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OPENING ADDRESS. 
101 
the nation were available for study, under the guidance of competent 
osersons, without reference to honors, and without formal and prolonged 
surricula, very many well qualified scholars—some who have graduated 
and some who have never been in college ; men and women ; foreigners 
and Americans ; some in early and some in later life—would there be 
gathered, and would be aided, taught, inspired by the opportunities and 
nfluences thrown open to them, in an amplitude worthy of the national 
sapital. 
The last word has not been said in respect to the higher education of 
yomen. ‘Three views are prevalent. At one extreme are those who 
would not open the doors of any high school on the same terms to men 
and women. They believe that the sexes can be taught in a better way 
in separate institutions. They believe that, through a series of influences 
extending over many centuries, women in civilized countries—certainly in 
sircles where refinement, education, and religion are prevalent—have been 
protected from the harsher and rougher influences of the world, and have 
oeen relieved from burdens which their fathers, brothers, husbands, and 
sons have been, as a rule, most willing to bear. To those who dwell upon 
-his aspect of the question, absolute coeducation seems to be a retrograde 
step. It may, however, be conceded that ere long, perhaps hencefor- 
ward, women are to have equal advantages with men in the pursuit of 
advanced education ; and it is certainly demonstrated that their powers 
of acquiring knowledge are equal to those of men. 
At the opposite extreme are those who claim that women will equal 
men, if they have an opportunity, in the professions of law, medicine, 
and theology, and in scientific and literary pursuits ; that many are now 
prepared for and eager for university opportunities ; and that it would be 
a waste of force, even if it were practicable at the moment, to duplicate 
such foundations as are open to men. To those who hold these opinions, 
coeducation seems essential. 
Between these extremes another view is held. The intermediates would 
open to both sexes the advantages of university instruction, but would 
do so under such arrangements as will secure to women the supervision 
and counsel of women, as to men the supervision and counsel of men. 
The experience acquired in the colleges for women associated with the uni- 
versities of Cambridge and Oxford, and in our own country the remark- 
able success which has attended what is called the Annex of Harvard 
University, indicate to many the solution of the problem, unless, indeed, 
around such a foundation as Bryn Mawr or another woman’s college the 
aot impossible nor undesirable university for women should be developed. 
in comparison with the subjects already named, it may seem that the 
question of residence in a university is of very slight importance ; but is 
shis true in places where the education of youth, the development of char- 
acter. and the formation of moral, mental, and social habits are deemed