পাতা:সাহিত্য-সাধক-চরিতমালা দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড.djvu/২৫৭

機。 ¥ोबाँझॉड़ शक slaughter of the cows and strongly reprobated linentious indulgence in spirituous liquors, which to many appears, as the stepping stone to reformation.......He was no enemy to real refortners. He found no fault with those who dissected the human body in the Medical College. He subscribed as freely to the fund for sending native yonths to England to prosecute their studies in medicine as for any orthdox undertaking. As a man of fascinating and popular manners he had no equal, and justly did Sir Lawrence Peel, Chief Justice of the late Supreme Court, say that “he was a pattern of gentlemanliness which we would all do well to imitate.” But I mnst now pass on to say a few words on his scholarship. It is a matter of regret that Sanskrit learning is not held in snfficient estimation in onr day, and Raja Radhakant's services in the case of the ancient classica of our country may not, therefore, be duly appreciated by many; but as an humble labourer in the field of Indian Jiterature I beg to assure you, gentlemen, that those services fire of the highest order. The Raja...adopted the hard life of a scholar, and devoted a whole lifetime to the cultivation of our ancient literatnre. It was by dint of unremitting labour of years—of protracted lahour of forty long years, that he produced the great work of his life the Sabdakalpadrunna, which has been the theme of praise to all who have seen it. Those who are best able to weigh the importance of literary productions, who are the great guardians of the republic of letters and who bestow praise with the greatest descrimination, I mean, the learned societies of Europe, were the first to recognise the merits of the Raja's lexicon, and not slow in giving expression to their sense of its value. The Imperial Academy of St. Petersburgh, the Royal Academy of seriin, the Kaiserlicher Academy of Vienna, the Royal Asiaac Society of Great Britain, the Oriental Societies of Germany and America, the Asiatic Society of Paris, and the Royal Society of Northern antiquities, sent him diplomas of honorary or corresponding membership. Those are testimonies the value of which can never be shaken.