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study of the western authors produced great unrest in his mind during
the first two or three years of his college career. His intellect would
not believe in the existence of God, though his spiritual nature and
his moral qualities that were high and sublime, bore strong and
unequivocal testimony to the existence of the Divine Father. His heart
had firm faith in God, and His beneficence and mercy, while his
intellect would not assent to the dictates of the heart. There was a
phase of scepticism in his intellectual speculation that could not be
mistaken. His favourite authors at the time were Mill and Bain, and
some of his ideas in the Department of moral science derived their
nutriment from the works of these philosophers, and he was strongly
opposed to the inadequate tests that Christianity supplied in regard
to the judgment of the rightness or wrongness of our actions. The
Christian theory of morals had risen to much prominence owing to
the great impulse having been communicated to it by the Brahmo
Samaj, then in a very prosperous and flourishing condition. The idea
of the authority of conscience in the decision of the legality or otherwise
of an action was gaining wide acceptance and Guru Datta, with a view
to enlightening the public mind on the question, wrote a vigorous
article in the
Regenerator of Arya Varta7
which was virtually under his
editorial charge.
The article on "Conscience" was written in 1882. Guru Datta
was then reading in the first year class. The sobriety of tone,
soundness of judgment, and mastery over the intricate problems
of philosophy which this interesting piece of criticism reflects are
certainly remarkable. The existence of such profound merits in a
boy of sixteen or seventeen years, who had just entered the
threshold of his college career, is astonishing. At this period, the
reader would be surprised to learn, he had read through many
voluminous works on philosophy available in this country. There
was hardly any philosopher of note whose works could be had in
the English language, that he had not studied with deep and close
attention. His memory being tenacious, leading ideas and views
of the various philosophers were indelibly impressed on his mind
and he was seldom put to the necessity of referring to a
philosophical work for ascertaining the views of its author. While
so great was the range of his learning in the realm of Philosophy
he was no less erudite in other departments of knowledge.
Mathematics he knew as much as was required for the B.A.
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