" (From "Wide Awake," September, 1889.)
A graduate writes: "Her personality was so strong that it was felt all
over the college, even by those who were not in her department, and who
only admired her from a distance."
Extract from a letter written after her death by a former pupil: "I
count Maria Mitchell's services to Vassar and her pupils infinitely
valuable, and her character and attainments great beyond anything that
has yet been told.... I was one of the pupils upon whom her freedom from
all the shams and self-deceptions made an impression that elevated my
whole standard, mental and moral.... The influence of her own personal
character sustains its supreme test in the evidence constantly
accumulating, that it strengthens rather than weakens with the lapse of
time. Her influence upon her pupils who were her daily companions has
been permanent, character-moulding, and unceasingly progressive."
President Taylor, in his address at her funeral, said: "If I were to
select for comment the one most striking trait of her character, I
should name her _genuineness_. There was no false note in Maria
Mitchell's thinking or utterance....
"One who has known her kindness to little children, who has watched her
little evidences of thoughtful care for her associates and friends, who
has seen her put aside her own long-cherished rights that she might make
the way of a new and untried officer easier, cannot forget the tenderer
side of her character.
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