6 HISTORY OF THE BRAHMO SAMAJ
womb of the future, In the absence of govern- ment support a large number of English-teaching schools, very defective in their management and mode of training, had sprung up in different parts of Calcutta and its neighbourhood to meet the popular demand. All that most of them aimed at was to teach a number of English words and phrases without any regard for grammar or syntax. The only effort in the direction of a good English education consisted in the opening of the Hindu College in 1817. But the first effects of impart- ing high English education to the youth of Bengal were far from being encouraging. Many of those who were the first fruits of that education openly professed atheism at that time and, to the great dismay of their Hindu relations, were imbibing many of the vices of modern civiliza- tion. In fact at the time of the opening of Ram Mohun Roy's church, the Hindu College was a seething cauldron of a new revolutionary spirit, There was in its staff of teachers a remarkable young man, named H. V, Derozio, a Eurasian by birth, who, though a youth of nineteen or twenty himself, was influencing the thoughts and aspira- tions of the students of the College in a manner the like of which has seldom been witnessed in the case of any other teacher. He was their guide, philosopher, and friend. Together with the senior
