“Sordid treatment” of themes is inevitable in the sordid atmosphere which, we are told, is breathed in all our circles of art. Besides, the museums are founded by good natured people who are poor guides and directors and yet must control, because they are patrons. One art journal declares that enough energy has in the last five years been expended in behalf of art to have given it a firm establishment. It adds that most of this energy has been wasted. Art students and art teachers and art institutions and publications multiply, but they do not give us high art. We read this complaint and recall the story of the oil-king in western Pennsylvania who ordered the teacher of his daughter to “buy her a capacity, without regard to expense.” If art comes to us to stay it will come by a slow change of thought, feeling, and aspiration. It is probable that this change has begun; let us hope that it will ripen to a gracious and mellowed maturity. The art-life will find ample room in our hospitable civilization, if it can acquire the courage to live its own life and escape being a parasite on the robust body of our commercial life. EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK. The force of the “Chautauqua Idea” is not abating; on the contrary it works its way into new homes and distant fields—for instance, we have the C. L. S. C. Class of 1888, which commenced to form last July, and now numbers about 20,000 members. The “Florida Chautauqua,” in Florida, is a new plant, and now our C. L. S. C. friends in Canada are raising a fund of $50,000 with which to purchase and furnish grounds near Niagara Falls, for an Assembly after the Chautauqua fashion. * * * * * Many prominent Chautauqua workers are at the Florida Chautauqua now in session at Lake de Funiak. Among them are the Rev. Frank Russell, Mrs. G. R. Alden (Pansy), the Rev. A. A. Wright, Dean of the Chautauqua School of Theology, Prof. W. D. Bridge, Prof. W. F. Sherwin, Mrs. Juvia C. Hull, the Rev. S. G. Smith, D.D., the Meigs-Underhill Combination, Prof. C. E. Bolton, Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald, Prof. R. L. Cumnock, Wallace Bruce, Hon. John N. Stearns, Col. G. W. Bain, Mrs. Emma P. Ewing, Hon. Lewis Miller, etc. Many prominent lecturers, singers and readers as yet not known publicly at Chautauqua, are at this Southern Chautauqua, or on the program for the closing week. Dr. Gillet, in preparing the royal feast of four weeks’ continuance, has subsidized the country generally for his purposes, and all prominent denominations are tributary thereto. Nearly or quite all the departments (save the C. S. L.), known at Chautauqua, are in successful operation. The Assembly already takes high rank in design and desire, and professors, lecturers, readers, singers, helpers, are among the very best. No Assembly in the land starts off with a more brilliant outlook, or with such strong financial backing. * * * * *