Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/177

 CAREY AND FORT WILLIAM COLLEGE 153 will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this 1 owe everything'.” There is indeed some truth in this self-estimate but the modesty of the scholar precludes him from ascertaining the true value of his life’s work. A plodder he was but how very few can plod in the way he did ; and this self-derogatory epithet is not the last word to characterise his many-sided activity. It cannot be denied at the outset that Carey had a clear, vigorous intellect; he was a man of no ordinary powers of mind: capable of strenuous and enduring application; many-sided, his tastes were varied and his attainment vast. But, even admitting all this, it must be observed that he had no imagination, no philosophic insight, no splendid native endowments of any sort. Hardly any of his writings can_be strictly called a work of genius. He nee alla ead modestly introduces himself in the translator. Preface to his Dia/ogues as a mere compiler, one who paves the way and leads the student to the higher classical works in the language. “The great want of bouks” says he “to assist in acquiring this language, which is current through an extent of country nearly equal to Great Britain, which, when properly cultivated, will be inferior to none in elegance and perspicuity, has induced me to compile this small work: and to undertake the publishing of two or three more, principally translations from the Sungsknit. These will form a regular series of books in the Bengalee, gradually becoming more and more difficult, till the student is introduced to the highest classical works in ' E. Carey, op. cit p. 623; also quoted in Dr, Culross’s Wiiliam Carey, p. 5. 20