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of History, the Life of Mazzini, the Life of Chaitanya, High English Education, etc. I was in great demand as a speaker and never spared myself. Between the students and myself there grew up an attachment which I regarded as one of my most valued possessions. Amongst those who regularly attended the meetings in those days were Mr. B. Charkravarti, Swami Vivekananda, Mr. Nanda Kishore Bose, Mr. S. K. Agasti and others.
The City College was founded in 1879. The schism in the Brahmo-Samaj, Owing to the marriage of Keshub Chunder Sen’s daughter with the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar, had important results. It led to the establishment of the Sadharan Brahmo-Samaj, the City College, and other kindred institutions. The leading spirits in that dissentient movement were Ananda Mohan Bose, Shivanath Sastri, Durga Mohan Das, and other Brahmo leaders. I was invited to join the tutorial staff of the City School (for it had not then become a college). I gladly accepted the offer, as it added to my income and extended the sphere of my contact with the student community.
It was hard work for me—to teach four hours daily, and this in addition to my propaganda work among the students and my political work in connexion with the Indian Association, in which I felt the keenest interest. But I never grudged the toil or the strain. The excitement of work has been the pleasure of my life and has kept my spirits up amid disappointment, defeat and disaster. Even now, when I have passed my seventy-fifth year, its fascination is so overpowering that I have to restrain myself from considerations of health.
It may not, perhaps, be out of place to mention here an offer of an appointment made to me about this time, which, if I had accepted it, would have changed the whole tenor of my life. I was offered a post under the Tippera Raj, I think it was the English Secretaryship, on a salary of Rs. 700 a month. I was getting at this time only three hundred rupees a month, and there was no prospect, near or remote, of any substantial increase. I had, however, no difficulty in making up my mind and in refusing the offer. I said to myself that for good or for evil my career in life was definitely fixed, that I had set my hand to the plough and could not look back.
I left the Metropolitan Institution in March, 1880. Pundit Vidyasagar wanted me to give up my connexion with the City College, offering to make good the pecuniary loss that I would