Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/97

60 which he did in a very short time. So sharp was his memory!

While still in the Belles-lettres class, little Isvar Chandra had acquired a great proficiency in grammar and language. He could at this early age, for he was then only thirteen years old, compose beautiful verses, elegant both in style and rhetoric. His slokas won admiration from all classes. On occasions of his visits to his native village, Birsingha, during College-vacations, he used to compose Sraddha slokas (invitation letters in Sanskrit verse). On one of these occasions, at the Sraddha of a rich man, Isvar Chandra was asked to compose an invitation sloka for the householder. The sloka, he composed, was so beautiful that the Brahman pundits from different parts of the country, assembled on invitation, admired the sloka, and wondered who the writer was. And when little Isvar Chandra, who was also present in the assembly, was pointed out as the author of the sloka, their wonder waxed hundred-fold. They blessed the lad with all their heart, and remarked, that the boy, in time, would be the best pundit, surpassed, nay equalled, by none.

Was not Isvar Chandra gifted with genius? Milton was considered a genius, because at an