t Dr.
Vincent was being strongly talked of as a candidate for Bishop in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the following May, 1888, he was
elected to that office. Dr. Vincent was presiding at Mr. Jones' lecture.
In the address Jones managed to bring in an allusion to bishops. Then
turning halfway round toward the chairman, he said, "Doctor Vincent, I
shouldn't wonder if they made you and me bishops before long. You see
the thing's coming down."

The class graduating this year in the C. L. S. C. was the largest in
the history of the Circle. It included in its membership the Rev. G. R.
Alden and his wife, and was named in her honor, the Pansy class. At this
time the enrolled members of the C. L. S. C. were more than eighty
thousand in number.

The Assembly of 1888 opened on July 3d and closed on August 29th,
fifty-eight days in length. The summer school was now announced as the
College of Liberal Arts. I notice in the list of subjects taught: Old
French, Scandinavian languages and literature, Sanskrit, Zend and
Gothic, Hebrew and Semitic languages, and philology. It is not to be
supposed that all of these classes were overcrowded with students, but
those in physical culture and arts and crafts were very popular. The
annual exhibition of the gymnastic classes has been for years one of the
most thronged events on the program, and in anticipation the
Amphitheater is filled long in advance of the hour for beginning the
exercises.

Among the lecturers of this season were Mrs. Alden, "Pansy," who read a
new story, _The Hall in the Grove_; Dr. William R. Harper, Dr. Frank W.
Gunsaulus, Dr. Joseph Cook, Dr. Talmage, Dr. Hale, General Russell A.
Alger, and George W. Bain. Dr. Phillips Brooks, giant in body and in
soul, preached one of his sermons, sweeping in swift utterances like a
tidal wave. One hardly dared draw a breath for fear of losing his mighty
periods. Bishop William Taylor of Africa, was also present, and thrilled
his hearers, yet in a calm, quiet manner, absolutely free from any
oratorical display. There was a charm in his address and the most
critical hearers felt it, yet could not analyze it. I met, not at
Chautauqua but elsewhere, a lawyer who admitted that he rarely attended
church because he could not endure the dull sermons; but after listening
to Bishop Taylor, said that if he could hear that man he would go to
church twice, even three times, on a Sunday. And yet in all his
discourse there was not a rhe