Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/12

 benefits Isvar Chandra would reap if he passed from his college. A learned professor of that institution also held out dazzling prospects. On the first day of June, 1829 the boy was admitted into that college, which was decidedly oriental in its character. English was in effect excluded from the curriculum. Being but an optional subject, it was taken up with any real keenness by very few. The Government thought that as there was the Hindu College established and maintained by private liberality to impart English education, there should be also some academy for the systematic culture of Sanskrit. This view was shared by many influential members of the orthodox community who saw with extreme uneasiness that most of the youths who left the Hindu College had adopted European manners and customs and abandoned national costumes. To discuss mutton chops and beef steaks, to quaff off glasses of sherry and claret, to garnish conversation with scraps of English,