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大學的理念(Ⅰ) The Idea of a University(Ⅰ)

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[英國]約翰·亨利·紐曼/John Henry Newman

約翰·亨利·紐曼(1801-1890),生於一個加爾文教派家庭,就讀於牛津大學,1824年任神職,為英國基督教聖公會內部牛津運動的領袖,後皈依天主教,1846年成為紅衣主教。1854年在都柏林成立了天主教大學,並任該校校長。為促成該校成立,他發表了一係列精彩演說。

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I protest to you, gentlemen, that if I had to choose between a so-called university which dispensed with residence and tutorial superintendence, and gave its degrees to any person who passed an examination in a wide range of subjects, and a university which had no professors or examinations at all, but merely brought a number of young men together for three or four years, and then sent them away as the University of Oxford is said to have done some sixty years since, if I were asked which of these two methods was the better discipline of the intellect-I do not say which is morally the better, for it is plain that compulsory study must be a good and idleness an intolerable mischief-but if I must determine which of the two courses was the more successful in training, molding, enlarging the mind, which sent out men the more fitted for their secular duties, which produced better public men, men of the world, men whose names would descend to posterity, I have no hesitation in giving the preference to that university which did nothing, over that which exacted of its members an acquaintance with every science under the sun……

When a multitude of young persons, keen, openhearted, sympathetic, and observant, as young persons are, come together and freely mix with each other, they are sure to learn one from another, even if there be no one to teach them;the conversation of all is a series of lectures to each, and they gain for themselves new ideas and views, fresh matter of thought, and distinct principles for judging and acting, day by day. An infant has to learn the meaning of the information which its senses convey to it, and this seems to be its employment. It fancies all that the eye presents to it to be close to it, till it actually learns the contrary, and thus by practice does it ascertain the relations and uses of those first elements of knowledge which are necessary for its animal existence. A parallel teaching is necessary for our social being, and it is secured by a large school or a college, and this effect may be fairly called in its own department an enlargement of mind……