14
are many things which are now said to be unorthodox
and wrong, which were orthodox ten thousand years
ago, although they be heresy to-day ; and it is as well,
if you want to win some of the elders to you, not to
throw all the past aside, but rather to build upon its
strong foundation the edifice of your future growth.
For you cannot do without the old men, any more
than they can do without you; yours the duty of pro-
gress, theirs the duty of counsel; and while I always
claim for the young that every generation must solve
its own problems in its own way, still it is well in a
task so difficult as this if the more liberal of the elders
can be induced to walk along with you, as they per-
haps may do if you succeed in showing them that
you are not merely putting forward western ideals,
but are only wiping off the dust of ages which has
settled on ancient thought. And so I shall begin by
urging upon you that foreign travel in the past was a
commonplace of Indian life, that you are not, as you
may proudly think, striking out a new line when you
start off for a western country and think yourself
splendidly heroic because you cross the " black
water ". Your forefathers did it long before you. It
is only in that unfortunate interregnum in Indian life,
corresponding, to some extent, with the later Middle
Ages of Europe, with the invading times of the
Christian Era, it is only during that darker time that
you have lost your old liberty and have given up that
which many of your Shastras justify.
are many things which are now said to be unorthodox
and wrong, which were orthodox ten thousand years
ago, although they be heresy to-day ; and it is as well,
if you want to win some of the elders to you, not to
throw all the past aside, but rather to build upon its
strong foundation the edifice of your future growth.
For you cannot do without the old men, any more
than they can do without you; yours the duty of pro-
gress, theirs the duty of counsel; and while I always
claim for the young that every generation must solve
its own problems in its own way, still it is well in a
task so difficult as this if the more liberal of the elders
can be induced to walk along with you, as they per-
haps may do if you succeed in showing them that
you are not merely putting forward western ideals,
but are only wiping off the dust of ages which has
settled on ancient thought. And so I shall begin by
urging upon you that foreign travel in the past was a
commonplace of Indian life, that you are not, as you
may proudly think, striking out a new line when you
start off for a western country and think yourself
splendidly heroic because you cross the " black
water ". Your forefathers did it long before you. It
is only in that unfortunate interregnum in Indian life,
corresponding, to some extent, with the later Middle
Ages of Europe, with the invading times of the
Christian Era, it is only during that darker time that
you have lost your old liberty and have given up that
which many of your Shastras justify.