"some divineiy-gifted man,
Whose life in low estate began
And on a simple village green ;
Who breaks his birth's invidious bar,
And grasps the skirts of happy chance,
And breasts the blows of circumstance,
And grapples with his evil star ;
Who makes by force his merit known,
And lives to clutch the golden keys,
To mould a mighty state's decrees
And shape the whisper of the throne ;
And moving up from high to higher,
Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope
The pillar of a people's hope,
The centre of a world's desire. "
That was really and truly our nation's hope, Gokhale. Beginning his career in ordinary, if not humble, surroundings; by sheer dint of native genius and acquired capacity, distancing powerful rivals, not through the adventitious aid of rank or good luck, but by force of powers faithfully employed, ideals loyally followed and services selflessly rendered, he rose to a position of unsurpassed magnificence and irresistible might, so much so that he
