r,
1880, the School of Languages and Teachers' Retreat were united, and the
Summer School program was again enlarged. Year by year new departments
were added, until Chautauqua became a summer university, and such it
continues to this day, offering more than two hundred courses, taught by
nearly one hundred and fifty instructors. Perhaps the most popular
courses have always been those in physical culture, pursued by teachers
in public and private schools, enabled by Chautauqua to make their work
in their home schools more efficient and extensive. One might spend
weeks at Chautauqua, attending the lectures and concerts in the
Amphitheater and the Hall, and enjoying the bathing and boating
opportunities of the Lake, yet never realizing that on College Hill, and
down at the Gymnasium, are nearly five thousand young men and young
women diligently seeking the higher education.

A third sideline during this season of 1879 was the Foreign Mission
Institute, held by missionary leaders of the Congregational, Methodist,
Presbyterian, and Baptist organizations, and addressed by missionaries
at home from many lands. Chautauqua was a pioneer in bringing together
representatives of different churches for conference upon their work of
winning the world to Christ. This series of missionary councils has been
continued without the omission of a year through all the history of
Chautauqua since 1879.

The Sixth Chautauqua Assembly opened on its regular evening, the first
Tuesday in August, 1879. The ravine which had been the seat of the
Pavilion and birthplace of the C. L. S. C. had been transformed into a
great auditorium of permanent materials and fairly comfortable seats for
five thousand people. It was a great advance upon any of the earlier
meeting places, and made it no longer necessary to carry one's umbrella
to the lectures. But a heavy rain on the extensive roof would make even
the largest-lunged orator inaudible, and the many wooden pillars
supporting the roof had a fashion of getting themselves between the
speaker and the hearers. Notwithstanding these minor drawbacks, it
proved to be one of the best audience-halls in the land for large
assemblies, for its acoustic properties were almost perfect. No speaker
ever heard his words flung back to him by an echo, and the orator who
knew how to use his voice could be heard almost equally well in every
corner of the building. When Dr. Buckley stood for the first time upon
its platform,