Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/78

62 equipped to guide its own destiny with sure and steady hand. While none was more eager than he to step forward boldly on the road of progress, he realised to the full the supreme importance of taking no false step. In quietness and in confidence, in slow, carefully-considered advancement lay the strength of the new nation that was springing into birth.

Ramtanu Lahiri came of a family of the highest caste, a Brahmin of the Brahmins, a Kulin of long descent. For several generations his ancestors had been honourably connected with the important family of the Maharajas of Nadia near Krishnagar. His great-grandfather, his grandfather and his uncle were all Dewans in their service, while his own father, a younger son, was the Dewan of two of the younger scions of the same family. Such continuity of service speaks much for the loyalty of Ramtanu's immediate ancestors, while the memories that still survive of many of them show them to have been men of singular piety and unworldliness. It is told of Ramtanu's great-grandfather, Ramgovinda, that when a division of the family property took place, everything that was of great value was placed in one share while in the other was placed only the family shalgram and some debbattar land. Ramgovinda, when asked to make his choice, unhesitatingly chose the latter, willing to face poverty rather than relinquish his tutelary deity and all that it represented. His grandson Ramkrishna, the father of Ramtanu,