Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/299

hold the rank of pupils. However, as in their examination, those of them who have obtained places in the honor classes, have exhausted the subjects entering into the academic curriculum, they are subjected to no after-test in Arts for the attainment of the higher degree. Such is not the case in our Indian Universities, and in my humble opinion we have reason to rejoice at the circumstance. Each degree with us will represent an intelligible fact, the exhibition of a certain amount of knowledge. But, it is not to this consideration I wish to direct your minds so much as to the conclusion that, if the degree of Bachelor of Arts be held an imperfect one in Europe, where it may and often does represent the acquisition of a very wide circle of knowledge, much more must it possess that character here, where it indicates a comparatively contracted circle. Hence it is incumbent upon you to look forward, and with your eyes set on the wide field lying open before you, to put your hand to the plough in an earnest and determined spirit, glancing at the furrows already traced only to gain courage for additional exertions; thus using the past simply as a stimulus to the future, and not permitting yourselves to subside into indolence, delusively fancying that enough has already been accomplished. That such may be your course, and that some years hence you may again come forward to claim from the University still higher honors than those that have been conferred upon you to-day, is, you may be assured, the earnest desire of the Right Hon'ble the Chancellor, and of all the members of this Senate. That you will have great difficulties to contend against in carrying your studies to the point requisite to secure a higher degree,—is undoubted; no regular sources of assistance lie open to you, such as are at the command of students in the different countries of Europe; you will have to rely almost entirely upon your own industry and ability, without possessing the great advantage of pursuing a daily career of study, under teachers specially devoted to the work of smoothing your path, of testing your progress, of shaping and correcting your views, and of stimulating you when your efforts flag, now by a word of kindly encouragement, and now by a warning sentence. But if your difficulties will be great, equally great will be your merit if successful; even failure under these circumstances may well be honorable: and what a beneficial influence upon your character must manly, self-relying course of study produce! How many virtues must necessarily be developed by pursuing such a career! Surely, when you reflect, you cannot but feel that the real reward of a true student's labour is not the admission to a degree, is not the recog-