rity. The very atmosphere was impregnated with the essence of wisdom, which flowed into the mind as readily as the electric fluid passes from the positive to the negative pole of a battery. The walls were eloquent in their gloomy silence, and the very shades, so deep and venerable, breathed inspiration into the soul. Önce resident there, we flattered ourselves that dulness and sloth and ignorance would give place to quickness of apprehension, energy and erudition, as easily as darkness yields to light. Alas! how was this pleasing illusion dispelled by one flash from the searching torch of experience! Genius was still found to be the inheritance of the few, wisdom still eluded the grasp of all who did not seek her with unwearied application, and inspiration was evolved only amid the mighty throes of intellectual gymnasticism. As yet, however, these were secrets, to be learned only after initiation, and we therefore admired and enjoyed the picture which our own lively fancy had painted, not caring to inquire as to its correctness or its conformity with facts.

At length the long dreaded, yet impatiently expected day arrived which was to transfer us from the kindly influences of home, where we had been nurtured with all tenderness, to the halls of learning; when the helm, which had so long beer in the hand of others, was to be taken by ourselves; when the paiental nest must be abandoned, and we compelled in some sense to pick up our own crumbs; the day on which the boy was expand into the man. The trunk was packed with maternal circumspection, the thread, needles, yarn and cake not being crowded out by things more substantial; the indispensable testimonial to scholarship and moral character was stowed away in the safest corner of the pocket-book; the good-by was said—or rather, in some cases, looked the parting hand pressed, and soon the blue hills which girded the village of our boyhood faded in the distance.

Now for the first time responsibility pressed heavily upon our spirits. Hitherto every thing, even to our thinking, had been done for us, and we had literally fulfilled the Scripture by taking no thought for the morrow. Now every thing depended on our own efforts. It was as though the universe had in one instant been pitched on our shoulders; and, Atlas-like, we nerved ourselves to the task of upholding it. We were at once transformed from mere human machines into self-active natures, and while weighed down with a load of care we exulted in the exercise of our new freedom.

Here we are, on college ground; the goal of years, and the centre of a thousand hopes! There rise the gray old buildings, with their spires and towers, which stood out so conspicuously in our day-dreams! There wave the classic groves, beneath whose shade we have reclined so often in imagination! There glide by us the veterans in science, whose reverend forms have long been familiar objects to the mental eye! But the duties immediately pressing summon us from the depths of reverie, and we hasten to present ourselves for admission. the dreaded ordeal; this the fiery trial whose terrors have haunted us for months previous! The candidate for the Eleusinian mysteries did not approach the temple where the initiatory rites were performed with more reverence than that which filled our breasts as we marched

This is

to the place of examination. The victims of the Inquisition alone can appreciate our feelings as we were ushered into the hall of intellectual torture, where the thumb-screw must be applied to memory, the brain racked, and in some cases perchance the conscience seared as with a hot iron. The patrons of Charon do not tremble with so much anxiety before the infernal trio who preside at the tribunal in Tartarus as made our knees to quake in the presence of the Rhadamanthus, Minos and Eacus with whom rested the decision of our fate. But the trial went on, each individual being the only witness in his own case. Some attempts were made at brow-beating, and the cross-examination often put the witness to his wit's end for an answer. The jury consulted together for a few moments without retiring; the sentence was pronounced by the presiding officer, and we were condemned to four years of con

finement and hard labor.

The examinations for admission present scenes of very opposite character. Numerous are the strange interrogatories, and more numerous the strange replies. Some who, in technical language, have been 'crammed' for the occasion, have manifestly been sorely troubled with mental dyspepsia, since their intellectual pabulum seems neither to have been digested nor assimilated. Some who have explored the depths of ancient philosophy and think themselves familiar with the lore of antiquity, cannot name the capital of a neighboring state, and have not kept up with the march of conquest and annexation so as to be able to tell the number of sovereignties in this confederation.

Alas for the luckless wight who, weighed in the balance and found wanting, is compelled to turn his face homeward and meet the inquiries of friends, and perchance encounter the secret contempt of enemies! He in his soul curses colleges and all connected with them; a philosophic imitator of the fox in the fable. The stereotyped excuse under these circumstances is, that he was not questioned on the things he knew; which indeed cannot be denied; reminding one of the story of the under-graduate at Cambridge, who, being examined for his degree and failing in every subject upon which he was tried, complained that he had not been questioned upon the things which he knew. Upon which the examining master, moved less to compassion by the impenetrable dulness of the man than to anger by his unreasonable complaint, tore off about an inch of paper, and pushing it toward him, desired him to write upon that all he knew.

