college as head of the Department of Mathematics, to January 20,
1894, when she died, its president, she served Wellesley with all
her strength, and the college remains forever indebted to her
high standards and wise leadership.


IV.

In choosing Mrs. Irvine to succeed Miss Shafer as president of
Wellesley, the trustees abandoned the policy which had governed
their earlier choices. Miss Freeman and Miss Shafer had been
connected with the college almost from the beginning. They had
known its problems only from the inside. Mrs. Irvine was, by
comparison, a newcomer; she had entered the Department of Greek
as junior professor in 1890. But almost at once her unusual
personality made its impression, and in the four years preceding
her election to the presidency, she had arisen, as it were in spite
of herself, to a position of power both in the classroom and in
the Academic Council. As an outsider, her criticism, both constructive
and destructive, was peculiarly stimulating and valuable; and even
those who resented her intrusion could not but recognize the noble
disinterestedness of her ideal for Wellesley.

The trustees were quick to perceive the value to the college of
this unusual combination of devotion and clearsightedness, detachment
and loving service. They also realized that the junior professor
of Greek was especially well fitted to complete and perfect the
curriculum which Miss Shafer had so ably inaugurated. For Mrs. Irvine
was before all else a scholar, with a scholar's passion for
rectitude and high excellence in intellectual standards.