  By J. H. VINCENT, D. D., Superintendent of Instruction, C. L. S. C. The Sunday Readings of the January and February numbers constitute the “required” reading on “Bible and Religious History and Literature.” If now and then you consider the selections “a little too long,” read them carefully for your profit. On the Sabbaths of January and February we read outlines of Bible History principally from the abridgement by Dr. Collier. It will be well (although it is not required) also to read and study the outline lessons in the History of the Bible and in Bible History, as given in Chautauqua Text-Book No. 36, “Assembly Bible Outlines,” pages 7-37. Price of Chautauqua Text-Book No. 36, only ten cents. The people who most need the ministry of the C. L. S. C. are not likely to take it up at first, and therefore those who appreciate its advantages should seek out persons likely to be profited by it. Think over your list of acquaintances, rich and poor, people of wealth and people engrossed with business or domestic care. Go with personal explanations and appeals and induce them to join the Circle, or to take up some part of its work, the reading of one book, or the reading of a special course, like the Bryant or the Shakspere course. I want to call your attention to a valuable book for every student’s table—“Roget’s Thesaurus.” It enables one to find a whole family of words by knowing one of them. The classification is well nigh perfect. Phrases, as well as words, are included in the list. For example, look into the index for the word “circle.” Your attention is called at once to paragraph 181, which gives synonymous words of circle, as defining a “region:” sphere, ground, soil, area, realm, hemisphere, quarter, district, beat, orb, circuit, circle; pale; compartment, department; domain, tract, territory, country, canton, county, shire, province, arrondissement, parish, township, commune, ward, wapentake, hundred, riding; principality, duchy, kingdom, etc. Or we turn to the word circle, as “form,” in paragraph 247, where we have: circle, circlet, ring, areola, hoop, roundlet, annulus, annulet, bracelet, armlet; ringlet; eye, loop, wheel; cycle, orb, orbit, rundle, zone, belt, cordon, band; sash, girdle, cestus, cincture, baldric, fillet, fascia, wreath, garland; crown, corona, coronet, chaplet, snood, necklace, collar; noose, lasso. Or take the word circle as a “party,” paragraph 712, where we find: party, side, faction, denomination, communion, set, crew, band, horde, posse, phalanx; family, clan, etc., etc.; community, body, fellowship, sodality, solidarity; confraternity; brotherhood, sisterhood, etc., etc., and so on through one thousand paragraphs, filling 429 pages, and then followed by a four-columned index on each page for 271 more pages. The book is indeed a treasury of the English language. Price, sent to members of the C. L. S. C., $1.60. The Cincinnati local circle has great enterprise. It announces a third annual course of free lectures for the coming winter. Our correspondent, Miss Eleanor C. O’Connell, writes: “We are now planning for the organization of a branch ‘Society of the Hall in the Grove,’ for, besides having an alumnal meeting, it is our desire that next year, and each succeeding one, the older graduates shall give in October a reception to the last graduating class, and thus, by welcoming them into this fraternity, help keep up their interest in the Circle. I hope that when you come we will have a good report to make concerning ’82 welcoming those of this year.” Have you put our “university property” in order? Have you a cozy corner in your house belonging to the C. L. S. C.? Is the “dormitory” well ventilated? Is the food in the “refectory” healthful? Are the “hours of reading” regularly observed? Such words as these are refreshing: “Though only a two-year-old Chautauquan, I feel that these two years have been richer and more valuable to me than twice their number before. They have indeed changed the whole tenor of my life. Next year I expect to attend Michigan University as a result of the work of the C. L. S. C. I feel that whatever may be the degree of usefulness which I hope to reach, it will be owing to the inspiration received from my present course of reading.” While members of the C. L. S. C. should read the whole series of books prescribed, each member should select one book to which he is to give especial attention. The others are books for outlook; this is a book for mental discipline. He must master it, drill himself on it, study it critically, doing with it what, if he had the time, he would do with every book of the course. As far as practicable, follow the prescribed order of the reading, taking up each month the work prescribed for that month. There is no law of the Medes and Persians about it, but the work will be very much more satisfactorily done where this rule is observed. It is always easier to make reports, and fill out the memoranda, etc., when the work is performed in the prescribed order. I suggest to all students the value of much conversation and council in the departments of study. Is there not some teacher or other specialist in your community who would be glad occasionally to give you helpful hints in history, or other branch of study? Is there not, for example, some one who takes a special interest in geology, and who, during the months devoted to this study, would be glad to guide you to a more practical knowledge than you can get from mere books? Learn to utilize the talent of your community. Ask questions. Do not be ashamed to betray ignorance. State your opinions. What if you make a mistake? You will not be likely to make it a second time. The introduction into your life of casual conversations on useful subjects will give both strength and dignity to your life. Watch therefore the people of your community; pick out those who know and can help. Get help out of them. They will delight to serve you, and the service will do both them and you great good. It matters little whether a man be mathematically, or philologically, or artistically cultivated, so that he be cultivated.