Page:Henry Derozio, the Eurasian, poet, teacher, and journalist. With appendices (IA henryderozioeura00edwarich).pdf/25

thought of England, and so far as these could be attained through the medium of an English translation, his knowledge of the best thinkers and writers of European celebrity, was of such a character as to mark him off, at that early age, as a man not in any degree inferior to, and in some respects far in advance of, any of his contemporaries of any nationality in India. Derozio was little of a classic scholar. It is even very doubtful if he ever got much beyond the Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres which marked the infant classic steps of the scholar of his day; but there was no poet, or dramatic writer, or thinker of English lineage with whose works Derozio was not familiar — familiar in a sense which the examination driven, high pressure students of to-day might well envy. In mathematics he did little more than cross the "asses' bridge." His chief delight, his sole pursuit outside of the cricketing, the amateur theatricals, and other sports natural to boys of his years, was the literature and the thought of England, as he found these embodied in the poets, novelists, dramatists, and philosophers of that country. Till the latest day of his short life, poetry and philosophy were the chief charm of his existence. There were two places in India where the most recent works issued from the press of Britain could be found. These were the shelves of the most enterprising booksellers, and the library of Derozio, frequently