Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/34

 the deep philosophy of Shakespeare and Carlyle, Wordsworth and Tennyson, have constituted in themselves not only an intellectual treat but also a spiritual stimulus known only to those who have had the good fortune to sit and learn at his feet. Again, as to the larger ministry outside the pale of direct school-work during the long years given to Cocanada, suffice it to point to the ‘fruit gathering’ of the following pages by way of samples of the self-expression through the media of the Young Men’s Prayer Union, new-planted like the Young Men’s Social Purity and Temperance Union, and of the local Brahma Samaj, already existent but soon reinvigorated.

A passing note may here be made of the variety of useful public movements prominently associated with and participated in at different times and centres. In his own vocational line, Mr. Venkata Ratnam presided more than once (at Vijianagaram and Masulipatam) over the Northern Circars Students’ Conference which he had himself helped to create. He has repeatedly been on