Alumni Oration

"The Prospect of Knowledge By U.N.B. Alumni Orator" Daily Gleaner (17 May 1945): 4. (UA Case 67a, Box 2)

"It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June, 1787, between the hours of 11 and 12," said the great historian Gibbon, "that I wrote the last lines of the last page (of my history) in a summer house in my garden (in Lausanne). After laying down my pen I took several turns in a berceau or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent."

While to his vision was presented a prospect of nature his imagination also commanded the prospect of the tremendous drama of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which he pronounced "the greatest, perhaps and most awful scene in the history of mankind." In a still wider view it was the extinction of that succession of empires which constituted the ancient world.

There are occasions in life, when an opportunity is presented of surveying in retrospect the further imposing drama of mankind, and in prospect the future course of events. For today: you stand on an intellectual eminence from which, in the enjoyment of the priceless gift of knowledge, can be surveyed not so much the decline and fall of the ancient world, in which we take only an unemotional academic interest, but the impressive spectacle of the rise and establishment of the modern era, and particularly that part of it wherein our own lot happens to be cast.

Six Great Eras

The modern world did not spring into being fully accoutred like Athena from the head of Zeus. It has been developed in at least six great eras, in the last of which it is now struggling for existence. So well ordered in their succession were these great eras, so perfectly adapted to human need in mind, spirit and body, that they seem to bear the evidence of planning by some directing intelligence.

The last century of the decline of the ancient world witnessed the great era of the Revival of Learning in which the mind was at last set free from the intellectual fetters which has bound it in sterility for many ages. While historians repudiate the idea that the Renaissance was inaugurated by the same event, the fall of Constantinople, that Gibbon regarded as the closing tragedy of the Roman Empire, yet the flight of scholars with their manuscripts from that renowned city greatly accelerated a movement which had already begun. To this migration the world generally owes its knowledge of the Greek language and literature, and the establishment of continuity with the profound philosophical and the elegant literary accomplishments of antiquity.

Material Universe

But the time was at hand when humanity could no longer ignore the fact that it existed in a material universe. The intellect could not perpetually be concerned, solely with itself. Subjective studies must be supplemented by the investigation of the objective world of nature, which remained almost completely unexplored. To enter that great and marvelously fruitful field of inquiry was, in that age, a perilous undertaking, and before it could be successfully done, not only the mind but also the spirit must be liberated. For spiritual freedom is the citadel of liberty. The Reformation must unquestionably occupy a position of central importance in establishing the modern world, not only from the religious point of view, but in preparing a way for the untrammeled investigation of the world of nature. The testimony of history shows that any other order of succession of movements than that which actually occurred was impossible. Trail and failure demonstrated that the Reformation could not have preceded the Renaissance, nor the age of science the Reformation. If, too, the age of science had "prevented", in the old sense of "coming before," the Reformation, it might indeed have "prevented." In the modern sense of "hindering" that profound movement; and a materialism, far more blighting than that which has been cultivated, might have annihilated, if that were possible, the human spirit.

Age of Revolt

The age of science was in part a revolt against the dictatorship of antiquity, the sterile Physics of Aristotle and the static Astronomy of Ptolemy, and in part the growing realization that nature was governed by principles capable of rational expression and interpretation. It was inaugurated by Columbus, Vasco di Gama and the other great navigators, who, by their voyages, restored to the earth, as a French writer has said, its ancient spherical form which the Chaldeans and Egyptians had given it. In impressive succession came the achievement of Copernicus in changing the status of the earth from the useless but apparently satisfying one of the centre of the solar system, to the infinitely more astronomically useful one of a planet revolving in an orbit about another centre: next, the discovery of the laws of elliptical planetary orbits by Kepler and the coincident dethronement of the Aristotelian idea of the exclusive perfection of circular motion; then the discovery of accelerated velocity and its relation to force by Galileo; and the crowning achievement of all science in the elaboration of the gravitational system of the world by Newton. Knowledge is not static but dynamic. Starting from the discovery of the true form of the earth, science has extended knowledge from the constituents of atoms to the all but infinitely distant galaxies of the universe. It has unified the whole extent of nature in respect of matter, forces and energy. While displacing the earth from its presumed importance as the physical centre of the solar system, it has re-established its pre-eminence, in all but mathematical location, as the centre of the universe. For from the earth the universe is surveyed, measured and apprehended. Carried away by the brilliance of discovery not a few materialistic scientists, in defiance of thermodynamic law, have proclaimed the universe to be self-originating, self-existing and self-perpetuating. Some have professed to have annihilated the spirit in man and even to have materialized though by asserting, in the brutish words of Cabanis, that the brain secrets thought as the liver secretes bile. In this bilious theory of thought, the materialistic philosophy of science reached at once its lowest debasement and its Waterloo, or, modernly, its Stalingrad. For it clearly revealed the forbidding destination of this perversion of science from which mankind instinctively shrinks.

