even the shadow of a Pariah. This is an instance which shows the divorce of the spiritual and the secular in our society and the absence of a central unity or aim in our scheme of life which can bring about their rapprochement.

But the living current of the life of a people will refuse to be dammed up and checked in its course for long. Under the influence of western education in Bengal, a section of the people broke through this band of legalism. That this protestant movement has done much, in various ways, for progress and emancipation is undeniable. But in its extreme zeal, it cut itself away from the traditions and culture of the Hindu race. Hence, its deprivation of Hindu art and symbolism, Hindu catholicity and comprehension, was a serious loss.

Thus neither the ancient legalism which still has its grip on Hindu society, nor the modern protestant movement, can mould into shape the diverse hopes and aspirations derived from the new literature and art and make them the foundation of a great institution. For both fail to give the fullest scope to the vital energies of the soul. In the shade of their chilling and cramping atmosphere, one cannot think that the flower of an opening life, the life of the child of the nation, will expand. Its sunshine is robbed, its joy is robbed, its very honey is robbed, and everywhere surrounding its life there is the gloom of overhanging conventions which dictate,Thou shalt do this and thou shalt not. Soul-growth is impossible in such an environment of unnatural restraint.

out a

Fortunately, the literature of Rabindranath has steered clear of these two dangers, the cold and hard rocks of legalism in Hindu society on the one hand and the loose and hidden sandbanks and shoals of protestantism on the other. It has been faithful to the instincts and impulses of true nationality. It throws vision of a great spiritual harmony worked out of the various elements and factors of nationality which are moving like wandering atoms towards a kind of chemical combination. The factors have their origin in the impact of the West and the East. There is on the one hand the Western scientific outlook on the universe and the love of humanity springing from Christian faith, and on the other the Eastern mystical apprehension of the infinite and

the feeling of oneness with all life. There is the political basis of society, the ideas of rights of man and universal franchise on the one hand, and the religious basis of society, the ideas of social morals and obedience to law at the sacrifice of self on the other. All these jarring and warring factors have been taken up one by one and examined and worked out by Rabindranath. This new culture of the new literature which he has established is the greatest living force in Bengal to-day. It is therefore only meet that this force should work its way through society and find its issue in a great national institution of education. That Rabindranath is not a mere visionary is proved by the fact that he himself has been the founder of such a school.

Rabindranath's idealism was never divorced from the sense of reality. How was all the wonderful variety of his experience to unite and find its goal? How was the past life of India with all its magnificent ideals to flower in the present? These were questions which were ever with him and he came more and more to the conclusion that the consummation of his own life lay only in a deeper realisation of the true life of the spirit. The regeneration of his country also would come in the same way and by the same path. His deep love of the motherland must never make him fretful and restless, narrow and exclusive. That love itself must be embraced in a larger and a wider love-the love of God.

When this truth at last became clear to him, he turned to Bolpur asram, which had been founded long ago by his father, Maharshi Devendranath Tagore. This was the spot sanctified by his saintly father's sadhana. Maharshi had given it the name of Shantiniketan, the Abode of Peace. His weary spirit turned thither for peace, for perfection of life. Under two trees, called 'chhatim' in Bengali, the Maharshi's seat of meditation can still be seen and over it in Bengali is the inscription:

He is

The comfort of my life The joy of my heart

The peace of my soul.

The 'chhatim' trees were the only trees growing then, and the quiet spot was surrounded by dry and open country on all sides extending for miles and miles. Devendranath used to pitch a tent near it

and live there for months together in meditation of God.

