INDIAN HOME RULE
attacking the very institutions which we have hitherto considered to be good.
Editor: It is necessary to exercise patience. The true inwardness of the evils of civilisation you will understand with difficulty. Doctors assure us that a consumptive clings to life even when he is about to die. Consumption does not produce apparent hurt — it even produces a seductive colour about a patient's face, so as to induce the belief that all is well... Civilisation is such a disease, and we have to be very wary.
Reader: Very well, then, I shall hear you on the railways.
Editor: It must be manifest to you that, but for the railways, the English could not have such a hold on India as they have. The railways, too, have spread the bubonic plague. Without them, masses could not move from place to place. They are the carriers of plague germs. Formerly we had natural segregation. Railways have also increased the frequency of famines, because, owing to facility of means of locomotion, people sell out their grain, and it is sent to the dearest markets. People become careless,
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