3 1822021997838
 
 1822 02199 7838 
 
 Social Sciences & Humanities Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due 
 
 A ffl f*> f\ A HOO"7 
 
 MAR v)4 lyy/ 
 
 
 FEB 091998 
 
 
 1 A tit 1 O +-rt-r*-r* 
 
 
 JAN 1 8 1999 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CI39(2#5) 
 
 UCSDLt).
 
 2^
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS 
 
 F. MAX MULLER, K.M. 
 
 MEMBER OF THE FBENCH INSTITUTE 
 
 RAMMOHUN ROY, KESHUB CHUNDER SEN 
 
 DAYANANDA SARASVAT? 
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO AND KENJIU KASAWARA 
 
 COLEBROOKE, MOHL, BUNSEN 
 
 AND KINGSLEY 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 1884 
 
 [ All rights reserved ]
 
 xforfc 
 
 PRINTED BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 RAJAH RlMMOHUN BOY, 1774-1833 (written 1883) . . . I 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN, 1838-1884 (written 1884) ... 49 
 DAYANANDA SAEASVAT!, 1827-1883 (written 1884) . . .167 
 
 BCNYIU NANJIO, 1849, and KENJIU KASAWABA, 1851-1883, 
 
 (written 1884) 183 
 
 COLEBBOOKE, 1765-1837 (Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1872; Chips 
 
 from a German Workshop, iv. 377) ..... 228 
 
 MOHL, 1800-1876 (Contemporary Review, Aug. 1878) . . 272 
 BUNSEN, 1791-1860 (Chips from a German Workshop, iii. 358) . 311 
 
 KINGSLEY, 1820-1875 (Translated from Deutsche Rundschau, 
 
 1877) 363
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 
 
 (1774-1833.) 
 
 Address delivered in the Bristol Museum, September if, 1883, 
 the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Bdjah's death. 
 
 IT is only fifty years ago that Rajah Rammohun 
 Roy, who had come to Bristol to pay a visit to 
 Dr. Carpenter and other friends, died here on the 
 27th of September, 1833. He drew his last breath at 
 twenty-five minutes past two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 On the 1 8th of October his body was committed to 
 the earth, under the shadow of some fine old elm-trees 
 in the garden of Stapleton Grove, where the Rajah 
 had been staying, since the beginning of September, 
 as the guest of Miss Castle, a ward of Dr. Carpenter's. 
 
 Lastly, in 1843, on the 29th of May, the remains 
 of the Rajah were transferred from Stapleton Grove 
 to the beautiful cemetery of Arno's Vale. There, as 
 you enter, on the right hand side, many of those 
 whom I have the honour to address here to-night, 
 have no doubt gazed and wondered at a strange 
 Oriental monument, which was erected over the tomb 
 of the Rajah by my old friend, Dvarkanath * Tagore, 
 
 1 Dvarakanatha, like Dv;lrake*.i, in a name of Kr<&hna. 
 B
 
 2 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 who was himself a follower of the great religious 
 reformer, and soon after shared his sad fate of dying 
 an exile in a foreign country. Let me read you the 
 lines inscribed on the monument : 
 
 BENEATH THIS STONE 
 
 REST THE REMAINS OF RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY BAHADOOR, 
 A CONSCIENTIOUS AND STEADFAST BELIEVER IN THE 
 
 UNITY OF THE GODHEAD ; 
 
 HE CONSECRATED HIS LIFE WITH ENTIRE DEVOTION 
 TO THE WORSHIP OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT ALONE. 
 
 TO GREAT NATURAL TALENTS HE UNITED A THOROUGH MASTERY 
 OF MANY LANGUAGES, AND EARLY DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF AS ONE 
 OF THE GREATEST SCHOLARS OF HIS DAY. 
 
 HIS UNWEARIED LABOURS TO PROMOTE THE SOCIAL, MORAL, 
 AND PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, HIS EARNEST 
 ENDEAVOURS TO SUPPRESS IDOLATRY AND THE RITE OF SUTTEE, 
 AND HIS CONSTANT ZEALOUS ADVOCACY OF WHATEVER TENDED TO 
 ADVANCE THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE WELFARE OF MAN, LIVE 
 IN THE GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HIS COUNTRYMEN. 
 
 THIS TABLET RECORDS THE SORROW AND PRIDE WITH WHICH 
 HIS MEMORY IS CHERISHED BY HIS DESCENDANTS. 
 
 HE WAS BORN IN RADHANAGORE, IN BENGAL, IN 1774, AND 
 DIED AT BRISTOL, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 1833. 
 
 These are the bare facts which connect this ancient 
 city of Bristol with the memory of Rajah Rammohun 
 Roy, the great religious reformer of India. You 
 wished for an interpretation of these facts, and I 
 only wish you could have found a more competent 
 and more eloquent interpreter. But as an old admirer, 
 and I feel proud to say, as a sincere follower of 
 Rammohun Roy, so far as he went in his religious 
 reforms, I felt it almost impossible to decline the 
 kind invitation which was addressed to me by my 
 friend, our Chairman, in the name of your Society,
 
 RAJAH RAMMOIIUN ROY. 3 
 
 to be present here on the fiftieth anniversary of 
 the death of Rajah Rammohun Roy, and to say 
 a few words on his life, and, what is more important, 
 on the work of his life, on that which has outlived 
 his life, and has secured to him that best of all im- 
 mortalities, the gratitude of mankind. 
 
 If I tell you that Rammohun's life-work was the 
 restoration of the old religion of India, as contained 
 in the Veda, and that a great part of my own life 
 has been spent in making the Veda accessible to the 
 students of Europe, by collecting the ancient MSS. 
 of the Sacred Writings of the Brahmans, and publish- 
 ing for the first time the text and commentary of the 
 Rig- Veda, the oldest book of the whole Aryan race, 
 you will easily understand the strong sympathy I feel 
 for the Indian Reformer, whose ashes rest among the 
 ashes of your own forefathers ; but I am afraid I shall 
 hardly convey to you by these few words a very clear 
 idea either of what the Rajah tried to achieve as a 
 reformer, or what I myself hoped to accomplish as a 
 scholar. It will be necessary therefore, before pro- 
 ceeding further, to turn our eyes together to the past, 
 in order to gain a kind of historical background from 
 which the religious reformer of India, to whose memory 
 we wish to do honour to-night, may step forward as 
 you see his stately figure advancing towards you in 
 that excellent picture which has to-night been placed 
 in this hall, and which, I hope, may always retain a 
 place of honour in your Museum l . 
 
 1 The life-size portrait by Biggs was bought by Miss Castle and 
 presented to the Bristol Museum. The Rajah himself did not like it, 
 possibly because he thought the complexion too dark. There is also a, 
 miniature by Newton, and a bust by Clarke. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Great men, depend upon it, do not come down from 
 the sky like shooting stars. They come in the fulness 
 of time; and if we want to understand their true 
 character, we must try to understand that fulness of 
 time, that is, the time that lay behind and the time 
 that lay before them. We must know the work that 
 others had done before them, in order to understand 
 the work that they themselves were meant to do. 
 
 Rammohun Roy, the originator of the Indian Re- 
 formation, a reformation that is still going on slowly, 
 silently, but, for all that, irresistibly, died fifty years 
 ago. Now fifty years may not seem to some of us 
 a very long time. It is quite possible that a few who 
 are present here to-night may remember the Rajah's 
 visit to Bristol. Yet fifty years are half a century, and 
 remember that, according to the received chronology, 
 not more than sixty such centuries are supposed to 
 form the canvass for the whole history of the world, 
 or, at least, for as much of it as we shall ever know. 
 Remember that we have accustomed ourselves to 
 believe that only one hundred and twenty such short 
 periods as have passed since the death of Rammohun 
 Roy, that is to say, no more than 6000 years a 
 stretch of time that might almost be spanned by the 
 memory of sixty men separate us from what will 
 always remain the most miraculous of all miracles, 
 and, at the same time, the most certain of all facts 
 the appearance on this earth of a being, capable of 
 language, that is, of reason; a being which, when it 
 came to be conscious of its dignity, called itself Man, 
 or, in Sanskrit, Manu, which means the measurer, the 
 thinker, the discoverer and the giver of laws. 
 
 I do not mean to imply that I myself believe that
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUX KOY. 5 
 
 the age of man is six thousand years and no more. 
 I only wish to measure the time that has elapsed 
 since the death of Rammohun Roy with the time 
 that is commonly believed to have elapsed since the 
 birth of man. 
 
 I doubt whether Astronomy will ever be able to 
 measure the age of the solar system in which our 
 planet moves as a very small star among larger stars, 
 all held together by the same central force. 
 
 I doubt whether Geology will ever be able to fix 
 the time when, after the long interval that must have 
 followed on the glacial period, the highest plateaus of 
 the earth became fit for human occupation. 
 
 But I feel perfectly certain that no one who has 
 carefully studied the origin, growth, and decay of all 
 that we call human, our thoughts, our words, our 
 religions, our arts, our sciences, our laws and literature, 
 can really believe, or can make it even intelligible to 
 himself, that no more than sixty centuries, no more 
 than one hundred and eighty generations, should 
 have passed since the first fire was lighted, the first 
 flint chipped, the first word uttered. 
 
 Let us think of our language only. It is said that 
 the New English Dictionary, which has been prepared 
 during the last twenty-five years by the members of 
 the Philological Society, and the first part of which, 
 edited by Dr. Murray, will soon issue from the Uni- 
 versity Press at Oxford, is to contain one quarter of 
 a million of words. Every one of these words is a 
 work of art; it is the workmanship of human 
 genius. And every one of these words had not 
 only to be fashioned, but it had to be accepted ; it 
 had to be recognised as the current coin of the
 
 6 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 realm by millions and millions of speakers. The 
 history of that primeval coinage, its dispersion over 
 the whole inhabited world, the losses which it suf- 
 fered by wear and tear, the alloys which it had to 
 admit, the ever-increasing rapidity with which the 
 ever-increasing wants of the intellectual Exchange of 
 the whole world were supplied, all this forms a 
 study with which, to my mind, no other study can 
 vie, call it astronomy, geology, or even philosophy. 
 That study certainly leaves the impression on every 
 unprejudiced scholar that, to account for it all, we 
 want rather the fabulous periods of Hindu chronology 
 than the narrow limits of the dates which have been 
 deduced by mediaeval scholars from the Sacred Books 
 of the Jews. 
 
 Well, let us consider now what a lesson of history 
 is conveyed by the fact that Rammohun Roy, when 
 he came to England from the far East, spoke a lan- 
 guage, the Bengali, which in one sense, and in a truly 
 scientific sense, may be called the same language as 
 English. Not only the material elements, but the 
 original formal elements too, are the same in English 
 and Bengali ; and turn it as you like, you cannot 
 escape from the conclusion that Rammohun Roy, 
 however strange his language may have sounded to 
 his friends at Bristol, was not a mere stranger when 
 he arrived in Europe, but was returning, in reality, 
 to his own intellectual kith and kin. I say intel- 
 lectual kith and kin, because that kinship is far more 
 important than the mere kinship of blood. Blood 
 may be thicker than water, but language is thicker 
 than blood, at least to beings who, though for a time 
 identifying themselves with flesh and blood, are them-
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 7 
 
 selves something very different from mere flesh and 
 blood. 
 
 We have now reached a point from which the 
 journey of Rammohun Roy from India to Europe, 
 and his stay in England, will appear to us in an entirely 
 new light. The Science of Language, and, in fact, 
 every true science, is like a hardy Alpine guide that 
 leads us from the narrow, though it may be the more 
 peaceful and charming valleys of our preconceived 
 opinions, to higher points, apparently less attractive, 
 nay often disappointing for a time, till, after hours 
 of patient and silent climbing, we look round, and 
 see a new world around us. A new horizon has 
 opened, our eyes see far and wide, and as the world 
 beneath us grows wider and larger, our own hearts 
 seem to grow wider and larger, and we learn to em- 
 brace the far and distant, and all that before seemed 
 strange and indifferent, with a warmer recognition 
 and a deeper human sympathy. We form wider con- 
 cepts, we perceive higher truths. 
 
 The Indian and the European grow into one, the 
 Indo-European, speaking the same speech, thinking 
 the same thoughts; and Rammohun Roy, the dark- 
 skinned stranger, when landing on the shores of these 
 distant isles, is recognised at once, and greeted as one 
 of ourselves, estranged from us by no greater changes 
 than what some thousand years may have wrought 
 in that language which his ancestors and ours once 
 spoke together under the same sky, it may be, under 
 the same roof, and which still lives on, however dis- 
 guised, in his speech and in our own, in Bengali and 
 in English. 
 
 And now let us ask another question, in order to
 
 8 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 understand and properly to appreciate the hidden 
 springs and the real purport of Rammohun Roy's 
 visit to England. Why did he come to England ? 
 
 We shall see that ostensibly he came on busi- 
 ness. He was sent by the Emperor of Delhi, 
 the Great Mogul, to plead his cause in one of the 
 crowded streets of the city of London, in Leadenhall- 
 street, in the gloomy East-India House, before the 
 Court of Directors of the now extinct East-India 
 Company. But his real business was very different. 
 The supreme and all-absorbing interest of Rammohun 
 Roy's life was religion. Remember the first lines on 
 his tombstone, ' He was a conscientious and steadfast 
 believer in the Unity of the Godhead, and consecrated 
 his life with entire devotion to the worship of the 
 Divine Spirit alone.' He was a Brahman by birth, 
 and though his mind had been opened by contact 
 with English society in India, and had been widened, 
 purified, and liberalised by a conscientious study of 
 the Sacred Books of the great religions of the world, 
 yet he remained a Brahman to the end. No doubt 
 he admired Christianity more than any other religion ; 
 I think we may truly say he admired it more than 
 his own; yet, for all that, he remained a Brahman, 
 and was therefore in the eyes of most of the people 
 who received him in England, a non-Christian, or 
 a heathen. 
 
 And yet we have only to ascend again to a higher 
 elevation, as we did before under the guidance of the 
 Science of Language, and we shall meet with a new 
 guide, the Science of Religion, which will lead us to 
 a higher historical standpoint, and will open before 
 our eyes a wider panorama, where the past history
 
 KAJAH IIAMMOHUN ROY. 9 
 
 of the religions of the world seems almost present 
 again, and where we can see the ancestors of that 
 so-called heathen, worshipping the same gods and 
 the same God whom some of our own ancestors still 
 worshipped in their sacred groves not more than ten 
 centuries ago. There was a time when the fathers of 
 the Aryan race, that noble race to which we ourselves 
 belong, which has since been divided into Greeks and 
 Romans, Celts and Slaves on one side, and Indians 
 and Persians on the other, invoked with the same 
 names the gods of the sky, and the air, and the earth, 
 the gods whose real presence was felt in the thunder 
 and the storm and the rain, whose abode was looked 
 for in the clouds or on the inaccessible crests of the 
 mountains, but chiefly the God, who was seen and 
 yet not seen in the sun, who was revealed every 
 morning in the brightness of the dawn, and who 
 himself revealed, far away in the golden East, that 
 infinite Beyond, for which human language has no 
 name, human thought no form, but which the eye of 
 faith perceives, and after fashioning it into endless ideal 
 shapes, and endowing it with all that is most beautiful 
 in poetry, most choice in art, most sublime in philo- 
 sophy, calls it God. 
 
 The names of these ancient Aryan gods, such as 
 the poor vocabulary of man could supply, were the 
 same among the Saxons whom Charlemagne con- 
 verted, and among the poets of India, whose sacred 
 songs have been preserved to us, as by a miracle, in 
 the hymns of the Veda. 
 
 In this panorama, which a comparative study of 
 the ancient religions of mankind has enabled us to 
 construct, we can still see the Aryan worshippers,
 
 10 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 breaking up from their common centre, and dividing 
 into two branches, the North- Western and the South- 
 Eastern. 
 
 The former marched towards the home of the setting 
 sun, till they had reached that small peninsula which 
 we now call Europe, and which became the stage 
 of what we are apt to call the history of the whole 
 world. 
 
 The latter, the South-Eastern branch, set out to 
 discover the home of the rising sun, till they reached 
 their earthly paradise in the valleys of the land of the 
 Five Rivers, and, further still, along the shores of the 
 Ganges and the Jumnah. Though these South-Eastern 
 Aryans are seldom mentioned in our Histories of the 
 world, we should bear in mind that India alone has 
 more inhabitants at the present moment than the 
 whole of Europe. 
 
 When these two streams parted, each of them pre- 
 served some of the names of their ancient common 
 gods, but each arrived in time at the belief in a 
 Father of all gods, in an All-father, in a God of gods. 
 That faith, however, in the All-father, that mystery 
 of the One God above all gods, was preserved by the 
 few only. The North- Western Aryans at large, call 
 them Greeks, or Romans, or Celts, or Slaves, or 
 Germans, forgot the true meaning of the ancient 
 names, debased the character of their ancient gods, 
 and forgetful alike of the All-father and of the in- 
 finite Beyond in the golden East, they became more 
 and more absorbed in the cares and pleasures of what 
 was called political and practical life. From this 
 there was but one escape ; and we see accordingly 
 that all the North- Western Aryas had sooner or later
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUX ROY. 11 
 
 to surrender the ancient and corrupt religion of their 
 .Aryan forefathers, and to embrace a new religion, 
 not of Aryan, but of Semitic descent; a religion in 
 which the unity of the Godhead had never been for- 
 gotten ; a religion founded, not only on the wor- 
 ship, but on the love of the All-father; a religion 
 lastly which, in spite of the most fearful corruptions 
 which it has suffered, has always preserved to those 
 who have eyes to see, something of that original 
 simplicity, purity, and true divinity which it pos- 
 sessed in the minds of Christ and His disciples. 
 
 Rammohun Roy, the Arya, the Indian, the Brahman, 
 came to England for the sake of that new religion. 
 He had studied Christianity before, he had seen its 
 working among the English residents in India; but 
 he wished to see a whole Christian country, and he 
 was longing for free intercourse with some of the 
 freest and most fearless thinkers in the Christian 
 Church. And why was that ? 
 
 I told you before that Rammohun Roy was an 
 Arya, belonging to the South-Eastern branch of the 
 Aryan race, and that he spoke an Aryan language, 
 the Bengali. He had been brought up to worship 
 the old Aryan gods, and he lived among a people 
 most of whom had forgotten the original intention 
 of their ancient gods, and had sunk into idolatry of 
 the darkest hue. He himself, like many of his country- 
 men, possessed the old mystery of the All-father, the 
 father of gods and men, the Pra/yapati, the lord of 
 creatures, as he would call him. Nay, he knew more. 
 He was a true Brahman, so called because he knew 
 the Brahman, the Supreme Spirit, or, more correctly, 
 the Highest Self, the One without a second, the One
 
 12 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 in all, the Self behind us and the Self within. He 
 knew all this, at least dimly, and yet he wanted to 
 know more ; and he came to England, the first Brahman 
 who ever crossed the sea, to see whether Europe, 
 whether Christian Europe, would teach him some- 
 thing which he had looked for in vain in the Vedas 
 and in the Upanishads, in the Bhagavadgita and in 
 the Vedanta-sutras. He came to England, and after 
 spending some time in London, seeing the best men 
 he could find, and watching the outward manifest- 
 ations of Christianity, wherever they showed them- 
 selves, whether in drawing-rooms or prisons, in Church 
 or Parliament, in schools or hospitals, he at last came 
 to Bristol to finish his search after truth, a search 
 which only ended with his last breath. 
 
 I have thus tried to lay before you a map of the 
 world, a mere sketch, it is true, yet sufficiently 
 clear, I hope, to make you see that Rammohun Roy's 
 visit to England was not merely a fortuitous ad- 
 venture, but that it had historical antecedents, that 
 it had an historical character, in the true sense of 
 the word. If History is to teach us anything, it must 
 teach us that there is a continuity which binds to- 
 gether the present and the past, the East and the 
 West. And no branch of history teaches that lesson 
 more powerfully than the history of language and 
 the history of religion. It is under their guidance 
 that we recognise in Rammohun Roy's visit to Eng- 
 land the meeting again of the two great branches of 
 the Aryan race, after they had been separated so long 
 that they had lost all recollection of their common 
 origin, of their common language, of their common 
 faith. In Rammohun Roy you may recognise the
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 13 
 
 best representative of the South-Eastern Aryas, turn- 
 ing deliberately North, to shake hands once more 
 with the most advanced outposts of the other branch 
 of the Aryan family, established in these islands. It 
 is true that, long before his visit to England, England 
 had visited India, first for the sake of commerce, then 
 for the sake of self-defence and conquest. But for 
 the sake of intellectual intercourse, for the sake of 
 comparing notes, so to say, with his Aryan brothers, 
 Rammohun Roy was the first who came from East 
 to West, the first to join hands and to complete that 
 world-wide circle through which henceforth, like an 
 electric current, Oriental thought could run to the 
 West, and Western thought return to the East, making 
 us feel once more that ancient brotherhood which 
 unites the whole Aryan race, inspiring us with new 
 hopes for a common faith, purer and simpler than 
 any of the ecclesiastical religions of the world, and 
 invigorating us for acts of nobler daring in the con- 
 quest of truth than any that are inscribed in the 
 chronicles of our divided past. If England is to be 
 the great Indo-European Empire of the future, Ram- 
 mohun Roy's name will hold a prominent place among 
 the prophets and martyrs that saw her true mission, 
 and her true greatness and glory in the distant future. 
 
 This must suffice as the historical background. Let 
 us now look at the man who steps forward from it 
 to do his own work in life, and to fight his own battle, 
 trying with all his might to leave the world, and 
 more particularly his own country, a little better 
 than he found it. 
 
 There is little to be said about the mere life of 
 Rammohun Roy, and even the little we know from
 
 14 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 himself and from his friends is far from trustworthy. 
 There is no taste for history in India, still less for 
 biography. Home life and family life are shrouded 
 by a veil which no one ventures to lift, while public 
 life, in which a man's character shows itself in Eng- 
 land, has no existence in the East. On the other 
 hand, loose statements, gossip, rumour, legend, fable, 
 myth call them what you like are marvellously busy 
 in the East ; and though Rammohun Roy has been 
 dead for fifty years only, several stories are told by 
 his biographers which have clearly a mythological 
 character. 
 
 What interests us so much in the biographies of 
 great men, their home-life, their early friendships, 
 their married life, all this is wanting in Rammohun 
 Roy's biography. We shall hear something about his 
 feelings for his mother, but of his married life we 
 know no more than that he had three wives. His 
 first wife died when he was very young, and his 
 father married him to a third wife while the second 
 was living. His second wife was the mother of his 
 two sons, Radhaprasad and Ramprasad, and all we 
 know of her is that she died soon after his mother's 
 death. His eldest son died without leaving male 
 issue, while the younger attained eminence at the 
 bar, and was elected the first native Judge of the 
 High Court of Fort William, though he died before 
 taking his seat. 
 
 The real biography of Rammohun Roy must be 
 read in the work which he did ; and in order to 
 understand that work it will be sufficient for us to 
 remember only a few prominent events of his life l . 
 
 1 Miss Collet, who is collecting materials for a complete life of the
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 15 
 
 Rammohun Roy was born in Bengal in 1774, so 
 that at the time of his death he was not more than 
 fifty-nine years of age. His ancestors on both sides 
 belonged to the Brahman caste. His paternal an- 
 cestors, however, had been engaged in secular pursuits, 
 while his maternal ancestors adhered to a life of reli- 
 gious observances and devotion. Rammohun Roy 
 himself was educated for practical life, and, as a boy, 
 devoted much time to the study of Persian and Arabic, 
 though the influence of his mother's relations seems 
 to have induced him not to neglect altogether the 
 study of Sanskrit, in which the main body of Hindu 
 literature, law, and religion is composed. His doubts 
 and misgivings as to his ancestral religion seem to 
 have been roused at a very early age, but the 
 statement that, at the age of sixteen, he composed in 
 Persian a treatise against the idolatry of all religions l 
 a bold subject for a man of sixty, much more for 
 a boy of sixteen rests on authority that may be 
 doubted 2 . 
 
 What seems certain is that, owing to some mis- 
 understandings with his father on religious subjects, 
 he left his paternal home when he was about sixteen, 
 and travelled over a considerable part of India, pro- 
 ceeding even beyond the frontiers of his country, if 
 report speaks true, and spending some time in Tibet. 
 
 That he studied the language and literature of 
 
 Kajah, remarks that even the date of his birth is doubtful. The 
 Elijah's younger brother placed it in 1772. 
 
 1 The book here referred to is probably the one mentioned on p. 34 
 as 'Present to Monotheists,' of which, as Miss Collet informs me, 
 one printed copy exists in the Adi Samaj Library. It was written after 
 his father's death. 
 
 3 See note on p. 44.
 
 16 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Tibet, and became really acquainted with the Sacred 
 Canon of the Buddhists in Tibet, I doubt for various 
 reasons; still the impressions he received on these 
 wanderings may have told on his future career, by 
 opening his eyes to the similarity of all religious 
 belief, hidden under a great diversity of outward form 
 and ceremonial. 
 
 After his father's death in 1803 Rammohun Roy 
 first returned to Murshadabad, the capital of the 
 Soubah of Bengal, at whose Court his ancestors had 
 found employment. He then served for a number of 
 years as Diwan (Sheristadar) in the East-India Com- 
 pany's service. This was the highest post to which 
 at that time a native could aspire, and a special clause 
 had to be inserted in his Agreement that he should 
 not be kept standing in the presence of his employer. 
 At that time Diwan meant often de facto magistrate, 
 de facto collector, de facto judge. While holding that 
 office at Rungpore under Mr. John Digby his know- 
 ledge of English was much improved, and he succeeded 
 at last in writing and speaking it with considerable 
 accuracy. 
 
 After having secured an independent fortune x ac- 
 
 1 Remarks have been made on the sudden wealth which Rammohun 
 Roy was supposed to have accumulated during his Diw&nship. It is 
 stated that he inherited next to nothing from his father, but that does 
 not prove that other ancestral property did not come to him. Mr. 
 Sandford Arnott states that ' the death of relatives enabled him to retire 
 from active life.' Dr. Carpenter states that his father divided his 
 property amongst his sons two years before his death, while Mr. Arnot 
 declares that Rammohun Roy was disinherited by his father. Certain 
 it is that in an action instituted against Rammohun Roy in the Calcutta 
 Provincial Court in 1823, by the Rajah of Burdwan, Tej Chand, for a 
 balance due from his father on a Kistbundy bond, Rammohun Roy 
 stated that, so far from inheriting the property of his deceased father,
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 17 
 
 cordiDg to some amounting to 10,000 rupees a year 
 he went in 1814 to settle in Calcutta. He bought a 
 house, built in the European style, and a garden, and 
 in 1818 we first hear of meetings held there by his 
 friends. We catch a glimpse of his life at that time 
 through Mr. Arnot, who visited him at his garden- 
 house near Calcutta, and found him one evening, 
 about seven o'clock, closing a dispute with one of 
 the followers of Buddha who denied the existence of 
 a Deity. The Rajah had spent the whole day in the 
 controversy, without stopping for food, rest, or re- 
 freshment, rejoicing more in confuting one atheist 
 than in triumphing over a hundred idolaters. The 
 credulity of the one he despised, the scepticism of the 
 other he thought pernicious, being ' deeply impressed 
 with the importance of religion to the virtue and 
 happiness of mankind.' 
 
 Rammohun Roy, however, was equally outspoken 
 against his co-religionists as against Buddhists and 
 unbelievers. At first it seems to have been his con- 
 tact with Mohammedans which made him a believer 
 in One God. Afterwards, however, when his early 
 hatred of everything English had been changed into 
 a feeling of sincere respect 1 , and when his know- 
 ledge of the English language enabled him to become 
 
 he had, during his life-time, separated himself from him and the rest of 
 his family in consequence of his altered habits of life and change of 
 opinions, and that, inheriting no part of his father's property, he was 
 not legally responsible for his father's debts (Biogr. Ace. p. 197). His 
 brother, Jugmohun Roy, died in 18 n. 
 
 1 ' He saw the selfish, cruel, and almost insane errors of the English 
 in governing India, but he also saw that their system of government 
 and policy had redeeming qualities, not to be found in the native 
 government.' Adam, Lecture, p. a6. 
 
 C
 
 18 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 intimately acquainted, not only with some members of 
 the Civil Service, but also with the master- works of 
 English literature, his mind became more and more 
 impregnated and invigorated by European thought 
 and by Christian sentiment. 
 
 The social intercourse between English and Indian 
 gentlemen was at that time much more cordial than 
 it is at present, and religious, social, and literary 
 questions were freely discussed on both sides. Re- 
 ligion has always been the principal subject of 
 thought, and a favourite subject for discussion w T ith 
 the people of India, and Rammohun Roy, in answer- 
 ing the questions or repelling the taunts of his 
 English friends, seems to have felt no hesitation in 
 expressing openly his contempt for that idolatrous 
 worship which by others was taken to be the true 
 and only religion of the country. 
 
 He appealed to the Sacred Books, written in San- 
 skrit, as bearing witness against the idolatry of the 
 priest-ridden masses. 
 
 At that time, however, thanks to the labours of 
 such men as Sir William Jones. Wilkins and Cole- 
 brooke, Sanskrit MSS. were no longer sealed books, 
 and it was easy to retort on Rammohun Roy that his 
 own Pura^as, and even the Mahabharata and Rama- 
 ya'?a, sanctioned idolatry, polytheism, caste, burning 
 of widows, and many other abominations. 
 
 It was then that Rammohun Roy took his stand on 
 the Veda, as the true Bible of India. The Veda, he 
 declared, sanctioned no idolatry, taught monotheism, 
 ignored caste, prohibited the burning of widows ; con- 
 tained in fact a religion as true, as pure, and as 
 perfect as Christianity itself, nay, free from some of
 
 11AJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 19 
 
 the blemishes which offended him and many of his 
 countrymen in the teaching of the missionaries. 
 
 This was a bold assertion, half true, half false, as 
 we know now, but an assertion which at that time no 
 one could venture to criticise or contradict. 
 
 Although there existed MSS. of the Veda, these 
 MSS. were religiously guarded. No Englishman was 
 allowed to see or to touch them. Even at a much 
 later time, when Professor Wilson by accident put 
 his hand on some Vedic MSS. in a native library, he 
 told me that people rushed at him with threatening 
 and ominous gestures. Of course, the Veda had never 
 been printed or published, and it existed in fact, as 
 it had existed for three thousand years, chiefly in the 
 memory of the priests. We can hardly form an idea 
 of the power wielded by the priests, when they were 
 the only depositaries of Vedas or Bibles, and when 
 there was no possible appeal from what they laid 
 down as the catholic faith. In India their position 
 was stronger even than in Italy, because the priest 
 did not read the Veda from MSS., but had to learn 
 it entirely from oral tradition, and teach it again to 
 his pupils in the same way. No one therefore could 
 contradict him except those who did not wish to con- 
 tradict him. 
 
 Now it may sound strange, but I feel convinced 
 that Rammohun Roy himself, when, in his contro- 
 versies with his English friends, he fortified himself 
 behind the rampart of the Veda, had no idea of what 
 the Veda really was. Vedic learning was then at a 
 low ebb in Bengal, and Rammohun Roy had never 
 passed through a regular training in Sanskrit. 
 
 In the West and South of India the comparatively
 
 20 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 pure form of Hinduism which Rammohun Roy en- 
 deavoured to introduce into Bengal had never become 
 extinct, and one of his native opponents, Sankara 
 Sastri, while fully admitting the facts contended for 
 by Rammohun Roy, insisted strongly on this, that the 
 latter had no claim to be considered the discoverer of a 
 doctrine well known to all students of Sansksit, and 
 particularly of the Veda 1 . 
 
 Veda is the name for the oldest sacred literature of 
 the Brahmans. There are really four Vedas, but the 
 most ancient and most important is the Rig- Veda. 
 A Veda consists of two portions, a poetical and a 
 prose portion. The poetical portion comprises hymns 
 addressed to numerous deities, deities of the sky, the 
 air, the sun, the earth, fire and water, mountains and 
 rivers. The prose portions, the so-called Brahmaas, 
 contain treatises on the various sacrifices, mixed up 
 with a great deal of relevant and irrelevant, interest- 
 ing and uninteresting matter. 
 
 The prose portions presuppose the hymns, and to 
 judge from the utter inability of the authors of the 
 Brahmawas to understand the antiquated language of 
 the hymns, these Brahmanas must be ascribed to a 
 much later period than that which gave birth to tbe 
 hymns. 
 
 At the end of some of the Brahmanas we find 
 philosophical treatises, best known by the name of 
 Upanishads 2 or Vedanta, literally, ' End of the Veda.' 
 These contain the elements of that Vedanta philo- 
 sophy which was reduced to a system in the Vedanta- 
 
 1 W. Adam, Lecture on Rammohun Roy ; p. 7. 
 
 2 Translations of the principal Upanishads are contained in vols. i. 
 and xv. of the ' Sacred Books of the East.'
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN EOY. 21 
 
 Sutras, and may still be called the national philosophy 
 of India. 
 
 When Rammohun Roy speaks of the Vedas and of 
 the monotheism taught by them, he almost invariably 
 means the Upanishads, not the Brahmaas, not the 
 Mantras or hymns of the Veda. Both the Brahmauas 
 and the hymns teach a polytheistic, or, more accu- 
 rately, a henotheistic, but not a monotheistic religion ; 
 yet they form the great bulk of what is called 
 Veda, while the Upanishads form only a kind of 
 appendix. 
 
 Rammohun Roy had been brought up in the belief 
 that the Veda was the word of God, that it contained 
 a primeval revelation, that it was free from all the 
 defects of human authorship. When therefore his 
 friends or the missionaries pressed on him the claims 
 of the Bible, as likewise an infallible book, he found 
 himself between two infallible authorities, and natu- 
 rally preferred his own. 
 
 And here he had a great advantage. While his 
 English friends had simply to accept whatever he 
 told them about the Veda, without being able to 
 check his statements, he himself set to work to study 
 the Bible in the original. It is extremely creditable 
 to him that he did so ; that he actually learnt Greek 
 and Hebrew in order to form his own independent 
 opinion of the Old and New Testaments very dif- 
 ferent from many who carry on heated controversies 
 about the Bible, who shrink from no terms of con- 
 demnation against all who differ from them, and yet 
 shrink from the simple task of learning Greek and 
 Hebrew. 
 
 After having studied the Old Testament with a
 
 22 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Jewish Rabbi, the New Testament with an English 
 clergyman, Rammohun Roy in 1820 published his 
 celebrated work, ' The Precepts of Jesus, the guide to 
 peace and happiness.' This book consists chiefly of 
 extracts from the Gospels, and in the Preface the 
 author says : 
 
 ' This simple code of religion and morality is so 
 admirably calculated to elevate man's ideas to high 
 and liberal notions of One God, who has equally sub- 
 jected all living creatures, without distinction of caste, 
 rank, or wealth, to change, disappointment, pain and 
 death, and has equally admitted all to be partakers of 
 the bountiful mercies which He has lavished over 
 nature ; and is also so well fitted to regulate the con- 
 duct of the human race in the discharge of their 
 various duties to God, to themselves, and society, that 
 I cannot but hope the best effects from its promulgation 
 in the present form.' 
 
 This publication brought upon him a fierce attack 
 and a long controversy, not with the champions of 
 the national religion of India, who might have sus- 
 pected him of undermining their faith, but with the 
 Christian missionaries of Serampore. Instead of 
 welcoming him, on the principle that ' he that is 
 not against us is for us,' they blamed him for the 
 exercise of his private judgment, in selecting from the 
 New Testament whatever he thought most likely to be 
 beneficial to his own countrymen. He left out, for 
 instance, most of the so-called miracles, because he 
 felt that his countrymen, who were able without any 
 effort to believe that a mere saint could swallow the 
 whole ocean, and many of whom were convinced that 
 they had seen a man throwing a rope into the air and
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 23 
 
 ascending by it into the sky, were not likely to be 
 much impressed by a change of water into wine, or by 
 the miracle of the ascension. 
 
 And as the whole battle of his life had been to 
 convince the people of India that there was, and that 
 there could be, one God only, not two, not three, not 
 many, we can well understand his anxiety that those 
 whom he wished to bring nearer unto Christ, should 
 on no account be led to believe that Trinitarianism 
 was part of Christ's own teaching. As then taught by 
 many of the missionaries in India, the doctrine of the 
 three Persons, that is the three aspects or manifesta- 
 tions of the Godhead, had been hardened into mere 
 Tritheisni, the very doctrine against which Rammohun 
 Roy had been protesting from his earliest youth with 
 all his might and main. It is well known that in 
 India one of the most damaging charges brought 
 against modern Christianity is that it admits three 
 Gods, and it was against Mohammedan scoffers quite 
 as much as against Christian missionaries that Ram- 
 mohun Roy argued in maintaining that Christ Himself, 
 as we know Him from the Gospels, believed in one 
 God only, that He was in fact a Unitarian, in the 
 highest sense of that word. What Rammohun Roy 
 wanted for India was a Christianity, purified of all 
 mere miracles, and relieved of all theological rust and 
 dust, whether it dated from the first council or from 
 the last. 
 
 That Christianity he was willing to preach, but no 
 other, and in preachiog that Christianity he might 
 still, he thought, remain a Brahman, and a follower of 
 the religion of the Veda. He was engaged with two 
 missionaries, William Yates and William Adam, in a
 
 24 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Bengali translation of the four Gospels, hut this 
 undertaking seems to have failed 1 . 
 
 There is an interesting story told by Mr. William 
 Adam in his lecture on Rammohun Roy which he 
 gave many years ago in America, and which has 
 lately been published at Calcutta 2 . Dr. Middleton, 
 the first Bishop of Calcutta, thought it his duty to 
 endeavour to convert Rammohun Roy to Christianity, 
 and in doing so, he dwelt not only on the truth and 
 excellence of his own religion, but spoke of the honour 
 and repute, the influence and usefulness he would 
 acquire by becoming the Apostle of India. Rammohun 
 Roy expressed his bitter indignation that he should 
 have been deemed capable of being influenced by any 
 consideration but the love of truth and goodness, and 
 he never afterwards visited the Bishop again. The 
 same Mr. W. Adam, who had gone to India as a 
 Protestant missionary, became a Unitarian, chiefly 
 through the influence of Rammohun Roy. He lived 
 to a considerable age. I had some letters from him, 
 but was unfortunately prevented from seeing him at 
 Beaconsfield, where he died last year (1883). 
 
 Rammohun Roy's influence grew rapidly. Some of 
 the best, the most cultivated, and most enlightened 
 among his countrymen, now joined him openly. Meet- 
 ings were held on Saturdays 3 at his house, and these, 
 as they became more largely attended, and acquired 
 greater regularity, formed the foundation of that 
 movement which is known to you all as the Brahma- 
 
 1 Lecture on Rammohun Roy, by W. Adam, p. 9. 
 
 a Calcutta, 1879, p. 24. 
 
 .* They were held on Saturdays, as Miss Collet informs me, from 
 Nov. 1828 to Jan. 1830. After the opening of the new Hall on Jan. 
 1830, the day was changed to Wednesday.
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 25 
 
 Samaj, at first called also Brahma Sabha 1 . I call it a 
 movement, because it seems to me that, even at 
 present, more that fifty years after its first beginning, 
 the Brahma-Samaj is still a movement only, an 
 emotion, an aspiration, if you like, a religion ; but 
 not a settlement, a sect, or a church. At the weekly 
 meetings of the Brahma-Samaj extracts were read 
 from the Vedas, discourses were delivered, chiefly in 
 Bengali, hymns were sung, mostly composed by 
 Rammohun Roy himself. Great care, however, was 
 taken not to wound national feeling more than could 
 be helped. The Vedas, for instance, were chanted by 
 Brahmans only, from an adjoining room, where people 
 of the lower castes were not allowed to enter. 
 
 Brahma-Samaj means ' Society of the believers in 
 Brahman, the Supreme Spirit 2 .' 
 
 In opposition to it, the orthodox and conservative 
 party started the Dharma-sabha, the society or 
 church of Dharma, the law. What was meant by 
 law may be gathered from the fact that one of the 
 first acts of the Dharma-sabha was to petition Govern- 
 ment against the abolition of Suttee, that is, in favour 
 of the continuance of the burning of widows. Ram- 
 mohun Roy had published, as early as 1 8 1 8, a treatise 
 entitled ' A Conference between an advocate for and 
 an opponent of the practice of burning widows alive.' 
 He lived to witness the triumph of his cause, but not 
 till his arrival in England, when the last appeal of 
 
 1 See W. Adam, Lecture, p. 8. 
 
 9 I write throughout Brahma-Samaj. The various spellings, Brahmo 
 Somaj, Brahmo Sumaj, &c., represent the various pronunciations of the 
 word. Brahmo has almost become a new Anglo-Indian word, and, 
 when used by others, it has sometimes been allowed to stand. Brahma 
 is meant as an adjective, derived from Brahman.
 
 26 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the members of the Dharma-sabha against the aboli- 
 tion of the burning of widows was heard in the Privy 
 Council, and rejected. 
 
 This was in 1831 not so very long ago, after all. 
 It was the year of the Reform Bill ; and a shudder 
 comes over one, if one realises the fact that up to 
 that time, in a country governed by some of the 
 greatest English statesmen, women were burnt whole- 
 sale, even in the immediate neighbourhood of Cal- 
 cutta. The official returns of the Bengal Government 
 for the year 1823 show that the number of widows 
 burnt during one year, in the Bengal Presidency only, 
 amounted to 575; 310 widows perished w r ithin the 
 limits of the Calcutta Court of Circuit. Their ages 
 give a still more ghastly reality to that holocaust. 
 We read that 109 were old women above sixty; 226 
 were from forty to sixty ; 208 were from twenty to 
 forty ; and 32 were actually young girls under 
 twenty years of age ! We always say, ' Such things 
 would be impossible now!' Let us hope that the 
 future may not say the same of us. I cannot help 
 thinking, nay I cannot help hoping, that some pages 
 in 'The Bitter Cry of London' will sound as ghastly 
 to future generations as widow-burnings did to us. 
 
 Rammohun Roy, however, by no means restricted 
 his activity to controversial publications. He built 
 schoolhouses, and established schools in which useful 
 knowledge was gratuitously taught through the 
 medium both of the English and native languages. 
 He gave ardent and most zealous support to the 
 missionaries of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in 
 establishing in Calcutta a seminary in which Chris- 
 tian as well as general knowledge was daily and
 
 RAJAH EAMMOHUN EOY. 27 
 
 gratuitously taught to five or six hundred native 
 youths by missionary instructors ; and, following his 
 example, one of his wealthiest friends and adherents 
 gave still more liberal pecuniary encouragement to a 
 similar school established by the same missionaries in 
 the interior of the Jessore District in Bengal l . 
 
 In 1830 a Prayer Hall was opened in Calcutta by 
 Rammohun Roy, in which meetings were held every 
 Wednesday. The foundation of the Brahma- Samaj 
 is dated from that year 2 . 
 
 1 Adam, Lecture, p. 18. 
 
 2 The following extracts are taken from the Trust Deed of that Institu- 
 tion : ' The Hall is to be used as a place of public meeting of all sorts and 
 descriptions of people, without distinction, as shall behave and conduct 
 themselves in an orderly, sober, religious, and devout manner, for the 
 worship and adoration of the eternal, unsearchable, and immutable 
 Being who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe ; but not under 
 or by any other name, designation, or title peculiarly used for and 
 applied to any particular being or beings by any man or set of men 
 whatsoever ; and that no graven image, statue, or sculpture, carving, 
 painting, picture, portrait, or the likeness of anything shall be admitted 
 within the said messuage, building, land, tenements, hereditaments and 
 premises, and that no sacrifice, offering, or oblation of any kind or 
 thing shall ever be permitted therein ; and that no animal or living 
 creature shall, within or on the said messuage, building, land, tene- 
 ments, hereditaments and premises, be deprived of life either for 
 religious purposes or food ; and that no eating or drinking (except such 
 as shall be necessary by any accident for the preservation of life), 
 feasting or rioting be permitted therein or thereon ; and that in con- 
 ducting the said worship and adoration, no object, animate or inanimate, 
 that has been, or is or shall hereafter become, or be recognised as an 
 object of worship by any man or set of men, shall be reviled or slight- 
 ingly or contemptuously spoken of or alluded to either in preaching or 
 in the hymns or other mode of worship that may be delivered or used 
 in the said messuage or building ; and that no sermon, preaching, 
 discourse, prayer, or hymns be delivered, made, or used in such worship, 
 but such as have a tendency to the promotion of the contemplation of 
 the Author and Preserver of the Universe, to the promotion of charity, 
 morality, piety, benevolence, virtue, and the strengthening of the bonds 
 of union between men of all religious persuasions and creeds,' etc.
 
 28 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 This was almost the last public act of Rammohun 
 Roy before his departure for England. He sailed for 
 England on the i5th of November, 1830, as envoy of 
 the Emperor of Delhi, the Great Mogul, who had 
 bestowed on him the title of Rajah. He arrived at 
 Liverpool on the 8th of April, 1831, and, after a short 
 stay, proceeded by Manchester to London. You may 
 read, in most of the biographical accounts of the 
 Rajah, how he was received, how he was the lion of 
 the season, how he was presented to the King, called 
 on by dukes and duchesses, feasted by aldermen and 
 the directors of the East India Company; how he 
 went to Paris, and dined twice with the king, Louis 
 Philippe, and elsewhere, how in the end his health 
 gave way, and he returned to England weary in body 
 and mind. We have no time to dwell on these items 
 of fashionable intelligence. We have hardly time to 
 do more than to point out the few really important 
 events during his stay in England, how, when at 
 Liverpool, he was invited by William Roscoe to 
 shake hands with him on his death-bed ; how Wil- 
 liam Bentham, the utilitarian philosopher, who had 
 secluded himself from all the world, was the first to 
 call on the Rajah, of whom he used to say, ' He has 
 cast off three hundred and thirty millions of gods, and 
 has learnt from us to embrace reason in the all- 
 important field of religion;' how he knew Henry 
 Brougham, not yet banished to the House of Lords ; 
 how he gave important evidence before several Parlia- 
 mentary Committees at the time of the renewal of 
 the Charter of the East India Company ; how, lastly, 
 as soon as he could free himself, he carried out his 
 long -cherished wish of going to Bristol, a city
 
 RAJAH EAMMOHUN ROY. 29 
 
 famous at that time as the home of Dr. Carpenter, 
 John Foster, Dr. Jerrard, Dr. Symonds, Mr. Estlin, 
 Dr. Priehard, and others men known, not only for 
 their learning, but for their liberal spirit, their wide 
 sympathies, and their true charity towards men of 
 the most opposite convictions in religion and theology. 
 Here, in the house of Miss Castle, at Stapleton Grove, 
 he thought he would find rest and repose. Here he 
 hoped for help in solving those honest doubts which 
 never forsake the heart of an honest man. But it 
 was too late. He was attacked by fever, and in a 
 few days his weakened brain succumbed. Dreaming 
 of distant lands, of distant hopes, and distant friends, 
 the Eastern philosopher, the believer in the religion 
 of the Veda, the sincere admirer of the religion of 
 Christ, expired. 
 
 Such was Rammohun Roy, to my mind a truly 
 great man, a man who did a truly great work, and 
 whose name, if it is right to prophesy, will be re- 
 membered for ever, with some of his fellow-labourers 
 and followers, as one of the great benefactors of man- 
 kind. 
 
 I know that this opinion is not shared by those 
 who think that nothing great and nothing good can 
 ever come out of India. What difference, they say, 
 is there between Rammohun Roy and many of those 
 highly-educated, polished, liberal-minded gentlemen 
 from Bengal whom we often see now in England, 
 who laugh at idols, are horrified at the idea of burning 
 widows, and speak patronisingly of the religion of 
 Christ? 
 
 Surely the difference is very great. We know even 
 in England how easy it noiv is to express opinions
 
 30 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and support reforms for which men were executed 
 300 years ago, excommunicated 200 years ago, exe- 
 crated 100 years ago, and called ugly names within 
 the recollection of some of the older members of this 
 assembly. 
 
 The German name for prince is Fiirst, in English 
 first, he who is always to the fore, he who courts 
 the place of danger, the first place in fight, the last 
 in flight. Such a Flirst was Rammohun Roy, a true 
 prince, a real Rajah, if Rajah also, like Rex, meant 
 originally the steersman, the man at the helm J . 
 
 If however I was wrong in calling Rammohun Roy 
 a really great man, I wish that those who seem so 
 jealous of greatness would at least explain on what 
 grounds they would bestow that ancient title. 
 
 An attempt was lately made in America to find 
 out the Hundred Greatest Men of the world. The 
 process was a very simple one. Greatness was settled 
 by a majority of votes. Lists of names were printed 
 and sent round to men of eminence in America and 
 Europe, and whoever received the largest number 
 of votes was admitted as one of the Hundred Greatest 
 Men. The result was afterwards published in a 
 splendid series of portraits, each portrait followed 
 by a biography. It is astonishing to see what names 
 were put forward, and what names were forgotten. 
 Of course you see Napoleon the Great, and who could 
 doubt that in one sense, as a clever soldier, as a bold 
 diplomatist, he was great ; but read the memoirs of 
 his Court, and you will call him the smallest, the 
 meanest, the most wretched of men. Or take another 
 case. Perhaps the greatest revolution in Europe was 
 
 1 See E. C. Clark, Practical Jurisprudence, p. 82.
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 31 
 
 produced by the invention of printing. Would you 
 call the inventor of printing a great man 1 ? He did 
 no more than what any carpenter might do cutting 
 an engraved block into smaller blocks, each contain- 
 ing one letter. You may call that clever, you may 
 even take a patent for it ; but surely there is nothing 
 great in it. In fact, that title of Great Man has been 
 used so recklessly that to most people it conveys no 
 longer any meaning at all. 
 
 And yet I like to call Rammohun Roy a great man, 
 using that word, not as a cheap, unmeaning title, but 
 as conveying three essential elements of manly great- 
 ness, namely, unselfishness, honesty, and boldness. Let 
 us see whether Rammohun Roy possessed in a high 
 degree these three essentials. 
 
 You know he gave up idolatry. This may seem 
 to us a very easy performance ; but in India, as well 
 as in Europe, nothing is more sacred to a child than 
 the objects which he sees his father worship, nothing 
 dearer than the prayers which he has been taught by 
 his mother to repeat with uplifted hands, long before 
 he could repeat anything else. There is nothing so 
 happy as the creed of childhood, nothing so difficult 
 to part with. And do not suppose that idol-worship 
 is more easily surrendered. Idol is an ugly name, 
 but it meant originally no more than an image. At 
 first the image of a deity, like the image of a distant 
 or departed friend, is only gazed at with a mixture 
 of sadness and joy ; afterwards something like a real 
 presence is felt, and good resolutions are sometimes 
 formed from merely looking at the familiar features 
 of a beloved face. And if at any time those who 
 value such an image as their dearest treasure, pour
 
 32 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 out their sorrows before it, or implore it to fulfil some 
 anxious prayer, and if such a prayer is fulfilled once, 
 or twice, or, it may be, a hundred times out of two 
 hundred, need we wonder that the very image is 
 believed to be endowed with miraculous power, nay 
 that such faith remains unshaken, even if it be de- 
 creed that it is better for us that certain prayers 
 should not be fulfilled ? We must remember what 
 sacred images are to millions of human beings even 
 in Christian countries, and we shall then be better 
 able to appreciate the unselfishness, the honesty, and 
 the boldness of a boy of sixteen who could bring 
 himself to say, ' I will not worship what my father 
 worships, I will not pray as my mother prays ; I will 
 look out for a new God and for new prayers, if haply 
 I may find them.' 
 
 There was everything to induce Rammohun Roy 
 to retain the religion of his fathers. It was an ancient 
 religion, a national religion, and allowed an inde- 
 pendent thinker greater freedom than almost any 
 other religion. But openly to condemn and reject 
 that religion, or at least its present form, involved 
 more serious consequences in India than almost any- 
 where else. It entailed not only censure and punish- 
 ment, and the loss of the love of his parents ; it en- 
 tailed loss of caste, expulsion from society, loss of 
 property. All this Rammohun Roy was prepared to 
 face ; and he had to face it. He was banished from 
 his father's house once or twice ; he was insulted by 
 his friends ; his life was threatened, and even in the 
 streets of Calcutta he had to walk about armed. 
 Later in life his relations (his own mother) tried 
 to deprive him of his caste, and indirectly of his
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 33 
 
 property, and it was a mere accident that the law 
 decided in his favour. 
 
 And remember that during all these struggles, and 
 when he was left almost alone, he did not join any 
 other community where, as a convert, he might have 
 been received with open arms and warm hearts. He 
 never became a Mohammedan, he never became a 
 Christian, but he remained to the end a Brahman, a 
 believer in the Veda, and in the One God who, as he 
 maintained, had been revealed in the Veda, and 
 especially in the Vedanta, long before he revealed 
 himself in the Bible or in the Koran. 
 
 He wished to reform his religion, not to reject it. 
 His mother, we are told, was for a time broken- 
 hearted about her son. It was she who, after the 
 death of her eldest son (Ramtanu Roy), brought an 
 action against Rammohun Roy to disinherit him as 
 an apostate and infidel l . But her son had the satis- 
 faction, later in life, to hear from her own loving lips 
 words which must have consoled him for many sor- 
 rows. ' Son,' she said to him, a year before her death, 
 ' you are right. But I am a weak woman, and am 
 grown too old to give up those observances which are 
 a comfort to me.' This was said by her, before she 
 set out on her last pilgrimage to Juggernaut, where 
 she died. 
 
 With such self-denying devotion did she conform 
 to the rites of the Hindu religion, that she would not 
 allow a female servant to accompany her to Jugger- 
 naut, or any other provision to be made for her 
 comfort or support during the journey. When at 
 Puri, she occupied herself in sweeping the temple of 
 
 1 Lecture on Ritmmohun Roy, by W. Adam, Calcutta, 1879, p. 6. 
 D
 
 34 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the uncouth idol ! Her son knew all this, and he bore 
 with her, as she had borne with him. Perhaps he 
 knew that the hideous idol which she worshipped in 
 the fetid air of his temple, Juggernaut, as we call it, 
 was originally called Jagannatha, which means ' Lord 
 of the World ; ' and that He, the Lord of the World, 
 the true Jagannatha, would hear her prayers, even 
 though addressed to Juggernaut, the uncouth image. 
 
 In all these trials Rammohun Roy had nothing to 
 support him but his belief in the Veda, and that very 
 still, that very small voice within, which is better 
 than the Veda, better than any written book. And I 
 say again, a man who is ready to sacrifice everything 
 for the voice of truth, who submits to be called a 
 sceptic, a heretic, an atheist, even by his dearest 
 friends, is an unselfish, an honest, a bold man, is a 
 great man, in the best sense of the word. 
 
 There is a quiet courage, a simple straightforward- 
 ness in all Rammohun Roy's acts. Some of his 
 friends have misunderstood him, and claimed him for 
 a Mohammedan, or a Christian. He said himself, just 
 before he set out for Europe, that on his death each 
 sect, the Christian, the Hindu, and the Mohammedan, 
 would claim him as their own, but that he belonged 
 to none of them. His real religious sentiments are 
 embodied in a pamphlet, written and printed in his 
 life-time, but, according to his injunction, not pub- 
 lished till after his death. This work discloses his 
 belief in the unity of the Deity, his infinite power, 
 his infinite goodness, and in the immortality of the 
 soul l . 
 
 1 Calcutta Review, Dec. 1845, pp. 387-389. The title of the work as 
 there given is, Tuhfatu'l-Muwahhidin, or ' Present to Monotheists.'
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 35 
 
 With such a faith nothing would have been easier 
 for him than to do what so many of his countrymen, 
 even the most enlightened, are still content to do, 
 to remain silent on doctrines which do not concern 
 them ; to shrug their shoulders at miracles and 
 legends ; and to submit to observances which, though 
 distasteful to themselves, may be looked upon as 
 possibly useful to others. 
 
 With such an attitude towards religion, he might 
 have led a happy, quiet, respectable, useful life, and 
 his conscience need not have smitten him more than 
 it seems to have smitten many others. But he would 
 not. He might part with his old mother in silent 
 love and pity, but towards the rest of the world 
 he wished to appear as what he was. He would 
 not say that he believed in three gods, when he 
 believed in One God only; he would not call idols 
 symbols of the Godhead ; he would not have ritual, 
 because it helped the weak ; he would not allow 
 Suttee because it was a time-hallowed custom, spring- 
 ing from the true love of a wife for a dead husband. 
 He would have no compromising, no economising, no 
 playing with words, no shifting of responsibility from 
 his own shoulders to others. And therefore, what- 
 ever narrow-minded critics may say, I say once more 
 that Rammohun Roy was an unselfish, an honest, a 
 bold man a great man in the highest sense of the word. 
 
 And mind, 1 do not say that the world is poor in men 
 as great as Rammohun Roy, and I know full well that 
 many of them pass away unheeded, and leave behind 
 them no name, no fame, no monument. But what is 
 that 1 It only shows that the world is richer in good 
 and great men than we thought it was. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 But why should we grudge their greatness and 
 their fame to those whom the world likes to honour ? 
 Go into a great library if you wish to know the 
 meaning of the immortality of a name. Go into 
 Westminster Abbey if you wish to "know the value 
 of a crumbling monument. True immortality is the 
 immortality of the work done by man, which nothing 
 can make undone, which lives, works on, grows on 
 for ever. 
 
 It does good to ourselves to remember and to honour 
 the names of our ancestors and benefactors, but to 
 them, depend upon it, the highest reward was not 
 the hope of fame, but their faith in themselves, their 
 faith in their work, their faith that nothing really 
 good can ever perish, and that Right and Reason must 
 in the end prevail. 
 
 I have no doubt that when Rammohun Roy mut- 
 tered his last prayer and drew his last breath at 
 Stapleton Grove, he knew that, happen what may, 
 his work would live, and idolatry would die. That 
 was the chief object of his life, and small as the re- 
 sults which he achieved might seem to others, he 
 knew full well that all living seeds are small. 
 
 I am more doubtful about his belief in the divine 
 origin of the Veda. It seems to me as if he chiefly 
 used his arguments in support of the revealed cha- 
 racter of the Veda as an answer to his opponents, 
 fighting them, so to say, with their own weapons. 
 But however that may be, it is quite clear that this 
 very dogma, this little want of honesty or thorough- 
 ness of thought, retarded more than anything else 
 the natural growth of his work. 
 
 After the Rajah's death the Church which he had
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 37 
 
 founded, the so-called Brahma-Samaj, languished for 
 want of new interests and for want of a real head. 
 During the next seven or eight years, its chief repre- 
 sentative was Pandit Ram Chandra Vidyabagish, one 
 of Rammohun Roy's earliest disciples ; while its ma- 
 terial wants were supplied by the generosity of 
 Dvarkanath Tagore, the same who erected the monu- 
 ment to the memory of Rammohun Roy in the Arno's 
 Vale Cemetery at Bristol, and who himself lies buried 
 in Kensal Green. I knew him well while he was 
 staying at Paris, and living there in good royal style. 
 He was an enlightened, liberal-minded man, but a 
 man of this world rather than of the next. 
 
 Dvarkanath Tagore, however, became a still greater 
 benefactor of the Brahma-Samaj, though indirectly, 
 through his son, Debendranatb Tagore, who is still 
 alive, though he has for many years left the world, 
 preferring to live by himself in perfect solitude, and 
 devoted to meditation, and to the contemplation of 
 the Divine Spirit, within and without. He, being a 
 young man of considerable wealth, suddenly, at the 
 age of twenty, saw the vanity of all earthly pleasures, 
 and determined to devote the rest of his life to a 
 search after truth, to a constant meditation on the 
 things which are not seen, and chiefly to the dis- 
 covery and recovery of his own true self in the Divine 
 Self. He started a Society called the Truth-teaching 
 Society, the Tattva-bodhini Sabha, which lasted from 
 1839 to 1859, while its journal, the Tattva-bodhini 
 Patrika, still continues to appear. 
 
 He was soon attracted towards the Brahma-Samaj ', 
 
 1 According to Sivanath SAstri, 'New Dispensation,' p. 4, Dcben- 
 <lr.-ni.itli joined the Brnhma-Samaj in 1838; according to a statement
 
 38 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and his accession gave fresh life to it. In 1843 a new 
 covenant was introduced, by which each member of 
 the Brahma-Samaj bound himself to give up idolatry 
 altogether, and to cultivate daily prayer, addressed 
 to the One God whose attributes were now more 
 clearly defined 1 . 
 
 But a still more important step was soon to follow. 
 Debendranath Tagore's fervent soul was not satisfied 
 with the Veda, or with any book that was to tell him 
 once for all what to believe, and what not to believe. 
 Doubts also seem to have arisen in his mind as to the 
 grounds on which human beings could ever take upon 
 themselves the right to ascribe a divine origin, in the 
 miraculous sense of that word, to any book whatso- 
 ever. Nor have I the least doubt that here, for the 
 first time, the learning of the West began to tell on 
 
 made by Debendranath himself, he did not really join the society till 
 1841. The foundation of the Tattva-bodhini Sabha is dated by some 
 in 1842, instead of 1839. 
 
 1 Extracts from the Brahmaic Covenant of the year 1843 (see 'A 
 Brief History of the Calcutta Brahma-Samaj' from January 1830 to 
 December 186^, Calcutta^ 1868, pp. 8 seq. ; and Pandit Sivaiiath Sastri, 
 ' New Dispensation,' p. 12 : 
 
 'First Vow : By loving God and by performing the works which He 
 loves, I will worship God the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer, 
 the Giver of salvation, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent, the Blissful, 
 the Good, the Formless, the One only without a second. 
 
 ' Second Vow : I will worship no created object as the Creator. 
 
 ' Third Vow : Except the day of sickness or tribulation, every day, the 
 mind being undisturbed, I will engage it in love and veneration of God. 
 
 ' Fourth Vow : I will exert myself to perform righteous deeds. 
 
 ' Fifth Vow : I will be careful to keep myself from vicious deeds. 
 
 ' Sixth Vow : If, through the influence of passion, I have committed 
 any vice, I will, wish'ng redemption from it, be careful not to do it again. 
 
 ' Seventh Vow : Every year, and on the occasion of every happy 
 domestic event, I will bestow gifts upon the Brahma-Samaj. 
 
 ' Grant me, God, power to observe the duties of this great faith.'
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 39 
 
 the religion of the East. The Vedas, as I remarked 
 before, were little studied in Bengal, yet in all con- 
 troversies with Europeans these unknown Vedas were 
 always quoted as the highest authority in all matters 
 of faith. Thus, when the burning of widows was to 
 be abolished, the Brahmans simply quoted a verse 
 from the Rig-Veda in support of it. This, they 
 thought, was enough, and so it was indeed in the 
 eyes of the law, which had promised protection to all 
 established religious practices of the Hindus. We 
 know now that the lines quoted from the Rig-Veda 
 were garbled, and that, so far from enjoining the 
 burning of widows, the Veda presupposes the opposite 
 custom. 
 
 I tried to explain to you why it was so difficult for 
 European scholars to gain a knowledge of the Veda. 
 All other Sanskrit Mk*S. were freely communicated to 
 Englishmen resident in India, but not the MSS. of the 
 Veda. And even in cases where such MSS. had fallen 
 into the hands of barbarians, the Pandits declined to 
 translate them for them. Colebrooke alone seems to 
 have overcome all these difficulties, and his Essays 
 ' On the Vedas, or the Sacred Writings of the Hindus,' 
 though published in 1805, are still extremely valuable. 
 
 When Rammohun Roy was in London, he saw at 
 the British Museum a young German scholar, Fried- 
 rich Rosen, busily engaged in copying MSS. of the 
 Rig-Veda. The Rajah was surprised, but he told 
 Rosen that he ought not to waste his time on the 
 Hymns, but that he should study the text of the 
 Upanishads. 
 
 Rosen, however, knew better. He published a 
 specimen of the Hymns of the Rig-Veda in 1830,
 
 40 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 which gave European scholars the first idea of what 
 these ancient hymns really were. Unfortunately he 
 died soon after, and only the first book of the Rig- 
 Veda was finished by him, and published after his 
 death in 1838. 
 
 When Dvarkanath Tagore came to Paris, he found 
 me there in 1 845 copying the text and commentary of 
 the Rig-Veda, and there can be little doubt that his 
 son Debendranath heard from his father that Euro- 
 pean scholars had begun in good earnest the study of 
 the Veda, and that its halo of unapproachable sanctity 
 would soon disappear. Debendranath Tagore, not 
 knowing much of Vedic literature, in order to satisfy 
 his own mind, sent four young Brahmans to Benares 
 about 1845 or 1846, to study the Vedas under some of 
 the most learned theologians of that Indian seat of 
 learning. 
 
 Interesting as the Vedas are to us, as historical 
 documents, for they date from at least 1500 B.C., and 
 give us an insight into the origin and growth of re- 
 ligion unsurpassed by any other literature, no one in 
 his senses would for one moment claim for them a 
 superhuman origin. After the report made by the 
 four students after their return from Benares to Cal- 
 cutta, Debendranath Tagore did not hesitate, and in 
 1 850 the Brahma-Samaj solemnly pronounced the de- 
 thronement of the Veda. 
 
 There is nothing analogous to this in the whole 
 history of religion, but this bold step, far from endan- 
 gering the Brahma-Samaj, really put new life into its 
 members. The Brahma-Samaj was now a Church 
 without a Bible, and Debendranath Tagore, its leader, 
 felt inspired with new hopes and higher aspirations.
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 41 
 
 There was nothing now between him and his God, 
 and in this state of mind, not of despair, but of fervent 
 faith, he revised the Brahmaic Covenant, and wrote 
 and published his Brdhma-dharma l , or the religion 
 of the one true God. After finishing this work, the 
 young Saint retired for a time to the solitude of the 
 mountains, to be alone with himself and with his God. 
 You see here how among all the books which are 
 supposed to be held sacred by the people of India, it 
 was the Veda alone, not the Bhagavata Pura/va or 
 any other Puraa, that troubled the mind of these re- 
 ligious reformers. For them the Puranas had no such 
 
 1 In the Brahmadharma, published in 1850 (third ed., Calcutta, 1869), 
 we find the Brahmadharmavtya, Confession of Faith, as follows : 
 
 (1) Om, Brahma va ekam idam agra asit, nanyat kim/.-anasit, tad 
 idam sarvam asr?V/at. 
 
 (2) Tad eva nityawt gu&n&m anantam siv&m svatantram n'ravayavam 
 ekam evadvitlyam sarvavyapi sarvaniyantri sarvasrayam sarvavit sar- 
 vagaktiinad dharunam purwam apratimam iti. 
 
 (3) Ekasya tasyaivopasanaya paratrikam aihikam ka. subham bha- 
 vati. 
 
 (4) Tasmin pritis tasya priyakaryasadhanam ka, tadupasanam eva. 
 
 After that follows the Brahmadharmagrahana, i.e. the covenant to 
 be signed by new members : 
 
 A -in in Brahmadhavmavi^e viavasya Brahmadharmavi^ram g?i'hnami. 
 
 (1) God alone existed in the beginning, and He created this universe. 
 
 (2) He is intelligent, infinite, benevolent, eternal, governor of the 
 universe, all-knowing, omnipotent, refuge of all, devoid of limbs, 
 immutable, alone, without a second, all-powerful, self-existent, and 
 beyond comj arison. 
 
 (3) By worshipping Him and Him alone we can attain the highest 
 good in this life and in the next. 
 
 (4) To love Him and to do the works He loves constitutes this 
 worship. 
 
 By declaring my belief in the above combined four fundamental 
 principles of Brahmaism I accept it as my faith. See Pandit Sivanath 
 Sa-<tri, 'New Dispensation,' p. la.
 
 42 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 interest. They knew what stuff they were made of. 
 They might be useful for women and children, they 
 might contain grains of truth which every Brahma 
 would value 1 , but their childish legends could never 
 stand in the way of men like Debendranath Tagore. 
 Does that show that the Veda was dead and forgotten, 
 and that the true religion of modern India must be 
 studied in the Puraa& or Tantras ? 
 
 Even after the fall of the Veda, do not suppose that 
 the religious reformers of India discarded it altogether. 
 They deprived it of its Divine Right, but they seemed 
 to value it all the more, and they preserved all that 
 they thought worth preserving in it, particularly the 
 Upanishads. 
 
 When challenged by the Rev. J. Mullens, a mission- 
 ary of the London Missionary Society, as to the new 
 principles of the belief of the Brahmas, Debendranath 
 replied : ' The doctrines of the Brahmas, or spiritual 
 worshippers of God, whom I suppose you mean by 
 modern Vedantists, are founded upon a broader and 
 more unexceptionable basis than the scriptures of a 
 single religious denomination on earth. The volume 
 of Nature is open to all, and that volume contains a 
 revelation clearly teaching, in strong and legible cha- 
 racters, the great truths of religion and morality ; and 
 giving us as much knowledge of our state after death 
 as is necessary for the attainment of future blessed- 
 ness, yet adapted to the present state of our mental 
 faculties. Now, as the Hindu religion contains notions 
 of God and human duty which coincide with that 
 
 1 ' The Purans and the Tantras are Shastras, because they also pro- 
 claim the unity of God.' Rainmohim Roy, Bengali translation of the 
 Ishopanishad.
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 43 
 
 revelation, we have availed ourselves of works which 
 are the great depositaries of the national faith, and 
 which have the advantage of national association on 
 their side, for disseminating the principles of pure 
 religion among our countrymen V 
 
 The time will come, I hope, when scholars in India 
 will study the Veda, as we study it in Europe, namely 
 as an historical record of the highest value in the his- 
 tory of religion; but even then I trust that in India 
 the Veda will always retain its peculiar position as 
 the oldest book which, for the first time, told the in- 
 habitants of that country of a world beyond this 
 world, of a law beyond human laws, and of a Divine 
 Being in whom we live, and move, and have our 
 being. 
 
 If we may judge of Sacred Books by their fruits, 
 then the life of such a man as Rammohun Roy, who 
 professed to be entirely guided by the Veda, would 
 bear high testimony indeed to the intrinsic value of 
 that oldest amoDg all Sacred Books of the Aryan 
 race, however crude, childish, unscientific it may seem 
 to us. 
 
