THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA
live, the deliquescence of much else, a ten- dency to the devitalisation of the rest. A new activity came in, but this was at first crudely and confusedly imitative of the foreign culture. It was a crucial moment and an ordeal of perilous severity ; a less vigorous energy of life might well have foundered and perished under the double weight of the deadening of its old innate motives and a servile imitation of alien ideas and habits. History shows us how disastrous this situation can be to nations and civilisations. But fortunately the ener- gy of life was there, sleeping only for a moment, not dead, and, given that ener- gy, the evil carried within itself its own cure. For whatever temporary rotting and destruction this crude impact of Eu- ropean life and culture has caused, it gave three needed impulses. It revived the dor- mant intellectual and critical impulse ; it re-habilitated life and awakened the de- sire of new creation ; it put the reviving Indian spirit face to face with novel
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