Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/283

240 of their books to Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar and Rev. Robinson, who should examine them first, and if approved by them, they were then to be forwarded to Rev. Long, who should read them in his village-school, and there settle whether the books were intelligible to village boys. Besides Vidyasagar, such illustrious persons of the time, as Wyllie, Colvin, Seton-Karr, Bayley, Pratt, Long, Woodrow, Radha Kanta Dev, Jay Krishna Mukharji, Rassomoy Dutt, were connected with the said association.

In 1853, Vidyasagar founded a free School in his native village, Birsingha, and attached to it a night school for the education of the sons of the cultivating class in the night. He purchased a plot of land for the site of the school out of his own funds. He paid the sole cost of the school building. He himself laid the foundation stone of the building. A girl-school was also started by him about the same time. He defrayed all the expenses for these schools out of his own purse. His free school cost him nearly four hundred rupees every month, 300 rupees as pay of the teachers and 100 rupees in purchase of books and slates for poor boys, and articles of furniture and Library books for the school. The night and the girl-schools cost him between 40 to 45 rupees a month. Besides these schools, he established, about this time, a charitable dispensary, in his native village, for treatment of poor patients, who received free visits, in