of common studies is adapted for man's work and programme of
life. It has been made to fit woman's professional work, but the fit is
not perfect. It has a marked unfitness in its adaptation for women to
the real end of higher education, or university education, which is the
perfecting of the individual mind, according to its kind, in
surroundings favourable to its complete development.

Atmosphere is a most important element at all periods of education, and
in the education of girls all-important, and an atmosphere for the
higher education of girls has not yet been created in the universities.
The girl students are few, their position is not unassailable, their
aims not very well defined, and the thing which is above all required
for the intellectual development of girls--quiet of mind--is not assured.
It is obvious that there can never be great tradition and a past to look
back to, unless there is a present, and a beginning, and a long period
of growth. But everything for the future consists in having a noble
beginning, however lowly, true foundations and clear aims, and this we
have not yet secured. It seems almost as if we had begun at the wrong
end, that the foundations of character were not made strong enough,
before the intellectual superstructure began to be raised--and that this
gives the sense of insecurity. An unusual strength of character would be
required to lead the way in living worthily under such difficult
circumstances as have been created, a great self-restraint to walk
without swerving or losing the track, without the controlling machinery
of university rules and traditions, without experience, at the most
adventurous age of life, and except in preparation for professional work
without the steadying power of definite duties and obligations. A few
could do it, but not many, and those chosen few would have found their
way in any case. The past bears witness to this.

But the past as a whole bears other testimony which is worth considering
here. Through every vicissitude of women's education there have always
been the few who were exceptional in mental and moral strength, and they
have held on their way, and achieved a great deal, and left behind them
names deserving of honour. Such were Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who was
invited by the Pope and the university to lecture in mathematics at
Bologna (and declined the invitation to give herself to the service of
the poor), and Lucretia Helena Gomaro Piscopia, who