non-Baptists went to the Methodist and Congregational Churches.
The regimen of the Institution suggests that of a medieval ecclesiastical community. Dr. Kendrick asserted in 1837 that “Study, like any other business, unconnected with religious devotion, proves a snare to the soul, and unfits it for the service of God.” “Were young men to become giants in intellect,” he wrote, “but remain dwarfs in piety, they would be totally unfit for the service of the sanctuary.” Most students seem to have accepted the religious emphasis without question, and some seem to have enjoyed it. By the mid-1840’s however, there was a minority, probably non-ministerial, who mildly protested. One gave vent to his feelings in the following doggerel:
Chapel
There goes that chapel bell; its half past four
And so my morning nap must have an end.
Oh, who can take a comfortable snore
When clattering through halls such noises blend
For ere I’m up half the chaps are out
With squeaking slop-pails thumping down the stairs
Laughing or slamming doors with crazy shout.
I wish in truth they’d veto morning prayers.*
Students might well have complained also of the prevailing attitude against sports, although organized athletics had not yet appeared in American colleges. Dr. Kendrick wrote in 1834 that “the vain and sportive recreation of giddy and ungodly youth, for the preservation of health” was not allowed. Three years later the faculty specifically stated that playing ball was “incompatible with the character of the Institution.” Dr. Kendrick recognized, however, that some attention should be given to exercise and physical education. The manual-labor program, so enthusiastically hailed in the 1820’s, he accepted as being “in accordance with profit and piety” for restoring “the physical system, from a languid to a vigorous tone.” By 1840 inability to provide sufficient regular employment to give students daily exercise in the form of suitable manual labor forced the abandoning of the program. Work on the Society’s farm, for example, was seasonal and hence did not lend itself very well to systematizing, especially after the size of the student body increased. To some degree the manual-labor program survived under the auspices of the Students Association which took over most of the work of landscaping the campus.
*Aeonian Casket I, 509.
