Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/129

 thinking, honest patriots. There are some even amongst these who call themselves patriots and saviours of the world, who under restraint feel that they have to fret, fume and waste and thus proclaim their own selves as very great suiferers. Such a frame of mind is not consistent with either strength or the future development of the individual or the cause. It is endurance in the dungeon-depths, calmness in the midst of dark enveloping confinenent that feeds the stream of patriotic enthusiasm and forges the power that ultimately shakes the tyrant and his tyranny. Therefore, when conditions are easier, when the imprisonment is simple, the true patriot finds his duty in studying the world around him—the world of prison and its denizens and sympathising with the common felon and the common criminal with whom his association lies learn to appreciate the meaning of the lowly life of the lowliest brother. To one who thus contemplates in love the great secret of existence and the utter meaninglessness of the socalled privileges of social life, all obstructions, all difficulties, all dangers become mere chaff and straw as against the solid wellbeing of humanity. That Mr. Tilak's first imprisonment gave him this opportunity is provedby