BY PROF. R. S. HOLMES, A.M.

The Chautauqua University is empowered by its charter to grant the degrees ordinarily conferred by American colleges. The chief of these are Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Philosophy, and Civil Engineer, to be awarded to undergraduates at the completion of certain prescribed courses of study, as the seal of their work and the sign of their graduation. The degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy are the leading post-graduate degrees. The Chautauqua University proposes to use the power granted by its charter whenever the occasion may demand. It believes that good and thorough study may be done at home; that good and thorough instruction may be imparted by correspondence; and when good home study and good instruction by correspondence are united, it believes that as good and thorough education will result as results from resident college training, and such education it proposes to recognize and crown.

The Chautauqua University does not contemplate the bestowal of degrees upon groups, or ranks, or classes of individuals who may for certain periods of time have been associated in the same studies and the same courses. It is the individual student, as an individual, who will receive the Chautauqua degree, and not he, until after tests severer than are required of students in the average college, and after more years than college students think they can spare from practical life. The student of the Chautauqua University is in practical life when he becomes a student, and remains in practical life while he is a student, consecrating to self culture those spare hours which his neighbor, who has graduated long ago, spends in idleness or in restless quest of amusement.

The Chautauqua University does not design to lower the standard of attainment essential to a degree. This does not mean cheap diplomas for the masses—it means education for those who have stood outside the gates of opportunity; it means lofty purpose, noble aim, self-sacrificing consecration to culture of mature hours and rigid discipline whose end is power. This institution opens no door to the multitudes of youth annually leaving our high schools, through which they can pass along some royal road to enter the portals and sit down in the palace of culture. To all of this class who can, it says go to college; climb the heights of Olympus; sit on the hill of Helicon; drink at the Pierian spring; walk in the groves of the academy; seek with Crito to catch Socrates as he passes out of his prison; put on the buskin; wear the laurel. For you we have nothing. But for the great majority of those who, year by year are passing from school into the practical avenues of life, the multitude who can not go to college, we rear an altar by the fireside, on which we kindle the fires of truth, by whose light they shall see clearly to read the mysteries of that world of knowledge into which their more fortunate companions have gone; and when the years have passed, years of patient toil, of earnest endeavor, of unswerving purpose, of daily sacrifice upon those altars of spare moments of time, they, too, shall wear the laurel.

The Chautauqua University has no purpose of swelling Chautauqua ranks at the expense of established resident institutions. It offers no allurement to turn young men or young women away from college. It seeks to foster the college spirit, to create a desire for intimate knowledge of the liberal arts. It would see college graduates numbered not by tens, but by hundreds. It holds high the banner of college education. On it are inscribed the immortal names of Edwards, Hopkins, Woolsey, Dwight, and the long illustrious list of those who have made illustrious the institutions with which they were connected. It bids the young men of the nation to range themselves beneath their standard, if they can. But for those who can not, the young, gifted, anxious, who are longing to stand beside their former companions, but can not; for those also who could not, the mature, with vigorous powers, who by earnest labor and economic care have escaped the environments of early days, and are able now to give a leisure hour to study; for those, too, who would not, and who to-day regret and would atone for the mistake of by-gone days; for all these we raise the standard of the Chautauqua University, and bid them range themselves beneath it. Tandem fit surculus arbor—“The sapling has at last become a tree.”

But while Chautauqua takes this last step upward she forgets and abandons nothing of her past. The Assembly, with its years of wonderful influence, goes on to widen that influence. Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, serving a purpose of wide usefulness goes on to enlarge that usefulness with ever increasing numbers. The methods which have made her past so successful and memorable will characterize her future. The annual pilgrimage of tens of thousands to the shores of the beautiful lake will continue. Sermon and lecture, discussion and conversation, representations of the treasures of art, and the wonders of science, study and recreation, pathos and zest will still instruct, delight, arouse and rest her summer multitudes. But all this does not complete Chautauqua’s work for the world. There is a higher summit to be reached, and on its crest is reared the University, and only accurate learning and close scholarship can speak the open sesame that will give entrance to her inmost shrines.

It has been the burden of this article to impress our readers with the idea that diplomas in the Chautauqua University can not be had on call, but will be awarded only to high attainment after strenuous toil. But while we would speak on this subject in language that shall not be misunderstood, we would not go to the other extreme, and deter any from entering upon the work. Though our standards are high, they are not too high to be reached. Art may be long, and time fleeting; but art is not too long and time is not too fleeting to allow an earnest man or woman within their time to measure the length and breadth of the treasures art may hold.

The Chautauqua University appeals to a mighty constituency. There are a hundred thousand readers who, glancing over the columns of their daily or weekly paper, will stop to read with attentive interest the article or item which contains the word “Chautauqua.” The circle into which their lines of influence radiate is almost without circumference. That appeal has been answered. From this constituency, within the month just ending, hundreds of inquiries, prompted by the article in the October issue of The Chautauquan, have reached the University office. They come from the farthest eastward province of the Dominion of Canada, and from the remotest southern and western states of the American Union. Chief among the inquiries has been one concerning the courses of study to be pursued for the attainment of specific degrees, prompted, no doubt, by the following paragraph from our preliminary circular:

DEGREES.

Among the degrees to be conferred by the Chautauqua University on the satisfactory completion by the candidate of prescribed courses, are the following:

A. B.—A Full Academic Course.

A. M.—A Post-Graduate Course in approved liberal studies.

B. S.—An Elective Course in Science, Art, and English.

Ph. B.—An Elective Academic Course.

Ph. D.—A Post-Graduate Course in Philosophy, and one or more other liberal studies.

In pursuance of our purpose to show how much we shall require, and still that such requirement may be met by him who will, and to answer the inquiries on the subject, we add our proposed course of study for the diploma and degree of Bachelor of Arts. This is not sent out as final, or as not subject to modification. It is, however, substantially the basis of all work in the Chautauqua University, and is as follows:

The completion of the following courses of study, and the possession of certificates from the directors of the various departments which these courses represent, will be required before the student will be recommended for the degree of Bachelor of Arts: Two full courses in Greek; three full courses in Latin; four full courses in Mathematics; two full courses in French or German; three full courses in English; two full courses in History; one full course each in Philosophy, Political Economy, Physics, Chemistry, Moral Philosophy, Astronomy, the History and Literature of Art, and two full courses in Biological Science. The student will not be required to pursue these courses exactly as prescribed, as wide opportunity will be given the individual to substitute other branches than those named, or more courses in particular departments than are here specified, as he may elect. But in every case full courses equal in number to those specified will be required. For the other degrees the scheme of study now pursued will form the basis, such omission and substitution being made as are suited to the particular degree; but in no case will a diploma be given for less than twenty-two full courses. With this outline of work before them, students will be able to begin at once without further inquiry. Select the courses which you will first attempt; and with purpose never to cease your effort till success has crowned it, we bid you enter the Chautauqua University.