LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Gl FT OF 
 
 £U**4/TV. 
 
 n 
 
 Class 
 
>7 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 OF 
 
 BEYN MA WE COLLEGE 
 
 (mi I VERS 
 
 fePOB,^ 
 
 18 8 5. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 AT THE INAUGURATION OF 
 
 Bryn Mawr College, 
 
 PRESIDENT RHOADS 
 
 AND 
 
 PRESIDENT D. C. GILMAN, 
 
 Of The Johns Hopkins University. 
 
 Bryn Mawr, 1885. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRINTED BY SHERMAN & CO., 
 Seventh and Cherry Streets. 
 
 18 86. 
 
0*1 
 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/addressesatinaugOObrynrich 
 
JNIVERSIT 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT RHOADS. 
 
 To-day we rejoice in a culmination and a beginning. 
 The long course of providential events which led to the 
 founding of Bryn Mawr College and the patient work 
 of preparation for it have closed, and the actual life of the 
 College has begun. It is most fit, then, while acknowl- 
 edging that every good gift is from above, that we should 
 give just honor to Dr. Taylor, whose liberal mind and 
 generous heart led him to design this Institution for the 
 higher education of women, and to devote almost his en- 
 tire estate to its establishment. 
 
 As the son of a physician who was a graduate of the 
 College of New Jersey, and who studied medicine at the 
 University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Taylor must have re- 
 ceived from his father a bias in favor of collegiate 
 education and a regard for intellectual pursuits. The 
 descendant of a prosperous London merchant, who, in 
 early colonial days, made large purchases of land in 
 northern New Jersey, he had that aptitude for commer- 
 cial transactions which wins success by honorable methods ; 
 and it is a cause of profound satisfaction that the estate 
 which he devoted to so pure and high a purpose was 
 gained by worthy means, and was unstained by injustice 
 or wrong. The great West of fifty years ago, with its 
 fresh resources, was the field for Dr. Taylor's business 
 energy ; and his example is one among very many which 
 give evidence that our countrymen, while eagerly taking 
 advantage of the riches which a new continent has spread 
 before us, and stimulated by its ungarnered stores to de- 
 vote themselves to material things, have not " blinded 
 their souls with clay," nor lost sight of the nobler wants 
 
 
of our nature. On the contrary, there has been, during 
 the past generation, a noble rivalry in the munificence of 
 the gifts made by men and women of wealth to foster 
 education. In 1882, the private gifts for education of 
 all grades in the United States exceeded $7,000,000, while 
 those for colleges and universities alone were more than 
 $3,500,000. Within the bounds of our own State there 
 have occurred of recent time the founding of the Towne 
 School of Science in the University, with large additions 
 to its buildings and endowment ; the creation of Lehigh 
 University by Judge Packer; the strengthening of 
 Lafayette College by Ario Pardee; the contribution of 
 $250,000 to rebuild Swarthmore ; and the recent legacy 
 to Haverford by Jacob P. Jones. But the most striking 
 feature in this dedication of wealth to the promotion of 
 learning has been the establishment of colleges for 
 women. Prominent among benefactors to this cause are 
 the honored names of Vassar, Durant, and Maria Smith, 
 who have indeed done well, but have not surpassed Dr. 
 Taylor in generous intent and deed. From his Puritan 
 and Quaker ancestry Dr. Taylor received a conviction 
 of the supreme claims of duty, so that although he re- 
 served his means chiefly for a final purpose he habitually 
 used them in wise charities, and generously responded to 
 the claims of friendship and hospitality. Extended travel 
 at home and abroad had increased his appreciation of a 
 varied culture, and had prepared his mind for that dispo- 
 sition of his property which he ultimately made ; and his 
 connection with Haverford College for more than a 
 quarter of a century, as one of its Board of Managers, 
 led him to desire (as he himself expressed it), to extend 
 "to women the opportunities for a college education which 
 are so freely offered to young men." 
 
 Once resolved, Dr. Taylor began to form plans for his 
 institution. He consulted with men and women foremost 
 
for their knowledge of the whole subject of education, as 
 well as of the special needs of women and of the wants 
 of our time. He visited the three leading colleges for 
 women in the north, to which Bryn Mawr is so largely 
 indebted, and having decided upon the outlines of his 
 design he began the erection of the buildings which now 
 surround us. He determined to have one central building 
 for academic purposes, and to place near it dormitories 
 for the accommodation of students, together with labora- 
 tories and rooms for a gymnasium. By his death in 1880, 
 the completion of these edifices and the organization of the 
 College devolved upon the Trustees whom he had chosen. 
 The extent and importance of his undertaking had grown 
 upon Dr. Taylor as he became more familiar with all that 
 was involved in his attempt to offer to women the advan- 
 tages of higher learning, and the Trustees have felt 
 assured that they were acting in accordance with his 
 intentions by husbanding the estate placed in their hands, 
 and by conserving its funds, as far as practicable, for the 
 future needs of the college. This they have done with so 
 much care that the invested property of the College now 
 nearly equals the sum .originally devised. In judging, 
 however, of what may be expected of Bryn Mawr, it 
 should be borne in mind that notwithstanding the munifi- 
 cence of its endowment, its income is scarcely one-third 
 of the sum expended annually by some leading colleges 
 for the maintenance of their academical departments, and 
 that out of this income there ought to be supplied in the 
 immediate future, additional dormitories, laboratories, 
 illustrative collections, with halls for their accommoda- 
 tion, an art building, a library building and books, not to 
 mention the necessary increase of its departments and the 
 consequent increase of expenses for instruction. With its 
 revenue so severely taxed, Bryn Mawr must still look to 
 men and women, of one mind with its founder, who share 
 
the conviction expressed by Dr. William H. Draper," That 
 there are many women who, without the aid of systematic 
 training, are unable to develop their natural capacity for 
 literature, science, and art, to some of whom the advan- 
 tage of a college education is of vital importance, and who 
 cannot rest satisfied with any instruction short of the best." 
 In this connection it should be clearly understood that 
 although by the terms of Dr. Taylor's will, the Trustees 
 are to be members of the Society of Friends, and three 
 competitive scholarships are awarded annually to appli- 
 cants for admission who are members of this Society, 
 the devise of Dr. Taylor was, to quote his own language, 
 " for a college or institution of learning having for its object 
 the advanced education of women etc." Bryn Mawr Col- 
 lege is thus devised to the community at large, which has 
 an interest in its advantages, and a right to its benefits. 
 
