THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

SEVENOur Hope in the FutureBUT profound as have been its effects,this revolution is yet in its infancy. Visible on every side, in thewaning influence of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, in the triumphof the Bengali language, in the return to Hinduism, in the prideof birth, the angry national feeling and the sensitiveness to insult,which are growing more and more common among our youngmen, it has nevertheless only begun its work and has many morefields to conquer. Calcutta is yet a stronghold of the Philistines;officialdom is honey-combed with the antinational tradition: inpolitics and social reform the workings of the new movementare yet obscure. The Anglicised Babu sits in the high place andrules the earth for a season. It is he who perorates on the Congress,who frolics in the abysmal fatuity of interpellation on theLegislative Council, who mismanages civic affairs in the smileof the City Corporation. He is the man of the present, but he isnot the man of the future. On his generation, a generation servilelyEnglish and swayed by Keshab Chandra Sen and KristoDas Pal, Bankim had little effect. Even now you will hear AnglicisedBengalis tell you with a sort of triumph that the onlypeople who read Bengali books are the Bengali ladies. The sneeris a little out-of-date, but a few years ago it would not have beenso utterly beside the mark. All honour then to the women ofBengal, whose cultured appreciation kept Bengali literature alive!And all honour to the noble few who, with only the women ofBengal and a small class of cultured men to appreciate their efforts,adhered to the language our forefathers spoke, and did notsell themselves to the tongue of the foreigner! Their reward isthe heart-felt gratitude of a nation and an immortal renown. Yes,the women of Bengal have always been lovers of literature andmay they always remain so; but it is no longer true that they areits only readers. Already we see the embryo of a new generation