3. Chautauqua Text-book, No. 4, English History, the fourth exercise to the sub-head, “The House of Lancaster,” from page 21 to page 32.
4. Readings in English History and Literature, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
5. Sunday Readings, selection for March 18, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
FOURTH WEEK.—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, from page 229 to the end of the book.
2. Chautauqua Text-book, No. 4, English History, from page 32, “The House of Lancaster,” to the end of the book.
3. Readings in Astronomy, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
4. Sunday Readings, selection for March 25, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
After singing, by the choir, “Arise and Shine,” and “The Winds are Whispering,” Dr. Vincent said: “I greet you. We are glad that so many of us are able to be present this afternoon. We are here to-day for a practical question or two in connection with our work as local circles, and then to answer some questions relating to the exercises of the coming Saturday. It is a question of much importance to all who are connected with local circles: How may we promote profitable reading? A local circle is not designed for much reading, but is a place to guide people in reading at home; to make suggestions; to correct blunders; to give new ideas that reading may be prosecuted with economy of time. A large part of almost any book may be omitted by every reader, and yet he may after a fashion read the parts he “omits.” There is a rapid way of running over half a dozen pages when they contain but the expansion or illustration of a thought. You see what the author is after; you have read the half-dozen pages; you have all that is for you in those pages, and saved your time for a page that you can not finish in fifteen minutes or half an hour. It is often the case that when out of a book of three hundred pages you have read forty pages of it studiously, you have the essence of that book.
There are very few men who can write a book, every page of which is worth the concentrated attention of the average reader. Many a book that costs one dollar and a half contains only a half-dollar’s worth. Learn to find and make your own that half-dollar’s worth.
It may be well occasionally in a local circle for one member to read a chapter, or paragraph, or section, of one, two, three, four, or more pages, and let the rest listen, noting every word, watching his pronunciation, or trying to take in all that they can while he reads. The habit of attention while another reads may be more profitable than reading for oneself. When the page has been read in the hearing of the other two, if the circle be a triangle, or the other twenty, if the circle be a very large circle, then let one, two, or three, as many as you have time to hear, try to repeat the substance of what was read. We had at Island Park the other day in a round-table conference, a very interesting exercise of that kind. I took up a book, the newest and last—it was Hatton’s account of a trip through America. I read to them a page of that. I read it so rapidly that it was almost impossible for anybody to follow me. They heard me. I pronounced every word distinctly, but read as rapidly as I could. And there was precious little to recall. And then I read another part of the book very slowly. There were a great many dates in it. It was an account of the settlement of Kansas, and the growth of Kansas and Missouri, and the settlement of Nebraska. I read the figures slowly, but did not repeat. When I finished I closed the book, and then recalled through the class the substance of what I had read. It was very gratifying to find how much they could remember, and to me it was very gratifying to see how many forgot dates, and it was exceedingly gratifying to find one old Presbyterian minister, whose life certainly was not a failure, able to remember all the figures, and _he_ felt very much gratified. Now, an exercise of that kind will do good to everybody in the class, the reader doing his best to give to all the rest a few facts for recollection, and the listeners trying to recall. And what one fails to recall, the others recall, and at last you get out of a class of ten or twenty the substance of all that was read in the hearing of all the members.