 Still more interesting, however, will it be to study 
 and examine the lives of his disciples and followers, 
 who no longer looked upon the Veda or any other 
 book as divinely or miraculously revealed, and to 
 whom the Veda had become simply a venerable book 
 by the side of other venerable books, in order to find 
 out whether a kind of heavenly halo is really indis- 
 pensable in order to secure to Eternal Truth an en- 
 trance into the heart and an influence on the acts of 
 man ; or whether, as some believe, Truth, Eternal 
 
 1 ' Brief History of the Calcutta Brahma-Samaj,' 1868, p, 13.
 
 44 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Truth, requires no credentials, but is to rule the world 
 in her own right, nay, is to be welcomed all the more 
 warmly when she appeals to the human heart, un- 
 adorned by priestly hands, and clad only in her own 
 simplicity, beauty, and majesty. 
 
 To Rammohun Roy the Veda was true, because it 
 was divine ; to his followers it was divine, because 
 it was true. And which of the two showed the greater 
 faith ? 
 
 I have thus tried, and I hope not quite in vain, to 
 enlist your sympathy, your real respect and love, for 
 that great religious reformer of India, Rammohun 
 Roy. In India his name has been enrolled in the 
 book of the prophets ; and I hope that in future some 
 at least of those who have kindly listened to me to- 
 night will allow to this true Aryan nobleman a place 
 among those who deserve to be called great and 
 good.
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 45 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THERE is a letter, supposed to have been written by 
 Rammohun Roy shortly before he left England for 
 France, and addressed to Mr. Gordon of Calcutta. It 
 was first published after the Rajah's death in the 
 Athenaeum, Oct. 5, ^833, by Mr. Sandford Arnot, who 
 had acted as the Rajah's secretary during his stay 
 in England. It was republished by Miss Mary Car- 
 penter in 'The Last Days of the Rajah Rammohun 
 Roy,' London, 1866, p. 249. Although the relations 
 between the Rajah and his secretary were not very 
 friendly towards the end of the Rajah's visit to 
 England, there is nothing in that letter to betray 
 any unfriendly feeling. Whether the Rajah wrote 
 or dictated the whole of it may be doubted, but 
 to reject the whole as a fabrication would be going 
 much too far. See letters from John Hare in Times, 
 Oct. 28, 1833; from S. Arnot, Nov. 23, 1833; from 
 J. Hare, Dec. n, 1833. Mr. Arnot states that after 
 the Rajah's return from Paris, both his mind and body 
 seemed to be losing their tone and vigour, that his 
 manners were changed, and his language became 
 violent and coarse. His friends at Bristol, however, 
 perceived nothing of this. 
 
 'My DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 ' In conformity with the wish you have frequently 
 expressed, that I should give you an outline of my 
 life, I have now the pleasure to give you the following 
 very brief sketch. 
 
 ' My ancestors were Brahmins of a high order, and,
 
 46 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 from time immemorial, were devoted to the religious 
 duties of their race, down to my fifth progenitor, who 
 about one hundred and forty years ago gave up 
 spiritual exercises for worldly pursuits and aggran- 
 disement. His descendants ever since have followed 
 his example, and, according to the usual fate of 
 courtiers, with various success, sometimes rising to 
 honour and sometimes falling; sometimes rich and 
 sometimes poor ; sometimes excelling in success, some- 
 times miserable through disappointment *. 
 
 ' But my maternal ancestors, being of the sacerdotal 
 order by profession as well as by birth, and of a 
 family than which none holds a higher rank in that 
 profession, have up to the present day uniformly 
 adhered to a life of religious observances and devo- 
 tion, preferring peace and tranquillity of mind to the 
 excitements of ambition and all the allurements of 
 worldly grandeur. 
 
 ' In conformity with the usage of my paternal race, 
 and the wish of my father 2 , I studied the Persian and 
 Arabic languages these being indispensable to those 
 who attached themselves to the courts of the Mo- 
 hammedan princes ; and agreeably to the usage of 
 my maternal relations, I devoted myself to the study 
 of the Sanskrit and the theological works written in 
 it, which contain the body of Hindoo literature, law, 
 and religion. 
 
 When about the age of sixteen 3 , 1 composed a manu- 
 
 1 Rammohun's grandfather filled posts of importance at the Court of 
 Murshadabad, the capital of the Soubah of Bengal. His father, Ram- 
 kant Roy, left Murshadabad and lived at Radhunagore, in the district 
 of Burdwan, where he had landed property, the patrimony of the family. 
 
 * Ramkant Roy. a A. D. 1 790.
 
 RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. 4y 
 
 script calling in question the validity of the idolatrous 
 system of the Hindoos. This, together with my 
 known sentiments on that subject, having produced 
 a coolness between me and my immediate kindred, 
 I proceeded on my travels, and passed through dif- 
 ferent countries, chie6y within, but some beyond, the 
 bounds of Hindostan, with a feeling of great aversion 
 to the establishment of the British power. When 
 I had reached the age of twenty, my father recalled 
 me, and restored me to his favour ; after which I first 
 saw and began to associate with Europeans, and soon 
 after made myself tolerably acquainted with their 
 laws and form of government. Finding them generally 
 more intelligent, more steady, and moderate in their 
 conduct, I gave up my prejudice against them, and 
 became inclined in their favour, feeling persuaded 
 that their rule, though a foreign yoke, would lead 
 more speedily and surely to the amelioration of the 
 native inhabitants ; and I enjoyed the confidence of 
 several of them even in their public capacity. My 
 continued controversies with the Brahmins on the 
 subject of their idolatry and superstition, and my 
 interference with their custom of burning widows 
 and other pernicious practices, revived and increased 
 their animosity against me ; and through their in- 
 fluence with my family, my father was again obliged 
 to withdraw his countenance openly, though his 
 limited pecuniary support was still continued to me. 
 
 ' After my father's death, I opposed the advocates 
 of idolatry with still greater boldness. Availing my- 
 self of the ait of printing, I published various works 
 and pamphlets against their errors, in the native and 
 foreign languages. This raised such a feeling against
 
 48 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 me, that I was at last deserted by every person except 
 two or three Scotch friends, to whom, and the nation 
 to which they belong, I always feel grateful. 
 
 ' The ground which I took in all my controversies 
 was, not that of opposition to Brahminism, but to 
 the perversion of it ; and I endeavoured to show that 
 the idolatry of the Brahmins was contrary to the 
 practice of their ancestors, and the principles of the 
 ancient books and authorities which they profess to 
 revere and obey. Notwithstanding the violence of 
 the opposition and the resistance to my opinions, 
 several highly respectable persons, both among my 
 own relations and others, began to adopt the same 
 sentiments. 
 
 ' I now felt a strong wish to visit Europe, and obtain, 
 by personal observation, a more thorough insight into 
 its manners, customs, religion, and political institu- 
 tions. I refrained, however, from carrying this inten- 
 tion into effect until the friends who coincided in my 
 sentiments should be increased in number and strength. 
 My expectations having been at length realised, in 
 November, 1 830, I embarked for England, as the dis- 
 cussion of the East-India Company's Charter was 
 expected to come on, by which the treatment of the 
 natives of India, and its future government, would be 
 determined for many years to come ; and an appeal 
 to the King in Council, against the abolition of the 
 practice of burning widows, was to be heard before 
 the Privy Council ; and His Majesty the Emperor 
 of Delhi had likewise commissioned me to bring 
 before the authorities in England certain encroach- 
 ments on his rights by the East-India Company. 
 I accordingly arrived in England in April, 1831.'
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 
 
 (1838-1884.) 
 
 I HAD just said what I wished to say about Rajah 
 Rammohun Roy, when I received the news of the 
 death of Keshub Chunder Sen, his devoted follower 
 and successor. Whereas I knew Rammohun Roy in 
 the spirit only, I knew Keshub Chunder Sen both in 
 the spirit and in the flesh. We were true friends 
 through good and evil days, and I little expected that 
 he would leave this busy world before me. The time 
 to give a full account of Keshub Chunder Sen's life 
 and life-work has hardly come as yet. Many little 
 things must be forgotten before his true greatness can 
 be realised. But there are certain impressions which 
 he has left on our memories which, if not recorded 
 at once, may fade away and be lost. Of his life, in 
 the ordinary sense of the word, I know little, and the 
 little I know, I know from his Indian friends only, 
 with whom all responsibility for dates and facts must 
 rest. But there are some hidden phases of his inner 
 life which I know better perhaps than even his best 
 friends in India. In his very last letter, which he 
 wrote at Simla on the 2oth June, 1883, he said : ' Our 
 affinity is not only ethnic, but in the highest degree 
 spiritual, which often draws you into my heart and 
 makes me enjoy the pleasures of friendly intercourse. 
 
 E
 
 50 BIOQEAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 I forget the distance, and feel we are very near each 
 other. These Himalayas ablaze with India's ancient 
 glory constantly remind me of you, and as I read your 
 Lectures on ' India, ivhat can it teach us?' in the 
 veranda of my little house in the morning, I feel so 
 intensely the presence of your spirit in me that it 
 seems I am not reading your book, but talking to you 
 and you are talking to me in deep spirit-intercourse.' 
 
 However, before I can give a few records of our 
 spirit-intercourse, I must try to give a slight sketch of 
 the outward life of my friend, at least so far as it bears 
 on his spiritual growth. I have no doubt we shall 
 soon have a long biography, telling us of his ancestors, 
 of his childhood, his youth, his manhood, full of dates, 
 full of facts, full of anecdotes. I do not wish to anti- 
 cipate these chroniclers, who so often tell us the very 
 things that ought to be forgotten ; and not always the 
 things which it is right to remember. All I feel in- 
 clined to do is to give some slight frame to hold the 
 portrait of the man. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, in Sanskrit Kesava JTandra 
 Sena, died on the 8th of January, 1884, at the age of 
 46, having been born on the i9th of November, 1838. 
 Though sprung from one of the orthodox Vaidya 
 families in Bengal, European influences had reached 
 and permeated his home for at least two generations 
 before his birth. His grandfather, Ram Comul Sen, 
 is known to Sanskrit scholars as the friend of Horace 
 Hayman Wilson, and as the author of a useful Bengali 
 Dictionary. Ram Comul Sen had four sons, the second 
 being Peary Mohun Sen, for some time Diwan of the 
 Calcutta Mint. This Peary Mohun Sen had three sons, 
 and the second of them was Keshub Chunder Sen.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 51 
 
 The grandfather, Ram Comul Sen, was evidently on 
 really intimate terms with Professor H. H. Wilson, 
 and the latter often spoke of his old friend in terms of 
 affection such as one seldom hears now from the 
 mouths of old Indian Civil Servants when speaking of 
 their native subordinates. But Ram Comul Sen re- 
 mained through life a thorough Hindu, strictly ortho- 
 dox and minutely conscientious in the discharge of his 
 religious duties ; nor was Wilson the man to force his 
 own theological opinions on his friend, so long as he 
 knew that he could trust him as an honest man. He, 
 being Director of the Mint, appointed Ram Comul Sen 
 to the responsible office of Bullion Keeper. He after- 
 wards became Diwan of the Mint, Cashier of the Bank, 
 and Native Secretary of the Asiatic Society. In his 
 office of Diwan he was succeeded by his son, Peary 
 Mohun Sen. The office became almost hereditary in 
 the family, devolving, after the father's death, on a 
 younger brother, and after his death on Babu Jadunath 
 Sen, a cousin of Keshub Chunder Sen, When his 
 cousin had to resign, Keshub Chunder Sen was pre- 
 vailed upon to officiate for a time as Diwan of the 
 Mint until the Diwanship was transferred to the family 
 of the Dutts of Rambagun. 
 
 W"e thus see how in Keshub Chunder Sen's family 
 European enlightenment and English principles of 
 morality were united with strong Hindu patriotism 
 and orthodoxy. He was brought up as a Bhakta, that 
 is as a boy who would bathe every morning, put on a 
 silk dhoti, and have his body anointed with sandal- 
 wood powder. When he was ten, his father died, and 
 Keshub was brought up by his uncle, though he had 
 also the benefit of retaining through life the loving 
 
 E 2
 
 52 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 care of a ir other who still survives him. She stood at 
 his death-bed, lamenting that she, poor sinner, should 
 be left behind while the dearest jewel of her heart was 
 being plucked away from her. ' Don't say so, dear 
 mother,' he replied. ' Where can there be another 
 mother like you ? All that is good in me I have in- 
 herited from you ; all that I call my own is yours.' 
 So saying he took the dust of her feet and put it upon 
 his head. 
 
 As a boy Keshub Chunder Sen was admitted into 
 the Bengali Patshala (pa^a-sala), an elementary school, 
 from which he proceeded to the Hindu College, and 
 afterwards to the Hindu Metropolitan College under 
 Captain Richardson. His success at school seems to 
 have been varying, his weak point being throughout 
 mathematics. When he joined the Presidency College 
 he does not seem to have distinguished himself, though 
 he remained in the College as an ex-student, devoting 
 his attention to history, logic, psychology, and zoology. 
 His favourite books were Shakespeare, Milton, and 
 Bacon ; and so ardent was his devotion to his studies 
 that those who knew him, after he had left the College 
 and when he went to Bombay in 1864, described him 
 as a pale, tall, and slender youth. 
 
 He developed at an early time a strong taste for 
 acting. We are told that he acted Hamlet in his 
 native village (Garifa, now Gouripore), the part of 
 Laertes being taken by his young friend, now his pro- 
 bable successor, Protap Chunder Mozumdar. He also 
 was a clever juggler, and occasionally performed in 
 that capacity, passing himself off as an Englishman. 
 But he soon began his career of public usefulness. In 
 1 855 he established an Evening School for the children
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 53 
 
 of working men, and this was continued with great 
 success till 1858. 
 
 In 1856 he was married to , very young girl, the 
 marriage being celebrated with the usual pomp. He 
 himself disapproved of all extravagance, and he tells 
 us how his thoughts began at that time to turn into a 
 new direction. ' I entered the world,' he says, ' with 
 ascetic ideas, and my honeymoon was spent amid 
 austerities in the house of the Lord.' This continued 
 for three or four years, during which time he became 
 an ardent student of the Bible, helped by the Rev. T. 
 H. Burne, Domestic Chaplain to Bishop Cotton. If 
 any one could have persuaded Keshub Chunder Sen to 
 become a Christian, it would have been th large- 
 hearted Bishop Cotton. But this was not to be, and 
 we may well believe that Keshub Chunder Sen, strug- 
 gling all his life after truth, was a more impressive 
 lesson to his countrymen than he would have been 
 if he had been received and kept within the fold of 
 the English Church. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen soon became attracted by the 
 Brahma-Samaj, the Society founded by Rammohun 
 Roy, the early history of which I have tried to describe 
 before. The exact date of his joining that Society has 
 been much discussed. It was supposed to be 1 859 \ 
 but in a letter to Miss Collet, dated Nov. 23, 1872, he 
 wrote, ' I became a Brahma in 1857, when Debendra- 
 nath Tagore was in the Hills.' This was from aka 
 1778 to /S'aka 1780, A.D. 1856-1859, during the time 
 of the mutiny. Debendranath retired to the Hima- 
 
 1 'The New Dispensation and the Sadharan Brahma- Samaj,' by 
 Pandit Sjvanath Sastri, M.A., Madras, 1881, pp. 6, 15 ; 'Liberal,' March, 
 16, 23, 1854.
 
 54 BI03KAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 layas in 1855, and after three years of solitary con- 
 templation returned to Calcutta 1 . 
 
 The fact was not, however, much known to the 
 public till after Debendranath' s return. Unfortunately 
 the original document, written in Bengali by his own 
 hand, in which he declared that Brahmaism was the 
 only true religion in the world, and avowed his faith 
 in the holy Brahma Dharma, is lost. But the date is 
 of less consequence than the cause of his joining the 
 Brahma-Samaj . 
 
 The time had come for him to be formally initiated 
 in the mysteries of his ancestral religion, but Keshub 
 Chunder Sen declined to submit to any idolatrous 
 rites, and it was the persecution of his own family 
 which at that time drove him to seek refuge and ad- 
 vice with Debendranath Tagore. Their first meeting 
 was the beginning of a long friendship between the 
 man of fifty and the young disciple of twenty, a 
 friendship which, though outwardly severed for a time, 
 lasted in their hearts till it was severed at last by 
 Keshub Chunder Sen's death. Debendranath Tagore 
 was a rich man, and he enabled Keshub Chunder Sen 
 to maintain himself at Calcutta, and to work for the 
 cause they both had at heart. We soon hear of the 
 young convert at the head of a Brahma school, which 
 was finally established on the second floor of the 
 Brahma-Samaj. Here two lectures were given every 
 week, one in Bengali by Debendranath Tagore, the 
 other in English by Keshub Chunder Sen. 
 
 About the same time we find Keshub Chunder Sen 
 superintending the performance of a Bengali play, 
 
 1 See ' Faith and Progress of the Brahma-Samaj,' by P. C, Mozumdar, 
 Calcutta, 1882, p. 192.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 55 
 
 written by Umesh Chundra Mitra, and called Bidhaba 
 Bibaha Natak, ' The Marriage of the Widow.' This 
 play had a great success at the time, being intended to 
 influence public opinion in favour of widow-marriages. 
 
 In the same year, Nov. i, 1859, Keshub Chunder 
 Sen was appointed to a clerkship in the Bank of 
 Bengal, at a salary of ^36 a year, which was soon 
 raised to jf6o. His appointment left him sufficient 
 leisure to pursue his favourite studies, to write, and 
 even to lecture in public. His first tract, which 
 appeared in 1860, was called, 'Young Bengal, this is 
 for you.' In 1 860 we hear of his meeting Mr. Dyson 
 at Krishnaghur, in a public disputation on the merits 
 of Christianity and the Brahma religion. In the same 
 year he accompanied Debendranath Tagore and his 
 son Satyendranath to Ceylon. 
 
 In 1 86 1 Keshub Chunder Sen gave up his post in 
 the Bank of Bengal, having now determined to devote 
 his life to the religious regeneration of his country. 
 Speaking of that period of his life, he says l : 'I do not 
 believe in an absentee Lord. God is unto us all an 
 ever-present Deity. As I saw iny God, I naturally 
 asked him where I should go to find means of subsist- 
 ence and satisfy my hunger and thirst. To the Bank ? 
 To a mercantile office ? No. The Lord told me, in 
 plain and unmistakable language, to give up secular 
 work altogether. But I said, " Lord, will not my 
 family starve, if all means of subsistence are thus de- 
 liberately cut off 1 " " Talk not as an infidel," was the 
 reply. I was ashamed of my scepticism. I was assured 
 that "all things shall be added unto you. " He and 
 Debendranath Tagore were at that time like two souls 
 
 1 'Lectures in India,' p. 268.
 
 56 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and one thought. Debendranath Tagore wished his 
 young friend to assume the ministership of the Brahma- 
 Samaj, and Keshub Chunder Sen, who had till then 
 been tolerated as a member of a thoroughly orthodox 
 family, resolved to enter with his wife the house of 
 Debendranath Tagore, and to dine with a man looked 
 upon as a heretic and as excommunicated. Upon 
 this he himself was expelled from his family, and had 
 to live under the protection of his old friend, till in 
 December, 1862, he obtained re-admission to his an- 
 cestral house. In the same month his eldest son was 
 born. On the death of his father Keshub Chunder 
 Sen received his share of the ancestral property. 
 
 Being now less hampered in his public career, 
 Keshub Chunder Sen became more and more recog- 
 nised as the champion of the Brahma-Samaj. In his 
 lecture, delivered 8th of April, 1863, ' The Brahma- 
 Samaj vindicated,' he clearly defined his position, both 
 as against native opponents and Christian missionaries. 
 An association, called the Sangat, or Sangata-Sabha, 
 served as a centre for religious and moral discussions 
 between him and his followers. Rules were agreed 
 upon, pledges were taken, and the society became 
 more strictly organised. Idolatrous rites were entirely 
 put down. 
 
 The first Brahma marriage, which of course was 
 considered by native opinion as no marriage at all, 
 was celebrated as early as 1861, Debendranath Tagore 
 himself setting the bold example of allowing his 
 daughter to be married without the customary rites. 
 Other reforms followed. The birth-festivals the naming- 
 festivals, initiations, and funerals were all conducted 
 according to Brahmic rites. Even the sacred thread
 
 RESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 57 
 
 was thrown off, and Debendranath again set the first 
 example. We have no idea how hard this surrender 
 of cherished national customs appeared to many of the 
 Brahmas, and how deeply it afflicted those who had 
 wished not to break openly with their Brahma friends. 
 Still nothing could restrain the ardour of Keshub 
 Chunder Sen. In 1864, on the 9th of February, he 
 started for Madras. It was his first great missionary 
 enterprise, and he succeeded in planting a Brahnia- 
 Samaj in the Madras Presidency. From thence he 
 proceeded to Bombay, where he won many hearts, both 
 English and native, and then returned to Calcutta 
 with greater determination than ever to carry out his 
 great social and religious reform. Opposition only 
 roused his enthusiasm, friction only called out brighter 
 sparks of eloquence. His old friend, Debendranath 
 Tagore, continued for a long time the friend and fellow- 
 worker of Keshub Chunder Sen. We know that he 
 gave up the Sacred Thread, that ancient and harmless 
 religious symbol which even Rammohun Boy would 
 never part with, and which was found on his breast 
 after his death. 
 
 But at last even Debendranath became frightened, 
 or allowed himself to be frightened by his more 
 conservative friends. He and his friends were pre- 
 pared to give up all that was idolatrous and pernicious, 
 but they would not part with all their ancient na- 
 tional customs, they would not have their religion de- 
 nationalised. They found all they wanted in their 
 own ancient literature, and in the book of nature, open 
 before their eyes, while Keshub Chunder Sen was 
 looking more and more beyond the narrow frontiers 
 of India, and seeking for spiritual food in the Christian
 
 58 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Bible, and also, though in a less degree, in the Koran 
 and other sacred books. 
 
 The celebration of a marriage between persons of dif- 
 ferent castes in August 1864 produced a strong commo- 
 tion. It must not be forgotten that Keshub Chunder 
 Sen himself was not of Brahmanic descent. His ap- 
 pointment as Minister had hurt the feelings of other 
 Brahmas who, however much they might strive to be 
 free from prejudice, could not altogether forget that all 
 religious functions belonged by right to Brahmans and 
 to Brahmans only. When therefore Keshub Chunder 
 Sen insisted on making the removal of the Sacred 
 Thread a sine qud non of Brahma fellowship, they re- 
 belled. Debendranath Tagore, who was by age and 
 position the recognised head of the Brahmas, and who 
 had lifted Keshub Chunder Sen to the high office 
 which he held as Minister, suddenly dismissed his 
 young friend and his most active companions from all 
 posts of trust and influence in the Samaj l . 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen felt this deeply, but he was 
 not to be discouraged. The separation took place in 
 February, 1865, and as early as the nth of November, 
 1866, he and his friends had founded a new society, 
 still called the Brahma-Samaj, but the Brahma-Samaj 
 of India, while the conservative Samaj now went by 
 the name of the Adi Brahma-Samaj, i.e. the First or 
 Original Brahma-Samaj. 
 
 There was naturally more activity in the new than 
 in the old Church. Debendranath Tagore was tired 
 of the world, and often spent many years in succession 
 in the recesses of the Himalayan mountains in undis- 
 turbed communion with God, while the affairs of the 
 
 1 See the correspondence in the ' Tattvabodhini Patrika,' No. 264,
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 59 
 
 Sainaj were managed by Rajanarayan Bose and a 
 Committee. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, on the contrary, after he had 
 once come to the front, never left his place. He and 
 many of his followers gave up all secular employ- 
 ment, and became preachers, teachers, and missionaries. 
 ' From comfortable and easy circumstances several 
 came down to want and poverty, and had, on many 
 occasions, to go without even the bare necessaries of 
 life.' They published books of theistic texts from all 
 the Sacred Books of the world ; they built a new 
 Prayer Hall in 1869, and Keshub Chunder Sen, by 
 his marvellous eloquence not only in Bengali but in 
 English, won thousands of hearts for his cause. New 
 journals were started, new schools opened, and great 
 efforts were made to raise the women of India, so as 
 to make them fit fellow-labourers in the cause of re- 
 ligious and social reform. 
 
 In doctrine there was little that divided Debendra- 
 nath from Keshub. ' The fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of men' formed the common ground of 
 their faith and their work. Their opinions also on the 
 true character of the Veda were the same. Both 
 had surrendered their faith in the revealed character 
 of the Veda, both looked to other scriptures as well as 
 the Veda for light and guidance. 
 
 The following is an authoritative summary of the 
 doctrines of the old Brahma-Samaj as accepted by 
 Debendranath Tagore. The same doctrines were em- 
 braced from the first by Keshub Chunder Sen, and 
 with slight modifications held by him to the last l . 
 
 1 'Brief History of the Calcutta Brjttima-Samaj from 1830 to 1867,' 
 Calcutta, 1868, p. 17.
 
 60 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 I. The Book of Nature and Intuition form the basis 
 of the Brahmaic faith. 
 
 II. Although the Brahmas do not consider any 
 book, written by man, as the basis of their religion, 
 yet they do accept, with respect and pleasure, any 
 truth contained in any book. 
 
 III. The Brahmas believe that the religious condi- 
 tion of man is progressive, like the other parts of his 
 condition in this world. 
 
 IV. They believe that tin fundamental doctrines of 
 their religion are at the basis of every religion fol- 
 lowed by man. 
 
 V. They believe in the existence -of One Supreme 
 God, a God endowed with a distinct personality, moral 
 attributes equal to His nature, and intelligence befit- 
 ting the Governor of the Universe, and worship Him 
 Him alone. They do not believe in His incarna- 
 tion. 
 
 VI. They believe in the immortality and progressive 
 state of the soul, and declare that there is a state of 
 conscious existence succeeding life in this world, and 
 supplementary to it, as respects the action of the uni- 
 versal moral government. 
 
 VII. They believe that repentance is the only way 
 to atonement and salvation. They do not recognise 
 any other mode of reconcilement to the offended but 
 loving Father. 
 
 VIII. They pray for spiritual welfare, and believe 
 in the efficacy of such prayers. 
 
 IX. They believe in the Providential care of the 
 Divine Father.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 61 
 
 X. They avow that love towards Him, and per- 
 forming the works He loves, constitutes His worship. 
 
 XI. They recognise the necessity of public worship, 
 but do not believe that they cannot hold communion 
 with the Great Father without resorting to any fixed 
 place at any fixed time. They maintain that we can 
 adore Him at any time and at any place, provided that 
 time and that place are calculated to compose and 
 direct the mind towards Him. 
 
 XII. They do not believe in pilgrimages, but declare 
 that holiness can only be attained by elevating and 
 purifying the mind. 
 
 XIII. They do not perform any rites or ceremonies, 
 or believe in penances as instrumental in obtaining 
 the grace of God. They declare that moral righteous- 
 ness, the gaining of wisdom, Divine contemplation, 
 charity, and the cultivation of devotional feelings are 
 their rites and ceremonies. They further say, Go- 
 vern and regulate your feelings, discharge your duties 
 to God and to man, and you will gain everlasting 
 blessedness. Purify your heart, cultivate devotional 
 feelings, and you will see Him who is unseen. 
 
 XIV. Theoretically there is no distinction of caste 
 among the Brahmas. They declare that we are the 
 children of God, and therefore must consider ourselves 
 as brothers and sisters. 
 
 If we compare this Confession of Faith with the de- 
 claration of principles delivered by Keshub Chunder 
 Sen at the opening of his own Church (Mandira), on 
 August 22, 1869, we shall find little difference between 
 the two, though in the practical carrying out of their 
 doctrines their roads were diverging more and more.
 
 62 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen on that occasion read the 
 following statement l : 
 
 ' To-day, by Divine Grace, the public worship of 
 God is instituted in these premises for the use of the 
 Brahma community. Every day, at least every week, 
 the One only God without a second, the Perfect and 
 Infinite, the Creator of all, Omnipresent, Almighty, 
 All-knowing, All-merciful, and All-holy, shall be wor- 
 shipped in these premises. No created object shall be 
 worshipped here. No man or inferior being or mate- 
 rial object shall be worshipped here, as identical with 
 God or like unto God, or as an incarnation of God ; 
 and no prayer or hymn shall be offered or chanted 
 unto or in the name of any except God. No carved 
 or painted image, no outward symbol which has been 
 or may hereafter be used by any sect for the purpose 
 of worship, or the remembrance of a particular event, 
 shall be preserved here. No creature shall be sacri- 
 ficed here. Neither eating, nor drinking, nor any 
 manner of mirth or amusement shall be allowed here. 
 No created being or object that has been or may here- 
 after be worshipped by any sect shall be ridiculed or 
 contemned in the course of the Divine service to be 
 conducted here. No book shall be acknowledged or 
 revered as the infallible word of God; yet no book 
 which has been or may hereafter be acknowledged by 
 any sect to be infallible, shall be ridiculed or con- 
 temned. No sect shall be vilified, ridiculed, or hated. 
 No prayer, hymn, sermon, or discourse to be delivered 
 or used here shall countenance or encourage any manner 
 of idolatry, sectarianism, or sin. Divine service shall 
 be conducted here in such spirit and manner as may 
 
 1 'Brahma Year-Book,' 1876, p. 11.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 63 
 
 enable all men and women, irrespective of distinctions 
 of caste, colour, and condition, to unite in one family, 
 eschew all manner of error and sin, and advance in 
 wisdom, faith, and righteousness. The congregation 
 of "The Brahma Mandira of India" shall worship God 
 in these premises according to the rules and principles 
 hereinbefore set forth.' 
 
 What were the exact causes of the breach between 
 Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chunder Sen it is 
 difficult to say. They were hardly doctrinal, as any 
 one may see who compares these two confessions. 
 They were not personal, for the two friends, though 
 outwardly separated, remained united by mutual feel- 
 ings of love and veneration. They were, so far as we 
 can judge, such as arise when practical measures have 
 to be discussed and decisions have to be taken. Then 
 interests seem to clash, misunderstandings become in- 
 evitable, misrepresentations are resorted to, and news- 
 paper gossip makes retreat from untenable positions 
 very difficult. So far as I can judge, Debendranath 
 and his friends were averse to unnecessary innovations, 
 and afraid of anything likely to wound the national 
 feelings of the great mass of the people. They wanted 
 before all to retain the national character of their re- 
 ligion. ' A so-called universal form,' they said, 
 1 would make our religion appear grotesque and ridi- 
 culous to the nation.' They pleaded for toleration 
 for Hindu usages and customs which appeared to them 
 innocent. 'If a progressive Brahma,' they argued, 
 ' requires a conservative one to reject those portions 
 which the former considers to be idolatrous, but the 
 latter does not, he denies liberty of conscience to a 
 fellow-Brahma.'
 
 64 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 It may be that Keshub Chunder Sen's devotion to 
 Christ also, which became more pronounced from year 
 to year, disquieted the minds of the Brahmas. After 
 his lecture on 'Jesus Christ, Europe and Asia,' de- 
 livered in May, 1866, many people, I am told, both 
 native and European, felt convinced that Keshub 
 Chunder Sen would openly embrace Christianity. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, however, was at that time 
 absorbed far less in doctrinal questions than in prac- 
 tical measures of progress and reform, To quote the 
 words of his friend Protap Chunder Mozurndar \ ' The 
 great spiritual exercises and emotional excitement be- 
 gan, and the first devotional festival was celebrated in 
 November, 1867. Side by side with the spiritual ex- 
 citement the most radical social reforms were com- 
 menced, the Native Marriage Act was passed, the 
 Indian Reform Association with its five sections was 
 established in 1870, and the Bharat Asram (or the 
 Indian Hermitage) was opened in 1872. A Female 
 Normal School was founded for training lady-teachers, 
 and a temperance movement was supported by a 
 special journal. 
 
 Brahma-Samajas began to spring up in different 
 parts of the country as a result of this new agency. 
 A most active missionary organisation was constituted, 
 and the preachers were sent to travel from one 
 part of the country to the other. All this culminated 
 in the missionary expedition of 1879. The whole 
 movement under the influence of such manifold ac- 
 tivities began to take a new shape. New doctrines 
 were conceived and preached. Yoga (spiritual exer- 
 cises), Bhakti (devotion and love), and Asceticism were 
 
 1 'Faith and Progress,' p. 39.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 65 
 
 explained from a new point of view. Great reverence 
 was felt for Christ and other Masters ; pilgrimages to 
 saints and prophets were encouraged ; sacraments and 
 ceremonials were instituted ; and at last the New Dis- 
 pensation, as the highest development of the Brahma- 
 Samaj, was proclaimed in 1880. 
 
 Much as I sympathise with Keshub Chunder Sen, 
 I am not prepared to say that his movement was in 
 every respect an advance beyond the point reached by 
 Debendranath Tagore. In one sense it might even be 
 called a retrogression. To those who are acquainted 
 with Hindu philosophy I could explain the difference 
 between the two teachers very briefly, namely as a 
 change from pure Vedanta to Yoga. Debendranath 
 Tagore had fully realised the philosophic poetry of 
 the Upanishads and the more systematic teaching of 
 the Vedanta-Sutras. He had found rest there, and 
 he wanted little more. Keshub Chunder Sen saw 
 that lofty height of thought at certain moments of his 
 life, but he never reached it. And this, though to 
 Debendranath it must have seemed weakness, con- 
 stituted in many respects Keshub Chunder Sen's real 
 strength. While Debendranath was absorbed in him- 
 self, Keshub laboured all his life, not for himself only, 
 but for others. He wanted a pure but popular religion 
 and philosophy for those who were still in the lowest 
 stage of mythological faith, and this Debendranath 
 could not give them. 
 
 P. C. Mozumdar seems to have felt the same, when 
 he said 1 : ' The present generation of Brahmas were 
 intensely impressed through their Chief Teacher, De- 
 bendranath Tagore, with the supreme fact that God 
 
 1 'Theistic Review and Interpreter,' July, 1881, p. 16. 
 F
 
 66 BIQ3RAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 was an indwelling Spirit, and an All-pervading Soul. 
 But it must be confessed that for purposes of personal 
 piety, for tender devotions such as may call sinners to 
 repentance and give salvation to the sorrow-stricken, 
 the exalted teaching of Debendranath Tagore, great as 
 it was, was not sufficient. Our conceptions required 
 more fulness and definiteness. Though from the lips 
 of the revered saint the strange beatitudes of his own 
 faith fell like honey, and we drank it, and were filled 
 with gladness and enthusiasm, yet God was to us an 
 unknown God. . . . Keshub Chunder Sen is and 
 always has been a man of prayer. He began his 
 religious life by appealing to God to show him the 
 light of His face. He always insisted upon realising 
 the presence of God before him, as the idolater, who 
 unmistakeably saw his idol present near his own body. 
 Thus one of his characteristic teachings is that of 
 seeing God. He means of course spiritual perception, 
 vivid realisation in faith of the presence of the Supreme 
 Spirit. But this process he describes to be exceed- 
 ingly simple and natural. He says, in one of his 
 sermons, that ' as it is easy for the body to see and 
 hear, so it ought to be easy for the soul to see and 
 hear. Hard struggles are not necessary for the soul 
 to see God. Bring the soul to its natural condition, 
 and you will succeed.' 
 
 It is difficult to understand why all this good work 
 should have roused so much opposition, not only among 
 those who were opposed to all reforms, but among 
 Keshub Chunder Sen's own friends. No doubt in 
 some of his utterances and in some of his public acts 
 he might have seemed extravagant. But religious re- 
 formers cannot be judged according to the ordinary
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 67 
 
 rules of taste. It is sad indeed to have to confess that 
 there is something in human nature that resents success 
 for its own sake. Keshub Chunder's Sen's success as 
 a preacher and as a leader was, no doubt, very great. 
 Drunkards were reclaimed, men of abandoned charac- 
 ter were made to feel the influence of the Divine 
 Name. Lord Lawrence invited the young reformer to 
 Simla, and the house reserved for the reception of dis- 
 tinguished native visitors was placed at his disposal. 
 We need not ascribe the violent abuse which began 
 to be poured forth at the same time in the newspapers 
 to the worst of all motives, mere envy. We may 
 admit that even envy arises sometimes from a sense 
 of justice, from a feeling that success ought to be in a 
 certain proportion to merit. Eut what surprises the, 
 unprejudiced student of that painful and instructive 
 chapter of history is the unreasonableness of the charges 
 brought against Keshub Chunder Sen. It was his 
 lecture on ' Great Men,' delivered about five months 
 after his lecture on Christ, which supplied the chief 
 indictment against him. While in the eyes of his 
 orthodox countrymen he was a heretic and atheist, he 
 was accused by some of his own followers of aspiring 
 to the honour due to the Godhead only, and his most 
 intimate friends were found guilty of man-worship. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, though feeling perfectly guilt- 
 less, had to defend himself, but in doing so, he only 
 incurred new blame from his adversaries, namely that 
 of mock-humility. There is no crime which a partisan 
 cannot defend, there is no purity which a rival can- 
 not besmirch. It is a pity that men should not know 
 this and should bemean themselves by defending 
 themselves against charges of which the grand-jury of 
 
 F 2
 
 68 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 their own heart finds them innocent. These charges 
 were continued from year to year, and it may be well 
 to give here at least one specimen of his defence, 
 though it dates from a later time, from a lecture de- 
 livered at the Forty -fifth Anniversary of the Brahma- 
 Samaj (1875). 'To dwell in love,' he said (p. 30), 'is 
 to dwell in heaven. Accept then the gospel of love as 
 the gospel of universal redemption. ... I have borne 
 witness to the truth, and if you, friends and country- 
 men, accept what I have said, it will undoubtedly 
 conduce to your spiritual welfare. . . . But I fear 
 I may run some risk in quite another direction. I 
 apprehend I may be accepted as a teacher by un- 
 thinking thousands among my countrymen. They 
 may turn round to me, and pointing to the scheme of 
 salvation I have set forth, say, We shall accept you 
 as our teacher, for you profess to have received from 
 Heaven the light of our salvation. This may mean a 
 compliment, and many are its temptations. But to me 
 it is repulsive, and the Lord directs me to repel the offer 
 as a snare and a danger. You know how in India re- 
 ligion has degenerated into hero-worship. . . . Look- 
 ing upon this painful spectacle, my heart naturally 
 shudders and recoils from the thought of setting up as 
 a teacher. I shrink back from the awful respon- 
 sibilities which attach to the position of a religious 
 guide. Nay, without any hesitation or equivocation 
 I can emphatically assure you I am not a teacher, 
 and I will never be a teacher unto my countrymen. 
 ... If you believe in God, believe that He has 
 not commissioned me to be an infallible guide unto 
 you. . . . The very creed my mouth has preached to- 
 day disowns me, and points to God alone as the source
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEK SEN. 69 
 
 of all truth. If you exalt me as a teacher, and then 
 falling down before me accept every utterance of mine 
 as a divine message, you do so at the risk of debasing 
 yourselves and jeopardising your highest interests. 
 You will perhaps say, this is nothing but humility 
 and modesty, so common among professed preachers. 
 I say candidly, I claim neither humility nor honour 
 before my countrymen. I am not in the least anxious 
 that you should credit me with extraordinary self- 
 abasement or self-esteem. I simply state a fact. 
 . . . All that I contend for is this, that whatever 
 truth there may be in my teachings should be ac- 
 cepted and followed, not for my sake, but for the 
 sake of the truth itself. Let not my name carry 
 the weight of authority. ... In the economy of 
 Providence, opposition, far from extinguishing, sets 
 ablaze the torch of truth by skaking it. Am I afraid 
 of those who have conspired to resist the progress of 
 the true gospel? Depend upon me, the Lord shall 
 confound and discomfit them, and His truth shall pre- 
 vail at last. . . . Have I not been slandered and 
 abused, for some years past, in the cruelest manner, and 
 has not the vilest calumny been heaped upon the men 
 and women who have taken shelter under the present 
 dispensation? Most scandalous charges have from 
 time to time been brought against us, which, if true, 
 would render us odious and detestable in the estima- 
 tion of all mankind. I repudiate these unfounded and 
 false imputations with a clear conscience. Far be it 
 from me to attempt a personal vindication. The 
 righteousness of the cause I advocate and the purity 
 and sincerity of my motives will vindicate themselves 
 in the course of time.'
 
 70 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 This language shows how deeply Keshub Chunder 
 Sen felt the charges which envy and ignorance engen- 
 dered in the hearts of his countrymen. Of course, he 
 claimed inspiration, and no artificial, exceptional, or 
 miraculous, but the real, natural, and only true inspi- 
 ration which every one knows who knows what truth 
 is, and who has felt his heart vibrate, if only once, in per- 
 fect unison with the voice of God; What he meant by 
 inspiration he tries to explain again and again. Thus 
 in his lecture at the Forty-third Anniversary of the 
 Brahma-Samaj (1873), he first of all explains his con- 
 ception of Prayer. ' Men,' he says (p. 8), ' had always 
 to pray for salvation before they received it. None 
 received it who did not ask for it. Ever since man 
 was created, the whole spiritual world has been go- 
 verned by the immutable law of prayer. The law ia, 
 Ask, and it shall be given you ; Seek, and ye shall 
 find ; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. . . . 
 We must assume the attitude of prayer before God 
 reveals His light unto us. ... It is absurd to think 
 that God breaks or suspends His laws or keeps them 
 in abeyance every time He responds to our prayers. 
 To grant a prayer is to act in accordance with fixed 
 laws, not in opposition to them. . . . Assuredly God 
 does speak to us in reply to every word we say unto 
 Him. He either rebukes our hypocrisy and wicked- 
 ness or He grants our requests. He either sends us 
 away from His presence with a warning and a repri- 
 mand, or heaven rings with a loud Amen to our 
 humble prayers. . . . Only those who pray in the 
 right spirit hear a favourable response. Those who 
 truly ask receive ; those who truly seek find. The 
 law of prayer is immutable.'
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 71 
 
 After having thus explained prayer as a conforming 
 to the will of God, he proceeds to explain what he 
 means by Inspiration. 'Let us see now what Inspira- 
 tion is. It is the thrilling and, I may add, the electri- 
 fying response which God gives to our prayers. I 
 have already told you that prayer and inspiration are 
 two sides of the same fact of spiritual life. Man asks 
 and God gives. The spirit of man kneels, and is 
 quickened by the spirit of God. The cause and the 
 effect seem hardly distinguishable, and in the reci- 
 procal action of the human and the divine spirits there 
 is a mysterious unity. Hardly has man opened his 
 heart in prayer, when the tide of inspiration sets in. 
 The moment you put your ringer in contact with fire 
 you instantly feel a burning sensation. So with 
 prayer and the consequent inspiration. The effect is 
 immediate, necessary, and inevitable. . . . We must not 
 regard inspiration as God speaking by fits and starts, 
 but as a perpetual breathing of His spirit. . . . Whether 
 we hear Him or not, He speaks always ; whether we 
 catch the rays of His inspiration or not, He shines 
 eternally, and sends forth His light in all directions. 
 . . . With the profoundest reverence be it said that it 
 is possible for man to put on God. For then self is 
 completely lost in conscious godliness, and you feel 
 that you do nothing of yourself, and that all your 
 holy thoughts, words, and actions are only the breath- 
 ings of the Holy Spirit. So the great prophets of 
 earlier times thought and felt. ... In the highest 
 stage man's aspiration and God's inspiration are con- 
 tinually exchanged with all the ease and force of 
 natural breath. They become in fact the soul's vital 
 breath without which it cannot breathe.'
 
 72 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 But we must not anticipate. While all this spiritual 
 fermentation was going on, while some members of the 
 Brahma-Samaj were frightened by the fearless pro- 
 gress of their young leader, and others began to 
 clamour that even he did not advance fast enough, 
 Keshub Chunder Sen himself suddenly announced his 
 intention of leaving the battle-field for a time and 
 paying a visit to England. That resolution was carried 
 out almost as soon as it was conceived, and in the year 
 1870 Keshub Chunder Sen landed in England. 
 
 His stay in EC gland was a constant triumph. ' He 
 had many personal characteristics,' as the Indian 
 Dally News truly said, ' which fitted him for religious 
 work. A fine countenance, a majestic presence, and 
 that rapt look which of itself exerts an almost irre- 
 sistible fascination over impressible minds, lent won- 
 derful force to a swift, kindling, and poetical oratory 
 which married itself to his highly spiritual teaching as 
 perfect music unto noble words/ 
 
 I need not dwell here on the successive events of 
 his sojourn in London and his journeys to the principal 
 towns. All this has been well described by Miss 
 Collet, and many of my readers must remember his 
 eloquent addresses and the deep impression which 
 they produced in the widest spheres. His name has 
 become almost a household word in England, and 
 I have been struck, when lecturing in different places, 
 to find that the mere mention of Keshub Chunder 
 Sen's name elicited applause for which I was hardly 
 prepared. I made his personal acquaintance in London 
 at the house of my friend, Dean Stanley. He after- 
 wards paid a visit to me at Oxford, and our friend- 
 ship, which then began, has lasted to the end.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 73 
 
 While at Oxford, I took him to see Dr. Pusey, and 
 I regret that I did not write down at the time the 
 deeply interesting conversation that passed between 
 the two. I saw a short account of that meeting in the 
 1 Liberal ' of June i, 1 884 : ' Mr. Sen paid flying visits to 
 Oxford and Cambridge. At the latter place he saw his 
 old friend, Mr. Cowell, and had also a friendly interview 
 with Mr. F. Maurice, whose broad and tolerant views 
 so well agreed with those of his Eastern friend. To 
 Oxford he went accompanied by Professor Max Miiller. 
 The most remarkable incident of this visit was his in- 
 terview with Dr. Pusey. Mr. Sen and Professor Max 
 Muller were shown into a small room upon the tables 
 and floors of which were scattered heaps of books and 
 papers in delightful confusion, in the midst of them 
 all being seated the venerable figure that had stood 
 many storms, led many controversies, and gained 
 many trophies. A serious talk ensued, in the course 
 of which Professor Max Miiller asked if a man in the 
 position of Mr. Sen should receive salvation. Dr. 
 Pusey answered with a smile, " Yes, I think he will." 
 This was no small compliment and concession from 
 the man who had no word to say in favour of Dr. 
 Colenso.' 
 
 I need hardly say that the question was not asked 
 quite so abruptly. Dr. Pusey was at first reserved till 
 the conversation turned on prayer. Keshub Chunder 
 Sen, while defending his own position towards Chris- 
 tianity, burst out into an eloquent panegyric on prayer, 
 which ended with the words, ' I am always praying.' 
 This touched Pusey 's heart, and he said, 'Then you 
 cannot be far wrong.' I hesitate now to write down 
 from memory what followed afterwards. I only know
 
 74 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS'. 
 
 that I never heard Pusey speak with so much of truly 
 poetical eloquence. There was an image of an evening 
 in a village churchyard which he drew with a few 
 graphic words, and which has remained in my memory 
 ever since, though I should not venture to copy it 
 here. It was meant to illustrate the affection of the 
 people for their Church, around which they buried 
 what was dearest to them in this life. My rather 
 abrupt-sounding question was addressed to Dr. Pusey, 
 after he had been expatiating on what seemed to him 
 necessary for salvation, in answer to Keshub Chunder 
 Sen, who had maintained that on all that was essen- 
 tial in Christ's teaching he was at one with the best 
 of English divines. Dr. Pusey's remarks seemed to me 
 to describe a form of Christianity which neither Keshub 
 Chunder Sen nor India at large could ever accept, 
 nay, which I thought St. Paul himself would not have 
 accepted, and I therefore ventured to interpose the 
 question whether, at the time of Christ, a man who 
 believed what Keshub Chunder Sen believed would 
 or would not have been received as a disciple. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen came to England to see and 
 to learn. He saw the most distinguished statesmen, 
 scholars, and divines, and made a real study of all the 
 institutions intended for the improvement of the 
 young, the succour of the sick, and the punishment of 
 criminals. ' I have come to England,' he said, ' to 
 study the spirit of Christian philanthropy, of Christian 
 charity, and honourable Christian self-denial.' The 
 Queen, knowing how great a power for good he wielded 
 in India, granted him a private audience, which left 
 an indelible impression on his heart. 
 
 But though Keshub Chunder Sen came to learn, he
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 75 
 
 had also to teach and to preach. People of all shades 
 of opinion wished to know what a man like him, who 
 was believed to be thoroughly honest, really thought 
 of the religion of Christ. Some wished to know why 
 he believed so much, others why he did not believe 
 all. The answers which he gave to these enquiries 
 are extremely interesting,, but it is difficult to sum- 
 marise them by means of extracts. The following 
 article from the ' Indian Mirror,' reprinted in ' Essays, 
 Theological and Ethical,' Calcutta, 1874, p. 35, will 
 give, I believe, a sufficiently clear and complete idea 
 of his conception of Christ and Christianity and their 
 importance for India : ' There is an infinite diversity 
 of opinions among Indian Theists respecting Jesus of 
 Nazareth, ranging from intense hatred on the one 
 hand to profound reverence and personal attachment 
 on the other. Not a few there are who look upon 
 him with almost the same spirit of sectarian antipathy 
 and abhorrence as Hindus, and even go to the length 
 of calling him an impostor. Such ideas are happily 
 dying out. The vast majority of our brethren of the 
 liberal school cherish respect and gratitude towards 
 Christ, and some even accept him as a guide and 
 master. We have no desire to enter into a theolo- 
 gical controversy on this subject, but we think it 
 necessary to say a few words to point out the manner 
 in which we accept Christ, so as to make him unto us 
 not a source of wranglings and disputes, but of life, 
 strength, and righteousness. We Theists must take it 
 to be foreign to our purpose to canvass the thousand 
 theories which have been propounded about him 
 and his creed ; but surely it is our interest and duty 
 to receive from him that healthy moral influence
 
 76 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 which he is appointed in God's economy to exercise 
 on the world, to love him and revere him and follow 
 his teachings and example. We must remember that 
 there is a bodily Christ and a spiritual Christ, a local 
 Christ and a universal Christ, a dead Christ and a 
 living Christ. Orthodox Christians may deal with 
 the former and seek revelation and salvation in the 
 visible and tangible incidents of the Christ that was. 
 But our business is with the spiritual, universal, and 
 living Christ. What shall we do with the body** We 
 want the spirit. Not the son of man, but the son of 
 God in Christ is needful for our salvation. In the 
 purely human Christ we can hardly feel any interest ; 
 but the divine elements of his character come home 
 to every man's bosom and business, and are of the 
 highest importance to our redemption as involving the 
 eternal and universal principles of ethics. By Christ 
 we mean not the person bearing that name, not his 
 form and flesh, but the spirit he embodied, the spirit 
 of faith, love, righteousness and sacrifice of which 
 he was unquestionably a noble impersonation. We 
 always attach to him this significance ; we look upon 
 him in this light; we try to imitate and follow him 
 as such. He does not come to us as God, the Father, 
 Ruler, and Saviour, in human form ; he is not an ad- 
 vocate or intercessor striving to appease an angry 
 deity ; he does not present himself to us as an external 
 fact to be believed on historical testimony ; nor is he 
 to us a mere good man who lived a pious life and died 
 a noble death. Christ stands before us always as an 
 incarnation of faith and loyalty to God, an example of 
 self-sacrificing devotion to truth ; he is to be accepted 
 iu spirit and converted into an internal fact of our
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 77 
 
 life; he is to live in us perpetually as the spirit of 
 godliness. We do not care to believe in the outward 
 and dead Nazarene, or make a declaration of such be- 
 lief in an orthodox style. But we do care to assimilate 
 the spirit of Christ to our souls. We must eat the 
 flesh and drink the blood of the spiritual Christ, and 
 thus incorporate into our spiritual constitution the 
 principles of faith and sacrifice, love and obedience 
 which he embodied. Thus the spirit of Christ shall 
 constantly abide in us as the living Christ ; thus in- 
 stead of adoring him or praying to him, we shall ever 
 strive to enter into deeper communion with his spirit, 
 and to advance nearer and nearer to the Infinite 
 Father with the spirit of that holy brother's faith and 
 love growing within us.' 
 
 After his return to India Keshub Chunder Sen set to 
 work to apply some of the lessons which he had learnt 
 in England. It was then that he and his followers 
 established their Boarding House, called the Bharata 
 Acrama, or the Indian Hermitage. He organised the 
 Indian Reform Association, with its five branches 
 for Female Improvement, Education, Cheap Literature, 
 Temperance, and Charity. A Normal School for train- 
 ing lady-teachers began to do useful work, and a 
 special journal was started to spread the principles of 
 temperance. Industrial schools, night schools, and 
 other charitable experiments followed, but in the at- 
 tempt to do so much at once, failure and disappoint- 
 ment were inevitable. Others went even beyond 
 Keshub Chunder Sen. Against his advice, women 
 were admitted to public seats in church and at other 
 meetings. On the iQth of March, 1872, the Brahma 
 Marriage Bill was passed, which legalised marriages
 
 78 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 concluded according to the simple Brahma ritual, 
 prohibited polygamy among Brahmas, and fixed the 
 minimum age of fourteen for the bride, and of eighteen 
 for the bridegroom. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen was during all that time the 
 recognised leader of the Brahma-Samaj of India, but 
 the greater his influence grew, the stronger grew also 
 the spirit of opposition among his followers. His 
 government seemed too despotic even to Oriental 
 minds, and his frequent appeal to what he called 
 Adesa or Divine Command did not tend to conciliate 
 the feelings of his adversaries. While this discontent 
 was growing stronger and stronger, Keshub Chunder 
 Sen suddenly announced the betrothal of his daughter 
 to the Rajah of Cutch Behar. This was the spark 
 that made the mine explode. His daughter was nearly, 
 but not quite fourteen, and the young Rajah not yet 
 sixteen. Therefore Keshub Chunder Sen was accused 
 of having broken the Brahma Marriage Law, which 
 he had been chiefly instrumental in getting carried, 
 and was considered as no longer fit to be Minister of 
 the Samaj. Keshub Chunder Sen would not listen to 
 any remonstrances. He simply appealed to Ade,a or 
 the voice of conscience within, and when some mem- 
 bers of his congregation voted his deposition, he took 
 forcible possession of the pulpit in his own Mandira, 
 nay, he called on the police to help him. This finished 
 the schism. Many of his former adherents left him, 
 and founded on the I5th of May, 1878, a new Samaj, 
 called the Sadharan Brahma Samaj, or the Catholic 
 Samaj . 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen seems to me never to have re- 
 covered from this blow. An insidious disease was at
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 79 
 
 the same time undermining his health, making him 
 not only irritable, but at times not quite master of his 
 thoughts. If his friends had been more forbearing, if 
 they had remembered his past services, and given him 
 credit for those excellent intentions which he had so 
 often proved by sacrifices of every kind, my impression 
 is that Keshub Chunder Sen might have recovered his 
 health, his intellectual balance, and his power for doing 
 good. But we are all very exacting with men whom 
 we love and honour, and our friend is only another 
 instance of an idol, first worshipped and then broken. 
 
 We need not dwell at great length on this painful 
 chapter in Keshub Chunder Sen's life, as I intend at the 
 end of this article to publish some of the letters which 
 passed between us, and which will contain his views 
 and my own on the most important points at issue. 
 
 In the year 1880 Keshub Chunder Sen began to 
 speak of what he called a New Dispensation, by which 
 he meant no doubt a special manifestation of God's 
 will. He says himself, ' When men are hopelessly 
 gone in the way of misery and ruin, when a thick 
 gloom of sin settles upon society, when human eye- 
 sight is unable to discern the right path, it is then 
 that Providence sends to the world one of those men 
 whose life has been sold to His almighty will.' 
 
 This no doubt refers to himself, but it is no more 
 than what he had expressed already in his lecture on 
 ' Great Men.' I can see no harm, nor any overweening 
 conceit in it. It is after all our human weakness only 
 which makes us look on a special manifestation of 
 God's will as something higher than a general mani- 
 festation, as if before a perfect Being there could be 
 any distinction between what is special and what is
 
 80 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 general. To Keshub Chunder Sen, the more he was 
 deserted, the more he felt himself alone with God, and 
 inclined to look upon himself as the recipient of a 
 special revelation of God's goodness and wisdom. His 
 few remaining friends used even stronger language, 
 and spoke of him as the Heaven-appointed Missionary 
 of the Brahma-Samaj, and of his utterances as infal- 
 lible. Keshub Chunder Sen himself might protest 
 against this extravagance as strongly as he could, 
 the outcry against him became only more violent, and 
 an understanding between the two contending parties 
 became more hopeless every day. My only hope for 
 conciliation and peace between them lay in com- 
 mon practical work, and, more especially, in the or- 
 ganisation of a large system of charity. This I recom- 
 mended as strongly as I could, as far superior to new 
 ceremonies, new doctrines, new names. Eut it was in 
 vain, at least during Keshub Chunder Sen's life. 
 
 Two points only seemed to me of real importance 
 in the teaching of his last years, first, the striving 
 after a universal religion and the recognition of a 
 common substance in all religions ; secondly, the more 
 open recognition of the historical superiority of Chris- 
 tianity as compared with more ancient forms of faith. 
 Keshub Chunder Sen rejoiced in the discovery that, 
 from the first, all religions were but varying forms of 
 one great truth. This was his pearl of great price. 
 To him it changed the whole aspect of the world, and 
 gave a new meaning to his life. That the principle 
 of historical growth or natural evolution applied to 
 religion also, as I had tried to prove in my books 
 on the Science of Religion, was to him the solution 
 of keenly felt difficulties, a real solace in his own
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEK SEN. 81 
 
 perplexities. Thus he writes in his Lecture, ' The Apo- 
 stles of the New Dispensation 1 : ' ' Only science can de- 
 liver the world, and bring light and order out of the 
 chaos and darkness of multiplied Churches. If there is 
 science in all things, is there no science in the dispensa- 
 tions of God 1 Do these alone in God's creation stand 
 beyond the reign of law and order ? Are they the arbi- 
 trary and erratic movements of chance 1 Are they the 
 madness and delirium of nature ? . . . Sure I am that 
 amid their apparent anomalies and contradictions 
 there is a logical unity of idea and method, and an 
 unbroken continuity of sequence. All these Dispen- 
 sations are connected with each other in the economy 
 of Providence. They are linked together in one con- 
 tinuous chain, which may be traced to the earliest 
 ages. They are a concatenated series of ideas, which 
 show a systematic evolution of thought and develop- 
 ment of religious life.' 
 
 And again (p. 380) : ' Such is the New Dispensation. 
 It is the harmony of all scriptures and prophets and 
 dispensations. It is not an isolated creed, but the 
 science which finds and explains and harmonises all 
 religions. It gives to history a meaning, to the action 
 of Providence a consistency, to quarrelling Churches 
 a common bond, and to successive dispensations a 
 continuity. It shows by a marvellous synthesis how 
 the different rainbow colours are one in the light 
 of heaven. The New Dispensation is the sweet 
 music of divers instruments. It is the precious 
 necklace in which are strung together the rubies 
 and pearls of all ages and climes. It is the celes- 
 tial Court where around enthroned Divinity shine 
 
 1 '-Lecture* in India,' p. 356. 
 Q
 
 82 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the lights of all heavenly saints and prophets. It 
 is the wonderful solvent which fuses all dispensa- 
 tions into a new chemical compound. It is the mighty 
 absorbent which absorbs all that is true and good and 
 beautiful in the objective world.' 
 
 I could not command the fervour of feeling and the 
 eloquent expression of these lines, but I agree entirely 
 with the thought which Keshub Chunder Sen has 
 tried to place before us, and I hope that in India 
 more than anywhere else, and in the Brahma- Samaj 
 sooner than in any other communion, the principle of 
 the historical evolution of all religious thought will 
 be recognised, and if not raised into an article of faith, 
 accepted at least as an undoubted fact. 
 
 If, as his opponents say, this is not a new theory, so 
 much the better. And if they quote from the Bhaga- 
 vata Pura^a the verse, ' As the bee gathereth honey 
 from flowers great and small, so does the really wise 
 man gather substantial truth from the chafT of all 
 scriptures great and small,' I say again, so much the 
 better. Truth does not spoil by growing old. 
 
 I have hitherto spoken chiefly in defence of Keshub 
 Chunder Sen, but I am not so blinded by my friendship 
 for him as to say that in his controversies with his 
 friends he always was in the right. All I say is that 
 I have never seen reason to doubt his good intentions, 
 though I have often regretted the attitude which he 
 assumed of late years towards his critics. 
 
 If I have sometimes tried to smoothe down his anger, 
 this has been done, not because I thought that his op- 
 ponents were always in the wrong, but because I have 
 long been afraid that not only his physical, but his 
 mental strength also, was in imminent danger. How
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 83 
 
 seldom we think of that, and how often we wish we 
 had done so, when it is too late ! 
 
 I have not a word to say against the new Sadharan- 
 Samaj, and several of its leaders seem to me to act in 
 an excellent spirit. I entirely agree with them that 
 a Church should be constitutionally governed, and that 
 tyranny of every kind should be resisted. 
 
 If we call the separation of the Brahma-Samaj 
 of India from the old Adi Brahma-Samaj, and again 
 the separation of the Sadharan-Samaj from the 
 Brahma-Samaj of India, a schism, we seem to con- 
 demn them by the very word we use. But to 
 my mind these three societies seem like three 
 branches of one vigorous tree, the tree that was 
 planted by Rammohun Roy. In different ways they 
 all serve the same purpose, they are all doing, I be- 
 lieve, unmixed good, in helping to realise the dream 
 of a new religion for India, it may be for the whole 
 world, a religion free from many corruptions of the 
 past, call them idolatry, or caste, or verbal inspiration, 
 or priestcraft, and firmly founded on a belief in the 
 One God, the same in the Vedas, the same in the Old, 
 the same in the New Testament, the same in the 
 Koran, the same also in the hearts of those who have 
 no longer any Vedas or Upanishads or any Sacred 
 Books whatever between themselves and their God. 
 The stream is small as yet, but it is a living stream. 
 It may vanish for a time, it may change its name and 
 follow new paths of which as yet we have no idea. 
 But if there is ever to be a real religion in India, it 
 will, I believe, owe its very life-blood to the large 
 heart of Rammohun Roy and his worthy disciples, 
 Debendranath Tagore and Koshul> ( 'Inindrr Sen. 
 
 <; 2
 
 84 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS, 
 
 I shall dwell no longer on the declining years of 
 Keshub Chunder Sen. They were years of intense 
 suffering, and full of many disappointments. His life 
 had been an uninterrupted warfare, and some thrusts 
 had wounded him to the very heart. Like an in- 
 valided soldier, he fought on as bravely as ever, but 
 with an effort too great even for so stout a heart 
 as his. His death came at last suddenly, though 
 not unexpectedly. He died on January 8, 1884, sur- 
 rounded by his nearest relations and friends. His 
 most devoted fellow-worker, Protap Chunder Mozum- 
 dar, was unfortunately absent. But his place was 
 worthily filled by his old friend and guide, Deben- 
 dranath Tagore. His love for Keshub Chunder Sen 
 had never ceased. They had been torn asunder by a 
 torrent, but in their deepest foundation they had 
 always remained one. After Keshub Chunder Sen 
 had been taken from him by death, the old man ad- 
 dressed the following words to some friends who came 
 to condole with him 1 : 
 
 ' When I had him near I considered myself the 
 master of all the wealth which the kings of the world 
 could command. When I sat up with him, often till 
 one or two in the morning, conversing with my de- 
 parted friend, I never perceived how the time passed. 
 The union between our souls is never to be destroyed. 
 Like the Durbar of earthly kings, he said, the King of 
 heaven has two Durbars. One is public, the other 
 private. The sky and the heavens are the public 
 Durbar of the heavenly King, and the spiritual world 
 within our hearts is the private Durbar. God reigns 
 supreme in both. In the spiritual world everything 
 
 1 'The Liberal,' March 30, 1,884,
 
 KESIIUB CHUNDER SEX. 85 
 
 is spiritual, and God is revealed there in the inner- 
 most recesses of our spirit. The public are not allowed 
 to enter there. They see their God in the outward 
 Durbar, as seated -upon the glorious throne of His 
 creation, and they are content with worshipping Him 
 from a distance. Hence the ancient Bishis saw Him 
 in the sun and other heavenly bodies, and bowed 
 down before Him and paid homage. It is very diffi- 
 cult, he said, to acquire the privilege of entering God's 
 private Durbar. Very great patience and long watch- 
 ing are required before this can be hoped for.' 
 
 Debendranath Tagore was able to come to Calcutta 
 and see his beloved disciple once more. A few days 
 before the last fatal symptoms of his malady appeared, 
 Keshub said to Debendranath that he had still a 
 good deal to say and to do. And so he had indeed. 
 He was engaged in a work which had grown every 
 year, which had at last quite absorbed him, and which 
 we know he would never have finished, even if he 
 had reached the three score years and ten. What he 
 aspired to was not only the religious regeneration of 
 India, but the religious regeneration of the whole 
 world. What he had experienced himself in his short 
 life, a transition from the bondage of an effete tra- 
 ditional religion to the perfect freedom of the spirit, 
 was not, he thought, an impossible task for others, if 
 only he could reach them and help them. He had 
 often witnessed the irresistible power of his preaching, 
 and as he had won hundreds and thousands, he did not 
 see why he should not win millions. 
 
 But man has to do his appointed task within a 
 short span, trusting that others will finish what is 
 worth finishing. Hard as it is to say it, it is true
 
 86 BIO&RAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 nevertheless that Keshub Chunder Sen's own special 
 work was done. What remained to be done, could 
 better be done by others. He has died young, but not 
 too young for what he was meant to do. A slowly 
 darkening evening would have proved a disappoint- 
 ment to himself and to his friends. He will live more 
 really now that he is dead, than he would if his life 
 had been spared for many years. All the suspicion 
 and obloquy that hampered him from the day he con- 
 sented to his daughter's marriage with the Rajah of 
 Cutch Behar have died with him. What could not be 
 forgotten while he lived was forgotten and forgiven 
 by all who gathered round his death-bed. There are 
 good and brave soldiers ready to step into the gap 
 which he has left. They know whither he wished to 
 lead them, and thither, I trust, they will march, as 
 if he himself were still in their midst.
 
 KESHUB CHUN DEB SEN. 87 
 
 IMPORTANT DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
 BRAHMA-SAMAJ. 
 
 Raminohun Roy born 1772 or 1774 
 
 Brahma-Samaj founded at Calcutta .... January, 1830 
 Rammohun Boy arrived in England .... 8 April, 1831 
 
 Rammohun Roy died 27 Sept. 1833 
 
 Debendranath Tagore (born 1817) joined the Brahma- 
 Samaj 1838 or 1841 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen born 19 Nov. i8.',8 
 
 Tattvabodhinl Sabha .... 6 Oct. 1839 ( or l $4 2 }-59 
 
 New Brahma covenant established .... Dec. 1843 
 
 Dvarkanath Tagore in Paris ; meetings with M. M. . . 1 845 
 Scholars sent to Benares to study the Vedas . . . . j 845 
 Veda discarded, Brahma-dharma published .... 1850 
 Keshub Chunder Sen's School at Colootolah . . . 1855-58 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen married 1856 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen joins Brahma-Samaj 1857 
 
 Play of ' Widow Marriage ' acted at Calcutta .... 1859 
 Brahma School under K. Ch. Sen and Debendranath . 24 April, 1859 
 
 Journey to Ceylon 1 860 
 
 First Brahma marriage without idolatrous rites . . 26 July, 1861 
 Keshub Chunder Sen appointed Minister . . . 13 April, 1862 
 Exclusion from family ; illness; returns to his house . . Dec. 1862 
 Birth of his son Karuna ...... 19 Dec. 1862 
 
 First Intermarriage of persons of different Castes . 2 Aug. 1864 
 Brahma Mission. Keshub goes to Madras and Bombay . . 1864 
 Secession of Progressive Bruhmas .... 26 Feb. 1865 
 
 Bruhma-Samaj of India established .... n Nov. 1866 
 
 Lecture on 'Jesus Christ, Europe and Asia' . . 5 May, 1866 
 Lecture on 'Great Men' ...... 28 Sept. i8C6 
 
 Brahma- Mandira of India, opened at Calcutta . . 22 Aug. 1869 
 Keshub Chunder Sen's visit to England ..... 1870 
 
 Native Marriage Act passed ..... 1 9 March, 1872 
 
 Protest against Cutch Behar Marriage ... 28 Feb. 1878 
 Formal Marriage of Maharajah of Cutch Behar and 
 
 daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen . . .6 March, 1878 
 Establishment of S'.dharan Brahma Samuj . . . 15 May, 1878 
 Meeting in honour of Kamuiohun Roy at Debendranath 
 
 Tagore's house 19 Jan. 1879 
 
 New Dispensation proclaimed Jan. 1880 
 
 Real Marriage of Maharajah of Cutch Behar . . 20 Oct. 1880 
 Death of Keshub Chunder Ben 8 Jan. 1884
 
 88 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS, 
 
 LETTERS OF 
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN, F. MAX MtTLLER, 
 AND PROTAP CHUNDER MOZUMDAR. 
 
 The following are some of the letters that passed 
 between Keshub Chunder Sen and myself at the time 
 when not only his friends in India, but his friends in 
 England also, were attacking him for sanctioning the 
 marriage of his daughter with the Maharajah of Cutch 
 Behar, and for some of the opinions put forward in 
 his lectures. Extracts from most of these letters 
 have been published in India, but they are here pub- 
 lished for the first time in their complete form, and 
 with certain additions and corrections which seemed 
 necessary. 
 
