INTRODUCTION though in this case the fear of the King losing interest in the State after the marriage was more imaginary than real, surely all this tragic state of the story would have been avoided. But perhaps we would have missed the story itself and with it the moral lesson that we can derive from such an excellent and stirring story. In fact, the story also shows how, even the best of men, the cultured priest and the technical adviser in their disproportionately great and feverish anxiety to secure the best benefit to their State and to their fellow subjects, forgot that life itself would be impossible, if marriage with a virtuous though beautiful lady is apprehended to produce any evil effect by itself. Surely the economy of the great "God " would demand a conformity to his laws of life and any attempt to belittle his laws must prove disastious in many unseen ways, as fully amplified in the present story. (Our attempt must be to justify the ways of "God" to man and not to misinterpret the natural phenomena of the world. Such a mistake must have its own reward and we will have no reason to complain of the natural consequences, if such a mistake proves disastrous. We must be and work in this world surrounded by the complexities of life in all its bearings and fight out the battle of life. Mere asceticism as sueh or forced renunciation will never prove
