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glory and greater honour and, perhaps higher emoluments. But with regard to books of this kind, the readers are very few and an intelligent appreciative rešding public has yet to be fermed. And it is, graduates like, Mr. W. G. Suryanarayana Shastriar that we should look to for this very necessary, and desirable result.
With regard to the book itself, I have gone through the book, and it is my honest conviction that the author has done his work very well. The matter and the form leave nothing too be desired. The plot of the story is well conceived and it can very safely be placed in the hands of Hindu men and women too admire truthfulness, the valour of its hero and his determination at all hazards to win his lady, even at the risk of his life, as well as the feminine virtues and the lovely innocence of the heroine. Nor should we forget here to appreciate the skill and the inimitable manner, with which our author has tried to depict the character and the virtues of that true friend of the hero of the story, Satiyapriya, so that we have in this drama three very special characteristics that strike even the ordinary reader. They are (1) the manly virtues of the hero depicted in all the charm of a sample and sweet style, (2) the feminine grace and the purity of the feelings of the heroine, and (3) the qualities of a true friend. With regard to the form, the style is simple and natural and there is in it everything for the unlearned to delight in and for the learned to appreciate and value. There is a naturalness in the language and it is not rugged or forced and there is a literary flavour in almost all its passages. I have no doubt that this book will be appriciated by the public and it is my earnest desire that the Dravidian Board of studies of the Madras University will see its way to recommending it as a Text Book for the higher Examinations of the University.
THOTTARKADU House, • . . - Midras 16th March, 1898. T. RAMAKRISHNA.
