Nilgiris, would, at least, if they did so, come very much nearer the mark, than did the great French family, of whom it was said "noble as the Barrases, old as the rocks of Provence."
It is not only an ancient, but a lovely, land in which the lot of most of you is cast. There is hardly a district in the Presidency, which does not contain scenery which people in Europe would go hundreds of miles to see, and of which the globe-trotter, pursuing his way over "the bare stony wolds of the Deccan," and the monotonous plains so common in Northern India, little dreams. Such a land well deserves that the best efforts of its inhabitants should be given, first, to make the most of its resources, and, secondly, to illustrate it by leading therein lives which may be useful to the world at large.
Let me recapitulate. Some of those, who now enter the University, should not enter it at all. They can never be useful to themselves, their families, or their country, except through callings by which they can early, and speedily, accumulate money. Others should enter it, pass the Matriculation, and the First in Arts Examinations, but, after that, branch off to some of the more difficult money-getting pursuits.
There remain the graduates, to whom I have been chiefly addressing myself, and we have seen together how many employments there are, amongst which it is desirable that they should scatter themselves, instead of trusting to the fragile reed of Government employment.
So much for the lower functions of the University: for what the Germans well call its "bread-studies." I have shown you, however, that above these is a whole range of occupations, adapted to the leisure hours of the busy men amongst you, and all the hours of such of you, (a class which will, I trust, increase) as having this world's goods, need not trouble yourselves with money-getting.
I have further pointed out that these occupations are of two kinds: those suited to men whose disposition inclines them to the active, and those suited to men whose disposition inclines them to the studious, and contemplative, side of life.
But, beyond, and above, all these functions of the University, there is one far higher and more important still; that, namely, it should sow in all its worthier sons the seeds of that way of looking at life, which has never been so well described, as it has been by a living writer.
