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Evolution is our motto, and here we follow the intimations of nature. The infant grows to boyhood, and the boy to manhood. So, too, there is no cataclysm in the moral universe. It follows the orderings of the material world-development stage by stage, genera- ted by forces that have their roots in the bosom of society, and are fostered and stimulated by the beneficent activities of patriotic workers and the generous help and patronage of progressive Governments.
Non-Co-operation may help us to stand on our own legs by making us wholly dependent upon our own resources and activities. But at the same time, it cuts us off from the perennial and ever- sustaining sap afforded by the culture and civilization of the world, and the wide outlook which is a stimulus to progress. We cannot stand alone, isolated and detached from the rest of mankind, but must be in close association with them, giving to them what we have to give, receiving from them what we have to receive, swelling the common fund of human knowledge and experience. We thus broaden and elevate our own culture and civilization by the touch of the world-forces, and in our turn impart to them the spirituality that has been the heritage of our race. We have to make our contri- bution to humanity; and humanity repays us with compound in- terest, in the rich treasure of wisdom and inspiration that it places at our disposal.
We must indeed take our stand upon the old foundations. We broaden and liberalize them; and we build thereon. National life flows on in one continuous stream, the past running into the present, the present rolling on, in one majestic sweep, into the invisible and ever-expanding future, broadening at each stage, and scattering its fertilizing and beneficent influences all around. Our moorings must indeed be fixed in the past, in instincts and tradi- tions that have built up our history, and will largely shape and mould the future.
But we cannot remain wedded to the past. We cannot remain where we are. There is no standing still in this world of God's Providence. Move on we must, with eyes reverentially fixed on the past, with a loving concern for the present and with deep solicitude for the future. We must, in this onward journey, assimilate from all sides into our character, our culture, and our civilization, what- ever is suited to our genius and is calculated to strengthen and invigorate it, and weave it into the texture of our national life. Thus co-operation, and not non-co-operation, association and not isola-