Page:University of Calcutta Convocation Addresses Vol 3 (1899-1906).djvu/11

 phonographic automaton into which have been spoken the ideas and thoughts of other men. I ask myself, may such a thing be said with any truth of the examining Universities of India? Now, at first sight, it may appear that I shall be met with an overwhelming chorus of denial. I shall be told—for I read it in many newspapers and in the speeches of public men—that our system of higher education in India is a failure; that it has sacrificed the formation of character upon the altar of cram; and that the Indian Universities turn out only a discontented horde of office seekers, whom we have educated for places which are not in existence for them to fill. Gentlemen, may I venture to suggest to you that one of the defects of the Anglo-Saxon character is this, that it is apt to be a little loud, both in self-praise and in self-condemnation. When we are contemplating our virtues, we sometimes annoy other people by the almost Pharisaical complacency of our transports. But equally, I think, when we are diagnosing our faults, are we apt almost to revel in the superioi quality of our transgressions. There is, in fact, a certain cant of self -depreciation as well as of self-laudation. I say to myself, therefore, in the first place, is it possible, and is it likely, that we have been, for years, teaching hundreds and thousands of young men, —even if the immediate object be the passing of an examination, and