KINDS OF CHAPTERS. 149 



First, family chapters. The parents and children of 

 a single family unite for joint study and research. 

 Chapters of this sort are especially desirable, and 

 prove almost uniformly permanent. Chapters of an- 

 other sort are found in schools. There are many 

 teachers able and willing to give their strength and 

 time, beyond the exacting requirements of their con- 

 tracts, to the encouragement and assistance of their 

 pupils. Under the fostering care of such men and 

 women, the happiest results have been accomplished. 

 Not the least important result is seen in the pleasant 

 personal relations thus established between teacher 

 and pupil. Chapters of a third kind are organized 

 and conducted entirely by young persons. A company 

 of girls or boys meet together and decide to form a 

 branch of the A. A. They elect their officers, draft 

 their rules and by-laws, engage their rooms, build 

 their cabinets, make their collections, prosecute their 

 studies ; and, if I needed to awaken interest or arouse 

 enthusiasm, I should have only to show what our girls 

 and boys have done even when unaided and alone. 

 They have made lists of all the flowers that grow 

 about them, and of all the birds that fly over their 

 heads. They have published papers, started museums, 

 founded libraries. In doing this they have mastered 

 the laws of parliamentary debate ; have learned to 

 observe with accuracy, to write with fluency, to speak 

 with power ; and, after working thus for a few years, 

 many of them have pushed themselves into schools 

 and colleges and laboratories of the highest grade, 

 and are now completing their self-appointed prepara- 

 tion for lives of commanding intelligence and cheerful 

 service. Finally I will mention chapters of adults. 

 In increasing numbers men and women of mature 

 years, feeling the need of that scientific training 

 which the schools of their childhood failed to give, are 



