enthusiasm; one leading article concluded with the assurance that
the Serampore press would, "like the phoenix of antiquity, rise from
its ashes, winged with new strength, and destined, in a lofty and
long-enduring flight, widely to diffuse the benefits of knowledge
throughout the East." The day after the fire ceased to smoke Monohur
was at the task of casting type from the lumps of the molten metal.

In two months after the first intelligence Fuller was able to send
as "feathers of the phoenix" slips of sheets of the Tamil Testament,
printed from these types, to the towns and churches which had
subscribed. Every fortnight a fount was cast; in a month all the
native establishment was at work night and day. In six months the
whole loss in Oriental types was repaired. The Ramayana version and
Sanskrit polyglot dictionary were never resumed. But of the Bible
translations and grammars, Carey and his two heroic brethren
wrote:--"We found, on making the trial, that the advantages in going
over the same ground a second time were so great that they fully
counter-balanced the time requisite to be devoted thereto in a
second translation." The fire, in truth, the cause of which was
never discovered, and insurance against which did not exist in
India, had given birth to revised editions.





CHAPTER XI

WHAT CAREY DID FOR LITERATURE AND FOR HUMANITY