অথবা শিখাও তুমি বঙ্গ কামিনীরে, Here is another : শান্তিময়ী সন্ধ্যা সখী আসিয়া ধরয়ে, ধীরে ধীরে বকুল লো ছুঁইলা তোমায়, অমনি খুলিলে মুখ, অমনি ও ক্ষুদ্র বুক মধুর ভাণ্ডার খুলি আহ্লাদ জানায়। এই রূপে দেখিয়াছি বঙ্গ কুলবালা, মরমে লুকায়ে রাখে মরমের জ্বালা ; মনঃ-ব্যথা অন্যকারে, লাজে প্রকাশিতে নারে, কহে সুধু সখীপাশে ত্যজি ছলা কলা। Bábu Debendra Náth Sen looks at flowers-nature's loveliest creations-with a poet's eye. He finds in them the history of woman, and he sketches that history with a pencil dipped in the gentlest colours of poetry. He is one of the few Bengali poets who ought to woo the Muses with greater devotion and chivalry. We sincerely trust that the second part of Phulabálá will be still better than the first. Read by Banga Sáhitya o Banga Bhásá Bisaye Baktritá. ábu Gangá Charan Sarkár is a judicial officer who is about to retire from the service of which he is such a distinguished member. His appearance in the field of Bengali literature has, therefore, a meaning which ought to be carefully noted. When an old man, who has passed the best years of his life in the performance of the grave duties of a judge, thinks it worth his while to write out a history of Bengali literature, it becomes difficult to speak of that literature in the contemptuous terms in which it is sometimes described by natives and foreigners. The view which Babu Gangá Charan takes of his country's literature, though not exhaustive, is certainly very interesting. He is a warm lover and an ardent admirer of that literature; and we cannot say that either his love or his admiration is misdirected. Commencing with the great mediæval poets, of whom he seems to be a very appreciative reader, Bábu Gangá Charan runs through all the epochs of Bengali liter ature, including the one which has not yet closed. It is of course a very rapid survey; but it is a survey made by a man who knows how to tell the shortest tale in the most interesting fashion. The style of the paper deserves one word of notice. It is not the new Bengali style; it is not the old Bengali style. It is both old and new; it is a history by itself. We will give the reader two specimens : Speaking of Bidyapati তাঁহার পদাবলী শ্রবনে সুমধুরা, বিবিধ ভাব পূর্ণা এবং নানা রূপ উপমায় অলঙ্ক ত। । রূপ চিত্রিতে, অনুরাগ আঁকিতে এবং প্রেমিকের অস্তস্তলের ভাব ভাষিতে বিদ্যাপতি একজন অদ্বিতীয় কবি Comparing Bidyapati with Chandi Das :— Ա উভয়ের মধ্যে প্রভেদ এই যে, বিদ্যাপতির কবিতা কিছ, গভির, চণ্ডীদাসের কবিতা তরল রসে ঢল ঢল ; বিদ্যাপতির রচনা চমৎকারিতায় চিত্তহরী, চণ্ডীদাসের রচনা সাদা সি এবং সহজ ভাবে সুখকরা; বিদ্যাপতির কল্পনা-শক্তি বিবিধ বিচিত্র ভাব চিত্রনে সুপটু, চণ্ডীদাসের কল্পনা স্বীয় নটবর নায়ককে নাটকাভিনায়ক বালকের ন্যায় বিবিধ বেশে সাজাইতে সুনিপুণ ৷ The two extracts will also enable the reader to form an idea of Babu Gangá Charan's powers as a literary artist. Kábya-Sundari. By Purna Chandra Basu. Printed and published by G. C. Basu and Co., at 309, Bow Bazar Street, Calcutta. 1287, B.S. THIS HIS is the first work of its kind in Bengali. It gives a critical estimate of the female characters in the novels of Bábu Bankim Chandra Chatterji much in the style in which Mrs. Jameson has analysed Shakspeare's heroines. The critical powers displayed in the work are really of a very high order. We do not agree in all that Babu Purna Chandra says; but we warmly admire the spirit, tone, and style of all that he has written. As a specimen of æsthetic criticism in Bengali, Bábu Purna Chandra's work deserves a high place in Bengali literature, and ought to be thankfully welcomed by all who feel a patriotic interest in the development of that literature. Jeebun Bindu, a short Memoir of Soudamini, the beloved Wife of Rakhal Chandra Raya. Printed and published by Bhuban Mohan Ghosh at the Sadharan Brahma Somaj Press, Calcutta. 