 The Work to be Done. 
 
 All discussion of the question whether women ought 
 to share equally with men facilities for mental culture 
 in its highest forms is obsolete. The universities of Italy 
 have admitted women for centuries, and their annals are 
 adorned with the names of women illustrious for their 
 learning and virtue. In Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, 
 Norway, and Finland, in Belgium and in France, women 
 have more or less freedom of access to university instruc- 
 tion. The 'universities of Oxford and Cambridge in 
 England, and Harvard in our own country, admit women 
 to special courses of study, accord them examinations 
 similar to those given to their male students, and grant 
 them, not degrees, but certificates of proficiency. But the 
 University of London, — and in the United States, Cornell 
 University, the University of Michigan, and almost all 
 the universities and colleges of the West, permit women 
 
to share their advantages upon equal terms with men ; and 
 the right of women to the highest scholastic education, 
 which ought never to have been questioned, is, therefore, 
 practically conceded. 
 
 If education be, as it has been so often defined, "the 
 equable development of all our faculties by means of use 
 and knowledge," what part should a college take in this 
 development? Certainly it should attempt a specific and 
 well-defined part only. In the late discussions upon this 
 topic, the most prominent points have been the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 1. The limits which a college should assign (a) to its 
 requirements for admission, (b) to the departments it will 
 create, (c) to its graduate instruction. 
 
 2. The relative proportions which the classical lan- 
 guages, the modern languages, and natural science should 
 have in the course of studv. 
 
 3. How to combine sufficient disciplinary study and 
 acquaintance with the principles of recent knowledge 
 with some thoroughness in one or more divisions of it. 
 
 The Requirements for Admission may rightly serve as a 
 test, whereby the applicant may determine whether she 
 should enter college or be content with the training of the 
 preparatory school. They should be so far conformed to 
 the secondary education of the country that capable stu- 
 dents may be able to secure the preliminary training they 
 exact; yet, on the other hand, the college ought not, by 
 the laxity of its entrance examinations, to usurp the place 
 and functions of preparatory schools, and thus supplant 
 instead of fostering them. 
 
 In an article on "Southern Colleges and Schools," in 
 the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1884, Charles Foster 
 Smith has shown the effects upon both the colleges and 
 preparatory schools of low standards of admission to the 
 former. The poverty of the colleges, consequent upon the 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 civil war, induced them to adopt what is termed the 
 "School System/' and to admit students with little prepa- 
 ration. The result was disastrous; the secondary schools 
 were almost destroyed by the competition of the colleges, 
 and the colleges failed to represent the grade of education 
 for which they were established. A professor in one of 
 the oldest colleges in Virginia stated that " The University 
 takes students whom we ought to have; we take boys who 
 should be in our preparatory school ; and it, again, takes 
 infants (so to say) who ought to be taught at home." 
 
 For these reasons, and others which might be urged, it 
 has been deemed necessary to adopt here a standard for 
 admission that shall demand such preliminary drill in the 
 elements of language, mathematics, and science, as shall 
 fit the student for the methods of instruction appropriate 
 to the college class-room, and leave her free to enter upon 
 more advanced studies. 
 
 Happily, experience has already proved that upon our 
 latitude and south of it, there are schools where girls 
 are taught so thoroughly as to be qualified to enter any 
 college. 
 
 Graduate Courses. — In offering instruction to graduates, 
 we have not forgotten that to attempt successfully the work 
 of a university our endowment ought to be multiplied many 
 fold. But we submit that it is not presumption for a col- 
 lege to extend to graduates advanced teaching in the 
 departments it provides for its undergraduates. So far 
 from detracting from the full performance of its duty to 
 the latter, the presence of graduates must tend to elevate 
 the intellectual tone of its students and to impart to them 
 a spirit of earnestness ; and professors, familiar with the 
 latest acquisitions of science, take pleasure in using to the 
 full their stores of information. 
 
 Doctor Taylor desired that "care be taken to educate 
 young women so as to fit them to become teachers of a 
 
11 
 
 high order," and we are persuaded that no better method 
 for carrying out this wish could have been devised than 
 to establish fellowships and to provide graduate courses. 
 Our own search for instructors has made it apparent that, 
 not from lack of ability but for lack of those opportunities 
 for prolonged study which men who become professors so 
 generally regard as a necessity, the number of women 
 qualified for these positions is small. To supply such 
 opportunities to women, a few fellowships have been 
 established. We can only wish that our funds would 
 allow us greatly to increase their number. 
 
 The Curriculum. 
 
 The rapid accessions to modern knowledge make a careful 
 selection of the subjects to be placed in a college curriculum 
 more imperative than at any previous time. It is true (as 
 has been urged) that as facts accumulate, principles are 
 more easily discerned ; and that it is the part of the skil- 
 ful teacher to seize, compress, and impart these elements 
 so as not to burden the student with unnecessary details. 
 Yet the circle of knowledge widens so rapidly that a choice 
 must be made. 
 
 The old, oft-recurring, and of late, sharp discussions as 
 to the place and value of classical learning in a scheme of 
 collegiate study, have left a general conviction, well ex- 
 pressed by President White, that " the teaching of the 
 ancient literatures, and especially of Greek, is still one of 
 the most beautiful instrumentalities in the culture of the 
 human mind."* Greek, moreover, must ever have a special 
 interest, because in it the writings of the New Testament 
 have been providentially enshrined. While, therefore, it 
 has not been made necessary for admission, it has been 
 made a requisite for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. We 
 
 Some Important Questions in Higher Education, 1885, p. 3. 
 
