McGill University - Old McGill Yearbook (Montreal Quebec, Canada)

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f llllwlli Gllill.-151213 The Principals Message T0 THE JUNIQR YEAR OF MCGILL I E CANADIANS are proud, and very rightly proud, of the country in which we live. Gften, perhaps even too often, we think and speak of the riches with which nature has dowered our land, her miles of fertile farms, her great forests, her harnessed rivers, and those yet waiting for the curb, the still incalculable value of her metals, her wonderful geographical position securing for her ports the trade of Atlantic and Pacific alike. These are indeed assets which might make any race rejoice, possessing which it might well look forward to a prosperous and glorious future. Yet there is one of our national belongings without which all the others would be of very little avail, a possession of which we must make full use, must bring to the fullest and finest development so that our other possessions may be developed with it and by it. Canada's greatest and most precious potential asset is the youth that fills her schools and colleges. Your fathers have left you in this country of ours a heritage such as no race so few in numbers ever owned, but in all your inheritance there is no legacy so important as the legacy of yourselves. On you is laid the duty of making the most of it, none but yourselves can make yourselves of use to Canada, to your fellow citizens and to the world. lt is to learn this duty that you have come to McGill. Sometimes we hear education spoken of as if it could be bought, cut off by the yard and carried away like a piece of cloth from a shop. You pay so much money and in return a number of professors are responsible for putting into your head a given quantity of knowledge which you can use in making a living. Never was there a more mistaken point of view, yet perhaps it is not surprising that some should hold it, for of all the men and women engaged in the business of education, teachers or students, how many stop to think why we are doing it all? What is the aim of education? Why have you come to the University? Why is the University here to serve you? On this subject many books have been written and many more are likely to be written, yet when all is told perhaps we have not said much more than that the aim of the University is to help you in your task of developing yourselves as national assets. The task is primarily yours. The University is here to guide, to help, to inspire, but it is on you that lies the duty. Knowledge indeed we know you are seeking, but Erst is to be found the right way to acquire it, and the right way to use it. You must learn to think, and you must learn to know men. Only by taking time for real thought can you ever gain a knowledge of the subjects you study, parrot repetitions for the purpose of passing examinations will never get you anywhere in after life. The mnemonicfridden mind soon forgets even its mnemonics. Lectures can do something for you, but not everything. You must rely on the work you do for yourselves and if that work is to be of any use it calls for hard, concentrated thinking. Nor can you appreciate too lightly the chance you have in college to learn the ways of your fellows, to accustom yourselves to everyday life. There bookflearning is not much good unless you know how to use it in dealing with men. Here at McGill you are the people of what is in reality a common' wealth, you have a share to take in its activities, yet all the while you have your own work to do. In like manner when you leave McGill you will have duties in the community, duties for the nation and your own living to make. You will do them all better if you learn while you are here to live a balanced life. These are things which no one can teach you, you must discover them for yourselves, and if you fail to discover them you will fail to make the most of yourselves. Finally, having discovered something of the road to knowledge, having learned something of the way to usefulness in the world, do not forget to follow those paths as far as you can. Learn as much as it is in you to learn, make it your daily aim to equip yourselves as well as you may for the life that lies before you. Remember always your ideals, strive always towards a dehnite object, develop yourselves, then shall you be doing your part in bringing to its highest value what shall one day be the greatest of your own and your country's assets the youth of Canada. Y r Y X january, 14925.

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IiDli1'IIIl5f!5ilLfflEI2li Puri Ibg N I SIR ARTHUR WILLIAM CURRIE, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., LL.D Principal and VtcefCI1anceIlor Il XJ

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