Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/865

 ��of one's country and religion. There, there is very of that misery which ha haq usually to undergo in daily life. There, he has do oarry out the orders of one warder only, whereas in daily life he is obliged to oarry out the behests of ft great many more. In the jail, he has no anxiety to earn his daily bread and to prepare his meals, The Government seas to all that?. Ib also looks affeer his health for which he has to pay nothing. Ho gets enough works to exercise his body. He is freed from all his vicious habits- His soul ia thus free. He has plenty of time at his disposal to pray to God. His body is restrained, but not his soul, He learns to be more regular in his habits. Those who keep his body in restraint, look after it. Taking this view of jail life, he feels himself quite a free being, If any misfortune comes to him or any wicked warder happens to use any violence towards him, he learns to appreciate and exeroiso patience, and is pleased to have an opportunity of keeping control over himself. Those who think this way aro sure to be con- vinced that evan jail life can ba attended with blessings. It solely rests with individuals and their mental attitude 60 make it one of blessing or otherwise, I trust, how- ever, that the readers of this my second experience of life in the Transvaal jail will ba convinced that the real road to ultimate happiness lies in going to jail and under- going sufferings and privations there in the interest of one's country and religion.

Placed in a similar position for refusing his poll-tax, the American citizen, Thorean, expressed similar thoughts in 1849. Seeing the walls of the ooll in which he was confined, made of solid stone two or three feet thick, and the door of wood and iron a foot thick, he said to him- self thus :

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