12 
 
 thus keep faith with those older colleges who have been 
 wont to regard a knowledge of Greek as implied in that 
 degree. 
 
 Europe, and, through it, America, have been indelibly 
 impressed in church and state by Roman institutions and 
 law. If Latin is no longer the common medium of inter- 
 course among scholars, it is the mother of three of the 
 great languages of Europe, French, Italian, and Spanish, 
 and is largely incorporated in our own. It enters into 
 scientific terminology, and by its construction affords a 
 model for the study of its derived languages, and should 
 retain a place in any scheme of collegiate education. 
 
 Modern Languages. — But if the advocates of Greek 
 and Latin may justly plead that they deserve attention 
 because their literatures contain the forms and seed- 
 thoughts of so much that is best in our present arts and 
 learning, the languages of Western Europe have at least a 
 more direct claim upon us. Their value in the discipline 
 of the mind and in the study of philology has been called 
 in question ; but Professor Newton quotes from Max 
 Muller the assertion that "before the tribunal of the 
 science of language the difference between ancient and 
 modern languages vanishes.'' Sustained by the example of 
 some of the best universities and colleges of our country, 
 we have not hesitated to place the modern languages upon 
 an equal footing with the ancient in our scheme of studies. 
 
 Among the modern languages, our own English is un- 
 surpassed for force and strength, for copiousness and flexi- 
 bility, and in the hands of such masters as Milton and 
 Shakespeare, Addison, Keats, and Ruskin, it vies with the 
 classic tongues. In its literature, and in the literatures of 
 France and Germany, are to be found the best thoughts 
 and ripest knowledge of all times. 
 
 When we further consider that within a century Eng- 
 lish will probably be spoken by 1,000,000,000 of people, 
 
13 
 
 foremost in civil freedom, in territorial possessions, in the 
 arts which adorn life, in intellectual vigor and in moral 
 height, no apology is needed for giving prominence here 
 to the study of the structure, the history, and the litera- 
 ture of our own tongue. 
 
 As a cognate language, German has been made a re- 
 quired study in the course for graduation. Its disciplinary 
 value approximates closely to that of Greek, and access to 
 its literature has become necessary to the full investigation 
 of any subject. 
 
 Instruction in French is so generally given in schools 
 for girls that it is believed we may require of all students 
 who offer it at entrance, a careful training in its elements, 
 and some acquaintance with its classical authors. Thus 
 the foundation may be laid for an accurate and thorough 
 study of modern French and of those earlier forms of the 
 language which closely connect it with English. 
 
 Success in the use of French (together with Italian 
 and Spanish) as a part of college training, must depend 
 largely upon the excellence of the teaching imparted, but 
 we shall -confidently anticipate the best results from the 
 instruction of so able a scholar and teacher as we expect 
 in a few days to welcome to this country. 
 
 In dwelling so long upon language, it is not forgotten 
 that it is but the frame-work and vehicle of thought, and 
 that a knowledge of things is of yet higher moment. 
 Mathematics will have its wonted place of honor in the 
 course, to impart the relations of number, form and space, 
 and to illustrate the force of irresistible demonstration. 
 
 History. — Perhaps no change in modern collegiate in- 
 struction has been more amply justified than the greater 
 importance given to History and to political and social 
 science. From the beginning of the organization of Bryn 
 Mawr it has been a matter of solicitude that History should 
 be so taught here as to bring into prominence the great 
 
14 
 
 laws which underlie historic movements and events, and 
 to display the moral lessons they afford. 
 
 History gratifies and develops a literary taste, and con- 
 cerns itself with that subject of paramount interest, human 
 life. 
 
 Citizenship in a republic implies the duty of forming 
 judgments upon those serious civil and social problems 
 which daily confront us. The wise regulation of inter- 
 national commerce, the adjustment of the intricacies of 
 finance, the training for citizenship and for safe assimila- 
 tion into our nation of its dark and red races, and of the 
 millions of immigrants who reach our shores, the just ap- 
 portionment of the products of labor between the employers 
 and workers for wages; legislation concerning the pauper- 
 izing liquor traffic; the control of great corporate privileges 
 so that they shall enure to the common weal, are problems 
 for the solution of which the light of history is essential. 
 It is intended, therefore, to assign to the department of 
 History, a position befitting its intrinsic importance and 
 to foster it by all the means at our command. 
 
 Science. — Amongthe many branches of Natural Science, 
 it has been necessary to select those most desirable as pre- 
 sent forms of knowledge, and most likely to be fruitful in 
 the future lives of students. Of these, Chemistry is easily 
 chief. Treating of the atomic and molecular relations of 
 matter, it is the basis of the allied sciences. Physics is 
 closely connected with Chemistry: it deals with the forces 
 which bind and control all matter, so that some knowledge 
 of it is necessary rightly to understand the phenomena of 
 material things. It has an added merit as supplying illus- 
 trations for the application of the processes of mathematics. 
 
 Chemistry and Physics then must be included among 
 the sciences taught in the College course. 
 
 It would seem natural to go on from these to Miner- 
 alogy, as treating of matter in its crystallized and agglo- 
 
15 
 
 merate forms ; to Geology which deals with the still larger 
 masses which constitute the earth's structure, and to As- 
 tronomy which contemplates and penetrates into the solar 
 and stellar systems of the universe. But limited means 
 and the duty to do well rather than to attempt much, 
 compel the postponement of these sciences for the present, 
 until the resources of the College will permit them to be 
 made electives, with adequate time for the prosecution of 
 study in them, and sufficient provision for teaching them 
 thoroughly. Hence passing by these Biology has been 
 chosen in its twofold relation to plant and animal life. 
 Biology investigates the structure and functions of living 
 organisms, imparts a knowledge of our own bodies, leads 
 to an understanding of the laws of health and of disease, 
 and touches upon almost all personal arid social duties. In 
 its higher developments, human physiology is connected 
 with the science of mind, the deeper problems of which 
 require for their elucidation all that Biology can teach as 
 to the functions of the sentient portions of the human 
 frame. 
 
