The universities are schools of education, and schools of research. But the primary reason for their existence is not to be found either in the mere knowledge conveyed to the students or in the mere opportunities for research afforded to the members of the faculty.

　　大学是受教育的地方，也是做研究的地方。但是，仅仅向学生传授知识或仅仅给教师提供研究的机会都不是大学存在的主要原因。

　　The justification of a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and zestof life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The universityimparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transformsknowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is energizing as the poet of our dreams, and as thearchitect of our purposes.

　　大学之所以有理由存在，是因为通过让年轻人和老一辈人在学习中一起发挥想象力，可以在知识和生活热情之间保持一种联系。大学传授知识，但它传授知识的方式富有想象力。最起码，这是大学应该为社会起到的作用。一所大学如果做不到这一点，那它就失去了存在的理由。这种由发挥想象力带来的紧张气氛能改变知识。事实不再仅仅是事实：它能起到激励作用，就像是我们的梦想的诗人、目标的设计者。

　　Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating the facts. It works byeliciting the general principles which apply to the facts, as they exist, and then by an intellectual survey of alternative possibilities which are consistent with those principles. It enables men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest of life by the suggestion of satisfying purposes.

　　想象离不开现实：它是照亮现实的一种办法。其工作原理是：总结出适用于现存客观现实的一般规律，然后对符合这些规律的各种可能性进行知识调查。它能够使人们对一个新的世界构成一种智力想象，并通过树立令人满意的生活目标保持对生活的热情。

　　Youth is imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline, this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced havefeeble imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.

　　年轻人富有想象力，如果想象力通过训练得到提高，那这种想象力多半会保持终身。世界的悲剧是富有想象力的人经验不足，而经验丰富的人缺乏想象力。傻瓜没有知识而光凭想象办事，学究缺乏想象而只靠知识行事。大学的任务就是把想象力和经验结合起来。

　　Vocabulary

　　faculty n. 全体教员

　　justification n. 正当的理由

　　zest n. 热情

　　imaginative a. 富于想象力的

　　impart v. 传授

　　in this respect 在这方面

　　atmosphere n. 气氛

　　arise from 由…引起

　　transform v. 改变

　　energize v. 赋予能量

　　architect n. 设计师

　　divorce v. 分离

　　illuminate v. 照明

　　elicit v. 引出

　　intellectual a. 知识的

　　survey n. 调查

　　alternative a. 供选择的

　　consistent a. 一致的

　　strengthen v. 加强

　　in great measure 在很大程度上

　　feeble a. 虚弱的

　　pedant n. 学究

　　weld v. 使结合