Page:The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose.djvu/15

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CHAPTER I CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION

' boy is father of the man.' Hence the writers of biographies have always sought to learn and tell all they could of the early environment of their subjects; for these formative influences, and the response of childhood and youth to them, are often seen to throw lights on characters as brought out in later years, and so on their achievements. Thus Augusts Comte—as yet the most comprehensive and appreciative of biographers, since most clearly setting before himself and his successors the appreciation of the main contributors to civilisation—was wont to quote two lines of de Vigny's: 'What is a great life? It is a thought of youth wrought out in ripening years.' And as psychology progresses, we are learning more and more fully not only how fundamental is ancestral and parental influence, how influential are early conditions, but also how significant are childish feehngs and fancies, dreamings and doings; how important too are the boy's thoughts and endeavours; and bow deeply determinative those of the adolescent, as he looks onwards towards his life, and makes his choices among its oft-dividing ways.

Vikrampur is a large area west of Dacca, the capital of Eastern Bengal. It is a region of fair fertility, but even