Page:Shantiniketan; the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/123

Rh of our being with its music. Though we do not know it, yet it is true, that everywhere men and women are living in the atmosphere of these sounds. This voice of eternity reaches their inner ears. It models the tunes of the harp of life, urging us in secret to attune our own lives according to that ideal, and to send our aspiration up to the sky, as flowers send their perfume into the air and birds their songs. Even the most depraved, in some moment of their lives, have been touched by this voice, and not altogether lost. They have felt a beauty in the depth of their being, which has reached them from heaven itself.

“These may seem nursery rhymes to you, and too absurd to be believed by grown-up people. But I am one of those children who never grow old, and I would ask you to accept me as one of yourselves.

“I know that some who are here are being trained to be Teachers. That is my vocation also, but I have never had any training. I have a school, in which we try to teach boys better knowledge and higher ideals of life. But, for myself, I must confess I was a truant, and left off going to school when I was thirteen, so I am a bad example to follow. But I have been