SPINSTER B.D.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 151, 20 March 1908, Page 3

SPINSTER B.D.

' FIRST WOMAN TO WIN LONDON ' DEGREE.; America has its divinity ladies but not so England. Miss Lilian Rolf, a. native of' Colchester, is the first woman to achieve' the distinction of Bachelor of Divinity of London University, and now ' stands side by sido in academic fame with Dr. Sophie Bryant, who first won the D.Sc.;' Miss; l'Vwcett, who achieved a wranglership'; ;'and ,-Miss Ramsey (now Mrs. Butler, of: .Trinity .College, Cambridge), who "topped" the'classical tripos. The test for the B.D. degree of Loudon University would probably upset most of the bishops without .great preparation. • It includes. Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, Biblical and Historical Theology, and the Philosophy of Theism. All candidates must • already have passed tho difficult Graduateship of Arts, or an equally difficult intermediate examination in Divinity. All these Miss Roff has '. ; :

Still in her "twenties," she oonies of a family, of. whom her father and mother and the majority of.lier nine brothers and sisters are teachers. She achieves. the distinction of "B.A.Lond" some years ago, and entered' for Divinity "for the puro love of the thing." ■ She'.passed from the elementary school directed by her father,: then through a private school, and was finally coached by Dr. AVilliam Briggs, of London. On the subject of "How I passed' my Bachelor of ~'Divinity" she says:— "I rested two or three months after my B.A. Then I began to learn Hebrew. I liked it from my first acquaintance with it.

"My 'regular' work for B.D. began some months later. Sometimes for weeks I did scarcely ' any study at all, and used to excuse myself by quoting 'We ' never know .when .we .'are idle.' In this work my aim could not be mercenary or commercial, so I was able without fear of slackness to be a law unto mysolf. I overworked myself and thwarted my own efforts in 1906, so in the .winter of 1906-7 it would'havo been difficult for a casual observer to see any'method in my work at all. " , . "My method consisted. in: (a) Avoiding work when I felt disinclined; (b) not burning midnight oil; (c) sleeping long; (d) walking often; (e) dividing my attention between subjects which, interested mo most,, and those in which I was weakest. \ ; "My' convictioYi is . that the only way to pass an examination without noticing tho drudgery is to make a careful choice, ami to 'decido on an examination; in which ono cajr enter heart and soul." ;

An International Women's Suffrage Congress will bo held next June in Holland, which will be attended by English delegates. 'In Cambridge a branch of tho Moil's League has been formed, and 'a large numbev of members, both graduates and undergrade jiates, have boon enrolled, •"