The temple in a moment feels its freight, And cracks beneath its vast unwieldy weight, So when the threatning Ocean roars around A place encompa.s.s"d with a lofty mound, If some weak part admits the raging waves, It flows resistless, and the city laves; Till underneath the waters ly the tow"rs, Which menac"d with their height the heav"nly pow"rs.
"The work begun with pray"r, with modest pace, A youth advancing mounts the desk with grace, To all the audience sweeps a circling bow, Then from his lips ten thousand graces flow.
The next that comes, a learned thesis reads, The question states, and then a war succeeds.
Loud major, minor, and the consequence, Amuse the crowd, wide-gaping at their fence.
Who speaks the loudest is with them the best, And impudence for learning is confest.
"The battle o"er, the sable youth descend, And to the awful chief, their footsteps bend.
With a small book, the laurel wreath he gives Join"d with a pow"r to use it all their lives.
Obsequious, they return what they receive, With decent rev"rence, they his presence leave.
Dismiss"d, they strait repeat their back ward way And with white napkins grace the sumptuous day.[06]
"Now plates unnumber"d on the tables shine, And dishes fill"d invite the guests to dine.
The grace perform"d, each as it suits him best, Divides the sav"ry honours of the feast, The gla.s.ses with bright sparkling wines abound And flowing bowls repeat the jolly round.
Thanks said, the mult.i.tude unite their voice, In sweetly mingled and melodious noise.
The warbling musick floats along the air, And softly winds the mazes of the ear; Ravish"d the crowd promiscuously retires, And each pursues the pleasure he admires.
"Behold my muse far distant on the plains, Amidst a wrestling ring two jolly swains; Eager for fame, they tug and haul for blood, One nam"d _Jack Luby_, t" other _Robin Clod_, Panting they strain, and labouring hard they sweat, Mix legs, kick shins, tear cloaths, and ply their feet.
Now nimbly trip, now stiffly stand their ground, And now they twirl, around, around, around; Till overcome by greater art or strength, _Jack Luby_ lays along his lubber length.
A fall! a fall! the loud spectators cry, A fall! a fall! the echoing hills reply.
"O"er yonder field in wild confusion runs, A clam"rous troop of _Affric"s_ sable sons, Behind the victors shout, with barbarous roar, The vanquish"d fly with hideous yells before, The gloomy squadron thro" the valley speeds Whilst clatt"ring cudgels rattle o"er their heads.
"Again to church the learned tribe repair, Where syllogisms battle in the air, And then the elder youth their second laurels wear.
Hail! Happy laurels! who our hopes inspire, And set our ardent wishes all on fire.
By you the pulpit and the bar will shine In future annals; while the ravish"d nine Will in your bosom breathe caelestial flames, And stamp _Eternity_ upon your names.
Accept my infant muse, whose feeble wings Can scarce sustain her flight, while you she sings.
With candour view my rude unfinish"d praise And see my _Ivy_ twist around your _bayes_.
So _Phidias_ by immortal _Jove_ inspir"d, His statue carv"d, by all mankind admir"d.
Nor thus content, by his approving nod, He cut himself upon the shining G.o.d.
That shaded by the umbrage of his name, Eternal honours might attend his fame."
In his almanacs, Nathaniel Ames was wont to insert, opposite the days of Commencement week, remarks which he deemed appropriate to that period. His notes for the year 1764 were these:--
"Much talk and nothing said."
"The loquacious more talkative than ever, and fine Harangues preparing."
"Much Money sunk, Much Liquor drunk."
His only note for the year 1765 was this:--
"Many c.r.a.pulae to Day Give the Head-ach to the Gay."
Commencement Day was generally considered a holiday throughout the Province, and in the metropolis the shops were usually closed, and little or no business was done. About ten days before this period, a body of Indians from Natick--men, women, and pappooses--commonly made their appearance at Cambridge, and took up their station around the Episcopal Church, in the cellar of which they were accustomed to sleep, if the weather was unpleasant. The women sold baskets and moccasons; the boys gained money by shooting at it, while the men wandered about and spent the little that was earned by their squaws in rum and tobacco. Then there would come along a body of itinerant negro fiddlers, whose sc.r.a.ping never intermitted during the time of their abode.
