Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/179

Rh him as some of his most enthusiastic supporters in the cause of progress.

In 1864 Keshub started on an extensive missionary tour with the object of awakening the whole of India to participate in the general progress which he had so strenuously advocated in Calcutta, [sic] Everywhere he was received with popular acclamation, his eloquence and enthusiasm earning for him in Madras the name of 'The Thunderbolt of Bengal.' In almost every place he visited he found the same spirit of enquiry and eagerness for knowledge, and he returned from the tour greatly encouraged and more firmly convinced than before of the great work that lay before him and his followers.

Meanwhile unfortunate dissensions had been gradually arising in the Brahmo Samaj itself. Devoted to each other as Devendra Nath Tagore and Keshub were, it had been for some time evident to both that, firm as their friendship might be, their opinions must eventually to a very great extent separate them. Devendra Nath Tagore represented the older generation of the Rennaissance, fully imbued with the necessity of advancing with the times yet cautious and conservative, anxious to break with the past as little as might be. Keshub on the other hand represented the second generation of the reform movement, less bound to the old traditions and the old beliefs, eager to throw off all that retarded progress and to hold fast only