Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals Part 19

"The recitation-room was very common-looking--we could not tolerate such at Va.s.sar. The forms and benches of the recitation-room were better for taking notes than ours are.

"The professor was polite enough to ask us into the senior cla.s.s, but I had an engagement. I asked him if a young lady presented herself at the door he _could_ keep her out, and he said 'No, and I shouldn't.' I told him I would send some of my girls.

"Oct. 15, 1868. Resolved, in case of my outliving father and being in good health, to give my efforts to the intellectual culture of women, without regard to salary; if possible, connect myself with liberal Christian inst.i.tutions, believing, as I do, that happiness and growth in this life are best promoted by them, and that what is good in this life is good in any life."

In August, 1869, Miss Mitch.e.l.l, with several of her Va.s.sar students, went to Burlington, Ia., to observe the total eclipse of the sun. She wrote a popular account of her observations, which was printed in "Hours at Home" for September, 1869. Her records were published in Professor Coffin's report, as she was a member of his party.

"Sept. 26, 1871. My cla.s.ses came in to-day for the first time; twenty-five students--more than ever before; fine, splendid-looking girls. I felt almost frightened at the responsibility which came into my hands--of the possible _twist_ which I might give them.

"1871. I never look upon the ma.s.s of girls going into our dining-room or chapel without feeling their n.o.bility, the sovereignty of their pure spirit."

The following letter from Miss Mitch.e.l.l, though written at a later date, gives an idea of the practical observing done by her cla.s.ses:

MY DEAR MISS ----: I reply to your questions concerning the observatory which you propose to establish. And, first, let me congratulate you that you begin _small_. A large telescope is a great luxury, but it is an enormous expense, and not at all necessary for teaching.... My beginning cla.s.s uses only a small portable equatorial. It stands out-doors from 7 A.M. to 9 P.M.

The girls are encouraged to use it: they are expected to determine the rotation of the sun on its axis by watching the spots--the same for the planet Jupiter; they determine the revolution of t.i.tan by watching its motions, the retrograde and direct motion of the planets among the stars, the position of the sun with reference to its setting in winter and summer, the phases of Venus. All their book learning in astronomy should be mathematical. The astronomy which is not mathematical is what is so ludicrously called "Geography of the Heavens"--is not astronomy at all.

My senior cla.s.s, generally small, say six, is received as a cla.s.s, but in practical astronomy each girl is taught separately. I believe in _small_ cla.s.ses. I instruct them separately, first in the use of the meridian instrument, and next in that of the equatorial. They obtain the time for the college by meridian pa.s.sage of stars; they use the equatorial just as far as they can do with very insufficient mechanism. We work wholly on planets, and they are taught to find a planet at any hour of the day, to make drawings of what they see, and to determine positions of planets and satellites. With the clock and chronograph they determine difference of right ascension of objects by the electric mode of recording. They make, sometimes, very accurate drawings, and they learn to know the satellites of Saturn (t.i.tan, Rhea, etc.) by their different physiognomy, as they would persons. They have sometimes measured diameters.

If you add to your observatory a meridian instrument, I should advise a small one. _Size_ is not so important as people generally suppose. Nicety and accuracy are what is needed in all scientific work; startling effects by large telescopes and high powers are too suggestive of sensational advertis.e.m.e.nt.

The relation between herself and her pupils was quite remarkable--it was very cordial and intimate; she spoke of them always as her "girls," but at the same time she required their very best work, and was intolerant of shirking, or of an ambition to do what nature never intended the girl in question to do.

One of her pupils writes thus: "If it were only possible to tell you of what Professor Mitch.e.l.l did for one of her girls! 'Her girls!' It meant so much to come into daily contact with such a woman! There is no need of speaking of her ability; the world knows what that was. But as her cla.s.s-room was unique, having something of home in its belongings, so its atmosphere differed from that of all others. Anxiety and nervous strain were left outside of the door. Perhaps one clue to her influence may be found in her remark to the senior cla.s.s in astronomy when '76 entered upon its last year: 'We are women studying together.'

"Occasionally it happened that work requiring two hours or more to prepare called for little time in the cla.s.s. Then would come one of those treats which she bestowed so freely upon her girls, and which seemed to put them in touch with the great outside world. Letters from astronomers in Europe or America, or from members of their families, giving delightful glimpses of home life; stories of her travels and of visits to famous people; accounts of scientific conventions and of large gatherings of women,--not so common then as now,--gave her listeners a wider outlook and new interests.

"Professor Mitch.e.l.l was chairman of a standing committee of the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Women,--that on women's work in science,--and some of her students did their first work for women's organizations in gathering statistics and filling out blanks which she distributed among them.

"The benefits derived from my college course were manifold, but time and money would have been well spent had there been no return but that of two years' intercourse with Maria Mitch.e.l.l."

Another pupil, and later her successor at Va.s.sar College, Miss Mary W.

