A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 50

Of the laws of Yale College, President Woolsey gives the following account, in his Historical Discourse before the Graduates of that inst.i.tution, Aug. 14, 1850:--

"In the very first year of the legal existence of the College, we find the Trustees ordaining, that, 'until they should provide further, the Rector or Tutors should make use of the orders and inst.i.tutions of Harvard College, for the instructing and ruling of the collegiate school, so far as they should judge them suitable, and wherein the Trustees had not at that meeting made provision.'

The regulations then made by the Trustees went no further than to provide for the religious education of the College, and to give to the College officers the power of imposing extraordinary school exercises or degradation in the cla.s.s. The earliest known laws of the College belong to the years 1720 and 1726, and are in ma.n.u.script; which is explained by the custom that every Freshman, on his admission, was required to write off a copy of them for himself, to which the admittatur of the officers was subscribed.

In the year 1745 a new revision of the laws was completed, which exists in ma.n.u.script; but the first printed code was in Latin, and issued from the press of T. Green at New London, in 1748. Various editions, with sundry changes in them, appeared between that time and the year 1774, when the first edition in English saw the light.

"It is said of this edition, that it was printed by particular order of the Legislature. That honorable body, being importuned to extend aid to the College, not long after the time when President Clap's measures had excited no inconsiderable ill-will, demanded to see the laws; and accordingly a bundle of the Latin laws--the only ones in existence--were sent over to the State-House. Not admiring legislation in a dead language, and being desirous to pry into the mysteries which it sealed up from some of the members, they ordered the code to be translated. From that time the numberless editions of the laws have all been in the English tongue."--pp. 45, 46.

The College of William and Mary, which was founded in 1693, imitated in its laws and customs the English universities, but especially the University of Oxford. The other colleges which were founded before the Revolution, viz. New Jersey College, Columbia College, Pennsylvania University, Brown University, Dartmouth, and Rutgers College, "generally imitated Harvard in the order of cla.s.ses, the course of studies, the use of text-books, and the manner of instruction."--_Am. Quart. Reg._, Vol. XV. 1843, p. 426.

The colleges which were founded after the Revolution compiled their laws, in a great measure, from those of the above-named colleges.

LEATHER MEDAL. At Harvard College, the _leather Medal_ was formerly bestowed upon the _laziest_ fellow in College. He was to be last at recitation, last at commons, seldom at morning prayers, and always asleep in church.

LECTURE. A discourse _read_, as the derivation of the word implies, by a professor to his pupils; more generally, it is applied to every species of instruction communicated _viva voce_.

--_Brande_.

In American colleges, lectures form a part of the collegiate instruction, especially during the last two years, in the latter part of which, in some colleges, they divide the time nearly equally with recitations.

2. A rehearsal of a lesson.--_Eng. Univ._

Of this word, De Quincey says: "But what is the meaning of a lecture in Oxford and elsewhere? Elsewhere, it means a solemn dissertation, read, or sometimes histrionically declaimed, by the professor. In Oxford, it means an exercise performed orally by the students, occasionally a.s.sisted by the tutor, and subject, in its whole course, to his corrections, and what may be called his _scholia_, or collateral suggestions and improvements."--_Life and Manners_, p. 253.

LECTURER. At the University of Cambridge, England, the _lecturers_ a.s.sist in tuition, and especially attend to the exercises of the students in Greek and Latin composition, themes, declamations, verses, &c.--_Cam. Guide_.

LEM. At Williams College, a privy.

Night had thrown its mantle over earth. Sol had gone to lay his weary head in the lap of Thetis, as friend Hudibras has it; The horned moon, and the sweet pale stars, were looking serenely! upon the darkened earth, when the denizens of this little village were disturbed by the cry of fire. The engines would have been rattling through the streets with considerable alacrity, if the fathers of the town had not neglected to provide them; but the energetic citizens were soon on hand. There was much difficulty in finding where the fire was, and heads and feet were turned in various directions, till at length some wight of superior optical powers discovered a faint, ruddy light in the rear of West College. It was an ancient building,--a time-honored structure,--an edifice erected by our forefathers, and by them christened LEMUEL, which in the vernacular tongue is called _Lem_ "for short." The dimensions of the edifice were about 120 by 62 inches. The loss is almost irreparable, estimated at not less than 2,000 pounds, avoirdupois. May it rise like a Phoenix from its ashes!--_Williams Monthly Miscellany_, 1845, Vol. I. p. 464, 465.

