RADCLIFFE COLLEGE 357 



Among Mrs. Agassiz's papers there has been found a 

 half -sheet which in its feebleness would seem too sacred 

 for publication were it not that it contains the last recorded 

 words which she desired to speak to the students of Rad- 

 cliffe, and which are therefore her parting message to the 

 college. On the outside of the sheet is written, "Some- 

 thing that should I have to join in the opening ceremonies 

 for the new students' building at Radcliffe I should like to 

 say-" 



I do not mean that our relation to Harvard should 

 give us the faintest feeling of superiority but only a 

 deeper feeling of responsibility. We cannot hold the 

 position without accepting the responsibility. 



It will be difficult for me to speak here within the 

 walls and under the roof of a building given first as a 

 gift to me and second [as] a gift through me to the 

 students of Radcliffe. When I came before them the 

 next day to tell them that I had received so beauti- 

 ful a gift, I felt that we took as it were a pledge to 

 each other, binding us to the best uses of this new 

 home not only while we enjoyed it, but that we 

 would also establish traditions by force of which it 

 would be consecrated also in time to come as worthy 

 of its donors. 



Today I feel like renewing that pledge. Indeed I 

 believe that we 



