Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/12

 x PREFACE rejuvenation under the British influence—if not a minute, at least a compact and logical survey of the authors and works that demand attention. It would be too late in the day surely to insist upon the historical method of study of literature: but it has never been systematically and con- sistently applied to the investigation of modern Bengali Literature. I am indeed aware that “the historical estimate” has its perils and snares and more than often results in strange freaks and that the discoverer of some forgotten minor writer is often under the temptation to magnify the value of his discovery ; yet in applying the historical method in literary criticism I am following what is widely accept- ed by all philosophical critics. It is indeed the best way to attain that “disinterested objectivity” in eriticism which Matthew Arnold so highly applauds and to avoid that “provincial spirit” which he rightly condemns. It must not be supposed, however, that I have substituted bird’s eye views and sweeping generalisations for positive knowledge. The chain of historical summary can never be forged without the links supplied by individual facts. Nor, on the other hand, should it be supposed that I have a peculiar theory of my own or any particular school to uphold. Nota single sketch has been discoloured nor the comprehension of the general drift distorted by my own ideas. On the other hand, each author has been judged on his own merits and in order to obtain a true historical perspective, I have treated literature not as an isolated phenomenon but have taken care always to keep in view the relation of the literature to the social and political history of the time, for literary thought and contemporary events, as I have pointed out elsewhere, are indeed the two inseparable aspects of history. The. task of such a reconstruction is by no means easy and one can