Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/111

72 any of them was ill, he never failed to attend the sick-bed. He thus endeared himself to his villagers, who looked upon him as their best friend and benefactor. Even the sufferings of such lower animals, as cats and dogs, drew tears from his eyes. What a fountain of universal love and sympathy was hidden in the small heart of the young boy.

Isvar Chandra always regarded his elders with great esteem. His respect for them deepened with his age. Even in later years, when he had attained great knowledge and eminence, he never treated them with arrogance or disrespect, though they were much inferior to him in every respect. On the contrary, if his elders tried to forget their former tender love for him and to show signs of honour to him, he shrank from them with bashfulness. When he rose to be the Principal of the Sanskrit College, the then clerk of the College, Babu Ramdhan Gangopadhyay, who loved Isvar Chandra dearly, and to whom he had, one night, fled from his father for protection, as has been narrated before, rose from his seat, in honour of Isvar Chandra, at which the latter was greatly abashed, and said:—'You see, my dear sir, I am still your beloved Isvar Chandra; please do not put me to shame in this way.' Ramdhan Babu was quite astonished at his superior's goodness and modesty.

The reader may remember that, soon after his recovery from the severe dysentery, he was ill with,