Donald James Mackay

“ Indian Universities have not only to keep up a high intellectual ideal, they have also to give to the country men of character, men with backbone, who are incapable of deviating from the paths of rectitude. The final aim of all Universities is to get as near the truth as they can. Access to truth is only open to those who are themselves absolutely truthful, impartial, and fearless of consequences. Rational in thought, they are rational in speech. Universities aim above all things at sobriety of thought and speech. ”

“ This University should impress on those who in Europe select the men to be sent out, the enormous responsibility which rests on them. Unless the men who undertake a mission which I do not hesitate to call sacred are imbued with the magnitude of the work they are undertaking, higher education, instead of being the greatest blessing England has conferred on India, will be its greatest curse. ”

“ A real student does not wander into the bypaths of self-sufficiency in which he is met by no obstacles. It is only by constant research and inquiry that he can lead himself and others. He will shun contact with the fanciful catch- words which are fashionable and welcome to the uneducated. In this case supply should always be of a higher quality than demand. The student must be in advance of his generation, in order to earn a title to its gratitude. To be a University man is a distinction only if the University man is a man of high character and of intellectual independence. ”

“ I purposely take that University, and not the Strasburg programme, for this reason, that the University of Amsterdam is a Municipal creation, entirely supported by Municipal funds, and as such it teaches a lesson which our Corporation may take to heart, in contributing to the further development of higher education in this city. Local self-government in this city would cover itself with glory if it showed a due appreciation of the requirements of higher education, and filled up the many gaps which exist in our system. ”

“ The history of all great Universities is the history of men who have thrown a new light on the subject which they had made their own particular field of research, or of men who have brought to light errors of past times, or of men who have exposed fallacies which obtained during their lives, whether they were recognised as fallacies by their own or by a subsequent generation. ”

“ Whether the form of Government be autocratic, democratic,or parliamentary, its distinguishing characteristic, common to all these forms of government, is, that Frenchmen have no self-government, but are governed by a bureaucracy which receives its impulse, its ideas from Paris, whatever may be the special idiosyncrasies of the populations to whom laws are applied. For local autonomy and for local administration there is no room in such a system because they might develop the germs of antagonism to the central power. ”

“ If you lower the franchise with the standards and reject the meter, you cease to belong to this great republic of letters, your education is not higher education, and your educated classes sail under false colours. Indian Universities cannot escape from a rule which is binding on all Universities, and there is no reason why they should evade it. There is nothing in the conditions of social or of individual life in India to discourage that severe application to scientific training which alone gains admission to the academic ranks. ”

“ I am very far from advocating a system of centralisation such as is represented by the French University. I am quite willing to admit that higher education can be imparted in a variety of ways, and that infinite harm would be done by stereotyping the method. What I contend is, that a University cannot fulfil its obligations towards higher education by mere examinations, least of all in India, where the Western University system is an absolutely new creation, an exotic which requires very careful nursing. ”

“ In many of the arguments which have been urged against multiplication of examinations we have a just criticism, especially of the evil influence of that system on University teaching which is constantly opening up new courses of study, and which in the same degree must restrict its examinations to an absolute minimum. Universities are, in the first place, called to train the few who will in their turn open up new avenues of learning, and who for that purpose devote their lives to literary, scientific, or critical studies. ”

“ I cannot conceive a worse political school than the platform for immature politicians. Rather let us exact from them an essay on the causes of instability of government in France as a test, not a competitive examination. On the other hand, I fully admit that the platform as a means of downward filtration of the ideas of those who have mature experience is indispensable. I have been a cordial supporter of the movement organised by my right hon'ble friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer for extension of University lectures. ”

“ Nothing would stimulate higher education more in India than lectures on any subject, by a highly qualified expert, even though he could not permanently be absorbed in our staff. I do not see why eminent men at home should not be invited to give a course of lectures at our Universities. Occasional teaching of this kind would in any Faculty, not only benefit the students, but graduates and others would secure thereby a fresh impetus to their own intellectual life. ”

“ It is only by the combined efforts of the wisest men in England, of the wisest men in India, that we can hope to establish in this old home of learning real Universities which will give a fresh impulse to learning, to research, to criticism, which will inspire reverence and impart strength and self-reliance to future generations of our and of your countrymen. The sooner we recognise our weakness on the academic side the better. Intellectual wealth is to be found in nations which are not rich in other respects ”

“ The seed sown at a University can only fructify in a receptive soil—a soil which has been carefully prepared. Whether it will produce a rich harvest or tares depends on a combination of circumstances. Here I need only point out that assimilation is the principal desideratum. In the quickness of perception of Indians we have a formidable antagonism to depth and breadth of conception, and to originality. The educated youth of India, as well as of all other countries, must dive deep into the inner recesses of the science with which they are dealing if they wish to master it authoritatively. ”

“ For such men, for such students, examinations are unnecessary, because they are constantly examining themselves. Study has no other meaning than perpetual self-examination. No real student ever ceases to examine his results. Periodical University examinations are from this point of view mainly a necessary evil, because they presuppose that previous studies have not answered their object, and inasmuch as they lead to subsequent cessation of inquiry are destructive of study as a continuous process of examination. ”

