16 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
negligent and ignorant; if the College affectionately invite all 
who come to her for instruction, to apply for it, and withholds 
all means of compelling the application, why is it that so many 
have denied themselves the possession ? Disposing, in a word, 
of those who feel satisfied of their inability and total absence 
of claim, of those who, conscious of neglected opportunity, 
and misspent time, who, sensible that their application for a 
diploma would justty be in vain, let us for a moment ex- 
amine a case which has elsewhere been supposed, as actuat- 
ing the conduct of another class — diffidence, or apprehension 
that the requirements are too severe, and that the diploma is 
beyond their reach. There is, perhaps, no more commenda- 
ble trait in the character of the young, than a modest regard 
of their attainments, and none which more surely attracts the 
favor and wins the regard of their seniors. As the poet ex- 
presses it: 
" Humility is the softening shadow before the stature of excellence 
And lieth lowly on the ground, beloved and lovely as the violet. 
Humility is the fair-haired maid, that calleth worth her brother; 
The gentle, silent nurse, that fostereth infant virtues ; 
Her countenance is needful unto all, who would prosper in either world; 
And the mild light of her sweet face is mirrored in the eyes of her 
companions, 
And straightway stand they accepted, children of penitence and love ; 
As when the blind man is nigh unto a rose, its sweetnees heraldeth 
its beauty, 
So when thou savorest humility, be sure thou art nigh unto merit." 
Excellent, then, as such a sense of diffidence is, it is doing 
injustice to those in whom the duty of examining the candi- 
date is reposed, to dread the examination, from a fear that 
more will be required than opportunity and means have been 
afforded to acquire. Such dread is entirely unjust, and is 
based upon imaginary difficulties, which the experience of 
every graduate who has passed the ordeal, has proved to 
have no existence. These difficulties are altogether fabled ; 
chimeras of fancy, having no reason for their foundation ; 
and indulged almost invariably by none but those who have 
