Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-05-17
WASHINGTON CITY:

At meeting of the American Social Science
Association in Boston on Thursday last a paper
on the higher education of woman read by Col.
T. w. Higginson was the occasion for quite an
exciting discussion. Col. HIgginsOn argued
that the question of sex is out of place in the
question of education; that women are as physi-
cally able as men to pursue advanced courses of
study; and that woman, like man, should be
trained by opening the whole field of knowledge
to her and bidding her enter. Prof. Agassiz,
Wendell Phillips, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs.
Ednah ID. Cheney, and Mrs. Liyermore, all con-
CURED with Col. Higginson, but Prof. Agassiz
thought that while there should be no discrimi-
nation between the sexes in the matter of study.
women need a different diet on account of the
difference in the physical organization of the
sexes President Raymond of Vassar (femalel
College, thought that the question as to whether
exactly the same education was suited to both
sexes was as yet an unsettled one, but certainly
women ought to have as high an education as
men. Thus far all had gone on tremendously,
when President Eliot, Of Harvard College,
brought a storm of wrath down upon his devoted
head by the expression of his views on the sub
ject. He said he had visited some thirty west
ern colleges which admit both sexes, and had
arrived At a conclusion diametrically opposite
to that of Col. Higginson. Oberlin college had
tutions, but the experience there was adverse
to the plan, because that college began with the
same course of study for both sexes, and now
had separate courses. He believed that the
minds Of women were as different from those of
men as their bodies, and he should not be will
ing to take the responsibility of admitting
female students to Harvard. Wendell Phillips
was filed with surprise and Indignation that
the President of old Harvard, an institution
owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,,
should dare give utterance to such opinions IL
only five women in the state should want o
enter Harvard during the next twenty years,
the doors ought to be opened for them. Had he
a daughter whs wanted TO go to Harvard, he
shouid carry the subject 70 the supreme seurt,
az he supposed there was an hone~. one in the
sseBnt u was reserved for the women to polish
- the indisefeet president of Harvard. The
metaphysical Julia Ward Howe next took the
sand, and 1t was seen at once from the flashing
o. her eye that she meant business. " Let me
say che said, |" that am neglectng some i'm
psrative business in staying here. But the rea-
son rust stand here is that an encounter of
the adversary of human kind is not to be de-
clined on account of business elsewhere Now
the enemy Of human kind / take to be the yery
personal and intolerant will which to-day has
had full time and courage to present itself here
before Us. 1 wish to say that men who are
to have responsibility must be able to
learn. If, like the Bourbons, they can
neither learn anything nor forget anything,
they must give place to a wiser dynasty"
Refe ming to President Eliot's allusion to the
danger of large numbers of girls being thrown
together away from home, she said: al know
there are dark things in that college (Harvard)
which are not to be spoken of, which would be
scared away like Nightmares and dreams, if
women were there" 80 hearts of women, aid
met" was the pathetic invocation with which
Mrs Howe closed her address. Finding il was
getting too hot for him, President Eliot retired,
without waiting to hear from Mrs. Liyermore, |
who was eager for the fray.