ART. XV. This Constitution may be revised or amended, at any of the regular meetings of the Association, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present. On motion of Mr. Scism, of Columbia, Resolved, That a committee, to consist of one gentleman and one lady from each of the graduating classes, be appointed by the chair, to nominate permanent officers of the Association, and writers of Essays aud

Poems.

The chair accordingly named as such committee the following persons:

Misses Edna Lapham, Julia B. Clarke, Nancy A. Turner, Phebe A. Barnard, Martha S. Clapp, Ann J. Hawley, Harriet A. Bushnell, Sarah A. Clute. Messrs, E. Miller, H. J. Sherrill, J. I. Foot, C. McGregor, L. L Smith, A. M. Gregory, G. C. Mott, J. R. Webb and L. B. Corey.

The committee, atter retiring, reported to the Association the names of the following persons as suitable candidates to be supported for officers, &c., who were, accordingly, duly elected:

For President, EZRA D. BARKER, of Genesee. For 1st Vice-President, JAMES M. WINCHELL, of Onondaga.

For 2d Vice-President, DANIEL WATERBURY, of Columbia.

For Corresponding Secretary, WILLIAM F. PHELPS, of Albany.

For Recording Secretary, WILLIAM W. CLARK, of Albany. Writers of Essays and Poems, Miss SARAH A. CLUTE, of Wyoming; Miss ANN J. HAWLEY of Warren; Miss LURANCY J. WILCOX, of Herkimer. The Association then adjourned until 3 o'clock P. M., to attend the public exercises of the day.

At three o'clock P. M., the spacious lecture room of the Institution was densely filled by the pupils and graduates of the school, and a large number of citizens. After an appropriate and impressive prayer, from the Rev. Dr. BEECHER of the Pearl-street Baptist Church, the following Ode, written by WILLIS G. ABBOTT, a member of the graduating class of the term, was sung: "WELCOME! welcome! once more welcome To these lovely halls again; All are waiting to receive you. With a merry, joyful strain.

Time has fled since last we parted-
You have wandered far away;

But we're glad once more to greet you,
Yes, to greet you here to-day.
Let us have a merry time, then-
Let us have a jubilee;

One and all, come join our singing,
Join and sing this merry glee.
Banish every care and sorrow,
Breezes now blow soft again;
Take no thought yet of to-morrow,

Nought must quell our merry strain."

The following Poem, by Miss SARAH A. SHERMAN, of the class of 1847, was then read by the President of the Association:

The Spirit of Beauty.

The first bright morning broke upon the world,

And there were troops of white-winged angels then
To wake the harmonies of heaven on earth,
But have they all departed from the spot

They loved so well? In terror and affright
Did these celestial visitants behold
That fiery flaming minister of wrath
Send its terrific glare across the hills
Of Paradise, and fold their shining wings,
And melt away invisible in air?
And yet the forms of these most glorious ones
I would behold. Will they not stoop for once,
A mortal's cry to heed, and take a form
That mortal eye can see? I'll speak to one.

"Where dwellest thou, Spirit of Beauty, O where! In the blue depths of ocean, on earth, or in air? Dost thou watch o'er the spot where the gifted have dwelt,

Or fast by the shrine where the holy have knelt?
Is thy home in the fields where the mighty have bled,
With the plume, and the steel, and the host which they

led?

Hast thou dwelt in the bright sunny south for long,
Where even the rocks breathe Eolian song,
As soft as the voice in the deep sea caves
Where the mermaid is singing her song to the waves?
I know thou art here in the morning's bright hues,
In the leaves and the flowers bathed softly in dews;
The edge of yon bright floating cloud thou hast kissed,
And robed the green hills in the silvery mist.
And yet would I see thee in visible form,
As Iris o'erarching the wing of the storm.
Would behold thee arise from the blue waters clear,
Arise O thou spirit! arise thou, appear!

A gentle murmur rose, as something stirred
Within the placid water's slumbering depths.
A light ethereal cloud curled slowly up
From out the wave; its rosy hues were such
As sunset lights upon the virgin snow,
Or yet a rainbow melting into air,
Or dropping down its misty floating dyes
At first, and undefined as mystery,
Into the liquid wave. 'Twas shapeless all,
And then its wavy folds were gathered up
Into a form most lovely and divine.
It seemed a happy thought made visible,
A sunbeam, or a sweet and blissful tone
Of music, formed and fashioned to a thing
Of bright celestial shape. And then that voice-
'Twas silvery, rich, and clear, as it might wake
The slumbering ashes of the dead.

"Think not O thou aspiring child of earth!
That thou behold'st the form I wear in heaven;
Aye, that is all too bright for mortal eye
To look upon. Thine eager, earnest thought,

The infinite would grasp, and tear aside

The veil that dims thine eye of sense and thought,

Into the boundless, viewless, fathomless,
Around, above, and 'neath thy feet, to gaze.
'Tis well this film of dust thou canst not pierce,
While yet its shadow resteth on thy soul;
Couldst thou these glorious legions of the air
Behold, thy wayward, erring heart would bow,
And offer up the incense of its praise

To these, who are as thou, created things,
And startled, wrapped in sweet idolatry,
Forget that Mighty One before whose face
The earth and heavens shall flee. 'Tis well,
We are but ministers that do his will,
And loftier, mightier ones than I there are,
But none that creep into the enraptured soul
With such entrancing witchery of bliss.
'There's one who in the rolling clouds afar
His eyrie builds, and loves to sail alone
Upon the pinions of the rushing blast.

