410 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



was set, and set in opposition to the plan that Mrs. 

 Agassiz was to advocate. The greater part of the 

 audience was of the opinion that either there should 

 be a completely separate college for women in Cam- 

 bridge, with its own corporation, government, de- 

 grees, and so forth, or that Harvard College should be 

 opened to women on terms of complete equality with 

 men. Either of these plans would have been accept- 

 able to the great majority of the audience. The plan 

 proposed was completely unacceptable. 



It was necessary to have a public hearing on the 

 law chartering the new college. I need not say that 

 Mrs. Agassiz shrank from this public meeting. She 

 never felt much confidence in her capacity to speak 

 before a large audience. She always told me before 

 the Radcliffe Commencement how much she dreaded 

 her simple and dignified part in the ceremony. She 

 thought she had no gift in public speech. She thought 

 that the opposition would succeed. She knew that 

 some members of the Committee had been primed by 

 the opponents of the bill. The Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee had been the head of a Massachusetts High 

 School, accustomed to treating boys and girls on an 

 equality and carrying them together through the 

 same programme. The plan proposed could hardly 

 be congenial to him. 



I went into the room with Mrs. Agassiz. On look- 

 ing at the Committee it was plain that the task before 

 her was going to be a difficult one. On looking at the 

 audience the task seemed more difficult still. She felt 

 the situation keenly. The case was opened by a lawyer 



