Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/85

Rh his character. Derozio was then at the full height of his brief and meteoric career, exercising a sway over the minds of the rising generation of Bengali students that it is difficult to exaggerate. Actually connected with the College for only three brief years, his influence was felt even more in the social gatherings of students at his own house than in his ordinary class instructions. At these social gatherings, which met after school hours, readings in poetry, literature and moral philosophy took place. Every subject under the sun was open for discussion. Yet while freedom of thought and freedom of speech were the watchwords of these meetings, Derozio enforced a strict moral code among his pupils, insisting upon the necessity of straightness in word and deed and above all of truth in all the dealings of daily life. Coming so suddenly after centuries of unquestioning acceptance of the old faith, it was only to be anticipated that some members of the little group of reformers should be carried away by the breadth and depth of their new ideas. 'Down with idolatry,' 'down with superstition' had become the cries of a section of the young Bengal party and though the old regime was strong enough to secure the dismissal of Derozio from the Hindu College in 1831, and practically to excommunicate Ram Mohan RayRoy [sic], who had founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828, it was impossible for it to stem the rising tide of free thought and impatience of the old restraints.