"HARVARD IN THE SIXTIES."

The second lecture in the course on three decades of Harvard's history was given under the auspices of the Memorial Society in Sanders Theatre last evening. The Hon. Moorfield Storey '66 addressed an unusually large audience on "Harvard in the Sixties." The speaker was introduced by Dr. Winsor.

Mr. Story began by explaining that what President Eliot had said in the preceding lecture of Harvard in the fifties was substantially true of Harvard in the sixties. The change in the numbers was slight, and the buildings, curriculum, etc., were practically the same. The one word which best expresses the difference between Harvard of today and Harvard in the sixties is simplicity. College men then were more simple in every way than they are now. In the sixties there were rich men in college, but the poor men were in such a vast majority that they set the fashion. They built their own fires and drew their own water, with frequent explosives of dissatisfaction. Still they had just as good a time. The sums today spent on athletics would have seemed perfectly fabulons to men in the sixties. The whole sum spent on athletics then was not over $1000. Yet they had their fair share of victories. Many sports now enjoyed were unknown then. The gymnasium then was small, but it was freely and conscientiously used; and the men who graduated then were probably of as sound bodies as those of today.

Students were compelled to attend chapel in the sixties. Every man had to be in his seat before the last vibration of the bell. The religious exercises were pleasant rather than otherwise, and the chapel services were enjoyed.

In the sixties it was impossible for a man to arrange his work so as to have any considerable time to himself. The intimacies which grew up when men studied the same lessons and wrote forensics on the same subject were very close. The first duty of the undergraduate in the sixties was to make his nose reasonably comfortable on the grind stone. Few of the men then would have studied conic sections or logic if they had been left to their own choice. Few of the young men today who take pleasant courses get as good training or go out into the world with as good a preparation as the men in the sixties did. The best places in the world are as hard to make as places on the crew. What the world wants is men. It is hard indeed for the young fellow who hasn't learned anything,- not even how to work. But all these matters are private, and are of small importance compared with the public.

The student who was fortunate enough to enter Harvard College in the sixties entered at a time of great intellectual and moral growth. During these years Emerson had kept writing about an ideal life free from the turmoils of mankind. Lowell, Whittier and Harriet Beecher Stowe were stirring the consciences of mankind against slavery. The words of William Lloyd Garrison were engraved upon the memories of Harvard men. The news of John Brown's raid had startled the land, and now the echo of the guns fired at Fort Sumter was heard. On Bloody Monday, 1862, the campaign was begun, which ended with the battle of Antietam, and for the result of which Lincoln was waiting to issue his proclamation of emancipation. Such were the circumstances under which the class of '66 entered college.

Mr. Storey said that when he recalled his college career the scenes which he remembered best were those when news from the war was heard. Very often the newspapers contained accounts of battles and lists of Harvard men who had died for their country. Thirty years ago, on Good Friday night, Lincoln was assassinated. All day long the bells in Cambridge tolled, announcing his death. On the day that General Lee surrendered the college gave a holiday to celebrate the good news. At the Commencement of that year Lowell read for the first time his "Commemoration Ode."

The civil war terminated on the second term of 66's junior year. It was a war for freedom. Such a war offers an opportunity for great bravery and selfsacrifice, and Harvard had her share of heroes in Shaw, Bartlett, Davis, Wilder, Dwight, and many others. While war offers a great opportunity for heroes, peace offers an equally good one. Lowell said, "It is peace which is the nursery of the virtues that shine in war."

Mr. Storey closed with words of good advice. The world, he said, was full of good things, and there is nothing in the world which a man cannot have if he is willing to pay the world's price for it. The coin in which he must pay is his life. Pecuniary fortune a man can lose several times, but life can only be lost once. Every man, therefore, should be careful of his life and remember that the country needs men today just as much as it did in 1861.