 Moreover, Chemistry, Physics and Biology form a valu- 
 able preparation for the study of medicine, and give more 
 easy access to a profession to which an increasing number 
 of women are devoting themselves with success. 
 
 Philosophy. — The too exclusive direction of modern re- 
 search to the natural sciences, to that which can be seen, 
 handled, measured and weighed, and the great increase of 
 comfort and luxury arising from the practical applications 
 of discoveries in them, has had a tendency to divert atten- 
 tion from metaphysics, and to produce results which would 
 be amusing if they were not pitiful. It has seemed impor- 
 tant, therefore, that Philosophy should have due recogni- 
 tion among the studies of the College. Based no less than 
 the physical sciences upon observed facts, and appealing to 
 consciousness no less confidently than they, Philosophy is 
 
16 
 
 necessary to that balanced culture which takes cognizance 
 of all parts of our nature and fits us for the highest living. 
 If it starts with the elementary facts of sensation and per- 
 ception common to all animals, Philosophy rises to the 
 consideration in man of an order of phenomena which 
 transcend those in inferior beings, for to his actions there 
 is added a moral character. This moral element includes 
 reverence and implies religion, and it is only in religion, 
 and especially in its highest form, Christianity, that the 
 motives and the power of true morality are to be found. 
 
 To fill up then the study of man as a part of nature, to 
 meet the requirements of the trust imposed upon us by the 
 Founder of the College, to care for the most sacred in- 
 terests of life, and to engage the faculties in their noblest 
 use, instruction will be given in Philosophy and in the 
 truths of the Bible. 
 
 It is impossible that students should escape, and perhaps 
 it is not wholly desirable that they should escape, the per- 
 plexing questions which pertain to the relations of reli- 
 gion and science. But with a perfect assurance that all 
 truth is consistent, that faith is as essential to science as to 
 religion, that the revelation which God has made of Him- 
 self in the orderly system of the universe, cannot conflict 
 with the revelation He has made of Himself in the Bible, 
 in the personality of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in every 
 conscience, we shall welcome truth from every quarter 
 and fear no scientific investigation if only it be reverent. 
 
 Goethe has said, " Man is not born to solve the mystery 
 of existence; but he must nevertheless attempt it, in order 
 that he may learn how to keep within the limits of the 
 knowable." * If in "this attempt, crude guesses are some- 
 times offered in the name of science, we shall wait until 
 the vapors of imagination have distilled and gather only 
 the residuum of truth. As in the case of almost all our 
 
 * Lewes' Bibliographical History of Philosophy, p. 1. 
 
17 
 
 institutions of learning, Bryn Mawr was founded in 
 motives of Christian benevolence. Dr. Taylor desired 
 that it should ever maintain and teach an evangelical and 
 primitive Christianity as set forth in the New Testament, 
 and the Trustees will endeavor to carry out this trust in 
 the spirit in which it was imposed. While seeking to up- 
 hold with reverent faithfulness the religion of Christ accord- 
 ing to their own convictions, they will have a sacred regard 
 to the training which students may have received at home 
 and will respect their conscientious beliefs. In addition 
 to attendance on such public worship as they or their 
 parents shall select, there will be household worship in 
 the College, and an annual course of lectures will be given 
 on the Bible and Biblical study. 
 
 Art. — That a system of education should not neglect to 
 develop and guide the sense of the beautiful is admitted. 
 Much is done for this by the graces of thought and expres- 
 sion in poetry and prose, and by observation of the exquisite 
 beauty of natural forms. But how far attention can usually 
 be given in a college to art, as expressed in form, color, 
 and sound, is debatable. It is scarcely compatible with 
 the scheme of a college to compete with the schools of art 
 established in our large cities, and to endeavor to give a 
 technical education in drawing, painting, and sculpture. 
 But inasmuch as facility in drawing is very useful in 
 scientific study and in daily life, while it trains the powers 
 of observation and the use of the hand, it will be taught 
 in its more simple forms. It is intended, also, that lec- 
 tures upon the history and principles of art, properly illus- 
 trated, shall be given to the more advanced students. The 
 demand upon the time and strength of students made by 
 the teaching of music, and the certainty that proficiency in 
 the practice of it can be gained only at the expense of 
 thoroughness in studies of pressing importance, have suf- 
 ficed to exclude it from our course. 
 
18 
 
 Health. — Four years of college study is a tax upon the 
 bodily strength. It means hard work. Dark pictures 
 have been drawn by writers on both sides of the Atlantic 
 of the evils to the health of women and girls from over- 
 work at school and college. None of these equal the facts 
 reported by the President of Amherst College, in 1859, 
 as to the injury and loss of life at that institution from 
 excessive study before physical culture was introduced 
 there. But, thanks to the recent report of the Associa- 
 tion of Collegiate Alumnae upon the health of women that 
 have been graduated in American Colleges, we have, for 
 the first time, reliable statistics upon this subject. Their 
 very careful investigation warrants the conclusion that, 
 " a college education does not, in itself, necessarily entail 
 a loss of health, or curtailment of the vital forces ; and 
 the deterioration of health noticed on the part of some 
 graduates is due to constitutional causes natural to such 
 graduates themselves, and for which college life or study 
 should not be responsible. These graduates do not seem 
 to show, as the result of their college studies, any marked 
 differences in general health from the average health 
 likely to be reported by an equal number of women en- 
 gaged in other kinds of work, or, in fact, of women 
 generally without regard to occupation followed."* But, 
 we are not content with this. Students at college should 
 have better health than elsewhere, j ust as they have better 
 mental training. This we propose to ensure by carefully 
 limiting the hours spent in the class-room, by instruction 
 in hygiene, by the supervision of an accomplished phy- 
 sician, by outdoor sports, by the best sanitary conditions, 
 by cheerfulness and joyousness, and finally, by the use of 
 our excellent gymnasium. 
 
