In Helen's opinion, her experiences at Radcliffe College showed that college was not the universal Athens that she thought it would be. It means that college was not the idealized place for education that she thought of initially but a completely different place. There one did not meet the great and wise face to face or even feel their living touch. They were there but they seemed to be mummified and one had to extract them from the crannied wall of learning. Then one would have to dissect and analyze them before one could be sure they had the real work at hand and not a mere imitation of Milton or an Isaiah. Many scholars forgot that the enjoyment of the great works of literature depended more upon the depth of the readers' sympathy than their understanding. The trouble was that very few of their laborious explanations were memorable and the mind drops them as a branch would drop overripe fruit. In Helen's opinion, concerning oneself with these explanations and hypotheses were ineffectual in the study of literature. She did not object to a thorough knowledge of the famous works that were read in college but only to the interminable comments and bewildering criticisms that one was taught. There were many opinions as there were men but one ought to be able to breathe new life into old works.