With wisdom gathered from the years which throng

Its past; and yet 'midst all this honor fair

And power which to its age and works belong

It still must keep and guard with fondest care

The purity of that clear fount which gushed

From out the rock when all was new and forest-hushed.

The Pierian Sodality now came forward again and under the leadership of Mr. Forchheimer, played with much grace and feeling the charming Berceuse of Gounod. Such a thunder of well-merited and continuous applause followed this that it was doubtful whether or no the piece would be repeated. As applause to the music on occasions like the present is very unusual, it must be taken as a mark of approbation of the delightful Dodelinette and its exquisite performance.

Mr. Rich then arose and continued the lighter note which the Berceuse had struck in a very well delivered address to the undergraduates. Mr. Rich's manner of speech was all that could be desired and the peculiar taking humor that pervaded his words was well brought out by voice and gesture.

ADDRESS TO UNDERGRADUATES.FELLOW STUDENTS: - In this age of Darwinianism and Spencerianism, when it is the fashion for writers and orators to trace the growth of the infinitely complex from the inconceivably simple, an occasion like this would be sadly incomplete without an attempt to apply the principles of evolution to some appropriate object. And on this occasion when we, the unweaned children, are gathered together to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth birthday of our revered mother, what more grateful service could we render her than to show how much better and wiser than her elder children are we, her latest born. Let then the "Evolution of the Harvard Student" be the burden of my remarks.

It must be remembered that the Harvard student and the rest of mankind sprang from the same stalk, that the separation did not take place until about the year 1636, when our branch of the family rose into etherial heights in the vain hope that some time it might be able to commune with the gods of high Olympus in their own tongue.

Consider this Harvard student for a moment functionally. He appears to us under three distinct forms, first, as a creature addicted to study - in a moderate degree; secondly, as a creature supposed to pray; and thirdly, about which, in those early times at least, there can be no conjecture, as a creature most prone to transgression. We will now trace out his evolution along each of these principal lines of development, beginning with the last.

Our early fathers were firm believers in the total depravity of mankind. If, at any time, a brother's faith in this doctrine seemed weak, he was exhorted to look at the young men of the college, upon whose souls the devil still held tenacious grip. Upon the college authorities responsibility bore heavily. It was an axiom with them that if there was a choice between right and wrong, the student would always do wrong: if there was no wrong to be done within easy reach he would go out of his way to find it, as if to prove the truth of the fundamental theological dogma of the day. The college exercised great ingenuity in attempting to anticipate the student. A list of all conceivable offences was drawn up, and the penalty for each affixed. Some offences were punishable by expulsion, some by suspension, some by flogging, some by cuffing, a list of fifty-two minor offences by fines, ranging from a penny for tardiness at prayers, to pound2 10s. for absence from town a month without leave. Flogging was administered by the President, in the presence of faculty and students. In order to realize the picturesqueness of this performance, imagine such a case of discipline brought down to our time, and this place the scene of punishment. The members of the faculty are ranged on the platform, and you, the students, are summoned to witness and to take warning. The culprit is brought forward. Our worthy President invokes divine blessing; then, with all solemnity, flogs or cuffs the student as the nature of his offence demands; and, finally, petitions the Almighty to give the offender a new heart, and to bring him into the folds of the righteous.

The system of fines is still more amusing. We can picture to ourselves the mischief-loving student going through a mental calculation in order to ascertain in what way a given sum of money invested in fines would yield the greatest return in fun - whether he should get drunk, or thrash a fellow student, or lie to the Dean, or cut a recitation, or swap jack-knives without the consent of the proctor, all of these offences being punishable by the same fine, one shilling and sixpence.

These absurd methods of punishment gradually died out, but it was not until about the time of the Revolution that flogging fell entirely into desuetude, and it was some time into the present century before the system of fines was wholly discontined. The faculty became less autocratic and more rational in their government. It dawned upon them by degrees that a student might have an iota of reason and common sense. And, as years rolled on, as the student became less of a child in age, greater freedom of action was allowed him. The liberal form of government did not reach its ideality, however, until the year 1885, when the conference committee, - peace be to its ashes! - was established. But this much abused conference committee has not lived in vain if it has only shown that there is little or nothing in Harvard College requiring the attention of such a body. Its very uselessness indicates the ideal condition of college discipline.