Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/30

 innocent pranks of College-life. He however knew where to draw the line between such innocent diversions and culpable mischief. He also knew how to despise the mistaken gentility of apathetic natures. His restless intellect, unfatigued by the rigours of study occasionally found diversion in heated discussions with his fellow-students. His outspokenness earned for him the title of Mr. Blunt. There is nothing paradoxical in the intellectual acuteness and social bluntness of Mr. Tilak. These qualities can otherwise be named as social and intellectual "directness." No beating about the bush, but running straight to the subject in hand—that was his characteristic. His critical faculty had abnormally developed, and like young George Washington playing with his axe, he used it on any and every subject that came in his way. His innate bias for the classical literature of his country, however, saved him from being the slave of his reason; and the excesses of the Social Reformers of the day made him shrink from accepting their gospel without reserve.

Two professors—Principal Wordsworth and Prof. Chhatre—of Mr. Tilak's College-days stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries not only by reason of their profound learning and inimitable teaching but also by their noble character. Till the end of his life Mr. Tilak ungrudingiy admitted the high moral and intellectual equipment they brought to their work. They were Gurus in the real sense of the term.

Out of Mr. Tilak's college-companions, Messrs. Mule, Sharangpani and Kathavte, though not quite so well known, have, in their own way distinguished themsel-