Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/276



the affiliated colleges and institutions are annually sending out into the world, in increasing numbers, a body of men who have been making full use of the opportunities they have had for preparing themselves for the public service and the liberal professions. Such a process cannot be without its effect on the community at large. It means, or it ought to mean, a steady and progressive improvement in the conduct of all kinds of public and private business for which educated men are wanted. I say it ought to mean this, because this University has never been content that its degrees should imply only that the holders of them have reached a certain standard of intellectual fitness and nothing more. It is not in the power of this or any other University to guarantee that its graduates, on whatever careers they may enter, shall be good citizens from whom steady and faithful work may be expected. But as far as it lies in us, we have always endeavoured, while discharging the duties imposed on us as a Board of Examiners, to perform also some of the higher functions of a University by refusing our degrees to any candidates, however intellectually qualified they may be, who have not been subject, for regulated periods, to the wholesome influences of college life. We have hoped that, in this way, by coming into intimate association, in their daily walk, with men of learning and of character, they would grow in knowledge and in wisdom also. Considerations of this kind certainly had weight with us when we lately extended the course of study for the B.A. Degree from 3 years to 4 years. It was thought to be a distinct advantage, to be set against any additional expense that might fall on undergraduates or any other possible inconvenience, that they should remain for the lengthened period of 4 years under the influence of academical associations and surroundings. So far as in us lies, therefore, we endeavour to minimize any possible defects of our system, and to fit our graduates as efficiently as may be for the work that may be before them. Such being our resolute endeavour, the "charge" which is addressed from this chair to every graduate on whom a degree is conferred, that he should in his life and conversation show himself worthy of the same, is no idle, meaningless formula. It is an earnest, anxious exhortation, delivered under a sense of the solemnity of the occasion. It is the parting word of the University to the youth who has equipped himself for the battle of life under her guidance. It tells him to be a "hero in the strife," and never, by idle word or corrupt conduct, to bring dishonour on himself and his country. If we wish to set forth the teaching of this