COMMENCEMENT

                    Now you’re at last about to graduate,
                    Prepared by your collegiate days to give
                    Your fruits of learning and articulate
                    What you have found of how to rightly live,
                    For that’s what liberal studies aim to do—
                    To liberate you from the darkness of
                    All kinds of ignorance and pursue
                    Not only useful knowledge but the love
                    Of wisdom—education’s highest aim:
                    To understand what’s valuable to do
                    For its own sake and to avoid the shame
                    Of not attaining what you should pursue:
                         The good life that’s productive and sublime
                         Lived by the principle that love is prime.

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