Lok Bal Gangadhar Tilak
one of the brightness, sharpness and perfect temper of a fine sword bidden in a sober scabbard. As- he emerged on the political field, his people saw more and more clearly in him their representative man, themselves in large, the genius of their type. They felt him to be of one spirit and make with the great men who had made their past history, almost belived him to be a reincarnation of one of them returned to carry out his old work in a new form and under new conditions. They beheld in him the spirit of Maharashtra once again embodied in a great individual. He occupies a position in his province which has no parallel in the rest of India.
On the wider national field also Mr. Tilak has rare
qualities which fit him for the hour and the work. He
is in no sense what his enemies have called him, a
demagogue : he has not the loose suppleness, the
oratorical fervour, the fslile appeal to the passions
which demagogy requires ; his speeches are too much
made up of hard and straight thinking, he is too
much a man of serious and practical action. None
more careless of mere effervescence, emotional
applause, popular gush, public ovations. He tolerates
them since popular euthusiasm will express itself in
that way ;* but he has always been a little imnatient
of them as dissipative of serious strength and will
and a waste of time and energy which might better
have been solidified and devoted to effective work.
But be is entirely a democratic politician, of a type
not very common among our leaders, one who can,
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