook, the fiercer torrent shoulders aside the smaller
-stream.”
-
-There is one other sketch which claims our attention—that of the
-disguised wanderer, Charles the Second, revered by Royalist, and pursued
-by the ruling party as an outcast. “No person on earth,” Scott says,
-“could better understand the society in which he moved; exile had made
-him acquainted with life in all its shades and varieties—his spirits, if
-not uniform, were elastic—he had that species of Epicurean philosophy
-which, even in the most extreme difficulties and dangers, can in an
-interval of ease, however brief, avail itself of the enjoyments of the
-moment—he was, in short, in youth and misfortune, as afterward in his
-regal condition, a good-humored but hard-hearted voluptuary, wise, save
-where his passions intervened, beneficent, save where prodigality
-had deprived him of the means, or prejudice of the wish to confer
-benefits—his faults such as might have often drawn down hatred, but that
-they were mingled with so much urbanity, that the injured person felt it
-impossible to retain the full sense of his wrongs.”
-
-During his wandering he was entertained for a time at the home of the old
-knight, Sir Henry Lee, proprietor of Woodstock. The attachment formed for
-the old knight and his family affords Scott material for one of those
-dramatic descriptions in which he always so much delighted.
-
-It was the 29th of May. All England sang. “The king enjoys his own
-again.” “He made his progress from Rochester to London, with a reception
-on the part of his subjects so unanimously cordial, as made him say
-gaily, it must have been his own fault to stay so long away from a
-country where his arrival gave so much joy. On horseback, betwixt his two
-brothers, the dukes of York and Gloucester, the restored monarch trode
-slowly over roads strewn with flowers—by conduits running wine, under
-triumphal arches, and through streets hung with tapestry. There were
-citizens in various bands, some arrayed in coats of black velvet, with
-gold chains, some in military suits of cloth of gold, or cloth of silver,
-followed by all those craftsmen, who, having hooted the father from
-Whitehall, had now come to shout the son into possession of his ancestral
-palace. On his passage through Blackheath he passed that army, which, so
-long formidable to England herself, as well as to Europe, had been the
-means of restoring the monarchy which their own hands had destroyed. As
-the king passed the last files of this formidable host he came to an open
-part of the heath, where many persons of quality, with others of inferior
-rank, had stationed themselves to gratulate him as he passed toward the
-capital.
-
-“There was one group, however, which attracted particular attention
-from those around, on account of the respect shown to the party by the
-soldiers who kept the ground, and who, whether Cavaliers or Roundheads,
-seemed to contest emulously which should contribute most to their
-accommodation; for both the elder and younger of the party had been
-distinguished in the Civil War.
-
-“It was a family group, of which the principal figure was an old man
-seated in a chair, having a complacent smile on his face, and a tear
-swelling to his eye, as he saw the banners wave on in interminable
-succession, and heard the multitude shouting the long-silenced
-acclamation, ‘God save King Charles!’ His cheek was ashy pale, and his
-long beard bleached like the thistle down; his blue eye was cloudless,
-yet it was obvious that his vision was failing. His motions were
-feeble, and he spoke little, except when he answered the prattle of his
-grandchildren or asked a question of his daughter, who sat beside him,
-matured in matronly beauty. A gigantic dog, which bore the signs of being
-at the extremity of canine life, with eyes dim, and head slouched down,
-exhibiting only the ruin of his former appearance, formed a remarkable
-figure in the group.
-
-“And now the distant clarions announced the royal presence. Onward came
-pursuivant and trumpet—onward came plumes and cloth of gold, and waving
-standards displayed, and swords gleaming to the sun; and, at length,
-heading a group of the noblest in England, supported by his royal
-brothers on either side, onward came King Charles. The monarch gazed an
-instant on the party, sprung from his horse, and walked instantly up to
-the old knight, amid thundering acclamations of the people, when they saw
-Charles with his own hand oppose the feeble attempts of the old man to
-rise to do him homage. Gently placing him on his seat—‘Bless,’ he said,
-‘father—bless your son, who has returned in safety, as you blessed him
-when he departed in danger.’
-
-“‘Excuse me for having made you wait, my lords,’ said the king as he
-mounted his horse. ‘Indeed, had it not been for these good folks, you
-might have waited for me long enough to little purpose. Move on, sirs.’
-The array moved on accordingly; the sound of trumpet and drum again rose
-amid the acclamations; but the knight had relapsed into earthly paleness;
-his eyes were closed and opened not again. They ran to his assistance,
-but it was too late. The light that burned so low in the socket had
-leaped up and expired, in one exhilarating flash.”
-
-
-
-
-GEOGRAPHY OF THE HEAVENS FOR APRIL.
-
-By PROF. M. B. GOFF.
-
-
-THE SUN.
-
-The sun’s light “exceeds in intensity any that can be produced by
-artificial means, the electric light between charcoal points being the
-only one that does not look absolutely black against the unclouded sun.”
-“The heat thrown out from every square yard of the sun’s surface is
-greater than that which would be produced by burning six tons of coal
-on it each hour. Now, we may take the surface of the sun roughly at
-2,284,000,000,000 square miles, and there are 3,097,600 square yards in
-each square mile.” A little calculation will show how many tons of coal
-must be burnt in an hour to represent the sun’s heat.
-
-There comes also from the sun chemical force, which separates carbon
-from oxygen, and turns the gas, which, were it to accumulate, would kill
-all men and animals, into the life of plants, thus preserving the animal
-and building up the vegetable world. Whether it can keep up this amount
-of light and heat throughout the “endless ages,” we have no means of
-knowing. We have, however, no evidence even during centuries of any loss
-of either, so that we may safely say that there will be an abundance of
-both for all the time in which we are interested.
-
-On the 25th of this month there will be a partial eclipse, beginning at
-1:00 p. m., Washington mean time, in longitude 82° 3.5′ west, latitude
-59° 12.3′ south. The greatest obscuration (about .75) will occur at
-2:46.4 p. m. in longitude 4° 26.7′ east, latitude 70° 48.2′ south; will
-end at 4:32.4 p. m. in longitude 12° 20.6′ east, latitude 33° 6.7′ south.
-As it will be visible only in the extreme southern part of the western
-continent and in the south Atlantic Ocean, no importance is attached to
-its occurrence.
-
-The most careless must have observed the increase in the amount of
-daylight in the northern hemisphere since the 21st of last December. On
-the first of the present month the sun rises at 5:43 a. m. and sets at
-6:25 p. m.; on the 30th it rises at 4:59 a. m. and sets at 6:55 p. m.,
-so that the increase in “day’s length,” as we are accustomed to call it,
-will be one hour and seven minutes. To set our time pieces, we must,
-when the sun is on the meridian, on the 1st, make them indicate 12:37 p.
-m.; on the 15th, 11:59.8 a. m.; on the 30th, 11:57 a. m. On the 1st day
-breaks at 4:04; on the 30th at 3:09. In latitude 41° 30′ north the sun
-will, on the 30th, reach an altitude of 63° 33′ above the horizon, the
-highest for the month.
-
-
-THE MOON’S
-
-Phases for the month occur in the following order and time (Washington
-mean time): First quarter on the 2d at 4:09 p. m.; full moon on the 10th
-at 6:36 a. m.; last quarter on the 18th at 10:46 a. m.; new moon on the
-25th at 9:49 a. m. It is also on the meridian on the 1st, 15th and 30th,
-at 5:18 p. m., 3:38 a. m., 5:03 p. m. respectively. On the 2d it sets at
-12:41 a. m.; on the 15th rises at 11:23 p. m.; and on the 29th sets at
-11:28 p. m. It is farthest from the earth on the 13th at 1:30 p. m.; and
-nearest to the earth on the 26th at 3:42 a. m. In latitude 41° 30′ north,
-its least elevation above the horizon is on the 15th, and its greatest
-on the 28th; on the former date being 29° 48½′, and on the latter 67°
-12½′. There will also be a total eclipse, beginning on the 10th at 4:44
-a. m., and ending at 8:33 a. m. The beginning of the part called “total”
-continues from 5:52 to 7:25 a. m., or one hour and thirty-three minutes.
-Magnitude nearly 1.5. As the moon sets in the neighborhood of Washington
-at about 5:30 a. m., only the first part and none of the “totality” will
-be there visible. Our neighbor, the moon, has one peculiar trait, which
-we could wish belonged to all our friends. It never “turns its back on
-you.” Cold it may be, and is often so called, but in darkest hours, and
-under all circumstances, it presents its face to the earth. It may be
-only politeness or etiquette, that causes it thus to act; but the fact
-remains. It may move a trifle, so that we can sometimes see more of it
-than at others, but four-sevenths is the limit of its surface as seen by
-man. What may be on the other side has never been revealed. For aught we
-know, there may be
-
- “Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
- And rivers of delight.”
-
-But the probabilities are strongly on the other side. So far as we can
-discover, no atmosphere is there to catch and hold the rays from the
-burning sun, and hence it seems that all must be cold and bleak and
-barren. “Distance lends enchantment to the view,” and it were perhaps
-better that we should thus enjoy its mild light and gentle influence,
-than cultivate a closer acquaintance.
-
-
-MERCURY.
-
-The planet enjoying the distinction of being the nearest to the center of
-our system is too near the “dazzling brightness” to permit our finding
-out much about its physical constitution. We suppose, but do not know,
-that it revolves on its axis. We guess that it has satellites, but no
-one is certain that he ever saw one of them. We used to think it must be
-a very warm planet; but now we think it might perhaps be a moderately
-comfortable place for a mortal to reside. The fact is, what we do not
-know about it is much more than what we do know; and what we know about
-it for this month is nearly as follows: On the 1st, 15th, 25th and 30th
-it will rise after the sun, and will not be visible to the unaided eye;
-but on the same dates it will set at 6:32, 7:03, 8:37 and 8:35 p. m.,
-respectively, and can therefore be easily seen after sunset from the 20th
-to the end of the month by anybody who will take the pains to look for
-it—that is, within the latitude in which most of our readers live. It
-reaches its most easterly limit (20° 32′) at 9:00 p. m. on the evening
-of the 25th, and approaches so much nearer to us during the month as to
-cause its diameter to appear nearly twice as large—that is, to increase
-from 5″ to 9″. On the 21st at 2:00 a. m. it will be 4° 20′ north of
-Neptune, and on the 26th at 5:55 p. m., 5° 47′ north of the moon.
-
-
-VENUS,
-
-The most friendly of our planets, who comes so close at times as to seem
-to be within “hailing distance” (only twenty-five millions of miles), is
-still our delight. She grows brighter and more beautiful as time moves
-on. Her motion for the month is direct and amounts to 34° 16′ 3″. Her
-diameter shows an increase of 5.4″. From our present acquaintance we
-learn that she sometimes shines so brightly as to be visible in daylight
-to the naked eye, and at night, in the absence of the moon, to cast a
-shadow. When viewed through a telescope, she presents phases like the
-moon; and in some respects she is very much like our earth. For example,
-her size is not more than 4 per cent. less, and her density and force of
-gravity must be nearly the same. Her days are supposed to be a little
-shorter than ours, and her years are known to be equal to 224⅔ of our
-days. On the 1st, 15th and 30th she will rise at 7:32, 7:25 and 7:26 a.
-m., and set at 10:04, 10:31 and 10:48 p. m., respectively. On the 2d, at
-11:00 p. m., she will be nearest the sun; on the 25th, at 11:00 p. m.,
-4° 13′ north of Saturn; on the 28th, at 2:41 p. m., 7° 53′ north of the
-moon.
-
-
-MARS.
-
-Of this planet we have little to report. He continues his direct motion,
-which amounts to 9° 30′ 34″. As he and the earth are getting farther
-apart, his diameter (apparently) diminishes from 10″ to 8″. He rises on
-the 1st, 15th and 30th at 12:27 p. m., 11:54 a. m., and 11:24 a. m.,
-and sets on the 2d, 16th, and May 1st at 3:09, 2:22, and 1:38 a. m.,
-respectively. On the 4th, at 10:26 a. m., his position is 8° 10′ north of
-the moon, and on the 1st a little northeast of the nebula _Præsepe_ in
-_Cancer_.
-
-
-JUPITER
-
-Continues to be evening star, coming to the meridian on the 1st, 15th and
-30th, at 7:04, 6:13 and 5:20 p. m., and setting on the 2d, 16th, and May
-1st at 2:24, 1:32 and 12:38 a. m. His motion, which is direct, amounts
-during the month to 4° 27′ 33″. His diameter diminishes from 37.8″ to
-34.6″, an indication that our distance from him is increasing. On the 3d,
-at 1:52 p. m., he is 6° north of the moon; and on the 14th, at 7:00 p.
-m., 90° west of the sun.
-
-
-SATURN
-
-Continues his position not far from the bright star _Aldebaran_, in the
-constellation Taurus, on the 1st being about 2° 53′ west and 3° 32′
-north, while on the 30th he will be about 30′ east and 4° 7½′ north
-of this star. His motion is direct and amounts to 3° 24′. Diameter
-diminishes from 16.2″ on the 1st to 15.8″ on the 30th. Setting at 10:47,
-9:59 and 9:09 p. m. on the 1st, 15th and 30th he will be evening star
-throughout the month. On the 12th, at 11:00 p. m., is 4° 13′ south of
-Venus, and on the 27th, at 1:56 p. m., 2° 19′ north of the moon.
-
-
-URANUS,
-
-Formerly and still sometimes called Herschel, from the name of its
-discoverer, Dr. Herschel, has made but about one and one-fifth
-revolutions about the sun, since its discovery in 1781, more than a
-century ago. It is now near the star _Beta Virginis_, and making a
-retrograde motion of about 56′ 30″ in 30 days. Its diameter is 3.8″. It
-rises at 4:53 p. m., 3:55 p. m. and 2:54 p. m. on the 1st, 15th and 30th,
-and sets at 5:09 a. m., 4:13 a. m. and 3:13 a. m. on the 2d, 16th, and
-May 1st. On the 6th, at 6:27 a. m., it is 3° 27′ north of the moon. Is
-evening star during the month.
-
-
-NEPTUNE
-
-Is evening star, setting at 9:24, 8:32 and 7:28 p. m. on the 1st, 15th
-and 30th, respectively. Its motion, 1° 2′ 37″, is direct. Diameter, 2.6″.
-On the 21st, at 2:00 a. m., 4° 20′ south of Mercury, and on the same day
-will set about fifteen minutes later than said planet. On the 26th, at
-8:27 a. m., 44′ north of moon.
-
- * * * * *
-
-EARNESTNESS.—Without earnestness there is nothing to be done in life; yet
-even among the people whom we call men of culture, but little earnestness
-is often to be found; in labors and employments, in arts, nay, even in
-recreations, they plant themselves, if I may say so, in an attitude of
-self-defense; they live, as they read a heap of newspapers, only to be
-done with them. They remind one of that young Englishman at Rome, who
-told, with a contented air, one evening in some company, that “to-day
-he had despatched six churches and two galleries.” They wish to know
-and learn a multitude of things, and not seldom exactly those things
-with which they have the least concern; and they never see that hunger
-is not appeased by snapping at the air. When I become acquainted with a
-man my first inquiry is: With what does he occupy himself, and how, and
-with what degree of perseverance? The answer regulates the interest I
-take in that man for life.… I reverence the individual who understands
-distinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances, who knows the means
-conducive to his object, and can seize and use them. How far his object
-may be great or little, may merit praise or censure, is a secondary
-consideration with me.—_Goethe._
-
-
-
-
-EDGAR ALLAN POE.
-
-THE LITERARY ISHMAEL.
-
-By C. E. BISHOP.
-
-
-Less is known while more is written and disputed about Edgar Allan Poe,
-than about any other character in American literature. In the narrative
-of his life there are gaps of months and years in which nothing can be
-told of his whereabouts or acts; and as if to atone for this lack he is
-at other times credited with feats of ubiquity. There are also stories
-of a quixotic mission to fight for Greek independence, _a la_ Byron; of
-his escapades in St. Petersburg; of enlistment in and desertion from
-the United States army; of phenomenally protracted debauches, during
-which he threw off the most wonderful productions of his pen—most of
-which stories, so far as can be shown now, were evolved from the inner
-consciousness of those writers who, upon his death, “woke to ecstacy, the
-living liars,” to blacken his name.
-
-A general reason for this paucity of particulars may be found, perhaps,
-in Poe’s enforced seclusion from the public by the exigencies of poverty
-during much of his life, and the low rank of authors in the general
-estimation of the times; a special reason may be that Poe’s literary
-executor and biographer, Dr. Griswold, to whom in his lifetime he had
-entrusted all the material he ever furnished any one, suppressed the
-facts and substituted inventions, in order to assassinate the character
-of the dead poet. For twenty-six years Poe’s body rested in an unmarked
-grave, and his character was buried under a living heap of obloquy. When
-at last, in 1875, a few devoted women of Baltimore sought to redeem both
-tombs, nearly all the contemporary witnesses to his acts were dead. It
-was not until twenty-six years after the event that Dr. Moran, who had
-attended Poe’s last illness, broke silence and put to rest the story that
-he died in the midst of a drunken debauch in the streets of Baltimore.
-“There was no smell of liquor upon his person or breath, and no delirium
-or tremor,” says this tardy vindicator. It was 1878 (twenty-nine years
-late) when Mrs. Weiss, of Richmond, told the story of his last visit to
-that city, and contradicted Griswold’s story of his engagement with Mrs.
-Stalton, and his prolonged inebriety there. It was later still, when
-the posthumous letter of Mrs. Whitman, of Providence, was published,
-silencing the long-accepted tale of Poe’s engagement to her, and his
-disreputable conduct and intemperance the evening before they were to
-have been married. Many chivalrous pens now—alas! too late—essayed his
-defense; but his true history has not yet been written, and it probably
-never will be. Dr. Johnson’s summary of Butler’s life almost literally
-applies to Poe’s: “The date of his birth is doubtful, the mode and place
-of his education unknown, the events of his life are variously related,
-and all that can be told with certainty is that he was poor.”
-
-“The persistent and palpably malignant efforts to damn him with some
-drops of faint praise and some oceans of strong abuse,”[A] have, indeed,
-produced a reactionary tendency toward panegyric, since the angels rolled
-the stone away from his tomb. The best any one can now do is to pity
-the man and admire his works, and weigh probabilities. A careful view
-as well of his time as of his character and environment is necessary.
-Premising that I am not so presumptuous as to expect to add much to the
-general fund of misinterpretation of his acts and misunderstanding of
-his character, a brief summary of the less controverted features of this
-history is submitted.
-
-In “that stray child of Poetry and Passion” concentered hot Celtic
-and Southern blood, stimulated upon his father’s side by drink, upon
-his mother’s by the artificial surroundings of an actress’s life,
-and in both intensified by a runaway marriage, followed by a joint
-“barn-storming” life. Himself an inter-act, his nursery was the green
-room, his necessary nourishment narcotics. It is a sad thing to say, but
-probably one of the few fortunate circumstances of his life was that
-his parents died in his infancy—one of his many misfortunes was to have
-been adopted and raised by a wealthy family (Mr. Allan’s of Baltimore).
-He was born in 1809, or 1811, in either Boston, Baltimore or Richmond,
-through all of which he, living, “begged his bread,” _a la_ Homer. The
-Allans assiduously spoiled the child with unlimited money, indulgence
-and praise. It was easy, for he was rarely beautiful, affectionate,
-and precocious; he recited with marvelous childish effect, spun webs
-of imaginative stories, and composed rhymes. “He lisped in numbers,
-for the numbers came,” and when he was nine or ten years old his proud
-foster-father seriously contemplated issuing a volume of his baby-verse,
-but was dissuaded by the boy’s tutor, who said he had conceit enough
-already, and such additional celebrity would probably ruin his prospects.
-
-Edgar was schooled in England, at the University of Virginia, and
-at West Point, but he must have picked up independently of schools
-and school masters the varied culture which shows in his versatile
-writings—especially his acquaintance with science, psychology and
-literature. At these schools he was distinguished alike for fast learning
-and fast living—his easy absorption of the branches he liked, his utter
-revulsion against those he did not like (mathematics, notably), for his
-literary and critical tastes, athletic exercises, and the lavishness with
-which he scattered his guardian’s money. These characteristics won him
-the jealousy of his plodding classmates, distinction at the university,
-expulsion from West Point, and quarrels with his foster-father.
-Over-indulgence by parents produced the usual result of disrespect and
-ingratitude in the youth; and the marriage of Mr. Allan to a second wife,
-and the birth of heirs to his estates brought about a final separation
-and a disinheritance of the adopted son, and so Edgar, at about his
-majority age, was thrown on his own resources. He chose literature as his
-profession, and doomed himself to poverty, anguish, professional jealousy
-(especially strong among authors), triumphs, defeats, ruin and insanity.
-
-Poe’s real début in letters was in 1833, when (ætat 24) he won a prize of
-a hundred dollars offered by the proprietor of _The Saturday Visitor_,
-Baltimore, for the best story. Better than the money, the contest brought
-him the friendship of the judges, and about a year later the editorship
-of _The Southern Literary Messenger_, Richmond, at ten dollars a week.
-The intervening year is one of the blanks.
-
-The Richmond editorship marks a turning point in Poe’s career. He made
-the fortune of the _Messenger_; married (’35) his cousin, Virginia
-Clem; and first began that line of work which is, in my opinion, its
-distinctive feature, as it certainly proved to be decisive of his
-destiny—to-wit: criticism. He published in some issues as much as thirty
-or forty pages of book reviews. They created a tempest; for, rare as is
-his imagery and wonderful as is his imagination, Poe’s distinguishing
-mental characteristic is analysis. He is more logician than poet, more
-metaphysician than romancer.
-
-Poe subsequently (’37-’38) edited the _Gentlemen’s Magazine_, and then
-_Graham’s Magazine_, both in Philadelphia, and in ’44 we find him in
-New York, employed on the _Mirror_, the journal of the poets N. P.
-Willis and George P. Morris. In Philadelphia he did the best work of
-his life in romance and criticism. Here, too, he made the acquaintance
-of his evil genius, Dr. Griswold. Poe believed that Griswold supplanted
-him from the editorship of _Graham’s_; G.’s subsequent enmity, while
-professing friendship, was of the unforgiving nature that often comes of
-the consciousness of having inflicted a secret wrong on another. The only
-other causes of disagreement between them alleged are that Poe criticised
-Griswold’s book in a lecture, and that Griswold attempted to buy a
-favorable criticism from Poe’s pen. But they were outwardly friendly,
-after a reconciliation, till Poe’s voice and pen were beyond the power
-of response. The work of detraction had preceded Poe to New York, for Mr.
-Willis writes of this engagement:
-
- “With the highest admiration for his genius, and a willingness
- to let it alone for more than ordinary irregularity, we were led
- by common report to expect a very capricious attention to his
- duties, and occasionally a scene of violence and difficulty. Time
- went on, however, and he was invariably punctual and industrious.
- To our occasional request that he would not probe too deep in a
- criticism, or that he would erase a passage colored too highly
- with his resentments against society and mankind, he readily and
- courteously assented—far more yielding than most men, we thought,
- on points so excusably sensitive. Through all this considerable
- period we had seen but one presentment of the man—a quiet,
- patient, industrious, and most gentlemanly person, commanding the
- utmost respect and good feeling by his unvarying deportment and
- ability.”
-
-In 1845 appeared the work on which Poe’s poetic fame most depends, that
-poem in which he wedded Despair to Harmony, “The Raven.” It marks the
-acme of his life, also; his star declined rapidly thereafter. His wife,
-who bore the hereditary taint of consumption, was in a decline; care and
-anxiety on that account, and his own ill health, took away his ability
-to write and he was without means of support. He was driven to ask loans
-from one or two friends, and by a fatality such as he sometimes made to
-drive his fictitious characters upon their worst expedients, he chose Dr.
-Griswold as one of them. “Can you not send me five dollars?” he pleaded
-with G.; “I am ill and Virginia is almost gone.” This and one or two
-other such letters Griswold published, in connection with his slanders
-on Poe’s character, to give his attack the cover of friendly sincerity.
-Something was published in New York papers regarding the distress of the
-Poes, and a lady friend (Mrs. Shew) visited them at Fordham. The worst
-was confirmed.
-
- “There was no clothing on the bed—which was only straw—but a
- snow-white spread and sheets. The weather was cold, and the sick
- lady had the dreadful chills that accompany the hectic fever of
- consumption. She lay on the straw bed, wrapped in her husband’s
- great coat, with a large tortoise-shell cat in her bosom. The
- wonderful cat seemed conscious of her great usefulness. The coat
- and the cat were the sufferer’s only means of warmth, except as
- her husband held her hands and her mother her feet.”
-
-Mrs. Poe died January 30, 1847. Captain Mayne Reid, the novelist, who
-visited often at her house, thus describes her:
-
-“No one who remembers that dark-eyed, dark-haired daughter of the South;
-her face so exquisitely lovely; her gentle, graceful demeanor; no one who
-has ever spent an hour in her society but will endorse what I have said
-of this lady, who was the most delicate realization of the poet’s ideal.”
-
-Another said: “She had large, black eyes, and a pearly whiteness of
-complexion which was a perfect pallor. Her pale face, her brilliant eyes,
-and her raven hair gave her an unearthly look. One felt that she was
-almost a disrobed spirit.”
-
-After this Poe’s decline was rapid. He was ill for a long time, and
-never quite recovered his mental balance. In the autumn of this year he
-visited Mrs. Shew, his benefactress. She says that at this time, under
-the combined influence of her gentle urgency, a cup of tea and the sound
-of neighboring church bells, he wrote the first draft of “The Bells.” She
-adds:
-
- “My brother took Poe to his own room, where he slept twelve
- hours and could hardly recall the evening’s work. This showed
- his mind was injured—nearly gone out for want of food and from
- disappointment. He had not been drinking and had only been a
- few hours from home. Evidently his vitality was low, and he was
- nearly insane. I called in Dr. Francis (the old man was odd but
- very skilful), who was one of our neighbors. His words were, ‘He
- has heart disease and will die early in life.’ We did not waken
- him, but let him sleep.”
-
-Since I began writing this paper I have heard recited in a company of
-literary people an account of Poe’s staggering into a stranger’s house at
-midnight, calling for a pen and dashing off “The Bells;” then falling
-into a drunken stupor on the library table. It was evidently believed
-by the narrator, despite Mrs. Shew’s circumstantial and more rational
-account.
-
-During these dark days, as indeed during all Poe’s adult life, Mrs. Clem
-was his guardian angel. The poet Willis touchingly draws this picture of
-devotion:
-
- “It was a hard fate that she was watching over. Mr. Poe wrote
- with fastidious difficulty, and in a style too much above the
- popular level to be well paid. He was always in pecuniary
- difficulty and, with his sick wife, frequently in want of the
- merest necessaries of life. Winter after winter, for years,
- the most touching sight to us in this whole city has been that
- tireless minister to genius, thinly and insufficiently clad,
- going from office to office with a poem or an article on some
- literary subject to sell—sometimes simply pleading in a broken
- voice that ‘he was ill,’ whatever might be the reason for his
- writing nothing—and never, amid all her tears and recitals of
- distress, suffering one syllable to escape her lips that would
- convey a doubt of him, or a complaint, or a lessening of pride
- in his genius and good intentions. Her daughter died a year and
- a half since, but she did not desert him. She continued his
- ministering angel, living with him, caring for him, guarding him
- against exposure, and when he was carried away by temptation,
- amid grief and the loneliness of feeling unreplied to, and
- awoke from his self-abandonment prostrated in destitution and
- suffering, begging for him still. If woman’s devotion, born with
- a first love and fed with human passion, hallows its object, as
- it is allowed to do, what does not a devotion like this—pure,
- disinterested and holy as the watch of an invisible spirit—say
- for him who inspired it.”
-
-By this test, Poe’s was always a pure nature, for he inspired respect,
-pity and regard in every woman he came in contact with. It was a reflex
-sentiment, for Poe revered woman, and there is not in all his writings an
-impure suggestion or an indelicate word.
-
-The rest of the history is one of occasional indulgence in intoxicants
-and rarely intermitting mental aberration. It is to him during these last
-months of his unhappy career that the least charity has been extended.
-He conducted a courtship of three ladies at once, making to each like
-frantic protestations of love, the same despairing appeals to each to
-become his savior from some dreadful impending fate. In June, ’49, he
-departed for Richmond, for what purpose is unknown. In Philadelphia
-he appeared the subject of a hallucination that he was pursued by
-conspirators, and had his mustache taken off for the sake of disguise.
-In Richmond he remained until the latter part of September, writing some
-and renewing old acquaintances. During these three or four months he was
-twice known to be overcome and in danger of his life from drink; he was
-credited with having been almost continuously “in a state of beastly
-intoxication” during the whole time. Mrs. Weiss thinks that this was one
-of the brightest and happiest seasons of his life; if so, it was light at
-its eventide. The return voyage is shrouded—that is the fit word—shrouded
-in mystery and controversy.
-
-This seems to be true—that he was taken up unconscious in Baltimore at
-daybreak, taken to a hospital, and died there at midnight of the same day
-(October 7, 1849). It is also known that he left Richmond by boat on the
-evening of the 4th, he then being sober and cheerful. In proper course
-he must have arrived in Baltimore the night of the 5th or morning of the
-6th; he was himself then, for he removed his trunk to a hotel. There was
-thus left less than twenty-four hours in which for him to travel to Havre
-de Grace and back, miss the New York connection, vote eleven times in the
-Baltimore city election, go through the “prolonged debauch,” fall into
-the delirium, and lapse into the comatose state in which he was found—as
-described in most of his biographies; and he immediately thereafter is
-found to have no smell of liquor about him, no tremor, and is conversing
-rationally when roused to consciousness.
-
-The event was announced by Griswold in the _Tribune_ with this brutal
-bluntness:
-
-“Edgar Allan Poe is dead. This announcement will startle many, but few
-will be grieved by it. He had few or no friends.” But the _Southern
-Literary Messenger_ said: “Now that he is gone, the vast multitude of
-blockheads may breathe again.” Griswold simply elected himself mouthpiece
-of that host.
-
-On Poe’s supersensitive organization stimulants told with fearful effect.
-Mrs. Clem said “A single cup of coffee would intoxicate him.” N. P.
-Willis explained the vagaries and sins of Poe by supposing him to be
-possessed of two antagonistic spirits, a devil and an angel, each having
-complete mastery of him by turns. But, says Willis, “With a single glass
-of wine his whole nature was reversed, the demon became uppermost and,
-though none of the usual signs of intoxication were visible, his will was
-palpably insane. He easily seemed personating only another phase of his
-natural character, and was accused accordingly of insulting arrogance and
-bad heartedness. It was a sad infirmity of physical constitution which
-puts it upon very nearly the ground of temporary and almost irresponsible
-insanity.”
-
-That these lapses were infrequent, instead of almost continuous, we
-have plenty of testimony from those who were much with him as business
-associates and inmates of the same house. “I have never seen him
-otherwise than gentle, generous, well-bred and particularly refined,” is
-a certificate of one who was intimate in the family, which was confirmed
-by many witnesses of different periods and places. The poet Swinburne was
-probably right in declaring that Poe’s inebriety was “the _effect_ of a
-terrible evil, rather than its _cause_.” That evil lay not alone, perhaps
-not chiefly, in his inherited and educated predisposition to indulgence
-and his morbidness of mentality; but in the character and consequences of
-his chiefest literary work.
-
-It is a hard enough lot, under the best circumstances and in the best
-times, to live by the pen. The characteristics as well of Poe’s genius
-as of his times made that lot a doom for him. The rewards of authorship
-were on an eleemosynary scale (Poe received only $10 for “The Raven,” and
-$10 a week as editor-in-chief of a magazine: the _North American Review_
-then paid only $2 a page for matter); literary taste was unformed and,
-worst of all, the market was drugged and cheapened and the best public
-appreciation perverted by a silly school of writer who had arisen—similar
-to the “Della Crusca School” which a few years before had infested
-literature in England. Their lucubrations were both barren of ideas
-and bad in style. It was the lollipop stage of our literature. Now Poe
-possessed in high degree two parts which, when addressed to criticism,
-would most offend these callow writers, to-wit: The musical sense of
-language, and marvelous analytical powers. The most obvious quality of
-his poetic style is its rhythm. The musical ear led him to adopt refrains
-and euphonious syllables, like “Never more,” “Lenore,” “bells,” and to
-dwell on their cadence; it made a bad composition distract him as a
-discord does a sensitive musician. For him divine harmonies lay in the
-relation of words to each other, as if they had been notes.
-
-Coupled with this, to him, uncomfortable sensitiveness to verbal
-sounds, was his almost superhuman power of dissecting thought—extremely
-uncomfortable to others, even to the best of writers. Thus gifted with a
-mental touch equally for the substance of language and the substance of
-thought which language struggles to give birth to; possessed of the power
-of an eager and a nipping sarcasm and an infernal courage, fortified
-with extensive reading and a retentive memory, Poe became a scourge to
-mediocrity, imitation, sham and pretense. There could not have been a
-more critical time for such a man to attempt a livelihood at letters;
-there could not have been a man better fitted to work havoc among the
-essayists and poetasters of the day, to compel literary reform and to
-bring misfortunes on himself. “He elected himself chief justice of the
-court of criticism and head hangman of dunces,” says Stoddard. “He hated
-a bad book as a misdemeanor.” Burton, proprietor of the _Gentleman’s
-Magazine_, remonstrated with Poe against the severity of some of his book
-reviews. “You say,” said he to Poe, “that the people love havoc; I think
-they love justice.” One adds, “Poe thought literary justice meant havoc
-with such mediocrity as then flourished.” To the cause of pure literature
-he thus devoted his life with example, with precept and with destructive
-force. He was the Wendell Phillips of American literature. He did a work
-that was necessary to be done in behalf of American literature. He pulled
-down upon his own head and theirs, the sham temple which the little
-scribbling Philistines had erected.
-
-So it is not to be wondered at that “he contrived to attach to himself
-animosities of the most enduring kind,” as the _Messenger_ declared. It
-became Poe against the whole literary world of America in a very short
-time—for he had unstinted praise for no one. It is doubtless due to
-the influence of this army of foes that he lost in succession all his
-editorial situations and was impoverished. There were other enemies as
-unscrupulous as Griswold. One of these put in successful circulation the
-theory that Poe, by cruelty, deliberately caused the death of his wife in
-order to get the inspiration for “The Raven,” and the story may still be
-met on its rounds, notwithstanding the fact that the poem was written two
-years before she died. (Amiable human nature delights in contemplation
-of human monsters.) She declared on her death-bed that her life had been
-shortened by anonymous letters slandering and threatening her husband.
-Perhaps it was to meet this story that he wrote that curious analysis
-(“The Philosophy of Composition”) of the mechanical and prosaic methods
-by which he constructed “The Raven.”
-
-The critical instinct, coupled with an impulsive temperament, high ideals
-of perfect performance and a powerful pen, is a fatal gift to any man.
-The path of such a one will be strewn with the tombs of friendships
-which he has stabbed, many and many a time unconsciously; his life will
-be haunted with vain regrets for words gone past recall, carrying with
-them consequences he did not reckon upon, hurting those he loves, missing
-those he aimed at. His way leads steadily through bitter animosities,
-bitterer remorse and, bitterest of all, isolation from his fellows, who
-shall clothe him with a character foreign, antagonistic and repulsive to
-his better nature. If he be not possessed of an o’ermastering will, a
-thick skin and a healthy, cheerful temper it leads to morbidness, gloom
-and despair.
-
-Poe was not of that will and temper. He was affectionate, sociable and
-supersensitive to coolness of manner in others. A rebuff was a stab to
-him, hatred a calamity. It is said his early life was clouded by the
-stigma put on him by his parents’ theatrical associations and his own
-dependence on charity; and that when a lad he wept many wild nights
-at the grave of a lady who had spoken kindly to him and become the
-confidante of his boyish sorrows and hopes. So with this nature and with
-his devastating pen in hand he traced that descent into the living tomb.
-If from its gloom he sometimes sought “respite and nepenthe” in drink
-it is not to be wondered at; he was often tempted to suicide. He once
-solemnly protested: “I have no pleasure in stimulants. It [indulgence
-in drink] has been in the _desperate attempt to escape from torturing
-memories—memories of wrong, and injustice and imputed dishonor_—from a
-_sense of insupportable loneliness_ and a dread of some strange impending
-gloom.”
-
-I fancy he tried to typify this unhappy mission that had come to blast
-his life in that poem in which he “wedded despair to harmony.” “The
-Raven” was a “grim, ghastly, ominous messenger from the night’s Plutonian
-shore” that settled on the bust of Pallas, goddess of wisdom, even as
-that critical impulse had settled upon his genius. His soul never was
-lifted from the shadow. He was himself, of that fell work, the
-
- —“Unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster
- Followed fast and followed faster.”
-
-And why did he not stop the war on the literati and pseudo-authors?
-Who can tell? He “wasn’t practical.” He lacked some of Falstaff’s
-“instinct.” He was not good and sweet. He wasn’t well-balanced; he was
-an Eccentric. Pity the Eccentric—the man who knows himself called and
-chosen to a cause, whether by the necessities of his own nature or
-by divine impulse—if, indeed, this and that be not the same. Whether
-that cause be warring upon high injustice, exposing hypocrisy in high
-places, reforming an art, lifting up the lowly—anything that sets a man
-apart to a purpose other than self-seeking, brings him ingratitude,
-misinterpretation, isolation and many sorrows. Hamlet called to set right
-the out-of-joint times would rather, if he had dared, have taken his
-quietus with a bare bodkin than face this life of heart-ache, oppressors’
-wrongs, law’s delays to correct the wrongs, and the spurns that patient
-merit of the unworthy takes. The greatest of Eccentrics became a stranger
-unto his brethren, was despised and rejected of man, a man of sorrows and
-acquainted with grief; even His chosen disciples when He tried to purify
-the holy places from the profanation of greed misunderstood him; “the
-zeal of his house hath eaten him up,” sneered they.
-
-Edgar A. Poe’s personal appearance matched his genius. Let those who saw
-him tell it: “He was the best realization of a poet in features, air
-and manner that I have ever seen, and the unusual paleness of his face
-added to its aspect of melancholy interest.” “Slight but erect of figure,
-of middle height, his head finely modeled, with a forehead and temples
-large and not unlike those of Bonaparte; his hands as fair as a woman’s;
-even in the garb of poverty ‘with gentleman written all over him.’ The
-handsome, intellectual face, the dark and clustering hair, the clear and
-sad gray-violet eyes—large, lustrous, glowing with expression.” “A man
-who never smiles.” “Those awful eyes,” exclaimed one woman. “The face
-tells of battling, of conquering external enemies, of many a defeat when
-the man was at war with his meaner self.” He was both much sinned against
-and much sinning. But he was not a monster, nor an ogre. He was only a
-poet and an Eccentric.
-
- No farther seek his merits to disclose,
- Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode.
-
-[A] Davidson.
-
-
-
-
-BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH.
-
-By R. A. PROCTOR.
-
-
-There are many points in which English and American speakers and writers
-of culture differ from each other as to the use of certain words and as
-to certain modes of expression.
-
-In America the word “clever” is commonly understood to mean pleasant and
-of good disposition, not (as in England) ingenious and skilful. Thus,
-though an American may speak of a person as a clever workman, using the
-word as we do, yet when he speaks of another as a clever man, he means,
-in nine cases out of ten, that the man is good company and well-natured.
-Sometimes, I am told, the word is used to signify generous or liberal. I
-can not recall any passages from early English literature in which the
-word is thus used, but I should not be surprised to learn that the usage
-is an old one. In like manner, the words “cunning” and “cute” are often
-used in America for “pretty” (German _niedlich_). As I write, an American
-lady, who has just played a very sweet passage from one of Mozart’s
-symphonies, turns from the piano to ask “whether that passage is not
-cute,” meaning pretty.
-
-The word “mad” in America seems nearly always to mean “angry;” at least,
-I have seldom heard it used in our English sense. For “mad,” as we
-use the word, the Americans say “crazy.” Herein they have manifestly
-impaired the language. The words “mad” and “crazy” are quite distinct in
-their significance as used in England, and both meanings require to be
-expressed in ordinary parlance. It is obviously a mistake to make one
-word do duty for both, and to use the word “mad” to imply what is already
-expressed by other and more appropriate words.
-
-I have just used the word “ordinary” in the English sense. In America
-the word is commonly used to imply inferiority. An “ordinary actor,”
-for instance, is a bad actor; a “very ordinary man” is a man very much
-below par. There is no authority for this usage in any English writer
-of repute, and the usage is manifestly inconsistent with the derivation
-of the word. On the other hand, the use of the word “homely” to imply
-ugliness, as is usual in America, is familiar at this day in parts of
-England, and could be justified by passages in some of the older English
-writers. That the word in Shakspere’s time implied inferiority is shown
-by the line—
-
- Home keeping youths have ever homely wits.
-
-In like manner, some authority may be found for the American use of the
-word “ugly” to signify bad-tempered.
-
-Words are used in America which have ceased to be commonly used in
-England, and are, indeed, no longer regarded as admissible. Thus, the
-word “unbeknown” which no educated Englishman ever uses, either in
-speaking or in writing, is still used in America in common speech and by
-writers of repute.
-
-Occasionally, writers from whom one would expect at least correct grammar
-make mistakes which in England would be regarded as very bad—mistakes
-which are not, indeed, passed over in America, but still attract less
-notice there than in England. Thus, Mr. Wilkie, who is so severe on
-English English in “Sketches beyond the Seas,” describes himself as
-saying (in reply to the question whether Chicago policemen have to use
-their pistols much), “I don’t know _as_ they have to as a matter of
-law or necessity, but I know they do as a matter of fact;” and I have
-repeatedly heard this incorrect use of “as” for “that” in American
-conversation. I have also noted in works by educated Americans the use of
-the word “that” as an adverb, “that excitable,” “that head-strong,” and
-so forth. So the use of “lay” for “lie” seems to me to be much commoner
-in America than in England, though it is too frequently heard here also.
-In a well-written novelette called “The Man who was not a Colonel,” the
-words—“You was” and “Was you?” are repeatedly used, apparently without
-any idea that they are ungrammatical. They are much more frequently heard
-in America than in England (I refer, of course, to the conversation of
-the middle and better classes, not of the uneducated). In this respect it
-is noteworthy that the writers of the last century resemble Americans of
-to-day; for we often meet in their works the incorrect usage in question.
-
-And here it may be well to consider the American expression “I guess,”
-which is often made the subject of ridicule by Englishmen, unaware of
-the fact that the expression is good old English. It is found in a few
-works written during the last century, and in many written during the
-seventeenth century. So careful a writer as Locke used the expression
-more than once in his treatise “On the Human Understanding.” In fact,
-the disuse of the expression in later times seems to have been due to
-a change in the meaning of the word “guess.” An Englishman who should
-say “I guess” now, would not mean what Locke did when he used the
-expression in former times, or what an American means when he uses it in
-our own day. We say, “I guess that riddle,” or “I guess what you mean,”
-signifying that we think the answer to the riddle, or the meaning of what
-we have heard, may be such and such. But when an American says, “I guess
-so,” he does not mean “I think it may be so,” but more nearly “I know
-it to be so.” The expression is closely akin to the old English saying,
-“I wis.” Indeed, the words “guess” and “wis” are simply different forms
-of the same word. Just as we have “guard” and “ward,” “guardian” and
-“warden,” “Guillaume” and “William,” “guichet” and “wicket,” etc., so we
-have the verbs to “guess” and to “wis.” (In the Bible we have not “I
-wis,” but we have “he wist.”) “I wis” means nearly the same as “I know,”
-and that this is the root-meaning of the word is shown by such words as
-“wit,” “witness,” “wisdom,” the legal phrase “to-wit,” and so forth.
-“Guess” was originally used in the same sense; and Americans retain
-that meaning, whereas in our modern English the word has changed in
-significance.
-
-It may be added, that in many parts of America we find the expression “I
-guess” replaced by “I reckon,” and “I calculate” (the “I cal’late” of
-the _Biglow Papers_). In the South, “I reckon” is generally used, and
-in parts of New England “I calculate,” though (I am told) less commonly
-than of yore. It is obvious from the use of such words as “reckon” and
-“calculate” as equivalents for “guess,” that the expression “I guess”
-is not, as many seem to imagine, equivalent to the English “I suppose”
-and “I fancy.” An American friend of mine, in response to the question
-by an Englishman (an exceedingly positive and dogmatic person, as it
-chanced), “Why do Englishmen never say ‘I guess?’” replied (more wittily
-than justly), “Because they are always so positive about everything.” But
-it is noteworthy that whereas the American says frequently, “I guess,”
-meaning “I know,” the Englishman as freely lards his discourse with the
-expression, “You know,” which is, perhaps, more modest. Yet, on the other
-side, it may be noted, that the “down east” American often uses the
-expression “I want to know,” in the same sense as our English expression
-of attentive interest, “Indeed?”
-
-Among other familiar Americanisms may be mentioned the following:—
-
-An American who is interested in a narrative or statement will say, “Is
-that so?” or simply “So!” The expression “Possible!” is sometimes, but
-not often, heard. Dickens misunderstood this exclamation as equivalent
-to “It is possible, but does not concern me;” whereas, in reality, it is
-equivalent to the expression, “Is it possible?” I have occasionally heard
-the exclamation “Do tell!” but it is less frequently heard now than of
-yore.
-
-The word “right” is more frequently used than in England, and is used
-also in senses different from those understood in our English usage of
-the word. Thus, the American will say “right here” and “right there,”
-where an Englishman would say “just here” or “just there,” or simply,
-“here” or “there.” Americans say “right away,” where we say “directly.”
-On the other hand, I am inclined to think that the English expression
-“right well,” for “very well,” is not commonly used in America.
-
-Americans say “yes, sir,” and “no, sir,” with a sense different from that
-with which the words are used in England; but they mark the difference
-of sense by a difference of intonation. Thus, if a question is asked to
-which the reply in England would be simply “yes” or “no” (or, according
-to the rank or station of the querist, “yes, sir,” or “no, sir,”), the
-American reply would be “yes, sir,” or “no, sir,” intonated as with us in
-England. But if the reply is intended to be emphatic, then the intonation
-is such as to throw the emphasis on the word “sir”—the reply is “yes,
-_sir_” or “no, _sir_.” In passing, I may note that I have never heard an
-American waiter reply “yessir,” as our English waiters often do.
-
-The American use of the word “quit” is peculiar. They do not limit the
-word, as we do, to the signification “take leave”—in fact, I have never
-heard an American use the word in that sense. They generally use it as
-equivalent to “leave off” or “stop.” (In passing, one may notice as
-rather strange the circumstance that the word “quit,” which properly
-means “to go away from,” and the word “stop,” which means to “stay,”
-should both have come to be used as signifying to “leave off.”) Thus,
-Americans say “quit fooling” for “leave off playing the fool,” “quit
-singing,” “quit laughing,” and so forth.
-
-To English ears an American use of the word “some” sounds strange—viz.,
-as an adverb. An American will say, “I think some of buying a new house,”
-or the like, for “I have some idea of buying,” etc. I have indeed heard
-the usage defended as perfectly correct, though assuredly there is not an
-instance in all the wide range of English literature which will justify
-it.
-
-So also, many Americans defend as good English the use of the word “good”
-in such phrases as the following:—“I have written that note good,” for
-“well;” “it will make you feel good,” for “it will do you good;” and in
-other ways, all equally incorrect. Of course, there are instances in
-which adjectives are allowed by custom to be used as adverbs, as, for
-instance, “right” for “rightly,” etc.; but there can be no reason for
-substituting the adjective “good” in place of the adverb “well,” which
-is as short a word, and at least equally euphonious. The use of “real”
-for “really,” as “real angry,” “real nice,” is, of course, grammatically
-indefensible.
-
-The word “sure” is often used for “surely” in a somewhat singular way, as
-in the following sentence from “Sketches beyond the Sea,” in which Mr.
-Wilkie is supposed to be quoting a remark made by an English policeman:
-“If policemen went to shooting in this country, there would be some
-hanging, sure; and not wholly among the classes that would be shot at,
-either.” (In passing, note that the word “either” is never pronounced
-_eyether_ in America, but always _eether_, whereas in England we seem to
-use either pronunciation indifferently.)
-
-An American seldom uses the word “stout” to signify “fat,” saying
-generally “fleshy.” Again, for our English word “hearty,” signifying
-“in very good health,” an American will sometimes employ the singularly
-inappropriate word “rugged.” (It corresponds pretty nearly with our word
-“rude”—equally inappropriate—in the expression “rude health.”)
-
-The use of the word “elegant” for “fine” strikes English ears as strange.
-For instance, if you say to an American, “This is a fine morning,” he is
-likely to reply, “It _is_; an elegant morning,” or perhaps oftener by
-using simply the word “elegant.” It is not a pleasing use of the word.
-
-There are some Americanisms which seem more than defensible—in fact,
-grammatically more correct than our English usage. Thus, we seldom hear
-in America the redundant word “got” in such expressions as “I have
-got,” etc., etc. Where the word would not be redundant, it is generally
-replaced by the more euphonious word “gotten,” now scarcely ever heard in
-England. Yet again, we often hear in America such expressions as “I shall
-get me a new book,” “I have gotten me a dress,” “I must buy me that,” and
-the like. This use of “me” for “myself” is good old English, at any rate.
-
-I have been struck by the circumstance that neither the conventional,
-but generally very absurd, American of our English novelists, nor the
-conventional, but at least equally absurd, Englishman of American
-novelists, is made to employ the more delicate Americanisms or
-Anglicisms. We generally find the American “guessing” or “calculating,”
-if not even more coarsely Yankee, like Reade’s Joshua Fullalove; while
-the Englishman of American novels is almost always very coarsely
-British, even if he is not represented as using what Americans persist
-in regarding as the true “Henglish haccent.” Where an American is less
-coarsely drawn, as Trollope’s “American Senator,” he uses expressions
-which no American ever uses, and none of those Americanisms which, while
-more delicate, are in reality more characteristic, because they are
-common, all Americans using them. And in like manner, when an American
-writer introduces an Englishman of the more natural sort, he never makes
-him speak as an Englishman would speak; before half a dozen sentences
-have been uttered, he uses some expression which is purely American.
-Thus, no Englishman ever uses, and an American may be recognized at once
-by using, such expressions as “I know it,” or “That’s so,” for “It is
-true;” by saying “Why, certainly,” for “Certainly;” and so forth. There
-are many of these slight but characteristic peculiarities of American and
-English English.—_“Knowledge” Library._
-
-
-
-
-STILL YOUNG.
-
-By ELLEN O. PECK.
-
-
- The fleeting years, the changing scenes,
- The light and shade that intervenes
- ’Twixt now and youth’s rejoicing teens
- Have come and gone so silently.
- Tho’ much from out my life is drawn
- Of love and trust I leaned upon
- I never thought my youth was gone,
- But laughed at time defiantly,—
-
- Until I met with those I knew
- When life’s first romance burst to view,
- Whom long ago I bade adieu,
- And scanned their faces eagerly;
- Alas! I read the fatal truth
- That time indeed with little ruth
- Had claimed the beauty of their youth,
- And dealt with them most meagerly.
-
- Amid the brown locks shone the gray,
- And lines of care on foreheads lay,
- And so, I read my fate to-day,
- From their faces cheerlessly—
- What I’d not read upon my own,
- That youth, with time, had surely flown,
- And I with them had older grown;
- The truth—I take it fearlessly.
-
- And with a sigh o’er vanished years,
- (I have no time to give to tears)
- I near life’s noontide without fears,
- Bearing its burdens silently;
- No happy song I leave unsung,
- A deeper life within has sprung,
- And so my heart forever young,
- Still laughs at time defiantly.
-
-
-
-
-THE GOSPELS CONSIDERED AS A DRAMA.
-
-Lecture by David H. Wheeler, LL.D., President of Allegheny College,
-delivered in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua, N. Y., August 23d, at 2 p. m.
-
-
-Let me begin by saying that my subject is not theological, and it will
-save us trouble if we remember it. Let me say in the second place that
-my subject is not the stage, but a book. I shall not discuss the drama
-as it is related to the stage, but the drama as a form of literature.
-The theologian may find some comfort in the reflection that if God makes
-a book it must be the best book. By the drama we mean simply the best
-telling of a story. The gospels as God’s book may therefore be regarded
-as necessarily the best told story in the world. But a few things may be
-profitably said with regard to the relations of the drama with the stage.
-First, this general one, that the stage was a contrivance for ages and
-times when men could not read; and that ever since men learned to read,
-the stage has been passing into shadow. An illustration of that may be
-found in the fact that in the sixteenth century, the age of Shakspere,
-there were probably one thousand men who went to the theater to one man
-who could read a book; whereas, in our time, there are a hundred thousand
-men who read books to one man who frequents the theater. The stage, in
-other words, is an effete institution. It is therefore an institution
-whose death does not carry with it the death of the drama; for, along
-with the death of the stage, there has come an enlargement of the scope
-of the drama. No important story was ever put upon the stage, or could
-be. The stage is too narrow for a great theme; therefore all the themes
-of all the plays are necessarily narrow themes—a few incidents grouped
-about a character, or grouped about a single characteristic of human
-nature. We have need in the world to tell stories that are larger,
-that require an ampler stage for their development; that deal not only
-with single principles, and single men, but with many principles and
-vast masses of men—that concern not for a moment, or an hour, and a
-single epoch of human life, but concern vast reaches of time and vaster
-interests of humanity. And so it has come to pass that in our modern
-times, our poetry—our epic poetry and our dramatic poetry—the two highest
-forms of literary art, have undergone a great transformation. The poem
-has become a novel. The epic has passed into this form; and the drama has
-become history. Carlyle says that it is the business of the poet to write
-history.
-
-We make distinction between prose and poetry, but we ought to remember
-that with regard to epic poetry, and dramatic poetry, both are to
-be expressed either in verse or prose, and that versification is an
-accident. There may be epic poems in prose; and, as the freest form,
-prose has become the prevailing form, and poetry is, more and more, as
-the world grows older, confined to the lyric jingle. Poetry, in the
-old sense, soon will pass, and the drama has passed into unversified
-poetry. Milton made a great change by adopting blank verse, and Shakspere
-had started us on the same road. In our age the great works of poetic
-language may be expected to be produced in what is technically prose. The
-epic poem may also be dramatically constructed, so that we may have the
-prose epic under form of the drama.
-
-Let me call attention to the fact that we are fortunate in speaking a
-tongue, the imperial language, in which Shakspere practically killed the
-old Aristotelian unities. He wanted a dramatic form in which to tell the
-story of the fall of Julius Cæsar, and the story of English history. He
-had to discard the old unities of time and place. The only Aristotelian
-unity that remains in our English literature is that of subject. The
-subject of a dramatic action, or an epic story, must have unity. There
-must be one action having a beginning, a middle, and an end; and there
-must be a constant, regular, orderly, striking, impressive advance from
-the beginning to the end.
-
-Now we come to consider whether the gospels ought to be regarded as a
-drama. In the first place, we are familiar with the custom of commenting
-on and praising the literary merits of the gospel. We say how sweet
-and fluent and intelligible is the language in which it is written.
-We understand that portions of it reach the heights of sublimity,
-particularly the seventeenth chapter of John. We are familiar with the
-fact that its English is so beautiful that there are men among us to rise
-and complain if we interfere with a word in it. We are familiar with the
-idea that the gospels have literary merits of a very high order. But we
-have been accustomed, as a rule, to regard these things in detail rather
-than as a whole. Now, when I say that they may be regarded as dramatic,
-I mean the highest literary merit crowns them as a whole. Their story is
-told in a dramatic form. No story ever told under the sun was so well
-told as is this story of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of
-the Lord Jesus Christ. I must treat this topic illustratingly, for my
-sole purpose is to get an idea before you. Look, then, at the idea of
-dramatizing history. It is said that Lord Marlborough read only Shakspere
-for English history. He found that the dramatist had put his conceptions
-of the actions and characteristics of leading men in English history in
-such an effective way, that, whether he was right or wrong, he had fixed
-the national estimate of these characters—had typed them forever. What
-Shakspere says a man was, the English people will go on thinking him to
-have been. These characters give us, on a small scale, the purpose and
-effect of the dramatization of history. When Shakspere did his work,
-little historical study had been done. English critical history dates
-from after his time. But without the help of critics he conceived and
-typed groups of characters, and he had such power of placing himself in
-the center of things and working out the characteristics, that he really
-constructed English history by the dramatic method. He had pitifully few
-materials, but historians who have come after him have found his types
-very faithful, and have been content to work out the details, accepting
-the pictures Shakspere had hung up before the eyes of the nation.
-Shaksperean English characters can not be much changed by ever so much
-study. This is only an illustration of the triumph which the dramatic
-form may win. Another most important distinction is the one between the
-theatrical and the dramatic. We can best understand it by looking at
-the common significance of the words. By “theatrical” we mean something
-false, fictitious, showy, with no reality behind it.
-
-When a human action is theatrical it is insincere and false to the facts.
-On the other hand, when you use the word “dramatic,” you mean something
-entirely different. You mean to praise the thing and not condemn it.
-When the two Senators from New York suddenly resigned their position in
-1881—you remember it—the friends of these men spoke of their action as
-dramatic, and their enemies characterized their action as theatrical;
-one to praise, the other to blame. An incident like that draws the line
-better than a definition. The word “drama” has won a place outside of
-the stage—and it more and more separates itself from the stage, and
-becomes a word descriptive of the best told story. In such a story there
-must be reality. It must be a story so put together that the meaning
-leaps out as the story goes on, and the mind takes hold of the meaning
-easily and fully—so that the whole meaning flashes on the understanding.
-You all know the power of a good story teller. You all know that every
-neighborhood has some man who can grasp an incident and tell it so that
-it comes strikingly before the mind. This power of narrative is at once
-epic and dramatic. This village story teller is a miniature Milton and
-Shakspere. The arrangement of a drama is systematic; and moves to a
-climax with full force. In order to a dramatic arrangement it is not
-necessary that the characters should be combined, as in the form of a
-play; it is only necessary that the story should be told in the most
-effective way, so that its meaning will flash clear and strong on the
-understanding. The gospels are told in this way; and it is the only
-possible way in which their story could reach the understanding. If we
-consider the gospels from this point of view, there are several things
-to attract our attention. One of them is the universality of the human
-nature which is brought out in the gospel. If you take up a picture book,
-or a fashion book of a hundred years ago, you are interested in a certain
-way in studying the characters, and discovering that the people dressed
-in a way very different from the present mode. You study the strange
-dresses with interest, but at the same time with a kind of feeling that
-these people were not just like yourself. Your point of observation in
-the fashion-plate presents you with nothing but unlikeness to yourself
-and your contemporaries. It is a strange world to you.
-
-Now, what the fashion-plate is, a great part of literature is. It is
-something which gets old, out of fashion, outworn, when it is a hundred
-years old. People live largely upon a contemporaneous literary diet. The
-most of the literature for each generation is produced by itself, and
-therefore the human nature of it, like the dresses of the fashion-plate,
-is in a little while out of date, and seems old. I am not as old as I
-look to be, but I have seen several kinds of literary fashions come and
-go. I have known men to be famous, producing a book nearly every month,
-whose name would now be strange, and there are few here who have thought
-of them for a long time. Other books have taken their places. They were
-novels, stories, histories, and even poems, but they have gone out of
-date, because the human nature they dealt with was a temporary and
-passing human nature—that of a fashion-plate. And the same effect must
-attend most of the novels being written in our day, because there is a
-passion upon us for this sort of living detail, this sort of temporary
-book.
-
-There is so little of permanent universal human nature in an ordinary
-novel of the period, that when you are done with it you have learned
-but very little about man. The great defect with this class of books is
-that they do not deal with universal human nature, and it is the power
-of Shakspere that he deals largely with universal human nature. And
-here we discover the likeness that reigns there. We recognize ourselves
-and our neighbors. We have struck one of the old lines of humanity,
-and are acquainted with the people we meet. They wear togas, we wear
-trousers; but we know each other for brothers. The defect of Shaksperean
-human nature very soon appears when you lay it down along side of the
-gospels. You have a little universal human nature in Shakspere, in the
-gospels you have almost nothing else but universal human nature. If you
-ask yourselves why we are interested in certain incidents that occurred
-nearly two thousand years ago, in a foreign land, that occurred in
-connection with a people for whom we have nothing but antipathy, what
-will be the answer? Why are we interested in this old history lying back
-there in a world that had almost nothing like our world except men,
-and the eternal rocks, and the ever flowing streams? Why, belting the
-green earth, should we find men everywhere singing about this passage
-in human history? What is the charm of it that reaches human nature so
-widely? Undoubtedly there is much charm in the delightful truth which it
-contains; more in the delightful power behind it, but much also in the
-fact that when we open these gospels we find ourselves in the presence of
-men and women like ourselves, in the presence of human nature, undying,
-eternally the same. In any of these passages you find yourself suddenly
-reminded of yourself. You feel in every throb of a human heart in the
-gospels something which allies the old heart with yourself.
-
-Another proof of the dramatic quality of the gospels lies in the fact
-that the details all work out into one picture, and each trait resembles
-the whole. What I mean here I shall try to make clear. The Righi is a
-mountain made up of pudding stones. It is a great egg-shaped mass that
-leaps up out of the plain, rising thousands of feet in the air, and is
-composed altogether of these pudding stones. At different points up its
-rugged sides, masses have been broken off by the action of the ice,
-and if you examine them you will find that the fragments resemble the
-whole. Break up one of them into the finest pieces, and each bit will
-still resemble the whole. In any fragment of the vast mass you have a
-picture of the whole mountain. Now this is true of the highest dramatic
-production, that every piece and every incident is a picture of the
-whole. This highest dramatic perfection is found only in the gospels.
-You find hints of it elsewhere. Many of you have read the story of
-“Middlemarch,” the most perfect piece of art produced in the way of a
-modern novel. The art lies first in the dramatic conception, for it has
-a theme, and the theme runs clear through, and the climax leaps out of
-the theme. This theme is worked out through a principal character. In
-her history the general lesson is impressively taught. But the art does
-not end there, each one of the characters is a picture of the heroine in
-little. The same story is repeated over and over again, in the different
-characters. It is a story of human failure, of the way in which a great
-human purpose, and high aspirations, growing in a youthful mind, may be
-dispersed and destroyed as human life goes on to its conclusion. It is a
-lesson of failure, and the failure of the principal character is repeated
-in the subordinate characters.
-
-Take another illustration from Shakspere: “Julius Cæsar” is his best
-drama, not the best play, for it does not act well on the stage, as it
-lacks singleness and simplicity; nevertheless it is, I think, Shakspere’s
-most complete play, his most dramatic piece, and the reason is this: His
-subject is large and is developed on the principle I am laying down. The
-play is narrow, both in “Macbeth” and “Othello.” In “Julius Cæsar” it is
-large. The subject may be named the weaknesses of great men. The play
-is constructed so as to develop the weaknesses of Julius Cæsar, and of
-all the rest of the characters grouped about him. The story told in the
-death of Julius Cæsar is told also in the death of all the parties in
-the terrible failure of them all. But you must mark that in this case
-we have an extremely narrow purpose as compared with the gospels. In
-the gospels you can begin anywhere, and preach the whole gospel from
-any incident. Take the case of the Prodigal Son, and you have the whole
-story of the gospel in that short compass. Take up the case of the man
-described as the “father of the child,” crying, “I believe,” and you have
-it over again. It is over and over again, from the beginning to the end,
-the pieces all conspiring to the grand result. It is achieved not by
-ordinary art. The story teller has seen or heard or conceived something,
-and he goes through a mass of details. The gospels have nothing of that
-sort. They tell you in a few words what they have to say of the woman
-of Samaria, or the maniac of Gadara, or of her who loved much and was
-forgiven much. Names are dispensed with, details, places of residence,
-all the tricks by which the ordinary story teller succeeds. This story
-succeeds by pure force of an infinite truth behind it.
-
-Another characteristic of drama is a kind of consistency between the
-beginning and the end, a kind of logical order in which it moves, and
-this is illustrated in the gospels by the fact which must always be
-borne in mind, that the task is one of supreme difficulty. The author
-of the gospels has to tell the story of the Incarnation of God’s son. A
-story in which there are human and divine actors, in which there is both
-nature and the supernatural. It requires vast dramatic power. I have
-suggested, yet I may more definitely repeat it, that the human earth on
-which you tread is not that of old Palestine, or Galilee, or Jerusalem.
-It is a real universal, a human earth. There is not a bit of purer
-realism than the gospels. Take up this story, walk with these men. Down
-by the lake you find the Gadarene crying among the tombs. You see the
-stranger landing and healing him. You stand down by the boat and hear the
-poor man begging Jesus to allow him to go with him. You see these human
-figures. Look into it a little, and there the man stands where he has
-stood almost two thousand years, listening to the words of the Master
-compelling him to go away. The meaning of it you understand, for the case
-is before you. On this solid human earth, this real human nature, this
-realistic character which makes you feel the heart beat, and smell the
-real earth, all is combined with something else, with the supernatural.
-There have been writers who have carried us into wonderland. We were
-glad to be there, and we traveled along delighted with the scenery and
-with the companions created by the imagination. The gospels do not do
-this. This solid earth beneath your feet is not more real than the
-heavens that bend over it. Human reality is combined with heavenly, and
-you are continually going to and fro between the earth and the sky. The
-natural and the supernatural are so run together that you feel no shock
-in passing from one to the other. You have men and angels, divine power
-and human power, associated together. The warp of earth is woven into the
-woof of heaven until it is one piece of cloth of gold. The gold of the
-skies is braided into the earthly so perfectly I defy any man to take
-them apart with consistency or success. This is the beauty and perfection
-of dramatic success. The divine and the human are blended in Christ so
-that you are puzzled to tell whether it is a man or a God who speaks and
-works. The blending of the human about him, in him, through him, all this
-is an effect utterly beyond human art. The story goes straight home to
-the human heart. The time will never come when it will not be a dear and
-sweet old story to the souls that hear it. Edward Eggleston once told me
-that when he was lecturing in some strange corner of the earth, where
-culture in the pulpit was comparatively rare, after the lecture one of
-the men said, “I wish you would come here and preach for us. Our minister
-preaches the funeral of Jesus Christ twice a Sunday, fifty-two Sundays
-in the year.” The case seemed to me to be an exceedingly sad one until I
-began to ask myself, of what man that ever lived could it be said they
-preached his funeral sermon twice a Sabbath for fifty-two Sundays in
-the year, and the story still had such freshness that the people would
-come out and hear it? What other thing was ever so well done that a fool
-might talk about it, and still a certain amount of interest attach to it
-despite the poor telling? Here lies one of the uses of the dramatic power
-of the gospel. When a man of humble attainments has it to tell, he has
-only to follow the book to make it an interesting story. The moment he
-strikes a real point of interest, the attentive soul feels that that is
-what it came for, and, what is better, that it is said to him. In short,
-the enduring power of this story lies in great part in this fact. The
-consistency between the beginning and the end and the logical order of
-things, comes out in a thousand powerful ways. For instance, the peculiar
-truth that reappears in the words which are sculptured on Shakspere’s
-tomb.
-
-Take the same thought as it reappears—the same thought slightly turned
-over—as it is repeated in “Middlemarch,” or in that best human version of
-all, that of Watts:
-
- “Princes, this clay must be your bed,
- In spite of all your towers;
- The tall, the wise, the reverend head,
- Must lie as low as ours.”
-
-You will find the thought, in good and bad versions, everywhere. Do you
-wish to take this thought fresh from the fountain? Come to the temple,
-where the disciples, accustomed to nothing great in art, fresh from
-Galilee, stand gazing in admiration at the glory of the great edifice and
-one of them cries out: “Master, behold these stones; and what manner of
-a building is this?” And listen to the Master as he says: “There shall
-not remain one stone upon another,” and you have the fountain head of all
-these streams running down into our poetry.
-
-Mark the wonderful consistency, and the wonderful movement of this
-story—consider it as a drama. You may regard the gospels as beginning at
-that moment when suddenly there was with the angel a great company of the
-heavenly hosts, appearing to the shepherds as they watched their flocks
-by night. It practically ends when the disciples, after the ascension,
-returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple
-singing the song which began in angel mouths and ends in human mouths.
-The purpose of the story was to sing that angelic music into the human
-heart.
-
-In conclusion: What inferences may be drawn from the statements I have
-made? Certainly not that the gospels have attained their success because
-they are a drama. They had to have the truth to succeed. They have the
-truth, and that has given them success. It behooved that Christ should
-suffer and rise from the dead the third day. And this behooving lies in
-something very deep in our nature. We believe that these gospels are
-inspired; that the authors were moved by the Holy Ghost; and it seems to
-me to be a necessary inference that the story should be well told; and
-well told means dramatically told. If it be true that the gospels sweep
-a larger circle and involve a greater work than was ever attempted by a
-human brain, if it be true that you can put a million of Shaksperes into
-their compass and still have an abyss of art unfilled, then you have an
-inference, an argument, in the line of the evidences of Christianity
-that has never been attempted. And that is that the best told, most
-dramatically told story, the story of the visit of God’s son to the
-earth, of his life, death, resurrection and ascension, must have been
-told by God himself. No human pen can be eloquent enough, no heart wide
-enough, no intellect could penetrate into the human heart deeply enough,
-to produce these gospels. In the literary perfection of the gospel there
-lies an evidence of the truth, of the divine authorship of the gospels,
-which in time to come, when all men read and think, will weigh perhaps
-more than any other kind of argument that has been drawn upon to this
-hour.
-
-
-
-
-PROHIBITION IN MAINE.
-
-By the HON. NEAL DOW.
-
-
-The policy of license to the liquor traffic had been the uniform practice
-of the civilized world since the reign of Edward VI., of England, when
-it was first established. Since that time, in England, there have been
-more than four hundred and fifty separate acts relating to the traffic,
-each of them being a vain attempt to improve upon all that had gone
-before, in the hope, if not in the expectation, of diminishing in some
-degree the tremendous evils coming from it. For the last twenty years
-there has been no session of Parliament, I think, at which there have not
-been several separate bills introduced, relating to that matter; at some
-of them, these bills have been in number, from eight to ten, sometimes
-even twelve. When our fathers first came over the waters to this western
-world, they brought with them the policy of license, because at that time
-no other had been attempted or thought of.
-
-In 1820 Maine was separated from Massachusetts and set up housekeeping
-for herself, bringing with her, as a part of her outfit, the policy of
-license, which had been brought over in the “Mayflower” by the Pilgrim
-Fathers, and established in Plymouth colony in the first years of its
-existence. By the peculiar industries of Maine the people were led into
-the habit of the excessive use of strong drink. All our people living
-a little way back from the sea coast were engaged in the lumbering
-business. We had vast forests of invaluable pine, whence Maine was and
-is called the “Pine Tree State.” The people through all the winter
-season were living in camps in the woods, engaged in felling the trees
-and transporting them to the water courses, by which they would be taken
-to the innumerable saw mills which crowded the falls on almost all our
-streams. In the camps, away from home influences and home restraints,
-the “lumbermen” indulged freely in strong drink, which was a large and
-indispensable part of their rations.
-
-On the breaking up of the streams in the spring, these men were engaged
-in “driving river,” as it was called, i. e., following the “drives” of
-logs, many, many miles down all the water courses to the “booms,” whence
-they were impounded and secured ready for the saw mills which were kept
-in operation through the year, often running night and day. On these
-drives many of the men were often in the icy water more or less all day,
-dislodging the logs from rocks or shallows, by which they were stopped
-in their course down stream. In all this laborious and trying work, the
-men used rum freely and largely, as the universal custom was in those
-days. In those old times I have seen our great rivers covered for miles,
-from shore to shore, with innumerable logs, so closely packed as almost
-to hide the water from view. Many “river drivers” were following along
-on either shore to prevent the logs from “lodging,” and to “start” all
-that had been “grounded.” At night I have seen these men in great numbers
-around their camp fires, wild and boisterous, under the influence of
-liquor, like so many Comanche savages just home from the war path, with
-many scalps hanging at their belts. On many of these drives the men
-would be engaged for weeks, with rum as the most important part of their
-ration. On the return of these men to civilized life a large part of them
-would spend in a week, in a drunken carouse, all the wages paid them for
-their winter’s work, without regard to wife and children at home.
-
-The saw mills in Maine were on a very large scale, and were in great
-numbers. There were great masses of men engaged in them, all using rum
-freely and in immense quantities. I have heard it said that two quarts
-a day to each man was the regular allowance. While all these men—in
-whatever department working—earned large wages, they were not at all
-benefited by that, because they spent all in rum, except a miserable
-pittance doled out to the wretched wife and children.
-
-The transportation of this “lumber” to the West Indies—the principal
-market for it—was a very great industry; it was called the “West India
-Trade.” Great numbers of vessels were engaged in it, running from all
-our principal ports which had direct communication with the vast system
-of saw mills on all our streams. The returns for this lumber were mostly
-West India rum and molasses, to be converted into New England rum, at
-our numerous distilleries. All along our sea coast great numbers of our
-people were engaged in the mackerel and cod fisheries; there were a
-great many vessels employed in that industry, the products of which were
-mostly sent to the West Indies in the lumber ships, the returns for which
-were also “rum and molasses!” I have heard men say who were owners of
-timber lands and of saw mills—“operators” on a large scale, and owners
-of West India traders—that Maine was never a dollar the richer for all
-these great industries. The returns were mostly in rum, and in molasses
-converted into rum, so that our boundless forests of invaluable timber
-were literally poured down the throats of our people in the form of rum.
-The result of all this was that Maine was the poorest state in the Union,
-consuming the entire value of all its property of every kind in rum, in
-every period of less than twenty years.
-
-I have run hastily over this account of the condition of Maine in the old
-rum time to show that our people, according to the general opinion on
-this subject, were most unlikely to adopt a policy of prohibition to the
-liquor traffic, which was spread everywhere all over the state, and was
-intimately interwoven into all the habits and customs of the time. All
-over the state there was a general appearance of neglect and dilapidation
-in houses, barns, school houses, farms, churches. By their habits of
-drinking a great many of our people were disinclined to work, and many
-of them were unfitted for it. It used to be said that three-fourths of
-the farms were mortgaged to the town, village and country traders, all of
-whom kept in stock liquors of all sorts as the most important and most
-profitable part of their supplies.
-
-A few men in Maine resolved to change all that by changing the law by
-which the liquor traffic was licensed, and by substituting for it the
-policy of prohibition. This was supposed to be a great undertaking,
-as in fact it was. An indispensable preparatory step was to change
-public opinion, on which all law is supposed to be founded. To do this
-meetings were held all over the state—not only in the larger towns,
-but in villages and in all the rural districts. There was hardly a
-little country church or town house or roadside school house where we
-did not lay out before the people the fact that the liquor traffic was
-inconsistent with the general good; that it was in deadly hostility to
-every interest of nation, state and people. In our missionary work about
-the state, traveling in our own carriages in summer, and in our own
-sleighs in winter, we took with us large supplies of tracts relating to
-the liquor traffic and its results. These were prepared for the purpose,
-and were distributed freely at all our meetings, and we threw them out to
-the people as we passed their houses, and as we met them on our way; and
-to the children as we passed the country school houses. In this way, by
-persistent work, we changed the public opinion upon the matter and fired
-the hearts of the people with a burning indignation against the liquor
-traffic, by which they were made poor and kept poor.
-
-This work was continued for several years without intermission; we had a
-definite object in view, and that was to overthrow the liquor traffic, to
-outlaw it, to put it under the ban, and to drive it out as a pestilent
-thing, the whole influence of which was to spread poverty, pauperism,
-suffering, wretchedness and crime broadcast among the people, at the same
-time that no possible good came from it. In due time we made earnest
-application to the legislature for a law of prohibition, but our prayers
-were not heeded. We were regarded as having no rights which politicians
-were bound to respect, and we were treated with small courtesy. We soon
-took in the situation, and addressed ourselves at once to the only
-instrumentality through which we could possibly succeed—that is, the
-ballot box. We sent in great numbers of petitions to the legislature, but
-we were beaten by more than two to one. At the next election we swept the
-State House clear of almost every man who had voted against us; we did
-this irrespective of all party ties and affiliations.
-
-To the legislature thus elected we sent no petitions; we went there in
-person, with a bill all prepared, and offered it as one that would be
-acceptable to temperance men. It was on Friday, the 30th of May, 1851,
-that we did this. We had a public hearing in the Representative Hall on
-the afternoon of that day. Saturday, the 31st of May, was to be the last
-day of the session. The committee voted unanimously to accept the bill as
-it was, with no change whatever. It was printed on Friday night and laid
-upon the desks of the members the next morning. Immediately after the
-morning hour it was taken up for consideration.
-
-Now this was the situation on that Saturday morning. The liquor traffic
-was a lawful trade in Maine, as it was throughout the civilized world.
-There were liquor shops, wholesale and retail, all over the state, with
-large stocks of liquor for sale, as there are now in all our states,
-where the traffic is yet prosecuted by authority of law, and under its
-protection. The bill lying upon the members’ desks proposed to change
-all that; it forbade the trade absolutely; it declared that there was
-no property in intoxicating liquors kept for unlawful sale; that such
-liquors so kept, or supposed to be so kept, should be seized on complaint
-and warrant, or on sight, without warrant, and should be confiscated and
-destroyed, unless the claimant could show to the satisfaction of the
-court that they were not intended for sale. They might be seized wherever
-seen; on railway cars, on steamboats, or in transitu by any other mode
-of transportation; they might be hunted like wild and dangerous beasts,
-and like them, if resistance was offered, they might be destroyed upon
-the spot. If it be decided that the liquors are kept for unlawful sale,
-the party is sentenced, in addition to the loss of the liquor, to a fine
-of one hundred dollars and costs, and on the second conviction, to the
-same fine and to imprisonment at hard labor for six months. And it was
-expressly provided that no action should be had or maintained in any
-court in the state for the recovery of intoxicating liquors nor for the
-value thereof. The liquor traffic was put by that bill outside the law,
-beyond its protection, and was denounced as an enemy to the state and
-people—utterly inconsistent with the public welfare.
-
-On that Saturday this extraordinary measure, such as had never been heard
-of in the world before, with no change whatever, was passed through all
-its stages to be enacted, and on Monday, at nine o’clock in the morning,
-it was approved by the Governor, and from that moment it was the law,
-because the act provided that it should take effect when signed by the
-executive. All the stocks of liquors in the state were then liable to
-be seized and destroyed, but the local authorities allowed the parties
-having them in possession a reasonable time in which to “send them away
-to other states and countries where they could be lawfully sold;” and
-this was done. There was a hasty departure of these liquors from all
-parts of the state. It was not an appeal to the legislature by petitions
-that accomplished this wonderful overturn in the status of the liquor
-traffic in Maine, it was simply and only because the people put their
-will in relation to it into the ballot box. There is no other way in
-which it can be done in any other states, or in the nation. This movement
-against the liquor traffic is now, as it was then, a far more important
-political question than any other, more important than all others
-combined, to every interest of the nation, state, and people. What has
-been the result of this legislation?
-
-“In some places liquor is sold secretly in violation of law, as many
-other offences are committed against the statutes, but in large
-districts of the state, the liquor traffic is nearly or quite unknown,
-where formerly it was carried on like any other trade.
-
- “SIDNEY PERHAM,
- “Governor of Maine.”
-
-“I can and do, from my own personal observation, unhesitatingly affirm
-that the consumption of intoxicating liquors in Maine is not to-day
-one-fourth so great as it was twenty years ago; in the country portions
-of the state the sale and use have almost entirely ceased. In my opinion
-our remarkable temperance reform of to-day is the legitimate child of the
-law.
-
- “WM. P. FRYE,
- “M. C. of Maine, and ex-Att’y Gen’l of the State.”
-
-“I have the honor unhesitatingly to concur in the opinions expressed in
-the foregoing by my colleague, Hon. Wm. Frye.
-
- “LOT M. MORRILL,
- “U. S. Senate.”
-
-“I concur in the foregoing statements; and on the point of the relative
-amount of liquors sold at present in Maine and in those states where a
-system of license prevails, I am very sure from personal knowledge and
-observation that the sales are immeasurably less in Maine.
-
- “J. G. BLAINE,
- “Speaker U. S. House of Representatives.”
-
-“I concur in the statements made by Mr. Frye. Of the great good produced
-by the Prohibitory Liquor Law of Maine, no man can doubt who has seen its
-result. It has been of immense value.
-
- “H. HAMLIN,
- “U. S. Senate.”
-
-“We are satisfied that there is much less intemperance in Maine than
-formerly, and that the result is largely produced by what is termed
-prohibitory legislation.
-
- “JOHN A. PETERS, M. C of Maine.
- “EUGENE HALE, M. C. of Maine.”
-
-“I fully concur in the statement of my colleague, Mr. Frye, in regard to
-the effect of the enforcement of the liquor law in the state of Maine.
-
- “JOHN LYNCH, M. C. of Maine.”
-
-These certificates are from both Senators and all the Representatives of
-Maine in Congress.
-
-These statements are indorsed by many mayors and ex-mayors of cities, and
-many other officials in every part of the state; by General Chamberlaine,
-ex-Governor and President of Bowdoin College, and by many clergymen in
-every county in the state.
-
-The convention of Good Templars resolved, “That by the operation of
-the Maine law in this state, the traffic in intoxicating liquors has
-been greatly diminished, and that the happy effects of this change are
-everywhere apparent, and that the quantity of liquors now sold in this
-state can not be one-tenth as much as it was formerly.”
-
-The State Conventions of the Republican party of Maine have always
-adopted resolves relating to this matter. I have some of them before me
-now.
-
-Republican State Convention of 1878: “Temperance among the people may
-be greatly promoted by wise prohibitory legislation, as well as by all
-those moral agencies which have secured us beneficent results; and it
-is a source of congratulation that the principle of prohibition, which
-has always been upheld by Republicans, is now concurred in by so large
-a majority of the people that it is no longer a party question, the
-Democrats having for several years declined to contest and dispute
-it.” 1879: “We recognize temperance as a cause which has conferred
-the greatest benefits on the state, and we sustain the principle of
-prohibition which in its operation has so largely suppressed liquor
-selling, and added incalculably to the sum of virtue and prosperity among
-the people.” 1880: “Experience has demonstrated the wisdom of the policy
-of prohibition as an auxiliary of temperance, and as contributing to the
-material wealth, happiness and prosperity of the state; and we refer with
-confidence and pride to an undeviating support of the same as one of the
-cardinal principles of the Republican party of Maine.”
