ed.

The opening evening of the Assembly was held on Tuesday evening, August
6th. The vesper service beginning, "The Day goeth away, The Shadows of
evening are stretched out, Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion,"
etc., was read responsively in the Auditorium between the Miller Cottage
and the Vincent tent, then not far from the Point, when a sudden shower
fell and a general rush was made to the new Pavilion in the ravine on
the west. That was the last opening service attempted out-of-doors.
Since that evening, the Pavilion, soon to become the Amphitheater, has
supplied the stage for the speakers, sedate or humorous, short or
long,--some of them longer than the audience desired--on "Old First
Night." A few lectures were given from time to time in the old
Auditorium, but after the season of 1879 it was left for smaller
meetings of couples in communion of soul on the seats here and there
under the trees.

The inauguration of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle took
place in the Pavilion on the afternoon of Saturday, August 10, 1878. On
the platform, then lower than most of the seats, were a telescope, a
microscope, a globe, some scientific apparatus, and a table filled with
books, giving a scholastic setting to the exercises. Dr. Vincent
presided, and with him were Bishop Randolph S. Foster of Boston, Dr.
Henry W. Warren of Philadelphia, himself two years afterward to become a
bishop, Professor William C. Wilkinson, whose pen in the following years
wrote many books for the readers of the C. L. S. C., Professor James
Strong of wide learning, and several other eminent men. The address of
the day, unfolding the purpose and plan of the Circle, was given by Dr.
Vincent. Many of us who heard him on that afternoon have thought since
that this was the masterpiece of his lifetime, and it might worthily be
so, for it launched a movement in education, the most influential and
wide-reaching of any in the annals of the nation.

I wish that it were possible to reprint that great address as reported
in full in the _Assembly Herald_, for never was the conception of
Chautauqua at home for nine months of the year more clearly set forth,
but a few quotations and outlines must suffice. He began by calling
attention to four classes of people. First, those who inherit from their
ancestors wealth, ease, and large intellectual opportunities, who find
college doors opening almost of their own accord before them. Second,
there are