Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 2/The Rev. A. R. Symonds, M.A.
FOURTH CONVOCATION.
(By Rev. A. R. Symonds, M.A.)
Gentlemen,—Under the instructions of His Excellency the Chancellor of this University the duty devolves upon me of addressing you on an occasion which I trust will be memorable, not only as that upon which you attained unto a coveted dignity, but as that from which you set out upon a career, honorable to yourselves and beneficial to your fellow-men. Gentlemen, in the name of all here present, I offer you my hearty congratulations and best wishes upon the academic distinction which you have this day received; distinction, intended both to attest the ability and diligence of those who receive it, and to stimulate others to pursue a like course of intellectual cultivation. Having been one of the examiners to test your qualifications as candidates, it has been to me a special satisfaction to witness your admission to your respective degrees; and now, as a member of the Senate appointed to address you as graduates, I call upon you to consider well the position which by the virtue of these degrees, you now occupy. That position is to be looked at under a twofold aspect; one, bearing upon yourselves, the other, upon your fellow-men. Attain moral excellence. In respect of the first, the conferring of these degrees pledges you to aim at all intellectual and moral excellency; as to the second, it lays you under obligation to a course of practical usefulness. Rise then, gentlemen, to the true dignity of the position to which you have this day attained and recognise and fulfil the responsibility it imposes. Do you ask me to define more exactly wherein that dignity and responsibility consists? I refer you to the Questions which just now were proposed to you and to which you severally made response. Those questions were put to you by His Excellency the Chancellor in the name of this University, and they were answered by you, I trust, in all sincerity with a clear appreciation of their import and design. Review those questions for a moment, and ponder over their nature and significance. Those questions, you will observe, are purely of a moral character, and in putting them, before a degree was conferred upon you, the University clearly intimated that it looks not for intellectual superiority only, as the condition of a Degree, but for moral excellence also. In the ordeal to which you had been previously subjected by its duly appointed examiners, the University had obtained assurance that in point of learning and ability you were worthy of the honour to which you aspired; yet, before it would confer that honour, it demanded and received from you a pledge of moral rectitude, as men and as citizens. It asked you whether, as candidates for your respective degrees, you would promise, 1st, to fashion your daily life and conversation as becomes the members of this University; 2nd, to support and promote, to the utmost of your opportunity and ability, the cause of morality and sound learning; 3rd, to uphold and advance, as far as in you lies, social order and the well-being of your fellow-men. Gentlemen, these questions are of a momentous character; they were solemnly put and, I doubt not, seriously answered. Import of promises made. Note then, to what, by your own deliberate act and declaration, you this day stand pledged, and therein see what is your true dignity, your proper responsibility as graduates of this University. You are pledged to eschew every everything low and mean and unworthy; you are pledged to aim at all that is high and honorable and befitting; you are pledged to use your talents, learning, and influence for the repression of ignorance and evil and for the diffusion of knowledge and virtue; you are pledged to maintain and promote the peace of the Realm and obedience to the Powers that be; and, finally, you are pledged to further in every possible way, the best interests of your fellow-men. Gentlemen, if you fully comprehend the tenor of these promises, and if in good faith you have made them, then you understand the dignity and appreciate the responsibility of your position. Now, then, go forth on the career thus marked out before you, actuated by the highest motives and braced up with manly resolution. Call to mind, how of old the candidate for knightly honors, having first trained himself by long continued exercises of skill and strength was invested with the insignia of his Order after solemn vows to defend the right, and to maintain the honour of that Order untarnished. On this day, you, having passed the required ordeal, having been invested with academic insignia, after giving promises of a yet higher import. Gentlemen, stand by your Order and maintain its honour. Regard yourselves as knights-errant sent forth to do battle for the cause of Virtue and Learning. Then quit you like men, be strong; strong in principle, strong in purpose. Fulfil your honourable vocation, and justify by your future conduct the confidence which this University reposes in you by granting you its diploma. Let no blot stain your escutcheon or mar the credit of the body into the membership of which you have now been enrolled. Remember this, I pray you, that henceforth you are members of a Body Corporate; the honour of which is committed to your keeping. If one member suffer all the members suffer with it; if you obtain honor, it receives honor in your persons; if you incur disgrace, it sustains discredit also. Bear in mind that the eyes of your fellow-men will be upon you; and that the question will be asked, “Are these graduates of the Madras University better men, abler men, more efficient men than others?” Let your conduct and deportment give a practical answer in the affirmative. Aim to be good, aim to be useful, and so not only shall your Alma Mater be honoured in her sons and be compensated for her travail in bringing them forth, but the men of your generation shall receive benefit through you, and rejoice that such as you were raised up among them.
