To form a disinterested opinion on the abstract question of co-education, it need hardly be said, is a very difficult matter. Indeed it can almost be said that such an opinion is impossible. Co-education is as much a question of distinct practical conditions and local influences as it is one of theoretical utility. Testimony that can be gathered from all quarters is so conflicting in character that it is next to impossible to secure any concensus of opinions which might decide one.

It cannot be said that co-education simply as co-education is a failure, nor can it be claimed that it is always a success. It would seem as though the better opinion would be that the advisability of co-education cannot be decided upon general grounds or from a preponderance of evidence in its favor, but that each case must be judged for itself. Where the conditions seem to be altogether favorable the experiment may well be tried, but in other cases the most careful conservatism would be the wisest policy. The president of Vassar very well says:

"Co-education is under experiment in some colleges, and in due time the result will appear. In the older colleges it would require some re-organization. In the colleges where it is under trial the women are in a considerable minority. If a new college could be opened, or an old one, with an equal number of both sexes, and with a flexible curriculum and other adaptations to the proposed new order, I should be glad to see the experiment fairly tried. I can only say that I am glad that there is no call for us to undertake it."

That there has been in one sense a very distinct "call" for Harvard to undertake it cannot be denied. The establishment of the annex in the near future as a constituent part of the university with a suitable endowment, seems more than probable. Thus it is that it well behooves every student and graduate of Harvard to form as well as he can his opinion as to the advisability, not of co-education in general, but of co-education at Harvard. It is a reassuring thought that Harvard's policy, while it has always been progressive, has been at the same time wisely conservative, and we may be sure that hasty, ill-advised and radical measures will not be taken. But the mere introduction of co-education, in however modest and unobtrusive a form, is full of vast meaning for the future of Harvard. The little step from an annex under the care of Harvard's professors to a women's college, as a part of Harvard University, is likely to prove a measure of far greater import than even the introduction of the elective system, with all its wide-spreading results. Any changes that might follow will of course be very gradual, but for that reason will be all the more far-reaching. Harvard thus far has represented one type of college life, the exact opposite of which is represented by such an institution as the University of Michigan. The difference between the two types is expressed very inadequately by saying that at the one student life and ways of thinking have acquired certain common characteristics from the mere fact of the dormitory system, while at the other this element of college feeling is entirely lacking. How great an influence this institution has is more easily understood than expressed. That it would be the immediate effect of co-education to destroy this element of college life at Harvard, we do not believe; that such would be the ultimate result seems very probable. But that such a result would be altogether an unmixed evil, provided that for the narrower college spirit a broader university spirit were substituted, may perhaps be questioned.