Prepared Way of Escape

But intellectual awakening, spiritual freedom and the acquisition of knowledge of nature could no relieve humanity of the intolerable burden of drudgery, in some countries accompanied by slavery, under which it had struggled in almost hopeless poverty for many ages. But knowledge prepared the way of escape. It was opened by the industrial revolution in which drudgery was transferred from man to machines, and energy supplied not from human sources but by the combustion of coal. The brain at last was exalted above the muscles. Eight tons of coal will perform the lifetime work of a man. Who will estimate the intellects of Watt and Faraday in horsepower? Innumerable applications of the simple principles of nature were crystallized in great industrial inventions by which peasant occupations and local markets were transformed into an industrial society with international connections. Wooden machines gave way to steel, and crudely utilized water-power to steam and finally electricity, which is often water-power in a refined form. Rivers, formerly valued for their scenery, are now assets of enormous wealth. Canals are superseded by railroads, supplemented by smooth highways with more flexible motor transportation. Sailing vessels gave way to steamships to provide rapid exchange of commodities. Communication was enormously accelerated by telegraph and telephone. Quantity and variety of goods for all human needs, low prices through mass production, led to the amelioration of humanity on a vast scale. The great profession of engineering arose by which the theoretical knowledge of science was applied to the service of humanity. The matter of the world harnessed to its energy is destined to deliver mankind from excessive toil, precarious want and economic fear, a condition still far from universal realization. It is estimated that the industries based on Faraday’s pure scientific discoveries represent an investment of one hundred billion dollars. Or that astronomical wealth Faraday received nothing. The engineers who transformed discovery into industry, got a living. Faraday planted; engineers watered, but who received the profit? The industrial revolution also formulated but has not yet solved the problem of the several rights of capital and labor; but the scientist and the engineer who brought industry into existence have not yet recognized rights!

Political Action

But other movements were necessary to establish the modern world. The industrial and economic revolution accomplished much for the elevation of humanity, but the machine age tended to engulf men, women and children alike into its machine. Machines to tend machines: The emancipation of childhood and the labor must be achieved. For this purpose political action was necessary, and this world problem could not be left to the chance emergence of aristocratic philanthropists like Lord Shaftsbury. People must free themselves. Humanity exists for some higher purpose than to afford occupation to a ruling and exploiting class. In France the assertion of political rights was accompanied by terror and bloodshed. In other countries, such as England, it was accomplished peacefully. To depict the democratic upheaval of all people would be to write an epitome of modern history. But in one way or another people acquired power to govern themselves. Improved conditions have followed, shorter hours of labor, better remuneration, wide-spread abolition of child labor, compulsory education. Much has been done to establish the modern world; much still remains to be accomplished. Democracy of a kind prevails: but perfect democracy is yet to be achieved. But the upward march of humanity is never, for some reason, by a path of roses. The Way of the Cross alone leads to the Crown. The Renaissance had its perils, the Reformation its violence; the age of sciences its persecutions; the industrial and political revolutions have been marked by bitterness, strife and bloodshed.

Religion

None of these movements, as history indicates, could have survived alone. An intellectual age would have been engulfed, like those of Pericles in Greece and Augustus in Rome, in moral degradation. Religion by itself tends either to ecclesiastical autocracy of to licence. Science could not exist except in spiritual freedom. The industrial and economic movement required the age of science to inaugurate and perpetuate it, and spiritual influences to soften it, so far as it has been done, to human requirements and not to minister to insatiable cupidity. Political emancipation from one form of despotism leads, when devoid of religious beliefs and sanctions, to the dictatorship of demagogues and adventures. United, these movements stand: divided, they fall. All are products of knowledge, intellectual or spiritual; for knowledge gives enlightenment and culture, the apprehension of the realms of mind and nature, the power to utilize and control the forces and substances of the material world, and the capacity to govern with righteousness. But comparatively few nations have yet been influences by these movements; the bulk of humanity is scarcely touched. The process of enlightenment must, when complete, embrace the world.

Fatal Complacency

It was accepted with fatal complacency that what had been accomplished through centuries of struggle was now the secure possession of humanity. Only five and a half years ago the world was rudely shocked to find that every one of these great movements, intellectual, spiritual, scientific, economic and political, was threatened with extinction by three ruthless powers which swiftly spread desolation over many nations and menaced all.

