The attendance at college exercises seems to have been equally dilatory. Gibbon said that the Magdalen College exercises were futile and a waste of time. He was tacitly allowed to stay away from them. The vindicator of Magdalen, thinking to nail Gibbon down, went to the trouble of enumerating term by term the exercises which the Undergraduates were supposed to perform. As interesting reading it is worthy of quotation, but as a _coup de grace_ to Gibbon it is absurd. If all Magdalen men were bound to attend, why was Gibbon allowed to absent himself, or, if not allowed, why was he not hauled over the coals?--and it is ridiculous to suppose that Gibbon’s example was not followed by scores of fellow collegians. The present-day “colleckers,” held terminally, are, more or less, in the nature of a joke, but in those days, in spite of Hurdis’s burning loyalty to Magdalen, the following exercises which correspond to them are fearsome-sounding enough, but were more often than not unattended. “At the end of every term, from his admission till he takes his first degree, every individual Undergraduate of this college must appear at a _public examination_ before the President, Vice-President, Deans, and whatever Fellows may please to attend; and cannot obtain leave to return to his friends in any vacation, till he has properly acquitted himself according to the following scheme. “In his _first_ year he must make himself a proficient-- “In the first term, in _Sallust_ and the _Characters of Theophrastus_. “In the second Term, in the first six books of Virgil’s _Aeneis_ and the first three books of Xenophon’s _Anabasis_. “In the third Term, in the last six books of the _Aeneis_ and the last four books of the _Anabasis_. “In the fourth Term, in the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark, on which sacred books the persons examined are always called upon to produce a collection of observations from the best commentators. [Illustration: THE ORIGINAL ENTRANCE TO THE CLOISTERS AT MAGDALEN.] “During his _second_ year, the Undergraduate must make himself a proficient-- “In the first Term, in Cæsar’s _Commentaries_, and the first six books of Homer’s _Iliad_. “In the second Term, in _Cicero de Oratore_, and the second six books of the _Iliad_. “In the third Term, in _Cicero de Officiis_ and the _Dion Hal. de structura Orationis_. “In the fourth Term, in the gospels of St Luke and St John, producing a collection of observations from commentators as at the end of the first year. “During his _third_ year he must make himself a proficient-- “In the first Term, in the first six books of Livy and Xenophon’s _Cyropaedia_. “In the second Term, in Xenophon’s _Memorabilia_, and in Horace’s Epistles and Art of Poetry. “In the third Term, in _Cicero de natura Deorum_, and in the first, third, eighth, tenth, thirteenth and fourteenth of Juvenal’s _Satires_.