the most ancient civilization;
to China, which was old when Greece and Rome were young. The
famous French Jesuit missionary, Abbe Huc, mentions one of the
most tragical facts recorded--that there is in China a class of
women who hold that if they are only true to certain bonds during
this life, they shall, as a reward, change their form after death
and return to earth as men. This distinguished traveler also says
that he was one day talking with a certain Master Ting, a very
shrewd Chinaman, whom he was endeavoring to convert. "But," said
Ting, "what is the special object of your preaching
Christianity?" "Why, to convert you, and save your soul," said
the Abbe. "Well, then, why do you try to convert the women?"
asked Master Ting. "To save their souls," said the missionary.
"But women have no souls," said Master Ting; "you can't expect to
make Christians of women,"--and he was so delighted with the idea
that he went out shouting, "Hi! hi! now I shall go home and tell
my wife she has a soul, and I guess she will laugh as loudly as I
do!"

Such were the three old civilizations. Do you think we can
disembarrass ourselves of history? Our civilization grows upon
roots that spring from the remotest past; and our life, proud as
we are of it, is bound up with that of Greece and Rome. Do you
think the spirit of our society is wholly different? Let us see.
It was my good fortune, only a few weeks ago, to be invited to
address the students of Vassar College at Poughkeepsie; which
you will remember is devoted exclusively to the higher education
of women. As I stood in those ample halls, and thought of that
studious household, of the observatory and its occupants, it
seemed to me that, like the German naturalist, who, wandering in
the valley of the Amazon, came suddenly upon the _Victoria
Regia_, so there, in the valley of the Hudson, I had come upon
one of the finest flowers of our civilization. But in the midst
of my enthusiasm I was told by the President that this was the
first fully endowed college for women in the world; and from that
moment I was alarmed. From behind every door, every tree, I
expected to see good Master Ting springing out with his "Hi! hi!
you laugh at us Chinese barbarians; you call yourselves in
America the head of civilizatio