Eetters  and  Recolleaions
FOR A YO UANG FRIEND.
BY SAMUEL OSGOOD,
AIJTHOR OF
"%ttabiCs iln JiSgxagF)l,'" "iTjE aL.nrtT),jt'ltc," ";fihc,'tsnac,"   &c,
Ne cert6s can that Friendship long endure,
I-However gay and goodly be the style,
That doth ill canse or evill end enure,
For Vertue is the band that bindeth H-arts most sure.
NEW  YORK
JAMES MILLER, 554 BROADWAY,
186 1




Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1860, by
JAIMES MILLER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern
District of New York,
R. CRAIGItEAD,
Printer, Stereotyper, and Electrotypor,
81, 83, uSd 85 Cetlre St'eet.




To
PRESIDENT QUINCY,
BY
ONE OF TIHE CLA/SS OF I832.








C 0 N T E N T So
I.
College Raink,                                                 1
IIll
Companions and Clubs,                                          28
IV.
The Studen1   and the World,   -3
Perifonal Hfabits,                                             53
VIT.
Morals and Religion,                                           65
VII.
Profpeats and Retrofpefs,.    *...    ~    76
VIII.
Heart and  tecad in Education,.                               79




vi                          Contents.
IX.
PAGE
The Condu&  of Life,,                                            go
X,
Our Silver Feftival..           o   100oo
XI.
Paft and Prefent,          O        O   12 5
XII.
The Ufe of Time,.                            o   136
XIIL.
Study in the Country,  151




PREFP A CE 
A FRIEND, whofe fon had juft entered college a
few months ago, afled for him a word of counfel
from the author, and a single offhand letter was
written accordingly. The friend, and alfo the fon,
fuggefted that fome more letters would be welcome,
and that good would furely be done by printing
them.  Six letters -were foon written, and theie,
with revifion and the addition of a few thoughts
and recolletions, are now publifiled in this little
volume.
Thus, without any intention on his own part, the
author finds his name once more on a title page,
quite willing to follow the advifers, young and old,
who afli for this publication, and who allure him
that it will be ufeful; iquite certain, moreover9 that




8                    Preface.
he has written to meet an adual want, and with
the fimple purpofe of laying a kind and true word
to ftudents in loving remembrance of old college
days. The author's fympathies, like his perfonal
experience, are clofely with thofe who are obliged
to depend upon themfelves; and there may be
fome words here that will encourage young perfons, without fortune and even without parents or
patrons, to prefs on in a worthy career with ftrength
and hope.
It teemed beft to retain the dates and names,
generally, as they originally lfood, and if this feature gives the book more of a Cambridge air, it
will be more expreffive, even to general readers,
than if the thought were purely imperfonal, without
local habitation or name.  The contents are fomewhat defultory, but they all bear upon the title and
illuftrate fome afpects of Student Life.
The author is grateful to his friend and clafsmate, Rev. Charles T. Brooks, for the fine poem
at the " Silver Feftival."  If the bulk of the book
were but earth, this rose, like that of Saadi's Guliftan,
would be enough to fweeten the whole lump.
Ncw Yorkg, Nov. 28,v 186o.




STUDENT LIFE.
GENERAL IDEAS OF STUDY.
DE.AR, I propof, in a very familiar manner,
to give you the refults of my own experience in
college, looked back upon from nearly thirty years'
experience of life.
You go to college to get an education; and, of
courfe, ftudy is the main intereft of the next four
years. It is marvellous how much can be learned
in that fihort period, with due diligence and economy of time. The firft thing for you to do will
be to make the best divifion poffible of the hours
of the day, fo as to efiablifil a good working method, that will harmonize the claims of different
2




10               Student Life.
ftudies with each other, and all ftudies with proper
rel2 and recreation.  The college leffons fettle the
quantity to be learned each day, but the mode of
learning will be left very much to you, and you
will gain much in fpirits and -time by a due alternation of itudies, fuch as following mathematics by
language, or varying the pofture of the mind by
wife alternation between fubjects that ftrain and
concentrate the attention, and thofe that pleafantly
move the fancy or poffess the memory.  I have
often found, for example, that after I have wearied
myfelf over hard problems in calculus or geomnetry,
it is almoit play to read a chapter of a Latin hifuorian or an Englifli moralift or metaphyfician.  The
mind, like the body, feems to have two legs, and
is foon weary of fianding wholly on one of them.
As to the relative importance of ftudies, you
will have frequent decifions to make, not only in
choofing voluntaries, but in the amount of time and
attention to be given to the requifite branches of
the regular courfe. The moft comprehenfive divifion is between what may be called ftudies of fequeluce, or fuch as carry out a continuous thread of
thought-fuch  as mathematics, grammar, philofophy-and ftudies of aggregztion, or fuch as merely




General Ideas of Study.          11
add to the flock of learning-fuch as additional
claffic authors, or modern languages.  To omit
fome of the latter may only leflen your flock of
learning, whilit to neglect the former is to mutilate
your whole education, break the line of fludy, and
even impair your powers of thinking. Studies of
fequence are like the bolts that faften the train of
cars to the engine, whilfi ftudies of aggregation are
like the baggage which is to be taken on board, and
which, however important, is not abfolutely effens
tial to a fafe paffage.
After maftering the effential fitudies, you will have
fome time to ipare for voluntary branches, and I
advife you to give the modern languages the preference over belles lettres, becaufe in youth we are
more capable of learning languages, and the rudimients of grammar and accent if then acquired never
leave us, whilit fludies of taite, fuch as biography,
poetry, reviews, effays, and even hiftory, can be as
well attended to afterwards, when the refletive
powers are matured.  Among modern languages, I
regard French and German effential, and Italian and
Spanifli very defirable for you.
You will remember, however, that it is more
important to learn langzage than languages; and the




12               Student Life.
acquifition of various languages is chiefly important
becaufe it gives us fuch command of our own.
Thus, the beft exercife in Englifli didlion to a beginner is the exact and elegant tranfiation of a
foreign author.  I] ufed, befides learning my Latin
leffons in a general way, to fludy a certain portion,
fay a page, very carefully, fo as to give to each
word and idiom the juft, and if poflible the elegant
rendering.  A page of Livy or Tacitus thus fludied
wiltl teach you more and better Engliflh than a
dozen themes on the hackneyed fubjeEts of an
abftra&  kind, fuch as ufually vex the brain of
beginners in compofition. Study language in this
way, and you will find theme-writing much eafier;
and when, moreover, you come to pradife extempore fpeaking, as you mud foon do, you will find
a claftic vocabulary rifing to your lips in a manner
-that will often furprife you.
I might fay much more upon your future ftudies,
but I muft pafs on to Ipeak of your ftudent charadero Vices I do not warn you againft, and I will
not caution you againit exceffes that would break
the heart of your father and mother, as well as contradici all your own promife and difpofition.  But
you are expoied to the prevailing infirmity of young




General Ideas of Study.          13
men, efpecially of well-to-do families-the danger
of leaving ftern duties very much to themfelves, and
of drifting through college without honor and without fllame, in an eafy, inefficient way, that may
leave you a dainty gentleman, but cannot make
you a good fcholar or a true man. You will be
likely very foon to form  decifive habits, fuch as
virtually decide your college career, by fetting the
mark in your own mind, and creating a very powerful expectation in the minds of thofe who know
you.  Look well to this, and let a true and brave
purpofe to be faithful to your own mind, to your
family, and to God, begin with your beginning, and
go with you to the end.
Companions are great elements in a ftudent's
career, and it is hard to be right without right fympathy and cooperation.  You feem to be of a fympathetic and fufceptible nature, and your force will
depend very much upon your affociates.  You
muft be courteous and even friendly to all; but you
can have but few intimates, and let thefe be thofe
who help your beft purpofes. If I were to choofe
two neareft companions for a fon, one fhould be a
fuperior whom he could follow, and the other fliould
be an equally congenial inferior whom  he could




14               Student Life.
lead; for it is as effential to true companionfhlip
that we give worthy influence as well as receive it,
and fociety is moft complete when it invites us to
be both mafter and difciple.  Watch your opportunity, and you will find fit companions, though,
perhaps, few; and in their fympathy you will find
it eafy to withftand a falfe and tyrannical public
opinion, fuch as frequently prevails in a clafs, and
to take and keep the pofition that beft fecures your
own honor, and in the end commands the refped
of all.
God's bleLffng be upon you, dear -   May life
and health be granted you to finifhi your courfe
well.  Be a good fcholar, a pure, and faithful, and
brave ftpirit; and whilt fllining gifts may develop
themielves in your career, you will be fure to be a
bleffing to your family and kindred, and an honor
to the Alma Mater whofe loyal fons it is your
father's great comfort and mine to be.
Yours, affeaionately,




College Rank.              L5
II
COLLEGE RANK.
I TAKE your fuggeftion readily, my dear friend,
and am glad to add a few words of advice upon
fome of the moft important points in your univerfity career, after fpeaking as I did in my firft letter
of the general principles to be borne in mind.
There is no more confpicuous and important point
to be confidered than that of college rank. The
moment you join your claffmates, you will hear
the queftion afked, " Who is to be our firft fcholar.?"
and each of the four years will give new intereft
to the queftion; whilft, perhaps, as long as you
live, you will remember the order in which your
fellows flood on the lift, and it will not be eafy to
believe that thofe old diftintions can be ever done
away.
Let us underftand what we mean by college
rank, and try to make a due eftimate of its importance as a motive. It means not, in general, the




16                Student Life.
rank which a ftudent wins in college as a perfon
of honor and efficiency among his companions and
teachers, but that which he holds upon the fcale of
merit which is formed from the fum total of marks
made by teachers in the recitation-room, and which
is not ufually modified by confiderations of perm
fonal charater, unlefs an afpirant's virtues are fo
positive as to quicken and exalt his intelleRt or
unlefs his faults are fo ftrong as to fhow tihemfelves
in open indolence or vice. it is evident, then, that
whilft this fcale of merit decides much in a ftudent's career, yet it does not decide all; and he
may have much good or evil, wi-fdom or folly, in
his mindl and wvays, which is not marked upon the
lift, fo that fbme ftudents from their average scholarfhip itand well on the books who ftand ill with
the clafs; and others, who from  efpecial talents
and purfuits or charaderifiics Itand well with the
clafs, ftand ill on the books. In faying this, we
are only faying that the college regifter is not infallible, and that the diitribution of academic honors
is not the ad2 of the final and fupreme Judge. The
decifion is very important, as giving a generally
important and reafonably approximate view of the
ufe that ftudents have made of their time and




College Rank.                17
powers.  It is the beft ovtwadcl  criterion that can
be appealed to, much fafer than clafs opinion, since
c]afs popularity depends, efpecially at firfit, upon
very uncertain qualities; and the dafhing youth
who is fo full of generous impulfes as to flur the
felf-denying virtues, and fo ftrong in native talent
or early training as to defpife plodding indufiry, is
moft likely to be the favorite of the majority, efpecially of the numerous hoit of idlers and free-andeafy fellows, who like a brilliant companion and
apologift in their own fiortcomings.
I advife you to pay great refpect to the fcale of
merit-not, indeed, as the fupreme rule, or the
higheit good, but as a very valuable record of what
you are doing, and fignificant reminder of what
you ought to do.  ] know that fome perfons pro=
fefs to defpife college rank as a mean confideration, and others to condemn it as demoralizing.
But furely it is not mean to wifli to know how we
are purfuing our ftudies in comparifon. with others,
nor is it demoralizing to try to do as well as we
can in competition with them. The principle of
emulation or rivalry, indeed, as the main motive to
ftudy, is a very imperfed and objedionable one;
yet we muft remember that if fome perfons are




18                Student Life.
azbove the fpirit of rivalry, others are below it; and
it is fIr better that a youth fllould dfart bravely on
his career under the fpur of competition, than that
he llould not itart at all, but fhlouldl be found ftagnating in lazinefs and ignorance, whilft his companions are preffing on in a race which wakes
nobler powers and afpirations than were felt at the
outfet.  Much as may be faid againil emulation, it
is certain that it cannot wholly be difmiffed, and
that our focial nature is fuch that it is very hard if
not impoflible to think only of abfolute and ideal
excellence, and even the moft faintly charaders,
who have rifen above all petty rivalry, are vafily
itimulated to new efforts by each other's virtues,
like the Apoifle, who iwould have his friends confider each other, and " provoke to love and good
works."
Let me be diftindly underdtood as to the juft ufe
of the principle of emulation. It would certainly
taint your affetions at once, if you entered the
field folely or mainly to diftance your rival or
rivals, for you thus fubordinate  the purfuit of
knowledge and the difcipline of the faculties to
perfonal competition, and fuccefs itfelf becomes
morally defeat, whilft defeat becomes doubly fuch,




College Rank.                19
and wrec]ks pride and principle at once.  Yet, if
you ihy that you will never' care how you itand inl
the general average, you deceive yourfelf; for you
do care; and the very ftudents who affect moft to
defpife college rank, are very emulous for other
things-emulous to be firft on the lift of dainty
gentlemen, or renowning bullies, leaders of the
roughs or the fmnooths, the bards or the fofts, those
lafting difiindions that divide the idlers of the
clafsr  The feeling againnf thofie who think mainly
of winning a high rank is very ftrong, not only
among the idlers, but the generous and manly portion of the clafs; yet it is diredted, not againft thofe
who wifli to fland well, but againfi thofe who are
aiming conftantly to RIand better than others, and
who tend to carry rivalry to the extreme of envy,
if not detradion.  Erring as clafs-opinion is apt to
be, it has no ftigma for thofe who are willing to
have it fully underftood that they came to college to
ftudy, and they wifli to have a free field and fair
play, with as much fuccefs afcribed to them as they
win, and no more.
I advife you to ad fbmewhat in this wife in
refpet to college honors.  Make as fair an eftimate
as you can of your talents and acquifitions, to




20               Student Life
begin with.  You will carry to college with you
fome definite opinion of what you are, and what
you can do.  As you, my dear fellow, entered, I
amt glad to hear, without any conditions, this fad
proves that you have at leaft fair gifts, and that
you ought to fland well in your clafs.  It is ample
proof that you can begin with good hope the
ftudies of your courfe.  Learn every leffon well,
and as new branches talk new faculties, and you
come into competition with your claffmates, you
can form a foTmewhat pofitive eftimate of what your
jut level is, or the place that you can win and
keep by proper method and exertion. You may
find yourfelf perhaps eafily or decidedly at the
head of your clafs the fir2d term. If this is fo, you
ought not to lofe your place by indolence or negligence, and whilft fidelity to all your opportunities
is the higheft rule of adion, this rule will not be
fet afide, but may be ftrengthened by a fair itatement of your progrefs, such as your teachers can
give you.  The fcale of rank will then be, not
your guiding motive, but your time-keeper —not,
indeed, itarting you on your journey, but advifing
you whether you have kept your way with due
diligence. In fome cafes a youth who fdarts as the




College Rank.               21
firft fcholar muft inevitably refign his place to fome
competitor who furpaffes him in the later ftudies,
fuch as the higher mathematics, metaphyfics, and
original thinking and compofition. In fuch cafe
it becomes the difappointed one to meafure his
dignity by fidelity, not by victory, and zealouflynay, devoutly-beware of fo fetting his heart upon
furpafiing a rival as to meafure the succefs of his
career by a flandard fadly embittering and demoralizing.  The great aim  filould be to find out our
own orbit, and move in it faithfully, whatever it
may be.
In a large numnber of a clafs like yours, of over a
hundred memtbers, there muft be defeds of native
endowment, and a confiderable proportion muft
have very limited talents, fo that nothing can be
more foolifli than for parents to exad of a fon the
very higheft refults, without refpect to native gifts,
It is cruel to tell a youth to be firid fcholar at any
rate, becaufe he may not have liuficient talent, or
elfe he may have fuch peculiar talents that the
higheft fidelity to his own mind may not allow him
to give fuch time and thought to all the branches
of itudy as to win the palm in all.  Making all fair
allowance, however, for difference of talent, it is




22                Student Lifeo
obvious that the moft marked caufe of defedive
fcholarfliip is negligence, and that an induscrious
youth of determined induftry and moderate gifts
may depend upon bearing a refpedable rank, certainly on fianding in the firft quarter of the clafs,
and fecuring a part at commencement.  It is
equally obvious that a youth of good talents, with
due indufiry, may ftand among the fir2i ten or twelve
fcholars.
If I am aflied whether college rank is worth ftriving for from  its promife of after efficiency, and
whether high fcholars keep their relative place in
the world, I can fay without qualification, that
diftintion in icholarfhiip is a certain good, but not
always the higheft good. If you rank as firft in
your clais at graduating, you carry into the world
an amount of knowledge and habits of application
that ought to ferve you through life.  Yet no midi
take can be greater than to miftake the beginning
for the end, or to confound, as fome do, the preparation for the work of life with the work itfelf.
Fir2 fcholars often do this, and think that they have
hit the mark when they have merely won their way
into the arena, foolifllly affuming the airs of conqueft when they have only learned to u'e their




College Rank.               23
weapons and wear their armor.  It is not ftrange,
therefore, that they often yield in the acdual world
to more determined and lefs fanguine afpirants, who
go to work as if the battle were to be won: and who
juftify their brave and modeft purpofes by ftout
blows and rich trophies. Moreover, high fcholars
are often indebted to ready memory, a glib tongue,
and a verfatile mind, for a diilindion in ftudy which
cannot be kept up when new fields call for ftern
work, and tafk the more aggreflive and effedive
powers, efpecially the powers of original thought,
practical judgment, and manly courage. Yet the
difappointment of fuch icholars does not disparage
their induftry or their rank, but fimply flhows that
there are different gifts, and whilf their faithful
dfudy did much for them, it did not do everything.
In one refped, perhaps, a itudent who is bent on
winning the higheft rank may fometimes damage
his efficiency in the world by Spreading his energies
over too wide a furface, neglecting the fpecial gifts
which are his peculiar prerogative and main dependence.  Yet even here there is a compenfation, fince
the fludies which regard for rank moves him to
purfue, are thofe that he may moft need to complete his culture, whilft the ftudies that are his fpe



24                Student Lifeo
cial branches are pretty fure to have attention
enough without being interfered with by other
branches.  I believe, however, that high fcholarhlip,
as marked by the fcale of rank, is an unalloyed
good, when fbught and won with true practical aim;
and the moft frequent caufe of the failure of college
rank to keep its place in the world arifes from the
too frequent pafiion for -immediate fuccefs, or the
habit of depending on immediate-applaufe, as in the
recitationroom, inflead of friving for an object good
in itfelif and looking to a diftant day to judtify and
reward the firiving. I therefore confider that ftudent
as having the belt promife of ufefulnefs and fuccefs
in life who unites the beft fcholarfhip with the molt
praftical aims, and who dtudies for the fubftance, not
for the fhow of things. This combination is rarely
found very low in the fcale of rank, and not always
at the top of the lift. If the college catalogue is
carefully ftudied, it will be found, probably, that the
moft effedive  men have been thofe who have
united a determined purpofe with fair if not brilliant fcholarfhip, and the firft fcholar by the college
fcale is often if not generally didanced by fome
man of more nerve, if of lefs verfatiiity, in the fterner
arena of life.




College Rank.              2S
Sumllming up our ideas praAically, I advife you
to think of college rank, not as the end, but as one
of the means of felf-difcipline and manly culture.
It will be of great ufe to you if you are apt to be
carelefs and lang uid, drifting with the dtream  of
events and companions without thinkinsg  of the
result.  It will keep you pofted up as to your adual
proficiency, and may fhow you how negligent you
have been or are becomiing, before you are aware
of any change in yTour nm-ethod; as fome loiterer who
may think he has time enough to ramble in the
woods before returning home2 finds by a glance at
his watch that the hours are pafling, and he rmulut
hadten back, or fiumble on the dark mountains.  If
you do the becf that in you lies, it will be ufeful to
know how you. iand in regard to your clafinmates,
and what dudies you are thought modt to neglect
or leaft able to purfue with efficiency.  If, on the
contrary, you begin feebly, and are doing little or
nothing, it is well for you to knovw it, and either
change,our courfe, or elfe leave college at once,
inftead of being a fludent only in name, and filaming
high opportunities by pitiful performance.  Be
affured that negleCt of the regular college fludies is
no light lofs, and that future energy, whilf it may




2f,6              Student Life.
give new wifdom  and power, can never reftore to
you the loft hours and leffons of your youth.
One word in conclufion-a word probably more
pertinent to your cafe.  If you find yourfelf ambitious of difitindion, and painfully alive to competition, ftrive to warm and elevate rivalry as much as
you can by generous fymrpathy and enthufiafm.
Know and love your competitors, and itudy with
them, fo as to try to feel, and make them  feel that
there is a fellowfhip of purfuits and gifts.  If you
furpafs them  in fome things, allow that in other
things you are furpaffed by them, and thus fee, and
make them  fee, that all fuperiority has in itfelf a
ground of deference and a need of companionfhip.
He who bears the palm will then not fail to be
modeft in his triumph, and he who yields it after
manly ifriving will not lofe felf-refpeft nor fellowfeeling. Thus emulation, whilft it keeps its zeft,
will lofe its fling, and they who have been rivals in
rank will be none the lefs friends and helpers in all
coming time.  Sad and fometimes terrible is the
oppofite courfe, when rivalry is fo intenfe and perfonal as to become bitter and even malign, poifoning the motives of ftudy, ruining the true qualities of the fpirit. and bringing the worft paflions




College Rank.                 27
of the world into the facred retreats of letters.
Againfi fuch rivalry firive and pray.  May God
open to you, as to us in our day, a circle of cheriflled companions who are near at heart as in ftudies,
and who gain, and continue ftill to gain from each
other far more by mutual encouragement than by
jealous competition. It was a priceleis bleffing to
us, that thofe who were moft clofely rivals by pofition were the clofeft friends in affection and principle.
I may write you again on college focieties, and
fociety at large.




