degree of satisfaction.--_Webster_.
The cause of this battle every man did allow and
_approbate_.--_Hall, Henry VII., Richardson's Dict._

"This word," says Mr. Pickering, "was formerly much used at our
colleges instead of the old English verb _approve_. The students
used to speak of having their performances _approbated_ by the
instructors. It is also now in common use with our clergy as a
sort of technical term, to denote a person who is licensed to
preach; they would say, such a one is _approbated_, that is,
licensed to preach. It is also common in New England to say of a
person who is licensed by the county courts to sell spirituous
liquors, or to keep a public house, that he is approbated; and the
term is adopted in the law of Massachusetts on this subject." The
word is obsolete in England, is obsolescent at our colleges, and
is very seldom heard in the other senses given above.

By the twelfth statute, a student incurs ... no penalty by
declaiming or attempting to declaim without having his piece
previously _approbated_.--_MS. Note to Laws of Harvard College_,
1798.

Observe their faces as they enter, and you will perceive some
shades there, which, if they are _approbated_ and admitted, will
be gone when they come out.--_Scenes and Characters in College_,
New Haven, 1847, p. 18.

How often does the professor whose duty it is to criticise and
_approbate_ the pieces for this exhibition wish they were better!
--_Ibid._, p. 195.

I was _approbated_ by the Boston Association, I suspect, as a
person well known, but known as an anomaly, and admitted in
charity.--_Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D._, p. lxxxv.


ASSES' BRIDGE. The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid
is called the _Asses' Bridge_, or rather "Pons Asinorum," from the
difficulty with which many get over it.

The _Asses' Bridge_ in Euclid is not more difficult to be got
over, nor the logarithms of Napier so hard to be unravelled, as
many of Hoyle's Cases and Propositions.--_The Connoisseur_, No.
LX.

After Mr. Brown had passed us over the "_Asses' Bridge_," without
any serious accident, and conducted us a few steps further into
the first book, he dismissed us with many compliments.--_Alma
Mater_, Vol. I. p. 126.

I don't believe he passed the _Pons Asinorum_ without many a halt
and a stumble.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 146.


ASSESSOR. In the English universities, an officer specially
appointed to assist the Vice-Chancellor in his court.--_Cam. Cal._


AUCTION. At Harvard College, it was until within a few years
customary for the members of the Senior Class, previously to
leaving college, to bring together in some convenient room all the
books, furniture, and movables of any kind which they wished to
dispose of, and put them up at public auction. Everything offered
was either sold, or, if no bidders could be obtained, given away.


AUDIT. In the University of Cambridge, England, a meeting of the
Master and Fellows to examine or _audit_ the college accounts.
This is succeeded by a feast, on which occasion is broached the
very best ale, for which reason ale of this character is called
"audit ale."--_Grad. ad Cantab._

This use of the word thirst made me drink an extra bumper of
"_Audit_" that very day at dinner.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 3.

After a few draughts of the _Audit_, the company
disperse.--_Ibid._ Vol. I. p. 161.


AUTHORITY. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, "is
used in some of the States, in speaking collectively of the
Professors, &c. of our colleges, to whom the _government_ of these
institutions is intrusted."

Every Freshman shall be obliged to do any proper errand or message
for the _Authority_ of the College.--_Laws Middlebury Coll._,
1804, p. 6.


AUTOGRAPH BOOK. It is customary at Yale College for each member of
the Senior Class, before the close of his collegiate life, to
obtain, in a book prepared for that purpose, the signatures of the
President, Professors, Tutors, and of all his classmates, with
anything else which they may choose to insert. Opposite the
autographs of the college officers are placed engravings of them,
so far as they are obtainable; and the whole, bound according to
the fancy of each, forms a most valuable collection of agreeable
mementos.

When news of his death reached me. I turned to my _book of
classmate autographs_, to see what he had written there, and to
read a name unusually dear.--_Scenes and Characters in College_,
New Haven, 1847, p. 201.


AVERAGE BOOK. At Harvard College, a book in which the marks
received by each student, for the proper performance of his
college duties, are entered; also the deductions from his rank
resulting from misconduct. These unequal data are then arranged in
a mean proportion, and the result signifies the standing which the
student has held for a given period.