 The beginning of our correspondence was the fol- 
 lowing article which I published in the Times, on the 
 24th of Nov. 1 8 Hoi- 
 Mr. Charles Voysey's statement in the Times of 
 November 20 that Keshub Chunder Sen is at present 
 almost universally repudiated by Hindu Theists will, 
 I know, surprise and pain many of his old friends 
 and admirers in England who during the years 
 that have elapsed since his memorable visit here 
 have followed his work in India with an ever- 
 increasing interest, though at times not without serious 
 misgivings. The new schism in his sect, the Brahma- 
 Samaj of India, which took place in 1 878, j has 
 been widely regretted, not so much because every
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 89 
 
 schism is in itself to be regretted, but because this 
 schism seemed almost entirely due to personal causes. 
 Though it cannot be denied that the case of the 
 seceders, as stated with great knowledge and ability 
 by Miss S. D. Collet, in the Brahmo Year Book for 
 1879, leaves several charges against Keshub Chunder 
 Sen unanswered and unexplained, yet his friends 
 ought to remember how extremely difficult it is for us, 
 so far removed from the social and religious atmo- 
 sphere of modern India, to form an impartial opinion 
 of all the hidden motives that may have influenced 
 those who seceded from and those who remained 
 faithful to the great reformer. The question of mar- 
 riage has been a stumbling-block to many reformers, 
 and if Keshub Chunder Sen has shown himself a weak 
 father in allowing a betrothal of his daughter to the 
 Rajah of Cutch Behar, let us not forget that a man 
 may be a weak father and yet a great and honest man. 
 Many Brahmas, though admitting Keshub Chunder 
 Sen's weakness, have forgiven it, and he still com- 
 mands a large number of devoted followers. Mr. 
 Charles Voysey would probably say that these be- 
 lievers in Keshub Chunder Sen have forfeited the 
 name of Theists, because this leader has more and 
 more inclined to the doctrines of Christianity. But 
 surely Christianity and Theism are not terms that ex- 
 clude each other, and every Christian, before being 
 anything else, must be a Theist in the received sense 
 of that word. Keshub Chunder Sen has at no time 
 made a secret of his feelings for Christ. His great 
 sermon on Christ and Christianity was preached so 
 far back as 1870 (see ' Selected Essays,' vol. ii. p. 82), 
 and in the The'wtlc Quarterly Review for January, 1880,
 
 90 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 p. 58, his earliest profession of faith in Christ is re- 
 ferred to the year 1866, while the secession of the 
 so-called Sadharan or Catholic Brahma-Samaj took 
 place only two years ago, its chief cause, so far as we 
 can judge, being personal feelings aroused by Keshub 
 Chunder Sen's ascendancy, and not any fundamental 
 difference of doctrine. 
 
 In a new society like the Bharatavarsha Brahma- 
 Samaj, or, as it is now commonly called, the Brahma- 
 Samaj of India, founded as it was on the universality of 
 Theism, and supported by a book containing extracts 
 from the Scriptures of all nations, it was but natural 
 that new ideas should spring up from year to year 
 and acquire more or less prominence. The recogni- 
 tion of Christ as a great prophet was but one of these 
 ideas, and it was never intended to exclude the duty of 
 showing reverence to the founders and teachers of other 
 religions. In the outward life of the Brahma-Samaj 
 the introduction of Utsubs (utsavas or religious festi- 
 vals) and of Sankivtan (the practice of enthusiastic re- 
 ligious singing) produced some change and commotion ; 
 but there never was any strong pressure used to induce 
 those who did not approve of them to take part in 
 these functions. The idea of the communion of Saints, 
 as preached by Keshub Chunder Sen, was hardly 
 more than a belief in a spiritual intercourse between 
 the departed and the living, and his doctrine of inspi- 
 ration did not go beyond the admission of a Divine 
 impulse imparted to the soul through a devout seek- 
 ing after the will of God. The most objectionable 
 doctrine put forward by the liberal reformer of Hin- 
 duism was, no doubt, the Adesa, the claim of being 
 directed by an inward voice which admitted no gain-
 
 KE3HUB CHUNDER SEN. 91 
 
 saying. This, particularly when mixed up with 
 questions of worldly wisdom, made his position in- 
 compatible with the freedom claimed by every mem- 
 ber of his Samaj, and, more than anything else, led to 
 the secession of some of his former friends and fol- 
 lowers. It is the old story over again. Nothing is 
 so difficult for a reformer, particularly a religious 
 reformer, as not to allow the incense offered by his 
 followers to darken his mental vision, and not to mis- 
 take the Divine accents of truth for a voice wafted 
 from the clouds. In this respect, no doubt, Keshub 
 Chunder Sen has shared in the weakness of older 
 prophets ; but let us not forget that he possesses also 
 a large share of their strength and virtue. One of 
 his followers writes of him (Theistic Quarterly Review, 
 October 1879, p. 61): 
 
 ' Babu Keshub Chunder Sen is neither our mediator 
 nor indispensable for our acceptance with God. Only 
 he has done the Brahma-Samaj incalculable good, and 
 in common gratitude we acknowledge his services and 
 our obligations to him. Eut there are men in the 
 Brahma-Samaj who, we are sorry to say, can bear the 
 mention of every other name but his name, who cannot 
 bear to see the least credit given to him for anything. 
 And hence they are fiercely angry with the Brahmas' 
 creed, and circulate all manner of falsehood in rela- 
 tion to it. Them we do not hope to convince, but to 
 others, who want to judge correctly, we may say that 
 we hold some of our leaders in genuine love and 
 honour for what they have taught us, and we want 
 that our gratitude should be shared in by every Theist, 
 here as well as elsewhere. To Babn Keshub Chunder 
 Sen's teaching the Brahma-Samaj is deeply indebted ;
 
 92 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 but it is also indebted to others, and among the latter 
 we may eminently mention Babu Debendranath 
 Ta,gore, and the founder of our Church, Rajah Ram- 
 mohun Roy.' 
 
 Nothing can be more instructive to the student of 
 religion than to trace the origin and growth of the 
 Brahma-Sainaj from Rarnmohun Roy to Keshub 
 Chunder Sen. Much may be learnt from the old 
 conservative Adi Brahma-Samaj ; much from the re- 
 formed branch, the Brahma-Samaj of India, under 
 Keshub Chunder Sen ; aye, something even from the 
 Arya-Samaj under Dayananda Sarasvati, the most 
 perverse interpreter of the Vedas. I tried in my 
 lecture, delivered in Westminster Abbey, December 3, 
 1873, to give a sketch, though I am afraid a very 
 imperfect one, of the religious movement inaugurated 
 by Rammohun Roy, and carried on by Debendranath 
 and Keshub Chunder Sen ; and I see little or nothing 
 to retract what I then said about Keshub Chunder 
 Sen. The utterances of late have shown signs, I am 
 sorry to say, of an over-wrought brain and an over- 
 sensitive heart. He sometimes seems to me on the 
 verge of the very madness of faith. But I fear for his 
 health and his head far more than for his heart, and I 
 should deeply regret if any harsh words from those 
 who ought to know best how to make allowance for 
 the difficulties and dangers of all religious reformers 
 should embitter a noble life already full of many 
 bitternesses. 
 
 F. MAX MtiiLER. 
 Oxford.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEK SEW. 93" 
 
 I then received the following letter from Keshub 
 Chunder Sen : 
 
 LILY COTTAGE, 
 
 72 UPPER CIRCULAR ROAD, CALCUTTA, 
 32 Dee. 1880. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 Allow me to thank you most cordially for 
 having said a good word for us in the ' Times.' I have 
 read your letter with very great interest, and thank- 
 fully appreciate your heartfelt sympathy with us in 
 our trials and difficulties. You can hardly imagine 
 the troubles I have had during the last two or 
 three years and the grossly false and libellous charges 
 brought against me week after week. Thank God, 
 I have endured these undeserved and cruel attacks 
 quietly and calmly, thinking it wrong to resent. 
 Even the Police was instigated by some of my an- 
 tagonists to inquire and ascertain if I was not guilty 
 of embezzlement ! And even my good wife came in for 
 a share of wanton abuse in a vernacular dramatic 
 work ! All this I say to you privately because you 
 have been good enough to give us your sympathy as 
 a friend, and because you have boldly come forward, as 
 few have done, to assert publicly that personal feelings 
 1 ie at the bottom of the opposition movement. However, 
 God's will be done! I sincerely trust an impartial 
 public will in future give a patient hearing to the 
 actual facts of the case and proclaim a truer verdict. 
 Surely I can afford to wait. There is a Bengali 
 saying ' Heaven bears the burden of all trusting ser- 
 vants.' I can assure you God has been very kind to 
 us in our trials and tribulation, and all the antagon- 
 ism and persecution we have suffered have greatly
 
 94 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 strengthened us and helped the progress and extension 
 of our Church. Our influence spreads on all sides, 
 and there is far greater enthusiasm among us now 
 than in any previous period in the history of our 
 Church. I think we owe it to so kind a friend and 
 sympathiser as yourself that we should strengthen 
 your hands by putting you in possession of facts and 
 thereby enabling you to maintain the position you 
 have taken. May I ask you to accept a few of my 
 lectures and tracts which I have taken the liberty to 
 forward to you by the present mail ? ' 
 
 I remain, honoured Friend, 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 
 
 Should you require information on any particular 
 subject, I beg you will kindly let me know. 
 
 A copy of the letter of the Brahma Missionary 
 Conference is herewith enclosed. 
 
 At the same time I received the following letter 
 from the Members of the Brahma Missionary Con- 
 ference of the Brahma-Samaj : 
 
 BRAHMO MISSIONARY CONFERENCE, 
 39 Dec. 1880. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 I am directed by the Missionary Conference of 
 the Brahma-Samaj of India to convey to you their 
 cordial thanks for having kindly contradicted in the 
 Times some of the unfounded statements made by Mr. 
 Charles Voysey and others regarding our Church. 
 We should have passed over these misrepresentations 
 in silence, believing and trusting that truth would
 
 KESHUB CHUN DEE SEN. 95 
 
 triumph at last H7FC3 ^*rff and that the British na- 
 tion, with its characteristic regard for truth, would 
 not readily allow itself to be misled by interested 
 agitators, but would ere long discover the real truth 
 of the matter. You will no doubt admit that those 
 whom the Lord leads and protects have nothing to 
 fear from the shafts of calumny, and that Truth needs 
 no human advocate to defend her. However, as you 
 have thought it proper publicly to vindicate the 
 Brahma-Samaj of India from unfounded charges, it 
 seems incumbent upon us, while gratefully acknow- 
 ledging your kindness, to place before you such facts 
 as may enable you to verify your statements and 
 silence your critics. 
 
 In Mr. Voysey's statement that 'Babu Keshub 
 Chunder Sen is at present almost universally repu- 
 diated by Hindu Theists,' one sees at once that the 
 wish is father to the thought. No one can deny that 
 the Bharatavarshya Brahma Mandira, the Church of 
 which Mr. Sen is the Minister, continues to be as 
 largely attended now as before the schism, and that 
 not a single devout member of his congregation has 
 left the Church. Nor is it possible to gainsay the 
 fact that the congregation of our Mandir is far larger 
 than that of any other section of the Brahma-Samaj.. 
 If the number of persons who are attracted to hear be 
 any index to the personal influence of a religious 
 leader, you may form some idea of Babu Keshub 
 Chunder Sen's growing influence from the fact that in 
 the course of our expeditionary movement last year 
 he addressed, in six weeks, crowded assemblies in 
 Calcutta and the Provinces numbering upwards of 
 ten thousand people. In fact, since the organisation
 
 96 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of the New Dispensation our movement has excited 
 far greater interest and sympathy, and achieved much 
 greater success than in any previous year. Another 
 evidence of even greater importance is to be found in 
 the fact that all our missionaries and leading workers 
 have remained faithful and loyal to our leader through- 
 out the crisis. The members of the Missionary Con- 
 ference desire me to say emphatically that though 
 they have now and then differed from him in non- 
 essential matters, their grateful reverence for him as 
 their Heaven-appointed leader and friend continues 
 unabated. They are his close companions, and they 
 have had opportunities of examining closely the de- 
 tails of his daily life, some for ten, others for twenty 
 years, and they have never had reasons to suspect 
 their confidence in their trusted leader was mis- 
 placed. The only missionary who has deserted our 
 Church since the schism is the person who charged 
 him twelve years ago with encouraging ' man- worship,' 
 but who subsequently recanted. Whatever our an- 
 tagonists may say, the Brahma-Samaj of India is, in 
 spite of the rupture, a growing power, and it retains 
 in itself the entire devotional and spiritual life of the 
 community. It is still, as it was before, a mighty 
 instrument in the hands of Providence to teach the 
 Hindu nation faith, love and purity, prayer, com- 
 munion, and inspiration. The seceders are, we may 
 say without being uncharitable, deficient in religious 
 life, and are given more to outward social refinement, 
 magnifying the things of the flesh over things of the 
 spirit. Such men cannot stand against God's Church, 
 unless they establish their superiority on the ground 
 of faith and godliness. That their secession is due
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 97 
 
 almost entirely to personal causes cannot be disputed. 
 The rupture began some years before the marriage 
 controversy took place, ' its chief cause being,' as you 
 rightly observe, ' personal feelings aroused by Keshub 
 Chunder Sen's ascendancy, not any fundamental dif- 
 ferences of doctrine.' The bitterness was greatly aggra- 
 vated by the marriage of the Minister's daughter, chiefly 
 because the offer of one of the leading seceders, the 
 chief editor of their journal, to have his daughter mar- 
 ried to the Maharajah of Cutch Behar was declined, the 
 match not being approved by the State officers in Cutch 
 Behar, who after having seen both girls, gave decided 
 preference to the Minister's daughter. The disappoint- 
 ment thus caused fomented the jealousies already 
 existing, till they culminated in a schismatic rupture. 
 For nearly three years we and our leader have been 
 reviled and maligned in the most reckless manner, the 
 arguments used being almost invariably personal in- 
 vectives against our character, and not doctrinal 
 criticisms. 
 
 With reference to the Cutch Behar marriage, I may 
 be permitted to say that there is nothing in it which 
 has been disapproved by the most fastidious critic 
 which the Minister himself and his friends have 
 not regretted, and this dissent was clearly set forth in 
 the official statement published by the Brahma-Samaj 
 of India at the time. The marriage itself, or rather 
 the match, we most devoutly believe, was providen- 
 tial, although we freely admit there were errors and 
 improprieties in the modus operandi. The Lord directed 
 the choice and initiated the nuptial rites. But in 
 this, as in other cases, human agency must be distin- 
 guished from the actions of Providence. The charge
 
 98 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of child-marriage has long ago been exploded. For 
 the consummation of the marriage took place only 
 the other day, October 20, in the Brahma Mandira. 
 The proceedings of the ceremony you will find in the 
 Sunday Mirror of the 24th of October. 
 
 The doctrines of Adem (Inspiration) and the Com- 
 munion of Saints have provoked warm controversy 
 both here and in England, and also our attitude to- 
 wards Christ and other prophets. It is a matter of 
 regret and wonder that in these matters a Christian 
 nation should misunderstand our position or miscon- 
 strue our views. To rationalists we are, and must 
 continue to be, a stumbling-block. But surely to the 
 spiritually-minded the above doctrines are intelligible. 
 It seems to us that it is not the doctrines themselves, 
 but the oriental and metaphorical dress in which they 
 are presented, to which exception has been taken. 
 Allegories and parables may not suit the Western 
 mind, but they are the natural inheritance of all 
 Eastern nations, and we instinctively indulge in the 
 poetry of religion. The mysticism attributed to us is 
 nothing but teaching by allegory and parable, of 
 which Christ Jesus Himself furnished a preeminent 
 example. In March last the plain meanings of most 
 of the words we use, divested of metaphor, were pub- 
 lished, a reference to which will convince you of the 
 truth of what we say. One of the main causes of 
 irritation is, as you rightly apprehend, the Minister's 
 allegiance to Christ, which has greatly annoyed the 
 rationalists here and in England, and especially Mr. 
 Voysey. This cannot be helped. We believe that in 
 the Spirit of Christ Asia and Europe shall be united 
 in the fulness of time, and we rejoice to see that
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 99 
 
 through God's grace India is drawing near to 'Him 
 crucified.' If we are deserted and persecuted for this 
 we need not complain. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 WOOMA. NATH GUPTA, 
 
 Brahma Missionary Conference. 
 
 OFFICIAL PAPER. 
 
 Marriage of the Maharajah of Cutch BeJtar. 
 
 The principal event of the year was the Rajah's 
 marriage, which was celebrated on the 6th March, 
 1878, at the Raj Bari in Cutch Behar, in the presence 
 of a large assemblage of spectators, both Native and 
 European. The difficulty of reconciling the Hindu 
 and Brahma ceremonial forms was, as may be ima- 
 gined, an arduous one. It was necessary to the legality 
 of the marriage that the rites should be Hindu in all 
 essential features. After much deliberation and argu- 
 ment, Babu Keshub Chunder Sen was brought to tee that 
 the Rajah, not being a Brahma, and the Brahma Marriage 
 Act not being in force in Cutch Behar, it was absolutely 
 essential that the marriage, if it took place at all, should 
 be a Hindu, marriage. Idolatrous mantras were, how- 
 ever, excluded, and the name of the Deity substituted 
 wherever local custom had introduced that of any 
 particular idol. The best proof of the perfect orthodoxy 
 of the marriage is that the Brdhmans consented to perform 
 it. They are not by any means under our thumb, 
 and in one matter, the performance of the Horn cere- 
 mony, which is. strictly speaking, the adoration of 
 
 II 2
 
 100 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 fire, they refused altogether to grve way or to dis- 
 pense with the presence of the bride and bride- 
 groom. Babu Keshub Chunder Sen was equally 
 determined that his daughter should not assist at an 
 idolatrous ceremony. The matter was ultimately 
 arranged by the Brahmans consenting to the removal 
 of the bride on some pretext before they performed 
 the mystic ceremony. As this did not come off till 
 3 A.M., and as the poor young lady had been sitting 
 in an uncomfortable attitude for about five hours, the 
 excuse for removing her could not be called a pre- 
 text. The Rajah remained present during the cere- 
 mony, but took no part in it. The marriage has since 
 been formally declared legal by the Commissioner, acting 
 under Government as the law-giving power, and his decla- 
 ration to that effect has been filed among the permanent 
 records in the archives of Cutch Behar. In connection 
 with this event, I wish to record my sense of the 
 valuable assistance rendered by Babu Kali Komul 
 Lahiri, the Dwar Muktear, an old and faithful servant 
 of the Rajah's family, not only in his position as prin- 
 cipal officer of the household, but also as a Brahman, 
 in smoothing over difficulties which arose, and in 
 reconciling the adverse factions of Pundits and Brah- 
 mans. The Cutch Behar Pandit sent to Calcutta to 
 arrange the form of ceremony had not conducted the 
 negotiation in a very straightforward manner, and 
 the consequence was that I and the Dewan found our- 
 selves in a very difficult position on the very eve of 
 the. marriage. In arranging these difficulties the 
 Dwar Muktear's influence was of the greatest assist- 
 ance to us, and enabled us to discriminate between 
 what orthodoxy really demanded and what bigotry
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 101 
 
 was unwilling to give up. Administration Report of 
 the Cutch Behar State, ly G. T. Dalton, Esq., Deputy 
 Commissioner. 
 
 To these letters I sent the following reply : 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 Your letter was a real pleasure to me. Though 
 I felt almost certain that you would take what I had 
 written in the Times as words coming from a true 
 friend, yet I was glad to hear from yourself that you 
 had not forgotten me, and that you still counted me 
 among your old and faithful friends. You may have 
 wondered that I should never have written to you 
 since you left England to return to your own country 
 and to your own work among your own people. I 
 have often thought of you, and whenever my memory 
 went on a long pilgrimage to my friends who are doing 
 good work in different parts of the world, I always 
 lingered before your image, and wondered whether 
 I could and ought to help you in your struggle, 
 as it grew harder from year to year. But as our span 
 of life grows smaller and smaller, work seems to grow 
 thicker and thicker. If we want to do anything, to 
 finish anything at least up to a certain point, we must 
 learn to let many things take their own course. We 
 must learn to trust : and I can assure you that ever 
 since I saw you face to face, ever since I listened to 
 you pleading your cause so powerfully before our 
 great theologian, Dr. Pusey, and afterwards heard you 
 unfolding to me your brightest hopes for the future of 
 India, I have always trusted you. That does not 
 mean that I have always approved of all that you
 
 102 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 have written and done. Far from it. But with re- 
 gard to most of the matters which have been discussed 
 between you and your opponents, what right had I to 
 condemn the steps which you thought it right to take, 
 or, at all events, to put my judgment against yours? 
 I do not call that trusting our friends, if we want 
 them always to think and speak and act exactly as 
 we ourselves would think and speak and act. Trust- 
 ing our friends means to give them credit for good and 
 honest intentions, even when we differ from them and 
 they from us. It is easy to trust in a Divine Pro- 
 vidence if all goes well with us ; but to trust when 
 all goes against us, that is real trust. It is the 
 same with our faith in men. I know that your 
 one object in life is to do good to your country- 
 men, to help them to amend certain defects in their 
 social life and to purify their religious ideas, and I 
 shall never believe that a man who has devoted his 
 life to so noble a purpose can be guilty of the charges 
 brought against you. I never shall think you infal- 
 lible in your judgments, but whatever may happen, I 
 trust, aye I know, that you will always remain true 
 to your own noble self. 
 
 After your great success both in India and in Eng- 
 land I was quite prepared that a reaction would set 
 in. Success is apt to produce a certain languor and 
 conceit in ourselves, while in others it is sure to 
 arouse envy, the worst poison that grows in the 
 human heart. The Buddhists say truly that a man 
 has ' left the path of envy ' when he begins to lead a 
 new life ; but it is marvellous to observe how few even 
 among the best men are quite above that wretched 
 feeling. Besides, many of those who applauded you
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEK SEN. 103 
 
 and patronised you before you had achieved your best 
 successes did so because it was the fashion. They 
 had no idea of the real nature of the work you had 
 taken in hand, but they liked to pat you on the back 
 and give you advice and warn you against dangers 
 and all that. You see you were only a native and 
 is not every European far wiser than a Hindu? 
 How I hate that conceit. I do not mean to say that 
 
 / 
 
 it is general, but it exists ; and what is the worst, it 
 exists in influential quarters. Men who have been in 
 India, men who write on India, men who profess to 
 have studied the language and literature of India 
 speak even of the most learned, the best and wisest of 
 your countrymen, of men in knowledge, manners, and 
 character infinitely their superiors, as of so many 
 ignorant and naughty children. Have we not conquered 
 India, they seem to say, do we not govern India, and 
 should we not know much better than Rammohun Roy, 
 or Debendranath Tagore, or Keshub Chunder Sen what 
 is the right course which Indian social and religious 
 reformers ought to follow ? I know of men who could 
 not construe a line of Sanskrit, and who speak 
 and write of your ancient literature, religion, and 
 philosophy as if they knew a great deal more than 
 any of your best rotriyas. How often you must 
 have smiled on reading such books! The idea that 
 anything could come from the East equal to European 
 thought, or even superior, never enters the mind of 
 these writers, and hence their utter inability to un- 
 derstand and appreciate what is really valuable in 
 Oriental literature. There is no problem of philosophy 
 and religion that has not been a subject of deep and 
 anxious thought among your ancient and modern
 
 104 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 thinkers. We in the West have done some good 
 work too, and I do not write to depreciate the achieve- 
 ments of the Hellenic and Teutonic mind. But I 
 know that on some of the highest problems of human 
 thought the East has shed more light than the West, 
 and by and by, depend on it, the West will have to 
 acknowledge it. There is a very able article in the 
 last number of the Edinburgh Review (Jan. 1881), on 
 Dr. Caird's ' Philosophy of Religion.' Dr. Caird is a 
 representative man in England, and more familiar 
 than most Englishmen with the solid work of modern 
 German philosophers. And what is the last result at 
 which Dr. Caird arrives, and of which even the 
 Edinburgh Review approves 1 ? Almost literally the 
 same as the doctrine of the Upanishads ! Dr. Caird 
 writes : ' It is just in this renunciation of self that 
 I truly gain myself; for whilst in one sense we give 
 up self to live the universal and absolute life of 
 reason, yet that to which we thus surrender ourselves 
 is in reality our truer self.' And again : ' The know- 
 ledge and love of God is the giving up of all thoughts 
 and feelings that belong to me as a mere individual 
 self, and the identification of my thoughts and being 
 with that which is above me, yet in me the universal 
 or absolute self, which is not mine or yours, but in 
 which all intelligent beings alike find the realisation 
 and perfection of their nature ' (p. 257). I need not 
 tell you or any one who knows the Upanishads how 
 powerfully the same doctrine, the doctrine of the Atma 
 and Paramatma, was put forth by your old Eishis 
 more than two thousand years ago. 
 
 Many years ago I ventured to show that the five- 
 membered syllogism of the Indian Nyaya philosophy is
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 105 
 
 the best form that can be given to the syllogism of in- 
 ductive logic. But European logicians cannot get over 
 the idea that there is no logic like that of our school- 
 men, and that every deviation from it is a mistake. 
 
 The same conceit runs through almost all that is 
 written on India. India may be patronised, some 
 works of Indian poets and philosophers may be called 
 clever and curious, but to recognise in anything the 
 superiority of Indian thought, or the wisdom of Indian 
 native opinion, that is out of the question. 
 
 I do not write this in order to flatter you, but in 
 order to warn you against being disheartened by 
 foreign criticism. Few people in Europe, very few, 
 understand the object of your work, or have any idea 
 of the dangers and difficulties which you have to en- 
 counter. You should look upon praise and blame as 
 we do upon sunshine and rain. It comes and goes, 
 we know not why. But there is one thing that serves 
 as a parasol against conceit, and as an umbrella 
 against despair, and that is a clear conception of the 
 true purpose of our life. Let me quote once more 
 from Buddha (Dhammapada, 227-228) : ' This is an old 
 saying, this is not only of to-day : they blame him 
 who sits silent, they blame him who speaks much, 
 they also blame him who says little ; there is no 
 one on earth who is not blamed. There never was, 
 there never will be, nor is there now, a man who is 
 always blamed, or a man who is always praised.' 
 
 I can quite feel with you and understand that you 
 should be disheartened by the defection of some of 
 your friends, but you should not allow this to turn 
 you away for one moment from the path that lies 
 straight before you. I am particularly sorry that so
 
 106 BIOQKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 true and intelligent a friend as Miss Collet should 
 have turned against you, but I have little doubt she 
 will in time forget the things that are behind, and 
 look forward to the great work that is still before you. 
 She judges you, I think, unfairly, because she forgets 
 that you are a Hindu and a Brahma, and not at the 
 same time an Englishman and a Christian, in her sense 
 of the word. She expects too much from you, and that 
 shows after all how she respects and honours you. 
 
 If the number of your followers in India has de- 
 creased, as she maintains, though you deny it, that 
 would influence very little my feelings for you and 
 my hopes for your cause. I do not believe in num- 
 bers ; and all through life I have but seldom found 
 myself in a majority. If such men as Mozumdar 
 remain true to you, that is better than -a legion : but 
 better than all is that you should remain true to 
 yourself. People may call the separation of the Adi 
 Samaj, the Brahma Samaj of India, and the Sadharan 
 Brahma Samaj a schism : to my mind they are three 
 strong branches of one powerful stem. They all have 
 the same root, and they all, I trust, will yet bear 
 rich fruit. 
 
 I cannot write more to-day, but there are several 
 points on which I hope to write, whenever I find a 
 little leisure. You have written to me as a friend, 
 and I have answered you as a friend, with perfect 
 frankness. I shall always do that, and hope you will 
 do the same. 
 
 I have received the copy of a letter in which the 
 Brahma Missionary Conference points out a number 
 of misstatements made by in a lecture de- 
 livered before the Royal Asiatic Society ; also a letter
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 107 
 
 addressed to me by the same Conference. I did not 
 feel at liberty to publish these letters. Please to con- 
 vey to the Conference my best thanks and the expres- 
 sion of my fullest sympathy. 
 
 I remain, my dear Friend, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 F. MAX MULLER. 
 
 P.S. I was much interested in the publications 
 you sent me. As you kindly offer me your assist- 
 ance, might I ask you to send me the first number of 
 the Theistic Quarterly Review. Any information on 
 Rammohun Roy would be very welcome, but I must 
 tell you that I find it difficult now to read Bengali. 
 
 Some of the letters that passed between Keshub 
 Chunder Sen and myself are lost, because at the time 
 I did not consider them of importance. I only kept 
 rough copies of my own letters, and cannot now fix 
 their exact dates. The next letter which I wrote to 
 him treated chiefly of the Cutch Behar marriage. 
 
 MY DEAB FBIEND, 
 
 I am truly sorry that the first subject on which 
 I feel I must write to you should be the marriage of 
 your daughter with the Maharajah of Cutch Behar. It 
 has, however, been made the battlefield between your 
 friends and your enemies, and as I have often declared 
 that, if placed in your position, I should probably 
 have acted as you have done, I feel that I owe it to 
 myself as well as to you to explain what I feel on the 
 subject. 
 
 I may say at once, I wish that this difficulty had
 
 108 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 never arisen. For a difficulty it was, and you must 
 have felt it so. You were placed in a conflict of 
 duties, the duties of a father and the duties of a public 
 man, and out of such a conflict it is almost impossible 
 to emerge without a wound. 
 
 Now let me tell you first where I differed from you. 
 I think when we find ourselves in such a difficulty, we 
 ought to take our friends into our confidence, and place 
 the reasons which make us incline towards the right or 
 towards the left unreservedly before them. You, so 
 far as I remember, remained silent for a long time, and 
 at last appealed to the inner voice, the Adem, which 
 told you that you had acted rightly and for the best. 
 
 I know myself full well how hard it is to have to 
 defend oneself against suspicions that ought never to 
 have arisen, and to repel charges that ought never to 
 have been brought. But the world likes to hear a 
 man defend himself, if only for the pleasure of pro- 
 nouncing a verdict of Not Guilty, and I think our 
 friends have a certain right to hear what we say to 
 ourselves. To appeal simply to Adesa is not respect- 
 ful, and the voice of Adesa, however pure it may be 
 when it enters into our ears, is never quite so pure 
 when it passes out of our mouth. That still small 
 voice is meant to be still : it is meant for us, and for 
 us only, not for the loud contests of the world. I 
 believe if you had asked your friends whether you 
 should sacrifice the happiness of your daughter, or 
 agree to a marriage which both you and they con- 
 sider objectionable, but which till a few years ago was 
 considered perfectly legitimate, and which even now 
 hardly one in a million of your own countrymen 
 would disapprove, they would probably, particularly
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 109 
 
 if they had known all the more private circumstances 
 of the case, on which I need not enlarge, have given 
 you a bill of indemnity. 
 
 But after having said so much against you, I must 
 say that many of your friends seem to me to have 
 acted towards you in a most unfriendly, nay, un- 
 reasonable manner. They seem to me to have entirely 
 forgotten that you were born in India, and not in Eng- 
 land, and that there is no subject on which different 
 nations entertain such different ideas as on marriage. 
 
 I have no reason to doubt that you still consider 
 early marriages objectionable, and that you decidedly 
 prefer your own Brahma rite of celebrating marriage 
 to any other ceremonial. But when, on medical 
 advice, you have fixed the minimum of the marriage- 
 able age of women in India at fourteen, then surely 
 the case of your daughter, who was only a few months 
 under fourteen when she was formally married, and 
 sixteen when she was really married, might have 
 been passed unnoticed. I know the atmosphere in 
 which you live. I know how from the earliest days 
 it was considered in India the duty of a father to find 
 a proper husband for his daughter. Manu says so, all 
 your old lawyers and poets say so ; and however good 
 a reformer you may be, I can quite understand your 
 feeling the disgrace which in India it is supposed to 
 be if a father leaves a daughter unmarried ; or at all 
 events your hesitating to sacrifice the happiness of 
 your daughter to your own convictions on social re- 
 form. Manu, who allows hardly any freedom to a 
 woman at any time of her life, allows her to choose 
 a husband for herself, if, three years after she has 
 attained a marriageable age, her parents have failed to
 
 110 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 do so (Manu, ix. 90). Other law-givers (Vishwu, xxiv. 
 40) allow her still greater freedom. I do not suppose 
 you would be frightened by your old Smntikaras into 
 doing something actually wrong, yet I can well under- 
 stand that you should continue to feel their indirect 
 pressure. And when it is considered how difficult it 
 is to find a proper husband for a daughter, educated 
 as yours had been, and how desirable, not only from a 
 worldly point of view, her marriage with the young 
 Rajah of Cutch Behar must have appeared to you, 
 then to demand that you should have deprived your 
 daughter of a freedom of choice that even Manu would 
 have allowed her, seems to me going very far. Even in 
 Europe great concessions are often made with regard 
 to marriages objectionable from some, desirable from 
 other points of view. I shall not press the point that 
 this is particularly the case in royal and princely 
 families, where often great interests are at stake, and 
 where the choice of husbands and wives is limited. 
 In England, for an uncle to marry his niece would be 
 considered intolerable ; in Roman Catholic countries 
 dispensation is granted to such unions. In England, 
 marriage with a deceased wife's sister is illegal, in 
 the English colonies it is allowed. The lowest 
 savages consider marriages between members of the 
 same clan quite shocking, and that prejudice remains 
 even after they have been converted to Christianity ; 
 while certain missionaries tolerate even polygamy in 
 their converts rather than allow them to cast off 
 their old wives. In all this, I do not plead for laxity, 
 but only for a recognition of peculiar difficulties, and 
 for that kind of forbearance which English society 
 has of late shown in much more extreme cases.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. Ill 
 
 To call the marriage of your daughter a Child- 
 marriage is utterly unfair, and it is hardly less so to 
 say that you gave your consent to idolatrous marriage 
 rites being performed. I have read nearly everything 
 that has been written and published on that marriage, 
 and I believe you did all that it was possible for you 
 to do to avoid giving offence to your friends without 
 endangering the legality of the marriage. Protestants 
 object to mixed marriages with Roman Catholics, but 
 if they assent to a mixed marriage, they must submit 
 to the performance of certain superstitious rites, with- 
 out which the marriage would not be legal. Besides, 
 there are in every country old marriage customs 
 which, no doubt, date from heathen times, but which 
 no one calls idolatrous. If we like to use hard words, 
 it would be easy to show up plenty of idolatry in 
 Europe. If you had joined a Christian community, 
 then I should fully admit that, so far as you yourself 
 are concerned, you could have been married according 
 to the Christian ceremonial only : but even then you 
 could not have forced your daughter, if according to 
 native law she is of age and free to choose, to follow 
 your example. As you are and mean to be a Hindu, 
 though a believer in Christ, I cannot see what right 
 your Christian friends have to blame you for allowing 
 your daughter to marry a countryman of hers with 
 whom, in a native state, she could be legally married 
 according to the ancient customs of his own country 
 only. 
 
 I am glad, of course, that you succeeded in carrying 
 your bill for legalising Brahma marriages, but I can 
 quite understand that in the eyes of many of your 
 friends such a marriage is much the same as what a
 
 112 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 marriage before a Registrar is in the eyes of many 
 Englishmen. It therefore comes to this, you must 
 either prohibit all mixed marriages between Brahmas 
 and Hindus, which would be acting more intolerantly 
 than the Pope, or you must allow some of the ancient 
 marriage customs, when one of the contracting parties 
 is not a Brahma. And here again to call every ancient 
 custom, every de^adharma or kuladharma, idolatry is 
 utterly unfair. At all events there are much more 
 dangerous idols in Europe as well as in India than 
 the old stone images in the palace of Behar. 
 
 The difficulty which you had to solve has had to be 
 solved again and again, whenever new religions or 
 new sects have sprung up. Zealots have always de- 
 nounced marriage between members of different re- 
 ligions, nay even of different sects. But what did 
 St. Paul say "? ' The unbelieving husband,' he says, 
 ' is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is 
 sanctified by the husband; else were your children 
 unclean (illegitimate), but now are they holy.' And 
 again : ' For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou 
 shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O 
 man, whether thou shalt save thy wife ?' (i Corinth, 
 vii. 14, 16). Whoever knows the history of religion, 
 knows what excellent missionaries wives have made, 
 and I trust the time may come when those who now 
 blame you will give you credit for pure motives, and 
 praise you for your foresight and your trust. 
 
 With sincere wishes for the welfare of your daughter 
 and your son-in-law, I remain, my dear friend, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 F. MAX MULLEE.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 113 
 
 LILY COTTAGE, 
 
 72 UPPER CIRCULAR KOAD, CALCUTTA, 
 2 May, 1881. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 For your most welcome epistles and the genuine 
 assurances of kindness and sympathy they contain, I 
 must give you my heartfelt thanks. In writing to 
 me your need not conceal you real feelings. Dis- 
 criminating criticism cannot pain me. Even the re- 
 proaches of a true friend are acceptable, and must 
 prove beneficial. I have read your letters with the 
 deepest interest, and I only wish I could sit with you 
 under one of those shady trees in Oxford which I saw 
 during my short visit, and talk over the many im- 
 portant subjects referred to therein, for hours together. 
 My heart is full. What shall I write, what can I 
 write on those various subjects within the short com- 
 pass of a letter 1 ? Regarding the Cutch Behar mar- 
 riage I have yet a great deal to say. I thank you for 
 the sympathetic view you have taken of it. In cer- 
 tain minor matters only you have taken exception 
 to the course I adopted, and I have no right to 
 quarrel, for you argue as a friend, and your remon- 
 strance is only friendly counsel and warning. I 
 confess I was silent when the battle was raging. My 
 patience was repulsive and disgusting. My reticence 
 was suspicious, and led to misrepresentation and re- 
 viling. It has always been my habit secretly to refer 
 to my God in all matters of importance in my life 
 and to mature my plans under His guidance, and to 
 make them known when I was almost certain of suc- 
 cess. There were a hundred doubts and uncertainties
 
 114 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 in connection with this marriage proposal, and every 
 moment it seemed likely to break down. The whole 
 thing seemed most improbable till it was a fait 
 accompli. Even two hours before the marriage was 
 actually solemnised, no one could make himself certain 
 about the affair : on the contrary, there were new 
 difficulties springing up which seemed insuperable. 
 Hence my disposition to maintain silence. I was 
 waiting to find firm ground upon which to stand and 
 take counsel of friends in regard to details, but the 
 time never came, the marriage question 'to be or 
 not to be' being itself an uncertainty till the last 
 moment. The Adesa in the present case was far from 
 exceptional. I do not claim and never claimed super- 
 natural inspiration. My Adesa is a command of con- 
 science or a providential interposition. In plain 
 language, I should say this marriage is providential ; 
 and in this respect it is like other important incidents 
 in my life my renunciation of secular work, my vow 
 of asceticism, my vegetarian habits, my declaration of 
 faith in the New Dispensation, &c. A man who 
 trusts God and prays daily must feel that all the 
 events in his life, and even his daily meals, are or- 
 dered by Providence. I saw the finger of God in all 
 the arrangements, struggles, and trials in connection 
 with the marriage. It was very like a political mar- 
 riage, such as you speak of. A whole kingdom was 
 to be reformed, and all my individual interests were 
 absorbed in the vastness of God's saving economy, or 
 in what people would call public good. The Lord re- 
 quired my daughter for Cutch Behar, and I surren- 
 dered her. The trials and difficulties I have gone 
 through are also, I believe, providential. They have
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 115 
 
 educated and disciplined and trained me, and I owe a 
 great deal, and my Church owes a great deal, to my 
 antagonists. The great result of all this agitation is 
 the New Dispensation. I thank God for it. It is a 
 wonder, a marvel. Pray read all about it, and judge 
 for yourself whether the Holy Spirit is not moving 
 India in the direction of true and universal Chris- 
 tianity. I remember the very interesting conversation 
 we had at the Westminster Deanery, in the course of 
 which you, and also, I believe, the excellent Dean, 
 suggested that the future Church of India should be 
 altogether Oriental, only it should honour Christ. You 
 see how this is being practically carried out. Do not 
 think our Christ is denationalising us. We are more 
 popular now than in any previous period in the his- 
 tory of the Brahma-Samaj. Nor is our Hinduism 
 setting us in an attitude of hostility towards Christ 
 or Western science. I beg you will read the ' New 
 Dispensation ' paper carefully and let me know what 
 you think of the movement. It is the religion of 
 ' Comparative Theology.' We are giving effect to the 
 ' Science of Religion,' of which you are the most dis- 
 tinguished leader. It is the great movement of the 
 day in India. Marvellous is this Light of Heaven ! 
 
 With profound respect, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN.
 
 116 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 LILY COTTAGE, 
 
 72 UPPER CIRCULAR ROAD, CALCUTTA, 
 16 May, 1881. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 Your last letter reached me a few days after I 
 had posted mine. What a gratifying coincidence ! 
 In both letters there is an allusion to our common 
 friend the Dean of Westminster. It is indeed a great 
 pleasure to be assured of the unabated kindness and 
 continued friendship of one whom I so sincerely 
 esteem and whose views and opinions I so greatly 
 
 value. I have not yet seen the answer of . 
 
 The manner in which he has treated us from the 
 very beginning of the controversy is so utterly un- 
 worthy of him, and is marked with such vacillation, 
 wavering, and duplicity, that I can have no mis- 
 givings in accepting your verdict. In the meantime 
 allow me to thank you warmly for your kind permis- 
 sion to publish your letters, and the emphatic assur- 
 ance you have given me of your unreserved and 
 cordial sympathy in the cause we have at heart. 
 Your letters cannot but strengthen our cause greatly. 
 
 It seems rather strange that , who professes to 
 
 be a devout Christian, should withhold his regard and 
 sympathy from that section of the Brahma community 
 which is most allied to Jesus and makes the nearest 
 approach to the religion founded by Him. As for his 
 arguments, they have been smashed times beyond 
 number. In his private letters to me he professes 
 friendship, and I have simply warned him in the 
 most kindly spirit to ascertain facts before rushing 
 into print. 
 
 I forgot to ask in my last hurried note whether
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 117 
 
 some attempt should not be made to promote the 
 circulation of the 'New Dispensation' in England, 
 especially among the clergy and the leading laymen 
 of the Broad Church party. The British public ought 
 to know how the most advanced type of Hinduism in 
 India is trying to absorb and assimilate the Chris- 
 tianity of Christ, and how it is establishing and 
 spreading under the name of the New Dispensation a 
 new Hinduism which combines Yoga and Bhakti, and 
 also a new Christianity which blends together Apo- 
 stolical faith and modern civilisation and science. 
 The article on 'New Sacramental Ceremony' in the 
 first number of the paper seems to have created great 
 interest among the Christian community in India, 
 and has been variously commented upon. I should 
 also invite your attention to ' Christ in Socrates,' in 
 No. 8. Such articles cannot fail to interest the Broad 
 and liberal school in England, and by an interchange 
 of sentiments we may hasten the spiritual union of 
 the East and the West in Christ. There are also 
 hundreds, I believe, in Germany who have cast off 
 orthodoxy and can look with favour upon Theism 
 such as we inculcate and preach under the New Dis- 
 pensation. Could you tell me the name of any liberal 
 Christian on the Continent who could help us in 
 securing readers in Germany and other countries, and, 
 if possible, review the paper and the movement it 
 represents in some continental Magazine ? 
 
 Trusting you will kindly remember me to the Dean 
 of Westminster, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN.
 
 118 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND,. 
 
 The most difficult subject of all on which I feel 
 that a perfect understanding between you and me is 
 absolutely necessary is the true character of Christ. 
 It may seem strange that a son of India, one who calls 
 himself a believer in Brahman, and who therefore, in 
 strict theological phraseology, would be called a Non- 
 Christian, should have given offence to men who call 
 themselves Christians by what seems to them lan- 
 guage of excessive veneration for Christ. Yet so it is : 
 and I shall try to explain to you why it is so, and 
 why, in the case of some of your critics at least, the 
 objections to your deeply impassioned utterances 
 about Christ arise from good and honest motives. 
 
 You know that nothing is more difficult than to 
 draw a sharp line between the Divine and the Human. 
 At first nothing seems easier, and in many of the old 
 religions we should have been told that these two 
 terms exclude each other, like right and left ; that 
 what is human is not divine, and what is divine is 
 not human. One of the most wide-spread names for 
 the Gods was Immortals (amn'ta, a///3/aoroi, immortales), 
 while men were emphatically called Mortals (marta, 
 /SCOTCH, mortales). 
 
 I cannot enter here- into the origin and the growth 
 of the words for Deity in the ancient languages and 
 religions of mankind. I have tried to show elsewhere, 
 in my Hilberl Lectures which I sent you, how such a 
 word as deva, for instance, came into being among our 
 common ancestors, how it expressed at first one only 
 of the many attributes of deity, that of light, but how 
 it grew and expanded its meaning from one stage to
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 119 
 
 another in the religious growth of our common ances- 
 tors ; and how we Christians in Europe are still using 
 the same word (deva, deus) which was applied to 
 Agni and Indra in the earliest hymns of the Rig-Veda. 
 To give a definition of such a word as deva, God, and 
 its various modifications in the different Aryan lan- 
 guages, that should be applicable to them by whom- 
 soever they may be used, is of course impossible. 
 That word has signified everything that man has ever 
 thought to be divine. Its meaning has changed, as 
 we have changed ; and as long as the human mind 
 goes on growing, that word also will grow, whether 
 for better or for worse. 
 
 What applies to the names for God in the Aryan 
 languages, holds good also with regard to the divine 
 names used by the Semitic races, and particularly by 
 that Semitic race which interests us most, the Jewish. 
 The conception of God, as you see in the Old Testa- 
 ment, varied very considerably at different times in 
 the history of the Jews. It reached its highest 
 spiritual elevation in the utterances of some of the 
 prophets, and it sank down to mere idol-worship even 
 with the wisest of their kings. The history of the 
 Jewish religion has been so often and so fully written 
 that here too I may refer you to other books, and 
 simply call your attention to the fact that, at the time 
 when Christianity arose, the Jewish conception of 
 Jehovah was one of a God who had created the world, 
 who ruled the world, but who, though he might be in- 
 voked as a friend and even as a father, was yet, in 
 his essence, entirely different from man and the works 
 of his hand. God was immortal ; man was mortal : to 
 claim immortality for man seemed almost incompatible
 
 120 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 with the awe and reverence which the Jews felt for 
 their immortal God. In fact the distance between 
 God and man was perhaps never conceived as greater 
 than it was by the people among whom Christ ap- 
 peared ; and yet they were the very people whom 
 Christ came to teach that ' I and my Father are one.' 
 
 People who have carefully read the sacred books of 
 other religions, and have found there almost every 
 doctrine which they had considered as peculiarly 
 Christian, have sometimes asked me, What then dis- 
 tinguishes Christianity from other religions'? My 
 answer is, that historically the distinguishing feature 
 of Christianity lies in the new conception of the rela- 
 tion between God and man. Here we see the pen- 
 dulum of religious thought swing back completely 
 from left to right, from the Jewish to the Christian 
 conception of God. Though some of the Jewish pro- 
 phets had preached Jehovah as a father, and had 
 dared even to speak of men as gods, the stream of 
 popular religion was running in a very different chan- 
 nel. To a Jew, at the time of the advent of Christ, 
 the very expression of Son of God was blasphemy. 
 It was different with Greeks and Romans. Their idea 
 of Deity had never been so supramundane as that of 
 the Jews, and they had therefore less difficulty in ac- 
 cepting heroes and demigods, or even human beings, 
 raised to a level with their gods. But taking the 
 Jewish idea of Jehovah as it was preached in the 
 synagogues, we can perfectly well understand why 
 the orthodox Jews should have shouted, ' We have a 
 law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made 
 himself the Son of God ' (John xix. 7). 
 
 Here then is the vital difference between Judaism
 
 KE3HUB CHUNDER SEN. 121 
 
 and Paganism too on one side, and Christianity on the 
 other ; here is the thought which in the history of the 
 world stamps Christianity as a new religion. Christ 
 taught many things which other religious teachers 
 had taught before, but Christ taught a new, his own 
 conception, and more than conception, his new in- 
 tuition and realisation of God. Closely connected with 
 this was his new conception, and more than concep- 
 tionthe new birth of man. These two concepts of 
 God and man are so inseparable that it is impossible 
 to modify one without modifying the other. If, as I 
 know many do who call themselves Christians, we 
 leave the conception of Jehovah as we find it among 
 the Jews, and then represent Christ as the son of God, 
 it is surely blasphemy even now. It carries us back 
 into Greek paganism, and it has actually produced in 
 Christian countries forms of thought, and forms of 
 worship paid, not only to the Son of God, but to the 
 Mother of God (fleoro/cos) which must appear to you 
 pure idolatry. 
 
 Christianity is Christianity by this one fundamental 
 truth, that as God is the father of man, so truly, and 
 not poetically or metaphorically only, man is the son 
 of God, participating in God's very essence and nature, 
 though separated from God by self and sin. This 
 oneness of nature (6|uoov<na) between the Divine and 
 the Human does not lower the concept of God by 
 bringing it nearer to the level of humanity; on the 
 contrary, it raises the old concept of man and brings it 
 nearer to its true ideal. No doubt you would find even 
 at the present day many theologians to whom what I 
 have just written to you would sound very strange ; 
 but that only shows how little true Christianity
 
 122 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 has as yet leavened the thoughts of men how many 
 who call themselves Christians are really Jews, nay, 
 how many have not yet worked themselves free 
 from the pagan concepts of deity. You have no doubt 
 observed among your English friends in India how 
 easily those who call themselves Trinitarians fall into 
 a worship of three gods, and how often those who call 
 themselves Unitarians are no better than Jews in 
 their conception of deity. The true relation between 
 God and man had been dimly foreseen by many pro- 
 phets and poets, but Christ was the first to proclaim 
 that relation in clear and simple language. He called 
 himself the son of God, and he was the first-born son 
 of God in the fullest sense of that word. But he 
 never made himself equal with the Father in whom 
 he lived and moved and had his being. He was man 
 in the new and true sense of the word, and in the new 
 and true sense of the word he was God. If you ask 
 me whether I am a Trinitarian, I say No ; if you ask 
 me whether I am a Unitarian, I say No. And why ? 
 Because I believe in Christ as the son of God. To my 
 mind man is nothing if he does not participate in the 
 Divine ; and it seems to me that the Jews, with their 
 conception of Jehovah, were perfectly consistent in 
 not believing in a son of God, or even in the immor- 
 tality of the soul. To you, brought up in the schools 
 of Indian thought, the participation in the Divine 
 must be quite familiar. Your sages have expressed it 
 in philosophical phraseology by the Pratyafj-dlmd, the 
 Self that lies behind us, or the Paramdtmd, the Highest 
 Self. But we want something else, something more 
 human, more homely and yet more holy, to express 
 the same thought in religious language, in language
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 123 
 
 that should be intelligible to the wise and the foolish, 
 the old and the young ; and that expression has been 
 found by Christ by calling himself and all who believe 
 in him the sons of God. 
 
 After these remarks you will better be able to un- 
 derstand the danger of speaking of Christ in language 
 which carries us back to the panegyrics addressed by 
 pagan poets to their gods and idols. If you speak of 
 Christ as not perfectly human, in his own sense of 
 the word, you make a new idol of him, and you 
 utterly destroy the very soul of his religion. Other 
 prophets have tried to reveal to us what God is: 
 Christ has revealed to us what Man is, and that is the 
 greatest of all revelations which all who call them- 
 selves Christians must try to preserve in its original 
 purity. You may say, We know so little of Christ 
 and his original teaching, and what we know of him 
 is what his disciples, all of them Jews, believed of him. 
 There is some truth in it, and to some this may seem 
 a great loss. But it had its advantages also. Out of 
 the scattered stones of the temple which we find in 
 the Gospels, we have each of us to build up our own 
 Christ ; and you know how different the ideal and real 
 Christs have been which different theologians have 
 built up for themselves. We must each of us discover 
 our own Christ. The Apostles had to do the same. 
 They had to discover Christ, and they often found it 
 very hard to do so. And while they saw in him that 
 perfection which changes or rather restores human 
 nature to its divine original, you know how others, 
 who had tho same opportunities of judging, believed 
 that Christ was possessed of a devil. It was then as 
 it is now, and as it always will be. The same person
 
 124 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 whom some of us love and revere as almost perfect, 
 whose motives we never doubt, whose words we never 
 question, is represented by others as possessed by all 
 the devils of selfishness, falseness, and cruelty. I quite 
 admit that there are statements in the Gospels that 
 lend themselves to very different interpretations : for 
 how otherwise could we have such different Lives of 
 Christ 1 But there is one point on which there can be 
 no doubt, and that is the extreme humility of Christ. 
 Christ himself objected to any approach to exaggerated 
 language on the part of his friends and disciples. He 
 knew both the small value of superlative language, 
 and the dangers to which it might lead. What would 
 seem to us less liable to the charge of exaggeration 
 than to call Christ Good Master ? Yet we read in the 
 Gospel of St. Mark (x. 18) that when a rich man came 
 and kneeled to him, and asked him, ' Good Master, 
 what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life 1 ?' 
 Jesus said unto him, ' Why callest thou me good ? 
 There is none good but one, that is God.' Try to 
 realise to yourself one who could say that, who could 
 turn away reproachfully and sorrowfully from praise 
 that sounds to us so simple and moderate as ' Good 
 Master.' What would he have said to the outpourings 
 of high-sounding, yet often unmeaning praise that is 
 sung in our churches ! You are perhaps more accus- 
 tomed to ecstatic poetry; but much as I admire 
 Oriental poetry, I think its profuse display of hyper- 
 bolic imagery is one of its weakest points. If you 
 once allow that extravagance of language, panegyric 
 will soon outbid panegyric, and in the end you will 
 have sounds, but no thoughts. Do we not turn away 
 with shame from the language used in Eastern, and
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 125 
 
 alas even in European Courts, and yet we dare to 
 bring the same base coin into the sanctuary of God ? 
 Do we not know how every inanly soul turns away 
 with loathing from the garbage of adulation, hungry 
 for one dry morsel of honest truth ? A true friend 
 does not tell his dearest friend one half of what he 
 feels for him, and that very reticence is the true test 
 of true love. Let it be so also between us and Christ. 
 You know how easy it is to repeat the 'Thousand 
 Names of Vis/m ' and you also know by whom they 
 are repeated most frequently and most loudly. Surely 
 you will understand then why others should shrink 
 from such high-flown and, for that very reason, so 
 often empty or unrealised language, and stand almost 
 silent before the face of Christ, feeling that in his 
 presence words are hardly wanted, and that one kind 
 word, or still better one kind deed for Christ's sake, is 
 better than sacrifice, and praise, and long prayer. 
 
 Forgive me for having thus pointed out to you what 
 seems to me a real danger in all religions, and more 
 particularly in those of the East, and believe me, 
 
 Ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 F. M. M. 
 
 LILY COTTAGE, 
 
 72 UPPKR CIRCULAR ROAD, CALCUTTA, 
 9 July, 1 88 1. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 There is hardly a syllable in your last epistle 
 which I should hesitate to endorse. You have said 
 exactly what I should have said, only in a more 
 learned and philosophical style, such as one would
 
 126 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 expect from you. So far as your intellectual estimate 
 of Christ is concerned I do not think there is much 
 difference between us. I too regard him as the Son 
 of God, and would never give him higher honour. I 
 see in him not merely an ethical teacher, nor a mere 
 saint of unexampled devotion and unblemished cha- 
 racter, but ' a greater than Socrates,' inasmuch as he 
 was the Son of God. I have often said, as my pub- 
 lished lectures and sermons will show, that the dis- 
 tinctive feature of Christ's doctrine and life was his 
 divine sonship. I stand, as you do, between the or- 
 thodox Trinitarians on the one hand and the rational- 
 istic Unitarians on the other. My position is that of 
 a Uni-trinitarian. My explanation of the doctrine 
 of the Trinity you will find in my lecture on ' Great 
 Men ' and in the later numbers of the ' New Dispen- 
 sation.' I am so glad and thankful that the Spirit of 
 God has helped me to work my way through Hin- 
 duism to the point where an enlightened Christianity 
 has brought you. I have always disclaimed the 
 Christian name, and will not identify myself with the 
 Christian Church, for I set my face completely against 
 the popular doctrine of Christ's divinity. Yet I re- 
 cognise divinity in some form in Christ, in the sense 
 in which the Son partakes of the Father's divine na- 
 ture. We in India look upon the son as the father 
 born again. The wife is called #aya, for in her the 
 father is born in the shape of the son. Hence the 
 Hindu, while regarding the father and the son as dis- 
 tinct and separate persons, connects them in thought 
 by some kind of identity. This identity does not 
 merge the son in the father, does not by pure fiction 
 exalt the son to the position of the father, but leaving
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 127 
 
 the absolute difference of relationship intact, main- 
 tains nevertheless a unity or likeness of nature. The 
 son is made in the image of his father, and he par- 
 takes of the father's nature. Looking upon Christ's 
 relation to God in this light we can readily compre- 
 hend the divinity of Jesus as contradistinguished from 
 his ' Deity.' True sonship, such as it was in Christ, 
 must be divine. The Father was in him and he was 
 in the Father. If this be your position, as it is mine, 
 I do not see any material difference between us con- 
 cerning Christ's sonship or his divine nature as mani- 
 fested in true manhood. If intellectually there is no 
 divergence, is there any difference in emotion or de- 
 votion? You speak of prayer and praise. 'Long 
 prayer ' to Christ or any other prophet I thoroughly 
 interdict. It is contrary to our doctrine. We 
 pray only to God for our salvation. In regard to 
 saints we can only hold 'communion.' We go on 
 ' pilgrimage ' to the saints in heaven, and hold loving 
 and reverent communion in the recesses of the heart. 
 If we do not worship or pray unto prophets, we cer- 
 tainly love them fervently and praise them with in- 
 tense reverence. Perhaps it is to this that you take 
 exception. And well you may. In spirit we agree ; 
 we disagree in forms. The forms of one nation are 
 apt to be repulsive and even shocking to another. 
 Our Oriental nature is our apology for the ' impassioned 
 utterances,' the ' language of excessive veneration,' 
 ' high-flown language,' &c. you speak of. How can 
 I, my friend, destroy my Asiatic nature, how can 
 I discard the language of poetry and emotion and in- 
 spiration which is my life and nature ? To adopt any 
 other language would cost me much effort, would be
 
 128 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 artificial, mechanical, unnatural, and, I may add, 
 hypocritical. I must speak exactly as I feel ; and 
 you know my devotion is, as a rule, always extem- 
 poraneous. Our tears during prayer, our fervent and 
 constant apostrophising, our ascetic habits, our very 
 forms of devotion in which we speak of God as One 
 whom we see and hear, may be disagreeable to Euro- 
 pean eyes and ears, but so long as they are natural 
 and national, and not affected or borrowed, we need 
 not be afraid of serious consequences. There is cer- 
 tainly great danger in unreal show and Pharisaic 
 sanctimoniousness and superstitious mysticism, but 
 when the doctrine is pure and the heart speaks natur- 
 ally and spontaneously, from impulse and inspiration, 
 the poetry of religion, for it is nothing more, can do 
 no harm, but will only kindle enthusiasm and sweeten 
 faith. In these 'apostolical' days in which we live 
 you must make some allowance for warmth of feeling, 
 which will perhaps die away with the present genera- 
 tion. Accept, my dear friend, my solemn assurance 
 that the danger before us is not superstition, but dry- 
 ness and scepticism, and that they are moved by the 
 Spirit of God who indulge in the sweet poetry of 
 living and real faith. It is such a pleasure to read 
 your letters. Please write to me again and again, and 
 believe me, 
 
 Yours ever very sincerely, 
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 
 
 When Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, died (July, 
 1881), Keshub Chunder Sen was anxious to know 
 more about him. Stanley had been to the end a
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 129 
 
 staunch friend of Keshub Chunder Sen. As was usual 
 with him, the attacks on the Indian Reformer had 
 only served to strengthen Stanley's sympathy for 
 him, and he had several times asked me whether and 
 how he could help him. When I began to write down 
 some of my recollections of the Dean, which I thought 
 might be of interest and possibly of use to Keshub 
 Chunder Sen, they soon grew beyond the limits of a 
 letter, and I could only send him a few of my 
 notes from time to time. Some were written soon 
 after the Dean's death, others later. Some have been 
 published already, others are not quite fit for publica- 
 tion yet. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 You know by this time that we have lost Stan- 
 ley a true friend to me, a true friend to you, a true 
 friend to many others. He had many friends who 
 loved him, but the number of those whom he loved 
 was greater still. Most men wait till they are loved 
 and then love in return. His whole disposition to- 
 wards the world was one of welcome. His heart was 
 ever ready to believe the best of every one. His arms 
 were always open to receive you. He was one of 
 those who liked to shake hands with both hands. So 
 it ought to be; so, one would think, it would be 
 naturally. Why should man not welcome man 1 ? 
 Alas, the heart that has been deceived, and deceived 
 more than once, knows the answer. It is so bitter to 
 trust and to find one's trust met by envy, cunning, 
 ill-will. . . . Stanley too must have had his bitter 
 experiences, but his arms were open to the last. He 
 did not sum up the experience of his life like a famous 
 
 K
 
 139 BIOGBAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 statesman lately deceased, ' Friend is the synonym of 
 traitor ' ! 
 
 There is no doubt that Stanley had many enemies- 
 No one was so thoroughly hated, and, I believe, is so 
 still. And how can it be otherwise ? 
 
 He was a truth-loving, honest, and outspoken man, 
 and the world would be very different from what it is, 
 if such a man had not been hated. He was not like 
 other people, and that is what other people are least 
 inclined to forgive. 
 
 And how was he different from other people, you 
 may ask. I believe, first of all, because he always 
 looked upon this world in its true light, not as a home, 
 but as a journey. Hence he was never entirely ab- 
 sorbed in the contests and controversies of the day. 
 He had his opinions and convictions, religious and 
 political, but his horizon was too wide ever to lose 
 himself altogether in our small lanes and valleys. 
 With other men every little question becomes what 
 they call a question of life and death ; the thought of 
 the possibility of error, or of surrender, never enters 
 their mind. They fight without looking or listening. 
 They raise dust and smoke till they cannot see through 
 the clouds which they themselves have raised. Stan- 
 ley was always willing to listen, and even, while hold- 
 ing determinately to his own opinions, he could at 
 least imagine that he might be wrong, and part from 
 his opponents with a few kind words, as if saying, 
 ' Let us wait, the time will come when we shall both 
 know better.' 
 
 Stanley had one great advantage in starting in life, 
 an advantage which is not sufficiently appreciated by 
 those who possess it, because it is rightly considered
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 131 
 
 very honourable if those who do not possess it sur- 
 mount the difficulties of life without ever forfeiting 
 their self-respect. Stanley belonged to a good family, 
 and was always pecuniarily independent. He never 
 knew the temptations of 'a poor struggling man, who 
 has often to choose between sacrificing the chances of 
 obtaining a position of usefulness and influence in the 
 world, to which he has a good right, and making 
 certain concessions which, however small, colour his 
 character through life. A man who has once been 
 silent when he ought to have spoken, or who has ever 
 spoken when he ought to have been silent, will never 
 be the same again, not perhaps in the eyes of the 
 world which calls speech silver and silence gold, but 
 in his own eyes, if he has eyes to see. And these 
 temptations are great, so great that we ought to be 
 very lenient in judging a poor man who may see 
 actual want, loss of influence, loss of usefulness on 
 one side, while one small concession to the world 
 would lead him to the bench of Judges or Bishops, or 
 any other place for which he is the fittest man. 
 
 Stanley had his ambition, he knew what he had a 
 right to expect, aye to demand ; but he could afford 
 to wait. He had not to push and to urge his claims 
 himself or through others, and he thus remained a free 
 man through life. He was content to be a College 
 Tutor, a Canon of Canterbury, a Professor at Oxford, 
 and at last a Dean of Westminster. He was content, 
 nay he was proud of his position. Yet, if he had 
 been a worldly and what is called a prudent man, he 
 might have been a Bishop and an Archbishop long 
 before others. 
 
 When I first knew him as a young Tutor at Uni- 
 K 2
 
 132 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 versity College, I was often struck by his boldness as 
 compared with the prudence of other friends of mine. 
 I did not know then that he was a man who could 
 afford to walk straight forward, without looking right 
 or left, and I honoured him all the more for what 
 seemed to me the highest chivalry of truth. Not that 
 I honour him less, now that I know how strong and 
 impregnable his position was, for, after all, wealth 
 does not always produce independence of thought and 
 word and deed. Only I do not perhaps place him now 
 quite so high above all his contemporaries as I did when 
 I was first drawn into the peculiar life of Oxford, and 
 began to watch the bold or timid steps in the careers 
 of men who have since risen to eminence. There is one 
 expression in English which I have always liked very 
 much. 'He has an independence,' that is, he has suf- 
 ficient to live without caring for frowns or favours. 
 
 There was another feature in Stanley's character 
 which from the first attracted me strongly towards 
 him. Not being a scheming or diplomatising man 
 himself, he did not look upon others as if they were 
 always driving at something. One could speak to 
 him unreservedly, almost thoughtlessly. One knew 
 he believed all one said. He would forgive even a 
 stupid, silly, or selfish remark, and interpret every 
 man according to the best meaning of which he would 
 admit. There was in him a serene transparency, and 
 one felt that in speaking with him there was no 
 necessity for weighing every word, or calculating its 
 effect, or guarding against every possible misinterpre- 
 tation. It was a treat to speak with him and to find 
 that he really took one for better than one was it 
 made one better. It is one of the greatest miseries of
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 133 
 
 our artificial life to have always to be on the guard 
 against possible misunderstandings. You must have 
 felt that when you had to clothe your Eastern thoughts 
 in Western words. I have felt it myself very often 
 when trying to translate my German thoughts into 
 English idiom. There are little niceties of expression 
 which it is difficult to learn later in life. Many times 
 I know I have been misunderstood and have offended 
 people simply from a certain carelessness of expression. 
 If one has to look out for the right word and does not 
 find it at once, one often blurts out the next best. 
 One sees at once, even without the gift of thought- 
 reading, that there is a peculiar taste about that word 
 which is not quite palatable to one's friend. One 
 might stop and explain, but that often makes matters 
 worse, and so one leaves it and goes on, trusting to 
 one's friend's good-nature. With Stanley I never had 
 that feeling, even when I was a mere beginner and 
 bungler in English. I knew always that he would un- 
 derstand what I really meant. After all, we are all 
 stammerers. Even the most eloquent express but 
 half of what they feel and mean. We must all trust 
 to a Lector Benevolus, and that is what Stanley was 
 at all times and with all men. 
 
 Another feature which was most strongly marked 
 in Stanley's character was his indignation at any in- 
 justice or even unfairness committed against a man 
 who, whether from weakness or other circumstances, 
 was unable to defend himself. Again and again have 
 I seen Stanley rushing into the fray when he sus- 
 pected want of fair play. Again and again have I 
 seen him assisting men for whom he had really no 
 sympathy, nay defending others whom he naturally
 
 134 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 shrank from, simply because they were ill-treated by 
 the mob, whatever that mob might be. This kind of 
 chivalry may be carried too far, but nothing after a]l 
 is so amiable and so attractive as this Quixotic cha- 
 racter. The world would be intolerable if it were not 
 for a few such true knights. He was opposed to the 
 publication of ' Essays and Reviews,' but when they 
 were published and attacked, as they were, with clubs 
 and tomahawks, Stanley fought more valiantly than 
 any of the Seven, and it was said at the time, perhaps 
 truly, that he then forfeited his chance of a mitre. 
 Stanley never went so far as Colenso. He did not 
 even see the value of Colenso's criticism. He knew 
 what ancient history meant, and to his mind many of 
 the contradictions, worked out so laboriously by the 
 brave Bishop, were really confirmations of the his- 
 torical genuineness of the Old Testament. They were 
 what a true historian, who knows the conditions under 
 which the earliest literary documents are composed, 
 collected, and preserved, would expect. The absence 
 of such contradictions would have seemed to him 
 suspicious. ' But whatever Stanley's own views and 
 feelings might be, when the Bishops and their friends 
 tried to crush argument by authority, he stood forth, 
 undismayed by clamour and threats, and to the last re- 
 mained true to Colenso, though equally true, as we 
 know, to his Old Testament, as a real work of anti- 
 quity, possessing all those characteristics which an 
 ancient history ought to possess, and none of those of 
 a short-hand report in our modern newspapers. You 
 owe some of his sympathy to the violent attacks that 
 were made on you, and I can trace the origin of his 
 friendship for me to a similar cause.
 
 KE8HUB CHUNDER SEN. 135 
 
 Stanley's character as a theologian, and as a politi- 
 cian too, in fact the whole tone of his mind, was what 
 I must call historical. Learn how things have be- 
 come what they are, and you will understand them, 
 approve of them, or at alj events bear with them for a 
 while, till they can become or can be made to become 
 something better. This is the key-note in every one 
 of Stanley's books from the first to the last, and he did 
 not wait for Evolutionism to teach him that lesson 1 . 
 
 It has sometimes been said that Stanley was not 
 quite outspoken, that he did not say all he knew, that 
 he submitted to many things which he could not have 
 approved in his heart. Is there one man of whom the 
 same might not be said ? We all know a great deal 
 more, or are working up to know a great deal more 
 than we are prepared to say and publish to the world. 
 What a man like Stanley puts forward, he must be 
 prepared to defend against the whole world ; and if he 
 feels that he is unable to do that, he would rightly 
 shrink from a step that might defeat the very object 
 he had in view. On many points our knowledge may 
 be sufficient to satisfy ourselves, but far from sufficient 
 to satisfy others, and to silence all possible objections. 
 
 Again, do we not all submit to many things which 
 we do not approve ? One man may be a republican, 
 and yet submit to a monarchical government ; and an- 
 other may be an imperialist, and yet submit to a re- 
 publican government. Stanley certainly did not ap- 
 prove of the Thirty-nine Articles, but he signed them 
 as an historical document, knowing their origin and 
 
 1 Some of what I had written here on this side of Stanley's character, 
 has been published in an article, ' Forgotten Bibles,' in the 'Nineteenth 
 Century," June, 1884, pp. 1017, seq.
 
 136 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 their historical purpose, and accepting them as a com- 
 promise between the different parties that have formed 
 the Church of England. 
 
 How could we have any religion, how could we 
 have any Church, without a compromise ? It is dif- 
 ferent in philosophy. There every man may go his 
 own way, and speak his own language. But it is the 
 very nature of religion to be a compromise, a compro- 
 mise between the young and the old, the wise and the 
 foolish, all of whom are to use the same language, 
 though they must use it each in his own way. Now 
 Stanley was a man of such strong human sympathies, 
 and so ready to enter into the thoughts and feelings 
 of others, that he would have been the last man to 
 disturb the religious peace of anybody. Who would 
 like to wake a child from its peaceful slumber ? We 
 stand by its cradle and watch the little rosebud, and 
 hardly draw our breath for fear of breaking in upon 
 its perfect bliss. All we can do is to be near, so that, 
 when the child awakes, it should not be frightened at 
 finding itself quite alone. Stanley knew that, so far 
 as mere happiness is concerned, nothing is happier than 
 the faith of childhood, nothing more blessed than the 
 continuance of that faith from the cradle to the grave. 
 
