Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 3.djvu/46

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I

CONVOCATION ADDRESS,

University of Madras:

CULTURE AND DUTY.

(1923)

My Lord the Chancellor and other Members of the Senate, and Graduates of the year:

The privilege of addressing—of felicitating and counselling—the graduates of the year I owe entirely to the favor of the Chancellor; to whom I beg to tender my humble thanks. The honor of the position, it is obvious, consists essentially in a highly responsible task; from which, if merit were the main test, I should instantly shrink. For it is a task the difficulty of which— from the double dearth of new subjects and of fresh forms for familiar themes—has been repeatedly owned by those admittedly my superiors in learning and experience. Yet