June, 1890 . 
CONSTANCE C. W. NADEN. 
121 
CONSTANCE C. W. NADEN: 
A MEMOIR. 
(Continued from page 105.) 
Part III. 
Der Kiiline Diclitertraum ist nicht verloren, 
Er war zu eng, zu bleich: 
Nur in des Menschen Seele wird geboren 
Das Erd—und Himmelreich. 
Das Ideal. 
Constance Naden came to us in 1881. Tlie story of her 
life at College would be short enough if a successful student- 
life could be summed up in a simple record of marks, 
classes, or degrees. For the official testimony of the 
College Calendar shows that a very few class places and 
prizes taken, without obvious effort, in the course of some 
five years given to lecture room and laboratory, represent all 
there is to show to the outside world of the career of the most 
brilliant student the doors of Mason’s College have yet 
admitted. 
The proof that this estimate of her powers was shared by 
all her teachers is to be found in the roll of “ Associates ” of 
the College, where it may be seen that there is but one name 
to which is joined neither official title, nor University dis¬ 
tinction, nor College diploma, in explanation or justification 
of its place in the list. Professors, and students perhaps 
better than professors, knew how well that place had been 
earned. In a burlesque report of an imaginary debate, 
printed in an early number of the College Magazine, she 
is referred to under the name “ Hypatia,” a sort of acknow¬ 
ledgment, perhaps not very appropriate, but still an intelligible 
acknowledgment of her position among her fellow-students. 
From the first it was evident that, although she had no 
University examination in view, she had planned for herself 
a very definite and very complete course of study, with a 
very well defined purpose. 
The study of philosophy, undertaken with the object of 
forming a true theory of life, requires that no branch of 
modern learning shall be omitted from the necessary prepara¬ 
tory course. Physical and biological science must both be 
explored. Miss Naden knew this, and accordingly, having 
determined to build high, she proceeded to lay her foundations 
deep, submitting to a very thorough drilling in the subject- 
matter of the sciences of physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, 
and geology. Then, as in one subject after another she 
obtained command of the fundamental principles, with no 
