ABSTRACT
A confirmed rationalist and lover of earth life, it is no easy task for me lucidly to present the ideas suggested by the appearance of such an extraordinary being as Mahatma Gandhi. It is clear that his presence amongst us offers a difficult challenge to explain away. In our handy-dandy-market-place world we feel the irresistible attraction of the man. The mere sight of his picture in any of the daily papers ruffles our customary soul sloth as he peers out from the common commercial page with a look of pure wisdom. I have been told that there exist in certain parts of China white bats, and the photographs of this rare man seem scarcely less strange than do the faces of such unusual creatures, equipped as he is with eyes that seem to penetrate deep into life’s darkest secrets, and with ears that by their generous habit testify to an essential sweetness of nature such as is seldom to be met with either in the Orient or in the Occident. No human being in our time has more successfully vindicated the power of love, not, be it understood, the natural love of vineyard and cornland, but the ideal love of the mystics, of the Christian and of the Hindu, a love that goes clean contrary to our animal inheritance. To people sceptical of supernatural rumours much of Mr. Gandhi’s thought cannot fail to be meaningless, made up as it seems of the veriest illusions, or often enough of trite moral preconceptions whose roots, when closely examined, are seen to go not much deeper than those inculcated everywhere by priests eager to find divine sanctions for the more serviceable contracts of society. Not for nothing as a young man was this serpent-phobe to be found at prayer meetings and hymn-singing parties in England and South Africa, as well as in India. But if his head appears often easily turned by the airs of heaven it is otherwise with his heart which remains always sane, sunny, humane, and honourable.
