Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/266

 176 JAIL EXPERIENCES

WHAT I BEAD

The tale of my happiness or unhappiness is now afe an end, Amongst the many benefits I received in these three month?, one was the opportunity I gob to read, At Ihe sbarfe, I must admit, I fell into moods of despond- ency and thougbtfulness while reading, and was even tired of these hardships, and my mind played antics like a monkey. Such a state of mind leads many towards lunaoy, "bub, in my oase, my books saved me They made tip in a large measure for the loss of the society of my Indian brethren. I always got about three hours to read.

So that I was able to go through about thirty books, and oon over others, which comprised English, Hindi, Gujaratbi, Sanskrit and Tamil works, Oat of these, I consider Tolstoys' Emersoii's and Garlyle's worth men- tioning. The two former related to religion, I had bor- rowed the Bible from the jail Tolstoy's books are so Simple and easy tbafc any man can study and profit by them. Again he is a man who practices what be preaches, and hence his writings inspire great confidence.

Carlyle's French Revolution is written in a very effective style. It made me thick that from the White Nations we could hardly learn the remedy to remove the present miseries of lodia, because I am of opinion that the French people have secured no special benefit by their Revolution, This was wbab Hazzini thought too. There is a great cotfl ot of opinion hbout this, which it is hardly proper to mention here. Even there I saw some instances of passive resistance.

The Swamiji Lad etcfe me Gbjarali, H'ndi and Sans* krit bccke. Bhat Kebbavram had sent Vedasabdasanlhlja and Mr. Motilal Devan, the Ucanishads. I also read fcha

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