rippling with colour and light ; because the earning of
pence is a small thing to him by comparison with the
joy of life, and material things themselves but an illusion
of the temporary flesh.
But the world, you will say, is not a world of
T A K IN G HIS EASE
philosophers and artists, but an economic world, of
manufacturers, of creators and distributors of wealth ;
and since that is the case, there is no room in it for
people of this kind, unless by extraordinary efficiency
in their own pursuits they are able to compete with
the rest of mankind. And in any case the demand
for such goods is limited. Well ! I do not think that
I have anything to say in answer to such criticism.
The Burman is lazy, the Burman must go, unless he
is willing to work like the aboriginal Coringhi, from early
dawn to night ; unless he is willing to accept in the
long run a wage
like that of the Indian
proletariat, of
whom many millions
live all their lives
upon the verge of
starvation ; unless
he is willing to wear
grey cotton instead
of tartaned silk ; unless
he is willing to
forgo his hospitalities
to his friends,
his donations to his
church, his liberality
to the stranger within
hisgates; unless he
is willing to abandon “ f u l l o f l a u g h t e r a n d f u n ”
his gaiety, his light-heartedness, his love of sport and
amusements, his leisure and happiness, and turn to the
cheap, inferior, squalid life of his Indian neighbour.
Yet of all the peoples of the earth the Burmese
are probably the happiest. Most of the requisites of
modern Utopias they already possess : leisure, independence,
absolute equality, the nearest approach to