In barbarous Latin doomed to wrangle.

Renouncing every pleasing page
From authors of historic use;
Preferring to the letter'd sage
The square of the hypotenuse.
Still harmless are these occupations,
That hurt none but the hapless student,
Compared with other recreations
Which bring together the imprudent.


"We are sorry to hear so bad an account of the college-psalmody, as
is contained in the following attic stanzas


Our choir could scarcely be excused,
Even as a band of raw beginners;
All mercy now must be refused
To such a set of croaking sinners.

If David, when his toils were ended,
Had heard these blockheads sing before him,
To us his psalms had ne'er descended--
In furious mood he would have tore 'em.


"But whatever judgment may be passed on the poems of this noble
minor, it seems we must take them as we find them, and be content for
they are the last we shall ever have from him. He is at best, he