Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/440

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405

namely, the Master's pre-eminence as a Teacher.

Dr. Miller was the Mahamahopadhyaya of Southern India; and might I humbly add 'Methinks 'tis prize enough' to have been his pupil? No doubt, he was great as an Educationist; but as a Teacher he Was incomparable. An Educationist is generally an erudite exponent of "Applied Psychology;" he is (be the quaint phrase excused) a skilful survey-and-settlement officer in the field of the mind. But a Teacher is a 'Gardener' of the heart, a 'pearl-fisher' of the soul, 'Labour, ' 'intent study' and 'the strong propensity of Nature' (to borrow Milton's pregnant phrase) combined to make Dr. Miller an ideal teacher. He was gifted, to a rare degree, with a power akin to that vision of the 'Faith beyond the forms of faith,' which 'spies the summer through the winter bud,' or (to adopt his own favourite analogue) which discerns the full-grown tree in the full-formed seed. With a keen gaze, he could limn the complete orb about 'the descent moon,' He