Dutt, Romesh Chunder: The literature of Bengal: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta, 1877)

# INTRODUCTION'. Xlll

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^ " Thus armed, before the folded gates he came,
Of massy substance and stupendous frame; |

, With iron bars and brazen hinges strong, J
On lofty beams of solid timber hung :
Then thundering through the planks with forceful sway,
Drives the sharp rock : the solid beams give way ;
The folds are shattered ; from the crackling door
Lead the resounding bars, the flying hinges roar.
Now, rushing*iu, the furious chief appears,
Glooti^y as night ! and shakes two shining spears !

% A dreadful gleam from his bright armour came,
And fr(jm his eye-balls flashed the living flame ;
He moves a god, resistless in his course,
And seems a match for more than mortal force

In these lines is raised an image of a very different
character. It is that of a god-like hero bursting through
all opposition with superhuman energy and glory, and
shining with increased splendour after the feat. Our
veneration for the great, our awe for the mighty and the
sublime, these are among the fines| sensibilities of our
heart, and these are suddenly aroused*by the image* of
splendour placed before our mind's eye. We admire the.
*feat done, we stand in veneration and breathless awe
before the hero who has' dene it. Awe and veneration
are among our finer emotions, and the image, the com-
position* which awakes these feelings so strongly, is
genuine poetry.

A painting, a piece of sculpture, can in the very
same manner arouse our finer feelings, and indeed the
excellence of painting and sculpture lies in the degree in
which a piece is capable of arousing our feelings. Who-
ever has witnessed the master-works of painting in. Eu-
rope, and the "breathing marble," the unrivalled sculp-
ture works of Canova, knows to what extent these sister

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