ent we can describe the past; but who can stand never so high and say what the future will be? Wherever men are able to tell the future with any degree of clearness, it is because God has communicated this knowledge to them.

"Somewhat allied to the prediction of the prophet is the vision of the seer, a form of prophetic power common but not universal. Vision creates institutions which nourish and systems which uplift. It is one of God's methods of education. 'Where there is no vision the people perish.'

"Vision is not the same as the predictive power of the prophets. In vision there is not as distinct a seeing as that which accompanies prediction. The seer feels rather than sees. It is conviction more than knowledge, and the conviction does not shape itself into as clear an objective reality. In prediction the prophet is able to portray. He borrows every form of human expression. Prediction is the work of prophesy made more sure. The modern tendency to underestimate the predictive element in prophesy receives correction from a living scholar who writes during this present year (1909) that 'The lives of the Hebrew prophets were saturated with prediction.' The mission of the prophet was not to his own generation, but to all generations.

Prophesy as prediction was the voice of Hope. It was in a time of prophetic silence that someone has said, 'The world has lost his youth and the time has begun to wax old.' Then hearts of faith recalled the predictions of the ancient prophets; then men looked forward with happy expectation to the time when the Restorer should appear.

"Deep in the prophets' sacred page
Nations beheld their coming Lord."

LETTERS FROM 1909.

The first installment of letters from 1909 letter circles has reached the Round Table through one of the letter circle secretaries. The following extracts show something of the lives and surroundings of several of last year's graduates.

A Brooklyn member writes: "I feel that Chautauqua has really changed my life-it certainly has changed my cutlook, and since joining the class I have studied and read with new zest. The spiritual uplift counts most." From Talladega, Alabama, comes the following: "This has been an unusual Christmas for us in the South-all ice, sleet and snow-fourteen degrees above zero." The writer's Christmas dinner was cooked by a "befo' de wah" cook, and she

describes in detail the gay holiday season in the South. A teacher says: "My school work is very interesting this year. I have two classes in French and two in German, one in Ancient History and one in Drawing, so I subscribed for THE CHAUTAUQUAN as I am confident of receiving from it instruction and accurate facts connected with subject matter of history and art." The president of 1909 writes from Littleton, Mass.: "As for our home, it is so interesting just now that it would be hard to tell you how much we enjoy it. We live in a country town of 1,200 people, and from our piazza we look over the town common covered with stately elm trees and maples, and see the town hall, a low English building; on the opposite corner is the white village church with its tall graceful spire, and beyond, the beautiful little brick library, and yet beyond, the country store, etc." A Pittsburg man writes: "I feel that these letters to our scattered fraternity which is now, after the glorious holidays at Chautauqua, engaged in the strife and conflicts of this weary and busy, but after all, lovely world, will have a tendency to revive the grand thoughts and the noble sentiments enkindled at Chautauqua by solemn service, or stirring statements of lecture or sermon,

or some deep and beautiful passage in classical music." A Southern woman gives a telling description of her old home in the following manner: "It is one of the few plantation homes of the colonial style which remains just as it was in ante-bellum days. Before it came into the possession of my mother's family four generations ago, it was a wayside inn at which the coach-and-four stopped on its route between Macon and Columbus. Our sitting room in this rambling old house of ten rooms is eighteen feet square, with low ceilings, high narrow windows with tiny frames, hand-made doors, mantels almost above reach, and a wide, open fire-place. But as I write I am seated on the balcony of the front colonnade. The afternoon is perfect, there is not a cloud in the sky, and the air is about the temperature of an August noon at Chautauqua."

"THE VOICE OF THE PINES."

This beautiful picture which hangs in Alumni Hall was given as a memorial of Miss Peebles to the Class of 1900, not of 1909, as the types declared in the January number.

C. L. S. C. MOTTOES.

"We study the Word and the Works of God."
"Let us Keep Our Heavenly Father in the Midst."
"Never be Discouraged."

OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READING FOR APRIL.
FIRST WEEK-MARCH 26-APRIL 2.

IN THE CHAUTAUQUAN: "Woman in the Progress of Civilization,"
Chapter VII. "Woman in the Era of Revolution."

In the Required Books: "Social Life at Rome," Chapter V. "The Slave Population."

SECOND WEEK-APRIL 2-APRIL 9.

In THE CHAUTAUQUAN: "Social Life at Rome," Chapter VIII. "The House of the Rich Man in Town and Country." "The Friendly Stars," Chapter XIX.

THIRD WEEK-APRIL 9-APRIL 16.

In THE CHAUTAUQUAN: "A Reading Journey through Egypt,” Chapter VII.~"Esneh, El Kab, and Edfu."

In the Required Books: "The Friendly Stars," Chapters XX and XXI.

FOURTH WEEK-APRIL 16-APRIL 23.

In THE CHAUTAUQUAN: "Historic Types of Architecture." VII. "Greek Doric Architecture."

In the Required Books: "Social Life at Rome," Chapter IX. "The Daily Life of the Well-to-do." "The Friendly Stars," Chapters XXII-XXIV.