After he had developed, in the _pathsala_, some power of observation,
some power of reasoning and some power of expression through the healthy
medium of his own mother tongue, young Jagadis was sent to an English
School for education. He passed the Entrance Examination, in 1875, from
the St. Xavier's Collegiate School, Calcutta, in the First Division. He
then joined the College classes of that Institution, and there, in the
"splendid museum of Physical Science Instruments," he drew his early
inspirations in Physics from that remarkable educationist and brilliant
experimentalist, the Rev. Father E. Lefont, S.J., C.I.E., M.I.E.E., who
had the rare gift of enkindling the imagination of his pupils. He passed
the First Examination in Arts, in 1877, in the Second Division and the
B.A. Examination by the B. Course (Science Course), in 1880, in the
Second Division. "It is the paramount duty of the University" says Sir
Ashutosh Mookerjea "to discover and develop unusual talent."[5] The
Calcutta University, by the test of examination which it applied,
totally failed to _discover_ (not to speak of _developing_) the powers
of an original mind which was destined to enrich the world by giving
away the fruits of its experience.