-
-There was no election in 1881, and no convention, but the resolve of 1882
-is:
-
- “We refer with confidence and pride to the general result of
- the Republican party in support of the policy of prohibiting
- the traffic in intoxicating liquors, the wisdom and efficiency
- of which legislation in promoting the moral and material
- interests of Maine have been demonstrated through the practical
- annihilation of that traffic in a large portion of the state;
- and we favor such legislation and such enforcement of law as
- will secure to every portion of our territory freedom from that
- traffic. We further recommend the submission to the people of a
- prohibitory Constitutional amendment.”
-
-Such is the latest authoritative and comprehensive testimony to the
-actual results of prohibition in Maine. Similar testimonies could easily
-be obtained from the most influential sources in every part of the state.
-Every brewery and distillery has been suppressed. Molasses, which is yet
-imported into the state in large quantities, is no longer converted into
-rum, but is used exclusively for domestic purposes, while a large part of
-it is converted into sugar by improved processes. The share of Maine of
-the national drink bill would be about $13,000,000, but I am far within
-the truth in saying that one million will cover the cost of all liquors
-smuggled into the state in violation of law. From the poorest state in
-the Union, Maine has become one of the most prosperous, and it has gained
-immeasurably in many other ways from the policy of prohibition.
-
-
-
-
-THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS OF BOSTON.
-
-By E. E. HALE.
-
-
-I.
-
-It was the morning after the funeral. Aunt Fanny had tried to make the
-breakfast seem cheerful to the children, or at least tolerable. She had
-herself gone into the kitchen to send up some trifle a little out of the
-way for the family meal. She talked to the children of the West, of the
-ways in which her life in Wisconsin differed from their lives in Boston.
-And Aunt Fanny succeeded so far that George passed his plate for oatmeal
-a second time, and little Sibyl did not ask leave to go before her aunt
-had poured out her second cup of coffee.
-
-Aunt Fanny made the breakfast as long as she could. Then she folded her
-napkin slowly, and led the children into the other room for morning
-prayer. They read the last chapter of Proverbs, and then all knelt down
-and said the Lord’s Prayer. Then Aunt Fanny took Nahum’s hand and took
-little Sibyl on her lap, and she said to all four of the children, “It is
-very hard for us all, dear children, but I must tell you all about what
-the plans are. I have a letter from Uncle Cephas, and you know I had a
-long talk with Mr. Alfred after he came here yesterday. We will not break
-up here yet.”
-
-“Oh, I am so glad of that,” said poor, sturdy Belle, who generally said
-so little.
-
-“No, we will not break up here yet. In the spring we will all go to
-Wisconsin, and you shall learn to like my home at Harris as much as you
-like Roxbury.” So spoke Aunt Fanny, as cheerfully as she could. And not
-daring to wait a reply, she hurried on: “See here, Uncle George writes
-that I may stay till late in March, or early in April, if I think best,
-but that then we must all be ready to go on.”
-
-You must know that the four children were orphans. Their father had died
-in April, and now, in the middle of December, their mother had died. Aunt
-Fanny had been with them for the last month. But she knew, and they knew,
-that their pleasant home was to be broken up forever.
-
-“And now,” she said, “we must all see what we have to do this winter, to
-be ready for Wisconsin. Belle and Sibyl, you may come up stairs with me,
-and we will look through your clothes and the boys’. I must not be lazy
-this winter, and I will have it for my morning work to put everything in
-order.”
-
-And when they came up stairs, and this business like, energetic Belle
-took their frocks and underclothes from the drawers, Aunt Fanny was
-indeed surprised. The girl was grave beyond her years; so long had her
-poor mother been ill, and so much of the care of the family had fallen
-on her. “I should think you were an old housekeeper,” said Aunt Fanny,
-in admiration, as Belle explained how she had mended this, and, on the
-whole, determined to retain that. And when Belle took her into the little
-room which she called the “sewing room,” and showed her drawers, and even
-shirts for the boys, which she had under way, Aunt Fanny squarely told
-her that she was quite her own equal in such management.
-
-“How did ever come to be such a thorough seamstress?” said she. “Dear
-Mary has been sick so long that I had somehow imagined that such things
-as these must slip by.”
-
-“Oh! of course mamma told us everything. But you know we learn this at
-school.”
-
-“I do not know any such thing,” confessed Aunt Fanny, promptly.
-
-“Oh, yes,” said Belle, “we learn more or we learn less. But so soon as I
-found I could help mamma about it I went into the advanced class. There
-we learned to cut shirts and to make them. I can make a shirt now as
-well as anybody,” said the girl, laughing. “But of course I do not in
-practice.”
-
-“Why of course?” persisted Aunt Fanny.
-
-Belle opened her eyes as much as to say, “How little these people in
-Wisconsin know.” But she did not say so in words, she only said: “Oh,
-I can buy my collars and wristbands and fronts ready made a great deal
-cheaper than I can make them, if my time is worth anything. And you must
-not laugh, Aunt Fanny, but papa said my time is worth a good deal.”
-
-Aunt Fanny did not laugh. She smiled very kindly, and drew Belle to her
-and kissed her.
-
-“You see, the boys run the machine for me, and Sibyl can do perfectly
-well any plain sewing we need. We do not think a set of shirts such
-a very heavy job,” said the little matron, quite unconscious of the
-amusement she was giving Aunt Fanny.
-
-“Do you mean that every girl in Boston learns to do this?”
-
-“Why yes, if she goes to a public school. She learns it, or she may. I
-think perhaps she might shirk a good deal. But if the teacher sees you
-are interested, and you do as well as you can, she helps you on. I know
-a great many girls who have made dresses for their friends. And I know
-there are girls who went directly to dress-makers from schools, and
-earned good wages at once. Some girls, you know, have a gift for cutting
-and fitting.”
-
-
-II.
-
-It must be confessed that Aunt Fanny went down stairs a little relieved
-in mind after this talk with Belle. Here was one, at least, of her little
-charges, who would be worth her weight in the new home to which they
-were to be transferred. As the boys came in from school, she had another
-such lesson. She asked Nahum who would be a good man to whom to send her
-trunk, which needed some repair. The boy gave her his views, and then
-asked what she wanted to have done. Aunt Fanny explained that in coming
-on she had, wisely or not, left the dress tray of her trunk at home. In
-going back she was sure she would need a tray, and she must have a new
-one made.
-
-“Is that all?” said Nahum. “I should never send to Sage’s for that.”
-
-“What would you do?” asked Aunt Fanny.
-
-“I should make the tray myself,” said Nahum, quite unconsciously. “When
-Belle made her famous visit to Swampscott, she found that that trunk
-she has now would not take in some dandy-jack hat she wanted to carry.
-And I made a new tray for her.” So he brought his aunt to the “trunk
-closet,” dragged out Belle’s trunk, and showed her a neat tray, made of
-white-wood, and very perfectly fitted. “Is that good enough?” asked the
-boy.
-
-Of course it was good enough, and Aunt Fanny explained that she had not
-known that Nahum was fond of tools.
-
-“Oh, I might have been as fond of tools as of candy,” said Nahum. “But
-that would not have come out for much. I learned to handle tools at
-school.”
-
-“School!” said Aunt Fanny.
-
-“Yes, they wanted to try it at the Dwight, where I was. So they got some
-benches put into the Ward Room, which is in their building, and is only
-used by the voters twice a year. They had a first rate teacher, Mr.
-Batchelder. We had one lesson a week. They would not let us go on unless
-we kept up in the regular school lessons. So it made the fellows spur up,
-I tell you, because we all liked the shop, though that was extra.”
-
-“How many lessons have you had?” said Aunt Fanny.
-
-“Oh, I was in the first class, and so I had only one year’s course. It
-was eighteen lessons. The first day we tried to strike square blows with
-the hammer. Some of us did not strike very square, I tell you. All the
-beginning with nails came the first day. The last lesson was ‘planing and
-squaring, marking, making tenon, making mortise, and fastening mortise
-and tenon.’ I wrote a letter to another fellow, and I copied it from the
-school regulations.”
-
-So Nahum went out to his own work shop in the shed, which, as it
-happened, Aunt Fanny had never seen before, because Nahum kept it under
-his own key. In the afternoon the tray was made.
-
-“This will make you no end of comfort in Wisconsin, Nahum.”
-
-“But if I am to do carpenter work, really,” said the boy, “I ought to go
-to the Technology.”
-
-He meant to the Institute of Technology.
-
-“Would you like to go there?”
-
-“Of course I would. Why, if I went there I could make the frame of my own
-house, and raise it, if the neighbors would help.”
-
-Nor was the boy wrong. And his Aunt Fanny and Uncle Asaph determined he
-should go, and go he did. He spent three months of that winter there,
-four days of every week; and worked steadily eight hours a day. Still it
-was different from what it would have been had he gone to a carpenter as
-an apprentice. For then he would have had to do whatever the carpenter
-was doing; and he would have had to take his chance for instruction. But
-at the Technology he had regular teachers and regular practical lessons.
-Of course he needed practice, and in the long run, it is only practice
-which makes a first rate workman. But at the end, he had seen every
-important part of a good carpenter’s work done, he knew why it was done,
-and had had a hand in the doing of it.
-
-The Institute of Technology is not a public school as the Dwight School
-is, where Nahum had picked up his elementary instruction; and for his
-lessons here they had to pay thirty dollars. But when, the next summer,
-all the barns on his uncle’s farm in Harris were carried fourteen miles
-by a tornado, and Nahum found himself directing the framing of a new
-barn, and doing half the work, he and his aunt thought that those thirty
-dollars had been well invested.
-
-She took very good care that George should go into the carpenter’s class
-at the Dwight School while they staid in Boston. He would not have been
-obliged to go. No scholar took this course, excepting as an extra, but
-_he_ took it because he wanted to. And, as Nahum had said, they were
-obliged to keep in good standing in their other studies.
-
-As for little Sibyl, Aunt Fanny judged, after full consultation with
-her confidential adviser, Belle, that Sibyl had better stay where she
-was—at the Grammar School. Aunt Fanny went down and made a state call on
-Miss Throckmorton, the teacher of the school, and also saw Miss Bell,
-the sewing teacher. She explained to them that while she did not want
-to break any school rules, she should be well pleased to have as much
-attention as possible given to Sibyl’s sewing. Miss Bell was really
-pleased with the attention. She said a good many parents did not seem to
-care anything about it. But if Sibyl would really give her mind to it,
-she would see that she was able, before she left them in the spring, to
-cut and fit a frock for Aunt Fanny or for her sister. And before they
-went to Wisconsin, it proved that Miss Bell was as good as her word to
-her little friend, and Sibyl made a very pretty dress for Aunt Fanny,
-before she left school.
-
-
-III.
-
-As Aunt Fanny herself made her inquiries into these practical matters,
-she resolved to try an experiment, which she would have laughed at when
-she left Wisconsin. She was asked to a lunch party of ladies one day, and
-was a little amused and a little amazed at first, when she observed how
-much they said about what they had to eat. Aunt Fanny had been trained
-to a little of the western ridicule of Boston, and had supposed that a
-bubble rechauffée or a fried rainbow was the most material article that
-anybody would discuss. And here these ladies were volubly telling of the
-merits of oysters in batter and oysters in crumbs—of one and another way
-to serve celery—in a detail which Aunt Fanny found quite puzzling, and,
-indeed, quite out of place in the manners to which she had been bred,
-which had taught her never to criticise what was on the table.
-
-Perhaps her silence showed her surprise. This is certain, that all of a
-sudden a very pretty and gay Mrs. Fréchette turned round and said, “Here
-is Mrs. Turnbull, horrified because we talk so much of what we eat. Dear
-Mrs. Turnbull, it is not what we eat, it is the cooking we care for.
-You must know we have all been to the Cooking Schools—all who are not
-managers.”
-
-Aunt Fanny confessed that she had been puzzled a little, and Mrs.
-Fréchette and Mrs. Champernom, her hostess, explained. In point of fact
-this very lunch had been cooked, “From egg to apple,” as the Romans would
-say, by Mrs. Champernom and her two daughters. It may be worth while,
-therefore, to give the bill of fare:
-
- Raw Oysters on the shell.
- Bouillon in cups.
- Scalloped Lobster in its own shell.
- Quails on Toast, with White Sauce.
- Sweet Breads, with Green Peas.
- Capons, with Salad.
- Ice Creams. Frozen Pudding. Jelly.
- Fruit. Coffee.
-
-How good cooks the mother and daughters had been before, they did not
-explain. But these particular results were due to their training at the
-Cooking School. They had made the rolls as well.
-
-“I came out of it so well,” said Mrs. Champernom, laughing, “and Mary
-Flannegan approved the results so well, that when I told her and Ellen
-Flynn, my waiter girl, that if they liked to go to the cooks’ class,
-which is a class for special instruction to servant girls, I would pay
-half, they both consented to go; Mary Flannegan to keep Ellen Flynn
-company, and to see that she was not taught wrong. The cooks’ class is
-twelve lessons, and costs three dollars each. I shall pay a dollar and
-a half for each of them, and as Ellen Flynn is a bright girl, I shall
-have four good cooks in the house instead of three. For really,” she
-said, “there is nothing that Hester and Maria can not do. They went down
-to the beach with their father and the boys, and for a week they cooked
-everything that was eaten. They made the boys wash the dishes.”
-
-This started Aunt Fanny herself. She found there were four classes she
-could attend:
-
-1. The Cooks’ Class, for people who had some experience. Twelve lessons
-would have cost three dollars.
-
-2. The Beginners’ Class of twenty lessons, for which she must pay eight
-dollars. Here she would be trained to make bread, and to prepare the
-ordinary dishes for family use at breakfast and dinner and supper.
-
-3. The Second Class, also of twenty lessons, but more advanced. Here
-she must pay twelve dollars. But here more elegant dishes, what Mrs.
-Fréchette called “company dishes,” were part of the program.
-
-4. What Mrs. Fréchette called “The Swell Course.” Here every lady paid
-fifteen dollars for her twenty lessons. _Per contra_, they had what they
-cooked, and very jolly parties they seemed to make, when they dared ask
-their friends to their entertainments.
-
-Aunt Fanny was a good housekeeper, but she thought she should like to
-astonish her friends at Harris with some of the best seaboard elegancies,
-so she and Belle entered the “second class.” And pleasant and profitable
-they found it.
-
-
-IV.
-
-“Sibyl, my dear,” said Aunt Fanny one morning, “I have only just found
-out that you and Belle make my bed. You need not do it again; I always
-make it at home, and I should have done it here, but you have been too
-quick for me.”
-
-“We shall not give you a chance, Aunt Fanny; we shall not let you.”
-
-“But when do you do it, you little witches; you are always at breakfast
-and at prayers; and when I go up into my room, it is all in order. I
-supposed Delia did it while we were at breakfast.”
-
-Then, with much joking, it was made clear that every day, while Aunt
-Fanny saw George and Nahum off, and spoke to the butcher in the kitchen,
-Sibyl and Belle slipped up stairs, and “did” her room.
-
-“That is a piece of your dear mother’s training,” said Aunt Fanny, as she
-patted Sibyl’s head.
-
-“As it happens, it is, Aunt Fanny,” said Belle. “But dear mamma said even
-she got points from Miss Homans, and I am sure Sibyl and I both learned
-the reasons of some things at the Kindergarten that we did not know
-before.”
-
-“Reasons for making a bed,” said Aunt Fanny. “Why, you do not tell me
-that you learn to make beds at school.”
-
-“We did not, because mamma had taught us. But the kitchen Kindergarten
-was such fun that we liked to go; and if you like to see it, we will take
-you.” So Aunt Fanny was taken to see that very pretty sight. And she
-understood at once, how even very little children can be taught housework
-thoroughly, and taught to like it too. Each child had a doll’s bed to
-make, and to unmake; and each child, in unison with thirty or forty
-others, made it and unmade it, singing little songs and going through
-other such exercise as made the thing amusing, while it was methodical.
-In the same way each child set a baby house table with the most perfect
-precision, and swept a floor, and dusted a room. It was play to them, but
-they learned what they never forgot, as Aunt Fanny had occasion to see
-every day in the neat order of her dear brother’s orphaned household.
-
-Thus was it that it happened that when Aunt Fanny took home in April her
-little flock of orphans, she did not bring to their wholly new life four
-mere cumberers of the ground.
-
- NOTE.—In preparing this little sketch of “Industrial Education in
- Boston,” at Dr. Flood’s request, I have selected what seem to me,
- on the whole, the most important branches of such education for
- illustration. It has not seemed advisable to introduce too much
- detail.
-
- 1. The instruction in sewing is given in all public schools to
- all girls.
-
- 2. The instruction in carpenter work has been attempted only in
- two public schools. A central school is now to be established,
- where classes of volunteers from the different grammar schools
- will be received. The full course described, of eight hours a
- day, for four days a week, of thirteen weeks, is one of the
- Technology courses, and there is a fee for instruction.
-
- 3. The Cooking Schools are under the direction of a society for
- that purpose. It also maintains Normal Classes for teachers of
- cooking. Different churches and charitable societies maintain
- free cooking classes, and free carpenter classes.
-
- 4. Drawing is taught in all public schools.
-
- 5. Schools of design and of carving are maintained by different
- societies.
-
- I have confined myself to instruction which is to a certain
- extent training in handiwork, and in this I have not included
- musical or other artistic performance.
-
-
-
-
-ECHOES FROM A CHAUTAUQUA WINTER.
-
-By REV. H. H. MOORE.
-
-
-Now that winter is gone and the time for the singing of birds is near,
-the readers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, especially those who have spent a summer
-at this place, will inquire: “How does Chautauqua appear in autumn, with
-flowers withered, trees naked, and not a robin or thrush to be seen or
-heard? What a contrast must be the sudden change from a summer world to
-the wild desolations of a semi-Arctic winter!” and perhaps it seems to
-them that the place was dead and buried beneath a monument of snow and
-ice. A feeling of chilliness comes over them, and possibly they half
-resolve never to visit these groves again. Pity, and possibly a prayer
-are indulged for the poor unfortunates resident here. Lonesome things,
-shut up in the woods, how can they stand it? With all respect and due
-thanks for good intentions, we will excuse the pity, that it may be
-bestowed where it is more needed, and will be better appreciated. If
-contentment, good cheer, and the elements of good society can be found
-anywhere, it is at Chautauqua.
-
-Let man’s environments, duties and responsibilities be what they may,
-if his mind and heart are in harmony and sympathy with them, he is
-satisfied, and at rest.
-
-If Chautauqua is stirring and rosy and beautiful in summer to all people,
-to a nature that can appreciate it it is gorgeous, savage, grand and
-thoughtful in winter. At the one season we float carelessly along in
-the midst of scenes of sunshine, loveliness and gaiety; at the other
-we are more, alone with God, we commune with the stars, and become
-familiar with the sterner aspects of life. The change from one season
-to another is simply turning over a leaf in the book of nature, and
-receiving additional instruction, but of equal value. To our astronomers,
-the heavens, whenever they could be seen, have presented an aspect of
-surpassing beauty. Just after sunset in the west, Venus, from beyond
-the sun has been seen climbing toward the zenith, and is now rapidly
-approaching the earth, dropping down between it and the sun; we have
-swept by fiery Mars, which has been nearly over our heads during the
-winter; further to the east, Jupiter and Saturn have held high court;
-over the southern heavens has swept Sirius, the brightest star to be
-seen; to the north and northwest, Vega, the largest of the stars yet
-measured, has been steadily looking down upon us, and to crown all,
-Orion, the most magnificent of the constellations has illumined the
-southern sky.
-
-January was a month of storms, and often did we contrast its desolations
-with the excitement of a summer Assembly, but such was our satisfaction
-with the present that we were in no haste for a change. The wild, weird
-elements of the season interested us; the opportunity afforded for
-reading, rest and recuperation was what was needed, and we felt that
-these things could not be too long continued. What, have the beautiful
-lake ice-locked for months, and used as a public highway? Listen day and
-night to the moaning and howling of the winds as they swept through
-the branches of the naked trees, often threatening to tear them up by
-the roots? Live weeks together without sight of the sun by day, or of
-a star by night? Yes, for all these things accorded with each other,
-and with the general aspect of nature. The music was of a _class_, and
-each note was in harmony with the general movement of the grand anthem.
-When nature had savagely arrayed itself in frost and snow and cloud and
-tempest, hiding the earth and filling the heavens, had the sun put in an
-appearance what a ghastly display would it have made! But in the midst
-of this desolation the snow-birds appeared, and they were beautiful,
-for they were the flowers of the season. We realized that the power of
-harmony could be heard in a tempest as well as in a seraph’s song. It is
-the extreme of folly to waste a winter watching for the coming of spring.
-The soul that is free from shams and is a pure part of nature itself, is
-attuned to the real and the true, and accepts the nature that is as the
-best, and would resolutely resist a change.
-
-Our snow storm continued about twenty-eight days, and its coming was
-heralded by the play of lightning and the music of thunder. It never
-ceased to be a pleasure to watch the falling of the snow; to see the
-curiously wrought crystals drift out of the sky down among the branches
-of the trees, filling the air till it seemed mantled in white—a new
-creation. As an aid to the expression of our feelings we read the poem of
-Emerson. We quote a few lines:
-
- “Come see the north wind’s masonry,
- Out of an unseen quarry evermore
- Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
- Curves his white bastions with projected roof.
- Round every windward stake, or tree, or door,
- Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
- So fanciful, so savage, naught cares he
- For number or proportion. Mockingly
- On coop, or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths.
- A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn,
- Fills up the farmer’s lane from wall to wall
- Maugre the farmer’s sighs; and at the gate
- A tapering turret overtops the work,
- And when his hours are numbered, and the world
- Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
- Leaves when the sun appears, astonished Art
- To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone
- Built in an age, the mad wind’s night work
- The frolic architecture of the snow.”
-
-Had the storm completed its work in a day, the snow at Chautauqua would
-have been from six to ten feet deep; but as it extended over the most of
-a month, changing occasionally into rain, it became so packed that at no
-time was it more than three feet deep. On some of the buildings, where
-two roofs met at right-angles it was six or eight feet deep at the angle.
-But we suffered no inconvenience from the long storm. Our stalwart young
-men, with heavy teams and strong-built snow-plows, kept the streets open
-to all parts of the grounds. For a short time, as our greatest trouble,
-in common with other places, we were a little vexed because of the
-irregularities of the mail.
-
-But in our safe retreat we could but think of the time when this immense
-mass of snow would melt away, perhaps attended by falling rain, and of
-the suffering which the floods would cause in the valleys below. Our
-gravest apprehensions have since been more than realized. As the snows
-disappeared the waters of the lake began to rise, and the low lands about
-Ashville, the Narrows, Griffiths, and other places were flooded, and the
-area of the lake was sensibly enlarged. The upper dock at Chautauqua
-stood out at least two rods in the lake, and in the baggage room, by
-actual measurement, the water stood fourteen inches deep. As the stage of
-water was unprecedented, we intend to sink a stone at high water mark as
-a monument of the phenomenal flood of the year 1884.
-
-Up to the 15th of January the game laws permit our fishermen to take
-with spear pickerel from the lake, through the ice, and the time was
-well improved, but with poor success. An almost air-tight house, about
-four feet square, is placed on the ice where the water is from twelve to
-fifteen feet deep. Brush and snow are packed about the base of the house,
-and not a ray of light is allowed to enter; then the fisherman, closely
-shut inside, can see into the clear water, but the fish cannot catch a
-glimpse of anything in the house. Having thus taken all the advantages
-to himself, he keeps a decoy chub moving about in the water, and as the
-pickerel comes in sight to seize its prey, it is saluted with the deadly
-spear. One year ago tons of pickerel were taken from the lake, and many
-of them were shipped to distant cities as rare luxuries; but this has
-been a very unfavorable season, for which all Chautauquans should be
-thankful. During the legal fishing season, the wind was in the north,
-and at such times, the fishermen say, the fish keep in deep water, and
-will not “run.” However, some were taken, and those left we may troll for
-during the August Assembly.
-
-When the ice in the lake was at its best, the Assembly ice house and many
-individual houses were filled, and in that respect we are prepared for a
-long, hot summer, and for supplying the wants of the thousands of people
-who may visit the place in July and August.
-
-Late last autumn, quite a company of old Chautauquans repaired to Florida
-to spend the winter; but fifty-nine families remained, and some that left
-us have returned, so that the place is blest with the elements of good
-society. The Sabbath services are largely attended; a choir of excellent
-singers adds much to the interest of the occasion. The average attendance
-at the Sunday-school was about ninety-six during the winter. It is
-thoroughly manned and well supplied with lesson helps. The assistant
-superintendent, A. P. Wilder, deserves much credit for the prosperity
-of the school. The social and devotional exercises of the church are
-spiritual, and special attention is given by competent teachers to the
-religious education of the children. Thus an intelligent and Christian
-class of people are keeping watch and ward of Chautauqua interests in the
-absence of the Assembly authorities.
-
-The local C. L. S. C. is under the direction of Mrs. Sarah Stephens, a
-lady graduate, who brings to her duties, ability, culture, and the ardor
-of woman’s heart. She follows closely the prescribed course of study, and
-by the general circulation of written questions, endeavors to reach and
-interest the entire community. The meetings are held Tuesday evenings, in
-the chapel, and are largely attended by enthusiastic students. Most of
-the people here live at their leisure, and much of their time is given to
-reading and study. I have noticed that subjects discussed at the C. L. S.
-C. meetings often come up for further examination in shops, stores, on
-the street, and in the family, and these discussions I judge go far to
-fix in the mind the subjects discussed. At any rate they are a splendid
-substitute for the empty or slanderous gossip which is bred in minds that
-have nothing else to do.
-
-The Good Templars hold their meetings on Friday night and occasionally
-favor the public with a lecture. Sometime in the winter, under the
-auspices of the order, an oyster festival was given which brought
-together a large crowd. The evening was devoted to feasting, music,
-gossip and addresses. It was really an enjoyable occasion, without any
-discount. The addresses were so well received as to elicit, in miniature,
-the “Chautauqua salute.”
-
-To accommodate the little folks who were not able to go outside the gates
-to the public school, Miss Carrie Leslie has kept a private school, and
-given entire satisfaction.
-
-Not much has been done during the winter in the way of building and
-improvements. Late in autumn, A. Norton, Esq., commenced the erection of
-a fine cottage, at the corner of Vincent and Terrace Avenues, which is
-now nearing completion. He is building a private cottage for a permanent
-home, and will expend upon house and lot from $2,500 to $3,000. The Rev.
-Frank Russell, D. D., of Mansfield, Ohio, has under way a unique cottage,
-a little back of the Amphitheater, which, when completed, will present a
-fine appearance. The prospect from his upper verandas will be the widest
-and best on the grounds, away from the lake.
-
-The Sixby store, embracing dry goods, groceries, drugs, and hardware,
-under the management of the gentlemanly and accommodating Mr. Herrick,
-has been open during the winter, and has done a good business.
-
-We have had some sickness and one death since the Assembly. Mr.
-Crossgrove, a very good man, came here some two years ago, the victim of
-consumption, and passed away in September last, leaving a widow and other
-friends to mourn their loss.
-
-The first notes of preparation for the next Assembly have been heard. The
-appointment of Mr. W. A. Duncan as superintendent of grounds gives entire
-satisfaction. A modification of policy in some respects is anticipated,
-which will reduce expenses and work general improvement.
-
-We feel that we are nearing the time when a large group of boys will
-be on the ground, receiving an education according to the _enlarged_
-Chautauqua Idea.
-
-I am here interrupted by the tolling of our bell, reminding us of
-Longfellow, and one of our Memorial Days.
-
-Chautauquans everywhere should know that the Chautauqua Vesper Service
-is read every Sunday eve, and that all these Chautauqua interests and
-peculiarities are cared for from one Assembly to another. Chautauqua
-is not a six weeks summer affair, but in spirit, and to some extent in
-form, it lives through all the months of the year, and twelve months are
-none too many for the full development of all its interests. Again am I
-interrupted, this time to attend a wedding at the parsonage, and here
-shall close this survey of Chautauqua in the winter season.
-
-
-
-
-C. L. S. C. WORK.
-
-By REV. J. H. VINCENT, D.D., SUPERINTENDENT OF INSTRUCTION.
-
-
-Will local circles please report to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N.
-J., as well as to THE CHAUTAUQUAN? Please attend to this.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Persons desiring graduates’ badges in the C. L. S. C. should address Mrs.
-Rosie M. Baketel, Methuen, Mass., as she has now entire charge of Mrs.
-Burroughs’ business.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The _Saturday Union_, published in Lynn, Mass., contains a C. L. S. C.
-column. The number for February 2 has an original Chautauqua song, and
-a column and a half of questions and answers in Political Economy. The
-questions are by Rev. R. H. Howard, A.M. This is an advance movement, and
-will undoubtedly help our cause.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Will all members take notice not to send letters, postals or papers to me
-at Hartford, Connecticut? My personal postoffice address is Drawer 75,
-New Haven, Conn.; Miss Kimball’s address is Plainfield, N. J. Letters
-addressed to me at Plainfield are forwarded.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The _Alma Mater_, the new bi-monthly to be sent to all recorded members
-of the C. L. S. C. at Plainfield, N. J., will contain original answers
-by Dr. William M. Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York City;
-Dr. John Hall, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City; John
-Wanamaker, Esq., of Philadelphia; Dr. R. M. Hatfield, of Chicago, Ill.;
-Dr. Joseph T. Duryea, of Boston, and Prof. J. W. Dickinson, of Boston,
-written expressly for this number of the _Alma Mater_, to the following
-question: “What advice do you give to a person who has had but little
-school opportunity since he or she was fifteen years of age—a person
-busy in mechanical, commercial or domestic duties much of the time, who
-complains of a very poor memory, and desires to improve it—how may such
-person improve the memory?”
-
- * * * * *
-
-The Rev. Dr. A. M. Fairbairn, principal of Airedale College, Bradford,
-England, who was announced to give a course of lectures on the “History
-of Philosophy” at Chautauqua last summer, but who was detained at home
-by business connected with the college, writes to Dr. Vincent under date
-of January 29, 1884, as follows: “I intend, all well, to be with you in
-August; the latter part of the month will be most convenient for me. The
-subjects the same as before stated. Sincerely yours, A. M. Fairbairn.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-Persons desiring copies of the Chautauqua Songs or of the Sunday Vesper
-Service may procure them of Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J., at the
-rate of $2.00 per 100 copies each, postage paid.
-
- * * * * *
-
-There are some members of the class of 1887 who have not yet returned
-the blank form of application. Such blank should be filled at once and
-forwarded to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The badge of the C. L. S. C. furnished by Mr. Henry Hart is not in any
-sense an official badge, nor does the C. L. S. C. receive any percentage
-from the sale of the same. This has been offered, but not accepted. The
-badges furnished by Mr. Hart are very beautiful. This is all that the
-officers of the C. L. S. C. can say.
-
- * * * * *
-
-_Alma Mater_ is the name of our new bi-monthly communication to be sent
-from the C. L. S. C. office at Plainfield to all members of the Circle
-whose annual fees are paid. The first number will contain some valuable
-hints on “Memory,” “The Laws of Memory,” etc., by prominent educators.
-The second number of _Alma Mater_ will contain a very ingenious study
-in English—a series entitled “Where the every-day words come from.”
-Communications to the members of the Circle which have heretofore been
-printed separately, as well as the memoranda, will be published in the
-_Alma Mater_. All members whose names are recorded at Plainfield, and
-whose annual fees are paid, will receive _Alma Mater_.
-
- * * * * *
-
-To all recorded members whose annual fees are paid will be forwarded
-in March an envelope containing a _petite_ calendar for ’84, a most
-humorous, brilliant and effective tract on evolution entitled “Saw-mill
-Science,” a copy of the “Sunday Vesper Service,” specimens of the new and
-brilliant C. L. S. C. envelopes, and a copy of the little tract entitled
-“Memorial Days.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-_Our Alma Mater._—The contributions to this magazine are copyrighted, and
-are not designed for publication anywhere else than through this medium.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A correspondent kindly criticises a statement in the “Outlines of Roman
-History,” on page 68, in which it speaks of Polycarp as being in Rome
-in 240. Assuming that this is 240 A. D., he says: “Now what Polycarp do
-you mean? Not the disciple of John, who was afterward Bishop of Smyrna,
-for, according to Prof. R. W. Hitchcock, the church historian, and other
-excellent authorities, Polycarp suffered martyrdom between the years
-166 and 167 A. D.” We referred the question of our critic to an expert
-in such matters, and this is the reply: “In all the authorities I find
-mention of but one Polycarp, the Disciple of John and Bishop of Smyrna,
-and his death is given as either 168 or 169, but they add that it is
-uncertain. As to the Polycarp mentioned by your critic, I feel sure that
-there is a mistake, and Polycarp of Smyrna is meant, who did visit Rome
-during the controversy about the celebration of Easter, probably about
-140 A. D. With dates it is easy to make a slip of a century, and probably
-this was the trouble in this case; certainly there is no mention of a
-Polycarp in Rome as late as 240.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-The Chautauqua University is gradually developing its courses of study.
-The preparatory and college courses in German, French, Latin, Greek and
-English are already announced. A practical department has also been
-recognized, and a corresponding class in connection with a technical
-school for draftsmen and mechanics is now in full working order. The
-lesson papers prepared by Profs. Gribbon and Houghton are divided into
-eight series of about twelve lessons each, treating upon the following
-topics: First series, free-hand drawing; second, mechanical drafting;
-third, fourth and fifth, geometry applied to carriage construction;
-sixth, miscellaneous problems in carriage construction; seventh, review
-tables useful in carriage construction; eighth, miscellaneous lessons.
-Young men, apprentices, journeymen, and others desiring to take this
-course, should correspond at once with George W. Houghton, Esq.
-
- * * * * *
-
-There are many persons who are taking up the Chautauqua Spare-minute
-Course, which is a course of readings, short, practical, simple,
-attractive, in biography, history, literature, science, and art. This
-course is printed in twenty-one Home College Series and in two numbers
-of the Chautauqua Text-Book Series. They cost in one package $1.00, sent
-by mail. The reading in this course can be carried along steadily, and,
-after a while, one who has prosecuted the course will find himself well
-along in the C. L. S. C.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The following pleasant little domestic picture comes from New Hampshire:
-“I can not thank you enough for what the C. L. S. C. has done for us all.
-You should see us some evening now. We sit around the table, every one
-interested in some C. L. S. C. books. Even my little boy of seven years
-will tease me to read aloud to him, and nearly every evening this month
-gets his dumb-bells, and wants to go through gymnastics with me.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-Members must not return memoranda to the Plainfield office until all the
-reading for the year has been completed.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A White Seal will be given all graduates of ’84 who read the following:
-“The Hall in the Grove,” “Hints for Home Reading,” and the following
-numbers of the “Home College Series” (price 5 cents each): No. 1, Thomas
-Carlyle; 2, Wm. Wordsworth; 4, Longfellow; 8, Washington Irving; 13,
-George Herbert; 17, Joseph Addison; 18, Edmund Spenser; 21, Prescott; 23,
-Wm. Shakspere; 26, John Milton. Address Phillips & Hunt.
-
-
-
-
-OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. READINGS.
-
-APRIL, 1884.
-
-
-The Required Readings for April include the second half of Prof. W. C.
-Wilkinson’s “Preparatory Latin Course in English,” Chautauqua Text-Book
-No. 16—Roman History and the Required Readings in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
- * * * * *
-
-_First Week_ (ending April 8).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course” from “Fifth
-Book,” page 167 to the first paragraph on page 202.
-
-2. Readings in French History in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
-3. Sunday Readings for April 6 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
- * * * * *
-
-_Second Week_ (ending April 15).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course” from the
-first paragraph on page 202 to the “Georgics” on page 236.
-
-2. Readings in Art in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
-3. Sunday Readings for April 13 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
- * * * * *
-
-_Third Week_ (ending April 22).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course” from the
-“Georgics,” page 236 to the middle of page 272.
-
-2. Readings in Commercial Law and American Literature in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
-3. Sunday Readings for April 20 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
- * * * * *
-
-_Fourth Week_ (ending April 30).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course,” from the
-middle of page 272 to the end of the volume.
-
-2. Readings in United States History in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
-3. Sunday Readings for April 27 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
-
-
-
-
-LOCAL CIRCLES.
-
-
-Now that Longfellow’s Day is gone, we have no Memorial Day until April
-23rd. So many and so delightful are the ways of celebrating Shakspere’s,
-that it is to be hoped that every circle will do something extra. To
-read from Shakspere, to have an essay on his life, another on his
-characteristic as a writer, and a scene from a play, all followed by an
-elaborate supper, is the usual order. Do something new this time. Try
-Shaksperean tableaux—an evening of them, with music, is delightful. If
-the expense of the “properties” needed for successful tableaux is too
-heavy, dispense with the supper, and let the cost of butter, sugar, eggs,
-the meats and fruits, be contributed for buying an apparatus which, once
-owned, will always be ready for use. Get Mr. George W. Bartlett’s little
-book on parlor plays, published by Dick & Fitzgerald, New York, and with
-little expense you will be able to prepare an excellent arrangement for
-the tableaux which in Shakspere are “as thickly strewn as leaves in
-Vallambrosa.” Or, if you wish to be strictly literary, take one character
-as Hermione, or Portia, or Cornelius, and read everything that has been
-said on it. Study one character thoroughly. Try a Shaksperean carnival.
-Do something fresh. Do not fall into the danger of wearing out the
-pleasure of Memorial Days by monotony of program. There are an infinite
-variety of means for brightening and freshening, not only special
-occasions, but the ordinary ones as well. One of the most entertaining
-devices we have had comes in a breezy letter from =Titusville, Pa.=, a
-place about fifty miles from Chautauqua, where there is an excellent
-circle of fourteen members. Our friend writes: “We make it a point to
-commit our text-books to memory and recite from them; but aim to bring
-in all the outside information possible, and to present and draw out
-ideas suggested by our books, rather than simply to recite over what we
-have been reading in them. In Greek history we found Adams’s Historical
-chart very useful. By close study of various authorities we extemporized
-a model of Athens, on a round table with green spread. My writing desk
-served as the Acropolis, and paper bunched up under the cloth, as Mars’
-Hill, the Pnyx, etc. Out of the children’s blocks we erected the various
-buildings, while Noah’s wife, clad in gilt paper, and mounted on a
-spool, rose in calm majesty from behind the Propylea. A slate frame,
-with pasteboard porch on one side, decorated with paintings, represented
-the Agora and Stoa Poecilé, and in the street of the Tripods a cologne
-bottle received great admiration as the choragic monument of Lysicrates.
-Wavy strips of paper suggested the rippling Ilyssus and Céphisus, while
-a wall of brown paper encircled the whole. Outside the city limits,
-under the shadow of Lycabettus (brown paper with clay coating on the
-summit,) on one side, and about a mile out on the other, flower pots with
-drooping vines brought to mind the classic groves of Aristotle and Plato;
-while the street leading through the Ceramicus to the Academic shades
-of the latter, was lined on either side with chalk pencil monuments
-to the illustrious dead! This attempt met with so much favor that I
-was prevailed upon to repeat it, substituting for the blocks cardboard
-models quite characteristic of the Parthenon, Erechtheum, etc., while the
-Theater of Dionysius, the Odeum of Jupiter, Cave of Pan, steps to the
-Propylea, and the Bema of the Pnyx, were done in clay. The hard names,
-in this way, soon became familiar, and each object served as a sort of
-peg upon which to hang a good amount of Grecian history and mythology.
-After reading, as a sort of finish, Mark Twain’s account of his midnight
-visit to Athens, we were quite possessed with the fancy that we, too, had
-been actual sight-seers in that wonderful city.” Everybody that reads
-this will undoubtedly feel as we do, that we would like to go back and
-read Greek history over again, for the sake of building up Athens; but
-why can we not utilize the idea when we read the voyage of Æneas this
-month in the “Preparatory Latin Course”? And when we come to English
-history why not build a London? Plans like the above for interesting
-circles must be supplemented by plans for keeping the members at work, a
-matter especially difficult in large circles. In a late issue we called
-attention to the program plan used at =Union City, Ind.= The secretary
-has kindly sent us an outline of their method, which we are sure will
-be useful: “We prepare and have printed a neat program for four months,
-giving the places and times of holding meetings, specifying the different
-exercises, with those who are to carry them out. These programs cost each
-of us about fifteen cents each, and enable us to have about five apiece.
-Each person knowing his duty, prepares for it from the beginning and no
-excuse for non-performance of duty is left except unavoidable absence,
-etc. Our experience for this year renders it certain that the circle can
-no longer get on well without our printed programs.”
-
-Along with the plans and suggestions come cheery reports of how the
-circles everywhere are growing and spreading. Mrs. Fields, the secretary
-of the Pacific coast C. L. S. C., writes us: “It has been quite negligent
-in the secretary of this branch not to have reported long ere this the
-growing interest and increased numbers of Chautauquans on this coast,
-and especially in California. Perhaps one reason of this remissness has
-been the very fact that every mail has brought to the aforesaid secretary
-letters of inquiry concerning C. L. S. C., which must be answered
-sometimes quite at length; or applications for membership, which must
-be acknowledged, registered and forwarded to headquarters; or letters
-from faithful old members with words of cheer and renewal of fees, all
-of which certainly should be replied to in the secretary’s most cordial
-style. We have five hundred and forty new members this year and two
-hundred old members have renewed their allegiance. If, as is generally
-the case, the old members continue to renew to the very end of the year,
-we may hope for a list of nearly a thousand names before next July, as
-the record of this year’s students.”
-
-The circle at =Knoxville, Tenn.=, Monteagle Assembly, in which we all
-became so interested by their rousing letter in THE CHAUTAUQUAN of
-November last, has written us a characteristic bit of experience, which
-we quote: “The dark, rainy nights of January are rather discouraging, but
-we keep at work. One rainy night, on our arrival at the parlors we found
-no light, and out of a membership of thirty-three but three were present.
-We had one visitor, whose words I quote: ‘I had no idea they would hold
-a meeting, but they were not at all disconcerted. The whole program,
-prayer, minutes, lesson and music, was carried out as though the number
-present was fifty instead of three.’ The result? The _visitor_ became a
-_member_, saying, ‘that’s the kind of society I wish to join.’ I wish to
-state, however, that so small an attendance is quite exceptional.”
-
-Another circle whose history offers us some wise suggestions is that
-of =Syracuse, N. Y.=, the home of the new secretary of the Chautauqua
-Assembly, Mr. W. A. Duncan. Indeed, Mr. Duncan has the honor of having
-founded this circle, which dates back to the inauguration of the C.
-L. S. C. The city has fine public schools and its university is well
-known for its able professors and superior apparatus; the circle has
-been wise enough to use the material within its reach. It secured Prof.
-Rollins, of the high school, as its first leader; for three years he
-conducted a circle of fifty. His successor, the Rev. Mr. Mundy, brought
-to them a large knowledge of art, gained by travel and study. When
-they came to science, again they chose a leader particularly fitted by
-taste and profession to lead them through geology and astronomy. This
-plan of selecting leaders who are skilled in certain studies is very
-advantageous. The enthusiasm and knowledge of a specialist in a branch
-must always remain superior to that of the one who has only given a
-little attention to the subject. In spite of excellent leaders and
-earnest members, their numbers did fall off a little last year. A class
-graduated and they did not secure new members to supply the deficiency.
-The plan they followed for a re-awakening was excellent. Returning from
-Chautauqua last summer they held a public meeting and explained the plan
-of the C. L. S. C. and its benefits. That night brought them several
-new names. Then they secured Dr. Vincent for the next week to give
-them a sketch of the aims and methods of the organization. At the next
-regular meeting the secretary received the names of forty-two members
-of the class of ’87. The circle is certainly to be congratulated for
-its proximity to so much local talent and still more for its enterprise
-in utilizing it so diligently. The neighboring circle of =Troy, N. Y.=,
-continues to maintain its enviable standing under the leadership of Rev.
-H. C. Farrar. His indomitable energy and perseverance are felt along all
-the lines. The plan of presenting subjects in three minute essays is
-being tried with interest and profit at their monthly meetings.
-
-All of the old circles show a steady growth. At =Claremont, N. H.=,
-“Minerva Circle,” organized a year ago with a membership of ten, has
-grown to twenty; the “Atlantis,” of =Lynn, Mass.=, commenced its second
-year in October last with a membership of eighteen, an increase of ten;
-the year-old circle of =Pittsfield, Mass.=, has gained thirty members
-since its organization in February of 1883.
-
-Since 1881 a little “Pentagon” of ladies has been meeting in =Greenwich,
-Ct.= A member writes of their circle: “Although composed of particularly
-busy people, we have the conviction that we have been patient over our
-hindrances, punctual in attendance and persevering in the work. We have
-run the scale of questions and answers, topics, essays and memorial
-readings, but prefer, on the whole, the conversational plan as being best
-adapted to bring out individual thought.”
-
-=Cambridgeboro, Pa.=, has an interested circle of twelve members, and
-=Blairsville=, of the same state, reports twenty, with a prospect of an
-increase.
-
-=New London, Ohio=, claims that their circle, organized one year ago last
-September, and now numbering twenty, might with propriety be called the
-incomparable.
-
-At =Hennepin, Ill.=, there is a circle of fourteen ladies now reading the
-second year of the course.
-
-A lady writes from =Marion, Ind.=: “We have great reason to congratulate
-ourselves upon the deep and constantly growing interest felt in our
-circle, and which is plainly manifested not only by our own members,
-but by those who do not belong, away off here in the very center of
-Hoosierdom.” This “deep and growing interest” is the unfailing result of
-earnest work in the C. L. S. C., and how can it be otherwise when the
-idea continually develops new phases? The experience of the circle at
-=Little Prairie Ronde, Mich.=, that “each year the C. L. S. C. unfolds
-new beauties, awakens new incentives for more earnest action, calls
-to the foremost the very best of kindliness and cheer, and incites to
-diligence, research and thought,” is universal.
-
-The “Centenary Circle,” of =Minneapolis, Minn.=, has long been a leading
-one. It is by no means lagging—a late letter reports them as fifty
-strong—their graduates reading the seal courses, the Memorial Days all
-celebrated, and a big delegation contemplating a visit this summer to
-Chautauqua. That, has a genuine ring, particularly the reading for seals
-by graduates. Hold on to your reading habits.
-
-The first and only circle to report an observance of College Day was
-the “Alden,” of =Marshalltown, Ia.=, where it was recognized by a
-large gathering of Chautauquans and their friends. Marshalltown has
-been faithful in reporting all their meetings. They have the western
-enterprise, but we believe =Sioux Falls, Dak.=, ranks first in that
-quality. The following explains why: “We have an interesting circle
-here. We hold meetings weekly, and they are interesting and profitable.
-We purpose to double or treble our circle next year. We have sent you
-reports of our circle for THE CHAUTAUQUAN, but you have failed to notice
-us. We have decided to _Flood_ you with letters till you notice the C.
-L. S. C. in the largest and most beautiful city in southeastern Dakota.”
-We shall only be too glad to receive such stirring letters.
-
-A few circles have reported lectures. From =Seward, Neb.=, where there is
-a circle of sixteen, the secretary writes that they have had a lecture
-on Emerson, a reading by Prof. Cumnock, Chautauqua’s favorite of last
-year, and that they are expecting others. =Salt Lake City, Utah=, had the
-pleasure of hearing Bishop Warren last fall in his lecture on “The Forces
-of the Sunbeam.” The circle in this city numbers thirty-seven, and is
-composed of ministers, teachers, business men and housekeepers; that they
-have caught the spirit of our work is very evident, for they write us
-that many of their number have in joyful anticipation the time when the
-long distance that separates them from home and friends shall be paved
-over, and they shall be permitted to join the number of those who pass
-beneath the Arches of Chautauqua.
-
-We have received this month (February) reports of thirty new local
-circles. =Salem Depot, N. H.=, has organized a circle of fifteen members;
-=West Medway, Mass.=, one with a membership of a dozen; =Somerville,
-Mass.=, has a class of thirty-five reading the course, fifteen of
-them have joined the C. L. S. C. as members of the class of ’87; two
-villages of Massachusetts, =Amesbury= and =Salisbury=, have united their
-members in one organization. Their membership at present is twenty-one,
-consisting mostly of beginners of 1887, a few of 1885 and 1886, and of
-local members. At =Madison, Conn.=, there is a circle which traces its
-organization to the interest of a lady who had taken up the reading
-alone. She writes: “January last I began the work of the C L. S. C. and
-finished the year alone, but decided that another year should find a
-circle in our village, if my powers of persuasion were worth anything. I
-had no difficulty in forming a small circle, some members of which have
-since basely upbraided me for not telling them of it before.” They have
-named their circle after the pleasant and capable office secretary of the
-C. L. S. C., the “K. F. K. Circle,” and true to their allegiance, suggest
-that the local circles ought to see to it that she and her aids have a
-building which could have C. L. S. C. suitably inscribed on _any_ part of
-its front, instead of meekly abiding in a hired house. Some day we may
-expect this.
-
-=New Haven, Conn.=, the home of Dr. Vincent, organized, in October
-last, “The Woolsey Circle,” so called in honor of their eminent fellow
-townsman, ex-President Woolsey, of Yale College.
-
-A new circle called “Washington Heights” is reported from =New York City=.
-
-At =Bethel, N. Y.=, they started off last October with thirty members,
-while from =Buffalo=, same state, a friend writes: “We have a wide awake
-circle here, the membership of which has increased from six to twenty
-since October 1st, when the circle was organized.” This circle has found
-“review evenings” of great service to them. After finishing a subject
-they devote one evening to a review, securing a leader competent to
-answer all their questions and settle their disputes; thus for the review
-of Biology they secured Dr. Kellicott, of the Buffalo Normal School,
-who kindly answered all questions, and with the aid of his microscopes,
-explained much that before had been obscure.
-
-From =Lisle, N. Y.=, we have word of a circle of nine.
-
-=North East, Pa.=, has a newly organized circle, among whom are several
-yearly visitors at Chautauqua; =Newville=, of the same state, reports a
-flourishing circle of nine members; from the class of ’87 in =Allegheny,
-Pa.=, we have received the program of the services held by them on
-February 10, special Sunday. It is particularly good. This circle is
-following one plan which deserves more attention from all circles. They
-are giving a good deal of attention to singing the Chautauqua songs,
-devoting a portion of each evening to practice.
-
-=Plainfield, N. J.=, the place which enjoys the honor of being “the
-headquarters of the C. L. S. C.,” was without a local circle for several
-years, though many individual readers have pursued the course. Last fall
-the Rev. Dr. J. L. Hurlbut invited those who wished to form a local
-circle to meet at his residence. The result was a houseful of people,
-and a circle which has met fortnightly since, and now numbers forty-five
-members. A friend writes us from there: “We allow no ‘associate members’
-(persons not connected with the general C. L. S. C.) and none who will
-not attend regularly and take active part. For every meeting Dr. Hurlbut
-prepares a program of fifteen topics selected from the fortnight’s
-reading, and assigned to the various members. The program is printed by
-the ‘hectographic process,’ and distributed to all the members at the
-meeting in advance of its date. We take a recess in the middle of the
-evening’s exercises for social enjoyment and conversation, and afterward
-generally listen to a vocal or instrumental solo, and a reading from one
-of the members. At the close of the evening the critic dispenses his
-delicate attentions, his motto being ‘with malice toward all, and charity
-toward none.’ On Sunday evening, February 10, we held the Chautauqua
-Vesper Service in one of the largest churches, filled with an audience
-which participated in the responses. We regard our relation to the C. L.
-S. C. as among the most pleasant, and our circle as one of the best in
-the land.”
-
-=Camden, N. J.=, has also recently formed the “Bradway Circle” of
-thirty-two members. This circle has a novel way of managing its session,
-which may furnish a suggestion to some one wanting a new idea. After
-their general exercises and transaction of business they separate into
-two classes for the study of some subject selected at the previous
-meeting by the members of the class. After devoting about half an hour
-to the separate classes, they again unite into one general class for the
-discussion of some topic.
-
-We are very glad to welcome into our midst two new circles from the
-South, one at =Salem, N. C.=, of thirty-eight members, and another at
-=Atlanta, Ga.= At the January meeting of the Salem circle the exercises
-were on “Germany,” and as most of the members understand the language
-of that country, part of the exercises were in German. A very pleasant
-feature of their program was an account of the customs, traits and people
-of the country as they appeared to one of the members who had lately
-traveled through that land.
-
-Our space forbids our giving long accounts of the new circles in the
-West. In =Illinois= there is a new class of thirteen at =Janesville=,
-and another at =Jacksonville=, a place famous among its neighbors as
-“the Athens of the West.” It contains no less than five excellent
-institutions of learning, and yet they find a place for the C. L. S.
-C. At =Litchfield, Mich.=, is another new circle, and from the college
-town of =Appleton, Wis.=, the president writes: “It was considered
-impracticable at first, in view of college and other literary societies
-in the town, to start a C. L. S. C. These objections soon vanished. We
-have a most enthusiastic circle of thirty-eight members, including two
-college professors and wives, a physician, a clergyman and wife, and
-several graduates of this and other colleges.” =Iowa= reports three
-new circles. From =Fairchild= the secretary writes: “We have a most
-enthusiastic circle of twenty-five members. At our opening in October we
-thought one meeting a month sufficient, but as we warmed up we multiplied
-them by two, and last week we doubled them again, so that now we meet
-each week. You see this interest compounds more rapidly than that on most
-other investments.” If one still imagines that the C. L. S. C. is in any
-sense denominational in its tendency, let him read the experience of one
-of the members of the new class at =Grundy Center, Ia.=: “I had a little
-prejudice once against the course, as I thought that it would naturally
-run into Methodist channels; but I have outgrown that. As a matter of
-fact, of our fifteen enrolled members eight are Presbyterians and four
-Congregationalists; but as members of the C. L. S. C. we are entirely
-unconscious that we belong to any denomination.” At =Belle Plaine,
-Ia.=, there is a circle of fifteen ladies; at =Clarksville, Mo.=, one
-numbering fourteen. Kansas reports two new circles, one at =Wyandotte=,
-where in a month they increased from four members to twenty-one; and
-another of twenty members at =Sabetha=, including the professor of the
-high school, and the teachers in the community. =York, Neb.=, has lately
-organized a circle of fifteen members.
-
-
-
-
-QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
-
-FIFTY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON PREPARATORY LATIN COURSE IN ENGLISH—FROM
-PAGE 167 TO END OF BOOK.
-
-By A. M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
-
-
-1. Q. Of what is the Fifth Book of “Cæsar’s Commentaries” mainly one
-unbroken record? A. Of disasters to Cæsar’s armies, barely retrieved from
-being irreparable.
-
-2. Q. With what episode does this book begin? A. The last expedition, on
-Cæsar’s part, to Great Britain.
-
-3. Q. After Cæsar’s return to Gaul, what did the poor harvests compel him
-to do with his legions for the winter? A. To distribute them to different
-points.
-
-4. Q. What chance did this seem to offer to the natives? A. To fall on
-the Roman camps simultaneously and overpower them one by one.
-
-5. Q. By whom was one legion commanded that was destroyed by the Gauls
-under Ambiorix? A. By Titurius Sabinus.
-
-6. Q. What lieutenant of Cæsar again encounters the Nervii, and is with
-difficulty rescued by Cæsar? A. Cicero, a brother of the great orator.
-
-7. Q. With what account is the Sixth Book largely occupied? A. With an
-account of the ineffectual efforts of Cæsar to capture Ambiorix.
-
-8. Q. In the narrative of the Seventh Book, who becomes the head of
-the last and greatest confederate revolt of Gaul against Rome? A.
-Vercingetorix.
-
-9. Q. After the final defeat and surrender of Vercingetorix, what was his
-fate? A. He was taken to Rome and there beheaded.
-
-10. Q. By whom was the Eighth Book of the “Commentaries” written? A. By
-Aulus Hirtius, one of Cæsar’s lieutenants.
-
-11. Q. What does this book relate? A. The incidents of the last Gallic
-campaign.
-
-12. Q. How did Cæsar raise his legions and wage war? A. On his own
-responsibility. His wars were mostly personal wars, and had no sanction
-of government.
-
-13. Q. What do Cicero’s writings form? A. What has been finely called a
-library of reason and eloquence.
-
-14. Q. What is the amount of reading in “Cicero’s Orations” required for
-entrance at most colleges? A. The four orations against Catiline, and two
-or three others variously chosen.
-
-15. Q. From what oration of Cicero does our author first give an extract?
-A. His oration for Marcus Marcellus.
-
-16. Q. What was the occasion of this oration? A. The pardon by Cæsar of
-Marcellus, who had fought for Pompey against Cæsar in the civil war, and
-was now living in exile.
-
-17. Q. What gave rise to Cicero’s orations against Catiline? A. The
-Catiline conspiracy, which contemplated the firing of Rome and the death
-of the Senate, as well as the personal and political enemies of the
-conspirators.
-
-18. Q. How many are there of these orations against Catiline? A. Four.
-
-19. Q. Where were the first and last delivered? A. In the Senate.
-
-20. Q. Where were the second and third delivered? A. In the Forum, to the
-popular assembly of citizens.
-
-21. Q. What English clergyman and author has written a tragedy entitled
-“Catiline”? A. George Croly.
-
-22. Q. What is the subject of the fourth speech delivered in the Senate?
-A. The disposal of the conspirators then in custody.
-
-23. Q. By what name are fourteen of Cicero’s other orations known? A. The
-“Philipics.”
-
-24. Q. Against whom were the “Philipics” directed? A. Mark Antony.
-
-25. Q. What was the fate of Cicero? A. He was assassinated by the command
-of Antony.
-
-26. Q. Next to the “Iliad” of Homer, and hardly second to that, what is
-the most famous of poems? A. The “Æneid” of Virgil.
-
-27. Q. When and where was Virgil born? A. In 70 B. C., at Andes, near
-Mantau, northern Italy.
-
-28. Q. What is the first of the three classes of poems of which Virgil’s
-works consist? A. Bucolics or Eclogues—pastoral poems.
-
-29. Q. What is the most celebrated of these minor poems? A. Pollio,
-supposed to have been the poet’s friend in need.
-
-30. Q. What famous imitation of the Pollio did Pope write in English? A.
-“Messiah,” a sacred Eclogue.
-
-31. Q. What is the second class of Virgil’s poems? A. Georgics, or poems
-on farming.
-
-32. Q. Whom does our author consider in many important respects the best
-of all of Virgil’s English metrical translators? A. The late Professor
-John Conington, of Oxford, England.
-
-33. Q. Name two other English translators of the “Æneid”? A. John Dryden
-and William Morris.
-
-34. Q. Name two American translators of the “Æneid”? A. C. P. Cranch and
-John D. Long.
-
-35. Q. Of what set deliberate purpose is the “Æneid”? A. A Roman national
-epic in the strictest sense.
-
-36. Q. Who was Æneas? A. The son of Venus by the Trojan shepherd Anchises.
-
-37. Q. Seven years after the fall of Troy for what purpose did Æneas and
-his companions embark from Sicily? A. To found a new Troy in the west.
-
-38. Q. In the first book of the “Æneid,” where was the fleet conveying
-Æneas and his companions driven? A. To the coast of Carthage.
-
-39. Q. By whom were the Trojans received with generous hospitality? A.
-Dido, the Carthaginian queen.
-
-40. Q. With what are the third and fourth books of the “Æneid”
-principally occupied? A. With the relation by Æneas to Queen Dido of his
-previous adventures and wanderings, including an account of the siege and
-fall of Troy.
-
-41. Q. To what is the fourth book devoted? A. To the sad tale of Dido and
-her fatal passion for her guest.
-
-42. Q. What is the course of Æneas in this affair? A. He ruins Dido, and
-under the cover of night deserts Carthage with his ships.
-
-43. Q. What is the fate of Dido? A. She commits suicide, ending her
-sorrow on the funeral pyre.
-
-44. Q. With what is the fifth book largely occupied? A. With an elaborate
-account of games celebrated by the Trojans on the hospitable shores of
-Sicily, in honor of the anniversary of the death of Anchises, the father
-of Æneas.
-
-45. Q. What is the principal matter of the sixth book? A. An account of
-Æneas’s descent into Hades.
-
-46. Q. By whom is Æneas accompanied as guide on his visit to the lower
-world? A. By the Sibyl at Cumæ.
-
-47. Q. What does Anchises, the father of Æneas, relate to his son in
-Elysium? A. The name and quality of the illustrious descendants who
-should prolong and decorate the Trojan line.
-
-48. Q. How many books of the Æneid are usually read by students in
-preparation for college? A. Six.
-
-49. Q. Of what is an account given in the remaining six books? A. The
-journey of Æneas from Cumæ to Latium, and his adventures there.
-
-50. Q. With what episode does the poem close? A. The death of Turnus, a
-rival chief, in single combat with Æneas.
-
-
-
-
-CHAUTAUQUA NORMAL COURSE.
-
-Season of 1884.
-
-
-LESSON VII.—BIBLE SECTION.
-
-_The History of The Bible._
-
-By REV. J. L. HURLBUT, D.D., AND R. S. HOLMES, A.M.
-
-_I. General Periods._—Bible history, according to the common chronology,
-which we accept, but do not indorse as correct, embraces the events of
-4100 years. This may be divided into six general periods, as follows:
-
-_1. The Period of the Human Race_, from the creation of man B. C. 4004 to
-the call of Abraham, B. C. 1921. During this period the whole race comes
-under consideration.
-
-_2. The Period of the Chosen Family_, from the call of Abraham B. C. 1921
-to the exodus from Egypt, B. C. 1491. During this period the family of
-Abraham forms the only subject of the history; hence it might be called
-the period of the Patriarchs.
-
-_3. The Period of the Israelite People_, from the exodus 1491 to the
-coronation of Saul, B. C. 1095; the period of the Theocracy.
-
-_4. The Period of the Israelite Kingdom_, from the coronation of Saul,
-B. C. 1095, to the captivity at Babylon, B. C. 587; the period of the
-Monarch.
-
-_5. The Period of the Jewish Province_, from the captivity at Babylon, B.
-C. 587, to the birth of Christ, B. C. 4; a period of foreign rule during
-most of the time.
-
-_6. The Period of the Christian Church_, from the birth of Christ, B. C.
-4, to the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70.
-
-_II. Subdivisions._—The general periods may be subdivided as follows:
-
-1. The Human Race into—(1) the early race 4004 B. C. to the dispersion B.
-C. 2234; (2) the dispersed race, 2234 to 1921.
-
-2. The Chosen Family into—(1) The journeyings of the Patriarchs 1921, to
-the descent into Egypt, 1706; (2) the sojourn in Egypt, 1706-1491.
-
-3. The Israelite people into—(1) The wandering in the wilderness, from
-the exodus, 1491, to the crossing of the Jordan, 1451; (2) the settlement
-in Canaan, from 1451 to the death of Joshua, 1426; (3) the rule of the
-Judges, from 1426 to 1095.
-
-4. The Israelite kingdom into—(1) The age of unity, from 1095 to the
-division, 975; (2) the age of division, from 975 to the fall of Samaria,
-721; (3) the age of decay, from 721 to the captivity, 587.
-
-5. The Jewish Province into—(1) Chaldean rule, from 587 to the return
-from captivity, 536; (2) Persian rule, from 536 to Alexander’s conquest,
-330; (3) Greek rule, 330 to the revolt of Mattathias, 168 B. C.; (4)
-Maccabean rule, the period of Jewish independence, from 168 to 37 B. C.;
-(5) Roman rule, 37 B. C. to 4 B. C.
-
-6. The Christian Church into—(1) The preparation, from the birth of
-Christ, B. C. 4, to the baptism of Christ, A. D. 26; (2) The ministry of
-Jesus, from A. D. 26 to the ascension A. D. 30; (3) Jewish Christianity,
-from the ascension to the conversion of Paul, A. D. 37; (4) Transition,
-from Jewish to Gentile, from A. D. 37 to the council at Jerusalem, A.
-D. 50; (5) Gentile Christianity, from A. D. 50 to the destruction of
-Jerusalem A. D. 70.
-
-III. We notice next a few of the great events in the periods, beside
-those already named at their beginning and ending:
-
-1. In the period of the human race—(1) The Fall; (2) The Translation of
-Enoch; (3) The Deluge.
-
-2. In the period of the chosen family—(1) The Covenant with Abraham; (2)
-The Selling of Joseph; (3) The Enslavement of the Israelites.
-
-3. In the period of the Israelite people—(1) The Giving of the Law; (2)
-The Conquest of Canaan; (3) Gideon’s Victory.
-
-4. In the period of the Israelite kingdom—(1) The Building of the Temple;
-(2) Elijah’s Victory on Carmel; (3) The Destruction of the Assyrian Host
-at Jerusalem.
-
-5. In the period of the Jewish Province—(1) The Fiery Furnace; (2)
-Esther’s Deliverance; (3) Ezra’s Reformation.
-
-6. In the period of the Christian Church—(1) The Preaching of John the
-Baptist; (2) The Transfiguration; (3) The Crucifixion; (4) The Death of
-Stephen; (5) The Journeys of Paul.
-
-IV. We connect with each period, the names of its most important
-_persons_:
-
-1. With the first period, Adam, Enoch, Noah.
-
-2. With the second period, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph.
-
-3. With the third period, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel.
-
-4. With the fourth period, David, Elijah, Hezekiah.
-
-5. With the fifth period, Daniel, Ezra, Simon the Just, Judas Maccabeus,
-Herod the Great.
-
-6. With the sixth, John the Baptist, JESUS CHRIST, Peter, Paul.
-
-
-LESSON VIII.—THE GOLDEN AGE OF BIBLE HISTORY.
-
-This lesson deals with Israel at the time of the Empire. Lack of space
-forbids more than a general outline. Israel’s history is familiar to
-every reader of the Bible. Egypt, the Desert, and Canaan; Slavery,
-Training and War; these words give their geography and history till
-Joshua’s death. The Theocracy follows; then the kingdom under Saul and
-David, and then the Empire, or the Golden Age under Solomon the peaceful.
-We call it the Golden Age because:
-
-_I. It was the time of their widest dominion._—(_a_) For centuries the
-Israel of possession was not the Israel of promise. Read Deuteronomy
-11th chapter, verse 24, for the promise, and the first chapter of Judges
-for the possession. (_b_) The people were bound by no national feeling.
-“Every man went to his own inheritance.” The last verse of Judges is a
-vivid picture of disunion. Under such a condition there could be no such
-thing as wide and powerful dominion. (_c_) Under David and Solomon the
-promised boundaries were reached. See 1st Kings, 4:21. Let the student
-find the extreme northern and southern limits of the Empire of Solomon.
-(_d_) Immediately after Solomon came disruption, and the loss of portions
-of the Empire, which were never regained. Read the history of Jeroboam
-and Rehoboam and their successors.
-
-_II. It was the time of their greatest national wealth, and individual
-welfare._—(_a_) Read 1st Kings, 10:14-23. (_b_) Read 1st Kings, 4:20
-and 25. Brief as is the record in each of these references, there can
-be no doubt as to the fact recorded. There is no such picture suggested
-elsewhere, either before or after this period.
-
-_III. It was the time of the production of the finest portion of their
-literature._—The second book of Samuel, which we have, Ruth, and a large
-portion of the Psalms, and all the wonderful writings of Solomon belong
-to this period. This last and greatest king of all Israel seems to have
-made very large additions to the literature of the people. See 1st Kings,
-5:32-33.
-
-Let us note some of the causes of this power and prosperity:
-
-_I. The growth of the people._—The people are said, in Solomon’s reign,
-to have numbered five millions, or five hundred to every square mile.
-Compare with our present population. The army was of vast numbers. See
-Joab’s report, 2d Samuel, 24:9.
-
-_II. The character of the king._—He was (_a_) a statesman; he ignored
-tribal lines; he recognized the value of extended commercial relations;
-he opened intercourse with foreign nations, 1st Kings, 4:34; he made a
-powerful foreign alliance, 1st Kings, 9:16; he built a navy, 1st Kings,
-9:26; he attended personally to the affairs of his kingdom, 2d Chron.,
-8:17; he fortified his outposts, 1st Kings, 9:17-19; he centralized
-the religious worship by building the magnificent temple at Jerusalem;
-he built permanent buildings for the seat of the nation’s capital.
-(_b_) _A lover of Liberal Arts._—He was a poet himself, 1st Kings 4:32.
-Literature affords nothing more gorgeous in imagery than the Song
-of Songs; he was famed for his conversational powers; he engaged in
-conversational controversies with the most noted of his time—see his
-riddles as preserved in Proverbs 6:6, and 30:15-16-18; he was a lover of
-architecture—witness his building; he was a lover of music, inherited
-from his father, and the musical service of the temple was one of its
-most attractive features.
-
-_III. The character of his court._—All his counselors were men of note.
-Let the student see what he can find from the Bible as to the worth of
-his high priest, Zadok; his nearest friend, Zabud; his chief priest,
-Azariah, son of Zadok; his captain of the guard, Azariah, son of Nathan;
-his general in chief, Benaiah; his historian, Jehoshaphat; and his grand
-vizier, Ahishar.
-
-_IV. David’s work._—This was (_a_) a widely extended kingdom; (_b_) a
-centralized government; (_c_) peace with all the world. His son’s name,
-_Solomon_, _Shelomoh_, _Peace_.
-
-_V. The country’s external relations._—(_a_) By Ezion-Geber a water route
-was opened to the far east. Traces of this commerce with India can be
-found in their language. See Stanley, “Jewish Church,” Vol. I.
-
-(_b_) By Damascus, a land route to the far interior highlands.
-
-(_c_) By the Mediterranean traffic with Spain—in ships of Tarshish.
-
-(_d_) By Tyre, commerce with Phœnicia.
-
-
-SUNDAY-SCHOOL SECTION.
-
-LESSON VII.—THE TEACHING PROCESS.—ADAPTATION.
-
-There are certain heresies of common speech. One is, that a man can be
-only what he is born to be. Apply it to the teacher’s art and it is a
-heresy. The majority of men and women can become teachers if only they
-will be at pains to become familiar with the secrets of the science,
-study with care the best models in books, and as often as may be come
-into contact with the best living teachers. There is such a thing as
-_the teaching process_. We outline some needful steps in that process.
-_The first is adaptation._ By it we do not mean the adaptation of the
-lesson to the pupil; that belongs to the teacher’s preparation. We
-mean _adaptation of the teacher to the pupil_; such a coming together
-of teacher and pupil as shall cause them to agree, be in harmony, _fit
-to_—that is, be adapted to each other. This adaptation must be,
-
-1. _In the matter of knowledge._ The teacher knows much more than the
-pupil. His knowledge is his treasury. From it he draws in his work as a
-teacher. That which he draws must be fitted to his pupil’s want, else
-it is valueless. He must therefore learn what the pupil knows, and
-work along the line of that knowledge. In such a process they become
-companions, and the teacher can lead the pupil almost at will. With
-adaptation of knowledge—progress: without it—nothing.
-
-2. _In the matter of personality._ The teacher and pupil who meet but
-once each week, must meet on the plane of a common personality, or
-their meeting will be vain. This is something finer than adaptation of
-knowledge to knowledge. It is adaptation of heart to heart. It makes
-teacher and pupil for the time of their intercourse in class absolutely
-one. Teacher and pupil forget that either one or the other, no matter
-which, is either rich or poor, well or ill dressed, old or young,
-graceful or awkward, wise or ignorant, clever or stupid, and remember
-only that each is the other’s hearty friend. This is one of the highest
-possible acquirements of the teacher’s art, and the one who possesses it
-has the gift of soul-winning.
-
-3. _In the matter of thought._ As the former is the secret of
-soul-winning, this is the secret of soul-feeding. The average scholar is
-a poor thinker. He thinks that he thinks, but his is not his teacher’s
-thinking. It is the ploughing of the ancients. It only scratches the
-surface of the soil: and the human heart is too hard and barren to be
-made productive of divine fruit by any such process. This essential goes
-deeper than the other two. Its burden is to answer how shall the pupil
-be brought to think on Bible themes as the teacher thinks. This is the
-teacher’s most difficult problem. Its solution is possible through
-community of thought, or an adaptation of the teacher’s way of thinking
-to the pupil’s way of thinking.
-
-The three essentials enumerated are possible,
-
-1. Through a close and intimate acquaintance with the pupil. (_a_)
-_Socially_; (_b_) _religiously_; (_c_) _literarily_; (_d_) _in business
-relations_; (_e_) _Biblically_. Let the student give a reason why
-knowledge in these particulars would bring teacher and pupil together.
-
-2. Through personal sympathy with the pupil in (_a_) cares; (_b_) hopes;
-(_c_) fears; (_d_) temptations; (_e_) joys; (_f_) pursuits. Let the
-student give an illustration showing how adaptation of person to person
-could be produced by such sympathies.
-
-3. Through occasional study with the pupil of the appointed Bible
-lesson—to show how (_a_) to select the most available part for study;
-(_b_) to arrange it harmoniously; (_c_) to outline it; (_d_) to show its
-relations to other scriptures; (_e_) to trace its historic connections;
-(_f_) to understand its obscure allusions or phrases. Let the student
-show that adaptation of thought to thought or mutuality of thought would
-result from such study.
-
-
-LESSON VIII.—THE TEACHING PROCESS—APPROACH.
-
-A second needful step in the teaching process is _approach_: not the
-approach of teacher to pupil simply, _but of the teacher to the lesson_
-in the act of teaching. This can therefore be no part of the teacher’s
-preparation. For this step there is no uniform law. Each teacher’s
-approach must be his own. What is successful with one will not be
-with another. An exact copying of methods will be of no avail unless
-circumstances are exactly alike.
-
-Approach may occupy a large or small portion of the time allotted for
-teaching. A teacher may be twenty-nine minutes of his half hour making
-his approach, and in the remaining one minute flash the lesson straight
-into the center of the pupil’s soul. A teacher may reach his lesson in
-one minute and spend the whole remaining time in pressing it home to his
-pupil’s hearts.
-
-Imagine a Sunday-school hour. Picture: A new teacher for the first time
-with a class. Boys—six; age, fourteen years; unconverted; one dull, one
-stubborn, one restless, the rest mischievous. Opening exercises finished;
-lesson read; superintendent announces “Thirty minutes for the lesson.”
-The teacher alone with the class; four things press on that teacher with
-a mighty force:
-
-1. _Self I._ Untaught in teaching, and the center for a circumference of
-eyes.
-
-2. _Need._ The power of the word _must_ was never felt before so fully.
-Here is a lesson to be taught, and the thoughts in the teacher’s mind can
-only shape themselves into these two words: “_I must_.”
-
-3. _Immediateness._ _Now._ Minutes become small eternities, while the
-cordon of eyes draws closer. “_I must now, at once, teach_ this lesson,”
-but
-
-4. _How?_ After all it becomes a mere question of knowledge. There are
-three elements which enter in to make the answer—
-
-1. How to prepare for the lesson work, making necessary a study of the
-(_a_) necessity, (_b_) nature, and (_c_) methods of preparation.
-
-2. How to plan the conduct of the lesson, a step which costs (_a_)
-earnest thought, (_b_) fixed purpose, (_c_) persistent effort, and (_d_)
-patient prayer.
-
-3. How to perform. This makes necessary a fertile brain and a ready tact.
-The actual step-taking on the line of a well-prepared plan consists
-in (_a_) using good illustrations; (_b_) in attracting attention to
-noticeable things in the text; (_c_) in exciting curiosity to find things
-not on the surface; (_d_) in asking right questions; (_e_) in using
-elliptical readings; (_f_) in working out topical outlines; (_g_) in
-concert responses, and (_h_) in map drawing.
-
-All these are steps toward the real lesson which the teacher would bring
-to his class.
-
-
-
-
-EDITOR’S OUTLOOK.
-
-
-FOUNDER’S DAY.
-
-We have received the following document, which will, we have no doubt,
-meet a hearty response among members of the C. L. S. C. everywhere:
-“The Counselors of the C. L. S. C., acting in this instance without the
-knowledge of the Superintendent of Instruction, but in consultation
-with President Miller and Secretary Martin, propose that, in honor of
-JOHN H. VINCENT, the 23rd of February, the anniversary of his birth, be
-designated ‘Founder’s Day,’ and as such be entered on the calendar of
-the organization for future observance by the members, as one of their
-Memorial Days. Signed by Counselors J. M. Gibson, William C. Wilkinson,
-Lyman Abbott, Henry W. Warren, and approved by President Lewis Miller
-and Secretary A. M. Martin.” With this came a letter stating that at
-the banquet of the New England graduates of the C. L. S. C., held in
-Boston on Saturday, February 23, it was announced that the Counselors had
-decided unanimously to adopt the resolution. We believe we are not wrong
-in saying that members of the C. L. S. C. everywhere will be heartily
-pleased with this honor conferred on Dr. Vincent. Indeed, we predict that
-there will be a universal lament because the Counselors did not adopt the
-measure long enough before February 23rd to have made it possible for the
-circles to have celebrated this year instead of being obliged to wait
-until February 1885.
-
-There are many reasons why this measure is peculiarly acceptable to the
-members of the C. L. S. C. The majority of our readers feel that in this
-course of reading they are personally indebted to Dr. Vincent for a plan
-which has been of infinite service to them. They know, too, that he is
-their friend, thoughtful of their interests, mindful of their trials and
-hindrances. They will heartily rejoice in the new Memorial Day as that of
-a personal friend and benefactor, and will celebrate it with the peculiar
-delight and enthusiasm with which we love to honor our friends. There
-are more powerful reasons for observing the day than this feeling of
-love and gratitude. The days we do celebrate are in memory of men whose
-written thoughts are leavening the world. We delight to honor them for
-their thoughts. We honor Dr. Vincent for the strong thoughts which he has
-wrought into acts. There are many minds capable of brilliant ideas, of
-philanthropic plans; but there are few capable of carrying them out, of
-making them active agencies in society. It is this ability to make a plan
-a reality, to prove it, which is a distinguishing characteristic of Dr.
-Vincent’s mind. He has that rare gift, first-class organizing ability.
-A course of reading planned for those who wanted to read, but did not
-know what to undertake, had been often tried, on a small scale, before
-the C. L. S. C. was organized, but to extend such a course to the world
-at large was a new idea, and to most minds one entirely impracticable.
-The magnitude of such an undertaking would have staggered any man but
-one of the broadest sympathies and largest organizing powers. As Dr.
-Vincent had both of these qualities, he did not hesitate to undertake the
-organization, especially since he had the prestige of Chautauqua, with
-its wonderful history, behind him, and Lewis Miller, Esq., his friend and
-co-laborer, to lend a helping hand in the great work. A purely unselfish
-enterprise is always treated skeptically by the world at large. The flaws
-in the C. L. S. C. have been persistently pointed out. Steady sustained
-enthusiasm in the face of such difficulties is the quality of a hero, and
-it has been with this unfailing faith and interest that Dr. Vincent has
-met every doubt or complaint. Very much of the success of the C. L. S.
-C. is due to this one characteristic in its founder. His warm sympathies
-and broad humanity, joined to his mental ability and enthusiasm, make
-him a typical nineteenth century hero; a man whom the world delights to
-honor, and whom the readers of the C. L. S. C. will be glad to remember
-by celebrating Founder’s Day.
-
-
-POLITICAL METHODS.
-
-With quite sufficient reason, the public mind has long been disturbed by
-our political tendencies. This dissatisfaction does not arise from the
-fact that in matters of principle and public policy, intelligent people
-think we are on dangerous roads. In what are called questions, such as
-those of banks, tariffs, coinage of silver, payment of the national debt,
-etc., etc., it may be that the majority would prefer changes of policy;
-but there is a conviction abroad that we are as a people free to change
-in these matters if we really and earnestly desire new policies which
-we are able to define. Our feeling of apprehension springs from the
-knowledge that our political methods are bad, undemocratic and dangerous,
-and from a fear that the fountains of public life are being defiled by
-the wicked spirit of “practical politics.” It is not easy to corrupt the
-moral sense of such a people as ours. The level of intelligence is high,
-and patriotic impulses are strong in us. And yet we have gone down some
-steps. At the end of the war, men physically wrecked refused to take
-pensions; they would not take pay for a religious self-sacrifice. Now,
-men who came out of the army without a scratch and are still sound in
-health swear falsely to obtain pensions. These greedy seekers of pensions
-did not dream fifteen years ago that they could sink so low. Any one of
-them would then have said: “What, is thy servant a dog, that he should
-do this thing?” Their fall is directly traceable to the corruption of
-the civil service, to the fact that in the theory of our public life,
-bounties should be given to men who handle political organizations
-successfully. Salaries for civil service are bounties to be had by
-scrambling for them, or by earning them in the service of Party.
-
-The theory of “practical politics” converts the salaries paid for
-public service into a pool which parties are organized to secure for
-distribution among the sergeants, corporals, lieutenants, captains,
-colonels and generals of the order. “What are we here for,” cried a
-delegate in the Republican National Convention of 1880, “if we are not
-after the offices?” That indignant question expressed the very heart
-of the practical politicians. A party, in his view, is an organization
-to get offices. And as much of its work is, in the same view, secret,
-dirty and wicked work, he believes that the party should be under the
-strict control of “bosses.” Each town should have its leader, all the
-town leaders should be under the control of the county leader, and county
-leaders should obey the state “boss”—and the edifice should be crowned
-with a national committee of “bosses.” This committee the politicians
-struggled to create by the famous theory of “the courtesy of the Senate.”
-That theory made the President the clerk of the party’s Senators in each
-state. It gave Senator Conkling the vast Federal “patronage” of New York
-to distribute at his will. The edifice was not crowned; the Senatorial
-“boss” system went down in the terrible struggle of the spring of 1881.
-Our readers know that history. We do not recall it to reproach anybody.
-Senator Conkling was the victim of a theory that he ought, under the rule
-of “the courtesy of the Senate,” to be President within the state of New
-York. The theory is silent now; it will rise again if the people do not
-disestablish political machines in towns, cities, counties and states.
