Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/130

 We now resume the thread of our narrative. In a year Mr Derozio gained so great an ascendancy over the minds of his pupils that its effects were visible on all their thoughts and actions. Babu Hara Mohan Chatterjee, at that time clerk of the Hindu College, writes on this point, and we quote his very words without altering them in. the least:

“The students of the first, second, and third classes had the advantage of attending a conversazione in the school held by Mr Derozio, where readings in poetry, literature, and moral philosophy were carried on. The meetings were held almost daily, before or after school hours. Though they were without the knowledge or sanction of the authorities, yet Mr Derozio’s disinterested zeal and devotion in teaching the students these subjects was characterised by a noble philanthropy. The students in return loved him most tenderly, and were ever ready to be guided by his counsels, and imitate him in all their daily actions. In fact, Mr Derozio gained so great an ascendancy over the minds of his pupils, that they would not move even in their private concerns without his counsel and advice. On the other hand he fostered their taste in literature, taught the evil effects of idolatry and superstition, and so far reformed their moral feelings as to place them completely above the antiquated ideas and aspirations of the age. Such was the force of his instruction, that the conduct of the students out of the college was exemplary. It gained them the applause of the world, from the literary and scientific point of view, and also, what was of greater importance, they were all considered men of truth. Indeed, it was a general belief and saying amongst our countrymen, which those that remember the time must acknowledge, that ‘such and such a boy is incapable of falsehood, because he is a Hindu College boy.’”