Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/127

 hard. He says in his letter that he knows now German, English and French. In one pound per week he manages to buy his clothes and books of which I brought to India a boxful. He must have bought quite as many, if not more, by this time. A gentleman who has recently gone to England writes thus to me:

From my last letter you might have thought very badly of me because I myself look upon my conduct at the time with little satisfaction. But, as you wanted to know how I was living, I had to give you my sincere views. Since that time a great change has been brought about by degrees. What I thought an impossibility at that time is now a practical possibility. Six pounds a month are a thing of the past, and you will wonder to hear that, even in London, I am able to limit my board and lodging expenses to three pounds per month.

With this array of facts before the reader, I hope he will have no difficulty in following and agreeing with me that, if one has the will, one can live on one pound a week and even less in England. Now we come to the solution of the question how to live on 9s a week. In the first place it may be mentioned that, to live so cheaply, all the luxuries ought to be avoided, viz., tea, coffee, tobacco and wines and, last but not least, flesh foods. There are people to tell you that it is impossible to do without tea in England. Some say you cannot do without coffee, others say you would die without tobacco, wines or meat. All these gentlemen must be questioned as to the source of their information and the difficulty will be solved. It is all humbug and hearsay. There is difference of opinion as to flesh foods. As to the rest, every Indian who has gone to England would tell you that not one of them is necessary except for the sake of pleasure of luxury. However what do they think of tea and coffee in London? Says Dr. Nichols about tea and coffee:

Even the milder stimulants such as tea and coffee have no appreciable nutritive value. If the leaves of tea or the berries of coffee had as much nutrition as the same weight of spinach, but an infinitesimal portion can be in the decoctions we drink. In the matter of food and as the materials of bone, muscle or nerve, an ounce of bread is worth gallons of tea or coffee. The sugar and milk drunk in them are food, all the rest is almost worthless. They soothe hunger as narcotics and sedatives, Some physiologists are of opinion that they prevent waste and so make less food necessary. If this were true, it would be injurious,