“ If a separate College with a full University course is needed for the aristocracy they should take steps to start one. I confess that I am partial to the Scottish system, which does not admit of dividing lines in Educational institutions which are not the natural result of brain power, and I think that all aristocracies are the better for a common struggle with those whose studies must be taken up in good earnest. In India the peculiar condition of society may require separation, but nothing can possibly be said in favour of an uneducated class of rulers. ”

“ The time spent in outside examinations by men whose duty it is to teach as well as to advance knowledge, is time wasted. The profession of a Civil Service examiner and the profession of a University teacher must remain distinct professions. University examinations have a direct relation to the subject-matter which is taught, and University teaching has a higher aim than mere acquisition of useful knowledge, such as is required for practical purposes. ”

“ No man is highly educated who does not approach with awe and reverence any subject with which he must deal authoritatively.There is a French expression which better than any other stigmatises this unwarrantable precocious self-confidence : "II ne se doute de rien" which may be translated, 'he has not fathomed the depths of his own ignorance.' Higher education leads to the exactly opposite result. Indifferent teaching must inevitably lead to self-conceit in those who receive it, and self-conceit is the certain road to decay of individuals and of nations. ”

“ Wilson — Government have placed on record that they are fully alive to the merits of Institutions which contribute in such marked degree to our University life. Guizot's opinion : "de tous les monopoles le pire ist celui de I'enseignement" is certainly applicable to India. Of science I need only say that the question must arise whether it should not have a faculty of its own, combined with that of Civil Engineering. Science has of late attained such a distinctive character, embraces so many subjects, that it may well have a separate faculty all to itself and not only separate degrees. ”

“ It is a great mistake to confine higher teaching to those who occupy chairs. Universities should seize every opportunity of opening their doors to those whose learning can be made available, even though it is only for a short period. As long as excellence is reached it matters very little what the nature of the connection is of the lecturer with the University. ”

“ The principle of those reforms is to strengthen the scientific character of the Institution, to create a faculty, membership of which will constitute the highest reward for professional ability ; to ensure continuity of teaching as well as to open possibilities of research ; to make the fullest use of the splendid opportunities which this city offers to the medical student by throwing our hospitals open to the best men of the local profession, so that their professional knowledge may benefit our students, and that they themselves may remain in touch with medical science. ”

“ Because they mistake the distance which separates them from those who have not tasted the fruits of higher education, they forget that the distance by which they are separated from the men who are really educated is much greater, and that they are not even on the threshold of the regions where the highest culture reigns supreme. ”

“ The best organised University is the University which leaves to its professors A Model University. the maximum of time for original research, for independent criticism, for culture in all its ramifications. The duty of Universities is to keep intact the highest traditions of a people by constantly raising the standard of its intellectual life by an unflinching opposition to degrading and demoralising tendencies which weaken the fibre of nations. You must enthrone on the high seats of learning all that is noble, all that is brilliant, all that is superior in the nations. ”

“ All those who aspire to take part in public affairs should make use of the opportunity given them. This University cannot allow the stigma which the absence of such teaching entails to rest on it even temporarily. The best illustration of the malignant results of the absence of such teaching is to be found in the misunderstandings which must arise when principles have not been mastered. No controversy should have arisen about local self-government if a clear understanding of its meaning had been the result of previous University teaching. ”

“ An intellectual aristocracy is recruited from all stations in life, but it is an aristocracy to which nobody can belong who does not satisfy the highest tests, those which obtain in the republic of letters, and we must add the republic of sciences. The franchise in this republic can never be lowered and must always rise higher as literature and science are constantly adding to their treasures. The meter of University standards is simply that which is given by an ever-increasing stock of knowledge. ”

“ If it were otherwise, there is a real danger that they would not devote themselves as they ought to the service of their employers, and I hardly know a more exacting employer than the Government in India. Universities cannot but welcome the advent of those who are preparing for such tests, but Universities must make it quite plain that they are not and cannot consider it part of their duty to ensure success at examinations which aim at sifting men fit for practical duties from men who are unfit for them. ”

“ It is impossible to overrate the influence exercised by men who know how to appeal to the best instincts of the rising generation—who kindle in them enthusiasm for the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. ”

“ In all Countries with a strong bureaucracy—and India will for a long time to come have to be administered on bureaucratic principles—it is desirable that all branches of the bureaucracy should have a thorough knowledge of administrative law, of the principles underlying their practical work, and from which it derives a value that in the absence of such knowledge it lacks.For admission to the Public Service, attendance at lectures on public law, of which ministrative law forms part, should, I think, be made compulsory. ”

“ But examinations which have no connection with the higher teaching and are principally instituted to assist employers of labour in the selection of their servants, whether the employer is the State or a Company, have no relation whatever to the main object for which Universities are instituted. The object of the men who enter for such examinations is very creditable, but it is not the pursuit of knowledge chiefly.Many of those men will adorn literature, science, criticism, but this will be an incident of their career, not its main purpose. ”