Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/316

 self-sufficiency, arrogance; charges of which have, I know, been heretofore freely laid against the young educated Native. I will not say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; for all knowledge is in itself good: but I would ask you to mark carefully the great difference between the pride of knowledge and the humility of wisdom. The more you learn, the more you will discover you have to learn; the more you will fathom your own ignorance; the more illimitable you will find the regions of knowledge; the more you will become diffident and modest; the greater forbearance and deference you will exercise and pay towards your fellows; the more you will be conscious of your own insignificance and the vanity of all human affairs; the more you will marvel at the greatness and goodness of that universal Providence which ordereth all things for good, even when to our finite vision events may present the appearance and the semblance of evil.

Labour, it has often been remarked, makes the difference between man and man: and there is no doubt that honest regular plodding does almost invariably lead to a certain success in life. But as Lord Bacon says: "The most active or busy man that hath been, or can be, hath no question many vacant times of leisure, while he expecteth the tides and the returns of business (except he be either tedious and of no dispatch, or lightly and unworthily ambitious to meddle in things that may be better done by others) and then the question is, but how these spaces and times of leisure shall be filled and spent: whether on pleasure or in studies": and I believe that ultimate and real success of a nature worth the having, and the formation of a truly great and estimable character depend chiefly upon the way in which those interstices of leisure are employed. Mental relaxation, bodily exercise are necessary to all men; they are essential to the cheerful and efficient performance of our daily duties: but let me caution you not to throw away these opportunities of leisure, the only ones you will have left, in idleness or folly, for I will not stoop to add, vice. It is by inculcating the habit of improving your leisure, that you will promote your self- education: and this is all the more indispensable; because all special occupations have a tendency to narrow, however they may sharpen, the intellect. If we are ever poring over the same page, the sphere of vision is bounded by the four corners of our book; if we will never lift our eyes, we may shut out even the glories of Nature and the light of Heaven, until we come insensibly to forget them. It is absolutely necessary therefore for every man immersed in