PREFACE.
The author of this novel, Babu Peary Chand Mitter, was born in the year 1814.
He represented the well-educated, thoroughly earnest, and courteous Bengali gentleman of the old school.
His life was devoted to the good of his fellow-countrymen, and he was especially eager in the cause of female education. In the preface to one of his works, written with that object in view, he writes:— "I was born in the year 1814. While a pupil of the Páthshálá at home, I found my grandmother, mother, and aunts reading Bengali books. They could write in Bengali and keep accounts. There were no female schools then, nor were there suitable books for the females. My wife was very fond of reading, and I could scarcely supply her with instructive books. I was thus forced to think how female education could be promoted in a substantial way. The conclusion I came to was that, unless womanhood were placed on a spiritual basis, education would never be productive of real good. For the furtherance of this end I have been humbly working."
Amongst the books he published with this end in view are the "Ramaranjika," the "Abhedi," and the "Adhyátwiká." The "Ramaranjika" deals with female education under different aspects, and gives examples drawn from the lives of eminent Englishwomen, as well as biographical
