“ I may not live to see this desirable goal attained: but, judging from all I have witnessed of the deep feeling which is beginning to prevail on this matter, it is my firm belief that another generation will not pass away before it will be universally conceded, that whoever neglects the education of his daughter disgraces himself, and is guilty of a gross offence against her, against his own happiness, and the happiness of society. ”

“ I would have you all, but especially the more advanced students among you, and those who formerly belonged to this College and to similar Institutions, lay well to your hearts this praise of the learned judge, one of the most zealous friends which the cause of education possesses in India; and study to deserve the like commendation from your President here. Do not be satisfied with merely gaining knowledge for yourselves. Be teachers as well as learners: do not think your task ended when you leave the walls of your College, when in fact it is then only rightly beginning. ”

“ Ménage probably meant nothing more than a lively joke when he defined logic to be 'the art of talking unintelligibly of things of which we are ignorant'; for to take this sarcasm seriously would imply a complete misapprehension of the objects of the science: nevertheless, it is not denied by any who are acquainted with the history of philosophy in Europe, it is indeed admitted by the friends of formal logic, though of course they seek to avoid the inference drawn from their admission, that men never reasoned worse than when the science of formal reasoning was in greatest vogue and reputation. ”

“ As I am not of the number of those who entertain the idea that it is possible, even if it were desirable, that English should at any time supersede Bengali as the general language of the country, and looking to our educated students as the channels through whom mainly European ideas and opinions are to be communicated to the mass of their countrymen, I must consider it a thing deeply to be regretted, that they are not as highly distinguished by the elegance with which they speak and write their own language, as by the command which they have gained over ours. ”

“ The English language here supplies the place which is filled in England by the Latin and Greek: inferior for the purposes of education in some respects, far superior to them in others. I do not consider it an overstrained assertion that those languages do not surpass English in majesty and power of diction more than English is superior to them in the real instrinsic value of the knowledge that is to be gained by studying the works of the best classical authors in each. ”

“ Even in the purely mathematical branch we have the elegant and abstruse theory of probabilities, specially concerned with those propositions only of which we have only obscure and imperfect evidence; and it may be questioned whether the wit of man ever produced anything more admirably subtle than Laplace's great work on this subject. But not to dwell on this, such objections surely overlook the application of mathematics to natural philosophy, in the pursuit of which many of the most valuable faculties of the mind are called into action. ”

“ The Government of India have in view a purpose more worthy the rulers of a mighty empire: they seek, and it is my joy and pride to be allowed to act under their orders in that good work, to raise the moral and intellectual character of the people of India. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I have been led into the train of thought which has given rise to these remarks by observing that Omesh Chunder Dutt of this College, who was the first senior scholar of last year, would have re-appeared in the same place, if he had not fallen so far behind his successful competitor, Sreenath Doss, of the Hindu College, in mathematics and natural philosophy. It has been frequently said of late, either ignorantly or maliciously, but at all events very untruly, that for some years an undue preference has been given in our Colleges to the study of science, in discouragement of literature ”

“ The telescope is instantly turned to it and the discovery is complete; the planet is there! Surely, it is not without reason that one of our poets has said—
"An undevout astronomer is mad!"
and, when he uttered that sentiment I believe that his mind was not more filled with the thought of the Almighty power by which these worlds, scattered through infinite space, are bound to follow the laws which their creator has imposed on them, than with the reflection that the same God who made this mighty universe, made also the intellect of man ”

“ To those who have not painfully followed the successive steps of demonstration, each resting on what went before, and patiently built up from the most elementary propositions of Euclid to the sublime speculations of Newton and his followers, does it not appear little short of miraculous, that human sagacity, unaided by divine revelation, should have soared so far beyond the world in which mankind are placed as to have detected the laws which link the whole visible creation into one mighty and stupendous system? ”

“ Your modern ethical writers teach that the nature of women is so depraved that it is only by material restraints that they are kept from seeking out and following evil: our wiser belief is that in all the elements of virtue the female character is far superior to the male; and that whatever there is of evil common to all human nature, is best combatted, not by the vain obstacles of bolts and bars, but by laying the foundation of a virtuous life in the early inculcation of sound morality, and by teaching women to respect themselves by showing that by us also they are held in honour. ”

“ The education of your females is the next great step to be taken in the regeneration of the Hindu character, and it is a consolatory reflection that while many social reforms of which you stand greatly in need are thought to be opposed to the doctrines of your religion and customs, it is generally admitted by every learned native who has examined the question that there is no such obstacle in the way of your consenting to receive this great blessing. ”

“ The work is now begun, it will not stop; it is like a rock which may have rested long time motionless on the summit of a mountain: but, if once set in motion, though casual obstacles may obstruct its path, may determine its course in this direction or in that, it yet gathers increased force with each succeeding interval of time, and hastens irresistibly onward to its final destination. ”