28                 Student Life.
COMiPANIONS AND CGLUBSS
I TOUCHED a little in my firft letter upon college
friendfhips, but the fubjed is fo important as to
demand confideration by itfelf.  You already feel
as never before the value and fignificance of affociates, in prefence of your hundred claffmates, who
are every day surprifing you with new developments
of charater, and awakening within you new affinities
and antipathies.  There is a great deal in your
future focial career that will take care of itfelf; and
when no pofitive principle forbids, it is belt for a
youth to follow the great law of elective affinities,
and go moft with the companions whom  he befl
likes, and who bedt like him.  Yet his free choice
~will be pretty fure to move in paths of fettled convition, as well as of pleafant taftes, and the ftronger
is his fenfe of honor and purity, the more feleC
will his affociations be.  Efpecially will he be able
to exercife difcretion in choofing between the vari



Companions and Clubs.             29
ous college focieties that folicit his intereft and participation; and if he may find on his lift of friends
fome kind-hearted fellow whofe indolence or laxity
he cannot approve, he can have no excufe for committing himfelf to organized affociations that tend
to fofter indolence or laxity.
You will find yourfelf bufily fludying charader
around you for fome months to come, and making
eftimates that further experience will fometirmes
fix, and fometimes wholly fet afide.  Some who
captivate you at firit fight by cordial manners and
generous ideas, will keep their hold upon you for
life, binding you to them with a golden chain that
brightens by being worn; whilfi  others, perhaps
equally attradive at the outfet, will foon fail to
pleafe you, as the dull lead or the corrofive brafs
fhows out fromn under the flafly wafli of the furface.
For a while, the diverfity of traits will seem  fo
great as to defy all attempts at claflification; but
before many months have gone-certainly at the
clofe of your firft year-you will find the crowd
indicating certain leading tendencies, as he who
watches the waters of a bay fees in time that what
feemed an indifcriminate ma's has its depths, flallows, and tides, and that, inifead of being left to




30               Student Life.
the play of chance, the waters follow certain dominant difpofitions, and are likely fo to do fo long as
fhores, and winds, and heavens are the fame.
Perhaps the firft diffindion that impreffes you
after the very natural intereft you muff take in
deciding upon the looks of your clafs, and chatting
as ufual upon the candidates for the honors of being
the Apollo or the Hercules of your Pantheon, will
be made by the apparent difftindions of fortune.
You muft obferve, by the furniture, drefs, and
general habits of fome, that they have plenty of
money to fpend, whil1t others bear marks of great
limitation-a limitation that Sometimes amounts to
pinching poverty.  Once in a while you may be
tempted to fmile at a claffmate's coat or pantaloons
that may bear marks of having been worn threadbare by fome elder of the family before ferving the
prefent wearer, and yet you may foon find the
wearer to be an earnet, noble fellow, of whofe
acquaintance you are proud, and whofe mental
riches you may covet.  Obtrufive as the didtindion
of wealth is at firft, it holds of itielf; in the long
run, a very fmall place in college opinion; and
many a poor dtudent who has to work and pinch
himfrnelf to pay his term bills, has a place not only




Companions and Clubs,            31
in the recitation-room, but on the College Green,
and in the literary and ficial clubs, that the fon of
the millionaire generally defpairs of attaining.  No
afpect of college life is more grateful to be remembered than the general kindnefs toward thofe who
are ftruggling with hard fortunes; and I heard this
fad commented upon moft tenderly this very week,
by two Cambridge graduates who fpoke from perfonal experience, and received the higheft honors
of their clafs, after helping themfelves on by making
fires, ringing bells, and other honeft but fomewhat
homely ads of ufefulnefs.  I allow that there is a
good deal of a certain cafte or ariftocracy in college, and that much preftige is given by high family,
efpecially when aflociated with a noble bearing,
and either with a commanding carriage or brilliant
talents.  The youth who is nioft eafily the clafsfavorite is he who is at once the genial gentleman
and the gifted fcholar, feeming more to prevail by
blood and genius than by hard ftudy, and to fucceed
more becaufe he cannot help it, than becaufe he
cares about diftancing a rival, or ftanding well
upon the rank-lit. T''he belt fpecimen of this ftyle
of charadter may, however, have his moft intimate
friend in a ftudent whofe pedigree and whofe purfe




32                Student Life.
are equally fcanty, and whole ftrong fenie and loyal
fiudy enable him  to give to his lordlier aibOciate
far more than he receives.  In fad, no greater blefsing can happen to a clafs, than when the lords and
commons are brought together in generous cooperation under the leaderihip of two fuch charaders, as
when the Cobdens and Ruffells, or Franklins and'
Wiafhingtons put their heads and hands together,
and the people fay, Amen.
If I were to advife a fon to regulate his conduct
at all with reference to diftindions of wealth, it
would be mainly to warn him againft the habits of
expenfe that are ufually foftered by the richer itu=
dents, and to urge him to live in great fimplicity,
fuch as leffens inftead of widening the line between
the rich and the poor in college. Habits of expenfe
are likely to nurture a wholly falfe tafte, and lead
to the miferable miftake of confounding the amount
of money fpent with the amount of good to be
received. The bedl ftandard of living is that which
brings a fludent near to the common lot, and makes
him enter molt heartily into the feelings of thofe
who have their own -way to make in the world, and
who eat, and drink, and drefs, and fiudy in fuch a
way as befd to fit them to take a folid and indepen



Companions and Clubs.        33
dent pofition'in the world.  The common lot is
like the common foil, the brown earth on which we
tread, and plough, and plant. The feed may have
a daintier look when wrapped in white paper, and
put upon the flielf, than when fown broadcaft upon
the land; but only when taken from the flielf, and
put into the ground, does it germinate and bear
fruit. The youth who goes mainly with the rich
or exclufive, miffes the wholefome brown earth
where growth moft thrives; and I could not promife
well of any ftudent's future who did not have
among his intimates fome hard-working companions
from the great middling clafs of our people, whofe
habits and whofe honor it is to be induftrious and
felf-relying.
You may be aiked foon to join focieties that
will decide your focial affinities through your college courfe. I am not well poited up, indeed, as
to the prefent condition of fuch Societies, but I
remember very well how matters flood at Cambridge in our day, and times have not probably
wholly changed. There were fome focieties which
feemed to be bafed chiefly upon expenfive habits;
and although their members denied this charge,
and maintained that the aim was mainly to nurture
3




34                Student Life.
gentlemanly taftes, and that the coft was not excesfive nor the conviviality extreme, it was evident,
alike from  the teftimony of feceders and the tendencies of the mafs of' the adual members, that
there was more pride and  felfiindulgence than
refinement or literature in the ipirit of the affociation. My own feeling is againft what were called
the ariftocratic clubs in college; yet I had excellent friends who belonged to them, and who fustained a high perfonal character. I cannot advife
a young man, however ample his means, to join
any affociation that tends to encourage the fpirit of
focial or financial cafte, and flight distincions of
intelled and principle. I advife you not to join
any club that muft feparate you from the majority
of your clafs by its expenfe or ariflocratic exclufivenefs.  The more fuch diftindions are ignored
in college the better, and the greater the opportunity for leaving the literary taftes and focial
affections of ftudents to affociate in freedom.  The
only effential principles to be confidered in joining
or eiRablifhing college Societies are thofe that aCt
upon charaCer and attainments. That is the beft
lociety that beft favors good fellowfhlip and good
fcholarfhip, and which is therefore moft open to




Companions and Clubs.            35
the good fellows and good fcholars, and to all who
wifll to become fuch.  It is well that there fhlould
be an element of conviviality, but this fhould be
fecondary, and within the limits of entire fobriety;
and even this conviviality will be more genuine if
perfonal improvement is the main end, and the
play is merrier becaufe it comes after the work that
is to be done. I remember with great pleafure
four or five college focieties that were full of focial
life and mental ftimulus.  The firfEt of there was
got up by a dozen or two of us in our Frehfiman
year, when we held debates in each other's rooms
every fortnight, with no other revels than a cigar
for thofe who liked to fmoke, and a parting fupper
at the end of the year, this latter being the only
part of the hiftory that does not win refpect as I
look back to it.  This little club introduced fIme
of us to the praftice of extempore fpeaking, which
we have continued almtoft every week to the prefent time. Then came the'; Inftitute of i770," a
noble old fociety, with regular debates and declamations, that were of great fervice, alike in bringing
out modeft talent, and in forming a found college
opinion.  Then came the Hafty Pudding Club,
with its fun as well as its philofophy-its ftories,




t3o6             Student Life.
fongs, and bowls, and fpoons, pudding, milk, butter, and molaffes, as well as its effays and orations.
If I remember rightly, I began my public life by
giving the Hafty Pudding Oration, and remember
with great pleafure the focial and often brilliant
evenings that we paffed together over the huge
iron pots, with their golden contents.  The beft
of the college focieties, however, for intelledtual
improvement, was one that we formned in our day
under the name of Harvard Union, under whofe
aufpices we heard the beft debates that I ever had
the good fortune to attend. This affociation was
quite comprehenfive in its plan, and was open to
the members of the two, and perhaps the three
eider claffes. The moft weighty fubjects were discuffed with earneffnefs and dignity, by youths,
many of whom are now known in the prominent
places in literature and the profeffions.  I think
highly of the tendency of fuch movements under
good management, and am quite fure that they not
only improved the fpeakers, but infitrued and
quickened the hearers, doing much to elevate the
ftandard of opinion in the college at large. I hear
nothing of the Harvard Union now, but I hope
that its place is held by fbme fimilar inititution.




Companions and Clubs.          37
We Sometimes had voluntary meetings in prefence of our profeffors, and of thefe I remember
with efpecial pleafure our evenings with Chaucer
and Spenfer at Profeffor Edward T. Channing's
ftudy. How his genial face fhone in the light of
the winter's fire, and threw new meaning upon the
rare gems of thought and humor and imagination
of thofe kings of ancient fong. Who of us does
not blefs him every day-that we write an Englifll
fentence for his pure tafte and admirable fimplicity?
I remember well alfo a little coterie who met to
declaim choice pieces of profe and verfe with the
profeffor of elocution, our enthufiaftic friend, Dr.
Barber.  Thofe twelve or fourteen youths have
had various deftinies, but none of them has made
more mark in the world than the handfome, brilliant, free-and-eafy fellow who ufed to declaim
Byron with downturned collar, that fhllowed a throat
fmooth and full as a girl's. He fpoke and wrote
well, but we never expeded Motley to read Dutch
and write the Hiftory of Holland.
Other organizations there are for fpecial purpofes, efpecially for favorite amufements, fuch as
are well known. So far as it is expedient to have
companions in recreation, as in ball-playing or row



Student Life.
ing, one mudi do so; but the lefs cumbrous the
organization the better, and the freer each one is
left to the ufe of his time and the range of his
fludies and taftes the better for him.  There are
fometimes cafes of regular combinations for unworthy purpofes-either equivocal pleaiures, or pernicious ideas and ufages. Againdi fellowfilips in smoke,
and liquor, and ribaldry, I need not warn you, and
I hope that there is no need now of warning any
fludent of Harvard in thefe days.  I hope that the
focial life that prevails now, anfwers, and more than
anfwers, to what was beft in our time, and not only
favors found morals, but alfo a free and earneft
faith. Perhaps the mod memorable affociation in
our college courfe was one decidedly religious, that
we joined in our Senior year, and which was regularly tranfmitted to us from the previous clafs, with
a record-book, which the late Judge Hopkinson
brought to me at the time. It numbered members
of every creed, from the freed to the ilridest, upon
a true Broad Church platform, and required each
one in turn to prepare an original effay, and offer a
prayer, either original or feleded.  I remember
well when your father, then a youth in his teens,
took his turn, and befides reading an effay of his




Companions and Clubs.             39
own, offered a free and fervent prayer that impreffed
all prefent, even thofe of the ftriteft seds.  Much
fruit grew from this affociation, and it did much to
decide the profeffional career of fome of the members.  It will be well to continue fuch an organization, although it is beft not to have it fo fecret as
was our cuftom, and a proper degree of privacy
may exift without fecrecy.  As an expreffion of
faith, however, nothing is fo good as a direc conneAion with the Church, and I regret that fo many
of our earneft young men left this ftep till the
clofe of the college courfe.  The more afFedionate
and cheerfuil ideas of religion that now prevail,
make it eafier for a genial and reverential fludent to
become a communicant now than in the older times.
Some Societies that are now defunct, perhaps on
account of being mifmanaged, feemed ufeful in our
day as fafety-valves of buoyant animal fpirits; and.
I cannot but regret the demife of the Med. Fac.,
with its maftquerade and diablerie, which served as
the true college carnival, and the Harvard Waflfl
ington Corps, with its healthy drill, and valuable
tribute to mufcle and energy.  Other means, of
courfe, will anfwer the fame ends; but for my own
part, I would rather fee old cuftoms reformed than




40                 Student Life.
abolifhied, The Med. Fac. frolic tempted to no
inebriation, and was more innocent than a raid upon
henrooils, or a covert vifit to the city; and the
military corps gave more  general adivity, and
developed better energy than is apt to come from
the boat-clubs.  But every generation muft fettle
its own problems, and I am  only saying that we
had our way of fettling ours.
As to college focieties in general, I would advife
you to be quite at eafe as to their ferniles or frowns,
very fure that you will'need none of them but fuch
as help forward your culture; and your affinity for
thefe will not fail to open them to you. As to
purely convivial focieties, they will be likely to take
time that you can pafs more profitably and pleafantly in your own way; but if you are afked to
join occafionally in college pleafantries, you will be
at little lofs to decide upon each cafe according to
the parties and principles concerned, It is evident,
however, that an earnef young man's focial nature
cannot be flut up  within any fe-t organizations,
and that he will move freely according to his affinities in the clafs and claffes at large.  Moving thus
freely he will fdill find that all habits and difpofitions tend to a more or lefs open organization, and




Companions and Clubs.             4t
that every clafs becomes virtually a fociety, animated by a few leading men and principles. It will
have, on every fubjed of conduct or opinion, its
right, and left, and centre; and the pofition held by
each member on a leading fubjedf is apt to decide
his pofition on other fulbjeds. Thus indufdry leads
the right wing in the direction of faithful Rtudy, and
idlenefs gathers its truants on the left, and tries to
maintain and vindicate its pofition by fobme filow
of manlinefs or felf-fuficiency, and ibmetimes not
wholly in mockery, diftributes its honors to its
model dunces.
Morals and religion filow fomething of the fame
tendency as induftry, in developing their oppofites,
and iormetimes they identify their pofition with that
of good fcholarship, and every found, confervative
principle.  The nature of fociety, whether in fchools
or nations, thus will flhow itfelf, and youths, like
men, will combine according to their dominant dis-r
pofitions, for men need fympathy to help them in
well-doing or in ill-doing.  I urge you to refped
duly the fympathetic element in education, and to
win and give as much as you can of its blefling.  I
urge you efpecially to underftand the force of a
pofitive and aggreffive attitude in every good move3 -,~




42                 Student Life.
ment, and to feek fuch companions as are not
fhaking in their flloes, but going bravely forward
towards worthy ends-moft earneft yourfelf to enter
into their fpirit by joining them  in their career,
The trouble too often is with well-difpofed fludents,
that they are timid and apologetic towards idlers
and profligates, and fometimes almoft beg their
pardon, inicead of rebuking their folly, and flopping
their infults.  The true pofition for rectitude is
active and aggreffiveo Moolzentwmzl is more than a
match for izerzt2n, and a little ball in motion knocks
down eafily ten great pins that are ftationary. Let
the good fellows and the good principles in college
be in the adive voice, true to their own inftingts and
true to each other, and before the four years' end, it
will be found that the greateft power goes with the
befi purpofes, and not only have the good fellows.
kept their own ground, but that they have carried.
the war into the enemy's country, and won over to
their fide half the idlers and fioffers in the clafs.
Remember this fad early; and where the true flag
of honor, purity, and faith floats, there do not be
afllaned to fiow yourfelf without fear and without
prefumption.
I hope to fpeak further of fociety, more in its
relations to the world outfide the college~walls.




The Student and the World.       43
IV.
THE STUDENT AND THE WORLD.
I TAKE a fomewhat broader range, my dear friend,
in thefe letters, than I at firft intended, becaufe the
circle of readers widens, and being aflied to write
for other young men fituated as you are, I prefer printing to copying out this feries of plain
counfels. The fubjedt now before us is the Student
and the World, efpecially the world of pleafure and
Sociality outfide the college walls.
There is Something half monkifih and half military in the pofition of our collegians. The old
univerfities were atually under monaftic supervifion, and their cloifters were not wholly unlike
thofe of the gleat monafteries. Each college was a
religious houle that generally bore in its very name
the ghoftly preftige of its origin. Our modern universities, such as the great Seminaries of Germany,
have the feclufion of the camp rather than of the
convent, and are kept from the broad world more




44                Student Life.
by exacing iftudies, clannifll temper, and rough
manners, than by any exclufive rule.  WVe fee both
fpecimens of the ftudent among ourfelves; and
fome pale reclufe who looks as if he had ftepped
out of the cloifter, and never played with merry
children, finds himfielf fartled at his midnight-lamp
by the din from the room of his next neighbor, who
is renowning it with a knot of like bloods over the
brimming punch-bowl, in an atmoiphere of finoke
as thick as that of the battle-field.  Perhaps the
military element generally predominates, and our
ftudents keep out of fociety becaufe they prefer the
rough ways of the college to the finooth ways of
the drawing-room.  The confequence is, that like
foldiers and failors, they fuffer from the abfence of
refining  fociety, efpecially  female  fociety, and
inftead of being faved from fenfualifm by the feclufion, they tend too much towards the grofs paflions
of the camp and the fleet.
On this account fome reformers are for abandoning the collegiate life altogether, giving up the plan
of rooming within the academic walls, and fcattering
the ftudents throughout the homes of the city. But
faying nothing of the expofure of fuch ftudents as
come from a diftance, with no good home in the




The Student and. the World.          45
city, or near enough the college, it is clear that an
advantage is loft by feparating the young men from
each other, and -from the felf-relying discipline that
life within the college halls ought to give. I a m
aware that the queftion between the two fyftems is
full of difficulties, but fo far as I can judge fiom
obfervation, I am compelled to give the preference
to the old fyifem, and to regard thofe inftitutions as
leaft succefsful that call their ftudents together only
for recitation, and then difmifs them  to the excitements and pleafures, or perhaps to the unwholefome
feclufion of home. It is not well, indeed, to allow
the youth to forget home, and its delights and affections.  Yet twelve weeks of vacation give ample
opportunity to keep home feelings frefh, and the
months of abfence, inftead of chilling, ought to
quicken the love for the old firefide, which is never
more precious than when feen in the enchantment
of diftance, and with the hope of return. The imrnportant point is to maintain a true itudent's feclufion without lofs of refinement and affeCtion.  This
point may be reached without any departure from
ftudious habits or from focial intercourfe.  A young
man at college may not only find good fociety
among his claffmates, but he has ample opportunity




46                Student Life,
for quiet and profitable fociality amonc fanlilies
near by. If at Cambridge, he may ufe his leifure
Saturday to the great advantage of his health and
fpirits by vifiting friends in town, or in the neighboring towns, or by feeing the arts, and perhaps
hearing the mufic of the city.  If he employs his
Saturdays and his vacations well, he can be a faithful fludent without becoming an anchorite or a
clown.
A queftion often comes up as to the propriety of
a collegian's frequenting evening parties, or accepting fuch invitations as frequently come to him,
efpecially if he has many relatives and friends in
the neighborhood.  A  little candid thought will
meet the queftion at once, and diftinguiflh between
the occafional focial vifiting that refreflles and encourages a youth, and the round of diffipation that
fevers and weakens him.  It is beft for a ftudent
at Cambridge to keep wholly out of the round of
fafhionable dinners and parties. They are wholly
incompatible with fidelity to his fludies. To go to
Bofton and fit three or four hours at a great dinner,
is worfe for him than two days' leffons in one; and
to endure the heat, and air, and eating and drinking
of an evening party or ball, of the ufual pattern, is