-
-Turning to a more gloomy side of the subject, we observe that there has
-been a vast increase in the amount of money spent in politics. Thousands
-of persons are, while we pen these lines, living on the patrons who hire
-them and send them forth to “mould public opinion”—or in the choicer
-phrase of the men themselves, “to set things up.” It is the business
-of this perambulating political machine to invent and distribute lies,
-to purchase useful sub-agents, to promise funds for the election day
-bribery. The floating vote increases each year, and four-fifths of this
-vote is a corrupt vote—the voters stand about the market place waiting
-until some man shall hire them. We tolerate and smile at all this
-business—except the concealed bribery—and this tolerance of ours is the
-sign that the malarious atmosphere of “practical politics” is beginning
-to weaken our moral sense. If we are still in full vigor, this year will
-probably afford us a large number of opportunities to wreck the local
-political machine—without distinction of party. Reform will have to begin
-by disestablishing local machines and bruising with conscience votes the
-men who corrupt the popular verdict with money.
-
-
-WENDELL PHILLIPS.
-
-We are glad, though at a late hour, to pay, with many others, our tribute
-to the ability and worth of Wendell Phillips, and to review his life
-and work. Glad to do this, for his life was clean and clear, the kind
-men love to honor; his work was that of the philanthropist and patriot.
-He had entered his seventy-third year, having been born November 29,
-1811, in a house which is still standing on the lower corner of Beacon
-and Walnut streets, Boston. He came from one of Boston’s aristocratic
-families; for several generations the Phillipses were well known, rich
-and influential. His father, John Phillips, was chosen first mayor
-of Boston in 1822, in a triangular contest, with Harrison Gray Otis
-and Josiah Quincy as rival candidates. Young Phillips had the best of
-educational advantages. He prepared for college at the famous Boston
-Latin School; entered Harvard in his sixteenth, and graduated in his
-twentieth year. One of his classmates was the historian Motley, a man,
-like Phillips, of handsome person, of courtly manners, and high social
-position. From college Phillips passed to the Cambridge Law School, from
-which he graduated in 1833, and the following year he was admitted to the
-bar. But he was not long to follow the law.
-
-The public career of this man whose name is known in every land, dates
-from a certain illustrious meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, in 1837.
-It was an era of great excitement. In Congress, John Quincy Adams, the
-undaunted, was presenting petitions for the abolition of slavery, in the
-midst of the howls and execrations of the friends of the institution.
-Elijah I. Lovejoy had been murdered by a pro-slavery mob at Alton,
-Illinois, while defending his printing press. Two years before, Boston
-had witnessed the mobbing of Garrison. Phillips himself was a witness of
-the spectacle, and the following year he joined the American Anti-Slavery
-Society. A meeting was called in Faneuil Hall by Dr. Channing and other
-friends of freedom to express indignation over Lovejoy’s murder. That
-meeting will long live in history. Jonathan Phillips, a second cousin
-of Wendell, presided. Dr. Channing and others spoke. At length, the
-Attorney-General of the State, James T. Austin, took the platform and
-delivered a speech in direct opposition to the sentiments which had been
-expressed. It was not without effect. The people cheered as the speaker
-declared that Lovejoy died as the fool dieth, and placed his murderers
-by the side of the men who destroyed the tea in Boston Harbor. The
-meeting, designed to be one of indignation for the murder of Lovejoy,
-bid fair to turn into a meeting of approbation. But Wendell Phillips was
-the next speaker, and he had not spoken long before the tide was again
-reversed. This, his first public plea for free speech, human freedom and
-equal rights, was wonderfully effective. It carried the audience and
-established at once the speaker’s fame as the foremost orator of the
-anti-slavery cause.
-
-From this time on, until in those years of blood the shackles were struck
-from the slaves of America, Phillips was a man of one work. He lived for
-the cause of abolition. His motto might have been: “One thing I do.” By
-the side of Garrison he stood, in full sympathy with his ideas. His name
-has long been the synonym of extreme radicalism. He held, with Garrison,
-that the constitution was “a league with hell,” and would not vote, or
-take an oath to support the iniquitous document. In the years before the
-war of the rebellion, he freely advocated a dissolution of the Union; but
-when the war came, he was found a stanch defender of the Union cause. In
-that band of once execrated, but now honored abolitionists, who “prepared
-the way of the Lord,” there may have been others who did as effective
-work as Wendell Phillips; but he was the incomparable orator, gifted with
-eloquent speech to a degree unapproachable. Stories of his power over
-an audience will long be told. Delightedly the people have listened to
-his silver tongue and chaste diction when he spoke upon purely literary
-themes; the lyceum in our land had no more popular lecturer. But he
-will live in our history as the matchless abolitionist orator. Since
-the death of slavery he has been a prominent worker in different reform
-movements, and the advocate—as it seems to us—of certain vagaries, but
-his fame is inseparably connected with the colored race, of whose rights
-he was the devoted, unselfish, and fearless champion. His private life
-was singularly simple, sweet and beautiful. His wife, an invalid of
-many years, his devotion to whom was beautiful indeed, survives him;
-and an adopted daughter, Mrs. Smalley, wife of the well known newspaper
-correspondent, is also left to mourn his loss.
-
-
-FLOODS.
-
-In this country and in England the ravages of high waters have become
-a matter of much seriousness and alarm. Nor have we failed to observe
-that in recent years the floods have been far greater and more numerous
-than they were a generation ago. This is due, we are told, to the
-clearing away of the forests, allowing the water to rush, unhindered by
-the undergrowth and fallen leafage, into the rivers, thus causing their
-sudden swell and overflow.
-
-The serious and practical question is how to avert, in some degree at
-least, the frequent wholesale destruction of life and property, as has
-been experienced in the exposed districts during the last few years. It
-is mere nonsense to talk as some have done of condemning the flooded
-districts as dangerous and unfit for human habitation. Any one acquainted
-with the human family knows how little it is restrained by the motives
-of fear or danger in choosing its dwelling-place. Men will build their
-houses where the ashes of muttering volcanoes fall on their roofs,
-and with the knowledge that underneath their foundations lie their
-predecessors buried by former eruptions. How absurd, then, to talk of
-abandoning as places of human dwelling those great valleys, the most
-fertile, and in many other ways the most highly favored on the continent.
-For fertility of soil and beauty of situation, the valleys of the Ohio
-and Mississippi may safely challenge the world.
-
-Neither will it do to say that by heeding the warnings given by the
-Signal Service Department much of these calamities can be averted. The
-Service published its warnings to the people of the Ohio valley a week
-in advance of the recent floods, but no attention was paid to them. And
-though the time is coming when the statements of meteorological science
-will command general confidence, still it will not suffice to avert the
-great loss of life and property. Men are not easily warned, and besides
-there is the impossibility in many cases, of providing against danger and
-loss, even though warning has been received.
-
-Since it is now too late in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys for the
-method at present being discussed, with reference to the waters of the
-Hudson, viz.: To spare the Adirondacks, there is nothing left but to
-refer this important subject to the State and National Committees on
-“Levees and other Improvements against Destructive Floods.” Nor do we
-have to look long for encouraging examples of this mode of prevention.
-A large part of Louisiana is habitable and cultivable only through the
-protection afforded by hundreds of miles of levees. For six centuries
-Holland has shown to the world what can be done by this method of
-protection. Her whole North sea coast and a hundred miles of the Zuyder
-Zee is provided with dikes, her constant safeguard from inundation.
-Before the dikes were built in the thirteenth century, a single flood
-destroyed 80,000 lives. At an annual expense of $2,000,000, those rich
-lands yielding their luxuriant pastures and crops of hemp and flax, are
-defended from the waters.
-
-We are persuaded that this is the only solution of the flood problem in
-this country. Whether partial or entire, it should be attempted without
-delay. In the light of recent experience government can not begin its
-work too soon. The vast amount of property swept away during the last
-decade would have gone no little way in defraying the expense of dikes
-as solid and sufficient as those of Holland. Add the amount given by
-Congress for the relief of the suffering districts, together with the
-amount given in benevolence and sympathy for the same purpose, and the
-sum is much increased. By procrastination we may expend in the above
-painful manner treasure equal to the whole cost of the needed protection
-before the work is begun. Let us hope that the year will not pass without
-decisive action by the government.
-
-
-
-
-EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.
-
-
-A party is reported in Ohio claiming to organize C. L. S. C. local
-circles, taking collections, etc. Now be it known that no agents for such
-purposes are appointed by the Chautauqua authorities. Such self-appointed
-agents are likely to be swindlers. Our workers render their services
-voluntarily. We appoint no agents.
-
- * * * * *
-
-General Gordon’s proclamation of freedom for slave-holding and
-slave-dealing in the Soudan has created a great surprise. It is even
-suggested that his religious enthusiasm has toppled over into insanity.
-Perhaps we can not hope to understand the case. But we need not
-misunderstand the facts. Slavery was never practically abolished in that
-country. Even in Egypt it continues to exist. General Gordon has not
-reëstablished slavery. Starting from that fact, we may easily reach the
-inference that the heroic and simple-minded Gordon has merely done away
-with one of the pretexts by means of which corrupt Egyptian officials
-plundered the natives. Slavery can not be abolished by slave-traders, and
-their ways of enforcing any law which naturally renders it odious and
-despicable.
-
- * * * * *
-
-John Ruskin is not always exactly level with common sense, but perhaps
-he is nearly right in saying “Never buy a copy of a picture. It is
-never a true copy.” It would probably be much wiser in people who pay
-considerable sums for copies of old paintings if they spent their money
-upon inferior original works by living artists. We have come to a place
-where the tide should turn in favor of our own young artists; and we
-believe the turn in the tide is not far ahead.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The weather prophets have let us alone this winter. But on the Pacific
-coast a sidewalk philosopher has tried to explain the cold weather of
-the sunset slope. He says that an earthquake off the coast of Japan
-has filled up the Straits of Sunda, and so diverted the warm current
-that should flow to the coast of Oregon. This is an improvement upon
-the last prophet, who regulated the weather astrologically—by studying
-the positions of the stars. The new man comes back to the earth and
-is chiefly at fault in his facts. We welcome him in the room of the
-astrologer of last year.
-
- * * * * *
-
-“Ruined by speculation.” They have to keep that “head” standing in the
-newspaper offices. The last case which has fallen under eye is that of a
-bank in Philadelphia, whose manager speculated in tin. When a bank fails,
-or a trustee betrays a trust, we always ask: “What did he speculate in?”
-The story is trite. We know of nothing better to write than the laconic
-advice of General Clinton B. Fisk: “DON’T!”
-
- * * * * *
-
-Sir James Caird was part of a commission to study the causes of the
-great famine in India in 1876-7, and has written a book on the subject.
-The trouble of course is that the farmers are poor, their methods bad,
-and that population keeps ahead of the food supply. One mode of relief
-is emigration. This reminds us that Charles Kingsley, who studied the
-Hindoo laborers in the West Indies, wrote very enthusiastically of their
-qualities. Will the Hindoos come into our own South, and what will come
-of it? In the West Indies, Kingsley says that negro and Hindoo lived and
-worked together peacefully. We may not like it, but that side of the
-world is top-heavy with humanity, and steam will go on distributing the
-people among the less crowded nations.
-
- * * * * *
-
-What is money worth in this country? The discussions at Washington, and
-the prices of government bonds, seem to show that it is worth between
-two and three per cent., and there is not much doubt that a hundred-year
-government bond bearing only two per cent. would sell at par. An incident
-in New York City confirms this opinion. A recent call for bids on city
-bonds bearing three per cent. interest, and payable in five years or
-thirty, at the will of the city, was answered by bids for six times the
-amount required at from par up to 103⅓. If short New York threes are at
-a premium, a long government two would be worth par. Why, then, it will
-be asked, do _we_ pay from six to ten per cent. in different parts of the
-country? The answer is that _risk_ and superintendence of _short loans_
-makes the difference. The real value of money is found by taking for a
-measure long loans, in which there is absolutely no risk. The _Times_ of
-New York expresses the opinion that thirty-year threes of that city would
-sell at 115.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A correspondent of the New York _Evening Post_ furnishes some interesting
-incidents in the life of Joel Barlow, the father of American epic
-poetry. Redding, Conn., was the early home of Barlow, and the visitor
-is shown the house in which the poet constructed his commencement poem
-in 1778. It is said that Barlow’s one romance was a common one among
-college students. He fell in love with a sweet girl whom he privately
-married soon after graduation. He served as a chaplain in the Continental
-army, but at Redding he is best remembered as the promoter of several
-industrial enterprises designed to promote the welfare of the town.
-Barlow was not a great father of our epic, but his sons have, perhaps,
-not greatly surpassed him.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The enthusiasm of science, in alliance with the passion of boys for
-killing birds, is making trouble in Massachusetts. The taxidermists
-want birds to stuff, and average boys want to slay birds. The law is
-loose, and any boy can get a license to kill birds in the service of
-science. The dead birds are oftener eaten than stuffed. The song birds
-and insectivorous birds are rapidly diminishing. Of course the boys rob
-the nests of the birds and kill the young in the nests. There is a period
-in a boy’s life when he loves such work. Maine has abolished the system
-of licensing taxidermists, in consequence of the wholesale slaughter of
-birds that went on under that system.
-
- * * * * *
-
-There is no doubt that the tobacco habit, or any other bad habit, can
-be more easily overcome with the aid of prayer than without it. But
-there are two objections to a common way of stating the case. The first
-is that many tobacco users have ceased using it without the aid of
-prayer. The second objection is that there is danger of teaching that
-men cannot reform bad habits without _special_ divine help. The word
-we spell c-a-n-t has two meanings, and both are present in the plea of
-helplessness. It is understood, of course, that God helps men who help
-themselves; that is the reason why a wicked farmer can raise good crops
-by being a good agriculturist, though he is a bad sinner.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Congress is struggling with a foreign copyright bill. The bill is a
-bungling one and really opens the American market to free trade in
-books. This _may_ be desirable, but it is well to keep distinct measures
-in different baskets. The free book question belongs in the tariff
-bill. International copyright means putting a foreign author on a level
-with the home author. We ought to do it without delay, but we need not
-confer any favors on foreign publishers in a copyright bill. We have
-international patent-right, but we did not think it necessary when we
-protected the foreign inventor to put the foreign maker of the inventor’s
-machines under shelter of the “Free List.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-John Bright is still the most vigorous handler of a rhetorical club in
-all England. In the course of the great debate, last month, in the House
-of Commons, the Tories of high birth were badly represented by two or
-three orators of their rank. Mr. Bright crushed them fine by saying that
-“the brothers and sons of dukes use language more virulent, more coarse,
-more offensive and more ungentlemanly than is heard from a lower rank of
-speakers.” We suspect that the sentence is the reporter’s, not Bright’s;
-but the rebuke which he administered made a sensation which reminded
-Englishmen of the days when he described the political “Cave of Adullam”
-and its inhabitants.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The Prussian Chamber of Deputies recently debated the question of
-dueling, especially in the universities. A critical member began it
-by complaining of the idleness, drinking, gaming and dueling of the
-students. The curiosity which the debate brought to light is the fact
-that though dueling is forbidden by law, it has powerful friends in the
-Chamber and the government. Germany has forbidden the barbaric custom;
-but young Germans grow up in the belief that dueling is manly, and their
-seniors remember that they had the same disease in the universities. The
-German people are very sensitive to foreign criticism on this point;
-and probably the other civilized nations will by and by ridicule German
-dueling out of existence.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Curiosities of speech are always interesting, and it is a delightful
-business for grammatical people to scold their neighbors. The New York
-_Tribune_ has had a bout with a few score correspondents on the duties
-of the neuter verb between subject and predicate; which must it agree
-with? The _Tribune_ says with the real subject; the other folks say there
-are two subjects, and that the verb must agree with the last. All the
-malcontents quote “The wages of sin is death.” The _Tribune_ has three or
-four answers; its best is that _death_ is the true subject; its second
-best is that wages used to be singular. In “The Contributors’ Club” of
-the _Atlantic Monthly_, another class of errors is discussed, such as the
-dropping of _h_ in _which_ and _when_, a common thing in and around New
-York, and the suppression of _r_ in many words. The English say _lud_, we
-say _lawd_. While just touching this interesting topic we call attention
-to a Meadville eccentricity. It is the rising inflection at the end of
-questions, such as, “Is he _sick_?” Can any reader tell us whether this
-locution (or rather inflection) is a localism only?
-
- * * * * *
-
-There is a lamentably large number of illiterates in the United States.
-Let us reduce the number as fast as possible. But let us stop assuming
-that the spelling book will rub the Decalogue into the conscience. Our
-immediate troubles and dangers come from literates who are as bright as
-lightning, and almost as destructive. We shall not get moral education by
-way of the spelling book. The statistical proof that we do is defective.
-We may count up the illiterate rogues in prison with much satisfaction,
-if we forget that the literate rogues are too smart to be caught and
-caged. Moral character does not result from intellectual training. Thirty
-years ago we had this straight, and taught that an educated bad man was a
-much more dangerous beast than an uneducated bad man.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A few kind-hearted people have for several years conducted a crusade
-against horse-shoes. They claim that the horse-shoe is a piece of
-unprofitable cruelty. They furnish examples and drive their own horses
-unshod. Among their examples is this: “In Africa, a horse working in
-a post-cart does, barefoot, over hard ground, twenty-four miles in
-two hours.” One view is that our horse-shoeing bill would pay off the
-national debt in a few generations. It is rather remarkable that these
-reformers do not receive more attention. We hope they will soon get the
-general ear; hence this note.
-
- * * * * *
-
-President Eliot, of Harvard, in a recent address, makes a suggestion
-which is likely to arrest attention. The clergy are likely to have
-a monopoly of classical education, perhaps of liberal education, if
-present tendencies are not overcome. One of these tendencies is to give
-candidates for the ministry a monopoly of Greek study in colleges.
-President Eliot thinks that increased and more thorough study of English
-may help in resisting the tendency toward purely mechanical education.
-English study of a thorough sort requires and promotes classical
-study. We add our thought that real liberal education is a fruit of
-study _after_ the school-boy discipline, and that a classical revival
-and an English literature revival are both clear possibilities of the
-Chautauquan organization and methods. The most thorough study, with the
-best helps, is within the plan of our university.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Salmi Morse was last year at this time struggling to exhibit his “Passion
-Play” in New York. The religious feeling of the country won a conspicuous
-victory in defeating the purpose of Mr. Morse. Near the end of last month
-the dramatist drowned himself in the East river, and an actress whose
-relations to him were questionable, is trying to gain notoriety by a
-theory that a rejected suitor of hers murdered Mr. Morse. There are a
-dozen good morals in the story.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Frederick Douglas having at 70 married a white wife, the public has
-had to listen to a great many homilies on the general subject of
-inter-marriage among races. We are not about to add another to the long
-list of sociological essays. We suggest two things: First, it is best to
-leave the whole matter to individuals. Therefore, the laws which forbid
-marriage between whites and blacks should be repealed. Second, the real
-evil—if there be one—is scarcely touched by the prohibitive laws. As
-Mr. Douglas puts it: It is permitted to white men to beget children by
-dark-skinned mothers, provided they do not marry these mothers of their
-copper-colored children. The nobler of two ignoble white men—the one who
-marries the black mother of his children—should be left in peace until we
-can invent some means of punishing the ignoble wretch who does not marry
-her. The former is a very rare man; the growing lights in the African
-face show us that the other men are numerous.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Everybody has heard of the “Great Eastern” steamship, an eighth of a mile
-long and thirty feet under water. The great ship was a failure, and after
-an unsuccessful pursuit of genteel occupations for many years, she has
-gone to Gibraltar to be used as a coal hulk. If any sailor ever loved
-this leviathan, he will feel “the pity of it” in this unromantic end;
-and most of us feel a touch of sadness in reading the story.
-
- * * * * *
-
-The honors paid to the dead Arctic explorers in New York, on Washington’s
-birthday, lost none of their significance by the association. The flags
-were at the peak in honor of the father of his country, in the morning;
-in the afternoon they dropped to half-mast in memorial mourning for the
-heroes of the ill-fated “Jeannette.” To young eyes seeing both memorial
-honors, the spectacle must have been inspiring—as showing that the paths
-to glory are still open to heroic souls. The booming guns, the wistful
-and reverent throngs, the military tramping along the streets, all had
-the same cheering lesson. We do not measure men or honor them by success;
-for utter failure heroically faced we have the funeral pageant and the
-historic record. We are not at all interested in the North Pole. We
-soberly think the Arctic exploration business a foolhardy one. But we
-forget our indifference, and our sober judgment, when we meet the cold
-corpses of those who have vainly fought the cruel North—and say, “Well
-done; like heroes you died; like heroes you shall be buried.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-In the graduating list published in the February CHAUTAUQUAN, the name
-“J. Van Alstyne,” from New Jersey, should be Wm. L. Van Alstyne, Jr.;
-also the name Emily Hancock, which appears under New York, should be
-under Indiana, and “Mrs. John Romeo,” of New York, should read Mrs. John
-Romer.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A correspondent kindly calls our attention to two errors in THE
-CHAUTAUQUAN for February. We “stand corrected.” Whittier’s birthday comes
-on December seventeenth, instead of the sixteenth, as stated on page 302,
-and there are thirty-eight states in the Union, not thirty-nine.
-
-
-
-
-C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR APRIL.
-
-
-PREPARATORY LATIN COURSE.
-
-P. 174.—“Havelock.” (1795-1857.) A British soldier who in 1823 was
-sent to India. He served in the Burmese war, in the Ava campaign, in
-two invasions of Afghanistan, and in 1856 in a war with Persia. On his
-return to Bombay he was sent to Calcutta to aid the British in the
-Sepoy rebellion. After raising the siege of Cawnpore, he started toward
-Lucknow, where the garrison was closely beset. Havelock was two months in
-fighting his way to the city, and when there, the relievers and garrison
-had to stand a siege until the arrival of Campbell with forces. Havelock,
-however, lived only a few days after succor came, being worn out by
-sickness and hardships. The arrival of Campbell has been celebrated in a
-touching and popular poem—“The Relief of Lucknow.”
-
-P. 177.—“Ardennes.” See “Notes” on page 185 of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for
-December.
-
-P. 180.—“Hector.” The chief hero of the Trojans in the war with the
-Greeks, the eldest son of Priam, king of Troy. Having slain Patroclus,
-the friend of Achilles, the latter was aroused to revenge, and came out
-to fight. Hector remained bravely without the walls until he saw his
-enemy, when he took to flight, but he was finally pierced with Achilles’
-spear, and his body dragged into the camp of the Greeks. Hector was the
-stay of the Trojans. He is represented by Homer as a man of all virtues,
-and is claimed to be the noblest conception of the “Iliad.”
-
-P. 184.—“Boll of grain.” The Scotch formerly used a measure called the
-bōll, or _bole_. Its capacity varied with the article measured. A boll of
-wheat or beans held four bushels; of oats or potatoes, six bushels.
-
-“Cevennes,” sā-venˈ. A mountain range of France, separating the valleys
-of the Garonne and the Loire from those of the Saone and the Rhone.
-
-P. 187.—“Santa Scala,” or the holy staircase, called also Pilate’s
-staircase, is a flight of twenty-eight marble steps in a little chapel of
-Rome. They are said to be the steps which Christ passed up and down in
-going before Pilate, and that, like the Holy House at Loreto, they were
-transported by angels to their present position. Multitudes of pilgrims
-crawl up this staircase, kissing each step as they go. It is related
-of Luther that wishing to obtain the indulgence promised by the pope
-for this devout act, he was slowly ascending the steps when he suddenly
-heard a voice exclaiming, “The just shall live by faith alone.” He was so
-terrified by his superstitious folly that he at once fled from the place.
-
-P. 190.—“Aulus,” auˈlus hirˈti-us.
-
-P. 194.—“Protagonist,” pro-tăgˈo-nĭst. The first or leading actor in a
-drama.
-
-P. 196.—“Obsolescence,” ŏb-so-lĕsˈcence. The going out of style, becoming
-old, obsolete.
-
-P. 202.—“Lucius Catilina,” lūˈci-ŭs catˈi-liˌna.
-
-P. 205.—“Spurius Mælius,” spuˈri-us mæˈli-us. A rich plebeian who in the
-famine at Rome in B. C. 440 bought up corn to distribute to the poor.
-His liberality won him the favor of the plebeians, but the hatred of
-the patricians. In the following year he was accused of a conspiracy
-against the government. Having refused to appear before the tribunal when
-summoned, Ahala, the master of the horse, rushed out with an armed band
-and slew him.
-
-“Opimius.” A patrician, the leader of his party in the proceedings
-against Caius Gracchus in 120 B. C. Through his violence some three
-hundred people were slain after the death of Gracchus.
-
-“Saturnius.” A demagogue who in B. C. 102 was elected tribune of the
-plebs. He allied himself with Marius and his party and won much favor by
-his popular measures. He was twice reëlected, but the third time it was
-feared that his colleague, Glaucia, who had held office during each of
-his tribunates, would be defeated. The friends had the rival candidate
-murdered. This act caused a reaction against Saturnius, and the senate
-ordered that he and his associates should be slain. Marius endeavored
-to save his friend, but the mob pulled the tiles from the senate house,
-where the parties were concealed, and pelted them to death.
-
-P. 220.—“Minucian Colonnade.” A portico built about 100 B. C. by the
-consul Minucius, in memory of the triumph which he received after waging
-a successful war against the Thracians.
-
-“Pan.” In Grecian mythology, a god who watched over flocks and herds; was
-the patron of hunters, bee-keepers and fishermen, and the inventor of a
-shepherd’s flute. He is represented with horns, goat’s beard, feet and
-tail, and often as playing on the flute. The Romans worshiped him under
-the name of Faunus.
-
-P. 221.—“Lupercalia,” lūˈper-cä-li-a. Lupercus was a name applied to
-Pan, and a feast given in honor of the god by the Romans was called
-_Lupercalia_.
-
-“Tarquinius,” tar-quinˈi-us. Surnamed _Superbus_, was the last of the
-Roman kings. Though he was cruel and tyrannical, he is said to have
-greatly increased the power of the city. Brutus, his nephew, was aroused
-against the royal family because of an outrage committed upon his wife
-by Tarquin’s son. He stirred up popular feeling against the king,
-and succeeded in driving him from Rome. Consular government was then
-substituted for the monarchy.
-
-“Spurius Cassius,” spuˈri-us casˈsi-us. A famous Roman of the fifth
-century. He was three times consul. In his last consulship he passed a
-law which provided that the patricians should receive only a portion
-of the public lands, and that the rest should be divided among the
-plebeians. The next year he was accused of aiming at regal power and was
-put to death.
-
-“Manlius.” Consul in 392 B. C. In 395 he defended the plebeians against
-the higher classes, but was accused of aiming at kingly power, and
-was thrown into prison. The plebs showed such indignation at this that
-Manlius was liberated. He only became bolder in his support of the
-people, and in the following year was accused of treason, condemned, and
-thrown from the Tarpeian rock.
-
-P. 228.—“Dante,” dănˈte. (1265-1321.)
-
-“Inferno,” in-ferˈno; “Purgatorio,” pur-gä-toˈre-o; “Divina Commedia,”
-dee-veéˈnä com-meˈdee-ä.
-
-P. 230.—“Mincius,” minˈci-us. A river of northern Italy emptying into the
-Po, a little below Mantua, which is situated on an island in the middle
-of a lagoon formed by the river.
-
-P. 232.—“Bucolic,” bu-cŏlˈic; “Eclogues,” ĕkˈlogs.
-
-“Dactylic hexameter,” dac-tylˈic hex-ămˈe-ter. A verse of poetry
-consisting of six feet, parts, or measures (hexameter means of six
-measures), the first four of which may be dactyls, that is feet of three
-syllables, one long and two short; or spondees, feet of two syllables,
-one long and one short: the fifth must be a dactyl, and the sixth a
-spondee.
-
-“Theocritus,” the-ŏkˈrĭ-tus. Was born in Syracuse about 250 B. C. He is
-known as the creator of pastoral poetry. About thirty poems by him are
-still extant, and several epigrams.
-
-P. 234.—“Sibyl,” sĭbˈyl. A name given by the Greeks and Romans to several
-women who were supposed to have been able to foretell, to avert trouble,
-and to appease the gods. Some writers mention four Sibyls, others ten.
-The most famous of all was this Cumæan Sibyl, and to her the Romans
-traced the origin of the “oracles.” It is fabled that she offered to sell
-to one of the Tarquins nine books, but the king refused. Going away she
-burnt three, and then offered the six at the same price. Being refused
-again she destroyed a second three, and at her first price the king
-finally took those remaining. These were carefully preserved, but burnt
-in B. C. 83. A new compilation was made by consulting the various oracles
-of the world. The “Sibyline oracles” mentioned here are in eight books,
-and were collected after the second century; they consist of a mixture of
-heathen, Christian and Jewish poems.
-
-P. 235.—“Lucina,” lu-ciˈna. The goddess who was supposed to preside over
-the birth of children.
-
-“Tiphys,” tiˈphys. The pilot of the “Argo.” He died before the ship
-reached Colchis. For the story of the “Argo” see Grecian history.
-
-P. 236.—“Fates,” or Parcæ, were mythological beings who cared for human
-life.
-
-“Linus.” The personification of the dirge.
-
-“Calliope.” The muse of epic poetry. She usually appears with a stylus
-and a wax tablet.
-
-P. 237.—“Hesiod,” heˈsĭ-od. Greek epic poet; 800 B. C.
-
-“Iambic pentameter.” A verse of five feet (pentameter), or ten syllables.
-Each foot is an iambus; that is, is composed of one short and one long
-syllable.
-
-“Alexandrine,” ălˌex-ănˈdrĭne. A verse composed of twelve syllables,
-named from a French poem on Alexander.
-
-P. 238.—“Ceres.” The Demeter of the Romans, the goddess who presided over
-grain and the harvest.
-
-“Fauns.” The rural divinities of the Romans. They were supposed to have
-introduced the worship of the gods and agriculture. They are represented
-as possessed of horns, and having the figure of a goat below the waist.
-
-“Courser’s birth.” The reference is to the creation of the horse by
-Neptune. It is said that Neptune and Minerva (Athene) contested for the
-honor of naming Attica. The gods decided that it should be the one who
-should give the most useful gift to man. Neptune struck the ground with
-his trident and the horse appeared. Athene created the olive tree; the
-latter received the honor.
-
-“Pallas.” A name frequently given to Athene.
-
-“Cypress.” The cypress was sacred to Pluto, the god of the lower world.
-
-P. 239—“Thule.” The land which in the time of Alexander the Great was
-believed to be the northernmost part of Europe.
-
-“Fasces,” făsˈsēz. An emblem of authority among the Romans. It was an ax
-tied up in a bundle of rods.
-
-“Balance.” The constellation Libra, or the Scales. It lies in the Zodiac
-between the Virgin and the Scorpion.
-
-“Elysium,” e-lĭzˈĭ-um. A dwelling place for the good after death.
-
-“Proserpine,” pro-serˈpine. The daughter of Ceres, who was carried off by
-Pluto, to Hades. Her mother, discovering that Jupiter had given consent
-to the abduction, withdrew from Olympus, and did not allow the earth to
-bring forth fruit. Jupiter tried to dissuade her, but failing, sent for
-Proserpine. She returned, but as she had eaten in the lower world could
-not remain all the time on earth, but was obliged to spend one-third of
-the year with Pluto.
-
-P. 254.—“Æolus,” æˈo-lus. The god of the winds.
-
-“Sarpedon,” sar-peˈdon. A son of Jupiter and a prince of Lycia. He was an
-ally of the Trojans in the Trojan war, but was slain by Patroclus, the
-friend of Achilles.
-
-“Simois.” One of the prominent rivers in the country of Troy.
-
-P. 255.—“Orontes,” o-ronˈtes. A Lycian leader and ally of the Trojans;
-“Aletes,” a-lēˈ-tes; “Abas,” aˈbas; “Achates,” a-chaˈtes.
-
-P. 258.—“Harpalyce,” har-palˈy-ce. A Thracian princess whose mother died
-in her infancy. She was trained to outdoor exercise and sports, and on
-the death of her father she turned robber. She lived in the woods and was
-so fleet that not even horses could overtake her.
-
-P. 262.—“Amaracus,” a-marˈa-cus. The sweet marjoram or feverfew.
-
-P. 263.—“Acidalian.” Venus was sometimes called _Acidalia_, from a well,
-Acidalius, in Greece, where she used to bathe with the Graces.
-
-P. 264.—“Demodocus.” In Ulysses’s wanderings, after the fall of Troy, he
-was thrown on the island of Scheria, where the king of the people, the
-Phæacians, honored him with feasts, at which Demodocus, a minstrel, sang
-of the fall of Troy.
-
-P. 266.—“Danaan,” danˈa-an. Danaus, the name from which this word is
-derived, was a former king of Argos.
-
-P. 270.—“Thessander,” thes-sanˈder.
-
-“Sthenelus,” sthenˈe-lus. The friend of Diomede, under whom he commanded
-the Argives in the Trojan war.
-
-“Acamas,” aˈca-mas. A son of Theseus.
-
-“Pelides,” pe-liˈdes. A name given to Achilles, whose father’s name
-was Peleus. The “youthful heir” here spoken of was Neoptolemus, son of
-Achilles.
-
-“Machaon,” ma-chaˈon. The surgeon of the Greeks in the Trojan war. He was
-the son of Æsculapius, the god of the medical art. Machaon was a warrior
-as well as a doctor, and with his brother led thirty ships to Troy.
-
-“Menelaus,” men-e-laˈus. The king of Lacedæmon, and husband of Helen.
-
-“Epeus,” e-peˈus.
-
-P. 288.—“Dis.” A contraction of Dives, a name given sometimes to Pluto,
-and hence to the lower world.
-
-P. 289.—“Phlegethon,” phlegˈe-thon. A river of liquid fire flowing
-through Hades.
-
-“Orcus.” Another name for Hades, or for Pluto.
-
-“Tartarus,” tarˈta-rus. Like Orcus and Dis, Tartarus is sometimes used
-synonymously with Hades.
-
-“Acheron,” aˈcher-on. The name of a river of the lower world, flowing,
-according to Virgil, into the Co-cyˈtus.
-
-P. 290.—“Charon,” chaˈron.
-
-“Treen.” An obsolete plural of tree.
-
-P. 291.—“Palinurus,” pa-li-nuˈrus. He had been the pilot of Æneas’s ship,
-but fell into the sea and was murdered on the coast of Lucania, by the
-natives.
-
-“Cerberus,” cerˈbe-rus. The dog that guarded the entrance to Hades.
-
-P. 293.—“Marpesian,” mar-peˈsi-an. Derived from Marpessa, a mountain in
-Paros, from which the Parian marble was taken.
-
-P. 294.—“Hecate,” heˈca-te. An ancient divinity, the only Titan which
-Jupiter allowed to retain power. She was thought to rule in heaven, earth
-and hell; this three-fold power led to her being sometimes represented
-with three heads.
-
-“Gnosian,” gnoˈsi-an. From Gnosus, or Cnosus, an ancient city of Crete.
-The adjective is used here as equivalent to Cretan.
-
-“Rhadamanthus,” rha-da-manˈthus. The brother of King Minos, of Crete. His
-justice through life led to his being made a judge in the lower world.
-
-“Tisiphone,” ti-siphˈo-ne. One of the Fates.
-
-P. 295.—“Hydra,” hyˈdra. A monster which formerly lived in a marsh in
-the Peloponnesus. It had many heads, one of which being cut off was
-immediately succeeded by two new ones. It was slain by Hercules.
-
-“Aloeus,” a-loˈe-us. The son of Neptune; the sons here referred to were
-of enormous size and strength. When but nine years of age they threatened
-the Olympian gods with war. Apollo destroyed them before they reached
-manhood. “Salmoneus,” sal-moˈne-us.
-
-“Levin,” lĕvˈin. An obsolete word for lightning.
-
-P. 296.—“Lapith.” A race living in Thessaly.
-
-“Pirithous,” pi-rithˈo-us. The King of the Lapithæ. He descended to the
-nether world in order to carry off Persephone, but was seized by Pluto
-and fastened to a rock with Theseus, who had accompanied him. Theseus was
-afterward released by Hercules, but Pirithous remained.
-
-“Ixion,” ix-iˈon. The father of the above. Having committed a murder on
-earth for which he was never purified, Jupiter took pity on him, purified
-him, and took him to heaven, where he tried to win the love of Juno.
-For his ingratitude he was sent to Hades, and fastened to a perpetually
-rolling wheel.
-
-P. 297.—“Teucer,” teuˈcer. The first king of Troy.
-
-“Ilus.” The grandfather of Priam, and the founder of Ilion or Troy.
-
-“Assaracus,” as-sarˈa-cus. The great-grandfather of Æneas.
-
-“Dardany,” or Dardania, was a region adjacent to Ilium, lying along the
-Hellespont. It was named from Dardanus, the son-in-law of Teucer.
-
-P. 298.—“Eridanus,” e-ridˈa-nus. A river god.
-
-“Musæus,” mu-sæˈus. A mythological character, the author of various
-poetical compositions and of certain famous _oracles_.
-
-P. 300.—“Procas.” One of the fabulous kings of Alba Longa.
-
-“Numitor,” nuˈmi-tor. The grandfather of Romulus and Remus.
-
-“Capys.” “Silvius.” Mythical kings of Alba Longa.
-
-“Gabii,” gaˈbi-i. In early times a powerful Latin city near Rome.
-
-“Nomentum,” no-menˈtum. A Latin town, about fourteen miles from Rome.
-
-“Collatia,” col-laˈti-a. A Sabine town. “Cora.” An ancient town in
-Latium. “Bola.” A town of the Æqui. “Inuus.” Usually written Inui
-Castrum. A town on the coast of Latium.
-
-P. 301.—“Ind.” The country of the Indus.
-
-“Garamant,” garˈa-mant. The most southernly of the known people of Africa.
-
-“Alcides,” al-ciˈdes. A name given to Hercules.
-
-“Erymanthus,” e-ry-manˈthus. A lofty mountain of Arcadia, the haunt of
-the boar which Hercules killed.
-
-“Lerna.” A marsh and river not far from Argos, where Hercules killed the
-Hydra.
-
-P. 302.—“Decii,” deˈci-i. “Drusus,” druˈsus. “Torquatus,” tor-quaˈtus.
-Famous Roman leaders in the early days of the Republic.
-
-“Æacides,” æ-acˈi-des. A name given to the descendants of Æacus, among
-whom were Peleus, Achilles and Pyrrhus.
-
-P. 303.—“Feretrian,” fer-reˈtri-an. A name given sometimes to Jove. It
-is probably derived from the verb to strike, as persons taking an oath
-called on Jove to strike them if they swore falsely.
-
-
-
-
-NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS IN “THE CHAUTAUQUAN.”
-
-
-FRENCH HISTORY.
-
-P. 377, c. 1.—“Voltaire,” vol-têrˈ. (1694-1778.) French author.
-
-“Rousseau,” Jean Jacques, rooˌsōˈ. (1712-1778.) French philosopher and
-writer.
-
-“Montesquieu,” mŏnˈtĕs-kūˌ. (1689-1755.) French jurist and philosopher.
-
-“D’Alembert,” däˈlŏnˌbêrˌ. (1717-1783.) French mathematician.
-
-P. 377, c. 2.—“Maria Theresa,” ma-rīˈa te-reeˈsä. (1717-1780.) Empress of
-Germany and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia.
-
-“Turgot,” türˌgoˈ. (1727-1781.) At the time of his appointment to the
-control of finance, Turgot had won a fine reputation by his papers on
-political economy, tolerance in governing, and like subjects. He at once
-undertook to carry out his views, abolishing all taxes save those on
-land, doing away with compulsory labor for the state, the privileges of
-trading corporations and the like; this made him very unpopular among the
-favored classes, and Louis was forced to dismiss him.
-
-“Necker,” nĕkˈer. (1732-1804.) Necker’s policy was to restore order and
-confidence. He restrained the prodigality of the court, cut down the
-expenses of the government, regulated taxes, and laid the foundation
-of the Bank of France. After his final withdrawal from France, Necker
-lived in Geneva, where he wrote several essays. It is said that on the
-accession of Bonaparte to power he attempted to obtain the position of
-minister of finance, but was rejected.
-
-“Ushant,” ushˈant. The largest of the Ouessant Isles, off the coast of
-the department of Finisterre in France.
-
-“D’Estaings,” dĕsˌtănˈ. (1729-1794.) He was brought up to military
-service, was twice taken prisoner by the English but released, and in
-1763 was appointed lieutenant-general of the navy. D’Estaings was sent
-to the United States in 1778, where he planned attacks on New York and
-Newport, but was unsuccessful in both. After the campaign in the West
-Indies he coöperated with the Americans in an attack upon Savannah, but
-was wounded.
-
-“Granada,” “St. Lucia,” “St. Vincent.” Three islands of the Windward
-group of the West Indies.
-
-“Langara,” läˈgä-rä. (1730-1800.)
-
-“De Guichen,” deh-gēˈshonˌ. (1712-1790.) A French naval officer, made
-lieutenant-general in 1779. The next year after the victory here given he
-was defeated by the English.
-
-“De Grasse,” deh gräs. (1723-1788.) Count de Grasse served in the
-American war, and in 1781 aided Washington and Lafayette in the capture
-of Cornwallis.
-
-“Hood.” (1724-1816.) He entered the navy at sixteen. In 1780 he was
-made second in command in the West Indies. The year after his defeat he
-defeated De Grasse and was made a baron. In 1793 he commanded the English
-in the Mediterranean against the French, and in 1796 was made a viscount.
-
-“Tobago,” to-bāˈgo. An island of the Windward group of the West Indies.
-
-P. 378, c. 1.—“Ville de Paris.” The city of Paris.
-
-“Crillon,” kreˈyonˌ. (1718-1796.) A lieutenant-general in the Seven
-Years’ War, and afterward captain-general of Spain.
-
-“Senegal,” senˈe-gawlˌ. A river of western Africa.
-
-“Calonne,” kăˌlonˈ. (1734-1802.) Calonne had been a law student and a
-courtier, when appointed to succeed Necker. After his dismissal he went
-to London, where he wrote many able political and financial tracts.
-
-“Brienne,” breˌënˈ. (1727-1794.) Brienne was an archbishop and a member
-of the academy when he succeeded Calonne.
-
-P. 378, c. 2.—“En Masse.” In a body.
-
-“Desmoulins,” dāˌmooˌlănˈ. (1762-1794.) A schoolmate of Robespierre, and
-a partisan of the Revolution. He was called the “Attorney-General of the
-lamp post,” for his share in street mobs.
-
-“Launay,” lōˈna. He was massacred immediately after the capture of the
-place.
-
-“Condé,” kŏnˈdāˌ (1736-1818); “Polignac,” poˈlēnˌyäkˌ; “Noailles,” noˈäl;
-“Seignioral,” seenˈyur-al. Lordly, kingly; belonging to a seignior.
-
-P. 379, c. 1.—“Sièyes,” se-yāsˈ. (1748-1836.) At the beginning of the
-Revolution Sièyes wrote a pamphlet which placed him at the head of the
-publicists. He was a member of the Assembly, of the Convention, and in
-1799 of the Directory. When the new régime began he was one of the three
-consuls, but soon after lost his influence, which he never regained.
-
-“Robespierre,” roˈbes-peer. (1758-1794.) He was educated for the law, and
-practicing, when in 1789 he was sent to the States-General. His radical
-democratic views gained him a prominent place. He afterward was a member
-of the Assembly, and in 1792 was elected to the Convention. He became the
-leader of one party there, and was instrumental in bringing on the Reign
-of Terror, of which he was the acknowledged head. His cruelty at last
-turned the people against him, and he was guillotined in 1794.
-
-“Mirabeau,” mĭrˈa-bō. (1749-1791.) He was descended from a family of high
-rank, but was passionate and uncontrolled. Until 1788 his life was spent
-in all sorts of employments and intrigues. At that time he made up his
-mind to enter French politics, and succeeded in getting himself elected
-to the States-General of 1789. In 1791 he was elected president of the
-National Assembly, but died soon after, a victim to excess.
-
-“Œil-de-Bœuf,” eel-deh-bŭf.
-
-P. 379, c. 2.—“Chalons,” shäˌlōnˈ; “Menehould,” māˌnāˈhō.
-
-“Bouillé,” booˈyā. (1739-1800.)
-
-“Varennes,” väˈrenˌ.
-
-“Rochambeau,” roˈshŏnˌbō. (1725-1807.) A French marshal. In early life
-he fought in several minor campaigns. In 1780 he was sent to the United
-States with 6,000 men, and the next year fought at Yorktown.
-
-“Dumouriez,” düˌmooˈre-ā. (1739-1823.) After the battle of Jemappes, the
-convention being jealous of Dumouriez’s loyalty to the Bourbons, summoned
-him to their bar. He refused to go, and was obliged to spend the rest of
-his life in exile.
-
-“Verdun,” vĕrˈdun; “Longwy,” lōngˌveˈ.
-
-“Custine,” küsˌtēnˈ. (1740-1793.)
-
-“Jemappes,” zhem-map.
-
-P. 380, c. 1.—“Fédérés,” fāˈdāˌrāˌ; “Abbaye,” ă-bāˈ; “Conciergerie,”
-konˌcerˈjaˌreˌ; “Carmes,” kärm; “Bicêtre,” beˈcātrˌ. The names of famous
-French prisons.
-
-“Lamballe,” lŏnˌbälˈ. (1749-1792.)
-
-“Sombreuil,” sŏnˌbrulˈ. The sister of an officer prominent in support of
-the Royalists.
-
-“Cazotte,” käˈzotˌ. Jacques Cazotte, her father, was a French poet.
-
-P. 380, c. 2.—“Égalité,” ā-găˈle-tā.
-
-“Vergniaud,” verˌyne-ōˈ. (1759-1793.)
-
-P. 381, c. 1.—“Marat,” mäˈrä. (1744-1793.) Before the Revolution Marat
-had practiced medicine. In 1789 he gained great popularity among the
-Revolutionists by his journal, _The Friend of the People_. After his
-election in 1792 to the Convention and the formation of the triumvirate
-with Danton and Robespierre, he wielded great power by his decisive
-opinions.
-
-“Danton,” dänˌtonˈ. (1759-1794.) He was a lawyer by profession. At the
-beginning of the Revolution he became a popular leader and orator. When
-the supreme power fell into the hands of the triumvirate Danton was
-elected minister of justice, thus having chief control of the city.
-Afterward he was elected to the Convention, where he became a prominent
-leader, but excited the jealousy of Robespierre. The latter triumphed in
-the contest for the first rank, and Danton was guillotined. Lamartine
-says of him: “Nothing was wanting to make Danton a great man, except
-virtue.”
-
-P. 381, c. 2.—“Corday,” korˌdaˈ. (1768-1793.)
-
-P. 382, c. 1.—“Aboukir,” ä-boo-keerˈ.
-
-“Tuileries,” tü-eel-rē. A royal palace of Paris.
-
-“D’Enghien,” dŏnˌ-gănˈ. (1772-1804.) “Eylau,” īˈlou; “Friedland,”
-frēdˈland.
-
-
-COMMERCIAL LAW.
-
-P. 384, c. 1.—“Misfeasance,” mis-fēˈzans. A wrong act.
-
-P. 384, c. 2. “In transitu.” On the passage.
-
-
-READINGS IN ART.
-
-P. 384, c. 2.—“Cimabue,” che-mä-booˈā. (1240?-1302?) Called “the father
-of modern painting.”
-
-P. 385, c. 1.—“Navicella,” năv-i-celˈla. The name of the mosaic, meaning
-the little ship.
-
-“Assisi,” as-seeˈsee. A picturesque town of central Italy, chiefly noted
-as the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan order of
-monks.
-
-“Podestà,” po-des-tāˈ. In 1207 the chief executive power of Florence was
-put into the hands of a single officer called the _podesta_; hence the
-reference is to the chief magistrate’s palace.
-
-“Chiaro-scuro,” chi-äˌro-ŏs-cuˈro. The effective distribution of lights
-and shades in a picture.
-
-“Guido di Pietro,” gweeˈdo de pe-aˈtrō.
-
-“Fiesole,” fyesˈo-lā. A town of Italy, near Florence.
-
-“Vicchio,” vekˈkee-o; “Mugello,” mu-gelˈlō.
-
-P. 385, c. 2.—“Orvieto,” or-ve-āˈto. A town of central Italy, not far
-from Perugia.
-
-“Luca Signorelli,” luˈca sēn-yo-relˈlee. (1439-1521.) An Italian painter,
-a nephew of Vasari. His frescoes are his most noteworthy pieces.
-
-“Scudi,” skōoˈdee. The plural of scudo, an Italian coin used in Italy and
-Sicily, and worth about 96 cents.
-
-“Santa Maria delle Grazie,” sänˈtä mä-reeˈä delˈlā grätˈse-ā.
-
-“Marco d’Oggione,” marˈco dōd-goˈnā. (1470-1530.) A pupil of Leonardo. He
-made two copies of “The Last Supper”—his most important works.
-
-P. 386, c. 1.—“Cloux,” clou; “Amboise,” almost ŏnbˈwīzˌ. A town on the
-Loire, in western central France.
-
-“Vasari,” vä-säˈree. (1512-1574.) A pupil of Michaelangelo, and a
-successful painter. His fame rests on his “Lives of the most excellent
-Painters, Architects and Sculptors,” one of the most valuable books ever
-written on the subject.
-
-“Trattato,” etc. Treatise on painting.
-
-“Castel Caprese.” käs-telˈ kä-presˈā; “Arezzo,” ä-retˈso.
-
-“Ghirlandaio,” gĕr-län-däˈyo. (1451-1495.) A painter famous for his
-invention. His chief works, “The Massacre of the Infants” and “The Death
-of St. Francis” are still preserved in the Sistine chapel.
-
-“Fuseli,” fūˈseh-le. (1742-1825.) A celebrated historical painter.
-
-“Monochrome,” mŏnˈo-chrōme. A painting with a single color.
-
-P. 386, c. 2.—“Sandro Botticelli,” bot-te-chelˈlee. (1440-1515.) An
-eminent Italian painter. His frescoes in the chapel of the Vatican are
-his most powerful works.
-
-“Cosimo Rosselli,” ro-selˈlee. (1439-1506.)
-
-“Perugino,” pā-roo-jeeˈnō. (1446-1524.) The master of Raphael. He
-received his name, “The Perugian,” from the work which he did at Perugia,
-where there still exist some of his best frescoes.
-
-“Raffaello Sanzio,” rä-fä-ĕˈlō sänˈze-o; “Pinturicchio,”
-pēn-too-rēkˈke-o. (1454-1513.)
-
-P. 387, c. 1.—“Francia,” fränˈchä. (1450-1533?) A celebrated Italian
-painter.
-
-“Fra Bartholommeo,” barˈto-lo-māˌō.
-
- * * * * *
-
-For help in pronouncing the Italian names which are so numerous in this
-paper, we give a set of simple rules for Italian vowels and consonants.
-
-_A_ like _a_ in father.
-
-_E_ like _e_ in met, more prolonged and open at the close of a syllable.
-
-_I_ like _ee_ in feet.
-
-_O._ Pronounce _roll_ and stop on the middle of the word, and it is
-precisely the Italian _o_.
-
-_U_ like _oo_ in root.
-
-_C_ or _g_ followed by _a_, _o_ or _u_, as in English, but followed by
-_e_ or _i_, _c_ has the sound of _ch_ as in cherry, and _g_ is like _g_
-in gem.
-
-_Gn_ is like _ni_ in poniard.
-
-_Gl_ as in English, except before _i_, when it has the sound of _ll_ in
-brilliant.
-
-_S_ at the beginning of a word has the hissing sound, as between two
-vowels, or followed by _b_, _d_, _r_ or _v_, is pronounced like _z_.
-
-_Sc_, followed by _e_ or _i_, like _sh_.
-
-_Z_ like _dz_ in words which have _z_ in the English word; like _tz_ when
-preceded by _l_ or _r_, or followed by two vowels, and in nouns ending in
-_zzo_.
-
-Single consonants are generally soft; double consonants are pronounced in
-one sound, but stronger and more marked than when single.
-
-
-SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE.
-
-P. 393, c. 2.—“En bloc.” In a lump.
-
-“Genre.” A style; a peculiar kind or species.
-
-“Du Maurier,” dü mōˈre-a. An English caricaturist who for over twenty
-years has been connected with _Punch_.
-
-
-
-
-TALK ABOUT BOOKS.
-
-Most indefinite ideas exist among even very well informed people
-concerning the Soudan and its tribes. What is the Soudan? Who people it?
-What does England want of it? Such questions are worrying many heads,
-and there has been a general search for information. A very timely book
-to those interested, is “The Wild Tribes of the Soudan.”[B] The author,
-so late as December, 1881, started on a trip of exploration and sport
-through the Basé country—a small part, it is true, of the Soudan, but the
-people, customs and country serve as reliable examples. The experiences
-of this company of sportsmen with the people, their adventures and
-dangers, furnish us with much useful information about a people in whom
-we are all just now interested. The book is furnished with excellent maps.
-
-The erudition embraced in Dr. Winchell’s digest[C] of Cosmical Science
-exhausts the contributions of the French, German and English languages,
-and is simply enormous. As the author _con amore_ has made this subject
-the study of an average lifetime, his personal contributions of
-original thought constitute a large part of the book. It is written in
-a calm, judicial spirit and incisive style, and increases in strength
-and interest to the close. The universe of matter is the field of
-observation, and starting with the principles which are worked out before
-our eyes on this planet, the mechanism of the solar system is subjected
-to analysis in regard to the order of its structure and final destiny.
-He then passes into the stellar universe, and finds evidence that the
-same kinds of substances are there, subject to the same laws, and tending
-to the same results. The speculative reasoning of the volume of course
-covers much space, but the trustworthy information obtained is all that
-could be expected; in fact, all that is known to science. We know of no
-other book which gives to the mind so clear a view of the incomparable
-vastness of the universe, and the _rationale_ of its existing as does
-this. The conclusion reached is, that the surface of our moon is made up
-mostly of the craters, cinders, and lava-beds of spent volcanoes. All
-the other planets, the sun included, are tending in the same direction
-and destiny. In the stellar world other systems of sun and planets have
-reached this goal of desolation; others are on the way, and new systems,
-originating in nebulæ, are taking on form and order. When a cycle is once
-completed by a system its career is ended forever and ever. On the whole,
-this is one of the most instructive and fascinating volumes we have read
-for a long time.
-
-“Oregon”[D] is one of a series of volumes entitled “American
-Commonwealths,” edited by H. E. Scudder. The monograph was furnished
-by W. Barrows, D.D., and is both well written and carefully edited.
-The subject of the narrative and the sources from which the materials
-were drawn may have somewhat affected the style of the writing, which
-is exuberant and picturesque. Suppository details are suggested with
-a freedom that shows a desire to make the account impressive without
-lessening its historical value. The most valuable part is given to the
-question of national right, and the long struggle of England and America
-for possession. Americans who found fault with the Ashburton-Webster
-treaty as conceding too much, while Oregon was left out, should read this
-book.
-
-“Arius The Libyan”[E] is a historical romance, and one of the very best
-of the class. It deals vigorously with early ecclesiastical matters, and
-draws, with consummate skill, some well known prominent characters of the
-third and fourth centuries. Its literary merits are of a high order, and
-whether we do or do not accept the doctrines as true, and the estimates
-of the characters introduced as just, all will confess the story is well
-planned, and told with great power. Constantine is sketched as a very
-able, far-seeing, but intensely selfish and unscrupulous politician, a
-man evilly ambitious, and the lust of power his ruling passion. He and
-the bishops he influenced completely secularized the Church, left the
-common primitive Christianity, and established a politico-ecclesiastical
-institution intended to conserve the interests of the empire. The book
-is thoroughly self-consistent, and all the characters, good and bad, are
-well sustained.
-
-There are few women in the country who do not know something of Mary A.
-Livermore, who directly or indirectly have not been influenced by her
-earnest pleas for strong, self-reliant, womanly living among women. When
-she began her lectures several years ago, she was ahead of her time, but
-public sentiment has made rapid strides, and is fast gaining pace with
-her. The need of physical culture, of higher education, of practical
-training for women is acknowledged on every side, and has never been more
-clearly shown than by Mrs. Livermore in her lectures. The hope that these
-lectures might have a wider influence by publication has led to their
-being put into book form, under the title of “What Shall we Do With our
-Daughters?”[F]
-
-“Mexico and the Mexicans”[G] is a very readable book; not specially
-fascinating in style, but of substantial value. It is modest in
-pretentions, as real worth usually is. Promising only a narrative of
-personal observations and experiences, the writer has managed to collect
-from reliable sources much information concerning the country, its
-people and institutions, that will be of interest to American freemen
-and philanthropists. We like it as a clever, matter-of-fact book, whose
-author, fitted for the work assumed, does not attempt fine writing, or
-the role of delineator. Not much attention is given to the religious
-phase of society. In a single paragraph of ten lines, respectful mention
-is made of the fact that the American Board has a station at Monterey,
-and that the Baptists have some zealous missionaries in the same region.
-In the capital, Roman Catholic institutions alone seemed worthy of
-notice. A longer stay and closer observation would have discovered
-Protestantism established there also.
-
-“Great Events of History”[H] is a well written, readable book from the
-pen of W. F. Collier, LL.D. It presents important facts succinctly, yet
-with sufficient fullness, and so clearly that the memory can easily
-retain them. It presents the great events from the commencement of
-the Christian era to the present century in _eight periods_, without
-confusion, and so clearly as to give assured possession of the facts,
-while much is done to lessen the labor of the learner, and sweeten the
-toil that to many is irksome. The geographical appendix will prove very
-useful, as the kindred studies of history and geography are pursued with
-best advantage when taken in connection.
-
-[B] The Wild Tribes of the Soudan. An account of Travel and Sport,
-chiefly in the Basé country. By F. L. James, M.A., F.R.G.S. New York:
-Dodd, Mead & Co.
-
-[C] World-Life, or Comparative Geology. By Alexander Winchell, LL.D., of
-the University of Michigan. S. C. Gregg & Co., Chicago. 1883.
-
-[D] Oregon, the Struggle for Possession. By William Barrows. Boston:
-Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884.
-
-[E] Arius, The Libyan. An Idyl of the Primitive Church. New York: D.
-Appleton & Co. 1884.
-
-[F] What Shall we Do with our Daughters? Superfluous Women, and other
-lectures. By Mary A. Livermore. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1883.
-
-[G] Mexico and the Mexicans; or Notes of Travel in the Winter and Spring
-of 1883. By Howard Conkling. With illustrations. New York: Taintor
-Brothers, Merrell & Co. 1883.
-
-[H] Great Events of History. By W. W. Collier, LL.D. New York: Nelson &
-Sons.
-
- * * * * *
-
- [Illustration: ROYAL BAKING POWDER
-
- Absolutely Pure.]
-
- This powder never varies. A marvel of purity, strength and
- wholesomeness. More economical than the ordinary kinds, and can
- not be sold in competition with the multitude of low test, short
- weight, alum or phosphate powders. _Sold only in cans._ ROYAL
- BAKING POWDER CO., 106 Wall Street, New York.
-
- * * * * *
-
-Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Accents corrected and made
-consistent.
-
-Page 387, “Bartolommeo” changed to “Bartholommeo” (Fra Bartholommeo had
-great influence)
-
-Page 399, “earning” changed to “learning” (pupils are learning)
-
-Page 414, “somthing” changed to “something” (combined with something else)
-
-Page 417, “Sybil” changed to “Sibyl” (and Sibyl can do perfectly well)
-
-Page 424, “In” changed to “It” (It contains no less than five)
-
-Page 427, “wel” changed to “well” (a well-prepared plan)
-
-Page 430, “governnent” changed to “government” (the prices of government
-bonds)
-
-Page 431, “socialogical” changed to “sociological” (the long list of
-sociological essays)
-
-Page 432, “hired” changed to “had” (had the rival candidate murdered)
-
-Page 435, “prisoners” changed to “prisons” (The names of famous French
-prisons)
-
-Page 435, “poinard” changed to “poniard” (like _ni_ in poniard)
-
-Page 436, “of” added (The subject of the narrative)
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884,
-No. 7, by The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
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-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7, by
-The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884, No. 7
-
-Author: The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
-
-Editor: Theodore L. Flood
-
-Release Date: July 17, 2017 [EBook #55134]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAUTAUQUAN, VOL. 04 ***
-
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-Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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-</pre>
-
-
-<h1 class="faux">The Chautauquan, April 1884</h1>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 522px;">
-<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="522" height="800" alt="Cover" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="tnote">
-<div class="center"><small><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b> This cover has been
-created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</small></div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="maintitle"><span class="smcap">The Chautauquan.</span></div>
-
-<p class="center"><i>A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE. ORGAN OF
-THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE.</i></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Vol. IV.</span> <span class="spacer">APRIL, 1884.</span> No. 7.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<h2>Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.</h2>
-
-<p><i>President</i>—Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio.</p>
-
-<p><i>Superintendent of Instruction</i>—Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., New Haven,
-Conn.</p>
-
-<p><i>Counselors</i>—Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.; Rev. J. M. Gibson, D.D.;
-Bishop H. W. Warren, D.D.; Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.</p>
-
-<p><i>Office Secretary</i>—Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.</p>
-
-<p><i>General Secretary</i>—Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.</p>
-
-<hr class="double" />
-
-<h2>Contents</h2>
-
-<div class="tnote"><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b> This table of contents
-of this periodical was created for the HTML version to aid the reader.</div>
-
-<table summary="Contents">
- <tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#REQUIRED_READING">REQUIRED READING</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Readings from French History</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">IX.—Louis XVI.</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#FRENCH_IX">377</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">X.—The Great French Revolution (1792-1796)</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#FRENCH_X">380</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">XI.—Napoleon I. (1796-1814)</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#FRENCH_XI">381</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Commercial Law</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">III.—Agency</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#COMMERCIAL_LAW">382</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Readings in Art</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">I.—Italian Painters and Paintings</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#READINGS_IN_ART">384</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Sunday Readings</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">[<i>April 6</i>]</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#APR6">388</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">[<i>April 13</i>]</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#APR13">389</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">[<i>April 20</i>]</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#APR20">390</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">[<i>April 27</i>]</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#APR27">391</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Selections from American Literature</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#HIGGINSON">392</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">Henry James, Jr.</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#JAMES">393</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">William Dean Howells</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#HOWELLS">394</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="indent2">Charles Dudley Warner</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#WARNER">394</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">United States History</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#UNITED_STATES_HISTORY">395</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Light at Eventide</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#LIGHT_AT_EVENTIDE">397</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">The Cooper Institute</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_COOPER_INSTITUTE">398</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Green Sun and Strange Sunsets</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#GREEN_SUN_AND_STRANGE">400</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Anthony Trollope’s Autobiography</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ANTHONY_TROLLOPES_AUTOBIOGRAPHY">400</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Sabbath Chimes</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#SABBATH_CHIMES">402</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Eight Centuries with Walter Scott</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#EIGHT_CENTURIES_WITH_WALTER">403</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Geography of the Heavens for April</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#GEOGRAPHY_OF_THE_HEAVENS">405</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Edgar Allen Poe</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#EDGAR_ALLAN_POE">407</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">British and American English</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#BRITISH_AND_AMERICAN_ENGLISH">410</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Still Young</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#STILL_YOUNG">412</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">The Gospels Considered as a Drama</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_GOSPELS_CONSIDERED_AS_A">412</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Prohibition in Maine</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#PROHIBITION_IN_MAINE">415</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">The Industrial Schools of Boston</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_INDUSTRIAL_SCHOOLS_OF">417</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Echoes from a Chautauqua Winter</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ECHOES_FROM_A_CHAUTAUQUA">419</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">C. L. S. C. Work</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#C_L_S_C_WORK">421</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Outline of C. L. S. C. Readings</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#OUTLINE_OF_C_L_S_C_READINGS">422</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Local Circles</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#LOCAL_CIRCLES">422</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Questions and Answers</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#QUESTIONS_AND_ANSWERS">425</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Chautauqua Normal Course</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAUTAUQUA_NORMAL_COURSE">426</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Editor’s Outlook</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#EDITORS_OUTLOOK">428</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Editor’s Note-Book</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#EDITORS_NOTE-BOOK">430</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">C. L. S. C. Notes on Required Readings for April</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#C_L_S_C_NOTES_ON_REQUIRED_READINGS_FOR_APRIL">432</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Notes on Required Readings in “The Chautauquan”</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#NOTES_ON_REQUIRED_READINGS_IN_THE_CHAUTAUQUAN">434</a></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><span class="smcap">Talk About Books</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#TALK_ABOUT_BOOKS">436</a></td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="REQUIRED_READING">REQUIRED READING<br />
-<span class="smaller">FOR THE<br />
-<i>Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle for 1883-4</i>.<br />
-APRIL.</span></h2>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="READINGS_FROM_FRENCH">READINGS FROM FRENCH HISTORY.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Rev. J. H. VINCENT, D.D.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="FRENCH_IX">IX.—LOUIS XVI.</h3>
-
-<p>About twenty years of age, amiable, irresolute, of simple
-tastes and earnest piety, Louis XVI. succeeded to the throne
-at a time when these qualities of gentleness could avail but
-little against the crowning evils of the age, and when the
-supreme genius and iron will of a Cromwell or a Napoleon
-could alone have averted the destruction by which the state
-was menaced. Signs of dissolution and prophecies of woe
-were already abroad. Long wars and the lavish expenditure
-of the last century and a half, had reduced the finances of the
-kingdom to a deplorable condition. The public credit was at
-its lowest ebb. The treasury presented a deficit of forty millions.
-The people, over-taxed, restless, half-savage, and dangerously
-intelligent, abandoned agriculture and sought a
-precarious subsistence by smuggling and spoliation. A spirit
-of political and religious infidelity pervaded the middle and
-lower classes. The throne had too long been degraded by
-excess, and tarnished by scandal, to command the affection of
-the multitude. The nobles were scorned rather than reverenced,
-and not even the ancient stronghold of terror remained.
-The clergy, by their cruelties, their ignorance, and their debaucheries
-had alienated the great body of the people, and
-brought down upon themselves the satire and indignation of
-the enlightened. In Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and
-D’Alembert, the new opinions had found their chief advocates
-and leaders. Before their sweeping censures Christianity,
-loyalty, tradition had trembled, and sunk away. They were
-speedily reinforced by all the intelligence of the age. A host
-of distinguished men hastened to their support, and the innovators
-carried all before them—leveling good as well as evil,
-trampling upon much that was pure in their reckless hatred of
-that which was foul, and sapping the foundations of truth,
-mercy and chivalry, while compassing the necessary destruction
-of falsehood, despotism, imposition and vice.</p>
-
-<p>To the government of this crumbling edifice and this murmuring
-people came Louis, with his good heart, his boyish
-timidity, and his woful inexperience. His queen, Marie Antoinette,
-was a daughter of Maria Theresa, fair, generous and
-impetuous. Surrounded by eager courtiers, and saluted for
-the first time as king and queen, they fell upon their knees,
-and cried, weeping, “Oh God, guide us! Protect us! We are
-too young to reign!”</p>
-
-<p>The king’s first act was to reëstablish the parliament, and
-place the financial department in the hands of the impartial
-and provident Turgot. Unfortunately for himself and the
-country, Louis suffered his mind to be prejudiced against this
-able minister, and, dismissing him in 1776, gave his office to
-M. Necker, a less efficient but a less unpopular politician. A
-war with England was now proposed by the king’s ambitious
-statesmen, who beheld at this juncture an opportunity of wresting
-from their ancient rival a large proportion of her foreign
-commerce. England and her American colonies were at variance.
-Not much more than a year had elapsed since the great
-battles of Lexington and Bunker’s Hill, and the American independence
-was but just declared. It now became the obvious
-policy of France to foment this war, to support the rebellious
-colonists, and to transfer to the navies of Louis XVI. that
-maritime superiority which had so long been the bulwark of
-the English liberties. The king, from motives of forbearance,
-was unwilling to commence this war; but, being overruled by
-his ministry, signed a treaty of alliance with the United States
-in the commencement of the year 1778. This treaty was
-equivalent to a declaration of war, and the first important action
-took place by sea off the isle of Ushant on the 27th of
-July. The fleets numbered thirty sail each; not a ship was
-captured or sunk on either side; and the fortune of the day
-was indecisive. In the following year, an alliance with Spain
-doubled the naval strength of Louis XVI. The French and
-Spanish admirals united their fleets, and hovered about the
-coasts of England without making any descent; whilst the
-Count d’Estaings, with twelve ships of the line, took the islands
-of Granada and St. Vincent, and made an unsuccessful attack
-upon St. Lucia, which had been lately conquered by the English.
-On the 16th of January, 1780, Admiral Rodney, then on
-his way to the relief of Gibraltar, encountered and defeated a
-Spanish fleet commanded by Don Juan de Langara. He then
-sailed on, unopposed, to Gibraltar, and next proceeded to the
-West Indies. While there he thrice engaged with the Count
-de Guichen, who had succeeded to the command of the French
-fleet. None of these actions were productive of important results.
-The Count de Guichen was replaced in 1781 by the
-Count de Grasse, a man of great skill and courage, who defeated
-the English admiral, Hood, on the 28th of April, and
-added Tobago to the conquests of France. In this year another
-enemy rose against England. The Dutch declared war,
-and George III. was involved at one time, by sea and land, in
-four great contests, namely, with France, Spain, America and
-Holland. In the month of October, however, the surrender of
-Yorktown by Lord Cornwallis virtually ended the contest between
-England and the United States; and the four European<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
-powers alone carried on hostilities. The month of April, 1782,
-was signalized by a hard-fought and sanguinary engagement
-between the Count de Grasse and Admiral Rodney. They
-met on the 12th, off the island of Dominique, with nearly equal
-forces, and the French were disastrously defeated with a loss
-of eight ships, a terrible sacrifice of life, and the captivity of
-the Count de Grasse. England was not, however, destined to
-profit much by the victory; for, as Admiral Rodney was sailing
-back with his well-won captures, a fearful storm arose, and
-most of the prizes were lost. Among these was the <i>Ville de
-Paris</i>, a fine ship of 110 guns, lately presented to the king by
-the citizens of Paris. On the 13th of October, in the same
-year, the fortress of Gibraltar was made the scene of a formidable
-assault, which failed utterly. The besiegers were commanded
-by the Duke de Crillon, an officer in the Spanish service;
-the Count d’Artois, brother to Louis; and the Duke de
-Bourbon. Negotiations for peace were now commenced, and
-her late successes by sea enabled England to treat at a less
-disadvantage than might have been expected, considering the
-circumstances of the war. The preliminaries were signed at
-Versailles on the 20th of January, 1783. France restored to
-England all her conquests, with the exception of St. Lucia,
-Tobago, the establishments on the river Senegal, and some
-trifling possessions in Africa and the East Indies. England
-relinquished all that she had captured. Spain acquired the
-island of Minorca.</p>
-
-<p>More embarrassed than ever by the cost of the late war, the
-finances of France had now fallen into a worse state than before.
-The public debt was increased. The people exasperated
-by a system of taxation which spared the wealthy and
-oppressed the poor, and imbued, moreover, with those democratic
-principles which had found their way from America to
-France, became still louder in the expression of their discontent.
-M. De Calonne had by this time succeeded M. Necker.
-He was brilliant, fluent, ready with expedients. Dreading the
-recriminations and plain-speaking that must have attended a
-meeting of the States-general, this minister proposed to convene
-the Notables—that is to say, an assemblage of persons
-gathered from all parts of the kingdom, and chiefly from the
-higher ranks of society. This measure had been taken by
-Henry IV. and by Louis XIII.; it was not, therefore, without
-precedent, and much was hoped by the nation. They met, to
-the number of 137, in February, 1787. M. De Calonne laid
-before them the condition of the exchequer, and proposed to
-submit to taxation all the landed property of the kingdom, including
-that of the privileged classes. But he addressed an
-assembly composed almost exclusively of the privileged classes,
-and they would not hear his arguments. On the 9th of April,
-finding his position untenable, he resigned his office, and was
-succeeded by M. De Brienne. Still the notables refused to
-abate their ancient immunities, and were in consequence dissolved
-on the 25th of May. The absolute necessity of procuring
-money now compelled the king arbitrarily to register a
-royal edict, which met with strong opposition from the parliament.
-This body was then banished to Troyes, but again
-recalled in the month of September. In 1788, M. de Brienne,
-weary of combating the difficulties of his office, resigned in
-favor of M. Necker. This gentleman, as the first act of his
-second ministry, proposed to convoke the states-general, and
-on the 5th of May, 1789, that august assembly filled the Hall
-de Menus in the Palace of Versailles. The king, in a brief
-speech, spoke hopefully of the present and the future, trusted
-that his reign might be commemorated henceforth by the happiness
-and prosperity of his people, and welcomed the states-general
-to his palace. Unforeseeing and placid, he beheld in
-this meeting nothing but the promise of amelioration, nor
-guessed how little prepared for usefulness or decision were its
-twelve hundred. It soon became evident that the real strength
-of the states-general lay in the commons. They formed the
-third estate, and numbered as many members as the clergy
-and noblesse together. They took upon themselves to decide
-whether the deliberations of the Assembly should be carried
-on in three chambers or one—they covered their heads in
-presence of the king—they constituted themselves the “National
-Assembly,” and invited the clergy and aristocracy to
-join them. The timid sovereign sanctioned these innovations,
-and the Assembly proceeded to exercise its self-conferred
-functions. Supplies were voted for the army; the public debt
-was consolidated; a provisional collection of taxes was decreed;
-and the inviolability of the members proclaimed. In
-the meantime the nobles, headed by the king’s second
-brother, the Count d’Artois, were collecting in the neighborhood
-of the court and capital such troops as they could muster
-from every quarter of the kingdom. Necker was exiled, and
-it became evident that the king’s imprudent advisers had
-counselled him to have recourse to violence. Paris, long prepared
-for insurrection, rose <i>en masse</i>. Necker alone had possessed
-the confidence of the citizens, and his dismissal gave
-the signal for arms. Camille Desmoulins, a young and enthusiastic
-patriot, harangued the populace at the Palais Royal.</p>
-
-<p>The guards, when called out to disperse the mobs, refused to
-fire. The citizens formed themselves into a national guard.
-The foodless multitude attacked and pillaged in various quarters.
-The barriers were fired; and on the 14th of July, this
-wild army appeared before the walls of the Bastile. Stanch
-in his principles of military honor, the aged Marquis de
-Launay, then governor of the prison, refused to surrender,
-raised the drawbridge, and fired upon the multitude. His feeble
-garrison, consisting of eighty-two invalids and thirty-two
-Swiss, was menaced by thousands. The siege lasted four
-hours. The besiegers were joined by the French guards—cannon
-were brought—De Launay capitulated—the drawbridge
-was lowered, and the Bastile taken. Taken by a lawless sea
-of raging rebels, who forthwith massacred the governor, his
-lieutenant, and some of the aged invalids—set fire to the building,
-and razed it to the ground—freed the few prisoners found
-in the cells—garnished their pikes with the evidences of murder,
-and so paraded Paris. From this moment the people were
-supreme. The troops were dismissed from Versailles—Necker
-was recalled—the king visited Paris, and was invested at the
-Hotel de Ville with the tri-colored emblem of democracy.</p>
-
-<p>Then began the first emigration. The Count d’Artois, the
-Prince of Condé, the Polignacs, and other noble and royal
-families, deserted in the moment of peril, and from beyond the
-frontiers witnessed the revolution in ignoble safety. The king
-and his family remained at Versailles, sad at heart amid their
-presence-chambers and garden-groves, just four leagues from
-volcanic Paris. Hither, from time to time, during the few days
-that intervened between the 14th of July and the 4th of August,
-came strange tidings of a revolution which was no longer
-Parisian, but national—tidings of provincial gatherings—of
-burning chateaux—of sudden vengeances done upon unpopular
-officials, intendants, tax-gatherers, and the like. It was
-plain that the First Estate must bow its proud head before the
-five-and-twenty savage millions, make restitution, speak well,
-smile fairly—or die. The memorable 4th of August came,
-when the nobles did this, making an ample confession of their
-weakness. The Viscount de Noailles proposed to reform the
-taxation by subjecting to it every order and rank; by regulating
-it according to the fortune of the individual; and by abolishing
-personal servitude, and every remaining vestige of the
-feudal system. An enthusiasm, which was half fear and half
-reckless excitement, spread throughout the Assembly. The
-aristocrats rose in their places and publicly renounced their
-seignorial dues, privileges, and immunities. The clergy abolished
-tithes and tributes. The representative bodies resigned
-their municipal rights. All this availed but little; and should
-have been done many months before to have weighed with the
-impatient commons. The people scorned a generosity which
-relinquished only that which was untenable, and cared little for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
-the recognition of a political equality that had already been
-established with the pike. The Assembly was at this time divided
-into three parties—that of the aristocracy, composed of
-the greater part of the noblesse and clergy; that of the moderate
-party, headed by M. Necker; and that of the republicans,
-among whom the most conspicuous were Lafayette, Sièyes,
-Robespierre, and the great, the impetuous, the profligate Mirabeau.
-But theirs was not the only deliberative body. A minor
-assembly, consisting of one hundred and eighty electors; a
-mass of special assemblies of mechanics, tradesmen, servants,
-and others; and a huge incongruous mob at the Palais Royal,
-met daily and nightly for purposes of discussion. These
-demonstrations, and the extreme opinions to which they hourly
-gave rise, alarmed the little court yet lingering around the
-king. They persuaded him that he must have military assistance,
-and the troops were, unhappily, recalled to Versailles.</p>
-
-<p>The regiment of Flanders and a body of dragoons came, and
-on the 1st of October the newly-arrived officers were invited to
-a grand banquet by their comrades of the royal body-guard.
-After the dinner was removed and the wine had begun to circulate,
-the queen presented herself with the Dauphin in her
-arms, and her husband at her side. Cries of loyalty and enthusiasm
-burst forth—their healths were drunk with drawn
-swords—the tri-colored cockades were trampled under foot,
-and white ones, emblematic of Bourbon, were distributed by
-the maids of honor. The news of this fatal evening flew to
-Paris. Exasperated by the arrival of the soldiery—by the insult
-offered to the tri-color—by the fear of famine and civil war—the
-mob rose in fury, and with cries of “Bread! bread!”
-poured out of Paris and took the road to Versailles. Here,
-sending messages, threats, and deputations to the king and to
-the Assembly, the angry thousands encamped for the night, in
-inclement weather, round about the palace. Toward morning
-a grate leading into the grand court was found to be unfastened,
-and the mob rushed in. On they went, across the marble
-court and up the grand staircase. The body-guards defended
-themselves valiantly and raised the alarm—the queen fled,
-half-dressed, to the king’s chamber—the “living deluge”
-poured through galleries and reception-rooms, making straight
-for the queen’s apartments. On this terrible day, Marie Antoinette
-was, above all, the object of popular hatred. Separated
-now from the revolutionists by the hall of the Œil-de-Bœuf,
-where the faithful remnant of body-guards had assembled
-to defend them to the last, the royal family listened tremblingly
-to the battering of the axes on the yet unbroken doors. At
-this moment of peril came Lafayette, with the national guard
-of Paris, and succeeded in clearing the palace, in pacifying the
-multitude, and in rescuing, for the time, the hapless group in
-the king’s apartments. The mob, now driven outside, demanded
-that Louis should show himself, and go to Paris with
-his family. Refusal and remonstrance were alike useless.
-The royal carriage was brought out, the king and his family
-took their places, the mob thronged round, and so, with the
-defeated body-guards in the midst, and some bloody trophies
-of the struggle carried forward upon pikes, the mournful procession
-went from Versailles to Paris. Lodged thenceforth in
-the Tuileries, treated with personal disrespect, and subjected
-to all the restrictions of imprisonment, Louis and his queen
-supported indignities with dignity, and insult with resignation.</p>
-
-<p>On the 4th of September, M. Necker relinquished his office.
-He had been so courageous as to oppose the decree of the 16th
-of June, by which all distinctions of titles, armorial bearings,
-and other hereditary honors were abolished. From having
-been the idol of the republicans he now found himself dangerously
-unpopular, and so retired in safety to Geneva. During
-all this time the emigration of the noblesse went on. Assembling
-upon the German frontier toward the spring-time of the
-year 1791, they formed themselves into an army under the
-command of the Prince of Condé, and adopted for their motto,
-“Conquer or die.” Fearful, however, of endangering the
-king’s personal safety, they took no measures to stay the tide
-of rebellion, but hovered by the Rhine, watchful and threatening.
-Soon the king and queen, their two children, and the
-Princess Elizabeth, sister to the king, were the only members
-of the royal family left in Paris. Flight had long been talked
-of and frequently delayed; but at last everything was arranged,
-and Monday night, June 20, 1791, was fixed for the
-attempt. Eluding the vigilance of the guards, they stole out
-of the palace in disguise, and after numerous delays and misapprehensions,
-during which the queen lost her way in the
-Rue de Bac, they entered a hackney-coach driven by the
-Count de Fersen, and exchanged it, at the gate St. Martin, for a
-carriage and four. Thus, never pausing, they passed Chalons,
-and arrived at St. Menehould. Here they were to have been
-met by some cavalry, commanded by the Marquis de Bouillé;
-but the time fixed for their arrival was so long gone by that
-the escort, weary of waiting, had given them up, and gone on
-to Varennes. Stopping to change horses at St. Menehould,
-the king was recognized; and at Varennes, within reach of
-Bouillé’s soldiers, he was stopped and questioned. The national
-guard flew to arms—an aid-de-camp came up in breathless
-haste, seeking the fugitives and bearing the decree of arrest—the
-horses’ heads were turned toward Paris, and the last
-chance for life and liberty was past! After a return-journey of
-eight days, the king and his family reëntered the capital, and
-were received in profound silence by an immense concourse.
-More closely guarded, more mistrusted than ever, he was now
-suspended by the National Assembly from those sovereign
-functions which he had so long ceased to exercise or possess.
