Fast day. Attended Mr. Hilliard the whole day; but to no great purpose: in consequence of the late severity of the College Gov-183ernors, there has been yesterday and this day, a subscription paper handed about among all the Classes, to procure a meeting of the whole college to-morrow evening in the chapel, every person having a pipe, a glass and a bottle of wine, and there to convince the government that the Students are possess'd of “a noble spirit, a spirit which shall nip the bud of tyrannical oppression,” they will get as drunk as beasts, and probably break every tutors window in College: this absurd, and ridiculous plan has found so many votaries, that a large majority of every Class except ours have already subscribed; but I am happy that in our Class; there are but few who have joined the association, and as it is to take place only upon condition that there be a majority of every Class, the plan will most probably fail.

I went down this evening to Mr. Dana's: I saw him for the first Time since his illness. They say he is much better, and recovering fast; but I was shock'd at seeing him; pale, emaciated and feeble, he scarcely looks like the same man he was three weeks agone.

Beautiful weather, and the warmest we have yet had, this Season.

Charles went down to Mr. Dana's this evening; the judge is mending but quite slowly:

I had thoughts of carrying up some algebraic calculations, for the mathematical performance at exhibition, but, Cranch takes the next transit of Venus. Bridge and White, who do not choose, to take much trouble, have both taken lunar eclipses; and as there was no solar eclipse presented at the last exhibition I determined to project one, for the next. I went to Mr. Read to find out, when there will be a large one, and finally calculated the elements for that which will happen, May 15th. 1836.

Joshua Cushman 1 of Bridgewater will be 23 the 11th. of next month. Poverty appears to be his greatest enemy; she opposes his progress, and he has a very great struggle with her, to go through College. For genius he is neither at the Zenith nor at the Nadir; but somewhere about half way between. For improvements, he has made as many perhaps, as his circumstances would allow him. In composition, an admiration of beautiful periods, and elegant expression, have taken from the natural taste 184 image for that simplicity in which alone true beauty and elegance consist. His conversation sometimes degenerates into bombast; to express that he wants a glass of water he will say, that within the concave excavation of his body, there are certain cylindric tubes which require to be replenished from, the limpid fountain or the meandering rivulet. In the public exercices of composition his greatest fault is prolixity. He will write two sheets of paper full, for a forensic, while scarcely any other of the Class will scarcely fill half one. He is however esteemed by the Class in general, as an amiable character, if not as an uncommon genius.