The Student and the World.         47
worfe than a week's midnight fi'udy with quiet and
temperance.  Befides, fuch vifits are immensely
prodigal of time; and a youth who vifits much in
the great world is a fpendthrift of his hours and his
thoughts at once.  He is alfo in great danger of
becoming a poor trifler, and making amufement
the occupation inftead of the incident of his life.
He is tempted, alfb, to form engrofing and foolifli
intimacies; and if he efcapes the inglorious fate of
being the AEolian attachment to fome flighty girl's
piano, or the poodle in her leading-ftrings, he may
fall into the equally hurtful fnare of general coquetry,
and become one of thofe habitual admirers of the
sex, thofe profelfed lady's men, whom men diflike
and true women abominate.
Without any fuch extreme, without being a
diner-out or a party-goer, a ftudious youth may
eafily keep up his focial interetis, and live within
the refining and idealizing influence of good female
fociety.  He has one day of the week expreffly at
his command, and he may add to the cuftomary
Saturday an occafional Sunday for vifiting friends,
if his own home is too far diftant.  He will not fail
to make pleaftant acquaintances in the families of
his claffmates, which will make his leifure days




48               Student Life.
agreeable; and within the fhadow of the univerfity
itfelf he will find homes open to him which he may
vifit with pleafure and profit. The kind of fociality
that prevails in a univerfity town is generally of a
quiet and wholefome kind, and a fludent who chats
or dances an hour or two in good company, and is
back in his room  an hour before midnight, may
once a week or fortnight repeat the experiment
without harm  to health or philofophy.  It is an
excellent thing to combine healthful exercife with
fociality, as when alone or with a friend or two you
walk a few miles into the country, and calling on
fome acquaintance for an hour, you return with
clearer brain and lighter heart, to welcome ftudies
and to a founder fleep.
College life, although given to itudies called by
eminence liberal, has its own forms of narrownefs;
and ftudents are often full of poor prejudices.
Their frequent error is to underrate the bufinefs
and the men of the world, and to meafure intelledual power purely by a bookifll flandard.  It is
well for them, therefore, to mingle with the leaders
of the atual world, and learn for themfelves the
fuperior ftrength and point of a practical over a
merely fcholafitic training.  I advife you to call on




rThe Student and the World.         49
bufinefs men fometimes at their fiores and faCdories,
to look upon the wharves and fhip-yards, to hear
once in a while a good argument in court, and to
affure yourfelf that all knowledge and power are
not flut up within the walls of the univerfity.  It
is good, alfo, to keep up a clofe acquaintance with
the foil and its tillers, and you muit not lofe your
frequent opportunities of vifiting the country places
that offer you a free range over the fields, as well as
a welcome feat at'the table.  For want of fuch
contad with the great world, and its work, many
fludents become hopeleffly fcholafcic, and the pale
cadf that ficklies over their face is not fo much the
flamp of the prefence of thought, as of the abfence
of adive force and pradical aim.  Mind and body
will be gainers by a more pofitive tone, and the
ityle of compofition and manners muff win energy
in this pradical fchool.  The peculiar intelledual
failing of Sedentary men-a dreamy, fiajef~ive turn
of thought and fancy-will be checked; and in
writing, fpeaking, and fcheming, a healthy, effetive,
objezize manner will be encouraged.  Too many
itudents write and fpeak as one that beateth the air.
Contad with pradical men will move them to give
up their rhetorical flouriflles, and hit the nail on the




50               Student Life.
head.  The great claffic writers, Homer and Demofthenes at the top of them, have a remarkably
dired and bufinefs ftyle of utterance; and they who
would underftand and win anything of their power
mufi learn to look, as they did, to the great world
of fads and deeds.
As the ftudent's fubjedivity may be profitably
corrected by contad with the world's reality, fo his
too cold and heavy and formal intelledualism may
be correcded by affociation with the vivacity and
grace and infight of refined and gifted women. As
humanity is both mafculine and feminine, the true
human culture fhould be fo too, and no young man
can be well educated by men alone. Without
arguing the queftion of opening colleges to both
fexes, I am convinced that our itudents owe fome
of the worif defeds of their lyle and thinking to
exclufively masculine teachers and companions, and
if they would converfe more with bright women,
they would be faved from much of that dull fcholaftic profing which is the incubus on college diAion,
and they would win a colloquial eafe which is the
fineft grace of ftyle, and the effential of effeedive
eloquence.  It will be well for you to vifit in families where converfation is interefting and quicken



The Student and the World.         51
ing; and if two or three houfeholds are open to
you where ienfible mothers and fprightly daughters
combine their gifts, you may find yourfelf as much
profited as pleafed by the Sociality.
An advantage more important than that which is
merely intelledual comes fronm good female fociety.
True women feel more than moft men the higher
realities of life, and are able without any labored
preaching or moralizing to imprefs a young man
with a living fenfe of divine things. There is an
ideality in their nature greater than they often comprehend in their thinking; or, in other words, they
are often wifer and better than they know, and can
iZlfpre more than they can teach.  Nothing gives a
youth a more vital and effiedive ideal of life, than
the beif female fociety, and more corrects the fenfualifin that grows out of natural indfinds unchecked.
EMERSON wifely remarks that the fexual paffion
feems to be immenfely overloaded, and its power
is probably proof of the determination of nature to
keep and continue her own.  He might go on to
illuilrate the remarkable corredives of this paffion
through the higher affetions and ideas that true
feminine fociety infpires.  Duly cultivated, those
very inftindts that ruin fo many by debafing exceffes




52                Student Life.
yield exalting motives, as the rank earth, which
worms may infeft and weeds may cover, will, under
true culture, produce fair lilies and fweet rofes.
The ideal fenfe which fenfible and refined women
nurture in young men marvelloufly helps their
morals as well as their intelled, and when united
with loyal habits of itudy and judicious methods of
exercife, keeps down the groffer paffions, and does
much to keep the fenfes where they had better reft
until manhood awakens them  into full confciousnefs, and God's law does not refufe its fandion.
I hope to write a letter or two more of this feries,
and treat of perfonal habits and religious principles.




Perfonal l'Habits.           53
V.
PERSONAL  HABITS.
IT has feemed to me, efpecially of late years, as
I have obferved more the ways of men, and tried
to itudy better the nature of human power, that the
philofophy of habit is very inadequately underftood,
and that we are too apt to afcribe to a merely
mechanical routine the refults that come from the
recurrent play of vital forces. Three moments of
chief importance are to be noted in the order of
our habits: Firfi, we note the beginning, which
generally joins an idea to an adion, as when a child
begins to eat bread, and affociates the fight or idea
of bread with the act of taking and mafticating ito
According to this view, a habit begins in the union
ofbenfe with atiil~. Secondly, we note the recurrence, which either by an external or internal caufe
repeats the union, and the idea of the thing fought
renews the feeking of it, as when the child who has
tafted bread is led to feek it again, fo as to form a more




Po" 4             Student Life.
or lefs regular cuitom of eating. Thirdly, we note
the bearing of the feveral claffes of habits upon
each other, as when the child is trained to adjuft
the hours of eating to the hours of fleep, exercife,
iRudy, or play. We gain great light upon our
own felf-difcipline,   if we itudy our ways in this
manner, and aiB ourfelves what pradtices we have
begun, how often they tend to recur, and how they
harmonize with one another, efpecially how effeitually the higher tendencies mafter the lower, and
the nobleit habits regulate the more fenfual and
material.
Viewed in this light, what immenfe importance
attaches to the years of itudent life, when a youth,
no longer under the fihoolmaifer's eye, is left so
much to himfelf, and away from the watch of home
and fhamily, is to form thofe methods of thought and
adion that are very likely to go with him through
life! It is evident that the higheft felfcontrol or
the lowve  ifelfindulgence may be made the dominant cuftom, and thus become a fecond nature.
It is never, indeed, too late for a man to repent;
but furely he who carries from college into the
world habits of indolence and diflipation, however
bitterly he repents of his folly, muft bear fome of




Perfonal Habits.             55
its fruits with him to his dying day.  In youth, as
we learn languages fo eafily, we alfo learn that
higher art of articulation-the pronouncing of our
fenfes and powers into diftinct and expreffive habits.
Not only do the feet beft learn to dance in youth,
but the whole of our nature beft learns to walk its
choral round, and mind and heart and will may
keep Rep with the hours to the cheering mufic that
is made by the pulfe-beats of young and healthy
blood.
A true fyftem of habits has its foundation in the
ordering of oui bodily inftints and appetites, efpel
cially in duly adjufting or balancing the receptive
and ative fundions.  He is a healthy man who
adjufts properly the thought and adcion that exhauft
his ftrength with the food and fleep that reftore it,
and who in like manner keeps up the balance
between his fenfitive nerves and ative mufcles by
relieving excitement of nerves by afive exercife,
and quickening mufcular iblidity by nervous fenfibility. The law of polarity, which pervades all
creation, is eminently powerful in the human cons
ifitution; and all true life, whether of body or
mind, comes from  the harmony of forces that
feem to be antagonifts.




56        ~      Student Life.
The moft obvious polar diverfity is that which
contrafts our fleeping with our waking hours,
and almoft repeats the images of death and life.
How long we ought to fleep I do not undertake to'ay with pofitive certainty, fo widely do different
peribns vary, and fo much do many people err
from the truth by counting as feep only their hours
of being in bed, whilft they never feem to be fully
awake even at noon-day, and others who lounge
half the time in bed are rarely found afleepo  If I
were to try to Rfate the true rule for fieep, according to the beft experience and obfervation, it would
be eight hours, and furely never, lefs than feven.
A ftudent needs, probably, more fleep than a laboring man, alike becaufe his brain is more ufed (and
the brain uffTers more than the mufeles from overadion), and becaufe, moreover, the itudent is fo
apt to carry the thoughtfulnefs of ftudy to his pillow as to find it hard to drop into flutmber at once,
as the tired workman generally does. I advife you
to be very careful to fecure regular and fufficient
Bleep; and in moft cafes when you are tempted by
peculiar anxiety to fit up very late, and win ftudy
at the coil of an excited brain, it is better to think
more of keeping the infIrument found than of




Perfonal Habits.           57
forcing the work. I have fuffered Sometimes by
continual late ftudy, and have kept at my pen till
morning. Now, I prefer a healthy brain to an
elaborate manufcript, and am furer of fuccefs in
fuch emergencies by fpeaking extempore from a
clear and cool head, than by reading a difcourfe
that has been written by the midnight lamp. I do
not believe in the midnight lamp at all, and advife
you to be on your pillow always at leaft an hour
before that witching time. In fummer it is well
for a ftudent to go to bed at ten and rife at six, or
half an hour before, and in winter he may retire
and rife an hour later. As to any confiderable
fludy before breakfaft, I do not recommend it, and
am inclined to think as poorly of morning candlelight as of the midnight lamp. I tried once to fteal
time for tranflating a work from the German by
early morning ftudy, and the fymptoms of a nervous fever that appeared in the courfe of a few
weeks led me never to repeat the experiment.
As to hours of Rtudy, they fihould never exceed
thofe now made the limit of manual laborten hours-and I believe that fix hours of clofe
application will in the long run accomplifli more
good work than twelve hours. If a youth attually
A




58               Student Life.
fiudies fix hours, and adds to this the time fpent
in going to and from recitation, and in waiting for
others to recite, he will find very little of the working part of the day left.  If we add to fix hours
of adual work over books the time ufually given
by an earneft dfudent to thought, and reading, and
inflructive converfation, it will be found that twelve
out of the twenty-four hours are generally given
to the culture of the mind. Stating my views in
another way, I can fay that there is wifdom in
dividing the day into three parts of eight hours
each-one part for fleep; one for fuch exertion of
the mind as may be called fludy, whether learning
leffons or tafling the thoughts by folid reading or
careful meditation; one part for recreation, or for
all that refrefles foul and body by food, exercife,
fociety, and all fuch intellectual occupations as
belong more to the play rather than to the work of
the mind.  I do not, of courfe, mean to fay that
there three parts fhllould be Separated by a rigid line,
and that recreation and fiudy fhould occupy each
eight confecutive hours.  It is befi for one not to
give more than two confecutive hours to one objed;
and he is wife who goes from one Itudy to another,
or interfperfes dtudy with exercife or converfation,




Perfonal Habits.             59
fo as to fecure conifant frefilnefs and life.  The
Jefuits, who are marvelloufly flirewd in their way,
forbid their pupils from fiudying more than two
hours without intermiIffon; and Voltaire, who fo
hated the Jefuits, copied their fagacity by keeping
Sometimes four defks in his library, with an unfix
nifled work on each, and going, as he was moved,
from one to the other, as poetry, hiftory, criticifm,
or philofophy invited him. You will do well to
ftudy a judicious alternation in the divifion of your
~time and ftudies, being efpecially careful to fweeten
hard and repulfive branches by fuch as are more
pleafant, and in every way to change the pofIure of
your mind, fo as to refrefli and relieve the more
weary faculties. Thus you will really ftudy, and
not pretend to do fo, as is the way with many who
pore lifileffly over the book hour after hour, and
are about as nmuch wifer at the end as the fpaniel at
their feet, or the bird in the window.
As to the things of the table-in our day we were
not tempted as you may be.  We boarded in commons, and paid, I think, but a dollar and ninety
cents a week for board-a fum that did not furnifli
many alluring luxuries.  The fimplicity of this fire
Iometimes tempted us to make up for it by fome




6 )               Student Life.
little refection in our rooms, and not a few carried
this practice to an injurious extent by exceftive
eating and drinking in the evening. It is beft for
a ftudent to live amply, but plainly, and be content
with what is fet upon -a good family-table.  I confider all that is eaten after the regular meals as
worfe than ufelefs; and,many of our flout fellows
owed the caufe of their dyfpepfia and 6" blues" to
the frequent punch and mince-pies that made their
evening entertainment. As to wine and ardent
fpirits, the lefs of them fo much the better; and
without reviving the Mohammedan dodrine that
makes it a fin in itfelf to tafte the juice of the grape,
it is enough to fay that the young fellow who has
not enough of the wine of life in his heart to keep
him merry and up to any genial fport, without stimulants, is a difgrace to youthful humanity. Mofl
fiudents who ufe wine repent of it moft bitterly, and
I never knew one who abflained from it to regret
the felf-denial.  Without taking any afcetic gr!ound,
or being wifer than the Gofpel, I advife you to
keep wholly out of college caroufals, and to have
no incentives to fuch indulgence in your room.  1[
fay the fame of tobacco; and whilfi  your companions will do as they choofe, I hope that you will




Perfonal Habits.              61
let this potent weed alone, and will be free from its
finell and its poifon. They who ufe it never advife
others to begin the pradice. I can speak from the
oppofite experience; and never having ufed it in
any form, attribute fbmewhat of my uniform health,
in fpite of a delicate conftitution, to my abdiinence.
I think the habit unclean and pernicious, inviting
frequent potations by artificial thirft, and ftimulating
the nervous fyftem, and depraving the whole fenfitive organifm.
In judging of the harm done by the leading vices
to which youth is tempted, it is well to judge of
them by three tefts-qzianlity, qzuality, and relatiolaccording to the categories of the new logic. Some
vices are fuch merely from quantity, or overftepping
a certain limit, as gluttony, which is wrong, not
becaufe it is eating, but becaufe it is exceflive
eating. Other vices are fuch from their effential
quality, fuch as licentioufnefs, which is wrong in its
firft ftep, and in its beginning it fllould be wholly
checked. The proper as well as the eafieft rule for
governing the inftints that lead to licentioufnefs
is to keep them in check, and preoccupy the mind
with wholesome thoughts and affedions, and regulate the body by juft diet and adivity.  It is eafier




62               Student Life~
to be wholly correct than partly fo; and as to all
vices of fenfualifm, I can do no better than quote
the emphatic remark of Profeffor ERDMANN, of
Halle, in his recent letures on Academic Life and
Study.  Difringuifiling between conviviality and
licentioufnefs, he maintains that he who intrudes
precociously into the temple of Bacchus difhonors
the temple, but commits no facrilege.  " He is
guilty of facrilege, however, who, without being
initiated by the confecration of nature, thievifllly
fkulks into the myfteries of Aphrodite, and of
double the fin if he makes a beaft of himfelf in this
forbidden temple." It is idle to try to maintain
that purity of life cofts no ftruggle in youth, but it
is worse than idle to deny that the viCtory may be
fecured, and the whole culture is deepened and
exalted by the conqueft.
As to vices of relation, the beft example may be
taken from the ufe of money. The wafte of money
is in all cafes wrong, but even the fpending of it
for things unobjedionable in themfelves, but not
effential to living, is very wrong when it is beyond
a ftudent's juft means, and becomes oppreffive to
parents in limited circumftances.  What can be
meaner than for a ftudent to indulge himfelf in




Perfonal Habits.              63
expenfes for drefs and amnufer: ents and coftly books,
and matters of taite, whilft his parents are ftruggling to pay his term-bills, and even the frugal
houfehold is more scanty becaufe of the effort to
give him  an education?  The wrong becomes
monftrous when diffipation, as is ibometimes the cafe,
attends prodigality, and the fon allows his family at
home to pinch their table and wardrobe, whilft he
feafts and rides like an heir of fortune, and is perhaps fent home in difgrace and debt, the mortification as well as the ruin of his father.  Let not
the rich man's fon think himfelf exempt from this
outrage, if he fquanders the time and opportunity
that are more than gold, and returns his father's toil
and mother's love by indolence or vice, and rmortifies the whole family by his nothingness or per=
verfity, wafting a life that is more precious than
money.
As to bodily exercife, fo much is faid of its importance now, that I need not treat it at length.
You mufP never forget that'mufcular adtivity is the
natural offset to nervous excitement, and take fuch
exercife as your opportunities and conftitution dictate. You do not wiflh, however, to become a
pugilift or ftevedore; and it is important to prefer




64                Student Life,
the exercifes that brace the nerves and infpirit the
mind, to thofe that merely wivell the mufcles, and
tend to vulgarize the form  and movements.o  For
this aim the knightly arts and fports are better than
the common gymnaftics.
One letter on morals and religion will cloSe this
ferieso




Morals and Religion.              65
MORALS AND RELIGI0ON
THE letters of this feries, thus far, my dear friend,
have all, indeed, treated diredly or indiredly of
morals and religion, and perhaps have faid or imn
plied enough to fhow the foundations upon which
a itudent's life fhould be built.  Yet a few points
may properly be pref!ented with fome urgency, as
touching  the moil prominent temptations of his
pofition, and probable defers of his charadero  Of
courfe, there can be but one effential morality and
religion, yet the principles that in themfelves are as
univerfal as truth itfelf, have efpecial applications
to peculiar conditions and claffes.
Morality we regard as true life in its human relations, whilft religion is life in its relations with God.
The two are clofely conneded with each other, but
are not identical; and whilti morality ought to be
under God, or animated by a religious fpirit, its own.
fphere is human, and it may, indeed, in its largeft
1C~




66                Student Life,
fenfe, be called true humanity. Taking the fimpleft
of all divifions, we regard morality as in its effence
the love of man, and as having two main branches
-honor and juflice-the one being the true love
of felf, and the other the true love of our neighbor.
In both branches of moral duty, honor and juftice,
the ftudent is likely to be very defedive.
What is more common than falfe honor or fpurious felfirefped in college life?  True felf~refpeEt
centres upon what is worthieft in perfonal charader,
and finds fatisfadion in purity, wifdom, fidelity,
reverence, and in all thofe qualities that fubdue the
paffions and impulfes to reafon and confcience.
College honor is very apt to fet up the paffions and
impulfes as mafters, and nmake manlinefs confift in
felf-will.  This felf-will is fometimes fenfual, and
then it affeds to put the cap of facred liberty upon
the harlot head of ienfualifin, and you have already
feen, probably, fome of the worit vices defended by
the fiolen name of independence.  Or wilfulnefs
may take a higher form, and may claim to make a
law of itfelf or of its own coterie, in defiance of
human and divine law. We ought to be ready,
indeed, to excufe fome little reftivenefs on the part
of the faculty of will, fome little range of antics




Morals and Religion.            67
and running and prancing before the fiery freed is
fubdued to the mafter's hand.  But let us beware
of calling the faults of rude nature virtues, and
defending them as fortreffes, inftead of pafling them
as ftepping-ftones. The youth who bafes his own
dignity upon the amount of his defiance towards
his fuperiors, may be very fure that he meatures
himfelf by as perverfe a rule as he who would meafure his property by the amount of his frauds, and
fo confound his arrears with his affets.  Nor does a
youth enhance his own dignity by joining a little
coterie of free companions, and making war with
them  upon public opinion, fober judgment, and
careful induftry.  In fome way, moft collegians are
tempted to fall into fome form of this falfe honor,
and to join in fome kind of rebellion againft principles or inftitutions which in maturer years they
learn to refped.  Self-will is always fure to fet up
its prerogative as central, inftead of centring itfelf
upon the eternal right; and whilft in aftronomy you
will find the Copernican fyftem reigning without a
rival, you will not fail to difcover that many bright
wits rule their lives upon the Ptolemaic theory, and
aaE as if their own dark and earthy will were the
centre of the moral univerfe.




