* * * * * Any person owning a complete set of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for 1880-1881, with which they are willing to part, may dispose of the same at our office. We will send for the first volume of THE CHAUTAUQUAN the fourth volume, or will pay the original price, $1.50. * * * * * The holiday season will bring a brief respite from study, to members of the C. L. S. C. as it does to students in colleges and universities, and indeed we may say, as it does to business and professional men, and everybody. It is a time of good cheer, of merry-making and rejoicing, for Christmas-tide is the most joyful of all our holiday seasons in the suggestions of the day itself, and in the freedom and intensity of feeling with which it is observed. It marks the end of the old year with an exclamation point, and we bow it out with a shout of joy. As the year 1884 comes in, to our scores of thousands of readers we say, _A Happy New Year to you all_. C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR JANUARY. PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION. P. 26.—“Benignus,” be-nig´nus. The benign; generous. “Contumax,” con-tu´max. The rebellious; stubborn. P. 29.—“Theomisey,” the-om´is-ey. The author has coined the term from the Greek words for “God” and “Hate,” and it means a hatred of God. P. 32.—“Factitious,” fak-tish´us. Factitious ideas are those which have been formed by the thinker, and are opposed to those which are simple and natural; conventional, artificial. P. 37.—“Criterion,” cri-te´ri-on. A rule or test by which actions, facts and judgments are tried. P. 38.—“Scythians.” The inhabitants of Scythia, a country whose borders were never distinctly defined. As described by Herodotus it included parts of eastern Europe and western Asia, its southern boundary being a portion of the Black Sea. Scythia was afterward the name given to a section of Asia north of the Oxus. “Northmen.” The Scandinavian tribes, or the Swedes, Danes and Norwegians. P. 39—“Pope.” (1688-1744.) An English poet. From early boyhood he was a student and writer. At thirteen he began a course of self-education, and at twelve wrote his “Ode to Solitude.” The “Pastorals,” his first published work, placed him at twenty-one among the first poets of his time, and introduced him to literary circles. In 1711 his “Essay on Criticism” appeared, and soon after the “Rape of the Lock.” Pope’s translation of the Iliad was the first of his works which was a financial success. In 1725 he edited an edition of Shakspere, and in 1728 produced “The Dunciad,” an attack on various contemporaneous scribblers. Of his other writings the “Moral Essays” are best known. Pope was never married. He was a little, weakly man, critical, narrow, vain, and often untruthful, but withal generous, clear-minded, and true to his friends. P. 40.—“Fane.” A place dedicated to some deity; hence a place dedicated for worship.