Referring to the proceedings consequent upon the announcement of appointments, Professor Sidney Willard, in his late work, entitled “Memories of Youth and Manhood,” says of Harvard College:  “The distribution of parts to be performed at public exhibitions by the students was, particularly for the Commencement exhibition, more than fifty years ago, as it still is, one of the most exciting events of College life among those immediately interested, in which parents and near friends also deeply sympathized with them.  These parts were communicated to the individuals appointed to perform them by the President, who gave to them, severally, a paper with the name of the person and of the part assigned, and the subject to be written upon.  But they were not then, as in recent times, after being thus communicated by the President, proclaimed by a voluntary herald of stentorian lungs, mounted on the steps of one of the College halls, to the assembled crowd of students.  Curiosity, however, was all alive.  Each one’s part was soon ascertained; the comparative merits of those who obtained the prizes were discussed in groups; prompt judgments were pronounced, that A had received a higher prize than he could rightfully claim, and that B was cruelly wronged; that some were unjustly passed over, and others raised above them through partiality.  But at whatever length their discussion might have been prolonged, they would have found it difficult in solemn conclave to adjust the distribution to their own satisfaction, while severally they deemed themselves competent to measure the degree in the scale of merit to which each was entitled.”—­Vol.  I. pp. 328, 329.

I took but little pains with these exercises myself, lest I should appear to be anxious for “parts.”—­Monthly Anthology, Boston, 1804, Vol.  I. p. 154.

Often, too, the qualifications for a part ... are discussed in the fireside circles so peculiar to college.—­Harv.  Reg., p. 378.

The refusal of a student to perform the part assigned him will be regarded as a high offence.—­Laws Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 19.

Young men within the College walls are incited to good conduct and diligence, by the system of awarding parts, as they are called, at the exhibitions which take place each year, and at the annual Commencement.—­Eliot’s Sketch of Hist.  Harv.  Coll., pp. 114, 115.

It is very common to speak of getting parts.

              Here
    Are acres of orations, and so forth,
    The glorious nonsense that enchants young hearts
  With all the humdrumology of “getting parts.”
    Our Chronicle of ’26, Boston, 1827, p. 28.

See under MOCK-PART and NAVY CLUB.

PASS.  At Oxford, permission to receive the degree of B.A. after passing the necessary examinations.

The good news of the pass will be a set-off against the few small debts.—­Collegian’s Guide, p. 254.