class, and every
member wearing a badge, to the Pavilion in the ravine and afterward to
its successor the Amphitheater, where Chautauqua songs were sung, and an
address given by an orator, the President of the Normal Alumni
introducing the speaker. It may have been in 1877, or maybe in a later
year, that John B. Gough was the orator of the evening; and he began his
address in this wise:

I don't know why I have been chosen to speak to
the Alumni of Chautauqua, unless it is because I
am an Alumni myself, if that is the right word for
one of them. I am art alumni of Amherst College;
M.A., Master of Arts. I have a diploma, all in
Latin. I can't read a word of it, and don't know
what it means, but those long Latin words look as
if they must mean something great. When I was made
an alumni I sat on the platform of the
Commencement Day; the salutatorian--they told me
that was his title--came up and began to speak in
Latin. He said something to the President, and he
bowed and smiled as if he understood it. He turned
to the trustees, and spoke to them and they looked
as wise as they could. He said something to the
graduating class, and they seemed to enjoy it--all
in Latin; and I hadn't the remotest idea what it
was all about. I kept saying to myself, "I wish
that he would speak just one word that I could
understand." Finally, the orator turned straight
in my direction and said, "Ignoramus!" I smiled,
and bowed, just as the others had. There was one
word that I could understand, and it exactly
fitted my case!

On the lecture platform of 1877, the outstanding figure was the massive
frame, the Jupiter-like head, and the resonant voice of Joseph Cook, one
of the foremost men of that generation in the reconciliation of science
with religion--if the twain ever needed a reconciliation. He gave six
lectures, listened to by vast audiences. The one most notable was that
entitled, "Does Death End All?" in which he assembled a host of
evidences, outside of the Scriptures, pointing to the soul's
immortality. Joseph Cook is well-nigh forgotten in this day, but in his
generation he was an undoubted power as a defender of the faith.

If we were to name the Rev. James M. Buckley, D.D., in the account o