360 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
I repeat that we must think of instruction as 
something that may transcend itself, something that 
has higher issues than the mere acquisition of knowl- 
edge. If it does not build up character, if it does not 
give us a more urgent sense of duty, a larger and 
braver sympathy for what is noblest in life, — in 
short, if it does not make lives better and homes 
happier — then it has done its least and not its 
greatest work, then we have missed its highest in- 
spiration. 
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, JUNE 27, 1899 
... So many farewells to the nineteenth century, so 
many greetings to the twentieth, will be heard on all 
public occasions in the next few months, that one 
hesitates to enter upon a subject which is, as it were, 
already bespoken, and may perhaps be in danger 
of becoming commonplace by repetition. And yet, 
though it may be said in a certain sense that every 
day ends one century and begins another, the mile- 
stones that men set up to mark their artificial divi- 
sions of time are deeply impressive, especially when 
they connect themselves with permanent institutions, 
which, in their future growth and expansion, are likely 
to touch the finer issues of civilization and of social 
life; and therefore it seems to me worth while to re- 
member here and now what the last hundred years 
have done for women, and to remind each other that 
today our Commencement falls for the last time 
within the closing gates of the nineteenth century. 
Among the numerous and startling changes that 
