Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/159

Rh mother of many affiliated societies throughout Northern India. Indeed, it is scarcely too much to say that almost the whole Muhammadan community in Bengal now accepts as a matter of course the views which its leaders refused even to discuss with the young reformer 40 years ago. This is his best public epitaph. In private life his gentleness of manner and his sincere, if rather oriental, courtesy, with the store of experience and anecdotes gathered during 65 eventful years, endeared him to many friends. The British Government gave him what it had to give in the shape of titles and honours, but it is as a Muhammadan who led forth his countrymen into new fields of achievement and new realms of knowledge, without losing his own orthodoxy, that Abdul Latif has won his place in Indian history."

Well did Sir Richard Temple write of him as 'the most progressive and enlightened among the Muhammadans of Bengal.' A self-made man, with few advantages of birth or position to help him at the start, he rose to be one of the most trusted advisers of Government and the friend of the greatest in the land. His charming manners and innate courtesy of disposition fitted him to adorn any society, while his knowledge of men and affairs and his gift of conversation made him a delightful and interesting companion. Above all he possessed in full measure an overflowing sympathy with his fellowmen and an intense desire to help forward by every means in his