Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/431

 persons, to contribute to the solution of many questions which now appear insoluble.

It should be an anxious question with every educated Native how he can best exemplify the benefits of the education he has received. The first answer that rises to the mind is that he should endeavour to do to others what has been done to himself by labouring for the promotion of education all around. The lamp of knowledge which has been placed in his hands should be held aloft for the enlightenment of others. The well of knowledge which has been opened in his mind should be kept sweet and pure by copious communications to others of its healing waters. This rule applies not only to things known, but to principles also. The methods of thought and principles of action in which he has been trained should be propagated. Wherever he goes, in whatever situation he may be placed, the educated Native will find ample scope for his efforts in the cause of enlightenment. He need not go far — probably he need not pass the limits of his own family circle — to find scope for carrying into effect those ideas respecting the importance of female education, which in theory at least seem now to be generally admitted, and which seem steadily passing, especially in the great towns, from the region of theory to the region of practice. There is another department of educational work of great national importance which has not yet come to be regarded by Natives of the better classes with as much favour even as female education. I refer to the education of the labouring poor. Here is a noble and most extensive field for the exercise of that enlightened, large-hearted philanthropy which it is the great ultimate aim of the higher education to foster ; and if this field has generally hitherto been left unculti- vated and uncared for by educated Natives — if their efforts for the diffusion of the benefits of education have too generally been confined within the limits of the classes to which they them- selves belong — all the more credit will be due to those generous spirits who break through the barrier of class exclusiveness and set themselves to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Here I must appear to diverge for a moment to another subject, which nevertheless is not another, but the very essence of the subject in hand. In studying Mental Philosophy you have doubtless been taught the philosophy of morals. You have made your acquaintance with various theories of moral obligation and doubtless some one of those theories has been specially