-In the meantime the articles of a new Constitution had been
-drawn up, and were publicly ratified by the royal oath and
-signature on the 14th of September. The National Assembly,
-having completed this work, dissolved itself on the 30th, and
-the members of the new, or legislative assembly, took their
-seats on the 1st of October, 1791.</p>
-
-<p>And now the violences of late committed, and the anarchy
-existing not only in Paris, but in all districts of France, had
-roused the indignation of Europe. Francis II., Emperor of
-Austria, entered into an alliance with the king of Prussia, hostilities
-were threatened, and the Assembly declared for war, on
-the 20th of April, 1792. An invasion of the Austrian Netherlands
-was attempted; but the French soldiers fled upon the
-first sight of the Prussian columns, and General Rochambeau
-laid down his command. On the 25th of July, the Duke of
-Brunswick, who commanded the allies, issued a violent and
-imprudent manifesto, declaring himself authorized to support
-the royal authority in France; to destroy the city of Paris; and
-to pursue with the extremity of military law all those who were
-disposed to resist the policy of Europe. He at the same time
-put his immense army in motion, and advanced over the
-frontier with 70,000 Prussians and 68,000 Austrians and emigrant
-French. Perhaps no effort on the part of his most eager
-enemy could have so injured the cause and periled the safety
-of Louis XVI. The Assembly replied by fitting out an army of
-20,000 national volunteers, and giving the command to General
-Dumouriez. Brunswick took Verdun and Longwy, and advanced
-toward the capital, confident of victory; but, being
-met by the active and sagacious Dumouriez, was forced to retreat.
-Verdun was won back again on the 12th, and Longwy
-on the 18th of October. An Austrian army, engaged in the
-siege of Lille, was compelled to abandon the attempt; and
-Custine on the Rhine took possession of Trèves Spires, and
-Mayence. War having also been declared against the King
-of Sardinia, Savoy was taken; and the great victory of Jemappes,
-won by General Dumouriez, on the 6th of November,
-subjected the whole of the Austrian Netherlands, with the exception
-of Luxembourg, to the power of France. On all sides
-the national troops repelled the invaders, resumed the offensive,
-and asserted the independence of a victorious revolution.</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime, enraged at this interference of the foreign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
-powers, and fluctuating (according to the reports from the
-scene of war) between apprehension and exultation, the Parisian
-mob and the extreme republican party came to regard
-the king with increased enmity. He was named in the Assembly
-with violent opprobrium; the mob, incited to fury by
-Robespierre and his associates, demanded the abolition of the
-royal authority; and on the 10th of August the palace of the
-Tuileries was attacked. The national guards, who had been
-appointed to the defence of the courtyards, went over to the
-insurgents, and pointed their cannon against the chateau.
-Only the gallant Swiss were left, and they, overpowered by
-numbers and fighting gallantly to the last, were literally cut to
-pieces. The king and his family escaped to the National
-Assembly, and on the 14th were removed to the old Temple
-prison. From this time the reign of terror may properly be
-said to have begun. The chronicles of September are written
-in blood. Supreme in power as in crime, the party of the
-Fédérés, or Red Republicans, secured the barriers, sounded
-the tocsin, and proceeded to clear the prisons by an indiscriminate
-massacre. Nobles and priests, aged men and delicate
-women, all who were guilty of good birth, loyalty, or religion,
-were slain without distinction. The inmates of the Abbaye,
-the Conciergerie, the Carmes, La Force, and the Bicêtre were
-all murdered, after a hideous mockery of trial, at which neither
-innocence nor evidence availed. The head of the beautiful
-and hapless Princess de Lamballe was paraded about Paris on
-a pike, and displayed before the eyes of the wretched prisoners
-in the Temple, whose confidential friend and companion she
-had been. Mademoiselle de Sombreuil only saved her father’s
-life by drinking a goblet of blood. Mademoiselle Cazotte flung
-herself between her father and the murderers. Instances of
-the sublimest resignation, of the loftiest courage, are abundant
-amid the records of this appalling period. Thirteen thousand
-souls are said to have been sacrificed in Paris alone, and
-similar massacres were perpetrated at Orleans, at Rheims, at
-Lyons, and at Meaux. On the 21st of September, the legislative
-assembly, having presided for the allotted space of one
-year, was succeeded by a new body of representatives, chiefly
-consisting of the extreme republican party, and known by the
-name of the National Convention. To abolish the statutes of
-the kings, to leave the offices of government open to men of
-every condition, to persecute the members of the more moderate
-faction, and to impeach the king before the bar of the convention,
-were among the first acts of the new government.</p>
-
-<p>On the 11th of December, 1792, Louis, still placid and dignified,
-appeared before the tribunal of his enemies. He was accused
-of plots against the sovereignty of the people—of intrigues with
-the European powers—of tampering with Mirabeau, since dead—in
-short, of everything that might be construed into an effort
-for life, liberty, or prerogative. His trial lasted for more than
-a month, and during that time he was separated from his family.
-Hitherto Louis and his wife had at least shared their sorrows,
-and, by employing themselves in the education of the Dauphin,
-had beguiled somewhat of the tedious melancholy of prison
-life. Now it was over, and they were to meet but once again—to
-bid farewell. On Christmas day the king drew up his
-will, and on the following morning was summoned to the Convention
-for the purpose of making his defense. This paper
-was read by his counsel, and, at its conclusion, Louis spoke a
-few simple words relative to his own innocence and the affection
-which he had always felt toward his people. He was then
-conducted back to the Temple, and the discussions went on till
-the 15th of January, 1793, when it was resolved to put to the
-vote the three great questions of culpability, of the expediency
-of an appeal to the people, and of the nature of the punishment
-to be inflicted. On Tuesday, the 15th, the first two questions
-were put, and the replies recorded. By all the king was voted
-guilty, and by a majority of two to one the appeal to the people
-was negatived. On Wednesday, the 16th, the question of
-punishment was in like manner propounded. The agitation
-of Paris was something terrible to witness. A savage mob
-gathered about the doors of the Assembly, heaping threats
-upon all who dared to be merciful. Even those who most desired
-to save the king became intimidated, and some who had
-spoken bravely in his favor the day before now decreed his
-death. From Wednesday to Sunday morning this strange
-scene lasted. Seven hundred and twenty-one members, in
-slow succession, with trembling, with confidence, with apologetic
-speech, or fierce enforcement, mounted the tribune one
-by one, gave in their “Fate-word,” and went down to hear the
-judgment of their successors. Paine, the English democrat,
-entered his name on the side of mercy. Louis Égalité, Duke
-of Orleans, and father to the late Louis Philippe, had the unparalleled
-infamy to vote for death. Even the brave President
-Vergniaud, who had pleaded for Louis with passionate earnestness
-only a day or two before, wavered in his allegiance at the
-last, and spoke the fatal word. At length, when all had voted,
-death was found to be decreed by a majority of twenty-six
-voices. The king’s counsel appealed against the sentence;
-but the appeal was rejected, and the Assembly recommenced
-voting, to fix the time of execution. Death without delay—death
-within four-and-twenty hours, was the result. On Sunday
-morning, January the 20th, the messengers of the Convention
-told Louis he must die. A priest, a delay of three days,
-and an interview with his family, was all that he asked. They
-granted him the first and last request; but the delay was refused.
-In the evening he was permitted to see his wife, sister
-and children. They met in a chamber with glass doors,
-through which the municipal guards watched all the cruel
-scene. Falling into each other’s arms, they were for some
-time speechless with sorrow, and the conversation that ensued
-was interrupted by cries and sobs. Then the king rose, promising
-to see them again on the morrow, and so ended this
-agony of two hours. About midnight, having recovered his
-serenity, and prayed with his confessor, the Abbé Edgeworth,
-he went to bed and slept soundly. Waking at five, he heard
-mass and received the sacrament. At eight the municipals
-summoned him to execution, and, willing to spare the feelings
-of those whom he loved, he left without a second farewell.
-There was a silence of death upon all the city. Silent were
-the lines of soldiers—silent the gazing multitudes—silent the
-eighty thousand armed men who guarded with cannon the space
-around the scaffold. Through all these rolled the solitary
-carriage, and to these the king, advancing suddenly as the
-last moment came, said in an agitated voice, “Frenchmen, I
-die innocent. I pardon my enemies, and I hope that France.…”
-At this moment he was seized by the executioners, the
-drums beat and drowned his voice, and in a few seconds he
-was no more. All at once the strange silence was broken—the
-executioner upheld the severed head—the shouts of the wild
-populace filled the air—and then they gradually cleared off,
-and the business of the day went on in Paris as if no unusual
-thing had been done. Such was the end of Louis XVI., a
-virtuous and well-intentioned sovereign, on the 21st of January,
-1793.—<i>Edwards.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="FRENCH_X">X.—THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION (1792-1796).</h3>
-
-<p>The government, after the king (Louis XVI.) was deposed,
-was placed in the hands of the National Assembly—or Convention,
-as it now called itself—of deputies chosen by the people.</p>
-
-<p>There is nothing but what is sad and terrible to be told of
-France for the next four or five years, and the whole account
-of what happened would be too hard for you to understand,
-and some part is too dreadful to dwell upon.</p>
-
-<p>The short account of it is that, for years and years before,
-the kings, the nobles, and some of the clergy too, had cared
-for little but their own pride and pleasure, and had done nothing
-to help on their people—teach, train, or lead them.
-So now these people were wild with despair, and when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
-hold on them was a little loosened, they threw it off, and
-turned in furious rage upon their masters. Hatred grew,
-and all those who had once been respected were looked on as
-a brood of wolves, who must be done away with, even the
-young and innocent. The king, queen, his children, and sister
-(Madame Elizabeth), were shut up in a castle called the
-Temple, because it had once belonged to the Knights Templar,
-and there they were very roughly and unkindly treated.
-A national guard continually watched them, and these men
-were often shockingly rude and insulting to them, though they
-were as patient as possible. Great numbers of the nobles and
-clergy were shut up in the other prisons; and when news came
-that an army of Germans and emigrant nobles was marching
-to rescue the king, a set of ruffians was sent to murder them
-all, cutting them down like sheep for the slaughter, men and
-women all alike. The family in the Temple were spared for
-the time, but the emigrant army was beaten at Jemappes; and
-the brave nobles and peasants who had risen in the district of
-La Vendée, in hopes of saving them, could not make head
-against the regular French army, all of which had joined in
-the Revolution, being angered because no one not of noble
-birth could be an officer. All his friends did for the king only
-served to make his enemies hate him trebly; and three men
-had obtained the leadership who seemed to have had a regular
-thirst for blood, and to have thought that the only way to make
-a fresh beginning was to kill every one who had inherited any
-of the rights that had been so oppressive. Their names were
-Marat, Danton, and Robespierre; and they had a power over
-the minds of the Convention and the mob which no one dared
-resist, so that this time was called the Reign of Terror. A
-doctor named Guillotin had invented a machine for cutting off
-heads quickly and painlessly, which was called by his name;
-and this horrible instrument was set up in Paris to do this work
-of cutting off the old race. The king—whom they called Louis
-Capet, after Hugh, the first king of his line—was tried before the
-Assembly, and sentenced to die. He forgave his murderers,
-and charged the Irish clergyman, named Edgeworth, who was
-allowed to attend him in his last moments, to take care that,
-if his family were ever restored, there should be no attempt to
-avenge his death. The last words of the priest to him were:
-“Son of St. Louis, ascend to the skies.”</p>
-
-<p>The queen and her children remained in the Temple, cheered
-by the piety and kindness of Madame Elizabeth until the poor
-little prince—a gentle, but spirited boy of eight—was taken
-from them, and shut up in the lower rooms, under the charge
-of a brutal wretch (a shoemaker) named Simon, who was told
-that the boy was not to be killed or guillotined, but to be “got
-rid of”—namely, tormented to death by bad air, bad living,
-blows and rude usage. Not long after, Marie Antoinette was
-taken to a dismal chamber in the Conciergerie prison, and
-there watched day and night by national guards, until she too
-was brought to trial, and sentenced to die, eight months after
-her husband. Gentle Madame Elizabeth was likewise put to
-death, and only the two children remained, shut up in separate
-rooms; but the girl was better off than her brother, in that she
-was alone, with her little dog, and had no one who made a
-point of torturing her.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile the guillotine was every day in use. Cart-loads
-were carried from the prisons—nobles, priests, ladies, young
-girls, lawyers, servants, shopkeepers—everybody whom the
-savage men who were called the Committee of Public Safety
-chose to condemn. There were guillotines in almost every
-town; but at Nantes the victims were drowned, and at Lyons
-they were placed in a square and shot down with grape
-shot.</p>
-
-<p>Moreover, all churches were taken from the faithful. A
-wicked woman was called the Goddess of Reason, and carried
-in a car to the great cathedral of Notre Dame, where she was
-enthroned. Sundays were abolished, and every tenth day was
-kept instead, and Christianity was called folly and superstition;
-in short, the whole nation was given up to the most horrible
-frenzy against God and man.</p>
-
-<p>In the midst, Marat was stabbed to the heart by a girl named
-Charlotte Corday, who hoped thus to end these horrors; but
-the other two continued their work of blood, till Robespierre
-grew jealous of Danton, and had him guillotined; but at last
-the more humane of the National Convention plucked up courage
-to rise against him, and he and his inferior associates were
-carried to prison. He tried to commit suicide with a pistol, but
-only shattered his jaw, and in this condition he was guillotined,
-when the Reign of Terror had lasted about two years.</p>
-
-<p>There was much rejoicing at his fall; prisons were opened,
-and people began to breathe freely once more. The National
-Convention governed more mildly and reasonably; but they
-had a great deal on their hands, for France had gone to war
-with all the countries round; and the soldiers were so delighted
-at the freedom they had obtained, that it seemed as if no one
-could beat them, so that the invaders were everywhere driven
-back. And thus was brought to light the wonderful powers of
-a young Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, who had been
-educated, at a military school in France, as an engineer. When
-there was an attempt of the mob to rise and bring back the
-horrible days of the Reign of Terror, Colonel Bonaparte came
-with his grape shot, and showed that there was a government
-again that must be obeyed, so that some quiet and good order
-was restored.</p>
-
-<p>Some pity had at last been felt for the poor children in the
-Temple. It came too late to save the life of the boy, Louis
-XVII., as he is reckoned, who had for the whole ninth year of
-his life lain alone in a filthy room, afraid to call any one lest
-he should be ill-used, and without spirit enough to wash himself,
-so that he was one mass of sores and dirt; and he only
-lingered till the 8th of June, 1795, when he died, thinking he
-heard lovely music, with his mother’s voice among the rest.
-In the end of the same year his sister was released, and went
-to Russia to join her uncle, who had fled at the beginning of
-the Revolution, and was now owned by the loyal among the
-French as Louis XVIII.</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime the French army had beaten the Germans
-on the frontier, and had decided on attacking their power in
-the north of Italy. Bonaparte made a most wonderful passage
-of the Alps, where there were scarcely any roads but bridle-paths,
-and he gained amazing victories. His plan was to get
-all the strength of his army up into one point, as it were, and
-with that to fall upon the center of the enemy; and as the old
-German generals did not understand this way of fighting, and
-were not ready, he beat them everywhere, and won all Lombardy,
-which he persuaded to set up for a republic, under the
-protection of the French.</p>
-
-<p>All this time, the French were under so many different varieties
-of government, that you would not understand them at
-all; but that which lasted longest was called the Directory.
-People were beginning to feel safe at last; the emigrants were
-coming home again, and matters were settling down a little
-more.—<i>Yonge.</i></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="FRENCH_XI">XI.—NAPOLEON I. (1796-1814.)</h3>
-
-<p>When Bonaparte had come back from Italy, he persuaded
-the Directory to send him with an army to Egypt to try to gain
-the East, and drive the English out of India. He landed in
-Egypt, and near Grand Cairo gained the battle of the Pyramids,
-and tried to recommend himself to the people of Egypt
-by showing great admiration for Mahomet and the Koran. But
-his ships, which he had left on the coast, were attacked by the
-English fleet, under Sir Horatio Nelson, and every one of them
-taken or sunk except two, which carried the tidings home.
-This was the battle of the Nile.</p>
-
-<p>The Sultan of Turkey, to whom Egypt belonged, fitted out
-an army against the French, and Bonaparte marched to meet
-it half way in the Holy Land. There he took Jaffa, cruelly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
-massacred the Turkish garrison, and beat the Sultan’s army at
-Tabor: but Acre was so bravely and well defended, under the
-management of a brave English sailor, Sir Sidney Smith, that
-he was obliged to turn back without taking it. He led his
-troops back, suffering sadly from hunger and sickness, to
-Egypt, and there defeated another Turkish army in the battle
-of Aboukir. However, he there heard news from home which
-showed him that he was needed. The French had, indeed,
-gone on to stir up a revolution both in Rome and Naples.
-The pope was a prisoner in France, and the king of Naples
-had fled to Sicily; but the Russians had come to the help of
-the other nations, and the French had nearly been driven out
-of Lombardy. Beside, the Directory was not able to keep
-the unruly people in order; and Napoleon felt himself so much
-wanted, that, finding there were two ships in the port, he embarked
-in one of them and came home, leaving his Egyptian
-army to shift for themselves.</p>
-
-<p>However, he was received at home like a conqueror; and the
-people of France were so proud of him, that he soon persuaded
-them to change the Directory for a government of three consuls,
-of whom he was the first. He lived in the Tuileries, and
-began to keep something very like the old court; and his wife,
-Josephine, was a beautiful, graceful, kind lady, whom every
-one loved, and who helped very much in gaining people over
-to his cause. Indeed, he gave the French rest at home, and
-victories abroad, and that was all they desired. He won back
-all that had been lost in Italy; and the battle of Marengo, on
-the 14th of June, 1800, when the Austrians were totally routed,
-was a splendid victory. Austria made peace again, and nobody
-was at war with France but England, which conquered everywhere
-by sea, as France did by land. The last remnant of
-the French army in Egypt was beaten in Alexandria, and
-obliged to let the English ships transport them to France; and
-after this there was a short peace called the peace of Amiens,
-but it did not last long; and as soon as Bonaparte had decided
-on war, he pounced without notice on every English traveler
-in his dominions, and kept them prisoners till the end of the
-war.</p>
-
-<p>He had made up his mind to be Emperor of the French, and
-before declaring this, he wanted to alarm the old royalists; so
-he sent a party to seize the Duke d’Enghien (heir of the princes
-of Condé), who was living at Baden, and conduct him to Vincennes,
-where, at midnight, he was tried by a sham court-martial,
-and at six in the morning brought down to the courtyard,
-and shot, beside his own grave.</p>
-
-<p>After this every one was afraid to utter a whisper against
-Bonaparte becoming emperor, and on the second of December,
-1804, he was crowned in Notre Dame, with great splendor.
-The pope was present, but Bonaparte placed the crown on his
-own head—a golden wreath of laurel leaves; and he gave his
-soldiers eagle standards, in memory of the old Roman Empire.
-He drew up an excellent code of laws, which have been used
-ever since in France, and are known by his name; and his
-wonderful talent did much to bring the shattered nation into
-order. Still, England would not acknowledge his unlawful
-power, and his hatred to her was very great. He had an army
-ready to invade England, but the English fleet never allowed
-him to cross the Channel; and his fleet was entirely destroyed
-by Lord Nelson, at the great battle of Trafalgar, on the 21st of
-October, 1805.</p>
-
-<p>But Napoleon was winning another splendid victory at Ulm,
-over the Austrians; and not long after, he beat the Prussians
-as entirely at Jena, and had all Germany at his feet. He was
-exceedingly harsh and savage to the good and gentle queen
-Louisa, when she came with her husband to try to make better
-terms for her country, thus sowing seeds of bitter resentment,
-which were to bear fruit long after. The Russians advanced to
-the aid of Germany, but the battles of Eylau and Friedland
-made them also anxious for peace. There never, indeed, was
-a much abler man than Napoleon; but he had no honor, honesty
-or generosity, and had very little heart amid all his seeming
-greatness. He made his family kings of conquered countries.
-His brother Louis was King of Holland; Jerome, of Westphalia,
-and the eldest brother, Joseph, King of Naples; but in
-1808, he contrived to cheat the King of Spain of his crown, and
-keep him and his son prisoners in France, while Joseph was
-sent to reign in Spain, and General Murat, the husband of his
-sister Caroline, was made King of Naples. The Portuguese
-royal family were obliged to flee away to Brazil; but the Spaniards
-and Portuguese would not submit to the French yoke, and
-called the English to help them. So year after year the Duke
-of Wellington was beating Napoleon’s generals, and wearing
-away his strength; but he still went on with his German wars,
-and in 1809, after two terrible battles at Aspern and Wagram,
-entered Vienna itself. Again there was a peace; and Napoleon,
-who was grieved to have no child to leave his empire to,
-had the wickedness and cruelty to decide on setting aside his
-good, loving Josephine, and making the Emperor Francis, of
-Austria, give him his young daughter, Marie Louise. In
-1810, the deed was done; and it was said that from that time
-all his good fortune left him, though he had one little son born
-to him, whom he called King of Rome.</p>
-
-<p>He set out with what he named the Grand Army, to conquer
-Russia; and after winning the battle of Borodino, he entered
-Moscow; but no sooner was he there than the whole town was
-on fire, and it burnt on, so that it was not possible to stay there.
-Winter was just coming on, the Russian army was watching
-everywhere, and he could only retreat; and the unhappy Grand
-Army, struggling in the snow, with nothing to eat, and beset
-by the enemy everywhere, suffered the most frightful misery.
-Napoleon left it in the midst, and hurried home; but no sooner
-had this blow been given him, than the Germans—the Prussians
-especially, to whom he had been so harsh—rose up and
-banded together against him. France was worn out with the
-long wars; and though Napoleon still showed wonderful skill,
-especially at the battle of Leipsic, he was driven back, inch by
-inch, as it were, across Germany, and into France, by the
-Emperors of Austria and Russia and King of Prussia; for
-though each battle of his was a victory, force of numbers was
-too much for him. He went to the palace of Fontainebleau,
-and tried to give up his crown to his little son, but the Allies
-would not accept this; and at last, in the spring of 1814, he was
-forced to yield entirely, and put himself into the hands of the
-English, Prussian, Russian, and Austrian sovereigns. They
-decided on sending him to a little isle called Elba, in the Mediterranean
-Sea, where he was still to be treated as a prince. His
-deserted wife, Josephine, loved him so much that she died of
-grief for his fall; but Marie Louise returned to her father, and
-did nothing to help him.—<i>Yonge.</i></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="COMMERCIAL_LAW">COMMERCIAL LAW.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By EDWARD C. REYNOLDS, ESQ.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>III.—AGENCY.</h3>
-
-<p>Agency is one of the most common relations of individual
-to individual. It is a delegation of power that few can avoid,
-in a greater or less degree of importance. The wife who purchases
-goods for household purposes in her husband’s name,
-is acting purely as his agent; and the clerk who sells the articles
-to her acts, in the transaction, as agent for the merchant
-in whose employment he is.</p>
-
-<p>The legal maxim, <i>Qui facit per alium, facit per se</i>, which
-we will make read here, “What one does by another he does
-himself,” is the essential idea of agency; that is, it places on
-sure foundation the question of responsibility, at least, as to
-where it belongs. This is the whole doctrine so far as responsibility
-or liability is concerned.</p>
-
-<p>That it is particularly necessary in business life to have this
-delegation of power, and this centralization of responsibility,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
-needs no explanation. The publisher of this magazine could
-be a publisher only in imagination without it, for he would have
-no influence in his own sanctum, except with himself; and we
-should feel no security in dealing with a company with no
-recognized and responsible manager.</p>
-
-<p>We have to deal with a fixed fact. Agency exists. The
-owners of magnificent stores, the stockholders in the railroad
-and steamship lines are all indebted to an army of agents
-whose active brains and eager efforts keep cars and steamers
-in motion, purchase and sell goods, and keep the accounts of
-the business world in proper balance.</p>
-
-<p>How is an agency established? Our readers probably could
-answer this question in part; try it and see if we are not
-right.</p>
-
-<p>We must answer by remarking that it depends somewhat
-upon what is wanted of an agent. Thus, if one be possessed
-of real estate, situated in some distant place, and is desirous of
-making a sale, and of selecting and commissioning some one
-to represent him in such a transfer of property, the appointment
-would be by a power of attorney, executed as described
-in our later article on real estate, “to which reference is hereby
-made.”</p>
-
-<p>To represent another in ordinary business transactions one
-may act by virtue of a written or verbal agreement. Thus, if
-A places goods in B’s hands for the purpose of selling through
-B, this will be sufficient to constitute an agency, and for the
-purposes of this business B is A’s agent, and all would be protected
-in dealing with him in such capacity. A bookkeeper
-in the counting room of his employer is fairly presumed to have
-authority to receipt bills, to pay bills, render accounts, and in
-some cases to make purchases, particularly if such part by him
-done has been sanctioned by the merchant in the past. But
-he has no authority to sign his employer’s name to notes, bills
-or checks unless specially authorized.</p>
-
-<p>A minor, though not capable of being a party to a contract
-himself, may do so for an employer, and thus be an agent, and
-his principal is responsible for his acts in such capacity, unless
-they be <i>tortious</i>, or wrongs in themselves. There would obviously
-be no security for innocent parties in fixing upon any
-other solution of the question of liability, because if A permits
-B, though a minor, to act for him and thereby takes advantage
-of his services in that capacity when they are favorable to his
-interests, it would be inequitable for him to shift the responsibility
-when it becomes onerous.</p>
-
-<p>While the principal is responsible for the acts of his agent,
-when not beyond the authority given, it is the duty of the agent
-to obey the instructions of his principal. This he is always to
-do unless some unforeseen situation presents itself, which requires
-the exercise of a discretionary power and immediate
-action. And then, an agent would be justified in acting contrary
-to instructions, or without instructions only when reasonable
-foresight and experience would approve of the course pursued
-by him. This for legitimate pursuits, our readers always
-remembering that an agent is not justified in doing an illegal
-or immoral act, and that, even though specially instructed so to
-do. The agency must be apparent and known to exist, that
-third parties may know themselves to be dealing with one in
-such capacity, and that agents may not be made to assume
-responsibilities which do not belong to them. This may be
-accomplished by advertising in and transacting all business in
-the principal’s name; or where the name of the principal is
-not necessarily made use of in the course of the business, the
-fact of the agent’s business employment being known as such
-would doubtless be sufficient.</p>
-
-<p>A clerk having occasion, in the course of business, to sign
-his employer’s name to letters, in receipting bills and such
-routine business, does it in this manner:</p>
-
-<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">E. E. Emmons</span>,<br />
-<i>Per S.</i></p>
-
-<p>Where special authority is given to sign checks, notes and
-accept bills in his principal’s or employer’s name, the agent
-will add his own name, with the word “Attorney.”</p>
-
-<p>It must be remembered that an agency, so far as an agency
-transaction is concerned, must stand by itself, and not be associated
-with agent’s private business; that principal’s and
-agent’s property should be kept entirely distinct.</p>
-
-<p>A commission merchant, although an agent so far as his
-dealings with his principal or consignor, is not such in relation
-to other parties, since he does business in his own name, and is
-recognized as a merchant and not an agent, although his business
-may be largely a commission business. He is bound to
-obey instructions of his principal or consignor, whom he
-charges a percentage for the handling of the goods consigned,
-incidental expenses, and, in cases where he assumes the indebtedness
-resulting from the sales, an extra commission.</p>
-
-<p>Since mention has been made of commission merchants, we
-must individualize once more, and mention brokers. A broker
-simply effects a sale or purchase, as of merchandise or stocks.
-Unlike commission merchants they neither have, for the purpose
-of effecting the one, nor acquire by the accomplishment of
-the other, absolute possession of the chattels bought or sold.</p>
-
-<p>In whatever capacity as special agent for another, one is
-acting, he is ever bound to keep and render proper account of
-the business entrusted to his care; to keep his principal properly
-informed regarding it; to use due diligence in business;
-to treat the property of his principal with same care and handle
-with same prudence, as a man of ordinary carefulness and
-forethought would his own. All this means only, that he
-should act with ordinary skill, and should render to his principal
-fair and honest service.</p>
-
-<p>What terminates the agency? Death or insanity of either
-party; completion of work undertaken; expiration of time
-agreed upon; by express declaration of either party at pleasure,
-the other having due notification, and by such action acquiring
-a valid claim for whatever damages result on account
-thereof.</p>
-
-<h4>Partnership.</h4>
-
-<p>It is of constant occurrence that persons deem it advisable
-to unite themselves together for the prosecution of some general
-or particular business, paying their respects, by such act,
-to the old saw, “In union there is strength.” They agree by
-such an association to undertake the business, which induced
-them to unite their efforts with the hope of attaining to better
-results. The partners may or may not equally participate in
-the activities of the business to be undertaken, and may or
-may not stand on equal footing so far as relates to the sharing
-of the gains and losses. All of this is governed by their agreements
-at the outset, and its subsequent mutually agreed upon
-changes.</p>
-
-<p>Like other species of contracts, the conditions of partnerships
-may be agreed upon verbally, may be in writing, and may result
-by implication. Of the three, which? Regarding this and
-all other engagements, establish a rule to which adhere rigidly.
-The rule: Have a thorough understanding with all parties with
-whom you contract; reduce it to writing, and have all interested
-parties sign. In this way the difficulties of misunderstandings
-and convenient forgetfulness will be less troublesome.
-It is worth all it costs to bear this precaution in mind.</p>
-
-<p>Partners assume different relations and responsibilities as
-regards the partnership and the business world. There are the
-ostensible partners who boldly advertise themselves as such,
-and as such assuming the hazards incident to commercial enterprises;
-then the nominal partner who seeks to help a partnership
-by lending it his name, and thereby holding himself
-out as a member of it and making himself liable to creditors
-for partnership debts, providing credit was given, because of
-his supposed connection with the firm, as a regular partner;
-secret partners, who keep their names from the public, seeking
-by this means to avoid liability, but at same time sharing with
-the other partners the profits arising from the business. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
-such partnership becomes known to creditors, they may enforce
-collection of claims due from the partnership, as against the
-property of the secret partner; and the special partner, recognized
-by the laws of some of the states, which limit his liability
-to the amount of his investment, on condition that he gives
-public notice of such partnership agreement in a manner prescribed.</p>
-
-<p>The partnership is organized, the partners assuming such
-relation to the partnership as they mutually agree upon, bearing
-in mind the above description of liabilities.</p>
-
-<p>The element agency becomes quite conspicuous here, for
-each partner is an agent of the partnership and invested with
-plenary power to bind the other partners by his acts, when
-within the business sphere of the firm. It will be observed
-that we say in the line of the copartnership business, because
-otherwise it would not be sanctioned. As an illustration: A member
-of a partnership engaged in the flour trade would not have
-authority to bind his partners, if he attempted to involve them
-in stock speculations, unless previous similar enterprises by
-him had been approved by them, in which case there might be
-a fair presumption that such authority existed. This leads us
-to the question of liability; and liable they are, each and every
-partner, unless by virtue of exception previously mentioned,
-exempted. Their individual property, in the event of there
-being insufficient partnership assets to liquidate the indebtedness
-of the firm, must respond to the creditors’ call.</p>
-
-<p>Now, since the acts of a partner may result in a manner disastrous
-to all associated with him, it is his duty to act with all
-fidelity and perfect good faith; to give his attention carefully
-to the business, acting as his best judgment may advise for the
-benefit of all. While, however, a breach of these obligations
-creates a liability for such misfeasance or wrong act as a
-partner may be guilty of, it does in no way affect outside parties,
-unless cognizant of and participating in same.</p>
-
-<p>Gains and losses how shared? The object of our partnership
-is the hope of gain; its effect may be the realization of loss.</p>
-
-<p>This question of division ought to be solved by reference to
-the articles of agreement, which should have expressed the
-whole partnership contract, and have been signed by all the
-partners. This not done? Well then, we say, all should share
-in equal proportions the gains or losses, first making unequal
-investments equal by an allowance of interest on net investments,
-and equalizing individual ability and experience by allowing
-each partner that salary to which, measuring his services
-by comparison with those rendered by other partners, he
-seems to be fairly entitled. Where capital and skill are equal,
-an equal sharing in the gains or losses is equitable.</p>
-
-<h4>Dissolution.</h4>
-
-<p>The following conditions serve to dissolve a partnership:</p>
-
-<p>The expiration of the time for which the partnership was
-organized; ordinarily the completion of the business for the
-purpose of accomplishing which the partnership was formed;</p>
-
-<p>The misfeasance of a partner; whenever a partner fails to
-act in harmony with his associates, or disposes of his interest
-in the partnership affairs;</p>
-
-<p>By the death of any one of the partners;</p>
-
-<p>By decree of the court ordering the same;</p>
-
-<p>By the consent of all the partners at any time.</p>
-
-<p>After the dissolution, a partner acts no longer for his former
-copartners to the extent of entering into or incurring new obligations.
-Each partner however has full power to collect
-debts due the firm, signing the firm name to receipts, and also
-to liquidate outstanding obligations of the firm, unless by special
-agreement these powers are conferred on one partner
-alone. This is an arrangement which affects the partners only,
-third persons being protected in a settlement with any member
-of a late partnership dissolved.</p>
-
-<p>After the business is wholly settled, all liabilities being paid,
-and not till then, is a partner entitled to his share of the partnership
-funds.</p>
-
-<p>Notice of the dissolution of a partnership should be publicly
-given, it being necessary in the case of one or more retiring
-from the firm, in order to secure them from future liability.
-Individually this notice is given by mail to all with whom the
-firm has been dealing. This, in addition to ordinary publication
-of notice in newspaper, is sufficient.</p>
-
-<h4>SALES—Personal Property.</h4>
-
-<p>A sale is the transfer of certain property from one to another
-for a certain sum paid or to be paid, those being parties to it, to
-make it valid, who are competent to enter into a contract.</p>
-
-<p>A sale effected entitles the purchaser to possession of the
-goods on payment of price agreed upon; or, if purchaser be
-given credit, at once, unless there be some special agreement
-to the contrary.</p>
-
-<p>In the case of goods shipped to a purchaser who becomes
-insolvent before they have been delivered, the vendor may order
-the carrier to hold them subject to his (vendor’s) order,
-thereby exercising a privilege given him by law, and called the
-right of stoppage <i>in transitu</i>.</p>
-
-<p>All sales are not made with an actual knowledge on the part
-of the vendee of the quality of his purchase, some being by
-sample. Sales in this manner give credence to the inference
-that the samples constitute a part of the goods sold, and therefore
-the goods must be of same quality as the samples, else the
-vendor does not comply with the conditions of the contract to
-which he is a party, and the purchaser may refuse to complete
-the sale by acceptance of the goods.</p>
-
-<p>The quality of goods sold must be as represented by the
-vendor, if he warrants them by such representation, in order
-to secure a sale. In sales each one is supposed to be on his
-guard. “Let the purchaser beware,” is the maxim. And if,
-without actual fraud, concealment or misrepresentation on the
-part of the vendor, the vendee is deceived in a purchase because
-of poor judgment, he alone must suffer the consequences
-and take the loss. A warranty of an article puts the vendor
-under the necessity of making compensation to vendee, if the
-article is defective wherein warranted.</p>
-
-<p>A purchase of stolen property gives to the purchaser no title
-as against the true owner, or the one from whom the property
-was stolen, even though the purchase be made in good faith,
-and for a full consideration. “Let the purchaser beware.”</p>
-
-<p>There is but one species of personal property to which this
-will not apply, and that negotiable commercial paper.</p>
-
-<p>Some contracts regarding sales must be in writing, and
-signed by the party to be charged, or his agent. What are
-they? See article on contracts.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="READINGS_IN_ART">READINGS IN ART.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>I.—ITALIAN PAINTERS AND PAINTINGS.</h3>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">The present paper has been abridged from “Italian Paintings,” by Edward J.
-Poynter, R. A., and Percy R. Head.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Italian painting is divided into a number of schools, each of
-which has some illustrious artist as its founder, and a train of
-skillful and exact workmen following his methods. To study
-the style and methods of the master is to study the school.
-The most famous of these artists have been selected to represent
-the Art of Italy, the first of whom, the father of Italian
-painting, is</p>
-
-<h4>GIOTTO.</h4>
-
-<p>Giotto was born near Florence, in 1266. Employed as a boy
-in watching sheep, he is said to have been one day discovered
-by the artist Cimabue, as he was sketching one of his flock
-upon a stone. The painter, surprised at the promise shown by
-the boy, who was not more than ten years old, took him to
-Florence, and made him his pupil. Giotto’s earliest works
-were executed at Florence, and at the age of thirty he had already
-attained such fame that he was invited to Rome by Pope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>
-Boniface VIII., to take part in the decoration of the ancient
-Basilica of Saint Peter. The <i>Navicella</i> mosaic which he there
-executed, representing the Disciples in the Storm, is preserved
-in the vestibule of the present Saint Peter’s. The famous story
-of “Giotto’s O” belongs to this episode in his career. When
-the envoy sent by the pope to engage his services begged for
-some drawing or design which might be shown to his holiness
-in proof of the artist’s talent, Giotto, taking an ordinary brush
-full of color, and steadying his arm against his side, described
-a perfect circle on an upright panel with a sweep of the wrist,
-and offered this manual feat as sufficient evidence of his powers.
-The story shows the importance attached by a great artist
-to mere precision in workmanship, and teaches the useful
-lesson that genius, unsupported by the skill only to be acquired
-by discipline and labor, is wanting in the first condition
-which makes great achievements possible. This visit to Rome
-took place about 1298; soon afterward we find Giotto engaged
-on his frescoes in the church of Saint Francis at Assisi, a series
-of allegorical designs illustrating the saint’s spiritual life and
-character. In 1306 he was working at the fine series of frescoes
-in the Arena Chapel at Padua, which represent thirty-eight
-scenes from the lives of the Virgin and of Christ. We
-here see Giotto in the fulness of his powers; the incidents are
-treated with a charming simplicity and sentiment for nature,
-and he rises to great solemnity of style in the more important
-scenes. Important works by Giotto are found in many other
-places beside those mentioned above, including especially
-Naples, Ravenna, Milan, Pisa and Lucca. Perhaps the finest
-are those which have been discovered of late years in the
-Church of Santa Croce at Florence under coats of whitewash
-which happily had preserved them almost intact; the “Last
-Supper,” in the refectory of the convent attached to the church,
-is in remarkable preservation, and is a magnificent example of
-the style of the time. The twenty-six panels which he painted
-for the presses in the sacristry of the same church are good
-illustrations of his method of treatment; natural and dignified
-with the interest concentrated on the figures; the background
-and accessories being treated in the simplest possible manner,
-and hardly more than symbols expressing the locality in which
-the scene is enacted. Giotto was the first of the moderns who
-attempted portrait-painting with any success, and some most
-interesting monuments of his skill in that branch of art have
-been preserved to us. In 1840, discovery was made, in the
-chapel of the Podestà’s palace at Florence, of some paintings
-by Giotto, containing a number of portraits, among them one
-of his friend, the poet Dante; the portraits being introduced,
-as was usual among the early painters, and indeed frequent at
-all periods, as subordinate actors in the scene represented.
-Giotto was not only a painter; as a sculptor and architect he was
-also distinguished. Giotto died at Florence in January, 1337,
-and was buried with public solemnities in the cathedral. His
-style, though marked by the hardness and quaintness of a
-time when chiaro-scuro and perspective were very imperfectly
-understood, displays the originality of his genius in its thoughtful
-and vigorous design, and shows how resolutely the artist
-relied, not on traditions, but on keen and patient observation
-of nature.</p>
-
-<h4>FRA ANGELICO.</h4>
-
-<p>The earliest of the great fifteenth-century painters belongs
-in the character of his works rather to the preceding century.
-The monk Guido di Pietro of Fiesole, commonly called Fra
-Angelico from the holiness and purity which were as conspicuous
-in his life as in his works, was born in 1387 at Vicchio,
-in the province of Mugello. At the age of twenty he entered
-the order of the Predicants at Fiesole, and took the name of
-Giovanni, by which he was afterward known. His first art
-work was the illumination of manuscripts. Quitting the monastery
-in 1409, he practiced as a fresco-painter in various places
-until 1418, when he returned to Fiesole, and continued to reside
-there for the next eighteen years. In 1436 he again quitted
-his retreat, to paint a series of frescoes on the history of the
-Passion for the convent of San Marco in Florence. This work
-occupied nine years, and on its completion Angelico was invited
-to Rome. The chief work which he undertook there was
-the decoration of a chapel in the Vatican for Pope Nicholas
-V. In 1447 he went to Orvieto to undertake a similar task, but
-returned in the same year, having done only three compartments
-of the ceiling, and leaving the rest to be afterward completed
-by Luca Signorelli. He then continued to reside in
-Rome, where he died and was buried in 1455. The most striking
-characteristics of Angelico’s art spring from the temper of
-religious fervor with which he practiced it. He worked without
-payment; he prayed before beginning any work for the
-Divine guidance in its conception; and believing himself to
-be so assisted, he regarded each picture as a revelation, and
-could never be persuaded to alter any part of it. His works
-on panel are very numerous, and are to be found in many
-public and private galleries; of the finest of these are, a “Last
-Judgment,” belonging to the Earl of Dudley, and the “Coronation
-of the Virgin” in the gallery of the Louvre. After his death
-he was “beatified” by the church he had served so devotedly—a
-solemnity which ranks next to canonization; and Il Beato
-Angelico is the name by which Fra Giovanni was and is most
-fondly and reverently remembered. His style survived only
-in one pupil who assisted him at Orvieto.</p>
-
-<h4>LEONARDO DA VINCI.</h4>
-
-<p>Leonardo da Vinci belonged to the Florentine school, the
-fifteenth century, of which he was the first great example.
-Leonardo was the son of a notary of Vinci, near Florence,
-and was born at that place in the year 1452. He became the
-pupil of Andrea Verrocchio, the Florentine sculptor and
-painter, and progressed so rapidly that he soon surpassed his
-master, who is said to have thereupon given up painting in despair.
-Leonardo’s studies at this time ranged over the whole
-field of science and art; beside being a painter and a sculptor,
-he was a practiced architect, engineer, and mechanician; profoundly
-versed in mathematics and the physical sciences; and
-an accomplished poet and musician. The famous letter in
-which he applied to the Duke of Milan for employment, enumerates
-only a few of his acquirements; he represents himself
-as skilled in military and naval engineering, offensive and
-defensive, and the construction of artillery, and as possessing
-secrets in these matters hitherto unknown; he can make designs
-for buildings, and undertake any work in sculpture, in
-marble, in bronze, or in terra-cotta; and “in painting,” he
-says, “I can do what can be done as well as any man, be he
-who he may.” He concludes by offering to submit his own
-account of himself to the test of experiment, at his excellency’s
-pleasure. He entered the Duke’s service about the year 1482,
-receiving a yearly salary of 500 scudi. Under his auspices an
-academy of arts was established in Milan in 1485, and he drew
-round him a numerous school of painters. Of the many works
-executed by Leonardo during his residence at Milan, the
-greatest was the world renowned picture of the “Last Supper,”
-painted in oil upon the wall of the refectory of the convent of
-Santa Maria delle Grazie. Whether it was the fault of the wall
-or the medium used by the painter, the great picture rapidly
-faded, and by the end of fifty years had virtually perished. It
-is still shown, but decay and restoration have left little of the
-original work of Leonardo. The best idea of it is to be got
-from the old copies, taken while the picture was yet perfect;
-of these the most valuable is the one executed in 1510 by
-Marco d’Oggione, now in the possession of the Royal Academy
-of London. His other important achievement, while at
-Milan, was a work of sculpture, which unfortunately perished
-within a few years of its completion. It seems to have occupied
-him at intervals for eleven years, for the completed model
-was first exhibited to the public in 1493. All that we now
-know of it is from the numerous sketches in the Royal Collection
-at Windsor. The model was still in existence in 1501,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>
-after which nothing more is recorded of it. He also at this
-time made a model for the cupola of Milan Cathedral, which
-was never carried out. In 1499 Leonardo left Milan and returned
-to Florence. He received a commission in 1503 to
-paint the wall at one end of the Council Hall of the Palazzo
-Vecchio, the decoration of the other end being at the same
-time entrusted to Michelangelo. Leonardo’s picture was never
-completed, and Michelangelo’s apparently never begun; but
-the cartoons for their two compositions, known respectively as
-the “Battle of the Standard” and the “Cartoon of Pisa,” excited
-the greatest admiration, and were termed by Benvenuto Cellini
-“the school of the world;” both have been lost or destroyed;
-all that we know of Leonardo’s composition is gained from a
-drawing of it by Rubens in black and red chalk in the gallery
-of the Louvre, to which, though spirited enough, he contrived
-to impart the coarse Flemish character with which all his work
-is disfigured. In 1514 Leonardo visited Rome, and was to
-have executed some work in the Vatican, had not an affront
-put upon him by the pope given him offence and caused him
-to leave Rome. He went to the King of France, Francis I.,
-who was then at Pavia, took service with him, and accompanied
-him to France, in the early part of 1516. He was, however,
-weakened by age and in bad health, and did little or no
-new work in France. In a little more than three years’ time,
-in May 1519, he died, at Cloux, near Amboise, at the age of
-sixty-seven.</p>
-
-<p>Those pictures of Leonardo, which we may regard with confidence
-as the work of his own hand, fully justify the exceptional
-admiration with which he has always been regarded.
-He was excessively fastidious in his work, “his soul being full
-of the sublimity of art,” and spent years over the execution of
-some of his works. The painting of the portrait of Madonna
-Lisa is said to have extended over four years, and to have
-been then left incomplete. His mind also was at times equally
-bent on scientific matters, and for long periods he was entirely
-absorbed in the study of mathematics. For these reasons he
-produced but few pictures; if, however, he had left none, his
-drawings, which fortunately exist in large numbers, would suffice
-to account for the enthusiasm which his work has always
-excited. It is certain that we do not see his pictures in the
-state in which they left his easel; from some causes, unnecessary
-to discuss, they have blackened in the shadows, and the
-colors have faded. Vasari praises beyond measure the carnations
-of the Mona Lisa, which, he says, “do not appear to be
-painted, but truly flesh and blood;” but no trace of these delicate
-tints now remains.</p>
-
-<p>Leonardo was the author of many treatises, some of which
-only have been published. The most celebrated is the “Trattato
-della Pittura,” still a book of high authority among writings
-on art.</p>
-
-<h4>MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI</h4>
-
-<p>Was born at Castel Caprese, near Arezzo, in 1475. In 1488 he
-entered the school of Ghirlandaio, the master giving a small
-payment for the boy’s services. His precocious abilities soon
-attracted the notice of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and until the death
-of that prince in 1492, Michelangelo worked under his especial
-patronage. His earliest drawings show a spontaneous power
-which made Fuseli say that “as an artist he had no infancy;”
-but for many years he confined himself almost entirely to
-sculpture; and some of his greatest achievements in that kind
-of art were executed before he undertook his first considerable
-work with the pencil. This was the “Cartoon of Pisa,” finished
-in 1505, and intended as a design for a mural picture to face
-that of Leonardo in the Council Hall at Florence. This cartoon
-is lost, but a copy in monochrome, containing probably
-the whole of the composition, exists in England. During its
-progress he had broken off to visit Rome, and execute some
-sculptural work for the pope; and in 1508 he went to Rome
-again to begin the great achievement of his life, the frescoes
-of the Sistine Chapel. The paintings of the ceiling illustrate
-the Creation and the Fall of Man, together with other scenes
-and figures typical of the Redemption. The middle part of the
-ceiling is divided into nine compartments, containing the
-“Creation of Eve” (placed in the center, as symbolizing the
-woman of whom the Messiah was born), the “Creation of
-Adam,” the “Temptation, Fall and Expulsion” in one composition,
-the “Separation of Light from Darkness,” the “Gathering
-of the Waters,” the “Creation of the Sun and Moon,” the
-“Deluge,” the “Thanksgiving of Noah,” and the “Drunkenness
-of Noah.” At the corners of the ceiling are four designs of
-the great deliverances of the children of Israel, the Brazen
-Serpent, David and Goliath, Judith with the head of Holofernes,
-and the punishment of Haman. There are six windows
-on each side of the chapel; the lunettes which surround them,
-and the spaces above them, are occupied by groups of the
-ancestors of Christ. Between the windows, at the springing of
-the vault, are colossal seated figures of the Prophets and
-Sibyls who foretold the coming of the Savior. They are arranged
-alternately as follows:—Jeremiah, Persian Sibyl, Ezekiel,
-Erythræan Sibyl, Joel, Delphic Sibyl, Isaiah, Cumæan
-Sibyl, Daniel, Libyan Sibyl; Jonah and Zachariah are placed
-one at each end of the chapel, between the historical compositions
-at the angles of the ceiling. These single figures are the
-most striking features of the design, and calculated skilfully to
-help the architectural effect. The side walls of the chapel,
-below the springing of the vault, had already been decorated
-with frescoes executed by Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli,
-Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, and Perugino. Michelangelo’s
-frescoes were finished toward the end of the year 1512. Vasari’s
-statement that he painted them all in twenty months without
-any assistance is undoubtedly exaggerated; it possibly refers
-to the completion of the first half of the ceiling.</p>
-
-<p>For the next twenty years Michelangelo did little or nothing
-in painting; but in 1533, at the age of fifty-nine, he began
-the cartoons for the fresco of the “Last Judgment” on the wall
-behind the altar in the Sistine Chapel. This celebrated composition
-is entirely of nude figures, no accessories being introduced
-to add to the terror of the scene. Each figure throughout
-this vast composition has its appropriate meaning, and the
-power of design and mastery of execution are unsurpassed and
-unsurpassable. The picture was finished in 1541. Two frescoes
-in the neighboring Pauline Chapel, the “Conversion of
-Saint Paul,” and the “Crucifixion of Saint Peter,” which were
-finished in 1549, were his last paintings. He had accepted, in
-1547, the position of architect of Saint Peter’s, stipulating that
-his services should be gratuitous. He continued to carry the
-building forward, altering materially the original design of
-Bramante, until his death, which took place in February, 1564.
-His body was taken to Florence, and buried in Santa Croce.</p>
-
-<p>Although the genius of Michelangelo has exercised a vast
-and widely diffused influence over all subsequent art, yet this
-master, unlike Raphael, formed no school of his own immediate
-followers. It must be admitted that Raphael owes him
-much, for he never found his full strength until he had seen
-Michelangelo’s works at Rome, when his style underwent immediate
-improvement. None of those who worked under
-Michelangelo dared to walk directly in his steps; there is in
-his style, as there was in the character of the man himself, a
-certain stern individuality which gives the impression of solitary
-and unapproachable greatness. Of his assistants, the
-most eminent was Sebastiano del Piombo.</p>
-
-<h4>RAFFAELLO SANZIO,</h4>
-
-<p>Always called Raphael, was born at Urbino in 1483. His father
-died when he was eleven years old, and the boy was placed by
-his uncles, who became his guardians, with Perugino. His
-handiwork at this time is no doubt to be traced in many of
-Perugino’s pictures and frescoes; and, as may be seen, he
-was an important coadjutor with Pinturicchio at Siena. The
-earliest picture known to be painted entirely by himself is
-a “Crucifixion,” in the collection of Lord Dudley, done at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>
-age of seventeen, which closely resembles the style of Perugino.
-In 1504 he first visited Florence, where he enjoyed the friendship
-of Francia and Fra Bartholommeo, and made acquaintance
-with the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo—new influences
-which considerably affected his style. With the exception of
-short visits to Perugia, Bologna, and Urbino, he was resident
-in Florence until 1508. In that year he went to Rome at the
-invitation of Pope Julius II., and was for the rest of his life continually
-in the employment of that pontiff and his successor,
-Leo X. Raphael died on his birthday, the 6th of April, 1520,
-aged exactly thirty-seven years.</p>
-
-<p>Raphael’s manner as a painter is divided into three styles,
-corresponding with the broad divisions of his life’s history.
-Unlike Michelangelo, whose genius and individuality is
-stamped on the earliest works from his hand, Raphael gained,
-as his experience of what had been done by his contemporaries
-was enlarged, a deeper and further insight into his own
-powers. His first, or Peruginesque style, characterizes those
-works which he produced while still the companion of his master,
-before his first visit to Florence; of these pictures the most
-important are the “Sposalizio” (or “Marriage of the Virgin,”)
-at Milan, and the “Coronation of the Virgin,” in the Vatican.
-His second, or Florentine, style covers the four years from his
-arrival in Florence in 1504, to his departure for Rome in 1508;
-here the manner of Fra Bartholommeo had great influence upon
-him; to this period belong the “Madonna del Cardellino”
-(“of the Goldfinch,”) in the Uffizi, “La Belle Jardinière,” of
-the Louvre, the “Madonna del Baldacchino,” in the Pitti
-(which was left incomplete by Raphael, and finished by another
-hand), and the “Entombment” in the Borghese Gallery,
-at Rome, his first attempt at a great historical composition. It
-is in his third, or Roman, style that Raphael fully asserts that
-sovereignty in art which has earned him the name of Prince of
-painters, and appears as the head of his own school, which,
-generally called the Roman School, might perhaps, as he collected
-round him followers from all parts of Italy, more fitly be
-termed the Raphaelesque. This third period includes all his
-great frescoes in the Vatican, with a host of easel pictures; for,
-short as Raphael’s life was, his works are wondrously numerous,
-and our space permits mention of only a few of even the
-most celebrated.</p>
-
-<p>It has been questioned whether Raphael’s art gained by
-what he learnt from Michelangelo, some critics affirming that
-his earlier style is his best. This, however, must be considered
-to be entirely a matter of taste. Most painters—unless,
-like Fra Angelico, so entirely absorbed in the mystical side of
-their art as never to change their style—as they gain in power
-of expression, lose something of their youthful emotional fervor;
-and it is possible to assert that in the magnificent design
-of the “Incendio del Borgo” the dramatic element is more in
-evidence than in the “Disputa.” But what is lost on the emotional
-and religious side is compensated for by the gain in
-power of representation; and it is difficult to stand before the
-cartoon of “The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,” and not to
-confess that Giotto himself could not have imparted a more
-implicit trustfulness and childlike belief in the power of the
-Redeemer to the look and gesture of St. Peter; and while the
-magnificent simplicity of the youths drawing the net is conceived
-in an equal spirit of truthfulness to nature, the grandeur
-of style and the knowledge displayed in the drawing is so much
-pure gain on his earlier manner.</p>
-
-<p>The Loggie, or open corridors of the Vatican, were also
-adorned by Raphael’s scholars with a series of fifty-two paintings
-of Biblical subjects from his designs; the whole series was
-known as “Raphael’s Bible.”</p>
-
-<p>In 1515 he was commissioned to design tapestries for the Sistine
-Chapel; of the ten cartoons (distemper paintings on paper)
-for these tapestries three have been lost; the other seven after
-many dangers and vicissitudes came into the possession of
-Charles I. of England. They are perhaps the most remarkable
-art treasures belonging to England, and are at present exhibited,
-by permission of Her Majesty, in the South Kensington
-Museum.</p>
-
-<p>Among the greatest oil pictures of Raphael’s third period
-may be enumerated the “Madonna di Foligno” in the Vatican;
-the “Madonna della Sedia” in the Pitti Palace at Florence;
-the “Saint Cecilia” at Bologna; the “Madonna of the
-Fish,” and the picture of “Christ Bearing His Cross,” known
-as the “Spasimo,” in the splendid collection at Madrid; the
-“Madonna di San Sisto” at Dresden, which obtained for the
-artist the name of “the Divine;” and finally the “Transfiguration”
-at the Vatican, the sublime picture on which his last
-working hours were spent, and which was carried at his funeral
-before its colors were dry.</p>
-
-<h4>TIZIANO VECELLIO,</h4>
-
-<p>Commonly called by the anglicised form of his Christian
-name, Titian, was born at Cadore, near Venice, in 1477. His
-studies in art began at the age of ten, under a painter named
-Zuccato, from whose studio he passed to Gentile Bellini’s, and
-from his again to that of his brother Giovanni. Space forbids
-us to do more than indicate the chief landmarks in Titian’s
-long, eventful, and illustrious life. When his reputation as a
-great artist was new, before he was thirty years old, he visited
-the court of Ferrara, and executed for the duke two of his
-earliest masterpieces, the “Tribute Money,” now at Dresden,
-and the “Bacchus and Ariadne,” in the National Gallery of London.
-In 1516 he painted his great altarpiece, the “Assumption,”
-now removed from its church to the Accademia at Venice, and
-was at once placed by this incomparable work in the highest rank
-of painters. The “Entombment” of the Louvre was painted
-about 1523; and in 1528 he executed another magnificent altarpiece,
-the “Death of St. Peter Martyr,” in the church of SS. Giovanni
-e Paolo, which was destroyed in the fire of 1867. In
-1530 Titian was invited to Bologna, to paint the portrait of the
-Emperor Charles V.; and he is supposed by some writers to
-have accompanied the emperor shortly afterward to Spain.
-Owing to the patronage which Charles V. and his son Philip
-II. liberally conferred on the artist, Madrid possesses a collection
-of his works second in number and importance only to the
-treasures of Venice. The “Presentation in the Temple,” in the
-Accademia at Venice, dates from about 1539, and the “Christ at
-Emmaus,” in the Louvre, from about 1546. In 1545 he painted
-at Rome the celebrated portrait of “Pope Paul III.,” in the Naples
-Museum. Titian continued active in his art even up to
-the time of his death, which occurred in 1576, at the great age
-of ninety-nine. His style, as is to be expected, changed considerably
-in the course of his long life, and the pictures painted
-in his last years, though full of color, are infirm in drawing
-and execution; in the full vigor of his powers he was a
-draughtsman second to none, though never aiming at the select
-beauty of form attained by the Florentine school, and by Raphael.
-It was this that led Michelangelo to say that, with a
-better mode of study, “This man might have been as eminent
-in design as he is true to nature and masterly in counterfeiting
-the life, and then, nothing could be desired better or more perfect;”
-adding, “for he has an exquisite perception, and a delightful
-spirit and manner.”</p>
-
-<p>The splendid artistic power of Titian may perhaps be better
-discerned in his portraits than in the more ambitious works of
-sacred art. He stands unquestionably at the head of portrait
-painters of all ages and of all schools; not even Velasquez
-equaling him at his best. Beside religious pictures and portraits
-he painted a great number of subjects from classical
-mythology. Among the most famous, beside the “Bacchus
-and Ariadne,” mentioned above—the pride of the English
-collection—may be named the “Bacchanals” of Madrid, the two
-of “Venus” in the Uffizi, at Florence, the “Danae,” at Naples,
-and the often repeated “Venus and Adonis,” and “Diana
-and Callisto.” He is seen at his very best in the “Venus” of
-the Tribune, at Florence, perhaps the only work of his which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
-has escaped retouching, and in the exquisite allegory called
-“Sacred and Profane Love,” at the Borghese Palace, at Rome.
-As a landscape painter, he possessed a sentiment for nature in
-all its forms which had never before been seen, and his backgrounds
-have never been equaled since. The mountains in
-the neighborhood of his native town, Cadore, of which, as well
-as of other landscape scenes, numerous pen and ink drawings
-by his hand are in existence, inspired him, doubtless, with that
-solemn treatment of effects of cloud and light and shade and
-blue distance for which his pictures are conspicuous.</p>
-
-<p>It is unnecessary to deal with the school of painting which
-exists in Italy at the present day. It would be paying it too
-high a compliment to regard it as the legitimate successor of
-the art of those great epochs whose course we have tried to
-sketch. The modern Italian school is little more than an echo
-of the modern French. And seeing that there is no principle
-clearer or more certain than this, that a great national school
-of art can flourish only when it springs from a sane and vigorous
-national existence, it is not to be wondered at if a country
-so convulsed by the political passions and so vulgarized by
-the social triviality and meanness of modern times, should be
-in this respect cast down further than her more fortunate neighbors
-by the same causes which have soiled even the best art of
-the nineteenth century with something of dilettantism and
-affectation.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="SUNDAY_READINGS">SUNDAY READINGS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">SELECTED BY THE REV. J. H. VINCENT, D.D.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="APR6">[<i>April 6.</i>]<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION.</span></h3>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
-man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.—I. John, ii:15.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt
-to displace from the human heart its love of the world—either
-by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so that the heart
-will be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an
-object that is not worthy of it, or by setting forth another object,
-even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so as that
-the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection,
-which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old
-affection for a new one. My purpose is to show that from the constitution
-of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent
-and ineffectual, and that the latter method will alone
-suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong
-affection that sometimes domineers over it. After having
-accomplished this purpose, I shall attempt a few practical
-observations.</p>
-
-<p>Love may be regarded in two different conditions. The first
-is when the object is at a distance, and then it becomes love in
-a state of desire. The second is when its object is in possession,
-and then it becomes love in a state of indulgence. Under
-the impulse of desire, man feels himself urged onward in
-some path or pursuit of activity for its gratification. The faculties
-of his mind are put into busy exercise. In the steady
-direction of one great and engrossing interest, his attention is
-recalled from the many reveries into which it might otherwise
-have wandered; and the powers of his body are forced away
-from an indolence in which it else might have languished; and
-that time is crowded with occupation, which but for some
-object of keen and devoted ambition, might have driveled
-along in successive hours of weariness and distaste, and though
-hope does not enliven, and success does not always crown this
-career of exertion, yet in the midst of this very variety, and
-with the alternations of occasional disappointment, is the machinery
-of the whole man kept in a sort of congenial play,
-and upholden in that tone and temper which are most agreeable
-to it. Insomuch, that if through the extirpation of that
-desire which forms the originating principle of all this movement,
-the machinery were to stop, and to receive no impulse
-from another desire substituted in its place, the man would be
-left with all his propensities to action in a state of most painful
-and unnatural abandonment.</p>
-
-<p>A sensitive person suffers, and is in violence, if, after having
-thoroughly rested from his fatigue, or been relieved from his
-pain, he continues in possession of powers without any excitement
-to these powers; if he possess a capacity of desire without
-having an object of desire; or if he have a spare energy
-upon his person, without a counterpart, and without a stimulus
-to call it into operation. The misery of such a condition is
-often realized by him who is retired from business, or who is
-retired from law, or who is even retired from the occupations of
-the chase and of the gaming table. Such is the demand of our
-nature for an object in pursuit, that no accumulation of previous
-success can extinguish it, and thus it is that the most prosperous
-merchant, and the most victorious general, and the most
-fortunate gamester, when the labor of their respective vocations
-has come to a close, are often found to languish in the
-midst of all their acquisitions, as if out of their kindred and
-rejoicing element. It is quite in vain with such a constitutional
-appetite for employment in man, to attempt cutting away from
-him the spring or the principle of one employment, without
-providing him with another. The whole heart and habit will
-rise in resistance against such an undertaking. The else unoccupied
-female, who spends the hours of every evening at
-some play of hazard, knows as well as you, that the pecuniary
-gain, or the honorable triumph of a successful contest, are altogether
-paltry. It is not such a demonstration of vanity as this
-that will force her away from her dear and delightful occupation.
-The habit can not so be displaced as to leave nothing
-but a negative and cheerless vacancy behind it—though it
-may be so supplanted as to be followed up by another habit of
-employment to which the power of some new affection has constrained
-her. It is willingly suspended, for example, on any
-single evening, should the time that was wont to be allotted to
-gaming require to be spent on the preparation of an approaching
-assembly.</p>
-
-<p>The ascendant power of a second affection will do what no
-exposition, however forcible, of the folly and worthlessness of
-the first, ever could effectuate. And it is the same in the great
-world. You never will be able to arrest any of its leading pursuits,
-by a naked demonstration of their vanity. It is quite in vain to
-think of stopping one of these pursuits in any way else, but by
-stimulating to another. In attempting to bring a worldly man,
-intent and busied with the prosecution of his objects, to a dead
-stand, you have not merely to encounter the charm which he
-annexes to these objects, but you have to encounter the
-pleasure which he feels in the very prosecution of them. It is
-not enough, then, that you dissipate the charm by your moral,
-and eloquent, and affecting exposure of its illusiveness. You
-must address to the eye of his mind another object, with a
-charm powerful enough to dispossess the first of its influence,
-and to engage him in some other prosecution as full of interest,
-and hope, and congenial activity, as the former. It is this
-which stamps an impotency on all moral and pathetic declamation
-of the insignificance of the world. A man will no more
-consent to the misery of being without an object, because that
-object is a trifle, or of being without a pursuit, because that
-pursuit terminates in some frivolous or fugitive acquirement,
-than he will voluntarily submit himself to the torture because
-that torture is to be of short duration. If to be without desire
-and without exertion altogether, is a state of violence and discomfort,
-then the present desire, with its correspondent train of
-exertion, is not to be got rid of simply by destroying it. It
-must be by substituting another desire, or another line of habit
-or exertion in its place, and the most effectual way of withdrawing
-the mind from one object, is not by turning it away
-upon desolate and unpeopled vacancy, but by presenting to
-its regards another object still more alluring.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>These remarks apply not merely to love considered in the
-state of desire for an object not yet attained. They apply also
-to love considered in its state of indulgence, or placid gratification,
-with an object already in possession. It is seldom that
-any of our tastes are made to disappear by a process of natural
-extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done by the
-instrumentality of reasoning. It may be done by excessive
-pampering, but it is almost never done by the mere force of
-mental determination. But what can not be thus destroyed
-may be dispossessed, and one taste may be made to give way
-to another, and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection
-of the mind. It is thus that the boy ceases, at length, to
-be the slave of his appetite, but it is because a manlier taste
-has now brought it into subordination, and that the youth
-ceases to idolize pleasure, but it is because the idol of wealth
-has become the stronger, and gotten the ascendency—and that
-even the love of money ceases to have the mastery over the
-heart of many a thriving citizen, but it is because drawn into
-the whirl of city politics, another affection has been wrought
-into his moral system, and he is now lorded over by the love
-of power. There is not one of these transformations in which
-the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one particular
-object may be conquered; but as to its desire for having some
-one object, or other, this is unconquerable. Its adhesion to
-that on which it has fastened the preference of its regards, can
-not willingly be overcome by the rending away of a single separation.
-It can be done only by the application of something
-else, to which it may feel the adhesion of a still stronger and
-more powerful preference. Such is the grasping tendency of
-the human heart, that it must have something to lay hold of—and
-which, if wrested away, without the substitution of another
-something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as
-painful to the mind as hunger is to the natural system. It may
-be dispossessed of one object or of any, but it can not be desolated
-of all. Let there be a breathing and a sensitive heart,
-but without a liking and without affinity to any of the things
-that are around it, and in a state of cheerless abandonment, it
-would be alive to nothing but the burden of its own consciousness,
-and feel it to be intolerable. It would make no difference to its
-owner, whether he dwelt in the midst of a gay and goodly world,
-or placed afar beyond the outskirts of creation, he dwelt a solitary
-unit in dark and unpeopled nothingness. The heart must
-have something to cling to—and never, by its own voluntary
-consent, will it so denude itself of all its attachments that there
-shall not be one remaining object that can draw or solicit it.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="APR13">[<i>April 13.</i>]</h3>
-
-<p>The misery of a heart thus bereft of all relish for that which is
-wont to minister to its enjoyment, is strikingly exemplified in
-those who, satiated with indulgence, have been so belabored,
-as it were, with the variety and the poignancy of the pleasurable
-sensations that they have experienced, that they are at
-length fatigued out of all capacity for sensation whatever. The
-disease of ennui is more frequent in the French metropolis,
-where amusement is more exclusively the occupation of higher
-classes, than it is in the British metropolis, where the longings
-of the heart are more diversified by the resources of business
-and politics. There are the votaries of fashion, who, in this
-way, have at length become the victims of fashionable excess,
-in whom the very multitude of their enjoyments has at last
-extinguished their power of enjoyment—who, plied with the
-delights of sense and of splendor even to weariness, and incapable
-of higher delights, have come to the end of all their perfection,
-and, like Solomon of old, found it to be vanity and
-vexation. The man whose heart has thus been turned into a
-desert can vouch for the insupportable languor which must
-ensue, when one affection is thus plucked away from the bosom,
-without another to replace it. It is not necessary that a man
-receive pain from anything in order to become miserable. It
-is barely enough that he looks with distaste at everything—and
-in that asylum which is the repository of minds out of joint,
-and where the organ of feeling as well as the organ of intellect,
-has been impaired, it is not in the cell of loud and frantic outcries
-where you will meet with the acme of mental suffering.
-But that is the individual who outpeers in wretchedness all his
-fellows, who throughout the whole expanse of nature and society,
-meets not an object that has at all the power to detain or
-interest him; who neither in earth beneath, nor in heaven
-above, knows of a single charm to which his heart can send
-forth one desirous or responding movement; to whom the world,
-in his eye a vast and empty desolation, has left him nothing
-but his own consciousness to feed upon—dead to all that is
-without him, and alive to nothing but to the load of his own
-torpid and useless existence.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>We hope that by this time you understand the impotency of
-a mere demonstration of this world’s insignificance. Its sole
-practical effect, if it had any, would be to leave the heart in a
-state which to every heart is insupportable, and that is a mere
-state of nakedness and negation. You may remember the
-fond and unbroken tenacity with which your heart has often
-recurred to pursuits, over the utter frivolity of which it sighed
-and wept but yesterday. The arithmetic of your short-lived
-days, may on Sabbath make the clearest impression upon your
-understanding, and from his fancied bed of death may the
-preacher cause a voice to descend in rebuke and mockery on
-all the pursuits of earthliness, and as he pictures before you the
-fleeting generations of men, with the absorbing grave, whither
-all the joys and interests of the world hasten to their sure and
-speedy oblivion, may you, touched and solemnized by his argument,
-feel for a moment as if on the eve of a practical and permanent
-emancipation from a scene of so much vanity.</p>
-
-<p>But the morrow comes, and the business of the world, and the
-objects of the world, and the moving forces of the world, come
-along with it, and the machinery of the heart, in virtue of which
-it must have something to grasp, or something to adhere to,
-brings it under a kind of moral necessity to be actuated just as
-before, and in utter repulsion toward a state so unkindly as
-that of being frozen out both of delight and of desire, does it
-feel all the warmth and the urgency of its wonted solicitations,
-nor in the habit and history of the whole man can we detect
-so much as one symptom of the new creature, so that the
-church, instead of being to him a school of obedience, has
-been a mere sauntering place for the luxury of a passing and
-theatrical emotion; and the preaching which is mighty to compel
-the attendance of multitudes, and which is mighty to still
-and to solemnize the hearers into a kind of tragic sensibility,
-and which is mighty in the play of variety and vigor that it can
-keep up around the imagination, is not mighty to the pulling
-down of strongholds.</p>
-
-<p>The love of the world can not be expunged by a mere demonstration
-of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be
-supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than
-itself? The heart can not be prevailed upon to part with the
-world by a single act of resignation. But may not the heart
-be prevailed upon to admit into its preference another, who
-shall subordinate the world, and bring it down from its wonted
-ascendancy? If the throne which is placed there must have
-an occupier, and the tyrant that now reigns has occupied it
-wrongfully, he may not leave a bosom which would rather detain
-him than be left in desolation. But may he not give way
-to the lawful sovereign, appearing with every charm that can
-secure his willing admittance, and taking unto himself his
-great power to subdue the moral nature of man, and to reign
-over it? In a word, if the way to disengage the heart from the
-positive love of one great and ascendant object, is to fasten
-it in positive love to another, then it is not by exposing the
-worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the mental
-eye the worth and excellence of the latter, that all things are
-to be done away, and all things are become new.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>To obliterate all our present affections by simply expunging
-them, so as to leave the seat of them unoccupied, would be to
-destroy the old character, and to substitute no new character
-in its place. But when they take their departure upon the
-ingress of others, when they resign their sway to the power
-and the predominance of new affections, when, abandoning
-the heart to solitude, they merely give place to a successor who
-turns it into as busy a residence of desire, and interest, and
-expectation as before—there is nothing in all this to thwart or
-to overthrow any of the laws of our sentient nature—and we
-see how, in fullest accordance with the mechanism of the heart,
-a great moral revolution may be made to take place upon it.</p>
-
-<p>This, we trust, will explain the operation of that charm which
-accompanies the effectual preaching of the gospel. The love
-of God, and the love of the world, are two affections, not
-merely in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity—and
-that so irreconcilable that they can not dwell together in the
-same bosom. We have already affirmed how impossible it
-were for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast
-the world away from it, and thus reduce itself to a wilderness.
-The heart is not so constituted, and the only way to dispossess
-it of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.
-Nothing can exceed the magnitude of the required change in a
-man’s character, when bidden, as he is in the New Testament,
-not to love the world; no, nor any of the things that are in the
-world, for this so comprehends all that is dear to him in existence
-as to be equivalent to a command of self-annihilation.
-But the same revelation which dictates so mighty an obedience,
-places within our reach as mighty an instrument of obedience.</p>
-
-<p>It brings for admittance, to the very door of our heart, an
-affection which, once seated upon its throne, will either subordinate
-every previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world,
-it places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world,
-and with this peculiarity, which is all its own—that in the gospel
-do we so behold God, as that we may love God. It is there,
-and there only, where God stands revealed as an object of
-confidence to sinners—and where our desire after Him is not
-chilled into apathy by that barrier of human guilt which intercepts
-every approach that is not made to Him through the appointed
-Mediator. It is the bringing in of this better hope
-whereby we draw nigh unto God—and to live without hope is
-to live without God, and if the heart be without God, the world
-will then have the ascendancy. It is God apprehended by the
-believer as God in Christ, who alone can disport it from this
-ascendancy. It is when He stands dismantled of the terrors
-which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we
-are enabled by faith, which is his own gift, to see His glory in
-the face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as
-it protests good will to men, and entreats the return of all who
-will, to a full pardon and a gracious acceptance—it is then
-that a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length
-expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerating bosom. It is
-when released from the spirit of bondage, with which love can
-not dwell, and when to the number of God’s children, through
-the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is found
-upon us; it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery
-of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the
-tyranny of its former desires, and in the only way in which
-deliverance is possible. And that faith which is revealed to
-us from heaven, as indispensable to a sinner’s justification in
-the sight of God, is also the instrument of the greatest of all
-moral and spiritual achievements on a nature dead to the influence,
-and beyond the reach of every other application.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="APR20">[<i>April 20.</i>]</h3>
-
-<p>Thus may we come to perceive what it is that makes the most
-effective kind of preaching. It is not enough to hold out to the
-world’s eye the mirror of its own imperfections. It is not
-enough to come forth with a demonstration, however pathetic,
-of the evanescent character of all its enjoyments. It is not
-enough to travel the walk of experience along with you, and
-speak to your own conscience and your own recollection of the
-deceitfulness of the heart, and the deceitfulness of all that the
-heart is set upon. There is many a bearer of the gospel message
-who has not shrewdness of natural discernment enough,
-and who has not power of characteristic description enough, and
-who has not the talent of moral delineation enough, to present
-you with a vivid and faithful sketch of the existing follies of
-society. But that very corruption which he has not the faculty
-of representing in its visible details, he may practically be the
-instrument of eradicating in its principle. Let him be but a
-faithful expounder of the gospel testimony; unable as he may
-be to apply a descriptive hand to the character of the present
-world, let him but report with accuracy the matter which revelation
-has brought to him from a distant world, unskilled as he
-is in the work of so anatomizing the heart, as with the power
-of a novelist to create a graphical or impressive exhibition of the
-worthlessness of its many affections—let him only deal in those
-mysteries of peculiar doctrine, on which the best of novelists
-have thrown the wantonness of their derision. He may not be
-able, with the eye of shrewd and satirical observation, to expose
-to the ready recognition of his hearers the desires of
-worldliness—but with the tidings of the gospel in commission,
-he may wield the only engine that can extirpate them. He can
-not do what some might have done, when, as if by the hand
-of a magician they have brought out to view, from the hidden
-recesses of our nature, the foibles and lurking appetites which
-belong to it. But he has a truth in the possession, which, into
-whatever heart it enters, will, like the rod of Aaron, swallow
-up them all—and unqualified as he may be, to describe the old
-man in all the nicer shading of his natural and constitutional
-varieties, with him is deposited that ascendant influence under
-which the leading tastes and tendencies of the old man are destroyed,
-and he becomes a new creature in Jesus Christ our Lord.</p>
-
-<p>Let us not cease, then, to ply the only instrument of powerful
-and positive operation, to do away from you the love of the
-world. Let us try every legitimate method of finding access to
-your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.
-For this purpose, if possible, clear away that shroud of unbelief
-which so hides and darkens the face of the Deity. Let us
-insist on His claims to your affection, and whether in the shape
-of gratitude or in the shape of esteem, let us never cease to
-affirm that in the whole of that wondrous economy, the purpose
-of which is to reclaim a sinful world unto Himself, He,
-the God of love, so sets Himself forth in characters of endearment,
-that naught but faith, and naught but understanding are
-wanting, on your part, to call forth the love of your hearts
-back again.</p>
-
-<p>And here let me advert to the incredulity of a worldly man;
-when he brings his own sound and secular experience to bear
-upon the high doctrines of Christianity, when he looks upon
-regeneration as a thing impossible, when feeling as he does
-the obstinacies of his own heart, on the side of things present,
-and casting an intelligent eye, much exercised, perhaps, in the
-observations of human life, on the equal obstinacies of all who
-are around him, he pronounces this whole matter about the
-crucifixion of the old man, and the resurrection of a new man
-in his place, to be in downright opposition to all that is known
-and witnessed of the real nature of humanity. We think that
-we have seen such men, who, firmly trenched in their own vigorous
-and homebred sagacity, and shrewdly regardful of all
-that passes before them through the week, and upon the scenes
-of ordinary business, look on that transition of the heart by
-which it gradually dies unto time, and awakens in all the life
-of a new felt and ever growing desire toward God, as a mere
-Sabbath speculation; and who thus, with all their attention
-engrossed upon the concerns of earthliness, continue unmoved
-to the end of their days, amongst the feelings and the appetites,
-and the pursuits of earthliness.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>If the thought of death, and another state of being after it,
-comes across them at all, it is not with a change so radical as
-that of being born again, that they ever connect the idea of
-preparation. They have some vague conception of its being quite
-enough that they acquit themselves in some decent and tolerable
-way of their relative obligations; and that upon the strength
-of some such social and domestic moralities as are often realized
-by him in whose heart the love of God has never entered,
-they will be transplanted in safety from this world, where God
-is the Being with whom it may almost be said that they have
-had nothing to do, to that world where God is the Being with
-whom they will have mainly and immediately to do throughout
-all eternity. They admit all that is said of the utter vanity of
-time, when taken up with as a resting place. But they resist
-every application made upon the heart of man, with the view
-of so shifting its tendencies that it shall not henceforth find in
-the interests of time, all its rest and all its refreshment. They
-in fact regard such an attempt as an enterprise that is altogether
-aerial, and with a tone of secular wisdom caught from
-the familiarities of every-day experience, do they see a visionary
-character in all that is said of setting our affections on the
-things that are above, and of walking by faith, and of keeping
-our hearts in such a love of God as shall shut out from
-them the love of the world, and of having no confidence in
-the flesh, and of so renouncing earthly things as to have our
-conversation in heaven.</p>
-
-<p>Now, it is altogether worthy of being remarked of those men
-who thus disrelish spiritual Christianity, and, in fact, deem it
-an impracticable acquirement, how much of a piece their
-incredulities about the doctrines of Christianity are with each
-other. No wonder that they feel the work of the New Testament
-to be beyond their strength, so long as they hold the
-words of the New Testament to be beneath their attention.
-Neither they nor any one else can dispossess the heart of an
-old affection, but by the impulsive power of a new one, and, if
-that new affection be the love of God, neither they nor any
-one else can be made to entertain it, but on such a representation
-of the Deity as shall draw the heart of the sinner toward
-Him. Now, it is just their unbelief which screens from the
-discernment of their minds this representation. They do not
-see the love of God in sending His Son into the world. They
-do not see the expression of his tenderness to men, in sparing
-him not, but giving him up unto the death for us all. They do
-not see the sufficiency of the atonement, or of the sufferings
-that were endured by him who bore the burden that sinners
-should have borne. They do not see the blended holiness and
-compassion of the Godhead, in that He passed by the transgressions
-of His creatures, yet could not pass them by without
-an expiation. It is a mystery to them how a man should pass
-to a state of godliness from a state of nature—but had they
-only a believing view of God manifest in the flesh, this would
-resolve for them the whole mystery of godliness. As it is, they
-can not get quit of their old affections, because they are out of
-sight from all those truths which have influence to raise a new
-one. They are like the children of Israel in the land of Egypt,
-when required to make bricks without straw—they can not
-love God, while they want the only food which can aliment
-this affection in a sinner’s bosom—and however great their
-errors may be, both in resisting the demands of the gospel as
-impracticable, and in rejecting the doctrines of the gospel as
-inadmissible, yet there is not a spiritual man (and it is the prerogative
-of Him who is spiritual to judge all men) who will not
-perceive that there is a consistency in these errors.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="APR27">[<i>April 27.</i>]</h3>
-
-<p>But if there be a consistency in the errors, in like manner is
-there a consistency in the truths which are opposite to them.
-The man who believes in the peculiar doctrines will readily
-bow to the peculiar demands of Christianity. When he is told
-to love God supremely, this may startle him to whom God has
-been revealed in grace, and in pardon, and in all the freeness
-of an offered reconciliation. When told he should shut out
-the world from the heart, this may be impossible with him who
-has nothing to replace it—but not impossible with him who has
-found in God a sure and a satisfying portion. When told to
-withdraw his affections from the things that are beneath, this
-was laying an order of self-extinction upon the man who knows
-not another quarter in the whole sphere of his contemplation,
-to which he could transfer them—but it were not grievous to
-him whose view has been opened up to the loveliness and
-glory of the things that are above, and can there find, for
-every feeling of his soul, a most ample and delighted occupation.
