Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/13

 PREFACE xi never claim infallibility or finality in a matter like this. To make a proper estimate of modern literature is, indeed, one of the most difficult tasks of literary criticism. An old country and its old literature is a study ; but a new country and its new literature is a problem. It is hard to realise the past; but it is harder to read the present. All that this work can lay claim to is that a systematic, though tentative, attempt is made to study a progressive literature during a most noteworthy period in all its remarkable phases reflecting the thought and culture of the specified country and age. But the following pages form only the first volume of my projected history of the 19th century literature. It deals with a very small part of the subject and with a seemingly barren and uninteresting period between 1800 and 1825. ‘This is concerned, in the main, with the well- meaning but scarcely literary activity of the European writers, chiefly missionaries, and their colleagues in the domain of Bengal prose as well as with the strong counter- eurrent of native energy which found its vent in a body of indigenous poems and songs, standing, as they do, in direct contrast to the work of the Europeans. The Intro- ductory Retrospect is a brief preliminary recapitulation of the facts and circumstances which led to the beginnings of the modern age and modern literature. It should be taken as an introduction not only to the present volume but also to the volumes which will follow. To many, minutely conversant with the history of this period, the account would seem to be inadequate; while to others, interested directly in the literature itself, it would seem disproportionately long and dry. It is extremely difficult, indeed, to hit happily upon the golden mean between brevity and prolixity: yet the necessity of such a retros- pect must be admitted, It was not within my province