Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/1010

 964 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. (Chap. great ascendency over his rivals in discussion. Another noteworthy feature in his writings is the entire absence of any outburst of feeling. It might have been supposed that a man who so deeply felt the wrongs that prevailed all around, would denounce them in the fiery language of an ardent enthusiast in the cause of reformation. But his great intellectuality and deep conviction made him proceed quietly in controversy, like a doctor in the process of a serious surgical opera- tion ; occasions, however serious, did not disturb his temper. This superior control over himself 1s to be traced distinctly in all his writings. What was said of some of his English works by his English reviewer in the Monthly Repository for Septem- ber, 1833, applies equally to his Bengali writings also. ‘ The method and coolness with which the Raja arranges and states his facts, in contrast with the- rousing nature of those facts, are as remark- able as anything in the whole affair; and the courtesy with which he accounts, where he can, for the rise and growth of abuses, will not impede, but hasten the rectification of those abuses. The Raja appreciates too well the nature and opera- tion of free institutions, not to have felt many a throb of indignation, many a pang of grief, when witnessing the oppressed condition of the ryots of his country, and the various kinds and degrees of guilt among his countrymen, which have been originated by British misgovernment: but when the cause can be best served by a plain statement of facts, he can adduce them with all the calmness of a mere observer. That which it makes our spirits sink to read, he states unaccompanied by reproach