Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/86

 62 BENGALI LITERATURE quarter of the nineteenth century in supplying the needed impetus to education by founding schools, writing elementary school-books, and diffusing knowledge through the medium of Bengali—all which however had a more wide and far-reaching effect than what they were actually intended to produce. We may resent this foreign intrusion at the outset of our history but under the circumstances and in the environment such as they were, it could not have been otherwise. Nodoubt, the hour had come for such a regeneration and reconstruction. Had Foreign _ intrusion there been no foreign workers in the der the circum- চে টি 188255? field, the work, however delayed, its good effects. would not certainly have remained in abeyance. But the missionaries were the first to take up the work in nght earnest, and, in this respect, the importance of these early half-forgotten foreign writers can never be exaggerated. Of course, as in all early periods of literary history, the work done here chiefly consisted of translation and adaptation ; yet it must be admitted that there is hardly any department of useful knowledge which these European writers did not touch. Itis true that they could not adorn whatever they touched; but when we consider the large number of workers in the field—Carey, Marshman, Ward, Haughton, Yates, Morton, Pearson, Mack, Pearce, Miller, Harley, May, Stewart, to mention at random a few of the more well-known—their earnest philanthropie zeal, their unflagging diligence, the extraordinary variety, extent and influence of their writings, we cannot surely speak lightly of these pioneer writers. It is easier to disclaim foreign influence and talk of independence than actually to attain it. The literary history of Bengal in the 19th century is really the history