HOLIDAYS AND PILGRIMAGES in 



religious motive of pilgrimage has faded in Europe and is 

 fading in India, there is still no fear but that it will 

 return upon our modern spiral. Neither Cook's tourists 

 nor American ones may strike us as models of reverence ; 

 but none the less it is their element of reverence which has 

 sent the bulk of them so far therefore on true pilgrimage 

 to the historic places of their world. Much more is this 

 reverence persistent in India. So for both East and West ; 

 as real and living education vitalises or replaces the tradi- 

 tional official and commercial sorts, the socio-religious 

 education of travel will grow up into a very real revival 

 of the pilgrimages of old, however largely we may as yet 

 prefer to describe it in more secular-looking terms, as of the 

 wander-years of higher education. 



Now though here perhaps more consciously and definitely 

 stated, yet none the less in essential spirit, we have been 

 preparing to appreciate that side of Bose's life and larger 

 education which may at first sight seem apart from his 

 scientific studies, yet which none the less has nerved him 

 for his best work, and above all for his Indian ambitions 

 beyond his personal interests and achievements. Imme- 

 diately after marriage he began, with his young wife, to 

 devote the two annual vacations to seeing and knowing 

 India and to realising what India has stood for ; and their 

 experiences, especially if illustrated by a selection of the 

 multitude of photographs which were thus made, might 

 in themselves assuredly have made one of the best of 

 individual records of Indian travel. But alas ! a few years 

 ago a new and well-meaning servant, instructed to dust 

 the collection of negatives, had thoroughly cleaned off every 

 plate before his well-meant exertions were discovered ; 

 while the pressure of scientific work through college term- 

 times has kept the journal from being written. Yet vivid 

 recollections survive, and the educative experience has been 

 gained ; so that this Western-educated modern physicist 

 also peculiarly and widely knows his country ; knows it as 

 an Indian of Indians. 



