Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/155

140 you have in some sort reaped the fruits of others' toil dedicated for centuries to the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. The teachers under whom you have studied have been the interpreters between the world and you of what would else have been a mere confusion of tongues or a chaos of unrelated facts.

You must have seen by what small accretions of knowledge the way has been prepared for the greatest triumphs of human genius. On you it devolves in turn to be the interpreters to your countrymen of the European learning and moral energy by which their national being may be renovated. On you it devolves to repay your debt to learning by adding some gain of observation or of thought to its expanding store. If you cannot discover you can verify; if you cannot originate "the thoughts that breathe and words that burn," you can illustrate them; you can enforce them; and in this Eastern land, the ancient nursery of Civilization, you can help to form the intellectual soil from which new growths of wisdom, happiness and beauty are to spring up in the time to come.

 

Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—It would have been impossible, I presume, that the report, necessarily voluminous, could have been heard by this great audience, but I hope that its circulation will place in all your hands the information conveyed. Yet there are some features in it to which I cannot but call your attention, though, on this occasion, more briefly than I could have desired. The history of this University now extends over a quarter of a century, and it is not to be expected that in each successive year there shall be changes and marks of progress so considerable as to call for special mention.

The year which has just closed has, on the whole, been uneventful; but the progress of the University has been continuous, although no such great change has taken place as to make, it memorable in our annals. In the report which has been presented, it is stated that the examinations have been generally satisfactory, particularly in the division of the chapter of Arts, in which there has been a marked increase in numbers. I note that whereas in 1879 there were 97 candidates for the B.A. Degree, of whom only 51 passed; in 1880, 100 candidates, of whom 34 passed; in 1881, 125 candidates, of whom 36 passed — 