Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/719

672 FINIS.

We have done our best to delineate the principal traits of Vidyasagar's character. No one can deny his greatness and superiority. There can be no doubt that Vidyasagar was truly great. He was great in kindness, great in broad sympathy, great in benevolence, great in parts; in short, he was greater in every respect than men of ordinary rank. It was this singular superiority of his, that enabled him to struggle manfully with difficulties—to rise to such dignified eminence. This extraordinary peculiarity of his character was manifest in all his deeds, however good or evil results they might have been productive of.

Vidyasagar was born at a time when this land of ancient civilisation urgently required the services of a great man like him. Whenever a country needs revolution of any kind, it gives birth to a man of extraordinary powers to accomplish the end. History furnishes us with plenty of instances to illustrate the truth of this fact. Vidyasagar was born at a time, when the Kali Yuga was exercising its deteriorating influence on the scientific religion of the saintly Rishis. Vidyasagar with his uncommon parts and abilities was only the medium through which the influence was exercised. He consummated what his predecessor, Ram Mohan Ray, who had gone to the eternity six decades before him, had begun. The Hon'ble