Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/259

216 not the man to lose sight of his business. By repeated jokes for a few days, he brought the afore-mentioned professor to his senses, and made him forego his harsh treatment of the boys. Vidyasagar was not content with this. In a few days, he issued a circular order interdicting corporal punishment of the College-students.

In his later days, when he had retired from public service and opened his private Metropolitan College, he issued directions to the teachers of that institution not to give corporal punishment to the students, but to rectify their manners by kind and gentle treatment. The masters of the school department, however, did not act up to the instructions. They thrashed the boys as usual. When Vidyasagar's attention was drawn to it, he instituted an enquiry. One of the teachers admitted that he beat the boys. He was, therefore, made to retire.

We embrace this opportunity to narrate one or two incidents of his fond affection for school-boys, in general, of his later years.

On one occasion, he drove out all the boys of the second class of the Syambazar branch of his Metropolitan Institution for wilful disobedience. Duty compelled him to do away with the class altogether for that year. On the next morning, the boys waited upon him at his own residence, and earnestly prayed to be forgiven. The pitiful faces of the little boys and their earnest solicitations