meant them to be; in which, secondly, home life and school
life come together, and correct each other; in which, thirdly,
comfortable and comely arrangements throughout minister to
self-respect. But the moment you rise as high as a college, nature is
violated. First, boys go off by themselves to their own destruction;
secondly, home influences withdrawn; and, thirdly,--at Harvard, which
the only college I ever visited,--the thorough comeliness which is
found in the lower grades of schools does not appeal. The separation
of boys and girls in school is a subject which has much talked about,
but has not yet come to its adequate discussion. But the achievements
of the past are the surest guaranties of the future. When we remember
that, sixty years ago, the lowest district public schools were open to
boys only, and that since that time girls have flocked into every grade
of school below a college, it is difficult to believe that college
doors will forever stand closed to them. _I_ believe that the time
will come when any system framed for boys alone or for girls alone will
be looked upon in the same light in which we now regard a monastery or
a nunnery. Precisely the same course will not be prescribed to both
sexes, but they will be associated in their education to the
inestimable advantage of both.

This, however, I do not purpose now to discuss further. Neither shall I
speak of the second deficiency,--that of home influences,--any further
than it is connected with the third, namely, a culpable neglect of
circumstances which minister directly to character. I design to speak
only of those evils which lie on the surface, patent to the most casual
observer, and which may be removed without any change in the structure
of society. And among the first of these I reckon the mean and meagre
homes provided for the college students. If the State were poor, if
the question were between mere rude shelter and no college education,
we should do well to choose the former, and our choice would be our
glory. It would be worthwhile even to live in such a house as Thoreau
suggests, a tool-box with a few augur-holes bored in it to admit air,
and a hook to hook down the lid at night. But we are not poor.
Society has money enough to do everything it wishes to do; and it has
provided no better homes for its young men because it has not come to
the point of believing that better homes are necessary. Sometimes it
affects to maintain th