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第9章

University's Function

Guidance for Reciting

Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know;it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave. Make yourself understand the university's function and get full-educated.

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life,by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information,but it imparts it imaginatively. At least,this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement,arising from imaginative consideration,transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact:it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory:it is energizing as the poet of our dreams,and as the architect of our purposes.

Youth is imaginative,and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline,this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience,and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge;pedants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.

大学的作用

诵读导言

教育不在于使人知其所未知,而在于按其所未行而行。了解教育的意义,充分教育自己。

大学之所以有理由存在,是因为它使老少两代人在富于想象力的学习中,保持了知识与生活热情之间的联系。大学提供信息,但它是富于想象地提供信息。至少,这是它应该为社会发挥的作用。一所大学如果做不到这一点,就没有理由存在。富于想象的思维可以营造出一种令人兴奋的氛围,而这种令人兴奋的氛围又可以转化为知识。事实不再只是事实:它被赋予了种种可能性。它不再是记忆的负担:它充满活力,犹如能描绘我们梦境的诗人,能实现我们意图的建筑师。

年轻人富于想象力,如果这种想象力通过训练得到增强,那么这种想象力就能在很大程度上得以保留,使人受益终生。世界的悲剧就在于有想象力的人缺乏经验,而有经验的人又缺乏想象力。蠢人愚昧无知,单凭想象行事;学究们则死抠知识,缺乏想象,大学的任务就是要使想象和经验融为一体。

Notes

2.zest [zest] n. 兴趣,热情