THE PASSING OF THE ANNEX 255 



they receive there and of the generous spirit in which 

 it is given. Of course our students belong largely to 

 the class of teachers, — young girls who are fitting 

 for that career, or older women, many of whom are 

 experienced teachers, but who come to make them- 

 selves familiar with the larger methods of university 

 instruction, and carry back to their schoolrooms 

 what is freshest and most interesting in their own de- 

 partment of work. No one can be blind to the advan- 

 tage for our public education of thus bringing our pub- 

 lic schools into more direct and vital contact with our 

 oldest University, with its large and varied means of 

 instruction, its great outfit in all departments, its 

 learning and its old associations. I know there are 

 those who look upon Radcliffe College as likely to 

 limit rather than enlarge these privileges. But we 

 have to remember that it is not the habit of Harvard 

 to make itself responsible for inferior work, — all 

 her traditions, all her standards, all her principles of 

 action are opposed to such a course. The governing 

 boards of Harvard do not mean to establish an infe- 

 rior college. It has been my privilege to stand very 

 near to the late transactions between the Annex and 

 Harvard, and I cannot doubt that her guardianship 

 over her young ward will be just and generous. Is it 

 not a little unreasonable to expect that the governing 

 boards should at once explain to the public exactly 

 what their course of action is going to be in dealing 

 with an experiment, which is not yet begun and which 

 involves so marked a change of policy in their admin- 

 istration.^ To those who have watched the working 



