Richard Temple

“ We remember that education is generally sought for by the student as a means of rising in a profession, and that if his profession is to be science, he must make use of the five years of his collegiate course for this purpose, — that spring season of his mind when the faculties are most elastic and the memory most receptive—a season to be enjoyed while it lasts, for to him it will never return! ”

“ Doubtless, young Natives of promise and ambition seek University degrees for many other objects besides admission to, or promotion in, the service of Government—indeed, this University has never ceased to impress on its alumni that its degrees should be sought for their own sake. Still, in such a country as India, the public service offers a large field for the educated youth,—the largest, probably, of all the fields as yet open to them. It is due to the cause of education that its followers should have a surer access to that field, in proportion to the superiority of their attainments. ”

“ Though we long for the day when the people wall undertake the task of national instruction by private resources and private organization, subject only to a general control by the State, still, we see that at present in Western India this task has to be performed mainly by the State, and we consider ourselves answerable for holding the balance between the claims of the several branches of education. We cannot say that any one of them is more important than the others; all are conducive to the good of the people. Nor can any one be treated separately from the others. ”

“ Primary education is as the plinth with the foundation broad and deep; secondary education is as the superstructure with its walls and pillars; high education is as the roof with the domes and towers. ”

“ The aim of technical instruction is to help Native youths to qualify themselves for earning a livelihood as medical practitioners, as chemists, as foresters, as scientific gardeners, as land-surveyors, as civil engineers, as trained mechanics, as engravers.
⁠But, although practical knowledge must occupy a larger part than heretofore in our middle class education, we must continue to bestow care as much as ever, or more than ever, on ethical instruction and moral culture. ”

“ We do not disguise from ourselves that in a community like that of Western India, composed of so many diverse elements, there may be, indeed must be, some whose thoughts are misguided, and that although the masses in all ranks, high and humble, are thoroughly well-affected, there are some who feel wrongly and think amiss. But those few, who are thus ill-disposed, do not become so by reason of their English education; their ill-disposition springs from causes with which such education has neither concern nor connexion; and the education must mitigate, if it cannot remove, their discontent. ”

“ It can hardly be denied that when the responsibility of educating the people has been accepted by the State, some considerable portion of the educational resources must be devoted to high education. To institute public education without providing for superior instruction, would be to make a spear without a spear-head, or a sword without a sharp edge. ”

“ The moral to be pointed is this, that a really good general education should enable a man to apply himself to the acquisition of any sort of knowledge, however novel or alien it may be; to perceive the points and bearings of every case or class of cases which may be presented to him; to assimilate into the mental system the ideas peculiar to any profession he may enter. In a word, general knowledge should be so ordered as to be a key wherewith to unlock the door of any special subject which its possessor may need to approach. ”

“ You know, gentlemen, that the upper ranks of Native society are as yet but little represented in the rolls of our University calendars; that although the rich men of Bombay do often present their sons for our University examinations, yet such is not the general practice (as it ought to be) with the Native nobility and gentlemen of Western India; that for those who matriculate in this University the share borne by the State in the cost of their education is great, and that for those who take degrees this share of the State is greater still. ”

“ If the nation under our charge be regarded in its corporate existence, we shall find that primary education supplies material for secondary education; that advancement of secondary or intermediate education reflects back energy upon primary education; that secondary education leads up to high education, which, again, elevates the tone of everything below it, and supplies the fittest instruments for all other sorts of instruction. National education in its totality may be likened to the beautiful structure in which we are now assembled. ”

“ Good teaching of physical science also must, as I believe, enlarge the ideas, and elevate the sentiments, of man in respect of God, and must impress upon him at least some part of his duty towards his Creator. But such teaching cannot furnish him with instruction in his duty towards his fellows, an instruction needed by all students alike, whether they belong to the department of arts or of science. Again, there are, as we believe, abstract principles and moral truths wholly independent of, and immeasurably above, the material universe in which we live. ”

“ You can hardly do better than fix your gaze on the antique remains of your own national art, which remains will hardly be surpassed by anything that European art can teach you. But under the guidance of Sir Bartle Frere, whom you so well remember as Chancellor of this University, an artistic revival arose some years ago in Western India, a movement which is worthily sustained by our School of Art and Design at Bombay, and by the group of edifices where we are at this moment standing.
Most of you must win knowledge for the purpose of fighting the battle of life, Pursuit of knowledge. ”

“ We duly perceive that, while many Natives learn English—the more the better—still many Natives, if they are to be educated at all, can obtain their education only through the medium of their own vernacular. Hence, a new vernacular literature has to be created; and such a creation, if it be fully completed under our auspices, will be among the most enduring monuments of British rule in Western India. Already a good beginning has been made by several highly-qualified Native gentlemen. ”

“ Doubtless, the Government and the University never take these manifestations of discontent to mean more than is really meant. We all appreciate the freedom of thought, the latitude of expression, that will ever characterize the youth of a nation which is being exercised in new ways of thinking. We know that the existing state of things in this country often invites legitimate criticism, and we desire that the sentiments of educated Natives should be unreservedly made known to us. ”

