Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/369

 became a poor school-master. He resisted also that still greater attraction of the career of a scholar, poring over volumes and making immortal researches, — a task^ for which, he was eminently qualified — and unreservedly accepted the life of a public man, so wasteful of time and productive of ephemeral literature. The dedication of Mr. Gandhi came a little late, but certainly not very late. Mr. Tilak's course appears self-sought and selected ; Mr. Gandhi's accidental and providential. Once Mr. Gandhi planted his foot in South Africa, his career was fixed and his heroic work in the Land of Diamonds will form one of the most splendid and inspiring chapters in the history of India. The struggle, in which he was engaged there, was eminently spiritual. It was that losing struggle, with its terrible vicissitudes that called forth all his moral and spiritual powers. With a small band of desperate and patriotic Indians, surrounded by an extremely unsymapthetic and selfish white population which was eager to take advantage of every weakness of their opponents it is small wonder that Mr. Gandhi fought out the battle on the spiritual plane. He tested and developed his powers in a struggle with opponents who depended on mere physical force. " More important than even the success in our endeavours, is the development of our character in this struggle. Let success come or not, we have gained by the gain of spirituality." So said he once, while referring to the South African compaign. The struggle, in which Mr. Tilak was engaged, was essentially different from this. It was largely intellectual and spiritual only partially. A vast country governed recklessly, despotically and unsympathetically by a handful of