We desired to make a sort of pilgrimage through the land,
but found an army obstructing our journey.

On the next morning, as General Garfield was about to leave, Dr. Vincent
asked him, not to make a political speech, but to give in a few words
his impressions of Chautauqua. He consented, and standing upon a stump,
in the presence of a hastily assembled gathering, gave a ten-minute
address, of which the following is a part.

You are struggling with one of the two great
problems of civilization. The first one is a very
old struggle: It is, how shall we get any
leisure? That is the problem of every hammer
stroke, of every blow that labor has struck since
the foundation of the world. The fight for bread
is the first great primal fight, and it is so
absorbing a struggle that until one conquers it
somewhat he can have no leisure whatever. So that
we may divide the whole struggle of the human race
into two chapters; first, the fight to get
leisure; and then the second fight of
civilization--what shall we do with our leisure
when we get it? And I take it that Chautauqua has
assailed the second problem. Now, leisure is a
dreadfully bad thing unless it is well used. A man
with a fortune ready made and with leisure on his
hands, is likely to get sick of the world, sick of
himself, tired of life, and become a useless,
wasted man. What shall you do with your leisure? I
understand Chautauqua is trying to answer that
question and to open out fields of thought, to
open out energies, a largeness of mind, a culture
in the better senses, with the varnish scratched
off. We are getting over the process of painting
our native woods and varnishing them. We are
getting down to the real grain, and finding
whatever is best in it and truest in it. And if
Chautauqua is helping garnish our people with the
native stuff that is in them, rather than with the
paint and varnish and gew-gaws of culture, they
are doing well.

As we looked upon that stately figure, the form of one born to command,
and listened to that mellow, ringing voice, no one dreamed that within a
year that frame would be laid low, that voice hushed, and that li