Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/362

Rh Good example is a language all can understand. There are footsteps and footsteps on the sea shore; footsteps which the returning tide sweeps away; footsteps which ocean's waves cannot efface. Let me point out to you the footprints on the sands of time of one who translated faithfully into daily life the "true and fest" of his princely shield; of one who lives alike in the hearts and memories of a grateful and sorrowing people, as the personification of all the courtesy, wisdom and nobleness of soul of the poet's ideal knight. Amid "that fierce light which beats upon a throne" he stood before a blot-seeking, blot-loving world, noble yet humble, wise yet gentle, learned yet modest, bearing on his breast "the white flower of a blameless life," and in his heart the love of all that is good, and true and beautiful. In your much narrower sphere of duty seek to imitate a gentle, true life like his; like him, strive to leave to your children that noblest of all burdens to carry, an unstained and honored name, and, above all, reverence, as he did, your conscience as your king.

In looking back, whether from the near or distant future, upon this eventful day of your lives, your satisfaction will be deepened by the reflection that your honors were conferred by one who bears a historic name, a name synonymous in the annals of Britain with promptitude and power, no less than with loyalty and duty; by the reflection also that your success has been witnessed by a sovereign Indian Prince, whose enlightened rule will be pointed to with admiration by generations unborn; and more than all, will your satisfaction be deepened by the remembrance that your much-coveted degrees have been proclaimed in the presence of a Prince of the Blood-Royal of England, whom with loyal hearts we welcome to our shores for his own sake, for the sake of Albert the Good, and for the sake of her, the gentle Lady, who reigns, not more by right of ancient descent over the persons, than by right of queenly love in the hearts of a free, a manly and a loyal people.

 

Gentlemen,—After long continued study, after trials through which you have passed successfully, and after promises which before so many witnesses you have deliberately made, you are now admitted to the honour of ranking while you live as members of the University of Madras. It devolves on me to exhort you, according to its statutes, "to conduct yourselves suitably unto the position to which, by the degree conferred upon you, 