facilitate the acquiring of the Bengali language," which he wrote
out of the abundance of his knowledge of native thought, idioms, and
even slang, to enable students to converse with all classes of
society, as Erasmus had done in another way. His Dictionary of
80,000 words began to appear in 1815. Knowing, however, that in the
long run the literature of a nation must be of indigenous growth, he
at once pressed the natives into this service. His first pundit,
Ram Basu, was a most accomplished Bengali scholar. This able man,
who lacked the courage to profess Christ in the end, wrote the first
tract, the Gospel Messenger, and the first pamphlet exposing
Hindooism, both of which had an enormous sale and caused much
excitement. On the historical side Carey induced him to publish in
1801 the Life of Raja Pratapaditya, the last king of Sagar Island.
At first the new professor could not find reading books for his
Bengali class in the college of Fort William. He, his pundits,
especially Mritunjaya who has been compared in his physique and
knowledge to Dr. Samuel Johnson, and even the young civilian
students, were for many years compelled to write Bengali text-books,
including translations of Virgil's Æneid and Shakspere's Tempest.
The School Book Society took up the work, encouraging such a man as
Ram Komal Sen, the printer who became chief native official of the
Bank of Bengal and father of the late Keshab Chunder Sen, to prepare
his Bengali dictionary. Self-interest soon enlisted the haughtiest
Brahmans in the work of producing school and reading books, till now
the Bengali language is to India what the Italian is to Europe, and
its native literature is comparatively as rich. Nor was Carey
without his European successor in the good work for a time. When
his son Felix died in 1823 he was bewailed as the coadjutor of Ram
Komal Sen, as the author of the first volume of a Bengali
encyclopædia on anatomy, as the translator of Bunyan's Pilgrim,