issue of the same paper the Commencement
Dinner, its guests, its quantity and quality, its talk, its singing of
songs, and giving of gifts, spread before the public. If, now, the
festivities of Commencement and of the Alumni Association are public,
by what token shall one know that the festivities of Class-Day, which
have every appearance of being just as public, are in reality a family
affair, and strictly private?

I have spoken of waltzing. The propriety of my speaking must stand or
fall with the previous count. But in the book to which I have before
referred is recorded a vote passed by the Overseers, "To restrain
unsuitable and unseasonable dancing in the College." If a rule of the
College is published throughout the land, is not the land in some
measure appealed to, and may it not speak when it thinks it sees a
custom in open and systematic violation of the rule?

But, independent of this special rule, Harvard College was founded in
the early days of the Colony. It was the pet and pride and hope of the
colonists. They gave to it of their abundance and their poverty. To
what end? "Dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches,"
says the author of "New England First-Fruits." The first Constitution
of the College declares one of its objects to be "to make and establish
all such orders, statutes, and constitutions as they shall see
necessary for the instituting, guiding, and furthering of the said
College, and the several members thereof, from time to time, in piety,
morality, and learning." Later, its objects are said to be "the
advancement of all good literature, arts, and sciences," and "the
education of the English and Indian youth of this country in knowledge
and godliness." Of the rules of the College, one is, "Let every
student be earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life
and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life,
and, therefore, to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of
all sound knowledge and learning." Quincy says that to the
Congregational clergy the "institution is perhaps more indebted than to
any other class of men for early support, if not for existence." That
it has not avowedly turned aside from its original object is indicated
by the motto which it still bears, Christo et Ecclesiae. Now I wish to
know if the official sanction of this College, founded by
statesmen-clergy for the promotion of piety and learning, to further