পাতা:Reminiscences Speeches And Writings Of Sir Gooroo Dass Banerjee Reminiscences pt. 1.pdf/৩৪৫

326 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. as a member of the Indian Universities Commission in 1902. The concluding words of his luminous note deserve seriously to be pondered over by iconoclastic educational reformers at the present moment. “While yielding to none in my appreciation of the necessity for raising the standard of education and discipline, I have ventured to think that the solution arrived at is only a partial solution of the problem and that we should aim not only at raising the height but also at broadening the base of our cducational fabric. And where I have differed from my learned colleagues, I have done so mainly with a view to secure that our educational system is so adjusted that while the gifted few shall receive the highest training, the bulk of the less gifted but earnest seekers after knowledge may have every facility afforded to them for deriving the benefits of high education.' Wise words these which deserve to be inscribed in letters of gold on the portals of the Education Department, that is so anxious to raise the height at the expense of the base and make education available to the few. Had education been the luxury of the rich we doubt whether there would have becn a Sir Gooroo Das Banerjee to guide his countrymen with his mellow wisdom and rich experience. He was the prince of graduates of the Calcutta University, having topped the list in all scholastic examinations. In the stern and relentless examination in practical life, he was also eminently successful and showed the strong and beautiful stuff he was made of Indeed, the word success is writ large in his long and strenuous life. He was successful as