The Common, on Commencement week, was covered with booths, erected in lines, like streets, intended to accommodate the populace from Boston and the vicinity with the amus.e.m.e.nts of a fair. In these were carried on all sorts of dissipation. Here was a knot of gamblers, gathered around a wheel of fortune, or watching the whirl of the ball on a roulette-table. Further along, the jolly hucksters displayed their tempting wares in the shape of cooling beverages and palate-tickling confections. There was dancing on this side, auction-selling on the other; here a pantomimic show, there a blind man, led by a dog, soliciting alms; organ-grinders and hurdy-gurdy grinders, bears and monkeys, jugglers and sword-swallowers, all mingled in inextricable confusion.
In a neighboring field, a countryman had, perchance, let loose a fox, which the dogs were worrying to death, while the surrounding crowd testified their pleasure at the scene by shouts of approbation. Nor was there any want of the spirituous; pails of punch, guarded by stout negroes, bore witness to their own subtle contents, now by the man who lay curled up under the adjoining hedge, "forgetting and forgot," and again by the drunkard, reeling, cursing, and fighting among his comrades.
The following observations from the pen of Professor Sidney Willard, afford an accurate description of the outward manifestations of Commencement Day at Harvard College, during the latter part of the last century. "Commencement Day at that time was a widely noted day, not only among men and women of all characters and conditions, but also among boys. It was the great literary and mob anniversary of Ma.s.sachusetts, surpa.s.sed only in its celebrities by the great civil and mob anniversary, namely, the Fourth of July, and the last Wednesday of May, Election day, so called, the anniversary of the organization of the government of the State for the civil year. But Commencement, perhaps most of all, exhibited an incongruous mixture of men and things. Besides the academic exercises within the sanctuary of learning and religion, followed by the festivities in the College dining-hall, and under temporary tents and awnings erected for the entertainments given to the numerous guests of wealthy parents of young men who had come out successful compet.i.tors for prizes in the academic race, the large common was decked with tents filled with various refreshments for the hungry and thirsty mult.i.tudes, and the intermediate s.p.a.ces crowded with men, women, and boys, white and black, many of them gambling, drinking, swearing, dancing, and fighting from morning to midnight. Here and there the scene was varied by some show of curiosities, or of monkeys or less common wild animals, and the gambols of mountebanks, who by their ridiculous tricks drew a greater crowd than the abandoned group at the gaming-tables, or than the fooleries, distortions, and mad pranks of the inebriates. If my revered uncle[07] took a glimpse at these scenes, he did not see there any of our red brethren, as Mr. Jefferson kindly called them, who formed a considerable part of the gathering at the time of his graduation, forty-two years before; but he must have seen exhibitions of depravity which would disgust the most untutored savage. Near the close of the last century these outrages began to disappear, and lessened from year to year, until by public opinion, enforced by an efficient police, they were many years ago wholly suppressed, and the vicinity of the College halls has become, as it should be, a cla.s.sic ground."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. pp.
251, 252.
It is to such scenes as these that Mr. William Biglow refers, in his poem recited before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, in their dining-hall, August 29th, 1811.
"All hail, Commencement! when all cla.s.ses free Throng learning"s fount, from interest, taste, or glee; When sutlers plain in tents, like Jacob, dwell, Their goods distribute, and their purses swell; When tipplers cease on wretchedness to think, Those born to sell, as well as these to drink; When every day each merry Andrew clears More cash than useful men in many years; When men to business come, or come to rake, And modest women spurn at Pope"s mistake.[08]
"All hail, Commencement! when all colors join, To gamble, riot, quarrel, and purloin; When Afric"s sooty sons, a race forlorn, Play, swear, and fight, like Christians freely born; And Indians bless our civilizing merit, And get dead drunk with truly _Christian spirit_; When heroes, skilled in pocket-picking sleights, Of equal property and equal rights, Of rights of man and woman, boldest friends, Believing means are sanctioned by their ends, Sequester part of Gripus" boundless store, While Gripus thanks G.o.d Plutus he has more; And needy poet, from this ill secure, Feeling his fob, cries, "Blessed are the poor.""
On the same subject, the writer of Our Chronicle of "26, a satirical poem, versifies in the following manner:--
"Then comes Commencement Day, and Discord dire Strikes her confusion-string, and dust and noise Climb up the skies; ladies in thin attire, For "t is in August, and both men and boys, Are all abroad, in sunshine and in glee Making all heaven rattle with their revelry!
"Ah! what a cla.s.sic sight it is to see The black gowns flaunting in the sultry air, Boys big with literary sympathy, And all the glories of this great affair!
More cla.s.sic sounds!--within, the plaudit shout, While Punchinello"s rabble echoes it without."
