New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-03-20
H0NOR TO DARTMOUTH.

JiDNOH ~ U1HIWNOtH
If New Hampshire is mlsbehaving at the
ballot-box, il is something to know that its
academic institutions are behaving wei. If the
State rcverts temporarily to rs former political
decisions, nevertheless Dartmouth College re-
turns to good sense. Harvard may take the
lead in regard to the elective system, aud Yale
I'm establishing her scientific school; Cornell
and Michigan Universities may justly claim
that their yOEnS life walked up their elders;
but Dartmouth has also marked out her high
path 10 honor IIcnccfOrth the Dartmouth
tIicn-ial catalogue Will be printed in English!
The tIiennia catalogue Of a college is its
contribution to permanent history. The annual
catalogue gives the current information for the
year, and Is naturally printed in English.
But once in three years an American col
lege tries TO think that it IL venerable, OK likely
to become so. Once in three years, therefore,
catalogue OF al the graduates is printed, and,
this being IN ancient custom, it must be done
in an ancient tongue. Your classmate Ed
win becomes Edyinus ; your claasmate
Ephraim appears as Ephralmus. These
changes arc intcligiblc--they are mere
drlpcry and decoration, Ike the acade-
mic gown which 6oated airily around the
naccust0mcd heels Of the same classlnate
when be spoke his "part . on Commencement
Day When Ralph becomes RadulpfG9,' and
William "Guilielmus," the case grows complex,
and the man il harder to disentangle from his
new adornments. Ii may be said with some
confidence that not one William in ten could
spen his own name correctly in Latin, OF
hand, without looking in his diploma Still,
these changes are not beyond tracing. But
when one looks in the catalogue for the friend o.
IIis boyhCcl, Giles Jones, and passes by, without
suspicion of Identify ineyplcabie "KSidius
Jones Of the Latin catalogue, it is intolerabe.
~ tie direct associations OF youth arc torn
away. The honest Giles with whom you
studied and slated, who went with you 10 the
Nea'cr ard subsequently stood treat for oys-
tsrs-he is no more. He did not look quite
Ike himself that evening, for he had pulled
his cap down and his collar up to elude the
Professor Of Moral Philosophy, who sat in the
adjoining box. But ne looks much less like
h.m5e.. in the catalogue. You do not rccog-
ME yom friend in this pedaIac monster.
Giles is not name Of romance, it may be,
but ".Fgidius' is tie Deformcd Transformed
to something worse Il skeleton, perhaps from
Poupeii, whore even the skeletons talk Latin.
The question of a Latin catalogue has
nothing 10 do with the question of the study
Of Latin in college. OF course. all languages
should be taught in our Universities To any
body who wishes to learn them. Ii is no worse
to have the catalogue printed in L2tin than it
would he to have it III French or German.
Tl-.re may be an aieciatiOn OF mOdernness az
well as of antiquity; and amid all the good
sense of the cornell University Register" We
always groan a little when we come upon the
uncouth phrase trimestcr instead Of the simple
English word term. Let us teach az languages,
and have if possible all the linguistic variety
of lie Roman "PropaSanda,' on proper Occa-
sions but let MS have our catalogues and our
official announcements in the English tongue.
And with the Latin, let us hope that the
Dartmouth authorities viii also abate that
other nuisance of iGlling up the tncnnial cat
alogucs Of our colleges with long series OF
initials, supposed to designate the learned
societies with which the various graduates
have been connected. No key to them Is
given; the most experienced graduate hardly
knows what some of them mean and % 1t is
impossible to include all societies, the result
usually is to make up a list Of those nearest to
each college, and let all the rest go. Harvard,
for instance, aspires TO Do the national unlycr-
Sity, yet every Harvard graduate who belongs
to the Massachusetts Historical Society has the
mystic letters IS. II. 81 attached to his name
in the catalogue, while man may be mem
Der Of a dozen other associations of the same
kind and yet his name go unlaureled. 1t is
to be presumed that every good physician be-
longs 10 some local medical society; but the
obscurest country doctor in Massachusetts, if
he be q Harvard graduate, has theasix letters,
IN. D., NJ. VI. s. ST. attached to his name in
the catalogue while Of all other doctors, how
ever famous, the fact is only announced that
they are doctors, and their names have
no further suflix. "a. A. S.n signifies
that one belongs to little Boston
association called proudly the Ameri
can Academy" and rs. p. A. s." has
only recently been added, to crafty, as it is
said, an influential graduate who happened to
reside in Pennsylvania, where similar society
had been formed. Yet the learned societies
which are truly national in their organization
AS the American Oriental Society, the Ameri
can Pathological Society, aud the American As
ISOLATION for the Advancement of Science
find no record on this academic catalogue.
1t is as if the alphabet had been only designed
by Providence for tue benefit of Massachusetts,
citizens.
Bat the folly is not confined to this particu-
lar collcge-it is the general rule. What is
needed for every such institution, is either
a single list of all the graduates in the En-
glish tongue, leaving the names to speak for
themselves, or else a complete biographical
dictionary for the same persons, corrected
every three years. and telling all the world
whether each man has ever belonged to an