 Electives. — In order to meet the demand for elective 
 
 * Boston Journal, Supplement, August 29, 1855. 
 
19 
 
 studies which is founded in natural aptitudes, and to pro- 
 mote thoroughness in one or more branches of learning, 
 we have adopted the Group system, which will be„pres- 
 ently explained to you by the honored President of the 
 Johns Hopkins University, who devised it, and who has 
 proved its excellence by successful use. 
 
 To the Faculty. 
 
 Members of the Faculty, it is not by chance that we 
 find ourselves charged with the duty of more immediately 
 conducting the affairs of this College. You have been 
 chosen with full confidence in your ability, your learning, 
 your aptness to teach, and in your high personal fitness 
 for the task, before us. I give you joy of your position 
 and your calling. Much of our service will be delightful, 
 but it will call for unity, for cooperation, for mutual con- 
 sideration, for a magnanimous regard not for the pros- 
 perity of one department only, but for the whole process 
 of character-building here, so that the finished result may 
 be the best possible. In the hours of sunshine and pros- 
 perity it is easy to be cheerful, content, and gracious. It 
 is in those other hours, of perplexity, of rough contact 
 with the barriers which limit all human endeavor, that 
 we shall have occasion for the exercise of the virtues which 
 make possible united effort. With whatever care we may 
 test the preparation of students, there will be much dif- 
 ference among them as to their fitness for the studies upon 
 which they enter, and a wise adaptation of methods to the 
 wants of each class will be most desirable. The part of 
 the teacher is threefold — to enable the student to under- 
 stand and grasp a given subject, to test the precision of 
 the knowledge he has gained and his faithfulness in work, 
 and to impart in one lesson and in better form, or with 
 fresher illustrations, what the student could only find 
 
20 
 
 scattered through many books. I confidently believe that 
 these features will characterize the teaching given in the 
 College. 
 
 To the Students. 
 
 We welcome you to your new home and new duties in 
 the name of all the friends of the College, and in his 
 behalf who, though gone from our sight, is still among 
 those of whom Young wrote : " They live, they greatly 
 live." It is not we and you, for the College is one in in- 
 terests, aims, and mutual regard. In the long future of 
 this Institution much will depend upon the impress it 
 receives in these, its early years. That those who follow 
 you will look back and find from your example nothing 
 but an inspiration towards what is wise, best, and noble 
 in young Christian womanhood, I feel assured. 
 
 The civilization of our nation is unequal. It has great 
 weakness as well as great strength. Science, art, cultivated 
 intelligence, with all the outward elegancies of life, will 
 not save our beloved country from threatened moral and 
 social failure Nothing will do this but Christian homes 
 where reigns the harmony which is found in the good and 
 perfect will of God. That you may adorn such homes is 
 the highest aim of Bryn Mawr. 
 
21 
 
 ADDRESS BY DANIEL C. GILMAN, PRESIDENT 
 OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 The occasion upon which we are assembled indicates 
 the remarkable progress of modern culture. If all that 
 is involved in this foundation be considered, its endow- 
 ment, its plans, its aspirations, its staff, its abhorrence of 
 all that is false and low, its adherence to all that is good 
 and true, who can question that American education 
 makes to-day a forward step ? A munificent gift is here 
 set apart to provide for young women intellectual oppor- 
 tunities, as varied, as inviting, and as complete as those 
 which are offered to young men in the best American col- 
 leges. In this region, at least, it can never again be said 
 with respect to the light of knowledge that 
 
 If the glory reached the nnn, 
 'Twas through an iron grate, 
 
 for this edifice has many windows and portals open to the 
 sun. Never, with perhaps a single exception, has so large 
 a gift, from a single person, been consecrated to the in- 
 tellectual advancement of women. Bryn Mawr College 
 indeed succeeds to the experience of numerous seminaries, 
 but its scope is wider than would have been thought pos- 
 sible a very few years ago ; it follows other noble founda- 
 tions, Vassar, Smith, Sage, and Wellesley, that harmonious 
 quartette, — but it is not inferior in promise to any of its 
 elder sisters ; it is in close correspondence with Girton, 
 Newnham, Lady Margaret, and Mary Somerville Halls 
 in England, but it does not stand as they do in juxtaposi- 
 tion to the traditions or prejudices of antecedent centuries ; 
 
22 
 
 it is not an annex, nor a department, nor an affiliated 
 branch of some other institution, " the vine clinging to 
 the oak;" it is not an exponent of co-education nor the 
 supplicant for woman's rights ; it places no dependence 
 on alliances defensive or offensive; — but it stands modestly, 
 firmly, hopefully by itself, asking no favors, offering no 
 excuses, demanding no recognition but that which is 
 earned ; it simply is and is to be. But as this country 
 leads in the education of women, so this College which we 
 inaugurate to-day is likely to be a leader among kindreol 
 establishments, the wide world over. It is therefore a 
 day for congratulations ; and in the name of this con- 
 course of parents, pupils, and friends, I congratulate Mr. 
 King, whose absence on this day we ail deplore, and you 
 his colleagues in this trust ; you, Dr. Rhoads, and your 
 learned associates ; and you, Miss Thomas, the very honor- 
 able, if not " the Very Reverend " Dean of this College, 
 who, in the face of many difficulties, have pursued long 
 courses of study, with great success, seeking in other lands 
 that which you could not obtain at home, and are now 
 surrounded by a staff of accomplished teachers, men and 
 women, able and eager to advance the work to which your 
 life is consecrated. It is also the time for the calm and 
 grateful remembrance of that noble man with benignant 
 face, generous hand, gentle nature, and enlightened mind, 
 too soon called hence, who formed the plan, who chose 
 this site, marked out its uses, projected these walls, named 
 these trustees, and gave the funds which have made the 
 Bryn Mawr College a reality. He gave everything which 
 he had except his name. That alone, with true modesty 
 he withheld. Let us hope that like the "nameless column 
 with a buried base,' 7 still standing in the Roman forum, 
 when palaces and temples have fallen to decay, — so this 
 foundation will endure from age to age. 
 
