by removing it from his head, he then made bold to wear his skull-cap into the Chapel and recitation-room, in presence of the authority.  Being also then again reproved for wearing his hat in those forbidden and sacred places, he replied that he had once supposed that it was in truth a veritable hat, but having been informed by his superiors that it was no hat at all, he had ventured to come into their presence as he supposed with his head uncovered by that proscribed garment.  But the dilemma was, as in his former position, decided against him; and no other alternative remained to him but to resume his full-brimmed beaver, and to comply literally with the enactments of the collegiate pandect.”—­pp. 179, 180.

MAN WHO IS JUST GOING OUT.  At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the popular name of a student who is in the last term of his collegiate course.

MARK.  The figure given to denote the quality of a recitation.  In most colleges, the merit of each performance is expressed by some number of a series, in which a certain fixed number indicates the highest value.

In Harvard College the highest mark is eight.  Four is considered as the average, and a student not receiving this average in all the studies of a term is not allowed to remain as a member of college.  At Yale the marks range from zero to four.  Two is the average, and a student not receiving this is obliged to leave college, not to return until he can pass an examination in all the branches which his class has pursued.

In Harvard College, where the system of marks is most strictly followed, the merit of each individual is ascertained by adding together the term aggregates of each instructor, these “term aggregates being the sum of all the marks given during the term, for the current work of each month, and for omitted lessons made up by permission, and of the marks given for examination by the instructor and the examining committee at the close of the term.”  From the aggregate of these numbers deductions are made for delinquencies unexcused, and the result is the rank of the student, according to which his appointment (if he receives one) is given.—­Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848.

  That’s the way to stand in college,
  High in “marks” and want of knowledge!
    Childe Harvard, p. 154.

If he does not understand his lesson, he swallows it whole, without understanding it; his object being, not the lesson, but the “mark,” which he is frequently at the President’s office to inquire about.—­A Letter to a Young Man who has Just entered College, 1849, p. 21.

I have spoken slightingly, too, of certain parts of college machinery, and particularly of the system of “marks.”  I do confess that I hold them in small reverence, reckoning them as rather belonging to a college in embryo than to one fully grown.  I suppose it is “dangerous” advice; but I would be so intent upon my studies as not to inquire or think about my “marks.”—­Ibid. p. 36.