Cambridge sketches
Estelle M. H. Merrill, Ed.

[196] hundred of these former pupils united to found The Agnes Irwin Scholarship, in recognition of her long devotion to the good of others and of the value that they placed upon her influence. A list of the contributors to the scholarship fund was sent to Miss Irwin elegantly engrossed on parchment and enclosed in a silver chest which was adorned with costly carving in high relief. Miss Irwin has now occupied her office one year. She has performed, in addition to her other duties, those kindly services that had in the previous years been a pleasure to Mrs. Agassiz, Mrs. Gilman and the other ladies of the corporation.¹

The record that has thus been hastily sketched shows that Radcliffe College is a growth, that its progress has been natural and not forced, that it tends to bring to Cambridge the most advanced students among the women of the country, that it offers to them the services of a faculty which cannot be excelled for learning and teaching ability by any other similar body in the country. It has succeeded, to mention but one among many reasons, because it has not demanded too much, but has been content to make progress steadily, well knowing that such a growth is more firm and strong than any spasmodic development could be. It was Swift, was it not? who said that a blessing ought to be pronounced upon the man who should make two blades of grass grow where but one had grown. Certainly there should be a blessing for that scheme which makes two colleges grow and spread their ennobling influence where but a single Faculty exists.