Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/151

 scheme of female normal school. The deepest thing in him was his reverence for womanhood and he devoted much earnest thought to problems touching their welfare. Even those who do not look with complacency on widow marriages, have nothing but the highest praise for his memorable efforts to suppress polygamy and his noble though belated exertions to banish child marriage. He fought an ineffectual fight, it is true; but his failure, besides throwing considerable light on the subject to guide and beacon future reformers, paved the way for the gradual abolition of the practices resulting from the wider diffusion of liberal education and enlightened views.

He did not simply chalk out for his countrymen a certain line of action. He could sympathise with the sorrows of others since he himself had laboured under afflictions. Possessing no extraneous advantages of wealth or family connections, he rose to the acme of note by dint of his unaided