Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/924

 880 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap, — who may feel interested in studying our national ideas and aspirations, would do well to read this ancient literature, which, for a century after the English conquest, lay neglected and uncared for,— consigned to the care of the Batatala publishing agencies of Calcutta. The old From the home to the world—it was a descent and the, এ new. from the Himalayas to the plains,—from the lofty spiritual idea permeating the Hindu home,—the visions of beatitude which it was the dream of every great Hindu to attain,—to the matter-of- fact world and to an observation of things that are taking shape and changing all arround ;—from the great examples of Bhisma and Rama—cherished in the heart of every Hindu—the loftiest like the loftiest peak of the Himalayas,—to the stories of Duval’s assiduity in learning, and Sir Philiph Syd- ney’s offering his cup of water to the dying soldier ; —from the pursuit and acquisition of Yoga to the knowledge of a Geographical catechism,—to be able to point out Popocatepetl on a map of the globe,—from the celestial songs of Radha and Krishna, which while gratifying all our yearnings for the loftiest of human love, have kept a door con- stantly open heaven-wards,—to the stories of Paul and Virginia or of ASneas and Dido: the descent is as great as one from the Himalayas to the plains. Sut. a race of people confined within the narrow grooves of their own thoughts were dragg- ed out to observe the wonders of the world, of which they had hitherto known nothing, nor cared to know,—nipping in the bud all curiosity about the material world by fabrication of monstrous