The Aim of a University Education
by John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
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.
如果一定要赋予大学教育一个切实的目的，我的主张是培养社会的好公民。大学教育的艺术就是社会生活的艺术，其目的就是使人适应这个世界。
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;
大学教育一方面既不应把着眼点局限于某些特定的职业上，另一方面也不应是造就英雄，培养天才。事实上，天才伟业无法人为造就，英雄的思想亦如天马行空。
A University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotles or Newtons, of Napoleons or Washingtons, of Raphaels or Shakespeares, though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts.
大学不是诗人、不朽作家和学派创立者的诞生地，也不是殖民地头领或外族征服者的培训所。大学并不承诺要造就一批亚里士多德、牛顿、拿破仓、华盛顿、拉斐尔、莎士比亚式的巨人，尽管这些大自然的杰作此前曾在大学的院墙中出现过。
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.
此外，大学也不应满足于培养批评家、实验人员、经济学家和工程师，尽管这些人才的培养也在大学教育的范畴之内。
But a University training is the great but 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, at giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at facilitating the exercise of political power, and refining the intercourse of private life.
大学教育是一条通向伟大而平凡的目标的伟大而平凡的途径。大学教育旨在提高社会的知识氛围，培养国民的公心，净化国民的情趣，为浮躁的公众提供真正的公理，为公众的理想提供确定的目标，扩大时代的思想库并注入冷静的思考，促进政治权力的行使，提高人际交流的质量。
It is the education that gives a man a clear, conscious view of his won opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them.
大学教育应让人清醒地认知自己的观点和判断，并正确地发挥，雄辩地阐述，有力地强调。
It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophistical, and to discard what is irrelevant. It prepares him to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility.
大学教育应教会人们看清事物的真实面目并直接抓住要害，教会人们解开思想的缰结，发现其中的诡辩之处，舍弃其中的不相关之处。大学教育使人做好准备，可靠地胜任任何职位，轻松自如地掌握任何科目。
It shows him how to accommodate himself to others, 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, how to bear with them.
大学教育教会人们如何适应他人，如何设身处地为人着想，如何把自己的想法转达给他人，如何影响他人，如何相互理解、相互宽容。
He is at home in any society; he has common ground with every class; he knows when to speak and when to be silent; he is able to converse; he is able to listen; he can ask a question pertinently, and gain a lesson seasonably, when he has nothing to impart himself;
与任何群体的人相处，他都融洽自然；与任何人相交，他都有共同之处。他明白何时该说话，何时该沉默；他善于交谈，也善于倾听；当自己没有什么可述说的时候，他能够中肯地提出问题，并适时地接受教育；
He is ever ready, yet never in the way; he is a pleasant companion, and a comrade you can depend upon; he knows when to be serious and when to trifle with gracefulness and to be serious with effect. He has the repose of a mind which lives in itself, while it lives in the world, and which has resources for its happiness at home when it cannot go abroad.
他总是跃跃欲试，但从不妨碍他人；他是一个让人感到愉快的伙伴，让人可以依赖的朋友；他懂得何时应当严肃，何时可以嬉闹；他通脱而机智，嬉闹时不失优雅，严肃时不怒自威。他身处尘世而心静如水，足不出户而怡然自得。
He has a gift that serves him in public, and supports him in retirement, without which good fortune is but vulgar, and with which failure and disappointment have a charm.
他具有一种天赋，在他为公众服务时，使他游刃有余；在他退隐之后，赋予他精神上的支撑。若是没有这种天赋，纵然家财万贯，亦不脱粗俗；若是有了这种天赋，即使历经挫折，饱尝失望，也自有魅力。
The art which tends to make a man all this, is in the object which it pursues as useful as the art of wealth or the art of health, though it is less susceptible of method, and less tangible, less certain, less complete in its result.
旨在教诲人们所有这一些的技艺，正是大学教育追求的目标，它与获取财富的技艺、获取健康的技艺同样有用，尽管相比较而言，这种技艺更不易掌握，更不可琢磨，更难以确定，更不易完全具备。