Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-02-16


court, judgment was rendered against
the supposed drlinquents for over S2S,-
600. The greater part of this claim, it
IS true, was remitted by a subsequent
legislature: aud, in after years, the dis
covety of the false key in the attic of a
certain house fully vindicated the in
nocence of the directors. But the roe
ords of the town show that the liens Of
the Vermont State bank on the real
estate of John willard were removed
only after many years.
But the heroism of the devoted wife
was equal to the occasion. She would
return to the work in which she had
achieved such brilliant success b, fore
her happy marriage. She would open
boarding school for girls in her own
house. The project must have been
humilating to the mind of DR.. Willard.
Only "A loving confidence in his wife
could have secured his consent; but
when he gave it he set himself to work
with her, heart ana soul, to the end.
1t should be remembered that when
Mrs. Willard first opened her school in
1914. her "PlAn' WAS altogether unde-
veloped She had none of those ambi-
tious projects for the higher education
of woman which afterwards animated
her. Her sole object, as she distinctly
says, was to assist her husband in his
/ n II IA l., Iii
lovingly in the pathway of domestic
duty chat the Lord led her into the wider
field of her lifes mission. 1t remains
for US then to consider this third stage
in her novtiate-the light that came to
her through her new experiences IN
teaching.
Mrs. Wizards home in Mddlebury
was almost under the shadow of Mid
dlebury college. The college campus
was just across the street from her house.
She heard from hour to- hour through
the day the call of the bell to chapel or
to recitation. For four years she listen
ed to reports of college life and work
from the nephew, who sat at her table
while student. When she opened her
new school she taught at first the usual
round of light and superficial studies
that the age had prescribed for ''fe-
males" But "my neighborhood to
Middlebury college, she writes, made
me bitterly feel the disparity in educa-
tiOnal facilities between the sexes
She had already made private excursions
into the realms of solid learning, for
hidden to her sex; and she was profound
ly conscious of woman's capacity to I'M
derstand all that was highest and best
in the reaches of human thought. Why
should the sister be deprived of the in
tellectual culture that is offered to the
brother? Why will not the companion
ship of welded life be purer and strong
err, if the mental training of the wife is
comparable with that of the husband ?
Why will not the mother give to the
world nobler sons and daughters. if her
own character be strengthened and re-
fined by the highest education? These
are hackneyed questions today but they
were new 70 the world, when, in 1915.
they first throbbed in the brain of Mrs.
Willard.
Then the further question came: Could
she herself effect this great change for
woman? She heard the divine call
should she be disobedent to the heavenly
vision? The cause was so just, Sc
humane, so practicable, that surely il
she could advocate it before governors
and Legislators, she might effect the de.
sired reform. Still, the project seemed
presumptuous, so that she hesitated tC
entertain it; she concealed it for awhile
even from her husband, though knowing
that he sympathzed with her in hel
desires for the better education OF
woman.
But the absorbing, unborn purpose OF
her soul she could not long keep from
the confidence of her husband. How he
received her confidence she shall tell Us
in her own fervid words: "IIe entered
into the full spirit of my views with q
disinterested zeal for that sex whom. a.
he believed, his own had iniuriousl,
neglected. With an affection more gen
erous and disinterested than ever mar
before felt, he, in his later life, sought
my elevation, Indifferent to his own
Possessing on the whole an opinion OF
me more favorable than any other
human being ever will have-and thu;
encouraging me TO dare much-he YET
knew my weaknesses and fortified me
against them Surely, if this beautiful
tribute of the atlectlonate wife be moi
altogether insincere, we may think OF
DR.. Willard as anticipating the hero in
Tennyson's princess" who says:
"Henceforth thou hast helper me, that
know
The woman's cause Is mans; they rise OF
sink
Together, dwarfed or godlll1e, bond or free
II she be small, slight-natured, miserable,
How shall men grow? but work no more alone
mi IL "a fn "a In nal linz