—Goethe. Members of the C. L. S. C., in addressing the Plainfield office, are requested to give complete addresses, town, county, state, and also the class to which they belong. This will prevent the necessity of referring to the records before the letters can be answered. Secretaries of local circles in cities, in sending to the office, should always give the street address of each member to whom a fee is to be credited. The filling up of the blank pages in Dr. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, while earnestly recommended, is not required. By a mistake, the Little Classical Dictionary, published by J. B. Putnam’s Sons, New York City, was announced at thirty cents, by mail. The price is forty cents. Let all students take note of this. Our friend, Miss Myrtie C. Hudson, from California, a graduate of the Class of 1882, has entered Michigan University, at Ann Arbor. She reports meetings of the students’ association. She says: “On Sunday morning the hall was filled for the opening prayer-meeting, and there was manifested a working Christian spirit which surprised and delighted me. I believe one can grow in grace in such a school. The crucial test of character will there be developed. The five o’clock quiet hour on Sabbath afternoon is growing very dear to me. That beautiful suggestion is one of the many things for which I can never thank you enough. If the hours help all the members as they do me, they are no doubt a power in the Circle. I am already looking forward to that time as the best in all the week. A portion of the time I spend in preparing Bible readings on themes suggested at Chautauqua, beginning with ‘God in Nature,’ with Romans i: 19, 20 for the key. I shall always look lovingly back to the weeks I spent at Chautauqua. They were wonderful weeks, and I lived more in them than in as many years before.” There is strong temptation to take substitutes for the regular books. You have a great cyclopÆdia, and prefer to read articles on the appointed subject rather than to take up the book required. Or, you have some other history, or other scientific treatise. In order to economize, I have allowed substitutes. Comparatively few of our students have used them. It is much more pleasant for all members of the C. L. S. C. to travel one way. The sympathy of the members is increased by such unity. The reading of Green’s “Short History of the English People,” and Merrivale’s “Rome,” bound together by very strong cords the members of the Circle. While there may be other valuable books, we think that the “required” books are the best, and we desire our members as far as practicable to use them. Edward A. Spring, sculptor, who has charge of the clay-modeling department, at Chautauqua, lingered for several weeks after the close of the Assembly the past season. He studied the old trees in St. Paul’s Grove, measuring them carefully, and also numbered them. He finds twelve maples, five beeches, one butternut, and one hemlock. “The largest maple, No. 6,” he says, “is nearly eight feet in circumference. It stands in front of the Hall. A butternut, No. 8, is a grand old tree, and full of nuts this year; but it leans very much toward the hemlock, and can hardly last long without some skillful forestry work. All the trees, except Nos. 2 and 9, are too large to reach around with my arms. No. 13 is one of the finest trees on the whole grounds—a very symmetrical tulip on the west side of Cookman Avenue.” He adds, “I had been all about the Grove many times, but now that I have held each one of these giants of the old forest clasped in my arms, I feel toward each as if I had said farewell to a dear friend. For five Sundays the setting sun has lighted a little band of friends in the Hall of Philosophy—five little gatherings, where a lovely spirit prevailed, and I think all there present will long remember it. Dr. Eaton and Mr. Martin have led the service, which took the form of devotional expression, ‘A song of service, of faith, of praise;’ with frequent allusions to our book-mates of the great Circle at whose center we were met. Several times each one in turn repeated a verse of Scripture; and, day before yesterday, upon closing, we joined hands and closed the circle, repeating in concert the three mottoes of the C. L. S. C. Now, I started out to tell you of these meetings with an express purpose, namely, to urge the desirableness of securing a sunset belt from the Hall of Philosophy, so that no intervening structures shall cut off this glorifying of the maples at the hour of the Round-Table, and other favored and favorite gatherings.” decorative line
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