Page:Report on public instruction in the lower provinces of the Bengal presidency (1850-51).djvu/35

Rh the way of successfully prosecuting this great and good work, and the time for commencing it here may not be yet fully come: there may be local obstructions and impediments, of which you can take better account than I can. But there is no want of work to be done in the good cause, if you have the heart to will it, the courage to undertake it, and the perseverance to perfect it. Fight error and ignorance, wherever you meet them: look on every day as lost, in which not only you have not gained additional knowledge for yourselves, but in which you have not scotched some mischievous prejudice, overthrown, or at least sapped the foundation of some pernicious error, in the mind of some one at least of your countrymen: opportunities enough will present themselves, if you will be ready to use them. But beware also, lest you give unnecessary offence, to those whom you would instruct, by any insolent affectation of superior wisdom. Truth can afford to be mild and patient, having on her side the irresistible force of reason and argument: it is only ignorance and error that are, in a certain sense, excusable, if they are rash and passionate: for, if these weapons fail them, to what can they betake themselves? It will be useful also to remember, whenever you are tempted to plume yourselves unduly on your undoubted superiority to your less instructed fellow countrymen, that it is for the most part to your better fortune rather than your greater merit that you owe your advantage. Lastly, above all things, note well the special praise given to these young men at Bombay for their irreproachable moral behaviour. Go ye all, and do likewise. Recommend the acquisition of knowledge, not merely by your precepts, but by your life and practice. Show that you become not only wiser, but also better, by what you are taught within these walls.

"The triumphs of literature and science can belong only to a gifted few, but the praise of virtue, that is to say, of temperance, of modesty, of truth and honour, of filial obedience, of friendly kindness, of forgiveness and forgetfulness of wrong, or still better of returning good for evil, of patience and forbearance, of charity and beneficence, of gratitude and piety, may be gained by every one who will sincerely resolve to earn it, and strenuously persevere in that behaviour, in those good deeds, words, and thoughts, by which it is best deserved."

SCHEME OF STUDY.

There has been no variation in the scheme of study. The result of the introduction of the stand contained in Mr. Bethune's minute has been somewhat unfavorable in regard to the number of