And once a week, or every day if we choose, we may select one of these cards for a companion and assimilate its thought and grow just as we did under yesterday's sunshine. SOME THOUGHTS FROM "RATIONAL LIVING." It is interesting to notice that the very language of our most wise and useful proverbs shows that they have been wrought out in the realm of common toil of various kinds. We shall certainly not solve our greater and more distant problems by ignoring those smaller and more immediate. We develop power or character not by a general striving, not by resolving in general, but only by definite, concrete applications in definite relations. To feel oneself in the grasp of a "vast and predestined order" stifles human initiative; but, on the other hand, to lose all sense of any plan larger than our own,-any on-working of universal forces, in line with which we may do our work, is to take the heart out of our work and to make a life-calling impossible. A true quietism is thus, the very root of a genuine enthusiasm. We must be able to reach Browning's "All's love, yet all's law." OXFORD. "Steeped in sentiment as she lies, spreading her garments to the moonlight, and whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age, who will deny that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps ever calling us nearer to the true goal of all of us, to the ideal, to perfection."-Matthew Arnold. One of the richest experiences of this study year may be our visit to Oxford. To most of us the town is little more than a name honorable in the history of English letters. But it is, in reality, one of those focal points of English life where every great influence in the national history has made itself felt. After you have read Miss Bates' charming introduction to Oxford, take up Green's history and read his thrilling chapters on Oxford University. Then hunt up in your encyclopedia "The Wesley Movement," and "The Tractarian Movement." In the encyclopedia or the Warner Library of the World's Best Literature look up Newman and Keble. If you have Andrew Lang's "Oxford" at hand read one of the late chapters entitled "A General View." Dip into Laurence Hutton's "Literary Landmarks" and the discriminating articles by Richard Grant White and W. D. Howells and other magazine articles sug gested in the bibliography. The new Ruskin Labor College at Oxford is one of the most significant of twentieth century developments. If time permits, read in such biographies as are available the experiences at Oxford of some of her greatest men. In this way one comes to feel the atmosphere of such a place and its influence upon the whole English speaking world. THYRSIS. Associated with our present Reading Journey through England are three great elegiac poems which are the proper heritage of every cultivated man and woman. We found the scene of Milton's "Lycidas" in Lancashire. At Clevedon in the Severn valley is the church described in "In Memoriam," where Arthur Hallam rests, and in Matthew Arnold's "Thyrsis" we have exquisite pictures of the scenery round about Oxford and of that rare personality, Arthur Hugh Clough. To understand "Thyrsis" fully, one should first read "The Scholar Gypsy" for in the days when Clough and Arnold roamed over the Oxford meadows the Scholar Gypsy played an important part in their thought. Those of us who are making the acquaintance of "Thyrsis" for the first time will feel that it is an event in our lives. In Macmillan's excellent series of Pocket Classics (25 cents each), the volume entitled "Sohrab and Rustum" contains among other poems both "Thyrsis" and "The Scholar Gypsy." RHODES SCHOLARS AT OXFORD. Some of our countrymen we remember were inclined to shake their heads dubiously when Mr. Cecil Rhodes left his endowment for scholarships at Oxford. They had visions of impressionable young Americans being partially anglicized and henceforth a sort of mongrel contribution to our civilization. Sufficient time has elapsed to enable the scheme to show some of its practical workings and at this time while our Reading Journey is developing in us enthusiasm for Old Oxford it will be a good opportunity to look with some understanding on the Oxford of today. In the circle programs on page 119 mention is made of one or two magazine articles by Rhodes Scholars which will be found illuminating. A CHAUTAUQUA TRAGEDY. An illustration of the tragic results of bringing the higher education within the reach of those not fitted for it is related by Miss Jessica Lewis of Camden, Maine, a graduate of the C. L. S. C. Class of 1900, and known to many readers as the author of an excellent Shakespeare game: "Into a little treasure closet where I keep boxes of books, lesson courses finished, water color sketches and all sorts of interesting things, a gray squirrel made her way under the eaves and through the partition. În two days she had dragged up old pieces of calico from the ash barrel and begun a nest. Attracted as any one would be by courses offered by the Chautauqua Class of 1900, she actually devoured the examination papers, and having mastered them took her diploma fearlessly! Such a sorry looking sight was presented when I opened the door and she scampered through the wall like a flash. There was my prized diploma in its original roll, torn half way down on one side and the bits of paper from the papers on history, French Traits, etc., were massed in a mound as large as a muff. There was no doubt that she finished the course." LITERARY DIVERSIONS. Following Mr. Andrew Lang's suggestion of rival cricket teams drawn from the poets of Oxford and Cambridge, members of circles might submit suggestions for an ideal dinner party of twelve selected from distinguished Englishmen and women. They should be seated with reference to their congeniality and care should be taken to exclude any clashing elements. Possible subjects for discussion by the