R. M. Macdonald.

“ The master-minds of England, her poets, her philosophers, her orators, her historians, will, if you summon them, take up their abode with you. Their most precious thoughts, their loftiest speculations, their wit, their wisdom, all belong to you, if you choose to lay claim to them. ”

“ A few of you have reached the goal of your studies, so far as University examinations are concerned. Others, although Bachelors of Arts, have still before you the higher, but rarely sought, degree of Master, as well as the various degrees which this University confers in the Faculties of Law, Medicine and Civil Engineering. Knowledge's Alpine regions. But every student knows that all that he has learned of any subject forms but a small portion of the whole, and that Literature and Science are Alpine regions, in which the horizon extends as the pilgrim ascends. ”

“ Not from all the marble of the hills of Luni will such a people ever shape one statue that may stand nobly against the sky; not from all the treasures bequeathed to them by the great dead, will they gather for their own descendants, any inheritance but shame. ”

“ It is impossible to gaze on the rich fields of cultivation with which he has enriched those districts, or to watch the long lines of boats plying their busy traffic along the navigable canals devised by him, without feeling that much of the future wealth and prosperity of India lies in the hands of the Civil Engineer. ”

“ One respect in which the Madras University is less favourable to general culture than other Universities. In one respect the training of this University is less favourable to general culture than that of any other University in India, or perhaps in the world. All other Universities require an acquaintance with at least One classical language. This is not essential to a Madras degree. ”

“ If a new school of vernacular literature is to arise at all, it must be created by you or by such as you. It is sometimes said that we are premature in our expectations, that the higher education is a plant of recent growth in this Presidency, and that there has not been sufficient time for the production of any great work. ”

“ Thirty or forty years may be a short period in the history of a nation, but it is a long period in the life of a man, and the fact remains that one generation has grown up under the influence of European culture, and is passing away without having left any permanent mark on the literature of the country. ”

“ You stand, as Wilhelm Meister did, at the Cross Roads, but most of you are probably balancing between the service of Government and the profession of law. Both, no doubt, offer an honorable career, but it is to be regretted that more do not endeavour to find other outlets. One of the noblest of all professions is that which alleviates pain, arrests disease and prolongs life. Total absence of Medical Graduates. That beneficent profession is wholly unrepresented here to-day. ”

“ I shall offer no comment on this passage, beyond observing that if there is any truth at all in the portrait, it is obvious that some discrimination is needed in copying European models. Study institutions on the spot. The best mode of forming an opinion as to the extent to which European institutions and customs should be introduced into this country, is to go to Europe and study them on the spot. Travelling is an important part of education, but it is one for which no provision is made in this University, although travelling fellowships are not unknown elsewhere. ”

“ But the drama may exercise an evil, as well as a good influence, and its tendency in this Presidency has been at times of so pernicious a character that I should rejoice to see some well-directed effort on the part of native gentlemen of position and education, to purify and elevate the taste of their countrymen. The revival of the ancient Sanskrit drama and the creation of a modern vernacular school are objects in no way unworthy of your ambition. ”

“ The Faculty of Law is the only one of the professional faculties which has as yet produced an unfailing annual supply of graduates. The sentiment which animated Milton when, in a poem addressed to his father, he thanked him for not making him a lawyer, is one which will meet with no response in this country. The study of law is congenial to the Hindoo mind. Every study has, however, some drawbacks, and every profession has some dangers incidental to it. ”

“ Some have trod, and others may tread, in his footsteps, but Sir Arthur Cotton's task was more difficult than theirs, for he was a pioneer, and had not only to subdue the forces of nature, but to battle with prejudice and ignorance in high places. ”

“ We are not called on here to consider how far he may have been right in his opinions, but men of all creeds may agree that in his earnest and fearless pursuit of truth, in the modesty and simplicity of his character, in the purity and benevolence of his life, and in the high intellectual powers which he brought to bear on his self-imposed task, the great Hindoo Reformer is entitled to no mean place in the history of his age and country. ”

“ You all graduated in Arts before you were permitted to graduate in Law, and although a somewhat lower test in Arts is accepted at present as a preliminary condition for graduating in Medicine and Civil Engineering, the same principle is recognized in all the professional degrees. ”

“ There is much in the present state of European society which is admirable and deserving of imitation, but there is also a good deal which, although unobjectionable in itself, is not suited to India in its present stage, and there is not a little which is wholly unworthy of being copied at all, and which Europeans themselves deplore. ”

“ Government has aided the efforts of the University by the appointment of a professor of Physical Science, whose lectures and laboratory are open to the students of all Colleges, and we already see the first fruits of the new system, as seven of those who have graduated to-day, have taken up Physical Science as their optional subject. ”

