Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/19

 thorough scholarship in all those branches which we profess to teach. And I would venture to express a hope that no attempt will be made to lower the University standard in any respect. And, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, while congratulating the Senate on the successful result of this first examination for University Degrees, I am sure I only speak the sentiments of every member of the University present in offering the tribute of the warm thanks of the Senate to the highly respected Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dr. Harkness, who is so shortly to leave us. As the first professor in Elphinstone College, it must be a source of sincere and heartfelt pleasure to him to witness a scene like this before us. He watched over the cradle of the University in its infancy; and now before he finally returns to the country where his own academical honours were gained, he has been permitted to see this University established in its maturity, and promising, I trust, to take its place amongst the great Universities of the British Empire. I would, in conclusion, say a few words to you who have this day graduated, and are about to quit this University for the active pursuits of life. I would beg of you to recollect that you are no longer pupils of any single school, but graduates of a University. Your standard must henceforth be, not that of your masters, or even of the Government to whose service some of you may devote yourselves, but of the whole educated world. You have the character of this University to maintain. Wherever the studies of this University are known and appreciated, you have to establish its reputation, and I trust you will help to remove from the learned men of India the common reproach that we are now compelled to seek professors in every branch of learning, even in the ancient classical languages of your own country, on the banks of the Rhine or the Seine, the Isis or the Forth. But while I trust that we may henceforward look for profound scholars among the educated Hindoos and Development Parsees, I trust that one of your great objects will always be to enrich your own vernacular literature with the learning which you acquire in this University. Remember, I pray you, that what is here taught is a sacred trust confided to you for the benefit of your countrymen. The learning which can here be imparted to a few hundreds, or at most to a few thousands, of scholars, must by you be made available through your own vernacular tongues to the many millions of Hindoostan. The great majority of your countrymen can only learn through the language which is taught them at