Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/451

 condition of the lower classes of people, coming within your influence. It is impossible to conceive a worthier object of life for every one of us, than to endeavour to make the little corner of the world, to which our influence extends, less miserable and less ignorant than it is at present. The light of knowledge imparted to you is not intended for your personal benefit merely, but for diffusion all around, and the Government to whom is committed the gigantic task of providing elementary instruction for millions of people expect to accomplish that object quite as much by creating a body of men such as you, who by virtue of superior intelligence and culture, will take the position of natural leaders of the people and afford material help in dispelling their ignorance and securing to them the light and guidance of knowledge, as by direct efforts towards that end. According as you fulfil these expectations, will the system of higher education, which the Government has so liberally supported, be judged. Already there are signs of impatience in certain quarters at the tardy results produced, and opinions are expressed that Government should recede from the position they have taken up in regard to higher education, and devote their means and energies to providing elementary instruction to the masses. But it is forgotten thnt 30 years have not yet elapsed since the system of liberal education was inaugurated under Government auspices, and that thirty years is but a brief interval in the life of a nation. Judged by any fair standard, and making allowance for the slow assimilation of the elements of Western culture into the habits and ideas of a conservative people, I venture to think that no candid observer can fail to note that the success hitherto achieved has been remarkable. Any one who remembers the state of the country thirty years ago, will easily realize to himself how much ol: intellectual activity and of intelligent interest in public affairs has • been called into existence, and how much the moral tone of the educated classes has improved. I do not mean that the results obtained can be compared with the state of things in European countries which have had centuries of unfettered development; but I assert that those results have not only not fallen short of reasonable expectations, but they have also proved the wisdom of the policy of which they are the outcome, and they afford promise of still more brilliant results in the future if only that policy be steadily pursued. While there are some who regard the system as a failure, there are others again who admit its success and make that very success the reason for Government disconnecting themselves with it. If the system has taken such a firm root in the country, say they, and is throughly appreciated by the people,