Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/170

 men whose eyes appear to be closed to everything but the material wants of the people, and to whom the poverty of our population appears to be the one sole evil against which it is necessary to concentrate all efforts. You find equally devoted enthusiasts who see in the ignorance of the masses the source of all their sufferings and in their intellectual elevation a panacea for all woes. You find men of the purest and highest aspirations, careless to a great extent of both the material and mental wants of the nation, making their sole aim either its moral development or religious culture. There are some of your social reformers who hold that India is to be saved by the abolition or modification of some evil or obsolete custom or habit, and nailing this flag t( their own masts are willing to see the rest of the fleet sink only their ships forge somewhat ahead. And last but n( least, you have the strong practical men, who Gallio-lik< care for none of these things but place all their hopes on th< realization of their aspirations for the political enfranchisement" of their countrymen.

What we want, it seems to me, at the present time most of all, is that all these good labourers should understand that they are comrades in one cause, that their aims, though diverse, are not only not antagonistic, but are inextricably interlinked parts of one whole — that if you could multiply tenfold every peasant's means you would serve the country's interests but little did you not simultaneously elevate the mental and moral faculties, so as to secure a wise, prudent, and good use of the money, root out old customs involving its rapid dissipation, and confer such a political status as would enable the owners to preserve and protect their newly found wealth — that no great development of brain power is possible on empty stomachs and where men's whole energies have to be devoted to simply satisfying the cravings of these, and that even if possible it would become a positive evil if unaccompanied by moral or spiritual evolution, and by means for gratifying the necessarily resulting political aspirations — that moral culture is best fostered, mankind being what it is, by removing from men's paths those terrible temptations to