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Impressions of America observations have been necessarily limited is to me an encouragement beyond words to express, if my impressions are just and true.
If my understanding of your institutions and your form of government is correct, and if I might be permitted to express an opinion, I would say that that education which is now offered to the people free, to be accepted or rejected, must soon become compulsory, as a measure of preservation of those very institutions. Of the different systems adopted by you, I may not speak with certainly, hut the impressions which I have received concerning these methods, from the kind to the university, are both pleasing and profitable in my thought. What lessons we, the people of India, may he able to receive from deeper acquaintance with you and your institutions. I may not even attempt to express or enumerate. I can only speak of the gratitude which 1 feel in the fact that it has been my privilege to examine, to learn and to witness the effect of this system, of education which, you call free, common, and which is so popular with you.
The third impression to which I must refer, concerns than vastness of your material resources and the innumerable institutions of industry, together with the greatness of your home or interstate commerce. From this point of view, the material side of your civilization is almost in your grasp. The difficulty of appreciating this view of your great country is not small to one who comes from a country of quieter activities and more contemplative methods, and the first thought is that your civilization's first achievement is the multiplication of wants and necessities, of cravings and luxuries and of material means to questionable ends. This may be a superficial view to be set aside and substituted by a better, upon a better acquaintance. It would also seem impossible from the same point of view, to understand how the physical, the moral and the intellectual sides of
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Jain Education International
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| SR No. | 006901 |
| Book Title | Jaina Philosophy |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai |
| Publisher | World Jain Confederation |
| Publication Year | 2009 |
| Total Pages | 298 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 5 MB |