ntly joyful paean of triumph. Did we quite understand "The
Dream Journey"? But then did we need absolutely to understand in order
to enjoy it? We might not have got at the wealth in the ocean
depths--what could we have done with it if we had?--but we revelled in
the delights of the waves on the shore; and how gaily, at their
buffettings, did our life-blood course through every vein and artery!

The more I think of that period the more I realise that we have no
longer the thing called a _mujlis_.[33] In our boyhood we beheld the
dying rays of that intimate sociability which was characteristic of the
last generation. Neighbourly feelings were then so strong that the
_mujlis_ was a necessity, and those who could contribute to its
amenities were in great request. People now-a-days call on each other on
business, or as a matter of social duty, but not to foregather by way of
_mujlis_. They have not the time, nor are there the same intimate
relations! What goings and comings we used to see, how merry were the
rooms and verandahs with the hum of conversation and the snatches of
laughter! The faculty our predecessors had of becoming the centre of
groups and gatherings, of starting and keeping up animated and amusing
gossip, has vanished. Men still come and go, but those same verandahs
and rooms seem empty and deserted.

In those days everything from furniture to festivity was designed to be
enjoyed by the many, so that whatever of pomp or magnificence there
might have been did not savour of hauteur. These appendages have since
increased in quantity, but they have become unfeeling, and know not the
art of making high and low alike feel at home. The bare-bodied, the
indigently clad, no longer have the right to use and occupy them,
without a permit, on the strength of their smiling faces alone. Those
whom we now-a-days seek to imitate in our house-building and furnishing,
they have their own society, with its wide hospitality. The mischief
with us is that we have lost what we had, but have not the means of
building up afresh on the European standard, with the result that our
home-life has become joyless. We still meet for business or political
purposes, but never for the pleasure of simply meeting one another. We
have ceased to contrive opportunities to bring men together simply
because we love our fellow-men. I can imagine nothing more ugly than
this social miserliness; and, when I look back on those whose ringing
laughter, comi