Carol Chen

Four years and eleven months ago, our founders brought forth at Imperial, a new society, conceived in curiosity, and dedicated to the proposition that all history is worth knowing.

Now we are engaged in a great endeavour, testing whether this society, or any so founded and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met within these halls of learning to reflect upon our purpose. We have come to foster a greater appreciation of history, to dedicate ourselves to its study, and to ensure that those who first kindled this flame shall not have founded in vain. It is fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this society alone. The minds, past and present, who have debated, discussed, and delved into the annals of history, have already consecrated it, beyond our humble power to add or detract. The world may little note nor long remember our meetings, but it can never forget the knowledge we uncover. It is for us, the members, to be dedicated here to the ongoing pursuit of learning, which those before us have so nobly advanced. It is for us to recommit ourselves to the great task remaining—that we resolve that the study of history shall not fade into obscurity—that this society, under the banner of scholarship, shall experience a new birth of curiosity—and that a dedication to knowledge, for the students, by the students, shall not perish from Imperial.