-When told to look not at the things that are seen and
-temporal, this were blotting out the light of all that is visible
-from the prospect of him in whose eye there is a wall of partition
-between guilty nature and the joys of eternity—but he
-who believes that Christ has broken down this wall, finds a
-gathering radiance upon his soul, as he looks onward in faith
-to the things that are unseen and eternal. Tell a man to be
-holy—and how can he compass such a performance, when his
-alone fellowship with holiness is a fellowship of despair? It
-is the atonement of the cross, reconciling the holiness of the
-lawgiver with the safety of the offender, that hath opened the
-way for a sanctifying influence into the sinner’s heart, and he
-can take a kindred impression from the character of God now
-brought nigh, and now at peace with him.</p>
-
-<p>Separate the demand from the doctrine, and you have either
-a system of righteousness that is impracticable, or a barren
-orthodoxy. Bring the demand and the doctrine together, and
-the true disciple of Christ is able to do the one through the
-other strengthening him. The motive is adequate to the movement,
-and the bidden obedience of the gospel is not beyond
-the measure of his strength, just because the doctrine of the
-gospel is not beyond the measure of his acceptance. The
-shield of faith, and the hope of salvation, and the Word of
-God, and the girdle of truth—these are the armor that he has
-put on; and with these the battle is won, and the eminence is
-reached, and the man stands on the vantage ground of a new
-field and a new prospect. The effect is great, but the cause is
-equal to it—and stupendous as this moral resurrection to the
-precepts of Christianity undoubtedly is, there is an element of
-strength enough to give it being and continuance in the principles
-of Christianity.</p>
-
-<p>The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience,
-and to purify his heart; and it is of importance to
-observe that what mars one of these objects, mars the other
-also. The best way of casting out an impure affection is to
-admit a pure one; and by the love of what is good, to expel
-the love of what is evil. Thus it is, that the freer the gospel,
-the more sanctifying the gospel; and the more it is received as
-a doctrine of grace, the more will it be felt as a doctrine according
-to godliness. This is one of the secrets of the Christian
-life, that the more a man holds of God as a pensioner, the
-greater is the payment of service that he renders back again.
-On the tenure of “Do this and live,” a spirit of fearfulness is
-sure to enter; and the jealousies of a legal bargain chase away
-all confidence from the intercourse between God and man;
-and the creature striving to be square and even with his Creator,
-is, in fact, pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead
-of God’s glory, and with all the conformities which he labors
-to accomplish, the soul of obedience is not there, the mind is
-not subject to the law of God, nor indeed under such an economy
-ever can be. It is only when, as in the gospel, acceptance
-is bestowed as a present, without money and without
-price, that the security which man feels in God is placed beyond
-the reach of disturbance, or that he can repose in him,
-as one friend reposes in another, or that any liberal and generous
-understanding can be established betwixt them—one
-party rejoicing over the other to do him good—the other finding
-that the truest gladness of his heart lies in the impulse of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span>
-gratitude, by which it is awakened to the charms of a new moral
-existence. Salvation by grace—salvation on such a footing is
-not more indispensable to the deliverance of our persons from
-the hand of justice, than it is to the deliverance of our hearts
-from the chill and the weight of ungodliness.</p>
-
-<p>Retain a single shred or fragment of legality with the gospel,
-and you raise a topic of distrust between man and God. You
-take away from the power of the gospel to melt and to conciliate.
-For this purpose, the freer it is, the better it is. That
-very peculiarity which so many dread as the germ of Antinomianism,
-is in fact the germ of a new spirit, and a new inclination
-against it. Along with the light of a free gospel, does there
-enter the love of the gospel, which in proportion as you impair
-the freeness, you are sure to chase away. And never does
-the sinner find within himself so mighty a moral transformation,
-as when under the belief that he is saved by grace, he
-feels constrained thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing,
-and to deny ungodliness.</p>
-
-<p>To do any work in the best manner, you would make use of
-the fittest tools for it. And we trust that what has been said
-may serve in some degree for the practical guidance of those
-who would like to reach the great moral achievement of our
-text—but feel that the tendencies and desires of nature are too
-strong for them. We know of no other way by which to keep
-the love of the world out of our heart, than to keep in our
-heart the love of God—and no other way by which to keep our
-hearts in the love of God, than building ourselves up on our
-most holy faith. That denial of the world which is not possible
-to him that dissents from the gospel testimony, is possible,
-even as all things are possible to him that believeth. To try
-this without faith, is to work without the right tool or the right
-instrument. But faith worketh by love; and the way of expelling
-from the heart the love that transgresseth the law, is to
-admit into its receptacles the love which fulfilleth the law.</p>
-
-<p>Conceive a man to be standing on the margin of this green
-world; and that, when he looked toward it, he saw abundance
-smiling upon every field, and all the blessings which earth can
-afford scattered in profusion throughout every family, and the
-light of the sun sweetly resting upon all the pleasant habitations,
-and the joys of human companionship brightening many
-a happy circle of society—conceive of this as being the general
-character of the scene upon one side of his contemplation;
-and that on the other, beyond the verge of the goodly planet
-on which he was situated, he could descry nothing but a dark
-and fathomless unknown. Think you that he would bid a voluntary
-adieu to all the brightness and all the beauty that were
-before him on earth, and commit himself to the frightful solitude
-away from it? Would he leave its peopled dwelling
-places, and become a solitary wanderer through the fields of
-nonentity? If space offered him nothing but a wilderness,
-would he abandon the homebred scenes of life and of cheerfulness
-that lay so near, and exerted such a power of urgency
-to detain him? Would not he cling to the regions of sense,
-and of life, and of society?—and shrinking away from the desolation
-that was beyond it, would not he be glad to keep his firm
-footing on the territory of this world, and to take shelter under
-the silver canopy that was stretched over it?</p>
-
-<p>But if, during the time of his contemplation, some happy
-island of the blest had floated by; and there had burst upon
-his senses the light of its surpassing glories, and its sounds of
-sweeter melody; and he clearly saw that there a purer beauty
-rested upon every field, and a more heartfelt joy spread itself
-among all the families; and he could discern there a peace,
-and a piety, and a benevolence, which put a moral gladness
-into every bosom, and united the whole society in one rejoicing
-sympathy with each other, and with the beneficent Father
-of them all. Could he further see that pain and mortality
-were there unknown, and above all, that signals of welcome
-were hung out, and an avenue of communication was made
-for him, perceive you not, that what was before the wilderness,
-would become the land of invitation; and that now the world
-would be the wilderness? What unpeopled space could not do,
-can be done by space teeming with beatific scenes and beatific
-society. And let the existing tendencies of the heart be what
-they may to the scene that is near and visible around us, still, if
-another stood revealed to the prospect of man, either through
-the channel of faith, or through the channel of his senses—then,
-without violence done to the constitution of his moral
-nature, may he die unto the present world, and live to the lovelier
-world that stands in the distance, away from it.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="SELECTIONS_FROM_AMERICAN">SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="HIGGINSON">THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.</h3>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Quiet and fair in tone; condensed to the last point, and still perfectly
-clear; written in such pure English that the youngest reader can understand,
-yet free from an affectation of baby talk, which is often considered
-indispensable in children’s books—the “Young Folks’ History
-of the United States” makes a refreshing contrast to the kind of school
-book with which Abbott and Loomis, and men of their stamp have inundated
-the country. Not that these latter, in spite of bombast and
-dryness, may not have served a purpose in their day and generation, no
-better men having come forward heretofore, but that a more thoughtful
-and scientific age demands better work.—<i>Scribner’s Monthly.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<h4>Criticism on “Back-Log Studies.”</h4>
-
-<p>In “Back-Log Studies” there are, no doubt, some essentially
-inartistic things—some long episodes; for example, such as
-the “New Vision of Sin” and the “Uncle in India,” which are
-clearly inferior in texture to the rest, and not quite worth the
-space they occupy; but, as a whole, the book is certainly a
-most agreeable contribution to the literature of the Meditative
-school. And it is saying a great deal to say this. To make
-such an attempt successful there must be a lightness of touch
-sustained through everything; there must be a predominant
-sweetness of flavor, and that air of joyous ease which is often
-the final triumph of labor. There must also be a power of
-analysis, always subtle, never prolonged; there must be description,
-minute enough to be graphic, yet never carried to
-the borders of fatigue; there must also be glimpses of restrained
-passion, and of earnestness kept in reserve. All these
-are essential, and all these the “Back-Log Studies” show. If
-other resources were added—as depth of thought, or powerful
-imagination, or wide learning, or constructive power—they
-would only carry the book beyond the proper ranks of the
-Meditative school, and place it in that higher grade of literature
-to which Holmes’ “Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” belongs.
-Yet it may be better not to insist on this distinction, for it is
-Mr. Warner himself who wisely reminds us that “the most unprofitable
-and unsatisfactory criticism is that of comparison.”</p>
-
-<p>It is as true in literature as in painting that “it is in the perfection
-and precision of the instantaneous line that the claim
-to immortality is made.” The first and simplest test of good
-writing is in the fresh and incisive phrases it yields; and in
-this respect “Back-Log Studies” is strong. The author has not
-only the courage of his opinions, but he has the courage of his
-phrases, which is quite as essential. What an admirable touch,
-for instance, is that where Mr. Warner says that a great wood-fire
-in a wide kitchen chimney, with all the pots and kettles
-boiling and bubbling, and a roasting spit turning in front of it,
-“makes a person as hungry as one of Scott’s novels!” Fancy
-the bewilderment of some slow and well-meaning man upon
-encountering that stroke of fancy; his going over it slowly
-from beginning to end, and then again backward from end to
-beginning, studying it with microscopic eye, to find where the
-resemblance comes in, until at last it occurs to him that possibly
-there may be a typographical error somewhere, and that,
-with a little revision, the sentence might become intelligible!
-He does not know that in literature, as in life, nothing venture,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>
-nothing have; and that it often requires precisely such an
-audacious stroke as this to capture the most telling analogies.</p>
-
-<p>There occurs just after this, in “Back-Log Studies,” a sentence
-which has long since found its way to the universal heart, and
-which is worth citing, as an example of the delicate rhetorical
-art of under-statement. To construct a climax is within the
-reach of every one; there is not a Fourth-of-July orator who
-can not erect for himself a heaven-scaling ladder of that description,
-climb its successive steps, and then tumble from the
-top. But to let your climax swell beneath you like a wave of
-the sea, and then let it subside under you so gently that your
-hearer shall find himself more stirred by your moderation than
-by your impulse; this is a triumph of style. Thus our author
-paints a day of winter storm; for instance, the wild snow-drifts
-beating against the cottage window, and the boy in the
-chimney-corner reading about General Burgoyne and the
-Indian wars. “I should like to know what heroism a boy in
-an old New England farm-house, rough-nursed by nature, and
-fed on the traditions of the old wars, did not aspire to—‘John,’
-says the mother, ‘you’ll burn your head to a crisp in
-that heat.’ But John does not hear; he is storming the Plains
-of Abraham just now. ‘Johnny, dear, bring in a stick of
-wood.’ How can Johnny bring in wood when he is in that
-defile with Braddock, and the Indians are popping at him from
-behind every tree? There is something about a boy that I
-like, after all.”</p>
-
-<p>I defy any one who has a heart for children to resist that
-last sentence. Considered critically, it is the very triumph of
-under-statement—of delicious, provoking, perfectly unexpected,
-moderation. It is a refreshing dash of cool water just as we
-were beginning to grow heated. Like that, it calls our latent
-heat to the surface by a kindly reaction; the writer surprises
-us by claiming so little that we concede everything; we at
-once compensate by our own enthusiasm for this inexplicable
-lowering of the demand. Like him! of course we like him—that
-curly-pated, rosy-cheeked boy, with his story books and
-his Indians! But if we had been called upon to adore him, it
-is very doubtful whether we should have liked him at all.
-And this preference for effects secured by quiet methods—for
-producing emphasis without the use of italics, and arresting
-attention without resorting to exclamation points—is the
-crowning merit of the later style of Mr. Warner.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="JAMES">HENRY JAMES, Jr.</h3>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Mr. Henry James, Jr., inherits from his father a diction so rich and
-pure, so fluent and copious, so finely shaded, yet capable of such varied
-service, that it is, in itself, a form of genius. Few men have ever been
-so brilliantly equipped for literary performance. Carefully trained taste,
-large acquirements of knowledge, experience of lands and races, and
-association with the best minds have combined to supply him with all
-the purely intellectual requisites which an author could desire.—<i>Bayard
-Taylor.</i></p>
-
-<p>As a story-teller, we know of no one who is entitled to rank higher,
-since Poe and Hawthorne are gone, than Mr. James. His style is pure
-and finished, and marked by the nicety of expression which is so noticeable
-among the best French writers of fiction.—<i>Louisville Courier-Journal.</i></p>
-
-<p>The “Portrait of a Lady” is a very clever book, and a book of very
-great interest. We do not know a living English novelist who could
-have written it.—<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<h4>Carlyle’s Letters to Emerson.</h4>
-
-<p>Carlyle takes his place among the first of English, among
-the very first of all letter-writers. All his great merits come
-out in this form of expression; and his defects are not felt as
-defects, but only as striking characteristics and as tones in the
-picture. Originality, nature, humor, imagination, freedom,
-the disposition to talk, the play of mood, the touch of confidence—these
-qualities, of which the letters are full, will with
-the aid of an inimitable use of language—a style which glances
-at nothing that it does not render grotesque—preserve their
-life for readers even further removed from the occasion than
-ourselves, and for whom possibly the vogue of Carlyle’s published
-writings in his day will be to a certain degree a subject
-of wonder.</p>
-
-<p>Carlyle is here in intercourse with a friend for whom, almost
-alone among the persons with whom he had dealings, he appears
-to have entertained a sentiment of respect—a constancy
-of affection untinged by that humorous contempt in which (in
-most cases) he indulges when he wishes to be kind, and which
-was the best refuge open to him from his other alternative of
-absolutely savage mockery.</p>
-
-<p>It is singular, indeed, that throughout his intercourse with
-Emerson he never appears to have known the satiric fury
-which he directed at so many other objects, accepting his
-friend <i>en bloc</i>, once for all, with reservations and protests so
-light that, as addressed to Emerson’s own character, they are
-only a finer form of consideration.… Other persons have
-enjoyed life as little as Carlyle; other men have been pessimists
-and cynics; but few men have rioted so in their disenchantments,
-or thumped so perpetually upon the hollowness of
-things with the idea of making it resound. Pessimism, cynicism,
-usually imply a certain amount of indifference and resignation;
-but in Carlyle these forces were nothing if not querulous
-and vocal. It must be remembered that he had an
-imagination which made acquiescence difficult—an imagination
-haunted with theological and apocalyptic visions. We
-have no occasion here to attempt to estimate his position in
-literature, but we may be permitted to say that it is mainly to
-this splendid imagination that he owes it. Both the moral and
-the physical world were full of pictures for him, and it would
-seem to be by his great pictorial energy that he will live.</p>
-
-<h4>Anthony Trollope.</h4>
-
-<p>His great, his inestimable merit was a complete appreciation
-of reality. This gift is not rare in the annals of English fiction;
-it would naturally be found in a walk of literature in
-which the feminine mind has labored so fruitfully. Women
-are delicate and patient observers; they hold their noses close,
-as it were, to the texture of life. They feel and perceive the
-real (as well as the desirable), and their observations are
-recorded in a thousand delightful volumes. Trollope therefore,
-with his eyes comfortably fixed on the familiar, the actual,
-was far from having invented a <i>genre</i>, as the French say; his
-great distinction is that, in resting there, his vision took in so
-much of the field. And then he <i>felt</i> all common, human
-things as well as saw them; felt them in a simple, direct, salubrious
-way, with their sadness, their gladness, their charm,
-their comicality, all their obvious and measurable meanings.</p>
-
-<h4>Du Maurier.</h4>
-
-<p>He is predominantly a painter of social, as distinguished
-from popular life, and when the other day he collected some
-of his drawings into a volume, he found it natural to give them
-the title of “English Society at Home.” He looks at the
-“accomplished” classes more than at the people, though he
-by no means ignores the humors of humble life. His consideration
-of the peculiarities of costermongers and “cadgers” is
-comparatively perfunctory, as he is too fond of civilization and
-of the higher refinements of the grotesque. His colleague, the
-frank and as the metaphysicians say, objective, Keene, has a
-more natural familiarity with the British populace. There is a
-whole side of English life, at which du Maurier scarcely glances—the
-great sporting element, which supplies half of their
-gayety and all their conversation to millions of her Majesty’s
-subjects. He is shy of the turf and of the cricket field; he
-only touches here and there upon the river. But he has made
-“society” completely his own—he has sounded its depths,
-explored its mysteries, discovered and divulged its secrets.
-His observation of these things is extraordinarily acute, and
-his illustrations, taken together, form a complete comedy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>
-manners, in which the same personages constantly re-appear,
-so that we have the sense, indispensable to keenness of interest,
-of tracing their adventures to a climax. So many of the
-conditions of English life are picturesque (and, to American
-eyes, even romantic), that du Maurier has never been at a loss
-for subjects. We mean that he is never at a loss for pictures.
-English society makes pictures all round him, and he has only
-to look to see the most charming things, which at the same
-time have the merit that you can always take the satirical view
-of them.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="HOWELLS">WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS.</h3>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>He is equal as an artist to the best French writers. His books are
-not only artistically fine, but morally wholesome.—<i>Magazin für die
-Literatur des Auslandes.</i></p>
-
-<p>The great body of the cultivated public has an instinctive delight in
-original genius, whether it be refined or sensational. Mr. Howells’s is
-eminently refined. His humor, however vivid in form, is subtle and
-elusive in its essence. He depends, perhaps, somewhat too much on
-the feelings of humor in his readers to appreciate his own. He has the
-true Addisonian touch; hits his mark in the white, and instead of provoking
-uproarious laughter, strives to evoke that satisfied smile which
-testifies to the quiet enjoyment of the reader. His humor is the humor
-of a poet.—<i>E. P. Whipple.</i></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Howells has been compared to Washington Irving for the exquisite
-purity of his style, and to Hawthorne for a certain subtle recognition
-of a hidden meaning in familiar things. A more thoroughly genial
-writer, certainly, we have not, nor one more conscientious in the practice
-of his art.—<i>Scribner’s Monthly.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<h4>The Young Editor, from “A Modern Instance.”</h4>
-
-<p>“Hullo!” he cried, with a suddenness that startled the boy,
-who had finished his meditation upon Bartley’s trowsers, and
-was now deeply dwelling on his boots. “Do you like ’em?
-See what sort of a shine you can give ’em for Sunday-go-to-meeting-to-morrow-morning.”
-He put out his hand and laid
-hold of the boy’s head, passing his fingers through the thick
-red hair. “Sorrel-top!” he said with a grin of agreeable reminiscence.
-“They emptied all the freckles they had left
-into your face—didn’t they, Andy?”</p>
-
-<p>This free, joking way of Bartley’s was one of the things that
-made him popular; he passed the time of day, and would give
-and take right along, as his admirers expressed it from the
-first, in a community where his smartness had that honor
-which gives us more smart men to the square mile than any
-other country in the world. The fact of his smartness had
-been affirmed and established in the strongest manner by the
-authorities of the college at which he was graduated, in answer
-to the reference he made to them when negotiating with the
-committee in charge for the place he now held as editor of the
-Equity <i>Free Press</i>.… They perhaps had their misgivings
-when the young man, in his well-blacked boots, his
-grey trowsers neatly fitting over them, and his diagonal coat
-buttoned high with one button, stood before them with his
-thumbs in his waistcoat pockets, and looked down over his
-mustache at the floor, with sentiments concerning their wisdom
-which they could not explore; they must have resented the
-fashionable keeping of everything about him, for Bartley wore
-his one suit as if it were but one of many; but when they understood
-that he had come by everything through his own
-unaided smartness, they could no longer hesitate. One, indeed,
-still felt it a duty to call attention to the fact that the college
-authorities said nothing of the young man’s moral characteristics
-in a letter dwelling so largely upon his intellectual
-qualifications. The others referred this point by a silent look to
-’Squire Gaylord. “I don’t know,” said the ’Squire, “as I ever
-heard that a great deal of morality was required by a newspaper
-editor.” The rest laughed at the joke, and the ’Squire continued:
-“But I guess if he worked his own way through college,
-as they say, that he hain’t had time to be up to a great
-deal of mischief. You know it’s for idle hands that the devil
-provides, doctor.”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s true, as far as it goes,” said the doctor. “But it
-isn’t the whole truth. The devil provides for some busy hands,
-too.”</p>
-
-<p>“There’s a good deal of sense in that,” the ’Squire admitted.
-“The worst scamps I ever knew were active fellows. Still,
-industry is in a man’s favor. If the faculty knew anything
-against this young man they would have given us a hint of it. I
-guess we had better take him; we shan’t do better. Is it a vote?”</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3 id="WARNER">CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.</h3>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Humor he has, and of the very highest order. It is as delicate as
-Washington Irving’s, and quite as spontaneous. But humor is hardly
-his predominant quality. He has all the wit of Holmes, and all the
-tenderness of Ik Marvel. He is often charmingly thoughtful, earnest
-and suggestive.—<i>San Francisco Bulletin.</i></p>
-
-<p>There is only one other pair of microscopic eyes like his owned by
-an American, and they belong to W. D. Howells. These two men will
-ferret out fun from arid sands and naked rocks, and in one trip of a
-league, less or more, over a barren waste, see and hear more that is
-amusing and entertaining than the rest of the world will discover in
-crossing a continent. Such men should do our traveling for us.—<i>Chicago
-Tribune.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<h4>From “Back-Log Studies.”</h4>
-
-<p>The fire on the hearth has almost gone out in New England;
-the hearth has gone out; the family has lost its center; age
-ceases to be respected; sex is only distinguished by the difference
-between millinery bills and tailors’ bills; there is no more
-toast-and-cider; the young are not allowed to eat mince pies
-at ten o’clock at night; half a cheese is no longer set to toast
-before the fire; you scarcely ever see in front of the coals a
-row of roasting apples, which a bright little girl, with many a
-dive and start, shielding her sunny face from the fire with one
-hand, turns from time to time; scarce are the grey-haired sires
-who strop their razors on the family Bible, and doze in the
-chimney corner. A good many things have gone out with the
-fire on the hearth.</p>
-
-<p>I do not mean to say that public and private morality have
-vanished with the hearth. A good degree of purity and considerable
-happiness are possible with grates and blowers; it is
-a day of trial, when we are all passing through a fiery furnace,
-and very likely we shall be purified as we are dried up and
-wasted away. Of course the family is gone as an institution,
-though there still are attempts to bring up a family round a
-“register.” But you might just as well try to bring it up by
-hand as without the rallying-point of a hearth-stone. Are there
-any homesteads now-a-days? Do people hesitate to change
-houses any more than they do to change their clothes? People
-hire houses as they would a masquerade costume, liking, sometimes,
-to appear for a year in a little fictitious stone-front
-splendor above their means. Thus it happens that so many
-people live in houses that do not fit them. I should almost as
-soon think of wearing another person’s clothes as his house;
-unless I could let it out and take it in until it fitted, and somehow
-expressed my own character and taste.</p>
-
-<h4>From “Being a Boy.”</h4>
-
-<p>It is a wonder that every New England boy does not turn
-out a poet, or a missionary or a peddler. Most of them used
-to. There is something in the heart of the New England hills
-to feed the imagination of the boy and excite his longing for
-strange countries. I scarcely know what the subtle influence
-is that forms him and attracts him in the most fascinating and
-aromatic of all lands, and yet urges him away from all the
-sweet delights of his home to become roamer in literature and
-in the world a poet and a wanderer. There is something in
-the soil and in the pure air, I suspect, that promises more romance
-than is forthcoming, and that excites the imagination
-without satisfying it, and begets the desire of adventure.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p>What John said was, that he didn’t care much for pumpkin
-pie; but that was after he had eaten a whole one. It seemed
-to him then that mince would be better. The feeling of a boy
-toward pumpkin pie has never been properly considered.…
-His elders say that the boy is always hungry; but that
-is a very coarse way of putting it. He has only recently come
-into a world that is full of good things to eat, and there is on
-the whole a very short time in which to eat them; at least he
-is told, among the first information he receives, that life is
-brief. Life being brief, and pie and the like fleeting, he very
-soon decides on an active campaign. It may be an old story
-to people who have been eating for forty or fifty years; but it
-is different with a beginner. He takes the thick and thin as it
-comes—as to pie, for instance. Some people do make them
-very thin.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="UNITED_STATES_HISTORY">UNITED STATES HISTORY.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK.</h3>
-
-<p>The most favorably situated, and, for its extent, the most
-valuable region of the country was first settled by the Dutch,
-Hollanders and Swedes.</p>
-
-<p>For some ten years there had been a trading post and small
-village on Manhattan Island; and, in 1623 the “Dutch West
-India Co.,” with a charter covering the whole coast from the
-Strait of Magellan to Hudson’s Bay, landed a colony of thirty
-families at New Amsterdam.</p>
-
-<p>The first colonists were mostly Protestant refugees from Belgium,
-who came to America to escape the persecutions endured
-in their own country. A part of the colonists took up their
-abode at New Amsterdam; others went down the New Jersey
-coast, and landed on the eastern shore of the Bay of Delaware.
-The same year a colony of 18 families ascended the Hudson,
-and located at or near Albany. This was the most northern
-post, and was called Fort Orange.</p>
-
-<p>A civil government was established for New Netherlands, in
-1624, Cornelius May being the first governor.</p>
-
-<p>In 1626 Peter Minuit was appointed governor, and during his
-administration he purchased of the native inhabitants the whole
-of Manhattan Island, containing more than 20,000 acres, for
-forty dollars.</p>
-
-<p>Some settlements were also made on Long Island. The
-Dutch of New Amsterdam and the Pilgrims of New England
-were early friends, and helped each other. Both enjoyed a
-good degree of prosperity, and the population steadily
-increased.</p>
-
-<p>For more than ten years the Indians, with few exceptions,
-received the strangers who came among them kindly and in
-good faith. When injured and wronged their resentment was
-kindled, and terribly did they avenge themselves on their enemies.
-The first notable instance was at Lewistown, on Delaware
-Bay, where Hosset, a governor of violent temper and little
-sagacity, seized and put to death a chief, who in some way
-offended him. The tribe was aroused, and assailed the place
-with such violence that not a man was left alive. When the
-next ship-load of colonists arrived, instead of a thrifty town,
-and friends eagerly waiting to receive them, they found but the
-bones of the slain, and the ashes of the homes that had sheltered
-them. Afterward there was not, for many years, the
-same sense of security; and in 1640 New Netherlands became
-involved in a general war with the Indians of Long Island and
-New Jersey, a war that, on both sides, was far from honorable,
-and marked with treachery, cruelty, and murders most revolting.
-If the whites were surprised and massacred by the Indians,
-there were as terrible massacres of Indians by the whites, who
-were, too often, the aggressors. An impartial historian says:
-“Nearly all the bloodshed and sorrow of those five years of
-war may be charged to Governor Kief. He was a revengeful,
-cruel man, whose idea of government was to destroy whatever
-opposed him.” For his headstrong course and cruelty he lost
-his position, and, to the great relief of the colonists, who had
-suffered much on his account, sailed for England. But the
-ship was wrecked on the coast of Wales, and the guilty governor
-found a grave in the sea. He was succeeded by Peter
-Stuyvesant, a resolute man, of more ability than most who preceded
-him. He, for seventeen years, managed the affairs of
-the colonists successfully. He conciliated the savages, settled
-the boundaries of his territory, and enforced the surrender of
-New Sweden, which became a part of his dominion. There
-was afterward some difficulty with the Indians, but more from
-a quarter whence no danger was expected. Lord Baltimore,
-of Maryland, claimed, under his charter, all the territory between
-the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay. Berkley claimed
-New Sweden, while Connecticut and Massachusetts were
-equally aggressive on the territories adjacent to their lines.</p>
-
-<p>In 1664 the unscrupulous king of England, Charles II., issued
-patents to his brother, the Duke of York, covering the territory
-called New Netherlands, and more beside. It was in utter
-disregard of the rights of Holland, and of the West India Co.,
-who had settled the country. No time was given for protest
-against the outrage. An English squadron soon appeared before
-New Amsterdam, and demanded the immediate surrender
-of the country, and the acknowledgment of the sovereignty of
-England. No effectual resistance could be made, and the
-indignant old governor, his council ordering it, had to sign the
-capitulation; and, on the 8th of September, 1664, the English
-flag was hoisted over the fort and town. The Swedish and
-Dutch settlements likewise capitulated, and the conquest was
-complete. From Maine to Georgia, in every settlement near
-the coast, the British flag was unfurled. This high-handed
-injustice, which robbed a sister state of her well earned colonial
-possessions, was but slightly mitigated by the fact that the
-armament was insufficient to enforce submission without the
-shedding of blood. The capitulation was on favorable terms,
-and with fair promises, that were never fulfilled. The government
-was despotic, and the people were sorely oppressed. The
-policy of the tyrannical governor was to tax the people till they
-could do nothing but think how possibly to pay the amount
-assessed.</p>
-
-<p>In 1673, England and Holland being at war, the latter sent a
-small squadron to recover the possessions wrested from her in
-America. When the little fleet appeared before New York, the
-governor was absent, and his deputy, either from cowardice, or,
-knowing the people preferred to have it so, at once surrendered
-the city, and the whole province yielded without a struggle.</p>
-
-<p>But the re-conquest of New York by the Dutch, gave them
-no permanent possession, as the war was soon closed by a
-treaty of peace, in which all the rights of Holland in America
-were surrendered.</p>
-
-<p>The Dutch and Swedes again became subject to English
-authority. Popular government was overthrown, and the officers
-appointed by the crown, directly or otherwise, with few exceptions,
-were unjust and tyrannical. Their oppressive measures
-were met with resistance, and, so intense was the hatred
-excited, that obstructions were thrown in the way of everything
-that was attempted. The people, when not repelling the attacks
-of the French and the Indians, or carrying the war into the
-territory of the invaders—campaigns in which much was sacrificed
-and nothing gained—were in a constant struggle with
-the royal governors, intent on collecting the revenues and
-enriching themselves, but careless of the best interests of the
-people.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>PENNSYLVANIA.</h3>
-
-<p>In 1681 William Penn, a man of convictions, who, with other
-Quakers, had suffered persecution on account of his religious
-convictions, obtained a charter with proprietary rights, for a
-large tract of American territory. Geographically its position
-was nearly central as regards the original colonies, but at first
-somewhat indefinitely bounded. In the final adjustment of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>
-colonial limits it was made a regular parallelogram, a small
-addition being made to give access to Lake Erie, and a good
-harbor. The average length is 310 miles; the width, 160
-miles. In naming his territory the proprietor modestly omitted
-any allusion to himself. He suggested Sylvania, because of
-the extensive and almost unbroken forest. The clerk prefixed
-“Penn.” From this he appealed to the king, who decided the
-prefix should be retained; but, as a relief to the wounded
-modesty of the Quaker, said it would be in honor of the
-Admiral, his friend, and the deceased father of William. For
-whomever the compliment was intended, the citizens of the
-commonwealth have always liked the name.</p>
-
-<p>The liberal plan for the government of West New Jersey,
-previously drawn up by Penn, was adopted, and the colonists
-encouraged to govern themselves. The powers conferred on
-him personally were never used in selfishness, or to advance
-his personal interests, but only to further the complete establishment
-of freedom, justice, and the best interests of the
-people.</p>
-
-<p>To the Swedes and others who had settled within his territory
-before he took possession, he introduced himself in a way
-so conciliatory and assuring that their friendship was at once
-won. His first message as governor was an admirable document—plain,
-honest, sensible in its every utterance. Its brevity
-allows it to be printed in full. “My friends, I wish you all
-happiness here and hereafter. These words are to let you
-know that it hath pleased God, in his providence, to cast you
-in my lot and care. It is a business that though I never undertook
-before, yet God hath given me an understanding of
-my duty, and an honest heart to do it uprightly. I hope you
-will not be troubled at your change and the king’s choice; for
-you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to
-make his fortune great. You shall be governed by laws of
-your own making, and live a free, and if you will, a sober, industrious
-people.…”</p>
-
-<p>Before the proprietor’s arrival, with three shiploads of
-Quaker colonists, his deputy, as instructed, had respected the
-rights of all the settlers, of whatever nationality or religious
-faith, and had been specially careful to cultivate friendly relations,
-and form treaties with the Indian tribes located in or
-near the territory. The offers of friendship, honestly made,
-were received in the same kindly spirit that prompted them,
-and neither fraud nor violence was feared. Not long after
-Penn came, a general council was called of the chiefs and
-sachems, anxious to see him of whom they had heard, and
-whose promises, reported to them, they had believed. He met
-them, with a few friends, unarmed as they all were, and spoke
-kind words by an interpreter.</p>
-
-<p>It was not his object to purchase lands, or to lay down rules
-to govern them in trading, but honestly to assure the untutored
-children of the forest of his friendly purposes and brotherly
-affection.</p>
-
-<p>The covenant then made, not written with ink, nor confirmed
-by any oath, was sacredly kept. No deed of violence
-or injustice ever marred the peace or interrupted the friendly
-relations of the parties. For more than seventy years, during
-which time the province remained under the control of the
-Friends, the peace was unbroken. Not a war-whoop was
-heard, nor any hostile demonstration witnessed in Pennsylvania.</p>
-
-<p>In December, 1682, a convention was held of three days’
-continuance, and all needful provision made for territorial
-legislation.</p>
-
-<p>The generous concessions of the proprietor harmonized the
-views of the assembly, and the results of the convention were
-eminently satisfactory.</p>
-
-<p>After a month’s absence, during which there was a visit to
-the Chesapeake, and an amicable conference with Lord Baltimore,
-about the boundaries of their respective provinces, Penn
-returned, and busied himself in locating and making a plot of
-his proposed capital. The beautiful neck between the Schuylkill
-and Delaware was wisely chosen; the land purchased of
-the Swedes, who had begun a settlement there, and map of the
-city provided. Three or four cabins were the only dwellings
-on the site, and the lines of the streets were indicated by marks
-on the trees. Thus in the woods was founded Philadelphia,
-the City of Brotherly Love.</p>
-
-<p>From the inception of his American enterprise, Penn showed
-himself a true philanthropist, not seeking his own aggrandizement,
-but the good of others. The oppressed and persecuted
-trusted him and were not disappointed. He promised them
-freedom, the love of which was a master passion with him, and
-the charter of their liberties dated at Philadelphia, and adopted
-by the first General Assembly, was even more generous than
-they expected. He conceded all the rights of legislation to the
-representatives of the people, reserving for himself only the
-right to veto any hasty and objectionable enactments of the
-council. His administration as executive met with much favor,
-and the tide of prosperity was for years unabated. Such
-was the condition of affairs in Pennsylvania when King James
-II. abdicated his throne. Penn, being a friend of the Stuarts,
-and having received his liberal charter from Charles II., sympathized
-with the fallen monarch, and, though loyal, had less
-confidence in William and Mary. For his sympathy and supposed
-adherence to the cause of the exiled king, he was persecuted,
-several times arrested and cast into prison. But investigations
-showed the suspicions of disloyalty unfounded; and
-his rights, so unjustly and to the great grief of his colonists,
-wrested from him, were fully restored. The new sovereign
-was a Catholic, and his fellow-communicants, like other dissenters
-from the Establishment, had suffered much. His
-anxiety to restore to them all the immunities of citizenship disposed
-him to listen to the logic and eloquence of the accomplished
-Quaker, who boldly contended for the toleration of all
-creeds, and the unlimited freedom of conscience. His influence
-during these years, in keeping up the tide of immigration
-to America, and especially to Pennsylvania, was something
-wonderful.</p>
-
-<p>In 1699 he again visited his American colony, now grown
-into a state—the increase in population and all the resources
-of a prosperous community far exceeding his expectations.</p>
-
-<p>In 1701, having carefully and satisfactorily arranged all his
-affairs in America, Penn bade a final adieu to his many friends,
-and returned to England. He left them, largely through the
-influence of his teaching and example and spirit, at peace
-among themselves and with all their neighbors.</p>
-
-<p>About this time a measure was proposed in England that, if
-passed, would seriously affect the colonists in all parts of the
-country. The ministers formed the design of abolishing all
-the proprietary estates, with the view of establishing royal
-governments in their stead. The presence of Penn was
-greatly needed in England to prevent the success of this
-scheme, and not without much effort was the purpose defeated.
-It required a man of power and influence in the king’s court
-to do it. From this time the government, though still in
-Penn’s right, was administered by his deputies, some of whom
-disappointed him. John Evans, an ambitious man, and not
-true to the peace principles of the Friends, greatly troubled the
-province by purchasing military equipments, and attempting
-to organize a regiment of militia. The council and citizens
-protested so strongly against his proceedings as irreconcilable
-with the policy of Penn, that Evans was removed from the
-office, and another appointed. His charge to the deputies appointed
-had been, “You are come to a quiet land; rule for him
-under whom the princes of this world will one day esteem it
-an honor to govern in their places.” Those who heeded the
-charge had peace and prosperity in their borders. As proprietor
-of his vast possessions in America, Penn was not faultless;
-but his mistakes bore an amiable character. Conscious of his
-own integrity and freedom from cupidity, he placed too much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>
-confidence in the untried virtue of others, and exposed inferior
-men in the way of temptation to dishonesty that they were not
-able to resist. The rascality of his agent, Ford, whose false
-accounts involved the honest proprietor in debt to a large
-amount, well nigh accomplished his financial ruin. He was
-imprisoned, and after weary months of confinement was released
-by influential friends, who compounded with the
-creditors in whose power the crafty agent had placed him.</p>
-
-<p>The simplicity of his Quaker habits and enthusiasm for
-religion seemed inconsistent with his great influence in the
-corrupt court of the king, and he was suspected of acting a
-double part—was thrice arrested, charged with treasonable
-intentions, and as often acquitted. But the strain was too
-great. His natural force abated, and the infirmities of age
-came on him rapidly. His acquittal, and the complete vindication
-of his character cast a bright light on the clouds, and its
-radiance gave a kind relief for the six years of feebleness and
-suffering that remained after life’s mission seemed mostly
-accomplished. The attacks of enemies and contemporary rivals
-are more readily condoned. But the abortive attempt of Lord
-Macaulay to asperse the character of the deceased governor,
-whose enterprise in the New World eclipsed all others, reflects
-little honor on the name of the great historian. Certainly the
-great Quaker’s record on this side of the Atlantic can never be
-tarnished, and his principles of liberty and equality are better
-understood and appreciated by American freemen.</p>
-
-<p>The colonial possessions of Penn were bequeathed to his
-three sons, by whom, and their deputies, the government was
-administered until the American Revolution. Afterward, in
-1779, the entire claim of the Penn family to the soil and jurisdiction
-of the state, was purchased by the legislature for a hundred
-and thirty thousand pounds sterling. The early history
-of the Keystone state is one of special interest and pleasure.
-The reader lingers over it because it recounts bloodless victories,
-and the triumph of kindness and right over violence and
-wrong.</p>
-
-<p>When nations grow mercenary and grasping, the strong justifying
-their aggressions and conquests by the false plea that
-success, and the probable hereafter of the conquered races
-justify their assaults, the early annals of Penn’s state will stand
-a perpetual protest against fraud and violence, however successful
-for a time. Might does not make right, even when the
-highest civilization confronts the lowest barbarism. Even
-savages had rights that the most cultured Englishmen were
-bound to respect.</p>
-
-<p>The brotherhood of man includes those of lowest estate. So
-thought the founder of the great state that bears his name.
-With his charter in hand he fearlessly plunged into the vast
-wilderness, saying, “I will here found a free colony for all
-mankind.” The words had the true ring, and the asylum was
-opened for men of every nation who loved liberty and hated
-the oppressor’s wrongs. And it was a most fitting thing that
-the “bells of his capital should ring out the first glad notes of
-American independence.”</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>GEORGIA.</h3>
-
-<p>Every philanthropist must take satisfaction in the founding
-of the colony in Georgia; for, perhaps beyond any other, it
-had its origin in the spirit of pure benevolence. The unfortunate
-debtor in England was by the laws liable to imprisonment;
-and thousands were, for this cause alone, languishing in
-prisons. The miserable condition of debtors and their desolate
-families, was at length thrust on the attention of Parliament.
-In 1728 a commission was appointed to inquire into the state of
-the poor, and report measures of relief. The work was accomplished,
-the jails thrown open, and the prisoners returned to
-their families. But, though liberated, they and their friends
-were in no condition to maintain themselves respectably in the
-land of their birth. There was a land beyond the sea where
-debt was not a crime, and poverty not necessarily a disgrace.
-To provide somewhere a refuge for the poor of England, and
-the distressed Protestants of other countries, the commission
-appealed to George II. for the privilege of planting a colony of
-such persons in America. A charter was issued giving the
-desired territory to a corporation, for twenty-one years, <i>to be
-held in trust for the poor</i>. In honor of the king the new province
-was named Georgia. The high-souled philanthropist who
-initiated and went steadily forward in this enterprise was
-James Oglethorpe. Born a loyalist, educated at Oxford, a
-high churchman, a soldier, a member of Parliament, benevolent,
-generous, full of sympathy, and far-sighted in comprehending
-the results of his enterprise, he sacrificed much, giving
-the best position of a life so full of energy and promise to the
-noble charity of providing homes for the poor, under such
-conditions that the largest benefit could be received by them
-without any sense of degradation. Ridpath says: “The
-magnanimity of the enterprise was heightened by the fact that
-he did not believe in the equality of men, but only in the duty
-of the strong to protect the weak, and sympathize with the
-lowly. Oglethorpe was the principal member of the corporation,
-and to him the personal leadership of the first colony
-planted on the banks of the Savannah was naturally intrusted.
-His associations were with cultured people, and his refined
-tastes would be subjected to some crucial tests by the rude
-scenes in the wilderness, and his association with unlettered
-men. But he was not a man to shirk responsibility, and
-promptly determined to share the privations, hardships, and
-dangers of his colony.</p>
-
-<p>“With one hundred and twenty emigrants, in January, 1735,
-he safely reached the coast, proceeded up the river, and selected,
-for the site of his first settlement, the high bluff on which
-Savannah was built. There, amidst the pines, was soon seen
-a village of tents and rude dwellings, the nucleus of the fine
-city, intended for the capital of a new commonwealth, in which
-there would be freedom of conscience and no imprisonment
-for debt.”</p>
-
-<p class="center smaller">[End of Required Reading for April.]</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="LIGHT_AT_EVENTIDE">LIGHT AT EVENTIDE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By E. G. CHARLESWORTH.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">I met an old man in my way;</div>
-<div class="verse">For many years the light of day</div>
-<div class="verse">Had been to him but memory;</div>
-<div class="verse">Poor, blind, half-deaf, and lame was he:</div>
-<div class="verse">My heart was bent to sympathize,</div>
-<div class="verse">I looked toward the dead closed eyes,</div>
-<div class="verse">Hopeful, by some apt words, a light</div>
-<div class="verse">To bring to mingle with his night.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">A falling tide was on the sand.</div>
-<div class="verse">Slowly, that he might understand,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">I said,</div>
-<div class="verse">“The ebbing tide, and then the flood;</div>
-<div class="verse">The darkest hour, then the dawn;</div>
-<div class="verse">Death, then——”</div>
-<div class="verse">Some inner sun’s streaks in his face</div>
-<div class="verse">Shone on this image of his case,</div>
-<div class="verse">And twice, with Faith and Hope’s sunshine,</div>
-<div class="verse">He brightly filled my shortened line—</div>
-<div class="verse"><i>Death, then the morn—Death, then the morn!</i></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p>For though you might not be able to break or bend the
-power of genius—the deeper the sea, the more precipitous the
-coast—yet in the most important initiatory decade of life, in the
-first, at the opening dawn of all feelings, you might surround
-and overlay the slumbering lion-energies with all the tender
-habits of a gentle heart, and all the bands of love.—<i>Richter.</i></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="THE_COOPER_INSTITUTE">THE COOPER INSTITUTE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By the <span class="smcap">Rev. J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Among the monuments and illustrations of the spirit of philanthropy—the
-noblest distinction between ancient and modern
-civilization—the Cooper Institute has stood for a quarter of
-a century, an object of interest proportionate to the intellectual
-and moral elevation of those who behold it.</p>
-
-<p>The early struggles, great success and marked mental progress
-of its founder, no less than a liberality as beautiful as it
-was then rare, invest his life with a peculiar charm. Nor did
-he retain his possessions until death loosened his grasp, employing
-in beneficence only that which he could no longer
-retain. Thus he became the ancestor of many who are their
-own executors. “May their tribe increase!” To these qualities
-was added a simplicity which made it impossible not to
-feel that Peter Cooper was a kind of universal “Uncle.” It
-pleased Almighty God in a providence, which was no strain
-upon faith, as it seemed preëminently in harmony with the
-sense of fitness, to allow him to live until he had seen the desire
-of his heart, and could not doubt either the perpetuity, the
-wisdom or the success of his plans for promoting the welfare of
-the people. To comparatively few philanthropists on so large
-a scale, has this privilege been vouchsafed; for most of them
-are old before their accumulations justify large responsibilities.</p>
-
-<p>The death of Peter Cooper gave to New York the opportunity,
-which was itself a blessing, of showing by spontaneous tributes
-whose reflex influence strengthens every spring of virtue,
-counteracting the barbarizing tendencies of the struggle for
-bread or riches or honors, and the weakening effects of mere
-idleness and the prevailing distrust of human goodness, its
-estimate of disinterestedness. The opportunity was improved,
-for never within the memory of the oldest inhabitant has the
-death of a private citizen evoked more tender exhibitions of
-respect and affection than that of the patriarchal Peter Cooper.</p>
-
-<p>It is my purpose to describe this institution; to tell all about
-it, so that those who read and have not seen may know what
-those who have seen are pleased to recall.</p>
-
-<p>On the 29th of April, 1859, Peter Cooper executed a deed in fee
-simple of the property known as the Cooper Institute without any
-reservation, to six trustees, upon the conditions specified in the
-act of the legislature authorizing the gift to be made, “that the
-above mentioned and desirable premises, together with the
-appurtenances and the rents, issues, income, and profits thereof
-shall be forever devoted to the instruction and improvement
-of the inhabitants of the United States in practical science and
-art.”</p>
-
-<p>The location of the property and its dimensions are thus
-described by the founder in his letter to the trustees accompanying
-the trust deed:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:—It is to me a source of inexpressible pleasure, after
-so many years of continued effort, to place in your hands the title of all
-that piece and parcel of land bounded on the west by Fourth Avenue, and
-on the north by Astor Place, on the east by Third Avenue, and on the south
-by Seventh Street, with all the furniture, rents and income of every
-name and nature, to be forever devoted to the advancement of science
-and art in their application to the varied and useful purposes of life.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>That the spirit of Peter Cooper and the purposes which
-he had in this munificent gift may be the more fully understood,
-and the reader may judge how near the trustees have
-come to fulfilling the same, I shall quote some salient passages
-from that unique letter. “The great object I desire to accomplish
-by the establishment of an institution devoted to the advancement
-of science and art is to open the volume of nature
-by the light of truth—so unveiling the laws and methods of
-Deity that the young may see the beauties of creation, enjoy
-its blessings, and learn to love the Being ‘from whom cometh
-every good and perfect gift.’ My heart’s desire is, that the
-rising generation may become so thoroughly acquainted with
-the laws of nature <i>and the great mystery of their own being
-that they may see, feel, understand and know that there are immutable
-laws designed in infinite wisdom, constantly operating
-for our good—so governing the destiny of worlds and men that
-it is our highest wisdom to live in strict conformity to these laws</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>The italics are his. Mr. Cooper felt a special interest in the
-advancement of women; nor did this interest take a mere sentimental,
-much less an unpractical, form. It did not effervesce in
-honeyed compliments or futile denunciation of the existing state.
-It was thus expressed: “To manifest the deep interest and sympathy
-I feel in all that can advance the happiness and better the
-condition of the female portion of the community, and especially
-of those who are dependent upon honest labor for support, I
-desire the trustees to appropriate two hundred and fifty dollars
-yearly to assist such pupils of the Female School of Design as
-shall, in their careful judgment, by their efforts and sacrifices
-in the performance of duty to parents, or to those that Providence
-has made dependent on them for support, merit and
-require such aid. My reason for this requirement is, not so
-much to reward, as to encourage the exercise of heroic virtues
-that often shine in the midst of the greatest suffering and obscurity,
-without so much as being noticed by the passing
-throng.”</p>
-
-<p>In prescribing rules for the practice of debate, and the
-facilities for the hearing of lectures, he says: “To aid the
-speakers, and those that hear, to profit by these lectures and
-debates, I hereby direct to have placed in the lecture room, in
-a suitable position, full-length likenesses of Washington,
-Franklin and Lafayette, with an expression of my sincere and
-anxious desire that all that behold them may remember that
-notwithstanding they are dead they yet speak the language of
-truth and soberness.”</p>
-
-<p>Here follows a provision far in advance of his time, but now
-becoming common, if not popular: “Desiring as I do that the
-students of this institution may become preëminent examples
-in the practice of all the virtues, I have determined to give
-them an opportunity to distinguish themselves for their good
-judgment by annually recommending to the trustees for their
-adoption such rules and regulations as they, on mature reflection,
-shall believe to be necessary and proper to preserve
-good morals and good order throughout their connection with
-this institution.”</p>
-
-<p>The letter contains an account of the religious opinions
-which had taken an “irresistible possession” of his mind.
-These—which may be inferred from the extracts made—and
-the offer of ten thousand dollars additional, to the board of
-trustees, for which they were to draw at their pleasure, as fast
-as the same could “be wisely used to advance the interests of
-the institution,” conclude this remarkable letter.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Cooper continued to assist the Institute in every possible
-way until his death. In his will he bequeathed to it $100,000.
-Soon after his death his children notified the trustees that “in
-accordance with what they understood to be Mr. Cooper’s final
-wishes, they would in a few months contribute the sum of
-$100,000 in addition to the bequest of $100,000 contained in his
-will.”</p>
-
-<p>The trustees—of whom not one has died in the long period
-of their service, the only death being that of the President,
-Peter Cooper—give the following succinct statement of the
-principles upon which they proceeded in the execution of so
-weighty a trust. They say that they laid down as the fundamental
-basis of their operations the following principles:</p>
-
-<p>First, that the details of the institution in all the departments
-should be arranged with especial reference to the intellectual
-wants and improvement of the working classes. And, second,
-that as far as might be consistent with the first principle, all
-interference with the plans or objects of other existing institutions
-in the city should be avoided. Guided by these principles
-the trustees arrived at the following broad scheme, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>
-best calculated to instruct, elevate, and improve the working
-classes of the city:</p>
-
-<p>1. Instruction in the branches of knowledge which are practically
-applied in their daily occupations, by which they support
-themselves and their families.</p>
-
-<p>2. Instruction in the laws by which health is preserved and
-the sanitary condition of families improved; in other words, in
-personal hygiene.</p>
-
-<p>3. Instruction in social and political science, by virtue of
-which communities maintain themselves, and nations progress
-in virtue, wealth and power.</p>
-
-<p>4. Instruction addressed to the eye, the ear, and the imagination,
-with a view to furnish a reasonable and healthy recreation
-to the working classes after the labors of the day.</p>
-
-<p>In pursuance of these objects and in harmony with the above
-comprehensive principles the following departments are maintained
-at the present time in most effective operation:</p>
-
-<p>1. Free Reading Room and Library. Here between 430 and
-440 periodicals are kept on file, and upward of 17,000 volumes
-are upon the shelves. In 1883 the number of books used was
-194,963, the number of patent office reports examined 8,324,
-and the number of visitors to the patent office room 1,487. In
-all 559,707 persons visited the Free Reading Room and Library
-during 1883.</p>
-
-<p>2. Free Art School for Women. There were no less than 1,450
-applications for admission during the year, a number far in excess
-of the accommodations; 275 were admitted to the morning
-classes, of whom 202 remained at the close of the term, and
-160 received certificates. There are also a “pay class” for
-pottery painting in this department, and a pay class for drawing
-in the afternoon; 43 were in the pottery class, and 221 in
-the drawing class.</p>
-
-<p>3. Free School for Women in Wood Engraving. Thirty-two
-students were received during the year 1882, of whom 28 continued
-to the close of the term.</p>
-
-<p>4. Free School of Telegraphy for Women. The number of
-applicants was 160, of whom 55 were admitted.</p>
-
-<p>5. Free Night School of Science. In this important department
-are classes in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical
-geometry, descriptive geometry, differential and integral
-calculus, elementary mechanics, natural philosophy, engineering,
-astronomy, elementary chemistry, analytical chemistry,
-geology, mechanical drawing, oratory and debate. One thousand
-one hundred and sixty-nine were admitted into the School
-of Science, 705 remained till the close of the year, and 405 obtained
-certificates.</p>
-
-<p>6. The Free Night School of Art. Here is taught perspective
-drawing, mechanical drawing, architectural drawing, drawing
-from cast, form drawing, industrial drawing, ornamental free
-hand, rudimental free hand, modeling in clay. In this school
-were 1,797 pupils.</p>
-
-<p>In addition to these departments a course of ten free lectures
-is given in the great hall on successive Saturday evenings for
-ten weeks. The lecturers are men of considerable eminence
-and generally specialists. Probably the most interesting ever
-delivered was the course by the famous naturalist, the Rev. J.
-G. Wood, of London, England. This course crowded the hall,
-and was concluded January 19th of the present year by a lecture,
-with illustrations, on “The Ant.”</p>
-
-<p>The term begins in the free Night Schools for Science and
-Art on the 1st of October, and closes term work in April. Applications
-for admission must be made during the month of
-September on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
-evenings, and on Thursday evenings afterward. Each applicant
-must be at least fifteen years old, and bring a letter of recommendation
-from his employer. Ladies are admitted to any
-of the classes in the School of Science for which they are fitted,
-but not to the School of Art. The regular course of study requires
-five terms, and to those who successfully complete it the
-Cooper medal and diploma are awarded.</p>
-
-<p>The annual term in the Woman’s Art School begins October
-1st and ends May 30th. Ladies desiring admission must apply
-in person or writing, and give a written responsible reference
-as to character, fitness, and inability to pay for instruction.
-The ages are from sixteen to thirty-five years. Pupils who do
-not exhibit proficiency after two months’ trial will be dropped.
-The morning classes are reserved for those who do not pay.
-But to meet the wants of those who wish to study as an accomplishment,
-“paying classes” are organized for the afternoon.
-Lessons are given in elementary drawing from objects, cast
-drawing, life drawing, oil painting, engraving. Lessons of two
-hours in length are given three times a week. Terms, $15 for
-thirty lessons.</p>
-
-<p>The rules of admission to the Free School in Telegraphy for
-Women are that the candidates shall present themselves for
-examination on the first Tuesday in October. They will be
-examined in reading poor manuscript, writing from dictation,
-penmanship and spelling. They must be at least sixteen years
-old, and <i>positively</i> not over <i>twenty-four</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In the report for 1882, published in May, 1883, Mrs. Carter
-the Principal of the Woman’s Art School, says: “One hundred
-and twenty-six present pupils are learning. Of these fifty-four
-are in the photograph classes, and eighteen in the engraving
-class. Twenty-six now in the school are teaching drawing, and
-three of these are in nineteen public schools in this city. One
-young woman who left the art school in the winter teaches
-twenty-five hours a week in eight public schools here at two
-dollars an hour.”</p>
-
-<p>The form of application to the Cooper Union includes name
-of applicant, residence, age, occupation, name of employer,
-place of business. Parents or guardians, in the case of minors,
-fill out the blanks, but applications must be made in person.
-It only remains to say that the applications are in advance of
-the capacity of the Institute, but that the democratic principle
-of “first come first served” is rigorously applied. Applications
-do not hold over from one year to another, but must
-be renewed. It is possible for persons from any part of the
-country to avail themselves of the facilities here afforded.
-Board for gentlemen can be obtained at very reasonable rates,
-not far from the Union. Two rooming together and lunching
-at restaurants can live well at a low rate. Ladies also can procure
-board in Brooklyn, or in the suburban towns, or even in the
-city itself, at a rate far below what is generally supposed possible.</p>
-
-<p>Passing the Cooper Institute, as the writer does nearly every
-day, he looks with undiminished interest upon the young men
-and young women who go in and out of the building; while
-to attend one of the lectures is a pleasure far greater than that
-of merely listening. If it were possible to assemble in one
-place all who have been helped upward and onward here,
-among them would be found men and women now in the most
-influential positions, and the intelligence visible in the countenances
-of those who, though still earning their bread by the
-sweat of the brow, are filled with elevating thoughts, and are
-consciously members of the aristocracy of intellect, would be
-an ample reward to founder, trustees and teachers, for all their
-work and labor of love. Nor is this all; these pupils will transmit
-influences through their posterity to the end of time. Peter
-Cooper, like Washington, Lafayette, and Franklin, still speaks
-“words of truth and soberness.” He shakes hands with every
-aspiring young man, saying: “My son, I will help you;” with
-every young woman who cherishes a high ambition: “My
-daughter, I have a deep sympathy with you.” It is useless to
-say, “Long may his memory endure!” It can not die.</p>
-
-<p>In concluding this paper the writer must be permitted to express
-his satisfaction that the sketch is to appear in a magazine
-called into being by an institution which on another principle,
-equally efficient and much more widely diffused in the sphere
-of its influence, promotes the advancement of Science and Art
-by bringing them within the reach of all aspirants, without distinction
-of race, sex, age, or previous condition of servitude.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="GREEN_SUN_AND_STRANGE">GREEN SUN AND STRANGE SUNSETS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>During the first half of September, the sun in Ceylon and
-India, and also in the West Indies, presented at rising and setting
-the appearance of a green or greenish-blue disc. Even
-when at his highest the sun appeared pale blue in Ceylon (from
-the other places no account of the sun’s aspect at high noon
-has reached me). On September 2, at Trinidad, the sun looked
-like a blue globe after five in the evening, “and after dark,”
-says the report, “we thought there was a fire in the town, from
-the bright redness of the heavens.” At Ongole, as the sun
-approached the horizon, his disc passed from a bluish tinge
-to green, which became tinged with yellow as he approached
-the horizon. “After he had set, light yellow and orange appeared
-in the west, a very deep red remaining for more than
-an hour after sunset; whereas, under ordinary conditions, all
-traces of color leave the sky in this latitude,” says the narrator,
-“within half an hour after the sun disappears.” These
-accounts, from both the eastern and western hemispheres, seem
-clearly to associate the green sun which attracted so much attention
-in the tropics early in September, with the remarkable
-sunsets seen in Arabia, in Africa (North and South), and
-throughout Europe during October and November. For we
-see that whatever may have been the explanation of the green
-sun, the phenomenon must have been produced by some cause
-capable of producing after sunset a brilliant red and orange
-glow, for a time much exceeding the usual duration of the twilight
-afterglow. The occurrence of the afterglow, with the
-same remarkable tints and similar exceptional duration elsewhere—though
-some weeks later—shows that a similar cause
-was at work.</p>
-
-<p>Two points are clear. First, the cause alike of the greenness
-of the sun and the ruddy afterglow was in the air, not outside;
-and, secondly, the matter, whatever it was, which made the
-sun look green when he was seen through it, and which under
-his rays looked red, was high above the surface of the earth.
-It can readily be shown, so far as this last point is concerned,
-that matter at a lower level than sixteen miles could not have
-caught the sun’s rays so long after sunset as the glow was seen.
-On the other point it suffices, of course, to note that if some
-cause in the sun himself had been at work, the whole earth
-would have seen the green sun, while the afterglow would
-have found no explanation at all.</p>
-
-<p>As to the actual cause to which both phenomena are to be
-ascribed, we must, I think, exculpate Krakatoa from all part
-or share in producing these strange effects. The appearance
-of a blue sun at Trinidad, followed two or three days later by
-a green sun in the East Indies, can not possibly be associated
-with the occurrence of an earthquake on the Javan shore a few
-days earlier. Beside, it must be remembered that we should
-have to explain two incongruous circumstances; first, how the
-exceedingly fine matter ejected from Krakatoa could have so
-quickly reached the enormous height at which the matter actually
-producing the afterglow certainly was; and, secondly,
-how having been able to traverse still air so readily one way,
-that matter failed to return as readily earthward under the attraction
-of gravity. Again the explanation, which at first seems
-a most probable one, that unusually high strata of moist air,
-with accompanying multitudes of ice particles, caused the
-phenomena alike of absorption and of reflection, seems negatived—first,
-by the entire absence of any other evidence of
-extraordinary meteorological conditions in September, October
-and November last; and, secondly, by the entire absence of
-any of the optical phenomena which necessarily accompany
-the transmission of sunlight through strata of air strewn with
-many ice particles.</p>
-
-<p>We seem obliged then to adopt a theory, first advanced, I
-believe, by Mr. A. C. Ranyard, that the phenomena were
-caused by a cloud of meteoric dust encountered by the earth,
-and received into the upper regions of the air, thence to penetrate
-slowly (mayhap not till many months have passed) to the
-surface of the earth. Mr. Ranyard calls attention to the circumstance
-that probably the early snows of the winter 1883-’84
-would bring down the advanced guard of such meteoric dust;
-and even as I write I learn that Mr. W. Mathieu Williams has
-followed the suggestion. He carefully collected the snow
-which fell in his garden, eighty yards from his chimneys and
-half a mile from any to windward. Slicing off a top film of the
-snow with a piece of glass he thawed it, and found a sediment
-of fine brownish-black powder. Ferrocyanide of potassium
-added to the snow-water produced no change of color, showing
-the absence of iron in solution, nor was there any visible reaction
-on the black dust till he added some hydrochloric acid.
-Then the blue compound indicating iron was abundantly
-formed all round the granules, and presently, as their solution
-was effected, a bluish-green deposit was formed, and the
-whole liquid deeply tinged with the same color. “It was not,”
-says Mr. Williams, “the true Prussian-blue reaction of iron
-alone, but just the color that would be produced by mixing
-small quantities of the cyanide of nickel (yellowish green) and
-the cyanide of cobalt (brownish white) with a preponderating
-amount of Prussian blue.”</p>
-
-<p>If this explanation of the green sun and the extraordinary
-sunsets should be confirmed, it appears to me that a most interesting
-result will have been achieved. Of course, it is no
-new thing that as the earth rushes onward through space she
-encounters yearly many millions of meteoric bodies, large and
-small; nor ought it to be regarded as strange that beside these
-separate bodies, millions of millions in the form of fine cosmical
-dust should be encountered; but the actual evidence,
-derived from the behavior of sunlight (the red and yellow rays
-reflected and relative superabundance of green and blue rays
-therefore transmitted), would be an interesting and important
-addition to our knowledge of matters meteoric.—<i>The Contemporary
-Review.</i></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="ANTHONY_TROLLOPES_AUTOBIOGRAPHY">ANTHONY TROLLOPE’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By W. W. GIST.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>A peep into a literary workshop is always interesting. There
-is always some curiosity to know how a man of letters does his
-work. This fascinating autobiography gives us a clear insight
-into Anthony Trollope’s manner of study, and states many
-other facts that are intensely interesting.</p>
-
-<p>Anthony Trollope’s parents were both of a literary turn of
-mind. His father had no business capacity, and everything
-he attempted went wrong. His mother and brother came to
-America and opened a bazar at Cincinnati, hoping to amass
-a fortune. This proved a failure, and upon returning to England,
-Mrs. Trollope wrote a book on America, which brought
-a fair compensation. For years she supported the family by
-her pen. There is indeed something heroic in her watching
-by the bedside of her dying husband and son, and writing her
-books during the intervals that the sick did not demand her
-attention. Her first book was written when she was fifty years
-of age. She wrote in all one hundred and fourteen volumes.</p>
-
-<p>Anthony Trollope’s school advantages were poor, and the
-trials of his childhood were greater than those of the average
-youth. In 1834, at the age of nineteen, he entered the postal
-service and continued in it for thirty-three years, effecting
-many valuable reforms and proving himself an efficient government
-officer.</p>
-
-<p>His literary work was done in such a manner as not to interfere
-in the least with his duties as inspector of postoffices.
-Few men have the power of will to hold themselves to the
-rigid, exacting plan of study that he imposed upon himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
-He hired a man to call him at 5:30 each morning, and his literary
-work was done between that hour and 8:30, before he
-dressed for breakfast. He did not, however, spend the whole
-of the three hours in writing. During the first half hour he
-read aloud what he had written the day before, so that his ear
-could detect any lack of harmony in expression, and that he
-might catch the spirit of his last day’s work. Can anything
-be more systematic than his method of writing a book, as told
-in his own language:</p>
-
-<p>“When I commenced a new book I always prepared a
-diary, divided into weeks, and carried it on for the period
-which I allowed myself for the completion of the work. In this
-I have entered, day by day, the number of pages I have written,
-so that if at any time I have slipped into idleness for a day
-or two, the record of that idleness has been there staring me in
-the face and demanding of me increased labor, so that the deficiency
-might be supplied.… I have allotted myself
-so many pages a week. The average number has been about
-forty. It has been placed as low as twenty, and has risen to
-one hundred and twelve. And as a page is an ambiguous
-term, my page has been made to contain two hundred and fifty
-words; and as words, if not watched, will have a tendency to
-straggle, I have had every word counted as I went. In the
-bargains I have made with publishers, I have—not, of course,
-with their knowledge, but in my own mind—undertaken always
-to supply them with so many words, and I have never put a
-book out of hand short of the number by a single word. I may
-also say that the excess has been very small. I have prided
-myself on completing my work exactly within the proposed dimensions.
-But I have prided myself especially in completing
-it within the proposed time—and I have always done so.
-There has ever been the record before me, and a week passed
-with an insufficient number of pages has been a blister to my
-eye, and a month so disgraced would have been a sorrow to
-my heart.”</p>
-
-<p>He was not satisfied to hold himself rigidly to specified hours.
-Much of the time he wrote with his watch open before him, and
-his task was to complete a page every fifteen minutes. “I have
-found that the two hundred and fifty words have been forthcoming
-as regularly as my watch went.” He seems to feel that
-the one only who has acquired a facile style can expect to produce
-a given quantity in a given time. “His language must
-come from him as music comes from the rapid touch of the
-great performer’s fingers; as words come from the mouth of
-the indignant orator; as letters fly from the fingers of the
-trained compositor; as the syllables tinkled out by little bells
-form themselves to the ear of the telegrapher.”</p>
-
-<p>In comparing himself with the authors who follow no systematic
-method of work, he says: “They have failed to write their
-best because they have seldom written at ease. I have done
-double their work—though burdened with another profession—and
-have done it almost without an effort. I have not once,
-through all my literary career, felt myself even in danger of
-being late with my task. I have known no anxiety as to
-copy.”</p>
-
-<p>In another connection he speaks of having three unpublished
-novels in his desk, and adds: “One of these has been six
-years finished, and has never seen the light since it was first
-tied up in the wrapper which now contains it. I look forward
-with some grim pleasantry to its publication after another
-period of six years, and to the declaration of the critics that it
-has been the work of a period of life at which the power of
-writing novels had passed from me.”</p>
-
-<p>His method in writing enabled him to produce books quite
-rapidly, and this accounts in part for the unpublished works on
-hand. Only once did he permit a story to appear as a serial.
-In all other cases the story was completed before the printer
-saw any part of it.</p>
-
-<p>He defends his habit of work as follows: “I have been told
-that such appliances are beneath the notice of a man of genius.
-I have never fancied myself to be a man of genius, but had I
-been so I think I might well have subjected myself to these
-trammels. Nothing, surely, is so potent as a law that may not
-be disobeyed. It has the force of the water-drop that hollows
-the stone. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the
-labors of a spasmodic Hercules.”</p>
-
-<p>His duties as a government officer required him to travel a
-great deal, and he soon learned to do much of his literary work
-while on his journeys. He wrote on a tablet while riding in
-the cars; one story was written while traveling on three different
-continents; “Lady Anna” was written while making a voyage
-from Liverpool to Australia.</p>
-
-<p>Anthony Trollope had very positive views on the subject of
-criticism. Early in his literary career he reached this conclusion:
-“I made up my mind then that, should I continue this
-trade of authorship, I would have no dealings with any critic
-on my own behalf. I would neither ask for nor deplore criticism,
-nor would I ever thank a critic for praise, or quarrel with him,
-even in my heart, for censure.” A critic of the <i>Times</i> once
-commended his books very highly. The critic afterward ventured
-to inform Mr. Trollope that he was the author of the criticism.
-The blunt reply was to the effect that he was under no
-obligations for the complimentary notice.</p>
-
-<p>He once censured a professional critic for accepting a handsome
-present from an author whose works the critic had commended.
-His idea was that the man who has received a present
-for praising a book will not feel free to criticise adversely
-the next book by the same author. He states his views at
-length on this point: “I think it may be laid down as a golden
-rule in literature that there should be no intercourse at all between
-an author and his critic. The critic, as critic, should not
-know his author, nor the author, as author, his critic.…
-Praise let the author try to obtain by wholesome effort; censure
-let him avoid, if possible, by care and industry. But when
-they come, let him take them as coming from some source
-which he cannot influence, and with which he should not meddle.”</p>
-
-<p>He once made an earnest plea that the critic’s name should
-be appended to his article, believing that this would make the
-writer more careful both of his censure and praise, and that
-the reader could determine the value of the criticism. On the
-subject of critical dishonesty he says: “If the writer will tell
-us what he thinks, though his thoughts be absolutely vague and
-useless, we can forgive him; but when he tells us what he does
-not think, actuated either by friendship or animosity, then there
-should be no pardon for him. This is the sin in modern English
-criticism of which there is most reason to complain.”</p>
-
-<p>Anthony Trollope thinks that it is wrong that a literary name
-should carry so much favor with it. He says: “I, indeed, had
-never reached a height to which praise was awarded as a matter
-of course; but there were others who sat on higher seats,
-to whom the critics brought unmeasured incense and adulation,
-even when they wrote, as they sometimes did write, trash which
-from a beginner would not have been thought worthy of the
-slightest notice. I hope no one will think that in saying this I
-am actuated by jealousy of others. Though I never reached
-that height, still I had so far progressed that that which I wrote
-was received with too much favor. The injustice which struck
-me did not consist in that which was withheld from me, but in
-that which was given to me. I felt that aspirants coming up
-below me might do work as good as mine, and probably much
-better work, and yet fail to have it appreciated.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Trollope is undoubtedly right in his general statement.
-While as a rule literary productions stand on their merits, the
-name of Tennyson or some other writer of equal fame will
-insure the sale of an article which, if written by an unknown
-writer, would be promptly rejected. Young writers need not
-complain of this. Distinguished names render articles marketable,
-and give them a commercial value that publishers can not
-ignore. To test the correctness of his theory, Mr. Trollope wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
-two novels anonymously, which were not received with favor.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Trollope’s success in a pecuniary point of view was very
-slow. During the first ten years of his literary career he did
-not receive compensation enough to buy the pens, ink and
-paper he used. Twelve years passed before he received any
-appreciable increase of salary from his books. From that time
-his compensation was good. His books brought him in all
-something like $350,000.</p>
-
-<p>The chapter that he devotes to the English novelists of his
-day is very interesting. He places Thackeray first, George
-Eliot second, and Dickens third. Most readers would perhaps
-reverse this order. Of Thackeray’s great work he says: “I
-myself regard ‘Esmond’ as the greatest novel in the English
-language, basing that judgment upon the excellence of its
-language, on the clear individuality of the characters, on the
-truth of its delineations in regard to the time selected, and on
-its great pathos.” He pays a high tribute to Charlotte Bronte,
-and then adds: “‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Esmond,’ and ‘Adam
-Bede,’ will be in the hands of our grandchildren, when ‘Pickwick’
-and ‘Pelham’ and ‘Harry Lorrequer’ are forgotten;
-because the men and women depicted are human in their aspirations,
-human in their sympathies, and human in their actions.”
-He commends Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade quite highly,
-but thinks the latter has no clear conception of literary honesty.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Trollope relates an amusing incident concerning one of
-his favorite characters. He was seated in a club room, when
-two clergymen entered and commenced to criticise his works.
-“The gravamen of their complaint lay in the fact that I introduced
-the same characters so often. ‘Here,’ said one, ‘is the
-archdeacon whom we have had in every novel he has ever
-written.’ ‘And here,’ said the other, ‘is the old duke whom
-he has talked about till everybody is tired of him. If I could
-not invent new characters, I would not write novels at all.’
-Then one of them fell foul of Mrs. Proudie. It was impossible
-for me not to hear their words, and almost impossible to hear
-them and be quiet. I got up, and standing between them, I
-acknowledged myself to be the culprit. ‘As to Mrs. Proudie,’
-I said, ‘I will go home and kill her before the week is over.’
-And so I did. The two gentlemen were utterly confounded,
-and one of them begged me to forget his frivolous observations.
-I have sometimes regretted the deed, so great was my delight
-in writing about Mrs. Proudie, … and I still live
-much in company with her ghost.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Trollope made a number of visits to the United States,
-and was in Washington at the time of the Mason and Slidell
-controversy. Mr. Sumner was opposed to giving up the men.
-Mr. Seward’s counsel prevailed with President Lincoln, and the
-men were released. He says that this “was the severest danger
-that the Northern cause encountered during the war.” He
-describes a visit to Brigham Young as follows:</p>
-
-<p>“I called upon him, sending to him my card, apologizing for
-doing so without an introduction, and excusing myself by saying
-that I did not like to pass through the territory without seeing
-a man of whom I had heard so much. He received me in
-his doorway, not asking me to enter, and inquired whether I
-were not a miner. When I told him that I was not a miner, he
-asked me whether I earned my bread. I told him I did. ‘I
-guess you’re a miner,’ said he. I again assured him that I
-was not. ‘Then how do you earn your bread?’ I told him
-that I did so by writing books. ‘I’m sure you’re a miner,’ said
-he. Then he turned upon his heel, went back into the house,
-and closed the door. I was properly punished, as I was vain
-enough to conceive that he would have heard my name.”</p>
-
-<p>This autobiography is a delightful book. The candor with
-which the writer speaks of his own books, pointing out their
-defects and calling attention to their merits, the freedom with
-which he speaks of his early struggles, his method of work,
-and his success, the spirit of fairness with which he criticises
-his contemporaries—all these reveal a mind healthy in tone, and
-call forth our hearty admiration.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="SABBATH_CHIMES">SABBATH CHIMES.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By PHEBE A. HOLDER.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">O’er the city’s restless surges,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Heaving like the ocean tide,</div>
-<div class="verse">Steals the night with hush of silence,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">And the waves of toil subside.</div>
-<div class="verse">Noiseless drops the soft, dark curtain,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">While the mighty throbbings cease,</div>
-<div class="verse">Starry eyes watch o’er the city</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Sleeping in the depths of peace.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Comes the morning fair and radiant,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Bathed in sunshine—breathing balm,</div>
-<div class="verse">Heaven’s blue dome a benediction,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">With its pure, unspotted calm,</div>
-<div class="verse">Like Jerusalem, the golden,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Coming down to earth from heaven,</div>
-<div class="verse">Clad in robes of bridal beauty</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Seems this morn the Lord has given.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">As I tread the streets, still peaceful,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Turning to the house of God,</div>
-<div class="verse">Drinking in this wondrous beauty,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">And this glory of the Lord,</div>
-<div class="verse">Through the crystal air of morning</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Ring the bells with mellow chime,</div>
-<div class="verse">In a strain of sweetest music,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Hallowed as the Sabbath time.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Like the songs I heard in childhood,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Or a sainted mother’s psalm,</div>
-<div class="verse">Fell those chimes upon my spirit</div>
-<div class="verse i2">With a holy, restful calm.</div>
-<div class="verse">Like the tones of angel voices,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Sounding from seraphic choir,</div>
-<div class="verse">Seemed this call our God to worship</div>
-<div class="verse i2">In this holy house of prayer.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Still entranced I paused to listen</div>
-<div class="verse i2">To the chiming, silvery, clear—</div>
-<div class="verse">When the thrilling strain had ended</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Yet I waited—fixed to hear;</div>
-<div class="verse">While upon my listening spirit</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Came a sense unfelt before,</div>
-<div class="verse">Of our Lord’s most precious blessing</div>
-<div class="verse i2">In the Sabbath’s holy power.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Coming like a guest from heaven</div>
-<div class="verse i2">To our earthly, toil-worn lives,</div>
-<div class="verse">A sweet influence, pure, uplifting,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">To our struggling souls it gives.</div>
-<div class="verse">Pointing with prophetic finger</div>
-<div class="verse i2">To the perfect Sabbath rest</div>
-<div class="verse">In the fair, Celestial City</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Of the sainted and the blest,—</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">As with angel voice it calls us,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Now to seek that home of light</div>
-<div class="verse">Where the gates of pearl shall open</div>
-<div class="verse i2">To the pure with garments white.</div>
-<div class="verse">Day beloved! thy blessed service</div>
-<div class="verse i2">In the temple of our God,</div>
-<div class="verse">Draws us nearer—ever nearer,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">To our glorious, risen Lord.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Still that soft and mellow cadence</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Lingers like a sacred charm,</div>
-<div class="verse">Resting on my waiting spirit</div>
-<div class="verse i2">With a touch of heavenly calm.</div>
-<div class="verse">Like a sweet-toned voice still calling</div>
-<div class="verse i2">From our home that is to be,</div>
-<div class="verse">While from out its unseen glory</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Floats celestial harmony.</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="EIGHT_CENTURIES_WITH_WALTER">EIGHT CENTURIES WITH WALTER SCOTT.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By WALLACE BRUCE.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Queen Elizabeth died March 24, 1602. James the Sixth, of
-Scotland, became James the First of the United Kingdoms.
-According to ancient prophecy the Scottish kings were to follow
-the Stone of Scone, which, it will be remembered, was
-removed to London by Edward the First. The prophecy was
-three hundred years in being fulfilled. The same strange
-Nemesis of fate, which, in the last generation, placed the grandson
-of Josephine upon the throne of France, handed the scepter
-of the haughty Elizabeth to the son of her unfortunate rival,
-Mary, Queen of Scots. But the good fortune of James only
-emphasizes the general misfortune of the Stuart family. His
-ancestral record was not a cheerful retrospect. James the First
-of Scotland was murdered. James the Second was killed by
-the bursting of a cannon. James the Third was privately slain.
-James the Fourth fell on the disastrous field of Flodden.
-James the Fifth died of a broken heart. Mary was beheaded.
-His father Darnley was murdered.</p>
-
-<p>Could he have foreseen the history of the next three generations—the
-execution of his son, Charles the First; the debauched
-reign of his grandson, Charles the Third, after his
-return from exile; and the banishment of James the Second,
-he would have found the outlook even more sad than the
-retrospect. The lines of the Stuart family did not fall in pleasant
-places. Some writer has observed that they suffered for
-the crimes of the Tudors. It may be that England had piled
-up a century of wrong which demanded atonement, but, without
-prejudice, the proverb was emphatically true, “Sufficient
-unto each reign was the evil thereof.” It must also be remembered
-that all Europe was in a ferment. The celebrated Thirty
-Years’ War was raging in Germany. Religious enthusiasm was
-asserting its power in Britain. The English and Scotch people
-were jealous of their political rights. The reign of a Scottish-born
-king, after so many centuries of bitter hate, could not be
-entirely acceptable to the English race. Both sides accused
-the king of partiality. Needy lords and nobles poured down
-from the north, and London resembled our own National
-Capital at the inauguration of a new president. The king was
-supplicated in Court, in the street, on horseback, at every
-doorway; ay, the very plate that contained his food was
-adorned with urgent request from some impatient relative of
-fifteenth or twentieth cousinship. As the Court had removed
-from Edinburgh and Scotland it seemed that Edinburgh and
-Scotland had removed to the Court. The ancient prejudice between
-Scot and English broke out in street, palace and inn.
-These are the historic events which preface the “Fortunes of
-Nigel,” and the fray between the Scottish servant and the
-’prentice boys of London, at the opening of the volume, strikes
-the keynote of universal discord.</p>
-
-<p>It was a constitutional defect of James the First to be without
-money. As Nigel, the Scottish lord, happened to need the
-loan which his father had made to the king, he presented himself
-with the old fashioned assurance of a man justly demanding
-his rights, although at the hands of a monarch. The king
-was incensed, but the young lord fortunately falls in with
-George Heriot, the wealthy Scotch jeweler “to His Majesty,”
-whose princely bequests still adorn the city of Edinburgh; but,
-unmindful of good counsel, he gradually lapses from duty,
-becomes a murderer in what he considers a matter of honor, is
-compelled to find refuge in Alsatia or Whitefriars, a sort of
-privileged den of iniquity. The portrayal of his experience in
-this nest of outlaws is true to the London of 1620.</p>
-
-<p>It is this blending of Scott’s dramatic and descriptive power
-which gives even to his minor works an enduring value. We
-have, as it were, a photograph of the great city as it appeared
-two hundred and sixty years ago. We see the Strand, a quiet
-street, unlike the noisy thoroughfare of to-day, lined on the
-river-side with palaces and pleasure grounds reaching to the
-Thames. We see Whitehall, with its rich gates designed by
-Holbein, and stately court planned by Inigo Jones. We walk
-in the park with the courtly Duke of Buckingham, talk face to
-face with the king in the palace, on the chase, in the parlor of
-the wealthy Londoner; and at the close of the volume we feel
-that Scott has justly summed up his character in this striking
-paragraph of the fifth chapter: “He was deeply learned,
-without possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in many individual
-cases, without having real wisdom; fond of his power,
-yet willing to resign the direction of that, and himself, to the
-most unworthy favorites; a big and bold asserter of his rights
-and words, yet one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds;
-a lover of negotiations, in which he was always outwitted; and
-one who feared war, where conquest might have been easy.
-He was fond of his dignity, while he was perpetually degrading
-it by undue familiarity; capable of much public labor, yet often
-neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though a
-pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the
-ignorant and uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not
-uniform; and there were moments of his life, and those critical,
-in which he showed the spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious
-in trifles, and a trifler where serious labor was required; devout
-in his sentiments, and yet too often profane in his language;
-just and beneficent by nature, he yet gave way to the iniquities
-and oppressions of others.”</p>
-
-<p>“Rokeby,” a poem, comes next in historic order. The scene is
-laid at Rokeby, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, and the date is
-immediately subsequent to the great battle of Marston Moor,
-July 3, 1644. It was here that the bold cavaliers learned a
-lesson never to be forgotten, at the hand of Puritan and Roundhead.
