वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

PREFACE. v
life is too short for all this, nothing is left to him but to appeal
to his colleagues for counsel and help. It is one of the great
advantages of University life that any one, who is in trouble
about some question outside his own domain, can at once get
the very best information from his colleagues, and many of the
happiest views and brightest solutions of complicated problems
are due, as is well-known, to this free intercourse, this scientific
give and take in our academic centres." And again, "Unless
a student can appeal for help to recognised authorities on all
these subjects, he is apt to make brilliant discoveries, which ex-
plode at the slightest touch of the specialist, and, on the other
hand, to pass by facts which have only to be pointed out in
order to disclose their significance and far-reaching importance.
People are hardly aware of the benefit which every branch of
science derives from the free and generous exchange of ideas,
particularly in our Universities, where every body may avail
himself of the advice and help of his colleagues, whether they
warn him against yet impossible theories, or call his attention
to a book or an article, where the very point, that interests him,
has been fully worked out and settled once for all." But alas!
it is not given to us to move in an atmosphere like this, and
small wonder if Indian students are not found to go beyond the
stage of passing the examinations. There is not a single insti-
tution in India, nor, despite the University Commission, can we
hope to have any before long, where one can get all up-to-date in-
formation on any desired subject, so easily obtainable at a seat of
learning in the West; and in its absence the only course open to
a person, investigating a particular subject, is, in the words of
the same learned scholar, "to step boldly out of his own domain,
and take an independent survey of the preserves of his neigh-
bours," even at the risk of being called "an interloper, an igno-
ramus, a mere dilettante," for, "whatever accidents he may meet