Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/169

 the impression of one who has been hustled to take up an attitude or who desires to hustle others into an opinion which he has ready for them. He argues out the position logically and unflinchingly and leaves it to others to judge whether his conclusions deserve their assent or not. . .He dissects the position, as a biologist would dissect an organism, and with cold conviction explains the bearing of each dissected part to the rest and is content if he is able to be plainly and unerringly understood."

Another critic (The Indian People) is no less eulogistic:—"As a speaker, Mr. Tilak has nothing of the demagogue or the impassioned platform orator about him. There are no high-sounding phrases, no flights of rhetoric. His manner is subdued and free from gesticulation. The sentences are terse; the language is simple and direct He appealed to the intelligence of his audience and not to their sentiment. The real power lay in the matter of his speech and not in the manner. There were no generalisations, no enunciation of abstract principles in flowery language. Every statement was clear and every point was driven home with a readiness of illustration and power of antithesis that showed the power of the speaker and the subtlety of his intellect. Every issue was put plainly and uncompromisingly. But there was no violence of language or denunciation, not a trace of passion either in word or gesture. After hearing him it was not difficult to understand that he is the most powerful and the most influential leader of the New Party, a party by no means confined to Bengal."