RADCLIFFE COLLEGE 357 
Among Mrs. Agassiz’s papers there has been found a 
half-sheet which in its feebleness would seem too sacred 
for publication were it not that it contains the last recorded 
words which she desired to speak to the students of Rad- 
cliffe, and which are therefore her parting message to the 
college. On the outside of the sheet is written, — “‘Some- 
thing that should I have to join in the opening ceremonies 
for the new students’ building at Radcliffe I should like to 
say —” 
I do not mean that our relation to Harvard should 
give us the faintest feeling of superiority but only a 
deeper feeling of responsibility. We cannot hold the 
position without accepting the responsibility. 
It will be difficult for me to speak here within the 
walls and under the roof of a building given first as a 
gift to me and second [as] a gift through me to the 
students of Radcliffe. When I came before them the 
next day to tell them that I had received so beauti- 
ful a gift, I felt that we took as it were a pledge to 
each other, binding us to the best uses of this new 
home — not only while we enjoyed it, but that we 
would also establish traditions by force of which it 
would be consecrated also in time to come as worthy 
of its donors. 
Today I feel like renewing that pledge. Indeed I 
believe that we — 