A feeling of shame comes over me when I realise how little is known of Maharshi outside Bengal and in Bengal itself. He is more known there as the son of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, the fabulously rich man who owned crores of rupees and went to England and gained the confidence and personal friendship of Queen Victoria, than as the saint and prophet. The story of Maharshi's great renunciation, though often told, may be told again. In 1846, his father died in England leaving behind him an immense debt. To clear off his father's debts, Debendranath placed all his inheritance at the disposal of his father's creditors, although there was no legal obligation to do so, his father having consigned all his property to proper trustees. Debendranath's friends

and relatives tried their best to dissuade him from taking such a step, which meant ruin to him and his family. But he was unmoved. He heroically endured this sudden reverse of fortune. Such a noble instance of august strength of character exalted him in the minds of his countrymen. But this does not give the real picture of Maharshi, the Maharshi of 'Shantiniketan'. Maharshi whom we know and reverence, was the man, who, when he was very young, woke up one night, on the night of the cremation of his grandmother, from a life of ease and luxury into a sense of the infinite, and of the impermanence of all things on Earth. It seized him and filled him with an agony and gave him no rest for many years. In those days of agony and distress, the 'very sun's rays' he writes 'seemed to me to be black like burnt cinder.' A happy wind, one day, blew a stray leaf of a book of the Upanishads to him. It was written there "God is immanent in all things in whatsoever lives and moves in the universe; enjoy therefore what has been given to thee by Him and covet not what belongs to others." It came as the great deliverer, it put an end to all his miseries and he became born into the spiritual life.

His first stage was thus passed, the stage of the seeker and recluse. His second stage was that of the zealous worker, the religious reformer. On 7th Paus 1843 A.D., he became formally initiated into the Brahmo faith and renounced idolatry for ever. This memorable day is still

celebrated at Bolpur every year; it is the anniversary day of the asram. lt was his desire that it should be celebrated. He knew that it was not like any other ordinary day that passed away and was forgotten. The stamp of immortality was on it. This day carried within it the promise of the asram just as the seed carries the promise of the future tree.

Of Devendranath's work in the Brahmo Samaj, I need not say anything here. He was certainly one of its great builders. He gave it his own spiritual vision and his rare experiences of God-communion. When, in later years, questions of social reform arose, he was not prepared to go the whole way with young and enthusiastic members of the Samaj like Keshub Chandra Sen. He retired. He could not be a revolutionary. The very frame of his mind was the opposite-it was slow, serene and restful. He retired from the work of the Brahmo Samaj to solitude and to peace-sometimes to the Himalayas and mostly to Bolpur. This was his third stage and last stagethe Shantiniketan stage. During these years he realised that God was

The comfort of his life The joy of his heart The peace of his soul.

At this time, Maharshi secured about six and a half acres of land at Shantiniketan, Bolpur, and converted it into a lovely garden. He built a house and a temple of coloured glass, open to the light and air on all sides and paved with white marble, and also a school which he called the 'Brahma vidyalaya.' On all sides there are inscriptions taken from the holy scriptures. On the gate leading into the Asram there is an inscription which says that no image is to be worshipped and no abuse of any man's faith is to be allowed in Shantiniketan. Maharshi gave away this place as an endowment to all people who desire to live here for some time for purposes of meditation and spiritual prac tices. Among other restrictions, animal food and strong drink are prohibited within the precincts of the asram.

When Rabindranath told Maharshi that he intended to start a school at Bolpur, the latter gave him his own warm support. His instincts were pre-eminently Hindu. He could never think of secular education as separate from spiritual and he rejoiced in the new undertaking.

The problem of religious education in

modern India is indeed a difficult one. It s impossible to impart religious education on old lines. Times have changed and both n the East and in the West, the new knowedge of man in science and philosophy inds itself at war with old orthodox creeds and doctrines of religion. Rammohan Roy ad therefore to cast out Pauranik Hindusm and Idolatry altogether. He discoverd in the Upanishads a religion that could absorb and assimilate the various results of modern science and philosophy and reconile the conflict between reason and faith. It should not be thought, however, for a noment, as I know many people are inlined to think, that this implied merely a ational philosophy to suit the times without any positive faith at its foundation. The soul's longing for the infinite, its eager earch for the essence beneath all appear inces,-these constitute the predominant haracteristics of the lives of the two great ounders of the new religious movement— Raja Rammohan Roy and Maharshi Debendranath Tagore. They declared the vorthlessness of rites and rituals xternal forms without inner illumination.

and

But the insistent question followed, how vas it possible to instil into the minds of oung children positive religious truths, esulting in a definite religious faith on the one hand, while on the other hand freed rom that reliance on outward ceremonies vhich popular Hinduism had found so eadening in the past?

