Inaugural Address at Edinburgh
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1866
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 30 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendCritical and Miscellaneous EssaysChapman and Hall, 1869Prints the address as delivered; the Harvard Classics volume 25 reprints it alongside Characteristics.
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The speech Carlyle gave in April 1866 on being installed as Rector of the University of Edinburgh, more than fifty years after he had been a poor student there. Speaking without notes, he tells the students that the true university is a collection of books and that the real work of education is what they do on their own, by reading well and steadily. He praises industry, silence and honesty, warns against showy talk and against reading merely to be thought clever, urges attention to history and to the mathematics and languages that discipline the mind, and closes on the duty of doing whatever work is given to you thoroughly.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Inaugural Address at Edinburgh are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.