The University and W omens Work 1 



THE movement which we inaugurate to-day embodies one 

 more attempt to knit university studies to the common 

 occupations of life and to break down the barriers which 

 custom has set up between thought and action. This is a 

 cause which I serve with my whole heart, for nothing has 

 seemed to me more necessary in the interest both of education 

 and of right-living. 



I think that no one who surveys the educational history 

 of this country can fail to see that there is a tendency for the 

 world of learning and the world of action to drift apart, until 

 they seem to be almost in opposition. The earlier part of my 

 life was spent largely in the atmosphere of what is convention- 

 ally called business, and I am certain there prevailed a general 

 feeling among business men, that not only a little but also 

 a good deal of learning was a dangerous thing. Such aphor- 

 isms as ' an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory ' are 

 characteristic of that feeling. Later on I became more 

 immersed in the world of learning, and encountered men 

 whose habitual attitude towards business was one of intellec- 

 tual disdain. 



I believe that the explanation of this state of things is to 

 be found in the fact that the educational system of this 

 country has been for so long conceived exclusively from the 

 point of view of the learned professions. We must remember 



1 Address delivered at the Inauguration of the King's College (London 

 University) courses for the Higher Education of Women in Home Science 

 and HouseholdJEconomics, October 2, 1908. 



