The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
Religion
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
For the young heroes who dropped the oar and took up the sword, who laid
aside the gown for the sash and shoulder-strap, who, first in the
bloodless triumphs of the regatta and in "capital training" for the
great race of life where literary and professional fame are the prizes,
went forth to venture all for honor and country, the Alma Mater surely
should have a special commemoration. For her own sake, because of her
high responsibility in the education of "ingenuous youth," she can do no
less. I will venture to say that not a Harvard man, among all the loyal
thousands of her surviving Alumni, but feels his heart beat quicker as
he reads the story of her children amid their "baptism of fire." There
is a notable peculiarity about this the most purely New-England of our
colleges,--the continual recurrence of familiar patronymics. I take up
the last semi-annual catalogue, and there among the five hundred names I
can almost make out my own classmates of twenty years ago. Abbots,
Bigelows, Lawrences, Masons, Russells,--they come with every
Commencement-season. Some families have had for every generation in a
hundred and fifty years a representative in her halls. There is a patent
of nobility in this, such peerage as a republic can rightly confer, the
coronet which marks the union of birth and worth. We cannot, we, the
Alumni, suffer these our brothers to sleep unhonored. Those who shall
come after us, who shall fill our places in dear Old Harvard, shall
occupy our ancient rooms in Hollis and Massachusetts and Stoughton and
Holworthy, have a right not only to count the academic wreaths which
have been won in past days by their namesakes, but also to be taught the
inspiring lesson of holy love of country, of highest courage and truth
and soldierly virtue.
And how shall this be done? Let these few remaining lines suggest at
least one plan. Harvard's chief want is a hall for her Alumni, one
worthy, in architecture and convenience, of her children's fame, which
Harvard Hall is not. That long, awkward room, very hot and cramped to
dine in at midsummer, hotter and more cramped still for the Class-day
dances, is just fit for one purpose,--the declamation-exercises of the
Sophomore year. Let us have a hall fit for Commencements, for Alumni and
Phi-Beta orations, for our annual dinners, worthy of the "Doctor's"
poems and the "General's" speeches, with a wainscot, not of vulgar
plaster, but of noble oak, against which Copley's pictures and Story's
busts may properly be placed.
Then let its windows be filled, as in the glorious halls and chapels of
England, with memorial glass. Let one of these, if no more, be formed,
of the costliest and most perfect workmanship our art can compass, to
the memory of the Heroes of Harvard. It shall be the gift of every class
which counts among its members one of these. There, amid the gorgeous
emblazonry, shall be read their names, their academic year, their
battles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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