The Portland daily press., 1880-07-28
BY TELEGRAPH.
VAUDEVILLE.
Commencement Exercises at Colby
University.
THE NECROLGY-IVYD DAY EXERCISES
PRESIDENT ROBINS ASKED TO
RESCIND HIS RESIGNATION.


RESCIND HIS RESIGNATION.
WATERvILLE, July 27.-Ivy Day exercises
took place this afternoon. The exercises were
as follows:
Singing of medley Of college songe by the class
Planting of the Ivy.
GLASS nlStory. ...................-. H. b. huoX.
Presentation addresses. u. I'll. Parshley.
Awards were made to the greatest talker,
the ladies' man, but pedestrian, the counting
| man, the best moustache, the best boatist, the
handsome man, the inquisitive man and the
knowing man. A tablet was set up in the
chapel, which was presented to the class by
Fred R. Roweh, one of its members. The
tablet is one of fine polished granite, about
fourteen inches square, and has raised circle
of about eight inches, in which is cut very
nice representation of an ivy vine. The circle
incloses the figures 81.
At the Alumni meeting Professor Hamlin of
Cambridge read a short sketch of the gradu-
ates deceased during the year:
Glass of 1826-Ebenezer Mirick; born Janury 5,
1898; died September l, 1879;
Glass OF 1S42.Henry Mcclellan; born February
II, 1920; died September IA, 1879.
Glass of 1S43-James Henry Wilmington; born
June s, 1913; died June g. 1877. William Cor
1e sag o9rh July ~ DIED SorS
1885; died May 8, $780,.
At a meeting of the trustees committee of
six to consider the resignation of President
Robins reported in favor of retaining him.
After the literary exercises the annual re-
unions of the secret societies took place.
ALUMNI MEETING.
AT the Alumni meeting the following officers
were chosen
observation-disclosures Kennedy, Waldoboro.
Vice PresidentIDelyin Hamlin, Boston.
Secretary-Prof. E. w. Hall, Waterville.
Necrologist-Prof. Chas. E. Hamlin, Cam
bridge.
Councillors-Prof j. B. Foster, Rev. A. L.
Lane and DIR. A. Crosby.
Resolutions of deep respect and sympathy
were passed for J. T. Champlin, d. D., former
President of the University. now dangerously
ill.
The class Of 1855 have a grand reunion at
the residence of Hon. Reuben Foster to-mor-
row evening @
A reunion of the secret societies took place
tonight at their halls.
The trustees have much work before them
before completing their labors. The financial
condition of the University is such to excite
the apprehension of the more timid.
PROF. MATTHEW'S GRAFTON.
The Grafton by Prof. VIM. Matthews this
evening was a mastery production in its happy
hits and fine illustrations. His theme was
Literary Style" The speaker began by say
ing that within few years fresh interest has
been awakened among writer's and critics in
literary style. In literatary architecture it is
the manner in which ideas are fitted together
into symmetrical and harmonious whole as
well as adorned and embellished that quite as
much as the ideas themselves constitutes the
worth Of an essay, an Grafton or poem.
Another reason for the growing estimation of
style is that in this age of steam presses and
electrotype printing it is fast acquiring new
utilitarian value. Style was next defined and
pronounced the most vital element of literary
immortality. The few books which have kept
afloat on the streom of time while millions
have sunk into oblivion have owed their buoy
ancy to this quality. In works of art or pure
literature it is only in his style that writer
can show originality. The power of genius
lies not in finding out new material, but in inn
parting new life to whatever it discovers new
or old. The great thinkers Of every age differ
from the little ones not so much in having diff
ferent thoughts as in sitting classifying and
focalizing the same thoughts. Give to two
painters the same pigments fand one of them
will produce TRANSPORTATION and the other
will exhaust his genius upon the signboard of
a country tavern, as out of the same stones
may be reared the most beautiful or the most
unsightly of edifices, the Parthenon of the
Athens or the Chicago court house. The value
of style is still further seen by comparing the
literatures of different countries AS thinkers
the Germans have to-day no equals on the
globe, but all these advantages are neutralized
to great extent by the frightful heaviness
and incredible clumsiness of the German liter
airy style.
The speaker next showed how writer's
style reveals character, betraying his tastes
and idiosyncrasies even when he tries hardest
to mask them. This was illustrated by exam
pies from the writings of Bacon, Milton Swift,
Addison and Charles Lamb. The absurdity OF
trying to form good style by imitation was
next pointed out, after which the five leading
elements of the literary art were designated
namely, simplicity, freshness, arrangement,
choice of words and careful preparation and
finish We sometimes read of model style,
but there is no model style. The perfect writ
er, SO far from having any one ideal style, will
have hundred styles, shifting and varying
with every variation of his ideas and feel
ings. There is a mystery in style of which
we cannot pluck out the heart. Like that of
beauty, music or a delicious odor, its spell is
subtle and impalpable and battles all out at
tempts to explain it in words. He condemned
the definition of style as 'the dress of thought"
whereas it is the incarnation of thou ght.
The speaker showed by several illustrations
that there is often striking analogy between
the costume of period and its literary style.
The peaked beard the starched collar, the
trunk hose and the quilted doublet of Bacon,
Sidney and Spenser are in singular keeping
with the quaint fancies and the rich decora-
tons of their style. The power Of the orator is
mighty but perishable. His words may be
preserved, but the attitude and the look, the
voice and the gesture are lost forever. Not SO
with those utterances which the printing press
has preserved from destruction. Framed in cum
ming and attractive forms by a master of COM
position they may sway the world when the
tongue is frozen and the hand is paralyzed.
The popular writer is the mediator between
the speculative thinker and the uncultured
man.
With an earnest exhortation to the MEM
bers of the literary societies to cultivate early
the art of expression and to study the magni-
fcent mystery of words, deprecating the tenden-
cy in some. of our colleges to neglect rhetoric
as a synonym for the shallow and the snowy,
with glowing tribute to the richness and ex-
pressiveness of the English language and with
the expression of wish that his hearers would
jealousy guard its purity, maintain its ancient
idIoms and develop its inexaustible resources
the orator concluded.
The poem was delivered by Rev. W. G.
Richards of Chicago.