COMMEMORATION ADDRESSES 403 
of the “Annex,” paid their fees, and read Greek 
poetry with me in my study. I feel that this occasion 
would be incomplete without even this inadequate 
tribute of appreciation to her services in our cause. 
It is pleasant to think, as we recall these older times, 
that through her first President Radcliffe has in- 
herited some of the atmosphere of this simple, digni- 
fied society. 
.When we were getting ready to give the Oedipus 
Tyrannus in Sanders Theatre, in 1881, Mrs. Agassiz 
took the greatest interest in all the preparations. 
She frequently attended the rehearsals, and her advice 
about the musical performance and the choral songs 
was always of the highest value. Her knowledge of 
music made her an authority upon many of the hard- 
est problems with which we had to deal. Once she 
gave me a solemn warning which alarmed me a little, 
when she thought that “the music was running away 
with the play.” “I know you will not suspect me of 
being prejudiced against music,” she said, “but I am 
really sometimes afraid that at the end you will find 
that you have only a beautiful opera with a Greek 
play attached to it.” But after she had heard the 
first rehearsal of the play as a whole, she at once took 
back her warning, saying, “It’s all going to be splen- 
did.”’ (I suspect, however, that her warning had 
already been of some effect.) At the public perform- 
ances it was seldom that we did not have the satis- 
faction of seeing her in her special chair in the centre 
of the front row. 
It was a most important step which the ladies and 
