Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/18

xii foreword when his mind was distracted by the troubles brewing in Bengal.

The unique feature of Mr. Tilak's career is that, like a magnet it draws all. While the populace claim him as one of their own, aristocrats recognize that he represented, in his intellectual and spiritual eminence, a nobler aristocracy than has fallen to their lot. Old persons feel interest in the romance of his career ; the middle-aged derive instruction therefrom. On the younger generation, the influence of Mr. Tilak's life is still deeper. It not only interests and instructs but inspires the mind to a performance of great deeds. Like the story of the Pandavas, it is bound to go down to generations unborn as an eternal source of inspiration.