At the Opening Ceremony of the "University Women's Union": The President's Address

Ladies, Gentlemen:

The first thing incumbent upon the cultivated human being, in the face of any matter, is to ask and to inquire. And so you ask, no doubt, why this Union came into being, and what its existence means.

In answer to that question I say:

This Union came into being because there existed a group thirsty for discovery, eager to go deep, earnest in research, walking in pursuit of knowledge.

And this group found that the best of paths to the attainment of those ends is organized, continuous, cooperative work; so its members called one another to form this university body, whose foundation is progressive thought, resting upon disinterestedness, truth, and love — those values which make of Lebanon a home of knowledge, a fount of love, and a beacon among the sister countries marching in the caravan of civilization and progress.

This is the secret of its existence, and this is the basis of its birth and its being. And who is worthier than the university elite to carry this message; who has a better claim to the fostering of modern thought and the development of the new cultural consciousness?

There has arisen in Lebanon a blessed women's movement, active for nearly half a century now, which has held the winning arrow in the fields of charity and social work, and which has carried, on behalf of those responsible, a large share of the burdens of public undertakings — from the founding of hospitals to the establishment of clinics and the care of orphanages, and other works of piety and charity besides — quite apart from the efforts it has expended over the years to win woman her political rights. Every one of us feels the merit of this movement and acknowledges it. Every one of us bears toward that first generation of strugglers and fighters a feeling of esteem and reverence for those praiseworthy endeavors. And every one of us harbors a feeling of love and appreciation for those dear faces, and for the ties and memories that bind us to them.

Yet what the Lebanese woman has accomplished until now has been mostly in the social and charitable field, and lately in the political field. Our field, however, is first of all the cultural field, for it falls within our intellectual specialty, and the practical specialty of most of us; and for this reason we hold that our efforts and the efforts of those who went before us complete one another in the general social field.

The message of this body is a message difficult of fulfillment, and its road is long and beset with difficulties; but for all that, we must march.

I do not claim that we shall achieve our purpose and reach our goal in the fullest and most perfect manner. But I ask that we march as far as we are able to march; that we not hesitate to press forward toward this end; and that we cooperate with everyone who wishes to cooperate with us in fulfilling it. Then our souls will rest assured about the future, and our consciences will be at ease that we have discharged the trust we took up; and this body will become a progressive intellectual unit, and an effective link in the chain of the great intellectual renaissance.

To my fellow university women, then, I turn and say:

You are one of the greatest elements of culture in Lebanon, and a vanguard of the vanguards of the renaissance. And we have a heritage that we must preserve — nor ought we be content merely to preserve it; we must develop it and add to it, and turn toward the nations that have gone before us in the arena of civilization and thought, so that we may take and give; for the time of shrinking inward has passed, and the unity of human thought has become an accomplished fact.

In closing, I must say that those who cherish the freedom of their homeland must, before all else, secure for it a disinterested intellectual life.

And those who wish it pleasure and glory must open to the sons of their homeland the doors of learning, of knowledge, and of sound thought.

To such a life — a life raised above private prejudices and narrow, odious partisanships, and grounded upon a foundation of the humanity of thought and the truths of science — I call you to work, honored sisters.