23 



of the neighboring villages, the great and fashionable 

 world, and the ordinary tourist, were all there, as well as 

 the Catholic Priest, the Anglican minister, and the Protes- 

 tant dissenting minister, thus showing sympathy and favor. 



We shall not attempt a report of Judge Putnam's 

 description ; it must be listened to in order to be properly 

 appreciated. He described the opening chorus, the tab- 

 leaux which precede and illustrate each act, the great taste 

 and discipline which pervade the performance, and each 

 of the eighteen or twenty acts in detail, beginning with 

 the triumphal entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem at the 

 rising of the curtain, and continuing through the High 

 Priests in council ; the departure of Jesus from Bethany, 

 and the taking leave of his mother; the last supper; the 

 betrayal and the kiss ; Jesus before Caiaphas ; despair of 

 Judas ; Christ before Pilate ; the scourging and crowning 

 with thorns ; the sentence ; Christ bearing the cross ; the 

 crucifixion ; and the resurrection and the ascension. 



There was nothing, the lecturer said, in all this to 

 offend the most delicate taste, or that was inconsistent 

 with devotional emotions or religious instincts. Men and 

 women go up to the performance, once in ten years, as if 

 it were the Mecca of their spiritual pilgrimage ; and the 

 entire representation, when once beheld, is a scene never 

 to be forgotten. 



At the close of the lecture several photographs of the 

 scenes described were exhibited, which added much to the 

 permanent impressiveness of his remarks, and terminated 

 an evening of singular and profound interest and sugges- 

 tive ness. 



The SECRETARY announced the following correspon- 

 dence : 



From C. C. Beaman, Cambridge, Feb. 7, 15; E. S. Joslin, Media, Perm., Feb. 9; 

 Lucy Larcom, Boston, Feb. 17; S. A. Nelson, Georgetown, Feb. 6; William S. 