To this the author appends a note, as follows:--
"The holiday extends to thousands of those who have no particular cla.s.sical pretensions, further than can be recognized in a certain _penchant_ for such jubilees, contracted by attending them for years as hangers-on. On this devoted day these noisy do-nothings collect with mummers, monkeys, bears, and rope-dancers, and hold their revels just beneath the windows of the tabernacle where the literary triumph is enacting.
"Tum saeva sonare Verbera, tum stridor ferri tractaeque catenae.""
A writer in Buckingham"s New England Magazine, Vol. III., 1832, in an article ent.i.tled "Harvard College Forty Years ago," thus describes the customs which then prevailed:--
"As I entered Cambridge, what were my "first impressions"? The College buildings "heaving in sight and looming up," as the sailors say. Pyramids of Egypt! can ye surpa.s.s these enormous piles? The Common covered with tents and wigwams, and people of all sorts, colors, conditions, nations, and tongues. A country muster or ordination dwindles into nothing in comparison. It was a second edition of Babel. The Governor"s life-guard, in splendid uniform, prancing to and fro, "Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quat.i.t ungula campum."
h.o.r.n.y-hoofed, galloping quadrupeds make all the common to tremble.
"I soon steered for the meeting-house, and obtained a seat, or rather standing, in the gallery, determined to be an eyewitness of all the sport of the day. Presently music was heard approaching, such as I had never heard before. It must be "the music of the spheres." Anon, three enormous white wigs, supported by three stately, venerable men, yclad in black, flowing robes, were located in the pulpit. A platform of wigs was formed in the body pews, on which one might apparently walk as securely as on the stage. The _candidates_ for degrees seemed to have made a mistake in dressing themselves in _black togas_ instead of _white_ ones, _pro more Romanorum_. The musicians jammed into their pew in the gallery, very near to me, with enormous fiddles and fifes and ramshorns. _Terribile visu_! They sounded. I stopped my ears, and with open mouth and staring eyes stood aghast with wonderment. The music ceased. The performances commenced. English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French! These scholars knew everything."
More particular is the account of the observances, at this period, of the day, at Harvard College, as given by Professor Sidney Willard:--
"Commencement Day, in the year 1798, was a day bereft, in some respects, of its wonted cheerfulness. Instead of the serene summer"s dawn, and the clear rising of the sun, "The dawn was overcast, the morning lowered, And heavily in clouds brought on the day."
In the evening, from the time that the public exercises closed until twilight, the rain descended in torrents. The President[09]
lay prostrate on his bed from the effects of a violent disease, from which it was feared he could not recover.[10] His house, which on all occasions was the abode of hospitality, and on Commencement Day especially so, (being the great College anniversary,) was now a house of stillness, anxiety, and watching.
For seventeen successive years it had been thronged on this anniversary from morn till night, by welcome visitors, cheerfully greeted and cared for, and now it was like a house of mourning for the dead.
"After the literary exercises of the day were closed, the officers in the different branches of the College government and instruction, Masters of Arts, and invited guests, repaired to the College dining-hall without the ceremony of a procession formed according to dignity or priority of right. This the elements forbade. Each one ran the short race as he best could. But as the Alumni arrived, they naturally avoided taking possession of the seats usually occupied by the government of the College. The Governor, Increase Sumner, I suppose, was present, and no doubt all possible respect was paid to the Overseers as well as to the Corporation. I was not present, but dined at my father"s house with a few friends, of whom the late Hon. Moses Brown of Beverly was one. We went together to the College hall after dinner; but the honorable and reverend Corporation and Overseers had retired, and I do not remember whether there was any person presiding. If there were, a statue would have been as well. The age of wine and wa.s.sail, those potent aids to patriotism, mirth, and song, had not wholly pa.s.sed away. The merry glee was at that time outrivalled by _Adams and Liberty_, the national patriotic song, so often and on so many occasions sung, and everywhere so familiarly known that all could join in grand chorus."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. II. pp. 4, 5.
The irregularities of Commencement week seem at a very early period to have attracted the attention of the College government; for we find that in 1728, to prevent disorder, a formal request was made by the President, at the suggestion of the immediate government, to Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, praying him to direct the sheriff of Middles.e.x to prohibit the setting up of booths and tents on those public days. Some years after, in 1732, "an interview took place between the Corporation and three justices of the peace in Cambridge, to concert measures to keep order at Commencement, and under their warrant to establish a constable with six men, who, by watching and walking towards the evening on these days, and also the night following, and in and about the entry at the College Hall at dinner-time, should prevent disorders." At the beginning of the present century, it was customary for two special justices to give their attendance at this period, in order to try offences, and a guard of twenty constables was usually present to preserve order and attend on the justices. Among the writings of one, who for fifty years was a constant attendant on these occasions, are the following memoranda, which are in themselves an explanation of the customs of early years. "Commencement, 1828; no tents on the Common for the first time." "Commencement, 1836; no persons intoxicated in the hall or out of it; the first time."
