260 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
among her ancestors, but she had also had, especially on 
her mother’s side of the family, a line of forbears who had 
won an enviable reputation in scientific, military, naval or 
diplomatic fields. She had herself the education that asso- 
ciation and inheritance give in richer measure than any 
college, to which force and charm were lent by her intellec- 
tual and unusual social gifts, her ready wit, her strong reli- 
gious faith, and her power of affection, and an air of natural 
distinction entirely independent of the accident of her 
Position, made her presence additionally significant. It is 
no wonder that she was recognized as a suitable fellow- 
worker with Mrs. Agassiz and one whose coming to 
Radcliffe as dean would be a happy omen for the college. 
“T hope you will be glad to learn,” she wrote to Mrs. Agas- 
siz in her letter of acceptance of the office, “that I accept 
the place offered me with a deep sense of its possibilities 
and duties, and that I am proud and happy indeed to 
be associated with you in this work.” On the envelope 
containing this letter Mrs. Agassiz noted: “Acceptance of 
Deanship, Radcliffe College. A blessed day for me. E. C. 
Agassiz.” And in her diary she recorded for May 24 of that 
year: “Received Miss Irwin’s answer accepting. An im- 
mense relief.” “I know that we understand each other so 
well,”’ she wrote to Miss Irwin a few years after her work 
at Radcliffe had begun, “‘that there is not and never could 
be a question of precedence of authority between us,” and 
she has left many other expressions of her estimate of Miss 
Irwin’s character and ability. “Under her guidance I be- 
lieve the institution will always be dignified in its attitude 
and efficient in its work,” she said later to a friend, and it 
‘was perhaps this reliance upon Miss Irwin’s standards and 
