262 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



gree worthy of it. She has opened to us new courses 

 with a Hberal hand; perhaps no University, either in 

 this country, or elsewhei-e, opens a nobler course of 

 instruction to women, than Harvard offers to her 

 Radchffe students of today; and while we are as- 

 sembled here, on the last day of our present college 

 year, knowing that the next term will open under new 

 conditions, is it not well to take counsel together? to 

 consider what the new aspect of our college instruc- 

 tion imposes upon us, as our most important aca- 

 demic duty? 



It is no small gain to have a high standard held up 

 before us. We all know what it is to follow a flag, if it 

 represents to us a noble ideal. This is what Harvard 

 has done for us, and it is a better gift even than the 

 enlarged field of study, the higher grades of instruc- 

 tion which she offers us. In associating us so nearly 

 with herself, — in sharing with us the wealth of her 

 traditions gathered during more than two centuries 

 and a half, she gives us a new stimulus to upright 

 aims and conscientious achievement. In saying this, I 

 do not think of scholarship alone, but of its uses, as 

 helping toward a well-rounded character. Our schol- 

 arship will not be worth much if it does not lend 

 itself in gracious service to whatever path in life it 

 may be our lot to follow. 



... It is my dearest wish for you all that Radcliffe 

 College by her bearing (for institutions as well as in- 

 dividuals may have a dignified and noble bearing), 

 by her simplicity and refinement of manners, by her 

 fidelity to scholarship in its more comprehensive and 



