35 
In 1844 the combination of the hitherto separate Sanskrit and 
English colleges at Benares was resolved upon, and John Muir was 
appointed first principal of the institution. In an address delivered 
by the Hon. James Thomason, Lieut. -Governor of the H.W.P., at 
the opening of the Benares Hew College, on 11th January 1853, 
credit is given to Mr. Muir for having succeeded “ in introducing 
into the college a stricter discipline and a better system of educa- 
tion.” This post John Muir held for one year, when he was suc- 
ceeded by Dr. Ballantyne, he himself reverting to the judicial 
branch of the service, as civil and session judge at Euttehpore. 
Erom his parting address to the students of the Benares College, on 
the 10th Eebruary 1843, I extract the following passages as charac- 
teristic of the man : — “ How, I am anxious that your reasonable 
ambition should be satisfied • I desire to see you all rise to wealth 
and honour ; but I am more solicitous that high principles should 
now be implanted in your minds, which in after life may bear the 
precious fruits of integrity, wisdom, and piety. I wish that you 
should be devoted to study, not so much for the outward advantages 
it brings, as because you love that truth to which it ought to lead ; 
because you appreciate the most valuable results of education, I 
mean intelligence, enlargement of mind, the cultivation of your 
judgment and other faculties ; acquaintance with the wonderful 
works of God, and the laws by which He rules the universe * — above 
all, because you find that sound instruction is auxiliary to moral 
improvement. These are the motives which best deserve to be 
urged at length to stimulate you to the earnest pursuit of know- 
ledge.” After a brief outline of some of the chief departments of 
Sanskrit literature, he continues : — “ There is, however, one subject 
which, more than any other, demands your earnest attention, both 
during the course of your education and after its close ; I mean 
your moral improvement. If the instruction you have received in 
the college have not inspired you with the love of goodness, of truth, 
integrity, justice, purity, and piety, as well as with a desire to prac- 
tise all these virtues which in theory you admire, it will have 
effected but little. Mere intellectual, unattended by moral improve- 
ment, may render you only more accomplished in wickedness. True 
wisdom cannot exist apart from goodness. However strengthened 
by discipline your powers may be, they will always be directed to 
