Cambridge as Village and City 313 



utes? Scarcely had one passed him, when one 

 might exchange a pleasant word with Asa Gray, 

 or descry in some arching vista the picturesque 

 figures of Sophocles or Peirce, or, turning up 

 Brattle Street, encounter, with a thrill of pleasure 

 not untinged with awe, Longfellow and Lowell 

 walking side by side. In such wise are the streets 

 and lawns of our city hallowed by the human pre 

 sences that once graced them ; and few are the 

 things to be had for which one would exchange 

 the memories of those days ! 



My class of 1863, with 120 members, was the 

 largest that had been graduated here. It would 

 have been larger but for the Civil War, and a 

 period foUowed with classes of less than 100 

 members, a sad commentary upon the times. 

 Boundless possibilities of valuable achievement 

 must be sacrificed to secure the supreme end, that 

 the commonwealth should -not suffer harm. How 

 nobly Harvard responded to the demand is recorded 

 upon the solemn tablets in this Memorial Hall. 

 For those who are inclined to dally with the thought 

 that war is something that may be undertaken 

 lightly and with frolicsome heart, this sacred pre 

 cinct and the monument on yonder common have 

 their lesson that may well be pondered. 



The vast growth of our country since the Civil 



