Graduation Address

"Address to Graduating Class F.R. Taylor, D.C.L., K.C." Alumni Bulletin 5, 1 (25 June 1927): 8-9. (UA Case 67, Box 1)

It is a distinguished honor to have the opportunity of congratulating you, the members of the 1927 graduating class of the University of New Brunswick, upon the completion of your College course. This is, and always will remain, an outstanding event in your lives. Apart from the satisfaction you must all experience on obtaining your degrees, today marks, for most of you, the dividing line between the period of dependency and the adventure into the world in pursuit of fame and fortune. May you be happy and successful and bring credit to your Alma Mater and honor to yourselves.

I do not say today marks the completion of your education. For many the chief advantage of a University is, not what is learned there, but the training of the minds of the students so that they may the more readily acquire an education in the world at large.

I particularly congratulate you upon having studied at the University of New Brunswick. Affiliated with Cambridge University in England, our old College has preserved as much sanity in education as can be found elsewhere. Especially are its requirements in pleasant contrast to the frills furbelows so common to most Government school systems, and from which the lower grades of public education in New Brunswick by no means escape.

That monumental institution in Saint John, so recently erected, costing more than all our University buildings put together, and the operation of which costs the public four times the Provincial annual grant to its University, is an illustration of the control faddists have obtained over our educational system. Why it should be necessary for the public to assist people by free education and palatial surroundings to the lucrative occupations of bricklayers, plumbers, automobile mechanics, electricians, chauffeurs, or cooks, and fail to render similar assistance to those seeking the relatively poorly paid return found in the teaching and other learned professions, passes the understanding of the average man. The Province would be wise to discontinue vocational education as at present administered, (it is too expensive a luxury) and transfer the money thereby largely wasted, as an increased endowment to its University.

The Utilitarian Standpoint

Even our High School curriculum is not such as to give students what formerly would have been regarded as a proper foundation for an University education; hence it is necessary for the students to do work at College which should have been done in the preparatory schools.

The modern tendency prevailing both in the preparatory schools and the University is, I fear, to look at education from a too strictly utilitarian standpoint, departing widely from the methods hallowed by experience and concentrating on subjects which, it is fondly hoped by the least practical of mankind, will be useful to the graduates in after life.

The charter originally granted to the predecessor of the University of New Brunswick gives the views of its founders as to the function of a College education. The object is there stated to be: "the education of youth in the principles of the Christian religion and their instruction in the various branches of literature and science." Today students may graduate from many colleges without appreciably touching a single subject that but a few years ago was considered essential to a college degree.

To Train and Exercise the Minds

It cannot be too firmly impressed upon us that, from the standpoint of education, the principal function of a college course is to train and exercise the minds of the students and fit them quickly and readily to acquire the specific knowledge their occupations in the world will demand. Training the mind is like training the muscles, and the man with a well trained mind and well trained muscles is fit to grapple with, and overcome the obstacles confronting him. The ancient and time honored courses of study, still in a large measure necessary in our college, have been shown by experience to be the best mental training upon which to build a useful and successful life. It is very easy and very cheap to say that Latin and Greek are no longer of any use. As a training of the mind for the acquisition of modern languages nothing is so valuable as a thorough training in the Classics. Even in professional schools, and many of you are graduating from our college's professional departments, the important thing is often not what you learn, but to learn how to learn. I remember when I was studying law a man who subsequently had a most brilliant career at the Bar never took a note during lectures. One day while sitting quite near the lecturer, the lecturer, who had given out a list of fifteen or twenty cases, bearing on a point he was discussing, noticed the student was not taking notes, and said: “Mr. Robinson, what are you going to do when this point occurs in your practice. I see you are not taking down the cases I am citing?” Robinson mildly replied: "Look in a digest." In other words Robinson very properly regarded the law school course as teaching him how to learn. He sought to store his mind with broad principles instead of merely a mass of facts.

