There is not one out of twenty of my pupils who can look forward with unmixed pleasure to a testamur.—­Collegian’s Guide, p. 254.

Every testamur must be signed by three out of the four examiners, at least.—­Ibid., p. 282.

THEATRE.  At Oxford, a building in which are held the annual commemoration of benefactors, the recitation of prize compositions, and the occasional ceremony of conferring degrees on distinguished personages.—­Oxford Guide.

THEME.  In college phrase, a short dissertation composed by a student.

It is the practice at Cambridge [Mass.] for the Professor of Rhetoric and the English Language, commencing in the first or second quarter of the student’s Sophomore year, to give the class a text; generally some brief moral quotation from some of the ancient or modern poets, from which the students write a short essay, usually denominated a theme.—­Works of R.T.  Paine, p. xxi.

Far be it from me to enter into competition with students who have been practising the sublime art of theme and forensic writing for two years.—­Harvardiana, Vol.  III. p. 316.

  But on the sleepy day of themes,
  May doze away a dozen reams.
    Ibid., p. 283.

Nimrod holds his “first theme” in one hand, and is leaning his head on the other.—­Ibid., p. 253.

THEME-BEARER.  At Harvard College, until within a few years, a student was chosen once in a term by his classmates to perform the duties of theme-bearer.  He received the subjects for themes and forensics from the Professors of Rhetoric and of Moral Philosophy, and posted them up in convenient places, usually in the entries of the buildings and on, the bulletin-boards.  He also distributed the corrected themes, at first giving them to the students after evening prayers, and, when this had been forbidden by the President, carrying them to their rooms.  For these services he received seventy-five cents per term from each member of the class.

THEME-PAPER.  In American colleges, a kind of paper on which students write their themes or composition.  It is of the size of an ordinary letter-sheet, contains eighteen or nineteen lines placed at wide intervals, and is ruled in red ink with a margin a little less than an inch in width.

Shoe-strings, lucifers, omnibus-tickets, theme-paper, postage-stamps, and the nutriment of pipes.—­Harv.  Mag., Vol.  I. p. 266.

THEOLOGUE.  A cant name among collegians for a student in theology.

The hardened hearts of Freshmen and Theologues burned with righteous indignation.—­Yale Tomahawk, May, 1852.

The Theologs are not so wicked as the Medics.—­Burlesque Catalogue, Yale Coll., 1852-53, p. 30.