Whitney, has said of her method of teaching: "As a teacher, Miss Mitch.e.l.l's gift was that of stimulus, not that of drill. She could not drill; she would not drive. But no honest student could escape the pressure of her strong will and earnest intent. The marking system she held in contempt, and wished to have nothing to do with it. 'You cannot mark a human mind,' she said, 'because there is no intellectual unit;'

and upon taking up her duties as professor she stipulated that she should not be held responsible for a strict application of the system."

"July, 1887. My students used to say that my way of teaching was like that of the man who said to his son, 'There are the letters of the English alphabet--go into that corner and learn them.'

"It is not exactly my way, but I do think, as a general rule, that teachers talk too much! A book is a very good inst.i.tution! To read a book, to think it over, and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book which will not repay some hard thought is not worth publishing. The fashion of lecturing is becoming a rage; the teacher shows herself off, and she does not try enough to develop her pupils.

"The greatest object in educating is to give a right habit of study....

"... Not too much mechanical apparatus--let the imagination have some play; a cube may be shown by a model, but let the drawing upon the blackboard represent the cube; and if possible let Nature be the blackboard; spread your triangles upon land and sky.

"One of my pupils always threw her triangles on the celestial vault above her head....

"A small apparatus well used will do wonders. A celebrated chemist ordered his servant to bring in the laboratory--on a tray! Newton rolled up the cover of a book; he put a small gla.s.s at one end, and a large brain at the other--it was enough.

"When a student asks me, 'What specialty shall I follow?' I answer, 'Adopt some one, if none draws you, and wait.' I am confident that she will find the specialty engrossing.

"Feb. 10, 1887. When I came to Va.s.sar, I regretted that Mr. Va.s.sar did not give full scholarships. By degrees, I learned to think his plan of giving half scholarships better; and to-day I am ready to say, 'Give no scholarships at all.'

"I find a helping-hand lifts the girl as crutches do; she learns to like the help which is not self-help.

"If a girl has the public school, and wants enough to learn, she will learn. It is hard, but she was born to hardness--she cannot dodge it.

Labor is her inheritance.

"I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music. I mourn it.

Should I go to a music-school, therefore? No, avoid the music-school; it is a very expensive branch of study. When the public school has taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, the boy or girl has his or her tools; let them use these tools, and get a few hours for study every day.

"... Do not give educational aid to sickly young people. The old idea that the feeble young man must be fitted for the ministry, because the more sickly the more saintly, has gone out. Health of body is not only an accompaniment of health of mind, but is the cause; the converse may be true,--that health of mind causes health of body; but we all know that intellectual cheer and vivacity act upon the mind. If the gymnastic exercise helps the mind, the concert or the theatre improves the health of the body.

"Let the unfortunate young woman whose health is delicate take to the culture of the woods and fields, or raise strawberries, and avoid teaching.

"Better give a young girl who is poor a common-school education, a little lift, and tell her to work out her own career. If she have a distaste to the homely routine of life, leave her the opportunity to try any other career, but let her understand that she stands or falls by herself.

"... Not every girl should go to college. The over-burdened mother of a large family has a right to be aided by her daughter's hands. I would aid the mother and not the daughter.

"I would not put the exceptionally smart girl from a _very_ poor family into college, unless she is a genius; and a genius should wait some years to _prove_ her genius.

"Endow the already established inst.i.tution with money. Endow the woman who shows genius with _time_.

"A case at Johns Hopkins University is an excellent one. A young woman goes into the inst.i.tution who is already a scholar; she shows what she can do, and she takes a scholarship; she is not placed in a happy valley of do nothing,--she is put into a workshop, where she can work.

"... We are all apt to say, 'Could we have had the opportunity in life that our neighbor had,'--and we leave the unfinished sentence to imply that we should have been geniuses.

"No one ever says, 'If I had not had such golden opportunities thrust upon me, I might have developed by a struggle'! But why look back at all? Why turn your eyes to your shadow, when, by looking upward, you see your rainbow in the same direction?

"But our want of opportunity was our opportunity--our privations were our privileges--our needs were stimulants; we are what we are because we had little and wanted much; and it is hard to tell which was the more powerful factor....

"Small aids to individuals, large aid to ma.s.ses.

"The Russian Czar determined to found an observatory, and the first thing he did was to take a million dollars from the government treasury.

He sends to America to order a thirty-five inch telescope from Alvan Clark,--not to promote science, but to surpa.s.s other nations in the size of his gla.s.s. 'To him that hath shall be given.' Read it, 'To him that hath _should_ be given.'

"To give wisely is hard. I do not wonder that the millionaire founds a new college--why should he not? Millionaires are few, and he is a man by himself--he must have views, or he could not have earned a million. But let the man or woman of ordinary wealth seek out the best inst.i.tution already started,--the best girl already in college,--and give the endowment.

"I knew a rich woman who wished to give aid to some girls' school, and she travelled in order to find that inst.i.tution which gave the most solid learning with the least show. She found it where few would expect it,--in Tennessee. It was worth while to travel.

"The aid that comes need not be money; let it be a careful consideration of the object, and an evident interest in the cause.