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Harvard Seal came into being in a meeting held by Harvard College on September 27, 1643. The meeting was hosted by the second President of Harvard College Henry Duster. The sketch of that meeting clearly recorded the pattern design of the coat of arms; its background is three books (two on the top of the third one). While the top two books were Inscribed with “VE”and “RT respectively, the third book was inscribed with “TAS”. The setting of the three books was a pattern of a shield. The design of the coat of arms was creative, as it were.
哈佛校徽誕生于哈佛學院在1643年9月27日舉行的一次會議上。那次會議是由哈佛學院第二任院長亨利?鄧斯特主持的。那天的會議草案清楚地記載了盾徽的設計：它以三本書為背景(兩上一下）。在上面的兩本書上分別印刻有“VE”和“RI”兩組字, 而在下面的那本書則印刻有“TAS”一組字母。三本書的背景是一個盾牌圖案。可以說這個校徽設計是很有創意的。
Unfortunately, however, the arms fell out of use and were lost to memory thereafter. They waited 200 years before they were rediscovered and returned to use. The reason is that Duster discarded the meeting records among a pile of files after the meeting. Other people also dismissed the matter from their minds. It was not until 200 hundred years later in 1836 that President Josiah Quincy rediscovered those records while preparing for Harvard’s bicentennial celebrations. President Quincy introduced the rediscovered coat of arms to the faculty and students. Everybody cheered for the rediscovery with a ting of emotion or regret It seems to imply that truth will not be forgotten despite temporary neglect.
但可惜的是, 這以后這個盾徽逐漸被廢棄、遺忘, 直到200 年后才被人重新發現并啟用。原因是鄧斯特在主持了那次會議后, 就將那次的會議記錄丟置在一堆文件中, 一直無人問津。直到200年后的1836年, 當哈佛校長昆西在準備哈佛200年校慶時才發現這些記錄。昆西校長把這份失而復得的校徽圖案推介給師生, 大家歡呼之余, 無不感慨萬千。它似乎昭示著人們：真理是不會被遺忘的’縱使他一時半會兒可能被人忽視。
This earlier version of the coat of arms, however, contained one difference from the present one. There are still some coats of arms of the old version at Harvard. If you look closely at the books in the old coat of arms, you will see that the top two books are turned facing upward, while the bottom book is overturned. The upward facing books symbolize the truth that is discernible through our fives senses; the overturned book symbolize what can only be known through the illumination of the Holly Spirit.
但這個早期校徽的樣式和現在的校徽有一點不同。現在哈佛還有一些舊校徽。如果你仔細看舊校徽里的書, 你會發現上面兩本是向上翻開的, 而下面那本是朝下扣著的-面向上的兩本書代表了真理可以通過五官辨別, 而面向下的那本則代表了只有通過圣靈啟示才能掌握的東西。
By the time when Charles Eliot attained the presidency of Harvard, religion had lost its position at Harvard. Eliot turned all the books facing upwards, denoting the emerging philosophy of humanism. The idea that all truth is attainable through human efforts is consistent with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s teaching on the supremacy of man. As the Concord philosopher once said: “In yourself slumbers the whole of Reason: it is for you to know all, it is
等到艾略特當上哈佛校長的時候, 在哈佛宗教已經失去了地位。艾略特把所有的書都朝上捆開, 象征了新興的人文主義哲學。所有的真理都可以通過人的努力獲得, 這一思想和愛默生關于人的崇高地位的學說是一致的。就像這個康科德的哲學家曾經說的一樣：“在你自身沉睡著全部的理念：是你, 要去發現這一切；是你, 要去大膽探索所有領域。”