 This is an hour not only for congratulations and for 
 
23 
 
 thanks, but also for serious reflections, with which come 
 anxieties and the sense of grave responsibilities. Dean 
 Stanley, in a brief address which he made in Baltimore 
 not long before he died, reminded his hearers that this 
 country is passing through an epoch of foundations simi- 
 lar to that in which may be discovered the origins of 
 Oxford, when a generous woman, Devorguila, gave great 
 gifts for the education of young men, — the benefits of 
 which Stanley himself had shared. It seems sometimes 
 as if each new institution suggested another, and as if each 
 new offspring inherited the antecedents of its immediate 
 progenitors. Hence if is most important at the beginning 
 of an institution to recur to the general principles which 
 should guide those who look after its material concerns 
 and those who direct its intellectual progress. Both Boards 
 will soon find out how readily methods become usages ; 
 usages, precedents ; precedents, obligations ; obligations, 
 laws ; laws, fetters ; each good in its place, — fetters best 
 of all in some of the emergencies of life, when the storm 
 beats high and the cyclone is tearing the roof or driving 
 the bark ; or to change the figure, when the madman 
 brandishes his knife or the mob cries for plunder, — but 
 fetters w T orst of all when they retard the motions of a 
 healthy athlete, a person, a college or a state, the embodi- 
 ment of a living and fruitful idea. Indeed the dangers 
 of foundations are so great that some philosophers have 
 placed themselves in direct antagonism to endowments. 
 There is a famous article by Turgot, in the French En- 
 cyclopSdie, which is designed, as the writer tells us, to 
 show the inconveniences of foundations in the hope of pre- 
 venting new endowments and of destroying respect for the 
 old. A founder, he says in effect, is a man who would 
 like to make his own will eternal — qui veut etemiser Veffet 
 de ses volontes. But I am sure that this remark is made 
 without adequate discrimination ; and a little reflection 
 
24 
 
 will enable us to see the truth and the falsity of this 
 writer's position. 
 
 Two modes of procedure are open to founders. They 
 may fasten upon the future ideas which seem good in the 
 present, by decreeing conditions, regulations, tenets and 
 creeds, of a very minute character, and they may make it 
 very difficult for their representatives, under circumstances 
 wholly changed, to carry out the original purpose ; or they 
 may express a desire to promote the good of their fellow 
 men, indicating the general purpose and providing the 
 requisite funds, leaving it to those who come afterwards to 
 determine from time to time such modes of operation and 
 regulation as shall then seem best. These opposite methods 
 may be characterized by two short words — Building and 
 Planting. 
 
 Founders who build, mould the plastic clay into brick, 
 bind it by cement which grows harder than stone, and 
 thus erect structures which may be very enduring, but are 
 apt to be ill-adapted to the wants of future generations ; 
 a Birs Nimroud, a pyramid, a colosseum, a cathedral of 
 Cologne may be enduring and yet not adapted to the wants 
 of modern society. Founders who plant, place their seeds 
 in the ground, dig, enrich, train, prune, and reap the 
 fruits as soon as they can ; but they take care that the 
 best kernels of corn, the best tubers, the best slips shall be 
 saved, and used for the bringing forth of new products in 
 subsequent seasons. I can readily believe that the Society 
 of Friends inclines to the idea of planting rather than to 
 the idea of building institutions ; they proceed with such 
 wise regard to the principles of growth, that they should 
 keep on planting until the country is supplied with hos- 
 pitals and colleges. 
 
 But, even in selecting the seed which is to be planted, 
 there are dangers to be guarded against. In beginning a 
 college, it will not do to follow implicitly any scheme 
 
25 
 
 which has been projected — not that which Diderot drew 
 up for the Empress of Russia, nor the recommendations 
 which were made by Wilhelm von Humboldt in Berlin, 
 nor the letters of 'Cardinal Newman with reference to Irish 
 education, nor the elaborate plans drawn up by Francis 
 Lieber for the government of Girard College. From all 
 these sources, and from many like them, good hints can 
 be derived, but, in the garden that is here to be planted, 
 the seeds must be carefully chosen, not taken in aggregate 
 masses. There is danger in the plausible and attractive 
 idea that every new institution should have all the pos- 
 sessions of those thaf are older, and, of course, that 
 colleges for young women should have all that is found in 
 colleges for young men ; but let me beg the authorities 
 at Bryn Mawr to remember that many of our tradi- 
 tional ideas of college life were developed in the times 
 of ignorance, superstition and poverty ; they can be traced 
 directly to monastic and conventual life ; they live by the 
 force of institutional heredity ; wherefore, every new col- 
 lege should eliminate what is useless, and save only what 
 is found to be of value now. 
 
 This brings me, respected friends, to the particular 
 theme which I have been requested to present to you, 
 the reconciliation of liberty and authority, of freedom 
 and law, of eclectic courses and a prescribed curriculum. 
 The fundamental question, involved in these phrases, takes 
 as many forms as there are colleges. It has been of late 
 under wide discussion, not because the world has just thought 
 of it, but because there has been such an increase of wealth, 
 such an advancement of science, that there are new sup- 
 plies and new demands, new possibilities and new expec- 
 tations. So it comes to pass that, when a progressive 
 speech is made at Cambridge, all the conservative elements 
 in education are on the alert to detect the errors in the 
 orator's logic and to oppose his conclusions ; so it happens 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 that, when Mr. Palmer invites President Eliot and Dr. 
 McCosh to a combat of arms before the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury Club, each feels that he has a foeman worthy of his 
 steel, and all the city papers teem with reports, as they do 
 when the Puritan is racing with the Genesta. 
 
