ABSTRACT

No human being can ever be content to remain in a state of benighted ignorance. All men endeavour to escape from a state of ignorance by careful effort. Throughout the past history of the race this type of aspiration has been continuously manifest, while in this present day it is universal. This is equally true whether we consider the individual, the small community, the great province, the country at large, or even the world as a whole. All alike endeavour to follow the same course. No one will deny the statement that the voice of the reader grows ever louder in the land or that the facilities for education are ever more complete. The steady advance in human culture arises from this very impulse. Not only is the cultivation of intellectual faculties essential to us as human beings, such obligations have even greater weight for us as citizens of the Empire.