“ The study of foreign languages has ever been a favourite pursuit in almost every celebrated place of Education in modern Europe: and those who are opposed to the particular system of our English schools and colleges, have found ample ground for attack in the inordinate time which, according to their views, is wasted in mastering the difficulties of two dead languages, Greek and Latin. ”

“ For it is a truth of which you will become more and more convinced as you advance in years that, valuable as the information is which you imbibe in your scholastic lessons, the great end to be sought in any scheme of education, worthy of the name, is to enable you to think for yourselves in your future life ”

“ Assuredly it would not be to them that we should resort for a code of ethics or of moral and political philosophy: for the minds which should be filled only with the precepts of the master-spirits of antiquity, on such topics, would possess at least as much of error and positive falsehood as of truth, however harmonious and concisely elegant might be its embodied expression. ”

“ What is the fittest and best use I can make of those powers, of which I feel myself to be possessed, while my own consciousness, not less than my helplessness and insignificance among these majestic wonders, the mere contemplation of which almost appals and overpowers my imagination, is sufficient proof that I have them not of my own will ”

“ The advocates of logic, by which is meant the science of pure reasoning, without reference to the subjects of its propositions, seem to consider that they have established their claim to preference when they find that their assertion cannot be denied, that no legitimate reasoning can be carried on, which in any way sins against the rules which it formally teaches. ”

“ I doubt not that your own approving conscience has already amply rewarded you: for it is in the plan of the All-wise contriver of the world that every sincere act of kindness to a fellow creature carries with it its own peculiar inimitable joy: but it is also my pleasing right to tell you that your behaviour in this matter has not been unobserved, and that by it you have raised yourself higher in the good opinion of those, whose good opinion I believe you are desirous of deserving. ”

“ The great work we have in hand is steadily going on. The education imparted in our Colleges is gradually raising up in Bengal a new generation of independent minds and vigorous thinkers, whom the lapse of time is slowly but surely advancing to positions of increased influence and power. ”

“ While we thus approve and sanction the measures which you propose, for diffusing a knowledge of the English language, and the study of European science through its medium, we must at the same time put you on your guard against a disposition, of which we perceive some traces in the General Committee, and still more in the Local Committee, of Delhi, to underrate the importance of what may be done to spread useful knowledge among the natives, through the medium of books and oral instruction in their own languages. ”

“ Human nature is the same throughout the world, and we may confidently rely on what it teaches us. The history of every time shows the important influence that the female sex is capable of exercising, for good or for evil, on the destinies of a nation; and those stand highest in the annals of civilization in which they have been held in the highest honour, and the greatest pains taken to secure that the weight of their power should be found exerting itself on the right side. ”

“ An error more or less observable in all the Colleges is, that of extracting paragraphs from books, quoted from memory, with more or less exactness, and dove-tailed into the answer without acknowledgment. ”

“ It was indeed proposed to establish at the Presidency a central school for the education of teachers; but the teachers were to be instructed only in those elementary acquirments which they were afterwards to teach in the Tuhsildaree and Collectorate schools. The improvements in education, however, which most effectually contribute to elevate the moral and intellectual condition of a people, are those which concern the education of the higher classes of the persons possessing leisure and natural influence over the minds of their countrymen. ”

“ For her own sake, and in her own right, I claim for woman her proper place in the scale of created beings. God has given her an intellect, a heart and feelings like your own, and these were not given in vain. You think your neighbours the Chinese a barbarous people, because they cripple the feet of their women. ”

“ Further, you must be prepared to find that, until you consent to give woman her proper place in society, that which her Creator intended for her, when He endowed her with the same reason, the same power of apprehension and intellect, which He has bestowed on yourselves, you will be considered by the whole civilized world as little better than a nation of barbarians. ”

“ But I at least would not have given a tithe of the time or pains I have bestowed on the subject of native education, since I came into this country, had I conceived that I was merely required to assist in training up a few clerks and writers in Government offices. True it is that, with our numerous students, among whom are seen by the side of the titled and wealthy, many from the middling and poorer classes of native society, such places are to many objects of desire ”

“ Through the hard, dry, incontestable truths of elementary arithmetic and geometry, founded upon our simplest conceptions of number and form, we are able to give good practical lessons in the art, if not in the science of logic: and this application of logical reasoning I believe to furnish a far better mental discipline than the formal science itself affords ”

“ The founders of these institutions, therefore, feeling that the human intellect is never more nobly or more profitably employed than in the search after truth, would have thought their schools very imperfectly endowed, if they had not made some special provision for training the minds of their pupils for entering upon that study. ”

“ I have been informed that the Hindus possess a Sanscrit form of the same science, which does not appear to have been more fortunate as an improver of the reasoning faculty in man, than its European brother. ”