Fearing lest venerable brows should frown with displeasure at the
recital of incidents which once made those brows bright and
joyous; dreading also those stern voices which might condemn as
boyish, trivial, or wrong an attempt to glean a few grains of
philological lore from the hitherto unrecognized corners of the
fields of college life, the Editor chose to regard the brows and
hear the voices from an innominate position. Not knowing lest he
should at some future time regret the publication of pages which
might be deemed heterodox, he caused a small edition of the work
to be published, hoping, should it be judged as evil, that the
error would be circumscribed in its effects, and the medium of the
error buried between the dusty shelves of the second-hand
collection of some rusty old bibliopole. By reason of this extreme
caution, the volume has been out of print for the last four years.

In the present edition, the contents of the work have been
carefully revised, and new articles, filling about two hundred
pages, have been interspersed throughout the volume, arranged
under appropriate titles. Numerous additions have been made to the
collection of technicalities peculiar to the English universities,
and the best authorities have been consulted in the preparation of
this department. An index has also been added, containing a list
of the American colleges referred to in the text in connection
with particular words or customs.

The Editor is aware that many of the words here inserted are
wanting in that refinement of sound and derivation which their use
in classical localities might seem to imply, and that some of the
customs here noticed and described are