An impulse from outside reacts on impressionable bodies in two different
ways, depending on whether the recipient is inert or fully alive. The
inert is fashioned after the pattern of the impression made on it, and
this in infinite repetition of one mechanical stamp. But when an
organism is fully alive, the answering reaction is often of an
altogether different character to the impinging stimulus. The outside
shocks stir up the organism to answer feebly or to utmost in ways as
multitudinous and varied as life itself. So the first impetus of Western
education impressed itself on some in a dead monotony of imitation of
things Western; while in others it awakened all that was greatest in the
national memory. It is the release of some giant force which lay for
long time dormant. My father was one of the earliest to receive the
impetus characteristic of the modern epoch as derived from the West. And
in his case it came to pass that the stimulus evoked the latent
potentialities of his race for evolving modes of expression demanded by
the period of transition in which he was placed. They found expression
in great constructive work, in the restoration of quiet amidst disorder,
in the earliest effort to spread education both among men and women, in
questions of social welfare, in industrial efforts, in the establishment
of people's Bank and in the foundation of industrial and technical
schools. And behind all these efforts lay a burning love for his country
and its nobler traditions.