classes containing both. The first class was that of 1875. Since that time there have been two classes containing only young men, (1876 and 1883), leaving twelve classes having both sexes in them. The whole number of young women who have graduated is twenty-seven.

It will be seen that only a very small proportion of our students have been young women. The highest number in one class has been five, (1888). The greatest number of young women at any one time connected with the college has been twenty-one. The relative rank of the two sexes in classes containing both is as 895 to 817,-the young women having the higher rank. This is due, in my judgment, to three

causes:

1. The young women who come here are those who have a more earnest purpose to secure an education than the average college student, male or female. Only such are likely to come here while our number is so small.

2. The smallness of the number is a spur to study; since there is a natural consciousness of being more observed in respect to the quality of the work done in the class-room.

3. There is less to draw young women away from study, e. g. athletic contests, intercollegiate and other.

It was found that the average rank of the young women had been considerably higher in Physics, Natural Sciences, Metaphysics and Pure Mathematics than in other subjects,-highest in Physics and Natural Sciences, next in Metaphysics, and a little

lower in Pure Mathematics, the greatest variation in them being about seven one-hundredths.

The Board of Trustees have been apparently unanimous and hearty in support of the admission of young women from the time of the adoption of the plan (1870 or 1871). Two years ago a house was purchased for the accommodation of the young women, near the campus, and placed under the care of a matron. No variation in the curriculum has been made for them. They pursue their course 'on the same terms with the young men." There is not complete unanimity of judgment among the Faculty as to the wisdom of college co-education. The prevailing and growing sentiment, however, is in its favor. There is a like division of feeling among the young men connected with the college. All the young men, however, agree in showing to the young ladies uniform courtesy. This has seemed to develop a desirable refinement of manners and of spirit. There has been, from the beginning, no case of scandal or of any kind of trouble consequent upon the presence of young women in the college. The health of the latter has been fully as good as that of the young men.

While it is, doubtless, true that our daughters need a training different in certain lines from that of our young men, there seem to be no valid reasons why they should not take together such part of their education as is common, but many clear and strong reasons why they should do so.

The pertinacity of traditions in college life makes it hard to secure co-education in its best form and with its best results; but much has been done toward changing the traditions which are opposed to the

union. At the same time the claim sometimes put forth that the daughters have a right to admission to colleges founded for the sons has no more ground than would belong to the claim that the sons should be admitted to the colleges founded for the daughters; since until recently no provision for equal education was given to the daughters in separate institutions. Somewhere they ought to find the highest and best of which they are capable. As to this there is no shadow of question. It doubtless depends largely upon circumstances whether an institution should be founded or continued for one sex to the exclusion of the other; but the ideal arrangement seems to me to be union in studies common to both, and separation in studies special to each.

There is nothing in a genuine normal college life that demands any other or further separation than that which everywhere else is recognized as founded in nature. The influence of each sex upon the other is good and not evil.

Dr. J. G. Fitch, of London, gave some particulars respecting the growth of interest in the higher education of women during the last quarter of a century in England. It was remarkable that none of the ancient foundations, whether universities or endowed schools, had ever contemplated a liberal training for women. The whole of existing facilities at Cambridge and elsewhere were due to the awakened conscience and the higher sense of public duty on the part of men of the nineteenth century, and to the foresight of testators and founders. Legislation had enabled trustees to devote a part of educational en

dowments to the advanced education of girls, and the Universities of Cambridge and London had admitted women to degrees and academic privileges on substantially the same conditions as men. It was remarkable that last year at Cambridge where successful candidates were classed in order of merit, the highest place in the Classical Tripos was secured by a young woman scarcely twenty-one years of age, who was not only a brilliant Greek scholar, but an excellent tennis player, one possessed of health and vigor and much personal charm. This movement for encouraging the higher education of women had been connected with other movements for enabling them to obtain admission to many honorable and lucrative professional employments heretofore closed to them, and also for utilizing the great services of women in important public trusts as guardians of the poor, as members of school boards, as teachers, and as administrators of public charities. He believed that all these movements had proved most beneficent. They had added largely to the intellectual and practical resources of the community, had given to women increased influence and opportunities of usefulness, and had added no less to their happiness and dignity. He was glad to know from the writer of the paper that in this important respect the experience of America amply confirmed the conclusions to which good men were being brought in the old country.

9

V.

66

EARLY INSPIRATIONS.

BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH, BOSTON.

Endymion, one day thou shalt be blessed."

KEATS.

There is a poem by Keats, that is little read, that beautifully presents an allegory of life. It is founded upon the Greek myth of the fair faced shepherd lad Endymion, who used to sleep on Mount Latmos and who became loved of Diana. As the goddess passed over the mountain she kissed him in his dreams and inspired him, and the inspiration at last made him immortal.

The young genius of Keats in affluent imagery gives us the legend, not from the Greek point of view, but from that of the young shepherd.

Endymion one night beholds in his dreams a face of transcendent loveliness. Will that face ever appear again? The question haunts him in his pastoral pursuits; it makes him pale at the great Panfestivals, and his life has become a quest for the unknown face that came to him in his sleep.

At length the same beautiful face appears to him again; this time it is reflected in a fountain. His