পাতা:Reminiscences Speeches And Writings Of Sir Gooroo Dass Banerjee Reminiscences pt. 1.pdf/২০০

EvENTS OF HIS IIFE. 183 actions harmonise the two distinct and often opposed interests of sclf-advancement and the advancement of the community to which they belong. His father Babu Ram Chandra Banerjee was Head Clerk in the firm of Messrs Kerr and Tagore which afterwards was incorporated with that of Messrs Gordon Stewart & Co. The father died when he was only 3 years of age and the credit of his future success belongs solely to the admirable tact and care of his mother. The death of his father left the family in straitened circumstances and the poor widow often deprived herself of the bare necessities of life to provide for the education of the child. His mother not only kept before her son high ideals of virtue and picty, but her daily actions were living examples of a pure, pious, and disinterested existence. Gooroodass never forgot the debt he owed to his mother's loving care and guidance and it was a source of great joy to him to adore her as a household goddess which a good Hindu mother always is in the eyes of her dutiful children. Hor death in 1889 gave such a shock to him that it brought on physical prostration from which it took him long to recover. 2 In 1868 during his stay at Berhampore he presented himself at the P. R. S. examination, thatbeing the first year in which this examination was held. In this he was beaten by the late Babu Ashu Tosh Mookerjee also a distinguished graduate of the Calcutta University. But it is not intellect alone that secures success in life. The qualities of character are often more potent in determining the greatness of a man than the mere sharpness of his intellect. It is the