The last volume of Sarasvati-chandra is here offered
to the public. It endeavours to complete the programme
laid down in the preface of the third volume. In that
preface it was suggested that the varied conflicts of life
and thought at present visible all over India may one day
end in reciprocal assimilation and harmony of the warring elements.
This process of assimilation, while it may not be able to surprise us with any sudden advent of peace, will make its presence felt sooner or later by floating on our horizon ideas and sentiments as foreign to our past experience as possibly Columbus and his ships may be imagined to have been to the minds of the anxious aborigines of old America as they watched his approach towards their shores. This may sound like an exaggerated note of alarm or an idle conceit at first sight. Cooler thoughts will, however, bring home the conviction that our present state of transition must one day end the effervescence of its lighter elements. That stage over, India must have her day of peace and comfort, and the only question is what kind of day that will be.
There seems to be a sort of presumption in proposing to answer such a question and a presumption it might be if this book were of the nature of historical disquisition or a scientific forecast. The writer of a novel may, however, well be allowed to indulge in dreams of future days according to his own lights, even where the forecast of any future at all must fall short of the exacting tests of scientific or philosophical critics. It is in such a dream - land or Mano-rajya that the design of the
