264 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
President Felton and the group of men whom she first 
met under his roof, but more especially to the deep at- 
tachment of Agassiz to the college and his unflagging 
efforts for its development. Although Mrs. Agassiz’s letters 
from Brazil indicate her interest in the condition of her 
own sex there, she was never one to spell “woman” with a 
capital W, and she gave her time and efforts not to the 
higher education of women in general, as a “cause,” but 
specifically to Harvard education for women as a means of 
extending the benefits of the University to enrich the lives 
of women and so of children. Moreover, her interest in 
women’s colleges was not independent of her interest in 
the Annex and was usually focused about the experiment 
in Cambridge. 
It is true that any educational enterprise had a 
certain attraction for her because of Agassiz’s character 
and reputation as one of the greatest teachers that Har- 
vard has ever had; and it is largely in his enthusiasm for 
education, the ideals for the instruction of girls that he 
had expressed in the school, and his affection for Harvard 
that the springs of Mrs. Agassiz’s activity in behalf of 
Radcliffe may be found. The school that she originated to 
assist him financially and which afforded her pleasure only 
in so far as they worked together in it, led her, according to 
her own testimony, to associate herself with the plan that 
resulted in Radcliffe College. Her relation to Radcliffe, 
therefore, which seems to form a separate chapter in her 
existence, does not in reality break the unity of her life, 
which found its completion by being merged in that of 
Agassiz; it was, on the contrary, the expression — to a 
greater extent, probably, than she was herself aware — of 
