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Number 8. A.Y. al ܚܣܩܝܠ mina A —----------- rer -rr r in European countries and in the case of people who live in a temperate climate, it is not injurious so long of course as moderation is observed. It does not follow, however, that the same custom is suitable to people brought up in a different way and living in a different climate. I have quoted that example because I was much interested in reading a short time ago extracts from the autobiography of a wellknown Bengali gentleman of the last century, Babu Raj Narain Bose. I find these words:-' It was a comm in belief of the alumni of the College that the drinking In his autobiography of wine was one of the concomitants of civilization. . . . At the beginning of 1884 I became dangerously ill and the cause of it was excessive ' Well, that is one small example to illustrate what I mean. drinking. Now let me give you another. It does not follow that because a Bengali artist studies anatomy on Western lines lhe need, when he sits lown to paint a portrait divest himself of the artistic conceptions of his own country. Far from it. He may be a better artist by reason of the fact that he has made a scientific study of anatomy but at the same time he need mot divest from his painting the spirit of his own people. Sir Rabindra Nath Tagore has not disdained to coine int) contact Take another example. with the culture of the peoples of Europe and America. Is it maintainable, therefore, that he does not in his writings give expression to the Does Bankim Chandra (Shatterjee portray the very soul of Bengal burdened with fruits, green very spirit of Bengal? not EASTERN AND WESTERN IDEALS. ܣܬܦܩܝܣܡܚܝ al-h. sa ܣܠܡܣܝܚܡܦܩܚ- -hm- ܡܬܒܣ-- r rer with its rice fields, cooled with the southern breezes ? Or take another example. What about Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose ? Is not Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose a great representative of Bengal? And is it not a fact that because he has carried on his investigations on the lines of Western science, he had added immeasurably to the lustre of Bengal? et me put it in another way. Would that great man Rija Ram Mohan toy have ever been the great man that he was -the great Bengali that he was-if he had not drunk deep of the wells of Western thought? So my advice to you, gentlemen, is this that you should tread the golden path of the happy mean. Take a discriminating and intelligent interest in your Western studies, but do not cut yourselves adrift from the spiritual instincts which are your immortal birthright, and do not jump to the conclusion, as is so often done, quite wrongly, that the culture and civilization of the West is built up upon a purely materialistic basis. No, you must benefit by all the instruction in Western science, Western art and Western throught which you will get in this University and I would beg you, each man according to his ability, to play his part in weaving the golden threads of Indian idealism into the more sombre way of Western empiricism, for in that way, he will play his part, a worthy part in weaving under Providence that, great cosmic pattern which embodies the strivings and achievements and which represents the evolution not of this people or of that people, not of this country or of that country, not of this race or of that race, but of mankind.