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At the crossing. 1. HE darkest cloud has its silver lining. Every incident-be it in the life of an insignificant individual or in the life of a mighty nation-conveys a lesson if one would only care to read it. Even the present war which has affected the whole world is not without its object lesson. To us Indians the war is pregnant with a deep significance. India had been slumbering for ages and when the British took over the reins of the government of the country from the already failing grasp of the Moghul, the glamour of European civilization at once caught the dazed eye of the people, and without waiting to examine the spirit of that civilization, they-the people of India-adopted it as their ideal. They began to adopt European modes of living and thinking with an avidity almost apish in nature. With the spread of education, the writings of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the teachings of the Theosophical Society and the researches of the Western Savants the tide has turned; they have caused these sorrry imitators to cry halt in their mad pursuit after European ideas; they have just been waking up to the glorious fact that a superior civilization was once their own and that they have so long been running after a shadow whereas the substance lies hidden in their own past. But a dream of the past is not enough. Something more is wanting to show up the true nature of the Western civilization. The war has come as a veritable eye opener. The advent of the war has upset so many ideas and theories in every sphere of human action that even amidst the din of the war, the Europeans themselves are seriously thinking if they had not built up their civilization on a wrong foundation. But they are thinking more of Tariff reforms, Industrial reforms and other cognate reforms. Lord Chelmsford in his clos ing speech at the Imperial Legislative Council was to observe ;-' This war will have a blessing in disguise if through its ܕܛܥܐ thing we shall have learnt how great a field تصحصے of enterprise lies open to us in the industrial and agricultural spheres, and how necessary it is to organize ourselves industrially.' Our own leaders go only a little bevond this. To industrial and agricultural spheres they add the political sphere. It is now for us to decide what should be our attitude. It is for us to decide if we are to profit by the experience of the western peoples or realize the experience ourselves. Should we take warning from the present state of affairs and remodel our ideals and aspirations or should we proceed on the same lines as the western peoples and import into our country the worship of mammon and all its necessary rituals in its train. Iet us pause before we take the irrivocable leap-let us realize, first and foremost, our true conception of human life, for on this fundamental basis all our institutions should be built. Before we proceed to examine all these in detail we should ponder upon the following opinion of Dr. Chowry Muthu, the eminent specialist in tuberculosis, given to a representative of the * Bengalee ”:- “ India's salvation lay in going back to the country again and revive that old calm peaceful life with prosperous home industries, well laid villages, with proper sanitary arrangements and abundant supply of good water, long expanse of grazing lands, etc. England found out her mistake after suffering for more than a century and if India was not to commit that same mistake and repent, she must take lesson from England's case before it was too late. It was folly for India to be industrial after western fashion. She was an agricultural country and in the improvements of her agriculture and agricultural industries, rural sanitation, hygiene clearing of jungle and other improvements of villages and pure food supply lay her only way to peace and prosperity.' N. C.