Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/368



only by obedience to the attracting power of the distant sun. It is not only served; it is itself a servant in the first place. And so of all the other bodies of our system, and apparently of every system that the telescope of the astronomer has revealed. The well-being of each and the stability of the whole are secured by a constant regard in each to a centre and an aim beyond itself. Imagine for a moment this globe breaking away from the order of ministration and dependence in which it is now embraced. How soon would all its beauty perish, how soon would its varied tribes of abounding life sink back into the cheerless chaos out of which they have arisen. And, gentlemen, for those who have acquainted themselves at all with the facts of physical science, I need not add how in every department of every natural kingdom the same law of helpful service holds. Not for itself but for every being that drinks in life and beauty from its beams, does the light return each morning on the earth. Not to rejoice in their own array do the lily and the rose deck themselves in splendour. Not to be an end unto themselves do the fruits of the valley spring. Not for its own sake does the patient ox labour in the furrow. Service and subordination are the life of the universe; isolation and selfishness its death.

Listen therefore to the parable which nature daily teaches to those who have penetrated but a little way into her mysteries. Listen and learn that it is in the path of usefulness that you can arrive at, I say not merely the highest glory, but even the only happiness. And doubt not that in the active life before you, you will find abundant opportunity for such service to your fellowmen as the plan of all creation thus summons you to render. Those who have chosen their profession can easily discern the particular benefit that in its exercise they can confer on others. Make the doing of that good your main design. True, it is by your labour you must live, and it would not be right or wise to forget this aspect of the case. But let such personal results of effort be ever with you the second thing and not the first. In the practice of the law let the securing of justice and the setting right of wrong be the object on which your heart is set;—not the mere pocketing of your fee. In the exercise of the healing art, fix all your thoughts upon your immediate task of preserving health or life to those who trust to you for aid. And, graduates in Engineering, let your conscious aim be this,—that the structures of any kind that you erect, or the canals, let us say, that you may dig, shall be a convenience and a joy to the struggling lives of those who are in the world already, and of such a kind that they shall