  By J. H. VINCENT, D. D., Superintendent of Instruction, C. L. S. C. The studies for March are Recreations in Astronomy, Readings in Astronomy, Chautauqua Text-Book on English History, readings in English, Russian, Scandinavian, and Religious History and Literature. Also selections from English Literature. No “Memorial Day” for March; but February 27 is the “Longfellow Day.” The March number of The Chautauquan may reach our members in time to remind them of this fact. For the varying opinions concerning the existence of man on the earth see the October (’82) Chautauquan. The date in our English Bible, “4004 B. C.,” is not an inspired date. The claims of Prof. Packard in his little volume on geology, as to the long existence of man on the globe, is doubted by many men of science. Prof. Timayenis says that the author of the Chautauqua Text-book on Greek History, and the author of the Preparatory Greek Course in English, are mistaken in attributing the remark, “Then we will fight them in the shade,” to Leonidas. Prof. Timayenis says: “My authority is Herodotus, who, first of all historians, relates the Persian wars, and all subsequent historians have followed him. In Herodotus, Polymnia, paragraph 226, you will find the remark attributed to Dienekes.” What general commanded the Persian forces at the battle of Marathon? Datis and Artaphernes, by order of King Darius. At what place was St. John the Baptist imprisoned just before he was beheaded? Probably at the Castle of Machoerus, east of the Dead Sea. “What is the examination to which we are to submit?—C. L. S. C., ’86.” The examination is scarcely thorough enough to be called an “examination.” It is rather the filling out of certain “memoranda.” It would be impossible for us to provide any fair test by which to judge of the ability of our pupils. We therefore simply require them to fill out certain memoranda, that we may be assured that they have read the books. Go to some member who despairs because she can not read a large amount every day, and show her by actual reading how many minutes by the watch it takes to read slowly one page. Then put a book mark five pages on for one day, another day three pages, another six, then five. Run through at that rate for twenty-five days, and show your friend how far she would be at the end of a month by reading so much a day. A practical illustration of that kind will show the power of littles, prove to a demonstration the power of system, inspire your discouraged friend with confidence and hope, and thus in a small way you will be a teacher and a useful member of the C. L. S. C. Hold “Round-Tables” with conversations at your circle meetings. Allow no waste of words. Let the president hold everybody to the subject, and see how many things can be said by the circle of five, ten, or fifteen persons, on one subject. “Duyckinck” is pronounced Di´kink. Rev. A. B. Cristy, pastor of the Congregational church, Conway, Mass., has devised one or two very ingenious Chautauqua games, which I hope he will see fit to publish. Mr. Cristy has adopted a very ingenious plan for a local circle. He says: “I have prepared a narrative with breaks to be filled in, in order, by the answers to the one hundred questions in the October and November Chautauquan. One reads, and, as he comes to a break, suddenly calls for some one to read the answer from The Chautauquan. If the other does not find it, and begin before the reader counts ten as the clock ticks, a forfeit is to be paid to the general fund, thus insuring attention while the main points are reviewed during the game.” A very bright way of spending a little time in a local circle. A lady from Vermont writes: “Since I wrote last, my eldest brother, Dr. ——, of ——, and my own sister, Mrs. ——, have both joined the C. L. S. C. This makes four of father’s family who belong to the ‘people’s college.’ With the exception of the doctor we were all in the old home at Christmas, and as my cousins were there too, we planned to organize very quietly. We seated ourselves on the stairs in the front hall, and were proceeding to business, when the dear old mother announced that there was ‘a college being organized in the house,’ so, of course, every one had to come and look at us, and as each one said something wittier than the last had said, we were soon in an uproar of merriment—a very undignified college class. I think hereafter when they read of the C. L. S. C., they will think of the company of people on the stairs, and that is really what we are—going up one step at a time. There are five in the circle, and we have arranged to meet once in two weeks.” A good name, the On-the-Stairs circle. Our correspondent in a later letter adds: “Did I tell you that we sat near the foot of the stairs, as symbolical of the heights we hope to climb? and on the lowest step was a little girl who had left the company to be near her mother, and in her we saw a type of the coming generation, and the promise of an ever-widening circle. Do urge it upon the mothers more and more to talk over their studies with their little children. It not only helps mothers, but it gives such zest to the studies of the little ones, when they think that by-and-by they are going to study these other wonderful things which now interest their parents. Only this last week my little nine-year-old girl was having a hard time over her geography lesson; out West seemed so far away, but when I mentioned to her that Yellowstone Park was out there it was like another lesson, or like another girl studying—an interested girl.” A cultivated lady writes: “One of the most agreeable Methodist ladies in the city of New York recently asked of me some information about the Chautauqua course. She occupies a high social position in the church, and is possessed of no little intelligence, but finds her time absorbed in the cares of her domestic establishment. I gave her such The item calling for missing numbers of The Assembly Herald brought satisfactory answers; the first from Mrs. H. M. Graham, of Garrettsville, Ohio, who sends the missing March and October numbers for 1879; the May number, and also the October, which has been returned, from Miss Jessie Brownell, of St. Louis, Mo. My cordial thanks to these kind helpers. A member writes: “I want to get a good astronomical almanac containing map or chart of the movements of the planets for the current year. Can you direct me where to find a good one, which is at the same time reasonable in price?” After consulting two of the leading astronomers in the country, I am compelled to say that such map or chart is not to be easily procured. One professor recommends any nautical almanac, in connection with any chart of the heavens; another recommends the “Connecticut Almanac,” with such chart. decorative line The hero—the reformer—your Brutus—your Howard—your republican, whom civic storm—your genius, whom poetic storm impels; in short, every man with a great purpose, or even with a continuous passion (were it but that of writing the largest folios); all these men defend themselves by their internal world against the frosts and heats of the external, as the madman in a worse sense does; every fixed idea, such as rules every genius and every enthusiast, at least periodically, separates and raises a man above the bed and board of this earth—above its dog’s grottoes, buckthorns, and devils’ walls; like the bird of paradise he slumbers flying; and on his outspread pinions oversleeps unconsciously the earthquakes and conflagrations of life in his long fair dream of his ideal motherland.—Jean Paul F. Richter. decorative line
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