Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/315



conqueror. As the din of the martial music is heard through the field, and there is sounded and resounded from the lips of the minstrels—"Honor to the Sons of the Brave!"

 SIXTH CONVOCATION.

Gentlemen,—You have this day finished your general education. The University to which you belong has stamped you with the seal of her approval, and sends you forth into the world valued and accredited with the honor of her degrees. But you would fall into a grievous error if you should suppose, and into a still greater if you acted upon that supposition, that you have now completed your education, and that henceforth you have only to discharge the duties of such offices as you may chance to occupy. Life is one long school, and the education of every man only closes with his dying day.

The objects of your general education have, I trust, been attained; that is to say, that you have become the masters of no inconsiderable mass of substantive information; that you have acquired habits of labour, order, and reflexion; that your minds have become practised instruments for judging accurately and dispassionately on such subjects as may hereafter be submitted to you; and, above all, that you are imbued with sound principles of honourable and moral conduct.

So far from your education being finished, your special education now begins; and remember that hitherto you have had careful, anxious, painstaking, conscientious masters to watch over, to guide, to instruct, and to correct you; but that you are henceforth your own teachers, and self-education has become to each of you his sacred task and duty.

You may, if so disposed, carry your studies, even with reference to this University, to a far higher reach; for it is open to you to seek the degrees of Masters in Arts or Laws. The higher honor is not with us a mere form, but marks a very considerable progress in, and a much deeper knowledge of, the subject-matters in which you have this day taken your several degrees.

But it is rather with reference to your self-education, unconnected with the University, that I would now address you. And I would pray you to be on your guard against the insidious approaches of vanity,