statements, and even respectful remonstrance; but in no case an attempt to exercise counter authority. Any society in a literary institution which should attempt this, in any form, ought instantly to be dissolved. A faculty would be wanting to itself, and unfaithful to the institution committed to its care, which should suffer such a rebellious society to exist for a single hour.

8. I will only add, let it be your constant study to render the society to which you belong as respectable, as useful, and as happy as possible. It has been delightful to observe how some individuals have endeared themselves to the society to which they belonged, by an amiable gentlemanly deportment; by a faithful discharge of all the duties which they owed to it; by embracing every opportunity of promoting its best interests, and adding to its true honour. In the records of every such society you always find a few names handed down as benefactors from one generation of students to another. Let it be your study thus to transmit your own names with honour to coming times.

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LETTER XVI.

DRESS.

"Of outward form

Elaborate, of inward less exact."-Milton.

MY DEAR SONS,

THERE are two extremes in regard to dress into which I have observed that college students are apt to fall. The one is a total negligence of it, leading to a disgusting slovenliness; the other a degree of scrupulous attention to it, which indicates foppery and dandyism. It is my earnest desire that none of my sons may fall into either of these extremes. And let it be remembered that they are both peculiarly apt to be adopted by students who board and lodge together in the same public edifice. There is something in the gregarious principle, which while it is productive of much good, is by no means unattended with serious evil.

Some good scholars, and young men otherwise entirely exemplary, have been notoriously slovenly in their dress. But it was a real blemish in their

character, and was connected with no little disadvantage. It is no disgrace to a student to be poor; to be obliged to wear a threadbare, and even a patched garment. It is rather to his honour, and ought to be so felt by him, to be strictly economical; to dress according to his circumstances; and never to purchase new clothes until he is able honestly to pay for them. He who does otherwise is really the mean and dishonest man. But let not his economical dress be slouching or filthy. Let him not walk about among his fellows, for hours after rising, with his shoes down at the heel, with his stockings hanging loose about his legs; or any part of his clothing visibly begrimed with dirt. Cleanliness and neatness are among the moral virtues, and can never be neglected by any one with impunity. We have no more right to render our persons disgusting to those who approach us, than we have to mutilate and enfeeble them. It is a duty, however scanty or old our garments may be, to see that they be neat and clean, and that our persons be kept, according to the best of our ability, in a manner evincing decency and care. I have sometimes seen young men passing through the corridors of college, and entering the recitation rooms, and even the prayer-hall, with their dress so broken, slovenly and dirty, as manifested little respect either for their instructors, or the God whom they professed to worship, or even for themselves.

But there is another extreme against which every student ought to be put on his guard. I mean that of inordinate and idolatrous attention to dress, which manifests the expenditure of much time and money on the object, and which designates the fop and the dandy. The wise youth, the real gentleman, will always try to dress in such a manner as not to draw attention at all to his dress. His only study will be to have it always so plain, simple, neat and becoming his character, as that no one will find occasion to take special notice of it. Happily you are not able to dress in a profuse and expensive manner. The circumstances of your father forbid your indulging yourselves in that ornate and splendid costume to which, perhaps, your inclinations, if unrestrained, might lead. But if I were ever so wealthy, my judgment would be against allowing you to indulge in costly and extravagant adorning of the body, which is criminal in itself, and which seldom fails to mark the frivolous mind. I never knew a diligent student, a really good scholar, to indulge in this habit; and whenever I see a young man falling into it, I always involuntarily set him down in my own mind as a poor trifler.

If you ask me, where is the harm of indulging in showy and expensive habits of dress? I answer, it must occupy a large share of time and attention, which ought to be bestowed on better objects; and

hence those students who are distinguished by ostentatious and expensive clothing are never good scholars. It would be almost encroaching on the province of miracle if they were. But this is not all. This habit is adapted to do mischief among their fellow students. Those who cannot afford, and ought not to attempt to indulge in the same habit, are often tempted to imitate it, and thus their parents become unnecessarily involved in an expense altogether inconvenient and perhaps distressing. By this means the cost of a college education is greatly increased, and placed beyond the reach of many who might otherwise enjoy it. Nor is this the worst effect. By emulating the habits in this respect of the sons of the wealthy, the sons of those in less affluent circumstances are tempted, contrary to the laws of the college, to get that upon improper credit, which they were not able to pay for, and which ought never to have been gotten at all, and thus shut themselves up to the distressing and humiliating dilemma, of either bringing an unauthorized and burdensome debt on their parents; or of ultimately defrauding the tradesman who was weak enough, or wicked enough to give them credit. If there be any student so unprincipled as to reply, that he does not feel bound to regard such considerations—that he cares for nothing but his own comfort-be it known to such an one, that he stands on substantially the same