Raymond West

“ The ruling idea of a University, on the other hand, is a spiritual and intellectual one. It desires, not to produce immediate material results, but to enrich and discipline, to expand and enlarge the human mind, to make it more worthy of the capacities with which the Creator has endowed it, and to go on to heights which we never reach, but which we ever try to approach, in learning and science pursued, not for their material results but as an exercise to the intellect, and as sufficient and satisfactory in themselves. ”

“ No University can afford to put itself out of touch with the general movement of thought in the world, and when the general movement is proceeding along the line of science, it is fatal to any institution, be it ever so capable and learned in other ways, to let itself fall out of communication with that movement. I say, then, that it is in the University that we should, for the benefit of the Universities and I think of the community, have those masters of pure science who will furnish to the professors of technology the means of carrying on their teaching with the greatest benefit. ”

“ If we turn our thoughts to such a man as our illustrious Darwin, or to many a one less eminent than he, we cannot but recognize the superiority to conventions and external circumstances which Lucretius has celebrated as the highest fruit of knowledge. This fruit is equally accessible to any student of those whom I see about me if he will but rise to the true level of his calling and follow his great masters not only in their assiduity of toil but in their moral elevation, and their ardent readiness to welcome and diffuse the truth. ”

“ The University based itself mainly on the old established lines of mathematics and literature, and surely it was right in doing so, because at that time all was uncertain, and surely no better discipline to the intellect could possibly be found than a study of mathematics, and the teaching it affords, in closeness of reasoning, in perspicuity, in the exercise of the discursive faculty, in the close examination of truth, and after that the embracing and holding fast of the truth, once realised, in a way in which no outcry of any multitude will ever shake. ”

“ The very fact that a man is great in literature implies that he has penetrated deeper than others into the human faculty and human nature, and that he has been able to select for us those types of character for imitation which we may recognise as leading us on to the cultivation of the higher parts of our nature and the gradual suppression of those which are more ignoble. For all this and more literature is an instrument of education which cannot be surpassed. ”

“ I believe that even amongst those who doubt the policy of the appointment made by Lord Ripon's Government, there is no question as to the noble motives and high courage which dictated its action. For myself and in my own humble person I will venture to go a step further. It has been said that when you give power it is useless to hamper it, or attempt to hamper it with useless restrictions; and I add to that that it is futile to introduce amongst a body of enlightened and distinguished men a fertile principle and then to deny or refuse the fruits of that principle. ”

“ We live at the time of a momentous confluence and conflict of ideas, principles, and interests. You will probably have to take your part in a profound moral strife; but if that part is a noble one, you may rest assured of abundant sympathy The establishment of the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, which will make a new departure in the educational system of Bombay and of India, will stand also, like this University, as a striking and permanent sign of our readiness to admit and welcome every duly accredited addition to the means of advancing the moral and material welfare of the community. ”

“ Any course taken by those who are interested in the University, which is contrary to the principle I have laid down, is a course which, I think, cannot but prove deeply injurious to the institution. We know that not only very young men, but men of more advanced years are much more ready to cast their failures and their disappointments on any other cause than the cause which rests within themselves. ”

“ Probably Lord Ripon knew practically the spirit and the character of his countrymen so much better than those who have retorted ill for ill and hard words for hard words that their outcries made less impression on him than on the volunteer defenders who were comparative strangers to the rough struggles of intense political life. There is in truth not much to wonder at, and but little to resent now that the contest is over. ”

“ It has occupied a great place in history, but the greatest place it has taken has been on account of its library, on account of its learned men, and on account of the philosophy and learning which grew up there, and which have left its name, whatever its future fate may be, imperishable in the intellectual history of mankind. Now in our day and our age Bombay occupies quite an analogous position to that of Alexandria in the ancient world. Bombay is for us the gateway between the Bast and the West. There meet the men of various nations, and there they exchange their merchandise. ”

“ Your science, your literature, should be a source then of energy as well as fortitude. They should enrich your action as well as your thought, and everywhere teach you the lesson of modest faith and perseverance, You must all have learned in your several lines of study the immense value of sustained and vivid attention. You must have come to appreciate the task which he undertakes who resolves to be even a faithful learner, much more a teacher of any important branch of human knowledge. ”

“ Let this be said of my countrymen in relation to the measure which Lord Ripon as a part of a great policy and as an act of great justice to the Natives of this country thought it his duty to make law. It cut sharply across the masterful instincts, the intuitions and the cherished habits of our British race, before their intelligence was enlightened and convinced. The soreness of the struggle has not quite passed away. But I feel certain that when a generation has elapsed they will feel not less kindly to Lord Ripon than he now feels to them. ”

“ The literature in which we delighted aforetime is still dear to us; the rigorous laws of mathematical science still command our reverence and admiration. But we think that while we keep room for our possible Newtons, Wordsworths, and Macaulays, we may find a place also for our Faradays and Darwins. We may hold out hands of fellowship to an Indian Watt or Arkwright, a Stephenson or Bessemer, and strive by mastering the principles which their genius anticipated to make the path smoother for new conquests of nature. ”

“ In this very city we have seen the mill industry grow up, which makes Bombay one of the great manufacturing cities of the world, and here, especially, the want of technological instruction has been a growing want, which has made itself keenly felt and has been loudly expressed. Now comes an institution which, I trust, will supply that great want: nor let it be supposed for a moment that an institution of that kind need be deficient in the higher elements of intellectual cultivation. ”

“ It seems to me, I must confess, that it is little short of folly that we should throw open to increasing numbers the rich stores of Western learning; that we should inspire them with European ideas, and bring them into the closest contact with English thought; and that then we should, as it were, pay no heed to the growth of those aspirations which we have ourselves created, and the pride of those ambitions we have ourselves called forth. ”

