220 Colonel Sir Ronald Ross [June 4, 



The ideal here is the conquest of nature and the perfectibility of 

 man and of society by Science. It may lead to a Utopia perhaps, 

 but its Utopia, unlike some others, has the advantage of being- 

 practicable. It, like Milton's philosophy, " with no middle flight," 

 intends to soar ; but it does not intend to soar ,; above th' Aonian 

 Mount " because indeed Truth can live no higher than there. And 

 I therefore call it the Heliconian Philosophy — for reasons which will 

 be indicated. 



But it is the duty of those who hold this lofty creed themselves 

 t< » work for the betterment of mankind. Xow all this time, immersed 

 in so many fine thoughts, I had somewhat neglected my finer duties, 

 especially those concerned with that deity, iEsculapius, whom I had 

 agreed, rather against my will, to follow. But, as I have said in 

 the preface to my book of poems, " Philosophies," I now " began to 

 be drawn toward certain thoughts which had occurred to me in my 

 profession, especially as to the cause of the widespread sickness and 

 of the great misery and decadence of the people of India. Backed 

 by poverty, swept by epidemics, housed in hovels, ruled by supersti- 

 tions, they presented the spectacle of an ancient civilisation fallen 

 for centuries into decay. 1 ' The following verses summarise what 

 I mean : — 



The Indian Mother. 



Full fed with thoughts and knowledges sublime, 

 And thundering oracles of the gods, that make 

 Man's mind the flower of action and of time, 

 I was one day where beggars come to take 

 Doles ere they die. An Indian mother there, 

 Young, but so wretched that her staring eyes 

 Shone like the winter wolf's with ravening glare 

 Of Hunger, struck me. For to much surprise 

 A three-year child well nourished at her breast, 

 Wither'd with famine, still she fed and press'd — 

 For she was dying. " I am too poor," she said, 

 " To feed him otherwise " ; and with a kiss 

 Fell back and died. And the soul answered, 

 ■' In spite of all the gods and prophets — this ! " 



Led then by this duty, in 1890 I determined to devote myself 

 to a thorough investigation of at least one of the great diseases 

 referred to— malaria T but honesty compels me to ?dd at the outset 

 that this work was only of secondary interest to me, and that I 

 undertook it as a duty and at considerable loss to myself. Personally 

 I much prefer literature, mathematics and other studies, and am not 

 a biologist, much less a medical man, by my natural proclivity. The 

 following lines better indicate why I commenced the enterprise : — 