 In meeting friends who had that faith, Stanley 
 could enter into their feelings with all the truth and 
 warmth of a man who liked nothing better than to be 
 a child once more. Is that dishonesty 1 As well you 
 might call it dishonest to say that the sun rises, in- 
 stead of saying that the earth sets. 
 
 But with men who were no longer children, he was 
 a man, and an honest man. He knew that the time 
 comes when, whether we like it or not, the child must
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEE SEN. 137 
 
 wake, when the man must face the world such as it 
 is, not such as he would wish it to be. 
 
 A dear friend of Stanley's, a high dignitary in the 
 Church, asked me soon .after his death, ' Tell me, did 
 Stanley believe in miracles ? ' I said, ' Certainly not,' 
 and he seemed quite relieved, and repeated again and 
 again, ' Certainly not, certainly not.' And yet this 
 might give you a false idea of Stanley. He certainly 
 did not believe in miracles as they are believed in by 
 many, as irregularities committed on purpose. He 
 was not troubled by miracles. He knew, as every 
 historian knows, or by this time ought to know, that 
 there is no religion without miracles, and yet that 
 the founders of the three highest religions have unani- 
 mously condemned miracles. Your ancient native 
 religion is full of miracles, and it would be quite as 
 true to call them psychologically inevitable as to call 
 them physically impossible. But Stanley knew that 
 certain minds cannot believe anything unless they 
 first believe in miracles. To these men of little faith 
 miracles are everything, and if their faith in miracles 
 were undermined, their faith in everything else would 
 crumble to pieces. This may seem strange to you, for 
 I am sure you did not believe in Christ because He 
 could change water into wine, or cast out devils, or 
 heal the sick, or feed the hungry, or calm the storm, 
 or walk on the water. A man may be believed to have 
 done all that and much more, as in the case of some of 
 your ancient Rishis, and yet you would not believe his 
 doctrines unless they could command a very different 
 sanction. To you, all the facts, whether historical or 
 legendary, in the life of Christ must seem entirely out- 
 side the temple of Christian truth ; and the question
 
 138 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 whether the miracles were accurately reported by con- 
 temporary witnesses would probably affect you as little 
 as it affects millions of Christians, who either cannot 
 read or have no time for reading. Let us only see clearly 
 that facts can never be believed, unless we do violence 
 to the true sense of that word. Facts may be either 
 doubted or not, either accepted or not, either rejected 
 or not, but they cannot be believed as we believe the 
 existence of God, the sonship of Christ, the immorta- 
 lity of the soul, or the holiness of truth. If you read 
 the words which Christ addressed to Thomas (St. 
 John xx. 29), ' Blessed are they that have not seen, 
 and yet have believed,' you will see that they have a 
 much deeper meaning than is commonly supposed, and 
 that Christ himself placed a faith without sight high 
 above a faith with sight. 
 
 There is hardly a miracle in the New Testament 
 which to a man who knows the language of other re- 
 ligions is startling. Buddha was called the great 
 physician, and we have no reason to doubt that Christ 
 too was a true physician, and could heal, not only 
 spiritual, but also physical diseases. Which of the 
 two gifts Christ himself placed highest, we may learn 
 from his own words, when he sends his message to 
 John the Baptist, saying ' that the blind see, the lame 
 walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead 
 are raised and to the poor the gospel is preached.' 
 
 But you may say that, although most miracles per- 
 formed by Christ offer no difficulties to an historical 
 mind, such as Stanley's was, there are two miracles 
 performed, not by, but as it were for Christ, which 
 must have been a stumbling-block to an honest mind, 
 such as Stanley's was. namely the miraculous birth,
 
 KESIIUB CHUNDER SEN, 139 
 
 and what may be called the miraculous death of 
 Christ. I cannot tell for certain what Stanley thought 
 on these two subjects, though some of his remarks on 
 a sermon preached in Westminster Abbey by our 
 common friend Kingsley leave little doubt in my 
 mind that he looked for true divinity elsewhere than 
 in the cradle and in the grave. But to your mind 
 these two miracles ought to be the least perplexing. 
 You know that whenever the founder of a religion 
 has been raised to a superhuman or divine rank, the 
 human mind rebels against an ordinary birth and an 
 ordinary death. It is extremely curious to observe 
 how on this point human ingenuity tries to outbid 
 divine wisdom. The highest wisdom, whether we call 
 it God or Nature, conceived one kind of birth as 
 the best for man. Man invented what he thought a 
 more becoming birth for God. The intention was 
 good, no doubt, but it was, to say the least, uncalled 
 for. Is there anything more wonderful than the or- 
 dinary birth of a child? is there anything more 
 holy 1 anything that can more truly be called a re- 
 velation? Does a miracle cease to be a miracle be- 
 cause it happens every day? Does the marvellous 
 become common because it happens every minute? 
 Depend upon it, no miraculous birth will ever outbid 
 the miraculousness of the plain birth of a child. 
 ' What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.' 
 And as to Christ's real resurrection, is it credible 
 that, when we are told again and again that Christ 
 came to bring life and immortality to light, the 
 simple words that Christ rose from the dead should 
 have been taken in a carnal, not in a spiritual sense ? 
 How would a carnal resurrection and ascension benefit
 
 140 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 us ? Does heaven still mean the clouds as it did in 
 the Veda 1 ? Did St. Paul really mean that unless 
 Christ's body had been carried through the clouds, his 
 faith in Christ would be in vain ? It would be fearful 
 to think so. St. Paul did not even say, ' If Christ is 
 not raised, the dead rise not,' but ' If the dead rise 
 not, then is not Christ raised.' Of this I am perfectly 
 certain, that if you had said to Stanley, ' Am I a 
 Christian if I believe only in the spiritual resurrection 
 of Christ 1 ' he would have said ' Yes, and all the more, 
 if you do not believe that his body was taken up to 
 the clouds.' I often regret that the Jews buried, and 
 did not burn their dead, for in that case the Christian 
 idea of the resurrection would have remained far more 
 spiritual, and the conception of immortality would 
 have become less material. 
 
 One can hardly realise what Christianity would be 
 if such men as Stanley ever became its true repre- 
 sentatives. We should not want Missionaries then. 
 Instead of a few converts here and there being pressed 
 to come in, millions would press to come in, and many 
 like yourself would say, We have long been Christians. 
 If you had lived in the first century, you would have 
 been a disciple of Christ, whereas now you say truly, 
 because I am a disciple of Christ, therefore I cannot 
 be a Christian. However, we must not despair. I 
 well remember your parting words in Oxford, ' And 
 if fifty years hence people should find out that I have 
 been doing the work of Chiist, what harm is there 1 ' 
 There are many in Europe who must be content to 
 say the same, and Christ's best disciples are found, 
 I believe, among those whom so-called believers call 
 unbelievers.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEB SEN. 141 
 
 If what I write to you can do any good in India, 
 remember that I never have any secrets. If my views 
 are wrong, they can be .corrected ; if they are right, 
 the more I am abused for them, the better. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 F. MAX MtiLLER. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 7 May, 1882. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 I have long wished to write to you again, and to 
 congratulate you on the cessation of the war. I am 
 so glad that you have left the battle-field for better 
 fields of usefulness. You have a far too important 
 work to do, to waste your time in personal contro- 
 versy. Go on preaching, teaching, and doing as much 
 good as you can ; that is the best answer to all obloquy. 
 You know I do not flatter you. I have openly told 
 you when I differed from you, but I have far too 
 high an idea of the work which you are meant to do 
 on earth to ask any further explanations from you on 
 matters where after all you may be right and I wrong. 
 No, no, we must learn to trust each other even when 
 we do not always understand each other. You are an 
 Eastern, I am a Western. There is One who knows 
 who is right and who is wrong, and that is the Purusha 
 within us. 
 
 I have still many things to tell you about our friend 
 Stanley. I miss him very much. He always re- 
 mained true to you. After he had once trusted a man, 
 he seldom dropped him again. His troubles often re- 
 minded me of your troubles. He always complained 
 that he had achieved so little that he had lost all
 
 142 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 influence in the Church. He little knew how much 
 he had achieved, how great his influence really was. 
 His death revealed his greatness. I feel sure we ought 
 not to think so much about visible success, we ought 
 not to be disheartened at apparent failure even. All 
 we can do is to move on straight, and not to mind if 
 our straight line seems crooked to the crooked. Even 
 if you were to do nothing more, you ought to feel 
 that you have done a great and good work, which 
 will never be undone again. That ought to cheer 
 you, and make you go on with your work cheerfully. 
 I am going to Cambridge next week, having been in- 
 vited by the University to give some Lectures on 
 India. I have chosen for my subject, ' What can India 
 teach 11$ V I hope you will approve. 
 
 Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 F. MAX MtJLLER. 
 
 LILT COTTAGE, 
 
 72 UPPER CIRCULAR EOAD, CALCUTTA, 
 5 August, 1882. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 I had hoped to write to you from the Himalayas, 
 where I went for a brief sojourn for the benefit of my 
 health, shortly after the receipt of your very kind and 
 cheering message. These stupendous and lofty heights 
 are dear and sacred to us Indians, as reminders of the 
 departed glory of our fatherland, and as a source of 
 living inspiration amid the grovelling cares of the 
 world. Nor are they less dear and sacred to you, 
 whose heart is so thoroughly Eastern and Indian. 
 Perhaps you honour our country and its ancient
 
 KESHUB CHUNDEK SEN. 143 
 
 literature more than we natives of the soil do. And 
 I am sure a letter from the Himalayas you would 
 have hailed with peculiar interest and joy. Ill-health, 
 however, prevented my writing to you from there ; 
 and though I have since my return often wished to 
 write, I have as often failed. The fact is I have been 
 suffering from extreme nervous debility and other 
 complaints since our last anniversary festival in 
 January, and even now I am not equal to my work. 
 
 You are quite right in denouncing fruitless contro- 
 versies and personal wranglings. In our Church es- 
 pecially these are altogether out of place. Our work 
 at present is not destruction, but reconstruction. We 
 have had enough of the former during the earlier 
 periods of the Brahma-Samaj history. There was a 
 time when an aggressive warfare had to be kept up, 
 and we had to put down idolatry and caste with 
 iconoclastic fury. But the New Dispensation is a 
 work of construction. It fulfils, does not destroy ; it 
 builds, does not demolish. Our entire literature bears 
 testimony to this positive and pacific policy of our 
 Church. If you know the leading principles of my 
 life and character, you will no doubt admit that I am 
 pledged to reconciliation and harmony. If I live for 
 any purpose it is for this, that I will preach the union 
 of Eastern and Western Theism, the reconciliation of 
 Europe and Asia. The idea may seem absurd to many 
 in the present age. It may provoke ridicule and 
 angry reviling. But posterity will prove a better 
 judge. My honoured friend, you need not be told that 
 a man must stick to the high ideal of his life regard- 
 less of consequences, and remain true to the light 
 within in spite of obloquy and persecution. God has
 
 144 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 given me too a work to do, and my tastes and ideas, 
 impulses and aspirations have been moulded and shaped 
 accordingly. One half of my heart is in sympathy 
 with Europe, and the other half with Asia. I cannot 
 therefore bear the thought of their separation. If 
 one branch of the Lord's family has taken one idea 
 from Him, and another branch another idea, why 
 should they quarrel ? Are we not both the Lord's ? 
 To take only Asiatic thought or European faith is a 
 half -measure. It is the adoption of a fraction of divine 
 life. That Asia and Europe, the East and the West, 
 will always continue in a state of mutual separation, 
 divorce, and disunion is against nature and nature's 
 God. Let us seek the perfection of the individual and 
 the race in the union of Eastern and Western types of 
 thought and character. I trust and pray that all 
 scholars and thinkers and philanthropists in different 
 parts of the world will try to bring about this inter- 
 national reconciliation. Let there be no more wrang- 
 ling, no more sectarian antagonism. Let the angel of 
 peace and love reign. What you say of that noble 
 soul, Dean Stanley, is truly refreshing and encourag- 
 ing. Yes, he has done a great deal, and the influence 
 he has left behind will do infinitely more to widen 
 and deepen the Church in Europe, and vastly help to 
 bring about the reconciliation of the Eastern and the 
 Western Churches. May his soul rest in peace in the 
 bosom of God ! 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 145 
 
 TAT? A VIEW, SIMLA, 
 20 July, 1883. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 The papers report the death of your good mother. 
 Allow me to send you a line of condolence from the 
 distant Himalaya. As a Hindu I feel the deepest 
 sympathy in your grief. For who on earth so good 
 as the mother ? We in India regard our parents, and 
 especially the mother, as ' sakshat pratyakshadevata 1 ,' 
 and we have no doubt you have the same Aryan 
 feeling and instinct in you. A mother's love who can 
 repay ? A mother's memory no loyal son can forget. 
 Alive or dead, we honour and revere her spirit, not 
 merely on account of our earthly obligations, but be- 
 cause motherly tenderness represents so truly and so 
 beautifully the lovingkindness of the Supreme Mother. 
 May the soul of your dear mother rest in peace in the 
 world above 1 
 
 I am sorry I cannot write to you so often as I could 
 wish. But of this I can assure you that you are often 
 present in my thoughts. The affinity is not only 
 ethnic, but in the highest degree spiritual, which often 
 draws you into my heart and makes me enjoy the 
 pleasures of friendly intercourse. I forget the dis- 
 tance, and feel we are very near each other. These 
 Himalayas ablaze with India's ancient glory constantly 
 remind me of you, and as I read your Lectures on 
 ' India, what can it teach us V in the veranda of my 
 little house in the morning, I feel so intensely the 
 presence of your spirit in me that it seems I am 
 not reading your book, but talking to you and you 
 are talking to me in deep spirit-intercourse. How 
 ardently you love India that book has made clear. 
 
 1 ' A present visible deity.' 
 I,
 
 146 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Surely you honour our ' fatherland ' more than any of 
 my own countrymen, and the glowing terms in which 
 you speak of India, her people, her religion, and her 
 ancient greatness put to shame the enthusiasm of even 
 the most warm-hearted patriot among us. And what 
 you write in your book I see with my own eyes and 
 realise in my own heart on these Himalayan heights. 
 Every word you say of the Rishis, their faith and de- 
 votion, is so true. Their transcendental spirituality, 
 their unearthly asceticism, as distinguished from the 
 busy life of the West, you justly appreciate and ad- 
 mire. Alas ! these blessed Rishis are dead and gone. 
 On the plains of Bengal, where I live, I miss them : I 
 see an entirely different generation, by no means loyal 
 to their venerable forefathers. But I do not miss 
 them here. On these hills the ancient Rishis seem 
 yet to live and move. I feel that they are with me 
 and in me. Everything recalls these saintly spirits 
 to my mind, and I see before me not the agnostic's 
 godless earth and sky, but the ancient Aryan devotee's 
 Surya, Vayu, Varua, and Indra. How I wish to 
 see you in this my humble hermitage, and talk toge- 
 ther about the deeper mysteries of Rishi life in the 
 very abode of the ancient Rishis, the Himalaya ! You 
 say I follow the Rita of the Vedic Rishis. I wish I 
 could always do so : in fact this is the great ambition 
 of my life. These twenty-five years the Holy Ghost 
 has been to me not only my teacher and guide, but 
 also my guardian and protector. He has given me 
 the bread of inspiration ; and to His directions too I 
 owe my daily bread. I never knew any Guru or 
 priest, but in all matters affecting the higher life 
 I have always sought and found light in the direct
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 147 
 
 counsels of the Holy Spirit. Nor could I ever count 
 upon a definite income for my large family, and yet 
 through darkness and uncertainty the Holy Ghost has 
 led me on, feeding me, my wife and ten children, and 
 even giving us the comforts of life. From how many 
 perils, dangers, and temptations has He delivered me 1 
 How many times has He shown me the light of 
 heaven ! or I would have perished. To so good a 
 Spirit I look as to a personal Friend and a daily 
 Companion, and I have made up my mind never to 
 turn away from Him to whom I owe all that I prize 
 in my temporal and my spiritual life. The applause 
 of man pleases me not, if the Monitor within rebukes 
 me. And when the world stands against me, as it 
 often does, my Comforter comforts me as no man can. 
 When everything fails, I find joy and strength in the 
 cheering voice of the Holy Ghost. May I always 
 prove faithful to Him ! 
 
 Not long ago the Editor of the Cont< mporary Review 
 wrote to me a kind note asking me to contribute an 
 article on some Indian subject. I promised to accede 
 to his request, but wanted time as I was unwell. 
 Since writing to him I got worse and worse, and I 
 have not yet found time or energy sufficient for the 
 task. I hope to redeem my promise so soon as health 
 permits. It is a wasting disease from which I am 
 Buffering, and it brings on terrible weakness and ex- 
 haustion at times. If convenient I beg you will do 
 me the favour to write a line to the Editor requesting 
 his indulgence and forbearance. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 KKSHUB CHUNDEU SEN. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 BIOOKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 LETTERS FROM PROTAP CHUNDER 
 MOZUMDAR. 
 
 PEACE COTTAGE, 73. UPPER CIRCULAR ROAD, CALCUTTA, 
 14 Feb. 1881. 
 
 MY DEAK SIR, 
 
 Perhaps you do not remember me. I had the 
 great pleasure of spending an afternoon with you in 
 autumn, 1874. Since my return home I have always 
 thought of writing to you ; but with the Hindu's 
 indecision I have always hesitated. Yet I always felt 
 most gratefully that your interest in the Brahma- 
 Samaj, of which I have been a worker nearly for the 
 last twenty years, was unabated. When you put me 
 into the train at the railway station you said, ' Send 
 me every information, every paper, every scrap ; you 
 will not find me speaking always, but when the time 
 comes here I am ! ' The time has come, and you 
 have spoken. But, alas ! we have not kept you well 
 furnished with facts about our movement. You have 
 watched the agitation on the Cutch Behar marriage. 
 That agitation began from deeper causes, and ended 
 in deeper opposition than a mere protest against the 
 marriage. Keshub Chunder Sen's genius is too 
 Western for his own countrymen, and too Eastern for 
 yours. His mind is so independent and original, so 
 far above conventional proprieties of every sort, that 
 long before the marriage he had begun to make 
 enemies both inside and outside the Brahma Samaj. 
 They were seeking for an opportunity to crush him, 
 they found it in the marriage, they used it to an 
 extent of unmercifulness of which you can form no 
 idea. But Keshub is one of those men who cannot 
 be crushed. His spiritual vitality, his moral vigour
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 149 
 
 are simply immortal. Among his opponents those 
 perhaps have done him most harm who were his 
 friends. Miss Collet, the compiler of the Brahmo 
 Year Book, has tried to do him the most lasting harm. 
 This lady's idolisation of Keshub was as singular, as 
 her present violent and unreasoning antipathy. Not a 
 little there was in the Cutch Behar marriage to which 
 an honest man might take objection. Some of the 
 forms and figures subsequently used by our friend 
 might also startle any European, perhaps even a 
 Hindu. For my own part I am not an advocate of 
 sensational figures of speech. But I know how abso- 
 lutely beyond sober speech is every impulse of deep 
 and genuine spirituality. Are not the original per- 
 ceptions of genius obscure to the finest intellects'? 
 Deliberate obscurity is dishonesty. It may be a foible 
 in which great souls have occasionally indulged ; but 
 to a man labouring in the awful and agonising solitude 
 of genius perhaps it may be found restful to indulge 
 in expressions which he alone can fully fathom. 
 
 But I maintain a man of real and acknowledged 
 power is entitled to some amount of public trust. If 
 every act and every expression of his that is not 
 understood were put down to the score of moral cor- 
 ruptness, all forms of organisation would soon cease 
 to exist. And this is what Keshub's opponents both 
 in England and India have done. In not treating 
 him with the charity to which much inferior men are 
 entitled, they have driven him deeper and deeper into 
 his exceedingly sensitive individuality, till he has 
 altogether ceased to be understood. Hardheartedness 
 produces its worst effects upon the intellect. And 
 these people have lost the sense by which very plain
 
 150 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 words and actions can be properly construed. Except 
 to friends, to persons disposed to treat you charitably 
 and justly, it is often wrong to offer any explanation 
 at all. Explanations require so often to be explained 
 that one turns from the whole task in despair. I 
 wonder if there can be any justice, in the proper 
 sense of that word, apart from charity. You, sir, 
 have shown him that charity, and hence, even in the 
 absence of such facts as you ought to have received, 
 you have been more just to him than many others, 
 who knew more, have been able to be. The Cutch Behar 
 marriage is now a thing of the past. I believe before 
 long Keshub will have to publish more facts to clear 
 his own conduct in regard to that affair. He has not 
 done so because he shrank from exposing the conduct 
 of some high officials of the Bengal Government. 
 
 The Brahma-Samaj has come to occupy a position 
 which may be considered apart from its relations to 
 the Cutch Behar marriage. This doctrine of the New 
 Dispensation promises to excite great hostility. I will 
 by next mail post the Theistic Review in which some 
 of our leading ideas on the subject are explained. 
 The New Dispensation seems to me to be nothing more 
 than the spiritual counterpart of your idea of a Science 
 of Comparative Theology. What you are doing as a 
 philosopher and a philologist we are trying to do as 
 men of devotion and faith. It is the same universal 
 recognition of all truths, and all prophets. It is the 
 same war against exclusiveness and bigotry. I grant 
 we are doing it in a Hindu style, perhaps in a Bengali 
 style. But there is no question that the future 
 religion of the world must acknowledge the reign of 
 law, order, harmony, and development in the religious
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 151 
 
 records of mankind. The Fatherhood of God is a 
 meaningless abstraction unless the unity of truth in 
 all lands and nations is admitted. And the Brother- 
 hood of man is impossible, if there is no recognition of 
 the services which the great peoples of the earth have 
 rendered unto each other. I must not take up more 
 of your time. It will be nothing short of delight if I 
 can ever hear from you in reply. I and my friends 
 look upon you as an interpreter, as a mediator 
 between ourselves and Europe. And I have no doubt 
 you reciprocate the cordiality and confidence with 
 which the Brahma-Samaj regards you. With very 
 warm and kind regards, 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 Prof. Max Muller. P. C. MOZUMDAR. 
 
 SIMLA, 
 20 August, 1 88 1. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 Simla, as you know, is in the midst of the 
 Himalayas. It is the summer seat of the Government 
 of India, and the Lieutenant-Go vernor of the Punjab 
 also comes here, because it is within the province he 
 rules, and also because he has to consult with the 
 head of the Supreme Government on questions relating 
 to the many frontier difficulties that have started up 
 since the unfortunate Afghan war. Being in con- 
 tinued bad health for some time, I have been here for 
 a change for the last three months. It was here I 
 received your kind and valuable present of the trans- 
 lation of the Dhammapada, for which allow me to 
 offer you my very hearty thanks. It was here also I 
 got your card desiring me to send you certain Bengali
 
 152 BIOaRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 books, which I hope have by this time reached you. 
 I presume you have now commenced to write the life 
 of Rajah Rammohun Roy, as you wished. It is my 
 sincere desire that you get a perfect insight into the 
 internal workings of the Brahma-Samaj of the present 
 day ; which is so essentially different from the institu- 
 tion which the Rajah founded in 1830. There is no 
 doubt the Rajah meant it to be a monotheistic church, 
 though he gave it a purely Vedantic character. As 
 you know very well, this monotheism was developed 
 and formulated by Devendranath Tagore. He has 
 always kept strictly true to the ancient cult of the 
 authors of the Upanishads, to the rigid and deliberate 
 exclusion of those Christian influences which Ram- 
 mohun Roy carefully sought and cultivated. It is 
 certain, however, that he was the first to introduce 
 into the Samaj genuine piety and spirituality. Into 
 the constitution of this piety a good deal of the mysti- 
 cism of Hafiz and the idealism of Victor Cousin 
 entered. I remember how intensely fond Devendra- 
 nath was of chanting the Gazels of the Persian Sufis, 
 and reading the works of Cousin, Kant, and Fichte. 
 So if any Christian influence can be said to have 
 entered into his system it was indirectly through these 
 thinkers. But for the Bible, for the character of Jesus 
 and of His disciples, the Pradhan Acharya of the Brahma- 
 Samaj has always had an unfeigned dislike. Indeed 
 from this point of view the teachings of Devendra- 
 nath Tagore are understood without much difficulty. 
 
 With the advent of Keshub Chunder Sen the princi- 
 ples of the Brahma-Samaj assumed the form of a reli- 
 gion, and that institution took the character of a Church. 
 Keshub cannot be considered as a well-read man.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 153 
 
 Even his quotations from the Bible, which are pretty 
 frequent, are made at random, and got up for the 
 occasions on which they are meant to give point and 
 emphasis to his own sentiments. But he deserves the 
 credit of uprearing the whole structure of Brahma 
 doctrines by the unaided efforts of his religious genius. 
 If he has been aided by anything, he has been aided 
 only by his singular devotions, which are long, deep, and 
 sweet. Doctrinally his teachings may be said generally 
 to have embraced the following subjects: Existence 
 and attributes of God as a personality ; Providence, 
 general and special; the soul of man as an immortal 
 spirit ; Conscience ; Prayer ; Inspiration ; our relations 
 to Christ ; to Sakya, Chaitanya, &c. ; the Brahma- 
 Samaj as a revealed dispensation of God, including 
 all previous dispensations, and setting forth the religion 
 of the future. His spiritual precepts may be said to 
 have generally embraced the following subjects : 
 Upasana, worship ; Yoga, asceticism ; Bhakti, devotion ; 
 Vairagya, passionlessness ; Sadhana, which I would 
 translate as self-discipline. He has besides said a 
 good deal on domestic, social, and apostolical organ- 
 isation. Now his doctrinal and other precepts have 
 been so amplified and complicated by frequent refer- 
 ences to and applications of Hindu Puraric con- 
 ceptions, as well as Christian dogmas and observances, 
 that they have swelled to an enormous extent, until 
 to many the primitive simplicity of their theistic 
 character has been all but lost. And while some ac- 
 cuse him of relapsing into Hindu idolatry and Pan- 
 theism, others charge him with merging into Christian 
 orthodoxy. I cannot say these misconceptions are 
 unnatural, and they have been aggravated by certain
 
 154 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 rhetorical peculiarities and personal incidents, prin- 
 cipal among which is the Cutch Behar marriage. His 
 interpretations of Hindu and Christian ideas may or 
 may not be right, but I believe no slur can be cast 
 upon the soundness of his theistic teaching. It has 
 long been my desire to explain some of his principles 
 from a simple and rational theistic ground. But I 
 sometimes feel that I should wait for a further de- 
 velopment of his views. In this endeavour I should 
 greatly prize the benefit of your ideas and suggestions. 
 Keshub is continually becoming more and more meta- 
 physical and mystical. Sometimes I am afraid he 
 may completely elude popular understanding, and that 
 is why I am the more anxious to explain him. Re- 
 cently he has very much given himself up to sym- 
 bolism. There has been a good deal of flags, flowers, 
 fires, and sacraments of all kinds. Of course misun- 
 derstanding is in consequence on the increase. Yet 
 Keshub's uncommon penetration, sagacity, and com- 
 mon sense are as clear and strong as ever. The sug- 
 gestions of a friendly critic like you will be most 
 welcome at this juncture, the more especially as the 
 different parties in the Brahma-Samaj seem to have 
 lost all mutual respect and confidence. Devendranath 
 Tagore has retired into the hills. The other day I 
 received a most significant letter from him. I will 
 translate it, and publish it some day. In the mean- 
 while permit me to send my little Theistic Review 
 and Interpreter. Hoping to have the pleasure of 
 hearing from you some day, 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 Prof. Max Muller. P. C. MOZUMDAR.
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. . 155 
 
 OXFORD, 
 3 August, 1 88 1. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. PROIAP CHUNDER MOZUMDAR, 
 
 If I have not written to you before, you may 
 believe me that it was time and leisure only that were 
 wanting, and that I have often longed for a quiet hour 
 to thank you for your letters, and to exchange some 
 thoughts with you on subjects very near to your heart 
 and to mine. I have many kind friends in different 
 parts of the world, and I must tell them all what I 
 told you when we parted at Oxford, ' If you really 
 want me, I shall always be ready.' But the day has 
 only eight or ten hours of work in it, and often not 
 even that ; and there is much still left to do, which I 
 feel I ought to do. Yet, as I watch the sun of my 
 life going down, I feel I shall never be able to do even 
 half of what I wished to do in this life. I must therefore 
 ask you and my other friends to have patience with me. 
 I have watched your struggles in India for many 
 years, and I have often pleaded your cause in Eng- 
 land with friends who were frightened by what they 
 heard about Keshub Chunder Sen. Yet I trusted 
 in you and in the goodness of your cause, and re- 
 mained silent, at least in public. But when I saw 
 our friend Keshub Chunder Sen pressed on all sides, 
 attacked not only by his natural enemies, but by his 
 natural friends, I thought I ought to come to his suc- 
 cour, or at all events to show him that some of his 
 friends were able to make allowance for his difficul- 
 ties, and though they might differ from him, had not 
 lost their confidence in him. That Cutch Behar mar- 
 riage was a misfortune, but what has it to do with the
 
 156 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 great work that Keshub Chunder Sen has been carry- 
 ing on ? Suppose even he was to be blamed, can no 
 one be allowed to carry on a great religious reform, 
 unless he is himself entirely blameless ? Nothing I 
 admire more in the writers of our Gospels than the 
 open way in which they sometimes speak of the 
 failings of the Apostles. In their eyes nothing could 
 have been more grievous than St. Peter's denial of 
 Christ. Yet they make no secret of it, and without 
 any public confession, recantation or penance, Peter, 
 after he has wept bitterly, is as great an Apostle as 
 all the others, nay even greater. Surely these are 
 passing clouds only, and what we ought to look to is 
 the bright sky behind. 
 
 At the present moment many of Keshub Chunder 
 Sen's old friends in England, and some particularly of 
 his most generous and liberal-minded friends, are in 
 despair about some of the outward religious cere- 
 monies which he has sanctioned. His asceticism, his 
 shaving his hair, his carrying a flag and singing in 
 the streets, his pilgrimages all are considered quite 
 shocking! To tell you the truth, I am not fond of 
 such things ; but every religion is a compromise, must 
 and always will be a compromise, between men and 
 children ; and there is no religion in which men like 
 you and me, who care for better things, have not 
 often to say that they are not fond of ' such things,' 
 yet have to bear with them. Think of our ritualists 
 at home. Silly children, naughty children, if you 
 like; but, for all that, many of them very good boys. 
 There is no real harm in shaving one's hair. A man 
 must either shave his hair or let it grow, and who 
 shall say which of the two is best ? Buddha was called
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 157 
 
 a 'shaveling' (muwr/a), because in order to abolish all 
 outward signs of caste or rank, he cut off his hair. 
 But there is an old Sanskrit verse which says : 
 
 PaM/kavimsatitattva#noyatratatra- 'Whether a man wear matted 
 
 rame vaset, hair, or a top-knot, or shave his 
 
 Gali, mujzdi, sikhl vapi mu&yate hair, if he knows the twenty-five 
 
 natra samaayah. truths, he will be saved.' 
 
 As to leading an ascetic life, what harm is there in 
 that ? India is the very country for leading an ascetic 
 life, and a man does not there banish himself from 
 society by it, as he would do in Europe. Pilgrimages 
 too, singing in the open air and carrying flags, seem 
 all- so natural to those who know the true Indian life 
 not the life of Calcutta or Bombay that I cannot 
 see why people in England should be so shocked by 
 what they call Keshub Chunder Sen's vagaries. Be- 
 cause he carries a flag, which was the recognised 
 custom among ancient religious leaders, he is ac- 
 cused of worshipping a flag. I am sure he does not 
 pay half the worship to his flag which every English 
 soldier does to his. It often becomes to him a real 
 fetish ; and yet a soldier when he dies for his flag, is 
 honoured by the very people who now cry out against 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, because he honours his flag, as 
 a symbol of his cause. 
 
 If Keshub Chunder Sen insisted on other people 
 doing exactly as he does, the case would be different. 
 But he does not, and whatever you and I and others 
 may feel about the importance of ' such things,' 
 there never has been and there never will be a re- 
 ligion ' without a flag.' I wish it were not so ; you 
 probably wish it were not so ; but man cannot live on 
 oxygen he requires bread.
 
 158 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 These, however, were not the matters I wished to 
 speak about, when writing to you. Not the play- 
 things of religion, but the very life and marrow of 
 religion I wanted to discuss with you, chiefly with 
 reference to that excellent article of yours, published 
 in the Thelstic Quarterly Review, October, 1879. Of all 
 the reviews which my Hibbert Lectures have elicited, I 
 liked yours the best, because it went to the very core 
 of the matter which I undertook to treat. Now there 
 are many people who are quite as much shocked at 
 our going to the very core of religion, as others are 
 with our playing with the playthings of religion ; 
 and if we were to count hands, not heads, what a 
 small minority we should be ! I sometimes wonder 
 that we are allowed to speak and to live at all, for the 
 great mass of good and honest people in the world 
 consider every one who, what they call, shakes their 
 faith, (what we should call, strengthens our faith), as 
 an enemy to society, as a danger to their happiness 
 here and hereafter, as a man to be silenced by any 
 means. Where would your small flock be, if every- 
 body in India were allowed to do with you what he 
 thinks right"? Remember what the majority against 
 you consists of. First, all children up to fifteen years 
 of age ; secondly, all women, with few exceptions ; 
 thirdly, most old and infirm people ; lastly, all unedu- 
 cated, all timid, and all downright dishonest people. 
 If you count up all these, I doubt whether you can reckon 
 on one in a hundred to stand up openly for you, while 
 the other ninety-nine would all combine against you. 
 
 And mind, with the exception of the last class of 
 ' downright dishonest people,' who from motives of 
 prudence or selfishness either do not say what they
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 159 
 
 do believe, or do say what they do not believe, 
 we have no right to complain of our antagonists. 
 They have a right to be what they are, and many 
 of them are sorely troubled by our supposed an- 
 tagonism to them and to the views which they 
 hold with regard to religion. Now we know from 
 our own experience that we too were sorely troubled 
 in our youth, and in our later years also, when we 
 found that many things dear, aye sacred to us, had 
 to be surrendered to a truer voice and a higher will. 
 Then what I feel and what I say is, that if we want 
 the majority to bear with us, a most minute mino- 
 rity, we ought to bear with them, and understand 
 that what are to us but outward things, playthings, 
 nothings, may be to them the only comfort they can find 
 in this world. One thing I know, that some of these 
 so-called ascetics, or ritualists, or bigotted and narrow- 
 minded people lead the most devoted, unselfish, pure 
 and noble lives ; and every tree which can bear such 
 .fruit whether it be the religion of Jews or Christians, 
 or Mohammedans or Brahmans, or Parsis or Buddhists 
 cannot be so entirely rotten to the core as many of our 
 friends, in Europe as well as in India, will have it. 
 
 But now, after having pleaded the cause of those 
 happy people who know nothing and want nothing 
 but faith and good works, let me stand up also for 
 those whose deepest religion makes it impossible for 
 them to be satisfied with that kind of outward re- 
 ligion, whether they are Jews or Christians, or Mo- 
 hammedans or Brahmans, or Parsis or Buddhists. 
 They seem to me to have as much right on their side 
 as the others on theirs, and if you think that I have 
 made ' too great concessions to the rampant scientists
 
 160 BIOaRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of the time,' you place me in a position which I could 
 not accept. We have no concessions to make to ram- 
 pant scientists. They have as much right on their 
 side, if they are but honest, as anybody else, and the 
 fact that they are again a very small minority, decides 
 nothing as to the truth or untruth of their opinions. 
 Depend on it, there are as good people among these 
 rampant scientists as among the most devout ascetics. 
 You have seen better than anybody else that the 
 problem which I wished to discuss in my Hibbert 
 Lectures, and to illustrate through the history of re- 
 ligion in India, was the possibility of religion in the 
 light of modern science. I might define my object 
 even more accurately by saying that it was a re- 
 consideration of the problem, left unsolved by Kant in 
 his Critique of Pure Reason, after a full analysis of the 
 powers of our knowledge and the limits of their 
 application, ' Can we have any knowledge of the 
 Transcendent or Supernatural?' In Europe all true 
 philosophy must reckon with Kant. Though his 
 greatest work, the Critique of Pure Reason, was pub- 
 lished just one hundred years ago, no step in advance 
 has been made since with regard to determining the 
 limits, i.e. the true powers, of human knowledge. 
 Other fields of philosophy have been cultivated with 
 great success by other observers and thinkers, but 
 the problem of all problems, How do we know? 
 stands to-day exactly as Kant left it. No one has 
 been able to show that Kant was wrong when he 
 showed that what we call knowledge has for its 
 material nothing but what is supplied by the senses. 
 It is we who digest that material, it is we who 
 change impressions into percepts, percepts into con-
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 161 
 
 cepts, and concepts into ideals ; but even in our most 
 abstract concepts the material is always sensuous, 
 just as our very life-blood is made up of the food 
 which comes to us from without. 
 
 Why should we shrink from that? Why should 
 we despise sensuous knowledge ? Is it not the most 
 wonderful thing we know that we should be able to see 
 and hear and feel ? We may understand, i. e. be able 
 to account for our concepts, because they are more or 
 less our own work ; but our percepts pass all under- 
 standing. They are the true miracle, the truest 
 revelation. But men are not satisfied with the true 
 miracles of nature and the true revelation of God ; 
 they must have little miracles of their own, and they 
 place those miracles of man far above the miracles 
 of God. So it is with our knowledge. Instead of 
 seeing the light of God in every ray of light, hearing 
 His voice in every note of music, and feeling His 
 presence in the touch of every loving hand, our wise 
 philosophers turn round and say that what they want 
 is what cannot be seen and cannot be heard and can- 
 not be touched, and that until they have that, their 
 knowledge is not worth having. 
 
 Now on this point Kant, too, seems to me to be 
 under the influence of the old philosophical prejudices. 
 He thinks that the knowledge supplied to us by the 
 senses is finite only, and that there is no sensuous 
 foundation for our ideas of the Infinite or the Un- 
 conditioned. He does not indeed surrender these 
 ideas, but he tries to justify them on practical and 
 moral grounds, not on the grounds on which he 
 justifies all other knowledge, namely perception. 
 
 My chief object in my Hibbert Lectures was to 
 
 M
 
 162 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 show that we have a perfect right to make one step 
 beyond Kant, namely, to show that our senses bring 
 us into actual contact with the Infinite, and that in 
 that sensation of the Infinite lies the living germ of 
 all religion. Of course, I do not mean that this 
 perception gives us a knowledge of the Infinite as it 
 is in itself. This can be said of our perception of 
 the Infinite as little as of our perception of the Finite. 
 Kant shows again and again that our perception can 
 never give us a knowledge of things in themselves 
 (this is really a contradictio in adjecto), but that all 
 our knowledge applies to the pressure or impressions 
 on our senses only. 
 
 But though we cannot know things finite, as they 
 are in themselves, we know at all events that they 
 are. And this is what applies to our perception of 
 the Infinite also. We do not know through our 
 senses what it is, but we know through our very 
 senses that it is. We feel the pressure of the Infinite 
 in the Finite, and unless we had that feeling, we 
 should have no true and safe foundation for what- 
 ever we may afterwards believe of the Infinite. 
 
 Some critics of mine have urged that what I here 
 call the Infinite is not the Infinite, but the Indefinite 
 only. Of course it is, and it was my chief object to 
 show that it is. We can know the Infinite as the 
 Indefinite only, or as the partially defined. We try to 
 define it and to know it more and more, but we 
 never finish it. The whole history of religion repre- 
 sents in fact the continuous progress of the human 
 definition of the Infinite, but however far that defini- 
 tion may advance, it will never exhaust the Infinite. 
 Could we define it all, it would cease to be the In-
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 163 
 
 finite, it would cease to be the Unknown, it would 
 cease to be the Inconceivable or the Divine. 
 
 But how, I have been asked, are we -able to define 
 the Infinite even in this indefinite way ? My answer 
 is, Look at the history of mankind. From the very 
 beginning of history to the present day man has been 
 engaged in defining the Infinite. He has ascribed to 
 it whatever was known to him as the best from time 
 to time, and has named it accordingly. And as he 
 advanced in his knowledge of what is good and best, 
 he 'has rejected the old names and invented new ones. 
 That process of naming the Infinite was the process 
 of defining it, at first affirmatively, then negatively 
 saying at least what the Infinite is not, when human 
 reason discovered more and more her inability of 
 saying what the Infinite is. If these names, from 
 first to last, are not names of the Infinite, of what are 
 they the names ? Of the Indefinite ? There is no In- 
 definite per se, but only in relation to us. Of the 
 Finite? Certainly not, for even the lowest names of 
 the lowest religion exclude the idea of the Finite. 
 Then what remains? They are names of what we 
 mean by the Infinite, the Unknown ; and if we are 
 told that this Infinite or this Unknown is mere as- 
 sumption, let it be so, so long as it is the only 
 possible assumption, the only possible name. You 
 ask me (p. 50) how with this view of the Infinite I 
 can say that ' the outward eye, the mere organ, ap- 
 prehends the Infinite, because the Infinite has neither 
 form nor dimension ' ? When I used the expression 
 ' to apprehend the Infinite/ I surely explained what 
 I meant by it. Yes, I maintain and I do so as 
 going beyond Kant's philosophy that the eye is 
 
 M 2
 
 164 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 brought in actual contact with the Infinite, and that 
 what we feel through the pressure on all our senses 
 is the presence of the Infinite. Our senses, if I may 
 say so, feel nothing but the Infinite, and out of that 
 plenitude they apprehend the Finite. To apprehend 
 the Finite is the same as to define the Infinite, whether 
 in space or time or under any other conditions of 
 sensuous perception. You speak of ' the outward eye, 
 the mere organ.' Is there an outward eye and a mere 
 organ ? Is not the simplest perception of a ray of light 
 the most wonderful act of knowledge, which ' the mere 
 organ ' is as little able to explain as the whole appa- 
 ratus of all our so-called faculties of knowledge. Yes, 
 to me the first ray of light perceived is the perception 
 of the Infinite, a revelation more wonderful than any 
 that followed afterwards. We may afterwards define 
 the light, we may count the vibrations that produce 
 different forms or colours of light, we may analyse the 
 nerves that convey the vibrations to the nerve- 
 centres in the brain, and yet with all that we want 
 to-day, as much as the ancient prophets thousands of 
 years ago, some Will, some Infinite Being, saying and 
 willing, Let there be light ! 
 
 You say that you agree with me so far as to think 
 that sensuous perceptions suggest the Infinite (p. 53). 
 I do not quarrel about words, and am quite willing 
 to accept that mode of expression. But if the senses 
 can suggest the Infinite, why then do you want, as 
 you say, another special faculty in the soul to ap- 
 prehend the Infinite 1 If the senses can suggest the 
 Infinite, then let what we call the understanding or 
 reason or faith more fully develop that suggestion ; 
 but the important step is the first suggestion. I do
 
 KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. 165 
 
 not object to a division of the faculties of the soul 
 for the purpose of scientific treatment. But as the 
 live senses are only five modifications of perception, 
 so, in its true essence, all the so-called faculties of the 
 soul are but different modifications or degrees of 
 cognition. Sensuous knowledge is the first know- 
 ledge, and therefore often considered as the lowest. 
 But as, without it, no knowledge whatever is possible 
 to human beings, surely we are wrong in degrading 
 it, and in not recognising that, as the beautiful 
 flower is impossible without the ugly root, so the 
 highest flights of speculations would be impossible 
 without what you call 'the mere material organ of 
 the eye.' 
 
 Then, you ask, Why, if faith is but a development 
 of that faculty of knowledge the first manifestations 
 of which appear in sensuous knowledge, have not 
 the animals arrived at the same development ? Why 
 has no animal faith in the Infinite ? My answer is, 
 Every being is not what it is, but what it can become. 
 There are stages in the growth of the animal and of 
 the man where both seem alike ; there are stages 
 where the animal seems even more perfect than the 
 man. But, as a matter of fact, the animal stops at 
 a certain stage and cannot get beyond, while man 
 grows on to reach his full development. When we 
 see a baby and a young monkey, we have no reason 
 to suppose that the one will develop into a speaking 
 and thinking animal, the other not. But so it is, 
 and we must simply accept the facts. It is language 
 that marks the line which no animal can cross, 
 it is language that enables man to develop his per- 
 cepts into concepts, and his concepts into ideals.
 
 166 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS, 
 
 The highest of these ideals is the Infinite recognised 
 through the Finite, as, at first, the Finite was recog- 
 nised through the Infinite. I have always held, and 
 I still hold, even against the greatest of all modern 
 philosophers, that the material out of which this ideal 
 is constructed is, in the first instance, supplied by the 
 senses, that it is not a mere postulate of reason or 
 aspiration of faith, but shares with all our other 
 knowledge the same firm foundation, namely the 
 evidence of the senses. 
 
 So you see my letter has grown into a long epistle, 
 and if you like you may publish it in the same 
 Journal in which your review of my Hibbert Lectures 
 appeared. Your friends will then see, as I hope you 
 may see yourself, that though we may differ in the 
 wording of our thoughts, our thoughts spring from 
 the same source, and tend in their various ways to- 
 wards the same distant goal. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 F, MAX MULLEK.
 
 DAYANANDA SARASVATL 
 
 (1827-1883.) 
 
 THE Indian newspapers contain the announcement 
 of the death of Dayananda Sarasvati. Most 
 English readers, even some old Indians, will ask, 
 Who was Dayananda Sarasvati? a question that 
 betrays as great a want of familiarity with the social 
 and religious life of India as if among us any one 
 were to ask, Who was Dr. Pusey 1 Dayananda Saras- 
 vati was the founder and leader of the Arya-Samaj, 
 one of the most influential of the modern sects in 
 India. He was a curious mixture, in some respects 
 not unlike Dr. Pusey. He was a scholar, to begin 
 with, deeply read in the theological literature of his 
 country. Up to a certain point he was a reformer, 
 and was in consequence exposed to much obloquy 
 and persecution during his life, so much so that it is 
 hinted in the papers that his death was due to poison 
 administered by his enemies. He was opposed to 
 many of the abuses that had crept in, as he well 
 knew, during the later periods of the religious growth 
 of India, and of which, as is known now, no tjace can 
 be found in the ancient sacred books of the Brahmans, 
 the Vedas. He was opposed to idol worship, he re- 
 pudiated caste, and advocated female education and 
 widow marriage, at least under certain conditions. 
 In his public disputations with the most learned 
 Pandits at Benares and elsewhere, he was generally
 
 168 BIOGRAPHICAL ES3AYS. 
 
 supposed to have been victorious, though often the 
 aid of the police had to be called in to protect him 
 from the blows of his conquered foes. He took his 
 stand on the Vedas. Whatever was not to be found 
 in the Vedas he declared to be false or useless ; what- 
 ever was found in the Vedas was to him beyond the 
 reach of controversy. Like all the ancient theologians 
 of India, he looked upon the Vedas as divine revela- 
 tion. That idea seems to have taken such complete 
 possession of his mind that no argument could ever 
 touch it. 
 
 It is here where Dayananda Sarasvati's movement 
 took a totally different direction from that of Ram- 
 mohun Roy. Rammohun Roy also and his followers 
 held for a time to the revealed character of the Vedas, 
 and in all their early controversies with Christian 
 missionaries they maintained that there was no argu- 
 ment in favour of the divine inspiration of the Bible 
 which did not apply with the same or even greater 
 force to the Vedas. As the Vedas at that time were 
 almost inaccessible, it was difficult for the missionaries 
 to attack such a position. But when at a later time it 
 became known that the text of the Vedas, and even 
 their ancient commentaries, were being studied in 
 Europe, and were at last actually printed in England, 
 the friends of Rarnmohun Roy, honest and fearless as 
 they have always proved themselves to be, sent some 
 young scholars to Benares to study the Vedas and to 
 report on their contents. As soon as their report 
 was received, Debendranath Tagore, the head of the 
 Brahma-Samaj, saw at once that, venerable as the 
 Vedas might be as relics of a former age, they con- 
 tained so much that was childish, erroneous, and ira-
 
 DAYANANDA SARASVATl. 169 
 
 possible as to make their descent from a divine source 
 utterly untenable. Even he could hardly be expected 
 to perceive the real interest of the Vedas, and their 
 perfectly unique character in the literature of the 
 world, as throwing light on a period in the growth of 
 religion of which we find no traces anywhere else. 
 
 But Dayananda, owing chiefly to his ignorance of 
 English, and, in consequence, his lack of acquaintance 
 with other sacred books, and his total ignorance of 
 the results obtained by a comparative study of re- 
 ligions, saw no alternative between either complete 
 surrender of all religion or an unwavering belief in 
 every word and letter of the Vedas. To those who know 
 the Vedas such a position would seem hardly compa- 
 tible with honesty; but, to judge from Dayananda's 
 writings, we cannot say that he was consciously dis- 
 honest. The fundamental idea of his religion was reve- 
 lation. That revelation had come to him in the Vedas. 
 He knew the Vedas by heart ; his whole mind was 
 saturated with them. He published bulky commenta- 
 ries on two of them, the Rig-Veda and Ya^ur-Veda. 
 One might almost say that he was possessed by the 
 Vedas. He considered the Vedas not only as divinely 
 inspired, or rather expired, but as prehistoric or pre- 
 human. Indian casuists do not understand how Chris- 
 tian divines can be satisfied with maintaining the 
 divine origin of their revelation, because they hold that, 
 though a revelation may be divine in its origin, it is 
 liable to every kind of accident if the recipient is 
 merely human. To obviate this difficulty, they admit 
 a number of intermediate beings, neither quite divine 
 nor quite human, through whom the truth, as breathed 
 forth from God, was safely handed down to human
 
 170 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 beings. If any historical or geographical names occur 
 in the Vedas, they are all explained away, because, if 
 taken in their natural sense, they would impart to 
 the Vedas an historical or temporal taint. In fact, 
 the very character which we in Europe most ap- 
 preciate in the Vedas namely, the historical would 
 be scouted by the orthodox theologians of India, most 
 of all by Dayananda Sarasvati. In his commentary 
 on the Rig-Veda, written in Sanskrit, he has often 
 been very hard on me and my own interpretation of 
 Vedic hymns, though I am told that he never travelled 
 without my edition of the Rig-Veda. He could not 
 understand why I should eare for the Veda at all, 
 if I did not consider it as divinely revealed. While 
 I valued most whatever indicated human sentiment 
 in the Vedic hymns, whatever gave evidence of his- 
 torical growth, or reflected geographical surround- 
 ings, he was bent on hearing in it nothing but the 
 voice of Brahman. To him not only was everything 
 contained in the Vedas perfect truth, but he went 
 a step further, and by the most incredible interpreta- 
 tions succeeded in persuading himself and others that 
 everything worth knowing, even the most recent inven- 
 tions of modern science, were alluded to in the Vedas. 
 Steam-engines, railways, and steam-boats, all were 
 shown to have been known, at least in their germs, to 
 the poets of the Vedas, for Veda, he argued, means 
 Divine Knowledge, and how could anything have been 
 hid from that 1 Such views may seem strange to us, 
 though, after all, it is not so very long ago that an 
 historical and critical interpretation of the Bible 
 would have roused the same opposition in England as 
 my own free and independent interpretation of the
 
 D-AYANANDA SABASVATt. 171 
 
 Rig- Veda has roused in the breast of Dayananda 
 >arasvati. 
 
 There is a curious autobiographical sketch of his 
 life, which was published some time ago in an Indian 
 journal. Some doubts, however, have been thrown 
 on the correctness of the English rendering of that 
 paper, and we may hope that Dayananda's pupil, 
 Pandit Shyamaji Kr/shHavarma, now a B.A. of BalKol 
 College, will soon give us a more perfect account of 
 that remarkable man. 
 
 In the mean time an abstract of what Dayananda 
 has told us himself of his life l may be interesting, as 
 introducing us into an intellectual and religious at- 
 mosphere of which even those who live in India and 
 are in frequent contact with the Hindus know very 
 little. 
 
 Dayananda writes : ' I was born in a family of 
 Udichya (Northern) Brahmans, in a town belonging 
 to the Rajah of Morvi, in the province of Kathiawar. 
 If I refrain from naming my parents, it is because my 
 duty forbids me. If my relations knew of me, they 
 would call me back, and then, once more face to face 
 with them, I should have to remain with them, attend 
 to their wants, and touch money. Thus the holy 
 work of the reform to which I have dedicated my life 
 would be jeopardised. 
 
 ' I was hardly five years of age when I began to 
 study the Devanagari alphabet. According to the 
 custom of my family and caste, I was made to learn 
 by rote a large number of mantras or hymns with 
 
 1 Dayunanda Sarasvatl's autobiography, translated from Hindi into 
 English, and published in the ' Theosophist.' I have to thank the 
 editor of that journal for her kindness in sending it to me.
 
 172 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 commentaries. I was but eight when I was invested 
 with the sacred Brahmanic thread, and taught the 
 Gayatri hymn, the Sandhya (morning and evening) 
 ceremony, and the Yajur-veda-sawhita, beginning 
 with the Rudradhyaya l . As my father belonged to 
 the Siva-sect, I was early taught to worship the un- 
 couth piece of clay representing /Siva, known as the 
 Parthiva Linga. My mother, fearing for my health, 
 opposed my observing the daily fasts enjoined on the 
 worshippers of /Siva, and as my father sternly insisted 
 on them, frequent quarrels arose between my parents. 
 Meanwhile I studied Sanskrit grammar, learnt the 
 Vedas by heart, and accompanied my father in his 
 visits to the shrines and temples of /Siva. My father 
 looked upon the worship of /Siva as the most divine of 
 all religions. Before I was fourteen I had learnt by 
 heart the whole of the Yajur-veda-samhita, parts of 
 the other Vedas, and of the /Sabdarupavali (an elemen- 
 tary Sanskrit grammar), so that my education was 
 considered as finished. 
 
 ' My father being a banker and Jamadar (Town re- 
 venue collector and magistrate) we lived comfortably. 
 My difficulties began when my father insisted on ini- 
 tiating me in the worship of the Parthiva Linga. As 
 a preparation for this solemn act I was made to fast, 
 and I had then to follow my father for a night's vigil 
 in the temple of /Siva. The vigil is divided into four 
 parts or praharas, consisting of three hours each. 
 When I had watched six hours I observed about mid- 
 night that the Pujaris, the temple-servants, and some 
 of the devotees, after having left the inner temple, had 
 fallen asleep. Knowing that this would destroy all 
 
 1 See Catalogus Cod. Manuscr. Sanscrit. Bibl. Bodl. vol. i. p. 74**.
 
 DAYANANDA SARASVATi. 173 
 
 the good effects of the service, I kept awake myself, 
 when I observed that even my father had fallen asleep. 
 While I was thus left alone I began to meditate. Is 
 it possible, I asked myself, that this idol I see be- 
 striding his bull before me, and who, according to all ac- 
 counts, walks about, eats, sleeps, drinks, holds a trident 
 in his hand, beats the drum, and can pronounce curses 
 on men, can be the great Deity, the Mahadeva, the 
 Supreme Being ? Unable to resist such thoughts any 
 longer I roused my father, asking him to tell me 
 whether this hideous idol was the great god of the scrip- 
 tures. " Why do you ask?'' said my father. "Because," 
 I answered, " I feel it impossible to reconcile the idea 
 of an omnipotent living God with this idol, which 
 allows the mice to run over his body and thus suffers 
 himself to be polluted without the slightest protest." 
 Then my father tried to explain to me that this 
 stone image of the Mahadeva, having been consecrated 
 by the holy Brahmans, became, in consequence, the 
 god himself, adding that as /Siva cannot be perceived 
 personally in this Kali-yuga, we have the idol in which 
 the Mahadeva is imagined by his votaries. I was not 
 satisfied in my mind, but feeling faint with hunger 
 and fatigue, I begged to be allowed to go home. 
 Though warned by my father not to break my fast, I 
 could not help eating the food which my mother gave 
 me, and then fell asleep. 
 
 ' When my father returned he tried to impress me 
 with the enormity of the sin I had committed in 
 breaking my fast. But my faith in the idol was gone, 
 and all I could do was to try to conceal my lack of 
 faith, and devote all my time to study. I studied at 
 that time the Nighan^u and Nirukta (Vedic glossaries),
 
 174 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the Purvamimamsa (Vedic philosophy), and the Karma- 
 kauc/a or the Vedic ritual. 
 
 ' There were besides me in our family two younger 
 sisters and two brothers, the youngest of them being 
 born when I was sixteen. On one memorable night 
 one of my sisters, a girl of fourteen, died quite sud- 
 denly. It was my first bereavement, and the shock 
 to my heart was very great. While friends and rela- 
 tions were sobbing and lamenting around me, I stood 
 like one petrified, and plunged in a profound dream. 
 " Not one of the beings that ever lived in this world 
 could escape the cold hand of death," I thought ; " I 
 too may be snatched away at any time, and die. 
 Whither then shall I turn to alleviate this human 
 misery ? Where shall I find the assurance of, and 
 means of attaining Moksha, the final bliss ? " It was 
 then and there that I came to the determination that 
 I wou'd find it, cost whatever it might, and thus save 
 myself from the untold miseries of the dying moments 
 of an unbeliever. I now broke for ever with the 
 mummeries of fasting and penance, but I kept my 
 innermost thoughts a secret from everybody. Soon 
 after, an uncle, a very learned man, who had shown 
 me great kindness, died also, his death leaving me 
 with a still profounder conviction that there was no- 
 thing stable, nothing worth living for in this world. 
 
 ' At this time my parents wished to betroth me. The 
 idea of married life had always been repulsive to me, 
 and with great difficulty I persuaded my father to 
 postpone my betrothal till the end of the year. 
 Though I wished to go to Benares to carry on my 
 study of Sanskrit, I was not allowed to do so, but was 
 sent to an old priest, a learned Pandit, who resided
 
 DAY AN AND A SARASVATI. 175 
 
 about six miles from our town. There I remained for 
 some time, till I was summoned home to find everything 
 ready for my marriage. I was then twenty-one, and 
 as I saw no other escape, I resolved to place an eternal 
 bar between myself and marriage. 
 
 ' Soon after I secretly left my home, and succeeded 
 in escaping from a party of horsemen whom my father 
 had sent after me. While travelling on foot, I was 
 robbed by a party of begging Brahmans of all I pos- 
 sessed, being told by them that the more I gave away 
 in charities, the more my self-denial would benefit me 
 in the next life. After some time I arrived at the 
 town of Sayla, where I knew of a learned scholar 
 named Lala Bhagat, and with another Brahmaarin, 
 I determined to join his order. 
 
 ' On my initiation I received the name of /Suddha 
 .ffaitanya (pure thought), and had to wear a reddish-yel- 
 low garment. In this new attire I went to the small 
 principality of Kouthagangad, near Ahmadabad, where 
 to my misfortune I met with a Bairagi (Vairagin, 
 hermit), well acquainted with my family. Having found 
 out that I was on my way to a Mella (religious fair) held 
 at Sidhpur, he informed my father ; and while I was 
 staying in the temple of Mahadeva at Nilakau^Aa with 
 Daradi Svami and other students, I was suddenly 
 confronted by my father. In spite of all my entreaties 
 hs handed me over as a prisoner to some Sepoys whom 
 he had brought with him on purpose. However, I 
 succeeded in escaping once more, and making my way 
 back to Ahmadabad, I proceeded to Baroda. There I 
 settled for some time, and at Chetan Math (a temple) 
 held several discourses with Brahmananda and a num- 
 ber of BrahmaA-arins and Sannyasins, on the Vedanta
 
 176 BI03BAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 philosophy. From Brahmananda I learnt clearly that 
 I am Brahman, the #iva (soul) and Brahman being one. 
 
 'I then repaired to Benares and made the acquaint- 
 ance of some of the best scholars there, particularly 
 that of SaM idananda Paramahawsa. On his advice 
 I afterwards proceeded to Chanoda Kanyali on the 
 banks of the Narbada (Narmada), and met there for the 
 first time with real Dikshitas, initiated in the Yoga- 
 philosophy. I was placed under the tuition of Para- 
 mananda Paramahawsa, studying such books as the 
 Vedanta-sara, Vedanta-paribhasha l , &c. I then felt 
 anxious to be initiated in the order of the Dikshitas 
 and to become a Sannyasin, and though I was very 
 young, I was with some difficulty consecrated, and 
 received the staff of the Sannyasin. My name was 
 then changed into Dayananda Sarasvati. 
 
 ' After some time I left Chanoda and proceeded to 
 Vyasa*rama to study Yoga, ascetic philosophy, under 
 Yogananda. I then spent some more time in prac- 
 tising Yoga, but in order to acquire the highest per- 
 fection in Yoga I had to return to the neighbourhood 
 of Ahmadabad, where two Yogins imparted to me the 
 final secrets of Yoga-vidya. I then travelled to the 
 mountain of Abu in Rajputan, to acquire some new 
 modes of Yoga, and in 1855 joined a great meeting at 
 Hardwar 2 , where many sages and philosophers meet 
 for the study and practice of Yoga 3 . 
 
 1 These are not Yoga books, but very elementary treatises on Vedanta 
 philosophy. 
 
 a Every twelfth year, when the planet Jupiter is in Aquarius, a great 
 feast takes place at Hardwar, called Kumlha-mela. About 300,000 
 people are said to attend the festival. See Hunter, Imperial Gazeteer,' 
 8. v. Hardwar. 
 
 8 This practice of Yoga is described in the Yoga-sutras. Much of it
 
 DAYANANDA SARASVATI. 177 
 
 ' At Tidee, where I spent some time, I was horrified 
 at meeting with meat-eating Brahmans, still more 
 at reading some of their sacred books, the Tantras, 
 which sanction every kind of immorality. 
 
 ' I then proceeded to <Srinagar, and taking up my 
 abode at a temple on Keddr Ghdt 1 , I made the ac- 
 quaintance of an excellent Sadhu, called Gangagiri, 
 with whom I studied and discussed philosophical 
 books. After two months I, in company with other 
 ascetics, travelled further to Rudra Prayaga, till we 
 reached the shrine of Agastya Muni. Still further 
 north is ivapura, where I spent four months of the 
 cold season, returning afterwards alone to Kedar 
 Ghdt, and to Gupta Ka.si (hidden Benares) 2 .' 
 
 After this follows a description of various journeys 
 to the north, where in the recesses of the Himalaya 
 mountains Dayananda hoped to find the sages who 
 are called Mahatmas, and are supposed to be in pos- 
 session of the highest wisdom. These journeys are 
 described very graphically, but their details have 
 been called in question, and may therefore be passed 
 over. That there are hermits living in the Himalaya 
 forests, that some of them are extremely learned, and 
 that others are able to perform extraordinary acts 
 of austerity, is well known. But equally well known 
 are the books which they study, and the acts of Yoga 
 which they perform, and there i really no kind of 
 mystery about them. They themselves would be the 
 last to claim any mysterious knowledge beyond what 
 
 consifits in abstemiousness and regulation and suspension of breath. 
 From this arises tranquillity of mind, supernatural knowledge, and 
 different states of ecstasy called Samadhi. 
 
 1 Wa not this meant for Kedarmth ? 
 
 * A sacred spot where the old town of K&si is supposed to lie buried. 
 
 N
 
 178 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the astras supply. Nor are such Mahatmas to be 
 found in the Himalayan recesses only. India is full 
 of men who seek retirement, dwell in a small cell or 
 cave, sleep on the skin of a tiger or stag, abstain from 
 flesh, fish, and wine, never touch salt, and live en- 
 tirely on fruits and roots *. 
 
 It is a pity that the rest of Dayananda's auto- 
 biography has never been published. It breaks off 
 with his various travels, and is full of accounts of his 
 intense sufferings and strange adventures. He seems 
 in the end to have lived on. rice and milk, finally on 
 milk only, but he indulged for a time in the use of 
 bhang, hemp, which put him into a state of reverie 
 from which he found it difficult to rouse himself. 
 Here and there we catch a curious glimpse of the re- 
 ligious feelings of the people. ' One day,' he writes, 
 ' when recovering from such a day-dream, I took 
 shelter on the verandah opposite the chief entrance to 
 the temple, where stood the huge statue of the Bull- 
 god, Nandi. Placing my clothes and books on its 
 back I sat and meditated, when suddenly, happening 
 to throw a look inside the statue, which was empty, 
 I saw a man concealed inside. I extended my hand 
 towards him, and must have terrified him, as, jump- 
 ing out of his hiding-place, he took to his heels in the 
 direction of the village. Then I crept into the statue 
 in my turn and slept there for the rest of the night. 
 In the morning an old woman came and worshipped 
 the Bull-god with myself inside. Later on she re- 
 turned with offerings of Gur (molasses) and a. pot of 
 Dahi (curd milk), which, making obeisance to me, whom 
 she evidently mistook for the god himself, she offered 
 
 1 See N. C. Paul, in the TheosopMst, Feb. 1882, p. 133.
 
 DAYANANDA SAKASVATI. 179 
 
 and desired me to accept and eat. I did not disabuse 
 her, but, being hungry, ate it all. The curd being 
 very sour proved a good antidote for the bhang, and 
 dispelled all signs of intoxication, which relieved me 
 very much. I then continued my journey towards the 
 hills and that place where the Narmada takes its rise.' 
 
 We should like very much to have a trustworthy 
 account of Dayananda's studies from 1856, when we 
 leave him in his autobiography, to 1880, when we 
 find him again at Mirut (Theosophist, Dec. 1880). In 
 1 88 1 we read of his public disputations in every part 
 of India (Theosophist, March 1 8 1 1 ). At a large con- 
 vocation at Calcutta, about 300 Pandits from Gauc/a, 
 Navadipa, and Kasi discussed the orthodoxy of his 
 opinions. Dayananda Sarasvati had somewhat modi- 
 fied his opinions as to the divine character of the 
 Veda. He now held that, of the whole Vedic litera- 
 ture, the Mantras or hymns only should be considered 
 as divinely inspired. The Brahmawas seemed to him 
 to contain too many things which were clearly of 
 human origin, and in order to be consistent he admitted 
 of the Upanishads also those only as of superhuman 
 origin which formed part of the Sawhitas. 
 
 Such opinions and others of a similar character were 
 considered dangerous, and at the meeting in question 
 the following resolutions were carried against him : 
 
 (1) That the Brahma?ms are as valid and authorita- 
 tive as the Mantras, and that the other Smn'tis or 
 law-books are as valid and authoritative as Manu. 
 
 (2) That the worship of Vishnu, /Siva, Durga, and 
 other Hindu deities, the performance of the /Sraddha 
 ceremonies after death, and bathing in the Ganges, 
 are sanctioned by the $astrns. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 (3) That in the first hymn of the Rig-Veda, ad- 
 dressed to Agni, the primary meaning of Agni is fire, 
 and its secondary meaning is God. 
 
 (4) That sacrifices are performed to secure salva- 
 tion. 
 
 But although the decisions were adverse to Daya- 
 nanda, the writer of the report adds : ' The mass of 
 young Hindus are not Sanskrit scholars, and it is no 
 wonder that they should be won over by hundreds 
 to Dayananda's views, enforced as they are by an 
 oratorical power of the highest order and a determined 
 will-force that breaks down all opposition.' 
 
 In his later years he was not only a teacher and 
 lecturer, but devoted his time to the publication of 
 Sanskrit texts also. He published the hymns of the 
 Rig-Veda and Yayur-Veda, with a commentary of his 
 own, the strange character of which has been touched 
 upon before. He also published controversial papers, 
 all showing the same curious mixture of orthodoxy 
 and free-thought. He believed to the end in the in- 
 spiration of the Veda, though not of the whole of the 
 Veda, but of certain portions only. These portions 
 he thought he was competent to select himself, but by 
 what authority, he could not tell. 
 
 He died at the age of fifty-nine, at Ajmere, at 6 p.m. 
 on Tuesday, the 3oth of October last. There was a 
 large funeral procession, the followers of Dayananda 
 chanting hymns from the Vedas. The body was 
 burned on a large pile. Two maunds of sandal- wood, 
 eight maunds of common fuel, four maunds of ghee 
 (clarified butter), and two and a half seers of camphor 
 were used for the cremation. 
 
 Whether Dayananda's sect will last is difficult to say.
 
 DAYANANDA SARASVAlL 181 
 
 The life-blood of what there is of national religion 
 in India still flows from the Veda. As in ancient 
 times every new sect, every new system of philosophy 
 was tested by the simple question, Do you believe in 
 the superhuman (apaurusheya) origin of the Veda? 
 so all the modern religious and philosophical move- 
 ments, if they profess to be orthodox, are weighed 
 in the same balance. The Brahma-Samaj, after its 
 surrender of the Veda, became ipso facto heterodox. 
 The Arya-Samaj, though looked upon with suspicion, 
 remains orthodox, at least so long as it upholds with 
 Dayananda Saras vati the divine character of the Veda. 
 
 Those who are ignorant of what is going on beneath 
 the mere surface, have often declared that the Vedas 
 have ceased to be the Sacred Books of India, that 
 they have been supplanted by Puranas and Tantras, 
 and that they are hardly understood now by any 
 native scholar. The last assertion may be true in 
 a certain sense, but for all the rest, those who know 
 anything of the real issues of religion in India know, 
 or ought to know, that they depend to-day, as three 
 thousand years ago, on the Veda. 
 
 The leader of the orthodox Arya-Samaj, Dayananda 
 Sarasvati, the determined champion of the literal in- 
 spiration of the Veda, is hardly dead before his fol- 
 lowers flock together from all parts of India to carry 
 on their Vedic Propaganda 1 . A meeting was held 
 on November 8 with a view of establishing an Anglo- 
 Vedic College. Between seven and eight thousand 
 rupees, or, according to another statement, 38,282 
 rupees, were subscribed by those present. An ad- 
 mirer of Dayananda, living at Amritsir, promised ten 
 
 1 See 'New Dispensation,' Nov. 35, 1883.
 
 182 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 thousand rupees, and the Ferozepore Arya-Samaj col- 
 lected two thousand rupees. This Vedic College has for 
 its object the revival of the knowledge of the ancient 
 scriptures of the Hindus, and is to work by the side 
 of, and in friendly accord with, Syed Ahmed Khan's 
 Mohammedan College at Aligarh, and the numerous 
 Christian Missionary Societies now established in 
 India. The edition of the Ya^ur-veda-sarahita, text, 
 commentary, and translation, is to be continued from 
 the manuscript left by Dayananda. Of the Rig-veda- 
 saiwhita the manuscript, as prepared by him, extends 
 to the seventh Maw</ala only. 
 