Best System of Mental Training

I am glad to say that our College aims as little as any, in departing from what experience has found to be the best system of mental training. I congratulate you upon having spent the years of your college life in such pleasant surroundings. It would be difficult to find in America a situation more admirably adapted for a University than Fredericton; the beauty of the city, its magnificent river, the excellent fishing and shooting and charming scenery, makes the years spent at College from the pleasure of living a memorable incident in the lives of the students.

You are also to be congratulated because during your College years you have seen fit to take a proper interest in sports and have given the University a standing in athletics conspicuous throughout America. Physical development at College must go side by side with mental development. It is equally important. It is idle to spend years in study unless you have the physical stamina to make use of your studies in after life. Muscular training and education is quite as important to you as mental training. Until a few years ago at the English universities football and tennis were unknown, and the sports recognized were cricket and rowing. In the off seasons the students exercised by taking long walks. With the magnificent stretch of water available to you it is a matter of regret that rowing has not, so far been featured as a college activity. Surely our college is not taking full advantage of its wonderful situation, unless due use is made of the river. No form of out-door sport is more attractive both to the participant and the spectator, than rowing. (Of course there is the disadvantage of no gate receipts.) Having achieved such success at football it will only be a short time, I hope, before our crew takes a prominent position in the aquatic world. Is it too much to expect them to imitate in time the famous Paris crew of Saint John and prove that New Brunswick can still compete anywhere in oarsmanship.

The Friends Made at College

Quite as important as the mental and physical education in college is the class of people with whom you are brought in contact. The friends you make at college are your real friends for life and you are most likely to find true friends amongst people of the same stock and the same instincts as yourself. The University is to be congratulated upon it clientiele. No person can say the University of New Brunswick as Lord Redesdale said of Oxford: "There the mild Hindu profitably studies anarchy and the negro takes Holy Orders that he may go back to his own country, receive a revelation, and organize a massacre of all the whites by divine command. Such are the use to which the great Universities of England and America are now put, and this is what is called "reform."

At All Souls College Oxford it is said the candidates for distinctions were invited to dine at Hall. Cherry tart was served and the superior test upon which election depended was the way in which the aspirant disposed of the stones. A fellowship at All Souls then possessed the same quality that Lord Melbourne so much admired in the Order of the Garter, there was "No damned nonsense of merit about it." The importance of social intercourse and habits at college should certainly not be minimized. While perhaps the Oxford test should not be adopted in toto it is not without its moral for the student who wishes to do his best in the world. The social side of life should never be forgotten by ambitious youth.

Relations of Students and Faculty

Of equal importance with the students who are your friends and associates during your life at College is the Faculty. The University of New Brunswick has always been fortunate in having as its professors men of character and individuality. A University of New Brunswick professor could translate and annotate Molière and a few years later assist in leading a rebellion. It is really surprising how many sides a college professor may show. A copy of a book written by C. L. Dodgson, who was Professor of Mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford, "Alice in Wonderland," was sent to Queen Victoria. Her Majesty complimented him upon it and said she would like to receive any other book of his. The professor was greatly flattered and sent her his "Plane Algebraic Geometry." History does not relate whether the Queen found it equally interesting. I have no doubt our Professor of Mathematics has his lighter side just as Professor Dodgson had, though whether Doctor Jones would think writing "Alice in Wonderland" a proper way to spend his time may be open to question.

It would not be fitting for me to conclude my words of congratulation without a few remarks of advice. Doubtless you expect a bit of sermonizing. Possibly most of you at the present moment have the feeling attributed to Lord Coleridge on his graduating from Oxford,—that "what he did not know was not knowledge." He was there at that peculiarly inspiring time "When the Heavens opened and revealed the Church." May I say that his proper appreciation of himself did not at all interfere with his career. He marched rapidly forward and became Lord Chief Justice of England, making as acceptable a Chief Justice as England has ever had. Do not too readily give up the good opinion you now have of your own requirements and your own ability. Cleave to it as a sacred thing and try to live up to it. If you have confidence in yourself others will have confidence in you. It is all very well for people to prate about modesty. Let other people be modest if they will; but think well of yourself. Be conceited, though, if you can help it, be not too offensively conceited, and you will get on in the world and be useful citizens.