COLLEGE nKML\LSCE.\CL^. 213 



aiul only brother of his beautiful sisters, — the modest, unassuming boy 

 of 16, — religiously trained and full of reverence for religion, but poor 

 Morion; ''he fell among thieves" — they templed him with wine, — they 

 sang Bacchanalian songs, — they lured him to their midnight festivals 

 and carousals in town, — they initiated him into the mysteries of cards 

 — they incited him to every deed of mischief, and the scoundrels al- 

 ways managed to escape detection themselves, whilst their unsuspecting 

 dupe was frequently cited before that dreaded court, the Faculty. Thus 

 he went through his College course and was at last admitted to his de- 

 gree, as it now stands opposite his name in the records, " admissus spe- 

 ciali gratia. " In a few years, he ran his career, and his broken heart- 

 ed mother and distracted sisters followed to the grave a corpse, swol- 

 len and putrid from intemperance. This is the brief history of many 

 a young man whom I have known, whose habits of inebriety were 

 contracted at college. 



In looking down the list, I come to a name, which always excites a 

 smile. He is still living, — he holds a high office under government and is 

 considered not an ordinary man. R — , was a vain, pedantic, efTeminate 

 coxcomb. He was the College dandy, who bestowed more attention 

 on the curls of his hair than on his Euclid, and used more Macassar oil 

 in anointing it, than he did fish oil in his study lamp. He was stupid 

 withal, and an intolerable bore. Every day he would come to my room 

 and there I would read over to him the various lessons and demonstrate 

 the problems. He squeezed through after a fashion-, and yet that man 

 has been elected to high offices, — has been successful in his profession, 

 — at present draws a good salary from government, but I am sure his 

 classics and mathematics never elevated him so high. He was mainly 

 indebted to me for his diploma, and whilst he has been thus fortunate, 

 I have never been elected to office by the people, nor ever received an 

 appointment from government, and have had but a moderate share of 

 patronage in my profession. 1 am almost convinced of the truth of the 

 proverb, "a fool for luck." I sometimes meet R — . He knows me 

 and that is all, and I do not remember when I was more mortified, than 

 when on a recent occasion, this man's influence with the government 

 was absolutely indispensable to me to secure a certain design I had in 

 view. I was almost disgusted at the idea of being under obligation to 

 such a man, when I knew his want of capacity and talents, but he had 

 influence in a certain quarter, and I had none. I was almost tempted 

 to exclaim, what are talents and education worth after all ? 



" How are you, Dick ? — how d 'ye do .- — why, lime has made chick- 

 en feel about the corners of your inouUi, — a little frosly about the up- 



