Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/43

Rh marks an epoch in Indian development. Before him no member of the highest caste had dared to break the spell which the sea had laid on India. He was the first Brahman to cross the ocean and the first ever to be received by an English king. His name stands out as the pioneer of that long line of Indians who have since gone westwards to grasp in a day the knowledge that the west has taken such long years to come by. His bold example stirred his countrymen to follow in his wake, and served to bring them into closer touch with the great nation with whose destinies theirs have become so closely linked. The presence of such a brilliant personality as that of Ram Mohan brought home to the British people in a personal, intimate way, as nothing else could well have done, the piety, learning and dignity of their Indian fellow subjects. He in his own person won a new respect for his race among Englishmen. His tall dignified figure, familiar at court and in the highest circles of society, welcomed alike by the English Church and non-conformists, and equally at home in every circle of society, became in the eyes of those, who for the most part had never before seen an Indian at all, the embodiment of the Indian Empire. His learning and culture evoked astonishment and admiration. He was the complete refutation of what the untravelled western mind had popularly adopted as the Asiatic type. Ram Mohan Roy by his visit to England was not only enabled to