In vain the Prex's grave rebuke,
Deductions from the _average book_.
_MS. Poem_, W.F. Allen, 1848.



_B_.


B.A. An abbreviation of _Baccalaureus Artium_, Bachelor of Arts.
The first degree taken by a student at a college or university.
Sometimes written A.B., which is in accordance with the proper
Latin arrangement. In American colleges this degree is conferred
in course on each member of the Senior Class in good standing. In
the English universities, it is given to the candidate who has
been resident at least half of each of ten terms, i.e. during a
certain portion of a period extending over three and a third
years, and who has passed the University examinations.

The method of conferring the degree of B.A. at Trinity College,
Hartford, is peculiar. The President takes the hands of each
candidate in his own as he confers the degree. He also passes to
the candidate a book containing the College Statutes, which the
candidate holds in his right hand during the performance of a part
of the ceremony.

The initials of English academical titles always correspond to the
_English_, not to the Latin of the titles, _B.A._, M.A., D.D.,
D.C.L., &c.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.
13.

See BACHELOR.


BACCALAUREATE. The degree of Bachelor of Arts; the first or lowest
degree. In American colleges, this degree is conferred in course
on each member of the Senior Class in good standing. In Oxford and
Cambridge it is attainable in two different ways;--1. By
examination, to which those students alone are admissible who have
pursued the prescribed course of study for the space of three
years. 2. By extraordinary diploma, granted to individuals wholly
unconnected with the University. The former class are styled
Baccalaurei Formati, the latter Baccalaurei Currentes. In France
the degree of Baccalaureat (Baccalaureus Literarum) is conferred
indiscriminately upon such natives or foreigners and after a
strict examination in the classics, mathematics, and philosophy,
are declared to be qualified. In the German universities, the
title "Doctor Philosophiæ" has long been substituted for
Baccalaureus Artium or Literarum. In the Middle Ages, the term
Baccalaureus was applied to an inferior order of knights, who came
into the field unattended by vassals; from them it was transferred
to the lowest class of ecclesiastics; and thence again, by Pope
Gregory the Ninth to the universities. In reference to the
derivation of this word, the military classes maintain that it is
either derived from the _baculus_ or staff with which knights were
usually invested, or from _bas chevalier_, an inferior kind of
knight; the literary classes, with more plausibility, perhaps,
trace its origin to the custom which prevailed universally among
the Greeks and Romans, and which was followed even in Italy till
the thirteenth century, of crowning distinguished individuals with
laurel; hence the recipient of this honor was style Baccalaureus,
quasi _baccis laureis_ donatus.--_Brande's Dictionary_.

The subjoined passage, although it may not place the subject in
any clearer light, will show the difference of opinion which
exists in reference to the derivation of this work. Speaking of
the exercises of Commencement at Cambridge Mass., in the early
days of Harvard College, the writer says "But the main exercises
were disputations upon questions wherein the respondents first
made their Theses: For according to Vossius, the very essence of
the Baccalaureat seems to lye in the thing: Baccalaureus being but
a name corrupted of Batualius, which Batualius (as well as the
French Bataile [Bataille]) comes à Batuendo, a business that
carries beating in it: So that, Batualii fuerunt vocati, quia jam
quasi _batuissent_ cum adversario, ac manus conseruissent; hoc
est, publice disputassent, atque ita peritiæ suæ specimen
dedissent."--_Mather's Magnalia_, B. IV. p. 128.

The Seniors will be examined for the _Baccalaureate_, four weeks
before Commencement, by a committee, in connection with the
Faculty.--_Cal. Wesleyan Univ._, 1849, p. 22.


BACHELOR. A person who has taken the first degree in the liberal
arts and sciences, at a college or university. This degree, or
honor, is called the _Baccalaureate_. This title is given also to
such as take the first degree in divinity, law, or physic, in
certain European universities. The word appears in various forms
in different languages. The following are taken from _Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary_. "French, _bachelier_; Spanish,
_bachiller_, a bachelor of arts and a babbler; Portuguese,
_bacharel_, id., and _bacello_, a shoot or twig of the vine;
Italian, _baccelliere_, a bachelor of arts; _bacchio_, a staff;
_bachetta_, a rod; Latin, _bacillus_, a stick, that is, a shoot;
French, _bachelette_, a damsel, or young woman; Scotch, _baich_, a
child; Welsh, _bacgen_, a boy, a child; _bacgenes_, a young girl,
from _bac_, small. This word has its origin in the name of a
child, or young person of either sex, whence the sense of
_babbling_ in the Spanish. Or both senses are rather from
shooting, protruding."

