General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great BritainPeters, Samuel
History
General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Peters, Samuel
Connecticut -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Connecticut -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
allowed two hours’ play with foot-ball every day. Thus cooped up for
four years, they understand books better than men or manners. They
then are admitted to their Bachelor’s degree, having undergone a
public examination in the arts and sciences. Three years afterwards
they are admitted to their Master’s degree, provided they have
supported moral characters. The ceremony used by the president upon
these occasions is to deliver a book to the intended Master in Arts,
saying: “Admitto te ad secundum Gradum in Artibus, pro more
Acadæmiarum in Anglia; tradoque tibi hunc librum, una cum protestate
publici prælegendi quoties cunque ad hoc munus evocatus fueris.” For
Bachelors the same, mutatis mutandis. A diploma in vellum, with the
seal of the College, is given to each Master, and signed by the
president and six fellows or overseers. The first degrees of Masters
were given in 1702. The students in late years have amounted to about
180. They dine in the common hall at four tables, and the tutors and
graduates at a fifth. The number of the whole is about 200.
Yale College is built with wood, and painted a sky colour; it is 160
feet long and three stories high, besides garrets. In 1754, another
building of brick, 100 feet long and three stories high, exclusive of
garrets, with double rooms, and a double front, was added, and called
Connecticut Hall. About 1760, a very elegant chapel and library was
erected, with brick, under one roof. But it cannot be supposed the
latter is to be compared with the Vatican or the Bodleian. It consists
of eight or ten thousand volumes in all branches of literature, but
wants modern books; though there is a tolerable sufficiency, if the
corporation would permit what they call Bishops’ and Arminian books to
be read. Ames’ Medulla is allowed, while Grotius de Veritate
Religionis is denied. It was lately presented with a new and valuable
apparatus for experimental philosophy. The whole library and apparatus
was given by various persons, chiefly English.
The General Assembly have endowed this College with large tracts of
land, which, duly cultivated, will soon support the ample
establishment of an university; but, even at present, I may truly say,
Yale College exceeds the number, and perhaps the learning, of its
scholars all over British America. This seminary was in 1717 removed
from Saybrook to Newhaven; the extraordinary cause of its transition I
shall here lay before the reader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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