Page:The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore.djvu/69

DEVENDRANATH TAGORE 21 turned his thoughts towards the West, and in the beginning of 1870 set sail for England, where he was enthusiastically received. His stay in England was "a constant triumph." Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, knowing how great a power for good he wielded in India, graciously granted him a private audience, which left an indelible impression on his heart. His winning manners, persuasive eloquence, and brilliant intellectual attainments created a highly favourable impression on the British public, and he was afforded every opportunity of profiting by close personal intercourse with some of the most celebrated scholars and divines of England. He was, moreover, fortunate in the friendship and intimacy of that eminent Sanskrit scholar, Professor Max Milller, who gives us an appreciative sketch of the life and work of Keshab in his Biographical Essays. "On Keshab's return to India," says Miss Collet in her history of the Brâhma-Samaj, "he immediately began to put in practice some of the hints he had gathered in England, and started what he called The Indian Reform Association; a body of which the nucleus was taken from his own church, but which was declared to be open to all classes, races, and creeds, who would join to promote the social and moral reformation of the people of India."

The Association was divided into five branches, viz. Female Improvement, Education, Cheap Literature, Temperance, and Charity. The first section commenced by opening a Female Normal