Beautiful Places

Like many another man who never went to college (and like some who did), England's Poet Laureate John Masefield thinks a university is a wonderful place. Last week Harvard, which once gave Masefield an honorary degree, reprinted in its Alumni Bulletin the remarks which

Masefield made in receiving an honorary degree from England's University of Sheffield. John Masefield, often a doctor but never a freshman, still thinks universities are wonderful. Excerpts:

"There are few earthly things more beautiful. ... It is a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see; where seekers and learners alike, banded together in the search for knowledge, will honor thought in all its finer ways, will welcome thinkers in distress or in exile, will uphold ever the dignity of thought and learning, and will exact standards in these things.

"Religions may split into sect or heresy; dynasties may perish or be supplanted, but for century after century the University will continue, and the stream of life will pass through it, and the thinker and the seeker will be bound together in the undying cause of bringing thought into the world. . . ."

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