Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/95

 associations, music would become a commoner and more respectable acquirement—a profession with some and an accomplishment with many; and all the genuine pleasure to be derived from that noble art might, after a generation or two, be fully regained. Indian music, rich in devotional and unfortunately pretty full in amorous element, would have to be considerably improved on the purely social side. Social gatherings—not the current picture-galleries, but cordial, convivial assemblies-—would become frequenter and more useful and attractive, with the spread of education and of liberal ideas regarding "castes" and the " position of women." Clubs—not the present-day 'aftermaths' of professional work, but resorts of learned ease and friendly communion—would be more popular as interest and information about "general subjects" should grow. A dozen other methods of employing leisure in useful and innocent ways would gradually suggest themselves, should there be only a firm resolution "not to drink poison,