 India is in a process of religious fermentation, and 
 new cells are constantly thrown out, while old ones 
 burst and disappear. For a time this kind of liberal 
 orthodoxy started by Dayananda may last ; but the 
 mere contact with Western thought, and more par- 
 ticularly with Western scholarship, will most likely 
 extinguish it. It is different with the Brahma-Samaj, 
 under Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chunder 
 Sen. They do not fear the West ; on the contrary, 
 they welcome it; and though that movement, too, 
 may change its name and character, there is every 
 prospect that it will in the end lead to a complete 
 regeneration in the religious life of India,
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO'. 
 
 (Born 1849.) 
 
 MR. Bunyiu Nanjio, a young Buddhist priest from 
 Japan, on whom the University of Oxford has 
 just conferred the degree of M.A. honoris causa, has 
 been residing at Oxford since February 1879. He had 
 distinguished himself as a student in his monastery 
 at Kioto by his knowledge of Chinese, which he 
 speaks and writes like his native language. Some 
 of his poems in Chinese are highly spoken of. He 
 was selected therefore with one of his fellow-students, 
 Kenjiu Kasawara, to proceed to England in order to 
 learn English, and afterwards to devote himself to 
 the study of Sanskrit. Both were priests, belonging 
 to the Shin-shiu, a sect claiming more than ten 
 millions of the thirty-two millions of Buddhists in- 
 habiting Japan. It is the most liberal sect of 
 Buddhism. It traces its origin back to a Chinese 
 priest, Hwui-yuen, who, in A.D. 381, founded a new 
 monastery in China, in which the Buddha Amitabha 
 (Infinite Light) and his two great apostles, Avalokite- 
 vara and Mahasthamaprapta, were worshipped. This 
 new school was then called the ' White Lotus School,' 
 and has since spread far and wide. Some of the 
 friars belonging to it were sent to India to collect 
 Sanskrit MSS., and several of these, containing sacred 
 texts of Buddhism, particularly descriptions of Su- 
 khavatt, or the Land of Bliss, in which the believers 
 1 Seethe Times, March, 1884.
 
 184 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 in the Buddha Amitabha hope to be born again, were 
 translated from Sanskrit into Chinese. They form 
 to the present day the sacred books of the White 
 Lotus sect in China, Tibet, and Japan. 
 
 The fundamental doctrines of that sect may be 
 traced back to the famous Patriarch Nagarguna, who 
 is supposed to have lived about the beginning of the 
 Christian era. They differ from those of other 
 Buddhist sects by preaching a simple faith in the 
 Buddha of Infinite Light as the shortest and safest 
 road to salvation. 'There are innumerable gates,' 
 Nagar^runa says, 'of the Law of Buddha, just as there 
 are many paths in the world, either difficult or easy. 
 To travel by land on foot is painful, but to cross the 
 water by ship is pleasant. It is the same with the 
 paths of the disciples. Some practise diligently re- 
 ligious austerities with pain and suffering, others are 
 able to attain the state of " Never returning again," 
 by easy practice, by faith in Buddha Amitabha.' 
 
 After this doctrine of the White Lotus school had 
 reached Japan in the seventh century, it branched off 
 into different sects. The Shin-shiu, to which Mr. Bunyiu 
 Nanjio belongs, dates from A. D. 1 1 74. It was founded by 
 Gen-ku (Honen), and becajne powerful and influential 
 under his famous successor, Shin-ran (died 1262 A.D.), 
 who gave to it the name of Shin-shiu or ' True Sect.' 
 
 The Sacred Books of the Buddhists in Japan are 
 all, or nearly all, Chinese translations of Sanskrit 
 originals. Many of these translations, however, are 
 known to be very imperfect, either because the 
 Chinese translators misapprehended the peculiar 
 Sanskrit of the originals, or because the Indian trans- 
 lators were not .able to express themselves correctly
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 185 
 
 in Chinese. Hence the same texts had often to be 
 translated again and again, and of one of the principal 
 sacred texts used in Japan, the Sukhavati-vyfiha, 
 ' the Description of the Land of Bliss,' there are no 
 less than twelve Chinese translations. These trans- 
 lations differ from each other, each succeeding one 
 claiming to be more correct than its predecessors. 
 
 In former days Japan possessed some Sanskrit 
 scholars who, whenever a theological difficulty arose, 
 could consult the original Sanskrit texts. But of 
 late the study of Sanskrit has become completely 
 extinct in that country as well as in China, and it 
 was in order to revive it in their island that these 
 young priests, Bunyiu Nanjio and Kenjiu Kasawara, 
 were sent to Europe. After spending some years in 
 London learning English, they came to me at Oxford 
 with letters from the Japanese Minister and the late 
 Dean of Westminster, and explained to me their wish 
 to learn Sanskrit, and more particularly that peculiar 
 Sanskrit and its various dialects in which the works 
 forming the Buddhist Canon are composed. I promised 
 to help them as much as I could, and advised them, 
 first of all, to learn the ordinary Sanskrit in which such 
 books as the Hitopadesa and akuntala are written. 
 This they did with the help of a very able young San- 
 skrit scholar, Mr. A. Macdonell of Corpus Christi College. 
 After they had acquired a sufficient knowledge of the 
 grammar, they came to me during the last four years, 
 two or three times every week, reading the more 
 difficult Sanskrit authors, and particularly Buddhist 
 texts, most of which exist as yet in MSS. only, and 
 are written in various dialects as spoken in India at 
 the time of the rise and spreading of Buddhism.
 
 186 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 These MSS. were brought to England by Mr. B. H. 
 Hodgson, a marvellous man, whose name is known in 
 every country of Europe as one of the greatest dis- 
 coverers and benefactors in Oriental scholarship, and 
 not in Oriental scholarship only, but in zoology, 
 botany, and ethnology likewise, but is almost un- 
 known in England, and not to be found even in the 
 last edition of ' Men of the Time.' He may, however, 
 console himself in his happy old age (his article on 
 the Languages of Nepal was published in 1828) with 
 the conviction that he is one of the few Oriental 
 scholars who are not Men of the Time only. 
 
 Unfortunately the number and bulk of the Sanskrit 
 MSS., constituting the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists, 
 is enormous. Burnouf in his great work, which he 
 modestly called an Introduction to the History of 
 Buddhism, had made ample use of Mr. Hodgson's 
 MSS., and my two pupils set to work determinately 
 to copy what seemed most valuable in the libraries 
 at Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Paris. Though 
 these Sanskrit originals exist as yet, with few ex- 
 ceptions, in MS. only, the Chinese translations of the 
 enormous Canon of the Sacred Books of the Buddhists 
 have been published several times both in China and 
 Japan, though it is doubtful whether any single 
 scholar during a lifetime could ever read the whole 
 of them. In some of the Buddhist temples the 
 volumes forming the Sacred Canon stand arranged 
 on an enormous revolving book-case, like those which 
 have lately been introduced from America into this 
 country, and by giving it a push and making it 
 revolve a man who enters the temple is supposed to 
 acquire the merit of having perused the whole Canon.
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 187 
 
 Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, among other useful works which 
 he did during his stay at Oxford, compiled a complete 
 catalogue of the gigantic Canon, called the Tripiteka 
 or the Three Baskets. It contains 1662 separate 
 works, some small, some immense. In each case the 
 original Sanskrit title has been restored, the date of 
 the translations, and indirectly the minimum dates 
 of the originals also, have been fixed. This has led to 
 a discovery which, as I tried to show in my Lectures, 
 India, what can it teach us ? has revolutionised nearly 
 the whole of the history of Sanskrit literature. We 
 know now that between the Vedic and the later Renais- 
 sance literature there lies a period of Buddhist litera- 
 ture, both sacred and profane, extending from about 
 the first century before to the fifth century after 
 Christ. Whoever wishes to study the growth of the 
 Sanskrit language historically, must in future begin 
 with the Veda, then work his way through the Tripi- 
 t aka, and finish with Manu, $akuntala, and other works 
 of the Renaissance period. 
 
 The Catalogue prepared by Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio at 
 the request of the Secretary of State for India, and 
 printed at the Oxford University Press, is a work of 
 permanent utility, a magnum opus, and has been wel- 
 comed in every country where Sanskrit is studied. 
 
 Besides this work, which took a great deal of time, 
 Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio and his friend Kenjiu Kasawara 
 have prepared several Sanskrit texts for publication 
 which we may hope will in time appear at Kioto in 
 Japan. Unfortunately, Mr. Kenjiu Kasawara, who 
 returned to Japan last year, died there soon after his 
 arrival. Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, who has been suddenly 
 summoned to return to his monastery at Kioto, hopes
 
 188 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 to establish a Sanskrit Printing Press, unless the 
 Chinese system of wood-engraving should prove more 
 advantageous even for publishing large Sanskrit 
 texts. Some of the shorter and more popular sacred 
 texts have been published already by Mr. Bunyiu 
 Nanjio and myself in the Anecdota Oxoniensia, such 
 as the Va^ra&Hiedika, the Diamond-Cutter, the Su- 
 khavati-vyuha, the Description of the Land of Bliss. 
 There is every reason to expect that his return to his na- 
 tive country will lead to a revival of Sanskrit scholarship, 
 perhaps to a ' Revised Version,' and certainly to a more 
 critical and truly historical study of Buddhism in the 
 numerous monasteries, colleges, and temples of Japan. 
 
 Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio has gained the respect and 
 friendship of all who knew him in England, and, if 
 his life be spared, he may still exercise a most bene- 
 ficial influence at home. He is a sincere Buddhist, and, 
 as such, a sincere admirer of true Christianity. I shall 
 miss him very much. But instead of singing the praises 
 of my own pupil and friend, I prefer to give a few 
 extracts from a letter written by a missionary who had 
 made the acquaintance of these two Japanese students 
 at Oxford, and who wrote to me from Formosa to 
 express his grief on reading the obituary notice of 
 Kasawara which I had sent to the Times. 
 
 ' My intercourse with Kasawara,' he writes, ' did 
 not extend beyond half a year, but even in so short a 
 time his pure character and gentle disposition drew 
 me to him with an affection which I could hardly 
 deem possible between men whose experience and 
 faith differed so widely. 
 
 ' I found him and his friend, Bunyiu Nanjio, ex- 
 tremely sensitive to everything that had the shadow of
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 189 
 
 immorality on it. They were not blind to some things 
 of this kind among a class of students at Oxford, and 
 their hatred to everything of the kind was very keen. 
 ' We often conversed on religious matters, but they 
 evidently disliked controversy, and would rather admit 
 Christ to an equal place with Buddha than quarrel 
 with a Christian friend. I remember that one day 
 I said to them, when dining with me in my room in 
 Oxford, " Is it not strange to see us three together 
 here you two about to go forth as missionaries of 
 Buddhism, and I as a missionary of Christianity ? " 
 I remember well how Kasawara smiled and said, 
 " Yes, but the two religions have much in common 
 they are very similar." They were evidently grieved 
 that I could not look so complacently on the differ- 
 ence between us. 
 
 ' When taking leave of them, I well remember 
 their little presents, their kind wishes for a good 
 journey to China, and for success in what they always 
 called " my holy work." ' 
 
 I have little doubt that we shall hear more 
 of Mr.Bunyiu Nanjio after his return to Japan, and 
 that he will reflect honour not only on his native 
 country and his own monastery, but also on the Uni- 
 versity that has so generously adopted him among 
 its honorary members. 
 
 I asked my friend Bunyiu Nanjio before he left 
 England to write down the principal events of his 
 life, and as I believe that what he has written for 
 me will be interesting to others also, allowing them 
 an insight into the working of a singularly good and 
 amiable mind, I subjoin them here, with but few 
 alterations and omissions.
 
 190 BIOOtKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF 
 BUNYIU NANJIO, BY HIMSELF. 
 
 (1849-1884.) 
 
 I was born on the i2th day of the 5th Lunar 
 month of the 2nd year of the Kayei period, 1 849 A.D., 
 in a town called Ogaki, in the province of Mino, 
 Japan. My father was a priest of the Shinshiu, who 
 died in Kioto on the i9th October, 1883. He had 
 four sons and a daughter ; I was the third of his sons. 
 My great-grandfather, Tani Monjunby name, my grand- 
 father Gijnn, and my father Yeijun were in succession 
 the possessors of a small temple, called Sei-un-*i. 
 This temple now belongs to my eldest brother Riqjun, 
 who will be succeeded by his eldest son, Kiojun. 
 In our sect, the Shinshiu, the priesthood is here- 
 ditary, and each priestly family possesses a temple, 
 which generally belongs to the eldest son. The 
 younger sons are often adopted by other priestly 
 families which have no sons. The same custom 
 prevails widely among the laity also. My elder 
 brother, myself, and my younger brother were all 
 adopted by three different priestly families. 
 
 My mother is the eldest daughter of a priest of the 
 Shinshiu sect. My father was a good Chinese scholar 
 and poet, and so is my eldest brother. My know- 
 ledge of Chinese I owe almost entirely to their kind 
 instruction at home from my first childhood to my 
 fifteenth year. After that I read many Chinese books 
 by myself, and also began to lecture on the Chinese 
 classics and historical works, as far as I could under- 
 stand them.
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 191 
 
 The following dates of some events in my life are 
 present to my memory : 
 
 In my sixth year, 1854, I could recite the 'Thirty 
 Verses' composed by Shinran, the founder of the 
 Shinshiu sect (who died in 1262 A.D.), and likewise 
 Kumara^riva's Chinese translation of the Smaller 
 Sukhavativyuha. These are the first books which 
 the boys of the Shinshiu priests have to learn to read 
 and recite. 
 
 In my seventh year, 1855, I could read two more 
 Chinese versions of the longer Sutras, one of them 
 being that of the Larger Sukhavativyuha. In the 
 same year I began to go to the private school which 
 belonged to a learned Chinese scholar named Hishida 
 Seiji. He was called by the people at large ' Sen- 
 sei ' (lit. ' before-born ' or ' elder '), i.e. Master, without 
 mentioning even his family name. I read with him 
 the Chinese classics, the Four Books beginning with 
 the Dai-gaku, or the ' Great Learning.' 
 
 In my eighth and ninth years, 1856-57, I finished 
 the reading of the Four Books of the Chinese classics, 
 i.e. I had learnt how to pronounce all the Chinese 
 characters in those books according to the Japanese 
 way. I did not understand the meaning of the books 
 yet. In these years I received two prizes for my 
 reading of Chinese in the school. 
 
 In my tenth, eleventh and twelfth years, 1858-60, 
 I finished the reading of the Five Kings of the 
 Chinese classics, which I learnt mostly at home. I 
 began to compose Chinese poems, and attend to the 
 lectures of my father and eldest brother on the 
 Chinese classics, on history and literature. 
 
 In my thirteenth year, 1861, my father opened a
 
 192 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 private school, in which I was an assistant, for teach- 
 ing younger boys to read Chinese. 
 
 In my fourteenth and fifteenth years, 1862-63, I 
 began to lecture on the history of China and Japan, 
 as contained in Chinese writings. 
 
 In my sixteenth year, 1 864, 1 was ordered to preach 
 sermons, or rather to recite some old sermons from 
 memory. This was the first step in my becoming a 
 preacher. 
 
 In my seventeenth year, 1865, I accompanied a 
 good preacher to several places and had to preach 
 sermons before he did. This was very useful, as I 
 could both preach myself and listen to the other 
 preacher every day. 
 
 In my eighteenth and nineteenth years, 1866-67, 
 there began a great change in the social condition of 
 Japan, as the Military Government of the Tokugawa 
 family had no longer the power to control the whole 
 country as it had done since the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century. As my native town, Ogaki, was 
 then the seat of a Daimio or feudal lord, the priests 
 of the Shinshiu sect under his dominion were ordered 
 to form a priestly army. I was at once selected to 
 become a priestly soldier, and after a short time I 
 was made an assistant of the teachers of the army. 
 I had to teach the recruits how to stand and how to 
 run, how to form square or line, and how to discharge 
 their guns. This lasted about fifteen months. The 
 priestly army was disbanded towards the end of 
 1867, at the very outbreak of the Great Revolution, 
 which was accomplished in 1868. I narrowly escaped 
 being sent to fight at the battle at Kioto, but was 
 soon released. One benefit I derived from my military
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 193 
 
 career was that I became a very good walker and 
 a strong man, free from all illness. 
 
 Thus ended the first period of my life. 
 
 In my twentieth year, 1868, I went to Kioto and 
 entered the Theological College of the Eastern Hong- 
 wand. There I took the first or lower degree in 
 the summer term. I chiefly studied the principles 
 of different schools of Buddhism. 
 
 In my twenty -first year, 1869, I was still in the 
 College, where I was elected a leader of the students 
 of the first degree. But I left the College after the 
 summer term, and went back to my native town. 
 There I began to lecture on the Chinese classics and 
 on history and literature to the young soldiers who 
 had just returned from the civil war in the north- 
 eastern provinces. This tuition lasted till the end of 
 1870. I had daily about fifty or more hearers, with 
 whom I spent the whole day, often even till mid- 
 night. Any other books I wished to study I could 
 only read after midnight till the morning. Some 
 nights I did not sleep at all. This practice of lecturing 
 gave me a good memory of the Chinese characters 
 at least. 
 
 In my twenty-second year, 1870, I preached a 
 sermon every morning at the temple which belonged 
 to my father. Through this practice of preaching during 
 a whole year I gained a great deal of experience. I 
 always took as my text one of the verses which had 
 been sung in the morning-service immediately before 
 my sermon. I sometimes found it very hard to make 
 the congregation satisfied with my explanations, but 
 generally I believe I was understood by the people. 
 In the same year I continued my study of Chinese 
 
 o
 
 194 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 with some of nay friends among the young priests of 
 the Shin-shiu. 
 
 In my twenty- third year, 1871, 1 was adopted by a 
 learned priest, Nanjio Zhingo by name, who was then a 
 Professor at the Theological College in Kioto already 
 alluded to. His family lived at a village in the moun- 
 tains, called Kanegasu, in the Nanjio district of the 
 province of Yechizen. He is still the possessor of a 
 temple in that village called Oku-nen-zhi, to which he 
 succeeded as the eldest son of a learned priest, Rioo, 
 who was also a Professor at the same College. My 
 adoptive father is now one of the two principal Pro- 
 fessors at the Theological College of the Eastern 
 Hongwand. in Kioto, and Lecturer to the heir of the 
 head-priest of the temple, viz. the Eastern Hong- 
 wanei. My adoptive mother is the youngest daughter 
 of a priest of the Shin-shiu. My parents by adop- 
 tion are now living in Kioto, and my father has 
 entrusted the charge of his temple to another young 
 priest \ 
 
 1 All the monasteries of the Buddhist sects in Japan, except those 
 of the Shin-shiu, are alike, i. e. each of them consists of a head- priest 
 and one or more disciples or inferior priests, without family, as the 
 /name of monastery implies. But the Shin-shiu is peculiar, and while 
 tthe appearance of its monasteries, viz. the building, the temple-bell, &c., 
 is the same as with other sects, the head-priest and his family live 
 alone in the building. Therefore in our principal monastery, the 
 Eastern Hongwanzi, there dwells the family of our head-priest only. 
 He is the head of our subdivision, called the T6-ha, or the Eastern 
 party or sect, of the Shin-shiu. 
 
 When we call ourselves the priests of the Eastern Hongwanzi, we 
 only mean that we are the disciples or subject-priests of the head- 
 priest of our sect who dwells in the said monastery. My friend 
 Kanematsu is the adopted son of the present head-priest of the 
 monastery Saihozi, so that I speak of it as his monastery. 
 
 .Mr. Kasawara, Ota, and I, are not the resident priests of the
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 195 
 
 In 1871 I was ordained and took the second or 
 higher degree at my College in Kioto. I then became 
 a lecturer at a school for young priests in that 
 city. In the same year I lectured on both the 
 Buddhist and Confucianist books in my adopted pro- 
 vince YeHzen. I preached many hundreds of sermons 
 at different places in 'the same province. Each sermon 
 lasted generally half an hour. 
 
 In my 24th year, 1872, I was appointed an official 
 priest in the Church Government of the Eastern 
 Hongwansi, and was the chief compiler of the 
 Monthly Report, a paper which has continued to the 
 present day. In this office I became the fellow- 
 labourer of Kenjiu Kasawara, who has ever since 
 remained one of my truest and most helpful friends. 
 
 In my 25th year, 1873, I went to the province of 
 Ye/izen, following the Head-Priest of the Eastern 
 HongwanH to Tokio. In the same year I became 
 a preacher of our sect, but was obliged to go home in 
 the winter, on account of my adopted mother's illness. 
 
 In my 26th year, 1874, I lived with my poor sick 
 mother in the province of Ye/dzen, and according to 
 her wish was married to the eldest daughter of a 
 priest of the Shin-shiu. I lectured and preached at 
 several places in that province during this year. 
 
 In my 27th year, 1875, I returned to the Church 
 Government of the Eastern Hongwami in Kioto, 
 and became a preacher of the tenth degree, receiving 
 
 Eastern Hongwanzi, but only the disciples or subject-priests of the 
 head-priest of that monastery. Mr. Kasawara is the son of the head- 
 priest of the Yerinzi, in the province Yeiu, in which monastery 
 he was born ; and I am the adopted son of that of Okumenzi, in 
 Ye/dzen. I was born in Seiunzi, in the town of Ogaki, in the province 
 of Mino. 
 
 O 2
 
 196 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 my appointment from the Minister of Religion in the 
 Imperial Government. 
 
 Thus ended the second period of my life. 
 
 In my 28th year, 1876, I and my friend Kenjiu 
 Kasawara were selected to be sent to Europe to study 
 Sanskrit. The members of the Church Government 
 of the Eastern Hongwand. wished that the study of 
 Sanskrit, the language in which the sacred writings 
 of Buddhism were originally composed, should be 
 revived in Japan, and as they had heard that that 
 language was taught in the Universities of England, 
 we were ordered to go to England rather than to 
 India. The order was formally conveyed to us by 
 the Heir of the Head-Priest of the Eastern Hong- 
 waim, who saw us off at Yokohama. We left 
 Yokohama with a Japanese friend, Mr. Narinori 
 Okoshi, on the I3th June, and arrived in London on 
 the nth August, 1876. At that time neither of us 
 knew any English. We therefore stayed at first in 
 some English families, but our progress in learning 
 English was very slow. During our stay in London, 
 Kasawara learnt a little of Latin and French, and I 
 began to study Greek. We also lectured several 
 times at the Meetings of the Society of Japanese 
 Students in England, which are held twice every 
 month. One of the addresses which I had delivered 
 at that Society in Japanese was translated into 
 English, and was read by my friend, Mr. Arthur 
 Didsy, at a Meeting of the Liberal Social Union, held 
 on the 28th January at St. George's Hall, Langham 
 Place, London. 
 
 In February, 1879, I went to Oxford, and paid my 
 first visit to Professor Max Muller, carrying with me
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 197 
 
 a letter of introduction from the late Dean Stanley. 
 He at once allowed me to become one of his pupils, 
 and he showed me in his library a copy of a Sanskrit- 
 Chinese-Japanese vocabulary, with which he had long 
 been occupied, and which was afterwards mentioned 
 by him in his writings 1 . I told him about the exist- 
 ence of some Sanskrit texts in Japan, and I was able 
 afterwards to get sent to me from home at least five 
 texts, besides several Dhara??is. The five texts are 
 i. Sukhavati-vyuha, 2. Va^rafc&Tiedika, 3. the shorter 
 Pra^/Japaramita-hrtdaya-sutra, 4. the fuller text of 
 the same Sutra, and 5. Samantabhadrafcari-prani- 
 dhana. 
 
 According to Professor Max Muller's direction I 
 began to study the elements of Sanskrit with Mr. 
 Macdonell. So did Kasawara, who came to Oxford 
 in October, 1879. We also continued our study of 
 English with Mr. Linstead, and afterwards with Mr. 
 Westmacott. 
 
 In the end of 1879, I brought to Professor Max 
 Muller a copy of the text of the Smaller Sukhavati- 
 vyuha, sent from Japan, and the Professor showed 
 me in return a MS. of the text of the Larger Sukha- 
 vati-vyuha belonging to the Bodleian Library. This 
 discovery was an almost inexpressible joy, not only 
 to me and my friend Kasawara, but also to the priests 
 and lay-people of the Pure-Land School in China and 
 Japan. I and Kasawara copied the text, and we col- 
 lated our copy with four other MSS. The result of this 
 work was the edition of the Larger and Smaller Sukha- 
 vati-vyuha in the ' Anecdota Oxoniensia,' Aryan Series, 
 Vol. I, Part ii, 1883, by Professor Max Muller and 
 
 1 'Selected Essays,' vol. ii. p. 338.
 
 198 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 myself. In Part I of the same series, the Professor 
 edited the text of the Vaf/raM-Aedika, from a MS. sent 
 from Japan, in 1881. He will publish in Part III the 
 text of the PrayjTaparamita-hndaya-sutra and Ushni- 
 sha-vi'/aya-dharaja, from the ancient palm-leaves still 
 in existence in Japan, together with the fuller text 
 of the Hn'daya-sutra. I hope myself to publish the 
 Sanskrit text of the Samantabhadraari-praidhana, 
 with an English translation of one of its Chinese 
 versions. We shall then have printed texts of all 
 our sacred books, and we may hope that Professor 
 Max Miiller will soon publish the English translations 
 of them which he dictated to us. 
 
 From 1880 to 1884, I and my friend Kasawara 
 have constantly attended Professor Max Miiller's 
 private lectures, and read under his instruction the 
 Sanskrit text of the Larger and Smaller Sukhavati- 
 vyuha, Va#ra&/<edika, Lalita-vistara, Saddharmapun- 
 e/arika, Sankhya-karika, and several other books. 
 
 In my 32nd year, 1880, I began to examine the 
 Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tripifaka at the 
 India Office Library. The result of this examination 
 was the publication of ' A Catalogue of the Chinese 
 Translation of the Buddhist TripiZaka, the Sacred 
 Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan, com- 
 piled by order of the Secretary of State for India by 
 Bunyiu Nanjio,' printed at the Clarendon Press, 
 Oxford, 1883. The following notice will show the 
 nature of the work : 
 
 ' This Catalogue has been printed at the Clarendon 
 Press with the new Chinese types cast from the 
 matrices lately acquired in China through Professor 
 Legge. The work was undertaken at the request of
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 199 
 
 the Secretary of State for India, and is to serve, in 
 the first instance, as a guide to the large collection of 
 the Sacred Books of Buddhism which the Japanese 
 Government presented to the India Office in 1875. 
 This collection comprises the whole of the Sacred 
 Canon of the Buddhists, translated into Chinese, and 
 published in Japan, and consists of no less than 1663 
 separate works. All these works, with few exceptions, 
 were originally written in Sanskrit, but in many cases 
 the Sanskrit originals are now lost. After Buddhism 
 had been introduced and recognised in China in the 
 first century of our era, the sacred texts were trans- 
 lated from Sanskrit into Chinese under imperial 
 auspices, and in later times collected, catalogued, and 
 published. The first collection dates from the year 
 518 A. D., the oldest catalogue still in existence was 
 made in 520 A. D., and the editio princeps of the whole 
 Sacred Canon was published in 972 A. D. When 
 Japan had been converted to Buddhism in the sixth 
 century, the Chinese Canon was adopted there, and 
 several editions of the whole collection have since 
 been published in that island. One which is now 
 being brought out in Japan, by subscription, may be 
 seen in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 ' Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, who was entrusted with the 
 compilation of this Catalogue, is a Buddhist Priest 
 who came to England in 1876 in order to learn Eng- 
 lish and to study Sanskrit. The Sanskrit of the 
 Buddhist texts is very ancient, and differs widely 
 from the later Sanskrit of Manu or Kalidasa. Most 
 of these texts are known as yet in MSS. only, which 
 were brought to Europe many years ago by Mr. 
 Hodgson, the East India Company's Resident in
 
 200 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Nepal. Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio has not only prepared 
 a complete catalogue of this enormous Canon, but he 
 has restored most of the original titles in Sanskrit, 
 a task of great difficulty, though considerably facili- 
 tated by Stanislas Julien's classical work, Methode 
 pour dechiffrer les noms Sanserifs dans les livres 
 Chinois. He has also fixed the dates of most of the 
 Chinese translations, and thereby rendered a lasting 
 service to all students of Sanskrit, by enabling them 
 to fix certain land-marks in the history of Indian 
 literature. In this respect his Catalogue will form a 
 new starting-point in the study of Indian history and 
 Indian literature.' 
 
 In my 33rd year, 1881, I compiled a ' Catalogue of 
 Japanese and Chinese Books and Manuscripts lately 
 added to the Bodleian Library.' This was published 
 at the Clarendon Press in the same year. 
 
 In September of that year, I and Kasawara ac- 
 companied Professor Max Miiller, who had been sent 
 to represent the University of Oxford at the Fifth 
 Orientalists Congress at Berlin. After that we went 
 to Paris with Professor Max Miiller, and copied at 
 the Bibliotlieque Nationale the whole of the Maha- 
 vyutpatti, a useful Sanskrit-Tibetan-Chinese-Mongo- 
 lian vocabulary, consisting of about 10,000 Buddhist 
 technical terms and proper names. Besides this, I 
 copied the text of the Buddha&aritakavya by A-sva- 
 ghosha, and afterwards collated my copy with a MS. 
 at the University Library, Cambridge. I copied also 
 the first half of the Suvaraprabhasa, and completed 
 it from another MS. last year. Kasawara made ex- 
 tracts from the Lankavatara. Kasawara and I stayed 
 in Paris for six weeks, and worked very hard. It
 
 BUNY1U NANJIO. 201 
 
 was at that time that Kasawara's health began to 
 fail. After our return to Oxford Professor Max Muller, 
 who had been at work for some time on the Dhar- 
 masangraha, a collection of Buddhist technical terms, 
 handed over his materials to Kasawara, and advised 
 him to prepare an edition of it. Kasawara did this in 
 1 882, before his departure from Oxford for Japan : ; and 
 he also copied the whole MS. of the Abhidharma-kosa- 
 vyakhya. 
 
 In my 34th year, 1882, I became a member of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society in London. I discovered a 
 palm-leaf MS. of the SaddharmapUHrfarika at the 
 British Museum, and partly copied, partly collated 
 it. I and Kasawara copied the whole text of the 
 same Sutra from the Royal Asiatic Society's MS., and 
 we collated our copy with two complete MSS. and one 
 incomplete MS. at the University Library, Cambridge. 
 
 In August, 1882, Mr. Riogon Kanao, a Japanese 
 priest of the Shin-shiu, came to Oxford from Japan. 
 
 In September, Kasawara, who had been suffering 
 much, was advised by his doctor to leave Oxford for 
 Japan. 
 
 In December, Mr. Rioho Suge*, another Japanese 
 priest of the same sect, came to Oxford from Japan. 
 
 In my 35th year, 1883, being now left alone at 
 Oxford, I copied the Suvarnaprabhasa and Lanka- 
 vatara. During this year the printing of my Cata- 
 logue of the Chinese Tripifaka took up much of my 
 time, and I worked hard with Professor Max Muller 
 
 1 I have not yet been able, owing to great pressure of work, to 
 carry this work through the press, but I hope soon to do so with the 
 assistance of Dr. Wenzel. It will be a worthy monument to the 
 memory of my departed pupil. F. M. M.
 
 202 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 at the edition of the Sukhavati-vyuha. A copy of my 
 Catalogue was presented to the Emperors of China 
 and Japan, to the King of Siam, and also to many 
 scholars and learned societies in Europe and Asia. 
 
 During the years 1880 to 1883, I made literal 
 English translations of several Chinese versions 
 of the Buddhist works, such as the Larger and 
 Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha,the Amitayur-dhyana-sutra, 
 a few chapters of the Lalita-vistara, and many others. 
 I also translated the Chinese verses by Shinran, the 
 founder of the Shin-shiu sect in Japan. 
 
 On the i6th day of July, 1883, Kenjiu Kasawara 
 died, in his 32nd year, in Tokio. This sad news 
 reached me in September. 
 
 On the 1 9th October, my real father died in his 
 6 yth year in Kioto. This sad news reached me in 
 December. 
 
 In my 36th year, 1884, I collated my copy of the 
 Saddharmapunc/arika with the MS. lent to me by 
 Mr. Watters, the British Consul at Formosa. This 
 collation was finished in January last. 
 
 On the 28th Feb. last, I received a letter from my 
 adoptive father telling me that I should return to 
 Japan this spring, as my adoptive mother was seri- 
 ously ill and might not recover from her illness. 
 My real mother also was anxious to have me back 
 as soon as possible, and insisted on my leaving 
 England. Lastly, the Head-Priest of the Eastern 
 Hongwanzi, after Kasawara's death, had expressed 
 his decided wish that I should return to Japan with- 
 out delay. 
 
 Nothing remains for me but to obey. I should 
 have wished to continue my study of Sanskrit till
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 203 
 
 the end of 1885, and I had formerly received leave 
 to do so. I also wished to spend some time in India 
 before returning to Japan, and then hoped to join 
 Kasawara at home. How changeable this world is ! 
 
 I shall now leave Oxford, and be again at Yoka- 
 hama next May, if there is no more change. In June 
 next I hope to be with my relations and friends at 
 home, after an absence of full eight years. 
 
 Thus the third period of my life as a student in 
 a foreign country will be ended. For this most 
 eventful and not the least fruitful period of my life 
 I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Max 
 Miiller, and to the generous instruction and help 
 which I have constantly received from him during 
 the last five years in Oxford. Since my arrival in 
 England in August, 1876, I have received much kind- 
 ness from other friends also, to whom I return my 
 best thanks. 
 
 In conclusion, I hope to be allowed to tell an 
 anecdote concerning myself. From my earliest child- 
 hood, my mother has always told me that on my 
 birthday there was a meeting of many friends of my 
 father's, who were scholars and poets. When they 
 were informed that my mother had given birth to 
 a boy, they all said this boy would become fond of 
 literary work, as he was born on the day of a great 
 literary meeting. My mother always concluded this 
 story with the following words : ' Thus your father's 
 friends are all expecting you to become a scholar, 
 and you must be diligent therefore in your study.' 
 These tender words of my mother have always been 
 before my mind since my childhood, and though 
 I cannot tell whether I shall ever become such a
 
 204 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 scholar as my father's friends expected from my 
 birthday, I wish at least to do my best so long as 
 my life lasts and my health is not entirely broken. 
 I shall try to follow the good words of a learned 
 Chinese Buddhist priest, who says, ^ y. ^C -^ J|> 
 i-ho-fu-i-shin, i. e. ' (I do my best) for the sake of the 
 Law, but not for my own sake V 
 
 I shall be thirty-five years old on the i2th day 
 of May next. 
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO, 
 
 of the Eastern Hongwansi, 
 Kioto, Japan. 
 
 12 March, 1884 : 
 OXFORD. 
 
 1 See No. 1530 of my Catalogue of the Chinese Tripifaka.
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 
 
 205 
 
 A CHINESE POEM BY BUNYIU NANJIO. 
 
 (8) (7) (6) (5) (4) (3) (2) (0 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 (1) 'I, a man of the East, do not yet try to travel through 
 
 the five (ancient) parts of India, 
 
 (2) But have only a few Sanskrit books and clothes for my 
 
 journey; 
 
 (3) There is a tree of knowledge 1 , which I think of and long 
 
 for even from the distance of 1 0,000 li ; 
 
 (4) There is a forest of the " firm " trees 2 , where the footprint 
 
 of a traveller (such as Hiouenthsang 8 ) might have 
 vanished a thousand years since. 
 
 (5) Fate was so bad, that the (Japanese) prince died in a 
 
 remote country region ; 
 
 (6) Time was so different (from ours), that the eminent 
 
 priest grew old in his own country : 
 
 (7) Now my stay and study here are already above my desert ; 
 
 (8) So, I hope, that the tale of a snake will not join with the 
 
 head of a dragon.' 
 
 1 The famous Bodhi tree in India under which Sftkyamuni obtained 
 Buddbahood or perfect enlightenment. 
 
 9 The Sula trees under which Buddha obtained Nirvana, i. e. died. 
 Both are famous places of pilgrimage. 
 
 3 The famous Chinese pilgrim who travelled in India between 629 
 and 645.
 
 206 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 NOTES ON THE POEM. 
 
 The two parallel lines (i.e. the fifth and sixth) mention 
 two Japanese priests, who intended to go to India, but without 
 success. The one (in the fifth line) was called Shinnyo 
 Shinno, or the Prince Shinnyo. He was the third son of 
 the fifty-first Mikado (lit. ' honourable (mi), gate (kado) ; ' 
 cf. the Porte with the Turks), Heizei Tenno (reigned A. D. 
 806-809) ; and the fourth of the ten great disciples of Kukai, 
 better known by his posthumous title Kobo Daishi (died 
 A. D. 835). He, 'in order to perfect his knowledge of 
 Buddhist literature, undertook a journey, not only to 
 China, but to India, but died before he reached that 
 country.' 'Selected Essays,' vol. ii. p. 342. An account 
 concerning his life is given in the Hon&io-ko-so-den, i. e. 
 'Memoirs of the eminent Japanese Priests,' book 67. fo'l. 
 8b. 
 
 The other priest (in the sixth line) was Hotan by name. 
 He is very well known among the Japanese priests. I 
 have heard that, about two centuries ago, Hotan ardently 
 wished to go to India to learn Sanskrit there. With this 
 object he sent a written petition to the military government 
 in Yedo (the present Tokio, or the 'Eastern capital' of 
 Japan), because this government was then so powerful that 
 all the administration of public affairs was in its hand. 
 But his desire was not gratified, because at that time ' cross- 
 ing the ocean' (i.e. a journey for a foreign country) was 
 strictly prohibited in our country. 
 
 H6tan was an extraordinary man. He was formerly a 
 priest of the Tendai sect or school. He used to live at a 
 post-town called Otsu, in the province of Omi, on the Biwa
 
 BUXYIU NANJIO. 207 
 
 lake, and studied there very hard. One day, during a 
 thunder-storm, there came a young woman who asked him 
 to allow her to take shelter in his house. Hotan answered 
 her from the inside of the door without seeing her face. 
 But he was already unable to restrain his passion, having 
 heard the amiable voice of the woman. Then he at once 
 threw a handful of inflammable powder on his body and set 
 it on fire. He cried out loudly and fell down. The young 
 woman was very much frightened, opened the door, and 
 found him almost breathless. She hastily sprinkled some 
 cold water on him and put out the fire. She nursed him 
 carefully till he came to himself again. Then he told her 
 all the circumstances of his action. When she got home 
 she told her parents what had happened. They admired 
 him very much, and gave him a certain sum of money, by 
 which he was entirely free from poverty. 
 
 While he was studying on the Hiyei mountain (where 
 the principal temple was built in A. D. 788, and is still in 
 existence, though it has been restored several times since), 
 Hotan once attended a course of lectures of his teacher on 
 a certain book. On the first day of the course, hearers 
 were crowded in the lecture-hall ; but their number de- 
 creased every day. At length there was not a single 
 hearer except Hotan. Then the teacher wanted to stop 
 his lecture, but Hotan said to him, ' Will you wait till to- 
 morrow ? I shall be able to bring some hearers here.' Early 
 on the next morning he brought with him numerous earthen 
 images of priests, and placed them in the lecture-hall here 
 and there. Having .done this he sat down in the middle of 
 these images and waited for the lecturer. No sooner did 
 the teacher see this arrangement, than he blamed his pupil 
 severely for performing such a childish trick. Then Hotan 
 answered him, saying, 'All the priests who live in the 
 monasteries on this mountain (formerly 3000 in number) 
 axe like these earthen images ; so that there is almost no
 
 208 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 difference between the former days, when they were crowded 
 here, and the present. During all the time there has been 
 only one good listener, and that was I.' By this answer the 
 teacher was very much moved, and went on with his lectures 
 till the end of the course. 
 
 At this time there seemed to exist in Japan only one 
 copy, either MS. or wood-cut book, of the two famous 
 Chinese commentaries on Hiouenthsang's translation of the 
 Abhidharmakoshasastra (which translation was made about 
 A. D. 650). One of these commentaries was written by 
 Phukwang (Fuko, in Japanese), a disciple of the translator ; 
 and the other by Fapao (Hoho, in Japanese), a rival of the 
 former commentator : each in thirty books or thin volumes. 
 The copy of these commentaries- was then preserved in an 
 old library belonging to a temple at Nara (formerly also 
 called Nanto, or the 'southern capital,' because this place 
 was used as the imperial capital of Japan from A. D. 7 IQ 
 till 86 1, and is situated on the south of Kioto, or Saikio, 
 i. e. the ' western capital ' of Japan). The copy was so 
 valued that no one was allowed even to look at it. But 
 Hotan desired not only to read the commentaries, but also 
 to copy them. He therefore gave money to the keeper of 
 the library, entered secretly, and was engaged in copying 
 the rare copy day and night. 
 
 Some say that there is a poem composed by Hotan and 
 written in his copy of these commentaries. In this poem 
 he says that he was so busy in making his copy that he 
 knew nothing of worldly matters. He could only tell that 
 it was a new year when he heard 108 sounds of temple- 
 bells. (This number is still struck at the dawn of New 
 Year's Day in certain temples in Japan. My father's temple 
 is one of these in which this number is observed.) 
 
 Some also say, that when the paper which he brought 
 into the library for his copy was all used up, Hotan did 
 not venture to go out to fetch more, lest he should be dis-
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 209 
 
 covered and prevented from continuing his work. For this 
 reason he took his long white robe off and used it instead of 
 paper, writing on it from the collar and sleeves to the skirt 
 without leaving any part uncovered. 
 
 By such patience he copied the whole of the two large 
 commentaries, and afterwards published them. All who 
 study the Abhidharmakoshasastra in Japan have ever since 
 been under deep obligation to him. 
 
 However, Hotan afterwards changed his mind and be- 
 came a priest of the Kegon school (i. e. the school which was 
 founded by a Chinese priest depending on the Kegongio or 
 the Buddhavatarasakavaipulyasutra, which school no longer 
 exists in Japan). He then constantly criticised and refuted 
 the tenets of his own and other schools, and wrote many 
 books. Some people, therefore, do not consider him a safe 
 authority. 
 
 There is a work entitled Mio-do-satsu, or the ' Document 
 for leading (others),' written by him. In this he refutes the 
 principles of the Shin-shiu, or the ' true sect.' Soon after 
 this work was published, there was a lecturer (i. e. the head 
 of the college) of the Shin-shiu, .ffiku by name, who wrote 
 a book entitled Sesshio-hen, or the ' Book for breaking or 
 stopping a rush (of the other),' in which he answered him.. 
 Hotan then produced his second work on the same subject, 
 under the title of Raifu, or the ' Axe of Thunder.' Then 
 JTiku wrote the Shio-r6-hi, or the ' Laughing at the arms 
 of a praying maniac,' and ridiculed him. 
 
 Among the numerous works of Hotan, however, there 
 is a very useful one (in eight books) entitled In-mio-niu- 
 shio-ri-ron-sho-zui-gen-ki, or the ' Record of the auspicious 
 source of the commentary on the Nyayapravesatarakasastra 
 (No. 1216). It is a commentary on the famous Chinese com- 
 mentary on that treatise on Logic, by Kweiki (Kiki, in 
 Japanese), the'principal disciple of Hiouenthsang, who trans- 
 lated the Sanskrit trealise about A. D. 650. 
 
 P
 
 210 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 The above account concerning the life of Hotan has a 
 somewhat legendary aspect. I am not quite sure whether 
 the whole of it is true or not. But I have written down 
 all that I have hitherto heard of him, or have seen in his 
 works. 
 
 BUNYIU NANJIO. 
 
 OXFOBD, 
 
 12 Marsh, 1881.
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA 1 . 
 
 (1851-1883.) 
 
 THE last mail from Japan brought me the news of 
 the death of my young friend and pupil, Kenjiu 
 Kasawara, and though his name is little known in 
 England, his death ought not to be allowed to pass 
 unnoticed. Does not Mr. Ruskin say quite truly 
 that the lives we need to have written for us are of 
 the people whom the world has not thought of far 
 less heard of who are yet doing the most of its 
 work, and of whom we may learn how it can best be 
 done ? The life of my Buddhist friend was one of the 
 many devoted, yet unfulfilled lives, which make us 
 wonder and grieve, as we wonder and grieve when 
 we see the young fruit trees in our garden, which 
 were covered with bright blossoms, stripped by a 
 sudden frost of all their beauty and promise. 
 
 Kenjiu Kasawara was a young Buddhist priest 
 who, with his friend Bunyiu Nanjio, was sent by his 
 monastery in the year 1876 from Japan to England, 
 to learn English in London, and afterwards to study 
 Sanskrit at Oxford. They both came to me in 1879, 
 and in spite of many difficulties they had to en- 
 counter they succeeded, by dint of hard and honest 
 work, in mastering that language, or at least so 
 much of it as was necessary for enabling them to 
 
 1 See 'Times,' Sept. a a, 1833 ; and ' PAli Text Society's Journal,' 1883. 
 P 2
 
 212 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 read the canonical books of Buddhism in the original 
 that is, in Sanskrit. At first they could hardly 
 explain to me what their real object was in coming 
 all the way from Japan to Oxford, and their progress 
 was so slow that I sometimes despaired of their suc- 
 cess. But they themselves did not, and at last they 
 had their reward. Kasawara's life at Oxford was 
 very monotonous. He allowed himself no pleasures 
 of any kind, and took little exercise ; he did not 
 smoke, or drink, or read novels or newspapers. He 
 worked on day after day, often for weeks seeing no 
 one and talking to no one but to me and his fellow- 
 worker, Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio. He spoke and wrote 
 English correctly, he learnt some Latin, also a little 
 French, and studied some of the classical English 
 books on history and philosophy. He might have 
 been a most useful man after his return to Japan, for 
 he was not only able to appreciate all that was good in 
 European civilisation, but retained a certain national 
 pride, and would never have become a mere imitator 
 of the West. His manners were perfect they were 
 the natural manners of an unselfish man. As to his 
 character, all I can say is that, though I watched him 
 for a long time, I never found any guile in him, and 
 I doubt whether, during the last four years, Oxford 
 possessed a purer and nobler soul among her students 
 than this poor Buddhist priest. Buddhism may, in- 
 deed, be proud of such a man. During the last year 
 of his stay at Oxford I observed signs of depression in 
 him, though he never complained. I persuaded him 
 to see a doctor, and the doctor at once declared that 
 my young friend was in an advanced stage of con- 
 sumption, and advised him to go home. He never
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 213 
 
 flinched, and I still hear the quiet tone in which he 
 said, ' Yes, many of my countrymen die of con- 
 sumption.' However, he was well enough to travel 
 and to spend some time in Ceylon, seeing some of the 
 learned Buddhist priests there and discussing with 
 them the differences which so widely separate Southern 
 from Northern Buddhism. But after his return to 
 Japan his illness made rapid strides. He sent me 
 several dear letters, complaining of nothing but his 
 inability to work. His control over his feelings was 
 most remarkable. When he took leave of me, his 
 sallow face remained as calm as ever, and I could 
 hardly read what passed within. But I know that 
 after he had left, he paced for a long time up and 
 down the road, looking again and again at my house, 
 where, as he told me, he had passed the happiest hours 
 of his life. Yet we had done so little for him. Once 
 only, in his last letter, he complained of his loneli- 
 ness in his own country. ' To a sick man,' he wrote, 
 ' very few remain as friends.' Soon after writing 
 this he died, and the funeral ceremonies were per- 
 formed at Tokio on the 1 8th of July. 
 
 He has left some manuscripts behind, which I hope 
 I shall be able to prepare for publication, particularly 
 the ' Dharmasangraha,' a glossary of Buddhist techni- 
 cal terms, ascribed to Nagar^/una. But it is hard to 
 think of the years of work which are to bear no fruit ; 
 still harder to feel how much good that one good 
 and enlightened Buddhist priest might have done 
 among the thirty-two millions of Buddhists in Japan. 
 Have, pia animal I well remember how last year 
 we watched together a glorious sunset from the 
 Malvern Hills, and how, when the Western sky was
 
 214 BIOQKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 like a golden curtain, covering we knew not what, 
 he said to me, ' That is what we call the Eastern gate 
 of our Sukhavati, the Land of Bliss.' He looked 
 forward to it, and he trusted he should meet there all 
 who had loved him, and whom he had loved, and that 
 he should gaze on the Buddha Amitabha i.e. 'In- 
 finite Light.' 
 
 OXFORD, Sept. 20. 
 
 LETTERS FROM KENJIU KASAWARA. 
 
 LLANTRISSANT HOUSE, KINGSTON KOAD, OXFORD, 
 26 July, 1882. 
 
 MY DEAE SIR, 
 
 I am in receipt of your letter. I cannot ade- 
 quately express my thanks for your ever unfailing 
 kindness. It grieves me very much that I am unable 
 to pursue my studies here as long as I hoped and 
 was allowed to do. To lose but one year is a great 
 loss to me, whose object it was to acquire a know- 
 ledge of that branch of literature which is vitally 
 important for the religion I belong to, and which 
 cannot better be obtained than through your in- 
 struction. I have passed two valuable years and a 
 half with you. It has been no small patience on 
 your part to watch all the time so slow a progress as 
 I made in learning Sanskrit. I am well aware that 
 my age besides my inability is passed for acquir- 
 ing a new language, for which no previous know- 
 ledge, if I had any, can help. Moreover, my course 
 of study has been more or less hindered through the 
 want of good texts. Time alone, therefore, may have
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 215 
 
 enabled me to be successful. There was a brief time 
 for me yet to pass in Oxford, and that time is now 
 to be cut short. 
 
 But we cannot fight against Nature. Is it not, on 
 the other hand, a great boon of Nature that I, who 
 am naturally weak, should have passed so long in 
 England without much bodily suffering ? If this mis- 
 chievous disease had befallen me but a year and a 
 half earlier, all my object might have been rendered 
 almost useless. I must be satisfied with things as 
 they are. It remains, therefore, that I should con- 
 tinue what I have begun with the utmost zeal in my 
 native land, and try by all means to make what I 
 have gained acceptable to my friends in Japan, and 
 to fulfil the hopes you kindly express in your letter. 
 Believe me, Sir, 
 
 I am your obliged pupil, 
 K. KASAWAKA. 
 
 P.S. I am going up to London to-inorrow by the 
 4 o'clock train, p.m. 
 
 HOTEL RICHEPANCE, 
 14 RUE RICHEPANCE, PARIS, 
 
 14 Sept. 1882. 
 MY DEAR SlR, 
 
 Last Saturday morning I left Oxford by the 
 9 o'clock train for London, and took lodgings in 
 Lancaster Road, Netting Hill. After three days' stay, 
 I left London on Tuesday last by the 8.15 a.m. train 
 from Charing Cross. My voyage was via Folkestone 
 and Boulogne. The sea was calm ; and the voyage 
 would have been more pleasant if it had not rained 
 so miserably all the while. The sky, however, gradu- 
 ally cleared up towards Paris. I arrived in that city
 
 216 BIOGEAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 a few minutes after five o'clock. I was met by two 
 of my countrymen at the Gare du Nord, for I had 
 written to one of them about my coming here. They 
 are merchants, both being men from a town (in 
 Japan) about ten miles from my native place. They 
 are staying in the same hotel where I am now. 
 
 The sights of Paris are quite familiar to me, as if 
 I had been here but yesterday. It is exactly one 
 year since you, my friend Nanjio, and I came here 
 last time. Time flies, and so do our lives. I am 
 leaving here to-morrow morning for Marseilles, but 
 I intend to stay a few hours at Lyon, to see Mr. 
 Ymaizoumi there. I shall have three Japanese com- 
 panions on board the steamer Iraouaddy, a curious 
 mixture of a noble, a soldier, a merchant, and myself 
 a priest. 
 
 Yesterday I went to the Socie'te' Asiatique, but I 
 found no one there. A girl came up to me and shook 
 her head. Then I went to a bookseller's shop (which 
 you know) in the neighbourhood to make inquiries. 
 People in the shop told me that the Society is only 
 open on Saturday. I was puzzled, for I could not 
 stay here till Saturday. Then I carried your manu- 
 script to the Japanese Legation, intending to entrust 
 it to our Minister. But on my going there I learnt 
 he would leave Paris last night for Vienna. There I 
 saw Mr. Oyama, an attach^ whom I know well since 
 last year, and he was quite willing to take care of the 
 manuscript for me. 
 
 I cannot adequately express my thanks for your 
 instruction, your liberality, and the kindness of you 
 and your family during my long stay in Oxford. 
 These quiet three years will ever remain in my
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 217 
 
 memory as the most important epoch in my life. It 
 is needless to say I felt very unhappy when I said 
 farewell to you all. I lingered at your gate, and 
 looked eagerly in the dark at your house, on the 
 threshold of which I had stepped so often and so 
 happily. I shall never again hear your living voice, 
 I shall never again see the lovely city of Oxford, but 
 I shall communicate with you as often as possible, 
 and shall always be delighted when I hear from you. 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your most obliged pupil, 
 
 K. KASAWARA. 
 
 23 Sept. 1882. 
 In the afternoon. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I wrote a letter to you from Paris, and I hope 
 it has reached you in time. I left that city on the 
 1 5th in the morning, and arrived at Marseilles early 
 the next day. In this place I had sufficient time 
 to walk about and to take a drive on the coast round 
 the town; but early on the following day I, with 
 three other Japanese, embarked on board the steamer 
 Iraouaddy, which left the coast a little after 10 
 o'clock a.m. 
 
 I feel almost recovered from my recent weakness 
 since my arrival at Marseilles, and am enjoying the 
 voyage very much. There are about fifty passengers in 
 the first class, forty in the second, and thirty in the third. 
 The first and second class passengers share in common 
 a spacious portion on the deck, where we sit on 
 chairs, hold conversation, or walk to and fro ; where
 
 218 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 some sing and some play on the piano. Food is good 
 and ample, consisting of coffee or tea with 'petit 
 pain' in the morning, ' dejeuner a la fourchette' at 9, 
 dinner at 5, and tea with biscuits at 8 o'clock in the 
 evening. I get up before 6 o'clock, and generally take 
 a sea-water bath, either hot or cold, every morning. 
 
 I got an English newspaper (of Saturday last) at 
 Naples in which I read, ' The war is over in Egypt.' 
 This morning I had a walk in Port Said, where all 
 was quiet. 
 
 From each port above mentioned I wrote a letter 
 to Mr. B. Nanjio. Now I am writing this to you 
 while the steamer is passing the canal, which we 
 entered at 1 1 o'clock. The heat is becoming intense 
 day after day. 
 
 There is nothing important to describe except 
 some trifling incidents in our society of mixed nation- 
 alities, confined within the small space the boat can 
 afford. 
 
 This letter is to be posted from Suez, and I shall 
 write you another from Ceylon. 
 
 I present my best compliments to your family. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 K. KASAWARA. 
 
 COLOMBO, CEYLON, 
 
 22 Oct. 1882. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I arrived in Ceylon on the 8th last, and re- 
 mained there during a fortnight. As my intention 
 was to see some old temples and ruins there, I spent the
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 219 
 
 greater part of these days in travelling about. I visited 
 Kandy, a town about seventy-two miles from Colombo. 
 There is a temple in which one of Buddha's teeth 
 is kept, but, owing to the recent death of the keeper, 
 I could not see it. At a distance of about sixteen 
 miles from Kandy there is a small town named 
 Matale, and there I visited a rock-temple called Ala 
 "Vihara, in which it is said the Pi^akas were first 
 committed to writing. The railway does not extend 
 any farther than this place. In going to Anuradha- 
 pura, I was obliged to take the bull-coach which 
 regularly leaves Matale once a day for Anuradhapura. 
 It is a sort of omnibus, but too small even for one 
 person, as he has to pass a night in it. The distance 
 between those places is only sixty miles, but the coach 
 takes seventeen hours in reaching the end of the journey. 
 During this journey, a traveller like myself finds no 
 place to get food. But Anuradhapura is a place 
 worth visiting. It is full of ruins of grand buildings. 
 I saw there that old Bo-tree which Fa-hian saw one 
 thousand four hundred years ago. I remained there 
 two days, sufficient for seeing all the Buddhist remains. 
 Although I found now only three priests near the ruins 
 of the Mahavihara, I have no doubt that the Vihara 
 had, at the time of the Chinese pilgrim, some 600 
 inmates, as the enormous sizes of the granite alms- 
 vessels, for instance, clearly show us that there were 
 once great multitudes of priests in those Viharas, who 
 partook of then* contents. 
 
 On my return from this journey I remained at 
 Colombo only two or three days. I often saw the high 
 priest Sumangala, who was passing the vassa (Lent) 
 in a place near Colombo. He was teaching about
 
 220 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 sixty of his pupils there. He speaks, as I was told, 
 both Sanskrit and Pali. I presented him with a copy 
 of the Va^ra&Medika, and he read it, at the same time 
 rendering it into English. While reading it, he said, 
 ' It is not one of the Holy Books ; it is not written 
 in pure Sanskrit.' He and some other Buddhists 
 earnestly advised me to stop in the island to learn 
 Pali. I saw other priests, but Sumangala seems to 
 be the most renowned there. 
 
 There is one Colonel Oleott, an American, who 
 professes himself to be a Buddhist. In India and 
 in Ceylon he has formed a great many branches of 
 the Theosophical Society of which he is the founder. 
 I do not know his real motives, but, at all events, 
 he has roused the Buddhists of the island from their 
 slumber. He is working hard, and preaching almost 
 daily in different places. But I had no chance of 
 seeing him during my stay here, although he was 
 willing to see me, as he expressed it in his letter 
 from some distant place to one of his friends at 
 Colombo. 
 
 After all, I was much pleased with this my stay 
 in Ceylon, and I think I learned some things there 
 which otherwise I could not learn in Japan. Some 
 Buddhists at Colombo showed me kindness and 
 civility, and promised to keep up communication 
 with me hereafter. 
 
 The steamer Sindh, of the Messageries Maritimes 
 Company, arrived in the harbour yesterday, two days 
 earlier than it was expected. I hastily embarked on 
 board the steamer. The ship is still in the harbour, 
 but, as I do not find anybody who would go to shore 
 and post this letter for me, I shall forward it from
 
 KENJIU KASAWAEA. 221 
 
 the next station, that is, from Singapore. The ship 
 will leave here very soon. 
 
 I remain, Sir, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 K. KASAWARA. 
 
 toKio, JAPAN; 
 MY DEAR SIR, 25 Nov. 1882. 
 
 After twenty-six days' voyage since I left 
 Ceylon, I safely arrived at Yokohama at seven o'clock 
 in the evening on the i/th last. As I wrote to you 
 before, at the time when I was in Ceylon, I thought I 
 was nearly recovered from my disease. But this was 
 an illusion. After the Sindh arrived at Singapore 
 the weather became very changeable, and after we 
 left Hong-kong the wind was so strong that the 
 steamer could not resist it, and three times was 
 obliged to take refuge in some small Chinese har- 
 bours. All the while I felt myself weak, although by 
 that time I had become quite & good sailor. The cough 
 was often troublesome, which proved to be the returning 
 symptom of my former condition. There were two or 
 three unnaturally warm days, which made me very ill. 
 After two days' stay at Yokohama, where I had 
 something to do with my luggage, I came to Tokio. 
 In Tokio I find one old friend now remaining, who is 
 a priest of our sect (and who had chiefly taken charge 
 of sending money to Nanjio and me while in Europe). 
 Even he has now no longer any connexion with the 
 affairs of Higashi Hong-wan-^i. He however kindly 
 came to the railway station to meet me when I 
 arrived in Tokio. Next morning (2ist) I went to 
 consult Mr. Ikeda, one of the Imperial physicians,
 
 222 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and he carefully examined my chest and back. He 
 was of opinion that my condition has lately been 
 aggravated, and that I should avoid the coming winter 
 in some warmer place. I thought I might go to Kobe, 
 which was at once healthy and near Kioto. But he 
 said Kioto was worse ; and that he should rather re- 
 commend me, had I not returned from those regions, 
 to go to Ceylon or Saigon, as Japan was hardly a 
 better place than England with regard to cold weather. 
 He said, as I was here, I might go to Atami, a place 
 far better than Kobe, only twenty-seven Japanese or 
 about fifty English miles from Tokio, where I might 
 remain till next March, but without doing any work. 
 I had been quite prepared for hearing such words of 
 the doctor, otherwise alarming. I therefore deter- 
 mined to hurry to Atami. I need not say that it has 
 been an unpleasant thing to me to return home on 
 account of my illness, but I should have been consoled 
 if I had found a brighter state of things at home on my 
 arrival. I expected to see Ishikawa Shuntai in Tokio 
 (who was my teacher and advised us to go to Europe), 
 but to my great disappointment he too has taken part 
 in the recent quarrels, and is now in extreme difficul- 
 ties. I am writing a long letter to Mr. B. Nanjio, and 
 shall inform him of these things at length. 
 
 My dim recollection of the mazy streets of Tokio 
 does not enable me to find places I want to go to. In 
 fact I know Tokio less than London. Besides, I am 
 forbidden to go out except from n to 4 o'clock, nor 
 does anything attract me. I have taken my lodgings 
 in one of our paper houses. The room I use is roofed 
 very low, where a small man like me seems like a 
 giant. Three sides of the room are sheltered with
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 223 
 
 sliding paper screens, and the other side is divided 
 into two portions. One is made a covert, and the 
 other a niche in which an image on paper is hung, 
 and a porcelain pot placed, with flowers in it. As I 
 have passed one fifth part of my life in Europe, my 
 habits have been Europeanised. What is most incon- 
 venient at present is, to sit down on my calves, as our 
 rooms are not furnished with tables and chairs. I am 
 almost unable to write and read at a Japanese desk nine 
 inches high. It is highly injurious to lung diseases. 
 I have not yet put on a Japanese dress. As you 
 know, Tokio is not my home. I must have complete 
 suits of Japanese clothes newly made, top split socks, 
 girdle, clogs, etc. If I send to my home for those 
 things, they will not come to me in less than thirty days. 
 
 I have seen very few people here. Some of the 
 young students who are priests by birth, and are 
 studying English in Tokio at the expense of the 
 monastery at Hong-wan-n, have sometimes come to 
 see me. It is somewhat strange that most of them 
 are destined to study philosophy. Every one of 
 them speaks of Mill and Spencer, as if there were 
 not more sensible men in the world. I cannot say 
 anything as yet of the prospect of the study of 
 Sanskrit here, and those young philosophers do not 
 at present seem to have any desire for learning 
 Sanskrit. We must endeavour to break the earth 
 for our cultivation, but this is a land of frequent 
 earthquakes and destructions. 
 
 I shall write to you something more very soon. 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient pupil, 
 KENJIU KASAWARA.
 
 224 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ATAMI, JAPAN, 
 
 7 Dec. 1882. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I have made inquiries about the old palm-leaves 
 and the destiny of the copy of the Kathavatthupakar- 
 ana-atthakatha, presented by you to the Higashi 
 Hong-wan-d. through our Minister Iwakura. 
 
 As to the former, you have I suppose been in- 
 formed of the matter before, viz. that it was pri- 
 vately granted by the Minister to photograph the 
 palm-leaves (which formerly belonged to the Horiuji 
 monastery). The reason why it was delayed is this. 
 The old leaf is now, as you know, among the im- 
 perial treasures at Nara, which no one has access 
 to but by imperial order. It was intended, as 
 I am told, to bring them to Tokio, and some 
 months ago an officer was actually despatched for 
 Nara. The officer, however, resigned his office before 
 he left Tokio, and his resignation was granted while 
 he was en route. This altered everything. He went 
 to Kioto on some other business without staying at 
 Nara'. I do not know whether this matter is con- 
 sidered to be not a very pressing business, but 
 it is certain that no officer has since been despatched 
 for the purpose. Unless the palm-leaves are brought 
 to Tokio, there will be no chance of their being 
 photographed ; for those treasures are sealed up at 
 Nara, and no keeper is there who is free to open 
 them. I do not say I understand the matter very 
 well. But Susuki and Ota, the latter of whom you 
 know by name, both tell me the same. Ota, being 
 a mere young student, has no intimate access to
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 225 
 
 Iwakura, but the former, I am sure, is able to beg 
 of the Minister anything about the matter. I urged 
 him not to neglect to make further inquiries. The 
 matter being in such a state, delay seems inevitable. 
 Although I shall urge my friend to seek every means 
 to accelerate its progress, I am afraid you cannot 
 delay your publication so long. 
 
 I have written letters to some of my old friends, 
 but none of them, even by this time, has written any 
 answer. I do not know what they think of me, but 
 my illness and my withdrawing to Atami have put 
 me into oblivion. 
 
 I came to Atami on the 4th last. It is only about 
 fifty English miles from Tokio, and famous for 
 its hot springs. The place has come to particular 
 notice since foreigners began to praise its healthiness 
 as well as its waters. This is one of our few places 
 which know the faces of ministers and foreign 
 ambassadors. It has the advantage of its position, 
 forming a little bay, surrounded by considerably high 
 hills, embracing the warmth of the sun in the south- 
 east. But the road to this place was very bad till some 
 four or five months ago, and only since that time 
 small vehicles drawn by men can pass carrying inva- 
 lids. The hills around are not so easy to climb as at 
 Malvern, the footpaths being stony and neck- 
 breaking. This naturally stops us from going astray, 
 and we are confined in this sir all village, where there 
 is nothing to see and nothing to amuse us. But 
 I like this nook of the earth very well as my present 
 asylum. 
 
 I am not able to work much, and am forbidden to 
 do so, but as I have no one to speak to in my 
 
 Q
 
 226 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 room, I naturally have recourse to my books. By the 
 way, my store of books, which I call my honeycomb, 
 arrived safely from England in Tokio, but now the 
 books no longer follow me so easily wherever I go. 
 
 I presume you and all your family are quite well. 
 Please remember me to Mrs. Max Muller and the rest. 
 My parents are well, and very glad of my safe arrival, 
 and, though they and I both regret that I cannot go 
 to see them at present, yet they are quite satisfied 
 with my being here. They well know that their 
 place is too cold for me, and they cannot attempt to 
 come to me. To them this part of Japan may still 
 seem, as it seemed to me when I was a boy, as strange 
 a land as Turkey or Egypt may seem to you, and the 
 difficulty of travelling even now is actually greater. 
 They are extremely thankful to you for your great 
 kindness to me during my stay in Oxford. 
 
 I hope that the Japanese gentlemen in Oxford are 
 in good health, and continue their important studies. 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient pupil, 
 
 K. KASAWAKA. 
 
 OTANIKIOKO, TOKIO, 
 
 14 June, 1883. 
 MY PEAK SlE, 
 
 Since I wrote my last letter to you two months 
 have passed, but I am sorry to say I have nothing to 
 tell you that is new and bright. 
 
 I have passed these six weeks, and especially these 
 few last days, in very bad health. A bad cough is the 
 principal symptom, but now my bodily strength too 
 is failing. Tokio is not my home. I have remained
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA. 227 
 
 here in suspense, neither having been able to set out 
 for home, nor having been able to find a comfortable 
 abode here. No one looks after me : to a sick man 
 very few remain as friends. Now the best way for 
 me is to surrender myself entirely to medical treat- 
 ment. Dr. Baeby, a German in the service of the Go- 
 vernment Hospital at Tokio, is now very famous. I am 
 using the medicine prescribed by him for me. I have 
 resolved to go into the hospital from to-morrow. 
 This will be to my satisfaction, as I shall have better 
 accommodation and good medical treatment. 
 
 I received the Athenaeum, in which a review of your 
 Cambridge Lectures is found. I thank you very much, 
 and read the review with pleasure. This reminded 
 me of our pleasant Cambridge tour last year, and my 
 last efforts in copying. How different are things 
 around me this year ! 
 
 Your kindness did not stop there. You also made 
 an application that the physicians attached to the 
 English Legation here should attend me. But I had 
 been under the treatment of Dr. Baeby, so that I have 
 gone on with him. I hope you will pardon this care- 
 less writing, as I am weak, and require to sit quiet. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your humble pupil, 
 
 KENJIU KASAWARA.
 
 COLEBROOKE 1 . 
 
 (1765-1837.) 
 
 HpHE name and fame of Henry Thomas Colebrooke 
 -*- are better known in India, France, Germany, 
 Italy nay, even in Russia than in his own country. 
 He was born in London on the i5th of June, 1765 ; 
 he died in London on the loth of March, 1837 ; and if 
 now, after waiting for thirty-six years, his only sur- 
 viving son, Sir Edward Colebrooke, has at last given 
 us a more complete account of his father's life, the 
 impulse has come chiefly from Colebrooke' s admirers 
 abroad, who wished to know what the man had been 
 whose works they knew so well. If Colebrooke had 
 simply been a distinguished, even a highly distin- 
 guished, servant of the East India Company, we could 
 well understand that, where the historian has so many 
 eminent services to record, those of Henry Thomas 
 Colebrooke should have been allowed to pass almost 
 unnoticed. The history of British India has still to 
 be written, and it will be no easy task to write it. 
 Macaulay's Lives of Clive and Warren Hastings are 
 but two specimens to show how it ought to be, and 
 yet how it cannot be, written. There is in the annals 
 of the conquest and administrative tenure of India so 
 much of the bold generalship of raw recruits, the states- 
 manship of common clerks, and the heroic devotion of 
 
 1 ' Miscellaneous Essays.' By Henry Thomas Colebrooke. With a 
 Life of the Author by his Son. In three volumes. London : 1872.
 
 COLEBEOOKE. 229 
 
 mere adventurers, that even the largest canvas of the 
 historian must dwarf the stature of heroes ; and cha- 
 racters which, in the history of Greece or England, 
 would stand out in bold relief, must vanish unnoticed 
 in the crowd. 
 
