This is an anonymous translation of a speech that Abdu’l-Baha gave at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, on May 23, 1912. He spoke in Arabic. A Persian text was published in Persian in Star of the West, and translated by Bahais in Worcester in the 1970s. If the Persian is an ad hoc interpretation of what Abdu’l-Baha was saying in Arabic, this talk does not meet the standards of this blog, unless there is evidence that Abdu’l-Baha approved the Persian translation of his words. More research is required to show that the translation is based on either a verbatim Arabic report or a text approved by Abdu’l-Baha.
The header of the Persian report of this talk, in Star of the West, gives the subject as ‘ilm / علم . The translators have chosen to use the word “science” throughout, although the text shows a range of meanings from knowledge and scholarship to technology and science. Everything that a broad university aims to promote falls under the Persian, and Arabic, concept of “science.” The translation is on the Bahai Library web site in PDf format. The site of the Worcester Bahai community has some background information.
In the Phelps inventory, this is item ABU2468.
Abdu'l-Baha speaks 