PRAESES.  The Latin for President.

  “Praeses” his “Oxford” doffs, and bows reply.
    Childe Harvard, p. 36.

  Did not the Praeses himself most kindly and oft reprimand me?
    Harvardiana, Vol.  III. p. 98.

    —­the good old Praeses cries,
  While the tears stand in his eyes,
  “You have passed and are classed
  With the boys of ‘Twenty-Nine.’”
    Knick.  Mag., Vol.  XLV. p. 195.

PRAYERS.  In colleges and universities, the religious exercises performed in the chapel at morning and evening, at which all the students are required to attend.

These exercises in some institutions were formerly much more extended than at present, and must on some occasions have been very onerous.  Mr. Quincy, in his History of Harvard University, writing in relation to the customs which were prevalent in the College at the beginning of the last century, says on this subject:  “Previous to the accession of Leverett to the Presidency, the practice of obliging the undergraduates to read portions of the Scripture from Latin or English into Greek, at morning and evening service, had been discontinued.  But in January and May, 1708, this ‘ancient and laudable practice was revived’ by the Corporation.  At morning prayers all the undergraduates were ordered, beginning with the youngest, to read a verse out of the Old Testament from the Hebrew into Greek, except the Freshmen, who were permitted to use their English Bibles in this exercise; and at evening service, to read from the New Testament out of the English or Latin translation into Greek, whenever the President performed this service in the Hall.”  In less than twenty years after the revival of these exercises, they were again discontinued.  The following was then established as the order of morning and evening worship:  “The morning service began with a short prayer; then a chapter of the Old Testament was read, which the President expounded, and concluded with prayer.  The evening service was the same, except that the chapter read was from the New Testament, and on Saturday a psalm was sung in the Hall.  On Sunday, exposition was omitted; a psalm was sung morning and evening; and one of the scholars, in course, was called upon to repeat, in the evening, the sermons preached on that day.”—­Vol.  I. pp. 439, 440.

The custom of singing at prayers on Sunday evening continued for many years.  In a manuscript journal kept during the year 1793, notices to the following effect frequently occur.  “Feb. 24th, Sunday.  The singing club performed Man’s Victory, at evening prayers.”  “Sund.  April 14th, P.M.  At prayers the club performed Brandon.”  “May 19th, Sabbath, P.M.  At prayers the club performed Holden’s Descend ye nine, etc.”  Soon after this, prayers were discontinued on Sunday evenings.