He reigns where piles of mountains lift their heads
In giant grandeur to the silent sky,-
And makes him friends of loftiest pinnacles
That robe themselves in everlasting snow,

And of the jagged gorges gaping wide
Between, and of the mightiest avalanche
That plunges thundering down the dizzy height,
And o'er the bosom of the "Mer de glace"
Exulting sweep, where "stiffened billows" lie,
All glittering, icy, mute, and motionless.
And with the maddest Alpine torrent speeds
Fast surging down the fearful steep; while I
The hues of Heaven take, its airy form
To robe, and tinge with many a glowing dye
The sprayey mass that sweeps in foaming lines
The azure air. These spirits oft their spells
Fling o'er the souls of earth's most gifted ones;
But they are friends to man, and make his heart
A brighter, better thing; their mission this,
And they, the faithful do perform it well,

"Whene'er this high and most majestic one,
Whom wondering mortals call sublimity,
Breathes on the soul where fires of genius burn,
He turns his eye from earth and plumes himself
On high aerial wing for loftier flight;

And soars afar, where blackest clouds his path
Surround, and lightnings flash athwart the gloom,
And fiercest thunderbolts in wrath descend-

What recks he all their maddening strife? He knows
A something mightier than the elements
Within his breast is stirred, and well he loves
To battle with the spirit of the storm.
Far onward still he soars, and pauses not
Till he the pathway of the orbs of heaven
Has traced and drank deep draughts of harmony
From their high song of joy, that goes
To swell the lofty anthems of the universe.
Of this most powerful one I've told thee much,
And thou mayst see we oft together dwell.
He deeply awes, while I entrance the heart
And steal away its care.

"I have not told thee where I dwell,-
By mount, and stream, and cot, and dell;
As thou departest o'er the earth
Thou'lt find me by the humble hearth,
And in the eye my living trace,
And in the form my touch of grace,
And in young hearts I reign supreme
As the enchantment of a dream;
And when the touch of youth is gone
And joys are fading one by one,
I linger still in sweet repose,
Like sunlight o'er the faded rose.
In every work of God thou'lt see
He gave fair beauty there to be.
And now, O mortal! look thy last,
For soon this vision will be past;
Thou no more with mortal eyes
Shalt see me in this shining guise;
But thou mayst hear again my voice
That bids thy very heart rejoice;
And when I raise my wings to fly
To our bright home in yonder sky,
Other spirits thou mayst see;
Sister spirits we are three,
Beauty, love, and harmony."

As there I stood in wonder lost, the form
Of beauty took its flight, and with it rose
Two other glittering ones; less brilliant they
But more ethereal and divine; away
Like lessening stars they faded from the sight
And lost themselves in heaven, but still have left
A glory beaming on their upward track,
E'en as the fabled deities of old

A glowing path among the stars have left,
Down which they passed from heaven to earth.

scenes

Of beauty mirrored once upon the soul

Remain forever glossed upon its deeps,
E'en as a tone of music circles on
Vibrating through eternity.

Though beauty's form Came not again, e'er yet she took her flight A loftier beauty of the intellect,

A sweeter, purer beauty of the heart,
A higher, holier beauty of the soul,

She bade me seek. And in that sunny vale
That she, with her bright presence deigned to bless,
Methought such beauty well might live. The hills
Were lifting up their treasures to the sun,
And sparkling wavelets of the silvery lake
Came up to kiss Nymphæa's spotless robes
That trembled lightly on the waters blue;
From every forest tree a gush of song
Arose, while quivering flecks of golden light
Stole through the canopy of weeping elms,
And danced upon the snow-white cottage walls;
And opening flowers, on wings invisible,
Sent up aromas to the king of light.

A blest abode was this, where grateful hearts,
In songs of praise, each morn arose to God
The Infinite; those hearts the polished chain
Of fashion had not bound with icy links
That chill the warm impulses of the soul.
A fair young being, clad in simple robes
Of grace, was standing by the open door,
And gathering buds and blossoms gemmed with dew,
Bewildering brightness beamed from those dark eyes,
And mirrored in their dreamy depths, a world
Of precious thought reposed, as she had been
Some fair browed daughter of the Orient.
Aye, beauty dwells within that matchless form,
And in the heart whose pulses throb beneath.
Across the vine clad porch she passed, and spoke
To one she loved.

ibrates forever to the slightest touch
Of all that's glad or beautiful, that sees
A beauty in the tiniest thing that wings
The air, the lowliest one that creeps the sod,
The humblest mite that floats upon the stream;
That peoples all the air with lovely forms,
That sees a thought in every budding flower,
In every moss-cup of the dell a thing

To love. When summer eve steals o'er the earth,
Let such a heart awake its song.