“ Many persons consider that the state of feeling which prevails on this subject here is partly due to the great preponderance which has, until recently, been assigned to literary and mathematical studies in the curriculum of the University, and to the entire absence of the intellectual discipline afforded by the natural and experimental sciences. In this respect, however, great changes have been recently made, the ultimate effect of which remains to be seen. Physical Science is no longer the dead letter which it once was. ”

“ The culture of which I am speaking is especially incumbent on those among you who intend to adopt the profession of teaching. The profession of teaching. I fear that the number of such will be small. We hear a great deal of graduates being turned out annually in such multitudes that they are unable to find any kind of suitable employment. ”

“ I trust that some of you will become the right hands of those Courts, and that if, in course of time, you are called to higher functions, and have to preside over Courts of your own, you will emulate the example of some of your predecessors, and show that the natives of this country are capable of filling with credit posts which demand the exercise of the highest faculties.
I must, however, remind you that the main function of Universities is not to train men to become physicians, or engineers, or lawyers, The main function of Universities. ”

“ India is, at present, a poor country, but with intelligence, enterprise and capital, she might become rich. In Europe, America, and the Australian Colonies much of the success which has attended such pursuits has been due to the influence of educated men. ”

“ Archbishop Whately points out that an advocate, who is called on "to plead various causes, to extenuate to-day what he aggravated yesterday, to attach more or less weight, at different times, to the same kind of evidence, to impugn and to enforce the same principles, according as the interests of his clients may require," is in some danger of gradually growing indifferent to the ascertainment of truth and may be tempted to resort to specious sophistry or even more questionable devices in the interests of his clients. ”

“ We have had among us not very long ago a Parsee gentleman, who has proved that even the stage is not an impossible career for a highly educated native gentleman. The drama has, in all civilized nations, been a source of much intellectual entertainment, and the Hindoos at a very early period produced dramatic works, some of which have been the admiration of Europe. ”

“ How much may be done in this direction by the genius of a single man has been already shown in this Presidency. Sir Arthur Cotton has scarcely received all the local honors which he deserved, but he has left enduring monuments behind him in the great works, which have made the Deltas of the Cauvery and and the Godavery the granaries of Southern India. ”

“ Medicine has many prejudices to combat in this country. Sir Charles Trevelyan has described the victory which was gained in Bengal, when the first Brahmin student was seen handling the knife in the dissecting room, and "the Shasters, with the elasticity peculiar to them, were made to declare that the dissection of human bodies for medical purposes was not prohibited." ”

“ As a matter of fact, however, there are, at this moment, several hundreds of educational posts which ought to be filled by graduates, but which are occupied by persons of humbler attainments, because, in the present state of the market, the services of graduates for such posts cannot be secured, and, as education advances, situations of this kind will be numbered by thousands instead of by hundreds. ”

“ The circumstances of the country render the general employment of highly educated men in such posts out of the question, but it seems probable that in some of the larger towns there is field for practitioners who have taken the higher medical degrees, and that, in many of the smaller towns, medical men of a somewhat lower grade might find remunerative employment. ”

“ It is much to be regretted that the educated natives of this Presidency have, as a general rule, kept entirely aloof from agricultural, manufacturing and commercial pursuits. Educated natives and independent walks of life. ”

“ In this respect India differs at present from England. There, it has been remarked,"Government is usually nothing to the Civil Engineer, unless it be looked upon as a foe, from whom recognition and remuneration" must "be won by sheer hard fighting." ”

“ Montesquieu remarks that one of the causes which contributed to make the Romans masters of the world was that, in the course of their successive conflicts with various nations, they always gave up their own customs, as soon as they discovered any that were better. ”

“ It is not at all likely that Shakespeare will ever be naturalized in this country, but such attempts as these may, I hope, be regarded as indications of the dawn of that day of literary activity, for which we have been so long looking. ”

“ It has been calculated that seven or eight thousand medical practitioners are needed to take the place of the Hakeems and Vydians, whose ignorant treatment is so often dangerous and even fatal to their patients. ”

“ Some of you have yet to elect the path which you are to pursue in life. "The Youth at the Cross Roads." A great writer has given us a sketch of an imaginary poem, entitled "The Youth at the Cross Roads," in which his hero depicts two female characters personifying the Tragic Muse and Commerce, as contending for the possession of his person. ”

“ Changes should be always well considered before they are carried out. Innovate quietly and by degrees. "It were good" says Bacon, "that men in their innovations should follow the example of time itself ”