PREFACE ix to a mere literary taster; but even in this seemingly dullest period of our literary history, there is much more than is ever dreamt of in the philosophy of the airy generaliser who hurries over it to pastures more agreeable. It is the silent but strenuous efforts of the hosts of forgotten or half-forgotten writers, both foreign and native, of this and later periods that have built up the whole fabrie upon which the present-day literature is based : but it has always been the misfortune of the worthy pioneer authors to be kept in the background and looked upon as notable curio- sities. It is time, however, when their records are fast vanishing and in a few years will be irretrievably lost, that we must hasten to estimate their work and worth, reeonstruct their history, and give them their respective share of credit in the growth and progress of the national mind. Being thus without a competent guide in the field but convinced of the importance of the work, I have been obliged to chalk out my own path. The purpose and scope of the present volume will be rendered plainer by a glance through the book itself than I could hope to make it here except by way of anticipating what will be found in the following chapters. I may briefly add, however, that my object has been to give, from a literary point of view, but with a background of social and political history, and from a direct reading of the literature itself, an account of the important period in which, indeed, the obscure origins of modern Bengali Literature is to be sought, making it as full and as conveniently arranged as I could provide, The volume must not be regarded, however, as a mere store- house of facts, and although presented as an essay of literary and biographical criticism, it may also be taken as an historical review of the course of Bengali Literature from its decadence after Bharat Chandras’s death to its