The solution of this problem which Jaharshi and Rabindranath favoured was hat religion should be allowed to work ts way, silently and imperceptibly, into oung hearts through a pure and noble nvironment of spiritual life. The asram tself should be the religious teacher. abindranath writes in a Bengali article:We do not want now-a-days temples of Torship and outward rites and ceremonies, that we really want is an asram. We ant a place where the beauty of nature nd the noblest pursuits of man are in a weet harmony. Our temple of worship is here, where outward nature and the hunan soul meet in union. Our only rites and eremonies are self-sacrificing good works." Thus the foundation-stone of the asram as laid twelve years ago on the spot here a great saint had passed his quiet ays in spiritual sadhana and filled his pirit with peace. On that solid rock of ith, the literary genius of Rabindranath

began to work at the beginning of an institution, a university, contributing his own splendid culture to it as the start. When I proceed to give an account of the asram as it is, it should not be thought that the ideals have been even partly realised. There is a great gulf of difference between the asram as it would be and the asram as it is at present. For up till now, the ideals have been more or less centred in one person, Rabindranath. It is true that he is too original and great merely to be copied. Yet, unfortunately he has found as yet very few men to help him who have really been able to grasp his ideals and give them a practical shape.

What has always struck the stranger when he has paid his first visit to the asram is the happy and cheerful look on every boy's face. They are wonderfully active and lively. They have to do almost every work with their own hands. The next thing that strikes people probably is the simplicity of living. They live in rude primitive huts, long dormitories able to accommodate thirty to forty boys in each. The teachers live with them. But it is a republic of the boys and the discipline of the school rests in their hands. There is really little need for discipline because the energies of the boys are so fully employed. There is no reward or prize, no corporal punishment. The boys themselves exercise both legislative and judicial powers. They have different gatherings to discuss and decide matters:-the game committee, the literary clubs which hold meetings and publish a number of hand-written monthlies, the village education staff to do social work among the Santals, the small courts of justice and the appellate court organised by the elected captains of the boys, and lastly the central body which discusses larger questions more or less of a public character. The teachers never interfere, never repress, never take the lead or the initiative. Even while teaching, they let the boy do as much as he can-they leave everything to his free activity and spontaneity and do not think of drilling his energies into complete quiescence as most teachers do in schools. The number

of 'impossible and hopeless' children, that is to say those who are thought so by parents, is continually growing in the asram; but these prove far from hopeless as soon as they settle down to its life. In fact, they are often the most lively and

responsive and bright set of boys. Trust the boy' is the basal principle on which Rabindranath works. The boy must be allowed to grow under favourable conditions and should not be too much interfered with by the teacher, for it disturbs his real growth. Almost all their healthy vital instincts are given scope and free play. In language classes, the boy is made to talk freely and to write freely what he says. He is never stopped from talking. And then the boys are always getting up some drama or other for acting. The younger the boys, the greater actors they

are.

The boys have acted the best of Rabindranath's dramas. Music and drawing are taught along with other subjects. In the morning at 4-30 or 5, when the bell rings, a band of young choristers wakens the sleeping school boys with a hymn, and when the bell rings again at night to go to sleep, the same band sings another hymn going round from one dormitory to another. The poet's songs are always heard during the day whenever the boys are free, and at evening, when they have their lessons of music.

All this artistic side of Education has developed a wonderful love of the beautiful in nature in the school. Boys wander of their own accord at sunset time or in the early morning, sketching or observing Nature. I am proud to say that already one of the old boys has won distinction as an artist both in India and in the West. The boys are made to observe nature very minutely and they are given nature studies and lessons. Many of them have been able to observe systematically and methodically certain forms of insect life.