LETTER HOME. A writer in the American Literary Magazine thus explains and remarks upon the custom of punishing students by sending a letter to their parents:--"In some inst.i.tutions, there is what is called the '_letter home_,'--which, however, in justice to professors and tutors in general, we ought to say, is a punishment inflicted upon parents for sending their sons to college, rather than upon delinquent students. A certain number of absences from matins or vespers, or from recitations, ent.i.tles the culprit to a heartrending epistle, addressed, not to himself, but to his anxious father or guardian at home. The doc.u.ment is always conceived in a spirit of severity, in order to make it likely to take effect. It is meant to be impressive, less by the heinousness of the offence upon which it is predicated, than by the pregnant terms in which it is couched. It often creates a misery and anxiety far away from the place wherein it is indited, not because it is understood, but because it is misunderstood and exaggerated by the recipient. While the student considers it a farcical proceeding, it is a leaf of tragedy to fathers and mothers. Then the thing is explained. The offence is sifted. The father finds out that less than a dozen morning naps are all that is necessary to bring about this stupendous correspondence. The moral effect of the act of discipline is neutralized, and the parent is perhaps too glad, at finding his anxiety all but groundless, to denounce the puerile, infant-school system, which he has been made to comprehend by so painful a process."--Vol. IV. p. 402.

Avaunt, ye terrific dreams of "failures," "conditions," "_letters home_," and "admonitions."--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. III. p. 407.

The birch twig sprouts into--_letters home_ and dismissions.--_Ibid._, Vol. XIII. p. 869.

But if they, capricious through long indulgence, did not choose to get up, what then? Why, absent marks and _letters home_.--_Yale Banger_, Oct. 22, 1847.

He thinks it very hard that the faculty write "_letters home_."--_Yale Tomahawk_, May, 1852.

And threats of "_Letters home_, young man,"

Now cause us no alarm.

_Presentation Day Song_, June 14, 1854.

LIBERTY TREE. At Harvard College, a tree which formerly stood between Ma.s.sachusetts and Harvard Halls received, about the year 1760, the name of the Liberty Tree, on an occasion which is mentioned in Hutchinson's posthumous volume of the History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay. "The spirit of liberty," says he, "spread where it was not intended. The Undergraduates of Harvard College had been long used to make excuses for absence from prayers and college exercises; pretending detention at their chambers by their parents, or friends, who come to visit them. The tutors came into an agreement not to admit such excuses, unless the scholar came to the tutor, before prayers or college exercises, and obtained leave to be absent. This gave such offence, that the scholars met in a body, under and about a great tree, to which they gave the name of the _tree of liberty_! There they came into several resolves in favor of liberty; one of them, that the rule or order of the tutors was _unconst.i.tutional_. The windows of some of the tutors were broken soon after, by persons unknown. Several of the scholars were suspected, and examined. One of them falsely reported that he had been confined without victuals or drink, in order to compel him to a confession; and another declared, that he had seen him under this confinement. This caused an attack upon the tutors, and brickbats were thrown into the room, where they had met together in the evening, through the windows. Three or four of the rioters were discovered and expelled. The three junior cla.s.ses went to the President, and desired to give up their chambers, and to leave the college. The fourth cla.s.s, which was to remain but about three months, and then to be admitted to their degrees, applied to the President for a recommendation to the college in Connecticut, that they might be admitted there. The Overseers of the College met on the occasion, and, by a vigorous exertion of the powers with which they were intrusted, strengthened the hands of the President and tutors, by confirming the expulsions, and declaring their resolution to support the subordinate government of the College; and the scholars were brought to a sense and acknowledgment of their fault, and a stop was put to the revolt."--Vol. III. p. 187.