68               Student Lifeo
The obvious tendency of fuch falie honor is
towards injuftice, and he who does not truly refped
himfielf cannot readily refped his neighbor.  He
who eftimates his own confequence by his amount
of felf-will, of courfe looks down upon all perfons
whom he can browbeat, and tries to feed his own
conceit by throwing contempt upon others, pampering pride and vanity perhaps at once, by infulting
thofe whom he ought to refped, that he may win
plaudits from thofe whom he ought to rebuke, if
not to defpife.  The injufitce that is the offspring
of ifalfe honor fhows itfelf in college in various
ways, fometimes in annoying fellow-fiudents, fometimes in affaulting or plundering the townfpeople,
and fometimes by confpiring againfi the college
government. Sometimes, indeed, a certain paiflon
for fun is more prominent than any depraved fpirit
of mifchief; yet fuch fun, when perfiftently purfued,
ends in habitual mifchief, and has left a mark upon
many a youth's fortune and difpofition that years
cannot obliterate.  In every clafs there is more or
lefs difpofition to opprefs the more fenfitive of its
own members, whilft there is a Itanding cufiom of
annoying to the utmoft all novices in thle lower
claffes.  I have no objedion to giving the green



Mlorals and Religion.          69
horns a little good-natured initiation, but when it
comes to perfonal infults, injury to property, falfehood, and theft, the joke goes too far; and I have
known outrages to be committed by fludents upon
their fellows, efpecially of the younger claffes, that
no Ibph~icry could call by any other name than
rufflanly and dalfardly, as mean as they were info=
lent, becaufe fo fure of doing harm with impunity.
You may already find that the idlers of the clafs
confpire againft the induftrious, and that fome of
the beft fellows in the clafs are ridiculed as " digs,"
Never mind it, if your turn comes, and you find
yourfelf for a feafon in this profcribed fet. The
tables will fbon be turned, and the very fcapegraces
who once worried you will be coming to you to
help them with their leffons, to write their themes
for them, and perhaps to encourage themn to make
decent men of themfelves.   In four years the
meaning of the term dcl changes, and from being'
a term of menial reproof, it becomes the firft fyllable of cibgnity.
As to wrongs to perfons outfide the college walls,
fuch as are done in ftreet-fights, robbery of orchards
and hen-roofts, it is important to remember that the
Homeric age has paffed away, that piracy is no




$0               Student Life.
longer heroifm, and to knock down a policeman or
to plunder farms is felony.  The fooner fiudents
underifand that they are bound by the law of' the
land, the better for their morals and their mirth,
and the fooner they will be moved to let their
neighbor's goods alone, and to feek fport in more
free and congenial fields.
In refpect to the college government, the too
common feeling among fiudents is one of antagonifm, and I furely do not think that all the blame
in this matter is on one fide. I do not think that
profeffors and tutors generally fllow enough perfonal
intereft and regard for their pupils to win from them
the true favor. The two parties are too often found
fet againft each other in mutual fufpicion, each miftrufting and miftrufted. The firft fiep to a better
underfianding might be wifely taken by the inftrudors, and more perfonal kindnefs on their part
will be fure to win new confidence from the better
clafs of ftudents.  But no amount of referve on
the part of profeffors and tutors can jufiify the
wanton affaults upon college order that are fo often
dignified by the name of rebellion. If a fludent
regards himfelf as unjuitly dealt with, he can flate
his grievance, and be fure of a hearing.  If the




Morals and Religion.              71
ifatement does not win favor, and remove the grievance, he can voluntarily leave college in a fpirit
that will be fure to win refped from friends, and not
clofe other inftitutions againft him.  The refort to
uproar and infult, affaults on college property, and
indignity towards perfons, is invariably as unhappy
in refult as falfe in principle. College rebellions
coft the rebels very dear, and are always a lofing
operation to the authors. One of the worft afpeds
in which they prefent themfelves to a graduate in
after years, is their difhonor towards inftitutions that
ought to be held facred. The youth who difgraces
his parents difgraces himfelf; and thofe ftudents
who try to throw a flain upon their Alma Mater
muft ere long fee that, could they fucceed, they
would fhllame themfelves. It is well that all college
rebellions in our quarter have left our good mother's
name unfullied. Sometimes, indeed, great wrong
is done to individual officers, and the inftrudtors
who are more offenfive from  fome infelicity of
manner or temper than from any incapacity or felfifhllneifs, are made the butt of general wrath.  It
may reprefs many a hot-headed youth's ferocity
againft an unpopular tutor, to be told that fometimes
a feeble contfitution is mifiaken for a sullen temper,




72              $Student Life.
and that a hard ftruggle with poverty and ill-health
may give an expreffion that looks like feverity.
Sometimes even diffidence is taken for conceit, and
the teacher who hardly prefumes to claim affection
in his humility is treated as an iceberg of indifference, if not of pride. Of college officers in general, it may be faid that, confidering their gifts and
culture, they have fcanty returns of emolument,
and it is great injuftice to add to their limitation by
unkindnefs or difrefped.  The itudent who has the
true fenfe of honor in himfelf, will have true juitice
towards others; and among the reforms that we
long to fee carried out in our colleges is the inauguration of a purer iroral fenfe in its twin virtues of
juftice and honor. A  dozen noble fpirits in any
clads may make a new era in their own career, and
a dozen claffes thus guided would bring in a new
age in college ethics.
Such refults cannot, however, come without
motive from  fuperhuman fources, and to religion
we muft look for the effective infpirationo.  When
morality becomes adive, and not being content
with llhunning faults, it feeks pofitive virtues, it
muff follow an authority above itfelf.  In fact, the
true humanity is of neceffity religious, and whilft




Morals and Religion.             78
it feeks to be true to man, it can be fo only in the
filial fpirit that treats him  as God's creature and
image. The youth who thus derives his morality
from  religion has a deeper fenfe of human worth
in himfelf and others, and his honor and jufice
rife into a religious reditude.  He is moIved not
only to keep himfelf from harm, but to bring himfelf into fellowfhip with all goodneos as the true
honor.  He is called not only to avoid injury to
others, but to encourage in them  every worthy
hope, and fo jufrice becomes pofitive righteoufnefs.
There is fome difficulty in defining religion to
the fatisfaction of earneft young people, and often
they who are fond of the thing do not like the
definition.  It is very fafe, however, to fay that
religion is our true relation towards God, and the
fruit of Ai is a filial confcience, true to him in a
fenfe of dependence and a fenfe of duty.  Harm
is done when either of thefe elements is negleced,
as when a.hallow rationalifm  fubftitutes a mere
dodrine as to God, or a mere opinion about him,
for a living and perfonal truit in him, or when
a dry moralifm puts a code of rules, a dead legal:ifm, in place of the loving fervice of the living God.
The efpecial bleffing of the Gofpel is, that it




74               Student Life.
reveals him in Chrift as the ground of faith and
obedience, and adds to the light of the incarnate
Word the life of the animating Spirit. It is a
bleffed day for a itudent when he takes the Gofpel
home to his own ftudy and life. Study is radiant when
it feeks for truth under the Eternal Light, and life is
rich and vigorous when the purpofes are cheered
by the Eternal Spirit.  I need not urge you to
fliun all perfonal affumption, and every trace of
cant; but all the more earnefly I exhort you to
put yourfelf on the true ground, and make your
education a gift of God's grace, as well as a work
of your own labor, and your teacher's care.
I do not advife you to talk a great deal in a confpicuous way on religious fubjects, or to make any
frequent profeffions of faith.  Let what you do
fay be very decided, and let your action be pofir
tiveo  Nothing is more decided than an habitual
place at the communion-table, and a tongue reverential and pure. In all matters in which your convictions may conflict with notions of college honor,
or condemn what eafy confciences and enticing
pleafures fandion, you will be wife to take your
own courfe early and ftrongly, and let your aftions
fpeak louder than words. In this way you will be




Morals and Religion.          75
true, and alfo influential, and you will hand forth
as a manly Chriftian, without lofing your name as
a good fellow. You are not in danger of running
into any morbid pietifm, and I therefore need not
warn you againft the danger of ftraining to become
a faint in fuch a way as to ceafe to be a wholefome,
hearty man. Be a true man and a true Chriftian,
and your college life will be a world of riches to
you that years will ever more develop. When
you are as old as your father and I are, you will
find the old times at Cambridge coming back with
an ever-increafing power; and when the charm of
memory carries with it the light and peace of God's
Word and Spirit and Church, college life is a fountain which pours its bleffed waters on the path with
ever freer flow, and refrefhes us in manhood with
the Sparkling tide that fo cheered us in our early
days.
I little thought of writing fo much when I fent
you that firft ftray letter; yet I have found fatisfaction in the fubjed, and am quite fure of having.
fpoken with candor and earneftnefs. God's bleffling
reft upon you, and may your four years at college
be to you and your parents all that your difpofitions promife, and their affedion deferves.




Student Life.
PROSPECTS AND RETROSPECTS.
MY DEAR FRIEND —I will confefs that I feel quite
a new fenfation at ftanding upon fuch terms of good
will with the tenants of our old college rooms, and
it gives me almoft a new experience of youth to be
affured that I have readers there who think that my
off-hand counfels are worth publication. It is true,
as you fay, that the clafs of 1864 mufft be expeded
to differ in fome refpets from the clafs of 1832, and
certainly the new generation ought to improve upon
the old, although I need not tell you that difference
is not of neceility improvement.
-In fome refpets you have made decided improvements fince our day, and I am fure that there is
more of genial and ideal affociation with clafs-~elN
lowfhip than was ufual with us. There is ftill room
for progreis, and college life would be marvelloufly
transformed if every fefftival were as beautiful as the
famous clafs day which is now kept, from year to




Profpects and Retrofpects.        7~
year, in a way far beyond and above what we knew
in our time.  Why fliould not our ftudent life in
America do fomething to give a better aefthetic and
intellecdual tone to American fociety?  Why fhould
not ftudents give us a true ideal of refinement and
enthufiafm, of the true chivalry and the nobleft loyalty, as well as of dafhing courage and genial felb
lowfllip. I find myfelf thinking more and more of
the reflex influence of clafs meetings and affociations.  The human foul has a rhythm of its own
that fets all its deeper experiences to mufic, and
brings them  ringing anew to our ears with each
revolving year. Remember that you are not only
flocking your memory with commodities, but tuning
it with melodies and harmonies, and for good or
evil, the fcenes and companionflhips of thefe college-years are to fing themfelves to you again as
long as you live.  Try to live in fuch a way as to
make the recollection of college life not only plead
fant but elevating, and to induce you to continue
the old friendfhlips as part of your religion as well
as your good-&ellowlfhip.
I advife you to keep carefully all important memorials of your college career, efpecially your textbooks, compofitions, letters, notes of lectures, etc.




78                Student Life.
It is well alfo to keep a diary of thoughts, events,
and friendfilips. This will help you in the maftery
of language, and be of great fervice as a book of
reference in after years. If you choofe you might
illuftrate it with photographs of familiar faces that
Ihall speak to you in time to come of fcenes and
friends long ago.  Your text books will ferve you
not only as a remembrance to enjoy but an author
rity to confult, for you can find the information you
feek for eafier in familiar manuals than in new and
ftrange volumes.  Many a chance  -nark or ftray
pencilling on your Homer or Tacitus will call up the
old times like a magic fpell. Treafiure up too the
devout books that you now read, and make them
blefs you evermore.
If' you have health and profperity you will in
four years graduate, and count a new era from 1864.
To fet you thinking of your own future-and its
bearings on your prefent-I fend you a copy of the
addrefs made to our clafs twenty-five years after
graduating, and alfo of Revo Charles J. Brook's
beautiful poem.  Your father fat in the chair, and
the ipeaker was your friend and correfpondent. I
likewife add a few mifcellaneous thoughts and recolletions bearing upon fludent life, which I have revifed from my papers as having fome interefi for you.




Heart and Head in Education.       79
HEART AND H EAD IN EDUCATION,
FROM  AN ORATION  BEFORE THE HASTY  PUDDING
CLUB IN UNIVERSITY HALL, FEBRUARY 223 1831.
NUNQOUAM  aliud natura, aliud sapientia dicitVifdom never denies the voice of nature.  Such
was the exclamation of Rome's laft poet, Juvenal,
in the decline of his country's glory. He faw the
degeneracy of the age, the general licentioufnefs, the
many caufes tending to turn the individual mind
from its natural courfe, and he cried out againit
fuch a perverfion of natureo  We may join in this
exclamation, faying in joy what he iaid in forrow.
In this age, in this country, and furely upon this
birthnight of Wafhington, we may juftly believe
that natural rights are not to be trodden under foot,
either in the ftate or the academy. We fhllall not
depart from the fpirit of this occafion by faying a
few words now upon education as making men
truer to nature.




So                Student Life.
The human mind is one whole, made up of
various parts.  To preferve the feveral parts in
their due proportion, to give each its own place
and the exercife of its natural fundions, fllould be
the objed of education.  This end cannot be
attained if the mind is left wholly to it-felf, for in
Ihat cafe unpropitious circumftances, as well as
inordinate impulfes and fancies, may keep back
hfome parts and bring others forward unduly.  It
is the offlce of pofitive culture to make or keep the
balance of charaaer. Much has been faid of the
importance of keeping the intelledual powers'in
harmony with each other, but far too little notice
has been taken  of the connexion between the
moral affedions and the intelledual powers, or the
influence of the heart upon the head.  Let us confider now the bearing of the moral upon the intelledual nature, that we may the better fee what muff
be the prevailing motive force when the mind has
its healthy natural tone,
I. Moral purity is needed in order to concentrate the powers and apply them  to the defired
end. It is of courfe neceffary to felf-control-to
government of the thoughts.  Now this felf~control
beginning in the aeffetions cannot end there, but




Heart and Head in Education.        81
may readily be transferred to the intellectual f~phere.
From a command over the paffions and over the
thoughts arifing from them, command is won over
the thoughts in general and the ability to give them
their juft direction. This ability is needed by all
minds, but efpecially by thofe who give themfelves
to philofophic meditation rather than to the chance
impulles of the hour. The philosbpher needs perfed equanimity, the utmofi freedom  from distrading inmpulfes and fancies. We find accordingly that
they who have made the moil difiinguifhed progrefs in fcience, whether phyfical or metaphyfical,
have been remarkable generally for moral purity,
from the days of Archimedes and Plato to thofe of
Newton and Kant.  Indeed it is next to impoflible
that a man abandoned to the movements of paiflion
and the agitations of impulfe, fliould pofsefs the
unwearied patience, the consecutive thought, effential
to the purfuit of ever-fleeing truth. There is, moreover, a cheerful ferenity fpringing from well-ordered
affetions, that contributes much to ladiing fatiffaCion and fuccefs in literary purfuits. It is like the
calm of a fair day, when the powers of nature are mlof
effetive becaufe modt in harmony, and the elements
and mankind are mofl bufiily and happily at work.
5




82               Student Lifeo
II. Again, moral purity has a good influence over
the particular turn of the taftes, and is a great fecurity againft many prejudices in this diredtion.
When it is faid that a man has a tafte for any particular purfuit, the fad is not fo much that this tafte
was an original gift as that it is the refult of the
whole internal life. Now as the paffions and affections carry a confiderable vote in the mental cabinet, the turn taken by the whole mind muff depend
much upon their discipline. The paffions certainly
have great influence over the opinions, making
fome opinions more agreeable than others, and
adding weight therefore to all the arguments in
their behalf. Thus paiffon is virtually a prejudicea prejudice which all faithful moral discipline tends
to remove. In the words of the French philofopher, Degerando, " The advantages which the mathematical fciences owe to their very nature, virtue
communicates to other branches of knowledge.
For the mathematical fciences admit of cool and
impartial invefiigation, becaufe they are not the
fubjeds of paffion."
III. Moral excellence infpires a love of method
that delights in juft analyfis and arrangement. The
order of exad moral discipline leads the mind to a




Heart and Head in Education.         83
fimilar order in all that comes to its attention, and
fuggefts the fyftem  fo effential to clearnefs of
thought and expreffion. Befides cordial and healthy affections delight in union, in intelleCtual as well
as focial harmony. Now why fllould not this benevolence become an intelleCtual as well as moral
principle, and be carried from focial intercourfe
into the world of thought?  He who loves to fee
men dwell together in unity muft love to fee
related ideas brought together, and may enjoy the
meeting of two cognate thoughts that have been
kept apart, as much as the meeting of two brothers
who have been long feparated.  By comparing ifolated ideas, and by tracing out their analogies, new
truths are difcovered, and the fatisfadion felt in
inferring general principles from particular fats, and
in deducing new confequences from familiar axioms,
has moft of its warmth and fomIething of its origin
from the benevolence that delights in difcovering
the ties that bind man to man, and man to God.
All truths furely are of' one family,9-and God is
their father. The good heart helps the believing
or truly filial head, and delights to bind together
both perfons and principles in faith and love. The
bad heart is feeptical in its very felfifhllnefs and pai



84               Student Life.
fion, bent on fundering what God hath joined
together.
IV. Moral purity gives life and warmth to the
imagination. As imagination is a natural faculty,
it is not to be weakened, as fome ieem to fuppofe,
by the proportionate growth of the other powers.
The creative power, indeed, muft take its charader and direCtion from the paffions and the affections, and love to work upon the materials which
they prefent moft fondly and frequently.  When
they are in harmony with each other, they produce
a ferenity and cheerfulnefs, that thow their fruit in
all the creations of the ideal faculty.  Poetry never
moves men fo ftrongly and fo univerfally as when
it comes from warm and healthy affeEtions. The
ravings of a difordered mind, with its mad paffions,
may indeed have a tranfient spell when breathed in
the charm of fweet numbers, and we cannot deny
that much poetry has been written by immoral men
in defcription of their peculiar condition with its
perverted paflions and blighted hopes. But upon
clofer analyfis we fhall find that the great paffages
that have made our profligate clafs of poets illuftrious, have been thofe in which they have lamented
indtead ofjudtifying their profligacy, and like Burns




Heart and Head in Education.        85
and Byron, they have brought rich tributes to
virtue in penitence fiom the dark caves of fenfualifin. The greateft poets have, however, lived
habitually in the pure air and clear light of Heaven,
and fuch mafters of fong as Homer, Dante, and
Milton, are proof enough that the true infpiration
does not come fiom any infernal fires or maddening
elixirs. They prove that virtue and poetry are
natural friends, and that the ideal world opens its
treafures to the true and reverent feeker under a
law as facred and benign as that which opens the
facts and principles of external nature to the naturalift and philosopher. A pure eye belt fees the
light of the ideal as of the natural world, and a
bleffed equanimity, coming not from the death but
from the harmony of the paiflons, and giving calmnefs and health to the creative power, clears the
foul of all blinding films and humors, and opens
boundlefs verities and joys to its gaze, interpreting
to us perhaps fomething of what old Pindar meant
when he fpoke of an immortality without tears.
Such are fome of the favorable influences which
moral excellence exerts upon the intelledual charader.  The queftion now  readily prefents itfelf,
what order of motives belt fecures the true harmony




SC                Student Life.
of our nature, and enables the heart to do its
higheft work for the head?  It is eafy to fay what
is not the true order, and every ftudent can teftify
at once that the fpirit of rivalry is allowed to have
far more than its proper flhare in work of education,
to the exclufion of higher motives. Rivalry tends
to deftroy the juft balance of the mind, and inftead
of preventing to every feeling and faculty its own
appropriate motive, it tends to fever them all with
a morbid appetite for diftindion.  It impairs our
fenfe of the intrinfic worth of ftudy and its objeds,
and calls attention mainly to a point of expediency.
It feeds on the accident, not on the fubftance, and
forgets the means in the end, and that end a partial
if not a falfe one.  Now I am aware that rivalry is
a natural feeling, but I cannot believe that it is
mafter of the whole nature.   It is undoubtedly
given as a falutary fpur to awaken the higher afpirations, and was never intended of itfelf to be the
commanding motive.  All the powers and affections have their rightful defires, and that is the beft
method of culture that prefents to them all the
broadeft and moft endurihg fatisfation.  Each orb
to its orbit, each faculty to its fphere, each fpirit to
its objeRt-this is our motto.  We believe that




Heart and Head in Education.        87
academic education needs great reform in this direction, and that inftead of being puflled on by the
goad of harfh emulation, we ought to be brought
within the attraction of truth and goodnefs more
earneftly and witely. Fame herfelf, which Burke
calls the paffion of noble fouls, is not wholly a
celeftial. Though her head is among the clouds,
and she is ever pointing to the ftars, flhe has made
many a man grovel in the duft.  But this other
fpirit, this reftlefs emulation, has ftill lefs of heaven
in her make, and fometimes feems to be at least
coufin to the Envy that is born of hell. To look
for future name may make a man far-fighted and
felf-denying, but the rivalry that is confrantly ftrains
ing for immediate effed has no fuch generous
elements, and tends to make its vitim the flave of
the hour, in fad to break up the integrity of education, and build flaflly little bowers for the paling
feafon, inftead of the fubftantial houfe that refts
upon a rock and outlives the ftorm.  We mudf not
indeed demand perfetion, and muft be willing, for
a time at leaft, to have fome mixture in our motives,
but it is not well to think more of the alloy than
of the gold.  It feems to be as abfurd to fever
youth with felfifli emulation, and then tell them




88                Student Life.
that rational ambition will lead to virtue and knowledge, as to place them in the midft of feducing
pleafures, and then fay that true pleafure is found
only in reftitude.
A paffage from Lord Bacon is a good interpretation of the fentence from  Juvenal with which I
introduced this addrefs: e6 It may be truly affirmed,
that no kind of men love bufinefs for itfelf, but
thofe that are learned; for other perions love it for
profit; as an hireling that loves the work for the
waages; or for honor, becaufe it beareth them up in
the eyes of men, and refreffieth their reputation,
which otherwife would wear; or becaufe it exerciieth fome faculty wherein they take pride, and fo
entertaineth them in good humor and pleafing conceits towards themfelves; or becaufe it advanceth
any other of their ends.  So that as it is faid of
untrue valors, that fome men's valors are in the
eyes of them that look on; fo moft men's induftries
are in the eyes of others or at leaft in regard of
their own defignments; only the learned love bufinefs as an action according to nature, as agreeable
to health of mind as exercife is to health of body,
taking plealure in the aiction itfelf and not in the
purchafeo"




Heart and Head in Education.        89
When this principle is applied to ftudy, a new
age will come in education as marked as that age
of liberty which this birthnight of Waflhington
commemorates.  Our fchools and colleges taking
the foul's native faculties for the material, and their
true proportions for the model, fhall give each part
its due ftrength, and the whole man his due life
and force.




