ny tortuous obstructions, before giving
and taking can come about. The foundation of life, as it dashes into
these obstacles, splashes and foams over in laughter and tears, and
dances and whirls through eddies from which one cannot get a definite
idea of its course.

(44) _Sharps and Flats_

_Sharps and Flats_ is a serenade from the streets in front of the
dwelling of man, a plea to be allowed an entry and a place within that
house of mystery.

This world is sweet,--I do not want to die.
I wish to dwell in the ever-living life of Man.

This is the prayer of the individual to the universal life.

When I started for my second voyage to England, I made the acquaintance
on board ship of Asutosh Chaudhuri. He had just taken the M. A. degree
of the Calcutta University and was on his way to England to join the
Bar. We were together only during the few days the steamer took from
Calcutta to Madras, but it became quite evident that depth of friendship
does not depend upon length of acquaintance. Within this short time he
so drew me to him by his simple natural qualities of heart, that the
previous life-long gap in our acquaintance seemed always to have been
filled with our friendship.

When Ashu came back from England he became one of us.[57] He had not as
yet had time or opportunity to pierce through all the barriers with
which his profession is hedged in, and so become completely immersed in
it. The money-bags of his clients had not yet sufficiently loosened the
strings which held their gold, and Ashu was still an enthusiast in
gathering honey from various gardens of literature. The spirit of
literature which then saturated his being had nothing of the mustiness
of library morocco about it, but was fragrant with the scent of unknown
exotics from over the seas. At his invitation I enjoyed many a picnic
amidst the spring time of those distant woodlands.

He had a special taste for the flavour of French literature. I was then
writing the poems which came to be published in the volume entitled
_Kadi o Komal_, Sharps and Flats. Ashu could discern resemblances
between many of my poems and old French poems he knew. According to him
the common element in all these poems was the attraction which the play
of world-life had for the poet, and this had found varied expression in
each and every one of them. The unfulfilled desire to enter into this
larger life was the fundamental motive throughout.

"I will arrange