Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/279

236 was highly delighted with the delicious dishes, and thanked her profusely. He could speak Bengali tolerably well, and was engaged in conversation with his hostess on various topics. At the conclusion of the talk, he asked Vidyasagar's mother, how much gold she had. The mother answered:—'How much? Why, I have four pitchers of gold.' Harrison was startled to hear of so much wealth; he could not grasp the real meaning of her words. Vidyasagar's mother then pointed to her four sons, who were standing by, saying, 'These are my four pitchers of gold.' Harrison was quite dumb-founded. He could give utterance to no word. At last, he said to Vidyasagar:—'She must be an uncommon woman. She is second Cornelia of Rome.' In fact, Vidyasagar was so liberal and open-handed, that he never cared to be thrifty.

But, to retrace. Contemporaneously with his "Upakramanika," appeared his Rijupatha, Part I. The prefaces to both the works bore the same date, viz. 16th November, 1851. The book is neither an original composition, nor a translation. It is only a selection book, containing extracts from easy Sanskrit prose and poetical works. The selections are very nice and judicious. It is one of the best elementary books for beginners.

Before he was made Principal of the Sanskrit College, Vidyasagar had commenced a Bengali version of Chambers's "Moral Class Book," with the title, Nitibodha, But for want of time, he could