University of London: University College Centenary Addresses

Abstract

THE re-issue of these addresses in the form of a bound volume will be welcomed by an even wider public than the members and friends of University College, London. Anniversaries have been celebrated from the dawn of civilisation and correspond to something real and significant in human life. The ‘majority’—the twenty-first anniversary—when a man comes to his estate and arrives at ‘years of discretion,’ was based presumably on some sewfo-physiological facts decocted by lawyers. It corresponds to nothing in the life of an institution, for an institution is born adult, at any rate in such matters as the privilege of paying income-tax. Jubilee, the year following the Jewish seven Sabbaths of years, when liberty was proclaimed and every man returned to his family, had originally a religious and racial meaning. A centenary, representing an arbitrary period of time based on our decimal notation, offers some advantages from the viewpoint of institutional celebration. In the course of Nature, the founders of a college are not privileged to be present at its centenary; and for that reason their memory and achievements may more appropriately be revived and revered. Further, a college which has survived for a century has passed the audits of time and can look forward with equanimity to its future.

University of London: University College. Centenary Addresses.

Bound together in one volume. With a Preface by Dr. R. W. Chambers. Pp. viii + 33 + 36 + 42+ 28 + 31 + 35 + 19 + 30 + 25 + 28 + 28 + 20. (London: University of London Press, Ltd., 1927.) 12s. 6d. net.