Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/148

 occasional pamphlets issued by him displayed wonderful command over language. Everybody who reads the papers on widow-marriage or on polygamy would be struck with the elegance of style, the idiomatic ease, the range and depth of his ideas. In an age when Bengali language was still in its infancy, when standard books for children were in great request, he thought that the writing of primers would bring about profound and lasting results. There were others to produce works of the highest ability and interest. The memory of authors like Bankim Chandra Chatterji and Dinabandhu Mitra would remain fresh through the ages. To do the greatest good to the greatest number was Vidyasagar's main object. He created a style of his own, lucid, chaste, sweet, laconic, and is regarded by qualified critics as the father of Bengali prose.

He was a man of letters as well as a man of action, taking an active and intelligent interest in the affairs of people around