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Address by T. S. Eliot, ’06, to the Class of ’33, June 17, 1933
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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Twenty-seven years ago I sat here with the graduating class − not in this hall, we did not seem to need so much room in those days − and somebody then got up on the platform and made the sort of speech that I am supposed to make.
That being so, the question is: Whom am I to talk to? The graduating class, if it is true to form, does not listen. Of course, I cannot condescend to anyone else. I can hear what I am saying myself, but you must remember that, differently from twenty-seven years ago, I am now on my best behavior and have to listen. Besides, three of my old masters are present,
However, it occurred to me that as I had to talk to somebody, I would take more or less a metaphorical figure and make him as real as I could − that is, it occurred to me to say a few words to the ghost of myself at the age of seventeen or thereabouts, whom we may suppose to be skulking somewhere about this hall. I have always wanted to say something to him and I have a number of grievances against that character.
I should like to face him and say: “Now look at me. See what a mess you have made of things. What have you got to say for yourself?” So I shall begin by saying to him: “Up to now you have contributed something to your own education, but for the most part you have been taught, and from now on you have got to contribute a good deal more to your own education and cooperate, because from now on you won’t learn anything unless to a large extent you are teaching yourself. You have got to find out for yourself what you want to do in the next few years. You must find out what you want to do and whether you are capable of doing it. The probability is assuming that you are neither a rotter nor an absolute weakling − that you belong to one of three general classes of individuals. The first always seemed to me a rather fortunate class of people. They are those who from very early time seem to have developed a very clear bent in a certain direction and, having abilities in that way, it is quite clear what they want to do and what they ought to do for the rest of their lives. A great many of these people, I think, are very often scientifically inclined. They include the fellows who are always...