Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/174

Rh the papers. Though Dinabandhu's essay was the best in every respect, he did not get the prize. It was awarded to Srischandra Vidyaratna. The chief cause of this seeming injustice was, that Vidyasagar feared, that if he should award the prize to Dinabandhu, people might think, though unjustly, that when the two essays were of equal quality, Vidyasagar had shown undue favour to his brother. He was also afraid that when he was indirectly interested in the affair, he might unconsciously have been biassed on his brother's side. But, in fact, there was no cause of fear in that respect, as it was universally known that he had weighed the balance evenly. Anyhow, Vidyasagar judged it best to be on the safe side, and he sacrificed self for the sake of another. What a brilliant example of noble self-sacrifice!

When Mr. Cost passed the vernacular examination, he was posted in the Punjab, where he worked as a civilian for many years. Subsequently when he retired from the service, and was about to return home, he came to Calcutta, and paid a visit to Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar. In course of conversation, he recalled Vidyasagar's powers of versification, and asked him to compose a few slokas about himself. Vidyasagar then and there wrote five beautiful, sweet slokas. Mr. Cost was highly delighted, and thanked him profusely.

There can be no doubt that Vidyasagar's powers of writing Sanskrit prose and poetry were