36 LITERARY ASSOCIATION. 
such associations have produced. Even Thoreau, who 
Joved solitude so much that he improvised a hermit’s 
cell, came out once and again to meet and talk with 
Emerson. No mind is sufficient unto itself. In the 
contact of the literary circle, in its interchange of ideas, 
its questioning of opinions, its antagonizing of convic- 
tions, individual tendencies and peculiarities ave har- 
monized and improved. 
Conversation and discussion also awaken thought. © 
With most people thoughts upon any subject are uncer- 
tain and indefinite until some outward expression is made. 
Thus in talking we find out what we think and what we 
know or do not know, and sometimes the last is quite a 
revelation to us of our ignorance upon subjects on which 
we had considered ourselves informed. 
Another and by no means the least important result 
from literary association has been increase of informa- 
tion. Especially is this true, as relates to all political, 
- social and economic questions. ‘‘ The clubs of England 
and the Salons of France’? remarks Madame Mohl, 
‘“have long been places where, like the porticoes of 
Athens, public affairs have been discussed and public 
men criticized,’ and like organizations here have greatly 
aided in disseminating among the people, just views of 
government and of their own political rights and duties. 
It is a part of the work which ought not to be neg- 
lected. A prominent judge has recently recommended 
‘‘ the establishment by societies, of volunteer legislatures 
and congresses to meet and discuss and act upon politi- 
cal and economic propositions presented in the shape of 
bills and carried through regular stages.”’ 
We have taken a wide range, in time and distance, in 
- our review of literary associations, but we may at least 
end at home, with a word in reference to the organization 
in whose name we are met to-night. More than twenty- 
years ago the ‘‘ Young Men’s Literary Union’’ was or- 