-The poem abounds with notable and vigorous passages.
-It throws light on the stormy years of the great Civil War; but
-so many of Scott’s novels are related to this period that we
-must dismiss the poem with a single quotation—a tribute to
-the genius of Chaucer:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">“O for that pencil, erst profuse</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Of Chivalry’s emblazoned hues,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">That traced of old in Woodstock bower</div>
-<div class="verse i1">The pageant of the Leaf and Flower,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">And bodied forth the tourney high,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Held for the hand of Emily!</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Then might I paint the tumult broad,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">That to the crowned abbey flowed;</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Paint the dejected cavalier,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Doubtful, disarmed and sad of cheer;</div>
-<div class="verse i1">And his proud foe, whose formal eye</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Claimed conquest now and mastery;</div>
-<div class="verse i1">And the brute crowd, whose envious zeal</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Huzzas each turn of Fortune’s wheel.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>“The Legend of Montrose” takes us once more into the
-Highlands of Scotland, where the same deadly feuds divide
-the clans which we witnessed in reading the “Fair Maid of
-Perth.” The Northern Highlanders, under the leadership of
-Montrose, espouse the side of King Charles. The Western
-Highlanders, under Argyle, rally on the side of Parliament.
-The picture of these two leaders is admirably drawn, as well as
-the character of their bold followers, who seemed unconscious
-of hardship; who were not only willing “to make their couch
-in the snow, but considered it effeminate luxury to use a snow-ball
-for a pillow.”</p>
-
-<p>The principal character of the book is Captain Dalgetty. A
-critic in the Edinburgh <i>Review</i> complained that there was perhaps
-too much of Dalgetty; that he engrossed too great a proportion
-of the work. But in the very next line he says that
-“the author has nowhere shown more affinity to that matchless
-spirit, who could bring out his Falstaffs and his Pistols, in act
-after act, and play after play, and exercise them every time with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
-scenes of unbounded loquacity, without exhausting their
-humor, or varying a note from its characteristic tone, than in
-his large and reiterated specimens of the eloquence of the redoubted
-Dalgetty.” Like many of the Scottish soldiers the
-captain had served under Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden,
-and never lost his enthusiasm for the Lion of the North, the
-bulwark of the Protestant faith. Dalgetty is a rare specimen
-of Scotch “canniness,” willing to hire out to the side that
-paid the most, but true to his contract when made. To him
-war was a sort of drama, and he merely engaged himself as
-one of the “star actors.” We dismiss the captain with reluctance,
-and we imagine the reader will likewise when he
-closes the volume.</p>
-
-<p>In one of the last chapters Scott treats us to a specimen of
-the lofty eloquence and undying hate of an old highland chief
-in his last words to his grandson: “In the thicket of the
-wilderness, and in the mist of the mountain, keep thou unsoiled
-the freedom which I leave thee as a birthright. Barter it neither
-for the rich garment, nor for the stone roof, nor for the covered
-board, nor for the couch of down—on the rock or in the valley,
-in abundance or in famine—in the leafy summer, and in the
-days of the iron winter—son of the mist! be free as thy forefathers.
-Own no lord—receive no law—take no hire—give no
-stipend—build no hut—enclose no pasture—sow no grain; let
-the deer of the mountains be thy flocks and herds—if these fail
-thee, prey upon the goods of our oppressors—of the Saxon and
-of such Gael as are Saxon in their souls. Remember those
-who have done kindness to our race, and pay their services
-with thy blood, should the hour require it. Farewell, beloved!
-and mayst thou die like thy forefathers, ere infirmity, disease,
-or age shall break thy spirit.”</p>
-
-<p>Robert Aytoun in his poem on the “Execution of Montrose,”
-which occurred a few years subsequent to our story, caught the
-true spirit of the Gael, in the Highlander’s address to Evan
-Cameron:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">“’Twas I that led the Highland host</div>
-<div class="verse i3">Through wild Lochaber’s snows,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">What time the plaided clans came down</div>
-<div class="verse i3">To battle with Montrose.</div>
-<div class="verse i1">I’ve told thee how the Southrons fell</div>
-<div class="verse i3">Beneath the broad claymore,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">And how we smote the Campbell clan</div>
-<div class="verse i3">By Inverlochy’s shore.</div>
-<div class="verse i1">I’ve told thee how we swept Dundee,</div>
-<div class="verse i3">And tamed the Lindsey’s pride;</div>
-<div class="verse i1">But never have I told thee yet</div>
-<div class="verse i3">How the great Marquis died.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse i1">A traitor sold him to his foes;—</div>
-<div class="verse i3">O deed of deathless shame!</div>
-<div class="verse i1">I charge thee, boy, if e’er thou meet</div>
-<div class="verse i3">With one of Assynt’s name—</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Be it upon the mountain side,</div>
-<div class="verse i3">Or yet within the glen:</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Stand he in martial gear alone,</div>
-<div class="verse i3">Or backed by armed men—</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Face him, as thou wouldst face the man</div>
-<div class="verse i3">Who wronged thy sire’s renown;</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Remember of what blood thou art,</div>
-<div class="verse i3">And strike the caitiff down!”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Between the “Legend of Montrose” and “Woodstock” stands
-a scaffold: a window is opened in the Palace of Whitehall; a
-brave but fickle king, who never lost his dignity, and rarely
-kept a promise, walks forth attended by two executioners: he
-speaks but one word to his attendant, places his head upon the
-block, and by the bravery of his death half atones for the
-crimes and mistakes of his life. As to his private character
-historians, for the most part, regard Charles the First as a
-brave, virtuous and religious man; but he entertained “extravagant
-ideas of the royal power, unsuitable to the time in
-which he lived.” His attempt to establish a National Church,
-to force upon the Presbyterians of Scotland the Common
-Prayer, and introduce a Liturgy similar to that used in England
-produced its logical result. The Star Chamber with its arbitrary
-arrests and punishments, and his idea of kingly prerogative,
-were not suited to the temper of his people; and finally he
-alienated his best friends by disregarding his word and most
-solemn contracts. The House of Commons, led by bold and
-determined men, asserted the supreme doctrine of liberty, so
-grandly emphasized one hundred years later in our Declaration
-of Independence, that “The power of the king, like any
-other power in the Constitution, was limited by the laws; and
-was liable to be legally resisted when it trespassed beyond
-them.”</p>
-
-<p>It must also be remembered, before we read the story of
-“Woodstock,” that the party which controlled the Parliament of
-England and finally brought the king to the scaffold, was
-divided into two factions: Presbyterians and Independents.
-Among the Independents were Sir Harry Vane, John Milton
-and Oliver Cromwell. So much for the introduction to “Woodstock,”
-which opens with a picture showing the cavaliers
-crushed under the iron heel of Cromwell. The time of the tale
-is 1652; and the story begins with a rather discordant service
-in the church or chapel of St. John. The defaced walls and
-broken windows reveal the fanaticism or spite which too often
-attends the spirit of liberty. We are presented with a rude
-scuffle between a Presbyterian and Independent preacher in a
-pulpit formerly belonging to the Established Church, in which
-the Independent preacher wins the victory; and the chapter
-is symbolic of the great struggle, not only in the religious, but
-also in the political condition of Britain. The incident is a
-fitting preface to the book, in which Independent, Presbyterian
-and Royalist are shaken together as in a kaleidoscope.</p>
-
-<p>The story humorously gives us the old-time belief that Woodstock
-was a haunted spot; and Scott refers in his preface to a
-book, printed in London in the year 1660, bearing the sombre
-title of “The Just Devil of Woodstock; or a true narrative of
-the several apparitions, the fights and punishments inflicted
-upon the rumpish commissioners sent thither to survey the
-manors and houses belonging to his Magestie.” The sad story
-of the fair Rosamond, murdered here by Queen Eleanor, was
-well calculated to make the ghostly apparitions more real; at
-least, the place was tragic enough to impress the superstitious of
-that generation. But the great value of this novel, apart from
-the picture of the times, consists in the portrayal of a living,
-breathing Cromwell; such a Cromwell as no history gives, but
-<i>the</i> Cromwell who appears as the resultant of them all; a man
-of deep emotion, wary in council and unwavering in execution,
-a man without a single grace of oratory, who, by the force of
-character, assumed and kept the leadership of the House of
-Commons; in whose presence the bravest men stood lost in
-fear and wonder. Or, as Scott beautifully puts it: “So true
-it is, that as greater lights swallow up and extinguish the display
-of those which are less, so men of great, capacious, and
-overruling minds, bear aside and subdue, in their climax of
-passion, the more feeble wills and passions of others; as, when
-a river joins a brook, the fiercer torrent shoulders aside the
-smaller stream.”</p>
-
-<p>There is one other sketch which claims our attention—that
-of the disguised wanderer, Charles the Second, revered by
-Royalist, and pursued by the ruling party as an outcast. “No
-person on earth,” Scott says, “could better understand the
-society in which he moved; exile had made him acquainted
-with life in all its shades and varieties—his spirits, if not uniform,
-were elastic—he had that species of Epicurean philosophy
-which, even in the most extreme difficulties and dangers, can
-in an interval of ease, however brief, avail itself of the enjoyments
-of the moment—he was, in short, in youth and misfortune,
-as afterward in his regal condition, a good-humored but hard-hearted
-voluptuary, wise, save where his passions intervened,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>
-beneficent, save where prodigality had deprived him of the
-means, or prejudice of the wish to confer benefits—his faults
-such as might have often drawn down hatred, but that they
-were mingled with so much urbanity, that the injured person
-felt it impossible to retain the full sense of his wrongs.”</p>
-
-<p>During his wandering he was entertained for a time at the
-home of the old knight, Sir Henry Lee, proprietor of Woodstock.
-The attachment formed for the old knight and his
-family affords Scott material for one of those dramatic descriptions
-in which he always so much delighted.</p>
-
-<p>It was the 29th of May. All England sang. “The king enjoys
-his own again.” “He made his progress from Rochester
-to London, with a reception on the part of his subjects so
-unanimously cordial, as made him say gaily, it must have been
-his own fault to stay so long away from a country where his
-arrival gave so much joy. On horseback, betwixt his two
-brothers, the dukes of York and Gloucester, the restored
-monarch trode slowly over roads strewn with flowers—by conduits
-running wine, under triumphal arches, and through
-streets hung with tapestry. There were citizens in various
-bands, some arrayed in coats of black velvet, with gold chains,
-some in military suits of cloth of gold, or cloth of silver, followed
-by all those craftsmen, who, having hooted the father
-from Whitehall, had now come to shout the son into possession
-of his ancestral palace. On his passage through Blackheath
-he passed that army, which, so long formidable to England
-herself, as well as to Europe, had been the means of restoring
-the monarchy which their own hands had destroyed. As the
-king passed the last files of this formidable host he came to an
-open part of the heath, where many persons of quality, with
-others of inferior rank, had stationed themselves to gratulate
-him as he passed toward the capital.</p>
-
-<p>“There was one group, however, which attracted particular
-attention from those around, on account of the respect shown
-to the party by the soldiers who kept the ground, and who,
-whether Cavaliers or Roundheads, seemed to contest emulously
-which should contribute most to their accommodation; for
-both the elder and younger of the party had been distinguished
-in the Civil War.</p>
-
-<p>“It was a family group, of which the principal figure was an
-old man seated in a chair, having a complacent smile on his
-face, and a tear swelling to his eye, as he saw the banners
-wave on in interminable succession, and heard the multitude
-shouting the long-silenced acclamation, ‘God save King
-Charles!’ His cheek was ashy pale, and his long beard
-bleached like the thistle down; his blue eye was cloudless, yet
-it was obvious that his vision was failing. His motions were
-feeble, and he spoke little, except when he answered the prattle
-of his grandchildren or asked a question of his daughter, who
-sat beside him, matured in matronly beauty. A gigantic dog,
-which bore the signs of being at the extremity of canine life,
-with eyes dim, and head slouched down, exhibiting only the
-ruin of his former appearance, formed a remarkable figure in
-the group.</p>
-
-<p>“And now the distant clarions announced the royal presence.
-Onward came pursuivant and trumpet—onward came plumes
-and cloth of gold, and waving standards displayed, and swords
-gleaming to the sun; and, at length, heading a group of the
-noblest in England, supported by his royal brothers on either
-side, onward came King Charles. The monarch gazed an
-instant on the party, sprung from his horse, and walked
-instantly up to the old knight, amid thundering acclamations
-of the people, when they saw Charles with his own hand oppose
-the feeble attempts of the old man to rise to do him homage.
-Gently placing him on his seat—‘Bless,’ he said, ‘father—bless
-your son, who has returned in safety, as you blessed him
-when he departed in danger.’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Excuse me for having made you wait, my lords,’ said the
-king as he mounted his horse. ‘Indeed, had it not been for
-these good folks, you might have waited for me long enough
-to little purpose. Move on, sirs.’ The array moved on accordingly;
-the sound of trumpet and drum again rose amid the
-acclamations; but the knight had relapsed into earthly paleness;
-his eyes were closed and opened not again. They ran
-to his assistance, but it was too late. The light that burned so
-low in the socket had leaped up and expired, in one exhilarating
-flash.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="GEOGRAPHY_OF_THE_HEAVENS">GEOGRAPHY OF THE HEAVENS FOR APRIL.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Prof. M. B. GOFF</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>THE SUN.</h3>
-
-<p>The sun’s light “exceeds in intensity any that can be produced
-by artificial means, the electric light between charcoal
-points being the only one that does not look absolutely black
-against the unclouded sun.” “The heat thrown out from every
-square yard of the sun’s surface is greater than that which
-would be produced by burning six tons of coal on it each hour.
-Now, we may take the surface of the sun roughly at 2,284,000,000,000
-square miles, and there are 3,097,600 square yards in
-each square mile.” A little calculation will show how many
-tons of coal must be burnt in an hour to represent the sun’s
-heat.</p>
-
-<p>There comes also from the sun chemical force, which separates
-carbon from oxygen, and turns the gas, which, were it
-to accumulate, would kill all men and animals, into the life of
-plants, thus preserving the animal and building up the vegetable
-world. Whether it can keep up this amount of light and
-heat throughout the “endless ages,” we have no means of knowing.
-We have, however, no evidence even during centuries of
-any loss of either, so that we may safely say that there will be
-an abundance of both for all the time in which we are interested.</p>
-
-<p>On the 25th of this month there will be a partial eclipse, beginning
-at 1:00 p. m., Washington mean time, in longitude
-82° 3.5′ west, latitude 59° 12.3′ south. The greatest obscuration
-(about .75) will occur at 2:46.4 p. m. in longitude 4° 26.7′
-east, latitude 70° 48.2′ south; will end at 4:32.4 p. m. in longitude
-12° 20.6′ east, latitude 33° 6.7′ south. As it will be visible
-only in the extreme southern part of the western continent and
-in the south Atlantic Ocean, no importance is attached to its
-occurrence.</p>
-
-<p>The most careless must have observed the increase in the
-amount of daylight in the northern hemisphere since the 21st
-of last December. On the first of the present month the sun
-rises at 5:43 a. m. and sets at 6:25 p. m.; on the 30th it rises at
-4:59 a. m. and sets at 6:55 p. m., so that the increase in “day’s
-length,” as we are accustomed to call it, will be one hour and
-seven minutes. To set our time pieces, we must, when the sun
-is on the meridian, on the 1st, make them indicate 12:37 p. m.;
-on the 15th, 11:59.8 a. m.; on the 30th, 11:57 a. m. On the 1st
-day breaks at 4:04; on the 30th at 3:09. In latitude 41° 30′
-north the sun will, on the 30th, reach an altitude of 63° 33′
-above the horizon, the highest for the month.</p>
-
-<h3>THE MOON’S</h3>
-
-<p class="unindent">Phases for the month occur in the following order and time
-(Washington mean time): First quarter on the 2d at 4:09 p. m.;
-full moon on the 10th at 6:36 a. m.; last quarter on the 18th at
-10:46 a. m.; new moon on the 25th at 9:49 a. m. It is also on
-the meridian on the 1st, 15th and 30th, at 5:18 p. m., 3:38 a. m.,
-5:03 p. m. respectively. On the 2d it sets at 12:41 a. m.; on the
-15th rises at 11:23 p. m.; and on the 29th sets at 11:28 p. m.
-It is farthest from the earth on the 13th at 1:30 p. m.; and
-nearest to the earth on the 26th at 3:42 a. m. In latitude 41°
-30′ north, its least elevation above the horizon is on the 15th,
-and its greatest on the 28th; on the former date being 29° 48½′,
-and on the latter 67° 12½′. There will also be a total eclipse,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
-beginning on the 10th at 4:44 a. m., and ending at 8:33 a. m.
-The beginning of the part called “total” continues from 5:52
-to 7:25 a. m., or one hour and thirty-three minutes. Magnitude
-nearly 1.5. As the moon sets in the neighborhood of Washington
-at about 5:30 a. m., only the first part and none of the
-“totality” will be there visible. Our neighbor, the moon, has
-one peculiar trait, which we could wish belonged to all our
-friends. It never “turns its back on you.” Cold it may be,
-and is often so called, but in darkest hours, and under all circumstances,
-it presents its face to the earth. It may be only
-politeness or etiquette, that causes it thus to act; but the fact
-remains. It may move a trifle, so that we can sometimes see
-more of it than at others, but four-sevenths is the limit of its
-surface as seen by man. What may be on the other side has
-never been revealed. For aught we know, there may be</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">“Sweet fields arrayed in living green,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">And rivers of delight.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But the probabilities are strongly on the other side. So far as
-we can discover, no atmosphere is there to catch and hold the
-rays from the burning sun, and hence it seems that all must be
-cold and bleak and barren. “Distance lends enchantment to
-the view,” and it were perhaps better that we should thus enjoy
-its mild light and gentle influence, than cultivate a closer
-acquaintance.</p>
-
-<h3>MERCURY.</h3>
-
-<p>The planet enjoying the distinction of being the nearest to
-the center of our system is too near the “dazzling brightness”
-to permit our finding out much about its physical constitution.
-We suppose, but do not know, that it revolves on its axis. We
-guess that it has satellites, but no one is certain that he ever
-saw one of them. We used to think it must be a very warm
-planet; but now we think it might perhaps be a moderately
-comfortable place for a mortal to reside. The fact is, what we
-do not know about it is much more than what we do know;
-and what we know about it for this month is nearly as follows:
-On the 1st, 15th, 25th and 30th it will rise after the sun, and
-will not be visible to the unaided eye; but on the same dates
-it will set at 6:32, 7:03, 8:37 and 8:35 p. m., respectively, and
-can therefore be easily seen after sunset from the 20th to the
-end of the month by anybody who will take the pains to look
-for it—that is, within the latitude in which most of our readers
-live. It reaches its most easterly limit (20° 32′) at 9:00 p. m.
-on the evening of the 25th, and approaches so much nearer to
-us during the month as to cause its diameter to appear nearly
-twice as large—that is, to increase from 5″ to 9″. On the 21st
-at 2:00 a. m. it will be 4° 20′ north of Neptune, and on the 26th
-at 5:55 p. m., 5° 47′ north of the moon.</p>
-
-<h3>VENUS,</h3>
-
-<p class="unindent">The most friendly of our planets, who comes so close at times
-as to seem to be within “hailing distance” (only twenty-five
-millions of miles), is still our delight. She grows brighter and
-more beautiful as time moves on. Her motion for the month
-is direct and amounts to 34° 16′ 3″. Her diameter shows an
-increase of 5.4″. From our present acquaintance we learn
-that she sometimes shines so brightly as to be visible in daylight
-to the naked eye, and at night, in the absence of the
-moon, to cast a shadow. When viewed through a telescope,
-she presents phases like the moon; and in some respects she
-is very much like our earth. For example, her size is not more
-than 4 per cent. less, and her density and force of gravity must
-be nearly the same. Her days are supposed to be a little
-shorter than ours, and her years are known to be equal to 224⅔ of
-our days. On the 1st, 15th and 30th she will rise at 7:32, 7:25
-and 7:26 a. m., and set at 10:04, 10:31 and 10:48 p. m., respectively.
-On the 2d, at 11:00 p. m., she will be nearest the sun;
-on the 25th, at 11:00 p. m., 4° 13′ north of Saturn; on the 28th,
-at 2:41 p. m., 7° 53′ north of the moon.</p>
-
-<h3>MARS.</h3>
-
-<p>Of this planet we have little to report. He continues his
-direct motion, which amounts to 9° 30′ 34″. As he and the
-earth are getting farther apart, his diameter (apparently) diminishes
-from 10″ to 8″. He rises on the 1st, 15th and 30th
-at 12:27 p. m., 11:54 a. m., and 11:24 a. m., and sets on the
-2d, 16th, and May 1st at 3:09, 2:22, and 1:38 a. m., respectively.
-On the 4th, at 10:26 a. m., his position is 8° 10′ north of the
-moon, and on the 1st a little northeast of the nebula <i>Præsepe</i>
-in <i>Cancer</i>.</p>
-
-<h3>JUPITER</h3>
-
-<p class="unindent">Continues to be evening star, coming to the meridian on the
-1st, 15th and 30th, at 7:04, 6:13 and 5:20 p. m., and setting on
-the 2d, 16th, and May 1st at 2:24, 1:32 and 12:38 a. m. His
-motion, which is direct, amounts during the month to 4° 27′
-33″. His diameter diminishes from 37.8″ to 34.6″, an indication
-that our distance from him is increasing. On the 3d, at
-1:52 p. m., he is 6° north of the moon; and on the 14th, at 7:00
-p. m., 90° west of the sun.</p>
-
-<h3>SATURN</h3>
-
-<p class="unindent">Continues his position not far from the bright star <i>Aldebaran</i>,
-in the constellation Taurus, on the 1st being about 2° 53′ west
-and 3° 32′ north, while on the 30th he will be about 30′ east
-and 4° 7½′ north of this star. His motion is direct and
-amounts to 3° 24′. Diameter diminishes from 16.2″ on the
-1st to 15.8″ on the 30th. Setting at 10:47, 9:59 and 9:09 p. m.
-on the 1st, 15th and 30th he will be evening star throughout
-the month. On the 12th, at 11:00 p. m., is 4° 13′ south of Venus,
-and on the 27th, at 1:56 p. m., 2° 19′ north of the moon.</p>
-
-<h3>URANUS,</h3>
-
-<p class="unindent">Formerly and still sometimes called Herschel, from the name
-of its discoverer, Dr. Herschel, has made but about one and
-one-fifth revolutions about the sun, since its discovery in 1781,
-more than a century ago. It is now near the star <i>Beta Virginis</i>,
-and making a retrograde motion of about 56′ 30″ in 30
-days. Its diameter is 3.8″. It rises at 4:53 p. m., 3:55 p. m.
-and 2:54 p. m. on the 1st, 15th and 30th, and sets at 5:09 a. m.,
-4:13 a. m. and 3:13 a. m. on the 2d, 16th, and May 1st. On the
-6th, at 6:27 a. m., it is 3° 27′ north of the moon. Is evening
-star during the month.</p>
-
-<h3>NEPTUNE</h3>
-
-<p class="unindent">Is evening star, setting at 9:24, 8:32 and 7:28 p. m. on the 1st,
-15th and 30th, respectively. Its motion, 1° 2′ 37″, is direct.
-Diameter, 2.6″. On the 21st, at 2:00 a. m., 4° 20′ south of
-Mercury, and on the same day will set about fifteen minutes
-later than said planet. On the 26th, at 8:27 a. m., 44′ north of
-moon.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Earnestness.</span>—Without earnestness there is nothing to be
-done in life; yet even among the people whom we call men of
-culture, but little earnestness is often to be found; in labors
-and employments, in arts, nay, even in recreations, they plant
-themselves, if I may say so, in an attitude of self-defense; they
-live, as they read a heap of newspapers, only to be done with
-them. They remind one of that young Englishman at Rome,
-who told, with a contented air, one evening in some company,
-that “to-day he had despatched six churches and two galleries.”
-They wish to know and learn a multitude of things, and not
-seldom exactly those things with which they have the least concern;
-and they never see that hunger is not appeased by snapping
-at the air. When I become acquainted with a man my
-first inquiry is: With what does he occupy himself, and how,
-and with what degree of perseverance? The answer regulates
-the interest I take in that man for life.… I reverence
-the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes; who
-unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his
-object, and can seize and use them. How far his object may
-be great or little, may merit praise or censure, is a secondary
-consideration with me.—<i>Goethe.</i></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="EDGAR_ALLAN_POE">EDGAR ALLAN POE.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE LITERARY ISHMAEL.</span></h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By C. E. BISHOP.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Less is known while more is written and disputed about Edgar
-Allan Poe, than about any other character in American literature.
-In the narrative of his life there are gaps of months and years
-in which nothing can be told of his whereabouts or acts; and as
-if to atone for this lack he is at other times credited with feats
-of ubiquity. There are also stories of a quixotic mission to
-fight for Greek independence, <i>a la</i> Byron; of his escapades in
-St. Petersburg; of enlistment in and desertion from the United
-States army; of phenomenally protracted debauches, during
-which he threw off the most wonderful productions of his pen—most
-of which stories, so far as can be shown now, were
-evolved from the inner consciousness of those writers who,
-upon his death, “woke to ecstacy, the living liars,” to blacken
-his name.</p>
-
-<p>A general reason for this paucity of particulars may be found,
-perhaps, in Poe’s enforced seclusion from the public by the exigencies
-of poverty during much of his life, and the low rank
-of authors in the general estimation of the times; a special
-reason may be that Poe’s literary executor and biographer, Dr.
-Griswold, to whom in his lifetime he had entrusted all the material
-he ever furnished any one, suppressed the facts and substituted
-inventions, in order to assassinate the character of the
-dead poet. For twenty-six years Poe’s body rested in an unmarked
-grave, and his character was buried under a living
-heap of obloquy. When at last, in 1875, a few devoted women
-of Baltimore sought to redeem both tombs, nearly all the
-contemporary witnesses to his acts were dead. It was not until
-twenty-six years after the event that Dr. Moran, who had
-attended Poe’s last illness, broke silence and put to rest the story
-that he died in the midst of a drunken debauch in the streets
-of Baltimore. “There was no smell of liquor upon his person
-or breath, and no delirium or tremor,” says this tardy vindicator.
-It was 1878 (twenty-nine years late) when Mrs. Weiss, of
-Richmond, told the story of his last visit to that city, and contradicted
-Griswold’s story of his engagement with Mrs. Stalton,
-and his prolonged inebriety there. It was later still, when the
-posthumous letter of Mrs. Whitman, of Providence, was published,
-silencing the long-accepted tale of Poe’s engagement to
-her, and his disreputable conduct and intemperance the evening
-before they were to have been married. Many chivalrous
-pens now—alas! too late—essayed his defense; but his true
-history has not yet been written, and it probably never will be.
-Dr. Johnson’s summary of Butler’s life almost literally applies
-to Poe’s: “The date of his birth is doubtful, the mode and
-place of his education unknown, the events of his life are variously
-related, and all that can be told with certainty is that
-he was poor.”</p>
-
-<p>“The persistent and palpably malignant efforts to damn him
-with some drops of faint praise and some oceans of strong
-abuse,”<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> have, indeed, produced a reactionary tendency
-toward panegyric, since the angels rolled the stone away from
-his tomb. The best any one can now do is to pity the man and
-admire his works, and weigh probabilities. A careful view as
-well of his time as of his character and environment is necessary.
-Premising that I am not so presumptuous as to expect to
-add much to the general fund of misinterpretation of his acts
-and misunderstanding of his character, a brief summary of the
-less controverted features of this history is submitted.</p>
-
-<p>In “that stray child of Poetry and Passion” concentered hot
-Celtic and Southern blood, stimulated upon his father’s side by
-drink, upon his mother’s by the artificial surroundings of an actress’s
-life, and in both intensified by a runaway marriage, followed
-by a joint “barn-storming” life. Himself an inter-act, his
-nursery was the green room, his necessary nourishment narcotics.
-It is a sad thing to say, but probably one of the few fortunate
-circumstances of his life was that his parents died in his
-infancy—one of his many misfortunes was to have been adopted
-and raised by a wealthy family (Mr. Allan’s of Baltimore).
-He was born in 1809, or 1811, in either Boston, Baltimore or
-Richmond, through all of which he, living, “begged his
-bread,” <i>a la</i> Homer. The Allans assiduously spoiled the child
-with unlimited money, indulgence and praise. It was easy,
-for he was rarely beautiful, affectionate, and precocious; he
-recited with marvelous childish effect, spun webs of imaginative
-stories, and composed rhymes. “He lisped in numbers,
-for the numbers came,” and when he was nine or ten years old
-his proud foster-father seriously contemplated issuing a volume
-of his baby-verse, but was dissuaded by the boy’s tutor, who
-said he had conceit enough already, and such additional celebrity
-would probably ruin his prospects.</p>
-
-<p>Edgar was schooled in England, at the University of Virginia,
-and at West Point, but he must have picked up independently
-of schools and school masters the varied culture
-which shows in his versatile writings—especially his acquaintance
-with science, psychology and literature. At these schools
-he was distinguished alike for fast learning and fast living—his
-easy absorption of the branches he liked, his utter revulsion
-against those he did not like (mathematics, notably), for his
-literary and critical tastes, athletic exercises, and the lavishness
-with which he scattered his guardian’s money. These characteristics
-won him the jealousy of his plodding classmates, distinction
-at the university, expulsion from West Point, and quarrels
-with his foster-father. Over-indulgence by parents produced
-the usual result of disrespect and ingratitude in the youth; and
-the marriage of Mr. Allan to a second wife, and the birth of
-heirs to his estates brought about a final separation and a disinheritance
-of the adopted son, and so Edgar, at about his majority
-age, was thrown on his own resources. He chose literature
-as his profession, and doomed himself to poverty, anguish,
-professional jealousy (especially strong among authors), triumphs,
-defeats, ruin and insanity.</p>
-
-<p>Poe’s real début in letters was in 1833, when (ætat 24) he won
-a prize of a hundred dollars offered by the proprietor of <i>The
-Saturday Visitor</i>, Baltimore, for the best story. Better than
-the money, the contest brought him the friendship of the
-judges, and about a year later the editorship of <i>The Southern
-Literary Messenger</i>, Richmond, at ten dollars a week. The
-intervening year is one of the blanks.</p>
-
-<p>The Richmond editorship marks a turning point in Poe’s career.
-He made the fortune of the <i>Messenger</i>; married (’35) his
-cousin, Virginia Clem; and first began that line of work which
-is, in my opinion, its distinctive feature, as it certainly proved
-to be decisive of his destiny—to-wit: criticism. He published
-in some issues as much as thirty or forty pages of book reviews.
-They created a tempest; for, rare as is his imagery and wonderful
-as is his imagination, Poe’s distinguishing mental characteristic
-is analysis. He is more logician than poet, more
-metaphysician than romancer.</p>
-
-<p>Poe subsequently (’37-’38) edited the <i>Gentlemen’s Magazine</i>,
-and then <i>Graham’s Magazine</i>, both in Philadelphia, and in ’44
-we find him in New York, employed on the <i>Mirror</i>, the journal
-of the poets N. P. Willis and George P. Morris. In Philadelphia
-he did the best work of his life in romance and criticism.
-Here, too, he made the acquaintance of his evil genius, Dr.
-Griswold. Poe believed that Griswold supplanted him from
-the editorship of <i>Graham’s</i>; G.’s subsequent enmity, while
-professing friendship, was of the unforgiving nature that often
-comes of the consciousness of having inflicted a secret wrong
-on another. The only other causes of disagreement between
-them alleged are that Poe criticised Griswold’s book in a lecture,
-and that Griswold attempted to buy a favorable criticism
-from Poe’s pen. But they were outwardly friendly, after a
-reconciliation, till Poe’s voice and pen were beyond the power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
-of response. The work of detraction had preceded Poe to New
-York, for Mr. Willis writes of this engagement:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“With the highest admiration for his genius, and a willingness to let
-it alone for more than ordinary irregularity, we were led by common report
-to expect a very capricious attention to his duties, and occasionally
-a scene of violence and difficulty. Time went on, however, and he was
-invariably punctual and industrious. To our occasional request that he
-would not probe too deep in a criticism, or that he would erase a passage
-colored too highly with his resentments against society and mankind,
-he readily and courteously assented—far more yielding than most
-men, we thought, on points so excusably sensitive. Through all this
-considerable period we had seen but one presentment of the man—a
-quiet, patient, industrious, and most gentlemanly person, commanding
-the utmost respect and good feeling by his unvarying deportment and
-ability.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In 1845 appeared the work on which Poe’s poetic fame most
-depends, that poem in which he wedded Despair to Harmony,
-“The Raven.” It marks the acme of his life, also; his star
-declined rapidly thereafter. His wife, who bore the hereditary
-taint of consumption, was in a decline; care and anxiety on
-that account, and his own ill health, took away his ability to
-write and he was without means of support. He was driven to
-ask loans from one or two friends, and by a fatality such as he
-sometimes made to drive his fictitious characters upon their
-worst expedients, he chose Dr. Griswold as one of them. “Can
-you not send me five dollars?” he pleaded with G.; “I am ill
-and Virginia is almost gone.” This and one or two other such
-letters Griswold published, in connection with his slanders on
-Poe’s character, to give his attack the cover of friendly sincerity.
-Something was published in New York papers regarding
-the distress of the Poes, and a lady friend (Mrs. Shew)
-visited them at Fordham. The worst was confirmed.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“There was no clothing on the bed—which was only straw—but a
-snow-white spread and sheets. The weather was cold, and the sick lady
-had the dreadful chills that accompany the hectic fever of consumption.
-She lay on the straw bed, wrapped in her husband’s great coat, with a
-large tortoise-shell cat in her bosom. The wonderful cat seemed conscious
-of her great usefulness. The coat and the cat were the sufferer’s
-only means of warmth, except as her husband held her hands and her
-mother her feet.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mrs. Poe died January 30, 1847. Captain Mayne Reid, the
-novelist, who visited often at her house, thus describes her:</p>
-
-<p>“No one who remembers that dark-eyed, dark-haired
-daughter of the South; her face so exquisitely lovely; her gentle,
-graceful demeanor; no one who has ever spent an hour in
-her society but will endorse what I have said of this lady, who
-was the most delicate realization of the poet’s ideal.”</p>
-
-<p>Another said: “She had large, black eyes, and a pearly
-whiteness of complexion which was a perfect pallor. Her pale
-face, her brilliant eyes, and her raven hair gave her an unearthly
-look. One felt that she was almost a disrobed spirit.”</p>
-
-<p>After this Poe’s decline was rapid. He was ill for a long
-time, and never quite recovered his mental balance. In the
-autumn of this year he visited Mrs. Shew, his benefactress.
-She says that at this time, under the combined influence of her
-gentle urgency, a cup of tea and the sound of neighboring
-church bells, he wrote the first draft of “The Bells.” She
-adds:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“My brother took Poe to his own room, where he slept twelve hours
-and could hardly recall the evening’s work. This showed his mind was
-injured—nearly gone out for want of food and from disappointment.
-He had not been drinking and had only been a few hours from home.
-Evidently his vitality was low, and he was nearly insane. I called in
-Dr. Francis (the old man was odd but very skilful), who was one of
-our neighbors. His words were, ‘He has heart disease and will die
-early in life.’ We did not waken him, but let him sleep.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Since I began writing this paper I have heard recited in a
-company of literary people an account of Poe’s staggering into
-a stranger’s house at midnight, calling for a pen and dashing
-off “The Bells;” then falling into a drunken stupor on the
-library table. It was evidently believed by the narrator, despite
-Mrs. Shew’s circumstantial and more rational account.</p>
-
-<p>During these dark days, as indeed during all Poe’s adult life,
-Mrs. Clem was his guardian angel. The poet Willis touchingly
-draws this picture of devotion:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“It was a hard fate that she was watching over. Mr. Poe wrote with
-fastidious difficulty, and in a style too much above the popular level to
-be well paid. He was always in pecuniary difficulty and, with his sick
-wife, frequently in want of the merest necessaries of life. Winter after
-winter, for years, the most touching sight to us in this whole city has
-been that tireless minister to genius, thinly and insufficiently clad, going
-from office to office with a poem or an article on some literary subject to
-sell—sometimes simply pleading in a broken voice that ‘he was ill,’
-whatever might be the reason for his writing nothing—and never, amid
-all her tears and recitals of distress, suffering one syllable to escape her
-lips that would convey a doubt of him, or a complaint, or a lessening of
-pride in his genius and good intentions. Her daughter died a year and
-a half since, but she did not desert him. She continued his ministering
-angel, living with him, caring for him, guarding him against exposure,
-and when he was carried away by temptation, amid grief and the loneliness
-of feeling unreplied to, and awoke from his self-abandonment prostrated
-in destitution and suffering, begging for him still. If woman’s
-devotion, born with a first love and fed with human passion, hallows its
-object, as it is allowed to do, what does not a devotion like this—pure,
-disinterested and holy as the watch of an invisible spirit—say for him
-who inspired it.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>By this test, Poe’s was always a pure nature, for he inspired
-respect, pity and regard in every woman he came in contact
-with. It was a reflex sentiment, for Poe revered woman, and
-there is not in all his writings an impure suggestion or an indelicate
-word.</p>
-
-<p>The rest of the history is one of occasional indulgence in intoxicants
-and rarely intermitting mental aberration. It is to
-him during these last months of his unhappy career that the
-least charity has been extended. He conducted a courtship of
-three ladies at once, making to each like frantic protestations
-of love, the same despairing appeals to each to become his
-savior from some dreadful impending fate. In June, ’49, he
-departed for Richmond, for what purpose is unknown. In
-Philadelphia he appeared the subject of a hallucination that he
-was pursued by conspirators, and had his mustache taken off
-for the sake of disguise. In Richmond he remained until the
-latter part of September, writing some and renewing old acquaintances.
-During these three or four months he was twice
-known to be overcome and in danger of his life from drink; he
-was credited with having been almost continuously “in a state
-of beastly intoxication” during the whole time. Mrs. Weiss
-thinks that this was one of the brightest and happiest seasons
-of his life; if so, it was light at its eventide. The return voyage
-is shrouded—that is the fit word—shrouded in mystery and
-controversy.</p>
-
-<p>This seems to be true—that he was taken up unconscious in
-Baltimore at daybreak, taken to a hospital, and died there at
-midnight of the same day (October 7, 1849). It is also known
-that he left Richmond by boat on the evening of the 4th, he
-then being sober and cheerful. In proper course he must have
-arrived in Baltimore the night of the 5th or morning of the
-6th; he was himself then, for he removed his trunk to a hotel.
-There was thus left less than twenty-four hours in which for
-him to travel to Havre de Grace and back, miss the New York
-connection, vote eleven times in the Baltimore city election,
-go through the “prolonged debauch,” fall into the delirium,
-and lapse into the comatose state in which he was found—as
-described in most of his biographies; and he immediately
-thereafter is found to have no smell of liquor about him, no
-tremor, and is conversing rationally when roused to consciousness.</p>
-
-<p>The event was announced by Griswold in the <i>Tribune</i> with
-this brutal bluntness:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Edgar Allan Poe is dead. This announcement will startle
-many, but few will be grieved by it. He had few or no friends.”
-But the <i>Southern Literary Messenger</i> said: “Now that he is
-gone, the vast multitude of blockheads may breathe again.”
-Griswold simply elected himself mouthpiece of that host.</p>
-
-<p>On Poe’s supersensitive organization stimulants told with
-fearful effect. Mrs. Clem said “A single cup of coffee would
-intoxicate him.” N. P. Willis explained the vagaries and sins
-of Poe by supposing him to be possessed of two antagonistic
-spirits, a devil and an angel, each having complete mastery of
-him by turns. But, says Willis, “With a single glass of wine
-his whole nature was reversed, the demon became uppermost
-and, though none of the usual signs of intoxication were visible,
-his will was palpably insane. He easily seemed personating
-only another phase of his natural character, and was accused
-accordingly of insulting arrogance and bad heartedness. It
-was a sad infirmity of physical constitution which puts it upon
-very nearly the ground of temporary and almost irresponsible
-insanity.”</p>
-
-<p>That these lapses were infrequent, instead of almost continuous,
-we have plenty of testimony from those who were
-much with him as business associates and inmates of the same
-house. “I have never seen him otherwise than gentle, generous,
-well-bred and particularly refined,” is a certificate of one
-who was intimate in the family, which was confirmed by many
-witnesses of different periods and places. The poet Swinburne
-was probably right in declaring that Poe’s inebriety was “the
-<i>effect</i> of a terrible evil, rather than its <i>cause</i>.” That evil lay
-not alone, perhaps not chiefly, in his inherited and educated
-predisposition to indulgence and his morbidness of mentality;
-but in the character and consequences of his chiefest literary
-work.</p>
-
-<p>It is a hard enough lot, under the best circumstances and in
-the best times, to live by the pen. The characteristics as well
-of Poe’s genius as of his times made that lot a doom for him.
-The rewards of authorship were on an eleemosynary scale
-(Poe received only $10 for “The Raven,” and $10 a week as
-editor-in-chief of a magazine: the <i>North American Review</i>
-then paid only $2 a page for matter); literary taste was unformed
-and, worst of all, the market was drugged and cheapened
-and the best public appreciation perverted by a silly
-school of writer who had arisen—similar to the “Della Crusca
-School” which a few years before had infested literature in
-England. Their lucubrations were both barren of ideas and
-bad in style. It was the lollipop stage of our literature. Now
-Poe possessed in high degree two parts which, when addressed
-to criticism, would most offend these callow writers, to-wit:
-The musical sense of language, and marvelous analytical
-powers. The most obvious quality of his poetic style is its
-rhythm. The musical ear led him to adopt refrains and
-euphonious syllables, like “Never more,” “Lenore,” “bells,”
-and to dwell on their cadence; it made a bad composition distract
-him as a discord does a sensitive musician. For him
-divine harmonies lay in the relation of words to each other, as
-if they had been notes.</p>
-
-<p>Coupled with this, to him, uncomfortable sensitiveness to
-verbal sounds, was his almost superhuman power of dissecting
-thought—extremely uncomfortable to others, even to the best
-of writers. Thus gifted with a mental touch equally for the
-substance of language and the substance of thought which
-language struggles to give birth to; possessed of the power of
-an eager and a nipping sarcasm and an infernal courage, fortified
-with extensive reading and a retentive memory, Poe became
-a scourge to mediocrity, imitation, sham and pretense.
-There could not have been a more critical time for such a man
-to attempt a livelihood at letters; there could not have been a
-man better fitted to work havoc among the essayists and poetasters
-of the day, to compel literary reform and to bring misfortunes
-on himself. “He elected himself chief justice of the
-court of criticism and head hangman of dunces,” says Stoddard.
-“He hated a bad book as a misdemeanor.” Burton, proprietor
-of the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, remonstrated with Poe
-against the severity of some of his book reviews. “You say,”
-said he to Poe, “that the people love havoc; I think they love
-justice.” One adds, “Poe thought literary justice meant havoc
-with such mediocrity as then flourished.” To the cause of pure
-literature he thus devoted his life with example, with precept
-and with destructive force. He was the Wendell Phillips of
-American literature. He did a work that was necessary to
-be done in behalf of American literature. He pulled down upon
-his own head and theirs, the sham temple which the little scribbling
-Philistines had erected.</p>
-
-<p>So it is not to be wondered at that “he contrived to attach
-to himself animosities of the most enduring kind,” as the
-<i>Messenger</i> declared. It became Poe against the whole literary
-world of America in a very short time—for he had unstinted
-praise for no one. It is doubtless due to the influence of this
-army of foes that he lost in succession all his editorial situations
-and was impoverished. There were other enemies as unscrupulous
-as Griswold. One of these put in successful circulation
-the theory that Poe, by cruelty, deliberately caused the
-death of his wife in order to get the inspiration for “The
-Raven,” and the story may still be met on its rounds, notwithstanding
-the fact that the poem was written two years before
-she died. (Amiable human nature delights in contemplation of
-human monsters.) She declared on her death-bed that her life
-had been shortened by anonymous letters slandering and
-threatening her husband. Perhaps it was to meet this story
-that he wrote that curious analysis (“The Philosophy of Composition”)
-of the mechanical and prosaic methods by which he
-constructed “The Raven.”</p>
-
-<p>The critical instinct, coupled with an impulsive temperament,
-high ideals of perfect performance and a powerful pen, is a fatal
-gift to any man. The path of such a one will be strewn with
-the tombs of friendships which he has stabbed, many and
-many a time unconsciously; his life will be haunted with vain
-regrets for words gone past recall, carrying with them consequences
-he did not reckon upon, hurting those he loves, missing
-those he aimed at. His way leads steadily through bitter
-animosities, bitterer remorse and, bitterest of all, isolation from
-his fellows, who shall clothe him with a character foreign, antagonistic
-and repulsive to his better nature. If he be not
-possessed of an o’ermastering will, a thick skin and a healthy,
-cheerful temper it leads to morbidness, gloom and despair.</p>
-
-<p>Poe was not of that will and temper. He was affectionate,
-sociable and supersensitive to coolness of manner in others.
-A rebuff was a stab to him, hatred a calamity. It is said his
-early life was clouded by the stigma put on him by his parents’
-theatrical associations and his own dependence on charity; and
-that when a lad he wept many wild nights at the grave of a
-lady who had spoken kindly to him and become the confidante
-of his boyish sorrows and hopes. So with this nature and with
-his devastating pen in hand he traced that descent into the
-living tomb. If from its gloom he sometimes sought “respite
-and nepenthe” in drink it is not to be wondered at; he was often
-tempted to suicide. He once solemnly protested: “I have no
-pleasure in stimulants. It [indulgence in drink] has been in
-the <i>desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories—memories
-of wrong, and injustice and imputed dishonor</i>—from
-a <i>sense of insupportable loneliness</i> and a dread of some strange
-impending gloom.”</p>
-
-<p>I fancy he tried to typify this unhappy mission that had
-come to blast his life in that poem in which he “wedded despair
-to harmony.” “The Raven” was a “grim, ghastly, ominous
-messenger from the night’s Plutonian shore” that settled on the
-bust of Pallas, goddess of wisdom, even as that critical impulse
-had settled upon his genius. His soul never was lifted from
-the shadow. He was himself, of that fell work, the</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">—“Unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster</div>
-<div class="verse">Followed fast and followed faster.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>And why did he not stop the war on the literati and pseudo-authors?
-Who can tell? He “wasn’t practical.” He lacked
-some of Falstaff’s “instinct.” He was not good and sweet.
-He wasn’t well-balanced; he was an Eccentric. Pity the Eccentric—the
-man who knows himself called and chosen to a
-cause, whether by the necessities of his own nature or by divine
-impulse—if, indeed, this and that be not the same. Whether
-that cause be warring upon high injustice, exposing hypocrisy
-in high places, reforming an art, lifting up the lowly—anything
-that sets a man apart to a purpose other than self-seeking, brings
-him ingratitude, misinterpretation, isolation and many sorrows.
-Hamlet called to set right the out-of-joint times would rather,
-if he had dared, have taken his quietus with a bare bodkin than
-face this life of heart-ache, oppressors’ wrongs, law’s delays to
-correct the wrongs, and the spurns that patient merit of the
-unworthy takes. The greatest of Eccentrics became a stranger
-unto his brethren, was despised and rejected of man, a man of
-sorrows and acquainted with grief; even His chosen disciples
-when He tried to purify the holy places from the profanation
-of greed misunderstood him; “the zeal of his house hath
-eaten him up,” sneered they.</p>
-
-<p>Edgar A. Poe’s personal appearance matched his genius.
-Let those who saw him tell it: “He was the best realization
-of a poet in features, air and manner that I have ever seen, and
-the unusual paleness of his face added to its aspect of melancholy
-interest.” “Slight but erect of figure, of middle height,
-his head finely modeled, with a forehead and temples large and
-not unlike those of Bonaparte; his hands as fair as a woman’s;
-even in the garb of poverty ‘with gentleman written all over
-him.’ The handsome, intellectual face, the dark and clustering
-hair, the clear and sad gray-violet eyes—large, lustrous,
-glowing with expression.” “A man who never smiles.” “Those
-awful eyes,” exclaimed one woman. “The face tells of battling,
-of conquering external enemies, of many a defeat when
-the man was at war with his meaner self.” He was both much
-sinned against and much sinning. But he was not a monster,
-nor an ogre. He was only a poet and an Eccentric.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">No farther seek his merits to disclose,</div>
-<div class="verse">Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode.</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Davidson.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="BRITISH_AND_AMERICAN_ENGLISH">BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By R. A. PROCTOR.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>There are many points in which English and American
-speakers and writers of culture differ from each other as to the
-use of certain words and as to certain modes of expression.</p>
-
-<p>In America the word “clever” is commonly understood to
-mean pleasant and of good disposition, not (as in England)
-ingenious and skilful. Thus, though an American may speak
-of a person as a clever workman, using the word as we do, yet
-when he speaks of another as a clever man, he means, in nine
-cases out of ten, that the man is good company and well-natured.
-Sometimes, I am told, the word is used to signify
-generous or liberal. I can not recall any passages from early
-English literature in which the word is thus used, but I should
-not be surprised to learn that the usage is an old one. In like
-manner, the words “cunning” and “cute” are often used in
-America for “pretty” (German <i>niedlich</i>). As I write, an
-American lady, who has just played a very sweet passage from
-one of Mozart’s symphonies, turns from the piano to ask
-“whether that passage is not cute,” meaning pretty.</p>
-
-<p>The word “mad” in America seems nearly always to mean
-“angry;” at least, I have seldom heard it used in our English
-sense. For “mad,” as we use the word, the Americans say
-“crazy.” Herein they have manifestly impaired the language.
-The words “mad” and “crazy” are quite distinct in
-their significance as used in England, and both meanings require
-to be expressed in ordinary parlance. It is obviously a
-mistake to make one word do duty for both, and to use the
-word “mad” to imply what is already expressed by other and
-more appropriate words.</p>
-
-<p>I have just used the word “ordinary” in the English sense.
-In America the word is commonly used to imply inferiority.
-An “ordinary actor,” for instance, is a bad actor; a “very
-ordinary man” is a man very much below par. There is no
-authority for this usage in any English writer of repute, and the
-usage is manifestly inconsistent with the derivation of the word.
-On the other hand, the use of the word “homely” to imply
-ugliness, as is usual in America, is familiar at this day in parts
-of England, and could be justified by passages in some of the
-older English writers. That the word in Shakspere’s time implied
-inferiority is shown by the line—</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Home keeping youths have ever homely wits.</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In like manner, some authority may be found for the American
-use of the word “ugly” to signify bad-tempered.</p>
-
-<p>Words are used in America which have ceased to be commonly
-used in England, and are, indeed, no longer regarded
-as admissible. Thus, the word “unbeknown” which no educated
-Englishman ever uses, either in speaking or in writing,
-is still used in America in common speech and by writers of
-repute.</p>
-
-<p>Occasionally, writers from whom one would expect at least
-correct grammar make mistakes which in England would be
-regarded as very bad—mistakes which are not, indeed, passed
-over in America, but still attract less notice there than in England.
-Thus, Mr. Wilkie, who is so severe on English English
-in “Sketches beyond the Seas,” describes himself as saying
-(in reply to the question whether Chicago policemen have to
-use their pistols much), “I don’t know <i>as</i> they have to as a
-matter of law or necessity, but I know they do as a matter of
-fact;” and I have repeatedly heard this incorrect use of “as”
-for “that” in American conversation. I have also noted in
-works by educated Americans the use of the word “that” as
-an adverb, “that excitable,” “that head-strong,” and so forth.
-So the use of “lay” for “lie” seems to me to be much commoner
-in America than in England, though it is too frequently
-heard here also. In a well-written novelette called “The Man
-who was not a Colonel,” the words—“You was” and “Was
-you?” are repeatedly used, apparently without any idea that
-they are ungrammatical. They are much more frequently
-heard in America than in England (I refer, of course, to the
-conversation of the middle and better classes, not of the uneducated).
-In this respect it is noteworthy that the writers of the
-last century resemble Americans of to-day; for we often meet
-in their works the incorrect usage in question.</p>
-
-<p>And here it may be well to consider the American expression
-“I guess,” which is often made the subject of ridicule by Englishmen,
-unaware of the fact that the expression is good old
-English. It is found in a few works written during the last
-century, and in many written during the seventeenth century.
-So careful a writer as Locke used the expression more than
-once in his treatise “On the Human Understanding.” In fact,
-the disuse of the expression in later times seems to have been
-due to a change in the meaning of the word “guess.” An
-Englishman who should say “I guess” now, would not mean
-what Locke did when he used the expression in former times,
-or what an American means when he uses it in our own day.
-We say, “I guess that riddle,” or “I guess what you mean,”
-signifying that we think the answer to the riddle, or the meaning
-of what we have heard, may be such and such. But when
-an American says, “I guess so,” he does not mean “I think
-it may be so,” but more nearly “I know it to be so.” The expression
-is closely akin to the old English saying, “I wis.”
-Indeed, the words “guess” and “wis” are simply different
-forms of the same word. Just as we have “guard” and
-“ward,” “guardian” and “warden,” “Guillaume” and
-“William,” “guichet” and “wicket,” etc., so we have
-the verbs to “guess” and to “wis.” (In the Bible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span>
-we have not “I wis,” but we have “he wist.”) “I wis”
-means nearly the same as “I know,” and that this is the root-meaning
-of the word is shown by such words as “wit,” “witness,”
-“wisdom,” the legal phrase “to-wit,” and so forth.
-“Guess” was originally used in the same sense; and Americans
-retain that meaning, whereas in our modern English the
-word has changed in significance.</p>
-
-<p>It may be added, that in many parts of America we find the
-expression “I guess” replaced by “I reckon,” and “I calculate”
-(the “I cal’late” of the <i>Biglow Papers</i>). In the South,
-“I reckon” is generally used, and in parts of New England
-“I calculate,” though (I am told) less commonly than of yore.
-It is obvious from the use of such words as “reckon” and “calculate”
-as equivalents for “guess,” that the expression “I
-guess” is not, as many seem to imagine, equivalent to the
-English “I suppose” and “I fancy.” An American friend of
-mine, in response to the question by an Englishman (an exceedingly
-positive and dogmatic person, as it chanced), “Why
-do Englishmen never say ‘I guess?’” replied (more wittily
-than justly), “Because they are always so positive about everything.”
-But it is noteworthy that whereas the American says
-frequently, “I guess,” meaning “I know,” the Englishman as
-freely lards his discourse with the expression, “You know,”
-which is, perhaps, more modest. Yet, on the other side, it may
-be noted, that the “down east” American often uses the expression
-“I want to know,” in the same sense as our English
-expression of attentive interest, “Indeed?”</p>
-
-<p>Among other familiar Americanisms may be mentioned the
-following:—</p>
-
-<p>An American who is interested in a narrative or statement
-will say, “Is that so?” or simply “So!” The expression
-“Possible!” is sometimes, but not often, heard. Dickens misunderstood
-this exclamation as equivalent to “It is possible,
-but does not concern me;” whereas, in reality, it is equivalent
-to the expression, “Is it possible?” I have occasionally heard
-the exclamation “Do tell!” but it is less frequently heard now
-than of yore.</p>
-
-<p>The word “right” is more frequently used than in England,
-and is used also in senses different from those understood in
-our English usage of the word. Thus, the American will say
-“right here” and “right there,” where an Englishman would
-say “just here” or “just there,” or simply, “here” or “there.”
-Americans say “right away,” where we say “directly.” On
-the other hand, I am inclined to think that the English expression
-“right well,” for “very well,” is not commonly used in America.</p>
-
-<p>Americans say “yes, sir,” and “no, sir,” with a sense different
-from that with which the words are used in England; but
-they mark the difference of sense by a difference of intonation.
-Thus, if a question is asked to which the reply in England
-would be simply “yes” or “no” (or, according to the rank or
-station of the querist, “yes, sir,” or “no, sir,”), the American
-reply would be “yes, sir,” or “no, sir,” intonated as with us in
-England. But if the reply is intended to be emphatic, then the
-intonation is such as to throw the emphasis on the word “sir”—the
-reply is “yes, <i>sir</i>” or “no, <i>sir</i>.” In passing, I may note
-that I have never heard an American waiter reply “yessir,” as
-our English waiters often do.</p>
-
-<p>The American use of the word “quit” is peculiar. They do
-not limit the word, as we do, to the signification “take leave”—in
-fact, I have never heard an American use the word in
-that sense. They generally use it as equivalent to “leave off”
-or “stop.” (In passing, one may notice as rather strange the
-circumstance that the word “quit,” which properly means “to
-go away from,” and the word “stop,” which means to “stay,”
-should both have come to be used as signifying to “leave
-off.”) Thus, Americans say “quit fooling” for “leave off playing
-the fool,” “quit singing,” “quit laughing,” and so forth.</p>
-
-<p>To English ears an American use of the word “some”
-sounds strange—viz., as an adverb. An American will say,
-“I think some of buying a new house,” or the like, for “I have
-some idea of buying,” etc. I have indeed heard the usage defended
-as perfectly correct, though assuredly there is not an
-instance in all the wide range of English literature which will
-justify it.</p>
-
-<p>So also, many Americans defend as good English the use of
-the word “good” in such phrases as the following:—“I have
-written that note good,” for “well;” “it will make you feel
-good,” for “it will do you good;” and in other ways, all equally
-incorrect. Of course, there are instances in which adjectives
-are allowed by custom to be used as adverbs, as, for instance,
-“right” for “rightly,” etc.; but there can be no reason for
-substituting the adjective “good” in place of the adverb
-“well,” which is as short a word, and at least equally euphonious.
-The use of “real” for “really,” as “real angry,” “real
-nice,” is, of course, grammatically indefensible.</p>
-
-<p>The word “sure” is often used for “surely” in a somewhat
-singular way, as in the following sentence from “Sketches beyond
-the Sea,” in which Mr. Wilkie is supposed to be quoting
-a remark made by an English policeman: “If policemen went
-to shooting in this country, there would be some hanging,
-sure; and not wholly among the classes that would be shot at,
-either.” (In passing, note that the word “either” is never
-pronounced <i>eyether</i> in America, but always <i>eether</i>, whereas in
-England we seem to use either pronunciation indifferently.)</p>
-
-<p>An American seldom uses the word “stout” to signify “fat,”
-saying generally “fleshy.” Again, for our English word
-“hearty,” signifying “in very good health,” an American will
-sometimes employ the singularly inappropriate word “rugged.”
-(It corresponds pretty nearly with our word “rude”—equally
-inappropriate—in the expression “rude health.”)</p>
-
-<p>The use of the word “elegant” for “fine” strikes English
-ears as strange. For instance, if you say to an American,
-“This is a fine morning,” he is likely to reply, “It <i>is</i>; an elegant
-morning,” or perhaps oftener by using simply the word
-“elegant.” It is not a pleasing use of the word.</p>
-
-<p>There are some Americanisms which seem more than defensible—in
-fact, grammatically more correct than our English
-usage. Thus, we seldom hear in America the redundant word
-“got” in such expressions as “I have got,” etc., etc. Where
-the word would not be redundant, it is generally replaced by
-the more euphonious word “gotten,” now scarcely ever heard
-in England. Yet again, we often hear in America such expressions
-as “I shall get me a new book,” “I have gotten me
-a dress,” “I must buy me that,” and the like. This use of
-“me” for “myself” is good old English, at any rate.</p>
-
-<p>I have been struck by the circumstance that neither the conventional,
-but generally very absurd, American of our English
-novelists, nor the conventional, but at least equally absurd,
-Englishman of American novelists, is made to employ the
-more delicate Americanisms or Anglicisms. We generally find
-the American “guessing” or “calculating,” if not even more
-coarsely Yankee, like Reade’s Joshua Fullalove; while the
-Englishman of American novels is almost always very
-coarsely British, even if he is not represented as using what
-Americans persist in regarding as the true “Henglish haccent.”
-Where an American is less coarsely drawn, as Trollope’s
-“American Senator,” he uses expressions which no American
-ever uses, and none of those Americanisms which, while more
-delicate, are in reality more characteristic, because they are
-common, all Americans using them. And in like manner,
-when an American writer introduces an Englishman of the
-more natural sort, he never makes him speak as an Englishman
-would speak; before half a dozen sentences have been
-uttered, he uses some expression which is purely American.
-Thus, no Englishman ever uses, and an American may be
-recognized at once by using, such expressions as “I know it,”
-or “That’s so,” for “It is true;” by saying “Why, certainly,”
-for “Certainly;” and so forth. There are many of these
-slight but characteristic peculiarities of American and English
-English.—<i>“Knowledge” Library.</i></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="STILL_YOUNG">STILL YOUNG.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By ELLEN O. PECK.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">The fleeting years, the changing scenes,</div>
-<div class="verse">The light and shade that intervenes</div>
-<div class="verse">’Twixt now and youth’s rejoicing teens</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Have come and gone so silently.</div>
-<div class="verse">Tho’ much from out my life is drawn</div>
-<div class="verse">Of love and trust I leaned upon</div>
-<div class="verse">I never thought my youth was gone,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">But laughed at time defiantly,—</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Until I met with those I knew</div>
-<div class="verse">When life’s first romance burst to view,</div>
-<div class="verse">Whom long ago I bade adieu,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">And scanned their faces eagerly;</div>
-<div class="verse">Alas! I read the fatal truth</div>
-<div class="verse">That time indeed with little ruth</div>
-<div class="verse">Had claimed the beauty of their youth,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">And dealt with them most meagerly.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Amid the brown locks shone the gray,</div>
-<div class="verse">And lines of care on foreheads lay,</div>
-<div class="verse">And so, I read my fate to-day,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">From their faces cheerlessly—</div>
-<div class="verse">What I’d not read upon my own,</div>
-<div class="verse">That youth, with time, had surely flown,</div>
-<div class="verse">And I with them had older grown;</div>
-<div class="verse i2">The truth—I take it fearlessly.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">And with a sigh o’er vanished years,</div>
-<div class="verse">(I have no time to give to tears)</div>
-<div class="verse">I near life’s noontide without fears,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Bearing its burdens silently;</div>
-<div class="verse">No happy song I leave unsung,</div>
-<div class="verse">A deeper life within has sprung,</div>
-<div class="verse">And so my heart forever young,</div>
-<div class="verse i2">Still laughs at time defiantly.</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="THE_GOSPELS_CONSIDERED_AS_A">THE GOSPELS CONSIDERED AS A DRAMA.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">Lecture by David H. Wheeler, LL.D., President of Allegheny College, delivered
-in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua, N. Y., August 23d, at 2 p. m.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Let me begin by saying that my subject is not theological,
-and it will save us trouble if we remember it. Let me say in
-the second place that my subject is not the stage, but a book.
-I shall not discuss the drama as it is related to the stage, but
-the drama as a form of literature. The theologian may find
-some comfort in the reflection that if God makes a book it
-must be the best book. By the drama we mean simply the
-best telling of a story. The gospels as God’s book may therefore
-be regarded as necessarily the best told story in the world.
-But a few things may be profitably said with regard to the relations
-of the drama with the stage. First, this general one, that
-the stage was a contrivance for ages and times when men
-could not read; and that ever since men learned to read, the
-stage has been passing into shadow. An illustration of that
-may be found in the fact that in the sixteenth century, the age
-of Shakspere, there were probably one thousand men who went
-to the theater to one man who could read a book; whereas, in
-our time, there are a hundred thousand men who read books
-to one man who frequents the theater. The stage, in other
-words, is an effete institution. It is therefore an institution
-whose death does not carry with it the death of the drama; for,
-along with the death of the stage, there has come an enlargement
-of the scope of the drama. No important story was ever
-put upon the stage, or could be. The stage is too narrow for a
-great theme; therefore all the themes of all the plays are necessarily
-narrow themes—a few incidents grouped about a character,
-or grouped about a single characteristic of human nature.
-We have need in the world to tell stories that are larger,
-that require an ampler stage for their development; that deal
-not only with single principles, and single men, but with many
-principles and vast masses of men—that concern not for a moment,
-or an hour, and a single epoch of human life, but concern
-vast reaches of time and vaster interests of humanity. And
-so it has come to pass that in our modern times, our poetry—our
-epic poetry and our dramatic poetry—the two highest forms of
-literary art, have undergone a great transformation. The poem
-has become a novel. The epic has passed into this form; and
-the drama has become history. Carlyle says that it is the business
-of the poet to write history.</p>
-
-<p>We make distinction between prose and poetry, but we ought
-to remember that with regard to epic poetry, and dramatic poetry,
-both are to be expressed either in verse or prose, and that
-versification is an accident. There may be epic poems in
-prose; and, as the freest form, prose has become the prevailing
-form, and poetry is, more and more, as the world grows
-older, confined to the lyric jingle. Poetry, in the old sense,
-soon will pass, and the drama has passed into unversified poetry.
-Milton made a great change by adopting blank verse,
-and Shakspere had started us on the same road. In our age
-the great works of poetic language may be expected to be produced
-in what is technically prose. The epic poem may also
-be dramatically constructed, so that we may have the prose
-epic under form of the drama.</p>
-
-<p>Let me call attention to the fact that we are fortunate in
-speaking a tongue, the imperial language, in which Shakspere
-practically killed the old Aristotelian unities. He wanted a dramatic
-form in which to tell the story of the fall of Julius Cæsar,
-and the story of English history. He had to discard the old
-unities of time and place. The only Aristotelian unity that
-remains in our English literature is that of subject. The subject
-of a dramatic action, or an epic story, must have unity.
-There must be one action having a beginning, a middle, and
-an end; and there must be a constant, regular, orderly, striking,
-impressive advance from the beginning to the end.</p>
-
-<p>Now we come to consider whether the gospels ought to be
-regarded as a drama. In the first place, we are familiar with
-the custom of commenting on and praising the literary merits
-of the gospel. We say how sweet and fluent and intelligible
-is the language in which it is written. We understand that
-portions of it reach the heights of sublimity, particularly the
-seventeenth chapter of John. We are familiar with the fact
-that its English is so beautiful that there are men among us to
-rise and complain if we interfere with a word in it. We are
-familiar with the idea that the gospels have literary merits of a
-very high order. But we have been accustomed, as a rule, to
-regard these things in detail rather than as a whole. Now,
-when I say that they may be regarded as dramatic, I mean the
-highest literary merit crowns them as a whole. Their story is
-told in a dramatic form. No story ever told under the sun was
-so well told as is this story of the life, death, resurrection and
-ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. I must treat this topic
-illustratingly, for my sole purpose is to get an idea before you.
-Look, then, at the idea of dramatizing history. It is said that
-Lord Marlborough read only Shakspere for English history.
-He found that the dramatist had put his conceptions of the
-actions and characteristics of leading men in English history
-in such an effective way, that, whether he was right or wrong,
-he had fixed the national estimate of these characters—had
-typed them forever. What Shakspere says a man was, the
-English people will go on thinking him to have been. These
-characters give us, on a small scale, the purpose and effect of
-the dramatization of history. When Shakspere did his work,
-little historical study had been done. English critical history
-dates from after his time. But without the help of critics he conceived
-and typed groups of characters, and he had such power
-of placing himself in the center of things and working out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>
-characteristics, that he really constructed English history by
-the dramatic method. He had pitifully few materials, but historians
-who have come after him have found his types very
-faithful, and have been content to work out the details, accepting
-the pictures Shakspere had hung up before the eyes of the
-nation. Shaksperean English characters can not be much
-changed by ever so much study. This is only an illustration
-of the triumph which the dramatic form may win. Another
-most important distinction is the one between the theatrical and
-the dramatic. We can best understand it by looking at the
-common significance of the words. By “theatrical” we mean
-something false, fictitious, showy, with no reality behind it.</p>
-
-<p>When a human action is theatrical it is insincere and false to
-the facts. On the other hand, when you use the word “dramatic,”
-you mean something entirely different. You mean to
-praise the thing and not condemn it. When the two Senators
-from New York suddenly resigned their position in 1881—you
-remember it—the friends of these men spoke of their action as
-dramatic, and their enemies characterized their action as theatrical;
-one to praise, the other to blame. An incident like
-that draws the line better than a definition. The word “drama”
-has won a place outside of the stage—and it more and more
-separates itself from the stage, and becomes a word descriptive
-of the best told story. In such a story there must be reality. It
-must be a story so put together that the meaning leaps out as the
-story goes on, and the mind takes hold of the meaning easily and
-fully—so that the whole meaning flashes on the understanding.
-You all know the power of a good story teller. You all know that
-every neighborhood has some man who can grasp an incident
-and tell it so that it comes strikingly before the mind. This
-power of narrative is at once epic and dramatic. This village
-story teller is a miniature Milton and Shakspere. The
-arrangement of a drama is systematic; and moves to a climax
-with full force. In order to a dramatic arrangement it is not
-necessary that the characters should be combined, as in the
-form of a play; it is only necessary that the story should be
-told in the most effective way, so that its meaning will flash
-clear and strong on the understanding. The gospels are told
-in this way; and it is the only possible way in which their story
-could reach the understanding. If we consider the gospels
-from this point of view, there are several things to attract our
-attention. One of them is the universality of the human nature
-which is brought out in the gospel. If you take up a picture
-book, or a fashion book of a hundred years ago, you are
-interested in a certain way in studying the characters, and discovering
-that the people dressed in a way very different from
-the present mode. You study the strange dresses with interest,
-but at the same time with a kind of feeling that these people
-were not just like yourself. Your point of observation in the
-fashion-plate presents you with nothing but unlikeness to yourself
-and your contemporaries. It is a strange world to you.</p>
-
-<p>Now, what the fashion-plate is, a great part of literature is. It is
-something which gets old, out of fashion, outworn, when it is a
-hundred years old. People live largely upon a contemporaneous
-literary diet. The most of the literature for each generation is
-produced by itself, and therefore the human nature of it, like
-the dresses of the fashion-plate, is in a little while out of date,
-and seems old. I am not as old as I look to be, but I have
-seen several kinds of literary fashions come and go. I have
-known men to be famous, producing a book nearly every
-month, whose name would now be strange, and there are few
-here who have thought of them for a long time. Other books
-have taken their places. They were novels, stories, histories,
-and even poems, but they have gone out of date, because the human
-nature they dealt with was a temporary and passing human
-nature—that of a fashion-plate. And the same effect must
-attend most of the novels being written in our day, because
-there is a passion upon us for this sort of living detail, this sort
-of temporary book.</p>
-
-<p>There is so little of permanent universal human nature in an
-ordinary novel of the period, that when you are done with it
-you have learned but very little about man. The great defect
-with this class of books is that they do not deal with universal
-human nature, and it is the power of Shakspere that he deals
-largely with universal human nature. And here we discover
-the likeness that reigns there. We recognize ourselves and
-our neighbors. We have struck one of the old lines of humanity,
-and are acquainted with the people we meet. They wear
-togas, we wear trousers; but we know each other for brothers.
-The defect of Shaksperean human nature very soon appears
-when you lay it down along side of the gospels. You have a
-little universal human nature in Shakspere, in the gospels you
-have almost nothing else but universal human nature. If you
-ask yourselves why we are interested in certain incidents that
-occurred nearly two thousand years ago, in a foreign land, that
-occurred in connection with a people for whom we have nothing
-but antipathy, what will be the answer? Why are we interested
-in this old history lying back there in a world that had
-almost nothing like our world except men, and the eternal
-rocks, and the ever flowing streams? Why, belting the green
-earth, should we find men everywhere singing about this passage
-in human history? What is the charm of it that reaches
-human nature so widely? Undoubtedly there is much charm
-in the delightful truth which it contains; more in the delightful
-power behind it, but much also in the fact that when we
-open these gospels we find ourselves in the presence of men
-and women like ourselves, in the presence of human nature,
-undying, eternally the same. In any of these passages you
-find yourself suddenly reminded of yourself. You feel in
-every throb of a human heart in the gospels something which
-allies the old heart with yourself.</p>
-
-<p>Another proof of the dramatic quality of the gospels lies in
-the fact that the details all work out into one picture, and each
-trait resembles the whole. What I mean here I shall try to
-make clear. The Righi is a mountain made up of pudding
-stones. It is a great egg-shaped mass that leaps up out of the
-plain, rising thousands of feet in the air, and is composed altogether
-of these pudding stones. At different points up its rugged
-sides, masses have been broken off by the action of the ice,
-and if you examine them you will find that the fragments
-resemble the whole. Break up one of them into the finest
-pieces, and each bit will still resemble the whole. In any fragment
-of the vast mass you have a picture of the whole mountain.
-Now this is true of the highest dramatic production,
-that every piece and every incident is a picture of the whole.
-This highest dramatic perfection is found only in the gospels.
-You find hints of it elsewhere. Many of you have read the
-story of “Middlemarch,” the most perfect piece of art produced
-in the way of a modern novel. The art lies first in the dramatic
-conception, for it has a theme, and the theme runs clear
-through, and the climax leaps out of the theme. This theme
-is worked out through a principal character. In her history the
-general lesson is impressively taught. But the art does not
-end there, each one of the characters is a picture of the heroine
-in little. The same story is repeated over and over again, in the
-different characters. It is a story of human failure, of the way in
-which a great human purpose, and high aspirations, growing in a
-youthful mind, may be dispersed and destroyed as human life
-goes on to its conclusion. It is a lesson of failure, and the failure
-of the principal character is repeated in the subordinate characters.</p>
-
-<p>Take another illustration from Shakspere: “Julius Cæsar”
-is his best drama, not the best play, for it does not act well
-on the stage, as it lacks singleness and simplicity; nevertheless
-it is, I think, Shakspere’s most complete play, his most
-dramatic piece, and the reason is this: His subject is large and
-is developed on the principle I am laying down. The play is
-narrow, both in “Macbeth” and “Othello.” In “Julius Cæsar” it
-is large. The subject may be named the weaknesses of great
-men. The play is constructed so as to develop the weaknesses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>
-of Julius Cæsar, and of all the rest of the characters grouped
-about him. The story told in the death of Julius Cæsar is told
-also in the death of all the parties in the terrible failure of them
-all. But you must mark that in this case we have an extremely
-narrow purpose as compared with the gospels. In the gospels
-you can begin anywhere, and preach the whole gospel from
-any incident. Take the case of the Prodigal Son, and you
-have the whole story of the gospel in that short compass.
-Take up the case of the man described as the “father of the
-child,” crying, “I believe,” and you have it over again.
-It is over and over again, from the beginning to the end,
-the pieces all conspiring to the grand result. It is achieved
-not by ordinary art. The story teller has seen or heard
-or conceived something, and he goes through a mass of
-details. The gospels have nothing of that sort. They tell you
-in a few words what they have to say of the woman of Samaria,
-or the maniac of Gadara, or of her who loved much and
-was forgiven much. Names are dispensed with, details, places
-of residence, all the tricks by which the ordinary story teller
-succeeds. This story succeeds by pure force of an infinite
-truth behind it.</p>
-
-<p>Another characteristic of drama is a kind of consistency
-between the beginning and the end, a kind of logical order in
-which it moves, and this is illustrated in the gospels by the fact
-which must always be borne in mind, that the task is one of
-supreme difficulty. The author of the gospels has to tell the
-story of the Incarnation of God’s son. A story in which there
-are human and divine actors, in which there is both nature and
-the supernatural. It requires vast dramatic power. I have
-suggested, yet I may more definitely repeat it, that the human
-earth on which you tread is not that of old Palestine, or Galilee,
-or Jerusalem. It is a real universal, a human earth.
-There is not a bit of purer realism than the gospels. Take
-up this story, walk with these men. Down by the lake you
-find the Gadarene crying among the tombs. You see the stranger
-landing and healing him. You stand down by the boat
-and hear the poor man begging Jesus to allow him to go with
-him. You see these human figures. Look into it a little, and
-there the man stands where he has stood almost two thousand
-years, listening to the words of the Master compelling him to
-go away. The meaning of it you understand, for the case is
-before you. On this solid human earth, this real human nature,
-this realistic character which makes you feel the heart
-beat, and smell the real earth, all is combined with something
-else, with the supernatural. There have been writers who have
-carried us into wonderland. We were glad to be there, and
-we traveled along delighted with the scenery and with the companions
-created by the imagination. The gospels do not do
-this. This solid earth beneath your feet is not more real than
-the heavens that bend over it. Human reality is combined
-with heavenly, and you are continually going to and fro between
-the earth and the sky. The natural and the supernatural
-are so run together that you feel no shock in passing from one
-to the other. You have men and angels, divine power and human
-power, associated together. The warp of earth is woven
-into the woof of heaven until it is one piece of cloth of gold. The
-gold of the skies is braided into the earthly so perfectly I defy any
-man to take them apart with consistency or success. This is
-the beauty and perfection of dramatic success. The divine
-and the human are blended in Christ so that you are puzzled
-to tell whether it is a man or a God who speaks and works.
-The blending of the human about him, in him, through him,
-all this is an effect utterly beyond human art. The story goes
-straight home to the human heart. The time will never come
-when it will not be a dear and sweet old story to the souls that
-hear it. Edward Eggleston once told me that when he was
-lecturing in some strange corner of the earth, where culture in
-the pulpit was comparatively rare, after the lecture one of
-the men said, “I wish you would come here and preach for us.
-Our minister preaches the funeral of Jesus Christ twice a Sunday,
-fifty-two Sundays in the year.” The case seemed to me
-to be an exceedingly sad one until I began to ask myself, of
-what man that ever lived could it be said they preached his
-funeral sermon twice a Sabbath for fifty-two Sundays in the
-year, and the story still had such freshness that the people
-would come out and hear it? What other thing was ever so
-well done that a fool might talk about it, and still a certain
-amount of interest attach to it despite the poor telling? Here
-lies one of the uses of the dramatic power of the gospel.
-When a man of humble attainments has it to tell, he has only
-to follow the book to make it an interesting story. The moment
-he strikes a real point of interest, the attentive soul feels
-that that is what it came for, and, what is better, that it is said
-to him. In short, the enduring power of this story lies in great
-part in this fact. The consistency between the beginning and
-the end and the logical order of things, comes out in a thousand
-powerful ways. For instance, the peculiar truth that reappears
-in the words which are sculptured on Shakspere’s tomb.</p>
-
-<p>Take the same thought as it reappears—the same thought
-slightly turned over—as it is repeated in “Middlemarch,” or in
-that best human version of all, that of Watts:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">“Princes, this clay must be your bed,</div>
-<div class="verse i3">In spite of all your towers;</div>
-<div class="verse">The tall, the wise, the reverend head,</div>
-<div class="verse i3">Must lie as low as ours.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>You will find the thought, in good and bad versions, everywhere.
-Do you wish to take this thought fresh from the fountain?
-Come to the temple, where the disciples, accustomed to
-nothing great in art, fresh from Galilee, stand gazing in admiration
-at the glory of the great edifice and one of them cries
-out: “Master, behold these stones; and what manner of a
-building is this?” And listen to the Master as he says: “There
-shall not remain one stone upon another,” and you have the
-fountain head of all these streams running down into our poetry.</p>
-
-<p>Mark the wonderful consistency, and the wonderful movement
-of this story—consider it as a drama. You may regard
-the gospels as beginning at that moment when suddenly there
-was with the angel a great company of the heavenly hosts,
-appearing to the shepherds as they watched their flocks by
-night. It practically ends when the disciples, after the ascension,
-returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually
-in the temple singing the song which began in angel mouths
-and ends in human mouths. The purpose of the story was to
-sing that angelic music into the human heart.</p>
-
-<p>In conclusion: What inferences may be drawn from the
-statements I have made? Certainly not that the gospels have
-attained their success because they are a drama. They had to
-have the truth to succeed. They have the truth, and that has
-given them success. It behooved that Christ should suffer and
-rise from the dead the third day. And this behooving lies in
-something very deep in our nature. We believe that these gospels
-are inspired; that the authors were moved by the Holy
-Ghost; and it seems to me to be a necessary inference that the
-story should be well told; and well told means dramatically
-told. If it be true that the gospels sweep a larger circle and
-involve a greater work than was ever attempted by a human
-brain, if it be true that you can put a million of Shaksperes
-into their compass and still have an abyss of art unfilled, then
-you have an inference, an argument, in the line of the evidences
-of Christianity that has never been attempted. And
-that is that the best told, most dramatically told story, the
-story of the visit of God’s son to the earth, of his life, death,
-resurrection and ascension, must have been told by God himself.
