Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/294



My Lord,—The Senate of the University having decided that a portion of this day's proceedings shall consist of the delivery of an Address by one of their body to the newly-admitted graduates, and your Lordship having thought fit to appoint me to discharge this duty, I betake myself to the execution of my task, which would be far from a disagreeable one, were it not for the conviction that its performance will suffer from the feebleness of the hands to which it has been entrusted.

Gentlemen, you who have just received degrees, have you reflected on the signification of your Diplomas and on the obligations which they carry along with them? Do you regard them as the "be all and the end all," or do you view them as an introduction, an honorable introduction, to a career of intellectual and moral progress? It is probable that on these points, and indeed on most others connected with this day's ceremonial, your notions are vague and indefinite. Universities are of long standing in the West, but here they are novelties: and moreover the differences that must necessarily exist between them,—where they have for centuries formed part and parcel of the social and religious framework of a nation,—and where they have been newly introduced in what may be called an exotic form, are so great, as to leave all minds more or less in a state of incertitude regarding their character and operation in India. Taking the Universities of Europe, though they always played an important part, and on some occasions a prominent one, still their nature and influence are but slightly brought before the student of general history; to natives of India their constitution must be almost unknown, and