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                            THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

      _A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE.
        ORGAN OF THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE._

                VOL. V.      DECEMBER, 1884.      No. 3.




Officers of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.


_President_, Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio. _Superintendent of Instruction_,
Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., New Haven, Conn. _Counselors_, Rev. Lyman
Abbott, D.D.; Rev. J. M. Gibson, D.D.; Bishop H. W. Warren, D.D.;
Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D. _Office Secretary_, Miss Kate F. Kimball,
Plainfield, N. J. _General Secretary_, Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.




Contents

Transcriber’s Note: This table of contents of this periodical was created
for the HTML version to aid the reader.

    REQUIRED READING FOR DECEMBER
    What English Is                                                 123
    Sunday Readings
        [_December 7_]                                              127
        [_December 14_]                                             127
        [_December 21_]                                             128
        [_December 28_]                                             128
    Glimpses of Ancient Greek Life
        III.—Greek Private Life                                     129
    Greek Mythology
        Chapter III.                                                131
    Temperance Teachings of Science; or, the Poison Problem
        Chapter III.—Physiological Effects of the Poison Habit      134
    Studies in Kitchen Science and Art
        III.—Barley, Oats, Rice and Buckwheat                       137
        The Cereals                                                 139
    Home Studies in Chemistry and Physics
        III.—Chemistry of Air                                       141
    The Laureate Poets                                              144
    The Spell of the Halcyon                                        146
    Christmas Dangers and Christmas Hints                           147
    Do Animals Feign Death?                                         150
    The War Department                                              151
    Milton as the Poets’ Poet                                       154
    Geography of the Heavens for December                           155
    The Liberal Upheaval in Norway                                  157
    How to Help the C. L. S. C.                                     158
    Outline of Required Readings                                    160
    Programs for Local Circle Work                                  160
    How to Organize a Local Circle                                  161
    The Local Circle                                                162
    Local Circles                                                   163
    The C. L. S. C. Classes                                         167
    Questions and Answers                                           168
    The Chautauqua University                                       170
    Editor’s Outlook                                                171
    Editor’s Note-Book                                              174
    C. L. S. C. Notes on Required Readings for December             176
    Notes on Required Readings in “The Chautauquan”                 178
    People’s Christmas Vesper and Praise Service                    180
    Talk About Books                                                181
    Special Notes                                                   182




REQUIRED READING FOR DECEMBER.




WHAT ENGLISH IS.

BY RICHARD GRANT WHITE.


In the course of our two foregoing articles we followed the advance of
the great Aryan or Indo-European race, to which we belong, from its
original seat in Central Asia, which it began to leave more than four
thousand years ago, until we found it in possession of India, Persia,
and all of Europe. We considered briefly and incidentally the fact
that within the last two hundred and fifty years this Asiatic race has
taken absolute possession of the greater part of the continent of North
America. We saw that speech was the bond and the token of the now vast
and vague, but once narrow and compact, unity of this powerful race,
which was brought into existence to conquer, to rule, and to humanize the
world. Of the numerous languages which have sprung from the Aryan stem,
English is the youngest. Compared in age with any other language of that
stock, we may almost say with any existing language of any stock, it is
like a new born babe in the presence of hoary eld. Only eight hundred
years ago it was unknown. True, its rudiments and much of its substance
then existed; but so it might be said that