THE

YALE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

VOL. XVII.

NOVEMBER, 1851.

No. II.

The Claims of Vale College to the Regard of its Students.*

'IN the good old colony times,' when William III reigned over Great Britain, and Gen. John Winthrop was Governor of his Majesty's dominions in Connecticut; when Louis XIV held his voluptuous court in France, and Peter the Great was blessing Russia with his energetic labors; when the fellow-chieftains of Uncas traversed the plains around us, and the few Pilgrim Europeans who had made their home within this State were less than seventeen thousand; before a Post Office had been opened, or a newspaper established on this uncivilized side of the waters-a little stream of its own accord came bubbling from the ground to cheer and fertilize these barren lands, and a morning star arose in the East to shed its light upon the darkness then prevailing, to usher in the day.

That stream then feeble, narrow, scarcely overcoming the obstacles which it encountered, now broad and deep flows majestically along,—that star then twinkling in the sky is now a brilliant sun enlightening and invigorating both this and other lands. Need I say that stream, that star, is the Institution of which we all are members.

England was then reveling in the days of its greatest literary glory. About that time, Locke was writing his Essays on the Human Mind, Bishop Butler was investigating the Analogies of Religion, Newton was developing his profound Principia, Hooke, Rapin and Middleton were compiling their Historical works, Addison and Steele were entertaining their readers with the shrewd Spectator's comments; Dryden, Pope,

* An Oration delivered on Wednesday evening, October 15th, 1851, before the Linonian Society,—the Brothers and Calliopeans being present by invitation.

Watts and Young were displaying their poetic fire; while Halley the Astronomer, South the Sermonizer, Bolingbroke, Parnell, Defoe and Prior and Berkeley were gaining eminence in their various departments.

Literature, having risen in the East, had been slowly traveling round the globe, and having in its progress cast its invigorating rays successively on Western Asia, Greece and Rome, was at the time we speak of pouring a flood of light upon the British Isles; while its forerunning rays, appearing in our morning sky, had, like the early twilight, betokened coming day.

Such, in very general terms, was the condition of the world around when the plan of founding a college within this colony was conceived, matured and carried out. For years the idea was well discussed, and at length, in 1700, ten ministers, bringing what offerings their libraries could spare, assembled at the town of Branford, and there established this college in those words which may well be cut in letters of stone and placed upon the Library, "WE GIVE THESE BOOKS TO FOUND A COLLEGE IN THIS COLONY."

Those of us who were upon these grounds some fifteen months ago, beheld a very different scene,-not indeed more interesting, but somewhat more imposing. We saw many hundred sons of our Alma Mster assembled to commemorate the third of her semi-centennials. Old and young, rich and poor, came back to show their love for Yale, and to renew the memories of other days.

They came-a band from the prairie land,

From the granite hills dark frowning,

From the lakelet blue and the broad bayou,
From the snows our pine-peaks crowning;
And they poured the song in joy along,
For the hours were bright before them,
And grand and hale were the elms of Yale,

Like fathers bending o'er them!

A noble throng, they made the song

Roll on in the hours before them,

While high and hale were the towers of Yale,
Like giants, watching o'er them!

This recent festival and that founding of the college, stand before us now as eras, each a convenient center around which we may circumscribe a circle, a lofty eminence from which we may view the surrounding region. We propose, accordingly, from these two points of view to look at what Yale College was and at what it is.