90               Student Life.
Ix.
THE CONDUCT OF LIFE.:FROM THE CLASS ORATION OF JULY 179, 1832.
THAT iS perhaps a narrow, though natural principle
of affociation, that identifies thoughts and feelings
with events and places. Surely all that we have
been attached to here is fo clofely interwoven with
there familiar fcenes, that we feem in quitting the
one to loife the other. To think of fo many things
that are paffing away, of the changes in human
life, the decay in nature, the ruins of human art, is
ever faddening. But there is a comfort in remembering that change is not deftrudiono The genius that
prefides over all viciffitude is not a terrible demon,
armed with the lightning, robed in the ftorm, and
turbaned with the whirlwind, but a good angel
with various and inexhauftible charms, enlivening
the vigils and quickening the ftrength of the undying ifpirit.  The changes which the world conftantly




The Condu& of Life.              91
unfolds to us are hiftory, and hiitory is knowledge,
The changes in the mind's own life ought to be its
progrefs; what is fleeting it ought to fix, and what
is perifhable it ought to immortalize.  Keats well
fays:
"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever 
Its lovelinefs increafes: *  
Therefore every morrow are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth."
So may it be, Claflfmates, with the things that have
been pleafant to us here.
I have fpoken of the affociations of our college
life, and the extent and charaderiftics of our culture
here, and it is now time to fpeak of our opening
future and the true conduat of life.  Whatever
good or ill we have laid up for ourfelves, we enter
now as we are upon a new life, and we cannot but
look forward with eager anticipation.  Dreams of
happinefs we may indulge at liberty, but plans of
life, how little can we fllape them. We have all
had experience enough of men and events to know
what power accident has over human conditions,
We can feel the truth of the beautiful remark of
Goethe when he fays: " The fun-horfes of Time,




92               Student Life.
as drawn by unfeen fpirits, bear away the light
chariot of our deftiny; and nothing remains for us
but with tranquil courage to hold firm the reins,
and now to the right and now the left, here from a
aione and there from a precipice, to turn away the
wheels.  Whither it goes who can tell?"  Whither our courfe leads who can tell'?  We pafs
gradually from point to point, and feem to guide
our courfeo Event fucceeds event naturally, motive
fprings from  motive regularly, thought follows
thought rationally.  Yet when one compares different fiages of his career, he is aftounded at himfelf as at a itranger. If four years ago when we
came together here, the Book of Time had been
opened to us fo as to ihow us what we have become
now under the action of circumftances, ideas, affociations, and impulfes, who of us would have known
himfelf in the defcription?  Yet, much as we are
the fport of chance, the creatures of accident, we
are not wholly fo, and ought to be far lefs so. The
fatalift refutes his own theory by trying to propagate his own fyftem.  He refutes it more effectively who goes bravely on his determined way, in
ipite of threats and enticements, equal to either
fortune, and faying, like the old Roman,'" Nave




The Condud of Life.                93
ferar magna an parva, ferar unus et idem."  He
can fay to misfortune, like iEneas to the Sibyl:
"Non ulla laborum
O Virgo, nova mi facies, inopinave furgit 
Omnia percepi, atque animo mecum ante peregi."
There is nothing that fo fixes a man's attention
upon the things of earth, while it lifts him above its
ills, as that habit of generalizing peculiar to the
liberal fcholar and the good man, which forms principles and elevated opinions. The votary of truth
who is conftantly rifing from lower to higher-from
finite to infinite, is too free from vulgar prejudices
to lofe fight of the individual in contemplating what
is general.  The more he is poffeffed by the beautiful and the true, the higher he rifes in the region
of truth, the greater will be his intereft in the world
and in men, where are the phenomena which fdarted
and regulate his fpeculations. The farther he
climbs towards heaven the more earneitly will he
regard earth, where the ladder-foot refis.  It is no
mark of the fcholar to negled the active duties of
life, to defpife truth in its efpecial application as
trifling, becaufe he has been wont to deal in it
largely.  Nature knows no trifles.  The fall of a




94               Student Life.
leaf and the roll of a planet depend on the fame
law. So it is charaderiftic of a man of high thought
to go about among men, obferve human feeling
and help human infirmities —to attach an importance
to thofe things which, neglected as trifles, caufe moft
of human mifery. He gives everything a dignity
in the vital principles it depends upon; ready for
every good enterprife, defpifing not the humble
and fearing not the lofty, he will come off conqueror in every undertaking.
The noife and buffle of the world, the cares and
troubles of adive life, have been the theme of much
bugbear eloquence. Noify, trouble-finding men
are pointed out in proof that little fhould be hereafter expeded but to be joftled by the motley throng
of men, and to be toffed about on the fickle tide of
circumftances.  But it is a comfort to look out into
fociety and fee that thofe men who think moft and
accomplifil moft are they who take life methodically, who live in the truell tranquillity, and enjoy
the beft leifure hours. The greater part of your
hurrying buftling charaders, while they make as
much noife as if they were moving mountains,
really effed little.  Deliberate and effectual aCdion is
not loud and haraffing.  The fertilizing firearn does




The Condud of Life.             95
not proclaim its flow by its roaring, but by the filent
yet eloquent verdure that grows round its banks.
So magnified have been the vexations, and fo diftorted the piiture of aftive life, that it is not an
uncommon notion that every one in beginning to aa
for himfelf muft mufter a good portion of a certain
mountebank boldnefs, which fome call confidence,
but which wifdom feems to rank as akin to impu-,
dence.  Lord Bacon's confolation and warranty of
{uccefs to thofe who feek this quality, vizo f"that
there is in human nature generally more of the fool
than the wife," fliould be enough to frighten any
man from  feeking it who has ever breathed an
atmofphere at all impregnated with literary refinement. A view of the belt and moft influential perfons in every rank of fociety, fully proves that a
career of manly and unaffuming effort will be
crowned with nobleft fuccefs. It is a poor notion
to fuppofe that life is a continued ftruggle-a fight
for certain good things; to be paffed belt it muft be
paired in peace, not indeed in that idlenefs which is
equally laborious and inefficient-not in that lazy
eafe of temperament, before which thoughts and
events float unheeded like the flladows of an afterdinner vifion, and which takes from one all claims




96               Student Life.
to an atual exiftence-but in an acive, peaceful
ferenity of mind like the fair weather, when bufinefs and nature moft flourifhl-when the world is
fulleft of adion.  Such is no monotonous exiftence;
it allows the fpirits to rife high in rapture or glide
on gently; but it will not allow their clearnefs to
be difturbed by any of " the mud and ooze of
Acheron."
This is certainly a very accommodating world.
It fuits every one to what he is looking after. He
who fearches after mifery will be fure to find it: to
him each joy is but the gaudy herald of fome grief,
each fmile wears the furrow for a future tearamong men he will find enough of evil, and in life
enough of the bitter. But if he would find good
and happinefs about him-if he would perfuade
himfelf that all in the end will be well, with him all
will be well: he will not look upon mifery in defpair, nor turn away from vice in felf-righteous abhorrence. God, he will remember, has with his own
image fiamped all men brothers, and demands of
him fellow feeling and help: in the midft of human
corruption he will be gladdened and ftimulated with
the thought of what every fellow-being can be: and
he will liften more fondly to the voice that promifes




The Condu~l of Life.           97
mercy and joy as troubles and dangers thicken
around.  What in others kindles the burning fires
of anguifhi, in him goes to enlarge and brighten
hope's glimmering ray. Anticipation of difficulties
and afflidtions begins in the very effort to avoid them.
One may think deeply upon what he has experi=
enced, and upon the nature of his own mind-he
may explore the univerfe to learn the end of his
being, till, as it was with Harold, his brain becomes
a whirling gulf of phantafy and flame: yet his
philofophy will not lift him above the man of fimple
faith in the univerfal good, whom partial and proud
knowledge has not enticed away into error, and
tempted him to feek happinefs abroad, where it is
not to be found. That is the fimpleft as well as
the wifeft dotrine, which teaches, that now is the
accepted time-that now and here are the time and
place for happinefs to begin, and puts blifs in aCtion
itfelf not folely in its ends.
Much, Claifmates, that fhllould not be forgotten,
has taken place around us and within us during our
intercourfe together.  While we go to engage in
new purfuits and feek new fources of fatisfadion,
may we remember and retain the good we have
enjoyed with each other. If bufinefs be fuffered




98                 Student Life.
to engrofs and narrow  the mind, if felfifl care be
permitted to wither the affedions (for there can be
no old age of the affetions but to the felfifh), the
thoughts of old times will bring no pleafure, the
heart will not beat true to the fellowffiip it once
loved.  The wafte of feelings unemployed-the
decay of affecion will fieem like a beginning death
-as if the right hand were felt no longer to hold
the life-giving tides, no longer refponded to the
touch the fympathetic glow.
But if we are true to ourfelves, if we keep a
warm heart for a friend, and a ready hand for the
fufferingg what has here been pleafant to us will not
pafs away.  Then thoughts of the pad will float
blifsfully along, as fweet gales from  youth's rofy
bowers" The weary foul will feem to foothe,
And redolent of joy and youth
To breathe a fecond fpringo"
And now, Claffmates, here met and here parting
we may bid each other an affedionate adieu, and in
the farewell words of that rich and genial foul,
Jean Paul Richter, be this the laft wifl of each to
all whether prefent or abfent:  "May all go well




The Condud of Life.          99
with you-may life's flhort day glide on peaceful
and bright, with no more clouds than may gliften
in the funlight, no more rain than may form a
rainbow-and may the Veiled One of Heaven
watch over your fteps and bring us to meet
again."




100             Student Life.
X.
OUR  SILVER  FESTIVAL.
ADDRESS AT THE MEETING OF THE CLASS OF 18329
TWrENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER GRADUATING, JULY 15,
1857.
CLASSMATES-It is a very ferious date in our lifetime that calls us together now, yet the occafion
throws no gloom upon our faces, and opens many
old fprings of joy in our hearts.  It is not eafy to
believe it, but true it is that we have been twentyfive years out of College, and that we who fupped
together on Clafs Day, July 17, 1832, a band of
merry youths of twenty years or thereabouts, now
meet here, after a quarter of a century, to fup
again, with many marks of care upon our features,
and more grey hairs in our heads than we are able
to count. Yet we feel young to-night, and we
invite grim Father Time to lay afide his fcythe,
and feaft with us, as he ufed to do long, long ago,




Our Silver Feftival.          101
when he met with us in youth's genial bowers, and
fmilecl with us on the rofes that he meant to cut
down and carry away if he could. The beft bloom,
however, he cannot harm; and what was deepeft
and trueft in the old good fellowfllip blooms out
upon us here.  We touch a talifman here that
always brings fpring-time to the affections-a talisman that is the beft trlalwtztmtenduzn2 of the old Colb
lege, and which has paired from generation to
generation within the walls of Harvard for centeu
ries, and which will live when fuch old heirlooms
as the " Mathematical Slate" and the " Thundering
Bolus" are forgotten.  The talifman is the cup of
Youth, the cryftal goblet graven over with all the
names that we have loved, and filled from  the
affluence of that "vine which bears the wine of
life, the human heart."  We take this to our lips
to-night, and years difappear, and the youth that is
ideal and immortal within the foul is ours.  Why
is it that the long interval fince we graduated
feems now fo fllort?. Is it not in part from the
fad that whatever is monotonous and drudging in
life, however long and weary in paffing, feems
fhort in retrofped, from  lack of falient points;
whilft the happier portion of our experience has




102             Student Life.
been fo various with kind affetions and bright
thoughts, as to cheer us with pleafant viftas that are
too charming to feem lengthened; and thus the
winning pidure of our joys throws into the backs
ground the landmarks of our grief and difappointments, as mountain peaks flafihing in funlight rife
above the long and weary roads?  Does not the
interval alfo feem fhort becaufe no portion of our
life is fo deeply marked upon us as our youth; and
we middle-aged men, with fobme little inclination
towards the fhady fide of the hill, feem to ourfelves
and to each other what we ufed to be; and as we
meet together here we are boys once more-old
boys, perhaps, yet boys indeed.  We are to each
other like palimpfeft manufcripts to the pradtifed
fcholar. The world has been writing many infcriptions upon us, yet the firft is deepeft and inefaceable; and beneath all there marks of time and care
we can read the dear old cypher of our early love
and joy.  To each other we feem not as we do to
the world, and to us the words and looks and air
that the crowd do not notice open whole volumes
of remembrance.




Our Silver Feftival            103
OUR CLASS.
It was mny lot to give the Clafs Oration in 1832,
and this fafd has probably led the Clafs Committee,
with the concurrence of an informal meeting laft
year, to aflk me to write fomething for this meeting
of the clafso I would cheerfully take any needed
pains to fulfil the duty properly, yet it has feemed
to me not fo well to give an elaborate oration on
fome literary fubjed at this feafon, when orations are
a deluge and rhetoric is a drug, as to give fome
familiar reminifcences that may ferve as a memorial
of our clafs. To ourfelves this occafion belongs, and
let'" Our Clafs" be the fubjel.  To us "' Our Clafs"'
is tie one clafs; and without afking others to fhare
the feeling, we will take it for granted, as all lovers
and friends do, that we are <fpecially interefting to
ourfelves, and that we can goffip about ourfelves
none the lefs pleaiantly becaufe we do not now care
one ftraw whether other people are thinking of us
or not. Since the year 1642 a clais has annually
graduated from Harvard, with the exception of five
years, or 1644-48-72-82-88, fo that 21o  fets of
graduates call old Harvard their mother, and each
fet in its own way has kept up more or lefs of clafs




101              Student Life.
feeling.  All honor to the other 209 claffes, from
the year 1642 to 1857. All honor to their members, living or dead. Yet, taking the fame liberty
that we refpect in them, we ftand up for our own
good fellows, and the Clafs of 1832 is Our Clafs.
I fuppofe that each clafs has fomething peculiar
in its compofition and hiftory, and that without
arrogance we may claim a certain fpeciality to ourfelves.  We entered college at a marked time, and
had charafterifcics quite our own.  In our Frefliman
year Prefident Quincy was inaugurated, and his
adminiidration began a new era in the college annals,
by bringing into its financial management more
fecular enterprife, and connecting with the eftablifhed round of claflic fludies more of the fcience
and art that are concerned with the world's daily bufinefs. If in our new prefident we miffed Something
of the evangelical fimplicity and paitoral affectionatenefs fo charadteriftic of the long line of clerical
Prefidents, we found in him great energy in affairs,
and far lefi of the hardnefs of the magiftrate in dealing out discipline to acknowledged offenders, than the
ragacity of the fdatefman in ferreting out the offence.
Sometimes he could, perhaps, have won us more
heartily to Sfudy and obedience by appealing more to




Our Silver Feftival.         105
our enthufiafm and good will; but we have all now
learned to look to him as a father, and we had in our
Prefident a magnificent example of manly energy
and health, of public fpirit, which made our welfare
his own, and of fterling humanity, which has never
given better proof of itfelf than in his old age, fo
facred to the liberty and order that have always been
deareft to the true fons of Harvard from the beginning. Honor, all honor to Quincy, now Old Quincy,
in the facred fenfe which no naughty Sophomore
would dare to name with levity. In having him
for our Prefident, we did not lofe good old Dro
Ware, who had prefided till the clofe of our Frefil
man year, and who preached and prayed for us
afterwards, as before, nurturing in us the love of all
good men, whatever be their creed, and in the
pulpit and the recitation-room, alike by the flake
of his head and the balance of his opinions, fymbol
izing his charaderiftic defire to appreciate all fides
of a queftion, and to be juft to every man. Peace
to his fpirit! The memory of the juft is bleffedo
THE RAW MATERIAL IN 1828.
To write the hiftory of Our Clafs from the firit
to the laft of our undergraduate days, would be
6




106              Student Life.
nothing lefs than to write out the charaders that
we brought with us to College, and the influences
that ated upon us there, or to defcribe our feveral
individualities, that were the raw material, and the
College experiences that worked us into fhape.
This tafl I will not attempt, but muft be content
with a paffing glance at ourfelves and at our fofter
mother in our days of tutelage.  We were feventytwo ftrong on entering College; and if any of us
ever need an illuftration of the boundlefs variety of
the human race, whether in looks, talent, or dispofition, let him remember the lwzei of our clafs —lzen, I
fay, for we were all more eager to be called fb when
Frefllmen, and hardly efcaped the days of fllort
jackets, than when Seniors, and frightened at the
refponfibilities which go in the train of "1 fwallows
tails."' We were in fome refpedits known, and in
fome refpeds unknown quantities.  Part of our
nature was like the a b c of mathematics, amply
defined, whilft another part was like the unknown
x y z, whofe fignificance was to be defined by folving the problem of life in the fchool of books and
experience. As we look back upon ourfelves as
we were in 1828, when we entered College, thefe
unknown quantities appear to us as then they could




Our Silver Feftival.          107
not appear, and the great revelations of life have
been developing the unknown from  the known.
We were of all ages, from 14 to 24; of all fizes,
from little F. and B. to big R. and D.; of all comrn
plexions, from cherry-cheeked boys, with chins as
fmooth as their fifers', to fwarthy men, with beards
like pards; of all expreffions, from the humorous
face, that was in itifelf a fong or joke, to the ferious
vifage, that was fit promife of a fermon, and a good
fermon, too; of all fancies, from the floven, who
preferred a dirty fhirt to a clean one, to the born
dandy, on whom an old coat looked as good as
new; of all taftes, from him who organized the
Smoking Club, to him  who organized a prayer=
meeting; of all talents, from him who gave pradical
illucrations of the law of explofives, as if to afcero
tain how the world would be moft effedually den
ftroyed, to him who devoted himrelf, not without
good fuccefs, to the moral intruction and reform
of us all, with the hope of building up the New
Jerufalem out of fuch heterogeneous materials. In
fad, thofe feventy-two youths were a univerfity in
themfelves; and by clubbing our various gifts
together, we might have undertaken in due time to
perform almoft any given tafk, whether in language,




