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 
