( 4 ) chose to write in Bengali, is fortunate for this province and its language. Our literature has been enriched; the resources of our vernacular greatly expanded. It may be of some use to note that Babu Bankim Chandra wrote not with the set purpose of improving the Bengali language. His intention could have been no other than to produce good novels in that language ; and such improvement of the language as came about, was only incidental. That is always the way of reform. Nobody ever writes in order to improve a language. The writing can only be intended to please, instruct or persuade. If the language grows, its growth is an indirect result which never was consciously aimed at. We speak, of course, of men of letters, and not of lexicographers or grammarians. Shakespeare did not write Hamlet or Macbeth to improve a tongue. Probably, even after having written the plays he was not conscious that he had improved it. If the Bengali language or literature is to grow, it must grow in the same way and not by conscious efforts. A pertinent question in this connection is, what moral may we draw from Bankim Babu's experiences in the field of Bengali literature ? Certain facts we take to be clear. No Bengalee could have written a novel in English as felicitous as Bankim Babu's Bengali. It is doubtful if even a great English writer could produce a novel of Bengali life in as good English, for there seems to be a correspondence between the life of a people and their language, and foreign sounds kill native life in the expression. If, however, novels of Bengali life could be written in fairly good English, they might secure the author some reputation among English-reading people, but they could never occupy anything like a high place in English literature. Their commercial success 蠶 circumstances. By electing to write in Bengali, Bankim Babu. came to occupy the foremost place in our literature, established
