Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/33

 of the ‘depressed classes’ and the enforcement of the principle of strict religious neutrality at school. This last-named position is particularly noteworthy, strange as it certainly appears in a leader of reform like Mr. Venkata Ratnam. But with him—to quote again from the letter of October 1904—“the work to V)e done at school is clear-cut, with a precise aim—culture and character. Polemical theology or controversial sociology has no place there. An abiding sense of the Deity, a welling love for Humanity, a solemn respect for self—that is all that is needed."

What wonder, what offence, if ideals at once so pure and exalted and so scrupulously and systematically pursued have gone, in effect, to transtigure the class-room itself into a temple? A critical scholar and an impressive teacher naturally endued with in-seeing sympathy with, and practically realising a holy harmony between, both the gay and the grave aspects, the L’Allegro and the Il Penseroso elements, of life and nature—Mr. Venkata Ratnam’s masterly expositions of