I should be faithless, indeed, were I to go forward, without one passing word, for precious memory, in regard to those two perennial damsels, the daughters of Dr. Byles. How many visitations, at that ancient manse in Nassau Street! To how many of the sex--young--aye, and of no particular age--it has occurred, at the nick of time, when there was nothing under Heaven else to be done, to exclaim--"What an excellent occasion, for a visit to Katy and Polly!" And the visit was paid; and the descendants of "_the celebrated Mather Byles_" were so glad to see the visitors--and it was so long since their last visit--and it must not be so long again--and then the old stories, over and over, for the thousandth time--and the concerted merriment of these amiable visitors, as if the tales were quite as new, as the year itself, upon the first January morn--and the filial delights, that beamed upon the features of these vestals, at the effect, produced, by the recitation of stories, which really seemed to be made of that very _everlasting_ of which the breeches of our ancestors were made--and then the exhibition of those relics, and _heir looms_, or what remained of them, after some thirty years' presentation to all comers, which, in one way and another, were associated with the memory of "_the celebrated Mather Byles_,"--and then the oh don't gos--and oh fly not yets--and when will you come agains! The question naturally arises, and, rather distrustingly, demands an answer--what was "_the celebrated Mather Byles_"--celebrated for? In the first place, he was _Sanctæ Theologiæ Doctor_. But his degree was from Aberdeen; and the Scotch colleges, at that period, were not particularly coy. With a cousin at court, and a little gold in hand, it was somewhat less difficult, for a clergyman, without very great learning, or talent, to obtain a doctorate, at Aberdeen, in 1765, than for a camel, of unusual proportions, to go through the eye of a very small needle. Even in our cis-atlantic colleges, these bestowments do not always serve to mark degrees of merit, with infallible accuracy--for God's sun does not more certainly shine, upon the just and upon the unjust, than doctorates have, in some cases, fallen upon wise men, and upon fools. That, which, charily and conservatively bestowed, may well be accounted an honor, necessarily loses its value, by diffusion and prostitution. Not many years ago, the worthy president of one of our colleges, being asked, how it happened, that a doctorate of divinity had been given to a certain person of ordinary talents, and very little learning; replied, with infinite _naiveté_--"_Why ---- had it; and ---- had it; and ---- had it; and we didn't like to hurt his feelings_."