 This dispute is often introduced by the question, whether 
 Greek is essential to a Baccalaureate degree ? I confess, 
 that, of all the forms of beginning the debate, this seems 
 to me the most unsatisfactory. We dwell in a land, where 
 there are twenty forms of giving the Baccalaureate degree ; 
 where college charters can be had for the asking ; where 
 colleges bestow degrees without university superintendence 
 and examination ; where each institution is a law to itself, 
 so that the diploma of a Bachelor, like a note of hand, is 
 of no sort of value until you know when, where and how 
 it was uttered. Why, then, ask if Greek is essential to a 
 Baccalaureate degree ? Why not ask what constitutes a 
 liberal education ? whether all minds require the same 
 training? whether high intellectual forces can be developed 
 by very different agencies? whether colleges, which are 
 well endowed, should provide only one sort of training, or 
 should offer many ? whether good work is not deserving 
 of recognition in all branches of study ? whether it is not 
 desirable that all who seek to fit themselves for an intel- 
 lectual life, should do so under the most liberalizing cir- 
 cumstances ? These forms of discussion seem, to me, much 
 more profitable. 
 
 We need not go far back in the history of education, to 
 discover that, when Greek came in as a subject for college 
 study, it met with direct opposition ; when modern science 
 was introduced, it came as an intruder ; so that it is not 
 strange that modern languages and literature should now 
 be the studies most demanded, and, at the same time, those 
 whose encroachments are most jealously resisted. I am 
 always reminded of the quandary of an irresistible force 
 
27 
 
 impelled upon an impenetrable surface. No one can tell 
 what will happen. 
 
 The authorities of Bryn Mawr have employed in their 
 announcements a term which seems to me uncommonly 
 felicitous. You have heard it already, the Group System. 
 It is a timely product of educational nomenclature, likely, 
 I think, to lead a long and useful life. But good society 
 looks a little askance upon it ; its pedigree, its belongings, 
 its properties, are not quite understood, and I am sure that 
 Dr. Rhoads and the Dean, and the other officers will 
 often be called upon to say what is meant by this new 
 phrase. Only a few days ago, while considering, on the 
 Island of Mt. Desert, what I should say at this time, I 
 was asked by a writer, well-known for what he has 
 done to promote the education of women, if I could tell 
 him what the Bryn Mawr people meant by the Group 
 system of studies ; " I rather think I can," was my 
 answer. So now, to make sure, let me tell you what I sup- 
 pose to be the underlying idea. 
 
 Avoiding the doctrine that there is but one curriculum 
 for a college education, and the doctrine that there should 
 be no curriculum whatever — the Group system presents the 
 idea of several courses or groups of studies, each of which 
 has distinctive characteristics, and one of which must be 
 taken as a binding choice by every candidate for acade- 
 mic honors. The student may elect which group he pre- 
 fers, but the constituents of that group have been prede- 
 termined by the authorities, and are not to be fitfully 
 modified. Everybody will admit that the principles well 
 formulated a few years ago by one of the educational com- 
 missions of the British Government are adapted to modern 
 times ; that a liberal education in our day calls for in- 
 struction in language and literature, in mathematics and 
 the natural sciences, in history and philosophy, and that 
 
28 
 
 the proportions of these elements may be endlessly modi- 
 fied. 
 
 Every house must have floors, walls, and roof; but the 
 relations of size may be infinitely varied, and should be 
 adapted to the wants of the occupants. So far as mental 
 discipline or intellectual training is concerned, it may be 
 secured by any one of fifty combinations which can be 
 suggested. How many men of judgment, wisdom, and 
 even learning we can name who never received a Bacca- 
 laureate degree; discoverers, statesmen, warriors, poets. 
 This does not indicate that their mental training had been 
 neglected, but that it was obtained in some unconventional 
 way, by some individual process, by some adaptation to 
 personal surroundings. Think of Shakespeare, and Fara- 
 day, or of our countrymen, Franklin, Lincoln, Whittier ; 
 will anyone dare to say that they would have been better 
 for following a prescribed curriculum ? Will any one 
 say they were not educated ? Will any one say how un- 
 fortunate that they did not receive a Baccalaureate 
 diploma, for which a knowledge of Greek was requisite ? 
 
 Why, then, do you, and I, and so many more, cling to 
 the classical course so tightly ? Why do we wish to see it 
 perpetuated ? Because among the most civilized nations of 
 Christendom, ever since the revival of learning, a classical 
 training has been found the most convenient, successful, 
 and fruitful discipline which can be offered in schools and 
 colleges to average minds ; because it has the prestige of 
 experience, of ascertained methods, of positive results ; 
 because its influence is so powerful in developing talent, in 
 awakening a love of letters, and in fitting men to reason 
 upon the ever recurring questions of conduct and charac- 
 ter : because the Humanities are the guides to Humanity. 
 But there are many lives so predetermined by the influ- 
 ences of hereditary character, the necessities of actual life, 
 the infelicities of early education, or the noble and irre- 
 
29 
 
 sistible impulses of independent natures, that they will not 
 be governed by an enforced schedule. It is fortunate for 
 society that this is so ; fortunate that individuality will 
 assert itself against conventionality and prescription. 
 Shall such minds get all their training away from the 
 schools ? Because they turn away from the classics, shall 
 they not learn the sciences ; because they have not the 
 power to soar with the eaglets in the mathematical firma- 
 ment, may they not be trained to turn their microscopic 
 vision upon the phenomena of life and explore the mys- 
 terious beds of the ocean? Because they do not love 
 antiquity, shall they hot be allowed to enter upon the 
 problems of modern political science ? If the probabili- 
 ties are that they will need the accurate knowledge of 
 French and German, shall they be forced to postpone the 
 acquisition of these tongues until their college course is 
 ended? 
 
