Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/968

 924 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. for writing on those subjects in Bengali. How far he succeeded in his attempt is not the question, but it shows the ardour of his soul in attempting to bring the vernacular language of Bengal up to the standard of -the advanced languages of the world. In the descriptive catalogue of Bengali by the Rev. J. Long, we find the following reference to this fact,—‘‘ Goldsmith’s History of England (Bengali translation of) came out in 1819. Pages 412, by Felix Carey, an able Bengali scholar, the history closes with the peace of Amiens in 1802. <A useful glossary of technical and difficult words was appended, though some names are ren- dered curiously. Admiral of the Blue is Nilpata- kadhyernava, Whig is Svatantra Paksapati.” ‘“Hadavali or Anatomy by Carey. The glossary of the technical terms by the translator Felix Carey, a good Bengali scholar, is of use to translators.” Sooke in Under European influence a taste for writing Sone in the colloquial language came into considerable favour; and writings like Alaler Gharer Dulala and Hutum Pechar Naksa, which are usually supposed to be our first attempts at witty writing in the collo- quial dialect, were preceded and anticipated in style by numerous works which served as models to Tek Chand Thakur and Kali Prasanna Simha in later times. Some of these earlier works reached a high level of success and were very popular at one The ablest time. Nowhere in the whole range of colloquial satire of :. the time. literature of this epoch, do we find a_ better sample of style or display of naive humour, and of scath- ing satire than in the Nava Babu Vilasa or sketch of a modern Babu by Pramatha Nath Carma, pub- lished in 1823. The Rev. J. Long in 1855 wrote