108               Student Life.
literature, mathematics, fcience, art, ufeful or beautiful, profaic or poetic, mechanical or mufical, tragic
or comic, in ethics, metaphyfics, or theology. We
were, indeed, put generally upon nearly the fame
courfe of ftudies; yet we very Ibon filowed our
individual preferences for favorite branches; whilft
a few, with fingular independence of mind, exhibited
decided averfion to all the regular ftudies, and fell
back upon our primeval inftints and intuitions, with
an utter contempt for academic diplomas. It would
be an interefting matter to trace out the effed of our
previous Schooling and affociations upon our C6-l
lege ftudies and habits.  With fome of us cliques
and taftes came with us to College that remained
with us during the whole four years, and have not
left us yet. Such affociations as are formed in boyhood cannot but ad upon youth; and probably the
Boflton and Salem influence was a great element in
our clafs.  Bofton, from its Latin fchool, fent a hoft,
headed by J. S. D., whofe face here to-night keeps
all the ideal promiife of its genial prime; and Salem
fent almoft a fcore, headed by C. T. B., the clafs
pet, and to-night our poet, whom all our petting,
inftead of fpoiling, makes more lovable than ever.
Other places contributed memorably to our variety




Our Silver Feftival.         109
of charafer and fcholarllip, but of these various
cliques, of the many individualities that brought to
us the idiofyncrafies of quiet homes and lonely
iludies, I cannot treat in detail.
The dividing line between mental aptitudes is
probably drawn at.firf more decidedly by the prep
diledion either for language or mathematics than by
any other tedfs, although a few minds excel in
both; and in the later feafon of college life a
iomewhat fimilar line is drawn between phyfics and
metaphyfics. As a clafs we were probably more
marked for our tafte for language and literature,
and at lad for metaphyfics, than fbr mathematics
and exad fcience.  We ftudied the Latin and
Greek  quite tolerably, and not a few were willing
to make pedefirian journeys into the claffic regions
without the help of horfe or pony, whild we carried a decided enthufiaiin into the modern lane
guages, and perhaps made a new era in the academic
ftudy of Germano  With us, I believe, the ftudy of
the Portuguefe at Cambridge originated, and Dr.
Bachi certainly dedicated his Portuguefe Grammar
to the little band of claffmates who fiudied with
him the great epic of Camoens. There was, indeed,
a decidedly philofophical tendency in our clafs, but




110 tO            Student Life.
it was given more fondly to moral and metaphyfical
than to mathematical or fcientific fubjeds.  Even
the more fcientific minds of the clafs took more to
pradical fubjects, fuch as natural hiflory, eledricity,
and the like, than to abftract fcience; and far more
volunteer zeal was given to infeas, frogs, and magnets, than to the calculus and eclipfes. The higher
mathematics, indeed, had enthufiaftic votaries among
us, and the auguft mifflon of all the exact fciences
was acknowledged in our ftudies and debates, yet
our clafs fpecialities were not mainly in that direct
tion.
OUR TEACHERS.
We had, on the whole, an excellent corps of
teachers to reprefent the magnificent treafure of
humanities confided to the keeping of the Univerfity, and their names fpeak volumes of experience
more or lefs favored.  The chief and moft of them
have gone, and of thefe we think only tenderly,
grateful for what they did for us and bore with in
us; too grateful for their good fervice to be revere
upon their infirmities, if fuch they had.  Hedge,
Willard, Ware, Channing, Popkin, Follen, Sales,




Our Silver Feftival.           111
Bachi, Farrar, Nuttall, and others have palled away,
whilft others who taught us have gone into other
profeffions or retired into private life) such as Ticks
nor, Giles, Hillard, Sweetfer, Beck.  Only two of
the old academic corps now remain, and our old
tutors, Felton and Pierce, now head the lift of profeffors, fit interpreters of Homer and Newton ftillo
We owe fomething to all our teachers, and much
to moft of them.  We all learned not a little under
their inftruction, and might have learned a great
deal more, ifE we had made better ufe of our time
and opportunities.  Yet in juftice we may make
two remarks as to the bearings of the ftated infiruction upon our ftudy and chararler.  In the firft
place, we may juftly regret that more was not done
to quicken our own minds by the teacher's perfonal
influence, inftead of confining us fo exclufively to
the formal recitation of the contents of the text=
books; and, moreover, that in addition to the
teachers of fpecial branches, there was not fome
general fuperintendent or advifer to watch over the
progrefs and defeds of our general culture, and
give us wholefome hints as to the way of making
the beft ufe of ourfelves for tne College term and
for the great lifeworko  It may alfo be faid with




112             Student Life.
entire juftice that, much as was done to educate
us, we did a great deal to educate ourselves, and
that no portion of our college experience has been
of more pradical value to us than that which we
worked out for ourfelves.  In fad, the formation of
charader, which is a more vital matter than the
acquifition of knowledge, depends chiefly upon
the influence of companions upon each other; and,
from the firft, by our manly fports and our good
fellowfhip, our cenfures and favor, we were doing
much to fllape our difpofitions and purpofes.
Undoubted good came from fome collifions that
were painful to us at firft, and thofe of us who
came from retired homes, the timid pets of fond
kindred and friends) have caufe to be grateful that
fo much nonienfe was taken out of us by pradical
jokes and rough fports that are now more pleafant
in remembrance than in the time of our perhaps
tearful experience. But we, as a clafs, were remarkable for perfiftent and fomewhat fyftematic methods
of ading upon each other.  The faculty more
important than any other to the public men of
America, the faculty of extempore fpeaking, -was
regularly cultivated by voluntary Societies; and in
addition to the old line of eftablifiled inftitutions, we




Our Silver Feftival.          113
flarted one of our own, the Harvard Union, which
was open to all who fought its privileges, and
which abounded in debaters and debates that were
the talk of the whole college, and whofe influence
many of us have had caufe to blefs throughout our
whole profeffional life.  Not a few amufing reminifcences:-art up at the name of Harvard Union,
and none of us can forget the itudied efflorefcence
of one ambitious afpirant for the rhetorical palm,
and the unbounded adtmiration with which the
fomewhat jocofe grandiloquence of our handfome
claffiate T., which was received with a goods
natured fmile by moft of us, was greeted by one
enthufiaftic hearer, who predicted for the orator the
firft prizes of popular favor.  In one fenfe, at leaft,
the prophecy is correde; and if the largeft letters on
the Catalogue imply the largeft fame, our friend T.
has won the palm.t  With thefe regular debates we
name the informal talks and difcuffions that were
fo frequent in our rambles and in our rooms, upon
fubjedrs of all forts, but tending decidedly towards
the higher queftions of human duty and deftiny.
We value thefe conversations for their occafional
fun as well as for their frequent ferioufnefs; and I
really believe that whilft we owe much to the
6*




114              Student Life.
thoughtful men who turned our minds fo often to
high moral and religious topics, we are alfo much
indebted to the funny men who fihook the dyfpepfia
out of us, by fhaking our diaphragms with wholefome laughter, and helped us purge our faith of
the too frequent cant by their genial humor. For
one, I am very grateful to the comedians of our
clafs, and I verily believe that their merry fongs
and ftories were moft valuable fanatives to body
and to mind.
CATHOLICITY.
One trait in the charader of our clafs is especially
noteworthy. We had one kind of fraternal largenefs or catholicity that is not ufual in college-a
catholicity that was willing to allow every man the
liberty of his own honeft opinions, and not difpoied
to force its own itandard of ftridnefs or freedom
upon all others.  With us this liberty took a peculiar form, from the predominance of claffmates deftined for the clerical profeffion. Thefe minds, from
their number and charaCter, were probably more
influential than any other portion of the clafs, and
they received cordially from others a decided encouragement, not general in undergraduate life, to fpeak




Our Silver Feftival.          115
out their convidions frankly and fully, without being
lneered at or difparaged in any way.  As one of
thofe who early made choice of the clerical profeif
fion, I muft exprefs gratitude to the clafs for their
treatment of us, not only for not difparaging a prod
feflion that feems ufually more fpedral than fpiritual to gay youth, but for not being unmerciful
towards the perfonal failings, of which fome of us
were not unconfcious, and which needed much difcipline to prevent them  from interfering with the
proper fpirit of our chofen calling.  If the theolo=
gical portion of the clafs have caufe of gratitude for
fuch toleration and forbearance, it muft be remembered that, with hardly an exception, they tried to
deferve it by their own candor and charity. They
tried to have religion without cant or aufterity, and
were generally too confcious of their own defeds to
be unfparing in cenfure of the errors of others.
The catholicity thus fliown in one diredion was
quite general in its application, and it is a very
pleafant thing to remember the various taftes and
talents that had their accredited reprefentatives
among us, and the many lines of fpecial fudy not
demanded by the college fyftem, but which won for
the adepts in them  quite as much refped from us




116              Student Life.
as for the itudies that decided the fcale of college
rank.  That fcale was never popular with us, partly
becaufe unmindful of fuch Ipecialities. Almoft every
claffmate had fomething noteworthy, and the trite
E Plzriibzls Uenzim,9 by which General Jackfon is faid
to have won his LL.D. from  our hofpitable Alma
Mater, was well illufdrated in the unity and the
variety of our clafSo  From  many we were and are
one, and never was the fadt more clear than from
this genial meeting of all profeffions to-night.
JHANTGE S IN COLLEGE LIFEo
We changed much alike in members and in
development of character during our undergraduate
years.  A confiderable number left us, and more
joined us.  Of thofe who left us, fix were removed
by death, and their names fhould be fpoken of
affedionately here to-night-Bradford, Hodges, Peters, Rantoul, Treadwell, BWelch.  Each of theik
might fitly have a ifecial word; but I name paiticularly the two who were in our fetion-Peters, a
man of confiderable humor, great flrewdnefs, and
with not a little genuine fellowflhip under his awkward exterior; and Rantoul, a quiet, fenfible, genial,




Our Silver Feitival.         117
lovable fellow, whofe lamenefs feemed to fweeten
infead of fouring him, and who made up by the
playful freedom of his tongue for the want of as
ready locomotion in his limbs.  fie was a quiet and
kindly philofopher in his way, and not inaptly called
"Cool Sam."  Thefe, and the whole fix who died
before we graduated, we remember as part of our,
felves.
The changes in developments of charader were
quite memorable during our four years together.
This lapie of time, at that feafon of life, is marked
in the phyfical conftitution by making men of boys,
and it is quite as decidedly marked by its tranfitiort
from boyifh gaiety to manly thoughtfulnefs.  There
were great differences in the ufe made by different
claffinates of their time and talents, and there is probably not one of us who does not regret fomething
that he did or failed to do in college.  But on the
whole, as a clafs, we vafily improved, and a praEtical,
earneft, manly fpirit won more and more power
over us as the years went on.  Undoubtedly there
was much in our experience which we each kept to
ourfelves-some pinches of hard fortune, fits of
gloom, affaults of temptation, gufts of paffion, as
well as vifitations of interior peace-that we did




118              Student Life.
not care to tell to others. Yet in the main we
were a tranfparent fet of fellows, and probably knew
each other's failings and virtues tolerably well; and
we found enough of the bright fide predominating
to make us like each other better than is ufual with
comrades of a four years' voyage, and to part in
hearty good will, with hope of many genial reunions.
We fang " Auld Lang Syne" together as we parted;
and if there was or has been fince any bad blood
between any of our claffmates, or if there was any
fuch then, I have not known it, and am fure that
no bad blood beats in any of our hearts as we fing
that good old fong to-night.
THE TWENTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE GRADUATING.
And now, claffmates, here we are, after twentyfive years of our graduation-years given to very
different purfuits, and demanding very different
labors from thofe of our college courfe.  VWe have
had to ftudy, not text-books, but men and thingsthofe volumes that are always changing, never complete, and as icattered and fragmentary, yet as full
of meaning, as the Sybil's leaves. We have had to
ftudy thefe, moreover, not fo much with a ready




Our Silver Feftival.         119
memory and a glib tongue, as with pracical fenfe
and energetic will. It was a hard ordeal to go
through in this tranfition; and fome, who were
good recitation fcholars, did not ftand fo well the
world's ftern crofs-queftions, and found that many
important leffons had to be learned over again.
Probably all of us fuffered much in beginning the
world for ourfelves, and we found the water colder
than we expeced before we took the plunge.  Yet
the reidion was equal to the ation, if we only had
ftrength to bear it, and our belt experience has come
to us in the fchool of praCtical ufefulnefs. Many
things have proved otherwife than we thought, and
probably moft of us have had difappointments, both
agreeable and difagreeable, as affairs have gone
better or worfe than we expected. There have
been in both diredions unlooked for developments
of charater and fortune, as we have compared
refults with early promifes. It is clear to us that
force of charaCter has done for our-men more than
mere book-learning, and that life is not graduated on
the fcale of academic rank.  It is clear that circumftance is a mighty element in fuccefs, and that the
men who have had the moft brilliant career will be
the laft to claim  to themfelves all the honor for




120                Student Life.
opportunities denied to other men as deferving as
themnielveso  Our clafs has furnifhed its fair fiare
of notables, whether ufeful or ornamental; its lawyers, dodlors, clergymen, merchants, farmers9 naturalifis, poets, authors, critics, editors, profeffors, lece
turers, and judges. Perhaps fome of our men who
are leaft confpicuous have had their full fhlare of
fuccefs, in the large meafure of real good that they
have enjoyed and helped others to enjoy.  Of the
confiderable number who have died during the
quarter century, moft of them  had as good a profped of health and life as we, the furvivors; and as
we name their names*j we cannot but think tenderly of them, as having been ftruck by the fatal
filafts to which we were all expofed, and fallen, perhaps, in our Rtead. It is quite remarklable that our
moft robuft claffmate, Huntington, was firft to die.
Of the dead of our clafs, fome of confpicuous mark
quite furprifed our expedation either by developments of charadter or pofition; and it is not invidious to name two whofe career was little in accordance with their early promife.
e Adams 1, Adams z, Cleveland, Glover, Gibbs, Huntington,
Liggett, Manning, Pentland, Perkins, Phipps, Ropes, Richardfon,
Simmons, Stark, Walker, Weit, Worce~2ero




Our Silver Feffivalo         1I2
One of the moft jocofe,  elaftic of the whole
clafs-a character of whom I could tell many
amufing fiories-fell a vidim to melancholy; and
although maiter of wealth, had at laft little ability
to enjoy it.  We may remember affeftionately his
great contributions to our amufement and our good
fellowfllip, and over his grave learn anew our dependence upon health for good fpirits, whilft we
pray to be fpared the malady that wrecked his joy.
The other claffinate to be named is he who, of all
the others, had promife of' the moft brilliant career.
He wvas preeiminently our beft fpeaker, as well as a
fine fcholar and an exquifite writer; and if the
general vote of' our thoughtful men had been taken
at graduating, the moit fhining career, as a public
fpeaker, would have been afligned to Simmons.
He had fuccefs, indeed, the bed fuccefs, that of a
true man, fincere, profound, humane, and devout;
and he whofe fomewhat crabbed temper and confti
tutional referve fometirnes difpleafed us, deferves
the name of faintly piety and felf-facrificing virtue
as much as any man of our fellowlfhip.  Yet he
did not fucceed, as was expe&ed, in popular oratory
and public fame.  Perhaps the caufe of his come
parative ineffecdivenefs was partly in the want of'




122             Student Life.
focial fympathy that we noted of old; and in life,
as in College, he failed to touch the hearts of the
many, becaufe more engroffed with abflract thoughts
and individual experiences, than in fympathy with
the common affetions and convitions of men, and
living in a world of his own quite as much when
fpeaking and talking to the people as in his own
private walk or ftudy. Yet upon not a few who
knew him  beft, he had great and good influence,
and by his beft friends no man among us was more
revered than he.  I name him affeCtionately and
gratefully to-night.  He did much for us all in
college by his beautiful elocution, exquifite tafte,
and fpotlefs charaCer.  In after years, we, who
knew him focially and profeffionally, honored him
as never before.  Two years ago, a few weeks
before his death, I met him on his flow and painful
journey homeward towards Concord, and joined
another friend in carrying Simmons in our arms
from the Itation to the cars, the once flout and
elaftic frame, ftronger than mine, now feeble as a
child's~ His fuccefs was not of this world's giving,
and of him we may fay tenderly and humbly, as
we compare his rewards with his merits, " The race
is not to the fwift, nor the battle to the ftrong, nor




Our Silver Feftivalo        123
riches to men of underftanding."  Peace be with
him, and with all who with him have gone fiom us
to the unfeen abodes.
THE FUTURE.
And now, claffmates, it is time to clofe there
curfory retrofpedions, and let our paft fpeak for
itfelf in our prefent fellowfhip. Twenty-five years
have gone, and taken with them moft of the ftruggle
and opportunity of our earthly career. Fifty years
after graduating is as long a leafe of life as any of
us may expedc, and more than any confiderable
number of us can have. Half of that fifty years
has pafied, and the fecond half brings us to or
beyond the threefcore and ten allotted to man.
Let us not mourn over this inevitable neceffity, but
thank God for the good that we have enjoyed, and
not doubt that more good is in fiore foir us and for
all dear to us. Thank God that we have enjoyed
fo much together for the twenty-nine years fince
we firft met as fchoolboys, and learned to fay "Our
Claf's" We cannot deny that we have attained a
very ferious age, and many of us have recorded the
pafiage of events by witneffes more living and cons
fpicuous than the dates of the Catalogue or Clafs



124              Student Life.
book.  Let us not believe, however, that a ferious
age is of necefifty a gloomy one, but rather take it
for granted that the longer we live the better we
ought to know how to live, and fo win the beft
good of nature, man, and God.  Our bloffoming
time is pall, yet even this vernal joy we have anew
in our children, for they are our bloffoms; and,
moreover, our true fruittime has come or is coming
the bleffed autumn, that is richefi in deep tints, and
precious harvefts, and prophetic hopes.  God grant
to us an autumn full of fruit fair and nourifhling,
fo as to take from wintry age its terrors. Let us help
each other in this cheerful view, and whenever we
meet together, as now, find our wildom and firength
as much enlarged as our joy.  Let us always, as we
imreet, read over the names of our Catalogue affectionately, noting all good traits generoufly, and
treating faults in others as we wilh our faults to be
treated by them. When another twenty-five years
have gone, and a little band of Septuagenarians
gather together to celebrate our Golden Anniverfary,
let them dand manfully by the old faith and fellowflip, and pledge each other genially, as we do now:
To our Clafs-to the health of the living-to
thie memory of the dead —to all of our Clafs.




Paft and Prefent.           125
Xi.
PAST AND PRESENT.
FOR THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS
(AT HARVARD) OF 1832.
BY REVO C. T. BROORSS
PHow beautiful the feet
That, from manhood's dufty track,
To the green and fhaded feat
Of the Mufes haften back-'To Learning's, Friendfhlip's, 1Metnory's honor'd
fhrine 
Fromri the race-gr6und's heat and toll
How gratefully they turnFrom the battle-ground's turmoil
To thy ftillnefs how they yearn;
Auld Lang Syne!
Their Delphi's clafic fount
In thy tranquil realm they find



126             Student Life.
Their Zion's hallowed mountTheir " Mecca of the mind" —
The Sepulchre, the Altar, and the Urn:
Calm and holy is the airFrefhI and holy is the groundDeathlefs garlands breathe around,
And vigil-torches there
Ever burn.
Thus, Brothers, come we now
Our ancient home to greet,
And, with penfive, reverent brow,
To lay at Wifdom's feet
Our votive gift in Thought's memorial hall:
WTe heard the ghoftly breeze,
With a low-voiced mufic moan,
Through old Harvard's quivering trees,
And there breathed a mother's tone
In the call.
We come the fcenes to trace
Of happy, youthful daysEach well-remembered place
Of ftudies, walks, and playsBut ah, the change! " Ah, fields beloved in vain!"




Pail and Prefent.            127
How near and yet how far
That picture fair doth feem!
So fiines an evening flar
~With foftened fummer gleam
O'er the plain.
Alas, the fleeting years!
Remembrance! blifsful pain!
What though thy bitter tears,
Like drops of latter rain,
O'er graves of days and joys departed fall i
On life's autumnal mouldThe duft of Memory's deadThe burning tears grow cold;
No fhower the fpring that fled
Can recall.
Yet tiZs the fpirit cheersThis pearl, from dark depths won:
Though built of memory's tears,
In life's declining fun,
Fair fign of Hope an evening rainbow yields.
Though Time may ne'er reftore
Full many a form and faceThe loved and loft of yoreTransfigured, they fhllall grace
Holier fields!




