disappointment. The play enforces this moral as it has been enforced in the great tragedies of Shakespeare. If this had not been done, the drama would not have ethically answered our demand. No doubt the lesson derived from MANONMANI'S and VANI'S love-ventures has some moral significance; but it is all of a passive sort. It inculcates the duty of faith in the ultimate goodness of the Power unseen, the duty of maintaining a certain intellectual attitude towards the transcendent Reality. This is only an intellectual duty, if I may so use that word "Duty." and calls for only a passive adjustment of our convictions and beliefs to the great Power which envelops us. But this, in itself, will scarcely suffice to hearten man in this life and light his way in its dark mazes. He should be given some olear guidance in the practical performance of the duties of life. The lesson we draw from KUDILA'S deliberate attempts to set at naught moral laws and the inevitable ruin which dogged his footsteps and ultimately overwhelmed him teaches us, in the most impressive manner, the supreme duty of obeying such moral laws. There is no way of cheating Nature, of tricking her into chastising virtue and rewarding vice for ever. Virtue wins and Vice grovels in the dust in the long run. Nature is as it ought to be.

Conclusion

I have now looked at Manonmaniyam as a play for the stage, as a piece of dramatic composition for the study, as a new species of poetical production in the field of Tamil poetry and as a literary classic of great ethical importance. Judged from these various standpoints, the work maintains a very high degree of excellence, except perhaps in the solitary instance of its inadequacy for the stage in its present form. In all other respects, it compels admiration, because of its unique position. Generally it is not reserved for a pioneer in a walk of literature to accomplish the very best work in that line. Long years of experience and preparation are necessary to make perfection possible. But, in the present instance, Mr. Sundaram Pillai has not only the rare merit of founding a new branch of literature but has the rarer honor of producing in it a work which has not yet been equalled by any other production in the field. Manonmaniyam still stands by itself in a class of its own.

I feel I cannot close this introduction without expressing my thanks to the learned and indefatigable editor. Mr. Vaiyapuri Pillai, without whose kindly interest and insistence this introduction would not have been written and this opportunity afforded for placing my garland of appreciation on one of the most fascinating works of Modern Tamil.