 The substance of the present memoir appeared in 
 the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society soon after 
 Mr. Colebrooke's death. It consisted originally of 
 a brief notice of his public and literary career, inter- 
 spersed with extracts from his letters to his family 
 during the first twenty years of his residence in India. 
 Being asked a few years since to allow this notice to 
 appear in a new edition of the ' Miscellaneous Essays,' 
 Sir Edward thought it incumbent on him to render it 
 more worthy of his father's reputation. The letters 
 in the present volume are, for the most part, given in 
 full ; and some additional correspondence is included 
 in it, besides a few papers of literary interest, and a 
 journal kept by him during his residence at Nagpur, 
 which was left incomplete. Two addresses delivered to 
 the Royal Asiatic and Astronomical Societies, and the 
 narrative of a journey to and from the capital of Berar, 
 are added as an appendix and complete the volume. 
 
 Although, as we shall see, the career of Mr. Cole- 
 brooke, as a servant of the East India Company, was 
 highly distinguished, and in its vicissitudes, as here 
 told by his son, both interesting and instructive, yet 
 his most lasting fame will not be that of the able ad- 
 ministrator, the learned lawyer, the thoughtful finan- 
 cier and politician, but that of the founder and father 
 of true Sanskrit scholarship in Europe. In that cha- 
 racter Colebrooke has secured his place in the history 
 of the world, a place which neither envy nor ignorance
 
 230 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 can ever take from him. Had he lived in Germany, 
 we should long ago have seen his statue in his native 
 place, his name written in letters of gold on the walls 
 of academies ; we should have heard of Colebrooke 
 jubilees and Colebrooke scholarships. In England, if 
 any notice is taken of the discovery of Sanskrit a 
 discovery in many respects equally important, in some 
 even more important, than the revival of Greek 
 scholarship in the fifteenth century we may possibly 
 hear the popular name of Sir William Jones and his 
 classical translation of /Sakuntala ; but of the infinitely 
 more important achievements of Colebrooke, not one 
 word. The fact is, the time has not yet come when 
 the full importance of Sanskrit philology can be ap- 
 preciated by the public at large. It was the same 
 with Greek philology. When Greek began to be 
 studied by some of the leading spirits in Europe, the 
 subject seemed at first one of purely literary curiosity. 
 When its claims were pressed on the public, they 
 were met by opposition, and even ridicule ; and those 
 who knew least of Greek were most eloquent in their 
 denunciations. Even when its study had become 
 more general, and been introduced at universities and 
 schools, it remained in the eyes of many a mere accom- 
 plishment its true value for higher than scholastic 
 purposes being scarcely suspected. At present we 
 know that the revival of Greek scholarship affected 
 the deepest interests of humanity, that it was in reality 
 a revival of that consciousness which links large por- 
 tions of mankind together, connects the living with 
 the dead, and thus secures to each generation the full 
 intellectual inheritance of our race. Without that 
 historical consciousness, the life of man would be
 
 COLEBBOOKE. 231 
 
 ephemeral and vain. The more we can see backward, 
 and place ourselves in real sympathy with the past, 
 the more truly do we make the life of former genera- 
 tions our own, and are able to fulfil our own appointed 
 duty in carrying on the work which was begun cen- 
 turies ago in Athens and at Rome. But while the 
 unbroken traditions of the Roman world, and the re- 
 vival of Greek culture among us, restored to us the 
 intellectual patrimony of Greece and Rome only, and 
 made the Teutonic race in a certain sense Greek and 
 Roman, the discovery of Sanskrit will have a much 
 larger influence. Like a new intellectual spring, it 
 is meant to revive the broken fibres that once united 
 the South-Eastern with the North- Western branches 
 of the Aryan family; and thus to re-establish the 
 spiritual brotherhood, not only of the Teutonic, Greek, 
 and Roman, but likewise of the Slavonic, Celtic, In- 
 dian, and Persian branches. It is to make the mind 
 of man wider, his heart larger, his sympathies world- 
 embracing ; it is to make us truly humaniores, richer 
 and prouder in the full perception of what humanity 
 has been, and what it is meant to be. This is the real 
 object of the more comprehensive studies of the nine- 
 teenth century, and though the full appreciation of 
 this their true import may be reserved to the future, 
 no one who follows the intellectual progress of man- 
 kind attentively can fail to see that, even now, the 
 comparative study of languages, mythologies, and re- 
 ligions has widened our horizon ; that much which 
 was lost has been regained ; and that a new world, if 
 it has not yet been occupied, is certainly in sight. It 
 is curious to observe that those to whom we chiefly 
 owe the discovery of Sanskrit were as little conscious
 
 232 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of the real importance of their discovery as Columbus 
 was when he landed at St. Salvador. What Mr. Cole- 
 brooke did, was done from a sense of duty, rather 
 than from literary curiosity; but there was also a 
 tinge of enthusiasm in his character, like that which 
 carries a traveller to the wastes of Africa or the ice-bound 
 regions of the Pole. Whenever there was work ready 
 for him, he was ready for the work. But he had no 
 theories to substantiate, no pre-conceived objects to 
 attain. Sobriety and thoroughness are the distin- 
 guishing features of all his works. There is in them 
 no trace of haste or carelessness ; but neither is there 
 evidence of any extraordinary effort, or minute pro- 
 fessional scholarship. In the same business-like spirit 
 in which he collected the revenue of his province, he 
 collected his knowledge of Sanskrit literature ; with 
 the same judicial impartiality with which he delivered 
 his judgments, he delivered the results at which he 
 had arrived after his extensive and careful reading ; 
 and with the same sense of confidence with which he 
 quietly waited for the effects of his political and financial 
 measures, in spite of the apathy or the opposition with 
 which they were met at first, he left his written works 
 to the judgment of posterity, never wasting his time 
 in the repeated assertion of his opinions, or in useless 
 controversy, though he was by no means insensible to 
 his own literary reputation. The biography of such 
 a man deserves a careful study; and we think that 
 Sir Edward Colebrooke has fulfilled more than a 
 purely filial duty in giving to the world a full ac- 
 count of the private, public, and literary life of his 
 great father. 
 
 Colebrooke was the son of a wealthy London
 
 COLEBROOKE. 233 
 
 banker, Sir George Colebrooke, a Member of Parlia- 
 ment, and a man in his time of some political import- 
 ance. Having proved himself a successful advocate 
 of the old privileges of the East India Company, he 
 was invited to join the Court of Directors, and be- 
 came in 1769 chairman of the Company. His chair- 
 manship was distinguished in history by the appoint- 
 ment of Warren Hastings to the highest office in 
 India, and there are in existence letters from that il- 
 lustrious man to Sir George, written in the crisis of his 
 Indian Administration, which show the intimate and 
 confidential relations subsisting between them. But 
 when, in later years, Sir George Colebrooke became 
 involved in pecuniary difficulties, and Indian appoint- 
 ments were successively obtained for his two sons, 
 James Edward and Henry Thomas, it does not ap- 
 pear that Warren Hastings took any active steps to 
 advance them, beyond appointing the elder brother 
 to an office of some importance on his secretariat. 
 Henry, the younger brother, had been educated at 
 home, and at the age of fifteen he had laid a solid 
 foundation in Latin, Greek, French, and particularly 
 in mathematics. As he never seems to have been 
 urged on, he learned what he learned quietly and 
 thoroughly, trying from the first to satisfy himself 
 rather than others. Thus a love of knowledge for its 
 own sake remained firmly engrained in his mind 
 through life, and explains much of what would other- 
 wise remain inexplicable in his literary career. 
 
 At the age of eighteen he started for India, and 
 arrived at Madras in 1783, having narrowly escaped 
 capture by French cruisers. The times were anxious 
 times for India, and full of interest to an observer of
 
 234 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 political events. In his very first letter from India 
 Colebrooke thus sketches the political situation : 
 
 ' The state of affairs in India seems to bear a far 
 more favourable aspect than for a long time past. 
 The peace with the Mahrattas and the death of 
 Hyder Ally, the intended invasion of Tippoo's country 
 by the Mahrattas, sufficiently removed all alarm from 
 the country powers ; but there are likewise accounts 
 arrived, and which seem to be credited, of the defeat 
 of Tippoo by Colonel Matthews, who commands on 
 the other coast.' 
 
 From Madras Colebrooke proceeded, in 1783, to 
 Calcutta, where he met his elder brother, already 
 established in the service. His own start in official 
 life was delayed, and took place under circumstances 
 by no means auspicious. The tone, both in political 
 and private life, was at that time at its lowest ebb 
 in India. Drinking, gambling, and extravagance of 
 all kinds were tolerated even in the best society, and 
 Colebrooke could not entirely escape the evil effects 
 of the moral atmosphere in which he had to live. It 
 is all the more remarkable that his taste for work 
 never deserted him, and ' that he would retire to his 
 midnight Sanskrit studies unaffected by the excite- 
 ment of the gambling-table.' It was not till 1786 
 a year after Warren Hastings had left India that he 
 received his first official appointment, as Assistant 
 Collector of Revenue in Tirhut. His father seems 
 to have advised him from the first to be assiduous 
 in acquiring the vernacular languages, and we find 
 him at an early period of his Indian career thus 
 writing on this subject: 
 
 ' The one, and that the most necessary, Moors (now
 
 COLEBEOOKE. 235 
 
 called Hindustani), by not being written, bars all 
 close application; the other, Persian, is too dry to 
 entice, and is so seldom of any use, that I seek its 
 acquisition very leisurely.' 
 
 He asked his father in turn to send him the Greek 
 and Latin classics, evidently intending to carry on 
 his old favourite studies, rather than begin a new 
 career as an Oriental scholar. For a time he seemed, 
 indeed, deeply disappointed with his life in India, 
 and his prospects were anything but encouraging. 
 But although he seriously thought of throwing up 
 his position and returning to England, he was busy 
 nevertheless in elaborating a scheme for the better 
 regulation of the Indian service. His chief idea was, 
 that the three functions of the civil service the com- 
 mercial, the revenue, and the diplomatic should be 
 separated ; that each branch should be presided over 
 by an independent board, and that those who had 
 qualified themselves for one branch should not be 
 needlessly transferred to another. Curiously enough, 
 he lived to prove by his own example the applica- 
 bility of the old system, being himself transferred 
 from the revenue department to a judgeship, then 
 employed on an important diplomatic mission, and 
 lastly raised to a seat in Council, and acquitting 
 himself well in each of these different employments. 
 After a time his discontent seems to have vanished. 
 He quietly settled down to his work in collecting the 
 revenue of Tirhut; and his official duties soon be- 
 came so absorbing, that he found little time for pro- 
 jecting reforms of the Indian Civil Service. 
 
 Soon also his Oriental studies gave him a new 
 interest in the country and the people. The tirat
 
 236 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 allusions to Oriental literature occur in a letter dated 
 Patna, December 10, 1786. It is addressed to his 
 father, who had desired some information concerning 
 the religion of the Hindus. Colebrooke's own in- 
 terest in Sanskrit literature was from the first 
 scientific rather than literary. His love of mathe- 
 matics and astronomy made him anxious to find out 
 what the Brahmans had achieved in these branches 
 of knowledge. It is surprising to see how correct is 
 the first communication which he sends to his father 
 on the four modes of reckoning time adopted by 
 Hindu astronomers, and which he seems chiefly to 
 have drawn from Persian sources. The passage 
 (pp. 23-26) is too long to be given here, but we 
 recommend it to the careful attention of Sanskrit 
 scholars, who will find it more accurate than what 
 has but lately been written on the same subject. 
 Colebrooke treated, again, of the different measures of 
 time in his essay ' On Indian Weights and Measures,' 
 published in the 'Asiatic Researches,' 1798; and in 
 stating the rule for finding the planets which preside 
 over the day, called Hord, he was the first, to point 
 out the palpable coincidence between that expression 
 and our name for the twenty-fourth part of the day. 
 In one of the notes to his Dissertation on the Algebra 
 of the Hindus he showed that this and other astro- 
 logical terms were evidently borrowed by the Hindus 
 from the Greeks, or other external sources ; and in a 
 manuscript note published for the first time by Sir E. 
 Colebrooke, we find him following up the same sub- 
 ject, and calling attention to the fact that the word 
 Hord occurs in the Sanskrit vocabulary the Medini- 
 Kosha and bears there, among other significations,
 
 COLEBROOKE. 237 
 
 that of the rising of a sign of the zodiac, or half a 
 sign. This, as he remarks, is in diurnal motion one 
 hour, thus confirming the connexion between the 
 Indian and European significations of the word. 
 
 While he thus felt attracted towards the study of 
 Oriental literature by his own scientific interests, it 
 seems that Sanskrit literature and poetry by them- 
 selves had no charms for him. On the contrary, he 
 declares himself repelled by the false taste of Oriental 
 writers ; and he speaks very slightingly of ' the 
 amateurs who do not seek the acquisition of useful 
 knowledge, but would only wish to attract notice, 
 without the labour of deserving it, which is readily 
 accomplished by an ode from the Persian, an apologue 
 from the Sanskrit, or a song from some unheard-of 
 dialect of Hinduee, of which the amateur favours the 
 public with a free translation, without understanding 
 the original, as you will immediately be convinced, 
 if you peruse that repository of nonsense, the Asiatic 
 Miscellany.' He makes one exception, however, in 
 favour of Wilkins. ' I have never yet seen any book,' 
 he writes, ' which can be depended on for information 
 concerning the real opinions of the Hindus, except 
 Wilkins's Bkagvat Geeta. That gentleman was San- 
 skrit-mad, and has more materials and more general 
 knowledge respecting the Hindus than any other 
 foreigner ever acquired since the days of Pythagoras.' 
 Arabic, too, did not then find much more favour in 
 his eyes than Sanskrit. 'Thus much,' he writes, 
 ' I am induced to believe, that the Arabic language is 
 of more difficult acquisition than Latin, or even than 
 Greek ; and, although it may be concise and nervous, 
 it will not reward the labour of the student, since, in
 
 238 BIOQKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the works of science, he can find nothing new, and, in 
 those of literature, he could not avoid feeling his 
 judgment offended by the false taste in which they 
 are written, and his imagination being heated by the 
 glow of their imagery. A few dry facts might, how- 
 ever, reward the literary drudge ' 
 
 It may be doubted, indeed, whether Colebrooke 
 would ever have overcome these prejudices, had it 
 not been for his father's exhortations. In 1789, Cole- 
 brook was transferred from Tirhut to Purneah ; and 
 such was his interest in his new and more responsible 
 office, that, according to his own expression, he felt 
 for the report, which he had to write, all the solicitude 
 of a young author. Engrossed in his work, the ten 
 years' settlement of some of the districts of his new 
 collectorship, he writes to his father in July 1790 : 
 
 ' The religion, manners, natural history, traditions, 
 and arts of this country may, certainly, furnish sub- 
 jects on which my communications might, perhaps, be 
 not uninteresting ; but to offer anything deserving of 
 attention would require a season of leisure to collect 
 and digest information. Engaged in a public and 
 busy scene, my mind is wholly engrossed by the cares 
 and duties of my station ; in vain I seek, for re- 
 laxation's sake, to direct my thoughts to other 
 subjects ; matters of business constantly recur. It 
 is for this cause that I have occasionally apologised 
 for a dearth of subjects, having no occurrences to 
 relate, and the matters which occupy my attention 
 being uninteresting as a subject of correspondence.' 
 
 When, after a time, the hope of distinguishing 
 himself impelled Colebrooke to new exertions, and 
 he determined to become an author, the subject which
 
 COLEBROOKE. 239 
 
 he chose was not antiquarian or philosophical, but 
 purely practical. 
 
 ' Translations,' he writes, in 1 790, ' are for those 
 who rather need to fill their purses than gratify their 
 ambition. For original compositions on Oriental 
 history and sciences is required more reading in 
 the literature of the East than I possess, or am likely 
 to attain. My subject should be connected with those 
 matters to which my attention is professionally led. 
 One subject is, I believe, yet untouched the agri- 
 culture of Bengal. On this I have been curious of 
 information ; and, having obtained some, I am now 
 pursuing inquiries with some degree of regularity. 
 I wish for your opinion, whether it would be worth 
 while to reduce into form the information which may 
 be obtained on a subject necessarily dry, and which 
 (curious, perhaps), is, certainly, useless to English 
 readers.' 
 
 Among the subjects of which he wishes to treat 
 in this work we find some of antiquarian interest, 
 e.g. what castes of Hindus are altogether forbid 
 cultivating, and what castes have religious prejudices 
 against the culture of particular articles. Others are 
 purely technical; for instance, the question of the 
 succession and mixture of crops. He states that the 
 Hindus have some traditional maxims on the succes- 
 sion of crops to which they rigidly adhere ; and with 
 regard to mixture, he observes that two, three, or even 
 four different articles are sown in the same field, and 
 gathered successively, as they ripen ; that they are 
 sometimes all sown on the same day, sometimes at 
 different periods, etc. 
 
 His letters now become more and more interesting,
 
 240 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and they generally contain some fragments which 
 show us how the sphere of his inquiries became more 
 and more extended. We find (p. 39) observations on 
 the Psylli of Egypt and the Snake-charmers of India, 
 on the Sikhs (p. 45), on Human Sacrifices in India 
 (p. 46). The spirit of inquiry which had been kindled 
 by Sir W. Jones, more particularly since the founda- 
 tion of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, had 
 evidently reached Colebrooke. It is difficult to fix 
 the exact date when he began the study of Sanskrit. 
 He seems to have taken it up and left it again in 
 despair several times. In 1793 ne was removed from 
 Purneah to Nattore. From that place he sent to his 
 father the first volumes of the 'Asiatic Researches,' 
 published by the members of the Asiatic Society. He 
 drew his father's attention to some articles in them, 
 which would seem to prove that the ancient Hindus 
 possessed a knowledge of Egypt and of the Jews, but 
 he adds : 
 
 ' No historical light can be expected from Sanskrit 
 literature ; but it may, nevertheless, be curious, if not 
 useful, to publish such of their legends as seem to 
 resemble. others known to European mythology.' 
 
 The first glimmering of comparative mythology in 
 
 1793 ! 
 
 Again he writes in 1793 : 
 
 ' In my Sanskrit studies, I do not confine myself 
 now to particular subjects, but skim the surface of 
 all their sciences. I will subjoin, for your amuse- 
 ment, some remarks on subjects treated in the " Re- 
 searches." ' 
 
 What the results of that skimming were, and how 
 far more philosophical his appreciation of Hindu
 
 COLEBEOOKE. 241 
 
 literature had then become, may be seen from the 
 end of the same letter, written from Rajshahi, De- 
 cember 6, 1793 : 
 
 ' Upon the whole, whatever may be the true an- 
 tiquity of this nation, whether their mythology be 
 a corruption of the pure deism we find in their 
 books, or their deism a refinement from gross idolatry ; 
 whether their religious and moral precepts have been 
 engrafted on the elegant philosophy of the Nyaya 
 and Mimansa, or this philosophy been refined on the 
 plainer text of the Veda; the Hindu is the most 
 ancient nation of which we have valuable remains, 
 and has been surpassed by none in refinement and 
 civilisation; though the utmost pitch of refinement 
 to which it ever arrived preceded, in time, the dawn 
 of civilisation in any other nation of which we have 
 even the name in history. The further our literary 
 inquiries are extended here, the more vast and stu- 
 pendous is the scene which opens to us ; at the same 
 time that the true and false, the sublime and the 
 puerile, wisdom and absurdity, are so intermixed, 
 that, at every step, we have to smile at folly, while 
 we admire and acknowledge the philosophical truth, 
 though couched in obscure allegory and puerile fable.' 
 
 In 1794, Colebrooke presented to the Asiatic Society 
 his first paper, ' On the Duties of a Faithful Hindu 
 Widow,' and he told his father at the same time, that 
 he meant to pursue his Sanskrit inquiries diligently, 
 and in a spirit which seems to have guided all his 
 work through life : 
 
 ' The only caution, 7 he says, ' which occurs to me 
 is, not to hazard in publication anything crude or 
 imperfect, which would injure my reputation as a
 
 242 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 man of letters ; to avoid this, the precaution may 
 be taken of submitting my manuscripts to private 
 perusal.' 
 
 Colebrooke might indeed from that time have be- 
 come altogether devoted to the study of Sanskrit, 
 had not his political feelings been strongly roused by 
 the new Charter of the East India Company, which, 
 instead of sanctioning reforms long demanded by 
 political economists, confirmed nearly all the old 
 privileges of their trade. Colebrooke was a free- 
 trader by conviction, and because he had at heart 
 the interests both of India and of England. It is 
 quite gratifying to find a man, generally so cold and 
 prudent as Colebrooke, warm with indignation at 
 the folly and injustice of the policy carried out by 
 England with regard to her Indian subjects. He 
 knew very well that it was personally dangerous for 
 a covenanted servant to discuss and attack the privi- 
 leges of the Company, but he felt that he ought to 
 think and act, not merely as the servant of a com- 
 mercial company, but as the servant of the British 
 Government. He wished, even at that early time, 
 that India should become an integral portion of the 
 British Empire, and cease to be, as soon as possible, 
 a mere appendage, yielding a large commercial 
 revenue. He was encouraged in these views by 
 Mr. Anthony Lambert, and the two friends at last 
 decided to embody their views in a work, which 
 they privately printed, under the title of ' Remarks 
 on the Present State of the Husbandry and Com- 
 merce of Bengal.' Colebrooke, as we know, had paid 
 considerable attention to the subject of husbandry, 
 and he now contributed much of the material which
 
 COLEBKOOKE. 243 
 
 he had collected for a purely didactic work, to this 
 controversial and political treatise. He is likewise 
 responsible, and he never tried to shirk that re- 
 sponsibility, for most of the advanced financial 
 theories which it contains. The volume was sent 
 to England, and submitted to the Prime Minister 
 of the day and several other persons of influence. 
 It seems to have produced an impression in the 
 quarters most concerned, but it was considered pru- 
 dent to stop its further circulation on account of the 
 dangerous free-trade principles, which it supported 
 with powerful arguments. Colebrooke had left the 
 discretion of publishing the work in England to his 
 friends, and he cheerfully submitted to their decision. 
 He himself, however, never ceased to advocate the 
 most liberal financial opinions, and being considered 
 by those in power in Leadenhall Street as a dangerous 
 young man, it has sometimes been supposed that his 
 advancement in India was slower than it would other- 
 wise have been. 
 
 A man of Colebrooke's power, however, was too 
 useful to the Indian Government to be passed over 
 altogether, and though his career was neither rapid 
 nor brilliant, it was nevertheless most successful. 
 Just at the time when Sir W. Jones had died sud- 
 denly, Colebrooke was removed from the revenue to 
 the judicial branch of the Indian service, and there 
 was no man in India, except Colebrooke, who could 
 carry on the work which Sir W. Jones had left un- 
 finished, viz. ' the Digest of Hindu and Mohammedan 
 Laws.' At the instance of Warren Hastings, a clause 
 had been inserted in the Act of 1772, providing that 
 ' Maulavies and Pundits should attend the Courts, to 
 
 n -t
 
 244 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 expound the law and assist in passing the decrees*' 
 In all suits regarding inheritance, marriage, caste, 
 and religious usages and institutions, the ancient 
 laws of the Hindus were to be followed, and for that 
 purpose a body of laws from their own books had 
 to be compiled. Under the direction of Warren 
 Hastings, nine Brahmans had been commissioned to 
 draw up a code, which appeared in 1776, under the 
 title of ' Code of Gentoo Laws V It had been ori- 
 ginally compiled in Sanskrit, then translated into 
 Persian, and from that into English. As that code, 
 however, was very imperfect, Sir W. Jones had urged 
 on the Government the necessity of a more complete 
 and authentic compilation. Texts were to be col- 
 lected, after the model of Justinian's Pandects, from 
 law-books of approved authority, and to be digested 
 according to a scientific analysis, with references to 
 original authors. The task of arranging the text- 
 books and compiling the new code fell chiefly to 
 a learned Pandit, Jagannatha, and the task of trans- 
 lating it was now, after the death of Sir W. Jones, 
 undertaken by Colebrooke. This task was no easy 
 one, and could hardly be carried out without the 
 help of really learned pandits. Fortunately Cole- 
 brooke was removed at the time when he undertook 
 this work to Mirzapur, close to Benares, the seat of 
 Brahmanical learning, in the north of India, and the 
 seat of a Hindu College. Here Colebrooke found not 
 only rich collections of Sanskrit MSS., but likewise 
 a number of law pandits, who could solve many of 
 
 1 The word Gentoo, which was commonly applied in the last century 
 to the Hindus, is according to Wilson derived from the Portuguese 
 word gentio, gentile or heathen. The word caste, too, comes from the 
 same source.
 
 COLEBROOKE. 245 
 
 the difficulties which he had to encounter in the trans- 
 lation of Jagannatha's Digest. After two years of 
 incessant labour, we find Colebrooke on January 3, 
 1797, announcing the completion of his task, which 
 at once established his position as the best Sanskrit 
 scholar of the day. Oriental studies were at that 
 time in the ascendant in India. A dictionary was 
 being compiled, and several grammars were in prepa- 
 ration. Types also had been cut, and for the first 
 time Sanskrit texts issued from the press in Devana- 
 gari letters. Native scholars, too, began to feel a 
 pride in the revival of their ancient literature. The 
 Brahmans, as Colebrooke writes, were by no means 
 averse to instruct strangers ; they did not even 
 conceal from him the most sacred texts of the Veda. 
 Colebrooke's ' Essays on the Religious Ceremonies of 
 the Hindus,' which appeared in the fifth volume of 
 the ' Asiatic Researches ' in the same year as his 
 translation of the 'Digest,' show very clearly that 
 he had found excellent instructors, and had been 
 initiated in the most sacred literature of the Brah- 
 Enans. An important paper on the Hindu schools of 
 law seems to date from the same period, and shows 
 a familiarity, not only with the legal authorities of 
 India, but with the whole structure of the traditional 
 and sacred literature of the Brahmans, which but few 
 Sanskrit scholars could lay claim to even at the 
 present day. In the fifth volume of the 'Asiatic 
 Researches ' appeared also his essay ' On Indian 
 Weights and Measures/ and his ' Enumeration of 
 Indian Classes.' A short, but thoughtful memoran- 
 dum on the Origin of Caste, written during that 
 period, and printed for the first time in his 'Life,'
 
 246 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 will be read with interest by all who are acquainted 
 with the different views of living scholars on this 
 important subject. 
 
 Colebrooke's idea was that the institution of caste 
 was not artificial or conventional, but that it began 
 with the simple division of freemen and slaves, which 
 we find among all ancient nations. This division, as 
 he supposes, existed among the Hindus before they 
 settled in India. It became positive law after their 
 emigration from the northern mountains into India, 
 and was there adapted to the new state of the Hindus, 
 settled among the aborigines. The class of slaves or 
 $udras consisted of those who came into India in 
 that degraded state, and those of the aborigines who 
 submitted and were spared. Menial offices and me- 
 chanical labour were deemed unworthy of freemen 
 in other countries besides India, and it cannot there- 
 fore appear strange that the class of the $udras 
 comprehended in India both servants and mechanics, 
 both Hindus and emancipated aborigines. The class 
 of freemen included originally the priest, the soldier, 
 the merchant, and the husbandman. It was divided 
 into three orders, the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and 
 Vaisyas, the last comprehending merchants and hus- 
 bandmen indiscriminately, being the yeomen of the 
 country and the citizens of the town. According to 
 Colebrooke's opinion, the Kshatriyas consisted ori- 
 ginally of kings and their descendants. It was the 
 order of princes, rather than of mere soldiers. The 
 Brahmarcas comprehended no more than the de- 
 scendants of a few religious men who, by superior 
 knowledge and the austerity of their lives, had gained 
 an ascendency over the people. Neither of these
 
 COLEBROOKE. 247 
 
 orders was originally very numerous, and their pro- 
 minence gave no offence to the far more powerful 
 body of the citizens and yeomen. 
 
 When legislators began to give their sanction to 
 this social system, their chief object seems to have 
 been to guard against too great a confusion of the 
 four orders the two orders of nobility, the sacerdotal 
 and the princely, and the two orders of the people, 
 the citizens and the slaves, by either prohibiting 
 intermarriage, or by degrading the offspring of 
 alliances between members of different orders. If 
 men of superior married women of inferior, but 
 next adjoining, rank, the offspring of their marriage 
 sank to the rank of their mothers, or obtained a posi- 
 tion intermediate between the two. The children of 
 such marriages were distinguished by separate titles. 
 Thus, the son of a Brahma^a by a Kshatriya woman 
 was called Murdhabhishikta, which implies royalty. 
 They formed a distinct tribe of princes or military 
 nobility, and were by some reckoned superior to the 
 Kshatriya. The son of a Brahmaua by a Vai*ya 
 woman was a Vaidya or Ambash/m; the offspring 
 of a Kshatriya by a Vai.sya was a Mahishya, forming 
 two tribes of respectable citizens. But if a greater 
 disproportion of rank existed between the parents 
 if, for instance, a Brahmaa married a udra, the 
 offspring of their marriage, the Nishada, suffered 
 greater social penalties ; he became impure, notwith- 
 standing the nobility of his father. Marriages, again, 
 between women of superior with men of inferior rank 
 were considered more objectionable than marriages of 
 men of superior with women of inferior rank, a senti- 
 ment which continues to the present day.
 
 248 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 What is peculiar to the social system, as sanctioned 
 by Hindu legislators, and gives it its artificial character, 
 is their attempt to provide by minute regulations for 
 the rank to be assigned to new tribes, and to point 
 out professions suitable to that rank. The tribes had 
 each an internal government, and professions naturally 
 formed themselves into companies. From this source, 
 while the corporations imitated the regulations of 
 tribes, a multitude of new and arbitrary tribes sprang 
 up, the origin of which, as assigned by Manu and 
 other legislators, was probably, as Colebrooke admits, 
 more or less fanciful. 
 
 In his 'Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal 
 Commerce of Bengal,' the subject of caste in its bear- 
 ing on the social improvement of the Indian nation 
 was likewise treated by Colebrooke. In reply to the 
 erroneous views then prevalent as to the supposed 
 barriers which caste placed against the free develop- 
 ment of the Hindus, he writes : 
 
 ' An erroneous doctrine has been started, as if the 
 great population of these provinces could not avail to 
 effect improvements, notwithstanding opportunities 
 afforded by an increased demand for particular manu- 
 factures or for raw produce : because, " professions are 
 hereditary among the Hindus ; the offspring of men 
 of one calling do not intrude into any other ; profes- 
 sions are confined to hereditary descent; and the 
 produce of any particular manufacture cannot be 
 extended according to the increase of the demand, but 
 must depend upon the population of the caste, or tribe, 
 which works on that manufacture : or, in other words, 
 if the demand for any article should exceed the ability 
 of the number of workmen who produce it, the da-
 
 COLEBROOKE. 249 
 
 ficiency cannot be supplied by calling in assistance 
 from other tribes." 
 
 ' In opposition to this unfounded opinion, it is 
 necessary that we not only show, as has been already 
 done, that the population is actually sufficient for 
 great improvement, but we must also prove, that 
 professions are not separated by an impassable line, 
 and that the population affords a sufficient number 
 whose religious prejudices permit, and whose inclina- 
 tion leads them to engage in, those occupations 
 through which the desired improvement may be 
 effected. 
 
 'The Muselmans, to whom the argument above 
 quoted cannot in any manner be applied, bear no 
 inconsiderable proportion to the whole population. 
 Other descriptions of people, not governed by Hindu 
 institutions, are found among the inhabitants of these 
 provinces : in regard to these, also, the objection is 
 irrelevant. The Hindus themselves, to whom the 
 doctrine which we combat is meant to be applied, 
 cannot exceed nine-tenths of the population; pro- 
 bably, they do not bear so great a proportion to the 
 other tribes. They are, as is well known, divided 
 into four grand classes ; but the first three of them 
 are much less numerous than the /Sudra. The aggre- 
 gate of Brahmawa, Kshatriya, and Vai*ya may amount, 
 at the most, to a fifth of the population ; and even 
 these are not absolutely restricted to their own ap- 
 pointed occupations. Commerce and agriculture are 
 universally permitted ; and, under the designation of 
 servants of the other three tribes, the &'udras seem to 
 be allowed to prosecute any manufacture. 
 
 ' In this tribe are included not only the true /Sudras,
 
 250 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 but also the several castes whose origin is ascribed 
 to the promiscuous intercourse of the four classes. 
 To these, also, their several occupations were as- 
 signed; but neither are they restricted, by rigorous 
 injunctions, to their own appointed occupations. For 
 any person unable to procure a subsistence by the 
 exercise of his own profession may earn a livelihood 
 in the calling of a subordinate caste, within certain 
 limits in the scale of relative precedence assigned 
 to each; and no forfeiture is now incurred by his 
 intruding into a superior profession. It was. indeed, 
 the duty of the Hindu magistrate to restrain the 
 encroachments of inferior tribes on the occupations of 
 superior castes ; but, under a foreign government, 
 this restraint has no existence. 
 
 'In practice, little attention is paid to the limitations 
 to which we have here alluded : daily observation 
 shows even Brahrnanas exercising the menial profes- 
 sion of a Sudra. We are aware that every caste 
 forms itself into clubs, or lodges, consisting of the 
 several individuals of that caste residing within a 
 small distance ; and that these clubs, or lodges, 
 govern themselves by particular rules and customs, 
 or by laws. But, though some restrictions and limi- 
 tations, not founded on religious prejudices, are found 
 among their by-laws, it may be received, as a general 
 maxim, that the occupation appointed for each tribe is 
 entitled merely to a preference. Every profession, 
 with few exceptions, is open to every description of 
 persons; and the discouragement arising from reli- 
 gious prejudices is not greater than what exists in 
 Great Britain from the effects of municipal and 
 corporation laws. In Bengal, the numbers of people
 
 COLEBROOKE. 251 
 
 actually willing to apply to any particular occupation 
 are sufficient for the unlimited extension of any 
 manufacture. 
 
 ' If these facts and observations be not considered 
 as a conclusive refutation of the unfounded assertion 
 made on this subject, we must appeal to the ex- 
 perience of every gentleman who may have resided 
 in the provinces of Bengal, whether a change of 
 occupation and profession does not frequently and 
 indefinitely occur? whether Brahmanas are not 
 employed in the most servile offices? and whether 
 the Sudra is not seen elevated to situations of 
 respectability and importance? In short, whether 
 the assertion above quoted be not altogether destitute 
 of foundation?' 
 
 It is much to be regretted that studies so auspici- 
 ously begun were suddenly interrupted by a diplo- 
 matic mission, which called Colebrooke away from 
 Mirzapur, and retained him from 1798-1801 at 
 Nagpur, the capital of Berar. Colebrooke himself 
 had by this time discovered that, however distin- 
 guished his public career might be, his lasting fame 
 must depend on his Sanskrit studies. We find him 
 even at Nagpur continuing his literary work, par- 
 ticularly the compilation and translation of a Sup- 
 plementary Digest. He also prepared, as far as this 
 was possible in the midst of diplomatic avocations, 
 some of his most important contributions to the 
 'Asiatic Researches/ one on Sanskrit Prosody, which 
 did not appear till 1808, and was then styled an 
 ' Essay on Sanskrit and Prakrit Poetry ;' one on the 
 Vedas, another on Indian Theogonies (not published), 
 and a critical treatise on Indian plants. At last,
 
 252 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 in May 1801, he left Nagpur to return to his post 
 at Mirzapur. Shortly afterwards he was summoned 
 to Calcutta, and appointed a member of the newly 
 constituted Court of Appeal. He at the same time 
 accepted the honorary post of Professor of Sanskrit 
 at the college recently established at Fort William, 
 without, however, taking an active part in the 
 teaching of pupils. He seems to have been a 
 director of studies rather than an actual professor, 
 but he rendered valuable service as examiner in 
 Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindustani, and Persian. In 1801 
 appeared his essay ori the Sanskrit and Prakrit 
 languages, which shows how well he had qualified 
 himself to act as professor of Sanskrit, and how well, 
 in addition to the legal and sacred literature of the 
 Brahmans, he had mastered the belles lettres of India 
 also, which at first, as we saw, had rather repelled 
 him by their extravagance and want of taste. 
 
 And here we have to take note of a fact which has 
 never been mentioned in the history of the science of 
 language, viz. that Colebrooke at that early time 
 devoted considerable attention to the study of Com- 
 parative Philology. To judge from his papers, which 
 have never been published, but which are still in the 
 possession of Sir E. Colebrooke, the range of his com- 
 parisons was very wide, and embraced not only 
 Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin with their derivatives, 
 but also the Germanic and Slavonic languages. 
 
 The principal work, however, of this period of his 
 life was his Sanskrit Grammar. Though it was never 
 finished, it will always keep its place, like a classical 
 torso, more admired in its unfinished state than other 
 works which stand by its side, finished, yet less
 
 COLEBKOOKE. 253 
 
 perfect. Sir E. Colebrooke has endeavoured to convey 
 to the general reader some idea of the difficulties 
 which had to be overcome by those who, for the 
 first time, approached the study of the native gram- 
 marians, particularly of Paraini. But this grammatical 
 literature, the 3,996 grammatical sdtras or rules, which 
 determine every possible form of the Sanskrit language 
 in a manner unthought of by the grammarians of any 
 other country, the glosses and commentaries, one piled 
 upon the other, which are indispensable for a suc- 
 cessful unravelling of Panini's artful web, which start 
 every objection, reasonable or unreasonable, that can 
 be imagined, either against Panini himself or against 
 his interpreters, which establish general principles, 
 register every exception, and defend all forms ap- 
 parently anomalous of the ancient Vedic language, 
 all this together is so completely sui generis, that 
 those only who have themselves followed Colebrooke's 
 footsteps can appreciate the boldness of the first 
 adventurer, and the perseverance of the first explorer 
 of that grammatical labyrinth. Colebrooke's own 
 Grammar of the Sanskrit language, founded on the 
 works of native grammarians, has sometimes been 
 accused of obscurity, nor can it be denied that for 
 those who wish to acquire the elements of the lan- 
 guage it is almost useless. But those who know 
 the materials which Colebrooke worked up in his 
 Grammar, will readily give him credit for what he 
 has done in bringing the indigesta moles which he 
 found before him into something like order. He 
 made the first step, and a very considerable step it 
 was, in translating the strange phraseology of San- 
 skrit grammarians into something at least intel-
 
 254 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ligible to European scholars. How it could have 
 been imagined that their extraordinary grammatical 
 phraseology was borrowed by the Hindus from the 
 Greeks, or that its formation was influenced by the 
 grammatical schools established among the Greeks 
 in Bactria, is difficult to understand, if one possesses 
 but the slightest acquaintance with the character of 
 either system, or with their respective historical 
 developments. It would be far more accurate to 
 say that the Indian and Greek systems of grammar 
 represent two opposite poles, exhibiting the two 
 starting-points from which alone the grammar of a 
 language can be attacked viz. the theoretical and 
 the empirical. Greek grammar begins with philo- 
 sophy, and forces language into the categories estab- 
 lished by logic. Indian grammar begins with a mere 
 collection of facts, systematises them mechanically, 
 and thus leads in the end to a system which, though 
 marvellous for its completeness and perfection, is 
 nevertheless, from a higher point of view, a mere 
 triumph of scholastic pedantry. 
 
 Colebrooke's grammar, even in its unfinished state, 
 will always be the best introduction to a study of 
 the native grammarians a study indispensable to 
 every sound Sanskrit scholar. In accuracy of state- 
 ment it still holds the first place among European 
 grammars, and it is only to be regretted that the 
 references to Panini and other grammatical authorities, 
 which existed in Colebrooke's manuscript, should have 
 been left out when it came to be printed. The modern 
 school of Sanskrit students has entirely reverted to 
 Colebrooke's views on the importance of a study of 
 the native grammarians. It is no longer considered
 
 COLEBROOKE. 255 
 
 sufficient to know the correct forms of Sanskrit de- 
 clension or conjugation: if challenged, we must be 
 prepared to substantiate their correctness by giving 
 chapter and verse from Pawim, the fountain-head of 
 Indian grammar. If Sir E. Colebrooke says that 
 ' Bopp also drew deeply from the fountain-head of 
 Indian grammar in his subsequent labours,' he has 
 been misinformed. Bopp may have changed his 
 opinion that 'the student might arrive at a critical 
 knowledge of Sanskrit by an attentive study of Foster 
 and Wilkins, without referring to native authorities ; ' 
 but he himself never went beyond, nor is there any 
 evidence in his published works that he himself tried 
 to work his way through the intricacies of Pa/?ini. 
 
 In addition to his grammatical studies, Colebrooke 
 was engaged in several other subjects. He worked 
 at the 'Supplement to the Digest of Laws,' which 
 assumed very large proportions ; he devoted some of 
 his time to the deciphering of ancient inscriptions, in 
 the hope of finding some fixed points in the history 
 of India ; he undertook to supply the Oriental syno- 
 nymes for Roxburgh's ' Flora Indica' a most laborious 
 task, requiring a knowledge of botany as well as an 
 intimate acquaintance with Oriental languages. In 
 1 804 and 1 805, while preparing his classical essay on 
 the Vedas for the press, we find him approaching 
 the study of the religion of Buddha. In all these 
 varied researches, it is most interesting to observe 
 the difference between him and all the other contri- 
 butors to the 'Asiatic Researches' at that time. They 
 were all carried away by theories or enthusiasm ; 
 they were all betrayed into assertions or conjectures 
 which proved unfounded. Colebrooke alone, the most
 
 256 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 hard-working and most comprehensive student, never 
 allows one word to escape his pen for which he has 
 not his authority ; and when he speaks of the treatises 
 of Sir W. Jonesj Wilford, and others, he readily admits 
 that they contain curious matter, but, as he expresses 
 himself, 'very little conviction.' When speaking of 
 his own work, as, for instance, what he had written 
 on the Vedas, he says : ' I imagine my treatise on the 
 Vedas will be thought curious ; but, like the rest of 
 my publications, little interesting to the general 
 reader.' 
 
 In 1805, Colebrooke became President of the Court 
 of Appeal a high and, as it would seem, lucrative 
 post, which made him unwilling to aspire to any 
 other appointment. His leisure, though more limited 
 than before, was devoted, as formerly, to his favourite 
 studies; and in 1807 he accepted the presidency of 
 the Asiatic Society a, post never before or after filled 
 so worthily. He not only contributed himself several 
 articles to the ' Asiatic Researches,' published by the 
 Society, viz. ' On the Sect of Jina,' ' On the Indian 
 and Arabic Divisions of the Zodiack,' and ' On the 
 Frankincense of the Ancients ; ' but he encouraged 
 also many useful literary undertakings, and threw 
 out, among other things, an idea which has but lately 
 been carried out, viz. a Catalogue raisonn of all that 
 is extant in Asiatic literature. His own studies be- 
 came more and more concentrated on the most ancient 
 literature of India, the Vedas, and the question of 
 their real antiquity led him again to a more exhaustive 
 examination of the astronomical literature of the 
 Brahmans. In all these researches, which were 
 necessarily of a somewhat conjectural character,
 
 COLEBROOKE. 257 
 
 Colebrooke was guided by his usual caution. In- 
 stead of attempting, for instance, a free and more 
 or less divinatory translation of the hymns of the 
 Big- Veda, he began with the tedious but inevitable 
 work of exploring the native commentaries. No one 
 who has not seen his MSS., now preserved at the 
 India Office, and the marginal notes with which the 
 folios of Sayawa's commentary are covered, can form 
 any idea of the conscientiousness with which he 
 collected the materials for his essay. He was by no 
 means a blind follower of Sayana, or a believer in 
 the infallibility of traditional interpretation. The 
 question on which so much useless ingenuity has 
 since been expended, whether in translating the Veda 
 we should be guided by native authorities or by the 
 rules of critical scholarship, must have seemed to him, 
 as to every sensible person, answered as soon as it 
 was asked. He answered it by setting to work 
 patiently, in order to find out, first, all that could 
 be learnt from native scholars, and afterwards to 
 form his own opinion. His experience as a practical 
 man, his judicial frame of mind, his freedom from 
 literary vanity, kept him, here as elsewhere, from 
 falling into the pits of learned pedantry. It will 
 seem almost incredible to later generations that 
 German and English scholars should have wasted 
 so much of their time in trying to prove, either that 
 we should take no notice whatever of the traditional 
 interpretation of the Veda, or that, in following it, 
 we should entirely surrender our right of private 
 judgment. Yet that is the controversy which has 
 occupied of late years some of our best Sanskrit 
 scholars, which has filled our journals with articles
 
 258 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 as full of learning as of acrimony, and has actually 
 divided the students of the history of ancient religion 
 into two hostile camps. Colebrooke knew that he 
 had more useful work before him than to discuss the 
 infallibility of fallible interpreters a question handled 
 with greater ingenuity by the Maimansaka philoso- 
 phers than by any living casuists. He wished to 
 leave substantial work behind him ; and though he 
 claimed no freedom from error for himself, yet he felt 
 conscious of having done all his work carefully and 
 honestly, and was willing to leave it, such as it was, to 
 the judgment of his contemporaries and of posterity. 
 
 Once only during the whole of his life did he 
 allow himself to be drawn into a literary contro- 
 versy; and here, too, he must have felt what most 
 men feel in the end, that it would have been better 
 if he had not engaged in it. The subject of the con- 
 troversy was the antiquity and originality of Hindu 
 astronomy. Much had been written for and against 
 it by various writers, but by most of them without 
 a full command of the necessary evidence. Cole- 
 brooke himself maintained a doubtful attitude. He 
 began, as usual, with a careful study of the sources 
 at that time available, with translations of Sanskrit 
 treatises, with astronomical calculations and verifica- 
 tions ; but, being unable to satisfy himself, he ab- 
 stained from giving a definite opinion. Bentley, who 
 had published a paper in which the antiquity and 
 originality of Hindu astronomy were totally denied, 
 was probably aware that Colebroke was not con- 
 vinced by his arguments. When, therefore, an ad- 
 verse criticism of his views appeared in the first 
 number of the Edinburgh Review, Bentley jumped
 
 COLEBROOKE. 259 
 
 at the conclusion that it was written or inspired by 
 Colebrooke. Hence arose his animosity, which lasted 
 for many years, and vented itself from time to time 
 in virulent abuse of Colebrooke, whom Bentley accused 
 not only of unintentional error, but of wilful misrepre- 
 sentation and unfair suppression of the truth. Cole- 
 brooke ought to have known that in the republic of 
 letters scholars are sometimes brought into strange 
 company. Being what he was, he need not nay, he 
 ought not to have noticed such literary rowdyism. 
 But as the point at issue was of deep interest to him, 
 and as he himself had a much higher opinion of 
 Bentley's real merits than his reviewer, he at last 
 vouchsafed an answer in the ' Asiatic Journal ' of 
 March, 1826. With regard to Bentley's personalities, 
 he says: 'I never spoke nor wrote of Mr. Bentley 
 with disrespect, and I gave no provocation for the 
 tone of his attack on me.' As to the question itself, 
 he sums up his position with simplicity and dignity. 
 ' I have been no favourer,' he writes, ' no advocate of 
 Indian astronomy. I have endeavoured to lay before 
 the public, in an intelligible form, the fruits of my 
 researches concerning it. I have repeatedly noticed 
 its imperfections, and have been ready to admit that 
 it has been no scanty borrower as to theory.' 
 
 Colebrooke's stay in India was a long one. He 
 arrived there in 1782, when only seventeen years of 
 age, and he left it in 1815, at the age of fifty. During 
 all this time we see him uninterruptedly engaged in 
 his official work, and devoting all his leisure to literary 
 labour. The results which we have noticed so far, 
 were already astonishing, and quite sufficient to form 
 a solid basis of his literary fame. But we have by
 
 260 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 no means exhausted the roll of his works. We saw 
 that a ' Supplement to the Digest of Laws ' occupied 
 him for several years. In it he proposed to recast the 
 whole title of inheritance, so imperfectly treated in 
 the ' Digest ' which he translated, and supplement it 
 with a series of compilations on the several heads of 
 Criminal Law, Pleading, and Evidence, as treated by 
 Indian jurists. In a letter to Sir T. Strange he speaks 
 of the Sanskrit text as complete, and of the translation 
 as considerably advanced; but it was not till 1810 
 that he published, as a first instalment, his translation 
 of two important treatises on inheritance, representing 
 the views of different schools on this subject. Much 
 of the material which he collected with a view of im- 
 proving the administration of law in India, and bring- 
 ing it into harmony with the legal traditions of the 
 country, remained unpublished, partly because his 
 labours were anticipated by timely reforms, partly 
 because his official duties became too onerous to allow 
 him to finish his work in a manner satisfactory to 
 himself. 
 
 But although the bent of Colebrooke's mind was 
 originally scientific, and the philological researches 
 which have conferred the greatest lustre on his name 
 grew insensibly beneath his pen, the services he 
 rendered to Indian jurisprudence would deserve the 
 highest praise and gratitude, if he had no other title 
 to fame. Among his earlier studies he had applied 
 himself to the Roman law with a zeal uncommon 
 among Englishmen of his standing, and he has left 
 behind him a treatise on the Roman Law of Contracts. 
 When he directed the same powers of investigation 
 to the sources of Indian law he found evervthing in
 
 COLEBROOKE. 261 
 
 confusion. The texts and glosses were various and 
 confused. The local customs which abound in India 
 had not been discriminated. Printing was of course 
 unknown ; and as no supreme judicial intelligence and 
 authority existed to give unity to the whole system, 
 nothing could be more perplexing than the state of 
 the law. From this chaos Colebrooke brought forth 
 order and light. The publication of the ' Daya-bhaga,' 
 as the cardinal exposition of the law of inheritance, 
 which is the basis of Hindu society, laid the foundation 
 of no less an undertaking than the revival of Hindu 
 jurisprudence, which had been overlaid by the Moham- 
 medan conquest. On this foundation a superstructure 
 has now been raised by the combined efforts of Indian 
 and English lawyers : but the authority which is to 
 this day most frequently invoked as one of conclusive 
 weight and learning is that of Colebrooke. By the 
 collection and revision of the ancient texts which 
 would probably have been lost without his inter- 
 vention, he became in some degree the legislator of 
 India. 
 
 In 1807 he was promoted to a seat in Council 
 the highest honour to which a civilian, at the end 
 of his career, could aspire. The five years' tenure of 
 his office coincided very nearly with Lord Minto's 
 Governor-Generalship of India. During these five 
 years the scholar became more and more merged in 
 the statesman. His marriage also took place at the 
 same time, which was destined to be happy, but short. 
 Two months after his wife's death he sailed for Eng- 
 land, determined to devote the rest of his life to the 
 studies which had become dear to him, and which, as 
 he now felt himself, were to secure to him the honour-
 
 262 BiOGBArmcAL ESSAYS. 
 
 able place of the father and founder of true Sanskrit 
 scholarship in Europe. Though his earliest tastes 
 still attracted him strongly towards physical science, 
 and though, after his return to England, he devoted 
 more time than in India to astronomical, botanical, 
 chemical, and geological researches, yet, as an author, 
 he remained true to his vocation as a Sanskrit scholar, 
 and he added some of the most important works to 
 the long list of his Oriental publications. How high 
 an estimate he enjoyed among the students of physical 
 science is best shown by his election as President of 
 the Astronomical Society, after the death of Sir John 
 Herschel in 1822. Some of his published contribu- 
 tions to the scientific journals, chiefly on geological 
 subjects, are said to be highly speculative, which is 
 certainly not the character of his Oriental works. 
 Nay, judging from the tenour of the works which he 
 devoted to scholarship, we should think that every- 
 thing he wrote on other subjects would deserve the 
 most careful and unprejudiced attention, before it 
 was allowed to be forgotten ; and we should be 
 glad to see a complete edition of all his writings, 
 which have a character at once so varied and so 
 profound. 
 
 We have still to mention some of his more im- 
 portant Oriental publications, which he either began or 
 finished after his return to England. The first is his 
 'Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, from the 
 Sanskrit of Brahmagupta and Bhaskara, preceded by 
 a Dissertation on the State of the Sciences as known 
 to the Hindus,' London, 1817. It is still the standard 
 work on the subject, and likely to remain so, as an 
 intimate knowledge of mathematics is but seldom
 
 COLEBROOKE. 263 
 
 combined with so complete a mastery of Sanskrit as 
 Colebrooke possessed. He had been preceded by the 
 labours of Burrow and E. Strachey ; but it is entirely 
 due to him that mathematicians are now enabled to 
 form a clear idea of the progress which the Indians 
 had made in this branch of knowledge, especially as 
 regards indeterminate analysis. It became henceforth 
 firmly established that the ' Arabian Algebra had real 
 points of resemblance to that of the Indians, and not 
 to that of the Greeks; that the Diophantine analysis 
 was only slightly cultivated by the Arabs ; and that, 
 finally, the Indian was more scientific and profound 
 than either.' Some of the links in his argument, 
 which Colebrooke himself designated as weak, have 
 since been subjected to renewed criticism ; but it is 
 interesting to observe how here, too, hardly anything 
 really new has been added by subsequent scholars. 
 The questions of the antiquity of Hindu mathematics, 
 of its indigenous or foreign origin, as well as the 
 dates to be assigned to the principal Sanskrit writers, 
 such as Bhaskara, Brahmagupta, Aryabhatta, etc., are 
 very much in the same state as he left them. And 
 although some living scholars have tried to follow in 
 his footsteps, as far as learning is concerned, they have 
 never approached him in those qualities which are 
 more essential to the discovery of truth than mere 
 reading, viz. caution, fairness, and modesty. 
 
 Two events remain still to be noticed before we 
 close the narrative of the quiet and useful years which 
 Colebrooke spent in England. In 1818 he presented 
 his extremely valuable collection of Sanskrit MSS. to 
 the East India Company, and thus founded a treasury 
 from which every student of Sanskrit has since drawn
 
 264 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 his best supplies. It may be truly said, that without 
 the free access to this collection granted to every 
 scholar, English or foreign few of the really im- 
 portant publications of Sanskrit texts, which have 
 appeared during the last fifty years, would have been 
 possible ; so that in this sense also, Colebrooke deserves 
 the title of the founder of Sanskrit scholarship in 
 Europe. 
 
 The last service which he rendered to Oriental 
 literature was the foundation of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society. He had spent a year at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, in order to superintend some landed property 
 which he had acquired there ; and after his return to 
 London in 1822, he succeeded in creating a society 
 which should do in England the work which the 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded in 1784 at Calcutta 
 by Sir W. Jones, had done in India. Though he 
 declined to become the first president, he became the 
 director of the new society. His object was not only 
 to stimulate Oriental scholars living in England to 
 greater exertions, but likewise to excite in the Eng- 
 lish public a more general interest in Oriental studies. 
 There was at that time far more interest shown in 
 France and Germany for the literature of the East 
 than in England, though England alone possessed an 
 Eastern Empire. Thus we find Colebrooke writing in 
 one of his letters to Professor Wilson : 
 
 ' Schlegel, in what he said of some of us (English 
 Orientalists) and of our labours, did not purpose to be 
 uncandid, nor to undervalue what has been done. In 
 your summary of what he said you set it to the right 
 account. I am not personally acquainted with him, 
 though in correspondence. I do think, with him, that
 
 COLEBROOKE. 265 
 
 as much has not been done by the English as might 
 have been expected from us. Excepting you and 
 me, and two or three more, who is there that has 
 done anything 1 ? In England nobody cares about 
 Oriental literature, or is likely to give the least 
 attention to it.' 
 
 And again : 
 
 ' I rejoice to learn that your great work on the In- 
 dian drama may be soon expected by us. I anticipate 
 much gratification from a perusal. Careless and in- 
 different as our countrymen are, I think, nevertheless, 
 you and I may derive some complacent feelings from 
 the reflection that, following the footsteps of Sir W. 
 Jones, we have, with so little aid of collaborators, and 
 so little encouragement, opened nearly every avenue, 
 and left it to foreigners, who are taking up the clue 
 we have furnished, to complete the outline of what we 
 have sketched. It is some gratification to national 
 pride that the opportunity which the English have 
 enjoyed has not been wholly unemployed.' 
 
 Colebrooke's last contributions to Oriental learning, 
 which appeared in the ' Transactions ' of the newly- 
 founded Royal Asiatic Society, consist chiefly in his 
 masterly treatises on Hindu philosophy. In 1823 he 
 read his paper on the Sankhya system; in 1824 his 
 paper on the Nyaya and Vaiseshika systems; in 1826 
 his papers on the Mimansa; and, in 1827, his two 
 papers on Indian Sectaries and on the Vedanta. 
 These papers, too, still retain their value, unimpaired 
 by later researches. They are dry, and to those not 
 acquainted with the subject they may fail to give 
 a living picture of the philosophical struggles of the 
 Indian mind. But the statements which they contain
 
 266 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 can, with very few exceptions, still be quoted as 
 authoritative, while those who have worked their 
 way through the same materials which he used for 
 the compilation of his essays, feel most struck by the 
 conciseness with which he was able to give the results 
 of his extensive reading in this, the most abstruse 
 domain of Sanskrit literature. The publication of 
 these papers on the schools of Indian metaphysics, 
 which anticipated with entire fidelity the materialism 
 and idealism of Greece and of modern thought, en- 
 abled Victor Cousin to introduce a brilliant survey of 
 the philosophy of India into his Lectures on the His- 
 tory of Philosophy, first delivered, we think, in 1828. 
 Cousin knew and thought of Colebrooke exclusively 
 as a metaphysician. He probably eared nothing for 
 his other labours. But as a metaphysician he placed 
 him in the first rank, and never spoke of him without 
 an expression of veneration, very unusual from the 
 eloquent but somewhat imperious lips of the French 
 philosopher. 
 
 The last years of Colebrooke's life were full of 
 suffering, both bodily and mental. He died, after a 
 lingering illness, on March 10, 1837. 
 
 To many even among those who follow the progress 
 of Oriental scholarship with interest and attention, the 
 estimate which we have given of Colebrooke's merits 
 may seem too high ; but we doubt whether from the 
 inner circle of Sanskrit scholars, any dissentient voice 
 will be raised against our awarding to him the first 
 place among Sanskritists, both dead and living. The 
 number of Sanskrit scholars has by this time become 
 considerable, and there is hardly a country in Europe 
 which may not be proud of some distinguished names.
 
 COLEBROOKE. 267 
 
 In India, too, a new and most useful school of Sanskrit 
 students is rising, who are doing excellent work in 
 bringing to light the forgotten treasures of their 
 country's literature. But here we must, first of all, 
 distinguish between two classes of scholars. There 
 are those who have learnt enough of Sanskrit to be 
 able to read texts that have been published and trans- 
 lated, who can discuss their merits and defects, correct 
 some mistakes, and even produce new and more cor- 
 rect editions. There are others who venture on new 
 ground, who devote themselves to the study of MSS., 
 and who by editions of new texts, by translations of 
 works hitherto untranslated, or by essays on branches 
 of literature not yet explored, really add to the store 
 of our knowledge. If we speak of Colebrooke as 
 facile princeps among Sanskrit scholars, we are 
 thinking of real scholars only, and we thus reduce the 
 number of those who could compete with him to a 
 much smaller compass. 
 
 Secondly, we must distinguish between those who 
 came before Colebrooke and those who came after 
 him, and who built on his foundations. That among 
 the latter class there are some scholars who have 
 carried on the work begun by Colebrooke beyond the 
 point where he left it, is no more than natural. It 
 would be disgraceful if it were otherwise, if we had 
 not penetrated further into the intricacies of Pa?iini, if 
 we had not a more complete knowledge of the Indian 
 systems of philosophy, if we had not discovered in 
 the literature of the Vedic period treasures of which 
 Colebrooke had no idea, if we had not improved the 
 standards of criticism which are to guide us in the 
 critical restoration of Sanskrit texts. But in all these
 
 268 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 branches of Sanskrit scholarship those who have done 
 the best work are exactly those who speak most 
 highly of Colebrooke's labours. They are proud to 
 call themselves his disciples. They would decline to 
 be considered his rivals. 
 
 There remains, therefore, in reality, only one who 
 could be considered a rival of Colebrooke, and whose 
 name is certainly more widely known than his, viz. 
 Sir William Jones. It is by no means necessary to 
 be unjust to him in order to be just to Colebrooke. 
 First of all, he came before Colebrooke, and had to 
 scale some of the most forbidding outworks of San- 
 skrit scholarship. Secondly, Sir William Jones died 
 young, Colebrooke lived to a good old age. Were 
 we speaking only of the two men, and their personal 
 qualities, we should readily admit that in some respects 
 Sir W. Jones stood higher than Colebrooke. He was 
 evidently a man possessed of great originality, of 
 a highly cultivated taste, and of an exceptional 
 power of assimilating the exotic beauty of Eastern 
 poetry. We may go even further, and frankly admit 
 that, possibly, without the impulse given to Oriental 
 scholarship through Sir William Jones's influence 
 and example, we should never have counted Cole- 
 brooke's name among the professors of Sanskrit. 
 But we are here speaking not of the men, but of 
 the works which they left behind ; and here the dif- 
 ference between the two is enormous. The fact is, 
 that Colebrooke was gifted with the critical conscience 
 of a scholar, Sir W . Jones was not. Sir W T . Jones could 
 not wish for higher testimony in his favour than that 
 of Colebrooke himself. Immediately after his death, 
 Colebrooke wrote to his father, June, 1794:
 
 COLEBROOKE. 269 
 
 ' Since I wrote to you the world has sustained an 
 irreparable loss in the death of Sir W. Jones. As 
 a judge, as a constitutional lawyer, and for his amiable 
 qualities in private life, he must have been lost with 
 heartfelt regret. But his loss as a literary character 
 will be felt in a wider circle. It was his intention 
 shortly to have returned to Europe, where the most 
 valuable works might have been expected from his 
 pen. His premature death leaves the results of his 
 researches unarranged, and must lose to the world 
 much that was only committed to memory, and much 
 of which the notes must be unintelligible to those 
 into whose hands his papers fall. It must be long 
 before he is replaced in the same career of literature, 
 if he ever is so. None of those who are now engaged 
 in Oriental researches are so fully informed in the 
 classical languages of the East ; and I fear that, in 
 the progress of their inquiries, none will be found 
 to have such comprehensive views.' 
 
 And again: 
 
 'You ask how we are to supply his place 1 ? Indeed, 
 but ill. Our president and future presidents may 
 preside with dignity and propriety : but who can 
 supply his place in diligent and ingenious researches ? 
 Not even the combined efforts of the whole Society ; 
 and the field is large, and few the cultivators.' 
 
 Still later in life, when a reaction had set in, and 
 the indiscriminate admiration of Sir W. Jones had 
 given way to an equally indiscriminate depreciation 
 of his merits, Colebrooke, who was then the most 
 competent judge, writes to his father: 
 
 'As for the other point you mention, the use of 
 a translation by Wilkins, without acknowledgment,
 
 270 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 I can bear testimony that Sir W. Jones's own labours 
 in Manu sufficed without the aid of a translation. 
 He had carried an interlineary Latin version through 
 all the difficult chapters; he had read the original 
 three times through, and he had carefully studied 
 the commentaries. This I know, because it appears 
 clearly so from the copies of Manu and his commen- 
 tators which Sir William used, and which I have 
 seen. I must think that he paid a sufficient com- 
 pliment to Wilkins, when he said, that without his 
 aid he should never have learned Sanskrit. I observe 
 with regret a growing disposition, here and in England, 
 to depreciate Sir W. Jones's merits. It has not 
 hitherto shown itself beyond private circles and con- 
 versation. Should the same disposition be manifested 
 in print, I shall think myself bound to bear public 
 testimony to his attainments in Sanskrit.' 
 
 Such candid appreciation of the merits of Sir W. 
 Jones, conveyed in a private letter, and coming from 
 the pen of the only person then competent to judge 
 both of the strong and the weak points in the scholar- 
 ship of Sir William Jones, ought to caution us against 
 any inconsiderate judgment. Yet we do not hesitate 
 to declare that, as Sanskrit scholars, Sir William Jones 
 and Colebrooke cannot be compared. Sir William 
 had explored a few fields only, Colebrooke had sur- 
 veyed almost the whole domain of Sanskrit literature. 
 Sir William was able to read fragments of epic poetry, 
 a play, and the laws of Manu. But the really difficult 
 works, the grammatical treatises and commentaries, 
 the philosophical systems, and, before all, the immense 
 literature of the Vedic period, were never seriously 
 approached by him. Sir William Jones reminds us
 
 COLEBROOKE. 271 
 
 sometimes of the dashing and impatient general who 
 tries to take every fortress by bombardment or by 
 storm, while Colebrooke never trusts to anything 
 but a regular siege. They will both retain places 
 of honour in our literary Walhallas. But ask any 
 librarian, and he will admit that at the present day 
 the collected works of Sir W. Jones are hardly ever 
 consulted by Sanskrit scholars, while Colebrooke's 
 essays are even now passing through a new edition, 
 and we hope Sir Edward Colebrooke will one day 
 give the world a complete edition of his father's 
 works.
 
 (1800-1876.) 
 
 WHEN, in the beginning of the year 1876, the 
 French papers announced the death of Julius 
 Mohl, a member of the French Institute, and professor 
 of Persian at the College de France, it was felt by 
 Oriental scholars in France, England, Germany, and 
 Italy, that not only had they lost a man on whose 
 kind sympathy, prudent advice, and ready help they 
 could always rely, but that some centre of life, some 
 warm-beating heart was gone, from which Oriental 
 studies, in the widest sense of the word, had been 
 constantly receiving fresh impulses and drawing active 
 support. 
 
 The French, better than any other nation, know 
 how to do honour to their illustrious dead, and when 
 the duty of writing Mohl's necrologe, or bidding 
 a last farewell to their confrere, was intrusted to 
 such men as Laboulaye, Maury, Renan, Kegnier, Bre'al, 
 and others, we may well believe that all that could 
 be said of Mohl's life and literary work was said at 
 the time, and well said. 
 
 The mere story of his life is soon told. It was 
 what the world would call the uneventful life of 
 a true scholar. Nor is there anything new that we 
 could add to that simple story, as it was told at the
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 273 
 
 time of his death by his friends and biographers. 
 His more special merits, too, as editor and translator 
 of the great epic poern of Persia, the ' Shah Nanieh ' 
 of Firdusi, have lately been so fully dwelt on by 
 Persian scholars both in France and England, that 
 little could be added to place his literary achieve- 
 ments in a new and brighter light. Since his death, 
 his widow has rendered one great service to her 
 husband's memory by publishing his translation of 
 the ' Shah Nameh,' or the ' Livre des Rois,' in a more 
 accessible form 1 . But there still remains another 
 duty to be performed to Mohl's memory, and that 
 is a reprint of his annual reports on Oriental scholar- 
 ship, delivered before the Asiatic Society of Paris, 
 and now scattered about in the volumes of the 
 Journal Asiatique 2 . It is in these reports that we 
 seem to read Mohl's real life ; and whoever wishes 
 to study the history of Oriental learning in Europe, 
 from 1840 to 1867, 'the heroic age of Eastern studies,' 
 as M. Renan justly calls it, could not consult better 
 archives than those contained in the 'Rapports An- 
 nuels faits a la Socie'te' Asiatique, par M. J. Mohl.' 
 
 Before entering more fully on the importance of 
 those reports, it may be useful to give, as shortly as 
 possible, the main outlines of Mohl's life, drawn partly 
 from the biographical notices published at the time 
 
 1 'Le Livre des Hois, par Abou'lkasim Firdousi, traduit etcommente" 
 par .lul.s Mohl, publid par Madame Mohl. Paris : Imprimerie Na- 
 tionale, 1878.' 7 vols. 8vo. 
 
 2 These annual reports have since been collected and published by his 
 widow, Madame Mohl, under the title of ' Vingt-Sept Ans d'Hictoire 
 des Etudes Orientales, Rapports faits a la Socie'te' Asiatique de Paris 
 de 1840 a 1867 par Jules Mohl. Ouvrage public" par sa veuve : i vols. 
 Paris, 1879-1880.' 
 
 T
 
 274 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of his death, partly from private papers kindly com- 
 municated to me by his widow and other members 
 of his family. 
 
 Julius Mohl was born at Stuttgart the 23rd October, 
 1800. His father was a high official in the civil ser- 
 vice of the kingdom of Wurtemberg, and his three 
 brothers all rose to eminence in their respective 
 branches of study Robert, the eldest, as a jurist and 
 liberal politician; Moritz, as a national economist; 
 Hugo, as a botanist. The education of these four 
 boys was carried on, as is generally the case in 
 German families, as much at home as at school, for 
 the German system of sending boys to a gymnasium, 
 which is a Government day-school, throws a great 
 deal of responsibility and actual work on the father 
 and mother at home. As is generally the case with 
 distinguished men, we hear that in the case of Mohl, 
 too, his mother was a lady of a highly-cultivated 
 mind, combining a great charm of manner with force 
 and originality of character, and devoting herself 
 quite as much to the training of her children as to 
 the humbler cares of her household. Julius showed 
 early signs of love of knowledge, though we may hope 
 that his rising every day at four o'clock in the 
 morning to read books, when a mere child, may be 
 a slight exaggeration, such as often creep into the 
 Evangelia infantice of men who have risen to great 
 distinction in after-life. Be that as it may, Julius 
 Mohl finished his school career at eighteen, and went 
 to Tubingen to study theology. He was a contem- 
 porary there of Christian Baur, who afterwards be- 
 came the founder of the new critical school of theo- 
 logy, commonly called the Tubingen school ; and he
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 275 
 
 seems also to have made at that time the acquaintance 
 of David Strauss. Becoming dissatisfied with the 
 narrow and purely theological treatment of Chris- 
 tianity, Hebrew proved to him, what it has proved 
 to many scholars, a rail to slide from ecclesiastical 
 to Oriental studies. Though in 1822 he was actually 
 appointed to a small living, Julius Mohl felt more 
 and more attracted by Eastern studies, and resolved 
 in 1823 to go to Paris, where alone at that time there 
 existed in the College de France a school of Oriental 
 learning. He attended at first the lectures of De 
 Sacy on Arabic and Persian, and of Abel Re'musat 
 on Chinese. He did not at once, as is so much the 
 fashion now, devote himself to one special language, 
 but tried to become an Oriental scholar in the true 
 sense of the word. He wished to become acquainted, 
 as he expressed it himself at the time, ' with the ideas 
 that have ruled mankind,' particularly in the earliest 
 ages of Eastern history. He seems soon to have en- 
 deared himself to several of the leading Oriental 
 scholars at Paris, and the society in which they 
 moved, the charm of their manner and conversation, 
 the largeness of their views, seem to have produced 
 a deep impression on the mind of the young scholar, 
 just escaped from the narrow chambers of the Tu- 
 bingen seminary and the traditional teaching of its 
 learned professors. After all, there is no society more 
 delightful than good French society; nor should it 
 be forgotten that much of its ease, its lightness and 
 brightness, is due, not only to perfect manners, but 
 to deeper causes, a general kindliness of heart, and 
 a much smaller admixture of selfishness and self- 
 righteousness than is found elsewhere. Alexander 
 
 T 2
 
 276 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 von Humboldt was at that time in Paris, and the 
 friendly relations which commenced thus early be- 
 tween him and Mohl remained unaltered through 
 life. Cuvier's house also was open to young Mohl. 
 In 1826 the Wurtemberg Government, wishing to 
 secure the services of the promising young Orientalist, 
 gave him a professorship of Oriental languages at 
 Tubingen, allowing him at the same time to continue 
 his studies at Paris. In 1830 and 1831 Mohl went 
 to England, and here gained the friendship of several 
 Oriental scholars, some of them servants of the old 
 East India Company. He then seems to have con- 
 ceived the plan of passing some years in India ; and 
 when he failed in this, he returned to Paris, which 
 had already become his second home. 
 
