340 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES
they have imbibed with their mother's milk, and they have learnt English at school, and that they, therefore, have become masters of two languages, and need not take up Gujarati as a study. But attainment of perfection in one's mother tongue is more difficult than effort spent in learning a foreign tongue. An examina- tion of the works of Shamalbhatt .and other poets will' reveal endless effort in every line. To one indisposed to undergo mental strain, Gujarati will appear incomplete. But it will cease to so appear after a proper effort. If the worker is lazy, the language will fail him. It will yield ample results to an industrious man. It will be found to be capable even of ornament- ation. Who dare be little Gujarati, a member of the Aryan family, a daughter of Sanskrit, a sister of many noble tongues ? May God bless it and may there be in it expression of true religion- And may God bless the speech and may we hear its praise from the mothers and the scholars of Gujarat,"
Thus we see that it was neither the imperfection of Bengali speech, nor impropriety of the effort that was responsible for the failure of the movement in Bengal to impart instruction through Bengali. We have con- sidered the question of incompleteness. Impropriety of the effort cannot be inferred from an examination of the movement. It may be that the workers in the cause lacked fitness or faith.
In the north, though Hindi is being developed, real effort to make it a medium seems to have been confined only to the Arya Samajists. The experiment continues in the Gurukuls
In the Presidency of Madras the movement com-
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