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Show THE REVIEW. J3 and, after a faithful effort to comprehend the elements which have given strength to others, has succeeded to some extent in bringing those elements into the French national life. While he says that the political situation of France is unique and must be developed along its own peculiar lines, he realizes that educational and social principles must be the same for the whole human race, and only the cosmopolitan student of these great questions will arrive at the approximate truth. The evolution of the third Republic, like all French history which reaches the heart of the nation, is thrilling with interest. Impulsive, generous, fickle France will never fail to excite the interest, even if she fails to win the admiration of all students of history, and modern France has been fortunate in finding a portrait painter as skilful and faithful as M. de Con-berti- n. The Evolution of France Under the Third Republic by Baron Pierre de Conbertin. T. Y. Crowell & Co., New York. $3.00 - R R Gtfeat Opportunity Symposium. In the January number of the -- ATorth Western Monthly , is a symposium of the replies of prominent club women to the questions What do you consider the greatest opportunity immediately before the Womans Club ; is it in the direction of public influence, or is the power of the club to be expressed in individual development in the future, as it has been in the past ? If so, what will be the nature of that The questions were development? sent out by the editor of the Outside Educational Forces Department, Mrs. Francis M. Ford, and we clip from some of the answers. Mrs. Henrotin, President of the General Federation, says : My answer to this question would be that the greatest opportunity is to put the spirit of reciprocity into community work. The question before the world to day is that of Great movements in education, in art, jn science, in spiritual thought, co-ordinati- on. have characterized this century, and so now the problem is to that into the average life may come a part, at least, of these great powers, and thus raise the standard of thought and of life. In my opinion this is emphatically the day of the average man and the average woman, and no movement is accomplishing more to raise this average than the womans club. A great department club, is virtually a clearing house of the most advanced movements of in the one the hour, large club, and such an organization should keep well in touch with all the movements in its locality with which it can possibly affiliate, and should undertake no work already well inaugurated by other organizations, but should in all things endeavor to coThis same spirit should ordinate. characterize the work of the club in reaching beyond the city into the country, through town and country clubs, through university extension, through the meetings of the State Teachers Associations, through bureaus of information, and reciprocity. The clubs should endeavor to strengthen the hands of whatever is already well commenced and to bear in mind always that the lesson of life to the individual, as well as the association, is a question of choice, not to reach for all, but to select from the immense riches on every side what is best for the individual needs or for the needs of the special organization, and above all, to endeavor to arouse in a community the spirit of reciprocity and to be as glad to receive as to give, to recognize at once the value and to keep in mind of for the individual and the community life that the least little child has something to give as well as to receive. Mrs. 'J. C. Croly, (Jennie June,) Club Movement in author of the America, writes as follows: If I were asked what might be the best work in which all clubs could engage, I should say the cultivation of a fine courtesy, of absolutely gentle manner. This is not because club women are not as gentle as others. I think they are usually more so. It is because the spirit of our time is assertive, pushing, and therefore, to a cer co-ordina- te, well-conducte- co-ordinat- co-operati- on ed d, vulgarizing, and club women everywhere need to enter a silent protest by themselves practicing the loveliest of all arts, the art of courtesy, and the worthiest of all ambitions, the gentle life. Mrs. Elia W. Peattie, of Chicago, tain extent, says in part : Dear madam, the opportunity of the clubs is every opportunity. They will be of no use to some, because some can never learn the lesson of learning; they will be of greatest us2 to others, because those others have and the the mind. The Rev. Mary Garard Andrews, leader of the department of philosophy in the Omaha, Neb., Womans Club, replies to the questions as folout-reachi- ng up-reachi- ng lows: To state the case briefly,, I would say the golden opportunity of the is to promote the womans club y fraternity of culture as set over against to-da- the loneliness of genius, or the gregariousness of littleness. The club should, first and chiefest of all, give a broad and liberal culture, such culture as should form the basis of all true relations, and right activities in life as well as spund-heade- d a large-hearte- d culture a culture that involves a world of good within the individual soul, and thus sees the sun illuminating the world without. A culture possesing the quality of attracting instead of repelling all lesser bodies. We need that fraternity of culture which, instead of lifting its skirts from the dust and mire of the world, and treading in stately fashion over the fallen, is strong enough to reach down and with heroic effort make clean aud pure the way of life, and we need a fraternity with such warm, broad sympathies as shall start anew the streams of human kindness, which shall melt away the streams of sorrow of the world. In the main, I believe our club y work is aiming at this ideal culture. But the danger signal is n is tooting its dismal out; the to-da- fog-hor- warning through the mists that becloud our brains, when we imagine a club is fulfilling its high and heaven-bor- n privilege simply because it is |