Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/209

 Solvitur amhulando is the answer to the problem which the large number of successful gentlemen present here have given. As a matter of fact they have answered the questions and they have passed the Examinations, so that there is no absolute impossibility in the matter, and for my part, and I think I may speak for the executive council of the University, the Syndicate, that we see no reason whatever to doubt for a moment either the capacity or the goodwill and kindness of the examiners, who have had so hard and irksome a task cast upon them. These examiners, gentlemen of the Senate, need the support of your good opinion and confidence, and they ought to receive it in unstinted measure, because it is one of the first points of morality in an institution of this kind, one of the elementary points on which its constitution and subsistence depend, that there should be perfect confidence in the working of the institution; and that the verdicts of the examiners should be entirely above question by those who have submitted to them. Any course taken by those who are interested in the University, which is contrary to the principle I have laid down, is a course which, I think, cannot but prove deeply injurious to the institution. We know that not only very young men, but men of more advanced years are much more ready to cast their failures and their disappointments on any other cause than the cause which rests within themselves. The bringing into question the verdicts of examiners or the decisions of bodies having authority tends to create doubt and hesitancy, to bring all matters as it were into controversy, and to make the matter after all in the opinion of those who are concerned something on which a great deal may be said on both sides. Thus faith is lost and the energy inspired by faith. Whether the University examinations are carried on honestly and judiciously or not, is not a profitable topic for undergraduates. Instead of putting any ideas of this kind before the minds of young men, who have the misfortune to be disappointed this year, I would say to them : "Accept the ill-fortune which has now befallen you with manly fortitude and modesty, with simple dignity, and with a resolution to overcome the evil star which apparently has shone malignly upon you this time. Perhaps the very disappointment which you have experienced will be the starting point of your chief success in life, and if you make up your minds to go forward instead of looking backwards, you will find that the obstacles which now appear to be so impervious and insurmountable will fall away at the touch of honest and assiduous toil, and in the end you will go on your way rejoicing."