Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/407



hand. Now the Government is in this position, that while it is not possible for it to withhold from the young a knowledge of the principles of free Government, it may for a long period be incapable of bestowing in its completeness what the students of history find held up to such well-founded admiration.

To you who have enjoyed the advantages of the higher education, the State may well look to dissemiuate just views on these matters, and to make it clear that if slowly, yet surely, England will impart to her great dependency of which she is so justly proud, all that measure of freedom which is compatible with orderly Government. And your education will not be in vain if you employ the knowledge you have acquired in dispelling the suspicion and jealousy which ignorance upon this subject may engender; and so add strength to that Government which alone is capable of preserving to you the security of person and property. Now, gentlemen, the University has stamped you with its approval, has testified to your qualifications, and sends you forth as its representatives of this year to the many millions of India. You have solemnly promised to comport yourselves as becomes members of this University. See that you do so. The honor of the University is committed to your keeping. See that your life and conduct reflect those high principles, that lofty tone of thought, which the instruction you have received is designed to engender ; and show that your education consists not merely in the acquirement of a certain limited amount of knowledge which may be useful in procuring a means of livelihood or may recommend itself by an intellectual display, but is an active principle bent on further conquests and ever seeking to enlarge the boundaries of the domain of science. And this not solely 'for the gain it gets'; still less 'for the praise it brings, or the wonder it inspires'; but ^for the relief of man's estate'— the promotion of the welfare of our common humanity. Surely, gentlemen, you have an admirable field for your exertions, whether they lie in legislation, in disentangling and illustrating the mazes of the law; in administering justice; in taking part in the executive government; in clothing the parched landscape with a network of fertilizing and wealth-gathering agencies; or in that noble profession which addresses itself to the relief of physical suffering. To all of you I would say in conclusion work well and earnestly in your several professions. Much that is attractive and absorbing will be found in every vocation by an earnest worker. And it is a mistake to suppose that it is not given to the men of this day to engage in heroic contests and take part