It is a curious irony of fate that mild gentlemen
of pacific, Nonconformist opinions should be brought by their senti- mentality and ignorance to co-operate with, or at any rate to support, such sinister persons as Mr. Pal, with his blood-rites and his invocation of Kali, the goddess of destruction, on whom men call when the blood-lust is upon them. Senti- mentality, peace at any price, and the dread of ruling firmly certainly make strange bedfellows. People are very apt to talk about the brooding East, but they forget that what the East broods upon are often things that could not possibly be inserted in the report of a Sunday-school or a Church magazine. We do not, of course, suggest that Mr. Pal and his blood-offerings represent all India, or, indeed, anything but a minority; but it is a minority that cannot be ignored, though also one which no self-respecting Englishman should have anything to do with.
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