University of Toronto - Torontonensis Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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4-Q . The Presiclent's Message IDEO MELIORA, PROBOQUEQ DETERIORA SEQUOR, I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse, Ovid confessed over nineteen hundred years ago. His words sound a warning for 1951. As never before, we are bound to close the gap between profession and practice. For mem- bers of a great University this is a stern imperative. True to her heritage and in fulfilment of her indigenous genius, our University exacts from us loyalty to the highest ideals. That is no rhetorical flourish, it is a basic requirement. University graduates are charged with seeing that fundamentals are not sacrificed to the exigencies of circumstance. Although democracies must, in these parlous days, maintain adequate military defences, it is upon their spiritual defences that they depend, ultimately, for survival. They must never acquiesce in the shallow concept that the fate of our civilization will be determined by threat of force or by conflict of arms. Ideas can never be annihil- ated by force. They can only be defeated by better ideas that will work. Democracy, unlike totalit- arianism, lays down no static specifications for society. It is rather a principle the very existence of which demands change and reform. Its very vitality derives from the right, and indeed the obliga- tion, of the individual to speak and act under the Rule of Law according to the dictates of his mind and conscience. While I 'think nostalgically of my younger days before World War I, when we were confident that mankind was on an uninterrupted march to the uplands of liberty limited only by self-imposed discipline, I rejoice that this period of storm and stress demands a sterner courage and exacts a deeper faith. 4 1, . ff ' :MGB L43- net I l fan . . QW- I,a,i 1 'H'2L,:l'ii Mpul' -6:1-f 1 .. 1-Q .ii-.1

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As sons and daughters of Varsity, do not, I pray, succumb to the folly and frenzy of the moment. If you of a younger generation fail in faith and falter in fulhlment, you will be writing for all of us ignominious terms of surrender to the forces of evil. Your faith and your fulfilment are needed. Faith without works is dead is still a ringing challenge. Your University seeks to develop intel- lectual power. Yet it recognizes that intellectualism may be arid, and that sheer analysis by the mind may result in mere paralysis of the will. Calculated measurements and graduated evaluations may obscure the inspiration and aspiration of mankind. To the graduates: Will you be content to profess the better, yet practise the worse? Your University confidently expects that you will believe. that you will proclaim. and that you will show forth in your lives her cherished ideals. ..l