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science--the investigation of things. But science, by itself, does not suffice to maintain civilisation, as we have recently seen how science when detached from Virtus-in spite of Sapientia a wisdom as the ancients translated it, has simply developed into German militarism.
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And so this university standing at the very doors of China has a great message and a great duty to fulfil. I have heard it said that it is difficult for the University in Hongkong to serve as a centre of education for the regener- ation of the Chinese people. I do not concur with this view. I think a great deal can be achieved by a University such as ours before the Chinese will be ready to have a proper University of their own, because, after all, a University should not be only a factory for "turning out machines or mere professional experts. The University must impart something more than technical knowledge and professional skill. True it must provide its students with a complete view of life, but it must also bring to bear upon them its salutary influence so that they will not only have gained a knowledge of life-but what is infinitely better-they will be able to live with wise teachers in such a way as to get the inspiration to live in their post-graduate day's the noblest life known to mankind.
It is therefore very auspicious that the University authorities have wisely chosen two texts from the Confucian (lassics to be the motto and the guide of all the succeeding rulers of this great centre of learning. In a recent volume dealing with the great problems that will arise in the future between capital and labour in different parts of Europe and the world, there is a paper by the Bishop of Birmingham in which he says that it is curious to discover in the Con- fucian Classics the ideal that is worthy of the consideration of the Twentieth Century. That ideal is to be found in the saying of Confucius: "If you wish to establish yourself, seek also to establish others,' The idea is that education
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in its best and highest sense is only the means towards the attainment of the perfect life and that not for the individual alone but also through the perfection of the individual for the family, the nation, and the world. The principle of education is that a man must endeavour to make himself perfect in every way, exercising all his faculties, and train- ing all his senses, so that the eye can appreciate beauty, the ear can understand harmony and so forth till the mind. becomes the willing instrument of the spirit. Thus the individual in the totality of his being is en rapport with nature. But this is not all. The cultivation of the arts and the sciences should never serve merely as the means of self-gratification or as the stepping stone to advancement wealth and glory for self. Neither must it aim solely at the prosperity and happiness of the family for the latter is after all only a unit of the social organism. "The perfec- tion of self" in the Confucian ethics implies the acquirement of altruism as an active force to extend all the benefits of education perceived by the individual to the family, through the family to the nation, and through the nation to all mankind. Therefore the same enlightenment that leads the individual to seek perfection for himself, urges him to diffuse the spirit that gives life to understanding, to refine- ment, and to culture so that the whole human family may attain to the peace and happiness which he, the individual, is seeking for himself. This is, as no doubt every one is aware, the great ideal of Confucianism and it cannot be an unworthy programme for an University.
a
We have heard the Pro-Vice-Chancellor speaking in feel- ing terms when he appealed to His Excellency for the pro- vision of adequate funds for the necessary requirements of this centre of learning. May I venture as a visitor and stranger from a neighbouring Colony to offer my criticism or opinion of certain views as to the position of the Hong- kong University to-day. Speaking now as a graduate, I feel justified in saying a few words to express what I feel