ORIGINAL PASSAGE: (324 word)

If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works indeed of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a University is not essentially a birth place of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies or conquers of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotles or Newtons or Napoleons or Washington, of Raphael or Shakespeare, though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts. Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, though such too it includes within its scope. But a University training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end, it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular enthusiasm and fixed aims to popular aspiration. It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what a sophistically and to discard what is irrelevant. It prepares him to fill any post with credit and to master any subject with facility. It shows him how to throw himself into their state of mind, how to bring before them his own, how to influence them, how to come to an understanding with them and how to bear with them.

Precis: (117 words)

The aim of a university is to train the members of society to acclimatize with the world. It plays a wider function. Genius minds like Aristotles or Newtons or Napoleons or Washington, of Raphael or Shakespeare are not the product of any university because the great minds are the marvellous of nature. But universities have the potential to produce such intellectuals. Its training is a great source of establishing a cultured society. It broadens a man’s vision and shows him the brighter side of the world. It teaches him to differentiate between the right and the wrong. It polishes his capabilities and enables him to fill any capacity and train him to bear the sufferings of life.

Heading: The Aim Of A University