 At Paris he continued for some time his Chinese 
 studies, and produced as their fruit his edition of a 
 Latin translation of two of the canonical books, the 
 'Shi-king' and 'Y-king' (1830, 1837, and 1839). 
 These translations had been made by two Jesuits, 
 Lacharme and Regis, in the first half of the last cen- 
 tury, but had never been published. 
 
 At the same time, Persian became more and more 
 his spdcialite. So early as 1826 the French Govern- 
 ment entrusted the young German student with an 
 edition and translation of the ' Shah Nameh,' the 
 famous epic poem of Firdusi. The poem was to form 
 part of the ' Collection Orientale,' a publication under- 
 taken by Government, and carried out in so mag- 
 nificent and needlessly extravagant a style that it 
 altogether failed in the object for which it was in- 
 tended, viz., to bring to light the treasures of Eastern 
 literature. To Mohl this undertaking became the
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 277 
 
 work of his life ; nay, it was not quite finished at 
 the time of his death. In preparation for his great 
 work he published in 1829, with Olshausen, 'Frag- 
 ments Relatifs a la Religion de Zoroastre.' The 
 printing of the first volume of the Persian epic began 
 in the year 1833, and in the same year he resigned 
 his professorship at Tubingen, where he had never 
 lectured, and determined to settle at Paris. The first 
 volume of the 'Shah Nameh' appeared in 1838, the 
 second in 1842, the third in 1846, the fourth in 1855, 
 the fifth in 1866, the sixth in 1868. The last and 
 concluding volume was left unfinished at his death, 
 some portions of it having been destroyed at the 
 time of the French Commune. His former pupil, and 
 worthy successor at the College de France, M. Barbier 
 de Meynard, undertook to finish the work of his 
 friend and master ; and we have it now before us in 
 two forms in the Edition de luxe, which the French 
 Government uses for presents to people the least 
 likely to make any use of it, and the reprint of 
 the French translation only, in seven small octavo 
 volumes, published at the expense of his widow, and 
 likely to find its way into every library which pre- 
 tends to contain the master-works of poetry in the 
 principal languages of the world. 
 
 It would require an article by itself to show the 
 importance of the ' Shah Nameh ' as one of the six 
 or seven great national epics of the world, still more 
 to explain the light which Firdusi's poetry throws 
 on the intricate problem of the transition of mytho- 
 logy into heroic poetry and actual history. Nowhere 
 can that transition be watched to greater advantage. 
 No Persian on reading the exploits of Feridun would
 
 278 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ever doubt that he was reading the history of one of 
 the ancient kings of his country, nor would it be 
 easier to convince him that the great Feridun was 
 originally a purely mythological conception, than to 
 convince an ancient Greek or a Greek scholar of to- 
 day that Helena was a mere goddess, long before she 
 became the wife of Menelaos, or that the siege of 
 Troy was the reflection of a much more ancient 
 siege. In Persia, fortunately, we can transcend the 
 limits of epic poetry, and trace the names of some of 
 the principal heroes of the ' Shah Nameh ' in the cor- 
 ruptions which the names of the old deities of the 
 Zend-avesta underwent in Pehlevi and Parsi. Feri- 
 dun, as Eugene Burnouf was the first to prove, occurs 
 in Pehlevi as Fredun, and that Fredun is a corrup- 
 tion of the Zend Thraetaona, corresponding to a 
 Sanskrit form, Traitana, a patronymic of the Vedic 
 god Trita. The tyrant, Zohak, of the epic poem is 
 likewise, as Burnouf was again the first to point out, 
 the same as the Ashi dahaka of the Zend-avesta, 
 whom even Firdusi still knows as Ash dahak, while 
 the true explanation of his nature and real origin 
 can only be found in the Ahi, the serpent of Vedic 
 mythology. We can see in Persia, step by step, the 
 growth of mythology, of legend, and at last of his- 
 tory, while in other countries we generally have the 
 second or third stages only, and must frequently 
 depend on the etymology of the names of half-his- 
 torical, half-legendary heroes, or appeal to the cha- 
 racter of their exploits, in order to show that an 
 Odysseus, no less than a William Tell, was evolved 
 from 'the inner consciousness,' and was never seen, 
 whether in Ithaca or Switzerland, in flesh and blood.
 
 JULIUS MOIIL. 279 
 
 Some of these questions, particularly the character of 
 the materials collected and used by Firdusi when 
 composing his epic, are fully treated in the prefaces 
 to the different volumes of Mohl's edition of the 
 ' Shah Nameh,' and they deserve to be carefully 
 considered by every student of comparative myth- 
 ology. 
 
 By accepting the task of editing and translating 
 the ' Shah Nameh,' for the French Government, Mohl 
 must have seen that he would have to spend the best 
 years of his life in France. 
 
 It has sometimes been a matter of surprise why 
 Mohl should have declined to return to the university 
 of Tubingen, which was so anxious to receive him back, 
 and should have preferred to live and work at Paris. 
 He himself, when asked in later, life, found it difficult 
 to give an answer. But first of all it should be re- 
 membered that in 1830 men were still far more 
 cosmopolitan than after 1848, and that Paris was 
 then the most cosmopolitan city in the world. 
 
 We may quote on this point the opinion of M. Renan 
 in his 'Rapport sur les travaux du Conseil de la 
 Socie'te' Asiatique,' in 1876 : 
 
 ' Le meilleur fruit,' he says, ' du grand et liberal 
 esprit qui re'gna en Europe depuis la fin des orages de 
 la Revolution et de 1' Empire jusqu'a la funeste annde 
 qui a ddchaine' de nouveau le typhon de la haine et 
 du mal, fut la facilite' avec laquelle 1'homme vou6 a 
 une ceuvre sociale consentait a transporter ses apti- 
 tudes et le libre exercice de son activite' dans un 
 pays different du sien. II re^ultait de la des ^changes 
 excellentes de dons opposes, des melanges fe'conds 
 pour le progrl's de la civilisation. Et comme une
 
 280 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 pense'e vraiment haute prdsidait a ces changements 
 de patrie, le pays le plus hospitaller dtait celui qui en 
 bdndficiait le plus.' 
 
 Secondly, friendships, and more than friendships, 
 seem to have had much to do with his unwillingness 
 to leave Paris. Such men as De Sacy, Rdmusat, 
 Fauriel, Fresnel, Saint-Martin, Ampere, Eugene Bur- 
 nouf, were not easy to find at Tubingen. Nor was 
 there, in the then prevailing state of Government, any 
 place in Germany where a young professor would 
 have found such a sphere of usefulness and inde- 
 pendence as Mohl had at Paris. He was able to live 
 there on easy and pleasant terms, not only with the 
 greatest scholars of the day, but also with such men 
 as Guizot, Villemain, Cousin, Thiers, and others, all 
 of them at a later time his colleagues as members of 
 the Institute, and at the same time Ministers of State, 
 ready to listen to his counsels, and willing to carry 
 out any plans that he or his friends might submit 
 to them for the furtherance of Oriental studies. Nor 
 must it be forgotten that his being a foreigner was at 
 that time a recommendation rather than an impedi- 
 ment in his career at Paris. Mohl was not only wel- 
 come to do the work or take a place for which no 
 Frenchman happened to care, but the highest and 
 most honourable appointments were given to him in 
 no grudging spirit. In 1 844 he was elected a mem- 
 ber of the French Institute ; in 1 847 he received the 
 chair of Persian at the College de France ; and in 
 1852 he was appointed Inspector of the Oriental 
 Department at the Imperial Press. While these ap- 
 pointments gave him an independent and honoured 
 position among his French colleagues, he was able to
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 281 
 
 devote a considerable portion of his leisure to the 
 Soci&e Asiatique, of which he was first the assistant 
 secretary, then the secretary, and finally the presi- 
 dent. That society was in fact his pet child through 
 good and evil days, and it was through that society 
 that Mohl rendered the most valuable and most per- 
 manent services to Oriental scholarship. 
 
 The best record of these services is to be found 
 in the Annual Reports delivered by him regularly 
 every year from 1840 to 1867. It is but seldom 
 that he tells us what share he himself has had in en- 
 couraging, guiding, and supporting the work of other 
 scholars. Still we can recognise his hand in several 
 of the most brilliant discoveries of those days. He 
 generally begins his annual address by giving an ac- 
 count of the work done by the members of the 
 Asiatic Society during the year. He dwells on the 
 losses sustained by the death of some of its promi- 
 nent associates, and some of his biographical notices 
 are perfect gems. We need only mention his ndcro- 
 loges of James Prinsep, Gesenius, Csoma Korb'si, 
 Schlegel, Burnouf, Lee, Fresnel, Hammer Purgstall, 
 Wilson, and Woepke. After enumerating the prin- 
 cipal papers published during the year in the Journal 
 of the Asiatic Society, and dwelling on the larger 
 literary undertakings, which the society had either 
 recommended for Government support or supported 
 out of its own resources, Mohl passes in review all 
 Oriental publications, whether in French, English, 
 German, Italian, or some even of the Eastern lan- 
 guages, which seemed to him to constitute a real 
 addition to the stoek of Oriental learning in Europe. 
 Scholars whose works are recorded in those pages
 
 282 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 may well look upon such record as the Greek cities 
 looked upon the honour of being mentioned in 
 Homer's catalogue. There is perhaps more praise 
 than blame in Mohl's judgments, yet to those who 
 have ears to hear, it is easy to perceive where he 
 looks upon any publication as a real and permanent 
 conquest of new territory, or as mere skirmishing 
 and reconnoitring in search of literary glory. It 
 would be impossible, of course, to give anything like 
 an adequate account of the work performed by Mohl 
 in his annual censorship in every branch of Oriental 
 learning. But we think it due to his memory to 
 show, at least in one case, how he suggested and 
 silently directed discoveries, the credit of which he 
 was himself the first to ascribe and to leave un- 
 diminished to others. 
 
 One of the most brilliant and truly light-bringing 
 discoveries of our age has no doubt been the un- 
 earthing of the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh, and 
 still more, the deciphering of the wedge-shaped in- 
 scriptions with which the walls of those ancient 
 palaces were covered. 
 
 If one asked any educated Englishman, supposing 
 he cared at all about Oriental antiquities, who it was 
 that discovered the bulls at Nineveh, he would 
 answer, Sir Austen Layard. And if he were asked 
 who first deciphered the cuneiform inscriptions, he 
 would say, Sir Henry Rawlinson. Yet both these 
 statements are utterly and entirely wrong, and we 
 have the less hesitation in saying so, because Sir 
 Austen Layard's merits in bringing the Nineveh bulls 
 and many other antiquities to light, and Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson's merits in copying and translating some
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 283 
 
 of the most important cuneiform inscriptions, are so 
 great that they are the very last persons who would 
 wish to see themselves bedecked with feathers not 
 their own. Long before Sir Austen Layard ever 
 thought of Nineveh, and before Sir Henry Rawlinson 
 published any of the cuneiform inscriptions of Be- 
 histun, we find M. Mohl pointing out to his French 
 friends the importance of the discoveries that might 
 be made on the historic soil of Mesopotamia. He 
 was then already carrying on an active correspond- 
 ence with Schultz, the unfortunate traveller, who 
 had been sent to Armenia to copy the arrow-headed 
 inscriptions which were known to exist in the old 
 castle of Van. In the very first of his reports, of the 
 year 1840, Mohl had to announce the death of 
 Schultz, who was murdered while engaged in copying 
 these inscriptions. It was Mohl who rescued his 
 papers from oblivion, and who urged the French 
 Government to publish the most important materials 
 collected by his unfortunate friend. He tells us at the 
 same time, in the same report of 1 840, what had been 
 hitherto achieved in the deciphering of the cuneiform 
 alphabet. After Grotefend had proved that these 
 bundles of wedges with which the walls of the 
 ancient palaces of Persepolis were covered, were 
 really meant for inscriptions, consisted, in fact, of 
 consonants and vowels, and exhibited clearly at the 
 beginning of certain inscriptions the names and titles 
 of Darius and Xerxes, kings of kings, kings of Persia, 
 little progress had been made till the year 1836, in 
 which Burnouf and Lassen published, almost con- 
 temporaneously, their Memoirs on the Cuneiform In- 
 scriptions, then accessible from the copies made by
 
 284 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Niebuhr during his Persian travels, and by Schultz. 
 The results at which they arrived were almost identi- 
 cal; but the first idea which proved so effective in 
 unlocking the remaining secrets of those ancient 
 documents, i. e. the looking in them, not only for the 
 proper names of kings such as Cyrus, Darius, and 
 Xerxes, but also for geographical names, more par- 
 ticularly the names of the provinces of the Empire of 
 Darius, seems to have come from Burnouf. By the 
 labours of these two pioneers, the whole alphabet of 
 the Persian cuneiform inscriptions had been recovered : 
 there remained only a few doubtful letters, some of 
 which were cleared up soon after by Beer at Leipzig, 
 and by Jacquet at Paris. One letter only, the m, re- 
 mained to be determined by Rawlinson, while the 
 discovery of inherent vowels was due, at a still later 
 date, to Hincks and Oppert. 
 
 What was at that time most sorely wanted was a 
 new supply of trustworthy copies. The inscriptions 
 of Hamadan were furnished in Schultz's papers. 
 Rich completed those of Persepolis. The great de- 
 sideratum was an accurate copy of the trilingual in- 
 scriptions of Behistun. Schultz, who was to have 
 copied it, had been murdered. It was known, how- 
 ever, that Colonel Rawlinson was in possession of a 
 copy of at least three out of its four columns, and 
 Mohl, so early as 1840, expressed a hope that this 
 copy would be published immediately, to satisfy the 
 impatience of all Oriental scholars. 
 
 Though this hope was not then realised, we find 
 Mohl indefatigable in urging on his friends in Paris 
 and elsewhere the necessity of collecting new ma- 
 terials. In his report of the year 1843, he calla
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 285 
 
 attention to the first publication of Oriental cylinders 
 by A. Cullimore, and to a similar collection then 
 preparing under the auspices of M. Lajard, a French 
 scholar, best known by his vast researches on the 
 worship of Mithra, and not to be confounded with 
 Austen Henry Layard, who will appear later on the 
 stage. In the same year Mohl announces a more im- 
 portant fact. M. Botta, then French Consul at Mosul, 
 had carried on excavations at Nineveh, encouraged to 
 do so by M. Mohl. M. Maury, as President of the 
 Acade'mie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, tells us: 
 'C'est surtout d'apres ses indications que Botta re- 
 trouvait les restes des palais des rois de Ninive.' 
 Botta's first attempts were rewarded by the wonder- 
 ful discovery of Assyrian bas-reliefs and inscriptions. 
 Mohl, on communicating M. Botta's letters to the 
 Asiatic Society of Paris, says, 'These are the only 
 specimens of Assyrian sculpture which have hitherto 
 come to light, and the excavations of M. Botta will 
 add an entirely new chapter to the history of ancient 
 art.' The French Government, justly proud of the 
 discoveries of its consul, lost no time in securing the 
 treasures he had found. Mohl did all he could to 
 persuade the French authorities to give Botta the aid 
 he required in order to continue his explorations, and 
 he impressed on the members of the Asiatic Society 
 the duty of publishing as many of the newly-dis- 
 covered inscriptions as their means would allow. 
 He felt, in fact, very sanguine at that time, that 
 after the progress which Burnouf and Lassen had 
 made in deciphering the first class of these inscrip- 
 tions, namely, the Persian the two other classes, 
 the so-called Median and Babylonian, would soon
 
 286 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 have to surrender their secrets likewise. They were 
 all written with the same wedge-shaped letters, and 
 though it was easy to see that the number of in- 
 dependent signs, or groups of wedges, was far larger 
 in the Median than in the Persian, and again far 
 larger in the Babylonian than in the Median in- 
 scriptions, yet as there existed trilingual documents, 
 and as it was known in particular that the great 
 inscription of Behistun was repeated three times, on 
 three different tablets, in three different alphabets, 
 and in three different languages, it seemed but natural 
 that after the Persian edict had been deciphered, the 
 Median and Babylonian could offer no very formid- 
 able resistance. In this expectation M. Mohl and his 
 friends, as we shall see, were sadly disappointed. 
 Still, every year brought some new light, and in 
 every one of his annual addresses M. Mohl reports 
 progress with unflagging enthusiasm. 
 
 In 1 844 he says : 
 
 'It was reserved for a member of your society, 
 M. Botta, to lift a corner of that veil with which 
 time had covered the history of Mesopotamia. Last 
 year he wrote to you that he had found at Khorsa- 
 bad, at about five leagues' distance from Nineveh, the 
 ruins of a building covered with sculptures and in- 
 scriptions. The excavations which he has carried on 
 since have only added to the importance of his dis- 
 coveries. Everything at present seems to show, that 
 these ruins are truly Assyrian ; but much more 
 abundant materials will soon be forthcoming. The 
 French Government has sent M. Flandin to make 
 drawings on the spot. M. Botta himself has bought 
 the whole village beneath which the ruins are found,
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 287 
 
 and the Louvre will soon possess a splendid museum 
 of Assyrian antiquities.' 
 
 But while thus telling the world of the wonders re- 
 vealed from year to year in the Assyrian Herculaneum 
 and Pompeii, Mohl never ceased to point out the duty 
 incumbent on Oriental scholarship in Europe of de- 
 ciphering the three cuneiform alphabets, and reading 
 the three ancient languages in which the old kings of 
 Babylon, Nineveh, Media, and Persia had recorded 
 their achievements for the benefit of future genera- 
 tions. He dwells again and again on the labours of 
 Mr. Rawlinson, the fortunate Consul-General at Bag- 
 dad, who was in possession of the great trilingual 
 Behistun inscription, and therefore was supposed to 
 hold in his hand the key that would unlock, not only 
 the remaining secrets of the Persian, but likewise the 
 as yet only guessed at contents of the Median and 
 Babylonian . tablets. Yet that inscription was still 
 withheld, and such was the impatience of the learned 
 public in Europe for new materials and new light, 
 that the small kingdom of Denmark sent Westergaard 
 to Persia, to copy cuneiform inscriptions, and to study 
 the ancient language of the Zend-avesta, which, as 
 Burnouf had shown, supplied in reality the most ad- 
 vanced trench from which the language of the Persian 
 mountain records of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes could 
 be attacked. A large number of the Assyrian inscrip- 
 tions copied by Flandin and Coste were published in 
 1844, at the expense of the French Government. 
 Many hands were at work, if not to decipher these in- 
 scriptions, at least to draw up lists of all the letters, 
 which, in the Assyrian and Babylonian alphabet, 
 amounted to several hundreds instead of the thirty-
 
 288 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS, 
 
 three consonants and vowels of the Persian ; to find 
 out, in various transcripts of the same inscription, 
 what letters could be replaced by other letters, which 
 signs were ideographic, which syllabic, which phonetic ; 
 in fact to carry out some kind of preliminary sifting, 
 and to establish a certain order in what seemed at first 
 a mere chaos of arrows and wedges. A real assault, 
 it was felt, would be premature until the Behistun in- 
 scription became publici juris. It was known then 
 that Colonel Rawlinson had copied as much as four 
 hundred and fifty lines of Persian text, containing 
 probably ten times as many words as all the other 
 Persian inscriptions put together. Coste and Flandin 
 had been on the spot, and had prepared careful draw- 
 ings of the sculptures of Behistun, representing Darius 
 with his captive kings before him, protected by Aura- 
 mazda, the god of the Avesta, called Ahuramazda in 
 Zend, and Ormazd in modern Persian. But the most 
 important part of the monument, the inscriptions, they 
 had left uncopied. 
 
 The next year, 1845, brings us news of the unearth- 
 ing of the first complete palace. M. Botta had then 
 two hundred workmen at his disposal, consisting 
 chiefly of those unfortunate Nestorians who had 
 escaped being massacred by the Kurds. Two thousand 
 metres of wall covered with inscriptions and bas-reliefs 
 were laid open, one hundred and thirty bas-reliefs 
 were copied by M. Flandin, two hundred inscriptions 
 were carefully transcribed by M. Botta. The most 
 striking specimens of the Assyrian sculptures had 
 been shipped off on the Tigris, and had actually 
 arrived at Bagdad, ready to be taken to Paris. There 
 were only the two gigantic bulls, and two statues of
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 289 
 
 men throttling lions in their arms still waiting to be 
 packed with care. M. Botta was expected back at 
 Paris, and his whole museum was to follow as soon as 
 the shallow Tigris would allow it. 
 
 The best account of what had been achieved in re- 
 covering the antiquities of Mesopotamia up to the 
 year 1 845 may be found in ' Lettres de M. Botta sur 
 see de'couvertes a Khorsabad pres de Ninive, publie'es 
 par M. Mohl, Paris, 1845.' We have only to add that 
 Westergaard was then publishing his first essay on 
 the Median inscriptions, and that Colonel Rawlinson's 
 papers containing the Persian text of the Behistun 
 inscriptions complete, about one-third of the Median 
 and one-tenth of the Babylonian tablets, were in the 
 hands of Mr. Norris, the indefatigable secretary of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society in London. 
 
 In 1 846 Mr. Layard appears on the stage. Attracted 
 by the fame of Botta's discoveries, he set to work dig- 
 ging at Nineveh with that pluck, that energy, and at 
 the same time that discriminating judgment which he 
 has since shown on other occasions. There was 
 enough, and more than enough, to disinter for both 
 France and England ; yet there can be no doubt that 
 England, leaving its representatives far greater free- 
 dom of action than France, obtained in the end far 
 greater results, owing chiefly to the energy and un- 
 daunted perseverance of such men as Rawlinson, 
 Layard, and Loftus. Cargoes of antiquities soon 
 arrived in London. One was unfortunately wrecke 
 on its way from Bombay. In France the Government 
 seemed satisfied with the collection sent home by 
 Botta, and spent large sums on publishing the descrip- 
 tion of his discoveries in so extravagant a style that
 
 290 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 again its very object was defeated. This is a point on 
 which Mohl speaks out in almost every one of his reports. 
 Doing full justice to the French Chambers, and their 
 liberal grants for sending out learned expeditions and 
 publishing their results, he shows that the sumptuous 
 way in which these works are got up, and the enor- 
 mous price at which they are sold, keep them alto- 
 gether from those in whose hands alone they would 
 be most useful. He shows how much more sensible 
 and practical the English system is of leaving the pub- 
 lication of such works to private enterprise, and he 
 tells the Government that while Mr. Layard's works 
 on Nineveh are read in thousands of copies, yielding 
 at the same time a good profit both to author and 
 publisher, M. Botta's 'Monuments de Niriive,' pub- 
 lished at an enormous expense by Government (Paris, 
 1 848), was so dear that the two men who would have 
 made the best use of it, Mr. Rawlinson and Mr. Layard, 
 were unable to buy it. Here was indeed a reductio 
 ad absurdum, but like other reductios of the same 
 kind, it seems only to have confirmed the Government 
 in its perverse course. 
 
 In 1848 M. Mohl is able to announce that Rawlin- 
 son's paper on the Behistun inscription has been pub- 
 lished at last in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society for 1847. Though at that time there were no 
 more discoveries to be made in deciphering the alpha- 
 bet of the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, yet the pub- 
 lication and translation of so large a document marked 
 a new epoch in the study of Persian antiquities. How 
 well the alphabet was known at that time was best 
 shown by the fact that Mr. Norris, then secretary of 
 the Asiatic Society in London, was able to point out
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 291 
 
 mistakes in the copies of the Behistun inscription sent 
 home by Colonel Rawlinson, with the same certainty 
 as a Latin scholar would correct clerical blunders in 
 a Latin inscription. Mohl, though fully recognising 
 the principle that priority of publication constitutes 
 priority of discovery, does the fullest justice to Raw- 
 linson's industry and perseverance, and to the real 
 genius with which he had performed his own peculiar 
 task. 
 
 After Rawlinson's Memoir was published, the Per- 
 sian cuneiform inscriptions were disposed of; their 
 ancient texts could thenceforth be read with nearly 
 the same certainty as an ancient Greek or Latin in- 
 scription. The question now was, what could be done 
 for the Median and Assyrian inscriptions? Wester- 
 gaard had proved that the language of the second class 
 of the so-called Median inscriptions was Scythian or 
 Turanian. With regard to the third class, the inscrip- 
 tions found at Babylon and Nineveh, all scholars who 
 were then at work on them, such as Grotcfend, 
 Lowenstern, Longperier, De Saulcy, Hincks, were 
 agreed that they were written in a Semitic dialect. 
 The inscriptions of Van only gave rise to doubts, and 
 Hincks, in a paper ' On the Inscriptions at Van,' 
 suspected that they were composed in an Aryan lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The difficulties, however, of reading either the Median 
 or the Assyrian inscriptions, even after the Behistun 
 texts had been published, were far greater than had 
 been expected. First of all, the Median and Baby- 
 lonian transcripts at Behistun were imperfect. Se- 
 condly, they were written in an alphabet that was not 
 only, like the Egyptian, at the same time ideographic, 
 
 i- i
 
 292 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 syllabic, and phonetic, but, what was much worse, 
 employed the same sign to express different powers, 
 and different signs to express one and the same power. 
 We enter in fact into the long controversy of the 
 Polyphony and Homophony of the Babylonian alpha- 
 bet, a problem which made several scholars give up 
 the whole matter as hopeless, which roused a general 
 scepticism among Oriental scholars, and still more 
 among the public at large, and which even now, after 
 twenty years of continued research, continues a con- 
 stant stumblingblock to Assyrian and Babylonian 
 scholarship. 
 
 Mohl was fully aware of all these difficulties, but he 
 goes on year after year announcing new triumphs, and 
 exhorting to new victories. In 1 849, the French Go- 
 vernment withdrew its patronage from the field of 
 excavation. M. Botta was removed from Mosul to 
 Jerusalem, and the rich mine which he had opened 
 was left to be worked by Mr. Layard. At home the 
 chief advance made in deciphering was in the Median 
 line. Colonel Rawlinson had succeeded in copying 
 nearly the whole of the Median text at Behistun, and 
 promised to send his copies home ; M. de Saulcy gave 
 the results of his own independent studies, on the 
 Median inscriptions, so far as they were then known, 
 in several papers contributed to the Journal Asiatique. 
 
 In 1851, we receive the first account of Mr. Layard's 
 splendid discoveries at Koyunjik, and somewhat later 
 at Babylon. This Koyunjik proved the richest field 
 of Assyrian discovery. There are within the precincts 
 at Nineveh two artificial hillocks, the one called the 
 Koyunjik, the other the Nabbi Yunus. It was the 
 former which yielded its treasures to European exca-
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 293 
 
 vators, while the latter, being supposed to contain the 
 bones of the prophet Jonah, and protected by a mosque, 
 was considered too sacred to be surrendered to them. 
 The Pasha of Mosul, however, though forbidding the 
 infidels to disturb the peace of the prophet Jonah, had 
 no scruples in digging himself, and his labours were soon 
 rewarded by two bulls, nineteen feet high, which were 
 not exactly what he was looking for. (Rapport, 1 856, 
 p. 49.) At the same time Mr. Loftus was sent to the 
 Lower Euphrates to explore the ruins of Warka and 
 Senkereh, while another expedition to Susah was in 
 contemplation at the expense of the English Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 At home the linguistic excavations were carried on 
 quietly by Botta, De Saulcy, Rawlinson, Norris, and 
 especially by the Rev. E. Hincks, who at that time 
 was the most advanced pioneer, and the first to lay 
 the solid foundation for a grammatical study of the 
 Assyrian language. His labours, scattered about in 
 different journals, are now in danger of being almost 
 forgotten; and it would be but a just tribute to his 
 memory if the Irish Academy or some of his surviving 
 friends and admirers were to publish a collected edi- 
 tion of his numerous though not voluminous contri- 
 butions to the study of the cuneiform inscriptions. 
 
 In 1853, Mohl reports with great satisfaction that 
 M. Place, the successor of M. Botta as French consul 
 at Mosul, has been directed to continue excavations. 
 His labours at Khorsabad were soon rewarded by 
 most valuable results. ' He found new halls, subter- 
 ranean vaults, long passages in enamelled bricks, 
 Assyrian statues, the cellar of the castle containing 
 vessels still filled with dried-up liquors, bas-reliefa,
 
 294 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 inscriptions, articles in ivory and metal, and, quite 
 recently, a depot of iron and steel instruments, and a 
 gate of the town or the palace in splendid preserva- 
 tion, covered in by a vault supported on both sides by 
 bulls, and built in enamelled and ornamental bricks.' 
 In spite of these splendid discoveries, which, as M. 
 Mohl said, would at last bring the Assyrian Museum 
 at the Louvre up to the level of the British Museum, 
 the French Government, it was feared, would again 
 stop M. Place, as they had stopped M. Botta, in the 
 midst of his campaign. M. Mohl did all he could to 
 plead the cause of Assyrian discovery before the 
 Socie'te' Asiatique, before the Institute, before the 
 Ministers, and it was again chiefly due to his never- 
 ceasing intercessions that his friend M. Fresnel, who 
 had been for years devoting himself to the collection 
 of Himyaritic inscriptions in the south of Arabia, was 
 sent out with MM. Oppert and Thomas, at the head of 
 a well-equipped scientific expedition, destined to ex- 
 plore the ruins in the basin of the Lower Euphrates. 
 When the disturbed state of the country frustrated 
 the original intention of Fresnel's expedition, he and 
 his companions concentrated their work on Babylon. 
 At about the same time Mr. Loftus was hard at work 
 at Susah, and had discovered there a palace like those 
 of Persepolis, and inscriptions in the Persian cuneiform 
 characters of the time of Artaxerxes. Mr. Layard had 
 published an account of his wonderful discoveries at 
 Koyunjik, and had explored a large portion of Lower 
 Mesopotamia, the ruins of Arban, Van, Babylon, Niffar, 
 and Kalah Sherghat. At home, Rawlinson's Memoir 
 on the Babylonian text of the Behistun inscription 
 had been published in the fourteenth volume of the
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 295 
 
 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1851), and in 
 the first number of the fifteenth volume of the same 
 Journal (i 853). Mr. Norris, in publishing for the first 
 time the Median transcript of the same document, had 
 confirmed Westergaard's opinion that its language 
 was Turanian, without determining, however, whether 
 it was more closely allied to the Turkish or to the 
 Finnish branch of that extensive family, or rather 
 class, of speech. 
 
 In the next year, 1854, while Mr. Loftus was con- 
 tinuing his work at Warka and Senkereh in Lower 
 Mesopotamia, while Mr. Bassan was hard at work for 
 England at Koyunjik, M. Mohl has to announce that 
 the French Government has really stopped the exca- 
 vations undertaken with so much success at Khorsabad 
 by M. Place. The next year brings sadder tidings 
 still. That precious cargo, containing the harvest of 
 the combined labours of M. Place at Khorsabad and 
 M. Fresnel at Pabylon, was completely wrecked at 
 Basra on its voyage home. Fresnel, who for years 
 had held his own against the Government, who had 
 declined to be recalled, and was meditating at Bagdad 
 the establishment of an archaeological school, on the 
 model of the French school at Athens, died in 1855, 
 and with his death the excavations in the East at the 
 expense of the French Government came to an end. 
 "While Loftus was still collecting fresh materials among 
 the ruins of Mugheir, Abu Shahrein, Tel Sifr, Sen- 
 kereh, Warka and Niffar; while Bawlinson was 
 looking for new treasures at Babylon, nothing re- 
 mained to the French expedition, now entrusted to 
 M. Jules Oppert, but to save what could be saved, and 
 to return home. With Fresnel's death M. Mohl'g in-
 
 298 BIOGKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 terest in the antiquities of Mesopotamia seems to flag. 
 In spite of his constant efforts, the enterprises which 
 he had encouraged and directed had not led to the re- 
 sults which he anticipated. Even the deciphering of 
 the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions had some- 
 what disappointed him. In speaking almost for the 
 last time of the subject, in drawing attention to the 
 ' Rapport adressd a S. E. le Ministre de 1'instruction 
 publique, par M. Jules Oppert: Paris, 1856 (tire' des 
 Archives des missions),' he expresses a hope that the 
 difficulties created by the polyphonous and homopho- 
 nous character of the Assyro-Babylonian alphabet 
 may be overcome ; but with regard to the theory then 
 started for the first time by M. Oppert, that the cunei- 
 form alphabet was originally invented by people 
 speaking a Scythian language, and afterwards adapted 
 as well as might be by the Babylonians to their own 
 Semitic speech, he says : 
 
 'II faut re'server son jugement, attendre le de'- 
 veloppement des preuves, et, si elles sont concluantes, 
 reformer nos ide'es pre'congues. II est impossible qu'une 
 de'couverte immense, comme celle de Ninive, et cette 
 restauration subite de langues et presque de litte'ra- 
 tures perdues depuis des milliers d'anndes, ne reVelent 
 des faits qui s'accordent rnal avec des opinions for- 
 me'es sur 1'ancienne histoire de 1'Asie d'apres des don- 
 ndes imparfaites. II est probable, au reste, que I'his- 
 toire ancienne, telle que Ton a construite d'apres la 
 Bible et les auteurs grecs, sera plutot enrichie que 
 change'e par les re'sultats des e'tudes assyriennes ; car 
 nous voyons que tout ce que nous avons appris sur 
 1'Egypte, Tlnde, et la Perse, n'a fait que grandir 1'au- 
 toritd d'He'rodote. C'est un cadre qui se remplit,mais
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 297 
 
 qui ne change pas dans ses parties essentielles. On 
 n'est qu'au commencement de ces e'tudes, et la route 
 est longue et ardue ; mais les progres sont tres-re'els et 
 deviendront plus rapides a mesure que les mate'riaux 
 seront plus accessibles.' 
 
 We can give this one instance only, to show how 
 conscientiously Mohl performed his work as the re- 
 cognised contemporaneous historian of Oriental learn- 
 ing, and how much may be learnt from his pages that 
 is apt to be forgotten in the hurry of our life. No 
 doubt Persia was always nearest to his heart, and 
 hence his warm interest in these cuneiform researches, 
 which, resting chiefly on the decipherment of the 
 edicts of the ancient? kings of Persia, such as Cyrus, 
 Darius, and Xerxes, threw a new light on the history 
 of the Persian language, both before and after their 
 time. Hence, also, his sincere admiration for Bur- 
 nouf s labours for the recovery of the sacred writings 
 of Zoroaster, and the full appreciation of Burnouf s 
 philological method as the only one that could lead to 
 trustworthy results in the interpretation of the Avesta 
 as well as of the Veda. But though these personal 
 predilections had their influence, we shall find in 
 reading his annual reports that he treated every other 
 subject, too, with almost the same accuracy and 
 thoroughness of appreciation. Every really important 
 publication, whether in Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Ar- 
 menian, Sanskrit, or Chinese, is carefully chronicled 
 nay, we meet again and again with paragraphs which 
 form short but complete treatises on the history and 
 the true value of whole branches of Oriental literature. 
 
 Whoever wishes to know how we came possessed 
 of the Himyaritic inscriptions, and what their bearing
 
 298 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 is on the history of the Semitic languages, should read 
 Mohl's account of Fresnel's and Arnaud's wanderings 
 on the coast of Yemen, chiefly suggested and encouraged 
 by Mohl himself. (See Rapports for 1840, 1844, 1845, 
 1846, 1856.) 
 
 The practicability of substituting the Roman letters 
 for the numerous alphabets of Oriental languages is 
 discussed by Mohl in 1841, and again in 1865. In 
 answer to those who twitted the English Government 
 with the slow progress they had been able to make in 
 persuading the natives to write Hindustani with 
 Roman letters, while the Mohammedans had suc- 
 ceeded in a very short time in making the Persians 
 adopt the Arabic alphabet, he drily remarked that 
 the Mohammedans punished all who continued to 
 write Persian with the old Pehlevi, and not with 
 Arabic letters, with death (p. 25). Though Mohl does 
 not give his authority for this statement, we have no 
 doubt he could have given chapter and verse for it. 
 
 The discovery of the Syriac and Coptic MSS. by 
 Tattam in 1843, and subsequently by Pacho, the first 
 specimens of these new treasures such as the three 
 undoubtedly genuine letters of Ignatius published by 
 Cureton, and lastly the excellent catalogue of the 
 whole collection by Wright, all this is described in a 
 masterly way in the Report for the years 1846, 1847, 
 1848, 1864. 
 
 Students of Arabic will find an accurate account of 
 all important publications, particularly some instruc- 
 tive chapters on the life of Mohammed, doing full 
 justice to Sprenger's treatment of the prophet on one 
 side, and to Sir W. Muir's very different treatment on 
 the other. The gradual formation and sifting too of
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 299 
 
 the traditions concerning Mohammed and the growth 
 of his new religion will interest many readers, as con- 
 taining significant and useful hints on similar phases 
 in the history of other religions. Full justice is ren- 
 dered to Lane's Arabic Lexicon, but not without an 
 expression of regret that it should have been re- 
 stricted to the so-called classical language only. 
 
 The reports on Chinese literature are very complete, 
 Chinese having been for a long time one of Mohl's 
 favourite occupations. When Stanislas Julien pub- 
 lished his translation of the travels of Buddhist 
 pilgrims from China to India, he nowhere found a 
 more appreciative, yet discriminating critic than in 
 Mohl. 
 
 In all the subjects hitherto mentioned Mohl was 
 perfectly at home. The languages were familiar, the 
 literatures a subject of constant interest to him. But 
 even in other branches of Eastern learning, in San- 
 skrit, for instance, and Indian literature in general, 
 few could have more surely distinguished the im- 
 portant from the unimportant, few could have better 
 pointed out the duty which Sanskrit scholarship 
 owed to the learned world at large, than Mohl. 
 Beginning with his first report, in 1840, he calls the 
 attention of Sanskrit scholars to the Veda. Hie 
 Ithodos, hie saltal he seems to say whenever his 
 survey brings him to the frontiers of India. He 
 welcomes with real joy every attempt at tilling the 
 gap in our knowledge of Sanskrit literature, which 
 scholars such as Sir W. Jones, Colebrooke, Mill, and 
 Wilson had indicated rather than filled. He shows 
 how Indian literature must for ever remain a baseless 
 fabric unless its truly historical foundation, the Veda,
 
 300 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 can be recovered. As early as 1840 he tells us that 
 the old East India Company had ordered the text of 
 the four Vedas to be published by the learned Brah- 
 mans of the College at Calcutta after the best MSS. 
 of Benares. 'C'est une grande et magnifique entre- 
 prise,' he says, 'qui fera honneur au gouvernement 
 anglais, et qui livrera aux Etudes des savants de tous 
 les pays un monument litte'raire dont il est difficile 
 d'eValuer 1'importance pour 1'histoire de la civilisa- 
 tion.' It is well known, however, that neither 
 learned Brahmans nor trustworthy MSS. were forth- 
 coming in India. Brahmans who were able were 
 unwilling, those who were willing were unable, to 
 produce an edition of the text and the commen- 
 taries of the Veda ; and European scholarship had at 
 last to undertake the work, and give to the Brahmans 
 the first complete edition of their own sacred books. 
 
 Mohl tells us at the same time that during several 
 years the French Government had then been buying 
 MSS. of the Veda and its commentaries in India, and 
 that several boxes of them had already arrived at 
 Paris. This was chiefly due to Bumouf, who, besides 
 Rosen, was at that time probably the only Sanskrit 
 scholar who had gone beyond Colebrooke, and pene- 
 trated furthest into the outworks of Vedic scholarship, 
 and to the enlightened patronage of M. Guizot. Even 
 so late as 1869 M. Guizot, in announcing to the writer 
 of this article his election as a foreign member of the 
 French Institute, remarked : ' Je ne suis pas un j uge 
 competent de vos travaux sur les Vddas, mais je me 
 felicite d'avoir un peu contribue' a vous fournir les 
 mate'riaux, et je vous remercie d'en avoir garde' le 
 souvenir.'
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 301 
 
 Hardly a year passes in which Mohl does not give 
 us some new information on the gradual advances 
 made by Sanskrit scholars in their attempts to master 
 the difficulties of the Veda ; and in his simple and 
 clear treatment of the importance of the native tra- 
 ditional literature on one side, and the freedom of 
 European scholarship on the other, we see again the 
 maturity of his mind and the impartiality of his 
 judgment, in strong contrast with the wranglings of 
 one-sided pleaders. 
 
 But deeply impressed as Mohl was with the im- 
 portance of Vedic studies, other branches of Indian 
 literature were not passed over by him in silence. 
 Troyer's edition of the Rayatarangini, the history of 
 the Kings of Kashmir, Prinsep's discovery of the Pali 
 alphabet, Gorresio's magnificent edition of the Rama- 
 yawa, Foucaux's translation of the Tibetan version of 
 the Life of Buddha, Lassen's Indian Antiquities, 
 Boehtlingk and Roth's as well as Goldstiicker's San- 
 skrit Dictionaries, Woepke's original researches on 
 Indian numerals and mathematics, Neve's and Weber's 
 works, all receive their recognition ; all are repre- 
 sented to us as marking definite stages in the slow 
 but safe advance of the small and valiant army of 
 Oriental scholars. 
 
 It is not easy to form an idea of the work entailed 
 on a really conscientious scholar who undertakes to 
 write such annual reports. Those only who have 
 tried to do it know how much time is required in 
 collecting the mere materials, how much care in 
 determining what amount of recognition, of praise or 
 blame, is due to each work. Though each of these 
 annual ropor's fills only from fifty to a hundred
 
 302 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 pages, a considerable portion of Mohl's leisure must 
 have been consumed in their preparation. 
 
 Other societies have published similar reports, but 
 seldom with such regularity as the Socie'te' Asiatique 
 during Mohl's secretaryship never with that due 
 proportion which Mohl knew how to preserve in 
 the general plan of his annual review. If such 
 reports become too complete, they degenerate into 
 mere catalogues ; if they are too minute and searching, 
 they grow into treatises on a few leading publications. 
 There have been annual rapports published by those 
 who succeeded Mohl as secretaries of the Asiatic 
 Society of Paris. These rapports are written, no 
 doubt, in more classical French, and are full of most 
 valuable materials. But they have gradually become 
 less and less comprehensive, and are now restricted to 
 a survey of the work done during each year by the 
 Oriental scholars of France only. 
 
 Still greater, perhaps, was the difficulty of main- 
 taining throughout that judicial position which Mohl 
 took in his reports from beginning to end. Of himself 
 we hear little almost nothing. It is only by acci- 
 dent that we find out how much was due to him 
 personally in several of the . greatest undertakings 
 patronised by the French Government. In some 
 cases he seems to carry that modesty too far. The 
 French, we know, are very sensitive on this point. 
 They dislike the pronoun ' I.' Yet there is danger of 
 good taste sinking into mannerism even here. When 
 speaking of his edition of the ' Shah Nameh/ it would 
 have sounded more simple and natural, even in 
 French, if Mohl had said, 'A new volume of my 
 edition of the " Shah Nameh " has been finished,'
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 303 
 
 instead of telling his friends, as he always does, that 
 ' a member of their Society has finished a new volume 
 of the " Shah Nameh." ' However, as a German 
 writing in French, Mohl no doubt felt himself bound 
 to observe French etiquette even more carefully than 
 a Frenchman, and if he erred, he erred, at all events, 
 on the safe side. 
 
 What is, however, even more creditable to him is the 
 reserve with which he speaks of his personal friends. 
 Mohl could not have been the scholar he was, without 
 having both strong sympathies and strong antipathies 
 with regard to other scholars or would-be scholars, 
 whether in France or elsewhere. But it would re- 
 quire a very delicate ear to discover any trace of 
 these personal feelings in his official reports. When 
 delivering these annual addresses he speaks with a 
 full consciousness of his responsibility, He seems to 
 feel that the honour of the Socie^ Asiatique is in his 
 keeping. He never abuses the trust committed to 
 him, he never allows himself an unfair advantage. 
 When reading again through his reports from the 
 year 1840 to the year 1867, we meet with few lines 
 which he would now wish to see unwritten, though 
 time has laid its disenchanting hand on many hopes 
 and many schemes in the field of Oriental scholarship. 
 No doubt Mohl disappointed many, either by his 
 silence or by his measured praise. He made himself, 
 we believe, more enemies than friends by his faithful 
 stewardship ; but he retained through life, in spite of 
 many disappointments, an unshaken trust in truth. 
 
 It is delightful to see the unanimous testimony 
 borne to Mohl's uprightness by his colleagues at the 
 French Institute. His position at Paris was by no
 
 304 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 means an easy one. True, he had old and faithful 
 friends, but he had also and how could it be other- 
 wise ? enviers and enemies. He was loved by some, 
 liked by many, respected by all, even by those who 
 neither liked nor loved him. Men, so high-minded 
 as Maury, Renan, Regnier, and others might truly 
 say that they had almost forgotten that Mohl was 
 not a Frenchman. In his last farewell Alfred Maury 
 exclaimed : ' Adieu, Jules Mohl ; nous te saluons a ta 
 derniere demeure, non seulement comme un confrere, 
 mais comme un compatriote. La science, au reste, 
 n'a pas de nationality ; ou, pour mieux dire, elle est 
 de toutes les nationality ; elle travaille a les rap- 
 procher, a les unir, et cette conciliation nous aimions 
 a la rencontrer en toi.' 
 
 But it would hardly be fair to expect the same 
 elevation of thought and feeling from smaller minds, 
 least of all from those whose pretensions Mohl had 
 occasionally to check, or whose interests he had some- 
 times to cross. Mohl, though he seems to have been 
 a welcome guest -at several courts, had never learnt to 
 be a courtier. Life to him was not worth having, if 
 it required any economising with truth. All his 
 friends agree that there was a certain brusqueness 
 in him, which he could never overcome to the end of 
 his life, and which they kindly ascribed to his 
 German blood. M. Barbier de Meynard says of 
 him : 
 
 ' L'amour du vrai, 1 horreur du charlatanisme et de 
 1'intrigue donnaient a son abord ce je ne sais quoi de 
 reserve' et de brusque qui ne permettait pas d'appre'cier 
 du premier coup d'ceil tout ce qu'il y avait en lui de 
 bonte' naturelle et de chaleureuse sympathie.'
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 305 
 
 That brusqueness, however, was not merely a 
 national peculiarity; it had a deeper source, it 
 arose from his sense of the sacredness of science. 
 The prqfanum vulgus never forgave him for that. 
 
 M. Laboulaye says of him with perfect truth : 
 
 ' Mohl avait au plus haut degre* le sentiment de la 
 responsabilite' qui pesait sur nous ; pour lui, la science 
 &ait une religion, et il roulait ^carter du temple tous 
 les profanes.' 
 
 M. Renan speaks in the strongest language of the 
 influence which Mohl exercised in all elections, 
 whether at the Institute, the College de France, or 
 elsewhere, simply because it was known that to him 
 science] was sacred, and no personal feelings would 
 ever sway his vote : 
 
 ' Le grand titre de M. Mohl a la reconnaissance des 
 savants est cependant, avant tout, 1'influence qu'il a 
 exerce'e. II sut pre'sider a nos e'tudes avec une soli- 
 dite* de jugement et un esprit philosophique qui seuls 
 peuvent donner de la valeur a des travaux e'pars et 
 sans lien apparent. Ce lien, il le cre'ait par sa judi- 
 cieuse et savante critique ; son autorite' aidait les amis 
 de la ve'rite' a distinguer le me'rite se'rieux des succes 
 faciles qu'on trouve souvent aupres du public en flat- 
 tant ses gouts superficiels. Par la M. Mohl a occupe* 
 dans nos e'tudes une place de premier ordre ; le vide 
 qu'il a laisse' ne sera pas de sitot rempli. Ami du 
 vrai et du solide en toutes choses, il ne faisait aucun 
 part a la vanite', a 1'envie de briller. Sa direction a 
 6t/6 aussi efficace qu'e'claire'e. M. Mohl e'tait pour nous 
 tous une des raisons que nous avions de vivre et de 
 bien faire.' 
 
 How true it is to say of such men as Mohl, ' They 
 x
 
 306 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 make us live and do well.' They keep us from 
 making concessions, from taking what is called an 
 easier view of life, from making to ourselves friends 
 by the mammon of unrighteous praise. That his 
 friends at Paris should have allowed him to maintain 
 that independent position through life, that they 
 should have yielded to his silent influence, that they 
 should not have resented his occasional reproofs, re- 
 flects the highest credit on the French character. No 
 doubt, it was but human nature that Frenchmen who 
 found themselves opposed by Mohl should sometimes, 
 when all other arguments had failed, be heard to 
 murmur grumblingly, Ah, cet Allemand ! Frenchmen 
 would not be Frenchmen, Englishmen would not be 
 Englishmen. Germans would not be Germans, if they 
 did not think that on some point or other they were 
 better judges than anybody else. There were the dii 
 minorum gentium in Paris too, who shrugged their 
 shoulders when Mohl's Rapport was out, and thought 
 it very hard that the censorship of Oriental studies 
 in France should have fallen into the hands of cet 
 Allemand. But when we read these annual Reports 
 now, after the lapse of many years, and compare them 
 with the reports or presidential addresses of other 
 academies or learned societies, we shall be better able 
 to understand the influence which their high judicial 
 and moral tone exercised at the time. Nowhere do 
 we see any traces of communique's, but thinly veiled 
 by the honoured name of a president or secretary. 
 Nowhere is there a sign of his yielding to that great 
 temptation of saying a kind word of our friends, or 
 passing a slur on our or their opponents. It was 
 because every one felt that the Secretary of the
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 307 
 
 Socie'te' Asiatique was a man of honour, most sen- 
 sitive and jealous for the good name of his Society, 
 and still more for the honour of science, that his ad- 
 dresses were listened to and his judgments accepted 
 by the whole world. It was because in other cases 
 that charge has been committed to men of less sensitive 
 minds and less clean hands, to men who look upon 
 scientific studies as a mere amusement or a road to 
 social distinction, that the honour of this or that 
 learned society has been tarnished and sacrificed to 
 the petty ambitions and the impotent jealousies of a 
 small clique. When we read through the long list of 
 Mohl's 'Rapports' without meeting with one single 
 line that could be traced to personal favour or personal 
 spite, one word of blame or praise that would make 
 the members of the Societd Asiatique regret having 
 entrusted their honour to their German assistant- 
 secretary, secretary, and president, we shall be better 
 able to understand what M. Renan meant when say- 
 ing of Mohl, ' II e'tait une des raisons que nous avions 
 de vivre et de bien faire." 
 
 But we should carry away a very false impression 
 of Mohl if we thought of him only as the stern censor. 
 Among his more intimate friends Mohl was full of 
 kindliness and humour, though later in life there was 
 a cloud of melancholy that threw a shadow over the 
 twinkle of his bright and piercing eyes. Mohl spoke 
 three languages, German, French, and English, and 
 it might be said of him what was said of Ennius, that 
 he had three hearts, or rather that he had a large 
 heart, large enough to appreciate and love all that 
 was good and noble in the German, the French, and 
 the English character ; strong enough to despise and 
 
 X 2
 
 308 BIOGEAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 shun all that was bad and mean, whether German, 
 French, or English. He was German by nature, 
 French by taste, English by love, and he had true 
 friends in every one of these countries. He had learnt 
 more particularly from his own personal experience 
 how the French and German characters might supple- 
 ment each other in their strong and weak points ; 
 and during the whole of his life he looked forward to 
 a future when these two nations should better under- 
 stand and appreciate each other ; should forget their 
 vulgar military rivalry, and work together for the 
 highest achievements in literature and art. There 
 was a time when that dream seemed more than half- 
 realised, and there can be no doubt that the silent 
 but never-ceasing influence of such men as Mohl did 
 much towards the realisation of such a dream. During 
 Louis Philippe's reign the spirit of German science 
 might be felt in the best works of French scholarship, 
 literature, and art. There was a Revue Germanique 
 published in Paris, intended to show to the more 
 fastidious French public that there was solid gold to 
 be found in the crude ore of German science, while in 
 Germany the name of Humboldt alone is sufficient to 
 show how German science had begun to be quickened 
 by French esprit. These happy days came to an end 
 almost from the beginning of the Napoleonic regime. 
 If there was a place where Louis Napoleon was hated 
 with an unwavering hatred, it was the Institut de 
 France. One might have written over its portals, 
 'No Bonapartist need apply.' When Leverrier was 
 forced upon the Institut, Biot, the veteran astronomer, 
 was heard to say in a bluff voice, ' Qui est cet homme 
 Id?' and when told that it was Leverrier, he muttered
 
 JULIUS MOHL. 309 
 
 to his friends, ' J'ai connu Laplace ; je ne connais pas 
 Leverrier.' When about the same time Napoleon in- 
 sisted on having the name of the Institut de France 
 changed into Institut Imperial de France, Villemain 
 was chosen to draw up an historical memoir, showing 
 how under the most glorious kings of France, during 
 the Republic, and during the reign of the great 
 Napoleon, the Institut had always been called simply 
 Institut de France ; and if a change was now required, 
 the Minister was requested to send his architect to 
 erase the golden letters placed on the fagade of the 
 Palais de I' Institut by the architect of Richelieu. 
 
 Nor was there among the Membres de V Institut one 
 who saw and dreaded the fatal influence of the Napo- 
 leonic rule more than the one German member of that 
 illustrious assembly, Mohl. No political successes, 
 no outward splendour, no offers of patronage to litera- 
 ture and science, could dazzle his eyes. His con- 
 viction remained unshaken from first to last, that the 
 system of government introduced by Louis Napoleon 
 and his court must ruin France, and through the ruin 
 of France ruin the peaceful development of the whole 
 of Europe. He lived to see his prophecies come true. 
 The last years of his life were passed in deepest sorrow 
 at the utter destruction of the fairest dream of his 
 youth, the union and friendship of France and Ger- 
 many, as the champions of the intellectual freedom of 
 the future. His friends in Paris, though their ranks 
 had been thinned by death, remained loyal to him, 
 and to the honour of French men of science it should 
 always be remembered that even in those darkest 
 days, when all that was German was detested in 
 France, Mohl was able to occupy his chair at the
 
 310 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Institute without one single member of the Academy 
 forgetting the respect they owed to him, to them- 
 selves, and to the noble traditions of the place in 
 which they were assembled. It was he who wished 
 to retire and to withdraw himself from society ; and 
 though he patiently and silently continued his useful 
 work, no one who knew his happy countenance before 
 the days of 1848 would have known him again after 
 the days of 1871. His house, however, continued 
 what it had been for many years, a kind of free 
 port, open to all who came to Paris to see what was 
 most worth seeing there. During the days of the 
 Empire it happened sometimes that Royal visitors, 
 staying at the Tuileries, came to the Rue du Bac to 
 make the acquaintance of men whom neither the 
 Empress could tempt nor the Emperor command. 
 When the storms of the Commune had subsided, the 
 old free port was open again, and many of his English 
 friends will long preserve the recollection of pleasant 
 hours spent with him during the last years of his life, 
 though chiefly talking over old days and mourning 
 over old friends. What the charm of his society was, 
 all his friends know. No one has a better right to 
 bear his testimony than he with whose words we shall 
 close this tribute of respect and gratitude : ' Sa maison, 
 grace au tact et a la profonde connaissance de la 
 societe" franchise que possede Mme. Mohl, continuait 
 les meilleures traditions d'un monde plein d'esprit et 
 de charme, qui n'est plus qu'un souvenir. Tons les 
 etrangers de distinction sy rencontraient ; toutes les 
 opinions s'y donnaient la main.'
 
 BUNSEN'. 
 
 (1791-1860.) 
 
 OURS is, no doubt, a forgetful age. Every day 
 brings new events rushing in upon us from all 
 parts of the world, and the hours of real rest, when 
 we might ponder over the past, recall pleasant days, 
 gaze again on the faces of those who are no more, are 
 few indeed. Men and women disappear from this busy 
 stage, and though for a time they had been the ra- 
 diating centres of social, political, or literary life, 
 their places are soon taken by others 'the place 
 thereof shall know them no more.' Few only appear 
 again after a time, claiming once more our attention, 
 through the memoirs of their lives, and then either 
 flitting away for ever among the shades of the de- 
 parted, or assuming afresh a power of life, a place in 
 history, and an influence on the future often more 
 powerful even than that which they exercised on the 
 world while living in it. To call the great and good 
 thus back from the grave is no easy task ; it requires 
 not only the power of a vates sacer, but the heart of 
 a loving friend. Few men live great and good lives, 
 still fewer can write them; nay, often, when they 
 
 1 ' A Memoir of Baron Bunsen, by his widow, Baroness Bunsen. 1 
 2 vols. 8vo. Longmans, 1868. 
 
 ' Christian Carl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen. Aus semen Briefen 
 und nach eigener Erinnerunggeschildcrt, von seiner Wittwe. Deutsche 
 AuKgabe, durch neue Mittheilungen vermehrt von Friedrich Nippold.' 
 Leipzig, 1868.
 
 312 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 have been lived and have been written, the world 
 passes by unheeding, as crowds will pass without a 
 glance by the portraits of a Titian or a Van Dyke. 
 Now and then, however, a biography takes root, and 
 then acts as a lesson as no other lesson can act. Such 
 biographies have all the importance of an Ecce Homo, 
 showing to the world what man can be, and perma- 
 nently raising the ideal of human life. It was so in 
 England with the life of Dr. Arnold ; it was so more 
 lately with the life of Prince Albert ; it will be the 
 same with the life of Bunsen. 
 
 It seems but yesterday that Bunsen left England ; 
 yet it was in 1854 that his house in Carlton-terrace 
 ceased to be the refreshing oasis in London life which 
 many still remember, and that the powerful, thought- 
 ful, beautiful, loving face of the Prussian Ambassador 
 was seen for the last time in London society. Bunsen 
 then retired from public life, and after spending six 
 more years in literary work, struggling with death, 
 yet revelling in life, he died at Bonn on the 28th of 
 November, 1860. His widow has devoted the years 
 of her solitude to the noble work of collecting the 
 materials for a biography of her husband, and we 
 have now in two large volumes all that could be 
 collected, or, at least, all that could be conveniently 
 published, of the sayings and doings of Bunsen, the 
 scholar, the statesman, and, above all, the philosopher 
 and the Christian. Throughout the two volumes 
 the outward events are sketched by the hand of the 
 Baroness Bunsen ; but there runs, as between wooded 
 hills, the main stream of Bunsen's mind, the outpour- 
 ings of his heart, which were given so freely and fully 
 in his letters to his friends. When such materials
 
 BUNSEN. 313 
 
 exist there can be no more satisfactory kind of bio- 
 graphy than that of introducing the man himself, 
 speaking unreservedly to his most intimate friends 
 on the great events of his life. This is an auto- 
 biography, in fact, free from all drawbacks. Here 
 and there that process, it is true, entails a greater 
 fulness of detail than is acceptable to ordinary 
 readers, however highly Bunsen's own friends may 
 value every line of his familiar letters. But general 
 readers may easily pass over letters addressed to 
 different persons, or treating of subjects less inter- 
 esting to themselves, without losing the thread of 
 the story of the whole life ; while it is sometimes of 
 great interest to see the same subject discussed by 
 Bunsen in letters addressed to different people. One 
 serious difficulty in these letters is that they are 
 nearly all translations from the German, and in the 
 process of translation some of the original charm is 
 inevitably lost. The translations are very faithful, 
 and they do not sacrifice the peculiar turn of German 
 thought to the requirements of strictly idiomatic 
 English. Even the narrative itself betrays occasion- 
 ally the German atmosphere in which it was written, 
 but the whole book brings back all the more vividly 
 to those who knew Bunsen the language and the 
 very expressions of his English conversation. The 
 two volumes are too bulky, and one's arms ache 
 while holding them ; yet one is loth to put them 
 down, and there will be few readers who do not 
 regret that more could not have been told us of 
 Bunsen's life. 
 
 All really great and honest men may be said to 
 live three lives : there is one life which is seen and
 
 314 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 accepted by the world at large, a man's outward life ; 
 there is a second life which is seen by a man's most 
 intimate friends, his household life; and there is a 
 third life, seen only by the man himself and by Him 
 who searcheth the heart, which may be called the 
 inner or heavenly life. Most biographers are and 
 must be satisfied with giving the two former aspects 
 of their hero's life the version of the world and 
 that of his friends. Both are important, both con- 
 tain some truth, though neither of them the whole 
 truth. But there is a third life, a life led in com- 
 munion with God, a life of aspiration rather than of 
 fulfilment, that life which we see, for instance, in 
 St. Paul, when he says, ' The good that I would, 
 I do not : but the evil which I would not, that I do.' 
 It is but seldom that we catch a glimpse of those 
 deep springs of human character which cannot rise to 
 the surface even in the most confidential intercourse, 
 which in everyday life are hidden from a man's own 
 sight, but which break forth when he is alone with 
 his God in secret prayer aye, in prayers without 
 words. Here lies the charm of Bunsen's life. Not 
 only do we see the man, the father, the husband, 
 the brother that stands behind the Ambassador, but 
 we see behind the man his angel beholding the face 
 of his Father which is in heaven. His prayers, poured 
 forth in the critical moments of his life, have been 
 preserved to us, and they show us what the world 
 ought to know, that our greatest men can also be 
 our best men, and that freedom of thought is not 
 incompatible with sincere religion. Those who knew 
 Bunsen well know how that deep, religious under- 
 urrent of his soul was constantly bubbling up and
 
 BUNSEN. 315 
 
 breaking forth in his conversations, startling even 
 the mere worldling by an earnestness that frightened 
 away every smile. It was said of him that he could 
 drive out devils, and he certainly could with his 
 solemn, yet loving, voice soften hearts that would 
 yield to no other appeal, and see with one look 
 through that mask which man wears but too often 
 in the masquerade of the world. Hence his numerous 
 and enduring friendships, of which these volumes 
 contain so many sacred relics. Hence that confidence 
 reposed in him by men and women who had once 
 been brought in contact with him. To those who 
 can see with their eyes only, and not with their 
 hearts, it may seem strange that Sir Robert Peel, 
 shortly before his death, should have uttered the 
 name of Bunsen. To those who know that England 
 once had Prime Ministers who were found praying 
 on their knees before they delivered their greatest 
 speeches, Sir Robert Peel's recollection, or, it may 
 be, desire of Bunsen in the last moments of his life 
 has nothing strange. Bunsen's life was no ordinary 
 life, and the memoirs of that life are more than an 
 ordinary book. That book will tell in England 
 and in Germany far more than in the Middle Ages 
 the life of a new Saint ; nor are there many Saints 
 whose real life, if sifted as the life of Bunsen has 
 been, would bear comparison with that noble cha- 
 racter of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Bunsen was born in 1791 at Corbach, a small town 
 in the small principality of Waldeck. His father was 
 poor, but a man of independent spirit, of moral recti- 
 tude, and of deep religious convictions. Bunsen, the 
 son of his old age, distinguished himself at school,
 
 316 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and was sent to the University of Marburg at the age 
 of seventeen. All he had then to depend on was an 
 Exhibition of about 7 a year, and a sum of 1$, 
 which his father had saved for him to start him in 
 life. This may seem a small sum, but if we want to 
 know how much of paternal love and self-denial it 
 represented we ought to read an entry in his father's 
 diary : ' Account of cash receipts, by God's mercy ob- 
 tained for transcribing law documents between 1793 
 and 1814 sum total 3020 thalers 23 groschen,' that is 
 to say, about ^22 per annum. Did any English Duke 
 ever give his son a more generous allowance more 
 than two-thirds of his own annual income ? Bunsen 
 began by studying divinity, and actually preached a 
 sermon at Marburg, in the church of St. Elizabeth. 
 Students in divinity are required in Germany to preach 
 sermons as part of their regular theological training, 
 and before they are actually ordained. Marburg was 
 not then a very efficient University, and, not finding 
 there what he wanted, Bunsen after a year went to 
 Gottingen, chiefly attracted by the fame of Heyne. 
 He soon devoted himself entirely to classical studies, 
 and in order to support himself for *] per annum 
 will not support even a German student he accepted 
 the appointment of assistant teacher of Greek and 
 Hebrew at the Gottingen gymnasium, and also be- 
 came private tutor to a young American, Mr. Astor, 
 the son of the rich American merchant. He was thus 
 learning and teaching at the same time, and he ac- 
 quired by his daily intercourse with his pupil a prac- 
 tical knowledge of the English language. While at 
 Gottingen he carried off, in 1812, a prize for an Essay 
 on ' The Athenian Law of Inheritance,' which attracted
 
 BUNSEN. 317 
 
 more than usual attention, and may, in fact, be looked 
 upon as one of the first attempts at Comparative 
 Jurisprudence. In 1813 he writes from Gb'ttingen: 
 
 'Poor and lonely did I arrive in this place. Heyne 
 received me, guided me, bore with me, encouraged 
 me, showed me in himself the example of a high and 
 noble energy and indefatigable activity in a calling 
 which was not that to which his merit entitled him ; 
 he might have superintended and administered and 
 maintained an entire kingdom.' 
 
 The following passage from the same letter deserves 
 to be quoted as coming from the pen of a young man 
 of twenty-two : 
 
 ' Learning annihilates itself, and the most perfect 
 is the first submerged ; for the next age scales with 
 ease the height which cost the preceding the full 
 vigour of life.' 
 
 After leaving the University Bunsen travelled in 
 Germany with young Astor, and made the acquaint- 
 ance of Frederic Schlegel at Vienna, of Jacobi, Schell- 
 ing, and Thiersch at Munich. He was all that time 
 continuing his own philological studies, and we see 
 htm at Munich attending lectures on Criminal Law, 
 and making his first beginning in the study of Persian. 
 When on the point of starting for Paris with his 
 American pupil, the news of the glorious battle of 
 Leipsic (October, 1813) disturbed their plans, and he 
 resolved to settle again at Gottingen till peace should 
 have been concluded. Here, while superintending 
 the studies of Mr. Astor, he plunged into reading of 
 the most varied character. He writes (p. 5 1 ) : 
 
 ' I remain firm and strive after my earliest purpose 
 in life, more felt, perhaps, than already discerned,
 
 318 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 viz. to bring over into my own knowledge and into 
 my own Fatherland the language and the spirit of 
 the solemn and distant East. I would for the accom- 
 plishment of this object even quit Europe, in order 
 to draw out of the ancient well that which I find not 
 elsewhere.' 
 
 This is the first indication of an important element 
 in Bunsen's early life, his longing for the East, and 
 his all but prophetic anticipation of the great results 
 which a study of the ancient language of India would 
 one day yield, and the light it would shed on the 
 darkest pages in the ancient history of Greece, Italy, 
 and Germany. The study of the Athenian law of 
 inheritance seems first to have drawn his attention to 
 the ancient codes of Indian law, and he was deeply 
 impressed by the discovery that the peculiar system 
 of inheritance which in Greece existed only in the 
 petrified form of a primitive custom, sanctioned by 
 law, disclosed in the laws of Manu its original pur- 
 port and natural meaning. This one spark excited 
 in Bunsen's mind that constant yearning after a 
 knowledge of Eastern and more particularly of Indian 
 literature, which very nearly drove him to India in 
 the same adventurous spirit as Anquetil Duperron 
 and Czoma de Kb'rb's. We are now familiar with the 
 great results that have been obtained by a study of 
 the ancient languages and religion of the East, but 
 in 1813 neither Bopp nor Grimm had begun to pub- 
 lish, and Frederic Schlegel was the only one who in 
 his little pamphlet, 'On the Language and the 
 Wisdom of the Indians' (1808), had ventured to 
 assert a real intellectual relationship between Europe 
 and India. One of Bunsen's earliest friends, Wolrad
 
 BUNSEN. 319 
 
 Schumacher, related that even at school Bunsen's 
 mind was turned towards India. ' Sometimes he 
 would let fall a word about India, which was unac- 
 countable to me, as at that time I connected only 
 a geographical conception with that name' (p. 17). 
 
 While thus engaged in his studies at Gb'ttingen, and 
 working in company with such friends as Brandis, 
 the historian of Greek philosophy, Lachmann, the 
 editor of the New Testament, Lucke, the theologian, 
 Ernst Schulze, the poet, and others, Bunsen felt the 
 influence of the great events that brought about the 
 regeneration of Germany, nor was he the man to stand 
 aloof, absorbed in literary work, while others were 
 busy doing mischief difficult to remedy. The Princes 
 of Germany and their friends, though grateful to the 
 people for having at last shaken off with fearful sacri- 
 fices the foreign yoke of Napoleon, were most anxious 
 to maintain for their own benefit that convenient 
 system of police government which for so long had 
 kept the whole of Germany under French control. 
 ' It is but too certain,' Bunsen writes, ' that either for 
 want of goodwill or of intelligence our Sovereigns will 
 not grant us freedom such as we deserve. . . . And I 
 fear that, as before, the much-enduring German will 
 become an object of contempt to all nations who know 
 how to value national spirit.' His first political 
 essays belong to that period. Up to August, 1814, 
 Bunsen continued to act as private tutor to Mr. Astor, 
 though we see him at the same time, with his insati- 
 able thirst after knowledge, attending courses of lec- 
 tures on astronomy, mineralogy, and other subjects 
 apparently so foreign to the main current of his mind. 
 When Mr. Astor left him to return to America, Bunsen
 
 320 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 went to Holland to see a sister to whom he was 
 deeply attached, and who seems to have shared with 
 him the same religious convictions which in youth, 
 manhood, and old age formed the foundation of Bun- 
 sen's life. Some of Bunsen's detractors have accused 
 him of professing Christian piety in circles where 
 such professions were sure to be well received. Let 
 them read now the annals of his early life, and they 
 will find to their shame how boldly the same Bunsen 
 professed his religious convictions among the students 
 and professors of Gottingen, who either scoffed at 
 Christianity or only tolerated it as a kind of harm- 
 less superstition. We shall only quote one in- 
 stance : 
 
 ' Bunsen, when a young student at Gottingen, once 
 suddenly quitted a lecture in indignation at the un- 
 worthy manner in which the most sacred subjects 
 were treated by one of the professors. The professor 
 paused at the interruption, and hazarded the remark 
 that " some one belonging to the Old Testament had 
 possibly slipped in unrecognised." That called forth 
 a burst of laughter from the entire audience, all being 
 as well aware as the lecturer himself who it was that 
 had mortified him.' 
 
