The Press. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1887.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 6657, 24 January 1887, Page 2

The Press. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1887.

Harvard University, the oldest collegiate institution in America, has just celebrated, amid great rejoicings, its 250th anniversary. The President and Mrs. Cleveland graced the occasion with their presence, tbe University of Cambridge and Emmanuel College, with which Harvard, as will be seen presently, is intimately associated, were represented by special invitation by two distinguished delegates—Dr. Tatloe, the master of St. John’s College, and Professor Creighton, Fellow of Emmanuel College. The two foremost men in the American world of letters, Mr. Lowell and Dr. Holmes, also took a prominent part in the proceedings, which altogether seems to have been carried out in a manner worthy the importance of the occasion. What chiefly strikes us in the speeches which were made is the tone in which everybody spoke of the age of Harvard. Compared with our own baby University, it seems, with its weight of 250 years, to be quite a venerable foundation. Mr. Lowell, however, struck the key-note of his address, and evidently earried with him the sympathy of his hearers, when he said—“ Ours ia a new country in more senses than one, and, like children when they are fancying themselves this or that, we have to play very hard to believe that we are old.” He had in his mind the “ gray seclusions ” of Oxford and Cambridge, “ conscious with venerable associations,” and his hearers had the same comparison in view when they were admiring or pitying their own College on account of its extreme youthfulness. We are reminded of the story illustrated in Punch many years ago. A visitor to a country village found an elderly man of about sixty sobbing bitterly outside a cottage door. On being asked what was the matter, he complained that his “father had been hitting him.” Thereupon an older man came out of the door, and said it' quite true, and the <r young rascal ” deserved all that he got, for he had been throwing stones at his grandfather! Fortunately the “young rascal” in this case, meaning thereby the wealthy and important educational body whose anniversary has just been observed with so much honor, showed no intention to throw stenea at its ancestors or at anybody else. It has much reason to be proud of its growth and progress, and all the circumstances connected with the celebration were of the most gratifying character. The College was founded in 1636, by the little colony of Puritans who had just settled in Massachusetts Bay. They numbered scarcely 5000 families, an Indian war was pending, they were altogether a feeble folk, but they had a strong belief in the advantages of learning The general conrt of the colony passed a resolution agreeing to “ give £4OO towards a school or college, whereof £2OO shall be paid the next year, and £2OO when the work is finished.” Among the early settlers were many graduates of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the great centre of English Puritanism. Consequently, when they had fixed upon a site for a building, what did they do but name the village Cambridge, after the great seat of learning at Home, and this name it bears to the present day. Thus it was that the presence of representatives of Cambridge University in general, and of Emmanuel College in particular, was deemed so appropriate at the anniversary gathering just celebrated. There is another reason why Harvard University is especially connected with Emmanuel College, and it is that which gives the former the name by which it is known all over the world. Ab soon as tbe settlers had fixed on a site and had voted out of their slender resources funds for the building, there eame to the colony a graduate of Emmanuel College, by name the Eev. John Haryard. He was in an advanced stage of consumption, poor fellow, and died not very long afterwards. He heartily supported the project of the College, and in his will left half his fortune, a sum of £BOO, and his library, to the institution. Voluntary contributions then came in from every class in the community, the building was begun, and received the name of Harvard College in memory of its first benefactor. It will thus be seen that the leading educational centre of America had a less ambitious beginning than our own University. Its growth, however, has been really marvellous. We have not the latest statistics at hand, but some years ago it had 56 professors, 14 tutors, 1161 students, and libraries of 187,000 volumes, while connected with the College were seven professional schools of law, theology, medicine, science, mining, dentistry, and agriculture. Our space will not permit us to enter into details of the celebration, interesting though they undoubtedly are. The chief impressidn left oa the English visitors waa the “ homeliness, the simplicity, and |bb heartiness of the entire proceed'tags.” The banquet held in the noble Ml of the University, at which 1280 guests were present, was m! marked contrast to the’ extravagant dinners so often seen in England. The repast was of the simplest kind, and there was no wine on the table.

The audience had their cigars when the table was cleared, and there was no lack of speeches. When the more formal addresses were delivered in the University theatre the most perfect decorum prevailed, and the proceedings were as different from the wild scenes of disorder to be witnessed at the Oxford Encaenia, and —must we add ?—at the capping of New Zealand University students, as can well be imagined. Yet tbe Harvard men are by no means deficient in a sense of humour. In the evening a torchlight procession was organised, and transparencies bearing undergraduates’ jokes of every kind were to be seen in plenty. They made sport of the antiquarian efforts to trace out the Eev. John Harvard’s ancestry. The statue of the founder was borne along surrounded by a group labelled, “John Harvard’s Pas,” a butcher, a grocer, and a cooper, “ iu reference,” we are told, “to the results of recent research, which have shown him to have had a father and two stepfathers who followed those trades in England.” The gathering was, therefore, not without its lighter side. But to us, at any rate, it also conveys great and important lessons which we shall do well to lay to heart. We may take courage from the example of Harvard, and trust with confidence that although we are as yet in the day of small things in the way of higher education in this colony, the little plant which is now breaking through the ground will grow into a goodly tree by and-bye. Above all, we shall do well to ponder over some noble words spoken by Mr. Lowell to the students and their guests, in reference to the relation of a University with national life. “ De- “ mocracy,” he said, “ must show “ its capacity for producing not a “ higher average man, but the highest “ possible type of manhood in all its “ manifold varieties, or it is a failure. “No matter what it does for the “ body, if it does not in some sort “ satisfy the inextinguishable passion “ of the soul for something that lifts “ life away from prose, from the “ common and the vulgar, it is a “ failure. Unless it know how to “ make itself gracious and winning, it “is a failure. Has it done this ? Is “ it doing this or trying to do it ? Not “ yet I think.” These weighty words of reminder are quite as necessary to us in this colony as to our brethren in America, and with Mr. Lowell’s mild, reproachful cry of “ not yet ” ringing in their ears, we leave the subject with our readers.