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those who are conscious of the fact of nationality do not practically show that they so feel the bond of nationality as to extend a helping hand to the dwellers in huts who are really the nation. Our indifference in this matter would be fatal to the national cause. Our demand for independent schools does not mean that Government need not or should not educate the people. Wedemand and would eagerly welcome and accept universal free education, by whomsoever given. But in India so much leeway has to be made up that unless both Government and the people make strenuous efforts to give the benefits of education to all children of school-going age, the solution of the problem must bereJegated to a distant future. Departmental methods have the tendency, moreover, to run in a single groove; whereas it is only by a wide variety in educational methods that the many needs of human nature and of the various classes and individuals living in a.country can be met. Besides, as we have hinted above, it is not the business of an alien Government to foster the growth of patriotism and nationality. In fact the tendency may sometimes be justly suspected to lie quite in the opposite direction, as the elimination of English history from the Calcutta University curriculum shows. Nothing, therefore, is so important as even our halting attempts at national education. “ Heroes,” as a great man said to a friend the other day, “are made, not born, by heroic thought.” It is the greatest mistake to think that heroes are born, like poets. Nothing of the sort. All of us have the stuff in us. It wants encouraging, and it wants opportunity. That is all. What! Are Indians less heroic than other people? Not to refer to the past achievements of Hindu and Mussalman commanders and common soldiers alike, are Indian soldiers of the present day inferior in gallantry to Europeans ? And heroism is displayed not chiefly or in its highest form in the battle-field alone, nor is it confined to the male sex, An axcient form of benediction in India to women was, “Be the mother of heroes.” But it is only women cast in beroic mould that become the mothers of heroes. Every school-boy knows the names of Indian heroines. But among Indian women were they alone heroic ? What of suttee? This is isolated heroism, heroism of the spirit. What the world trembles before is united heroism, aggressive heroism, heroism of the muscles. The letter, however, to those really capable of the former, is mere child’s play.

Hunan beings, however, are easily hypnotised by ideas. Surround a child with an atmosphere in which he is familiar with the idea tuat all his ancestors have been cowards, and the boy will become like, not the real but the imaginary, forefathers. It is for this reason that national education is so important. No other can really interpret the national past to the children of the nation.

Lock at modern armies. A thousand men” live in cantonments under the charge of two or three officers, and fail to realise what slaves they are. They rise and go to bed at the hour laid down. They marry if they have perm-ssion. They submit to punishments like so many children. And finally, it is even expected that they will stand up and face death without breaking ranks. The thing is absurd, incredible, yet it is true—armed men marshalled and disciplined and set up to be shot at, by a few non-combatant officers. Yes, it is true. And more. We know that just ‘n proportion as we ourselves were highly deve.oped and sensitive, we should find it impossible to break the ranks. We should obey implicitly those absurd orders, subversive of commonsense and natural instincts of self-protection. We should share in the hypnotism. This is why one idea can only be killed by another idea. This is why miracles are and will be worked in India by the word" nationality. It is why national education is so a_l-important,