At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fashioned, time-honored, delicious, medieval life which lends so much grace and beauty to our colleges.  There are no gates, no porter’s lodges, no butteries, no halls, no battels, and no common rooms.  There are no proctors, no bulldogs, no bursers, no deans, no morning and evening chapel, no quads, no surplices, no caps and gowns.  I have already said that there are no examinations for degrees and no honors; and I can easily conceive that in the absence of all these essentials many an Englishman will ask what right Harvard College has to call itself a university.

I have said that there are no honors, and in our sense there are none.  But I should give offense to my American friends if I did not explain that there are prizes given—­I think all in money, and that they vary from fifty to ten dollars.  These are called deturs.  The degrees are given on Commencement Day, at which occasion certain of the expectant graduates are selected to take parts in a public literary exhibition.  To be so selected seems to be tantamount to taking a degree in honors.  There is also a dinner on Commencement Day, at which, however, “no wine or other intoxicating drink shall be served.”

It is required that every student shall attend some place of Christian worship on Sundays; but he, or his parents for him, may elect what denomination of church he shall attend.  There is a university chapel on the university grounds which belongs, if I remember aright, to the Episcopalian church.  The young men, for the most part, live in college, having rooms in the college buildings; but they do not board in those rooms.  There are establishments in the town, under the patronage of the university, at which dinner, breakfast, and supper are provided; and the young men frequent one of these houses or another as they, or their friends for them, may arrange.  Every young man not belonging to a family resident within a hundred miles of Cambridge, and whose parents are desirous to obtain the protection thus provided, is placed, as regards his pecuniary management, under the care of a patron; and this patron acts by him as a father does in England by a boy at school.  He pays out his money for him and keeps him out of debt.  The arrangement will not recommend itself to young men at Oxford quite so powerfully as it may do to the fathers of some young men who have been there.  The rules with regard to the lodging and boarding houses are very stringent.  Any festive entertainment is to be reported to the president.  No wine or spirituous liquors may be used, etc.  It is not a picturesque system, this; but it has its advantages.