Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/37

 remembered as fixing the high water-mark of his vigorous eloquence.

This magnificent faculty of eloquence Mr. Venkata Batnam ijossesses in a striking measure, though with him it is practically an uncultivated art of nature. The words alw'ays- run before the thoughts in public utterance ; and, spell-bound, you witness a rushing tor- rent of i language laden with a wealth of ima- gery, allusion, anecdote, illustration and quo- tation, flowing with a rapidity w'hich proves the despair of the expert reporter. Calm and sedate starts the thought ; and as it careers along its lofty flight, height after height, in all its manifold applications, periods upon periods of balanced sentences invest it with an impassioned and impressive expression. Truly, liow God has vouchsafed the gift of effective speech to the leaders of the Brahma Samaj with an ample hand ! And of these the subject of this sketch is no meanrejwesentative. For, with all his remarkable powders, he has “ littered nothing base ” but his “ words are always half-battles for the true.” Aye, so he has spoken ; for so he has lived. In the whole