different couples might also be suggested. Answers to the question, If you could be escorted through Oxford by some one of her famous sons whom would you choose and why? would also give opportunity for a study of individual traits both of circle members and of the men whom they would choose as companions. NOTES. Circles and readers will find great pleasure in making frequent reference to "England Without and Within" by Richard Grant White, a fine series of studies of English life first published in the Atlantic Monthly, and later in book form, (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., $2.00). The several chapters present a comprehensive survey of English life under such titles as "English Men," "English Women," "English Manners," "English in England," etc. In the hands of so able a critic as Mr. White, charming and sympathetic also as a writer, English life is presented in a manner well worth our study. * * * * "A Child's Recollections of Tennyson" (E. P. Dutton, $1.00 net) by the daughter of Dean Bradley of Westminster, sketches in picturesque fashion the Tennyson household on the Isle of Wight in the days when the poet's sons were in their teens. The author recalls with gentle humor some of Tennyson's characteristic traits and portrays with great charm the life of the young people, with some of their favorite diversions such as playing "Idylls of the King" in the poet's favorite summer house. The book is daintily bound in green and gold and illustrated with portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Tennyson and the boys. * Interest in the individuality of the Oxford colleges is shown by the new and most artistic little series of "College Monographs" of Oxford and Cambridge which are now being issued by E. P. Dutton & Co. (75 cents net). Of the Oxford colleges Magdalen, New, and Merton are already out and others will follow. They contain such antiquarian information as the lover of Oxford is eager to find and in addition give the visitor the right point of view of things modern, being illustrated with many sketches of characteristic features of the architecture of each college. C. L. S. C. MOTTOES. "We study the Word and the Works of God." OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READING FOR APRIL. FIRST WEEK. IN THE CHAUTAUQUAN: "Oxfordshire" and "Oxford" to page 39. Required Books: Rational Living. Chapters IV, V and VI to pg. 78. SECOND WEEK. IN THE CHAUTAUQUAN: "Oxford" concluded. Required Books: Rational Living. Chapter VI concluded. THIRD WEEK. IN THE CHAUTAUQUAN: English Men of Fame: "Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites." Required Books: Rational Living. Chapter VII. Literary Leaders of Modern England. Chapters XIX and XX. The chapters on Carlyle will be taken up in May. FOURTH WEEK. Required Books: Literary Leaders of Modern England. Chapter XXI Rational Living. Chapter VIII. SUGGESTIVE PROGRAMS FOR LOCAL CIRCLES. FIRST WEEK. Map Review of Oxfordshire including neighboring towns referred to in Reading Journey article. Oral Reports: Distinctive features of the following colleges with all available illustrations: Worcester, University, Merton, Broadgates. Balliol, and Hertford. (See Baedeker's Great Britain, encyclopedias and books available in bibliography.) Reading: Review with selections of Matthew Arnold's "Thyrsis" or from Richard Grant White's "England without and Within." (See The Atlantic, 46:385.) Anecdotes of some famous Oxford men from the above colleges: Shelley, Samuel Johnson. Stanley, Matthew Arnold, Clough, DeQuincey. (See "Literary Landmarks of Oxford," Laurence Hutton. Biographies of the above men and DeQuincey's account of Oxford in his "Memorials and Other Papers.") Discussion: Article on Augustine Birrell in this magazine. Review of Chapters IV and V in Rational Living. Roll Call: Notes of personal experiences or of observations of those of others which illustrate the "suggestions for living" in Chapter VI, part 1. SECOND WEEK. Paper: The Methodist Movement in Oxford. (See encyclopedia articles and books on Wesley.) Oral Reports: Distinctive features of the following colleges with all available illustrations: Exeter, Oriel, Queen's, New, All Souls, Lincoln, and Magdalen. Reading: Descriptions of social life at Oxford in Howell's "Certain_Delightful English Towns," James' "Portraits of Places" or Davis" "Undergraduate Life at Oxford." (See references to these and magazine articles in bibliography.) Informal Talks on: 1. How the Church of England was affected by its separation from Rome under Henry VIII. 2. The Cause and Result of the Tractarian Movement at Oxford. (See Green's and other histories of England and articles in encyclopedias.) Character Sketches: Newman, Keble, and Pusey. (See encyclopedias, biographies, and articles in the Warner Library of the World's Best Literature.) Discussion of Chapter VI in Rational Living from page 78. It would be interesting in this connection to see how many of the "suggestions for living" can be illustrated from the lives or teachings of persons about whom we have been studying this year. THIRD WEEK. Brief Paper on Present-Day Requirements at Oxford: Examinations, degrees, fellowships, etc. (See Baedeker's Great Britain, encyclopedias, etc.) Oral Reports: Distinctive features of Trinity, St. John's, Brasenose, Jesus, Corpus Christi, Christ Church, and Wadham and anecdotes of the men associated with them. (See Baedeker's "Great Britain," Hutton's "Literary Landmarks," etc.) Roll call: Answers to the question "If you could be escorted through Oxford by one of her famous sons whom would you choose and why?" Reading: Review with selections of article on "An American Rhodes Scholar at Oxford." Living Age 248:603, March 10, '06. (A copy of this magazine can be secured by sending fifteen cents to The Living Age, 6 Beacon street, Boston, Mass.) Discussion of Burne-Jones and Rossetti. Each member should |