LEARNING AND OTHER ESSAYS BY JOHN JAY CHAPMAN NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1910 COPYRIGHT, 1910 BY JOHN JAY CHAPMAN _Electrotyped by The Maple Press York, Pa._ CONTENTS PAGES LEARNING 1 PROFESSORIAL ETHICS 39 THE DRAMA 53 NORWAY 83 DOCTOR HOWE 89 JESTERS 149 THE COMIC 155 THE UNITY OF HUMAN NATURE 175 THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE 193 CLIMATE 207 THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOLS 213 THE ÆSTHETIC 235 LEARNING. An expert on Greek Art chanced to describe in my hearing one of the engraved gems in the Metropolitan Museum. He spoke of it as ‘certainly one of the great gems of the world,’ and there was something in his tone that was even more thrilling than his words. He might have been describing the Parthenon or Beethoven’s Mass,--such was the passion of reverence that flowed out of him as he spoke. I went to see the gem afterwards. It was badly placed, and for all artistic purposes was invisible. I suppose that even if I had had a good look at it, I should not have been able to appreciate its full merit. Who could?--save the handful of adepts in the world, the little group of gem-readers, by whom the mighty music of this tiny score could be read at sight. Nevertheless it was a satisfaction to me to have seen the stone. I knew that through its surface there poured the power of the Greek world; that not without Phidias and Aristotle, and not without the Parthenon, could it have come into existence. It carried in its bosom a digest of the visual laws of spiritual force, and was as wonderful and as sacred as any stone could well be. Its value to mankind was not to be measured by my comprehension of it, but was inestimable. As Petrarch felt toward the Greek manuscript of Homer which he owned but could not read, so did I feel toward the gem.