Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/199

 plenty of opportunities, and they can gratify their own individual taste in supporting or endowing this or that particular line of research or mental development without in any way affecting the special susceptibilities of any members of this institution. There was a city in ancient days founded by a great conqueror,—I am speaking of Alexandria,-and when that great conqueror founded that city he established it as a gateway of communication and as a means of connection between the East and the West. That great city of commerce was the seat of a long line of kings. It had wealth beyond most cities of the ancient world, and it was the favoured resort of many of the great ones of the earth. It has occupied a great place in history, but the greatest place it has taken has been on account of its library, on account of its learned men, and on account of the philosophy and learning which grew up there, and which have left its name, whatever its future fate may be, imperishable in the intellectual history of mankind. Now in our day and our age Bombay occupies quite an analogous position to that of Alexandria in the ancient world. Bombay is for us the gateway between the Bast and the West. There meet the men of various nations, and there they exchange their merchandise. There also then, I say, should be that interchange of thoughts and ideas by which Bombay, like Alexandria, may rise to a fame quite independent of the wealth of its citizens, and of any fate which may befall it. Here in Bombay, where converging races from the East and West meet, should rise a school of scholarship and philosophy, which should make this city a worthy successor to the great city founded by Alexander the Great. Surely to forward such a work as this is an ambition worthy of the greatest and most distinguished of our citizens. I hope they will now and in all future time rise to the occasion, and it will be a part of their ambition—certainly it will be the noblest and purest part of their ambition—to endow the learned institutions, and especially the University in this city, with such gifts, make them so rich, and furnish such encouragements to learning, research, and study, as shall make Bombay intellectually the first city in Asia and second to none in the world. Let me remind these citizens that at the period of the Renaissance in Europe, which corresponds much in many ways to the awakening of thought and intellectual light which is now making its way in India, the citizens of the great cities were lavish in their gifts and in their expenditure for the encouragement of learning. The great merchants of Florence, as some of their day-books, their "mels," preserved down to our own time show, not only had their correspondents in all parts of the world for gathering up