The wags of a university have not permitted such a favorable opportunity for indulging their humorous propensities as an examination presents to pass unimproved. Among the green and unsuspecting applicants for admission they sometimes reap a harvest of fun, which is stored away to serve as the food of pleasant recollection in after years. The following used to be one of the tricks in the programme of performances on such occasions. A few of the knowing ones, whose heads are more full of roguery than their hearts of feeling, having selected a suitable room, disguise themselves in wigs and spectacles and other paraphernalia adapted to their respective parts in the play to be acted. Musty tomes in black letter and barbarous dialect are piled on the tables before them. A master of ceremonies having been chosen, a

student in his usual dress is sent forth to perambulate the college grounds. In a twinkling the spider falls in with a fly, who inquires the way to the place of examination. The spider either very politely offers to conduct the fly, or more usually proceeds to direct him to No. where his companions are seated in solemn conclave. He is received with becoming gravity, and plied with questions of the most ridiculous nature, all which he answers with the humility and promptness proper in such august presence. The most private affairs of himself and family are brought on the docket. At last a half-suppressed titter, a simultaneous roar of merriment, the good sense of the dupe himself, or the entrance of a bonâ-fide dignitary, ends the laughable farce.

The rocks and shoals and quicksands of examination being safely navigated, the senior tutor, a consequential functionary, piloted us to our future domicile. I have a distinct recollection of my own feelings at that interesting hour, and therefore beg leave to abandon the plural form while I attempt to draw my own portrait, well assured that the picture will find its original in the person of many a one who has had the same unenviable experience. The door of the back middle room on the ground floor, or more correctly the floor under the ground, opened to receive me, and I sunk down upon my trunk, which was the only article of furniture that served to dispel the cheerlessness of the apartment. Surely, thought I, a ray of the blessed sun never straggled in here, for chill-loneliness can be felt in the very air. The cracks between the planks of the floor gaped a full inch apart in some places; the windows creaked mournfully with every blast; the dingy walls smelt mouldy, and the aperture in the wall for the stove-pipe was the only thing that suggested the idea of comfort, a negative idea indeed! There I sat, how long I know not; there I meditated, on what I know not distinctly! As the shadows of evening began to to deepen around, I started to the consciousness that preparations must be made for passing the night, and for rendering the appearance of things less gloomy and repulsive.

The hour for retiring came and we slept, and few of us slept without dreaming. Having heard of ventilation, pumping and smoking, we imagined ourselves the centres toward which the four winds gravitated with tremendous power, or that we were practising hydropathy under the falling thunders of Niagara; or that we had been metamorphosed into hams, and were suspended by the heels in a huge smokehouse. And if either then or on succeeding nights, we had a dream of this kind, which was not all a dream,' we consoled ourselves with the sentiment of the pious Æneas, 'Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit.'

6

In our next chapter we shall introduce the reader into that miniature world, called a college, giving him a notion of its manners, customs and laws; the character and occupations of its inhabitants, and other matters of general interest.

New-Haven, 1850.

W. A.

EPIGRAM ON CAPTAIN ANTHONY.

HERE the ashes lie

Of sinful-not Saint- ANTHONY!

THERE are some words which only should be spoken
When from the soul each earth-bound chain is broken;
With the low cadence of an earnest prayer;
Mid the hushed depths of passionate despair;

In the calm sabbath of the loving heart,
Or the lone twilight, when with day depart
The day's tumultuous cares, its anxious strife,
And leave us to a purer, calmer life.

Never amid the sounds of worldly care
By cold or careless utterance may we dare
Profane those holy heart-words; they were given
To teach us here the alphabet of Heaven!
HOME, PARENT, SISTER, BROTHER!is there one
Whose heart awakes not to an echoing tone
When these are spoken, as they should ever be,
With love's own accent, low and thrillingly?

Brother! my only brother!' breathed a child
In the lone forest, by the brookside wild,

As hand in hand, heart clasped to heart, they strove
To speak that bitterest word to those who love,

Farewell!

'My brother, we may meet no more! God bless thee! Love me still!' The strife was o'er; Few words their grief allowed; brief time had they, For their stern guardian might not brook delay.

They entered life together; they had shared
Together in its joys; together dared
To meet its fiercest ills; but this sad doom
To part, had changed earth to a living tomb!
Oh! ye to whom the orphan's fate is given,
Think of the holy ties already riven;

Nor dare to break, with ruthless hand, the last
That round the crushed and bleeding heart is cast!

"T was their first parting; sorrow's poisoned sword
Had not grown blunt with using; the sad word
'Farewell! had not to them familiar grown,
And lost thereby its bitterness of tone.

No marvel, then, that hour, to them so brief,
Almost their first of agonizing grief,

The work of age should do, and bid them part
Children in years, but adults of the heart.

"We should count time by heart-throbs!'-who can tell What years, what ages in some moments dwell! Wondering we speak of youthful heads turned white Within the limit of a single night;

How many a heart, by some strong feeling's power,