Which we from sacred registers
Of ancient times have known,
And our forefathers' pious care
To us has handed down.

Let children learn[64] the mighty deeds
Which God performed of old;
Which, in our younger years we saw,
And which our fathers told.

Our lips shall tell them to our sons,
And they again to theirs;
That generations yet unborn
May teach them to their heirs.

Thus shall they learn in God alone
Their hope securely stands;
That they may ne'er forget his works,
But practise his commands.

It has been supposed by some that the version of the
Seventy-eighth Psalm by Sternhold and Hopkins, whose spiritual
songs were usually printed, as appears above, "at ye end of their
Bibles," was the first which was sung at Commencement dinners; but
this does not seem at all probable, since the first Commencement
at Cambridge did not take place until 1642, at which time the "Bay
Psalm-Book," written by three of the most popular ministers of the
day, had already been published two years.

SHADY. Among students at the University of Cambridge, Eng., an
epithet of depreciation, equivalent to MILD and SLOW.--_Bristed_.

Some ... are rather _shady_ in Greek and Latin.--_Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 147.

My performances on the Latin verse paper were very
_shady_.--_Ibid._, p. 191.

SHARK. In student language, an absence from a recitation, a
lecture, or from prayers, prompted by recklessness rather than by
necessity, is called a _shark_. He who is absent under these
circumstances is also known as a shark.

The Monitors' task is now quite done,
They 've pencilled all their marks,
"Othello's occupation's gone,"--
No more look out for _sharks_.
_Songs of Yale_, 1853, p. 45.

SHEEPSKIN. The parchment diploma received by students on taking
their degree at college. "In the back settlements are many
clergymen who have not had the advantages of a liberal education,
and who consequently have no diplomas. Some of these look upon
their more favored brethren with a little envy. A clergyman is
said to have a _sheepskin_, or to be a _sheepskin_, when educated
at college."--_Bartlett's Dict. of Americanisms_.

This apostle of ourn never rubbed his back agin a college, nor
toted about no _sheepskins_,--no, never!... How you'd a perished
in your sins, if the first preachers had stayed till they got
_sheepskins_.--_Carlton's New Purchase_.