CHAPTER XX

In the college

Before joining Radcliffe Helen opted to study for another year under Mr
Keith. She joined the college in the fall (autumn) of 1900. The first day at the
college was full of interest for her. She had looked forward to it for years. She
was ready to overcome all obstacles which she knew were bound to come.
Before her she saw a new world opening in beauty and light. She felt that she
had in her the capacity to know all things. She envisioned the lecture halls filled
with the spirit of the great and the wise. She thought that the professors were the
embodiment of wisdom". But she had a different experience.

A sad discovery

Helen soon discovered that the college was not the place she had imagined
She found out that there was no room for leisure moments in college life. There
was always lack of time. In college she felt there was no time to commune with
one's thoughts she observed :
"One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think".
She felt that one had to leave the pleasures of books and imagination
behind.

Subjects of study

During the first year she studied French, German, history, English composition

and English literature. She read the works of such French writers as Comeille
Moliere, Racine, and of German writers as Goethe and Schiller. She read the
whole period of history from the fall of the Roman empire to the eighteenth
century. In English literature she studied Milton's poems.

Classroom experience

In the classroom Helen would be 'practically alone', with the professor as

remote as if he were speaking through a telephone. The lectures were spelled in
her hand as rapidly as possible. She could not make notes during the lectures
because her hands were busy listening. She jotted down usually what she could
remember of them when she got home. She wrote everything on her typewriter.
She used the Hammond typewriter which she found best to meet her peculiar
needs.

Difficulties on the way

She was obliged to have most of the books spelled into her hand, as very

few books were printed for the blind. Consequently, she needed more time to
prepare her lessons than other girls. She often beca rebellious thinking that
she had to solve her difficulties and complete her tasks while other girls were
laughing and singing. But she would soon recover her cheerfulness and laugh
She observes :

"Every struggle is a victory."
She was happy when Mr William Wade and Mr E.E. Allen, Principal of the
Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, got for her many of the books she needed in raised print.

The second and last year at Radcliffe

During the second year at the college the subjects she studied included

English composition, the Bible as English composition, the governments of America
and Europe, the Odes of Horace and Latin comedy. She found her composition
dass the most pleasant. The lectures were always interesting and lively. She also
studied many subjects of interest such as Elizabethan literature, Shakespeare
and the History of Philosophy under Professor Josiah Royce.

Helen's dissatisfaction

Helen found that the college was not the universal Athens" she thought it

was. The great and the wise were there, but seemed mummified. She felt that
many scholars forget that great works of literature depends more upon our
sympathy than upon our understanding, so very few of their laborious explanations
stick in the memory. So she often asked herself, "Why concern with these
explanations and hypotheses ?" Then she found it difficult to read in one day
four or five different books in different languages and study different subjects.
When one reads hurriedly and nervously, one's brain is stuffed and confused,
particularly when one reads having in mind written tests and examinations. The
examinations, Helen observed, were the chief bugbears" of her college life.
New experience and knowledge

After having entered the college Helen soon realized that her stay there was
not to be as romantic as she had envisioned once. She learnt many things which
she would never have experienced if she had not tried the experiment. One of
the things she learned was the precious science of patience which teaches us that
we should take our education as we would take a walk in the country, leisurely."
She knew that knowledge is power, but to her, "knowledge is happiness." To
have true knowledge means to know true ends from false, and lofty things from
low." To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man's progress, Helen
feels, is

"to feel the great heart-throb of humanity through the centuries."