160 ESSAYS IN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

"Already, all over the world, man is labouring beyond alJ

reason, and producing beyond all demand.........Longer, harder toil

for the producer, frenzied, criminal extravagance in the consumer,
these are the direct results of the development of manufacturing
industries, which tends constantly towards increased production
and. lower prices." —(Max Nordau.)

This is not civilisation; this not the art of living.
Civilisation consists, not in multiplying our desires and the-
means of gratifying them, but in the refinement of their
quality. Industry ^0?' se, is 'no advantage. The true end
of material civilisation is not production, but use; not'
labour, but leisure; not to destroy, but to make possible,,
spiritual culture. A nation which sees its goal rather in
the production of things than in the lives of men must in
the end deservedly perish. Therefore it is that the Swadeshi
movement, a synthesis of effort for the regeneration of
India, should be guided by that true political economy that-
seeks to make men wise and happy, rather than merely
to multiply their goods at the cost of physical and spiritual
degradation.

Take one or two examples of Indian imports. Of Euro-
pean haberdashery, India imports over 187 lakhs value-
annually. "What does this mean ? It means woollen caps
and leather shoes for infants, hats, ties and collars for menr
sometimes even corsets for women, and if not that, at least
safety-pins and ribbons and high-heeled shoes, besides;
English curtains and carpets for our homes. All this-
results merely from the mistaken idea of imitating others,,
in other words, from the attitude of snobbery which not-
long since was spreading through * educated ' India like a
gigantic fungus. The immediate point to be considered
here, however, is merely economic; an enormous sum of
money per annum might be saved in India by returning to*
the simple ideas and plain living of our forefathers. There