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of the country and to preach positive and practical lessons of life. The real hero of Nanda Batrishi, for - instance, is a man who represents a typical character, a. jealous husband, who cannot believe that his wife could have ‘had the power to resist the temptation to yield to a royal visitor. The man scoffs at all those who. try to make him believe otherwise, and is obstinate in his views, The whole poem strives with equal and successful persistence to remove the cloud from the man’s mind. Another poem preaches optimism and asks man to have courage in the midst of the most hopeless adversity, and to see that, if he lives, he may survive to see better days. Then he has a poem on Fatalism, which is another item of national belief in his country. The poet comes tothe conclusion that, as between Fate or Destiny on one hand and Human Effort on the other, Destiny is only another name Human Effort and Human Effort is the pivot upon which Fate
or Destiny turns. They are not two different things. The poet always and in all his varied works meant to- preach against some such “idol of the tribe or locality,” or to illustrate some new point or principle of human nature asa latent force which it was not safe or natura: to ignore. He focussed his whole spirit in this way and treated all other matters of poetic art as ancillary and indifferent. As a general rule, he has not written on religion and mythology, and his rare exceptions were
