106 REFLEXION-CONVERSATION. of a poor pit-man in the collieries, to that of Engineer of the impossible road across the Solway Moss; and the father of that mighty system of Railways which has now spread its iron net-work over the whole globe. Well: suppose now you have got your knowledge fixed in your minds, how can you best enlarge and improve it? Of course by reflection. Reflection has been aptly said to be to the mental food, what digestion is to the bodily. And if you do not reflect upon what you read, and what you are taught, you will derive very little benefit comparatively from what you learn. But there is a more effective plan than solitary reflection. It is that of talking over what you have learnt, with your fellow students. Bacon, you remember, says reading maketh a full man, but conversation, a ready man and it is by conversing with others, imparting to them your own notions, and listening to theirs, that you will receive new lights on the subject of your studies, and a familiar dexterity in handling your knowledge. Boys at school always form some particular friendships; and it would be well, if, two and two, you pursued the Socratic method of mutual examination, by questions and answers; or even formed little societies of three or four, or more, to discuss out of school what you learn in school. I can speak feelingly on the benefits to be derived from this practice. For years, at Harrow, I was accustomed to lie thus in the churchyard, drinking in with untiring eye the magnificent landscape, and talking over our reading with two dear friends: and in after years at Oxford, how many a walk on the breezy heights of Shotover have I not enjoyed with one now a distinguished dignitary in another church, thus occupied in criticising and searching each others knowledge. I know not how it may be with others, but I can truly say, that many of those passages, which once found are joys for ever, because things of beauty, have not struck me in my own research but have been pointed out to me by others. Thus some of the finest passages in Eschylus and Shelly, Tacitus and Burke, Pindar, Theocritus, and other great writers, have for me this charm in addition to their own. Memory thus awakes with a double charm, that of friendship as well as knowledge. Each beautiful passage in literature is associated with some pleasant day or scene, and well-loved name. It is thus that you may strew with flowers the rough paths of Learning: it is thus you will most securely cage in your recollections the wild warblers who would otherwise escape you amid the woods of forgetfulness. ADDRESS on the Twentieth Anniversary of Patcheappah's Institution : 1863. May it please your Excellency:* It is customary at this stage of the proceedings of our anniversary, and this is our twentieth, for me, as Patron of this Institution, to address to those who have honoured us with their presence, such observations as appear to me appropriate, with reference to the features of the past educational year generally, as well as to those events which bear immediately on the welfare and the prospects of this Institution. And, perhaps, the most, prominent event in our retrospect is that of the elevation of MR. POWELL to the chair of the Director of Public Instruction, vacant by the promotion of the Honorable MR. ARBUTHNOT; a gentleman with whom, in former years, I was myself long officially and intimately connected in the great cause of Native Education; and who has inaugurated the present system of Government secular education with no mean ability, patience, and impartiality. But all eyes were turned towards MR. POWELL as his successor; he has been called to office almost by acclamation; and if I were asked to name the individual who has conferred the most signal benefits upon the people of this Presidency, I should, after full consideration, without hesitation, name MR. POWELL, (great cheers from the Natives.) He has stamped the mark of his own mind upon the present and the rising generations. The relations of teacher and scholar, are, as I have remarked once before, more kindly in this country than at home; and MR. POWELL, while most laboriously and conscientiously discharging his duties in cultivating the intellects of his pupils, has singularly succeeded in winning their affections-a tact which any one may ascertain who * Sir William Denison. THE UNCOVENANTED SERVICE. 109 has met Mr. PowELL's pupils, in after life, in the Provinces. We hail his appointment; we congratulate him and the Natives upon it; and we bid him God-speed in his more extended sphere of utility, until he shall have even more indelibly engraved his name upon the hearts of the people, and in the annals of Anglo-Indian History. The success of education is now assured. The avidity for education is proved by the numbers who throng all our great public buildings at the periodical examinations for the Uncovenanted Service. The influx of candidates is far greater than there is any possibility of finding employment for; and I fear that many may be only preparing for themselves disappointment, if they fancy that the fact of having passed these examinations gives them the prospect of entering the Public Service; and it may perhaps become necessary to consider whether some check should not be offered to the present state of things; as, for instance, by raising the standard of examination. I wish to warn you against this morbid craving for Government employ. No service can be more honorable; and formerly it was almost the only avenue open to those who had to seek their livelihood by their own exertions, who were not either heirs to large fortunes, capitalists, zemindars, or ryots. But times have very much changed. Trade has so increased, that mercantile pursuits offer to the honest, the laborious and the prudent, I do not say a splendid fortune, but the certainty of a moderate and sufficient competency. The Professions are opened: and I would especially refer to that to which I have myself the honor to belong-the Law. During the past year we have seen a Native raised to the Bench of the High Court of Calcutta; and I hope the time is not very far distant when a similar dignity will be conferred upon Natives in this Presidency and Bombay. I trust that by the time my honorable and learned friend SADAGOPA CHARLOO 110 THE BENCH-THE BAR. is qualified by the length of his practice as a Pleader, he will be elevated to this high office; with that riper experience, that fuller knowledge of substantive law, and that minuter intimacy with forensic practice, which in the meantime he will have perfected. Speaking for myself, and I believe I may say for the entire Bar, we shall feel no petty jealousy at the elevation of a Native, when that Native has won his honours in struggling at the Bar with us, and against us; and the Natives may well rejoice at such a proof of the sincerity of the professions and promises of Government, in adhering to that wise policy, which has determined to admit the Natives to an ever larger and larger participation in the civil and judicial administration of the country, as they prove themselves fitted and qualified for the faithful and efficient discharge of the onerous and responsible duties which they take upon themselves, by the acceptance of high office. Such a fact will offer a stimulus and an example to the Native public, of what any man of fair abilities, with labour, perseverance, and moral rectitude, may hope to achieve for himself in these days. Another instance occurs to me. Lately, when I was at Tanjore, I had to defend a prisoner. The Government prosecutor perhaps did not like to face a real live Barrister ; at any rate, he did not make his appearance, and I have no doubt the Judge at Negapatam sent over to Tanjore the best man he could select, to conduct the prosecution. I had the pleasure of recognizing in my opponent one of my own old pupils, when I was Professor of Law in the University; and I can conscientiously say, that I was astonished at the closeness of his cross-examination, the keenness of his points, and the sensible nature of his general reply-the most difficult task, in my opinion, which an advocate has to perform. Unquestionably, the introduction of such men into the |