PREPOSITOR. Latin. A scholar appointed by the master to overlook
the rest.
And when requested for the salt-cellar, I handed it with as much
trepidation as a _præposter_ gives the Doctor a list, when he is
conscious of a mistake in the excuses.--_The Etonian_, Vol. II. p.
281.
PRESENTATION DAY. At Yale College, Presentation Day is the time
when the Senior Class, having finished the prescribed course of
study, and passed a satisfactory examination, are _presented_ by
the examiners to the President, as properly qualified to be
admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. A distinguished
professor of the institution where this day is observed has kindly
furnished the following interesting historical account of this
observance.
"This presentation," he writes, "is a ceremony of long standing.
It has certainly existed for more than a century. It is very early
alluded to, not as a _novelty_, but as an established custom.
There is now less formality on such occasions, but the substantial
parts of the exercises are retained. The examination is now begun
on Saturday and finished on Tuesday, and the day after, Wednesday,
six weeks before the public Commencement, is the day of
Presentation. There have sometimes been literary exercises on that
day by one or more of the candidates, and sometimes they have been
omitted. I have in my possession a Latin Oration, what, I suppose,
was called a _Cliosophic Oration_, pronounced by William Samuel
Johnson in 1744, at the presentation of his class. Sometimes a
member of the class exhibited an English Oration, which was
responded to by some one of the College Faculty, generally by one
who had been the principal instructor of the class presented. A
case of this kind occurred in 1776, when Mr., afterwards President
Dwight, responded to the class orator in an address, which, being
delivered the same July in which Independence was declared, drew,
from its patriotic allusions, as well as for other reasons,
unusual attention. It was published,--a rare thing at that period.
Another response was delivered in 1796, by J. Stebbins, Tutor,
which was likewise published. There has been no exhibition of the
kind since. For a few years past, there have been an oration and a
poem exhibited by members of the graduating class, at the time of
presentation. The appointments for these exercises are made by the
class.
"So much of an exhibition as there was at the presentation in 1778
has not been usual. More was then done, probably, from the fact,
that for several years, during the Revolutionary war, there was no
public Commencement. Perhaps it should be added, that, so far back
as my information extends, after the literary exercises of
Presentation Day, there has always been a dinner, or collation, at
which the College Faculty, graduates, invited guests, and the
Senior Class have been present."
A graduate of the present year[60] writes more particularly in
relation to the observances of the day at the present time. "In
the morning the Senior Class are met in one of the lecture-rooms
by the chairman of the Faculty and the senior Tutor. The latter
reads the names of those who have passed a satisfactory
examination, and are to be recommended for degrees. The Class then
adjourn to the College Chapel, where the President and some of the
Professors are waiting to receive them. The senior Tutor reads the
names as before, after which Professor Kingsley recommends the
Class to the President and Faculty for the degree of B.A., in a
Latin discourse. The President then responds in the same tongue,
and addresses a few words of counsel to the Class.
"These exercises are followed by the Poem and Oration, delivered
by members of the Class chosen for these offices by the Class.
Then comes the dinner, given in one of the lecture-rooms. After
this the Class meet in the College yard, and spend the afternoon
in smoking (the old clay pipe is used, but no cigars) and singing.
Thus ends the active life of our college days."
"Presentation Day," says the writer of the preface to the "Songs
of Yale," "is the sixth Wednesday of the Summer Term, when the
graduating Class, after having passed their second 'Biennial,' are
presented to the President as qualified for the first degree, or
the B.A. After this 'presentation,' a farewell oration and poem
are pronounced by members of the Class, previously elected by
their classmates for the purpose. After a public dinner, they seat
themselves under the elms before the College, and smoke and sing
for the last time together. Each has his pipe, and 'they who
never' smoked 'before' now smoke, or seem to. The exercises are
closed with a procession about the buildings, bidding each
farewell." 1853, p. 4.