The night is still-How wondrous fair!
Methinks that spirits wing the air,-
List ye now, mayhap they sing,-

Is yon white cloud some snowy wing?
Oh! Shining ones, ye have not left
This earth, of all but hope bereft.

Oh, come ye now! calm beauty bright
Is watching o'er the earth to-night.
Soft hues are fading in the west,
The bird has sought her leafy nest;
The moon is o'er the hill tops high,

And stars are watching in the sky.
The streamlet's voice is scarcely heard
Like murmur of a gentle word;
The forest lies in shadow deep
Where elfin claus their revels keep;
The winds have sought some sylvan grot,
And whisper low, but slumber not;
And wisps of light along the vale
In circling brightness seem to sail.
His tiny lamp the firefly brings,
With music of his airy wings,
To light with fitful, sparkling beam,

The pathway of some wandering dream.
Upon their stems the folded flowers,
That mark the passing of the hours,
In soft repose are dreaming now,
Like thought upon an infant's brow;
While unseen hands with dewy gems,
Are weaving pearly diadems,

To crown these fairy queens of grace
When morn reveals each blushing face.

That loftier beauty of the inner world,
That precious wealth of intellectual gems,
Is gathered round the hallowed shrines of earth,
Where sacred memories o'er sacred things

Keep watch. It beams where Ilion's towers arose
From Arno's waters, Scotia's mountain glens
And out Ferrara's gloomy dungeon cell."
Hence gifted bards have ever loved the east,
That sunny land of mystery and song,
For holy memories are lingering there.
And beauty such as dwells nowhere on earth
Beside. Where all that meets the eye is clad
As in the hues of some delicious dream;
The very air 'tis luxury to breathe

And starbeams have a radiance more divine.
The plume-like foliage of the stately Palm,
The snowy petals of the Lotus flower,

The gorgeous wings that flit from bough to bough
In the acacia's shade, the wild gazelle
From whose large, lustrous eyes we half believe
The guardian spirit of the land looks out,
Have charms for him that others never know.

When beauty beams upon the intellect
Where Genius hath a home, it loves how oft

To pour its light upon the glowing page,
And scatter there the vivid, startling thoughts,

And phantom shapes that wander through the brain.
How many a master mind of earth has left
The glorious beauty of a living thought,
With magic skill upon the canvass traced,
Or in the sculptured marble wrought sublime.
But if a soul endowed with such high powers

As these, e'er stoop to soil its snowy wing
And grovel with the baser things of earth,
The light that beameth from its eagle eye
Becomes a hissing lava stream, that burns
And blackens all it passes o'er, and sinks,
And deeper burns unto the lowest depths
Of black despair.

The beauty of the earth
And sky shall pass away, the brightest eye
Grow dim, the loveliest form lie down in dust;
The priceless beauty of the heart may die,
Its buds of hope and joy lie scathed, and scorched,
And dead amid the blasted wreck of all
That once was fair; the mind where Genius reigns,
By beauty lighted up, may throne itself
Upon an eyrie of stupendous deeds,

Or pile on high a glorious monument

Of deathless thoughts, whereon the name he bore
In burning blazonry shall ever live,
Immortal though his memory is in earth.
The soul that fashioned out a destiny
So great, the bliss of heaven may never taste;
Its high celestial harmonies burst not

Upon his ear, save those transcendant beams,
Have flashed upon his soul from that bright star

The shepherd sages saw, who watched their flocks
Upon Judea's starlit plains. 'Tis these

Alone can high and holy beauty give,

E'en such as lives on the Archangel's brow!

The following Ode, written by DANIEL WATERBURY, of the class of 1847, and adapted to the national air of "Hail Columbia," was then sung:

"HAIL the day of jubilee!

Swell the anthem loud and free!
We from the mountain boldly rally-
We are here from the lowly valley-
We from the busy haunts of men,

To join the choral song again.
Hail! all hail, the glorious day,-
Banish sorrow and care away!
Join the chorus, swell the strain,-
Side by side we stand again;
Champions we of Truth and Right,-
Fight for God-for virtue fight,
Till Error, vanquished, dies in pain,
And Truth and Right assert their reign.

See the sun of Science shine!
See its rays almost divine!
Over the earth in glory beaming,
Into the hearts of thousands streaming-
Rouse the soul from sluggish rest,
Kindle a flame in every breast:
Ours it is the flame to feed,

Ours to urge the noble deed,

To train the tender thought is ours

To check the thorns that choke the flowers.
Knowledge is the falchion bright,-
Star of hope, the guiding light:
Grasp the torch, and bare the blade,
Fight till Error's course be staid!
Death has struck as years have fled,
Still in memory live the dead:
They have gone to their rest before us,
But their spirits are hovering o'er us,―
Bid us up, and boldly on,

Win the wreath and wear the crown.
Hark! their voices now may be

Mingling in our melody

Bidding each be strong of heart

Firmly, bravely act his part.

Stand we here a mighty band,

Pledged in heart and joined in hand,

Press we on to holy war,

Shout we still, 'Excelsior!'"