Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/16

 corrective; the stripling was left practically unmolested. An occasional slap in the face or a box on the ear does not count much.

Isvar Chandra continued in the Grammar department for three years. At the end of the first session he topped the list of successful boys and took the prizes. During the next year he also attended the English class, but finding grave deficiencies in regard to methodical teaching, gave it up after six months, for which he would rue in after life. He again came out first and carried off all the prizes open to him. The last time he barely passed. As he knew his own worth, his honest pride was touched. Mortified to the quick, he purposed to leave that college. But yielding to persuasion he returned to study with fresh vigour and determination, and in six months worked up the Sanskrit Dictionary Amarkosh.

He was only eleven when he entered the belles-lettres class. As he looked younger than his years, the professor at first refused