The New York herald., 1865-02-27
Total, "a, % colleges. sszl 1909 5s4 l4s
rotal. '63. 20 colleges. l3S25l l764l 65Sl1O2I


Statistics for 1868 These colleges failed to
the circular Of inquiry to their religious condition for
the year, in season for publication.
It will be noticed that the above statement is
arranged in tabular form, with comments, like
page Of an almanac. This suggests that the
report is the result of careful observations Of
some pious barometer or Christian thermome-
ter Indeed, had the terms usually applied to
the weather and the thermometer been used in
this connection, the table might have been
somewhat simplided. For example, the word
swarm" would have answered much better
than the phrase hopeful, if not encouraging" !"
:" fever heat would have been synonymous
with interesting and full of promise !" "below
zero" is more to the point than "great need Of
awakening !" and "lukewarm" is expressive of
"no special interest" BY employing the vari-
GUS degrees marked upon the thermometer
every shade OF feeling could have been accu-
rately described. We should have been able to
compare a college at thirty degrees above zero
with one at twelve, and the students would
have been thus stimulated to warm up and keep
the pot boiling, 30 as to rise in grace and in
this idea for the future guidance Of the COM
piler of this report, and earnestly commend 1t
to his attention. Nor shall we think our time,
space and trouble spent in vain If we can thus
introduce new religious phraseology and
supersede the pious slang terms which have
been SO long in use among otherwise Christian
people.
Upon reviewing this report we discover that
the colleges are about equally divided upon the
question Of piety. Columbia College, Of this
city, must be at the freezing point, since the In
dependent declines to put it, upon record. Some
of the Western colleges, Of which nobody ever
hears, make good show in this almanac; but
we are afraidAhat the number Of their students
Is 30 limited that q one horse wagon would
carry the whole lot Of undergraduates. Amherst
College is marked "good degree Of prosperity"
which is equivalent to temperate" Bowdoin
and Brown are LEFT blank, which means 80 far
below zero that the mercury freezes. In Dick
among Christians" from which we infer that
there is an unsteady, undecided feeling among
sinners, and so mark il "blood heat" Middle
bury reports "more than usual interest after
the Coll. fast" five interpret "Coll. fast" to
mean college fast" we get at the cause OF
the unusual interest. Nothing brings man
to q devotional frame of mind sooner than
going without meals and being prayed at dur
ing starvation. The strongest constitutions give
way under this treatment, prcferring "the bread
Of life. to no bread at ak Pennsylvania has
0great want of spirituality" although we will
warrant there Is no great want Of spirits.
Rutgers has ''no special interest," either in reli-
eion or anything else. Washington College has
reached "the boiling point" for 1t has "a revi-
val in progress" Yale College, the best in the
country, has "great need Of awakening" the
students being in the habit Of subscribing to
papers Of very different tone from the lnde-
pendent, and Of playing cards and irreligious
tricks upon their pious orofesors4 Out Of