THE HARVARD ANNEX 217 



ment into that of ascertained use and value. We need 

 many subscribers, for less than $100,000 would surely 

 make us, financially speaking, an unsafe acquisition 

 for the University. Of this $100,000, something more 

 than $36,000 have been subscribed in the last three or 

 four weeks. 



Even if we should succeed in raising the whole of 

 this sum, it could not put the education of women on 

 ' a par with that of men at Harvard. Indeed we are ad- 

 vised that, considered as a permanent foundation for 

 so large a scheme, it would be quite insufficient. But 

 it might give the College the means of continuing, on 

 a somewhat broader basis, the work already begun, 

 and would be a nucleus around which additional re- 

 sources would gather as soon as the character of the 

 undertaking was fully understood. Good work wins 

 good will, and we cannot but hope that if the College 

 accepts us, we too shall have, when we have secured 

 the recognition of the community, our occasional 

 gifts, our bequests and legacies, like other depart- 

 ments of the University. 



We learn what the further fortunes of the enterprise 

 were from passages in Mrs. Agassiz 's informal address in 

 June, 1884, when she had invited the second class that 

 had completed the regular four years' course of study to 

 her house in Quincy Street for their "Commencement exer- 

 cises." The response to her appeal in March which she re- 

 ports here demonstrates her possession of one of the prime 

 requisites for the president of a budding institution — an 

 unusual power of persuasion. This power rested not at all 

 upon either eloquence or art, but chiefly upon her utter 



