Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/76

41 for a large and civilised nation, most disappointingly few are the instances in which our countrymen dare rise above what may be called "neighbourly goodness." A chivalric spirit (if that term be expressive enough.) is notably wanting among us. It is not mere altruism; it is, so to speak, social transcendentalism. This national drawback early evinces itself in our youth. Our boys may be rightly credited with being more docile and better- behaved than their western brethren ; but are they not also more 'tortuous' in their ways-more wanting in 'directness'?* Does not a tendency to "look about," when they ought to "look in the face," early sprout up in them? One chief reason for this defect is the position of women in India-not, as is generally said, low or hard, but rather uninspiring, somewhat deficient in the capacity to evolve in man that