public graduating disputation was in these early days ordinarily called a "determinance" and the candidate a "determiner," but at the University of Cambridge he was known as a 'commencer" and the public ceremony as a "commencement." It marked the formal graduation of a student and his reception into the body of teachers. This is the real origin of the word commencement" as now used in the academic world, and all the flowery metaphorical explanations, annually given that "it is so called, because it is the commencement of life" are very fine sentiment and romance, but they are not in keeping with fact and history.

Later the disputation became largely a formal argument or set speech by the candidate. It has been perpetuated in the omniscient and highly moral commencement addresses that were until recently exploited by choice members of the graduating class at colleges and universities, and the species is still extant in the mosaic combinations of the best thoughts of parents, teachers, and family preachers that proceed "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings" at our present day high school commencements. The sort of performance into which the old final disputation had degenerated at the University of Tübingen by the close of the sixteenth century is shown in a well-known wood-cut. A marked falling off in interest is indicated by the slim attendance of students. It might almost represent the baccalaureate sermon of a modern American university.

Much of our university development is closely connected with this feature of a debate. In old pictures are often represented scholars disputing on propositions in the text, using actual plants and animals in their interpretation, or various members of a faculty engaged in disputation. (A faculty meeting is still a natural-born debating society!) A disputation was the orthodox means used of settling almost every question of importance in university life, and unless we can appreciate this, we shall fail to grasp the significance of many of the large events of history. For example, Martin Luther is, by a misunderstanding, often lauded for the courage he displayed

in posting the ninety-five theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, although he would himself probably have scouted the idea. Luther was undoubtedly a man of great courage, as shown by his stand at the Diet of Worms, but when he posted the theses he displayed but little more courage than would a student today in issuing a challenge from one literary society to another for a joint debate. Luther had been teaching "justification by faith," and had won a large following from his student body at the University of Wittenberg for that interpretation, as can be seen from the extant thesis of one of his pupils. The idea of "indulgences" had failed in his own experience and he maintained that they were superfluous. To save his reputation with his students, it was necessary for him to challenge Tetzel to debate the question with him. This was a common university custom and Luther apparently had no idea of breaking from the Church, or of creating a sensation. He seems to have supposed that his theses, which were written in Latin, and were in scholastic form, would be read only by scholars, but such was the awakening of the times, that within a fortnight all Germany, and at the end of a month, all Christendom, were acquainted with his declaration, and probably recognized their significance more clearly than he.

To return to the student body of these early universities, we find that the next step after the successful completion of a determinance was the ceremony of conferring the doctorate. Two old drawings represent this stage of the proceedings at the Universities of Altdorf and Utrecht respectively. An earlier view of the reception of a doctor by his faculty is also extant. The dean of the faculty places the doctor's cap upon the candidate's head, and a ring upon his finger, and requires him to kiss the book. After his promotion to the doctorate the candidate was expected to celebrate by giving a "spread" to all that had been present at his determinance. A copy of a wood-cut of 1589 shows us a banquet of this sort at the University of Tübingen, and the custom of Doktorschmaus is still continued at several of the German universities.

It may be of interest to witness from old pictures some of the

other student activities, customs, and amusements in the early universities. First we may observe an academic procession at Heidelberg in the seventeenth century, such as still occurs in European institutions. These processions are participated in by both faculty and student organizations, and are held in honor of the inauguration of a new rector or at the funeral of a member of the faculty or of a patron of the university. In connection with this, we may view the amusements of German university students a couple of centuries ago. Here we find them horseback riding in the academy, playing billiards, engaging in the formal procession of their student corps, playing ball, tennis, square dancing, riding out in the country, and gambling. To these pastimes we may add that of football, as played at Tübingen in 1589, although this game has long since been given up in Germany.

