History of Bengali Language and Literature c13.41

c13.41

The task has not yet advanced beyond a description of the Bengalee language in the times before British Rule. The second part, if it appears at all, will not be a satisfactory record of progress. Bengali, as I have said in print, is a true daughter of ancient Sanskrit, and approaches its parent more nearly than any Indian language in the qualities which have rendered Sanskrit so unrivalled a medium for the expression of the highest ranges of human thought. It unites the mellifluousness of Italian with the power possessed by German of rendering complex ideas, and I cannot but regret that so little encouragement has been been afforded by the State to its cultivation. If a tithe of the pain given by the Bengalis to acquire a smattering of English had been devoted to their mother tongue, they would long since have ceased to merit the reproach of producing little or no original work.