Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 3.djvu/70

25 generations; and as Emerson teaches us, 'every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.' But how hard the task to sum up the full ‘tale' of their self-denying services to posterity I However, out of a vast number, may it be permitted to a descendant of three generations of military men to dwell for a moment on one striking instance, memorable but oft-forgotten? In his brilliant Convocation Address, after a glowing tribute to the countless deeds of endurance, self-denial and heroism of the Madras Army, Col. Hughes-Hallet assured the graduates of the year, ‘it is the Madras Army which has made your presence here to-day possible’. To the numerous lives laid down on the battle-field should be added the stil larger number spent out in winning the victories of peace. From the humble hind who binds the sheaf or watches the reef to the exalted sage who, from the Eiffel-tower of genius, surveys the domain of knowledge, there ranges a glorious procession of good men and true who have ‘toiled and bled and died' that we may gain and grow and thrive. To them all we owe the pious tribute of profound esteem and deep