Page:Footfalls of Indian History.djvu/35

18 FOOTFALLS OF INDIAN HISTORY sciously possessed of common hopes and common loves. Thus in the pursuit of epochs and parts we must never forget the Motherland behind them all. In remembering her and turning to her, again and again we shall find the explanation that had baffled us, discover the link that we required.

We must not be cowed too easily by proofs that such and such a cherished idea had a foreign or semi-foreign origin. In this world there is no such thing as real originality. Some mind more powerful than others breaks up common symbols into their elements and recombines these in an unexpected fashion. This is the whole of what we call originality. The proof of a mind's vigour lies in its ability to work upon the materials it meets with. What is true of persons is true in this re- spect of nations. Some achievements, because we do not know their history, appear unique, solitary, miraculous. In reality "civilisations like religions are a web; they are not statues or salon-pictures, great creations of individual genius. If we could unveil the spectacle of the genesis of Greece, we should find links between common and uncommon in every department of her extraordinary output, and much that now seems unaccountable for its beauty or its boldness would then appear inevitable. The fact that Egypt, Assyria, and the East itself were all within hail, had more to do with the peculiar form taken by the Greek genius than we are npw prepared to grant. If so, the actual glory of Hellenic culture lay in the distinctiveness of its