THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW GYMNASIUM.

[An address to be delivered by - -, F. H. R. C., who stands on the outer vestibule of the building. On the right of the speaker are the President and Fellows, supported by the Faculty and other supernumerareis of Harvard University; on his left is the late H. R. C., and in front, arranged in serried ranks after the phalanx of Epaminondas, are the four classes, while the whole body is picketed by numerous groups of those free citizens of Cambridge who have nothing to do but to admire the sublime and the beautiful.]

FELLOW-COMRADES and Fellow-Associates:- Only twelve months ago the oblong beauties which now clasp their hands of grit to raise this magnificent structure, slumbered in their native beds. Behold the stupendous work organized by the financial ability of one, executed and completed by the physical efforts of many, into a glorious edifice. See this spacious hall, those eastward-looking wings, and a dome more lofty and resplendent than that which looked down upon the chains of Regulus! Although no nosce te is emblazoned on the portal, a symbol more expressive than the Delphic inscription stands out in bold relief on the front of this column-supported vestibule; there, forgetful of the tennis-court, rests the well-proportioned athlete, whose contour indicates that Greek repose which our multiplex university studies make almost impossible in modern art.

The doer of this great work, Fate, who metes out justice to all, will not suffer to go unrewarded. The spirits of Stoughton, Hollis, and Holworthy, his precursors in earthly benefaction, now dwell in Elysian fields of perpetual bliss,

"Quos inter Augustus recumbens

Purpureo bibet ore nectar."

But let us not, in the enjoyment of the pleasures which the present offers for our delectation, be oblivious of preparations for the unknown and boundless future. The rise of Sever, the coming of celestial John, the prospective conversion of our late rendezvous into ablutionary liquid, the completion of this grand palaestra, - all these events remind us that this too, too solid flesh* must die, decay, and pass into nothingness.

Standing at the confluence of the poetic streams of the past and the future, surrounded by these memorials of others' greatness, one involuntarily reverts to the actions of one's own life to see what has been done that renders one worthy to be handed down to posterity. My deeds of valor, displayed on many a gory field when our country was in peril, are recorded in the sacred pages of history; in peace unable to divest myself of the military habits formed by four years of arduous service, I continued to follow the occupation for which I was best adapted by nature and most familiar by practice. But here I must pause, for with the remembrance of the Monday night drill, the words of command and battle struggle for utterance. Yes, gentlemen, let the historian chronicle my exploits in war if he will; let the poet sing them in paeans of martial melody: but do you, while memory keeps her tablet green, treasure me in your hearts as the FOUNDER OF THE HARVARD RIFLE CORPS!

* The speaker is guilty of plagiarism throughout his address, or it is only another proof of the aphorism that "great minds," &c. - EDS.