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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. IV.      NOVEMBER, 1883.      No. 2.




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.



[Transcriber's Note: This table of contents of this periodical was
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Contents

  REQUIRED READING
  German History                                               63
  German Literature                                            66
  Physical Science
  II.—The Circulation of Water on the Land                     67
  SUNDAY READINGS
  [Sunday, November 4.]—Moral Distinctions Not Sufficiently
          Regarded in Social Intercourse                       70
  [Sunday, November 11.]                                       71
  [Sunday, November 18.]                                       72
  [Sunday, November 25.]                                       72

  Political Economy
    II. Production, Continued—Capital—Combination and
             Division of Labor                                 73
    III.—Consumption                                           74
  Readings in Art
    II.—Sculpture: Grecian and Roman                           75
  Selections from American Literature                          77
    Benjamin Franklin—Extracts From Poor Richard’s Almanac     77
    George Washington—Account of the Battle of Trenton         78
    Thomas Jefferson—George Washington                         79
    Thoughts from William Ellery Channing                      79

  Autumn Sympathy                                              80
  Republican Prospects in France                               80
  Chautauqua to California                                     81
  To My Books                                                  83
  Earthquakes—Ischia and Java                                  83
  Low Spirits                                                  85
  Vegetable Villains                                           86
  From the Baltic to the Adriatic                              87
  Electricity                                                  89
  Poachers in England                                          90
  Eight Centuries With Walter Scott                            91
  The Great Organ at Fribourg                                  94
  Eccentric Americans                                          95
  Etiquette                                                    99
  Napoleon’s Marshals                                         100
  C. L. S. C. Work                                            102
  C. L. S. C. Stationery                                      103
  New England Branch of the Class of ’86                      103
  C. L. S. C. Testimony                                       103
  C. L. S. C. Reunion                                         104
  Local Circles                                               105
  How to Conduct a Local Circle                               107
  Questions and Answers                                       109
  Outline of C. L. S. C. Studies                              112
  Chautauqua Normal Class                                     112
  Editor’s Outlook                                            115
    Dr. Haygood's Battle for the <DW64>                        115
    The Political Outlook                                     115
    History of Greece                                         116
    A College Reform                                          116
  Editor’s Note-Book                                          117
  Editor’s Table                                              119
  C. L. S. C. Notes on Required Readings For November         120
  C. L. S. C. Notes on Required Readings in “The Chautaquan”  123
  Tricks of the Conjurors                                     125
  Talk About Books                                            126




REQUIRED READING

FOR THE

_Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle for 1883-4_.

NOVEMBER.




GERMAN HISTORY.

By REV. W. G. WILLIAMS, A.M.


II.

From the time of Julius Cæsar to the fall of the Roman Empire, a period
of more than four hundred years, the greater part of the Germans were
subject to Roman rule, a rule maintained only by military force. But
the struggle against Rome never entirely ceased—and as Roman power
gradually declined the Germans seized every opportunity to recover
their liberty and in their turn became conquerors. To trace the
succession of their vicissitudes during this period would be to give
the narrative of a bold, vigorous, war-like people in their rude
barbaric condition. We should discover even in those early times those
race characteristics of strength, bravery and persistence which became
so marked in later centuries; we should recognize in Hermann, the first
German leader, the prophecy of the Great Charles who steps upon the
scene nearly eight centuries later.


HERMANN, THE FIRST LEADER.

He it was (Hermann Arminius) who, with a power to organize equal
to that of William of Orange, bound the German tribes in a secret
confederacy, whose object it was to resist and repel the Roman armies.
While still himself serving as an officer in the Roman army, he managed
to rally the confederated Germans and to attack Varus’s army of forty
thousand men—the best Roman legions—as they were marching through the
Teutoburger Forest, where, aided by violent storms, the Germans threw
the Romans into panic and the fight was changed to a slaughter. When
the news of the great German victory reached Rome the aged Augustus
trembled with fear; he let his hair and beard grow for months as a sign
of trouble, and was often heard to exclaim: “O, Varus, Varus, give me
back my legions.” Though Rome, under the able leadership of Germanicus,
soon after defeated the Germans, yet she had been taught that the
Germans possessed a spirit and a power sufficient to make her tremble
for her future supremacy.