Some years after, this tree was either blown or cut down, and the name was transferred to another. A few of the old inhabitants of Cambridge remember the stump of the former Liberty Tree, but all traces of it seem to have been removed before the year 1800. The present Liberty Tree stands between Holden Chapel and Harvard Hall, to the west of Hollis. As early as the year 1815 there were gatherings under its branches on Cla.s.s Day, and it is probable that this was the case even at an earlier date. At present it is customary for the members of the Senior Cla.s.s, at the close of the exercises incident to Cla.s.s Day, (the day on which the members of that cla.s.s finish their collegiate studies, and retire to make preparations for the ensuing Commencement,) after cheering the buildings, to encircle this tree, and, with hands joined, to sing their favorite ballad, "Auld Lang Syne." They then run and dance around it, and afterwards cheer their own cla.s.s, the other cla.s.ses, and many of the College professors. At parting, each takes a sprig or a flower from the beautiful wreath which is hung around the tree, and this is sacredly preserved as a last memento of the scenes and enjoyments of college life.

In the poem delivered before the Cla.s.s of 1849, on their Cla.s.s Day, occur the following beautiful stanzas in memory of departed cla.s.smates, in which reference is made to some of the customs mentioned above:--

"They are listening now to our parting prayers; And the farewell song that we pour Their distant voices will echo From the far-off spirit sh.o.r.e;

"And the wreath that we break with our scattered band, As it twines round the aged elm,-- Its fragments we'll keep with a sacred hand, But the fragrance shall rise to them.

"So to-day we will dance right merrily, An unbroken band, round the old elm-tree; And they shall not ask for a greener shrine Than the hearts of the cla.s.s of '49."

Its grateful shade has in later times been used for purposes similar to those which Hutchinson records, as the accompanying lines will show, written in commemoration of the Rebellion of 1819.

"Wreaths to the chiefs who our rights have defended; Hallowed and blessed be the Liberty Tree: Where Lenox[44] his pies 'neath its shelter hath vended, We Sophs have a.s.sembled, and sworn to be free."

_The Rebelliad_, p. 54.

The poet imagines the spirits of the different trees in the College yard a.s.sembled under the Liberty Tree to utter their sorrows.

"It was not many centuries since, When, gathered on the moonlit green, Beneath the Tree of Liberty, A ring of weeping sprites was seen."

_Meeting of the Dryads,[45] Holmes's Poems_, p. 102.

It is sometimes called "the Farewell Tree," for obvious reasons.

"Just fifty years ago, good friends, a young and gallant band Were dancing round the Farewell Tree, --each hand in comrade's hand."

_Song, at Semi-centennial Anniversary of the Cla.s.s of 1798_.

See CLa.s.s DAY.

LICEAT MIGRARE. Latin; literally, _let it be permitted him to remove_.

At Oxford, a form of modified dismissal from College. This punishment "is usually the consequence of mental inefficiency rather than moral obliquity, and does not hinder the student so dismissed from entering at another college or at Cambridge."--_Lit. World_, Vol. XII. p. 224.

Same as LICET MIGRARI.

LICET MIGRARI. Latin; literally, _it is permitted him to be removed_. In the University of Cambridge, England, a permission to leave one's college. This differs from the Bene Discessit, for although you may leave with consent, it by no means follows in this case that you have the approbation of the Master and Fellows so to do.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

LIKE A BRICK OR A BEAN, LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE, LIKE BRICKS. Among the students at the University of Cambridge, Eng., intensive phrases, to express the most energetic way of doing anything.

"These phrases," observes Bristed, "are sometimes in very odd contexts. You hear men talk of a balloon going up _like bricks_, and rain coming down _like a house on fire_."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 24.

Still it was not in human nature for a cla.s.sical man, living among cla.s.sical men, and knowing that there were a dozen and more close to him reading away "_like bricks_," to be long entirely separated from his Greek and Latin books.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.

Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 218.

"_Like bricks_," is the commonest of their expressions, or used to be. There was an old landlady at Huntingdon who said she always charged Cambridge men twice as much as any one else. Then, "How do you know them?" asked somebody. "O sir, they always tell us to get the beer _like bricks_."--_Westminster Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. x.x.xV.

p. 231.

LITERae HUMANIORES. Latin; freely, _the humanities; cla.s.sical literature_. At Oxford "the _Literae Humaniores_ now include Latin and Greek Translation and Composition, Ancient History and Rhetoric, Political and Moral Philosophy, and Logic."--_Lit.