w:Mount Carroll Seminary

“ Whether married or single, the influence of the girl graduate, the educated woman, is not lost any more than the drops of rain which fall in the bosom of the great lakes are lost in the tremendous power of Niagara. ”

“ A thought I would emphasize is, that an aspiration or a preparation is not a life. One is the plans and specification for a building, the other the completed structure. A legend is told of a nymph who, obtaining a spark of fire of the gods, built an altar on a hill, which, like a beacon, sent out its light for miles around, and to which others might come and carry away sparks to kindle hearth-fires or to light other beacons. ”

“ Each person has two educations. One which he receives from others and one which he gives himself. The latter necessitates a culture of brain and hand and heart worthy the name of higher education. To-night ends your first education. ”

“ Increasing, broadening, quickening faculties does not annul the old-fashioned virtues and graces. It does not take from woman her garment of modesty nor despoil her of the pearls of truth. It does not lessen her love and courage nor mar her ministrations with harshness. It does not make her less thoughtful for those nearest and dearest to her nor less capable and willing to be a helpmate or a guiding spirit. ”

“ A fear has been expressed lest this higher education may unfit woman for home life. For the old-time home life of our foremothers, a life of spinning and weaving, of sewing and knitting, of brewing and baking, a limited servile round of duties, it does unfit her. ”

“ In the halcyon days of Rome it is said that women petitioned for permission to ride in chariots, wear purple and deck themselves with jewels. Now, woman asks for broader humanity, the royalty of knowledge, and the jewel of highest culture. ”

“ The girl who from five years of age till seventeen or twenty has been forming habits of observation, of tracing events to causes, of analyzing and investigating, takes these habits and possessions with her into the life she enters when she leaves school. ”

“ We find imperfections everywhere in nature, and it may be that there are recipients of diplomas who do not illustrate the highest ideals. If such be the case, failure is not due to an excess of education, but to deficient, defective or misdirected training. ”

“ Revels in the field of science, and acquaintance with men of genius, are of little avail, unless it be a companionship which suggests subjects of conversation more solid than gossip of society and sensations of the day. ”

“ Her knowledge of evolution convinces her that citizenship, the soul and pride of a free government, exists in the nursery and the schoolroom and can not be a gift at maturity. She has been prepared by years of logical reasoning to draw her own conclusions. ”

“ Apply these averages to the thousands and tens of thousands of girl and women graduates which are annually sent forth as teachers and home makers, and we can in a measure understand the secret of the stupendous strides in moral and intellectual development, throughout the length and breadth of this land, during the last two or three decades; why our schools are models for the world ”

“ The girl graduate is a product of this century. Only fifty-four years ago the first diploma was placed in a woman's hand. Last year 29,501 girls and women graduated from the high schools, colleges and schools for women in the United States. ”