The life and letters of Raja Rammohun Roy - WordPress.com

THE CONSEQUENT SENSATION 69missionary being converted by "an intelligent heathen" wouldbe sure to excite widespread remark. But in the days whenEvangelical orthodoxy enjoyed an almost undisputed ascendancy,and in quarters like those of the Baptist Mission wherethe tradition of Calvinism stamped the dominant Evangelicalismwith its own rigid ity,the shock must have been startling inthe extreme. The convert was half-humorously, half-savagely,called "The second fallen Adam." The animosity usuallyharboured by the orthodox against a renegade was rendereddoubly bitter by the fact that the converstion was apparentlydue to the dispassionate examination of the Scriptures byan open-minded Hindu, missionary ardour and Protestantdevotion to the Bible being both wounded in their tenderestplace. The Unitarians in England and America naturallyaccepted the intelligenceas of a veritable Daniel come tojudgment and were shaken, as we shall see by and by, intonew missionary enthusiasm.But the news was not made public property until thelatter part of 1821, and before then Rammohun's literary andpolemical activity had assumed certain fresh phases. Someexplanation of the turn it took is suggested by an incidentwhich occurred about this time.*Of this Mr. Adam is our informant. Accordingnarrative,to his"One day in the hot season, about mid-day,I was engaged in myusual studies, when 1 was informed that a native gentleman was at thegate of my compound and desired to see me. This was an unusual hour* Bp. Middleton died July 8, 1822. His overtures to Rammohun Roywould most probably take place after The Precepts ofJesus came out,which was in the beginning of 1820. The incident occurred, Mr. Adaminforms us, during "the hot season." Mr. Adam's statement that "henever afterwards visited the Bishop" implies that a considerable intervalelapsed before the Bishop's death. Hence we are safe in concludingthat the time of the incident fell in hot season of 1820 or 1821.