“ In laying before you, gentlemen of the Senate, this necessarily hasty sketch of the University system as it has been in the past, as it is, and as in India it ought to be, to enable it to realize a worthy and noble future, I have naturally had in view most particularly the crowd of youthful hearers whose patience and attention during this long speech has in itself been no trifling exercise in moral discipline. ”

“ On you it devolves to repay your debt to learning by adding some gain of observation or of thought to its expanding store. If you cannot discover you can verify; if you cannot originate "the thoughts that breathe and words that burn," you can illustrate them; you can enforce them; and in this Eastern land, the ancient nursery of Civilization, you can help to form the intellectual soil from which new growths of wisdom, happiness and beauty are to spring up in the time to come. ”

“ The University must in its constitution be an independent body. The Independence of the University. It must be independent of the Government, because it ought to have, and must have, if it is to live, a character and vitality of its own deeply rooted in the needs and nature of the people amongst whom it is placed. ”

“ But it may be allowed to us as an University, however great and emergent the necessity may be, to express our regret that any evil fate should befall institutions such as these, and that is an evil fate, we consider, which severs them now from the control and the support of Government. We think, we members of this University think, and I am sure I am speaking the feelings of nearly all, if not all, who are assembled here, that it is desirable in the present state of education in India that there should not be a total severance of the Government from the higher educational institutions. ”

“ For many of his acts and much of his work he will occupy a distinguished place in the history of his country and of this great dependency; but with the Treaty of Washington he takes a high and distinguished position, one never to be lost, in the history of the progress of mankind. That progress, gentlemen, as we must hope, must involve at no very distant stage a universal or at any rate far more widely extended peace than has hitherto been known. ”

“ There also then, I say, should be that interchange of thoughts and ideas by which Bombay, like Alexandria, may rise to a fame quite independent of the wealth of its citizens, and of any fate which may befall it. Here in Bombay, where converging races from the East and West meet, should rise a school of scholarship and philosophy, which should make this city a worthy successor to the great city founded by Alexander the Great. ”

“ It is through technical education that the riches of the world are brought to our feet, that the weak are made strong, and the poor rich, and that the fainting soul receives the lightning-like communication that gives it peace. ”

“ Advantages of scientific culture. But more especially a truly scientific culture furnishes the mind not only with a mastery of the main facts of outward nature and a readiness to conform to her laws and so turn them to human uses, but with a method of inquiry, a mode of facing the facts of the universe which cannot be acquired in any other way so well. The science student duly disciplined takes all nature for his province. To his trained perceptions there is nothing common or unclean, no creature is unworthy of investigation by a man which has been deemed worthy of existence by God. ”

“ Now all these material arts on which the genius and disciplined ability of many of our own students and graduates have been expended have been found to have beneath them, as in all arts and sciences, certain rules and principles which, having been gathered from particular instances, then form themselves a basis from which by inference new rules and new principles may be derived. The want is felt by degrees here as in other countries of a technological institution, which should gather up these results, satisfy these needs, and give us the training which our new circumstances require. ”

“ Amongst those gentlemen are to be found representatives of all the principal subjects of human learning and study, of law and medicine and engineering, and, above all, of general literature and science. All these subjects have here their representatives, and these representatives have been chosen from every class and creed. Our University spreads its roots thus amongst Hindus and Mussalmans, Parsis and Christians. Every class unites with the others in the noble effort to promote the welfare of this country and the advance of its people along the great lines of civilization and learning. ”

“ I will reserve it, if ever I have the opportunity, for some other occasion of addressing you, and I will say no more on the present occasion than to remind my younger hearers, in whom we all feel so much interested, that whether in the field of science, or in the field of literature, there is a certain exaltation of spirit required,—and that can be attained by true attachment to a great institution of this kind, which brings out the noblest abilities into splendid activity ”

“ But I think all that may very well be left to the arrangement of fortune, or rather of Providence, and that if a young lady feels a special call for learning as her vocation she ought no more to be excluded from learning than she is excluded from the career of music or painting. And if any of my own rougher sex are inclined to feel jealous, which I trust very few are in this community, one may point to the fact that it is only ladies of very special gifts who have achieved the first distinction either in painting or music, and still fewer perhaps in the kindred art of sculpture. ”

“ Men of every race and creed unite without chicane in the simple furtherance of learning. It is a glorious work of English principles and wisdom. The teaching by which our young members are trained is equally single-minded and equally free. There is no educational police, no Government scheme of morality or politics to hamper the intellectual action and the influence of our Professors. ”

“ Here is an institution which would be in no wise jealous of anything they can do for learning. It invites them to come into its arms and to go hand in hand along with them in the work of assisting and promoting learning, literature, and science. I suppose there are few chiefs of higher rank who would not give a lakh or even two or five lakhs for an addition of one gun to their salutes. I do not ask these gentlemen in any way to despise the salute, which shows the respect felt for them by the Paramount Power in India. ”

“ These University professors of science should be men specially devoted to their subject; they should be men not engaged in many different occupations, but there should be in them, in order that they may attain perfection in their own pursuit, that specialization of labour, that devotion to single subjects of study which it would be impossible for any one engaged in an ordinary profession, or in any ordinary business to have. The professor of a particular subject, as of Chemistry in an University, must give himself up to that one subject. ”

“ Immobility is in these days a comparative retrogression, and the gentlemen who, after a training in science, betake themselves to one of the professional courses will, I trust, recognize and keep hold on the means of making their careers not only immediately useful, but a source of self-culture, of permanent improvement to science, and of blessing to mankind. ”

“ The Universities must be made and kept independent on that side as well as the side which they present to the Government, and they must always seek in the faculty of arts—the source and guardian of all the others—to maintain the very highest standard of learning in science and literature. ”