Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/323



these that I wish more particularly to call your attention. For instance, there is a duty which you owe to the State. Every citizen of a State is bound to yield a willing and cheerful obedience to the law, and to support, as far as in him lies, the cause of order and good government. And surely this obligation, incumbent as it is upon all, is more especially incumbent on those citizens, who like yourselves have received a superior education. You ought to be above the prejudices and passions which hold unlimited sway over the minds of the masses; a calmer judgment, a more intelligent obedience will surely be expected, and, I trust, found in you. But there is another point connected with this duty to the State, which concerns most of you very nearly. I do not wish to dwell much upon it, but I think it well briefly to allude to it. Most of you I believe have at an important period of your life received what may really be called a State education, and to this education, utilized by your own industry, you owe your present position. You have received then a great benefit, will you not strive to make some adequate return? And this brings me by an easy transition to another class of duties. I mean your duties to your fellow-countrymen. For you can hardly show your sense of the advantages you have derived from the liberality of the State in a better way than by endeavouring to enlighten the community to which you belong. There are many ways in which you may do this, but a single instance will suffice for the present. It often occurs that the best intentions of Government, the best plans devised by it solely and purely for the good of the people, are misunderstood and misrepresented. You and such as you, can, I think, do much to prevent this; you know well enough the utter groundlessness of the belief popularly entertained from time to time upon such matters, and if each of you in his own sphere were to endeavour to combat these delusions and to place in their proper light the acts of the Government, I feel assured that much immediate and permanent good would be the result. Again, to speak of the subject so proper to this particular time and place. Education—ought not you who have made some progress in knowledge, who have at least learned enough to long ardently to know more, and to wish that others should have the same tastes and aspirations; ought not you I say to endeavour to the very utmost of your power to spread among your people the blessings you yourselves so highly appreciate. Some of you have already devoted yourselves, or are immediately about to do so, to the task of spreading education directly, by becoming