1286, B.S. THIS HIS is a brief memoir of a Brahma lady who has lately died. She was the wife of Bábu Rakhal Chandra Raya, a member of the well-known Lakutia family in the district of Backergunge. We learn from the memoir that Mrs. Raya could read, write and sing, entertained very advanced views of social and domestic life, acted up to the full height of her convictions, and did much to promote female education in this country. For all this Mrs. Raya certainly deserved a memoir, and we are glad that a memoir has been written by the only man who had a right to do so. There is, however, one point on which we wish to say a word. The writer of the memoir has made an attempt to represent Mrs. Raya in the light of a persecuted martyr. But without desiring to deprive Mrs. Raya of an iota of the praise which may be justly due to her, we feel bound to state that a perusal of her memoir deeply impresses us with the belief, that if any one felt the sting of social persecution, it was not she, but those among her friends and relations whom she abandoned for the sake of her religion and social creed. Such memoirs possess an obvious interest. Nalini. A Monthly Journal and Review, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Printed at the Kar Press, 166, Cornwallis Street, Calcutta, and published by N. N. Bose. 1287, B.S. WE E sincerely welcome this new Bengali periodical, for we have a belief that it is Bengali periodicals that will henceforth do most for Bengali literature. Nalini seems to be a well-conducted paper. Its most interesting feature is its science element. We hope the editor will devote more space to science than to imaginative literature. We venture to predict a very useful career for Nalini. Saral Jwara-Chikitsa, Part I. By Dr. Jadunath Mukherji. Printed and published by Nityanand Ghosh at the Chikitsa Prakásh Press, 160, Bowbazar Street, Calcutta. ABU Jadunath Mukherji has rendered eminent service to his country by the many useful medical works he has already written in Bengali. His Sarir Palan is the best sanitary primer used in the schools of Bengal. The work under notice is another admirable contribution made by him to Bengali medical literature. It is a treatise describing the treatment of fever. We cannot с help confessing that we have read this treatise with a feeling of unmixed delight and admiration, We have not seen another exposition of a scientific subject so simple, so lucid, so entertaining, so free from scientific heaviness. Dr. Jadunath has evidently a faculty for popularising medical science such as few in any country possess. The work has another important feature. In describing the treatment of fever, it takes due notice of differences in rank and wealth, and the different conditions of town life and village life in this country. It is a work of rare merit, creditably got up. THE CALCUTTA REVIEW. NO. CXLVI. ART. I.-A NEW STUDY OF THE ORIGIN OF of VERY remarkable examination of the Gospels has lately appeared in the Revue des deux Mondes, from the pen M. Ernest Havet, of the Institute. As I am not acquainted with any work on the subject so trenchant, independent and uncompromising, I here attempt to represent its chief outlines, at the same time observing that I do not undertake to pledge either the reader or myself to a complete acceptance of all the arguments adduced, or all the conclusions drawn. Almost every one must have heard of the international competition to paint a camel. How the English artist went to Egypt and made careful studies for six months; how the Frenchman hastened, in a spare moment, to the Jardin-des-Plantes and threw off a spirited ebauche; while the German shut himself up for a year, and at the end of the time produced the Idea of the animal evolved from the depths of his moral consciousness. Much in the same spirit has the subject of Jesus been recently treated by three representatives of the chief nations of the civilised world, Herr Strauss, M. Renan, and Professor Seeley. But the present study is not strictly in the style of the Leben Jesu, of the Vie de Jésus, or of our own Ecce Homo. Without the metaphysical ambitiousness of the first, it has neither the artistic character of the second, nor the ethical exertion of the third. Yet it will be found by no means uninteresting or purely negative; and it deserves attention, as the contribution of an unbiassed inquirer, who collects and analyses the evidence, and |