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appreciable impression, as in the case of Chaitanya, not only bears testimony to his forceful and commanding personality, but also to the attitude of the Indian masses, always responsive to real greatness, and to the necromancy of high endeavours, when inspired by lofty motives, though these may be pitted against injunctions professedly sacred. The glamour of divine origin, claimed for the social custom that is assailed, is eclipsed by the actual presence of the semi-divine person who claims to communicate his message amid a flood of heavenly effulgence, which overpowers the faithful and inspires them with an enthusiasm that carries everything before it. The people feel the advent of an avatar with a message repealing the old and communicating the new. He is bound by no convention; he is above and beyond all formula. He has in him the inspiration of a revelation, proclaiming the truth that is in him, and he pro- claims it in a form that touches the heart and appeals to the imagination.

Such an avatar was Chaitanya, the greatest reformer that Bengal has produced. He, like Buddha, was an iconoclast, waging war against caste and denouncing enforced widowhood. One divine message is thus arrayed against another, through the mouth of an elect of the Almighty. But the old lingers, the struggle between the old and the new still continues; and the friends of humanity turn to the progressive forces of the world for their ultimate triumph. Nevertheless, a definite stage towards progress is reached. Thought is let loose, winged with a new inspiration, and there is nothing more potent than the influence of new ideas, which, like a stream- let, flow down the mountain-side of established custom, eat into its substance and broaden and deepen into an ever-extending channel. The course of social progress has thus been slow; for great men are not as plentiful as blackberries. The religious feeling introduces an element of complexity; and, further, the forward movement of a huge society is necessarily slow. Nevertheless, the movement is there, and a little leaven leaveneth the mass.

Our surroundings being what they are, and what they have been for generations, every Hindu has in him a strong conservative bias. The great Napoleon used to say, 'Scratch a Russian and you will find a tartar.' Scratch a Hindu and you will find him a conservative. Of course, there are notable exceptions. All honour to the men, such, for instance, as the members of the Brahmo Samaj, who in obedience to the call of duty have adopted and practised in their lives more advanced ideas in regard to social observances. They