The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-05-08
An ImaeinarY Line.

Young women are now admitted to
University lectures at Cambridge in
England at the same time with the
Young men. The girls come from a col
lege devoted to their sex, two miles out
OF the city, and their presence in the
/ lecture-rOOmS is said not to have been
made public by the newspapers. Atthe
same time, the students Of both sexes in
the London University are beginning
/ to attend lectures together For a long
time the professors delivered their lee
lures first to the men and then to the
women, but finally they began to see
the absurdity of doubling their labor to
uphold an ancient superstition, and one
after another got leave, upon the plea of
"indisposition, !" to address both sexes at
Ionce. No serious injury to the British
| Constitution has springfield
Republican.
Last week, at Harvard College, at
tended certain lectures and recitations
/ i'm tTTuiversity Halr'-On History, Eng
Iish Literature, Rhetoric and other mat
ters. In each case the pupils or audi
tors were young men only; in NO case
was the room more than half full; in no
case was there any obvious reason why
an equal number of young women
should not be admitted. 1t would tend
to promote good manners among young
men; it would save the great amount of
money which it costs TO duplicate lee
| ture-rOoms aud professors for separate
colleges. There would seem TO be every
obvious argument in favor of 1t; none
against it.
''What a strange proposition" says
/ Dryasdust, who graduated at Harvard
| College in 1SOO-Or should have done so,
since there is no evidence that he has
opened his eyes since that date. "How
awkward it would be for the young
women! How unnatural and disturb
| ing an influence for the young men
] Never, never will consent to such an
] innovation ~
Innovationi Ny dear Dryasdust, come
with me a few steps through the yard.
Open the door of ''BOylstOn Hail." and
YOU will find in full operation, under the
same University auspices, the precise
system which you reckon so perilOus
and so impossible. Here, in Mr. c. G.
Perkins lecture-rOOm, is assembled an
audience quite as attentive as the other
audiences, quite as wide-awake, taking
notes as freely, OH the whole better-be-
haved-but composed of young men and
women together. This audience to-day
consists of twenty-five ladies' thirteen
undergraduates, one middle aged gen.
tleman and the author of 'Evange-
lline:1-fOrty persons, all told, listening
TO a lecture on Art. Not one of them
seems to regard the position as irregular
or unnatural or anything but very sem
sible and desira bic. All these ladies
have come through the college-yard
with perfect cOmposure, at the regular
hour of recitation; nor has it occurred,
probably to any one of them, that she
was in q menagerie of will beasts.
They have felt no more awkwardness in
meeting young men on these gravel
walks than on the sidewalks of the
Cambridge streets; no more inappropri-
ateness in sitting by them at a lecture
than at concert. The problem that
seemed in "University HalP' impOssi
BILE, insOluble, not even to be thought
of, is presented in "BOylstOn Hall" as
solved, settled, triumphantly disposed of
without trouble.
; If history teaches us anything, it is
: that such Inconsistencies always indi-
: cate the decline of a mere prejudice, and
the approaching triumph of common
: sense. Is there any moral difference be-
, tween q lecture on Art and lecture on
J History; between n room in one hall
2 and room in another hall close by it;
5 between walking through the college
1 yard from North to South and walking
5 through it from South to North ? Why,
: the proverbiaI difference between
) tweedledum and tweedledee rises to the
) dignity of a Chinese Wall in eOmpari-
J, son.
e There are, undoubtedly, some ulteriOr
r points of difference between the two sets
5 of lectures; the chief point being this,
e that the exercises in university Halp'
. are supposed to be preliminary to ex-
aminatiOns, and therefore to throw more
responsibility on the pupil, whereas
e those in "Boylston Hall1 the more's the
e pity are not followed by examinations.
e But this difference has no bearing on
r the sole point for which the comparison
I is here introduced. Examination or no
( examination, it is now clear that the
practical combination of the sexes in
1 the lecture-room of Harvard College,
under the circumstances of the greatest
s tpublicity, and at the very times and
J places habitually appropriated to the
young men, is = thing so free from evils
that nobody ever thinks of objeeting to
, it. 1t is \ most important discovery to
make; for those who write against CO.
: education commonly begin by pointing
s out that this iscommingling of itself is dis
astrous. 1t is a great thing to have this
: preliminary prejudice at once annihi-
lated by so easy and agreeable process
as an attendance on one of Mr.. Perkins
d lectures upon Raphael and Michael
e Angelo" at 3 p. VI. on Thursdays, in
5 Boylston Hail.. W. HigginsOn IN
5 WOmdR's Journal.