“ Our students must bend themselves more than heretofore to those sciences which are severe and exact, as compared with those to which I have been just adverting. The proficiency which Natives attain in mathematics; the success they win in the law; the public confidence they command when on the judicial bench; the progress they make in the practice of surgery and medicine,—afford an earnest of their future achievements in any science to which they may devote themselves. ”

“ Now, it is not for us to read the hearts of men; and if any of our alumni be really disloyal or ungrateful, let his own heart condemn him. Education and Loyalty. But it is our firm hope and trust that the vast majority of our educated youth are true and loyal to us in mind, in spirit, in sentiment, in disposition. ”

“ I apprehend that many thoughtful Natives, while thankfully acknowledging all that has been done in this direction by the public instruction under British rule, do yet lament that a more systematic effort is not made to unfold and evolve before the minds of the young those eternal principles of right and wrong, which serve as beacons for the due conduct of life, and which ought specially to be included in an educational system that necessarily excludes religious teaching. ”

“ Equally unjust would it be to science to regard it as failing to quicken faith or to strengthen the moral sense. Few things can be more ennobling to the soul of man than honest effort to penetrate the mysteries of the material universe, and to understand the laws which the Creator has ordained for its existence. You probably have read that some modern authors divide knowledge into two main categories: one "humanistic," which may be broadly described as literoe humaniores, metaphysical philosophy, aesthetics, law, history ”

“ Again, notwithstanding the considerate intentions of the Government that those who acquire the higher education should have due advantages respecting admission to the upper grades of the public service, it has been found that University graduates in arts frequently fail, through no fault of their own, to obtain the situations or positions to which their attainments might be expected to entitle them, and which they see filled by those who had not been reared in the colleges, but who had won their way by actual work. ”

“ We rejoice to Bee so many promising students qualifying themselves by general education for the public service, which offers an ever-widening field to your reasonable ambition, and in which you are likely to rise to higher spheres; for the judicial bench where Natives acquit themselves so honourably, also for the Native bar which is everywhere rising in repute and usefulness. But we hope that these professions may not become overstocked. Though the danger of such over-crowding does not seem to be so imminent here as elsewhere, yet even here it exists. ”

“ Moral philosophy, then, comprises a knowledge which is necessary to all students in all departments of education, which they must bring with them to all their studies, and which they ought to retain in their inmost hearts and minds throughout their lives. Therefore, it ought not, in my judgment, to be left to incidental or indirect teaching, but ought to be taught systematically in all our institutions from the highest to the humblest. Nevertheless, in Western India it is taught indirectly rather than directly ”

“ It diverts from the older professions, namely the law and the public service, some of those surplus students who would otherwise overcrowd those professions. It displays before the Natives not only new ranges of thought, but also fresh methods of thinking. It initiates the Natives from their early youth in those sciences, the successful pursuit of which distinguishes the Western civilization of modern times. It applies the whole force of education to the promotion of that material progress, in which India has so much way to make up, before she can come abreast of the more advanced nations. ”

“ But, gentlemen, the exclusive devotion to mental and moral philosophy as contradistinguished from physical science, Exclusive devotion to Philosophy. and without sufficient subjection to the discipline of severer studies, such as logic, mathematics and science—is apt to develop the very faults to which your mental constitution is prone. The imaginative faculties rise and spread so as to overshadow the reason; the idealistic power flourishes so excessively as to draw the vigour away from the realistic faculties. ”

“ The third topic relates to instruction in moral philosophy or Instruction in ethics, or the Science of human duty. Though necessarily precluded from adverting to religion, I neither forget, nor expect you to forget, that it is impossible to teach human duty, comprising the relations between man and man, without also teaching something at least of man's duty towards God. No doubt, one of the effects of really good teaching in arts, say in the branches of history or literature, must be to inculcate always incidentally, and often directly, much of the general duty of man. ”

“ At all events, we have solemnly undertaken to educate the Natives in all the Western learning and philosophy which have helped to raise England to her height among the nations of the earth. We anticipate nothing but the most favourable consequences politically from such education. But be the consequences what they may, we shall, I trust, persevere in that educational policy which, being liberal and enlightened, is prescribed to us by the dictates of our duty as trustees for the people of India. The second topic relates to instruction in natural and physical science. ”

“ Consequently, we see that many persons, whose practical knowledge gives authority to their opinion, affirm that much of our higher education is superficial where it ought to be fundamental, and airy when it ought to be substantial. I am, as you will be, far from a full admission of such criticism. Still, the prevalence of such a notion does render the employers of intellectual labour less anxious than might have been expected to have recourse to those who belong to this University. ”

“ We hope, too, that many of you will become imbued with artistic and aesthetic ideas, and that some of you will follow art as a profession. India must deplore the loss, during wars and revolutions, of so many of those arts which flourished in the days when Asoka graved on the rocks the edicts of duty ”

“ The influence even of the University would not, indeed, cause such degrees to be largely sought, unless the graduates of science found scope in after-life for the due employment of their scientific knowledge. But such scope is widening, constantly: scientific pursuits are expanding together with the material progress of the country. That progress will itself be sustained and invigorated by the existence of a growing class of Natives educated in science. Such Natives, too, are wanted to supply the teaching power in the science for our various educational institutions. ”