404 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
gentlemen who were informally discussing plans for 
the collegiate education of women in Cambridge took 
in February, 1879, when they invited Mrs. Agassiz 
to be one of their committee. She accepted this invi- 
tation at once; and thus began her close connection 
with this important movement, to which she devoted 
her best energies for the rest of her life. As soon as 
there was any formal organization of the managing 
committee, she was made its President; and after its 
incorporation as the Society for the Collegiate Instruc- 
tion of Women and again as Radcliffe College, she 
remained its President and gave her life and soul to 
its welfare. No words of mine can even attempt to 
express her great and lasting services during this 
period of more than 28 years to the cause of sound 
learning and especially to the higher education of 
women in this country. Her long experience as a 
teacher of girls, her almost unerring practical wis- 
dom, and the unfailing common sense which she al- 
ways brought tothe difficult problems which constantly 
faced us in our almost unexplored way, have done 
more, in my opinion, to make Radcliffe College what 
it now is, than all other causes combined. But be- 
yond and above all this was that gracious personality 
which always made itself felt in everything that she 
said or did, and gave an indescribable charm to all 
her intercourse with both teachers and students. We 
are soon to listen to the striking story of her powerful 
aid, in 1894, in rescuing us from the greatest danger 
to which we were ever exposed, when our wise con- 
servatism in gratefully accepting the generous con- 