Hermann seems to have devoted himself to the creation of a permanent
union of the tribes he had commanded. We may guess, but can not assert,
that his object was to establish a national organization like that of
Rome, and in doing this he must have come into conflict with laws and
customs which were considered sacred by the people. But his remaining
days were too few for even the beginning of a task which included such
an advance in the civilization of the race. We only know that he was
waylaid and assassinated by members of his own family in the year 21.
He was then 37 years old and had been for thirteen years the leader of
his people.[A]

       *       *       *       *       *

He was undoubtedly the liberator of Germany, having dared to grapple
with the Roman power, not in its beginnings, like other kings and
commanders, but in the maturity of its strength. He was not always
victorious in battle, but in war he was never subdued. He still lives
in the songs of the barbarians, unknown to the annals of the Greeks,
who only admire that which belongs to themselves—nor celebrated as he
deserves by the Romans, who, in praising the olden times, neglect the
events of the later years.[B]


GERMAN NATIONALITIES AT THE CLOSE OF THE THIRD CENTURY.

When we meet the Germans at the close of the third century we are
surprised to find that the tribal names which they bore in the time
of Hermann have nearly all disappeared, and new names of wider
significance have taken their places. Instead of thirty to forty petty
tribes, they are now consolidated into four chief nationalities with
two or three inferior, but independent branches. Their geographical
situation is no longer the same, migrations have taken place, large
tracts of territory have changed hands, and many leading families have
been overthrown and new ones arisen. Nothing but the constant clash of
arms could have wrought such change. As each of these new nationalities
plays a prominent part in the following centuries, a short description
of them is given:

1. _The Alemanni._—The name of this division (_Alle Mannen_, signifying
“all men”) shows that it was composed of fragments of many tribes. The
Alemanni first made their appearance along the Main, and gradually
pushed southward over the Tithe lands, where the military veterans of
Rome had settled, until they occupied the greater part of southwestern
Germany, and eastern Switzerland to the Alps. Their descendants occupy
the same territory to this day.

2. _The Franks._—It is not known whence this name is derived, nor what
is its meaning. The Franks are believed to have been formed out of
the Sicambrians in Westphalia, a portion of the Chatti and the Batavi
in Holland, together with other tribes. We first hear of them on the
Lower Rhine, but they soon extended their territory over a great part
of Belgium and Westphalia. Their chiefs were already called kings, and
their authority was hereditary.

3. _The Saxons._—This was one of the small original tribes settled in
Holstein. The name “Saxon” is derived from their peculiar weapon, a
short sword, called _sahs_. We find them occupying at the close of the
third century nearly all the territory between the Harz Mountains and
the North Sea, from the Elbe westward to the Rhine. There appears to
have been a natural enmity—no doubt bequeathed from the earlier tribes
out of which both grew—between them and the Franks.

4. _The Goths._—Their traditions state that they were settled in Sweden
before they were found by the Greek navigators on the southern shore of
the Baltic in 330 B. C. It is probable that only a portion of the tribe
navigated, and that the present Scandinavian race is descended from the
remainder. They came in contact with the Romans beyond the mouth of the
Danube about the beginning of the third century.[C]


INFLUENCE OF THE ROMANS ON THE GERMANS.

The proximity of the Romans on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Neckar,
had by degrees effected alterations in the manners of the Germans. They
had become acquainted with many new things, both good and bad. By means
of the former they became acquainted with money, and even luxuries.
The Romans had planted the vine on the Rhine, and constructed roads,
cities, manufactories, theaters, fortresses, temples, and altars. Roman
merchants brought their wares to Germany, and fetched thence amber,
feathers, furs, slaves, and the very hair of the Germans; for it became
the fashion to wear light flaxen wigs, instead of natural hair. Of
the cities which the Romans built there are