That is how the boys work in the school. They have classes from 7 to 10 in the morning and 2 to 5 in the afternoon. When the weather permits, lessons are generally given out of doors under the shade of large trees. The class is limited to fifteen boys at the utmost. The boys have games after lunch and Shantiniketan has one of the strongest school football teams in the district. The time between the end of games and the hour of evening meal is utilised by entertaining the boys with stories, acting and music. The boys live mostly outside in the open air and it is the surroundings, Nature herself, and her unconscious influence, which do the teaching far more than the conscious efforts of the teacher. The teacher's life is also very happy. There

is no headmaster; the teachers are placed on an equal footing and divide the work among themselves. The relation between the teacher and the pupil is the most happy and intimate one possible. There is divine service at the Mandir twice a week, which is conducted by Rabindranath when he is there and by the teachers, when he is absent. Besides that, a quarter of an hour in the morning and a quarter of an bour in the evening of each day are set apart for private worship. The boys sit quietly in the open air during the loveli est parts of the day and meditate on the mantras that are given them. At the end of each time of worship they chant those mantras in unison. A translation of them is given below:

THE MANTRAS OF THE MORNING.

I. Thou art our Father. May we know Thee as our Father. Strike us not. May we truly bow to Thee.

II. O Lord! O Father! Take away our sins and give us that which is good.

all

We bow to Him in whom is the happiness.
We bow to Him in whom is the good.
We bow to Him from whom comes the
happiness.

We bow to Him from whom comes the
good.

We bow to Him who is the good.
We bow to Him who is the highest good
Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om.

THE MANTRA OF THE EVENING.

The God who is in fire, who is in water. who is in herbs, who is in trees, to that who interpenetrates the whole world, God I bow down again and again.

"The seen reveals itself as, what India declares it, merely the wreckage of the unseen, cast upon the shores of Time and Space." I realise the truth of this saying at every step as I try to give the outline of the picture of the asram as it is in its objective form. The real asram that lies in the unmeasured deeps o the unseen ideal is not what these outlines try in vain to shadow forth. For even on the loom of Time, so brief as these twelve years, we have seen the warp set and reset many times over and the threads breaking and being picked up and strung together again and again. It is the unseen hand which has been shaping forth and fashioning the Idea making use of us as

materials. Whitman says, "The teaching is to the teacher and comes back most to him." We are all there for self-realisation. Teachers and students alike, we sit

together for instruction in the class of our common great Teacher, who unites us. AJITKUMAR CHAKRABARTI.

Γ

HE subject of to-day's discussion is quite inviting, especially at a time. when we are passing through a most nteresting period in the history of education in Bengal. The University of Calcutta has been in existence for more than half a century, but the course of instruction mparted to the student has always flowed n the old channel with very little improvenent, either in the direction of reorganisaion of the methods of study or of encouragement of original investigation. The last five or six years may be marked out as evincing the most active reorganisation in every direction and the new improvenents, it may be confidently said, have produced a revolution in the ideas of our educational problems. The University College of Science, which would embrace post-graduate study and original investigation, would shortly commence its work, ind, it is hoped, would be productive of nost fruitful consequences.

long-cherished ideas, nor to be flattered with the idea that you follow the multitude and that 'there is wisdom in the multitude,' and so you save yourself the trouble of thinking, and subscribe to the opinion which saturates the atmosphere you are surrounded with. Let me express my views and in order that you may have the patience to hear me, I would ask you to be tolerant in spirit and would quote here a few lines from the well-known book of Mill-"On Liberty."

"If all mankind were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing that mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner, if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that, it is robbing the human race! posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are

a little before I plunge into the subject, and begin enumerating the multifarious blessings which science has bestowed upon us, and thus vindicate the cause of what has been ambiguously called Original Research. At the very outset, I ask you to lend a thoughtful consideration to what I shall discuss in the following pages and reserve your judgment till you have thoroughly weighed all sides of my arguments. I request you not to be dogmatic, nor to be too precipitate in pronouncing your judgment, because my criticisms hurt your

A paper read before the Presidency College Chemical Society, on Saturday, the 7th February.

truth, if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. All silencing of discussion is an sssumption of infallibility. *** Let us now dismiss the supposition that any of the received opinions may be false, but assume them to be true and examine into the worth of the manner in which they are likely to be held when their truth is not fully and openly canvassed. However unwillingly a person, who has a strong opinion, may admit the possibility of his opinion being false, he ought to be moved by the consideration that, however true it may be, if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth."

In this connection, we may also mention the name of Herbert Spencer who in his book on the study of sociology has shown