-No human pen can be eloquent enough, no heart wide enough,
-no intellect could penetrate into the human heart deeply enough,
-to produce these gospels. In the literary perfection of the gospel
-there lies an evidence of the truth, of the divine authorship of
-the gospels, which in time to come, when all men read and
-think, will weigh perhaps more than any other kind of argument
-that has been drawn upon to this hour.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="PROHIBITION_IN_MAINE">PROHIBITION IN MAINE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By the <span class="smcap">Hon. NEAL DOW</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>The policy of license to the liquor traffic had been the uniform
-practice of the civilized world since the reign of Edward
-VI., of England, when it was first established. Since that time,
-in England, there have been more than four hundred and fifty
-separate acts relating to the traffic, each of them being a vain
-attempt to improve upon all that had gone before, in the hope,
-if not in the expectation, of diminishing in some degree the
-tremendous evils coming from it. For the last twenty years
-there has been no session of Parliament, I think, at which there
-have not been several separate bills introduced, relating to
-that matter; at some of them, these bills have been in number,
-from eight to ten, sometimes even twelve. When our fathers
-first came over the waters to this western world, they brought
-with them the policy of license, because at that time no other
-had been attempted or thought of.</p>
-
-<p>In 1820 Maine was separated from Massachusetts and set up
-housekeeping for herself, bringing with her, as a part of her
-outfit, the policy of license, which had been brought over in
-the “Mayflower” by the Pilgrim Fathers, and established in
-Plymouth colony in the first years of its existence. By the peculiar
-industries of Maine the people were led into the habit of
-the excessive use of strong drink. All our people living a little
-way back from the sea coast were engaged in the lumbering
-business. We had vast forests of invaluable pine, whence
-Maine was and is called the “Pine Tree State.” The people
-through all the winter season were living in camps in the
-woods, engaged in felling the trees and transporting them to
-the water courses, by which they would be taken to the innumerable
-saw mills which crowded the falls on almost all our
-streams. In the camps, away from home influences and home
-restraints, the “lumbermen” indulged freely in strong drink,
-which was a large and indispensable part of their rations.</p>
-
-<p>On the breaking up of the streams in the spring, these men
-were engaged in “driving river,” as it was called, i. e., following
-the “drives” of logs, many, many miles down all the water
-courses to the “booms,” whence they were impounded and
-secured ready for the saw mills which were kept in operation
-through the year, often running night and day. On these
-drives many of the men were often in the icy water more or
-less all day, dislodging the logs from rocks or shallows, by
-which they were stopped in their course down stream. In all
-this laborious and trying work, the men used rum freely and
-largely, as the universal custom was in those days. In those old
-times I have seen our great rivers covered for miles, from shore
-to shore, with innumerable logs, so closely packed as almost to
-hide the water from view. Many “river drivers” were following
-along on either shore to prevent the logs from “lodging,”
-and to “start” all that had been “grounded.” At night I
-have seen these men in great numbers around their camp fires,
-wild and boisterous, under the influence of liquor, like so
-many Comanche savages just home from the war path, with many
-scalps hanging at their belts. On many of these drives the
-men would be engaged for weeks, with rum as the most important
-part of their ration. On the return of these men to
-civilized life a large part of them would spend in a week, in a
-drunken carouse, all the wages paid them for their winter’s
-work, without regard to wife and children at home.</p>
-
-<p>The saw mills in Maine were on a very large scale, and were
-in great numbers. There were great masses of men engaged
-in them, all using rum freely and in immense quantities. I
-have heard it said that two quarts a day to each man was the
-regular allowance. While all these men—in whatever department
-working—earned large wages, they were not at all benefited
-by that, because they spent all in rum, except a miserable
-pittance doled out to the wretched wife and children.</p>
-
-<p>The transportation of this “lumber” to the West Indies—the
-principal market for it—was a very great industry; it was
-called the “West India Trade.” Great numbers of vessels
-were engaged in it, running from all our principal ports which
-had direct communication with the vast system of saw mills on
-all our streams. The returns for this lumber were mostly
-West India rum and molasses, to be converted into New England
-rum, at our numerous distilleries. All along our sea
-coast great numbers of our people were engaged in the mackerel
-and cod fisheries; there were a great many vessels employed
-in that industry, the products of which were mostly sent
-to the West Indies in the lumber ships, the returns for which
-were also “rum and molasses!” I have heard men say who
-were owners of timber lands and of saw mills—“operators” on
-a large scale, and owners of West India traders—that Maine
-was never a dollar the richer for all these great industries.
-The returns were mostly in rum, and in molasses converted
-into rum, so that our boundless forests of invaluable timber
-were literally poured down the throats of our people in the form
-of rum. The result of all this was that Maine was the poorest
-state in the Union, consuming the entire value of all its property
-of every kind in rum, in every period of less than twenty
-years.</p>
-
-<p>I have run hastily over this account of the condition of Maine
-in the old rum time to show that our people, according to the
-general opinion on this subject, were most unlikely to adopt a
-policy of prohibition to the liquor traffic, which was spread
-everywhere all over the state, and was intimately interwoven
-into all the habits and customs of the time. All over the state
-there was a general appearance of neglect and dilapidation in
-houses, barns, school houses, farms, churches. By their habits
-of drinking a great many of our people were disinclined to
-work, and many of them were unfitted for it. It used to be
-said that three-fourths of the farms were mortgaged to the town,
-village and country traders, all of whom kept in stock liquors
-of all sorts as the most important and most profitable part of
-their supplies.</p>
-
-<p>A few men in Maine resolved to change all that by changing
-the law by which the liquor traffic was licensed, and by substituting
-for it the policy of prohibition. This was supposed to be
-a great undertaking, as in fact it was. An indispensable preparatory
-step was to change public opinion, on which all law
-is supposed to be founded. To do this meetings were held all
-over the state—not only in the larger towns, but in villages and
-in all the rural districts. There was hardly a little country
-church or town house or roadside school house where we did
-not lay out before the people the fact that the liquor traffic was
-inconsistent with the general good; that it was in deadly hostility
-to every interest of nation, state and people. In our
-missionary work about the state, traveling in our own carriages
-in summer, and in our own sleighs in winter, we took
-with us large supplies of tracts relating to the liquor traffic and
-its results. These were prepared for the purpose, and were
-distributed freely at all our meetings, and we threw them out
-to the people as we passed their houses, and as we met them
-on our way; and to the children as we passed the country
-school houses. In this way, by persistent work, we changed
-the public opinion upon the matter and fired the hearts of the
-people with a burning indignation against the liquor traffic, by
-which they were made poor and kept poor.</p>
-
-<p>This work was continued for several years without intermission;
-we had a definite object in view, and that was to overthrow
-the liquor traffic, to outlaw it, to put it under the ban,
-and to drive it out as a pestilent thing, the whole influence of
-which was to spread poverty, pauperism, suffering, wretchedness
-and crime broadcast among the people, at the same time
-that no possible good came from it. In due time we made
-earnest application to the legislature for a law of prohibition,
-but our prayers were not heeded. We were regarded as having
-no rights which politicians were bound to respect, and we
-were treated with small courtesy. We soon took in the situation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span>
-and addressed ourselves at once to the only instrumentality
-through which we could possibly succeed—that is, the
-ballot box. We sent in great numbers of petitions to the legislature,
-but we were beaten by more than two to one. At the
-next election we swept the State House clear of almost every
-man who had voted against us; we did this irrespective of all
-party ties and affiliations.</p>
-
-<p>To the legislature thus elected we sent no petitions; we went
-there in person, with a bill all prepared, and offered it as one
-that would be acceptable to temperance men. It was on Friday,
-the 30th of May, 1851, that we did this. We had a public
-hearing in the Representative Hall on the afternoon of that
-day. Saturday, the 31st of May, was to be the last day of the
-session. The committee voted unanimously to accept the bill
-as it was, with no change whatever. It was printed on Friday
-night and laid upon the desks of the members the next morning.
-Immediately after the morning hour it was taken up for
-consideration.</p>
-
-<p>Now this was the situation on that Saturday morning. The
-liquor traffic was a lawful trade in Maine, as it was throughout
-the civilized world. There were liquor shops, wholesale and
-retail, all over the state, with large stocks of liquor for sale, as
-there are now in all our states, where the traffic is yet prosecuted
-by authority of law, and under its protection. The bill
-lying upon the members’ desks proposed to change all that; it
-forbade the trade absolutely; it declared that there was no
-property in intoxicating liquors kept for unlawful sale; that
-such liquors so kept, or supposed to be so kept, should be
-seized on complaint and warrant, or on sight, without warrant,
-and should be confiscated and destroyed, unless the claimant
-could show to the satisfaction of the court that they were not
-intended for sale. They might be seized wherever seen; on
-railway cars, on steamboats, or in transitu by any other mode
-of transportation; they might be hunted like wild and dangerous
-beasts, and like them, if resistance was offered, they might
-be destroyed upon the spot. If it be decided that the liquors
-are kept for unlawful sale, the party is sentenced, in addition
-to the loss of the liquor, to a fine of one hundred dollars and
-costs, and on the second conviction, to the same fine and to
-imprisonment at hard labor for six months. And it was expressly
-provided that no action should be had or maintained
-in any court in the state for the recovery of intoxicating liquors
-nor for the value thereof. The liquor traffic was put by that
-bill outside the law, beyond its protection, and was denounced
-as an enemy to the state and people—utterly inconsistent with
-the public welfare.</p>
-
-<p>On that Saturday this extraordinary measure, such as had
-never been heard of in the world before, with no change whatever,
-was passed through all its stages to be enacted, and on
-Monday, at nine o’clock in the morning, it was approved by
-the Governor, and from that moment it was the law, because
-the act provided that it should take effect when signed by the
-executive. All the stocks of liquors in the state were then
-liable to be seized and destroyed, but the local authorities
-allowed the parties having them in possession a reasonable
-time in which to “send them away to other states and countries
-where they could be lawfully sold;” and this was done.
-There was a hasty departure of these liquors from all parts of
-the state. It was not an appeal to the legislature by petitions
-that accomplished this wonderful overturn in the status of the
-liquor traffic in Maine, it was simply and only because the people
-put their will in relation to it into the ballot box. There is
-no other way in which it can be done in any other states, or in
-the nation. This movement against the liquor traffic is now,
-as it was then, a far more important political question than
-any other, more important than all others combined, to every interest
-of the nation, state, and people. What has been the result
-of this legislation?</p>
-
-<p>“In some places liquor is sold secretly in violation of law, as
-many other offences are committed against the statutes, but in
-large districts of the state, the liquor traffic is nearly or quite
-unknown, where formerly it was carried on like any other
-trade.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">Sidney Perham</span>,<br />
-“Governor of Maine.”</p>
-
-<p>“I can and do, from my own personal observation, unhesitatingly
-affirm that the consumption of intoxicating liquors in
-Maine is not to-day one-fourth so great as it was twenty years
-ago; in the country portions of the state the sale and use have
-almost entirely ceased. In my opinion our remarkable temperance
-reform of to-day is the legitimate child of the law.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">Wm. P. Frye</span>,<br />
-“M. C. of Maine, and ex-Att’y Gen’l of the State.”</p>
-
-<p>“I have the honor unhesitatingly to concur in the opinions
-expressed in the foregoing by my colleague, Hon. Wm. Frye.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">Lot M. Morrill</span>,<br />
-“U. S. Senate.”</p>
-
-<p>“I concur in the foregoing statements; and on the point of
-the relative amount of liquors sold at present in Maine and in
-those states where a system of license prevails, I am very sure
-from personal knowledge and observation that the sales are
-immeasurably less in Maine.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">J. G. Blaine</span>,<br />
-“Speaker U. S. House of Representatives.”</p>
-
-<p>“I concur in the statements made by Mr. Frye. Of the great
-good produced by the Prohibitory Liquor Law of Maine, no
-man can doubt who has seen its result. It has been of immense
-value.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">H. Hamlin</span>,<br />
-“U. S. Senate.”</p>
-
-<p>“We are satisfied that there is much less intemperance in
-Maine than formerly, and that the result is largely produced
-by what is termed prohibitory legislation.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">John A. Peters</span>, M. C of Maine.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">Eugene Hale</span>, M. C. of Maine.”</p>
-
-<p>“I fully concur in the statement of my colleague, Mr. Frye,
-in regard to the effect of the enforcement of the liquor law in
-the state of Maine.</p>
-
-<p class="sig">“<span class="smcap">John Lynch</span>, M. C. of Maine.”</p>
-
-<p>These certificates are from both Senators and all the Representatives
-of Maine in Congress.</p>
-
-<p>These statements are indorsed by many mayors and ex-mayors
-of cities, and many other officials in every part of the state; by
-General Chamberlaine, ex-Governor and President of Bowdoin
-College, and by many clergymen in every county in the state.</p>
-
-<p>The convention of Good Templars resolved, “That by the
-operation of the Maine law in this state, the traffic in intoxicating
-liquors has been greatly diminished, and that the happy
-effects of this change are everywhere apparent, and that the
-quantity of liquors now sold in this state can not be one-tenth
-as much as it was formerly.”</p>
-
-<p>The State Conventions of the Republican party of Maine
-have always adopted resolves relating to this matter. I have
-some of them before me now.</p>
-
-<p>Republican State Convention of 1878: “Temperance among
-the people may be greatly promoted by wise prohibitory legislation,
-as well as by all those moral agencies which have
-secured us beneficent results; and it is a source of congratulation
-that the principle of prohibition, which has always been
-upheld by Republicans, is now concurred in by so large a majority
-of the people that it is no longer a party question, the Democrats
-having for several years declined to contest and dispute
-it.” 1879: “We recognize temperance as a cause which has
-conferred the greatest benefits on the state, and we sustain the
-principle of prohibition which in its operation has so largely
-suppressed liquor selling, and added incalculably to the sum
-of virtue and prosperity among the people.” 1880: “Experience
-has demonstrated the wisdom of the policy of prohibition
-as an auxiliary of temperance, and as contributing to the material
-wealth, happiness and prosperity of the state; and we
-refer with confidence and pride to an undeviating support of
-the same as one of the cardinal principles of the Republican
-party of Maine.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>There was no election in 1881, and no convention, but the
-resolve of 1882 is:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“We refer with confidence and pride to the general result of the Republican
-party in support of the policy of prohibiting the traffic in
-intoxicating liquors, the wisdom and efficiency of which legislation in
-promoting the moral and material interests of Maine have been demonstrated
-through the practical annihilation of that traffic in a large portion
-of the state; and we favor such legislation and such enforcement of
-law as will secure to every portion of our territory freedom from that
-traffic. We further recommend the submission to the people of a prohibitory
-Constitutional amendment.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Such is the latest authoritative and comprehensive testimony
-to the actual results of prohibition in Maine. Similar testimonies
-could easily be obtained from the most influential sources
-in every part of the state. Every brewery and distillery has
-been suppressed. Molasses, which is yet imported into the
-state in large quantities, is no longer converted into rum, but
-is used exclusively for domestic purposes, while a large part of
-it is converted into sugar by improved processes. The share of
-Maine of the national drink bill would be about $13,000,000, but
-I am far within the truth in saying that one million will cover
-the cost of all liquors smuggled into the state in violation of
-law. From the poorest state in the Union, Maine has become
-one of the most prosperous, and it has gained immeasurably in
-many other ways from the policy of prohibition.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="THE_INDUSTRIAL_SCHOOLS_OF">THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS OF BOSTON.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By E. E. HALE.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>I.</h3>
-
-<p>It was the morning after the funeral. Aunt Fanny had tried
-to make the breakfast seem cheerful to the children, or at least
-tolerable. She had herself gone into the kitchen to send up
-some trifle a little out of the way for the family meal. She
-talked to the children of the West, of the ways in which her life
-in Wisconsin differed from their lives in Boston. And Aunt
-Fanny succeeded so far that George passed his plate for oatmeal
-a second time, and little Sibyl did not ask leave to go
-before her aunt had poured out her second cup of coffee.</p>
-
-<p>Aunt Fanny made the breakfast as long as she could. Then
-she folded her napkin slowly, and led the children into the
-other room for morning prayer. They read the last chapter of
-Proverbs, and then all knelt down and said the Lord’s
-Prayer. Then Aunt Fanny took Nahum’s hand and took little
-Sibyl on her lap, and she said to all four of the children, “It
-is very hard for us all, dear children, but I must tell you all
-about what the plans are. I have a letter from Uncle Cephas,
-and you know I had a long talk with Mr. Alfred after he came
-here yesterday. We will not break up here yet.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I am so glad of that,” said poor, sturdy Belle, who generally
-said so little.</p>
-
-<p>“No, we will not break up here yet. In the spring we will
-all go to Wisconsin, and you shall learn to like my home at
-Harris as much as you like Roxbury.” So spoke Aunt Fanny,
-as cheerfully as she could. And not daring to wait a reply,
-she hurried on: “See here, Uncle George writes that I may
-stay till late in March, or early in April, if I think best, but
-that then we must all be ready to go on.”</p>
-
-<p>You must know that the four children were orphans. Their
-father had died in April, and now, in the middle of December,
-their mother had died. Aunt Fanny had been with them for
-the last month. But she knew, and they knew, that their
-pleasant home was to be broken up forever.</p>
-
-<p>“And now,” she said, “we must all see what we have to do
-this winter, to be ready for Wisconsin. Belle and Sibyl, you
-may come up stairs with me, and we will look through your
-clothes and the boys’. I must not be lazy this winter, and I
-will have it for my morning work to put everything in order.”</p>
-
-<p>And when they came up stairs, and this business like, energetic
-Belle took their frocks and underclothes from the drawers,
-Aunt Fanny was indeed surprised. The girl was grave beyond
-her years; so long had her poor mother been ill, and so much
-of the care of the family had fallen on her. “I should think you
-were an old housekeeper,” said Aunt Fanny, in admiration, as
-Belle explained how she had mended this, and, on the whole, determined
-to retain that. And when Belle took her into the little
-room which she called the “sewing room,” and showed her
-drawers, and even shirts for the boys, which she had under
-way, Aunt Fanny squarely told her that she was quite her own
-equal in such management.</p>
-
-<p>“How did ever come to be such a thorough seamstress?”
-said she. “Dear Mary has been sick so long that I had somehow
-imagined that such things as these must slip by.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh! of course mamma told us everything. But you know
-we learn this at school.”</p>
-
-<p>“I do not know any such thing,” confessed Aunt Fanny,
-promptly.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes,” said Belle, “we learn more or we learn less. But
-so soon as I found I could help mamma about it I went into
-the advanced class. There we learned to cut shirts and to
-make them. I can make a shirt now as well as anybody,” said
-the girl, laughing. “But of course I do not in practice.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why of course?” persisted Aunt Fanny.</p>
-
-<p>Belle opened her eyes as much as to say, “How little these
-people in Wisconsin know.” But she did not say so in words,
-she only said: “Oh, I can buy my collars and wristbands and
-fronts ready made a great deal cheaper than I can make them,
-if my time is worth anything. And you must not laugh, Aunt
-Fanny, but papa said my time is worth a good deal.”</p>
-
-<p>Aunt Fanny did not laugh. She smiled very kindly, and
-drew Belle to her and kissed her.</p>
-
-<p>“You see, the boys run the machine for me, and Sibyl can
-do perfectly well any plain sewing we need. We do not think
-a set of shirts such a very heavy job,” said the little matron,
-quite unconscious of the amusement she was giving Aunt
-Fanny.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you mean that every girl in Boston learns to do this?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why yes, if she goes to a public school. She learns it, or
-she may. I think perhaps she might shirk a good deal. But
-if the teacher sees you are interested, and you do as well as
-you can, she helps you on. I know a great many girls who
-have made dresses for their friends. And I know there are
-girls who went directly to dress-makers from schools, and
-earned good wages at once. Some girls, you know, have a
-gift for cutting and fitting.”</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>II.</h3>
-
-<p>It must be confessed that Aunt Fanny went down stairs a
-little relieved in mind after this talk with Belle. Here was one,
-at least, of her little charges, who would be worth her weight
-in the new home to which they were to be transferred. As the
-boys came in from school, she had another such lesson. She
-asked Nahum who would be a good man to whom to send her
-trunk, which needed some repair. The boy gave her his
-views, and then asked what she wanted to have done. Aunt
-Fanny explained that in coming on she had, wisely or not, left
-the dress tray of her trunk at home. In going back she was
-sure she would need a tray, and she must have a new one
-made.</p>
-
-<p>“Is that all?” said Nahum. “I should never send to Sage’s
-for that.”</p>
-
-<p>“What would you do?” asked Aunt Fanny.</p>
-
-<p>“I should make the tray myself,” said Nahum, quite unconsciously.
-“When Belle made her famous visit to Swampscott,
-she found that that trunk she has now would not take in some
-dandy-jack hat she wanted to carry. And I made a new tray for
-her.” So he brought his aunt to the “trunk closet,” dragged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>
-out Belle’s trunk, and showed her a neat tray, made of white-wood,
-and very perfectly fitted. “Is that good enough?” asked
-the boy.</p>
-
-<p>Of course it was good enough, and Aunt Fanny explained
-that she had not known that Nahum was fond of tools.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I might have been as fond of tools as of candy,” said
-Nahum. “But that would not have come out for much. I
-learned to handle tools at school.”</p>
-
-<p>“School!” said Aunt Fanny.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, they wanted to try it at the Dwight, where I was.
-So they got some benches put into the Ward Room, which is
-in their building, and is only used by the voters twice a year.
-They had a first rate teacher, Mr. Batchelder. We had one lesson
-a week. They would not let us go on unless we kept up in
-the regular school lessons. So it made the fellows spur up, I
-tell you, because we all liked the shop, though that was extra.”</p>
-
-<p>“How many lessons have you had?” said Aunt Fanny.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I was in the first class, and so I had only one year’s
-course. It was eighteen lessons. The first day we tried to
-strike square blows with the hammer. Some of us did not
-strike very square, I tell you. All the beginning with nails
-came the first day. The last lesson was ‘planing and squaring,
-marking, making tenon, making mortise, and fastening
-mortise and tenon.’ I wrote a letter to another fellow, and I
-copied it from the school regulations.”</p>
-
-<p>So Nahum went out to his own work shop in the shed, which,
-as it happened, Aunt Fanny had never seen before, because
-Nahum kept it under his own key. In the afternoon the tray
-was made.</p>
-
-<p>“This will make you no end of comfort in Wisconsin,
-Nahum.”</p>
-
-<p>“But if I am to do carpenter work, really,” said the boy, “I
-ought to go to the Technology.”</p>
-
-<p>He meant to the Institute of Technology.</p>
-
-<p>“Would you like to go there?”</p>
-
-<p>“Of course I would. Why, if I went there I could make the
-frame of my own house, and raise it, if the neighbors would
-help.”</p>
-
-<p>Nor was the boy wrong. And his Aunt Fanny and Uncle
-Asaph determined he should go, and go he did. He spent
-three months of that winter there, four days of every week;
-and worked steadily eight hours a day. Still it was different
-from what it would have been had he gone to a carpenter as
-an apprentice. For then he would have had to do whatever
-the carpenter was doing; and he would have had to take his
-chance for instruction. But at the Technology he had regular
-teachers and regular practical lessons. Of course he needed
-practice, and in the long run, it is only practice which makes
-a first rate workman. But at the end, he had seen every important
-part of a good carpenter’s work done, he knew why it
-was done, and had had a hand in the doing of it.</p>
-
-<p>The Institute of Technology is not a public school as the
-Dwight School is, where Nahum had picked up his elementary
-instruction; and for his lessons here they had to pay thirty
-dollars. But when, the next summer, all the barns on his uncle’s
-farm in Harris were carried fourteen miles by a tornado,
-and Nahum found himself directing the framing of a new barn,
-and doing half the work, he and his aunt thought that those
-thirty dollars had been well invested.</p>
-
-<p>She took very good care that George should go into the carpenter’s
-class at the Dwight School while they staid in Boston.
-He would not have been obliged to go. No scholar took this
-course, excepting as an extra, but <i>he</i> took it because he wanted
-to. And, as Nahum had said, they were obliged to keep in
-good standing in their other studies.</p>
-
-<p>As for little Sibyl, Aunt Fanny judged, after full consultation
-with her confidential adviser, Belle, that Sibyl had better stay
-where she was—at the Grammar School. Aunt Fanny went
-down and made a state call on Miss Throckmorton, the teacher
-of the school, and also saw Miss Bell, the sewing teacher.
-She explained to them that while she did not want to break any
-school rules, she should be well pleased to have as much attention
-as possible given to Sibyl’s sewing. Miss Bell was
-really pleased with the attention. She said a good many
-parents did not seem to care anything about it. But if Sibyl
-would really give her mind to it, she would see that she was
-able, before she left them in the spring, to cut and fit a frock
-for Aunt Fanny or for her sister. And before they went to
-Wisconsin, it proved that Miss Bell was as good as her word
-to her little friend, and Sibyl made a very pretty dress for Aunt
-Fanny, before she left school.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>III.</h3>
-
-<p>As Aunt Fanny herself made her inquiries into these practical
-matters, she resolved to try an experiment, which she
-would have laughed at when she left Wisconsin. She was
-asked to a lunch party of ladies one day, and was a little
-amused and a little amazed at first, when she observed how
-much they said about what they had to eat. Aunt Fanny had
-been trained to a little of the western ridicule of Boston, and
-had supposed that a bubble rechauffée or a fried rainbow was
-the most material article that anybody would discuss. And
-here these ladies were volubly telling of the merits of oysters
-in batter and oysters in crumbs—of one and another way to serve
-celery—in a detail which Aunt Fanny found quite puzzling,
-and, indeed, quite out of place in the manners to which she
-had been bred, which had taught her never to criticise what
-was on the table.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps her silence showed her surprise. This is certain,
-that all of a sudden a very pretty and gay Mrs. Fréchette
-turned round and said, “Here is Mrs. Turnbull, horrified because
-we talk so much of what we eat. Dear Mrs. Turnbull,
-it is not what we eat, it is the cooking we care for. You must
-know we have all been to the Cooking Schools—all who are
-not managers.”</p>
-
-<p>Aunt Fanny confessed that she had been puzzled a little, and
-Mrs. Fréchette and Mrs. Champernom, her hostess, explained.
-In point of fact this very lunch had been cooked, “From egg to
-apple,” as the Romans would say, by Mrs. Champernom and
-her two daughters. It may be worth while, therefore, to give
-the bill of fare:</p>
-
-<p class="center">Raw Oysters on the shell.<br />
-Bouillon in cups.<br />
-Scalloped Lobster in its own shell.<br />
-Quails on Toast, with White Sauce.<br />
-Sweet Breads, with Green Peas.<br />
-Capons, with Salad.<br />
-Ice Creams. Frozen Pudding. Jelly.<br />
-Fruit. Coffee.</p>
-
-<p>How good cooks the mother and daughters had been before,
-they did not explain. But these particular results were due to
-their training at the Cooking School. They had made the rolls
-as well.</p>
-
-<p>“I came out of it so well,” said Mrs. Champernom, laughing,
-“and Mary Flannegan approved the results so well, that
-when I told her and Ellen Flynn, my waiter girl, that if they
-liked to go to the cooks’ class, which is a class for special instruction
-to servant girls, I would pay half, they both consented
-to go; Mary Flannegan to keep Ellen Flynn company, and
-to see that she was not taught wrong. The cooks’ class is
-twelve lessons, and costs three dollars each. I shall pay a
-dollar and a half for each of them, and as Ellen Flynn is a
-bright girl, I shall have four good cooks in the house instead
-of three. For really,” she said, “there is nothing that Hester and
-Maria can not do. They went down to the beach with their
-father and the boys, and for a week they cooked everything
-that was eaten. They made the boys wash the dishes.”</p>
-
-<p>This started Aunt Fanny herself. She found there were four
-classes she could attend:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>1. The Cooks’ Class, for people who had some experience.
-Twelve lessons would have cost three dollars.</p>
-
-<p>2. The Beginners’ Class of twenty lessons, for which she
-must pay eight dollars. Here she would be trained to make
-bread, and to prepare the ordinary dishes for family use at
-breakfast and dinner and supper.</p>
-
-<p>3. The Second Class, also of twenty lessons, but more advanced.
-Here she must pay twelve dollars. But here more
-elegant dishes, what Mrs. Fréchette called “company dishes,”
-were part of the program.</p>
-
-<p>4. What Mrs. Fréchette called “The Swell Course.” Here
-every lady paid fifteen dollars for her twenty lessons. <i>Per
-contra</i>, they had what they cooked, and very jolly parties they
-seemed to make, when they dared ask their friends to their
-entertainments.</p>
-
-<p>Aunt Fanny was a good housekeeper, but she thought she
-should like to astonish her friends at Harris with some of the
-best seaboard elegancies, so she and Belle entered the “second
-class.” And pleasant and profitable they found it.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>IV.</h3>
-
-<p>“Sibyl, my dear,” said Aunt Fanny one morning, “I have
-only just found out that you and Belle make my bed. You
-need not do it again; I always make it at home, and I should
-have done it here, but you have been too quick for me.”</p>
-
-<p>“We shall not give you a chance, Aunt Fanny; we shall not
-let you.”</p>
-
-<p>“But when do you do it, you little witches; you are always
-at breakfast and at prayers; and when I go up into my room,
-it is all in order. I supposed Delia did it while we were at
-breakfast.”</p>
-
-<p>Then, with much joking, it was made clear that every day,
-while Aunt Fanny saw George and Nahum off, and spoke to
-the butcher in the kitchen, Sibyl and Belle slipped up stairs,
-and “did” her room.</p>
-
-<p>“That is a piece of your dear mother’s training,” said Aunt
-Fanny, as she patted Sibyl’s head.</p>
-
-<p>“As it happens, it is, Aunt Fanny,” said Belle. “But dear
-mamma said even she got points from Miss Homans, and I
-am sure Sibyl and I both learned the reasons of some things
-at the Kindergarten that we did not know before.”</p>
-
-<p>“Reasons for making a bed,” said Aunt Fanny. “Why,
-you do not tell me that you learn to make beds at school.”</p>
-
-<p>“We did not, because mamma had taught us. But the
-kitchen Kindergarten was such fun that we liked to go; and
-if you like to see it, we will take you.” So Aunt Fanny was
-taken to see that very pretty sight. And she understood at
-once, how even very little children can be taught housework
-thoroughly, and taught to like it too. Each child had a doll’s
-bed to make, and to unmake; and each child, in unison with
-thirty or forty others, made it and unmade it, singing little
-songs and going through other such exercise as made the thing
-amusing, while it was methodical. In the same way each
-child set a baby house table with the most perfect precision,
-and swept a floor, and dusted a room. It was play to them,
-but they learned what they never forgot, as Aunt Fanny had
-occasion to see every day in the neat order of her dear brother’s
-orphaned household.</p>
-
-<p>Thus was it that it happened that when Aunt Fanny took
-home in April her little flock of orphans, she did not bring to
-their wholly new life four mere cumberers of the ground.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—In preparing this little sketch of “Industrial Education in
-Boston,” at Dr. Flood’s request, I have selected what seem to me, on
-the whole, the most important branches of such education for illustration.
-It has not seemed advisable to introduce too much detail.</p>
-
-<p>1. The instruction in sewing is given in all public schools to all
-girls.</p>
-
-<p>2. The instruction in carpenter work has been attempted only in two
-public schools. A central school is now to be established, where classes
-of volunteers from the different grammar schools will be received. The full
-course described, of eight hours a day, for four days a week, of thirteen
-weeks, is one of the Technology courses, and there is a fee for instruction.</p>
-
-<p>3. The Cooking Schools are under the direction of a society for that
-purpose. It also maintains Normal Classes for teachers of cooking.
-Different churches and charitable societies maintain free cooking
-classes, and free carpenter classes.</p>
-
-<p>4. Drawing is taught in all public schools.</p>
-
-<p>5. Schools of design and of carving are maintained by different
-societies.</p>
-
-<p>I have confined myself to instruction which is to a certain extent
-training in handiwork, and in this I have not included musical or other
-artistic performance.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="ECHOES_FROM_A_CHAUTAUQUA">ECHOES FROM A CHAUTAUQUA WINTER.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Rev. H. H. MOORE.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Now that winter is gone and the time for the singing of birds
-is near, the readers of <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>, especially those
-who have spent a summer at this place, will inquire: “How
-does Chautauqua appear in autumn, with flowers withered,
-trees naked, and not a robin or thrush to be seen or heard?
-What a contrast must be the sudden change from a summer
-world to the wild desolations of a semi-Arctic winter!” and perhaps
-it seems to them that the place was dead and buried beneath
-a monument of snow and ice. A feeling of chilliness
-comes over them, and possibly they half resolve never to visit
-these groves again. Pity, and possibly a prayer are indulged
-for the poor unfortunates resident here. Lonesome things, shut
-up in the woods, how can they stand it? With all respect and
-due thanks for good intentions, we will excuse the pity, that it
-may be bestowed where it is more needed, and will be better
-appreciated. If contentment, good cheer, and the elements of
-good society can be found anywhere, it is at Chautauqua.</p>
-
-<p>Let man’s environments, duties and responsibilities be what
-they may, if his mind and heart are in harmony and sympathy
-with them, he is satisfied, and at rest.</p>
-
-<p>If Chautauqua is stirring and rosy and beautiful in summer
-to all people, to a nature that can appreciate it it is gorgeous,
-savage, grand and thoughtful in winter. At the one
-season we float carelessly along in the midst of scenes of sunshine,
-loveliness and gaiety; at the other we are more, alone
-with God, we commune with the stars, and become familiar
-with the sterner aspects of life. The change from one season
-to another is simply turning over a leaf in the book of nature,
-and receiving additional instruction, but of equal value. To
-our astronomers, the heavens, whenever they could be seen,
-have presented an aspect of surpassing beauty. Just after sunset
-in the west, Venus, from beyond the sun has been seen
-climbing toward the zenith, and is now rapidly approaching
-the earth, dropping down between it and the sun; we have
-swept by fiery Mars, which has been nearly over our heads during
-the winter; further to the east, Jupiter and Saturn have
-held high court; over the southern heavens has swept Sirius,
-the brightest star to be seen; to the north and northwest, Vega,
-the largest of the stars yet measured, has been steadily looking
-down upon us, and to crown all, Orion, the most magnificent
-of the constellations has illumined the southern sky.</p>
-
-<p>January was a month of storms, and often did we contrast
-its desolations with the excitement of a summer Assembly, but
-such was our satisfaction with the present that we were in no
-haste for a change. The wild, weird elements of the season
-interested us; the opportunity afforded for reading, rest and
-recuperation was what was needed, and we felt that these
-things could not be too long continued. What, have the beautiful
-lake ice-locked for months, and used as a public highway?
-Listen day and night to the moaning and howling of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>
-the winds as they swept through the branches of the naked
-trees, often threatening to tear them up by the roots? Live
-weeks together without sight of the sun by day, or of a star by
-night? Yes, for all these things accorded with each other, and
-with the general aspect of nature. The music was of a <i>class</i>,
-and each note was in harmony with the general movement of
-the grand anthem. When nature had savagely arrayed itself
-in frost and snow and cloud and tempest, hiding the earth
-and filling the heavens, had the sun put in an appearance
-what a ghastly display would it have made! But in the midst
-of this desolation the snow-birds appeared, and they were
-beautiful, for they were the flowers of the season. We realized
-that the power of harmony could be heard in a tempest as well
-as in a seraph’s song. It is the extreme of folly to waste a winter
-watching for the coming of spring. The soul that is free from
-shams and is a pure part of nature itself, is attuned to the real
-and the true, and accepts the nature that is as the best, and
-would resolutely resist a change.</p>
-
-<p>Our snow storm continued about twenty-eight days, and its
-coming was heralded by the play of lightning and the music
-of thunder. It never ceased to be a pleasure to watch the falling
-of the snow; to see the curiously wrought crystals drift out
-of the sky down among the branches of the trees, filling the
-air till it seemed mantled in white—a new creation. As an aid
-to the expression of our feelings we read the poem of Emerson.
-We quote a few lines:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">“Come see the north wind’s masonry,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Out of an unseen quarry evermore</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Curves his white bastions with projected roof.</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Round every windward stake, or tree, or door,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work</div>
-<div class="verse i1">So fanciful, so savage, naught cares he</div>
-<div class="verse i1">For number or proportion. Mockingly</div>
-<div class="verse i1">On coop, or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths.</div>
-<div class="verse i1">A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Fills up the farmer’s lane from wall to wall</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Maugre the farmer’s sighs; and at the gate</div>
-<div class="verse i1">A tapering turret overtops the work,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">And when his hours are numbered, and the world</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Leaves when the sun appears, astonished Art</div>
-<div class="verse i1">To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone</div>
-<div class="verse i1">Built in an age, the mad wind’s night work</div>
-<div class="verse i1">The frolic architecture of the snow.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Had the storm completed its work in a day, the snow at
-Chautauqua would have been from six to ten feet deep; but as
-it extended over the most of a month, changing occasionally
-into rain, it became so packed that at no time was it more than
-three feet deep. On some of the buildings, where two roofs
-met at right-angles it was six or eight feet deep at the angle.
-But we suffered no inconvenience from the long storm. Our
-stalwart young men, with heavy teams and strong-built snow-plows,
-kept the streets open to all parts of the grounds. For a
-short time, as our greatest trouble, in common with other places,
-we were a little vexed because of the irregularities of the mail.</p>
-
-<p>But in our safe retreat we could but think of the time when this
-immense mass of snow would melt away, perhaps attended by
-falling rain, and of the suffering which the floods would cause in
-the valleys below. Our gravest apprehensions have since been
-more than realized. As the snows disappeared the waters of
-the lake began to rise, and the low lands about Ashville, the
-Narrows, Griffiths, and other places were flooded, and the area
-of the lake was sensibly enlarged. The upper dock at Chautauqua
-stood out at least two rods in the lake, and in the baggage
-room, by actual measurement, the water stood fourteen
-inches deep. As the stage of water was unprecedented, we intend
-to sink a stone at high water mark as a monument of the
-phenomenal flood of the year 1884.</p>
-
-<p>Up to the 15th of January the game laws permit our fishermen
-to take with spear pickerel from the lake, through the ice,
-and the time was well improved, but with poor success. An
-almost air-tight house, about four feet square, is placed on the
-ice where the water is from twelve to fifteen feet deep. Brush
-and snow are packed about the base of the house, and not a ray
-of light is allowed to enter; then the fisherman, closely shut inside,
-can see into the clear water, but the fish cannot catch a
-glimpse of anything in the house. Having thus taken all the
-advantages to himself, he keeps a decoy chub moving about in
-the water, and as the pickerel comes in sight to seize its prey,
-it is saluted with the deadly spear. One year ago tons of pickerel
-were taken from the lake, and many of them were shipped
-to distant cities as rare luxuries; but this has been a very unfavorable
-season, for which all Chautauquans should be thankful.
-During the legal fishing season, the wind was in the north,
-and at such times, the fishermen say, the fish keep in deep
-water, and will not “run.” However, some were taken, and
-those left we may troll for during the August Assembly.</p>
-
-<p>When the ice in the lake was at its best, the Assembly ice
-house and many individual houses were filled, and in that respect
-we are prepared for a long, hot summer, and for supplying
-the wants of the thousands of people who may visit the
-place in July and August.</p>
-
-<p>Late last autumn, quite a company of old Chautauquans repaired
-to Florida to spend the winter; but fifty-nine families
-remained, and some that left us have returned, so that the
-place is blest with the elements of good society. The Sabbath
-services are largely attended; a choir of excellent singers adds
-much to the interest of the occasion. The average attendance
-at the Sunday-school was about ninety-six during the
-winter. It is thoroughly manned and well supplied with lesson
-helps. The assistant superintendent, A. P. Wilder, deserves
-much credit for the prosperity of the school. The social and
-devotional exercises of the church are spiritual, and special
-attention is given by competent teachers to the religious education
-of the children. Thus an intelligent and Christian class
-of people are keeping watch and ward of Chautauqua interests
-in the absence of the Assembly authorities.</p>
-
-<p>The local C. L. S. C. is under the direction of Mrs. Sarah
-Stephens, a lady graduate, who brings to her duties, ability,
-culture, and the ardor of woman’s heart. She follows closely
-the prescribed course of study, and by the general circulation
-of written questions, endeavors to reach and interest the entire
-community. The meetings are held Tuesday evenings, in the
-chapel, and are largely attended by enthusiastic students.
-Most of the people here live at their leisure, and much of their
-time is given to reading and study. I have noticed that subjects
-discussed at the C. L. S. C. meetings often come up for
-further examination in shops, stores, on the street, and in the
-family, and these discussions I judge go far to fix in the mind
-the subjects discussed. At any rate they are a splendid substitute
-for the empty or slanderous gossip which is bred in minds
-that have nothing else to do.</p>
-
-<p>The Good Templars hold their meetings on Friday night
-and occasionally favor the public with a lecture. Sometime in
-the winter, under the auspices of the order, an oyster festival
-was given which brought together a large crowd. The evening
-was devoted to feasting, music, gossip and addresses. It
-was really an enjoyable occasion, without any discount. The
-addresses were so well received as to elicit, in miniature, the
-“Chautauqua salute.”</p>
-
-<p>To accommodate the little folks who were not able to go outside
-the gates to the public school, Miss Carrie Leslie has kept
-a private school, and given entire satisfaction.</p>
-
-<p>Not much has been done during the winter in the way of
-building and improvements. Late in autumn, A. Norton,
-Esq., commenced the erection of a fine cottage, at the corner
-of Vincent and Terrace Avenues, which is now nearing completion.
-He is building a private cottage for a permanent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>
-home, and will expend upon house and lot from $2,500 to
-$3,000. The Rev. Frank Russell, D. D., of Mansfield, Ohio,
-has under way a unique cottage, a little back of the Amphitheater,
-which, when completed, will present a fine appearance.
-The prospect from his upper verandas will be the widest and
-best on the grounds, away from the lake.</p>
-
-<p>The Sixby store, embracing dry goods, groceries, drugs, and
-hardware, under the management of the gentlemanly and accommodating
-Mr. Herrick, has been open during the winter,
-and has done a good business.</p>
-
-<p>We have had some sickness and one death since the Assembly.
-Mr. Crossgrove, a very good man, came here some two
-years ago, the victim of consumption, and passed away in September
-last, leaving a widow and other friends to mourn their
-loss.</p>
-
-<p>The first notes of preparation for the next Assembly have
-been heard. The appointment of Mr. W. A. Duncan as superintendent
-of grounds gives entire satisfaction. A modification
-of policy in some respects is anticipated, which will reduce expenses
-and work general improvement.</p>
-
-<p>We feel that we are nearing the time when a large group of
-boys will be on the ground, receiving an education according to
-the <i>enlarged</i> Chautauqua Idea.</p>
-
-<p>I am here interrupted by the tolling of our bell, reminding
-us of Longfellow, and one of our Memorial Days.</p>
-
-<p>Chautauquans everywhere should know that the Chautauqua
-Vesper Service is read every Sunday eve, and that all these
-Chautauqua interests and peculiarities are cared for from one
-Assembly to another. Chautauqua is not a six weeks summer
-affair, but in spirit, and to some extent in form, it lives through
-all the months of the year, and twelve months are none too
-many for the full development of all its interests. Again am
-I interrupted, this time to attend a wedding at the parsonage,
-and here shall close this survey of Chautauqua in the winter
-season.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="C_L_S_C_WORK">C. L. S. C. WORK.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Rev. J. H. VINCENT, D.D., Superintendent of Instruction</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Will local circles please report to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield,
-N. J., as well as to <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>? Please attend
-to this.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Persons desiring graduates’ badges in the C. L. S. C. should
-address Mrs. Rosie M. Baketel, Methuen, Mass., as she has
-now entire charge of Mrs. Burroughs’ business.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The <i>Saturday Union</i>, published in Lynn, Mass., contains a
-C. L. S. C. column. The number for February 2 has an original
-Chautauqua song, and a column and a half of questions
-and answers in Political Economy. The questions are by Rev.
-R. H. Howard, A.M. This is an advance movement, and will
-undoubtedly help our cause.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Will all members take notice not to send letters, postals or
-papers to me at Hartford, Connecticut? My personal postoffice
-address is Drawer 75, New Haven, Conn.; Miss Kimball’s address
-is Plainfield, N. J. Letters addressed to me at Plainfield
-are forwarded.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The <i>Alma Mater</i>, the new bi-monthly to be sent to all recorded
-members of the C. L. S. C. at Plainfield, N. J., will
-contain original answers by Dr. William M. Taylor, of the
-Broadway Tabernacle, New York City; Dr. John Hall, Fifth
-Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City; John Wanamaker,
-Esq., of Philadelphia; Dr. R. M. Hatfield, of Chicago, Ill.;
-Dr. Joseph T. Duryea, of Boston, and Prof. J. W. Dickinson,
-of Boston, written expressly for this number of the <i>Alma
-Mater</i>, to the following question: “What advice do you give
-to a person who has had but little school opportunity since he
-or she was fifteen years of age—a person busy in mechanical,
-commercial or domestic duties much of the time, who complains
-of a very poor memory, and desires to improve it—how
-may such person improve the memory?”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The Rev. Dr. A. M. Fairbairn, principal of Airedale College,
-Bradford, England, who was announced to give a course of
-lectures on the “History of Philosophy” at Chautauqua last
-summer, but who was detained at home by business connected
-with the college, writes to Dr. Vincent under date of January
-29, 1884, as follows: “I intend, all well, to be with you in
-August; the latter part of the month will be most convenient
-for me. The subjects the same as before stated. Sincerely
-yours, A. M. Fairbairn.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Persons desiring copies of the Chautauqua Songs or of the
-Sunday Vesper Service may procure them of Miss K. F. Kimball,
-Plainfield, N. J., at the rate of $2.00 per 100 copies each,
-postage paid.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>There are some members of the class of 1887 who have not
-yet returned the blank form of application. Such blank should
-be filled at once and forwarded to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield,
-N. J.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The badge of the C. L. S. C. furnished by Mr. Henry Hart
-is not in any sense an official badge, nor does the C. L. S. C.
-receive any percentage from the sale of the same. This has
-been offered, but not accepted. The badges furnished by Mr.
-Hart are very beautiful. This is all that the officers of the C.
-L. S. C. can say.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>Alma Mater</i> is the name of our new bi-monthly communication
-to be sent from the C. L. S. C. office at Plainfield to all
-members of the Circle whose annual fees are paid. The first
-number will contain some valuable hints on “Memory,” “The
-Laws of Memory,” etc., by prominent educators. The second
-number of <i>Alma Mater</i> will contain a very ingenious study in
-English—a series entitled “Where the every-day words come
-from.” Communications to the members of the Circle which
-have heretofore been printed separately, as well as the memoranda,
-will be published in the <i>Alma Mater</i>. All members
-whose names are recorded at Plainfield, and whose annual fees
-are paid, will receive <i>Alma Mater</i>.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>To all recorded members whose annual fees are paid will be forwarded
-in March an envelope containing a <i>petite</i> calendar for
-’84, a most humorous, brilliant and effective tract on evolution
-entitled “Saw-mill Science,” a copy of the “Sunday
-Vesper Service,” specimens of the new and brilliant C. L. S.
-C. envelopes, and a copy of the little tract entitled “Memorial
-Days.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>Our Alma Mater.</i>—The contributions to this magazine are
-copyrighted, and are not designed for publication anywhere
-else than through this medium.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>A correspondent kindly criticises a statement in the “Outlines
-of Roman History,” on page 68, in which it speaks of
-Polycarp as being in Rome in 240. Assuming that this is 240
-A. D., he says: “Now what Polycarp do you mean? Not the
-disciple of John, who was afterward Bishop of Smyrna, for,
-according to Prof. R. W. Hitchcock, the church historian, and
-other excellent authorities, Polycarp suffered martyrdom between
-the years 166 and 167 A. D.” We referred the question
-of our critic to an expert in such matters, and this is the reply:
-“In all the authorities I find mention of but one Polycarp, the
-Disciple of John and Bishop of Smyrna, and his death is given
-as either 168 or 169, but they add that it is uncertain. As to
-the Polycarp mentioned by your critic, I feel sure that there is
-a mistake, and Polycarp of Smyrna is meant, who did visit
-Rome during the controversy about the celebration of Easter,
-probably about 140 A. D. With dates it is easy to make a slip
-of a century, and probably this was the trouble in this case;
-certainly there is no mention of a Polycarp in Rome as late
-as 240.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span></p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The Chautauqua University is gradually developing its
-courses of study. The preparatory and college courses in
-German, French, Latin, Greek and English are already announced.
-A practical department has also been recognized,
-and a corresponding class in connection with a technical
-school for draftsmen and mechanics is now in full working order.
-The lesson papers prepared by Profs. Gribbon and
-Houghton are divided into eight series of about twelve lessons
-each, treating upon the following topics: First series, free-hand
-drawing; second, mechanical drafting; third, fourth and fifth,
-geometry applied to carriage construction; sixth, miscellaneous
-problems in carriage construction; seventh, review tables
-useful in carriage construction; eighth, miscellaneous lessons.
-Young men, apprentices, journeymen, and others desiring to
-take this course, should correspond at once with George W.
-Houghton, Esq.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>There are many persons who are taking up the Chautauqua
-Spare-minute Course, which is a course of readings, short,
-practical, simple, attractive, in biography, history, literature,
-science, and art. This course is printed in twenty-one Home
-College Series and in two numbers of the Chautauqua Text-Book
-Series. They cost in one package $1.00, sent by mail.
-The reading in this course can be carried along steadily, and,
-after a while, one who has prosecuted the course will find himself
-well along in the C. L. S. C.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The following pleasant little domestic picture comes from
-New Hampshire: “I can not thank you enough for what the
-C. L. S. C. has done for us all. You should see us some evening
-now. We sit around the table, every one interested in
-some C. L. S. C. books. Even my little boy of seven years
-will tease me to read aloud to him, and nearly every evening
-this month gets his dumb-bells, and wants to go through gymnastics
-with me.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Members must not return memoranda to the Plainfield office
-until all the reading for the year has been completed.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>A White Seal will be given all graduates of ’84 who read the
-following: “The Hall in the Grove,” “Hints for Home Reading,”
-and the following numbers of the “Home College Series”
-(price 5 cents each): No. 1, Thomas Carlyle; 2, Wm. Wordsworth;
-4, Longfellow; 8, Washington Irving; 13, George Herbert;
-17, Joseph Addison; 18, Edmund Spenser; 21, Prescott;
-23, Wm. Shakspere; 26, John Milton. Address Phillips &amp; Hunt.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="OUTLINE_OF_C_L_S_C_READINGS">OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. READINGS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>APRIL, 1884.</h3>
-
-<p>The Required Readings for April include the second half of
-Prof. W. C. Wilkinson’s “Preparatory Latin Course in English,”
-Chautauqua Text-Book No. 16—Roman History and the
-Required Readings in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>First Week</i> (ending April 8).—1. “Preparatory Latin
-Course” from “Fifth Book,” page 167 to the first paragraph
-on page 202.</p>
-
-<p>2. Readings in French History in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<p>3. Sunday Readings for April 6 in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>Second Week</i> (ending April 15).—1. “Preparatory Latin
-Course” from the first paragraph on page 202 to the “Georgics”
-on page 236.</p>
-
-<p>2. Readings in Art in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<p>3. Sunday Readings for April 13 in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>Third Week</i> (ending April 22).—1. “Preparatory Latin
-Course” from the “Georgics,” page 236 to the middle of page 272.</p>
-
-<p>2. Readings in Commercial Law and American Literature in
-<span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<p>3. Sunday Readings for April 20 in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p><i>Fourth Week</i> (ending April 30).—1. “Preparatory Latin
-Course,” from the middle of page 272 to the end of the volume.</p>
-
-<p>2. Readings in United States History in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<p>3. Sunday Readings for April 27 in <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="LOCAL_CIRCLES">LOCAL CIRCLES.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Now that Longfellow’s Day is gone, we have no Memorial
-Day until April 23rd. So many and so delightful are the ways
-of celebrating Shakspere’s, that it is to be hoped that every
-circle will do something extra. To read from Shakspere, to
-have an essay on his life, another on his characteristic as a
-writer, and a scene from a play, all followed by an elaborate
-supper, is the usual order. Do something new this time. Try
-Shaksperean tableaux—an evening of them, with music, is delightful.
-If the expense of the “properties” needed for successful
-tableaux is too heavy, dispense with the supper, and let
-the cost of butter, sugar, eggs, the meats and fruits, be contributed
-for buying an apparatus which, once owned, will always be
-ready for use. Get Mr. George W. Bartlett’s little book on parlor
-plays, published by Dick &amp; Fitzgerald, New York, and with
-little expense you will be able to prepare an excellent arrangement
-for the tableaux which in Shakspere are “as thickly
-strewn as leaves in Vallambrosa.” Or, if you wish to be strictly
-literary, take one character as Hermione, or Portia, or Cornelius,
-and read everything that has been said on it. Study one
-character thoroughly. Try a Shaksperean carnival. Do something
-fresh. Do not fall into the danger of wearing out the
-pleasure of Memorial Days by monotony of program. There
-are an infinite variety of means for brightening and freshening,
-not only special occasions, but the ordinary ones as well. One
-of the most entertaining devices we have had comes in a breezy
-letter from <b>Titusville, Pa.</b>, a place about fifty miles from Chautauqua,
-where there is an excellent circle of fourteen members.
-Our friend writes: “We make it a point to commit our text-books
-to memory and recite from them; but aim to bring in all the outside
-information possible, and to present and draw out ideas suggested
-by our books, rather than simply to recite over what we
-have been reading in them. In Greek history we found Adams’s
-Historical chart very useful. By close study of various authorities
-we extemporized a model of Athens, on a round table with green
-spread. My writing desk served as the Acropolis, and paper
-bunched up under the cloth, as Mars’ Hill, the Pnyx, etc. Out
-of the children’s blocks we erected the various buildings, while
-Noah’s wife, clad in gilt paper, and mounted on a spool, rose
-in calm majesty from behind the Propylea. A slate frame,
-with pasteboard porch on one side, decorated with paintings,
-represented the Agora and Stoa Poecilé, and in the street of the
-Tripods a cologne bottle received great admiration as the choragic
-monument of Lysicrates. Wavy strips of paper suggested
-the rippling Ilyssus and Céphisus, while a wall of brown
-paper encircled the whole. Outside the city limits, under the
-shadow of Lycabettus (brown paper with clay coating on
-the summit,) on one side, and about a mile out on the
-other, flower pots with drooping vines brought to mind the
-classic groves of Aristotle and Plato; while the street leading
-through the Ceramicus to the Academic shades of the latter,
-was lined on either side with chalk pencil monuments to the
-illustrious dead! This attempt met with so much favor that I
-was prevailed upon to repeat it, substituting for the blocks
-cardboard models quite characteristic of the Parthenon, Erechtheum,
-etc., while the Theater of Dionysius, the Odeum of Jupiter,
-Cave of Pan, steps to the Propylea, and the Bema of the
-Pnyx, were done in clay. The hard names, in this way, soon
-became familiar, and each object served as a sort of peg upon
-which to hang a good amount of Grecian history and mythology.
-After reading, as a sort of finish, Mark Twain’s account
-of his midnight visit to Athens, we were quite possessed
-with the fancy that we, too, had been actual sight-seers in
-that wonderful city.” Everybody that reads this will undoubtedly
-feel as we do, that we would like to go back and
-read Greek history over again, for the sake of building up
-Athens; but why can we not utilize the idea when we read the
-voyage of Æneas this month in the “Preparatory Latin Course”?
-And when we come to English history why not build a London?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span>
-Plans like the above for interesting circles must be supplemented
-by plans for keeping the members at work, a matter
-especially difficult in large circles. In a late issue we
-called attention to the program plan used at <b>Union City, Ind.</b>
-The secretary has kindly sent us an outline of their method,
-which we are sure will be useful: “We prepare and have
-printed a neat program for four months, giving the places and
-times of holding meetings, specifying the different exercises,
-with those who are to carry them out. These programs cost
-each of us about fifteen cents each, and enable us to have
-about five apiece. Each person knowing his duty, prepares
-for it from the beginning and no excuse for non-performance of
-duty is left except unavoidable absence, etc. Our experience
-for this year renders it certain that the circle can no longer get
-on well without our printed programs.”</p>
-
-<p>Along with the plans and suggestions come cheery reports
-of how the circles everywhere are growing and spreading.
-Mrs. Fields, the secretary of the Pacific coast C. L. S. C., writes
-us: “It has been quite negligent in the secretary of this
-branch not to have reported long ere this the growing interest
-and increased numbers of Chautauquans on this coast, and
-especially in California. Perhaps one reason of this remissness
-has been the very fact that every mail has brought to the aforesaid
-secretary letters of inquiry concerning C. L. S. C., which
-must be answered sometimes quite at length; or applications
-for membership, which must be acknowledged, registered and
-forwarded to headquarters; or letters from faithful old members
-with words of cheer and renewal of fees, all of which certainly
-should be replied to in the secretary’s most cordial style. We
-have five hundred and forty new members this year and
-two hundred old members have renewed their allegiance.
-If, as is generally the case, the old members continue to renew
-to the very end of the year, we may hope for a list of nearly a
-thousand names before next July, as the record of this year’s
-students.”</p>
-
-<p>The circle at <b>Knoxville, Tenn.</b>, Monteagle Assembly, in
-which we all became so interested by their rousing letter in
-<span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span> of November last, has written us a characteristic
-bit of experience, which we quote: “The dark, rainy
-nights of January are rather discouraging, but we keep at work.
-One rainy night, on our arrival at the parlors we found no light,
-and out of a membership of thirty-three but three were present.
-We had one visitor, whose words I quote: ‘I had no idea
-they would hold a meeting, but they were not at all disconcerted.
-The whole program, prayer, minutes, lesson and
-music, was carried out as though the number present was fifty
-instead of three.’ The result? The <i>visitor</i> became a <i>member</i>,
-saying, ‘that’s the kind of society I wish to join.’ I wish to
-state, however, that so small an attendance is quite exceptional.”</p>
-
-<p>Another circle whose history offers us some wise suggestions
-is that of <b>Syracuse, N. Y.</b>, the home of the new secretary of
-the Chautauqua Assembly, Mr. W. A. Duncan. Indeed, Mr.
-Duncan has the honor of having founded this circle, which
-dates back to the inauguration of the C. L. S. C. The city has
-fine public schools and its university is well known for its
-able professors and superior apparatus; the circle has been
-wise enough to use the material within its reach. It secured
-Prof. Rollins, of the high school, as its first leader; for three
-years he conducted a circle of fifty. His successor, the
-Rev. Mr. Mundy, brought to them a large knowledge of art,
-gained by travel and study. When they came to science, again
-they chose a leader particularly fitted by taste and profession to
-lead them through geology and astronomy. This plan of selecting
-leaders who are skilled in certain studies is very advantageous.
-The enthusiasm and knowledge of a specialist in a
-branch must always remain superior to that of the one who has
-only given a little attention to the subject. In spite of excellent
-leaders and earnest members, their numbers did fall off a
-little last year. A class graduated and they did not secure new
-members to supply the deficiency. The plan they followed for
-a re-awakening was excellent. Returning from Chautauqua last
-summer they held a public meeting and explained the plan of
-the C. L. S. C. and its benefits. That night brought them several
-new names. Then they secured Dr. Vincent for the next
-week to give them a sketch of the aims and methods of the organization.
-At the next regular meeting the secretary received
-the names of forty-two members of the class of ’87. The circle
-is certainly to be congratulated for its proximity to so much
-local talent and still more for its enterprise in utilizing it so diligently.
-The neighboring circle of <b>Troy, N. Y.</b>, continues to
-maintain its enviable standing under the leadership of Rev. H.
-C. Farrar. His indomitable energy and perseverance are felt
-along all the lines. The plan of presenting subjects in three
-minute essays is being tried with interest and profit at their
-monthly meetings.</p>
-
-<p>All of the old circles show a steady growth. At <b>Claremont,
-N. H.</b>, “Minerva Circle,” organized a year ago with a membership
-of ten, has grown to twenty; the “Atlantis,” of <b>Lynn, Mass.</b>,
-commenced its second year in October last with a membership
-of eighteen, an increase of ten; the year-old circle of <b>Pittsfield,
-Mass.</b>, has gained thirty members since its organization
-in February of 1883.</p>
-
-<p>Since 1881 a little “Pentagon” of ladies has been meeting in
-<b>Greenwich, Ct.</b> A member writes of their circle: “Although
-composed of particularly busy people, we have the conviction
-that we have been patient over our hindrances, punctual in attendance
-and persevering in the work. We have run the scale
-of questions and answers, topics, essays and memorial readings,
-but prefer, on the whole, the conversational plan as being
-best adapted to bring out individual thought.”</p>
-
-<p><b>Cambridgeboro, Pa.</b>, has an interested circle of twelve members,
-and <b>Blairsville</b>, of the same state, reports twenty, with a
-prospect of an increase.</p>
-
-<p><b>New London, Ohio</b>, claims that their circle, organized one
-year ago last September, and now numbering twenty, might
-with propriety be called the incomparable.</p>
-
-<p>At <b>Hennepin, Ill.</b>, there is a circle of fourteen ladies now
-reading the second year of the course.</p>
-
-<p>A lady writes from <b>Marion, Ind.</b>: “We have great reason
-to congratulate ourselves upon the deep and constantly
-growing interest felt in our circle, and which is plainly manifested
-not only by our own members, but by those who do
-not belong, away off here in the very center of Hoosierdom.”
-This “deep and growing interest” is the unfailing result of earnest
-work in the C. L. S. C., and how can it be otherwise when
-the idea continually develops new phases? The experience
-of the circle at <b>Little Prairie Ronde, Mich.</b>, that “each year the
-C. L. S. C. unfolds new beauties, awakens new incentives for
-more earnest action, calls to the foremost the very best of
-kindliness and cheer, and incites to diligence, research and
-thought,” is universal.</p>
-
-<p>The “Centenary Circle,” of <b>Minneapolis, Minn.</b>, has long
-been a leading one. It is by no means lagging—a late letter
-reports them as fifty strong—their graduates reading the seal
-courses, the Memorial Days all celebrated, and a big delegation
-contemplating a visit this summer to Chautauqua. That,
-has a genuine ring, particularly the reading for seals by graduates.
-Hold on to your reading habits.</p>
-
-<p>The first and only circle to report an observance of College
-Day was the “Alden,” of <b>Marshalltown, Ia.</b>, where it was recognized
-by a large gathering of Chautauquans and their
-friends. Marshalltown has been faithful in reporting all their
-meetings. They have the western enterprise, but we believe
-<b>Sioux Falls, Dak.</b>, ranks first in that quality. The following
-explains why: “We have an interesting circle here. We hold
-meetings weekly, and they are interesting and profitable. We
-purpose to double or treble our circle next year. We have sent
-you reports of our circle for <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>, but you have
-failed to notice us. We have decided to <i>Flood</i> you with letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>
-till you notice the C. L. S. C. in the largest and most beautiful
-city in southeastern Dakota.” We shall only be too glad to
-receive such stirring letters.</p>
-
-<p>A few circles have reported lectures. From <b>Seward, Neb.</b>,
-where there is a circle of sixteen, the secretary writes that they
-have had a lecture on Emerson, a reading by Prof. Cumnock,
-Chautauqua’s favorite of last year, and that they are expecting
-others. <b>Salt Lake City, Utah</b>, had the pleasure of hearing Bishop
-Warren last fall in his lecture on “The Forces of the Sunbeam.”
-The circle in this city numbers thirty-seven, and is composed
-of ministers, teachers, business men and housekeepers; that
-they have caught the spirit of our work is very evident, for they
-write us that many of their number have in joyful anticipation
-the time when the long distance that separates them from
-home and friends shall be paved over, and they shall be permitted
-to join the number of those who pass beneath the Arches
-of Chautauqua.</p>
-
-<p>We have received this month (February) reports of thirty
-new local circles. <b>Salem Depot, N. H.</b>, has organized a circle
-of fifteen members; <b>West Medway, Mass.</b>, one with a membership
-of a dozen; <b>Somerville, Mass.</b>, has a class of thirty-five
-reading the course, fifteen of them have joined the C. L. S. C.
-as members of the class of ’87; two villages of Massachusetts,
-<b>Amesbury</b> and <b>Salisbury</b>, have united their members in one organization.
-Their membership at present is twenty-one, consisting
-mostly of beginners of 1887, a few of 1885 and 1886, and of
-local members. At <b>Madison, Conn.</b>, there is a circle which traces
-its organization to the interest of a lady who had taken up the
-reading alone. She writes: “January last I began the work of the
-C L. S. C. and finished the year alone, but decided that another
-year should find a circle in our village, if my powers of persuasion
-were worth anything. I had no difficulty in forming a
-small circle, some members of which have since basely upbraided
-me for not telling them of it before.” They have
-named their circle after the pleasant and capable office secretary
-of the C. L. S. C., the “K. F. K. Circle,” and true to their
-allegiance, suggest that the local circles ought to see to it that
-she and her aids have a building which could have C. L. S. C.
-suitably inscribed on <i>any</i> part of its front, instead of meekly
-abiding in a hired house. Some day we may expect this.</p>
-
-<p><b>New Haven, Conn.</b>, the home of Dr. Vincent, organized, in
-October last, “The Woolsey Circle,” so called in honor of
-their eminent fellow townsman, ex-President Woolsey, of Yale
-College.</p>
-
-<p>A new circle called “Washington Heights” is reported from
-<b>New York City</b>.</p>
-
-<p>At <b>Bethel, N. Y.</b>, they started off last October with thirty
-members, while from <b>Buffalo</b>, same state, a friend writes:
-“We have a wide awake circle here, the membership of which
-has increased from six to twenty since October 1st, when the
-circle was organized.” This circle has found “review evenings”
-of great service to them. After finishing a subject they
-devote one evening to a review, securing a leader competent
-to answer all their questions and settle their disputes; thus for
-the review of Biology they secured Dr. Kellicott, of the Buffalo
-Normal School, who kindly answered all questions, and with
-the aid of his microscopes, explained much that before had
-been obscure.</p>
-
-<p>From <b>Lisle, N. Y.</b>, we have word of a circle of nine.</p>
-
-<p><b>North East, Pa.</b>, has a newly organized circle, among whom
-are several yearly visitors at Chautauqua; <b>Newville</b>, of the
-same state, reports a flourishing circle of nine members; from
-the class of ’87 in <b>Allegheny, Pa.</b>, we have received the program
-of the services held by them on February 10, special Sunday.
-It is particularly good. This circle is following one plan which
-deserves more attention from all circles. They are giving a
-good deal of attention to singing the Chautauqua songs, devoting
-a portion of each evening to practice.</p>
-
-<p><b>Plainfield, N. J.</b>, the place which enjoys the honor of being
-“the headquarters of the C. L. S. C.,” was without a local circle
-for several years, though many individual readers have pursued
-the course. Last fall the Rev. Dr. J. L. Hurlbut invited those
-who wished to form a local circle to meet at his residence. The
-result was a houseful of people, and a circle which has met
-fortnightly since, and now numbers forty-five members. A
-friend writes us from there: “We allow no ‘associate members’
-(persons not connected with the general C. L. S. C.)
-and none who will not attend regularly and take active part.
-For every meeting Dr. Hurlbut prepares a program of fifteen
-topics selected from the fortnight’s reading, and assigned to
-the various members. The program is printed by the ‘hectographic
-process,’ and distributed to all the members at the
-meeting in advance of its date. We take a recess in the
-middle of the evening’s exercises for social enjoyment and
-conversation, and afterward generally listen to a vocal or instrumental
-solo, and a reading from one of the members. At
-the close of the evening the critic dispenses his delicate attentions,
-his motto being ‘with malice toward all, and charity
-toward none.’ On Sunday evening, February 10, we held the
-Chautauqua Vesper Service in one of the largest churches,
-filled with an audience which participated in the responses.
-We regard our relation to the C. L. S. C. as among the most
-pleasant, and our circle as one of the best in the land.”</p>
-
-<p><b>Camden, N. J.</b>, has also recently formed the “Bradway Circle” of
-thirty-two members. This circle has a novel way of managing
-its session, which may furnish a suggestion to some one wanting
-a new idea. After their general exercises and transaction
-of business they separate into two classes for the study of some
-subject selected at the previous meeting by the members of the
-class. After devoting about half an hour to the separate
-classes, they again unite into one general class for the discussion
-of some topic.</p>
-
-<p>We are very glad to welcome into our midst two new circles
-from the South, one at <b>Salem, N. C.</b>, of thirty-eight members,
-and another at <b>Atlanta, Ga.</b> At the January meeting of the
-Salem circle the exercises were on “Germany,” and as most
-of the members understand the language of that country, part
-of the exercises were in German. A very pleasant feature of
-their program was an account of the customs, traits and people
-of the country as they appeared to one of the members who
-had lately traveled through that land.</p>
-
-<p>Our space forbids our giving long accounts of the new circles
-in the West. In <b>Illinois</b> there is a new class of thirteen at
-<b>Janesville</b>, and another at <b>Jacksonville</b>, a place famous among
-its neighbors as “the Athens of the West.” It contains no
-less than five excellent institutions of learning, and yet they
-find a place for the C. L. S. C. At <b>Litchfield, Mich.</b>, is another
-new circle, and from the college town of <b>Appleton, Wis.</b>, the
-president writes: “It was considered impracticable at first, in
-view of college and other literary societies in the town, to start
-a C. L. S. C. These objections soon vanished. We have a
-most enthusiastic circle of thirty-eight members, including two
-college professors and wives, a physician, a clergyman and
-wife, and several graduates of this and other colleges.” <b>Iowa</b>
-reports three new circles. From <b>Fairchild</b> the secretary writes:
-“We have a most enthusiastic circle of twenty-five members.
-At our opening in October we thought one meeting a month
-sufficient, but as we warmed up we multiplied them by two, and
-last week we doubled them again, so that now we meet each week.
-You see this interest compounds more rapidly than that on
-most other investments.” If one still imagines that the C. L. S.
-C. is in any sense denominational in its tendency, let him read
-the experience of one of the members of the new class at <b>Grundy
-Center, Ia.</b>: “I had a little prejudice once against the course, as
-I thought that it would naturally run into Methodist channels;
-but I have outgrown that. As a matter of fact, of our fifteen
-enrolled members eight are Presbyterians and four Congregationalists;
-but as members of the C. L. S. C. we are entirely
-unconscious that we belong to any denomination.” At <b>Belle
-Plaine, Ia.</b>, there is a circle of fifteen ladies; at <b>Clarksville, Mo.</b>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span>
-one numbering fourteen. Kansas reports two new circles, one
-at <b>Wyandotte</b>, where in a month they increased from four members
-to twenty-one; and another of twenty members at <b>Sabetha</b>,
-including the professor of the high school, and the teachers
-in the community. <b>York, Neb.</b>, has lately organized a circle
-of fifteen members.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="QUESTIONS_AND_ANSWERS">QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="hanging">FIFTY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON PREPARATORY LATIN
-COURSE IN ENGLISH—FROM PAGE 167 TO END OF BOOK.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By A. M. MARTIN, <span class="smcap">General Secretary C. L. S. C.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>1. Q. Of what is the Fifth Book of “Cæsar’s Commentaries”
-mainly one unbroken record? A. Of disasters to Cæsar’s
-armies, barely retrieved from being irreparable.</p>
-
-<p>2. Q. With what episode does this book begin? A. The last
-expedition, on Cæsar’s part, to Great Britain.</p>
-
-<p>3. Q. After Cæsar’s return to Gaul, what did the poor harvests
-compel him to do with his legions for the winter? A. To
-distribute them to different points.</p>
-
-<p>4. Q. What chance did this seem to offer to the natives? A.
-To fall on the Roman camps simultaneously and overpower
-them one by one.</p>
-
-<p>5. Q. By whom was one legion commanded that was destroyed
-by the Gauls under Ambiorix? A. By Titurius Sabinus.</p>
-
-<p>6. Q. What lieutenant of Cæsar again encounters the Nervii,
-and is with difficulty rescued by Cæsar? A. Cicero, a brother
-of the great orator.</p>
-
-<p>7. Q. With what account is the Sixth Book largely occupied?
-A. With an account of the ineffectual efforts of Cæsar to capture
-Ambiorix.</p>
-
-<p>8. Q. In the narrative of the Seventh Book, who becomes
-the head of the last and greatest confederate revolt of Gaul
-against Rome? A. Vercingetorix.</p>
-
-<p>9. Q. After the final defeat and surrender of Vercingetorix,
-what was his fate? A. He was taken to Rome and there beheaded.</p>
-
-<p>10. Q. By whom was the Eighth Book of the “Commentaries”
-written? A. By Aulus Hirtius, one of Cæsar’s lieutenants.</p>
-
-<p>11. Q. What does this book relate? A. The incidents of
-the last Gallic campaign.</p>
-
-<p>12. Q. How did Cæsar raise his legions and wage war? A.
-On his own responsibility. His wars were mostly personal
-wars, and had no sanction of government.</p>
-
-<p>13. Q. What do Cicero’s writings form? A. What has been
-finely called a library of reason and eloquence.</p>
-
-<p>14. Q. What is the amount of reading in “Cicero’s Orations”
-required for entrance at most colleges? A. The four orations
-against Catiline, and two or three others variously chosen.</p>
-
-<p>15. Q. From what oration of Cicero does our author first give
-an extract? A. His oration for Marcus Marcellus.</p>
-
-<p>16. Q. What was the occasion of this oration? A. The pardon
-by Cæsar of Marcellus, who had fought for Pompey
-against Cæsar in the civil war, and was now living in exile.</p>
-
-<p>17. Q. What gave rise to Cicero’s orations against Catiline?
-A. The Catiline conspiracy, which contemplated the firing of
-Rome and the death of the Senate, as well as the personal and
-political enemies of the conspirators.</p>
-
-<p>18. Q. How many are there of these orations against Catiline?
-A. Four.</p>
-
-<p>19. Q. Where were the first and last delivered? A. In the
-Senate.</p>
-
-<p>20. Q. Where were the second and third delivered? A. In
-the Forum, to the popular assembly of citizens.</p>
-
-<p>21. Q. What English clergyman and author has written a
-tragedy entitled “Catiline”? A. George Croly.</p>
-
-<p>22. Q. What is the subject of the fourth speech delivered in
-the Senate? A. The disposal of the conspirators then in
-custody.</p>
-
-<p>23. Q. By what name are fourteen of Cicero’s other orations
-known? A. The “Philipics.”</p>
-
-<p>24. Q. Against whom were the “Philipics” directed? A. Mark
-Antony.</p>
-
-<p>25. Q. What was the fate of Cicero? A. He was assassinated
-by the command of Antony.</p>
-
-<p>26. Q. Next to the “Iliad” of Homer, and hardly second to
-that, what is the most famous of poems? A. The “Æneid” of
-Virgil.</p>
-
-<p>27. Q. When and where was Virgil born? A. In 70 B. C.,
-at Andes, near Mantau, northern Italy.</p>
-
-<p>28. Q. What is the first of the three classes of poems of which
-Virgil’s works consist? A. Bucolics or Eclogues—pastoral
-poems.</p>
-
-<p>29. Q. What is the most celebrated of these minor poems?
-A. Pollio, supposed to have been the poet’s friend in need.</p>
-
-<p>30. Q. What famous imitation of the Pollio did Pope write in
-English? A. “Messiah,” a sacred Eclogue.</p>
-
-<p>31. Q. What is the second class of Virgil’s poems? A.
-Georgics, or poems on farming.</p>
-
-<p>32. Q. Whom does our author consider in many important
-respects the best of all of Virgil’s English metrical translators?
-A. The late Professor John Conington, of Oxford, England.</p>
-
-<p>33. Q. Name two other English translators of the “Æneid”?
-A. John Dryden and William Morris.</p>
-
-<p>34. Q. Name two American translators of the “Æneid”? A.
-C. P. Cranch and John D. Long.</p>
-
-<p>35. Q. Of what set deliberate purpose is the “Æneid”? A. A
-Roman national epic in the strictest sense.</p>
-
-<p>36. Q. Who was Æneas? A. The son of Venus by the Trojan
-shepherd Anchises.</p>
-
-<p>37. Q. Seven years after the fall of Troy for what purpose
-did Æneas and his companions embark from Sicily? A. To
-found a new Troy in the west.</p>
-
-<p>38. Q. In the first book of the “Æneid,” where was the fleet
-conveying Æneas and his companions driven? A. To the coast
-of Carthage.</p>
-
-<p>39. Q. By whom were the Trojans received with generous
-hospitality? A. Dido, the Carthaginian queen.</p>
-
-<p>40. Q. With what are the third and fourth books of the
-“Æneid” principally occupied? A. With the relation by Æneas
-to Queen Dido of his previous adventures and wanderings, including
-an account of the siege and fall of Troy.</p>
-
-<p>41. Q. To what is the fourth book devoted? A. To the sad
-tale of Dido and her fatal passion for her guest.</p>
-
-<p>42. Q. What is the course of Æneas in this affair? A. He
-ruins Dido, and under the cover of night deserts Carthage with
-his ships.</p>
-
-<p>43. Q. What is the fate of Dido? A. She commits suicide,
-ending her sorrow on the funeral pyre.</p>
-
-<p>44. Q. With what is the fifth book largely occupied? A.
-With an elaborate account of games celebrated by the Trojans
-on the hospitable shores of Sicily, in honor of the anniversary of
-the death of Anchises, the father of Æneas.</p>
-
-<p>45. Q. What is the principal matter of the sixth book? A.
-An account of Æneas’s descent into Hades.</p>
-
-<p>46. Q. By whom is Æneas accompanied as guide on his visit
-to the lower world? A. By the Sibyl at Cumæ.</p>
-
-<p>47. Q. What does Anchises, the father of Æneas, relate to
-his son in Elysium? A. The name and quality of the illustrious
-descendants who should prolong and decorate the Trojan
-line.</p>
-
-<p>48. Q. How many books of the Æneid are usually read by
-students in preparation for college? A. Six.</p>
-
-<p>49. Q. Of what is an account given in the remaining six
-books? A. The journey of Æneas from Cumæ to Latium, and
-his adventures there.</p>
-
-<p>50. Q. With what episode does the poem close? A. The
-death of Turnus, a rival chief, in single combat with Æneas.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="CHAUTAUQUA_NORMAL_COURSE">CHAUTAUQUA NORMAL COURSE.</h2>
-
-<p class="center smaller">Season of 1884.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>LESSON VII.—BIBLE SECTION.</h3>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h4><i>The History of The Bible.</i></h4>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">Rev. J. L. HURLBUT, D.D., and R. S. HOLMES, A.M.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p><i>I. General Periods.</i>—Bible history, according to the common
-chronology, which we accept, but do not indorse as correct,
-embraces the events of 4100 years. This may be divided into
-six general periods, as follows:</p>
-
-<p><i>1. The Period of the Human Race</i>, from the creation of man
-B. C. 4004 to the call of Abraham, B. C. 1921. During this
-period the whole race comes under consideration.</p>
-
-<p><i>2. The Period of the Chosen Family</i>, from the call of Abraham
-B. C. 1921 to the exodus from Egypt, B. C. 1491. During
-this period the family of Abraham forms the only subject of the
-history; hence it might be called the period of the Patriarchs.</p>
-
-<p><i>3. The Period of the Israelite People</i>, from the exodus 1491
-to the coronation of Saul, B. C. 1095; the period of the Theocracy.</p>
-
-<p><i>4. The Period of the Israelite Kingdom</i>, from the coronation
-of Saul, B. C. 1095, to the captivity at Babylon, B. C. 587; the
-period of the Monarch.</p>
-
-<p><i>5. The Period of the Jewish Province</i>, from the captivity at
-Babylon, B. C. 587, to the birth of Christ, B. C. 4; a period of
-foreign rule during most of the time.</p>
-
-<p><i>6. The Period of the Christian Church</i>, from the birth of
-Christ, B. C. 4, to the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70.</p>
-
-<p><i>II. Subdivisions.</i>—The general periods may be subdivided
-as follows:</p>
-
-<p>1. The Human Race into—(1) the early race 4004 B. C. to
-the dispersion B. C. 2234; (2) the dispersed race, 2234 to 1921.</p>
-
-<p>2. The Chosen Family into—(1) The journeyings of the Patriarchs
-1921, to the descent into Egypt, 1706; (2) the sojourn in
-Egypt, 1706-1491.</p>
-
-<p>3. The Israelite people into—(1) The wandering in the wilderness,
-from the exodus, 1491, to the crossing of the Jordan,
-1451; (2) the settlement in Canaan, from 1451 to the death of
-Joshua, 1426; (3) the rule of the Judges, from 1426 to 1095.</p>
-
-<p>4. The Israelite kingdom into—(1) The age of unity, from
-1095 to the division, 975; (2) the age of division, from 975 to
-the fall of Samaria, 721; (3) the age of decay, from 721 to the
-captivity, 587.</p>
-
-<p>5. The Jewish Province into—(1) Chaldean rule, from 587 to
-the return from captivity, 536; (2) Persian rule, from 536 to
-Alexander’s conquest, 330; (3) Greek rule, 330 to the revolt of
-Mattathias, 168 B. C.; (4) Maccabean rule, the period of Jewish
-independence, from 168 to 37 B. C.; (5) Roman rule, 37 B.
-C. to 4 B. C.</p>
-
-<p>6. The Christian Church into—(1) The preparation, from the
-birth of Christ, B. C. 4, to the baptism of Christ, A. D. 26; (2)
-The ministry of Jesus, from A. D. 26 to the ascension A. D. 30;
-(3) Jewish Christianity, from the ascension to the conversion of
-Paul, A. D. 37; (4) Transition, from Jewish to Gentile, from A.
-D. 37 to the council at Jerusalem, A. D. 50; (5) Gentile Christianity,
-from A. D. 50 to the destruction of Jerusalem A. D. 70.</p>
-
-<p>III. We notice next a few of the great events in the periods,
-beside those already named at their beginning and ending:</p>
-
-<p>1. In the period of the human race—(1) The Fall; (2) The
-Translation of Enoch; (3) The Deluge.</p>
-
-<p>2. In the period of the chosen family—(1) The Covenant with
-Abraham; (2) The Selling of Joseph; (3) The Enslavement of
-the Israelites.</p>
-
-<p>3. In the period of the Israelite people—(1) The Giving of
-the Law; (2) The Conquest of Canaan; (3) Gideon’s Victory.</p>
-
-<p>4. In the period of the Israelite kingdom—(1) The Building
-of the Temple; (2) Elijah’s Victory on Carmel; (3) The Destruction
-of the Assyrian Host at Jerusalem.</p>
-
-<p>5. In the period of the Jewish Province—(1) The Fiery Furnace;
-(2) Esther’s Deliverance; (3) Ezra’s Reformation.</p>
-
-<p>6. In the period of the Christian Church—(1) The Preaching
-of John the Baptist; (2) The Transfiguration; (3) The Crucifixion;
-(4) The Death of Stephen; (5) The Journeys of Paul.</p>
-
-<p>IV. We connect with each period, the names of its most important
-<i>persons</i>:</p>
-
-<p>1. With the first period, Adam, Enoch, Noah.</p>
-
-<p>2. With the second period, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph.</p>
-
-<p>3. With the third period, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel.</p>
-
-<p>4. With the fourth period, David, Elijah, Hezekiah.</p>
-
-<p>5. With the fifth period, Daniel, Ezra, Simon the Just, Judas
-Maccabeus, Herod the Great.</p>
-
-<p>6. With the sixth, John the Baptist, <span class="smcap">Jesus Christ</span>, Peter,
-Paul.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>LESSON VIII.—THE GOLDEN AGE OF BIBLE HISTORY.</h3>
-
-<p>This lesson deals with Israel at the time of the Empire. Lack
-of space forbids more than a general outline. Israel’s history
-is familiar to every reader of the Bible. Egypt, the Desert, and
-Canaan; Slavery, Training and War; these words give their
-geography and history till Joshua’s death. The Theocracy
-follows; then the kingdom under Saul and David, and then
-the Empire, or the Golden Age under Solomon the peaceful.
