responsibility for the safety and welfare of our country to institutions
such as this and to the young men and women like you who have been
trained in them. It states about as clearly as it can be stated that educa-
tion is our salvation, and if we regret it, we run the risk of exter-
mination. The great burden, then, falls upon your shoulders. That is
why I said in the beginning that a little gravity, a little seriousness, is
appropriate under these circumstances, as much as I should like to be
able to tell you to go on out into the world and have fun now that
examinations are over and the college diploma is in your hand. You are
now "educated, " or so we say of those who have been awarded degrees
such as you have obtained here today. But here I would caution you on
one point: That "education" is a relative term, signifying a long and
endless journey out of darkness. The educative process begins with the
crib and ends at the tomb.... This is no idle figure of speech, for it is
quite literally true that in the swiftly moving age in which we live our
studies must continue through life if we keep apace. Those of you who
have been schooled in the sciences understand that perhaps better than
the rest of us.

Who is it that would entrust his health to a physician who ceased to
read his medical journals? And who would rely on the judgment of the
engineer who uses what he has learned in the classroom and never again
considers the developments that are being made in the field of engineer-
ing. Though science may provide the best examples, the phenomenon
is not confined to the areas of science. In the whole field of knowledge,
we must continue to work and study and think to the very end.

It was Anatole France, I believe, who described teaching as "the art
of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of
satisfying it afterwards. " I expect that in years to come, when you look
back upon the brief years you spent in this University, you will find that
this stimulation of a natural curiosity to know and understand things is
the one lasting reward you receive for your studies here.

And could you, after all, ask for more? One cannot be educated, one
must educate himself. Your curiosity to know has been stimulated, if
you have taken what has been offered you here. The satisfaction of that
curiosity is now in your hands, and the degree of the satisfaction, more
than what you have absorbed in classrooms, libraries and laboratories
here, will determine the depth and the extent of your education....

The future, indeed, is bright for ourselves and our country if we heed
the warning signals we see and move forward with both caution and
determination. We would fail of duty, however, if we remained indif-

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