LETTERS FROM ABROAD
sumptuous nonentity by any controlling agency outside its own living organism. ‘I know that the idea of an International University is complex, but I must make it simple in my own way. I shall be content if it attracts round it men who have neither name nor fame nor worldly means, but who have the mind and the faith; who are to create a great future with their dreams.
Very likely, I shall never be able to work with a Board of Trustees, influential and highly respectable—for I am vagabond at heart. But the powerful people of the world, the lords of the earth, make it difficult for me to carry out my work. T know it, and I have had experience of it in connexion with Santiniketan. But [ am not afraid of failure. I am only afraid of being tempted away from trush, in pursuit of success. The temptation assaults me occasionally ; but it comes from the outside atmosphere. My own abiding faith is in life and light and freedom. And my prayer is:
“Lead me from the unreal to Truth.”
This letter of mine is to let you know that I free myself from the bondage of help, and go back to join the great ‘Brotherhood of the Tramps,’ who seem helpless, but are recruited by God for His own army.
STRASBOURG, April, 29, 1921.
I am writing this from Strasbourg where I am going to read my lecture at the University this evening. 8
