Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/434

 of education in various ways and amongst various classes of people, in the town or district in which he is employed, in addition to the ordinary work of his own school, will be quite in accordance with a good educationist's conception of his duties. Without ceasing to teach he can encourage others to teach. He can also with special propriety urge the uneducated classes to show themselves desirous of learning. A still larger proportion of educated Natives will doubtless be employed, as hitherto, so in future, in the public service. I do not ask or wish such persons to neglect the duties they owe to the Government they serve, whose pay they receive, for the sake of unpaid philanthropic labours for the benefit of the community, nor do I expect them in any good work they undertake to promote it by large dona- tions of money. If they resolve to content themselves with their salaries and their unstained honour, they will find that they have not much money to spare. What 1 may fairly ask and wish them to do is to use for the good of the community whatever influence they possess or may acquire. Though their salaries may be small, their influence in the native Community is very great. It is an influence much greater in proportion than that of any ofiicials holding similar positions in England. We see from time to time in the rural districts not only tanks and choultries, which are in accord- ance with the ideas of charity which are traditional in India, but also schools and dispensaries erected by wealthy Natives, mainly through the influence of local Native officials. That influence would also doubtless lead to excellent results, if it were exerted, as I have recommended, in behalf of the education and elevation of the labouring poor. Any advice in this direction given by Europeans would probably excite only jealousy and suspicion, but an enlightened, public- spirited, zealous Native official might persuade the Zemindars and wealthy ryots residing in his district to do almost anything he wished for the public good.

It may be objected that in the remarks I have now made you have heard nothing new or original. Yery true. There is no originality in anything I have said. But what India requires, as it appears to me, is not originality, but a firm resolution on the part of each educated Native to make himself useful in the sphere in which he finds himself placed, to act up to his convic- tions of duty, to carry into practice those theories of obligation — fhose theories, in particular, of the obligation of beneficence, of the obligation of doing good to others — which have constituted the highest element in the education he has received. It does