128              Student Life.
Not gloomy, then) though fad,
We turn our pilgrim-feet,
With lofty faith made glad.
To this reverend retreat,
Peopled with holy dead, that die no more,
Meet is it, we to-day,
In the world's difIrating ftrife,
Should paufe upon our way,
And the voice of death and life
Ponder o'ern
Five times five years have fled
Since the warm midfummer night,
Now numbered with the dead,
Yet warm in memory's light,
When, with youth's and mufic's wild, commingling
swell,
Till the ceiling's echoes rang,
And the agitated air.Made the very tapers flare,
Our laft vows and hopes we fangAnd farewell!
And we felt a nameless thrill,
As the parting hour drew nigh,




Paft and Prefento           129
Our eyes and bofoms fill,
When the night-wind's plaintive figh
Bore away the dying accents of our chorus 
" We are breaking the laft ties,Brothers, clarfmates, with the dawn
Of the morrow we are gone,
And Life's broad ocean lies
All before us "
Five times five years have fledSunmler fun and winter fnow
Five and twenty times have flied
On the cheek the dark brown glow,
And fireaked the hair with lines of filver grey —
And a thinned and walted band,
From the fields and flood of life,
Scathed by ftorm and fcarred by firife,
At the trumpet-call we ftand
Here to-day.
In the claflic days of yore,
As each fifth year came round,
Her children counting o'er,
Through the cleanfed city's bound
Kept holy time our ancient mother Rome.
~With us the faithful fun,




130             Student Life.
Commander of the fphere,
Through lufirums five hath run,
And this moit folemn year
Calls us home!
We feek our boundary-itones,
A band of comrades true,
Old Harvard's loyal fons,
To keep with honors due,
Our year of numbering and of purifying;
To call the blotted roll,
Our miffing ones to tell,
And mourn for them that fell,
Whofe memory in the foul
Bides undying.
And while the fitoried wall
Memorial tablets grace,
In thought's heaven-lighted hall
A high and facred place
Shall many a votive tablet alfo find:
Faith's pious incenfe there
And gratitude's clear fire
Shall purify the air
And from every bafe defire
Cleanfe the mind.




Pait and Prefento           131
What mingling fmniles and tearsWhat lights and glooms flit faft
O'er the picture, as the years
Of the glumbering dreamy paft
From the magic circle fdart again to life;And again, a boyiftl band,
With elatfic fiep, we tread
A claffic, mythic land,
Trained by fage and hero dead
For the ifrife!
Alas! no more on earth,
That Friendfllip fhllall be found!
The mufic and the mirth
That charmed for us this ground,
And drew down heaven fo near us, —all is o'er!
No lmore, as then, we'll mneet
In chamber, hall, or grove, —
No more take counfel iweet,
Nor in free, fond converfe rove, —
Nevermore!
Another lot was ours,
For tz:is wzas notouIr r/e:7
Not in theie fading bowers
The foul can find her nefd;




132              Student Life.
Man's Eden lies beyond the bounds of earth.
In this harbor's green retreat
Piped the wind one fummer-morn,
And, like leaves by whirlwinds torn,
On life's ocean was our fleet
Scattered forth.
And fome whofe hopes were high
In that morning's frefhening breeze,
And who faw, with kindling eye,
Proud havens o'er the feas,
Ere  noon  have  funk  beneath  the  "' envious
furge."
The wind that, favoring, blew,
And the trumpet-fignal gave,
As their pennon feaward flew,
Already o'er their grave
Sings the dirge,
And, fellow-pilgrims, ye
Who, fpared the untimely fate,
Still ride or ftem the fea,
Or, in fome port, await
The fignal-call of Him who fits on high, —Say, does the folemn paft




Paft and Preflnt,          133
Sound on in memory's ear
Like Duty's trumpet-blafti
With warning and with cheer,
From the flky 2
The paft, it is not deadIt lives, in memory, ftill;
Though the outer form hath fled,
Yet the inner fenfes thrill
To the vifion and the voice of days gone by,
Gone by? ah no-not gone,
But, like the world of night,
Unfeen in day's bold light,
For ever following on,
Ever nigh.
Our loved and loft ones rife
In glory from the duft,The gentle and the wife,
The faintly and the juft,
Teacher revered, true friend and trufted guide;
And heavenly is their talk,
And on the tranquil brow
Beams heavenly radiance now,
~While, as of old, they talk
At our fide,




134               Student Life.
Yes, from its place of old,
Though youth's fair world is gone,
Like morning's web of gold
Froim the dew-befpangled lawn,
The pail is ours-no more to pafs awayIts pleafures and its pains,
Each glory and defeat,
Its loffes and its gains,
The bitter and the fweet,
Ours for aye!
Each generous dream of youth
That bade us wage, through iife,
For virtue, right, and truth
Heroic, holy ftrife;
Each earneft ftruggle of the better will;
Each heavenly defire,
Each wife and lofty thought,
Each fpark of manly fire
From faint, fage, warrior caught,
Nerves us fRill.
Nor yet with us abide
Thefe angels bright, alone -
Clofe follow at our fide,
With fad, yet tender tone,




Paft and Prefent.           1835
And with reproachful, not refentful brow,
Scorned Wifclom, flighted Age,
And Time negleEced, too,Thefe, frorn a higher page,
Kind monitors and true,
Teach us now.
This moral ends my rhyme:
Claffmates who ftill muit learn,
In this great fchool of time,
Full many a leffon ftern,One Friend-one Teacher-bides when all is paft.
On Him and for Him waitTill, at the fignalcall,
Through that myfterious gate,
To higher forms we all
Rife at laft!




136              Student Life.
THE USE OF TIME.
TIME is furely one of the chief gifts of man, and
the condition of ufing every other rational gift.
All his plans are bafed upon its duration, and when
he cannot reckon upon the paft or the future, his
world is chaos or his reafon is gone.'We cannot
ufe a verb or do a thing without expreffing or implying the idea of time.  Thought itfelf is bound
up with that idea, for what is memory without a
paft, and what is judgment without a prefent and
future? Time is man's beft external property, for
by its ufe in enterprife he wins the belt external
goods, and by its ufe in Spiritual wifdom he makes
external goods yield laiftng harvefts of interior
blefling.  Wifely faid the poetTime is my eftate, my dukedom is time.
Let us meditate upon this poffeflEon now.  That
we may not go affray in our views of the true ufe




The Ufe of Time.             137
of time let us take a preliminary glance at its nature
that we learn at leaft to note its palfage wifely.
WVhat is time i? Does any one fay that the queftion
is too fimple to be aflied, and everybody knows
what it is? It is precifely thefe fimple queftions
that are hardeft to anfwer, becaufe they treat of
ultimate fads that cannot be fimplified. One of the
deepeft thinkers, St. Auguitine, I believe it was,
once flaid, If you do not afl me what time is, I
know; but the moment you alk me, I know nothing
about it. True it is that we have a kind of intuitive fenfe of time that is difturbed, like everything
intuitive, by attempts to define it. Yet the attempt
may remove fome errors that may ftand in the way
of the intuitive idea.
It is furely a great error to confound time itfelf
with any chofen meafure of its duration. We look
at the clock and tell the time by its dial to our
great convenience.  But the hands that tell the
hour do not make, but merely meafure it, and time
would pafs on absolutely the fame in itfelf, if no
clocks had been ever made, or all that have been
made fhould be broken. The cunning mechanifin
but imitates the motion of the great dial of the
heavens, and even this dial only meafures and does




138              Student Lifeo
not make time.  Let the fun be darkened or let
the earth ceafe her rotation, and Icill there would be
duration of fome kind, and therefore time.  The
very faCt that things exidi, and continue either in
motion or in reft, implies duration, and how can
there be duration without tirme?
We are compelled, therefore, to take the ground
that time is one of the efiential fads of exitence
and forms of thought.  What its eSfential nature is
we do not prefume to fay, but are content to leave
it among the ultimate truths of exiitence, where we
leave all abfolute ideas. Owning the limitation
of our underitanding in the quarter tranfcending its
fearch, we are all the more ready to ufe it in its
rightful fphere, and to decide upon the true praCtical
meafure of time. Whatever gives the beIt idea of
duration gives us praCtically the belt idea of time,
and carrying out this principle we add at once an
inward meafure of its paffage to the ufual outward
dtandard. Not fatisfied to mark duration by the
fun or the clock, which note the hours alike over a
dferile defert and a growing garden, or over a
befotted fluggard and a thoughtful worker, we afk
for ifonme better chronicle of what is paffing under
the heavens.  What chronicle can we have but




The Ufe of Time.               139
that which marks the interior events of exiftence,
and makes the life the light of the world.  Af-nk  ill
what is the hour of the day, and what things transpire within its period; but aflr alfo what is the hour
in the interior kingdom, and what thoughts, affections, purpofes, make up its moments.  Can ye not
watch with me one hour, laid our Saviour to his
difciples who had fallen afleep in the garden of his
agony. The hour paffed the fame indeed, if meat
fured by the ftars, with the mafter and the diiciple;
but oh, how different if meafured by the torpid brain
of the wearied fleeper, and the intenfe fpiritual life
of Him then fo ftruggling with the powers of darkl
nefs and winning angels to his fide.  Learn then to
mark tilme by the current of life as well as by the
fucceffion of hours.  Without the dial, thought
may be vague and dreamy for want of a fpecific
meafure, but without the eftimate of thought the
dial is a fhallow guide, telling how the ftream paffes
without telling us the depth of its volume or the
wealth within or upon its waters.
"' Dark flood of time!
Roll as it lifreth thee. I meafure not
By months or moments thy ambiguous courfe.
The fenfe of love,




14()               Student Life.
The thirfi for aa6ion and the impaflioned thought
Prolong my being: If I wake no more
My life more a6lual living will contain
Than fome gray veteran of the world's cold fchool,
Where lifilefs hours unprofitably roll
By one enthufiaft feeling unredeemed.o"
Learning thus to meafure time alike by the fucceffion of thought and the paffage of hours, we next
alk what is the duty of man as a fubjed of time.
It is clear that there muit be a fpecific and important relation between the human conititution and
the vail and myiterious element in which it lives
and moves.  Both fides of our nature are alike concerned in it-both the active and the pafive fphere.
If time is mneafured by the fucceffion of things, it
calls us either to ation or to reig to work or to
wait, according as the fucceffion of things is to be
brought to pafs by our effort or to come to pafs of
itfelf   Here then the two great time-virtues open
upon us-enterprife and patience;  the one bidding
us do what we can to fet the times right-the other
bidding us abide calmly the times that are beyond
our control.  He  is a wife and trong man who
looks well to each duty and u-fes his'time with
enterprife and patience.




The Ufe of Timeo            141
WVho of us can afford to flight either of these?
What man can afford to be idle and allow his
facred heritage to run to wafte?  Are there not
twelve hours in the day, and does not the very
light in heaven that marks them off tell us in every
gleam, " Work while it is day, for the night comr
eth when no man can work."  Do fomething every
day in the name of Him who loads every hour
with opportunity, for the welfare of a world never
enough bleffed with good works, and for the peace
of your own mind, which is never fo happy as in
bringing fome worthy plan to pafs. Without limib
tation the command to work is binding upon uso
VWe have not all the fame worl to do, but we all
have fome work, and a curfe is upon us when we
try to repudiate it. No perfon has a right to be
idle before God. If a man has ample means and
leifure to withdraw from the general bufinefs of
the world, as is the cafe with fome privileged pern
fons, it is well if he ufes his exemption from tafki
labor to occupy his time with purfuits congenial
with his taftes. But the moment he gives up any
kind of confcientious and fyftematic exertion and
becomes a merely paflfive dependent upon external
excitement, he is a miferable creature, a poor frags




142              Student Life..ment of humanity, an imbecile drone, more falfe
to his divine calling than the verieft drudge whom
he looks down upon with profound contempt.
Men of leifure, in the beft inftances, teach the worth
of labor quite as much as the men of work; for
what greater proof is there of the need of ufeful
occupation than the lives of the moft earneft men
here and  in  Europe, whom  wealth  or fiation
exempts from common toil only to open faill more
firring fields of enterprife and ufefulnefs.  Even
the lives of titled nobles prefent to us the worth of
indufiry and the folly of all manner of idle vagrancy,
whether the vagrancy that loiters the ftreets in rags
or that which daflles along the pavement in jewels,
both extremes flighting faithful effort, and demanding indulgence without any return by fidelity.
Honor to every man who accepts cheerfully his
work in time, and ferves God and his neighbor by
bringing fomething ufeful to pafs —no matter whether he plants feed in the expedation of the harvest
-trains thought for efficient adion —or fets any
worthy plan upon the way to its end. The hours
blefs him as they pafs by, calling out the good that
is in his nature, and bringing to him  Iome meafure
of the good of Providence.




The LUfe of Time.            143
Yet we are not to work always, and even when
we are at work, we learn that many things do not
follow our bidding, and we muft wait upon theirs.
More and more we learn this truth as years interpret to us our own limitation and the force of the
great tide upon which we and all things float.
Our patience is quite as much a meafure of our
wifdom as our enterprife: nay, what folly fcamps
every enterprife which is not begun in the patience
that canr bear delays as well as in the courage that
can dare rifles. Children of time, when we are doing
our bedt we muft wait God's hours for opportunity
in our efpecial aims, and above all our efpecial
aims we muft lean upon him to carry us forward
in the one divine way, which earthly power may
accept but not control. Bleffed is the office of true
patience in relation to time.  Vad is the lofs it
fiuns by keeping for efficient ation the time and
thought Paved from fretting and firuggling againPc
what cannot be helped. Vait is the gain it fecures
by keeping the foul calm before God, accepting the
allotments of his providence, and watching wifely
the leffons of the events which it cannot control.
Are there not twelve hours in the day, faid he who
confecrated them alike by his waiting and his work




144              Student Life.
-whofe crowning facrifice, alike in its ad and its
fufferance, illufirated the worth of time, and leaves
upon its track the alternate footprints of labor and
patience to mark the way of eternal life. Bleffecl
are the hours to us, when calmed by his patience
as well as quickened by his fidelity.
Preienting thus the twofold afped of our duty in
relation to time, we pafs on to confider the method
that can rightly adjuft the two elements, active and
paflive. What can be more pradical than the question-How fiall we beft divide the hours between
working and waiting, or labor and reit    There is
no numerical rule that can appjly to all, for the
power of exertion and the need of repofe differ
widely with different contitutions andmodes of
life. But a general principle may be at once
fiated which can be applied to every cafe. We
may juftly fay that is the true method of dividing the
hours which provides beft for the duties of our pofition, and keeps in modt healthful balance the powers
of our nature.  Let each one confider this principle
for himfelf, for each day, and for the general order
of life.
WVhat have we to do to meet fairly the demands
of our pofition, and how shall we find time for thefe




The Ufe of Time.              145
demands i The order, which is heaven's firft law,
will be found to be a wonderful regulator of the
hours that are marked by heaven's own light. True,
indeed, it is that we cannot wholly command our
time, and much of every acdive man's day is at the
mercy of circumftances beyond his control. This
very fad, infiead of difp.araging method, fhould
confirm it, for a wife man will make fair allowance
for all the expofures of his pofition, and whilft
keeping himfelf ready for cares that come without
his bidding, he will find due time alfo for duties
that wait his attention.  Let every one of us have
a plan for the day, firid enough to bring every!
duty to a fpecific point, and flexible enough to
allow of adjuftment to circumliances —-free alike,
in tihort, from flighty laxity and flavifli  pundilio.
Frame fuch a plan wifely, with the aid of the beft
examples, and in view of our own condition, do
we not find that we have made a great difcovery',
and the hours often fcorned as fo fltort and fleeting'
open to us powers and opportunities beyond which
no gold can purchafe.
The true method will not only rneet our perfonal
duties, but will alfo keep our powers in due and
healthful balance.  In one refpe~d we may under,




146              Student Life
ftand this balance well enough, and the moralift
need not infifc upon the need of a jufit proportion
between the fleeping and the waking hours, although
in city life even this juft balance is fometimes loft,
and people foolifhly fpoil the day's energy by midnight diffipation. But the balance of waking and
fleeping is to a thoughtful man but the loweft form
of a balance that fhtould adjuft the whole life. As we
once read in the great work of Schubert on the foul,
it is but a part of that polarity or harmony of contrails which has its higheft manifeftation in the true
Spiritual life that goes forth in filial obedience and
returns to refrefth itfelf in filial truft, in fhort, in
work and in faith, or in labor and in prayer.  Without purfuing this theme into its higheft Spiritual
fpheres, confider the balance of our nature under
the obvious and pradical relation of toil and recreation, or work-time and paftime. No man ufes time
well, or follows God's manifeft law  who flights
either of thefe elements.  Without toil a man is
a mere drone-without recreation he is a mere
drudge. We work more efficiently for fome play,
and we play more' cheerfully for fome work.'There
are few fubjedfs more important to the health of the
befl minds, and to the very virtue of the nations,




The Ufe of Time.              147
than this falne problem of the balance of worl and
play.  God himfelf bids us ~ferioufly: confider it,
and it will be found that the very laws of our being
urge it upon our thought. It is almoft as great a
matter to know how to play as to know how to
work: in fal, the nature of our work decides the
proper charader of our play.  The guiding principle
is this: that a man's beft recreation conrifis not in
idlenefs, for this beyond a certain limit is an intoleruble burden, and has compelled far more men to
fel~fdeftrut ion than hard work; but his beli recreation confids in fuch adion as refts the faculties that
have been overtaflked, and calls out the faculties
that have been dormant. Children underdand or
rather pradife the true principle better than we
men, who are fo apt to halt between drudging and
droning.  Children let loofe from  fchool, refrefhl
themfelves by letting loofe the buoyant faculties fo
long refrained over their taflks, and kind nature
through their cheerful play develops their frames,
quickens their fenfes, and refrefhes their fpirits.
Where is the man who carries out the fame principle
through life, and does by his reafon what childhood
does by infindin   the man who carries through his
whole life a method of recreation that balances his




148              Student Life.
routine of toil?  This idea would make fociety
generally far more genial, and would give life a
far larger range.  There would be fairer allowance
for what is generally called amufement by the
public, and each man would decide upon his own
amufement in fuch a way as beft to refrefhl and to
quicken his powers. The great law of alternation
would be heeded, and many would find that change
of purfuit is to them the befl play.  When the eye
is dazzled by the yellow fplendor of fome gilded
pageant, it is refreflled not by clofing itfelf, but by
refting upon the blue fky; and when inflamed by
the glare of the reddening fun, it is refrefhed by
turning to the green of the pleafant paftures. The
whole being partakes of this fame law, and every
faculty like the eye demands in its own way a
change, like that of the eye from yellow to blue,
or from red to green.  Imaginative men, weary
with vifions, refrefih themfelves with matters of fad,
like Dante who fought recreation in the exadc
reafonings of Ariftotle, or like Goethe, who went
from his books to the fields, and found playfellows
in the flowers. Men of fcientific refearch find their
refre'flment in the play of the imaginative faculties,
like Galileo, who rejoiced in mufic, or like Kepler,




The Ufe of Time.             149
who leaped ever from  the laws of matter to the
harmonies which they fuggeft.  Men of abftradion
find their play in things concrete, like Leibnitz,
who amufed himfelf with experimenting upon
carriages, or Locke, who bufied himfelf with the
printing art. Statefiten, bufy with men and nations,
love the folace of nature, and, like Cicero, and
almoft all kindred minds, delight in the farm and
the garden. Wife is the man who fo choofes his
play that it refts his mind, refrefhes his fpirits,
enlarges his culture, and fends him back a heartier
worker to the regular labor of his fphere.  He will
in fome way divide his time between what the
ancients called mathematics and mufic, meaning by
mathematics whatever tafls the intelled, and by
mufic whatever fets the faculties into free play
without any tafking.  The ma jeftic name of Jefus
is not defecrated by affociation with this idea.  IHe
who aflked, Are there not twelve hours of the day i
did not frown on the play of childhoods nor the
recreations of men. The very fpirit in which he
faid to his weary difciples, " Sleep on now and take
your reftl, was developed in that facred, yet genial
Chriftian life, which checked the heathen revel only
to cheer with a new fong the hearts of men —-which




150              Student Life.
emptied the Colifeumn of its murderers and heroes
to prepare the way for a purer, brighter, focial
order, which fiall blend wifely labor and recreation
-when the hours fhall follow the path which the
Mafter has opened, and, in recurrent work and play,
as with alternate feet, fiall move their appointed
round. Life will then have its profe fide and its poetic
fide, not hoffile but ever coming nearer harmonyour profy work the braver becaufe of the poetic
fong and vifion, the.poetic play the more true and
joyous becaufe of' the profaic thought and enterprifeo
Thus wifely balanced, the hours not only lead us
to our earthly work and reft, but interpret to us
eternity, by giving us a larger and clearer fenfi of
things immutable as we pafs through the changes
of time. W7ifely has the civilized world changed
the computation of time fince Jefus came.  In
many things the gofpel made a new  era, but in
nothing more decidedly than in opening eternity
into time.  Blefled be the Chriftian HE-ours, not
fleeting, not fad, not groaning a perpetual dirge
over decay and death-but ever opening new blefsings, teaching deeper truths, infpiring purer afy'ections, urging diviner ufes, leading the foul ever
nearer God, ever further into the life eternal.




