ore than another which familiarity with the fountains of Western
literature constantly forces upon the mind, it is that our age is
turning its back on time-honoured creeds and dogmas. We are hurrying
forward to a chaos in which all our existing beliefs, nay even the
fundamental axioms of morality, may in the end be submerged; and as
the general tenor of Indian thought among the educated community is to
reject everything that is old, and equally blindly to absorb
everything new, it becomes more and more an urgent question whether
any great intellectual or moral revolution, which has no foundations
in the past, can produce lasting benefits to the people.

'"I desire no future that will break the ties of the past" is what
George Eliot has said, and so it is highly necessary that the Hindus
should know something of their former greatness.

'The songs in [S']akoontala, one in the Prologue and another in the
beginning of the fifth Act, very easily adapted themselves to Hindu
tunes.'

Towards the end of his letter Mr. Aiyar intimated that he himself took
the part of Ma[T.]Havya. He also mentioned that a few modifications and
additions were introduced into some of the scenes.

In a subsequent letter received from Mr. Keshava Aiyar, the Secretary
of the Society, I was informed that my version of the Play was acted
again at Trivandrum in 1894.

These descriptions of the successful representation of the [S']akoontala
in Travancore justified me in expressing a hope that, as Kalidasa has
been called the Shakespeare of India, so the most renowned of his
three dramatic works might, with a few manifestly necessary
modifications, be some day represented, with equal success, before
English-speaking audiences in other parts of the world and especially
here in England. This hope has been realized, and quite recently my
translation has been successfully acted by amateur actors before a
London audience.

I venture, therefore, to add the expression of a further hope that
with the daily growth of interest in Oriental literature, and now that
the [S']akoontala forms one of Sir John Lubbock's literary series, it
may be more extensively read by the Rulers of India in all parts of
the Empire. Those who study it attentively cannot fail to become
better acquainted with the customs and habits of thought, past and
present, of the people committed to their sway.

And it cannot be too often repeated that our duty towards our great
Dependency re