Of the various etymologies ascribed to the term _Bachelor_, "the
true one, and the most flattering," says the Gradus ad
Cantabrigiam, "seems to be _bacca laurus_. Those who either are,
or expect to be, honored with the title of _Bachelor of Arts_,
will hear with exultation, that they are then 'considered as the
budding flowers of the University; as the small _pillula_, or
_bacca_, of the _laurel_ indicates the flowering of that tree,
which is so generally used in the crowns of those who have
deserved well, both of the military states, and of the republic of
learning.'--_Carter's History of Cambridge, [Eng.]_, 1753."


BACHELOR FELLOW. A Bachelor of Arts who is maintained on a
fellowship.


BACHELOR SCHOLAR. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a B.A. who
remains in residence after taking his degree, for the purpose of
reading for a fellowship or acting as private tutor. He is always
noted for superiority in scholarship.

Bristed refers to the bachelor scholars in the annexed extract.
"Along the wall you see two tables, which, though less carefully
provided than the Fellows', are still served with tolerable
decency and go through a regular second course instead of the
'sizings.' The occupants of the upper or inner table are men
apparently from twenty-two to twenty-six years of age, and wear
black gowns with two strings hanging loose in front. If this table
has less state than the adjoining one of the Fellows, it has more
mirth and brilliancy; many a good joke seems to be going the
rounds. These are the Bachelors, most of them Scholars reading for
Fellowships, and nearly all of them private tutors. Although
Bachelors in Arts, they are considered, both as respects the
College and the University, to be _in statu pupillari_ until they
become M.A.'s. They pay a small sum in fees nominally for tuition,
and are liable to the authority of that mighty man, the Proctor."
--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 20.


BACHELORSHIP. The state of one who has taken his first degree in a
university or college.--_Webster_.


BACK-LESSON. A lesson which has not been learned or recited; a
lesson which has been omitted.

In a moment you may see the yard covered with hurrying groups,
some just released from metaphysics or the blackboard, and some
just arisen from their beds where they have indulged in the luxury
of sleeping over,--a luxury, however, which is sadly diminished by
the anticipated necessity of making up _back-lessons_.--_Harv.
Reg._, p. 202.


BALBUS. At Yale College, this term is applied to Arnold's Latin
Prose Composition, from the fact of its so frequent occurrence in
that work. If a student wishes to inform his fellow-student that
he is engaged on Latin Prose Composition, he says he is studying
_Balbus_. In the first example of this book, the first sentence
reads, "I and Balbus lifted up our hands," and the name Balbus
appears in almost every exercise.


BALL UP. At Middlebury College, to fail at recitation or
examination.


BANDS. Linen ornaments, worn by professors and clergymen when
officiating; also by judges, barristers, &c., in court. They form
a distinguishing mark in the costume of the proctors of the
English universities, and at Cambridge, the questionists, on
admission to their degrees, are by the statutes obliged to appear
in them.--_Grad. ad Cantab._


BANGER. A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one of
the Yale vocables.

The Freshman reluctantly turned the key,
Expecting a Sophomore gang to see,
Who, with faces masked and _bangers_ stout,
Had come resolved to smoke him out.
_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p. 75.


BARBER. In the English universities, the college barber is often
employed by the students to write out or translate the impositions
incurred by them. Those who by this means get rid of their
impositions are said to _barberize_ them.

So bad was the hand which poor Jenkinson wrote, that the many
impositions which he incurred would have kept him hard at work all
day long; so he _barberized_ them, that is, handed them over to
the college barber, who had always some poor scholars in his pay.
This practice of barberizing is not uncommon among a certain class
of men.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 155.


BARNEY. At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was
used to designate a bad recitation. To _barney_ was to recite
badly.


