The following story is from the Sketches of Yale College.  “In former times, the students were accustomed to assemble together to render excuses for absence in Latin.  One of the Presidents was in the habit of answering to almost every excuse presented, ’Ratio non sufficit’ (The reason is not sufficient).  On one occasion, a young man who had died a short time previous was called upon for an excuse.  Some one answered, ‘Mortuus est’ (He is dead).  ’Ratio non sufficit,’ repeated the grave President, to the infinite merriment of his auditors.”—­p. 182.

The story is current of one of the old Presidents of Harvard College, that, wishing to have a dog that had strayed in at evening prayers driven out of the Chapel, he exclaimed, half in Latin and half in English, “Exclude canem, et shut the door.”  It is also related that a Freshman who had been shut up in the buttery by some Sophomores, and had on that account been absent from a recitation, when called upon with a number of others to render an excuse, not knowing how to express his ideas in Latin, replied in as learned a manner as possible, hoping that his answer would pass as Latin, “Shut m’ up in t’ Buttery.”

A very pleasant story, entitled “The Tutor’s Ghost,” in which are narrated the misfortunes which befell a tutor in the olden time, on account of his inability to remember the Latin for the word “beans,” while engaged in conversation, may be found in the “Yale Literary Magazine,” Vol.  XX. pp. 190-195.

See NON PARAVI and NON VALUI.

LAUREATE.  To honor with a degree in the university, and a present of a wreath of laurel.—­Warton.

LAUREATION.  The act of conferring a degree in the university, together with a wreath of laurel; an honor bestowed on those who excelled in writing verse.  This was an ancient practice at Oxford, from which, probably, originated the denomination of poet laureate.—­Warton.

The laurel crown, according to Brande, “was customarily given at the universities in the Middle Ages to such persons as took degrees in grammar and rhetoric, of which poetry formed a branch; whence, according to some authors, the term Baccalaureatus has been derived.  The academical custom of bestowing the laurel, and the court custom, were distinct, until the former was abolished.  The last instance in which the laurel was bestowed in the universities, was in the reign of Henry the Eighth.”

LAWS.  In early times, the laws in the oldest colleges in the United States were as often in Latin as in English.  They were usually in manuscript, and the students were required to make copies for themselves on entering college.  The Rev. Henry Dunster, who was the first President of Harvard College, formed the first code of laws for the College.  They were styled, “The Laws, Liberties, and Orders of Harvard College, confirmed by the Overseers and President of the College in the years 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646, and published to the scholars