Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/175

134 equally great. But he never cultivated those powers. He devoted himself to the cultivation of his mother language. Yet, he now and then composed Sanskrit verses at leisure. He wrote several elegant poems on "Travel", "Contentment", "Anger", "Cloud" and some other subjects. He composed 408 slokas on Salmalidvip, Kusadvip, Sakadvip, and other names of countries according to the ancient Pauranic geography of the Hindus, and on America, England, France, Africa and Asia, modern names according to the Westerners. He also wrote brief annotations on Uttara-Charita, Meghduta and Sakuntala. It is not known whether, after this, he made any more attempts at Sanskrit composition, either prose or poetry. When writing the annotations on Meghaduta, he remarked, one day, with a smile, to one of his grandsons, who was sitting by;—'You see, my dear, I have written very good Sanskrit, indeed!' But this was merely a joke, as he had been heard to observe on many occasions, that in this age of degeneration, it was not possible for any one to write good Sanskrit.

Shortly after he had entered into the service of the Fort William College, Vidyasagar was asked by the authorities of the institution to write good,