New Era Emerging

In this century, almost within a generation, a new era is unconsciously emerging, and this is what I am concerned chiefly to suggest. It is characterized by world concepts. In it all previous movements must expand universally to find their perfect expression. Within this period has been completed the discovery of the world from pole to pole. The highest mountains, except the one very highest have been climbed, the atmosphere has been explored to great heights, and in the ocean one intrepid scientist has descended to a depth of half a mile, and returned! Transportation on land, sea and air has been marvelously advanced until now no places on the earth are more than 60 hours of flight apart. When I was a student in the University it took four days to drive from Sackville to Bathurst. Three or four years ago I covered the same route by motor in about four hours. Planes are now flying which could traverse the distance in 20 minutes. Regions, like those in northern Canada, which a few years ago were reached only by weeks and months of laborious travel, and where mail was delivered once a year, are now regularly accessible in a few hours. The innumerable northern lakes, which were formerly regarded as nuisances and waste, are now ideal landing fields in winter and summer. The great circle routes, that is, the shortest airlines from America to Europe and Asia, traverse Canada, and our country must continually advance in importance in the aerial navigation of the globe. It may humble the pride of residents of Fredericton and Saint John to know that air-maps of the globe are now published in which Shediac, the present terminus of Atlantic commercial air-routes is the only place in New Brunswick depicted. Perhaps one practical suggestion might be made. While science thinks in terms of Copernican astronomy, geography is still Ptolemaic, since it is universally taught from flat maps. Let the Provincial Normal School and the university introduce a course of geography, taught from globes, of sufficient extent to make teachers and students world-minded. Why not provide every school with a globe and a piece of string so that pupils would learn the shortest air-routes of the world, the countries over which they pass and the distances involved, so that the next generation would think habitually in global terms. Such an educational reform will doubtless being somewhere very soon; let New Brunswick take the lead of this new intellectual outlook.

Other Advances

Communications through radio broadcasting new embraces and must ultimately unite the world. Devices already exist where it is possible for any human voice to be heard simultaneously by all mankind. The late King, George V., by his empire broadcasts, was the first sovereign, perhaps the first person, in history to command a universal audience. Soon the progress in television will enable us to view in our homes the scenery, the architecture, and the current events of every country, All humanity will speedily be brought within sight and hearing of each other. The culture and ideas of different peoples will become not so much a matter of tourist curiosity as the means of mutual understanding and benefit. It is a monstrous condition of the world that its isolated peoples are divided by 1,200 languages. The radio will ultimately reverse Babel and reduce the confusion of tongues to a very few basic forms of speech.

Still to Come

World movements of many kinds are now mooted, world markets, world finance, world labor solidarity, world citizenship and a world church. World depression and unemployment share the globe. Some even have proposed a new world religion consisting of a conglomerate of pieces of all national religions, ignoring the fact that in Christianity a world religion already exists. World ideologies are promulgated, which seethe through great masses of humanity. Even in science, the earth and solar system, once sufficient for the mind of Newton, are now shrinking into mathematical insignificance beside the revelation of a universe of galaxies of stars three hundred million light-years in diameter, which has been expanded by forty million miles while I have been delivering this address. The absolute world of space and time of Newton has been transformed into a relativity universe by the genius of Einstein. World domination on the relatively feeble scale of ancient empires shrinks into nothing in comparison with that now contemplated; for today world empire covets the globe. Perhaps we shall never realize how nearly the frustrated conspiracy against humanity succeeded. Coincident with the fall of this menace, the ideal of world peace and security has arisen in the apprehensive minds of all peoples, and a world conference to achieve that high purpose is now hopefully at work.

A Third Upheaval?

Before our eyes a great and prolonged era of mankind, extending over a period of 25 centuries of attempts at world domination, is sinking into ruin after two world wars, and it will be a miracle if a third upheaval of humanity, which will make the ruin complete, can be avoided. For every nation is fermenting with almost insoluble problems. The exaggerated nationalism of isolationists must in some way be replaced by a new world order of a normal and humanitarian character. The people who lived when Constantinople fell and the Roman Empire was extinguished, doubtless feared that the world was coming to an end. We now view those calamities as the beginning of a new era. Probably a couple of generations hence, people whose emotions are unstirred, will regard the present destruction as the removal of obstacles hindering the inauguration of a new age. It is proclaimed that science will save the world. Science, indeed, has been largely instrumental in unfolding the new world concepts and providing the mechanism for their fulfillment. But can that form of knowledge save which, in the hands of ruthless men, is the most dangerous and effective agency of destruction ever known? It is also true that science has preserved the world, but only because its power is wielded by nations which still uphold respect for humanity and reverence for religion.

Before Us, Not Behind!

The great intellectual spiritual and practical movements which have created the modern era will accomplish their beneficent purposes on a still greater scale in the future. The golden age of architecture, engineering and city planning, and of science generally, is before, not behind us. Knowledge of every kind will widen its horizons, search profounder depths, and become the uplifting possession of all mankind: and in this prospect we can glory now. Devoid of wisdom in their use, they cannot save the world from barbarism and savagery. They will contribute enormously and essentially to the welfare, prosperity and happiness of mankind only as they are merged into the far-reaching purpose of the Creator, the establishment on earth of the Kingdom of God.