He said also, "he intended to write tress and joy." Another person by the name of Prentice said "he would make such an attack on the College as it never had yet. Some "imputed the coldness grown upon scholars to the Tutors' not advising them about spiritual things. 99 The result of this controversy was no doubt satisfactory to the public and beneficial to the College. What effect Mr. Whitefield's denunciation had to injure the College, by keeping back patronage, by lessening the number of its students, or in any other way, is not known. It was probably much less than it would have been, had not Yale College, then the only one in New England except this,' been included in the same proscription. President Holyoke in his letter to Mr. Whitefield, said to him, "You have already (whether you designed it or not) really injured us not a little. But from the continued and increasing prosperity of the College, it is evident that the injury received could not have been very considerable, either in magnitude or duration; and it was doubtless owing, under Providence, to the timely exertions of its officers in no small degree, that the mischiefs which threatened it were so happily averted. 1 Flynt's MS. Diary. CHAPTER XXIII. THE laws made in 1734 appear to have contained all that was needed for several years. On the 29th of April 1740, "The Committee appointed April 25th, 1738, to enquire into the state of the College, &c., and revived the 6th of September last, have attended that service, and upon enquiry made of the Rev'd. President, Tutors, and Professors, doe find that the exercises required by law are statedly attended, and that the body of laws lately made for the government of the College doe in a good measure answer their end, and prove beneficial to the Society, and that at present there does not appear occasion for any new laws to be made; nor do the Committee apprehend it needful to lay any new proposals before the Board of Overseers. All which is submitted in the name and by the desire of the Committee. April 20, 1740. S. PHIPPS." Such was the operation of these laws for some years longer; till, in the natural progress of things, occasions arose for the vigorous application of them, and for such alterations and additions, as resulted at length in another revisal and amendment of the Code. Those occasions were sometimes furnished by "profane cursing and swearing" among the students; "by their frequenting alehouses;" by their "improving persons in fetching liquors"; by "the extravagant expenses at taverns and retailing houses, for wine, strong beer, and distilled spir its, " incurred by some of the undergraduates, and their "taking up such liquors on score, until their accounts amounted to a very enormous sum," a practice, which, from "the too liberal use of such liquors," was supposed to have occasioned most of the disorders in the College. Sometimes the evils to be remedied were "the breach of the Sabbath, more especially in time of public worship," the remedy for which was "the Tutors sitting in the meeting-house so as more conveniently to oversee the scholars";" combinations among the undergraduates for the perpetration of unlawful acts"; the "disorders of which they were guilty by being absent from their chambers, contrary to law, at unseasonable times of night"; "the crime of taking cuts out of books" belonging to the public Library; the loose practice of "going and staying out of town without leave "; "the costly habits of many of the scholars, their wearing gold or silver lace, or brocades, silk night-gowns, &c., as tending to discourage persons from giving their children a college education, and as inconsistent with the gravity and decency proper to be observed in this Society;" "the extravagancies of Commencement," and irregularities on that occasion; the "disorders upon the day of the Senior Sophisters meeting to choose the officers of the class," when "it was usual for each scholar to bring a bottle of wine with him, which practice the Committee (that reported upon it) apprehend has a natural tendency to produce disorders"; "riotous disorders frequently committed on the quarter-days and evenings," on one of which in 1764, "the windows of all the Tutors and divers other windows were broken," so that, in consequence, a vote was passed that "the observation of quarter-days, in distinc tion from other days, be wholly laid aside, and that the undergraduates be obliged to observe the studying hours and to perform the College exercises on quarterday, and the day following as at other times." The prominent evil to be combated at one time, notwithstanding there was no theatre yet in Boston, was theatrical exhibitions; and it was voted in 1762, that no student should "be an actor in, a spectator at, or any ways concerned in any stage-plays, interludes, or theatrical entertainments in the town of Cambridge or elsewhere," under the severest penalties. Discipline, however, took an opportunity now and then to relax its brow, as in 1761, when a vote was passed "that it shall be deemed no offence, if the scholars shall in a sober manner entertain one another and strangers with punch (which, as it is now usually made, is no intoxicating liquor), any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding." But of indulgences it was not liberal. It could not be, and preserve its character; for the "Sage, called Discipline," though not morose, tyrannical or prying, is by nature, serious, watchful, exact, rigid. Occasionally some striking occurrence called for the interposition of the lawgivers of the College; as in 1755, when "great disorders committed, and even indignities and personal insults offered to some of the Tutors by some of the pupils," produced the appointment of a Committee of the Overseers to make enquiry into them, and drew from that Board a vote of censure upon the Scholars; and as in 1766, when there were "great disorders among the Students tending to subvert all government.” The last mentioned disorders arose principally, if not altogether, from dissatisfaction with the state of the Commons, which, from the first establishment of Har vard College (when, in imitation of the English Colleges, they were introduced), seem to have been a never-failing source of uneasiness and disturbance. It was the alleged badness of the Commons, that was, as we have seen, one of the principal causes of complaint against the first master, Eaton. What their effects were during a long interval cannot now be particularly stated; but it is not probable they were materially different from what they have been since. That there are strong reasons, why the Commons should be supported, it might be fairly inferred from the very fact of their having continued so long, though, on one side or another, so continually assailed. Such, indeed, a little reflection will show to be the truth. The Commons unite the very important advantages of furnishing a salutary diet, and of contracting the expense of a College education by keeping down the price of board. Their beneficial effects are extended beyond the walls of the College. To a great degree, the Commons, it is believed, regulate the price and quality of board even in private families; and thus secure in the town a general style of living, at once economical and favorable to health and to study. But the very circumstance, which is their chief recommendation, is the occasion also of all the odium which they have to encounter; that simplicity, which makes the fare cheap, and wholesome, and philosophical, renders it also unsatisfactory to dainty palates; and the occasional appearance of some unlucky meat, or other food, is a signal for a general outcry against the provisions. To remove, as far as possible, all grounds of complaint, with respect to the price as well as the quality and conditions of the Commons, regulations, during President Holyoke's time, were frequently made in them by |