The following extract from the works of a French traveller will be read with interest by some, as an instance of the manner in which our inst.i.tutions are sometimes regarded by foreigners. "In a free country, everything ought to bear the stamp of patriotism. This patriotism appears every year in a solemn feast celebrated at Cambridge in honor of the sciences. This feast, which takes place once a year in all the colleges of America, is called _Commencement_. It resembles the exercises and distribution of prizes in our colleges. It is a day of joy for Boston; almost all its inhabitants a.s.semble in Cambridge. The most distinguished of the students display their talents in the presence of the public; and these exercises, which are generally on patriotic subjects, are terminated by a feast, where reign the freest gayety and the most cordial fraternity."--_Brissot"s Travels in U.S._, 1788.
London, 1794, Vol. I. pp. 85, 86.
For an account of the _chair_ from which the President delivers diplomas on Commencement Day, see PRESIDENT"S CHAIR.
At Yale College, the first Commencement was held September 13th, 1702, while that inst.i.tution was located at Saybrook, at which four young men who had before graduated at Harvard College, and one whose education had been private, received the degree of Master of Arts. This and several Commencements following were held privately, according to an act which had been pa.s.sed by the Trustees, in order to avoid unnecessary expense and other inconveniences. In 1718, the year in which the first College edifice was completed, was held at New Haven the first public Commencement. The following account of the exercises on this occasion was written at the time by one of the College officers, and is cited by President Woolsey in his Discourse before the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850. "[We were] favored and honored with the presence of his Honor, Governor Saltonstall, and his lady, and the Hon. Col. Taylor of Boston, and the Lieutenant-Governor, and the whole Superior Court, at our Commencement, September 10th, 1718, where the Trustees present,--those gentlemen being present,--in the hall of our new College, first most solemnly named our College by the name of Yale College, to perpetuate the memory of the honorable Gov. Elihu Yale, Esq., of London, who had granted so liberal and bountiful a donation for the perfecting and adorning of it. Upon which the honorable Colonel Taylor represented Governor Yale in a speech expressing his great satisfaction; which ended, we pa.s.sed to the church, and there the Commencement was carried on. In which affair, in the first place, after prayer an oration was had by the saluting orator, James Pierpont, and then the disputations as usual; which concluded, the Rev. Mr. Davenport [one of the Trustees and minister of Stamford] offered an excellent oration in Latin, expressing their thanks to Almighty G.o.d, and Mr. Yale under him, for so public a favor and so great regard to our languishing school. After which were graduated ten young men, whereupon the Hon. Gov. Saltonstall, in a Latin speech, congratulated the Trustees in their success and in the comfortable appearance of things with relation to their school. All which ended, the gentlemen returned to the College Hall, where they were entertained with a splendid dinner, and the ladies, at the same time, were also entertained in the Library; after which they sung the four first verses in the 65th Psalm, and so the day ended."--p. 24.
The following excellent and interesting account of the exercises and customs of Commencement at Yale College, in former times, is taken from the entertaining address referred to above:--"Commencements were not to be public, according to the wishes of the first Trustees, through fear of the attendant expense; but another practice soon prevailed, and continued with three or four exceptions until the breaking out of the war in 1775. They were then private for five years, on account of the times. The early exercises of the candidates for the first degree were a "saluting" oration in Latin, succeeded by syllogistic disputations in the same language; and the day was closed by the Masters" exercises,--disputations and a valedictory. According to an ancient academical practice, theses were printed and distributed upon this occasion, indicating what the candidates for a degree had studied, and were prepared to defend; yet, contrary to the usage still prevailing at universities which have adhered to the old method of testing proficiency, it does not appear that these theses were ever defended in public. They related to a variety of subjects in Technology, Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and afterwards Theology. The candidates for a Master"s degree also published theses at this time, which were called _Quaestiones magistrales_.
The syllogistic disputes were held between an affirmant and respondent, who stood in the side galleries of the church opposite to one another, and shot the weapons of their logic over the heads of the audience. The saluting Bachelor and the Master who delivered the valedictory stood in the front gallery, and the audience huddled around below them to catch their Latin eloquence as it fell. It seems also to have been usual for the President to p.r.o.nounce an oration in some foreign tongue upon the same occasion.[11]