THE MILTON AWARDS

The announcement of the grants for research from the Milton Fund serves as a reminder of the two-fold purpose of a university. The more obvious purpose and that which receives the majority of attention is the education of students many of whom have no intention of pursuing their studies farther than in their four years curriculum of formal instruction. Perhaps this may be termed the prime reason for the establishment and maintenance of centers of higher learning. Manifestly, it is for this purpose that most of the funds possessed by the university have been donated. The House Plan, the classrooms, the athletic facilities, all are provided chiefly for the benefit of that class which will not directly carry on the intellectual tradition of the College.

A second and less apparent purpose of the university can be summed up in the trite phrase "to keep alive the light of learning." Those who are to turn out that indefinite product--the educated man--must have more for their background than four or even six years of classroom education, will provide. To codify and present knowledge in comprehensible form is their profession; they have dedicated themselves to the work of revealing to other men the treasures of the ages. But their duty does not end there; they must not stagnate in the mere conning over of long-known facts. What is called progress in civilization demands continual conquest over a previously unknown body of knowledge. This then, while not the most, important is the highest goal of the university. Research which is requisite for this progress in learning cannot be carried out without pecuniary resources. The Milton Fund has generously supplied those needs for the pursuit of what is more important to the University as a whole than even to the individuals engaged in the work.