signed to the First Member are very extensive and include that of
recommending the names of three ordinary members, one of whom, when the
time comes, shall be chosen to succeed him. His authority is, in fact,
the dominant one, whether over the probationers under training for a
period of five years, three of which are to be spent at the society's
home in Poona, or over the ordinary members admitted to the full
privileges of the society, or over those who, as _attaches_, associates,
and permanent assistants, are very closely affiliated to it without
being actually received into membership. The scheme is, of course, at
present in its infancy, as the society still numbers only about 25, the
majority of whom have not yet completed their term of probation. Mr.
Gokhaie, however, hopes very soon to have 50 probationers constantly in
residence, and he has already gathered together in the well-appointed
buildings of the society's home just outside Poona, in close proximity
to the Ferguson College, a group of young men, to some of whom he kindly
introduced me, who have evidently caught the fervour of his enthusiasm.
One of the latest recruits was by birth a Mahomedan, of whom Mr. Gokhale
was specially proud, as he is very anxious that the society shall be, in
fact as well as in theory, representative of all castes and creeds.

One of the first questions which this remarkable experiment suggests is
whether the ideals which Mr. Gokhale sets before the "Servants of India"
will suffice to supply the necessary driving power. Hitherto some form
of religious faith and the hope of some heavenly reward have alone
availed to induce men to renounce the world and all its material
interests and surrender themselves to a life of rigorous and selfless
discipline in the service of their fellow-creatures, or rather in the
service of God through their fellow-creatures. Mr. Gokhale's society
makes no claim to any religious sanction. Though Indian asceticism has
from the most remote times found devotees willing to lead a life of far
more complete self-annihilation than any that the most rigorous
monastic orders of Christendom have ever imposed, or that, for the
matter of that, Mr. Gokhale seeks to impose upon his followers, it has
always been inspired by some religious conception. Will the "Servants of
India" find the same permanent inspiration in the cult of an Indian
Motherland, however highly spiritualized, that has no rewards to offer
either in th