We may now glance at one of the most typical customs of German university life. This is the Mensur, which is generally translated "duelling," although a contestant does not intend to kill his opponent, as in a duel. On the other hand, “fencing,” which is quite innocuous, is too mild a description, for those engaged are often seriously hurt, and the spectators usually find their faces and clothing flecked with blood before an evening of duelling is over. The aim of the Mensur is to develop courage, self-control, obedience, persistence, and indifference to physical suffering, and it is the ambition of every member of a student corps or fraternity to wear an angry red scar somewhere upon his face as a badge of honor obtained in duelling. It is a survival of feudal practices reaching back into the Middle Ages. While there are laws forbidding this brutal sport, it is largely protected by public sentiment, since the tradition is so old. While it is necessary to carry on this practice clandestinely at universities located in large cities, like Berlin, where the power of the student body is greatly inferior to the police, in Heidelberg and the smaller towns generally, no effort is made to conceal it. Treatises upon the University of Heidelberg furnish us with representations of this pastime. Among them are two old views

made from prints and two modern cuts from fairly recent photographs.

In connection with the duelling fraternities, the Fuchsritt may be described. This is a procession celebrating the admission of the Fuchs ("fox") or freshman into one of the fraternities. It was accompanied by much feasting and revelry. Another early student custom is seen in the less pleasant reception of a beginner in university life through the initiation long known in America as "hazing." A wicked-looking knife is professedly wielded so as to cut off the "rough edges" from the freshman. The inscription at the top of the picture gets its significance from the fact that the freshman was generally known as a bijanus ("yellow beak"),-a term of ridicule, indicating a little bird whose beak has not yet turned black.

Such were the origin and history of higher education in Europe, and of some of its procedures, usages, and traditions. But with all the foolish customs, restraint of students, narrow curriculum, and stereotyped methods, the medieval universities were clearly of great assistance in promoting freedom of discussion and advancing democracy. They became the representatives of secular and popular interest, and moderated greatly the power of the papacy and absolute sovereignty. They were regarded by all classes as a court of arbitration, and to them were referred disputes between the civil and ecclesiastical powers. Thus through their influence were liberalized all institutions, and they greatly aided in advancing the cause of liberty and carrying forward the torch of civilization and progress.

Let us now consider the history of the institution of higher learning in the United States and witness the further evolution of our universities. First we may glance at the buildings of our earliest college,-Harvard. This institution was founded in 1636, and the buildings of the picture were erected late in the same century, and in the early part of the next. Following the English traditions, as we have noted, they were not intended for lectures and recitations, but were dormitories. The actual instruction was during this period generally given in the homes or private rooms of the president and tutors.

Next we may view the old college of William and Mary, which was established at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1693, and was consequently our second institution of higher learning in order of foundation. Although the College has been thrice destroyed by fire, the walls have remained intact and the main building represents the oldest collegiate structure now existing in America. Some Virginians even go so far as to claim that William and Mary itself was the first colonial college. Certainly an endowment of ten thousand acres of land was obtained for a college by the colony of Virginia as early as 1619, but the efforts in this direction, being interrupted by the Indian massacre three years later, proved abortive. The successful application for an endowment was that made to the sovereigns by the Reverend James Blair, Bishop's Commissary in Virginia, during a visit to London in 1692. He obtained an appropriation of twenty thousand acres of land, two thousand pounds, and the benefit of certain taxes and imposts. The colonial planters and assembly added largely to the resources of the college, and for more than half a century its income was far larger than that of Harvard. It became the alma mater of some of the most distinguished scholars, statesmen, judges, and military leaders, during the struggle for American independence. It seems unfortunate that William and Mary could not have kept pace with the spirit of the times. The refusal to accede to the request of her great alumnus, Thomas Jefferson, to become non-sectarian and develop all departments of higher learning, resulted in the foundation of the University of Virginia in 1825, and the reduction of William and Mary to an educational way-station, at present of little more prominence than a state normal school. It deserves a more important place because of its significance in our historic annals, and it is to be hoped that a multimillionaire may some day revive it.

Others of our great universities, like Yale and Princeton, began as colleges in the early period while we were still imitating England, but their character and history is very similar to that of the colleges already described. A collegiate institution of a somewhat different sort was that founded through the