To you who have attained the degree of Bachelor o£ Arts, I would say more Advice to Bachelors of Arts. particularly that to you we look for aid in the furtherance of sound learning. If ever this great Country is to be pervaded with the literature of the West, it must be through the medium of educated Hindoos. All that we can do is to form here and there certain large reservoirs of the waters of knowledge; but you, and such as you, must be the channels to convey its fertilizing streams, far and wide, over the dry and thirsty land. What a noble and beneficent course lies then before you. It is quite allowable that you should find gratification in the distinction conferred upon you this day, and that you should regale yourselves in the walks of literature to which you have been introduced; but you will fall altogether short of the true object of the one and of the happiness of the other, if your aims and your desires terminate in self. Regarding then, your Degree as the starting point of a career of distinction and usefulness yet to be run, go forth upon the errand on which we now send you, and learn by actual experience the luxury of doing good, how much more blessed it is to give than to receive.
Upon you who have attained the degree of Bachelor of Laws, Advice to Bachelors of Laws. I would impress the momentous character of the promise specifically made by you. You have pledged yourselves faithfully and carefully to fulfil the duties of your profession, on all occasions to maintain its purity and reputation, and never to deviate from the straight path of its honourable exercise by making your knowledge subservient to unworthy ends. Act out this promise, and the University will have no reason but to rejoice in any success you may attain. It is well known that peculiar temptations assail a Lawyer, and he must be a man of strong moral purpose and principle, who can put those temptations away from him. To advert to one instance only in illustration. The defence of a criminal may devolve upon you ; you may become aware that he is guilty of the offence with which he is charged, you are not bound, therefore, to abandon his defence ; on the contrary it is your duty to afford him the aid which the Law recognises and sanctions ; but you are bound, even though you might thereby save his life, not to employ any false or unworthy artifice, such as asserting your own conviction of his innocence or diverting suspicion to another person. Such artifices have too often been employed. The temptation to use them may be strong, but you must arm yourselves with vigorous and manly principle to resist it. Shun, as injurious to others and degrading to yourself, all unworthy, tricky, pettifogging action, and by the purity and straightforwardness of your own practice, rebuke and discountenance such action in others. We send You forth into the arena of your profession to be champions of truth and equity and righteousness; and, as to the Knight of old, when the Herald handed him his spear, so to you we present your diploma with a charge to be valiant for the truth,—and God defend the right.
Acknowledge and Respect God. Finally, gentlemen, I venture to say to you one and all, have respect in all your doings to the Great Supreme. I am aware that, on many important points, most of you hold not the same creed with myself; but I have not had intercourse for so many years with intelligent Hindoos, without knowing that with myself they acknowledge a God, all-wise, all-powerful, all-good, knowing all things, seeing all things. I appeal to you, then, as recognising a Supreme Being, and in His name charge you to eschew evil, to love virtue, and to seek the good of your fellow-men. For this end may strength and wisdom be imparted to you; may the study of truth lead you into all truth; may the blessing which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow rest abundantly upon you and your occupations. And, as the morning star, having brightly shone in darkness, then disappears not in darkness, but only in the still brighter effulgence of the rising sun, so may you shine as lights in your generation, and at the end of your course be withdrawn into the brightness of the Fountain and Father of Lights, even that adorable and Great Supreme, whom truly to know and faithfully to serve is present peace and everlasting happiness.