Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/64

44 rests more on his great sacrifice, his championship of every kind of reform and his eloquent style, rather than on his genius and learning. In point of intellectual equipment, Mr. Tilak far surpassed all his colleagues; and if there was any jealousy at work, it must have been rather in the minds of those who, accustomed to regard Mr. Tilak as an equal ever since the college days, could not now bear with equanimity his enormous superiority.

Whether Mr. Tilak should have so much valued the principle of self-sacrifice as to endanger unity and good-will might leave room for difference of opinion. But from the foregoing account it must be abundantly clear that, not jealousy or intolerance but the great principle of self-sacrifice on which Mr. Tilak would brook no compromise was responsible for Mr. Tilak's separation from his colleagues. The incident, however deplorable or painful brought happy results; for the loss of the D. E. Society was the gain of India. One need never lament the day—howsoever unpleasant the circumstances attending the event—when Mr. Tilak decided to give that to this country which he had so unselfishly and ungrudgingly given to the school and the college. Our only regret is that he did not leave the D. E. Society a few years earlier.