“Some lightly o’er the current swim,
Some show their gaily gilded trim
Quick glancing to the sun.”

Here was the repetition of an old performance, but the actors were new.  I too had once floated over that glittering water, or lain up by the bank in conversation, or reciting verses, or, perhaps, in that silent, dreamy vacancy, in which the mind ruminates or rests folded up within itself in the consciousness of its own immortality.

Here I must place a word or two in regard to the censures cast upon this magnificent foundation of learning relative to the extravagances of young collegians.  Let it be granted, as it is asserted by some, that there is too much exclusiveness, and that there are improvements to be recommended in some of the details of an organization so ancient.  It may be true to a certain extent, for what under heaven is perfect?  But a vast mass of good is to be brought to bear on the other hand.  I cannot, therefore, agree in those censures which journalism has cast upon the officers of the university, as if they encouraged, or, at all events, did not control, the vicious extravagance of young men.  I am expressing only an individual opinion, it is true; and this may be a reason why it may be undervalued, when the justice of a question is not the criterion by which it is judged.  All that such a foundation can be expected to do is to render the advantages of learning as accessible as possible, upon reasonable terms, that genius, not wealth alone, may be able to avail itself of its advantages.  If the present sum be too high, let its reduction be considered with a view to any practicable change.  The pecuniary resources of the collegian it becomes no part of the duty of the university to control, beyond the demands necessary for the main object of instruction.  As the circumstances of parents vary, so will the pecuniary allowance made to their offspring.  It would be a task neither practicable nor justifiable for the university to regulate the outlay of the collegian, or, in fact, become the paymaster of his menus plaisirs.  Only let such a task be imagined in its enormity of control, from the son of the nobleman with an allowance of a thousand a year to one of a hundred and fifty pounds.  It is not in the college, but prior to the arrival there of the youth, that he should be instructed in the views his relations have in sending him, and be taught that he must not ape the outlay and show of those who have larger means.  If a youth orders a dozen coats within a time for which one only would be found adequate, I do not see what his college has to do with it.  Youths entering the navy and army are left in a much more extended field of temptation.  No time-hallowed walls shelter them.  No salutary college rules remind them of their moral duties, daily and almost hourly.  They go up and down the world under their own guardianship, exposed to every sinister influence, and with inclinations only restrained by their own monitorship.  The