 Now the Group system, as it is called in Bryn Mawr, 
 enables the scholar who desires the original, old fashioned, 
 highly recommended college course of studies, to follow 
 it in company of those who, like himself, believe in it and 
 love it. But on the other hand, another group of studies 
 based upon science, or upon history, or upon modern 
 languages and literature may be chosen by the student 
 who does not prefer the old curriculum. Thus it is obvi- 
 ous that the advantages of an elective course are secured 
 by giving to every scholar his choice among several care- 
 fully considered plans of study ; and at the same time the 
 advantages of enforced or prescribed courses are secured 
 by appointing beforehand the order, the sequence, the 
 methods to be followed in each of the proposed groups. 
 It is my firm belief that when the advantages of this 
 mode of proceeding are fully understood, they will be 
 employed in all large colleges. The only obstacle to 
 their introduction is their costliness. It requires a great 
 
30 
 
 many teachers to provide for all the wants of all the at- 
 tendants upon these groups. If any one doubts this, let 
 him endeavor to construct a time-table in which the 
 appointments shall not clash. But like other costly pos- 
 sessions it is of value when it is secured. Bryn Mawr 
 College is most fortunate, as it seems to me, in beginning 
 with a recognition of this principle. It may claim, I 
 think, the authorship of the term, Group system. The 
 idea is not new; it has been tested elsewhere with success; 
 but the happy thought which suggested the name is clue, 
 I think, to some one now within reach of my voice. 
 
 So far as a college is concerned, the question of the con- 
 flict of studies seems to me to be solved by this arrange- 
 ment of groups for the wants of different scholars ; but, for 
 the individual, the difficulty still remains what group shall 
 be chosen, what plan of study is best adapted to a given 
 mind ? This question can only be determined by personal 
 diagnosis. 
 
 It is curious to look back, and see how perpetually some 
 educational problems recur in the progress of society. The 
 student of Aristotle knows very well that in his day this 
 perplexing question of the adjustment of liberal and prac- 
 tical studies was as important as it is in the nineteenth 
 century. Then as now the relative importance of general 
 culture and professional skill was a vital problem. Our 
 life, he tells us in his Politics, is divided into business and 
 leisure. Proceeding from this principle, he goes on to say, 
 in words whose lofty sentiment has been thus freely trans- 
 lated by a living scholar ; * " the endeavor of nature her- 
 self is that men may be able not only to engage in business 
 rightly but also to spend their leisure nobly." What ad- 
 mirable phrases ; what better note for Bryn Mawr College 
 and its Group system of studies, than these words of the 
 
 * J. E. C. Welldon. 
 
3i 
 
 ancient philosopher, " the right conduct of business and 
 the noble employment of leisure." 
 
 Euskin has made us familiar with the lamps of Archi- 
 tecture. May we not say that there are lamps for the 
 service of Learning as well as for the house of Worship ; 
 lamps for the college, as well as lamps for the Church ? 
 I sometimes think upon them in this way. 
 
 The first I would call the Lamp of Curiosity, — earliest 
 of all to be lighted, — the love of seeking, questioning, 
 hunting, finding, which is shown in the sports of the 
 nursery and the games of the parlor. The single teacher 
 who values this lamp and teaches his pupils to use it always, 
 does more for his scholars than a college or university 
 which fills the mind with an undigested cyclopaedia of 
 facts. 
 
 The second lamp is Memory. The oil which feeds it 
 may give out smoke and smell, or it may burn with a light 
 as pure and clear as if it were electric. As curiosity burns 
 dimly, memory burns brightly. It should therefore be 
 most carefully watched that no bad material and no de- 
 fective wicks may affect its brightness. 
 
 The next is Comparison. By the light of this lamp we 
 set in order what we have gathered by curiosity and stored 
 by memory. We arrange our knowledge in orders and 
 species, in tables and schedules, in principles and ex- 
 amples. 
 
 The fourth lamp is Judgment, which enables us to 
 weigh and measure that which has been sought, garnered, 
 and set in order. Few children can employ this light ; 
 they who employ it are the wise. " The single virtue of 
 practical wisdom implies the presence of all the moral 
 virtues," — so Aristotle tells us. 
 
 The lamp of Utility is the fifth of these luminaries. 
 By its light we turn our acquisitions and our opinions, 
 our facts and our conclusions, to the good of our fellow- 
 
32 
 
 men. As curiosity brings us to the temple of knowledge, 
 usefulness lights us forth, — bidding us go abroad and apply 
 to the welfare of others the lessons we have acquired. 
 
 Reverence hangs next in this series of lamps, — reverence 
 for the moral government into which human nature is 
 born, — reverence for all that is revealed of the Divine and 
 Eternal, — reverence for the mysteries which eye has not 
 pierced, — reverence for the certainties w T hich are soon to 
 be so clear. 
 
 The college, be it old or new, great or small, for men or 
 for women, which leads its pupils to seek out, to hold fast, 
 to set in order, to weigh well, and with a reverent acknowl- 
 edgment of the divine mysteries, to turn to good uses the 
 lessons of nature, of history, of art, of poetry, of philosophy 
 and of Christianity, will be sure to prepare its disciples 
 for " the right conduct of business and the noble employ- 
 ment of leisure.' ' 
 
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any 
 University of California Library 
 or to the 
 
 NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station 
 University of California 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 2-month loans may be renewed by calling 
 
 (415)642-6233 
 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books 
 
 to NRLF 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days 
 
 prior to due date 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 DUE NRLF NOV 16 1986 
 
 SENT ON ILL 
 
 JAN 3 1998 
 
 U.C. BERKELEY