Following the example of his friend Biglow, Mr. Prentiss, on leaving college, prepared a will, which afterwards appeared in one of the earliest numbers of the Rural Repository, a literary paper, the publication of which he commenced at Leominster, Mass., in the autumn of 1795.  Thomas Paine, afterwards Robert Treat Paine, Jr., immediately transferred it to the columns of the Federal Orrery, which paper he edited, with these introductory remarks:  “Having, in the second number of ‘Omnium Gatherum’ presented to our readers the last will and testament of Charles Chatterbox, Esq., of witty memory, wherein the said Charles, now deceased, did lawfully bequeath to Ch——­s Pr——­s the celebrated ‘Ugly Knife,’ to be by him transmitted, at his collegiate demise, to the next succeeding candidate;... and whereas the said Ch-----s Pr-----s, on the 21st of June last, departed his aforesaid ‘college life,’ thereby leaving to the inheritance of his successor the valuable legacy, which his illustrious friend had bequeathed, as an entailed estate, to the poets of the university,—­we have thought proper to insert a full, true, and attested copy of the will of the last deceased heir, in order that the world may be furnished with a correct genealogy of this renowned jack-knife, whose pedigree will become as illustrious in after time as the family of the ‘ROLLES,’ and which will be celebrated by future wits as the most formidable weapon of modern genius.”

“A WILL;

BEING THE LAST WORDS OP CH——­S PR——­S, LATE WORTHY AND MUCH LAMENTED MEMBER OF THE LAUGHING CLUB OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, WHO DEPARTED COLLEGE LIFE ON THE 21ST OF JUNE, 1795.

“I, Pr-----s Ch----s, of judgment sound,
In soul, in limb and wind, now found;
I, since my head is full of wit,
And must be emptied, or must split,
In name of president APOLLO,
And other gentle folks, that follow: 
Such as URANIA and CLIO,
To whom my fame poetic I owe;
With the whole drove of rhyming sisters,
For whom my heart with rapture blisters;
Who swim in HELICON uncertain
Whether a petticoat or shirt on,
From vulgar ken their charms do cover,
From every eye but Muses’ lover;
In name of every ugly GOD;
Whose beauty scarce outshines a toad;
In name of PROSERPINE and PLUTO,
Who board in hell’s sublimest grotto;
In name of CERBERUS and FURIES,
Those damned aristocrats and tories;
In presence of two witnesses,
Who are as homely as you please,
Who are in truth, I’d not belie ’em,
Ten times as ugly, faith, as I am;
But being, as most people tell us,
A pair of jolly clever fellows,
And classmates likewise, at this time,
They sha’n’t be honored in my rhyme. 
I—­I say I, now make this will;
Let those whom I assign fulfil. 
I give, grant, render, and convey
My goods and chattels thus away: 
That honor of a college life,
That celebrated UGLY KNIFE,
Which predecessor SAWNEY[69] orders,
Descending to time’s utmost borders,
To noblest bard of homeliest phiz,