Study in the Country.          151
STUDY IN THE COUNTRY,
A VACATION LETTER.
DEAR, If yOU and I had the whole world
before us, and were on the look-out for the beft of
all places for earneit thought and faithful fludy, it
might be a ferious quefion whether our choice
would fall upon the city, with all its focial incenr
tives, or the country, with its meditative quiet
Happy are we, however, in combining fome of the
advantages of both places, and in ftealing away for
a fhort feafon into rfome rural fhadeo  It is clear to
me that the city gives moft fpur to the thought that
labors for the prefent hour, whilft the country is
mnoft favorable to retrofpedive ftudies and profpefive
vifions.  One needs a quicker pulfe than ftirs in
there quiet villages to move him to think, and write,
and work fitly for the eleidric temper of the bufI
world, which makes fo much of To-day and fo little




152             Student Life.
of Yefterday and To-morrow.  The city indeed is
full of the footprints of former generations, and
every old building and book-fhop is a chronicle of
years gone by, at once jogging memory and anticipation. Yet whatever impreffion is made is too
foon trodden down by the great throng; whatever
fpark of eledricity is communicated is too foon discharged, where ifolation is fo difficult, and noncondudors are nonentities. Happy would he be who
could ufe the city like a feedfman's itore, and bear
away the precious grains to calmer and more cons
genial soil. Happy he who could know Rome, and
think and write in Tufculum, inftead of being pent
for fo many months within brick walls.
When we firfi came here, a few weeks ago, the
very air and fky feemed to challenge me to be
their playfellow. The flitting clouds and the rippling waters feemed'like the old companions of
youth calling me back to them, and it was pleafant
indeed to find in nature and in books fo much
countenance for this frolicfome mood. But the
kind mother whofe training we can never efcape
undersfands us well, and allows us to play that we
may learn to be more fober and more indufrious.
Her pleafant face has given fome intimations already




Study in the Country.          153
of her ferious purpofe, and her merry voice once in
a while deepens into a folemn tone. Laid night,
after a day of mod delicious, dreamy beauty, the
evening flky put on a mantle of deep and fombre
red, as if the refulgent fummer would give us a
hint of the fober autumn, and bid us ufe the
golden hours to itore up precious fruits for the
time of the falling leaf.
As we dood before an opening between overarching trees, the wedtern flky was a gorgeous and
folemn cathedral window, and its glowing crydial
was painted with the iweet landfcape fo boldly
projeded againft the horizon. There in the background of the piLdure itood Greenfield Hill, that
height not unknown to fame, with its graceful
church-ipire and its rural cemetery; there, too, was
our little grove of chedinuts and cedars, with cottage and rudiic arbor on either fide. The hour
feemed facred to memory, and the looker-on might
expect to hear that elder Madonna, Nature, herielf
chant a vefper hymn full of elegiac tendernefs over
them who fleep under thofe white tombhfones, and
over all her loft children, and refute the fkeptic's
fcandal, that the univerfal mother cares not for the
fairedt of her offspring when they are gone, and
8




154               Student Life.
laughs over their graves as merrily as over {pring
dailies. Like Mary at the fepulchre, if they who
know her befd can tell, fle mourns at times for her
eleda of the buried generations.
The fea, too, in whole calm waters we daily
bathe, and our little girls frolic without fear, as if it
were harmlefs as domeftic Croton, once in a while
changes its afped and voice,  A few nights ago we
could hear from our cottage door the dafl of its
great waves, with the moan of their retreat.  The
evening breeze, laden with fuch founds, Itirred
many a grave thought, and I could not but think
of the ftory which there ufually quiet waters would
tell if their fecrets could be known. One awful
night there was, when, in fight of thefe hills, hundreds of lives were floating to deftrudtion in a fhiip
of fire upon a fea of ice; among them that mild and
heroic man from whom fo many of us learned the
language that has unlocked fo many treafures, and
which has been lately the key to fo much pleafure
and profit here. I have thought of Follen always
tenderly and gratefully, but never more fo than now;
and there twenty years fince leaving his tuition feem
but a day.
I will follow the vein of reverie thus invited, by




Study in the Country.          155
giving a paffing flietch of an author upon whom I
chanced to light, and of whom, perhaps, our readers
may be as ignorant as I was before vacation.
I have been at work for a week or two upon a
fubjedt conneded with the new Jewifll Literature;
and friom a chip that has fallen from  the workbench I may perhaps whittle out fomething worth
looking at, if not very pretty. Full autumn, with
its fere leaves and ruffet tints, might feem the beft
accompaniment to the ftudy of a mind fo retrofpefive, fo loft in memory as the Jewifh, yet I promife to fay nothing too fad or too heavy for fummer reading, even if I could.
A HEBREWV POET BROUGHT TO LIGHT.
Going from our Proteftant age, and excepting
the feedtime of primitive Chriftianity, no period
of Chriftendom  has for us more intereft than the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, with the few years
before and after. Then the Papacy confolidated
its dodrines and policy, and bade fair to fubdue
the whole world to itfelf. Art and fcience feemed
to become its vaffals, and the rife of a new and
wonderful architeture, and the prevalence of a
daring yet obedient philoiophy, indicated that rea



156              Student Life.
fon and imagination were willing to kneel before
the transformed wafer as the prefence of God, and
before its ghoftly guardians as the vicegerents of
Heaven.  The Norman Conqueft and the Crufades were but fuperficial figns of the deep-feated
fire that was burning in the heart of Chriftendom.
In its heat the flubborn elements of hoftile nationalities were fufed, and from  the flowing lava our
modern languages came.  The majeftic Roman
was won fitom  its ftatelinefs; and before melting
into Italian sweetnefs, it exchanged its claffic verfe
for the Romantic rhyme, and in the hymns of the
Church left the Virgilian imeafure for that recurrent chime which is the lyric dance of devotion, as
if grave Numa himfelf had caught the new enthusiafm, and moved with choral fteps to the found of
harp and cymbal before the Ark. One who has
been bred among our modern diffent and individuaifmin is aftonifiled at the almoft univerial acquiescence in the reigning absolutism. The Albigenses
and their kindred Proteftant confeffors were not
filent, but their fate illufirates the power of the
priefthood which they arraigned, and the fword and
firebrand of De Montfort were the anfwver of the
Church to her refradtory children.  Brave voices




Study in the Country.          157
like Arnold's of Brefcia, were heard only to be
filenced at the flaming fake, and the martyr's
aflles, caft into the Tiber, were not allowed to reft
even with kindred duot.  Philofophy had not
blinded her eyes, yet was quite willing to invoke
the fame ghoftly proteedion for her rival theories;
and Abelard the Rationalift, and Bernard the champ
pion of Orthodoxy, much as they differed in metaphyfics, were willing to fandion the fame awful
ritual, and own the real prefence in the fame morfel
of bread.
-Yet the mind of our whole race was not then
Roman Catholic, and never has been, and never
will be. South of Chriftendom, the great race that
fpoke the Arabic language and held to the Crefcent,
extended fiom  Jeruialem to Spain, and protefted
againlt Rome, not with the fword alone, for their
fiholars and metaphyficians had given them other
arguments for Monotheifmn even than the Korano
The palmy days of the Caliphate indeed had paffed,
yet Arabic learning had its ripeft fruits ftill treasured
up, and the refitance which the Crufaders met at
Jerufalem came from a force not wholly brutal nor
fuperititious.  It was at the City of David that the
two leading powers of the earth came into confliEt,
8*




158              Student Lifeo
and we are left to judge of the merits and the iffue
of the itrife by the teflimony of one party alone.
The Saracen had his fdory to tell, and we fllould
like to liften to his tale.  But at the other end of
Chriftendom the fame antagonifinm appeared. In
Spain, Arabia and Rome met in battle. Caftile
was on the border of the arena, and this little book,
that has beguiled fome of thefe fummer hours, has
i. uch of its intereft from  the fad that it allows us
to look upon the rival faiths through the eyes of a
gifted man of that race of Abraham that claims to
have given a religion to both antagonics, and from
both to have received cruel wrong. It is called
DIVAN DES CASTILIERS  ABU'L-HASSAN JUDA HA-LEVI.
Von Abraham Geiger. Breslau. 1851o'With the poems that constitute this Divan of the
Caftilian Jew, Juda ha-Levi, biographical fkletches
and notes are given that throw much light upon
the poet and his times. Whatever period of his
life we choofe to ftudy; we find the fame effential
charaderiftics in different itages of development.
It is the Hebrew poet itill, the famne impaftioned,
fenfuous, devout, yearning nature, whether in his
early love-fongs, his later philofophizing, or the
religious poems of his mature and declining years.




Study in the Country.           159
The Hebrew pietifm  was the leaven that worked
in his innoft life; and when his buoyant mufe
dealt in merry riddles and gay ferenades, it loved
more to find themes in the cheerful feftivals of the
fynagogue, and fing of fore bridal which the nation
could blefs in the name of the old laws and with
the hope that waited for Ifrael's Confolation.  He
fludied medicine, the only profeffion except the
rabbinical that was open to his race; and diftafte for
its praLice, combined with unfucceisful love for his
fair coufin, gave a melancholy tinge to his compoo
fition, which appears in the many poems of f'iendfhllip, apparently on the verge of manhood, in fomething of that fweet, fad fentiment which Goethe
has fo powerfully brought out in the charafter of
Tafso. Then the fenfe of his high calling, a paiffon
to be Something and do Something for his oppreffed
nation, rofe within him; verfe feemed to him but
a trifling with words, and he rebuked the new
fchool of Hebrew  bards that had been forming
fince the feventh century, and repented that he had
encouraged the tafte for rhymed ftanzas, or any
innovation upon the firnple, folemn ifrain of the old
pfalmifts and prophets.  Yet nature and the age
was too firong for his revere tane, and we foon find




160              Student Life.
his miufe again moving to the march of the borrowed Arabic meafure, and ihowing that a new day
had come to the Jewifil Zion as well as the Roman
Parnaffus.  His poems take a deeper tone and
higher range, mingling a myftical devotion with a
refilefs longing for Jerufalem.  He carries the fane
fpirit into philoifophy; and in a work in the Arabic
language he embodied his philofophy of religion
under the fiditious form of a dialogue at the court
of the King of Khazar, held between the King, a
Mohammedan, a Chriftian, and a Jewifil rabbi.
The argument of courfe is with the rabbi, and the
king, according to an hiftorical fact as well as this
philofophical fiction, becomes a converlt to the synagogue, infiead of following his Turcoman compeers
to the mofque.  This book was, foon after Juda's
death, tranfilated into Hebrew, and afterwards into
Latin, Spaniflh, and German, and editions have
been often publiflhed, the laft at Leipfic in 184.2.
The philofopher does not wholly lay afide the poet,
but bafes all truth and all religion upon the Spirit
of God in the foul, beftowed in fuch fulnefs upon
the chofen people.  Infcead of undertaking to
legitirnate religion by philofophy, he legitimnates
philolophy by religion, and ftarts with faith as the




Study in the Country.          161
primal and effential fad of wifdomr   The calling
of Abraham and his pofferity gives him his conneding bridge between the abftradt and concrete, the
fubjeflive and objedive, fo that he reafons for the
authority of Ifrael very much as Bernard or Aquinas
reafoned for the Sovereignty of Rome.  With the
Romifhl zealots, too, he agreed in the paffion for
Jerufalem; and the hero of his philofophical fiction,
at the clofe of his vidorious dialogue, announces
his determination to go to the Holy Land, and
abides by it in fpite of all the fecars and promifes
held out to him.  It was but Juda himfelf who
borrowed the garb of the rabbin to fpeak his own
convidtion and his own yearning.  lie iblemnly
refolved to fee with his own eyes the hills and
waters of Zion.  About the year 114o, when about
fixty years of age, and not far from the time wmhen
Bernard's ghoftly voice was to fummon a new army
of the crofs to repeat the Crufade, the Caftilian
poet and philofopher turned his face towards Jerufalemn with all of a Crufader's zeal in his heart, but
with far other weapons in his hands.  On his way
by the fouthern route through Spain, the EMediterranean, and Egypt, he was welcomed as a prince
among the chiefs and communities of the faithful,




162              Student Life.
and gratulatory poems were interchanged between
himfelf and the leading poets of the age.  At
Egypt, where the Jews enjoyed fuch religious
liberty, and where the brilliant genius of Maimonides was to reward the kindnefs of the court that
proteded him with fuch refleded honor, Juda was
almoft forced by friendly conftraint to give up his
pilgrimage, and to exchange his dream of Jerufalem,
now in hoffile hands, for Egypt, more rich, it was
faid, in ancient remembrance, and fo favored with
kings now more merciful than the Pharaohs.  But
the poet was inflexible, and tore himfelf away from
the charmed circle of learned friends to wander
alone in the land trodden by David. His wifli was
probably granted, and he touched the facred foil,
although two ffiort poems are all that f eak of him
after he reached the Tyrian coaft. He is fuppofed
to have died foon after, illustrating the lot of fo
many lives that are devoted to fome fond hope,
and who chafe it inceffantly, and find their reward
more in the chafe than in the goal. It is dangerous
to dream of any earthly fpot or fortune as the
heaven of our foul, and to a mind like Juda's,
Paleffine itfelf might not fulfil all the vifions of his
fancy.  Whether fome violent hand was laid upon




Study in the Country.          1,i 3
him among the heterogeneous and refflefs popular
tion there, or his firength yielded under the exhauftion of travel, no  fure record tells.  We may
reafonably believe that he died among the fcenes
that had fo long haunted his imagination, and that
in death he found fpeaking emblems around him
of a heavenly Jerufalem which no violence can lay
wadte.  His famous fong of Zion, compofed before
leaving Cafdile, might have been fit requiem for
him, for in that glowing lyric he celebrated God's
mercy to that land of promife, conjured before him
its faints and fages, found food for the foul in its
very air, fragrance in its very duf, and rejoiced in
the vifion of its returning glory and its renewed
youth.
The fpirit that led him hither to die was no vain
illufion, for it has patled into the poems that have
founded his famne and perpetuated his influence.
In the original Hebrew they have been introduced
into the fervice-books of the fynagogues, and of
late have been tranflated into the tongues of other
nations.  The Hebrew Platonist, Moses Mendelssohn, from his own fellow-feeling, gave a German
drefs to fome of his mafterpieces, and Herder's
univerfal literary fympathy placed him in his cole




164              Student Life.
letion of bards  But to Profefsor Luzzato, of
Padua, we are indebted for the only full edition of
his Divan, which was printed in Prague: 1846, from
a manufcript found in Tunis, and confifting of the
original colledion firft made, fllortly after Juda's
death, in 1154.   Geiger, a celebrated Hebrew
fcholar and author, has followed the edition of
Luzzato, and in German given the modern world
for the fird time a fair idea of the Cafiilian poet.
So is it that that which is hid comes to light;
and no earneft word is likely to be Ifoken in vain.
The book, the bookfeller fays, is quite a favorite
among the Jews in this country, and here in the
New WVorld the poet's nation renew his yearnings
for the old Fatherland.  Here in the bufil we have
read this volume, and we now clofe its pretty paper
covers, thinking that the human race is meant to
be a fbmewhat more comprehenfive fi-aternity than
bigots dream, and that Providence may have fome
work for the Jew to do before the curtain falls and
time ceafes.
THE END.




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PUB3LISHED  BY  C. S. FRANCIS & CO., NEW  YEORMo
Prose Writers of Germany.
BY  FREDERICK H,, HEDGE, D. D.
Illustrated  with  an  engraved  Title-page  from   a
design by Leutze; and portraits of Goethe, Luther,
Lessing, Mendelssohn, Herder, Schiller, Rtichter,
and Schlegel.   Complete in one volume octavo.
Cloth, $3.00; gilt, $3.50; antique morocco, $5.00.
Contents.
LUTHER,             HABIANN,        GOETHE,               ZSCHOE rEF,
BOEHrME,            WIELAND,        SCHILLER,             F. SCHLEGrEL
SANCTA CLARA,    MUSAUS,            FICHTE,               HARDENBERG,
MOSE~R              CLAUDIUS,       RICHTER,              TIECIK,
KANT,               LAVATER,        A. W. SCHLEGEL,   SCHELLING,
LESSING,            JACOBI,         SCHLEIERMACIIER,    HOFFMANN,
MENDELSSOHN,        HERDER,         HEGEL,                CItAMISSO.
This work comprises a list of the most eminent writers of Germany,
together with copions extracts from their works, beginning -with LUTHER
nrd reaching up to the present time.  For those who are interested in
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intimately acquainted with the German mind: and to the curious an
excitement which will grow stronger as their taste is cultivated.
We find hore valuable extracts, given froin their prose writings.  A1
though the writers follow il chronological ordelr, and LUTHE1 stands at
the head of his intellectual brethren, the longest space is allowed' to
those who claim our greatest attention; and GOETIE therefore occupies
the most conspicuous position both in the specimens given and the
selection of the pieces. Next to GOETHE, SCHILLER appears in an article
upon Naive and Sentimental Poetry. Then we have LEssING, the first
critic of his time.  Next to him  comes HERDER, a devout philosopher,
and a clear-sightecd intellect. The two brothers SCHLEGEL- William, the
noble interpreter and translator of Shakspeare, and Frederic, known
jest by his investigations of the lalnguage and wisdom  of the Indiansfollow him, and MOSE  MENDELSSOHN, a Jewish phliosopher, closes the
series of these writers.
"'The author of this work —for it is well entitled to the name of an original
prodnction, though mainly consisting of translations-Rev. Dr. Hedge, of Proviedlence, is qualifie(l, as few men are in this country, or wherever the English language is written, for the successful accomplishment of the great literary enterprise to lwhich he has devoted his leisure for several years."
"We venture to say that there cannot be crowded into the same compass n
niore faithful representation of thje German mind, or a richer exhibition of the
profound thought, subtle speculation, massive learning and genial temper, that
characterize the most eminent literary mel of that nation."-Lea/ bige7ge'.
" WVhat excellent matter we here have. The choicest gems of exuberant fancy
the most polished productions of scholarship, thle richest flow of the heart, the
deepest lessons of wisdom, all translated so well by Mr. Hedge and his friends,
that they seem to have been first *written by masters of the Englitsh tongue."
"' We have read the book with rare pleasure, and have derived not less nMfo'
mtiton than enjoyment."-KuLickerbockero




PUBLISHED  BY  C. S. FRANCIS  &  CO., NEW  YORK.
Pycroft's Course of EnVglish Reading.
A Course of English Reading, adapted to every
taste and capacity. By Rev. James Pycroft, of
Trinity College, Oxford.   Edited with alterations,
emendations, and additions, by J. A. Spencer, D. D.
Reetla'ct from the Preface.
"Miss Jane C. divided her in-door hours into three parts; the housekeeping
and dinner-orderilg cares of life claimed one part; hearing two younger sisters
say their lessons, a second part; and during thle thilrd, and most delightful remainder, she would loelk her chamber door, and move on the marker of Russell's
6 Modern Europe,' at the rate of never less than fifteen pages an hour, and sometimes more.
6Being so vexatious as to ask wherein her satisfaction consisted, I was told, ir
the thought that she did her duty; that she kept her resolution; tlrat sihe read ast
much as her fiiends; that continually fewer histories remained to be read; and
that she hoped one day to excel in literature.
"'A few torturing questions elicited that neither the labor nor the resolution
aforesaid, had produced any sensible increase, or more than a vague but anxious
expectation, of available information or mental imurovement. A painful suspicion arose that there was some truth in tle annoying remark of a certain idle
companion, that she was'sttupefying her brains for no good.'
The exposure of an innocent delusion is mere cruelty, unless you replace the
shadow by the substance; so, a list of books and plan of operations was promised
by the next post. Adanm Smith attempted in a pamphlet what resulted in his
Wealth of Nations, after the labor of thirty years. My letter grew into a volume
low offered for the guidance of youtlh in each and every department of literature.'"Without aspiring to direct tile fulture studies of mein, Macaulay ill History,
of Dr. Buckland in Geology, or of the Duke of Wellington in muilitary tactics, he
is happy to say, that very learned men lhave expressed their regret that in their
early studies they had not the benefit of such simple guidance as this volume
affords."
"A volume whichll we can conscientiously recommend as markling out an aco
curate course of Ihistorical aindL genercal reading, from wlinch a vast acquisition of
sound knowleldge must result. Tl:e arrangeument and system are no less adiniriable than the selection of authors pointed out for study."-Liteal,?? Gazette.
An admirrable little work, intended to suEgest vwirious ways in which tile acqrisition of knowledge thirorugh tile nedrlium of books, may be adapted to thle
leisure time and taste of those whlo wotuld educate tllemselves. The plain terms
in which the latter consideration is rlrged has something in them  decidedly origi;nal; and especially would we commend Mr. Pycroft to tlhe notice of those who
feel at times overwhielned by the hleaped up piles of learning thrat beset the hesitating student."-A 17tioz2,.
" We say unhesitatingly that this is a most excellent work, which should be in
tihe hands of every student and reader of the English language; and we have to
thank Dr. Spencer for the valuable additions he has made to it, admirably adaptItng it to American wants. Whoever will follow the advice it contains for one or
two hours a day wvill soon acquire suchi habits of reflection, and so muchi general
knowledge as will much increase the pleasure of both their solitary and social
tours."-Albaiy Sp>ectator.