BARNWELL. At Cambridge, Eng., a place of resort for characters of
bad report.

One of the most "civilized" undertook to banter me on my
non-appearance in the classic regions of _Barnwell_.--_Bristed's
Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 31.


BARRING-OUT SPREE. At Princeton College, when the students find
the North College clear of Tutors, which is about once a year,
they bar up the entrance, get access to the bell, and ring it.

In the "Life of Edward Baines, late M.P. for the Borough of
Leeds," is an account of a _barring-out_, as managed at the
grammar school at Preston, England. It is related in Dickens's
Household Words to this effect. "His master was pompous and
ignorant, and smote his pupils liberally with cane and tongue. It
is not surprising that the lads learnt as much from the spirit of
their master as from his preceptions and that one of those
juvenile rebellions, better known as old than at present as a
'_barring-out_,' was attempted. The doors of the school, the
biographer narrates, were fastened with huge nails, and one of the
younger lads was let out to obtain supplies of food for the
garrison. The rebellion having lasted two or three days, the
mayor, town-clerk, and officers were sent for to intimidate the
offenders. Young Baines, on the part of the besieged, answered the
magisterial summons to surrender, by declaring that they would
never give in, unless assured of full pardon and a certain length
of holidays. With much good sense, the mayor gave them till the
evening to consider; and on his second visit the doors were found
open, the garrison having fled to the woods of Penwortham. They
regained their respective homes under the cover of night, and some
humane interposition averted the punishment they had
deserved."-- Am. Ed. Vol. III. p. 415.


BATTEL. To stand indebted on the college books at Oxford for
provisions and drink from the buttery.

Eat my commons with a good stomach, and _battled_ with discretion.
--_Puritan_, Malone's Suppl. 2, p. 543.

Many men "_battel_" at the rate of a guinea a week. Wealthier men,
more expensive men, and more careless men, often "_battelled_"
much higher.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 274.

Cotgrave says, "To _battle_ (as scholars do in Oxford) être
debteur an collège pour ses vivres." He adds, "Mot usé seulement
des jeunes écoliers de l'université d'Oxford."

2. To reside at the university; to keep terms.--_Webster_.


BATTEL. Derived from the old monkish word _patella_, or _batella_,
a plate. At Oxford, "whatsoever is furnished for dinner and for
supper, including malt liquor, but not wine, as well as the
materials for breakfast, or for any casual refreshment to country
visitors, excepting only groceries," is expressed by the word
_battels_.--_De Quincey_.

I on the nail my _Battels_ paid,
The monster turn'd away dismay'd.
_The Student_, Vol. I. p. 115, 1750.


BATTELER, BATTLER. A student at Oxford who stands indebted, in the
college books, for provisions and drink at the
buttery.--_Webster_.

Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and Prov. Words, says, "The term is
used in contradistinction to gentleman commoner." In _Gent. Mag._,
1787, p. 1146, is the following:--"There was formerly at Oxford an
order similar to the sizars of Cambridge, called _battelers_
(_batteling_ having the same signification as sizing). The _sizar_
and _batteler_ were as independent as any other members of the
college, though of an inferior order, and were under no obligation
to wait upon anybody."

2. One who keeps terms, or resides at the University.--_Webster_.


BATTELING. At Oxford, the act of taking provisions from the
buttery. Batteling has the same signification as SIZING at the
University of Cambridge.--_Gent. Mag._, 1787, p. 1146.

_Batteling in a friend's name_, implies eating and drinking at his
expense. When a person's name is _crossed in the buttery_, i.e.
when he is not allowed to take any articles thence, he usually
comes into the hall and battels for buttery supplies in a friend's
name, "for," says the Collegian's Guide, "every man can 'take out'
an extra commons, and some colleges two, at each meal, for a
visitor: and thus, under the name of a guest, though at your own
table, you escape part of the punishment of being crossed."--p.
158.

2. Spending money.

The business of the latter was to call us of a morning, to
distribute among us our _battlings_, or pocket money,
&c.--_Dicken's Household Words_, Vol. I. p. 188.


BAUM. At Hamilton College, to fawn upon; to flatter; to court the
favor of any one.


