To
HIS EXCELLENCY
The Rt. Hon’ble Victor Alexander George Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Earl of Lytton P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., Chancellor of The University of Calcutta and Governor of Bengal, India.
May it please your Excellency,
I know that your noble and cultivated soul will always be eager to receive with cordial hospitality the high ideals, thoughts and attainments of the people of any age and of any country, but more particularly of India, over the destinies of a part of which your excellency had to preside for some time.
Mine is a humble performance, but I feel extremely grateful to you that it was solely through the kind patronage of your excellency that I could avail myself of the opportunities that came and accept the invitations of many foreign universities, at one of which these lectures were delivered. Your generous courtesies, cordiality and sympathetic willingness to help will always endear your name to me, as it will do to many others. By associating this brief account of the mystics of India with your name I am only paying my tribute of respect to you for the high respect that you yourself have for the lofty ideals of humanity. I shall be glad if you will kindly accept this unworthy gift and sometimes think of India, her past greatness and future possibilities.
I remain your Excellency,
Loyally and sincerely yours,
Surendranath Dasgupta,
Presidency College,
Calcutta.
was presented first in the form of six lectures given by Professor Dasgupta in 1926 as the Norman Wait Harris Foundation Lectures at Northwestern University. The author was at one time a Lecturer, University of Cambridge; Professor of Sanskrit, Chittagong College, Bengal; and Professor of Philosophy, Presidency College, Calcutta.
