Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/39

 be ignored, at least by a select number; at first a few and gradually several more will demand the birth-right — as an American writer suggests — of each 'soul' to have a 'vote.' A community thus enters upon an almost unlimited prospect of progress and happiness, as its members awaken to a sense of individuality — of self-regarding virtues — of self-reliance and self-denial — of self-reverence and self-consecration — of hope and service; in a word, to the sense that man has to "absolve" himself to himself before he 'conforms' to society or 'curtsies' to Caesar. Conformity is superseded by individuality; convention yields place to conviction. Alike in the daring heroism of mighty crises and in the silent service of routine life, the prime concern is to do what is personally felt to be proper. This is the era of 'single manhood.'

The distinct nature and the relative merit of these three springs of action are clearly perceived when examined with reference to a few concrete instances. Le-