Similar to this is the account given by the Hon. Paine Wingate, a graduate of the class of 1759, of the exercises of Commencement as conducted while he was in College. "I do not recollect now," he says, "any part of the public exercises on Commencement Day to be in English, excepting the President's prayers at opening and closing the services. Next after the prayer followed the Salutatory Oration in Latin, by one of the candidates for the first degree. This office was assigned by the President, and was supposed to be given to him who was the best orator in the class. Then followed a Syllogistic Disputation in Latin, in which four or five or more of those who were distinguished as good scholars in the class were appointed by the President as Respondents, to whom were assigned certain questions, which the Respondents maintained, and the rest of the class severally opposed, and endeavored to invalidate. This was conducted wholly in Latin, and in the form of Syllogisms and Theses. At the close of the Disputation, the President usually added some remarks in Latin. After these exercises the President conferred the degrees. This, I think, may be considered as the summary of the public performances on a Commencement Day. I do not recollect any Forensic Disputation, or a Poem or Oration spoken in English, whilst I was in College."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, pp. 307, 308. As far back as the year 1685, it was customary for the President to deliver an address near the close of the exercises. Under this date, in the MS. Diary of Judge Sewall, are these words: "Mr. President after giving ye Degrees made an Oration in Praise of Academical Studies and Degrees, Hebrew tongue." In 1688, at the Commencement, according to the same gentleman, Mr. William Hubbard, then acting as President under the appointment of Sir Edmund Andros, "made an oration."