Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/203

 Look at him and try to emulate him. Mr. Gokhale has passed away from our midst after having satisfactorily performed his duty. Will any one of you come forward to take his place? I knew Mr. Gokhale from his youth. He was an ordinary and simple man in the beginning. He was not an Inamdar; he was not a Jagirdar ; he was not a chief. He was an ordinary man like all of us here. He rose to such eminence by the sheer force of genius, ability and work. Mr. Gokhale is passing away from our midst and he has left behind him much to emulate. Everyone of you ought to try to place his example before his eyes and to fill up the gap ; and if you will try to emulate him in this way, he will feel glad even in the next world."

This was another of Mr. Tilak 's exemplary utterances. It went straight home to the hearts of all men who had hearts and proved the real worth of an honest patriot who, while not shirking personal strife, utterly forgets it when higher humanity and the cause of the country require it.

Mr. Gokhale served the motherland in death as when alive. That he killed himself by over-work for the motherland sank into the