B.C.L. Abbreviated for _Baccalaureus Civilis Legis_, Bachelor in
Civil Law. In the University of Oxford, a Bachelor in Civil Law
must be an M.A. and a regent of three years' standing. The
exercises necessary to the degree are disputations upon two
distinct days before the Professors of the Faculty of Law.

In the University of Cambridge, the candidate for this degree must
have resided nine terms (equal to three years), and been on the
boards of some College for six years, have passed the "previous
examination," attended the lectures of the Professor of Civil Law
for three terms, and passed a _series_ of examinations in the
subject of them; that is to say in General Jurisprudence, as
illustrated by Roman and English law. The names of those who pass
creditably are arranged in three classes according to
merit.--_Lit. World_, Vol. XII. p. 284.

This degree is not conferred in the United States.


B.D. An abbreviation for _Baccalaureus Divinitatis_, Bachelor in
Divinity. In both the English Universities a B.D. must be an M.A.
of seven years' standing, and at Oxford, a regent of the same
length of time. The exercises necessary to the degree are at
Cambridge one act after the fourth year, two opponencies, a
clerum, and an English sermon. At Oxford, disputations are
enjoined upon two distinct days before the Professors of the
Faculty of Divinity, and a Latin sermon is preached before the
Vice-Chancellor. The degree of Theologiæ Baccalaureus was
conferred at Harvard College on Mr. Leverett, afterwards President
of that institution, in 1692, and on Mr. William Brattle in the
same year, the only instances, it is believed, in which this
degree has been given in America.


BEADLE, BEDEL, BEDELL. An officer in a university, whose chief
business is to walk with a mace, before the masters, in a public
procession; or, as in America, before the president, trustees,
faculty, and students of a college, in a procession, at public
commencements.--_Webster_.

In the English universities there are two classes of Bedels,
called the _Esquire_ and the _Yeoman Bedel_.

Of this officer as connected with Yale College, President Woolsey
speaks as follows:--"The beadle or his substitute, the vice-beadle
(for the sheriff of the county came to be invested with the
office), was the master of processions, and a sort of
gentleman-usher to execute the commands of the President. He was a
younger graduate settled at or near the College. There is on
record a diploma of President Clap's, investing with this office a
graduate of three years' standing, and conceding to him 'omnia
jura privilegia et auctoritates ad Bedelli officium, secundum
collegiorum aut universitatum leges et consuetudines usitatas;
spectantia.' The office, as is well known, still exists in the
English institutions of learning, whence it was transferred first
to Harvard and thence to this institution."--_Hist. Disc._, Aug.,
1850, p. 43.

In an account of a Commencement at Williams College, Sept. 8,
1795, the order in which the procession was formed was as follows:
"First, the scholars of the academy; second, students of college;
third, the sheriff of the county acting as _Bedellus_,"
&c.--_Federal Orrery_, Sept. 28, 1795.

The _Beadle_, by order, made the following declaration.--_Clap's
Hist. Yale Coll._, 1766, p. 56.

It shall be the duty of the Faculty to appoint a _College Beadle_,
who shall direct the procession on Commencement day, and preserve
order during the exhibitions.--_Laws Yale Coll._, 1837, p. 43.


BED-MAKER. One whose occupation is to make beds, and, as in
colleges and universities, to take care of the students' rooms.
Used both in the United States and England.

T' other day I caught my _bed-maker_, a grave old matron, poring
very seriously over a folio that lay open upon my table. I asked
her what she was reading? "Lord bless you, master," says she, "who
I reading? I never could read in my life, blessed be God; and yet
I loves to look into a book too."--_The Student_, Vol. I. p. 55,
1750.

I asked a _bed-maker_ where Mr. ----'s chambers were.--_Gent.
Mag._, 1795, p. 118.

While the grim _bed-maker_ provokes the dust,
And soot-born atoms, which his tomes encrust.
_The College.--A sketch in verse_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May,
1849.

The _bed-makers_ are the women who take care of the rooms: there
is about one to each staircase, that is to say, to every eight
rooms. For obvious reasons they are selected from such of the fair
sex as have long passed the age at which they might have had any
personal attractions. The first intimation which your bed-maker
gives you is that she is bound to report you to the tutor if ever
you stay out of your rooms all night.--_Bristed's Five Years in an
Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 15.


