But I would emphasize that what limited number of men get in perfection from Greats all men get in modified form from the atmosphere and surroundings of University life, Properly regarded, a University is the essence and em-Lodiment of history, though ina prophetic sense, for it is not until Inter that we realize that, however unconsciously, me have been weave the prose and poetry of history the web of our lives.
In its place midway between the school and the world the university is of profound importance, receiving young men at an impressionable age when they learn easily and re-tember, For those who do. well it is the best preparation. For those who unhappily may begin badly, its training gives. them another' chance to mike a new start Though subject to rulers and gover-vor, the university student yet en-Joys the freedom of the grown man, has a livelier sense of personal responsibility and enters upon a new relationship with his fellows.
The Beauty of Surroundings Not the least of influences in most universities, certainly in Oxford and Cambridge, is that of exceedingly beautiful' surroundings. Great architects of the past did not always pay too great attention to hygiene, but no one has since approached them in knowledge of the influence of beautiful surroundings jand of building beautifully. When we look round at the present day we cannot but have some doubt of "progress." In the past, builders made Gothic cathedrals,' and left the people to dwell in slums: to-day, we blow the cathedrals to bits with big guns and build cotton mills and es which may said to begin killing people who work in them almost from the moment of entry.
"These grey heaps of deep-wrought stone" inspire the least romantic with emotions which are never lost. They join in giving a university man something to proud of all through life. I do not say that university men never do mean things. But at the most. plastic tithe of life the seal of all that is greatest and noblest in our ancestry is impressed indelibly upon them, their lives are permeate ed with ideals and associations which they are ever proud to have been connected. And a proper pride is a shining armour with which to go through life. Only, man must be careful what he' proud of. He is not to take brid in his own doings. That is "swank." Rather is he to take pride in what others have done, cherishing the memory of that and living up to it, satisfied with nothing less than the best because any leader standard would be unworthy of great forerunners.
The Craze to Tear Dow:
The world of to-day is in far too great a hurry to abandon the things lof the past. When we boast ourselves 'So much better, than our fathers we must make quite sure that there was not something, after all, in the wisdom of the past.. And' this. 1 think may fairly be applied to Chi to-day. "You are straining towards new ideas and new systems, and you are vexed and unhappy because they [cannot be realized in a moment. The lehange of mind which the new ext-look has brought has made your [country restless and dissatisfied, and China now shares with all the world that desire to tear down, to throw away, to disown the past, to break up and reshape all that the past hus! given. But I would counsel you not to forget O14 China, to cherish the id world and strive'to find out and utilize what was best in it. Man Jcannet divorce himself from his ancestry. Physically and mentally! we are each of us the produce of [thousand lives. "Morally and socially grow by what was thought and felt before us, on the grain of wisdom cornered in imperishable storehouses for us by successive generat Making History Now.
'You are making history at St. John's in two senses: you are still a young unwersity, you are building traditions which will both serve your' descendants and be their pride, And in another way you are making: history; the eyes of the world are upon China, your new men are taking the place of the old, and many of them are amazingly clever, but I am not sure that there is not something missing in them yet perhaps the broader mentality of the student of Litterae Humaniores, that great pride in the past and veneration for Ideals of which can neither be pat into exact words nor traced to any'
source; the things which a university is designed to teach which is imparted not through schools and class lists and prizes bound in vellum, and calf, but by itself and its tradi tions from old time, by its visible embodiment of the successive labour of generation after generation ing in mutual help, in self-renuné tion, bound in the common ambition to hand on the torch of discipline, of honour and of reverence, The exercises concluded with the singing of the Chinese National Anthem.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.