Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 409 ~
faith through which I have passed from my
boyhood upwards to the present day.
Having lost faith early in that strange and
heterogeneous medley of animism, fetishism,
polytheism and pantheism, known as popular
Hinduism, I have been in search of a truer faith
from my very boyhood. Naturally enough, I soon
came in contact with the Brahmo Somaj and
Christianity, then engaged in an apparently bitter
conflict for obtaining mastery over the minds of the
young Bengal. The star of Babu Keshab Chandra
Sen was in the ascendant, and I still recollect the
thrill of fervour and enthusiasm with which I used
to pour over some of his eloquent sermons and
discourses. The Brahmo Somaj introduced me to
some of the great Unitarians of England and of
America, notably to Theodore Parker of Boston,
whom I began to regard as a prophet and an apostle
of God. I became so exceedingly fond of his works
that it was my habit in those days always to carry a
volume or two of Theodore Parker’s books with me
wherever I happened to go, and to quietly read
them over as others do the Bible or the Quran. In
this state of mind, I shipped myself off to Europe