BEER-COMMENT. In the German universities, the student's drinking
code.

The _beer-comment_ of Heidelberg, which gives the student's code
of drinking, is about twice the length of our University book of
statutes.--_Lond. Quar. Rev._, Am. Ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 56.


BEMOSSED HEAD. In the German universities, a student during the
sixth and last term, or _semester_, is called a _Bemossed Head_,
"the highest state of honor to which man can attain."--_Howitt_.

See MOSS-COVERED HEAD.


BENE. Latin, _well_. A word sometimes attached to a written
college exercise, by the instructor, as a mark of approbation.

When I look back upon my college life,
And think that I one starveling _bene_ got.
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 402.


BENE DISCESSIT. Latin; literally, _he has departed honorably_.
This phrase is used in the English universities to signify that
the student leaves his college to enter another by the express
consent and approbation of the Master and Fellows.--_Gradus ad
Cantab._

Mr. Pope being about to remove from Trinity to Emmanuel, by
_Bene-Discessit_, was desirous of taking my rooms.--_Alma Mater_,
Vol. I. p. 167.


BENEFICIARY. One who receives anything as a gift, or is maintained
by charity.--_Blackstone_.

In American colleges, students who are supported on established
foundations are called _beneficiaries_. Those who receive
maintenance from the American Education Society are especially
designated in this manner.

No student who is a college _beneficiary_ shall remain such any
longer than he shall continue exemplary for sobriety, diligence,
and orderly conduct.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, p. 19.


BEVER. From the Italian _bevere_, to drink. An intermediate
refreshment between breakfast and dinner.--_Morison_.

At Harvard College, dinner was formerly the only meal which was
regularly taken in the hall. Instead of breakfast and supper, the
students were allowed to receive a bowl of milk or chocolate, with
a piece of bread, from the buttery hatch, at morning and evening;
this they could eat in the yard, or take to their rooms and eat
there. At the appointed hour for _bevers_, there was a general
rush for the buttery, and if the walking happened to be bad, or if
it was winter, many ludicrous accidents usually occurred. One
perhaps would slip, his bowl would fly this way and his bread
that, while he, prostrate, afforded an excellent stumbling-block
to those immediately behind him; these, falling in their turn,
spattering with the milk themselves and all near them, holding
perhaps their spoons aloft, the only thing saved from the
destruction, would, after disentangling themselves from the mass
of legs, arms, etc., return to the buttery, and order a new bowl,
to be charged with the extras at the close of the term.

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor
Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late
work, entitled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who
boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with
their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received
their modicum of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one
hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their
rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at
times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common
tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the
matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother
did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,'
replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons
did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the
fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous
preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed
themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste
to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled
with milk or chocolate, either by accident or by the stealthy
indulgence of the mischievous propensities of those with whom they
came in contact; and oftentimes it was a scene of confusion that
was not the most pleasant to look upon or be engaged in. At
breakfast the students were furnished, in Commons Hall, with tea,
coffee, or milk, and a small loaf of bread. The age of a beaker of
beer with a certain allowance of bread had expired."--Vol. I. pp.
313, 314.

No scholar shall be absent above an hour at morning _bever_, half
an hour at evening _bever_, &c.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._,
Vol. I. p. 517.

The butler is not bound to stay above half an hour at _bevers_ in
the buttery after the tolling of the bell.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p.
584.


BEVER. To take a small repast between meals.--_Wallis_.


BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the _Bible clerks_ are
required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a
list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to
enforce the discipline of the institution. Their duties are
different in different colleges.--_Oxford Guide_.

A _Bible clerk_ has seldom too many friends in the
University.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholarship,
so called because the student who was promoted to that office was
enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."--_Gradus ad Cantab._


BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public
examinations of the classes at the close of each term, on the
studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in
the college course, at the close of the Sophomore and Senior
years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are
called _biennial_.--_Yale Coll. Cat._

"The _Biennial_," remarks the writer of the preface to the _Songs
of Yale_, "is an examination occurring twice during the
course,--at the close of the Sophomore and of the Senior
years,--in all the studies pursued during the two years previous.
It was established in 1850."--Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by