Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/401



what is good, eradicate what is bad, and borrow from abroad advantages which are not to be had at home.

"Self reverence, self knowledge, self control These three alone lead life to sovereign power Yet not for power (power of herself Would come uncalled for), but to live by law, Acting the law we live by without fear; And, because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence."

 

Gentlemen,—By desire of His Grace our Chancellor, and in his name and on behalf of the Fellows of the University in general, I have the pleasure of congratulating you on the honours you have won, and of expressing our hope that your future career will not be without a rich fulfilment of so fair a promise. You have, as it were, entered a quiet haven at the close of a successful but anxious voyage. The troubles and difficulties of it you can now look back upon with a calm indifference, added to a not unworthy pride that yon should have so completely overcome them. Believe me that we have sympathized with you in your long labours, and experience, in common with all who value education, a heartfelt delight in being thus able to congratulate you. While some of your body will no doubt enter upon a fresh academical course, with a view to further honours, others of you will probably at once enroll yourselves in some honourable profession. But whatever your future may be, you this day enter upon an independent career; and remember that the manner in which you comport yourselves will affect the estimation in which the teaching of this University will be regarded.

By illustrating in your lives the advantages of the higher education you have the opportunity afforded you of removing, or at least diminishing, the prejudices which in some quarters, unfortunately, it still encounters. Many of the grounds for condemning it have in the course of years been shown to be devoid of foundation; but it has been admitted to be open to criticism in some respects. Thus one who has had great experience in tuition, and whose opinion would on other grounds, always claim respectful attention, has said, "I believe it is true, looking to the great body of our students, that while there is plenty of industry, there is too little thought." He traced this defect in some measure to the amount of time devoted to teaching, which left the students 