Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/118

 CHAPTER IV Witiram Carty AND SrikAmMpuR Misston. Of the missionary movements which gave an early impetus to Bengali language and literature, the foremost eae place has been given to the frater- nity of the famous Srirampur Mission, which was started by Carey, Marshman and Ward but of which the moving spirit was William Carey. William Carey, the son of a weaver and himself a village shoe-maker till the age of twenty- (1761-1884) Carey. eieht, was born on August 17, 1761 in the village of ,Paulesbury, situated in the very midland of England, in the heart of the রাত district which not only produced Shakespeare and cherished Cowper but which also fostered Wyclif and Hooker, Fox and Bunyan. But village-life in those days was far from being elysian and the destiny of the cottager, with poverty and sore toil staring him in the face, was cheer- less enough. Buried in an obscure village, the eldest of a family of five children, young Carey seemed to be born to such a lot, the English labourer’s lot of five shillings a week and the poorhouse in sickness and old age. At the age of sixteen he was an apprentice to the shoe-maker’s trade—a trade of which however he was never ashamed! 1 Tt would be silly in me to pretend to recollect all the shoes I made. I was accounted a very good workman...(Letter to Ryland) There is no inconsistency between this and his famous retort to the general officer who inquired of one of the aides-de-camp, when dining with the Marquis of Hastings, whether Dr, Carey had not once a