Through science I was able to teach you how the seeming veils the real;
how though the garish lights dazzle and blind us, there are lights
invisible, which glow persistently after the brief flare burns out. One
came to realise how all matter was one, how unified all life was. In the
various expressions of life even in the realm of thought the same
Universal law prevails. There was no such thing as brute matter, but
that spirit suffused matter in which it was enshrined. One also realised
dimly a mysterious Cyclic Law of Change, seen not merely in inorganic
matter but also in organised life and its highest manifestations. One
saw how inertness passes into the climax of activity and how that climax
is perilously near its antithetic decline. This basic change puzzles us
by its seeming caprice not merely in our physical instruments but also
in the cycle of individual life and death and in the great cycle of the
life and death of nations. We fail to see things in their totality and
we erect barriers that keep kindreds apart. Even science which attempts
to rise above common limitations, has not escaped the doom which limited
vision imposes. We have caste in science as in religion and in politics,
which divides one into conflicting many. The law of Cyclic change
follows us relentlessly even in the realm of thought. When we have
raised ourselves to the highest pinnacle, through some oversight we fall
over the precipice. Men have offered their lives for the establishment
of truth. A climax is reached after which the custodians of knowledge
themselves bar further advance. Men who have fought for liberty impose
on themselves and on others the bond of slavery. Through centuries have
men striven to erect a mighty edifice in which Humanity might be
enshrined; through want of vigilance the structure crumbled into dust.
Many cycles must yet be run and defeats must yet be borne before man
will establish a destiny which is above change.
And through science I was able to teach you to seek for truth and help
to discover it yourself. This attitude of detachment may possess some
advantage in the proper understanding of your duties. You will have,
besides, the heritage of great ideals that have been handed down to
you. The question which you have to decide is duty to yourself, to the
king and to your country. I shall speak to you of the ideals which we
cherish about these duties.