Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/40

 The young Sindee, who has this day taken his degree, will return to his own house well instructed in most branches of secular English education, such as most English gentlemen would desire for their sons, and we may now ask what will be the influence he will there be able to exert in the matter of education? First, as to the higher classes. To judge of what he may do we must, I think, as has been often suggested by a learned friend of mine, to whom this University owes so much, and who, I am sorry to think, is shortly to leave us—we must, I say, look back to the time when the young scholars of mediaeval Europe visited the courts of the great princes and nobles who in those days thought it scarcely less glorious to found a college than a kingdom. The history of that period paints to our imagination many picturesque scenes in which the young and travelled scholar who came laden with the riches of Roman and Grecian learning, displayed his treasures before princes and peers, ecclesiastics and warriors, and by translation placed many of the gems of ancient lore within the reach of those who knew none but the vulgar tongue. May not something of the same kind await him who in these days will carry to the court of Rajpoot Chiefs or Pathan Ameers the stores of Western learning which he has here acquired? The Moulvie who can repeat the Koran with half its commentaries by heart, the Shastree who is a living library of Hindoo literature, men who had long passed in their own courts as miracles of erudition, may find in the young scholar who comes fresh from the teaching of Germany or England more profound knowledge of their own sacred books than they themselves ever dreamed of. He will bring, too, learning in many branches of science never before heard of in those regions, all the wonders of physical science, and all the varied history, philosophy, and literature of the great race who govern India. And, withal, prince and peasant, priest and warrior, will, I trust, marvel to find in him that modesty which they rarely find in the narrow minds which hold all the knowledge of those who have been used to style themselves the "learned men" of that contracted circle. The young stranger knows what they have never learnt, how varied are the aspects, how many-sided the forms, of truth, how unlimited is the field of possible knowledge, how little is the sum of all human science and learning when compared to that which is still unrevealed. All this he has felt, and it has given him that true humility of spirit which learned and unlearned alike instinctively feel is the true stamp of wisdom. But, great as may be the effect of one such scholar upon the