lectures of the University, and have access to the Library on the same terms as the Junior and Senior classes. A convenient opportunity of thus supplying the defects of early education, cannot be deemed an unimportant advantage. Indeed the elevation of the Medical profession, in general literature, which drew from Governor Clinton, in a message to the New York Legislature, the high eulogium, that they were "the missionaries of science," renders it necessary, that those who are ambitious of distinction should add to approved theoretical knowledge and practical skill, the advantages of extensive learning.

Although quackery in Medicine, like specious systems in all departments of business, will undoubtedly always receive support and encouragement from credulity and ignorance, yet the true dignity of the profession will keep pace with the growing intelligence of the world, and the advance of society in valuable knowledge. Probably the observation made by Johnson, on the poor success that attended the Medical efforts of Akenside, the poet, would have to be considerably qualified, to render it applicable to the present condition of the profession. He says, "a physician in a great city seems to be the mere plaything of fortune; his degree of reputation is for the most part, totally casual; they that employ him know not his excellence; they that reject him know not his deficience. By an acute observer, who had looked on the transactions of the Medical world for half a century, a

very curious book might be written on the "fortune of physicians."*

This evil, so vividly described, has been in a great measure obviated by the successful exertions of modern physicians to elevate the profession in a knowledge of practical and popular branches; which, being more familiar to the comprehension of mankind than the arcana of medicine, are to a great extent, adopted as guides of judgment as to the qualifications of professors.

The circular, issued by the Faculty, and copied in the Appendix, presents a brief statement of the course of Medical instruction and expenses at Yale College.

* Lives of Poets, vol. 2, p. 428.

FOLLOWING the example of a venerable guide, it is proper to make a few remarks on the manner of celebrating the great academic festival, called Commencement.

President Clap gives the following account of its celebration during the middle of the last century. "The public Commencement is ordinarily on the second Wednesday in September annually at which there is a large assembly, consisting of the President and Fellows, a great number of Ministers, and other learned and superior gentlemen. The President begins the solemnity with prayer, one of the candidates for the first degree makes a salutatory oration to the Governor and Council, the Officers of College, and the whole assembly: the others give a specimen of their learning, by disputing syllogistically on the questions printed in their theses; which are then distributed. The like is done in the afternoon by the candidates for the degree of Master of Arts. Then the President, with the consent of the Fellows, gives them their degrees, three at a time, in this form :

"Pro auctoritate mihi commissa, admitto vos ad Primum Gradum in artibus; pro more Academi

arum in Anglia.* Vobisque trado hunc Librum, una cum potestate publice prælegendi, quotiescunque ad isthoc munus evocati fueritis: cujus, hæc instrumenta,† membrana scripta, testimonio sint.

"The like form is used for the Masters, only instead of Primum, it is Secundum: and instead of prælegendi, it is profitendi; and sometimes, instead of Primum, the President says, Gradum Baccalaureatus; and instead of Secundum, he says, Gradum Magistralem.

"Then one of the Masters makes a Valedictory Oration: and the President concludes the whole solemnity with a prayer."

In several particulars these ceremonies have been altered in modern times. The Valedictory oration, (as well as the Salutatory) is delivered by a candidate for the Bachelor's degree, and syllogistic disputes, "on questions printed in theses," are discontinued.

Orations in English and occasionally poems, by candidates, as well for the Master's as Bachelor's degree, constitute the principal exercises, but are blended with others which will be hereafter noticed.

At the close of the regular academic proceedings, honorary degrees in Divinity, Law, and Medicine, are conferred. To the credit of the Institution it may be remarked, that these degrees have, for many years past, been bestowed with a very sparing hand.

* Now-pro more hujusce academiæ.

The President delivers to each of them a Diploma.

The multitude of collegiate Seminaries, which have recently sprung up in our country, have unfortunately scattered literary diplomas so profusely, that the highest degrees can hardly be considered even as prima facie evidence, either of literary or moral worth. Indeed, Divinity and Law seem to be destined to the fate that has already befallen Physic; in which last profession, every unfledged licentiate is dubbed a doctor, and as a matter of course adds M. D. to a name, that, perhaps, but the day before, had passed the boundary of legal infancy.

The degree of Doctor of Laws is of late in the most imminent peril, as but few aspirants for literary honors, (not belonging to those professions,) would feel perfectly at home, in being seated in the high places of divinity and physic.

Hence it is, that a profession, which can rarely address any of its most distinguished members by higher titles than Judge and Esquire, has been astonished by the sudden growth of an academic corps of clergymen, physicians, charitable donors, and gentlemen without any definite character, who have strolled accidentally into the fields of science, all bearing collegiate credentials that they are Doctors of Laws. In allusion to their qualifications, the lawyer may derive an analogous illustration from Lord Coke. 66 Every gentleman," (says the learned Commentator,) is an Esquire, but every Esquire is not a gentleman;" or, perhaps, Sir Thomas Smith's account of the perversion of the term, gentleman, may be more apposite.