-We call it the Golden Age because:</p>
-
-<p><i>I. It was the time of their widest dominion.</i>—(<i>a</i>) For centuries
-the Israel of possession was not the Israel of promise. Read
-Deuteronomy 11th chapter, verse 24, for the promise, and the
-first chapter of Judges for the possession. (<i>b</i>) The people were
-bound by no national feeling. “Every man went to his own
-inheritance.” The last verse of Judges is a vivid picture of
-disunion. Under such a condition there could be no such thing
-as wide and powerful dominion. (<i>c</i>) Under David and Solomon
-the promised boundaries were reached. See 1st Kings, 4:21.
-Let the student find the extreme northern and southern limits
-of the Empire of Solomon. (<i>d</i>) Immediately after Solomon
-came disruption, and the loss of portions of the Empire, which
-were never regained. Read the history of Jeroboam and Rehoboam
-and their successors.</p>
-
-<p><i>II. It was the time of their greatest national wealth, and individual
-welfare.</i>—(<i>a</i>) Read 1st Kings, 10:14-23. (<i>b</i>) Read 1st
-Kings, 4:20 and 25. Brief as is the record in each of these
-references, there can be no doubt as to the fact recorded. There
-is no such picture suggested elsewhere, either before or after
-this period.</p>
-
-<p><i>III. It was the time of the production of the finest portion of
-their literature.</i>—The second book of Samuel, which we have,
-Ruth, and a large portion of the Psalms, and all the wonderful
-writings of Solomon belong to this period. This last and
-greatest king of all Israel seems to have made very large additions
-to the literature of the people. See 1st Kings, 5:32-33.</p>
-
-<p>Let us note some of the causes of this power and prosperity:</p>
-
-<p><i>I. The growth of the people.</i>—The people are said, in Solomon’s
-reign, to have numbered five millions, or five hundred
-to every square mile. Compare with our present population.
-The army was of vast numbers. See Joab’s report, 2d Samuel,
-24:9.</p>
-
-<p><i>II. The character of the king.</i>—He was (<i>a</i>) a statesman; he ignored
-tribal lines; he recognized the value of extended commercial
-relations; he opened intercourse with foreign nations,
-1st Kings, 4:34; he made a powerful foreign alliance, 1st Kings,
-9:16; he built a navy, 1st Kings, 9:26; he attended personally
-to the affairs of his kingdom, 2d Chron., 8:17; he fortified his
-outposts, 1st Kings, 9:17-19; he centralized the religious worship
-by building the magnificent temple at Jerusalem; he built
-permanent buildings for the seat of the nation’s capital. (<i>b</i>)
-<i>A lover of Liberal Arts.</i>—He was a poet himself, 1st Kings
-4:32. Literature affords nothing more gorgeous in imagery
-than the Song of Songs; he was famed for his conversational
-powers; he engaged in conversational controversies with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span>
-the most noted of his time—see his riddles as preserved in
-Proverbs 6:6, and 30:15-16-18; he was a lover of architecture—witness
-his building; he was a lover of music, inherited from
-his father, and the musical service of the temple was one of its
-most attractive features.</p>
-
-<p><i>III. The character of his court.</i>—All his counselors were
-men of note. Let the student see what he can find from the
-Bible as to the worth of his high priest, Zadok; his nearest
-friend, Zabud; his chief priest, Azariah, son of Zadok; his captain
-of the guard, Azariah, son of Nathan; his general in chief,
-Benaiah; his historian, Jehoshaphat; and his grand vizier,
-Ahishar.</p>
-
-<p><i>IV. David’s work.</i>—This was (<i>a</i>) a widely extended kingdom;
-(<i>b</i>) a centralized government; (<i>c</i>) peace with all the
-world. His son’s name, <i>Solomon</i>, <i>Shelomoh</i>, <i>Peace</i>.</p>
-
-<p><i>V. The country’s external relations.</i>—(<i>a</i>) By Ezion-Geber a
-water route was opened to the far east. Traces of this commerce
-with India can be found in their language. See Stanley,
-“Jewish Church,” Vol. I.</p>
-
-<p>(<i>b</i>) By Damascus, a land route to the far interior highlands.</p>
-
-<p>(<i>c</i>) By the Mediterranean traffic with Spain—in ships of Tarshish.</p>
-
-<p>(<i>d</i>) By Tyre, commerce with Phœnicia.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>SUNDAY-SCHOOL SECTION.</h3>
-
-<h4>LESSON VII.—THE TEACHING PROCESS.—ADAPTATION.</h4>
-
-<p>There are certain heresies of common speech. One is, that
-a man can be only what he is born to be. Apply it to the
-teacher’s art and it is a heresy. The majority of men and
-women can become teachers if only they will be at pains to become
-familiar with the secrets of the science, study with care
-the best models in books, and as often as may be come into
-contact with the best living teachers. There is such a thing as
-<i>the teaching process</i>. We outline some needful steps in that
-process. <i>The first is adaptation.</i> By it we do not mean the
-adaptation of the lesson to the pupil; that belongs to the teacher’s
-preparation. We mean <i>adaptation of the teacher to the
-pupil</i>; such a coming together of teacher and pupil as shall
-cause them to agree, be in harmony, <i>fit to</i>—that is, be adapted
-to each other. This adaptation must be,</p>
-
-<p>1. <i>In the matter of knowledge.</i> The teacher knows much
-more than the pupil. His knowledge is his treasury. From it
-he draws in his work as a teacher. That which he draws must
-be fitted to his pupil’s want, else it is valueless. He must therefore
-learn what the pupil knows, and work along the line of
-that knowledge. In such a process they become companions,
-and the teacher can lead the pupil almost at will. With adaptation
-of knowledge—progress: without it—nothing.</p>
-
-<p>2. <i>In the matter of personality.</i> The teacher and pupil who
-meet but once each week, must meet on the plane of a common
-personality, or their meeting will be vain. This is something
-finer than adaptation of knowledge to knowledge. It is
-adaptation of heart to heart. It makes teacher and pupil for
-the time of their intercourse in class absolutely one. Teacher
-and pupil forget that either one or the other, no matter which,
-is either rich or poor, well or ill dressed, old or young, graceful
-or awkward, wise or ignorant, clever or stupid, and remember
-only that each is the other’s hearty friend. This is one of the
-highest possible acquirements of the teacher’s art, and the one
-who possesses it has the gift of soul-winning.</p>
-
-<p>3. <i>In the matter of thought.</i> As the former is the secret of
-soul-winning, this is the secret of soul-feeding. The average
-scholar is a poor thinker. He thinks that he thinks, but his is
-not his teacher’s thinking. It is the ploughing of the ancients.
-It only scratches the surface of the soil: and the human heart is
-too hard and barren to be made productive of divine fruit by
-any such process. This essential goes deeper than the other
-two. Its burden is to answer how shall the pupil be brought to
-think on Bible themes as the teacher thinks. This is the teacher’s
-most difficult problem. Its solution is possible through
-community of thought, or an adaptation of the teacher’s way of
-thinking to the pupil’s way of thinking.</p>
-
-<p>The three essentials enumerated are possible,</p>
-
-<p>1. Through a close and intimate acquaintance with the
-pupil. (<i>a</i>) <i>Socially</i>; (<i>b</i>) <i>religiously</i>; (<i>c</i>) <i>literarily</i>; (<i>d</i>) <i>in business
-relations</i>; (<i>e</i>) <i>Biblically</i>. Let the student give a reason
-why knowledge in these particulars would bring teacher and
-pupil together.</p>
-
-<p>2. Through personal sympathy with the pupil in (<i>a</i>) cares;
-(<i>b</i>) hopes; (<i>c</i>) fears; (<i>d</i>) temptations; (<i>e</i>) joys; (<i>f</i>) pursuits.
-Let the student give an illustration showing how adaptation of
-person to person could be produced by such sympathies.</p>
-
-<p>3. Through occasional study with the pupil of the appointed
-Bible lesson—to show how (<i>a</i>) to select the most available part
-for study; (<i>b</i>) to arrange it harmoniously; (<i>c</i>) to outline it; (<i>d</i>)
-to show its relations to other scriptures; (<i>e</i>) to trace its historic
-connections; (<i>f</i>) to understand its obscure allusions or phrases.
-Let the student show that adaptation of thought to thought or
-mutuality of thought would result from such study.</p>
-
-<h4>LESSON VIII.—THE TEACHING PROCESS—APPROACH.</h4>
-
-<p>A second needful step in the teaching process is <i>approach</i>:
-not the approach of teacher to pupil simply, <i>but of the teacher
-to the lesson</i> in the act of teaching. This can therefore be no
-part of the teacher’s preparation. For this step there is no uniform
-law. Each teacher’s approach must be his own. What
-is successful with one will not be with another. An exact
-copying of methods will be of no avail unless circumstances
-are exactly alike.</p>
-
-<p>Approach may occupy a large or small portion of the time
-allotted for teaching. A teacher may be twenty-nine minutes
-of his half hour making his approach, and in the remaining
-one minute flash the lesson straight into the center of the
-pupil’s soul. A teacher may reach his lesson in one minute
-and spend the whole remaining time in pressing it home to his
-pupil’s hearts.</p>
-
-<p>Imagine a Sunday-school hour. Picture: A new teacher
-for the first time with a class. Boys—six; age, fourteen years;
-unconverted; one dull, one stubborn, one restless, the rest
-mischievous. Opening exercises finished; lesson read; superintendent
-announces “Thirty minutes for the lesson.” The
-teacher alone with the class; four things press on that teacher
-with a mighty force:</p>
-
-<p>1. <i>Self I.</i> Untaught in teaching, and the center for a circumference
-of eyes.</p>
-
-<p>2. <i>Need.</i> The power of the word <i>must</i> was never felt before
-so fully. Here is a lesson to be taught, and the thoughts in the
-teacher’s mind can only shape themselves into these two
-words: “<i>I must</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>3. <i>Immediateness.</i> <i>Now.</i> Minutes become small eternities,
-while the cordon of eyes draws closer. “<i>I must now, at
-once, teach</i> this lesson,” but</p>
-
-<p>4. <i>How?</i> After all it becomes a mere question of knowledge.
-There are three elements which enter in to make the answer—</p>
-
-<p>1. How to prepare for the lesson work, making necessary a
-study of the (<i>a</i>) necessity, (<i>b</i>) nature, and (<i>c</i>) methods of preparation.</p>
-
-<p>2. How to plan the conduct of the lesson, a step which costs
-(<i>a</i>) earnest thought, (<i>b</i>) fixed purpose, (<i>c</i>) persistent effort, and
-(<i>d</i>) patient prayer.</p>
-
-<p>3. How to perform. This makes necessary a fertile brain
-and a ready tact. The actual step-taking on the line of a well-prepared
-plan consists in (<i>a</i>) using good illustrations; (<i>b</i>) in
-attracting attention to noticeable things in the text; (<i>c</i>) in exciting
-curiosity to find things not on the surface; (<i>d</i>) in asking
-right questions; (<i>e</i>) in using elliptical readings; (<i>f</i>) in working
-out topical outlines; (<i>g</i>) in concert responses, and (<i>h</i>) in map
-drawing.</p>
-
-<p>All these are steps toward the real lesson which the teacher
-would bring to his class.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="EDITORS_OUTLOOK">EDITOR’S OUTLOOK.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>FOUNDER’S DAY.</h3>
-
-<p>We have received the following document, which will, we
-have no doubt, meet a hearty response among members of the
-C. L. S. C. everywhere: “The Counselors of the C. L. S. C.,
-acting in this instance without the knowledge of the Superintendent
-of Instruction, but in consultation with President Miller
-and Secretary Martin, propose that, in honor of <span class="smcap">John H.
-Vincent</span>, the 23rd of February, the anniversary of his birth,
-be designated ‘Founder’s Day,’ and as such be entered on the
-calendar of the organization for future observance by the members,
-as one of their Memorial Days. Signed by Counselors
-J. M. Gibson, William C. Wilkinson, Lyman Abbott, Henry W.
-Warren, and approved by President Lewis Miller and Secretary
-A. M. Martin.” With this came a letter stating that at the banquet
-of the New England graduates of the C. L. S. C., held in
-Boston on Saturday, February 23, it was announced that
-the Counselors had decided unanimously to adopt the resolution.
-We believe we are not wrong in saying that members of
-the C. L. S. C. everywhere will be heartily pleased with this
-honor conferred on Dr. Vincent. Indeed, we predict that there
-will be a universal lament because the Counselors did not
-adopt the measure long enough before February 23rd to have
-made it possible for the circles to have celebrated this year
-instead of being obliged to wait until February 1885.</p>
-
-<p>There are many reasons why this measure is peculiarly acceptable
-to the members of the C. L. S. C. The majority of
-our readers feel that in this course of reading they are personally
-indebted to Dr. Vincent for a plan which has been of infinite
-service to them. They know, too, that he is their friend,
-thoughtful of their interests, mindful of their trials and hindrances.
-They will heartily rejoice in the new Memorial Day as
-that of a personal friend and benefactor, and will celebrate it
-with the peculiar delight and enthusiasm with which we love to
-honor our friends. There are more powerful reasons for observing
-the day than this feeling of love and gratitude. The
-days we do celebrate are in memory of men whose written
-thoughts are leavening the world. We delight to honor them for
-their thoughts. We honor Dr. Vincent for the strong thoughts
-which he has wrought into acts. There are many minds capable
-of brilliant ideas, of philanthropic plans; but there are few
-capable of carrying them out, of making them active agencies
-in society. It is this ability to make a plan a reality, to prove
-it, which is a distinguishing characteristic of Dr. Vincent’s mind.
-He has that rare gift, first-class organizing ability. A course of
-reading planned for those who wanted to read, but did not know
-what to undertake, had been often tried, on a small scale, before
-the C. L. S. C. was organized, but to extend such a course to the
-world at large was a new idea, and to most minds one entirely
-impracticable. The magnitude of such an undertaking would
-have staggered any man but one of the broadest sympathies
-and largest organizing powers. As Dr. Vincent had both of
-these qualities, he did not hesitate to undertake the organization,
-especially since he had the prestige of Chautauqua, with
-its wonderful history, behind him, and Lewis Miller, Esq., his
-friend and co-laborer, to lend a helping hand in the great work.
-A purely unselfish enterprise is always treated skeptically by
-the world at large. The flaws in the C. L. S. C. have been
-persistently pointed out. Steady sustained enthusiasm in the
-face of such difficulties is the quality of a hero, and it has been
-with this unfailing faith and interest that Dr. Vincent has met
-every doubt or complaint. Very much of the success of the
-C. L. S. C. is due to this one characteristic in its founder. His
-warm sympathies and broad humanity, joined to his mental
-ability and enthusiasm, make him a typical nineteenth century
-hero; a man whom the world delights to honor, and whom the
-readers of the C. L. S. C. will be glad to remember by celebrating
-Founder’s Day.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>POLITICAL METHODS.</h3>
-
-<p>With quite sufficient reason, the public mind has long been
-disturbed by our political tendencies. This dissatisfaction does
-not arise from the fact that in matters of principle and public
-policy, intelligent people think we are on dangerous roads. In
-what are called questions, such as those of banks, tariffs, coinage
-of silver, payment of the national debt, etc., etc., it may be
-that the majority would prefer changes of policy; but there is
-a conviction abroad that we are as a people free to change in
-these matters if we really and earnestly desire new policies
-which we are able to define. Our feeling of apprehension
-springs from the knowledge that our political methods are bad,
-undemocratic and dangerous, and from a fear that the fountains
-of public life are being defiled by the wicked spirit of “practical
-politics.” It is not easy to corrupt the moral sense of such
-a people as ours. The level of intelligence is high, and patriotic
-impulses are strong in us. And yet we have gone down
-some steps. At the end of the war, men physically wrecked
-refused to take pensions; they would not take pay for a religious
-self-sacrifice. Now, men who came out of the army
-without a scratch and are still sound in health swear falsely to
-obtain pensions. These greedy seekers of pensions did not
-dream fifteen years ago that they could sink so low. Any one
-of them would then have said: “What, is thy servant a dog,
-that he should do this thing?” Their fall is directly traceable
-to the corruption of the civil service, to the fact that in the theory
-of our public life, bounties should be given to men who
-handle political organizations successfully. Salaries for civil
-service are bounties to be had by scrambling for them, or by
-earning them in the service of Party.</p>
-
-<p>The theory of “practical politics” converts the salaries paid
-for public service into a pool which parties are organized to secure
-for distribution among the sergeants, corporals, lieutenants,
-captains, colonels and generals of the order. “What are
-we here for,” cried a delegate in the Republican National Convention
-of 1880, “if we are not after the offices?” That indignant
-question expressed the very heart of the practical politicians.
-A party, in his view, is an organization to get offices.
-And as much of its work is, in the same view, secret, dirty and
-wicked work, he believes that the party should be under the
-strict control of “bosses.” Each town should have its leader,
-all the town leaders should be under the control of the county
-leader, and county leaders should obey the state “boss”—and
-the edifice should be crowned with a national committee of
-“bosses.” This committee the politicians struggled to create by
-the famous theory of “the courtesy of the Senate.” That theory
-made the President the clerk of the party’s Senators in each state.
-It gave Senator Conkling the vast Federal “patronage” of New
-York to distribute at his will. The edifice was not crowned;
-the Senatorial “boss” system went down in the terrible struggle
-of the spring of 1881. Our readers know that history. We
-do not recall it to reproach anybody. Senator Conkling was
-the victim of a theory that he ought, under the rule of “the
-courtesy of the Senate,” to be President within the state of New
-York. The theory is silent now; it will rise again if the people
-do not disestablish political machines in towns, cities, counties
-and states.</p>
-
-<p>Turning to a more gloomy side of the subject, we observe
-that there has been a vast increase in the amount of money
-spent in politics. Thousands of persons are, while we pen
-these lines, living on the patrons who hire them and send them
-forth to “mould public opinion”—or in the choicer phrase of
-the men themselves, “to set things up.” It is the business of
-this perambulating political machine to invent and distribute
-lies, to purchase useful sub-agents, to promise funds for the
-election day bribery. The floating vote increases each year,
-and four-fifths of this vote is a corrupt vote—the voters stand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span>
-about the market place waiting until some man shall hire them.
-We tolerate and smile at all this business—except the concealed
-bribery—and this tolerance of ours is the sign that the malarious
-atmosphere of “practical politics” is beginning to weaken
-our moral sense. If we are still in full vigor, this year will
-probably afford us a large number of opportunities to wreck the
-local political machine—without distinction of party. Reform
-will have to begin by disestablishing local machines and bruising
-with conscience votes the men who corrupt the popular
-verdict with money.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>WENDELL PHILLIPS.</h3>
-
-<p>We are glad, though at a late hour, to pay, with many others,
-our tribute to the ability and worth of Wendell Phillips, and to
-review his life and work. Glad to do this, for his life was clean
-and clear, the kind men love to honor; his work was that of the
-philanthropist and patriot. He had entered his seventy-third
-year, having been born November 29, 1811, in a house which
-is still standing on the lower corner of Beacon and Walnut
-streets, Boston. He came from one of Boston’s aristocratic
-families; for several generations the Phillipses were well
-known, rich and influential. His father, John Phillips, was
-chosen first mayor of Boston in 1822, in a triangular contest,
-with Harrison Gray Otis and Josiah Quincy as rival candidates.
-Young Phillips had the best of educational advantages. He
-prepared for college at the famous Boston Latin School; entered
-Harvard in his sixteenth, and graduated in his twentieth
-year. One of his classmates was the historian Motley, a man,
-like Phillips, of handsome person, of courtly manners, and high
-social position. From college Phillips passed to the Cambridge
-Law School, from which he graduated in 1833, and the following
-year he was admitted to the bar. But he was not long to
-follow the law.</p>
-
-<p>The public career of this man whose name is known in every
-land, dates from a certain illustrious meeting held in Faneuil
-Hall, Boston, in 1837. It was an era of great excitement. In
-Congress, John Quincy Adams, the undaunted, was presenting
-petitions for the abolition of slavery, in the midst of the howls
-and execrations of the friends of the institution. Elijah I.
-Lovejoy had been murdered by a pro-slavery mob at Alton,
-Illinois, while defending his printing press. Two years before,
-Boston had witnessed the mobbing of Garrison. Phillips himself
-was a witness of the spectacle, and the following year he
-joined the American Anti-Slavery Society. A meeting was
-called in Faneuil Hall by Dr. Channing and other friends of
-freedom to express indignation over Lovejoy’s murder. That
-meeting will long live in history. Jonathan Phillips, a second
-cousin of Wendell, presided. Dr. Channing and others spoke.
-At length, the Attorney-General of the State, James T. Austin,
-took the platform and delivered a speech in direct opposition
-to the sentiments which had been expressed. It was not without
-effect. The people cheered as the speaker declared that
-Lovejoy died as the fool dieth, and placed his murderers by the
-side of the men who destroyed the tea in Boston Harbor. The
-meeting, designed to be one of indignation for the murder of
-Lovejoy, bid fair to turn into a meeting of approbation. But
-Wendell Phillips was the next speaker, and he had not spoken
-long before the tide was again reversed. This, his first public
-plea for free speech, human freedom and equal rights, was
-wonderfully effective. It carried the audience and established
-at once the speaker’s fame as the foremost orator of the anti-slavery
-cause.</p>
-
-<p>From this time on, until in those years of blood the shackles
-were struck from the slaves of America, Phillips was a man of
-one work. He lived for the cause of abolition. His motto
-might have been: “One thing I do.” By the side of Garrison
-he stood, in full sympathy with his ideas. His name has long
-been the synonym of extreme radicalism. He held, with Garrison,
-that the constitution was “a league with hell,” and would
-not vote, or take an oath to support the iniquitous document.
-In the years before the war of the rebellion, he freely advocated
-a dissolution of the Union; but when the war came, he
-was found a stanch defender of the Union cause. In that band
-of once execrated, but now honored abolitionists, who “prepared
-the way of the Lord,” there may have been others who
-did as effective work as Wendell Phillips; but he was the incomparable
-orator, gifted with eloquent speech to a degree unapproachable.
-Stories of his power over an audience will long
-be told. Delightedly the people have listened to his silver
-tongue and chaste diction when he spoke upon purely literary
-themes; the lyceum in our land had no more popular lecturer.
-But he will live in our history as the matchless abolitionist orator.
-Since the death of slavery he has been a prominent
-worker in different reform movements, and the advocate—as it
-seems to us—of certain vagaries, but his fame is inseparably
-connected with the colored race, of whose rights he was the
-devoted, unselfish, and fearless champion. His private life was
-singularly simple, sweet and beautiful. His wife, an invalid of
-many years, his devotion to whom was beautiful indeed, survives
-him; and an adopted daughter, Mrs. Smalley, wife of the
-well known newspaper correspondent, is also left to mourn
-his loss.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>FLOODS.</h3>
-
-<p>In this country and in England the ravages of high waters
-have become a matter of much seriousness and alarm. Nor
-have we failed to observe that in recent years the floods have
-been far greater and more numerous than they were a generation
-ago. This is due, we are told, to the clearing away of the
-forests, allowing the water to rush, unhindered by the undergrowth
-and fallen leafage, into the rivers, thus causing their
-sudden swell and overflow.</p>
-
-<p>The serious and practical question is how to avert, in some
-degree at least, the frequent wholesale destruction of life and
-property, as has been experienced in the exposed districts during
-the last few years. It is mere nonsense to talk as some
-have done of condemning the flooded districts as dangerous
-and unfit for human habitation. Any one acquainted with the
-human family knows how little it is restrained by the motives
-of fear or danger in choosing its dwelling-place. Men will
-build their houses where the ashes of muttering volcanoes fall
-on their roofs, and with the knowledge that underneath their
-foundations lie their predecessors buried by former eruptions.
-How absurd, then, to talk of abandoning as places of human
-dwelling those great valleys, the most fertile, and in many
-other ways the most highly favored on the continent. For fertility
-of soil and beauty of situation, the valleys of the Ohio and
-Mississippi may safely challenge the world.</p>
-
-<p>Neither will it do to say that by heeding the warnings given
-by the Signal Service Department much of these calamities can
-be averted. The Service published its warnings to the people
-of the Ohio valley a week in advance of the recent floods, but
-no attention was paid to them. And though the time is coming
-when the statements of meteorological science will command
-general confidence, still it will not suffice to avert the great loss
-of life and property. Men are not easily warned, and besides
-there is the impossibility in many cases, of providing against
-danger and loss, even though warning has been received.</p>
-
-<p>Since it is now too late in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys
-for the method at present being discussed, with reference to
-the waters of the Hudson, viz.: To spare the Adirondacks,
-there is nothing left but to refer this important subject to the
-State and National Committees on “Levees and other Improvements
-against Destructive Floods.” Nor do we have to look
-long for encouraging examples of this mode of prevention. A
-large part of Louisiana is habitable and cultivable only through
-the protection afforded by hundreds of miles of levees. For six
-centuries Holland has shown to the world what can be done
-by this method of protection. Her whole North sea coast and
-a hundred miles of the Zuyder Zee is provided with dikes, her
-constant safeguard from inundation. Before the dikes were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>
-built in the thirteenth century, a single flood destroyed 80,000
-lives. At an annual expense of $2,000,000, those rich lands
-yielding their luxuriant pastures and crops of hemp and flax,
-are defended from the waters.</p>
-
-<p>We are persuaded that this is the only solution of the flood
-problem in this country. Whether partial or entire, it should
-be attempted without delay. In the light of recent experience
-government can not begin its work too soon. The vast amount
-of property swept away during the last decade would have
-gone no little way in defraying the expense of dikes as solid
-and sufficient as those of Holland. Add the amount given by
-Congress for the relief of the suffering districts, together with
-the amount given in benevolence and sympathy for the same
-purpose, and the sum is much increased. By procrastination
-we may expend in the above painful manner treasure equal to
-the whole cost of the needed protection before the work is begun.
-Let us hope that the year will not pass without decisive
-action by the government.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="EDITORS_NOTE-BOOK">EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>A party is reported in Ohio claiming to organize C. L. S. C.
-local circles, taking collections, etc. Now be it known that no
-agents for such purposes are appointed by the Chautauqua authorities.
-Such self-appointed agents are likely to be swindlers.
-Our workers render their services voluntarily. We appoint
-no agents.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>General Gordon’s proclamation of freedom for slave-holding
-and slave-dealing in the Soudan has created a great surprise.
-It is even suggested that his religious enthusiasm has toppled
-over into insanity. Perhaps we can not hope to understand
-the case. But we need not misunderstand the facts. Slavery
-was never practically abolished in that country. Even in Egypt
-it continues to exist. General Gordon has not reëstablished
-slavery. Starting from that fact, we may easily reach the inference
-that the heroic and simple-minded Gordon has merely
-done away with one of the pretexts by means of which corrupt
-Egyptian officials plundered the natives. Slavery can not be
-abolished by slave-traders, and their ways of enforcing any
-law which naturally renders it odious and despicable.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>John Ruskin is not always exactly level with common sense,
-but perhaps he is nearly right in saying “Never buy a copy of
-a picture. It is never a true copy.” It would probably be
-much wiser in people who pay considerable sums for copies of
-old paintings if they spent their money upon inferior original
-works by living artists. We have come to a place where
-the tide should turn in favor of our own young artists; and we
-believe the turn in the tide is not far ahead.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The weather prophets have let us alone this winter. But on
-the Pacific coast a sidewalk philosopher has tried to explain
-the cold weather of the sunset slope. He says that an earthquake
-off the coast of Japan has filled up the Straits of Sunda,
-and so diverted the warm current that should flow to the coast
-of Oregon. This is an improvement upon the last prophet,
-who regulated the weather astrologically—by studying the positions
-of the stars. The new man comes back to the earth and
-is chiefly at fault in his facts. We welcome him in the room of
-the astrologer of last year.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>“Ruined by speculation.” They have to keep that “head”
-standing in the newspaper offices. The last case which has
-fallen under eye is that of a bank in Philadelphia, whose manager
-speculated in tin. When a bank fails, or a trustee betrays
-a trust, we always ask: “What did he speculate in?” The
-story is trite. We know of nothing better to write than the laconic
-advice of General Clinton B. Fisk: “<span class="smcap">Don’t!</span>”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Sir James Caird was part of a commission to study the
-causes of the great famine in India in 1876-7, and has written
-a book on the subject. The trouble of course is that the farmers
-are poor, their methods bad, and that population keeps ahead
-of the food supply. One mode of relief is emigration. This
-reminds us that Charles Kingsley, who studied the Hindoo laborers
-in the West Indies, wrote very enthusiastically of their
-qualities. Will the Hindoos come into our own South, and
-what will come of it? In the West Indies, Kingsley says that
-negro and Hindoo lived and worked together peacefully. We
-may not like it, but that side of the world is top-heavy with humanity,
-and steam will go on distributing the people among
-the less crowded nations.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>What is money worth in this country? The discussions at
-Washington, and the prices of government bonds, seem to show
-that it is worth between two and three per cent., and there is
-not much doubt that a hundred-year government bond bearing
-only two per cent. would sell at par. An incident in New York
-City confirms this opinion. A recent call for bids on city bonds
-bearing three per cent. interest, and payable in five years or
-thirty, at the will of the city, was answered by bids for six
-times the amount required at from par up to 103⅓. If short
-New York threes are at a premium, a long government two
-would be worth par. Why, then, it will be asked, do <i>we</i> pay
-from six to ten per cent. in different parts of the country? The
-answer is that <i>risk</i> and superintendence of <i>short loans</i> makes the
-difference. The real value of money is found by taking for a
-measure long loans, in which there is absolutely no risk. The
-<i>Times</i> of New York expresses the opinion that thirty-year
-threes of that city would sell at 115.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>A correspondent of the New York <i>Evening Post</i> furnishes
-some interesting incidents in the life of Joel Barlow, the father
-of American epic poetry. Redding, Conn., was the early home
-of Barlow, and the visitor is shown the house in which the poet
-constructed his commencement poem in 1778. It is said that
-Barlow’s one romance was a common one among college students.
-He fell in love with a sweet girl whom he privately
-married soon after graduation. He served as a chaplain in the
-Continental army, but at Redding he is best remembered as
-the promoter of several industrial enterprises designed to promote
-the welfare of the town. Barlow was not a great father
-of our epic, but his sons have, perhaps, not greatly surpassed
-him.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The enthusiasm of science, in alliance with the passion of
-boys for killing birds, is making trouble in Massachusetts. The
-taxidermists want birds to stuff, and average boys want to slay
-birds. The law is loose, and any boy can get a license to kill birds
-in the service of science. The dead birds are oftener eaten than
-stuffed. The song birds and insectivorous birds are rapidly
-diminishing. Of course the boys rob the nests of the birds
-and kill the young in the nests. There is a period in a boy’s
-life when he loves such work. Maine has abolished the system
-of licensing taxidermists, in consequence of the wholesale
-slaughter of birds that went on under that system.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>There is no doubt that the tobacco habit, or any other bad
-habit, can be more easily overcome with the aid of prayer than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>
-without it. But there are two objections to a common way of
-stating the case. The first is that many tobacco users have
-ceased using it without the aid of prayer. The second objection
-is that there is danger of teaching that men cannot reform
-bad habits without <i>special</i> divine help. The word we spell
-c-a-n-t has two meanings, and both are present in the plea of
-helplessness. It is understood, of course, that God helps men
-who help themselves; that is the reason why a wicked farmer
-can raise good crops by being a good agriculturist, though he
-is a bad sinner.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Congress is struggling with a foreign copyright bill. The
-bill is a bungling one and really opens the American market
-to free trade in books. This <i>may</i> be desirable, but it is well to
-keep distinct measures in different baskets. The free book
-question belongs in the tariff bill. International copyright
-means putting a foreign author on a level with the home author.
-We ought to do it without delay, but we need not confer
-any favors on foreign publishers in a copyright bill. We have
-international patent-right, but we did not think it necessary
-when we protected the foreign inventor to put the foreign
-maker of the inventor’s machines under shelter of the “Free
-List.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>John Bright is still the most vigorous handler of a rhetorical
-club in all England. In the course of the great debate, last
-month, in the House of Commons, the Tories of high birth
-were badly represented by two or three orators of their rank.
-Mr. Bright crushed them fine by saying that “the brothers
-and sons of dukes use language more virulent, more coarse,
-more offensive and more ungentlemanly than is heard from a
-lower rank of speakers.” We suspect that the sentence is the
-reporter’s, not Bright’s; but the rebuke which he administered
-made a sensation which reminded Englishmen of the days
-when he described the political “Cave of Adullam” and its
-inhabitants.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The Prussian Chamber of Deputies recently debated the
-question of dueling, especially in the universities. A critical
-member began it by complaining of the idleness, drinking,
-gaming and dueling of the students. The curiosity which
-the debate brought to light is the fact that though dueling is
-forbidden by law, it has powerful friends in the Chamber and the
-government. Germany has forbidden the barbaric custom;
-but young Germans grow up in the belief that dueling is manly,
-and their seniors remember that they had the same disease
-in the universities. The German people are very sensitive to
-foreign criticism on this point; and probably the other civilized
-nations will by and by ridicule German dueling out of existence.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Curiosities of speech are always interesting, and it is a delightful
-business for grammatical people to scold their neighbors.
-The New York <i>Tribune</i> has had a bout with a few score correspondents
-on the duties of the neuter verb between subject
-and predicate; which must it agree with? The <i>Tribune</i> says
-with the real subject; the other folks say there are two subjects,
-and that the verb must agree with the last. All the malcontents
-quote “The wages of sin is death.” The <i>Tribune</i>
-has three or four answers; its best is that <i>death</i> is the true subject;
-its second best is that wages used to be singular. In
-“The Contributors’ Club” of the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, another
-class of errors is discussed, such as the dropping of <i>h</i> in <i>which</i>
-and <i>when</i>, a common thing in and around New York, and the
-suppression of <i>r</i> in many words. The English say <i>lud</i>, we say
-<i>lawd</i>. While just touching this interesting topic we call attention
-to a Meadville eccentricity. It is the rising inflection at the
-end of questions, such as, “Is he <i>sick</i>?” Can any reader
-tell us whether this locution (or rather inflection) is a localism
-only?</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>There is a lamentably large number of illiterates in the
-United States. Let us reduce the number as fast as possible.
-But let us stop assuming that the spelling book will rub the
-Decalogue into the conscience. Our immediate troubles and
-dangers come from literates who are as bright as lightning, and
-almost as destructive. We shall not get moral education by
-way of the spelling book. The statistical proof that we do is
-defective. We may count up the illiterate rogues in prison
-with much satisfaction, if we forget that the literate rogues are
-too smart to be caught and caged. Moral character does not
-result from intellectual training. Thirty years ago we had this
-straight, and taught that an educated bad man was a much
-more dangerous beast than an uneducated bad man.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>A few kind-hearted people have for several years conducted
-a crusade against horse-shoes. They claim that the horse-shoe
-is a piece of unprofitable cruelty. They furnish examples and
-drive their own horses unshod. Among their examples is this:
-“In Africa, a horse working in a post-cart does, barefoot,
-over hard ground, twenty-four miles in two hours.” One view
-is that our horse-shoeing bill would pay off the national debt in
-a few generations. It is rather remarkable that these reformers
-do not receive more attention. We hope they will soon get the
-general ear; hence this note.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>President Eliot, of Harvard, in a recent address, makes a
-suggestion which is likely to arrest attention. The clergy are
-likely to have a monopoly of classical education, perhaps of liberal
-education, if present tendencies are not overcome. One
-of these tendencies is to give candidates for the ministry a
-monopoly of Greek study in colleges. President Eliot thinks
-that increased and more thorough study of English may help
-in resisting the tendency toward purely mechanical education.
-English study of a thorough sort requires and promotes classical
-study. We add our thought that real liberal education is
-a fruit of study <i>after</i> the school-boy discipline, and that a classical
-revival and an English literature revival are both clear
-possibilities of the Chautauquan organization and methods.
-The most thorough study, with the best helps, is within the
-plan of our university.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Salmi Morse was last year at this time struggling to exhibit
-his “Passion Play” in New York. The religious feeling of the
-country won a conspicuous victory in defeating the purpose of
-Mr. Morse. Near the end of last month the dramatist drowned
-himself in the East river, and an actress whose relations to him
-were questionable, is trying to gain notoriety by a theory that
-a rejected suitor of hers murdered Mr. Morse. There are a
-dozen good morals in the story.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Frederick Douglas having at 70 married a white wife, the
-public has had to listen to a great many homilies on the general
-subject of inter-marriage among races. We are not about to
-add another to the long list of sociological essays. We suggest
-two things: First, it is best to leave the whole matter to individuals.
-Therefore, the laws which forbid marriage between
-whites and blacks should be repealed. Second, the real evil—if
-there be one—is scarcely touched by the prohibitive laws.
-As Mr. Douglas puts it: It is permitted to white men to beget
-children by dark-skinned mothers, provided they do not marry
-these mothers of their copper-colored children. The nobler of
-two ignoble white men—the one who marries the black mother
-of his children—should be left in peace until we can invent
-some means of punishing the ignoble wretch who does not
-marry her. The former is a very rare man; the growing lights
-in the African face show us that the other men are numerous.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Everybody has heard of the “Great Eastern” steamship, an
-eighth of a mile long and thirty feet under water. The great
-ship was a failure, and after an unsuccessful pursuit of genteel
-occupations for many years, she has gone to Gibraltar to be
-used as a coal hulk. If any sailor ever loved this leviathan, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span>
-will feel “the pity of it” in this unromantic end; and most of
-us feel a touch of sadness in reading the story.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The honors paid to the dead Arctic explorers in New York,
-on Washington’s birthday, lost none of their significance by
-the association. The flags were at the peak in honor of the
-father of his country, in the morning; in the afternoon they
-dropped to half-mast in memorial mourning for the heroes of
-the ill-fated “Jeannette.” To young eyes seeing both memorial
-honors, the spectacle must have been inspiring—as showing
-that the paths to glory are still open to heroic souls. The
-booming guns, the wistful and reverent throngs, the military
-tramping along the streets, all had the same cheering lesson.
-We do not measure men or honor them by success; for utter
-failure heroically faced we have the funeral pageant and the
-historic record. We are not at all interested in the North Pole.
-We soberly think the Arctic exploration business a foolhardy
-one. But we forget our indifference, and our sober judgment,
-when we meet the cold corpses of those who have vainly fought
-the cruel North—and say, “Well done; like heroes you died;
-like heroes you shall be buried.”</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>In the graduating list published in the February <span class="smcap">Chautauquan</span>,
-the name “J. Van Alstyne,” from New Jersey, should be
-Wm. L. Van Alstyne, Jr.; also the name Emily Hancock,
-which appears under New York, should be under Indiana, and
-“Mrs. John Romeo,” of New York, should read Mrs. John
-Romer.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>A correspondent kindly calls our attention to two errors in
-<span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span> for February. We “stand corrected.”
-Whittier’s birthday comes on December seventeenth, instead
-of the sixteenth, as stated on page 302, and there are thirty-eight
-states in the Union, not thirty-nine.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="C_L_S_C_NOTES_ON_REQUIRED_READINGS_FOR_APRIL">C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR APRIL.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>PREPARATORY LATIN COURSE.</h3>
-
-<p>P. 174.—“Havelock.” (1795-1857.) A British soldier who in 1823
-was sent to India. He served in the Burmese war, in the Ava campaign,
-in two invasions of Afghanistan, and in 1856 in a war with Persia.
-On his return to Bombay he was sent to Calcutta to aid the British
-in the Sepoy rebellion. After raising the siege of Cawnpore, he started
-toward Lucknow, where the garrison was closely beset. Havelock was
-two months in fighting his way to the city, and when there, the relievers
-and garrison had to stand a siege until the arrival of Campbell with
-forces. Havelock, however, lived only a few days after succor came,
-being worn out by sickness and hardships. The arrival of Campbell
-has been celebrated in a touching and popular poem—“The Relief of
-Lucknow.”</p>
-
-<p>P. 177.—“Ardennes.” See “Notes” on page 185 of <span class="smcap">The Chautauquan</span>
-for December.</p>
-
-<p>P. 180.—“Hector.” The chief hero of the Trojans in the war with
-the Greeks, the eldest son of Priam, king of Troy. Having slain Patroclus,
-the friend of Achilles, the latter was aroused to revenge, and
-came out to fight. Hector remained bravely without the walls until he
-saw his enemy, when he took to flight, but he was finally pierced with
-Achilles’ spear, and his body dragged into the camp of the Greeks.
-Hector was the stay of the Trojans. He is represented by Homer as a man
-of all virtues, and is claimed to be the noblest conception of the “Iliad.”</p>
-
-<p>P. 184.—“Boll of grain.” The Scotch formerly used a measure
-called the bōll, or <i>bole</i>. Its capacity varied with the article measured. A
-boll of wheat or beans held four bushels; of oats or potatoes, six bushels.</p>
-
-<p>“Cevennes,” sā-venˈ. A mountain range of France, separating the
-valleys of the Garonne and the Loire from those of the Saone and the
-Rhone.</p>
-
-<p>P. 187.—“Santa Scala,” or the holy staircase, called also Pilate’s
-staircase, is a flight of twenty-eight marble steps in a little chapel of
-Rome. They are said to be the steps which Christ passed up and down
-in going before Pilate, and that, like the Holy House at Loreto, they
-were transported by angels to their present position. Multitudes of
-pilgrims crawl up this staircase, kissing each step as they go. It is related
-of Luther that wishing to obtain the indulgence promised by the
-pope for this devout act, he was slowly ascending the steps when he
-suddenly heard a voice exclaiming, “The just shall live by faith alone.”
-He was so terrified by his superstitious folly that he at once fled from
-the place.</p>
-
-<p>P. 190.—“Aulus,” auˈlus hirˈti-us.</p>
-
-<p>P. 194.—“Protagonist,” pro-tăgˈo-nĭst. The first or leading actor
-in a drama.</p>
-
-<p>P. 196.—“Obsolescence,” ŏb-so-lĕsˈcence. The going out of style,
-becoming old, obsolete.</p>
-
-<p>P. 202.—“Lucius Catilina,” lūˈci-ŭs catˈi-liˌna.</p>
-
-<p>P. 205.—“Spurius Mælius,” spuˈri-us mæˈli-us. A rich plebeian
-who in the famine at Rome in B. C. 440 bought up corn to distribute
-to the poor. His liberality won him the favor of the plebeians, but the
-hatred of the patricians. In the following year he was accused of a
-conspiracy against the government. Having refused to appear before
-the tribunal when summoned, Ahala, the master of the horse, rushed out
-with an armed band and slew him.</p>
-
-<p>“Opimius.” A patrician, the leader of his party in the proceedings
-against Caius Gracchus in 120 B. C. Through his violence some three
-hundred people were slain after the death of Gracchus.</p>
-
-<p>“Saturnius.” A demagogue who in B. C. 102 was elected tribune
-of the plebs. He allied himself with Marius and his party and won
-much favor by his popular measures. He was twice reëlected, but the
-third time it was feared that his colleague, Glaucia, who had held office
-during each of his tribunates, would be defeated. The friends had
-the rival candidate murdered. This act caused a reaction against
-Saturnius, and the senate ordered that he and his associates should be
-slain. Marius endeavored to save his friend, but the mob pulled the
-tiles from the senate house, where the parties were concealed, and
-pelted them to death.</p>
-
-<p>P. 220.—“Minucian Colonnade.” A portico built about 100 B. C.
-by the consul Minucius, in memory of the triumph which he received
-after waging a successful war against the Thracians.</p>
-
-<p>“Pan.” In Grecian mythology, a god who watched over flocks and
-herds; was the patron of hunters, bee-keepers and fishermen, and the
-inventor of a shepherd’s flute. He is represented with horns, goat’s beard,
-feet and tail, and often as playing on the flute. The Romans worshiped
-him under the name of Faunus.</p>
-
-<p>P. 221.—“Lupercalia,” lūˈper-cä-li-a. Lupercus was a name applied
-to Pan, and a feast given in honor of the god by the Romans was
-called <i>Lupercalia</i>.</p>
-
-<p>“Tarquinius,” tar-quinˈi-us. Surnamed <i>Superbus</i>, was the last of the
-Roman kings. Though he was cruel and tyrannical, he is said to have
-greatly increased the power of the city. Brutus, his nephew, was
-aroused against the royal family because of an outrage committed upon
-his wife by Tarquin’s son. He stirred up popular feeling against the
-king, and succeeded in driving him from Rome. Consular government
-was then substituted for the monarchy.</p>
-
-<p>“Spurius Cassius,” spuˈri-us casˈsi-us. A famous Roman of the fifth
-century. He was three times consul. In his last consulship he passed
-a law which provided that the patricians should receive only a portion
-of the public lands, and that the rest should be divided among the plebeians.
-The next year he was accused of aiming at regal power and was
-put to death.</p>
-
-<p>“Manlius.” Consul in 392 B. C. In 395 he defended the plebeians
-against the higher classes, but was accused of aiming at kingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span>
-power, and was thrown into prison. The plebs showed such indignation
-at this that Manlius was liberated. He only became bolder in his
-support of the people, and in the following year was accused of treason,
-condemned, and thrown from the Tarpeian rock.</p>
-
-<p>P. 228.—“Dante,” dănˈte. (1265-1321.)</p>
-
-<p>“Inferno,” in-ferˈno; “Purgatorio,” pur-gä-toˈre-o; “Divina Commedia,”
-dee-veéˈnä com-meˈdee-ä.</p>
-
-<p>P. 230.—“Mincius,” minˈci-us. A river of northern Italy emptying
-into the Po, a little below Mantua, which is situated on an island in the
-middle of a lagoon formed by the river.</p>
-
-<p>P. 232.—“Bucolic,” bu-cŏlˈic; “Eclogues,” ĕkˈlogs.</p>
-
-<p>“Dactylic hexameter,” dac-tylˈic hex-ămˈe-ter. A verse of poetry
-consisting of six feet, parts, or measures (hexameter means of six
-measures), the first four of which may be dactyls, that is feet of three
-syllables, one long and two short; or spondees, feet of two syllables, one
-long and one short: the fifth must be a dactyl, and the sixth a spondee.</p>
-
-<p>“Theocritus,” the-ŏkˈrĭ-tus. Was born in Syracuse about 250 B. C.
-He is known as the creator of pastoral poetry. About thirty poems by
-him are still extant, and several epigrams.</p>
-
-<p>P. 234.—“Sibyl,” sĭbˈyl. A name given by the Greeks and Romans
-to several women who were supposed to have been able to foretell, to avert
-trouble, and to appease the gods. Some writers mention four Sibyls,
-others ten. The most famous of all was this Cumæan Sibyl, and to her
-the Romans traced the origin of the “oracles.” It is fabled that she
-offered to sell to one of the Tarquins nine books, but the king refused.
-Going away she burnt three, and then offered the six at the same price.
-Being refused again she destroyed a second three, and at her first price
-the king finally took those remaining. These were carefully preserved,
-but burnt in B. C. 83. A new compilation was made by consulting the
-various oracles of the world. The “Sibyline oracles” mentioned here
-are in eight books, and were collected after the second century; they
-consist of a mixture of heathen, Christian and Jewish poems.</p>
-
-<p>P. 235.—“Lucina,” lu-ciˈna. The goddess who was supposed to
-preside over the birth of children.</p>
-
-<p>“Tiphys,” tiˈphys. The pilot of the “Argo.” He died before
-the ship reached Colchis. For the story of the “Argo” see Grecian history.</p>
-
-<p>P. 236.—“Fates,” or Parcæ, were mythological beings who cared for
-human life.</p>
-
-<p>“Linus.” The personification of the dirge.</p>
-
-<p>“Calliope.” The muse of epic poetry. She usually appears with a
-stylus and a wax tablet.</p>
-
-<p>P. 237.—“Hesiod,” heˈsĭ-od. Greek epic poet; 800 B. C.</p>
-
-<p>“Iambic pentameter.” A verse of five feet (pentameter), or ten
-syllables. Each foot is an iambus; that is, is composed of one short
-and one long syllable.</p>
-
-<p>“Alexandrine,” ălˌex-ănˈdrĭne. A verse composed of twelve syllables,
-named from a French poem on Alexander.</p>
-
-<p>P. 238.—“Ceres.” The Demeter of the Romans, the goddess who
-presided over grain and the harvest.</p>
-
-<p>“Fauns.” The rural divinities of the Romans. They were supposed
-to have introduced the worship of the gods and agriculture.
-They are represented as possessed of horns, and having the figure of a
-goat below the waist.</p>
-
-<p>“Courser’s birth.” The reference is to the creation of the horse by
-Neptune. It is said that Neptune and Minerva (Athene) contested for
-the honor of naming Attica. The gods decided that it should be the
-one who should give the most useful gift to man. Neptune struck the
-ground with his trident and the horse appeared. Athene created the
-olive tree; the latter received the honor.</p>
-
-<p>“Pallas.” A name frequently given to Athene.</p>
-
-<p>“Cypress.” The cypress was sacred to Pluto, the god of the lower
-world.</p>
-
-<p>P. 239—“Thule.” The land which in the time of Alexander the
-Great was believed to be the northernmost part of Europe.</p>
-
-<p>“Fasces,” făsˈsēz. An emblem of authority among the Romans. It
-was an ax tied up in a bundle of rods.</p>
-
-<p>“Balance.” The constellation Libra, or the Scales. It lies in the
-Zodiac between the Virgin and the Scorpion.</p>
-
-<p>“Elysium,” e-lĭzˈĭ-um. A dwelling place for the good after death.</p>
-
-<p>“Proserpine,” pro-serˈpine. The daughter of Ceres, who was carried
-off by Pluto, to Hades. Her mother, discovering that Jupiter had
-given consent to the abduction, withdrew from Olympus, and did not
-allow the earth to bring forth fruit. Jupiter tried to dissuade her, but
-failing, sent for Proserpine. She returned, but as she had eaten in the
-lower world could not remain all the time on earth, but was obliged to
-spend one-third of the year with Pluto.</p>
-
-<p>P. 254.—“Æolus,” æˈo-lus. The god of the winds.</p>
-
-<p>“Sarpedon,” sar-peˈdon. A son of Jupiter and a prince of Lycia.
-He was an ally of the Trojans in the Trojan war, but was slain by
-Patroclus, the friend of Achilles.</p>
-
-<p>“Simois.” One of the prominent rivers in the country of Troy.</p>
-
-<p>P. 255.—“Orontes,” o-ronˈtes. A Lycian leader and ally of the
-Trojans; “Aletes,” a-lēˈ-tes; “Abas,” aˈbas; “Achates,” a-chaˈtes.</p>
-
-<p>P. 258.—“Harpalyce,” har-palˈy-ce. A Thracian princess whose
-mother died in her infancy. She was trained to outdoor exercise and
-sports, and on the death of her father she turned robber. She lived in
-the woods and was so fleet that not even horses could overtake her.</p>
-
-<p>P. 262.—“Amaracus,” a-marˈa-cus. The sweet marjoram or feverfew.</p>
-
-<p>P. 263.—“Acidalian.” Venus was sometimes called <i>Acidalia</i>, from
-a well, Acidalius, in Greece, where she used to bathe with the Graces.</p>
-
-<p>P. 264.—“Demodocus.” In Ulysses’s wanderings, after the fall of
-Troy, he was thrown on the island of Scheria, where the king of the
-people, the Phæacians, honored him with feasts, at which Demodocus,
-a minstrel, sang of the fall of Troy.</p>
-
-<p>P. 266.—“Danaan,” danˈa-an. Danaus, the name from which this
-word is derived, was a former king of Argos.</p>
-
-<p>P. 270.—“Thessander,” thes-sanˈder.</p>
-
-<p>“Sthenelus,” sthenˈe-lus. The friend of Diomede, under whom he
-commanded the Argives in the Trojan war.</p>
-
-<p>“Acamas,” aˈca-mas. A son of Theseus.</p>
-
-<p>“Pelides,” pe-liˈdes. A name given to Achilles, whose father’s
-name was Peleus. The “youthful heir” here spoken of was Neoptolemus,
-son of Achilles.</p>
-
-<p>“Machaon,” ma-chaˈon. The surgeon of the Greeks in the Trojan
-war. He was the son of Æsculapius, the god of the medical art. Machaon
-was a warrior as well as a doctor, and with his brother led thirty
-ships to Troy.</p>
-
-<p>“Menelaus,” men-e-laˈus. The king of Lacedæmon, and husband
-of Helen.</p>
-
-<p>“Epeus,” e-peˈus.</p>
-
-<p>P. 288.—“Dis.” A contraction of Dives, a name given sometimes
-to Pluto, and hence to the lower world.</p>
-
-<p>P. 289.—“Phlegethon,” phlegˈe-thon. A river of liquid fire flowing
-through Hades.</p>
-
-<p>“Orcus.” Another name for Hades, or for Pluto.</p>
-
-<p>“Tartarus,” tarˈta-rus. Like Orcus and Dis, Tartarus is sometimes
-used synonymously with Hades.</p>
-
-<p>“Acheron,” aˈcher-on. The name of a river of the lower world,
-flowing, according to Virgil, into the Co-cyˈtus.</p>
-
-<p>P. 290.—“Charon,” chaˈron.</p>
-
-<p>“Treen.” An obsolete plural of tree.</p>
-
-<p>P. 291.—“Palinurus,” pa-li-nuˈrus. He had been the pilot of Æneas’s
-ship, but fell into the sea and was murdered on the coast of Lucania, by
-the natives.</p>
-
-<p>“Cerberus,” cerˈbe-rus. The dog that guarded the entrance to Hades.</p>
-
-<p>P. 293.—“Marpesian,” mar-peˈsi-an. Derived from Marpessa, a
-mountain in Paros, from which the Parian marble was taken.</p>
-
-<p>P. 294.—“Hecate,” heˈca-te. An ancient divinity, the only Titan
-which Jupiter allowed to retain power. She was thought to rule in
-heaven, earth and hell; this three-fold power led to her being sometimes
-represented with three heads.</p>
-
-<p>“Gnosian,” gnoˈsi-an. From Gnosus, or Cnosus, an ancient city of
-Crete. The adjective is used here as equivalent to Cretan.</p>
-
-<p>“Rhadamanthus,” rha-da-manˈthus. The brother of King Minos,
-of Crete. His justice through life led to his being made a judge in the
-lower world.</p>
-
-<p>“Tisiphone,” ti-siphˈo-ne. One of the Fates.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>P. 295.—“Hydra,” hyˈdra. A monster which formerly lived in a
-marsh in the Peloponnesus. It had many heads, one of which being
-cut off was immediately succeeded by two new ones. It was slain by
-Hercules.</p>
-
-<p>“Aloeus,” a-loˈe-us. The son of Neptune; the sons here referred
-to were of enormous size and strength. When but nine years of age
-they threatened the Olympian gods with war. Apollo destroyed them
-before they reached manhood. “Salmoneus,” sal-moˈne-us.</p>
-
-<p>“Levin,” lĕvˈin. An obsolete word for lightning.</p>
-
-<p>P. 296.—“Lapith.” A race living in Thessaly.</p>
-
-<p>“Pirithous,” pi-rithˈo-us. The King of the Lapithæ. He descended
-to the nether world in order to carry off Persephone, but was seized by
-Pluto and fastened to a rock with Theseus, who had accompanied him.
-Theseus was afterward released by Hercules, but Pirithous remained.</p>
-
-<p>“Ixion,” ix-iˈon. The father of the above. Having committed a
-murder on earth for which he was never purified, Jupiter took pity on
-him, purified him, and took him to heaven, where he tried to win the
-love of Juno. For his ingratitude he was sent to Hades, and fastened to
-a perpetually rolling wheel.</p>
-
-<p>P. 297.—“Teucer,” teuˈcer. The first king of Troy.</p>
-
-<p>“Ilus.” The grandfather of Priam, and the founder of Ilion or
-Troy.</p>
-
-<p>“Assaracus,” as-sarˈa-cus. The great-grandfather of Æneas.</p>
-
-<p>“Dardany,” or Dardania, was a region adjacent to Ilium, lying along
-the Hellespont. It was named from Dardanus, the son-in-law of Teucer.</p>
-
-<p>P. 298.—“Eridanus,” e-ridˈa-nus. A river god.</p>
-
-<p>“Musæus,” mu-sæˈus. A mythological character, the author of various
-poetical compositions and of certain famous <i>oracles</i>.</p>
-
-<p>P. 300.—“Procas.” One of the fabulous kings of Alba Longa.</p>
-
-<p>“Numitor,” nuˈmi-tor. The grandfather of Romulus and Remus.</p>
-
-<p>“Capys.” “Silvius.” Mythical kings of Alba Longa.</p>
-
-<p>“Gabii,” gaˈbi-i. In early times a powerful Latin city near
-Rome.</p>
-
-<p>“Nomentum,” no-menˈtum. A Latin town, about fourteen miles from
-Rome.</p>
-
-<p>“Collatia,” col-laˈti-a. A Sabine town. “Cora.” An ancient town
-in Latium. “Bola.” A town of the Æqui. “Inuus.” Usually written
-Inui Castrum. A town on the coast of Latium.</p>
-
-<p>P. 301.—“Ind.” The country of the Indus.</p>
-
-<p>“Garamant,” garˈa-mant. The most southernly of the known people
-of Africa.</p>
-
-<p>“Alcides,” al-ciˈdes. A name given to Hercules.</p>
-
-<p>“Erymanthus,” e-ry-manˈthus. A lofty mountain of Arcadia, the
-haunt of the boar which Hercules killed.</p>
-
-<p>“Lerna.” A marsh and river not far from Argos, where Hercules
-killed the Hydra.</p>
-
-<p>P. 302.—“Decii,” deˈci-i. “Drusus,” druˈsus. “Torquatus,” tor-quaˈtus.
-Famous Roman leaders in the early days of the Republic.</p>
-
-<p>“Æacides,” æ-acˈi-des. A name given to the descendants of Æacus,
-among whom were Peleus, Achilles and Pyrrhus.</p>
-
-<p>P. 303.—“Feretrian,” fer-reˈtri-an. A name given sometimes to
-Jove. It is probably derived from the verb to strike, as persons taking
-an oath called on Jove to strike them if they swore falsely.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="NOTES_ON_REQUIRED_READINGS_IN_THE_CHAUTAUQUAN">NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS IN “THE CHAUTAUQUAN.”</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>FRENCH HISTORY.</h3>
-
-<p>P. 377, c. 1.—“Voltaire,” vol-têrˈ. (1694-1778.) French author.</p>
-
-<p>“Rousseau,” Jean Jacques, rooˌsōˈ. (1712-1778.) French philosopher
-and writer.</p>
-
-<p>“Montesquieu,” mŏnˈtĕs-kūˌ. (1689-1755.) French jurist and philosopher.</p>
-
-<p>“D’Alembert,” däˈlŏnˌbêrˌ. (1717-1783.) French mathematician.</p>
-
-<p>P. 377, c. 2.—“Maria Theresa,” ma-rīˈa te-reeˈsä. (1717-1780.)
-Empress of Germany and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia.</p>
-
-<p>“Turgot,” türˌgoˈ. (1727-1781.) At the time of his appointment to
-the control of finance, Turgot had won a fine reputation by his papers
-on political economy, tolerance in governing, and like subjects. He at
-once undertook to carry out his views, abolishing all taxes save those
-on land, doing away with compulsory labor for the state, the privileges
-of trading corporations and the like; this made him very unpopular
-among the favored classes, and Louis was forced to dismiss him.</p>
-
-<p>“Necker,” nĕkˈer. (1732-1804.) Necker’s policy was to restore
-order and confidence. He restrained the prodigality of the court, cut
-down the expenses of the government, regulated taxes, and laid the
-foundation of the Bank of France. After his final withdrawal from
-France, Necker lived in Geneva, where he wrote several essays. It is
-said that on the accession of Bonaparte to power he attempted to obtain
-the position of minister of finance, but was rejected.</p>
-
-<p>“Ushant,” ushˈant. The largest of the Ouessant Isles, off the coast
-of the department of Finisterre in France.</p>
-
-<p>“D’Estaings,” dĕsˌtănˈ. (1729-1794.) He was brought up to military
-service, was twice taken prisoner by the English but released, and in
-1763 was appointed lieutenant-general of the navy. D’Estaings was
-sent to the United States in 1778, where he planned attacks on New
-York and Newport, but was unsuccessful in both. After the campaign
-in the West Indies he coöperated with the Americans in an attack upon
-Savannah, but was wounded.</p>
-
-<p>“Granada,” “St. Lucia,” “St. Vincent.” Three islands of the Windward
-group of the West Indies.</p>
-
-<p>“Langara,” läˈgä-rä. (1730-1800.)</p>
-
-<p>“De Guichen,” deh-gēˈshonˌ. (1712-1790.) A French naval officer,
-made lieutenant-general in 1779. The next year after the victory here
-given he was defeated by the English.</p>
-
-<p>“De Grasse,” deh gräs. (1723-1788.) Count de Grasse served in the
-American war, and in 1781 aided Washington and Lafayette in the
-capture of Cornwallis.</p>
-
-<p>“Hood.” (1724-1816.) He entered the navy at sixteen. In 1780
-he was made second in command in the West Indies. The year after
-his defeat he defeated De Grasse and was made a baron. In 1793 he
-commanded the English in the Mediterranean against the French, and
-in 1796 was made a viscount.</p>
-
-<p>“Tobago,” to-bāˈgo. An island of the Windward group of the West
-Indies.</p>
-
-<p>P. 378, c. 1.—“Ville de Paris.” The city of Paris.</p>
-
-<p>“Crillon,” kreˈyonˌ. (1718-1796.) A lieutenant-general in the Seven
-Years’ War, and afterward captain-general of Spain.</p>
-
-<p>“Senegal,” senˈe-gawlˌ. A river of western Africa.</p>
-
-<p>“Calonne,” kăˌlonˈ. (1734-1802.) Calonne had been a law student
-and a courtier, when appointed to succeed Necker. After his dismissal
-he went to London, where he wrote many able political and financial
-tracts.</p>
-
-<p>“Brienne,” breˌënˈ. (1727-1794.) Brienne was an archbishop and a
-member of the academy when he succeeded Calonne.</p>
-
-<p>P. 378, c. 2.—“En Masse.” In a body.</p>
-
-<p>“Desmoulins,” dāˌmooˌlănˈ. (1762-1794.) A schoolmate of Robespierre,
-and a partisan of the Revolution. He was called the “Attorney-General
-of the lamp post,” for his share in street mobs.</p>
-
-<p>“Launay,” lōˈna. He was massacred immediately after the capture
-of the place.</p>
-
-<p>“Condé,” kŏnˈdāˌ (1736-1818); “Polignac,” poˈlēnˌyäkˌ; “Noailles,”
-noˈäl; “Seignioral,” seenˈyur-al. Lordly, kingly; belonging to a
-seignior.</p>
-
-<p>P. 379, c. 1.—“Sièyes,” se-yāsˈ. (1748-1836.) At the beginning of
-the Revolution Sièyes wrote a pamphlet which placed him at the head
-of the publicists. He was a member of the Assembly, of the Convention,
-and in 1799 of the Directory. When the new régime began he
-was one of the three consuls, but soon after lost his influence, which he
-never regained.</p>
-
-<p>“Robespierre,” roˈbes-peer. (1758-1794.) He was educated for the
-law, and practicing, when in 1789 he was sent to the States-General.
-His radical democratic views gained him a prominent place. He afterward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span>
-was a member of the Assembly, and in 1792 was elected to the
-Convention. He became the leader of one party there, and was instrumental
-in bringing on the Reign of Terror, of which he was the acknowledged
-head. His cruelty at last turned the people against him,
-and he was guillotined in 1794.</p>
-
-<p>“Mirabeau,” mĭrˈa-bō. (1749-1791.) He was descended from a
-family of high rank, but was passionate and uncontrolled. Until 1788
-his life was spent in all sorts of employments and intrigues. At that
-time he made up his mind to enter French politics, and succeeded in
-getting himself elected to the States-General of 1789. In 1791 he was
-elected president of the National Assembly, but died soon after, a victim
-to excess.</p>
-
-<p>“Œil-de-Bœuf,” eel-deh-bŭf.</p>
-
-<p>P. 379, c. 2.—“Chalons,” shäˌlōnˈ; “Menehould,” māˌnāˈhō.</p>
-
-<p>“Bouillé,” booˈyā. (1739-1800.)</p>
-
-<p>“Varennes,” väˈrenˌ.</p>
-
-<p>“Rochambeau,” roˈshŏnˌbō. (1725-1807.) A French marshal. In
-early life he fought in several minor campaigns. In 1780 he was sent to
-the United States with 6,000 men, and the next year fought at Yorktown.</p>
-
-<p>“Dumouriez,” düˌmooˈre-ā. (1739-1823.) After the battle of
-Jemappes, the convention being jealous of Dumouriez’s loyalty to the
-Bourbons, summoned him to their bar. He refused to go, and was
-obliged to spend the rest of his life in exile.</p>
-
-<p>“Verdun,” vĕrˈdun; “Longwy,” lōngˌveˈ.</p>
-
-<p>“Custine,” küsˌtēnˈ. (1740-1793.)</p>
-
-<p>“Jemappes,” zhem-map.</p>
-
-<p>P. 380, c. 1.—“Fédérés,” fāˈdāˌrāˌ; “Abbaye,” ă-bāˈ; “Conciergerie,”
-konˌcerˈjaˌreˌ; “Carmes,” kärm; “Bicêtre,” beˈcātrˌ.
-The names of famous French prisons.</p>
-
-<p>“Lamballe,” lŏnˌbälˈ. (1749-1792.)</p>
-
-<p>“Sombreuil,” sŏnˌbrulˈ. The sister of an officer prominent in support
-of the Royalists.</p>
-
-<p>“Cazotte,” käˈzotˌ. Jacques Cazotte, her father, was a French poet.</p>
-
-<p>P. 380, c. 2.—“Égalité,” ā-găˈle-tā.</p>
-
-<p>“Vergniaud,” verˌyne-ōˈ. (1759-1793.)</p>
-
-<p>P. 381, c. 1.—“Marat,” mäˈrä. (1744-1793.) Before the Revolution
-Marat had practiced medicine. In 1789 he gained great popularity
-among the Revolutionists by his journal, <i>The Friend of the People</i>.
-After his election in 1792 to the Convention and the formation of the
-triumvirate with Danton and Robespierre, he wielded great power by
-his decisive opinions.</p>
-
-<p>“Danton,” dänˌtonˈ. (1759-1794.) He was a lawyer by profession.
-At the beginning of the Revolution he became a popular leader and
-orator. When the supreme power fell into the hands of the triumvirate
-Danton was elected minister of justice, thus having chief control of the
-city. Afterward he was elected to the Convention, where he became a
-prominent leader, but excited the jealousy of Robespierre. The latter
-triumphed in the contest for the first rank, and Danton was guillotined.
-Lamartine says of him: “Nothing was wanting to make Danton a great
-man, except virtue.”</p>
-
-<p>P. 381, c. 2.—“Corday,” korˌdaˈ. (1768-1793.)</p>
-
-<p>P. 382, c. 1.—“Aboukir,” ä-boo-keerˈ.</p>
-
-<p>“Tuileries,” tü-eel-rē. A royal palace of Paris.</p>
-
-<p>“D’Enghien,” dŏnˌ-gănˈ. (1772-1804.) “Eylau,” īˈlou; “Friedland,”
-frēdˈland.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>COMMERCIAL LAW.</h3>
-
-<p>P. 384, c. 1.—“Misfeasance,” mis-fēˈzans. A wrong act.</p>
-
-<p>P. 384, c. 2. “In transitu.” On the passage.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>READINGS IN ART.</h3>
-
-<p>P. 384, c. 2.—“Cimabue,” che-mä-booˈā. (1240?-1302?) Called
-“the father of modern painting.”</p>
-
-<p>P. 385, c. 1.—“Navicella,” năv-i-celˈla. The name of the mosaic,
-meaning the little ship.</p>
-
-<p>“Assisi,” as-seeˈsee. A picturesque town of central Italy, chiefly
-noted as the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan order
-of monks.</p>
-
-<p>“Podestà,” po-des-tāˈ. In 1207 the chief executive power of Florence
-was put into the hands of a single officer called the <i>podesta</i>; hence
-the reference is to the chief magistrate’s palace.</p>
-
-<p>“Chiaro-scuro,” chi-äˌro-ŏs-cuˈro. The effective distribution of lights
-and shades in a picture.</p>
-
-<p>“Guido di Pietro,” gweeˈdo de pe-aˈtrō.</p>
-
-<p>“Fiesole,” fyesˈo-lā. A town of Italy, near Florence.</p>
-
-<p>“Vicchio,” vekˈkee-o; “Mugello,” mu-gelˈlō.</p>
-
-<p>P. 385, c. 2.—“Orvieto,” or-ve-āˈto. A town of central Italy, not far
-from Perugia.</p>
-
-<p>“Luca Signorelli,” luˈca sēn-yo-relˈlee. (1439-1521.) An Italian
-painter, a nephew of Vasari. His frescoes are his most noteworthy
-pieces.</p>
-
-<p>“Scudi,” skōoˈdee. The plural of scudo, an Italian coin used in
-Italy and Sicily, and worth about 96 cents.</p>
-
-<p>“Santa Maria delle Grazie,” sänˈtä mä-reeˈä delˈlā grätˈse-ā.</p>
-
-<p>“Marco d’Oggione,” marˈco dōd-goˈnā. (1470-1530.) A pupil of
-Leonardo. He made two copies of “The Last Supper”—his most important
-works.</p>
-
-<p>P. 386, c. 1.—“Cloux,” clou; “Amboise,” almost ŏnbˈwīzˌ. A
-town on the Loire, in western central France.</p>
-
-<p>“Vasari,” vä-säˈree. (1512-1574.) A pupil of Michaelangelo, and a
-successful painter. His fame rests on his “Lives of the most excellent
-Painters, Architects and Sculptors,” one of the most valuable books ever
-written on the subject.</p>
-
-<p>“Trattato,” etc. Treatise on painting.</p>
-
-<p>“Castel Caprese.” käs-telˈ kä-presˈā; “Arezzo,” ä-retˈso.</p>
-
-<p>“Ghirlandaio,” gĕr-län-däˈyo. (1451-1495.) A painter famous for his
-invention. His chief works, “The Massacre of the Infants” and “The
-Death of St. Francis” are still preserved in the Sistine chapel.</p>
-
-<p>“Fuseli,” fūˈseh-le. (1742-1825.) A celebrated historical painter.</p>
-
-<p>“Monochrome,” mŏnˈo-chrōme. A painting with a single color.</p>
-
-<p>P. 386, c. 2.—“Sandro Botticelli,” bot-te-chelˈlee. (1440-1515.) An
-eminent Italian painter. His frescoes in the chapel of the Vatican are
-his most powerful works.</p>
-
-<p>“Cosimo Rosselli,” ro-selˈlee. (1439-1506.)</p>
-
-<p>“Perugino,” pā-roo-jeeˈnō. (1446-1524.) The master of Raphael.
-He received his name, “The Perugian,” from the work which he did at
-Perugia, where there still exist some of his best frescoes.</p>
-
-<p>“Raffaello Sanzio,” rä-fä-ĕˈlō sänˈze-o; “Pinturicchio,” pēn-too-rēkˈke-o.
-(1454-1513.)</p>
-
-<p>P. 387, c. 1.—“Francia,” fränˈchä. (1450-1533?) A celebrated
-Italian painter.</p>
-
-<p>“Fra Bartholommeo,” barˈto-lo-māˌō.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>For help in pronouncing the Italian names which are so numerous in
-this paper, we give a set of simple rules for Italian vowels and consonants.</p>
-
-<p><i>A</i> like <i>a</i> in father.</p>
-
-<p><i>E</i> like <i>e</i> in met, more prolonged and open at the close of a syllable.</p>
-
-<p><i>I</i> like <i>ee</i> in feet.</p>
-
-<p><i>O.</i> Pronounce <i>roll</i> and stop on the middle of the word, and it is precisely
-the Italian <i>o</i>.</p>
-
-<p><i>U</i> like <i>oo</i> in root.</p>
-
-<p><i>C</i> or <i>g</i> followed by <i>a</i>, <i>o</i> or <i>u</i>, as in English, but followed by <i>e</i> or <i>i</i>, <i>c</i> has
-the sound of <i>ch</i> as in cherry, and <i>g</i> is like <i>g</i> in gem.</p>
-
-<p><i>Gn</i> is like <i>ni</i> in poniard.</p>
-
-<p><i>Gl</i> as in English, except before <i>i</i>, when it has the sound of <i>ll</i> in
-brilliant.</p>
-
-<p><i>S</i> at the beginning of a word has the hissing sound, as between two
-vowels, or followed by <i>b</i>, <i>d</i>, <i>r</i> or <i>v</i>, is pronounced like <i>z</i>.</p>
-
-<p><i>Sc</i>, followed by <i>e</i> or <i>i</i>, like <i>sh</i>.</p>
-
-<p><i>Z</i> like <i>dz</i> in words which have <i>z</i> in the English word; like <i>tz</i> when
-preceded by <i>l</i> or <i>r</i>, or followed by two vowels, and in nouns ending in
-<i>zzo</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Single consonants are generally soft; double consonants are pronounced
-in one sound, but stronger and more marked than when single.</p>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<h3>SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE.</h3>
-
-<p>P. 393, c. 2.—“En bloc.” In a lump.</p>
-
-<p>“Genre.” A style; a peculiar kind or species.</p>
-
-<p>“Du Maurier,” dü mōˈre-a. An English caricaturist who for over
-twenty years has been connected with <i>Punch</i>.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="TALK_ABOUT_BOOKS">TALK ABOUT BOOKS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="shorter" />
-
-<p>Most indefinite ideas exist among even very well informed people
-concerning the Soudan and its tribes. What is the Soudan? Who people
-it? What does England want of it? Such questions are worrying
-many heads, and there has been a general search for information. A
-very timely book to those interested, is “The Wild Tribes of the Soudan.”<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a>
-The author, so late as December, 1881, started on a trip of exploration
-and sport through the Basé country—a small part, it is true, of
-the Soudan, but the people, customs and country serve as reliable examples.
-The experiences of this company of sportsmen with the people,
-their adventures and dangers, furnish us with much useful information
-about a people in whom we are all just now interested. The book is
-furnished with excellent maps.</p>
-
-<p>The erudition embraced in Dr. Winchell’s digest<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> of Cosmical Science
-exhausts the contributions of the French, German and English languages,
-and is simply enormous. As the author <i>con amore</i> has made this
-subject the study of an average lifetime, his personal contributions of
-original thought constitute a large part of the book. It is written in a
-calm, judicial spirit and incisive style, and increases in strength and interest
-to the close. The universe of matter is the field of observation,
-and starting with the principles which are worked out before our eyes
-on this planet, the mechanism of the solar system is subjected to analysis
-in regard to the order of its structure and final destiny. He then
-passes into the stellar universe, and finds evidence that the same kinds of
-substances are there, subject to the same laws, and tending to the same
-results. The speculative reasoning of the volume of course covers much
-space, but the trustworthy information obtained is all that could be expected;
-in fact, all that is known to science. We know of no other
-book which gives to the mind so clear a view of the incomparable vastness
-of the universe, and the <i>rationale</i> of its existing as does this. The
-conclusion reached is, that the surface of our moon is made up mostly of the
-craters, cinders, and lava-beds of spent volcanoes. All the other planets,
-the sun included, are tending in the same direction and destiny. In the
-stellar world other systems of sun and planets have reached this goal of
-desolation; others are on the way, and new systems, originating in nebulæ,
-are taking on form and order. When a cycle is once completed by a system
-its career is ended forever and ever. On the whole, this is one of
-the most instructive and fascinating volumes we have read for a long
-time.</p>
-
-<p>“Oregon”<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> is one of a series of volumes entitled “American Commonwealths,”
-edited by H. E. Scudder. The monograph was furnished by W.
-Barrows, D.D., and is both well written and carefully edited. The subject
-of the narrative and the sources from which the materials were drawn may
-have somewhat affected the style of the writing, which is exuberant and
-picturesque. Suppository details are suggested with a freedom that shows
-a desire to make the account impressive without lessening its historical
-value. The most valuable part is given to the question of national right,
-and the long struggle of England and America for possession. Americans
-who found fault with the Ashburton-Webster treaty as conceding
-too much, while Oregon was left out, should read this book.</p>
-
-<p>“Arius The Libyan”<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> is a historical romance, and one of the very best
-of the class. It deals vigorously with early ecclesiastical matters, and
-draws, with consummate skill, some well known prominent characters
-of the third and fourth centuries. Its literary merits are of a high order,
-and whether we do or do not accept the doctrines as true, and the
-estimates of the characters introduced as just, all will confess the story
-is well planned, and told with great power. Constantine is sketched as
-a very able, far-seeing, but intensely selfish and unscrupulous politician,
-a man evilly ambitious, and the lust of power his ruling passion. He
-and the bishops he influenced completely secularized the Church, left
-the common primitive Christianity, and established a politico-ecclesiastical
-institution intended to conserve the interests of the empire. The
-book is thoroughly self-consistent, and all the characters, good and bad,
-are well sustained.</p>
-
-<p>There are few women in the country who do not know something of
-Mary A. Livermore, who directly or indirectly have not been influenced
-by her earnest pleas for strong, self-reliant, womanly living among
-women. When she began her lectures several years ago, she was ahead
-of her time, but public sentiment has made rapid strides, and is fast
-gaining pace with her. The need of physical culture, of higher education,
-of practical training for women is acknowledged on every side,
-and has never been more clearly shown than by Mrs. Livermore in her
-lectures. The hope that these lectures might have a wider influence by
-publication has led to their being put into book form, under the title of
-“What Shall we Do With our Daughters?”<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p>
-
-<p>“Mexico and the Mexicans”<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> is a very readable book; not specially
-fascinating in style, but of substantial value. It is modest in pretentions,
-as real worth usually is. Promising only a narrative of personal
-observations and experiences, the writer has managed to collect from
-reliable sources much information concerning the country, its people
-and institutions, that will be of interest to American freemen and philanthropists.
-We like it as a clever, matter-of-fact book, whose author,
-fitted for the work assumed, does not attempt fine writing, or the role of
-delineator. Not much attention is given to the religious phase of society.
-In a single paragraph of ten lines, respectful mention is made of
-the fact that the American Board has a station at Monterey, and that the
-Baptists have some zealous missionaries in the same region. In the
-capital, Roman Catholic institutions alone seemed worthy of notice. A
-longer stay and closer observation would have discovered Protestantism
-established there also.</p>
-
-<p>“Great Events of History”<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> is a well written, readable book from the
-pen of W. F. Collier, LL.D. It presents important facts succinctly, yet
-with sufficient fullness, and so clearly that the memory can easily retain
-them. It presents the great events from the commencement of the
-Christian era to the present century in <i>eight periods</i>, without confusion,
-and so clearly as to give assured possession of the facts, while much is
-done to lessen the labor of the learner, and sweeten the toil that to many
-is irksome. The geographical appendix will prove very useful, as the
-kindred studies of history and geography are pursued with best advantage
-when taken in connection.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The Wild Tribes of the Soudan. An account of Travel and Sport, chiefly in the
-Basé country. By F. L. James, M.A., F.R.G.S. New York: Dodd, Mead &amp; Co.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> World-Life, or Comparative Geology. By Alexander Winchell, LL.D., of the
-University of Michigan. S. C. Gregg &amp; Co., Chicago. 1883.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Oregon, the Struggle for Possession. By William Barrows. Boston: Houghton,
-Mifflin &amp; Co. 1884.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Arius, The Libyan. An Idyl of the Primitive Church. New York: D. Appleton
-&amp; Co. 1884.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> What Shall we Do with our Daughters? Superfluous Women, and other lectures.
-By Mary A. Livermore. Boston: Lee &amp; Shepard. 1883.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Mexico and the Mexicans; or Notes of Travel in the Winter and Spring of 1883.
-By Howard Conkling. With illustrations. New York: Taintor Brothers, Merrell &amp;
-Co. 1883.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> Great Events of History. By W. W. Collier, LL.D. New York: Nelson &amp; Sons.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 187px;">
-<img src="images/royalpowder.jpg" width="187" height="333" alt="Royal Baking Powder. Absoloutely Pure" />
-</div>
-
-<p>This powder never varies. A marvel of purity, strength and wholesomeness.
-More economical than the ordinary kinds, and can not be
-sold in competition with the multitude of low test, short weight, alum or
-phosphate powders. <i>Sold only in cans.</i> <span class="smcap">Royal Baking Powder Co.</span>,
-106 Wall Street, New York.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 252px;">
-<img src="images/decoline1_arrowsbox.jpg" width="252" height="14" alt="decorative line" />
-</div>
-
-<div class="tnote">
-
-<p class="center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></p>
-
-<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Accents corrected and made
-consistent.</p>
-
-<p>Page 387, “Bartolommeo” changed to “Bartholommeo” (Fra Bartholommeo had great influence)</p>
-
-<p>Page 399, “earning” changed to “learning” (pupils are learning)</p>
-
-<p>Page 414, “somthing” changed to “something” (combined with something else)</p>
-
-<p>Page 417, “Sybil” changed to “Sibyl” (and Sibyl can do perfectly well)</p>
-
-<p>Page 424, “In” changed to “It” (It contains no less than five)</p>
-
-<p>Page 427, “wel” changed to “well” (a well-prepared plan)</p>
-
-<p>Page 430, “governnent” changed to “government” (the prices of government bonds)</p>
-
-<p>Page 431, “socialogical” changed to “sociological” (the long list of sociological essays)</p>
-
-<p>Page 432, “hired” changed to “had” (had the rival candidate murdered)</p>
-
-<p>Page 435, “prisoners” changed to “prisons” (The names of famous French prisons)</p>
-
-<p>Page 435, “poinard” changed to “poniard” (like <i>ni</i> in poniard)</p>
-
-<p>Page 436, “of” added (The subject of the narrative)</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, April 1884,
-No. 7, by The Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle
-
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