Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/655

 VI. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 615 that follows the spasmodic efforts of common men to reach the high ideal expressed in some great
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historic character slowly spend themselves. Lesser Reaction men arise who pose as leaders of society, scoffing শি at all that constitutes greatness ; and custom and convention—two hoary-headed monsters—once more clasp the people in their iron grip. This is an age when craft and ingenuity find favour instead of open-hearted sincerity; when moral courage, character, manliness and strength of conviction fall into disfavour and worldly manceuvres of all sorts pass for high qualities and are praised as indicating wisdom. In the literature of such an age, we miss that genial flow of noble ideas—that freedom of thought and freshness of natural instincts which characterise great epochs in a nation’s life, and in their place we find the poets struggling to furnish long and wearisome details about a small point till it is worn thread-bare by its very ingenuity; a small idea is over-coloured and followed in frivolous niceties on the lines of a vitiated classical taste till it becomes almost grotesque or absurd. Such an age came upon the society of Bengal and its influence is stamped on the literature of the 18th century. This was an age when Mahamedan power had just decayed. Robbers and bandits over- ran the country; and knavery of all sorts was prac- tised in the courts of the Rajas. The school set up by Aurangeb in politics became the model for his chiefs to follow in their own courts. Conspiracies, plots and counterplots amongst brothers and relations who wanted to elbow down and kill one