 During his stay in Holland Bunsen not only 
 studied the language and literature of that country, 
 but his mind was also much occupied in observing 
 the national and religious character of this small 
 but interesting branch of the Teutonic race. He 
 writes : 
 
 'In all things the German, or, if you will, the 
 Teutonic, character is worked out into form in a man- 
 ner more decidedly national than anywhere else. . . .
 
 BUNSEN. 321 
 
 This journey has yet more confirmed my decision 
 to become acquainted with the entire Germanic race, 
 and then to proceed with the development of my 
 governing ideas (i. e. the study of Eastern languages 
 in elucidation of Western thought). For this purpose 
 I am about to travel with Brandis to Copenhagen to 
 learn Danish, and, above all, Icelandic.' 
 
 And so he did. The young student, as yet without 
 any prospects in life, threw up his position at Gottin- 
 gen, declined to waste his energies as a schoolmaster, 
 and started, we hardly know how, on his journey to 
 Denmark. There, in company with Brandis, he lived 
 and worked hard at Danish, and then attacked the 
 study of the ancient Icelandic language and literature 
 with a fervour and with a purpose that shrank from 
 no difficulty. He writes (p. 79) : 
 
 ' The object of my research requires the acquisition 
 of the whole treasures of language, in order to com- 
 plete my favourite linguistic theories, and to inquire 
 into the poetry and religious conceptions of German- 
 Scandinavian heathenism, and their historical con- x 
 nexion with the East.' 
 
 When his work in Denmark was finished, and 
 when he had collected materials, some of which, as 
 his copy taken of the ' Voluspa,' a poem of the Edda, 
 were not published till forty years later, he started 
 with Brandis for Berlin. 'Prussia,' he writes on the 
 loth of October, 1815, 'is the true Germany.' Thither 
 he felt drawn, as well as Brandis, and thither he 
 invited his friends, though, it must be confessed, with- 
 out suggesting to them any settled plan of k how to 
 earn their daily bread. He writes as if he had been 
 even then at the head of affairs in Berlin, though he 
 
 Y
 
 322 BI03KAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 was only the friend of a friend of Niebuhr's, Niebuhr 
 himself being by no means all powerful in Prussia, 
 even in 1815. This hopefulness was a trait in 
 Bunsen's character that remained through life. A 
 plan was no sooner suggested to him and approved 
 by him than he took it for granted that all obstacles 
 must vanish ; and many a time did all obstacles vanish 
 before the joyous confidence of that magician, a fact 
 that should be remembered by those who used to 
 blame him as sanguine and visionary. One of his 
 friends, Llicke, writes to Ernst Schulze, the poet, whom 
 Bunsen had invited to Denmark, and afterwards to 
 Berlin : 
 
 ' In the enclosed richly -filled letter you will recog- 
 nise Bunsen's power and splendour of mind, and you 
 will also not fail to perceive his thoughtlessness in 
 making projects. He and Brandis are a pair of most 
 amiable speculators, full of affection; but one must 
 meet them with the ne quid nimis' 
 
 However, Bunsen in his flight was not to be scared 
 by any warning or checked by calculating the chances 
 of success or failure. With Brandis he went to Berlin, 
 spent the glorious winter from 1815 to 1816 in the 
 society of men like Niebuhr and Schleiermacher, and 
 became more and more determined in his own plan 
 of life, which was to study Oriental languages in 
 Paris, London, or Calcutta, and then to settle at 
 Berlin as Professor of Universal History. A full 
 statement of his literary labours, both for the past 
 and for the future, was drawn up by him, to be sub- 
 mitted to Niebuhr, and it will be read even now 
 with interest by those who knew Bunsen when he 
 tried to take up forty years later the threads that
 
 BUNSEN. 323 
 
 had slipped from his hand at the age of four-and- 
 twenty. 
 
 Instead of being sent to study at Paris and London 
 by the Prussian Government, as he seems to have 
 wished, he was suddenly called to Paris by his old 
 pupil, Mr. Astor, who, after two years' absence, had 
 returned to Europe, and was anxious to renew his 
 relations with Bunsen. Bunsen's object in accepting 
 Astor's invitation to Paris was to study Persian, and 
 great was his disappointment when, on arriving 
 there, Mr. Astor wished him at once to start for Italy. 
 This was too much for Bunsen, to be turned back 
 just as he was going to quench his thirst for Oriental 
 literature in the lectures of Sylvestre de Sacy. A 
 compromise was effected. Bunsen remained for three 
 months in Paris, and promised then to join his friend 
 and pupil in Italy. How he worked at Persian and 
 Arabic during the interval must be read in his own 
 letters : 
 
 'I write from six in the morning till four in the 
 afternoon, only in the course of that time having a 
 walk in the garden of the Luxembourg, where I also 
 often study ; from four to six I dine and walk ; from 
 six to seven sleep ; from seven to eleven work again. 
 I have overtaken in study some of the French students 
 who had begun a year ago. God be thanked for this 
 help! Before I go to bed I read a chapter in the 
 New Testament, in the morning on rising one in 
 the Old Testament ; yesterday I began the Psalms from 
 the first.' 
 
 As soon as he felt that he could continue his study 
 of Persian without the aid of a master, he left Paris. 
 Though immersed in work, he had made several 
 
 Y ^
 
 324 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 acquaintances, among others that of Alexander von 
 Humboldt, ' who intends in a few years to visit Asia, 
 where I may hope to meet him. He has been 
 beyond measure kind to me, and from him I shall 
 receive the best recommendations for Italy and 
 England, as well as from his brother, now Prussian 
 Minister in London. Lastly, the winter in Rome 
 may become to me, by the presence of Niebuhr, more 
 instructive and fruitful than in any other place. 
 Thus has God ordained all things for me for the best, 
 according to His will, not mine, and far better than I 
 deserve.' 
 
 These were the feelings with which the young 
 scholar, then twenty-four years of age, started for 
 Italy, as yet without any position, without having 
 published a single work, without knowing, as we 
 may suppose, where to rest his head. And yet he 
 was full, not only of hope, but of gratitude, and 
 he little dreamt that before seven years had passed 
 he would be in Niebuhr's place, and before twenty- 
 five years had passed in the place of William von 
 Humboldt, the Prussian Ambassador at the Court of 
 St. James. 
 
 The immediate future, in fact, had some severe 
 disappointments in store for him. When he arrived 
 at Florence to meet Mr. Astor, the young American 
 had received peremptory orders to return to New 
 York, and as Bunsen declined to follow him, he found 
 himself really stranded at Florence, and all his plans 
 thoroughly upset. Yet, though at that very time full 
 of care and anxiety about his nearest relations, who 
 looked to him for support when he could hardly 
 support himself, his God-trusting spirit did not break
 
 BUNSEN. 325 
 
 down. He remained at Florence, continuing his Per- 
 sian studies, and making a living by private tuition. 
 A Mr. Cathcart seems to have been his favourite pupil, 
 and through him new prospects of eventually pro- 
 ceeding to India seemed to open. But, at the same 
 time, Bunsen began to feel that the circumstances of 
 his life became critical. ' I feel,' he says, ' that I am 
 on the point of securing or losing the fruit of my 
 labours for life.' Borne and Niebuhr seemed the only 
 haven in sight, and thither Bunsen now began to steer 
 his frail bark. He arrived in Rome on the i4th of 
 November, 1816. Niebuhr, who was Prussian Minis- 
 ter, received him with great kindness, and entered 
 heartily into the literary plans of his young friend. 
 Brandis, Niebuhr's secretary, renewed in common with 
 his old friend his study of Greek philosophy. A native 
 teacher of Arabic was engaged to help Bunsen in his 
 Oriental studies. The necessary supplies seem to have 
 come partly from Mr. As tor, partly from private 
 lessons for which Bunsen had to make time in the 
 midst of his varied occupations. Plato, Firdusi, the 
 Koran, Dante, Isaiah, the Edda are mentioned by 
 himself as his daily study. 
 
 From an English point of view that young man 
 at Rome, without a status, without a settled prospect 
 in life, would have seemed an amiable dreamer, 
 destined to wake suddenly, and not very pleasantly, 
 to the stern realities of life. If anything seemed 
 unlikely, it was that an English gentleman, a man 
 of good birth and of independent fortune, should 
 give his daughter to this poor young German at 
 Rome. Yet this was the very thing which a kind 
 Providence, that Providence in which Bunsen trusted
 
 326 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 amid all his troubles and difficulties, brought to pass. 
 Bunsen became acquainted with Mr. Waddingtonj 
 and was allowed to read German with his daughters. 
 In the most honourable manner he broke off his 
 visits when he became aware of his feelings for Miss 
 Waddington. He writes to his sister : 
 
 ' Having, at first, believed myself quite safe (the 
 more so as I cannot think of marrying without im- 
 pairing my whole scheme of mental development 
 and, least of all, could I think of pretending to a girl 
 of fortune), I thought there was no danger.' 
 
 A little later he writes to Mrs. Waddington to ex- 
 plain to her the reason for his discontinuing his visits. 
 But the mother and, to judge from her letters, a 
 high-minded mother she must have been accepted 
 Bunsen on trust ; he was allowed to return to the 
 house, and on the ist of July, 1817, the young German 
 student, then twenty-five years of age, was married at 
 Rome to Miss Waddington. What a truly important 
 event this was for Bunsen, even those who had not 
 the privilege of knowing the partner of his life may 
 learn from the work before us. Though little is said 
 in these memoirs of his wife, the mother of his children, 
 the partner of his joys and sorrows, it is easy to see 
 how Bunsen's whole mode of life became possible only 
 by the unceasing devotion of an ardent soul and 
 a clear head consecrated to one object to love and 
 to cherish, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, 
 in sickness and in health, till death us do part ay, 
 and even after death ! With such a wife the soul of 
 Bunsen could soar on its wings, the small cares of life 
 were removed, an independence was secured, and, 
 though the Indian plans had to be surrendered, the
 
 BUNSEN. 327 
 
 highest ambition of Bunsen's life, a professorship in a 
 German University, seemed now easy of attainment. 
 We should have liked a few more pages describing 
 the joyous life of the young couple in the heyday of 
 their life ; we could have wished that he had not de- 
 clined the wish of his mother-in-law, to have his 
 bust made by Thorwaldsen, at a time when he must 
 have been a model of manly beauty. But if we 
 know less than we could wish of what Bunsen 
 then was in the eyes of the world, we are allowed 
 an insight into that heavenly life which underlay 
 all the outward happiness of that time, and which 
 shows him to us as but one eye could then have seen 
 him. A few weeks after his marriage he writes in his 
 journal : 
 
 ' Eternal, omnipresent God ! enlighten me with 
 Thy Holy Spirit, and fill me with Thy heavenly 
 light! What in childhood I felt and yearned after, 
 what throughout the years of youth grew clearer 
 and clearer before my soul, I will now venture to 
 hold fast, to examine, to represent the revelation of 
 Thee in man's energies and efforts ; Thy firm path 
 through the stream of ages I long to trace and 
 recognise, as far as may be permitted to me even in 
 this body of earth. The song of praise to Thee from 
 the whole of humanity, in times far and near, the 
 pains and lamentations of men, and their consola- 
 tions in Thee, I wish to take in, clear and un- 
 hindered. Do Thou send me Thy Spirit of Truth, 
 that I may behold things earthly as they are, with- 
 out veil and without mask, without human trappings 
 and empty adornment, and that in the silent peace 
 of truth I may feel and recognise Thee. Let me not
 
 328 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 falter, nor slide away from the great end of knowing 
 Thee. Let not the joys, or honours, or vanities of 
 the world enfeeble and darken my spirit; let me 
 ever feel that I can only perceive and know Thee in 
 so far as mine is a living soul, and lives, and moves, 
 and has its being in Thee.' 
 
 Here we see Bunsen as the world did not see him, 
 and we may observe how then, as ever, his literary 
 work was to him hallowed by the objects for which 
 it was intended. ' The firm path of God through the 
 stream of ages ' is but another title for one of his last 
 works, ' God in History,' planned with such youthful 
 ardour, and finished under the lengthening shadow of 
 death. 
 
 The happiness of Bunsen's life at Rome may easily 
 be imagined. Though anxious to begin his work 
 at a German University, he stipulated for three more 
 years of freedom and preparation. Who could have 
 made the sacrifice of the bright spring of life, of the 
 unclouded days of happiness at Rome with wife and 
 children, and with such friends as Niebuhr and 
 Brandis? Yet this stay at Rome was fraught with 
 fatal consequences. It led the straight current of 
 Bunsen's life, which lay so clear before him, into a 
 new bed. at first very tempting, for a time smooth 
 and sunny, but alas ! ending in waste of energy for 
 which no outward splendour could atone. The first 
 false step seemed very natural and harmless. When 
 Brandis went to Germany to begin his professorial 
 work, Bunsen took his place as Niebuhr 's secretary 
 at Rome. He was determined, then, that nothing 
 should induce him to remain in the diplomatic career 
 (p. 1 30), but the current of that mill-stream was too
 
 BUNSEN. 329 
 
 strong even for Bunsen. How he. remained as Secre- 
 tary of Legation, 1818 ; how the King of Prussia, 
 Frederick William III, came to visit Rome, and took 
 a fancy to the young diplomatist, who could speak 
 to him with a modesty and frankness little known 
 at Courts ; how, when Niebuhr exchanged his em- 
 bassy for a professorial chair at Bonn, Bunsen re- 
 mained as Charge' d' Affaires ; how he went to Berlin, 
 1827-8, and gained the hearts of the old King and 
 of everybody else ; how he returned to Rome and 
 was fascinated by the young Crown Prince of Prussia, 
 afterwards Frederick William IV, whom he had to 
 conduct through the antiquities and the modern life 
 of the world city ; how he became Prussian Minister, 
 the friend of popes and cardinals, the centre of the 
 best and most brilliant society; how, when the diffi- 
 culties began between Prussia and the Papal Govern- 
 ment, chiefly with regard to mixed marriages, Bunsen 
 tried to mediate, and was at last disowned by both 
 parties in 1838 all this may now be read in the 
 open memoirs of his life. His letters during these 
 twenty years are numerous and full, particularly 
 those addressed to his sister, to whom he was deeply 
 attached. They are the most touching and elevating 
 record of a life spent in important official business, 
 in interesting social intercourse, in literary and anti- 
 quarian researches, in the enjoyment of art and 
 nature, and in the blessedness of a prosperous family 
 life, and throughout in an unbroken communion with 
 God. There is hardly a letter without an expression 
 of that religion in common life, that constant con- 
 sciousness of a Divine Presence, which made his life 
 a life in Go4. To many readers this free outpouring
 
 330 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of a God-loving soul will seem to approach too near 
 to that abuse of religious phraseology which is a sign 
 of superficial rather than of deep-rooted piety. But, 
 though through life a sworn enemy of every kind of 
 cant, Bunsen never would surrender the privilege of 
 speaking the language of a Christian, because that 
 language had been profaned by the thoughtless repe- 
 tition of shallow pietists. 
 
 Bunsen has frequently been accused of pietism, 
 particularly in Germany, by men who could not dis- 
 tinguish between pietism and piety, just as in Eng- 
 land he was attacked as a freethinker by men who 
 never knew the freedom of the children of God. 
 ' Christianity is ours, not theirs,' he would frequently 
 say of those who made religion a mere profession, 
 and imagined they knew Christ because they held a 
 crozier and wore a mitre. We can now watch the 
 deep emotions and firm convictions of that true- 
 hearted man, in letters of undoubted sincerity, ad- 
 dressed to his sister and his friends, and we can only 
 wonder with what feelings they have been perused 
 by those who in England questioned his Christianity 
 or who in Germany suspected his honesty. 
 
 From the time of his first meeting with the King 
 of Prussia at Rome, and still more, after his stay at 
 Berlin in 1837, Bunsen's chief interest with regard 
 to Prussia centred in ecclesiastical matters. The 
 King, after effecting the union of the Lutheran and 
 Calvinistic branches of the Protestant Church, was 
 deeply interested in drawing up a new Liturgy for 
 his own national, or, as it was called, Evangelical 
 Church. The introduction of his liturgy, or Agenda, 
 particularly as it was carried out, like everything else
 
 BUNSEN. 331 
 
 in Prussia, by Royal decree, met with considerable 
 resistance. Bunsen, who had been led independently 
 to the study of ancient liturgies, and who had de- 
 voted much of his time at Rome to the collection of 
 ancient hymns and hymn tunes, could speak to the 
 King on these favourite topics from the fulness of his 
 heart. The King listened to him, even when Bunsen 
 ventured to express his dissent from some of the 
 Royal proposals, and when he, the young attache', 
 deprecated any authoritative interference with the 
 freedom of the Church. In Prussia the whole move- 
 ment was unpopular, and Bunsen, though he worked 
 hard to render it less so, was held responsible for 
 much which he himself had disapproved. Of all 
 these turbulent transactions there remains but one 
 bright and precious relic, Bunsen's ' Hymn and 
 Prayer-book.' 
 
 The Prussian Legation on the Capitol was during 
 Bunsen's day not only the meeting-place of all dis- 
 tinguished Germans, but, in the absence of an English 
 Embassy, it also became the recognised centre of the 
 most interesting portion of English society at Rome. 
 Among the Germans, whose presence told on Bunsen's 
 life, either by a continued friendship or by common 
 interests and pursuits, we meet the names of Ludwig, 
 King of Bavaria, Baron von Stein, the great Prussian 
 statesman, Radowitz, the less fortunate predecessor 
 of Bismarck, Schnorr, Overbeck, and Mendelssohn. 
 Among Englishmen, whose friendship with Bunsen 
 dates from the Capitol, we find Thirlwall, Philip 
 Pusey, Arnold, and Julius Hare. The names of 
 Thorwaldsen, too, of Leopardi, Lord Hastings, Cham- 
 pollion, Sir Walter Scott, Chateaubriand occur again
 
 332 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and again in the memoirs of that Roman life which 
 teems with interesting events and anecdotes. The 
 only literary production of that eventful period are 
 Bunsen's part in Platner's ' Description of Rome,' and 
 the ' Hymn and Prayer-book.' But much material 
 for later publications had been amassed in the mean- 
 time. The study of the Old Testament had been 
 prosecuted at all times, and in 1824 the first be- 
 ginning was made by Bunsen in the study of hiero- 
 glyphics, afterwards continued with Champollion, and 
 later with Lepsius. The Archaeological Institute and 
 the German Hospital, both on the Capitol, were the 
 two permanent bequests that Bunsen left behind 
 when he shook off the dust of his feet, and left 
 Rome on the 39th of April, 1838, in search of a 
 new Capitol. 
 
 At Berlin, Bunsen was then in disgrace. He had 
 not actually been dismissed the service, but he was 
 prohibited from going to Berlin to justify himself, 
 and he was ordered to proceed to England on leave 
 of absence. To England, therefore, Bunsen now di- 
 rected his steps with his wife and children, and there, 
 at least, he was certain of a warm welcome, both 
 from his wife's relations and from his own very 
 numerous friends. When we read through the letters 
 of that period, we hardly miss the name of a single 
 man illustrious at that time in England. As if to 
 make up for the injustice done to him in Italy, and 
 for the ingratitude of his country, people of all classes 
 and of the most opposite views vied in doing him 
 honour. Rest he certainly found none, while travel- 
 ling about from one town to another, and staying at 
 friends' houses, attending meetings, making speeches,
 
 BtJNSEN. 333 
 
 writing articles, and, as usual, amassing new in- 
 formation wherever he could find it. He worked at 
 Egyptian with Lepsius ; at Welsh while staying with 
 Lady Hall ; at Ethnology with Dr. Prichard. He 
 had to draw up two State papers one on the Papal 
 aggression, the other on the laW of divorce. He 
 plunged, of course, at once into all the ecclesiastical 
 and theological questions that were then agitating 
 people's minds in England, and devoted his few really 
 quiet hours to the preparation of his own 'Life of 
 Christ.' With Lord Ashley he attended Bible meet- 
 ings, with Mrs. Fry he explored the prisons, with 
 Philip Pusey he attended agricultural assemblies, and 
 he spent night after night as an admiring listener in 
 the House of Commons. He was presented to the 
 Queen and the Duke of Wellington, was made a 
 D.C.L. at Oxford, discussed the future with J. H. 
 Newman, the past with Buckland, Sedgwick, and 
 Whewell. Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell 
 invited him to political conferences ; Maurice and 
 Keble listened to his fervent addresses ; Dr. Arnold 
 consulted the friend of Niebuhr on his own ' History 
 of Rome,' and tried to convert him to more liberal 
 opinions with regard to Church reform. Dr. Holland, 
 Mrs. Austin, Ruskin, Carlyle, Macaulay, Gaisford, 
 Dr. Hawkins, and many more, all greeted him, all 
 tried to do him honour, and many of them became 
 attached to him for life. The architectural monu- 
 ments of England, its castles, parks, and ruins, 
 passed quickly through his field of vision during 
 that short stay. But he soon calls out : ' I care not 
 now for all the ruins of England ; it is her life that 
 I like.'
 
 334 BIOQKAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Most touching is his admiration, his real love of 
 Gladstone. Thirty years have since passed, and the 
 world at large has found out by this time what Eng- 
 land possesses in him. But it was not so in 1838, 
 and few men at that early time could have read 
 Gladstone's heart and mind so truly as Bunsen. 
 Here are a few of his remarks : 
 
 'Last night, when I came home from the Duke, 
 Gladstone's book was on my table, the second edition 
 having come out at seven o'clock. It is the book of 
 the time, a great event the first book since Burke 
 that goes to the bottom of the vital question; far 
 above his party and his time. I sat up till after 
 midnight ; and this morning I continued until I had 
 read the whole, and almost every sheet bears my 
 marginal glosses, destined for the Prince, to whom I 
 have sent the book with all despatch. Gladstone is 
 the first man in England as to intellectual powers, 
 and he has heard higher tones than any one else in 
 this island.' 
 
 And again (p. 493) : 
 
 ' Gladstone is by far the first living intellectual 
 power on that side. He has left his schoolmasters 
 far behind him, but we must not wonder if he still 
 walks in their trammels ; his genius will soon free 
 itself entirely, and fly towards heaven with its own 
 wings. ... I wonder Gladstone should not have the 
 feeling that he is moving on an inclined plane, or 
 sitting down among ruins, as if he were settled in a 
 well-stored house.' 
 
 Of Newman, whom he had met at Oxford, Bunsen 
 says : 
 
 ' This morning I have had two hours at breakfast
 
 BUNSEN. 335 
 
 with Newman. O ! it is sad, he and his friends are 
 truly intellectual people, but they have lost their 
 ground, going exactly my way, but stopping short in 
 the middle. It is too late. There has been an 
 amicable change of ideas and a Christian under- 
 standing. Yesterday he preached a beautiful sermon. 
 A new period of life begins for me ; may God's blessing 
 be upon it ! ' 
 
 Oxford made a deep impression on Bunsen's mind. 
 He writes : 
 
 ' I am luxuriating in the delights of Oxford. There 
 has never been enough said of this Queen of all 
 cities.' 
 
 But what as a German he admired and envied 
 most was, after all, the House of Commons : 
 
 ' I wish you could form an idea t of what I felt. I 
 saw for the first time man, the member of a true 
 Germanic State, in his highest, his proper place, de- 
 fending the highest interests of humanity with the 
 wonderful power of speech- wrestling, but with the 
 arm of the spirit, boldly grasping at or tenaciously 
 holding fast power, in the presence of his fellow- 
 citizens, submitting to the public conscience the judg- 
 ment of his cause and of his own uprightness. I saw 
 before me the empire of the world governed, and the 
 rest of the world controlled and judged, by this 
 assembly. I had the feeling that, had I been born in 
 England, I would rather be dead than not sit among 
 and speak among them. I thought of my own 
 country and was thankful that I could thank God 
 for being a German and being myself. But I felt, 
 also, that we are all children on this field in com- 
 parison with the English ; how much they, with their
 
 336 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 discipline of mind, body, and heart, can effect even 
 with but moderate genius, and even with talent 
 alone ! I drank in every word from the lips of the 
 speakers, even those I disliked.' 
 
 More than a year was thus spent in England in the 
 very fulness of life. ' My stay in England in T 838-39,' 
 he writes at a later time, the 22nd of September, 
 1841, ' was the poetry of my existence as a man ; this 
 is the prose of it. There was a dew upon those 
 fifteen months, which the sun has dried up, and 
 which nothing can restore.' Yet even then Bunsen 
 could not have been free from anxieties for the future. 
 He had a large family growing up, and he was now 
 again, at the age of forty-seven, without any definite 
 prospects in life. In spite, however, of the intrigues 
 of his enemies, the personal feelings of the King and 
 the Crown Prince prevailed at last, and he was 
 appointed in July, 1839, as Prussian Minister in 
 Switzerland, his secret and confidential instructions 
 being 'to do nothing.' These instructions were care- 
 fully observed by Bunsen, as far as politics were 
 concerned. He passed two years of rest at the 
 Hubel, near Berne, with his family, devoted to his 
 books, receiving visits from his friends, and watching 
 from a distance the coming events in Prussia. 
 
 In 1840 the old King died, and it was generally 
 expected that Bunsen would at once receive an in- 
 fluential position at Berlin. Not till April, 1841, 
 however, was he summoned to the Court, although, to 
 judge from the correspondence between him and the 
 new King, Frederick William IV, few men could have 
 enjoyed a larger share of royal confidence and love 
 than Bunsen. The king was hungering and thirsting
 
 BUNSEN. 337 
 
 after Eunsen, yet Bunsen was not invited to Berlin. 
 The fact is that the young king had many friends, 
 and those friends were not the friends of Bunsen. 
 They were satisfied with his honorary exile in Switzer- 
 land, and thought him best employed at a distance in 
 doing nothing. The king, too, who knew Bunsen's 
 character from former years, must have known that 
 Berlin was not large enough for him, and he therefore 
 left him in his Swiss retirement till an employment 
 worthy of him could be found. This was to go on 
 a special mission to England with a view of esta- 
 blishing, in common with the Church of England, 
 a Protestant Bishopric at Jerusalem. In Jerusalem 
 the king hoped that the two principal Protestant 
 Churches of Europe would, across the grave of the 
 Redeemer, reach to each other the right hand of 
 fellowship. Bunsen entered into this plan with all 
 the energy of his mind and heart. It was a work 
 thoroughly congenial to himself, and if it required 
 diplomatic skill, certainly no one could have achieved 
 it more expeditiously and successfully than Bunsen. 
 He was then a persona grata with Bishops and Arch- 
 bishops, and Lord Ashley not yet Lord Shaftesbury 
 gave him all the support his party could command. 
 English influence was then so powerful at Constanti- 
 nople that all difficulties due to Turkish bigotry were 
 quickly removed. At the end of June, 1841, he 
 arrived in London ; on the 6th of August he wrote, 
 ' All is settled ;' and on the 7th of November the new 
 Bishop of Jerusalem was consecrated. Seldom was a 
 more important and more complicated transaction 
 settled in so short a time. Had the discussions been 
 prolonged, had time been given to the leaders of the
 
 338 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Romanising party to recover from their surprise, the 
 Bill that had to be passed through both Houses would 
 certainly have been defeated. People have hardly 
 yet understood the real bearing of that measure, nor 
 appreciated the germ which it may still contain for 
 the future of the Reformed Church, One man only 
 seems to have seen clearly what a blow this first 
 attempt at a union between the Protestant Churches 
 of England and Germany was to his own plans, and 
 to the plans of his friends ; and we know now. from 
 Newman's 'Apologia,' that the Bishopric of Jerusalem 
 drove him to the Church of Rome. This may have 
 been for the time a great loss to the Church of 
 England ; it marked, at all events, a great crisis in 
 her history. 
 
 In spite, however, of his great and unexpected 
 success, there are traces of weariness in Bunsen's 
 letters of that time, which show that he was longing 
 for more congenial work. ' Oh, how I hate and 
 detest diplomatic life!' he wrote to his wife; 'and 
 how little true intellectuality is there in the high 
 society here as soon as you cease to speak of English 
 national subjects and interests ; and the eternal 
 hurricanes, whirling, urging, rushing, in this monster 
 of a town! Even with you and the children life 
 would become oppressive under the diplomatic burden. 
 I can pray for our country life, but I cannot pray 
 for a London life, although I dare not pray against 
 it, if it must be? 
 
 Bunsen's observations of character amidst the dis- 
 tractions of his London season are very interesting 
 and striking, particularly at this distance of time. 
 He writes :
 
 BUNSEN. 339 
 
 ' Mr. Gladstone has been invited to become one of 
 the trustees of the Jerusalem Fund. He is beset with 
 scruples; his heart is with us, but his mind is en- 
 tangled in a narrow system. He awaits salvation 
 from another code, and by wholly different ways 
 from myself. Yesterday morning I had a letter from 
 him of twenty-four pages, to which I replied early 
 this morning by eight. 
 
 ' The Bishop of London constantly rises in my esti- 
 mation. He has replied admirably to Mr. Gladstone, 
 closing with the words, " My dear Sir, my intention is 
 not to limit and restrict the Church of Christ, but to 
 enlarge it."' 
 
 A letter from Sir Robert Peel, too, must here be 
 quoted in full : 
 
 ' WHITEHALL, 
 October 10, 1841. 
 
 ' My dear Mr. Bunsen, My note merely conveyed 
 a request that you would be good enough to meet Mr. 
 Cornelius at dinner on Friday last. 
 
 'I assure you that I have been amply repaid for 
 any attention I may have shown to that distinguished 
 artist, in the personal satisfaction I have had in the 
 opportunity of making his acquaintance. He is one 
 of a noble people distinguished in every art of war 
 and peace. The union and patriotism of that people, 
 spread over the centre of Europe, will contribute the 
 surest guarantee for the peace of the world, and the 
 most powerful check upon the spread of all pernicious 
 doctrines injurious to the cause of religion and order, 
 and that liberty which respects the rights of others. 
 
 ' My earnest hope is that every member of this 
 illustrious race, while he may cherish the particular
 
 340 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 country of his birth as he does his home, will extend 
 his devotion beyond its narrow limits, and exult in 
 the name of a German, and recognise the claim of 
 Germany to the love and affection and patriotic exer- 
 tions of all her sons. 
 
 ' I hope I judge the feelings of every German by 
 those which were excited in my own breast (in the 
 breast of a foreigner and a stranger) by a simple 
 ballad, that seemed, however, to concentrate the will 
 of a mighty people, and said emphatically, 
 
 "They shall not have the Rhine." 
 
 ' They will not have it and the Rhine will be pro- 
 tected by a song, if the sentiments which that song 
 embodies pervade, as I hope and trust they do, every 
 German heart. 
 
 ' You will begin to think that I am a good German 
 myself and so I am, if hearty wishes for the union 
 and welfare of the German race can constitute one. 
 
 ' Believe me, most faithfully yours, 
 
 ' ROBERT PEEL.' 
 
 When Bunsen was on the point of leaving London 
 he received the unexpected and unsolicited appoint- 
 ment of Prussian Envoy in England, an appointment 
 which he could not bring himself to decline, and 
 which again postponed for twelve years his cherished 
 plans of an otium cum dignitate. What the world 
 at large would have called the most fortunate event 
 in Bunsen's life proved indeed a real misfortune. It 
 deprived Bunsen of the last chance of fully realising 
 the literary plans of his youth, and it deprived the
 
 BUNSEN. 341 
 
 world of services that no one could have rendered so 
 well in the cause of freedom of thought, of practical 
 religion, and in teaching the weighty lessons of anti- 
 quity to the youth of the future. It made him waste 
 his precious hours in work that any Prussian baron 
 could have done as well, if not better, and did not set 
 him free until his bodily strength was undermined, 
 and the joyful temper of his mind saddened by sad 
 experiences. 
 
 Nothing could have been more brilliant than the 
 beginning of Bunsen's diplomatic career in England. 
 First came the visit of the King of Prussia, whom 
 the Queen had invited to be godfather to the Prince 
 of Wales. Soon after the Prince of Prussia came 
 to England under the guidance of Bunsen. Then 
 followed the return visit of the Queen at Stolzenfels, 
 on the Rhine. All this, no doubt, took up much of 
 Bunsen's time, but it gave him also the pleasantest 
 introduction to the highest society of England ; for, 
 as Baroness Bunsen shrewdly remarks, 'there is 
 nothing like standing within the Bude-light of 
 Royalty to make one conspicuous, and sharpen per- 
 ceptions and recollections.' (II. p. 8.) Bunsen com- 
 plained, no doubt, now and then, about excessive 
 official work, yet he seemed on the whole reconciled 
 to his position, and up to the year 1847 we hear of no 
 attempts to escape from diplomatic bondage. In a 
 letter to Mrs. Fry he says : 
 
 ' I can assure you I never passed a more quiet and 
 truly satisfactory evening in London than the last, in 
 the Queen's house, in the midst of the excitement of 
 the season. I think this is a circumstance for which 
 one ought to be thankful ; and it has much reminded
 
 342 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 me of hours that I have spent at Berlin and Sans 
 Souci with the King and the Queen and the Princess 
 William, and, I am thankful to add, with the Princess 
 of Prussia, mother of the future King. It is a striking 
 and consoling and instructive proof that what is called 
 the world, the great world is not necessarily worldly 
 in itself, but only by that inward worldliness which, 
 as rebellion against the spirit, creeps into the cottage 
 as well as into the palace, and against which no out- 
 ward form is any protection. Forms and rules may 
 prevent the outbreak of wrong, but cannot regenerate 
 right, and may quench the spirit and poison inward 
 truth The Queen gives hours daily to the labour of 
 examining into the claims of the numberless petitions 
 addressed to her, among other duties to which her 
 time of privacy is devoted.' 
 
 The Queen's name and that of Prince Albert occur 
 often in these memoirs, and a few of Bunsen's remarks 
 and observations may be of interest, though they 
 contain little that can now be new to the readers of 
 the ' Life of the Prince Consort ' and of the ' Queen's 
 Journal.' 
 
 First, a graphic description, from the hand of 
 Baroness Bunsen, of the Queen opening Parliament 
 in 1 842 : 
 
 ' Last, the procession of the Queen's entry, and her- 
 self, looking worthy and fit to be the converging point 
 of so many rays of grandeur. It is self-evident that 
 she is not tall, but were she ever so tall she could not 
 have more grace and dignity, a head better set, a 
 throat more royally and classically arching ; and one 
 advantage there is in her not being taller, that when 
 she casts a glance it is of necessity upwards and not
 
 BUNSEN. 343 
 
 downwards, and thus the effect of the eyes is not 
 thrown away the beam and effluence not lost. The 
 composure with which she filled the throne, while 
 awaiting the Commons, was a test of character no 
 fidget and no apathy. Then, her voice and enun- 
 ciation could not be more perfect. In short, it could 
 not be said that she did well, but she was the Queen 
 she was, and felt herself to be, the acknowledged chief 
 among grand and national realities.' (Vol. II. p. 10.) 
 
 The next is an account of the Queen at Windsor 
 Castle on receiving the Princess of Prussia, in 1 846 : 
 
 ' The Queen looked well and rayonnante, with that 
 expression that she always has when thoroughly 
 pleased with all that occupies her mind, which you 
 know I always observe with delight, as fraught with 
 that truth and reality which so essentially belong to 
 her character, and so strongly distinguish her coun- 
 tenance, in all its changes, from the fixed mask only 
 too common in the Royal rank of society.' (Vol. II. 
 
 P- U5-) 
 
 After having spent some days at Windsor Castle, 
 Bunsen writes in 1846 : 
 
 'The Queen often spoke with me about education, 
 and in particular of religious instruction. Her views 
 are very serious, but at the same time liberal and 
 comprehensive. She (as well as Prince Albert) hates 
 all formalism. The Queen reads a great deal, and 
 has done my book on 'The Church of the Future' 
 the honour to read it so attentively, that the other 
 day, when at Cashiobury, seeing the book on the 
 table, she looked out passages which she had approved 
 in order to read them aloud to the Queen-Dowager.' 
 (Vol. II. p. 121.)
 
 344 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 And once more : 
 
 ' The Queen is a wife and a mother as happy as the 
 happiest in her dominions, and no one can be more 
 careful of her charges. She often speaks to me of the 
 great task before her and the Prince in the education 
 of the Royal children, and particularly of the Prince 
 of Wales and the Princess Royal.' 
 
 Before the troubles of 1847 and 1848, Bunsen was 
 enabled to spend part of his time in the country, 
 away from the turmoil of London, and much of his 
 literary work dates from that time. After his ' Church 
 of the Future,' the discovery of the genuine epistles 
 of Ignatius by the late Dr. Cureton led Bunsen back 
 to the study of the earliest literature of the Christian 
 Church, and the results of these researches were pub- 
 lished in his 'Ignatius.' Lepsius' stay in England 
 and his expedition to Egypt induced Bunsen to put 
 his own materials in order and to give to the world 
 his long-matured views on 'The Place of Egypt in 
 Universal History.' The later volumes of this work 
 led him into philological studies of a more general 
 character, and at the meeting of the British Associ- 
 ation at Oxford, in 1847, he read before the brilliantly- 
 attended ethnological section his paper ' On the results 
 of the recent Egyptian researches in reference to 
 Asiatic and African Ethnology, and the Classification 
 of Languages,' published in the ' Transactions ' of the 
 Association, and separately under the title, 'Three 
 Linguistic Dissertations, by Chevalier Bunsen, Dr. 
 Charles Meyer, and Dr. Max Miiller.' 'Those three 
 days at Oxford/ he writes, 'were a time of great 
 distinction to me, both in my public and private 
 capacity.' Everything important in literature and
 
 BUNSEN. 345 
 
 art attracted not only his notice, but his warmest 
 interest ; and no one who wanted encouragement, 
 advice, or help in literary or historical researches, 
 knocked in vain at Bunsen's door. His table at 
 breakfast and dinner was filled by ambassadors and 
 professors, by bishops and missionaries, by dukes and 
 poor scholars, and his evening parties offered a kind 
 of neutral ground, where people could meet who could 
 have met nowhere else, and where English prejudices 
 had no jurisdiction. That Bunsen, holding the posi- 
 tion which he held in society, but still more being 
 what he was apart from his social position, should 
 have made his presence felt in England, was not to 
 be wondered at. He would speak out whenever he 
 felt strongly, but he was the last man to meddle or to 
 intrigue. He had no time even if he had had taste 
 for it. But there were men in England who could 
 never forgive him for the Jerusalem Bishopric, and 
 who resorted to the usual tactics for making a man 
 unpopular. A cry was soon raised against his supposed 
 influence at Court, and doubts were thrown out as to 
 his orthodoxy. Every Liberal bishop that was ap- 
 pointed was said to have been appointed through 
 Bunsen. Dr. Hampden was declared to have been 
 his nominee the fact being that Bunsen did not even 
 know of him before he had been made a bishop. As 
 his practical Christianity could not well be questioned, 
 he was accused of holding heretical opinions, because 
 his chronology differed from that of Jewish Rabbis 
 and Bishop Usher. It is extraordinary how little 
 Bunsen himself cared about these attacks, though 
 they caused acute suffering to his family. He was 
 not surprised that he should bo hated by those whose
 
 346 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 theological opinions he considered unsound, and whose 
 ecclesiastical politics he had openly declared to be 
 fraught with danger to the most sacred interests of 
 the Church. Besides, he was the personal friend of 
 such men as Arnold, Hare, Thirlwall, Maurice, Stanley, 
 and Jowett. He had even a kind word to say for 
 Froude's 'Nemesis of Faith.' He could sympathise, 
 no doubt, with all that was good and honest, whether 
 among the High Church or Low Church party, and 
 many of his personal friends belonged to the one as 
 well as to the other ; but he could also thunder forth 
 with no uncertain sound against everything that 
 seemed to him hypocritical, pharasaical, unchristian. 
 Thus he writes (II. p. 81) : 
 
 'I apprehend having given the ill-disposed a pretext 
 for considering me a semi-Pelagian, a contemner of 
 the Sacraments, or denier of the Son, a perverter of 
 the doctrine of justification, and therefore a cryp to- 
 Catholic theosophist, heretic, and enthusiast, deserving 
 of all condemnation. I have written it because I felt 
 compelled in conscience to do so.' 
 
 Again (II. p. 87): 
 
 ' In my letter to Mr. Gladstone, I have maintained 
 the lawfulness and the apostolic character of the 
 German Protestant Church. You will find the style 
 changed in this work, bolder and more free.' 
 
 Attacks, indeed, became frequent and more and 
 more bitter, but Bunsen seldom took any notice of 
 them. He writes : 
 
 ' Hare is full of wrath at an attack made upon me in 
 the " Christian Remembrancer "- in a very Jesuitical 
 way insinuating that I ought not to have so much 
 influence allowed me. Another article execrates the
 
 BUN SEN. 347 
 
 Bishopric of Jerusalem as an abomination. This zeal 
 savours more of hatred than of charity.' 
 
 But though Bunsen felt far too firmly grounded in 
 his own Christian faith to be shaken by such attacks 
 upon himself, he too could be roused to wrath and 
 indignation when the poisoned arrows of theological 
 Fijians were shot against his friends. When speaking 
 of the attacks on Arnold, he writes : 
 
 ' Truth is nothing in this generation except a means, 
 in the best case, to something good ; but never, like 
 virtue, considered as good, as the good the object in 
 itself. X dreams away in twilight. Y is sliding into 
 Puseyism. Z (the Evangelicals) go on thrashing the 
 old straw. I wish it were otherwise ; but I love Eng- 
 land, with all her faults. I write to you, now only to 
 you, all I think. All the errors and blunders which 
 make the Puseyites a stumbling-block to so many 
 the rock on which they split is no other than what 
 Rome split upon self-righteousness, out of want of 
 understanding justification by faith, and hovering 
 about the unholy and blasphemous idea of atoning for 
 our sins, because they feel not, understand not, indeed 
 believe not, the Atonement, and therefore enjoy not the 
 glorious privileges of the children of God the blessed 
 duty of the sacrifice of thanksgiving through Him who 
 atoned for them. Therefore no sacrifice therefore 
 no Christian priesthood no Church. By our fathers 
 these ideas were fundamentally acknowledged ; they 
 were in abeyance in the worship of the Church, but 
 not on the domestic altar and in the hymns of the 
 spirit. With the Puseyites, as with the Romanists, 
 these ideas are cut off at the roots. O when will the 
 Word of God be brought up against them ? What a
 
 348 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 state this country is in ! The land of liberty rushing 
 into the worst slavery, the veriest thraldom ! ' 
 
 To many people it might have seemed as if Bunsen 
 during all this time was so much absorbed in English 
 interests, political, theological, and social, that he 
 had ceased to care for what was passing in his own 
 country. His letters, however, tell a different tale. His 
 voluminous correspondence with the King of Prussia, 
 though not yet published, will one day bear witness 
 to Bunsen's devotion to his country, and his enthu- 
 siastic attachment to the house of Hohenzollern. From 
 year to year he was urging on the King and his ad- 
 visers the wisdom of liberal concessions, and the abso- 
 lute necessity of action. He was working at plans 
 for constitutional reforms, he went to Berlin to rouse 
 the King, to shame his Ministers, to insist in season 
 and out of season on the duty of acting before it was 
 too late. His faith in the King is most touching. 
 When he goes to Berlin in 1 844, he sees everywhere 
 how unpopular the King is, how even his best inten- 
 tions are misunderstood and misrepresented. Yet he 
 goes on working and hoping, and he sacrifices his 
 own popularity rather than oppose openly the suicidal 
 policy that might have ruined Prussia, if Prussia 
 could have been ruined. Thus he writes in August, 
 1845 : 
 
 ' To act as a statesman at the helm, in the Father- 
 land, I consider not to be in the least my calling ; what 
 I believe to be my calling is to be mounted high be- 
 fore the mast, to observe what land, what breakers, 
 what signs of coming storm, there may be, and then 
 to announce them to the wise and practical steersman. 
 It is the same to me whether my own nation shall
 
 BUNSEN. 349 
 
 know in my lifetime or after my death, how faithfully 
 I have taken to heart its weal and woe, be it in 
 Church or State, and borne it on my heart as my 
 nearest interest, as long as life lasted. I give up the 
 point of making myself understood in the present 
 generation. Here (in London) I consider myself to 
 be upon the right spot. I seek to preserve peace and 
 unity, and to remove dissatisfaction, wherever it is 
 possible.' 
 
 Nothing, however, was done. Year after year was 
 thrown away, like a Sibylline leaf, and the penalty 
 for the opportunities that had been lost became 
 heavier and heavier. The King, particularly when 
 he was under the influences of Bunsen's good genius, 
 was ready for any sacrifice. 'The commotion,' he 
 exclaimed, in 1 845, ' can only be met and overcome 
 by freedom, absolute freedom.' But when Bunsen 
 wanted measures, not words, the King himself seemed 
 powerless. Surrounded as he was by men of the 
 most opposite characters and interests, and quite 
 capable of gauging them all for his intellect was of 
 no common stamp he could agree with all of them 
 to a certain point, but could never bring himself to go 
 the whole length with any one of them. Bunsen 
 writes from Berlin : ' My stay will certainly not be 
 a long one ; the King's heart is like that of a brother 
 towards me, but our ways diverge. The die is cast, 
 and he reads in my countenance that I deplore the 
 throw. He too fulfils his fate, and we with him.' 
 
 When, at last, in 1847, a Constitution was granted 
 by the King, it was too late. Sir Robert Peel seems 
 to have been hopeful, and in a letter of twenty-two 
 pages to Bunsen he expressed an opinion that the
 
 350 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Prussian Government might still be able to maintain 
 the Constitution, if only sincere in desiring its due 
 development, and prepared in mind for that develop- 
 ment. To the King, however, and to the party at 
 Court, the Constitution, if not actually hateful, was 
 a mere plaything, and the idea of surrendering one 
 particle of his independence never entered the King's 
 mind. Besides, 1848 was at the door, and Bunsen 
 certainly saw the coming storm from a distance, 
 though he could not succeed in opening the eyes of 
 those who stood at the helm in Prussia. Shortly be- 
 fore the hurricane broke loose, Bunsen had once more 
 determined to throw up his official position, and retire 
 to Bonn. But with 1848 all these hopes and plans 
 were scattered to the winds. Bunsen's life became 
 more restless than ever, and his health was gradually 
 giving way under the constant tension of his mind. 
 ' I feel,' he writes in 1 848, to Archdeacon Hare, ' that 
 I have entered into a new period of life. I have given 
 up all private concerns, all studies and researches of 
 my own, and live entirely for the present political 
 emergencies of my country, to stand or to fall by and 
 with it.' 
 
 With his love for England he deeply felt the want 
 of sympathy on the part of England for Prussia in 
 her struggle to unite and regenerate the whole of 
 Germany. 'It is quite entertaining,' he writes with 
 a touch of irony very unusual in his letters, ' to see 
 the stiff unbelief of the English in the future of Ger- 
 many. Lord John is merely uninformed. Peel has 
 somewhat staggered the mind of the excellent Prince 
 by his unbelief; yet he has a statesmanlike good- will 
 towards the Germanic nations, and even for the
 
 EUNSEN. 351 
 
 German nation. Aberdeen is the greatest sinner. 
 He believes in God and the Emperor Nicholas ! ' The 
 Schles wig-Hols tein question embittered his feelings 
 still more, and in absence of all determined convictions 
 at Berlin, the want of moral courage and political 
 faith among those in whose hands the destinies of 
 Germany had been placed, roused him to wrath and 
 fury, though he could never be driven to despair of 
 the future of Prussia. For a time, indeed, he seemed 
 to hesitate between Frankfort, then the seat of the 
 German Parliament, and Berlin ; and he would have 
 accepted the Premiership at Frankfort if his friend 
 Baron Stockmar had accepted the Ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs. But very soon he perceived that, however 
 paralyzed for the moment, Prussia was the only pos- 
 sible centre of life for a regeneration of Germany; 
 that Prussia could not be merged in Germany, but 
 that Germany had to be resuscitated and reinvigorated 
 through Prussia. His patriotic nominalism, if we 
 may so call his youthful dreams of a united Germany, 
 had to yield to the force of that political realism 
 which sacrifices names to things, poetry to prose, the 
 ideal to the possible. What made his decision easier 
 than it would otherwise have been to a heart so full 
 of enthusiasm was his personal attachment to the 
 King and to the Prince of Prussia, For a time, in- 
 deed, though for a short time only, Bunsen, after his 
 interview with the King in January, 1849, believed 
 that his hopes might still be realised, and he seems 
 actually to have had the King's promise that he would 
 accept the Crown of a United Germany, without Aus- 
 tria. But as soon as Bunsen had left Berlin new in- 
 fluences began to work on the King's brain, and when
 
 352 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Bunsen returned, full of hope, he was told by the King 
 himself that he had never repented in such a degree 
 of any step as that which Bunsen had advised him to 
 take ; that the course entered upon was a wrong 
 to Austria ; that he would have nothing to do with 
 such an abominable line of politics, but would leave 
 that to the Ministry at Frankfort. Whenever the 
 personal question should be addressed to him, then 
 would he reply as one of the Hohenzollern, and thus 
 live and die as an honest man. Bunsen, though 
 
 ' O 
 
 mourning over the disappointed hopes that had once 
 centred in Frederick William IV, and freely express^ 
 ing the divergence of opinion that separated him from 
 his Sovereign, remained throughout a faithful servant 
 and a loyal friend. His buoyant spirit, confident that 
 nothing could ruin Prussia, was looking forward to 
 the future, undismayed by the unbroken succession 
 of blunders and failures of Prussian statesmen nay, 
 enjoying with a prophetic fervour, at the time of the 
 deepest degradation of Prussia at Olmiitz, the final 
 and inevitable triumph of that cause which counted 
 among its heroes and martyrs such names as Stein, 
 Gneisenau, Niebuhr, Arndt, and, we may now add, 
 Bunsen. 
 
 After the reaction of 1849 Bunsen's political in- 
 fluence ceased altogether, and as Minister in England 
 he had almost always to carry out instructions of 
 which he disapproved. More and more he longed 
 for rest and freedom, for ' leisure for reflection on 
 the Divine which subsists in things human, and for 
 writing, if God enables me to do so. I live as one 
 lamed ; the pinions that might have furthered my 
 progress are bound, yet not broken.' Yet he would
 
 BUNSEN. 353 
 
 not give up his place as long as his enemies at Berlin 
 did all they could to oust him. He would not be 
 beaten by them, nor did he altogether despair of 
 better days. His opinion of the Prince of Prussia 
 (the present King) had been raised very high since 
 he had come to know him more intimately, and he 
 expected much in the hour of need from his soldier- 
 like decision and sense of honour. The negotiations 
 about the Schleswig-Holstein question soon roused 
 again all his German sympathies, and he exerted 
 himself to the utmost to defend the just cause of the 
 Schleswig-Holsteiners, which had been so shamefully 
 misrepresented by unscrupulous partisans. The his- 
 tory of these negotiations cannot yet be written, but 
 it will some day surprise the student of history when 
 he finds out in what way public opinion in England 
 was dosed and stupified on that simple question. He 
 found himself isolated and opposed by nearly all his 
 English friends. One statesman only, but the greatest 
 of English statesmen, saw clearly where the right 
 and where the wrong was, but even he could only 
 dare to be silent. On the 3ist of July, 1850, Bunsen 
 writes : 
 
 ' Palmerston had yielded, when in a scrape, first to 
 Russia, then to France ; the prize has been the pro- 
 tocol, the victim, Germany. They shall never have 
 my signature to such a piece of iniquity and folly.' 
 
 However, on the 8th of May, 1852, Bunsen had to 
 sign that very piece of iniquity. It was done, ma- 
 cblnelike, at the King's command ; yet, if Bunsen had 
 followed his own better judgment, he would not have 
 signed, but sent in his resignation. ' The first cannon- 
 shot in Europe,' he used to say, 'will tear this Prag- 
 
 \ ;i
 
 354 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 matic Sanction to tatters ;' and so it was, but alas ! 
 he did not live to see the Nemesis of that iniquity. 
 One thing, however, is certain, that the humiliation 
 inflicted on Prussia by that protocol was never for- 
 gotten by one brave soldier, who, though not allowed 
 at that time to draw his royal sword, has ever since 
 been working at the reform of Prussia's army, till 
 on the field of Sadowa the disgrace of the London 
 protocol and the disgrace of Olmiitz were wiped out 
 together, and German questions can no longer be set- 
 tled by the Great Powers of Europe, ' with or without 
 the consent of Prussia.' 
 
 Bunsen remained in England two years longer, 
 full of literary work, delighted by the success of 
 Prince Albert's Great Exhibition, entering heartily 
 into all that interested and agitated English society, 
 but nevertheless carrying in his breast a heavy heart. 
 Prussia and Germany were not what he wished them 
 to be. At last the complications that led to the 
 Crimean War held out to his mind a last prospect 
 of rescuing Prussia from her Russian thraldom. If 
 Prussia could have been brought over to join Eng- 
 land and France, the unity of Northern Germany 
 might have been her reward, as the unity of Italy 
 was the reward of Cavour's alliance with the Western 
 Powers. Bunsen used all his influence to bring this 
 about, but he used it in vain, and in April, 1854, he 
 succumbed and his resignation was accepted. 
 
 Now, at last, Bunsen was free. He writes to a son : 
 
 ' You know how I struggled, almost desperately, to 
 
 retire from public employment in 1850. Now the 
 
 cord is broken, and the bird is free. The Lord be 
 
 praised ! '
 
 BUNSEN. 355 
 
 But sixty-two years of his life were gone. The foun- 
 dations of literary work which he had laid as a young 
 man were difficult to recover, and if anything was 
 to be finished it had to be finished in haste. Bunsen 
 retired to Heidelberg, hoping there to realise the ideal 
 of his life, and realising it, too, in a certain degree 
 i. e. as long as he was able to forget his sixty-two 
 years, his shaken health, and his blasted hopes. His 
 new edition of ' Hippolytus,' under the title of ' Chris- 
 tianity and Mankind,' had been finished in seven 
 volumes before he left England. At Heidelberg his 
 principal work was the new translation of the Bible, 
 and his ' Life of Christ,' an enormous undertaking, 
 enough to fill a man's life, yet with Bunsen by no 
 means the only work to which he devoted his remain- 
 ing powers. Egyptian studies continued to interest 
 him while superintending the English translation of 
 his 'Egypt.' His anger at the machinations of the 
 Jesuits in Church and State would rouse him sud- 
 denly to address the German nation in his ' Signs of 
 the Times.' And the prayer of his early youth, ' to 
 be allowed to recognise and trace the firm path of God 
 through the stream of ages,' was fulfilled in his last 
 work, ' God in History.' There were many blessings 
 in his life at Heidelberg, and no one could have ac- 
 knowledged them more gratefully than Bunsen. ' Yet,' 
 he writes, 
 
 ' I miss John Bull, the sea, The, Times in the morn- 
 ing, and, besides, some dozens of fellow-creatures. The 
 learned class has greatly sunk in Germany, more 
 than I supposed; all behindhand. . . . Nothing 
 appears of any importance ; the most wretched trifles 
 arc cried up.' 
 
 A a 2
 
 356 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Though he had bid adieu to politics, yet he could 
 
 not keep entirely aloof. The Prince of Prussia and 
 
 the noble Princess of Prussia consulted him frequently, 
 
 and even from Berlin baits were held out from time 
 
 to time to catch the escaped eagle. Indeed, once 
 
 again Bunsen was enticed by the voice of the charmer, 
 
 and a pressing invitation of the King brought him 
 
 to Berlin to preside at the meeting of the Evangelical 
 
 Alliance in September, 1857. His hopes revived once 
 
 more, and his plans of a liberal policy in Church and 
 
 State were once more pressed on the King in vain, 
 
 as every one knew beforehand, except Bunsen alone, 
 
 with his loving, trusting heart. However, Bunsen's 
 
 hopes, too, were soon to be destroyed, and he parted 
 
 from the King, the broken idol of all his youthful 
 
 dreams not in anger, but in love, ' as I wish and 
 
 pray to depart from this earth, on the calm, still 
 
 evening of a long, beautiful summer's day.' This was 
 
 written on the ist of October, on the 3rd the King's 
 
 mind gave way, though his bodily suffering lasted 
 
 longer than that of Bunsen. Little more is to be said 
 
 of the last years of Bunsen's life. The difficulty of 
 
 breathing from which he suffered became often very 
 
 distressing, and he was obliged to seek relief by travel 
 
 in Switzerland, or by spending the winter at Cannes. 
 
 He recovered from time to time, so as to be able to 
 
 work hard at the 'Bible-work,' and even to make 
 
 short excursions to Paris or Berlin. In the last year 
 
 of his life he executed the plan that had passed before 
 
 his mind as the fairest dream of his youth he took a 
 
 house at Bonn, and he was not without hope that he 
 
 might still, like Niebuhr, lecture in the University, 
 
 and give to the young men the fruits of his studies
 
 BUNSEN. 357 
 
 and the advice founded on the experience of his life. 
 This, however, was not to be, and all who watched 
 him with loving eyes knew but too well that it could 
 not be. The last chapter of his life is painful beyond 
 expression as a chronicle of his bodily sufferings, but 
 it is cheerful also beyond expression as the record of 
 a triumph over death in hope, in faith nay, one might 
 almost say, in sight such as has seldom been wit- 
 nessed by human eyes. He died on the 28th of No- 
 vember, 1860, and was buried on the ist of December 
 in the same churchyard at Eonn where rests the body 
 of his friend and teacher, Niebuhr. 
 
 Thoughts crowd in thick upon us when we gaze at 
 that monument, and feel again the presence of that 
 spirit as we so often felt it in the hours of sweet 
 counsel. When we think of the literary works in 
 which, later in life and almost in the presence of 
 death, he hurriedly gathered up the results of his 
 studies and meditations, we feel, as he felt himself 
 when only twenty-two years of age, that ' learning 
 annihilates itself, and the most perfect is the first 
 submerged, for the next age scales with ease the 
 height which cost the preceding the full vigour of 
 life.' It has been so, and always will be so. Bunsen's 
 work, particularly in Egyptian philology and in the 
 philosophy of language, was to a great extent the 
 work of a pioneer, and it will be easy for others to 
 advance on the roads which he has opened, and to 
 approach nearer to the goal which he has pointed out. 
 Some of his works, however, will hold their place in 
 the history of scholarship, and particularly of theo- 
 logical scholarship. The question of the genuineness 
 of the original epistles of Ignatius can hardly be
 
 358 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 opened again after Bunsen's treatise, and his discovery 
 that the book on ' All the Heresies,' ascribed to Origen, 
 could not be the work of that writer, and that most 
 probably it was the work of Hippolytus, will always 
 mark an epoch in the study of early Christian litera- 
 ture. Either of those works would have been enough 
 to make the reputation of a German professor, or to 
 found the fortune of an English bishop. Let it be re- 
 membered that they were the outcome of the leisure 
 hours of a hard-worked Prussian diplomatist, who, 
 during the London season, could get up at five in the 
 morning, light his own fire, and thus secure four hours 
 of undisturbed work before breakfast. 
 
 Another reason why some of Bunsen's works will 
 prove more mortal than others is their comprehensive 
 character. Bunsen never worked for work's sake, 
 but always for some higher purpose. Special re- 
 searches with him were a means, a ladder to be 
 thrown away as soon as he had reached his point. 
 The thought of exhibiting his ladders never entered 
 his mind. Occasionally, however, Bunsen would 
 take a jump, and being bent on general results, he 
 would sometimes neglect the objections that were 
 urged against him. It has been easy, even during 
 his lifetime, to point out weak points in his argu- 
 ments, and scholars who have spent the whole of 
 their lives on one Greek classic have found no diffi- 
 culty in showing to the world that they know more 
 of that particular author than Bunsen. But even 
 those who fully appreciate the real importance of 
 Bunsen's labours labours that were more like a 
 shower of rain fertilising large acres than like the 
 artificial irrigation which supports one greenhouse
 
 BUN8EN. 359 
 
 plant will be the first to mourn over the precious 
 time that was lost to the world by Bunsen's official 
 avocations. If he could do what he did in his few 
 hours of rest, what would he have achieved if he 
 had carried out the original plan of his life ! It is 
 almost incredible that a man with his clear percep- 
 tion of his calling in life so fully expressed in his 
 earliest letters, should have allowed himself to be 
 drawn away by the siren voice of diplomatic life. 
 His success, no doubt, was great at first, and the 
 kindness shown him by men like Niebuhr, the King, 
 and the Crown Prince of Prussia was enough to turn 
 a head that sat on the strongest shoulders. It should 
 be remembered, too, that in Germany the diplomatic 
 service has always had far greater charms than in 
 England, and that the higher members of that service 
 enjoy often the same political influence as members 
 of the Cabinet. If we read of the brilliant reception 
 accorded to the young diplomatist during his first 
 stay at Berlin, the favours showered upon him by 
 the old King, the friendship offered him by the 
 Crown Prince, his future King, the hopes of useful- 
 ness in his own heart, and the encouragement given 
 him by all his friends, we shall be less surprised at 
 his preferring, in the days of his youth, the brilliant 
 career of a diplomatist to the obscure lot of a pro- 
 fessor. And yet what would Bunsen have given 
 later in life if he had remained true to his first love ! 
 Again and again his better self bursts forth in com- 
 plaints about a wasted life, and again and again he 
 is carried along against his will. During his first stay 
 in England he writes (November 18, 1838): 
 
 'I care no more about my external position than
 
 360 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 about the mountains in the moon ; I know God's will 
 will be done, in spite of them all, and to my greatest 
 benefit. What that is He alone knows. Only one 
 thing I think I see clearly. My whole life is without 
 sense and lasting use, if I squander it in affairs of 
 the day, brilliant and important as they may be.' 
 
 The longer he remained in that enchanted garden 
 the more difficult it became to find a way out, even 
 after he had discovered by sad experience how little 
 he was fitted for Court life or even for public life in 
 Prussia. When he first appeared at the Court of 
 Berlin he carried everything by storm ; but that very 
 triumph was never forgiven him, and his enemies 
 were bent on ' showing this young doctor his proper 
 place.' Bunsen had no idea how he was envied, for 
 the lesson that success breeds envy is one that men 
 of real modesty seldom learn until it is too late. And 
 he was hated not only by chamberlains, but, as he 
 discovered with deepest grief, even by those whom 
 he considered his truest friends, who had been work- 
 ing in secret conclave to undermine his influence with 
 his Royal friend and master. Whenever he returned 
 to Berlin, later in life, he could not breathe freely in 
 the vitiated air of the Court, and the wings of his 
 soul hung down lamed, if not broken. Bunsen was 
 not a courtier. Away from Berlin, among the ruins 
 of Rome, and in the fresh air of English life, he could 
 speak to Kings and Princes as few men have spoken 
 to them, and pour out his inmost convictions before 
 those whom he revered and loved. But at Berlin, 
 though he might have learnt to bow and to smile and 
 to use Byzantine phraseology, his voice faltered and 
 was drowned by noisy declaim ers ; the diamond was
 
 BUNSEN. 361 
 
 buried under a heap of beads, and his rays could not 
 shine forth where there was no heavenly sunlight to 
 call them out. King Frederick William IV. was no 
 ordinary King : that one can see even from the 
 scanty extracts from his letters given in ' Bunsen's Me- 
 moirs.' Nor was his love of Bunsen a mere passing 
 whim. He loved the man, and those who knew 
 the refreshing and satisfying influence of Bunsen's 
 society will easily understand what the King meant 
 when he said, ' I am hungry and thirsty for Bunsen.' 
 But what constitution can resist the daily doses of 
 hyperbolical flattery that are poured into the ears of 
 Royalty, and how can we wonder that at last a 
 modest expression of genuine respect does sound like 
 rudeness to Royal ears, and to speak the truth be- 
 comes synonymous with insolence 1 In the trickeries 
 and mimicries of Court life Bunsen was no adept, 
 and nothing was easier than to outbid him in the 
 price that is paid for Royal favours. 
 
 But if much has thus been lost of a life far too 
 precious to be squandered among Royal servants and 
 messengers, this prophet among the Sauls has taught 
 the world some lessons which he could not have 
 taught in the lecture-room of a German University. 
 People who would scarcely have listened to the 
 arguments of a German professor sat humbly at the 
 feet of an ambassador and of a man of the world. 
 That a professor should be learned and that a bishop 
 should be orthodox was a matter of course, but that 
 an ambassador should hold forth on hieroglyphics 
 and the antiquity of man rather than on the 
 c/tronifjue scandaleuxe of Paris; that a Prussian 
 statesman should spend his mornings on the Ignatian
 
 362 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Epistles rather than in writing gossiping letters to 
 ladies in waiting at Berlin and Potsdam ; that this 
 learned man, 'who ought to know,' should profess 
 the simple faith of a child and the boldest freedom 
 of a philosopher, was enough to startle society, both 
 high and low. How Bunsen inspired those who 
 knew him with confidence, how he was consulted, 
 and how he was loved may be seen from some of 
 the letters addressed to him, though few only of 
 such letters have been published in his ' Memoirs.' 
 That his influence was great in England we know 
 from the concurrent testimony both of his enemies 
 and his friends, and the seeds that he has sown in 
 the minds and hearts of men have borne fruit, and 
 will still bear richer fruit, both in England and in 
 Germany. Nor should it be forgotten how excellent 
 a use he made of his personal influence in helping 
 young men who wanted advice and encouragement. 
 His sympathy, his condescension, his faith when 
 brought in contact with men of promise, were extra- 
 ordinary : they were not shaken, though they have 
 been abused more than once. In all who loved 
 Bunsen his spirit will live on, imperceptibly, it may 
 be, to themselves, imperceptibly to the world, but 
 not the less really. It is not the chief duty of 
 friends to honour the departed by idle grief, but to re- 
 member their designs, and to carry out their mandates. 
 (Tac. Ann. II. 71.)
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY 1 . 
 
 (1820-1875.) 
 
 the dead nothing but what is good ' is an old 
 and beautiful saying, of more profound truth 
 than is commonly supposed. Though at first sight it 
 may seem to convey no more than that it is un- 
 chivalrous to speak evil of those who can no longer 
 defend themselves, it discloses a far deeper meaning 
 if we look at it more intently. Let us remember that 
 of most people we know, as of the moon, one side 
 only, the side which they present to us as we pass 
 them by in the throng of life. We may try to com- 
 plete and correct our own impressions by the favour- 
 able or unfavourable impressions which the same 
 people have left on others. But most of these too 
 judge by outward appearance only, and how little is 
 that compared with what lies hidden in the soul of 
 man, which never rises to the surface, nay which in our 
 society, as it now is,, never can rise to the surface. 
 And what is stranger still, most people are inclined to 
 believe evil rather than good report. Even if we 
 hear nothing but good of a man, we often hesitate in 
 our judgment, as if we could not believe that any one 
 
 1 Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of Life. Edited by 
 his Wife.
 
 364 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 could be so good, so much better than we ourselves. 
 We wish to be cautious, we wish to wait and see, for 
 after all we do not even trust ourselves, but only hope 
 that we may be as good as we seem to be. Thus life 
 passes away ; and during the whole of it we probably 
 give our perfect trust, our full love to five or six 
 people only. Of these we never believe anything 
 evil, whatever the evil world may say of them. And 
 happy the man who out of the small number of those 
 whom he called his own, has never lost one ! Happy 
 the man who never had cause to rue the bestowal of 
 his unbounded confidence! 
 
 Very often such disappointments and losses are 
 our own fault. We can all understand our own 
 faults, and explain them and thereby more or less 
 excuse them ; but with regard to the faults of 
 others we seldom practise the same advocacy. If 
 we see the smallest spot on the surface, we quickly 
 conclude that the whole fruit must be rotten to the 
 core ; and yet how often are these spots but traces of 
 the heat of the day on the bloom of the peach, while 
 the flesh is sound, the sap fresh, and the flavour of the 
 whole fruit pure and delicious ! 
 
 Such thoughts often pass through the mind when 
 we are standing by the grave of a friend, or when 
 we read the biography of a man whom we have 
 known well, or whom we have often met on our way 
 through life. We can then hardly believe that our 
 eyes have been so blind, and it is only when it is 
 too late that we learn that there may be on earth 
 angels without wings. When we examine a life-like 
 portrait or read a beautiful biography, the good 
 points often seem too prominent, the weak ones too
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 365 
 
 much veiled ; but by the side of a closing grave we 
 suddenly learn the art how to discover what is good, 
 and how to understand what is bad, in man. At the 
 grave the old human love breaks through at last. 
 The scales fall from our eyes, and we need not ask 
 what scales they are that so often prevent us seeing 
 what is good and beautiful in man. Certain it is 
 that, as our life is at present, we really do not know 
 men truly till they have joined the company of 
 saints. 
 
 Such thoughts were rising again in my mind when 
 reading the Biography of my old, lately departed friend, 
 Charles Kingsley. In England this work seems to 
 have produced this spring the same wide and deep 
 impression which was made some years ago by the 
 Life of Prince Albert and the Life of Buusen. In 
 a few months five large editions were sold. Our 
 newspapers and journals are full of it, and though 
 during the season and during the session the Eastern 
 Question threw every other question into the back- 
 ground, the Life of Charles Kingsley has held its own, 
 and has become what is called in England ' the book 
 of the season.' 
 
 What hard judgments had been uttered of these 
 three men, Prince Albert, Bunsen, and Charles Kings- 
 ley, during their life-time! There was a certain 
 similarity between them all, and they were well 
 acquainted with each other. It would really be a 
 useful undertaking to make a selection from all the 
 attacks which appeared against these three men in 
 the newspapers and journals, and preserve them for 
 posterity as an appendix to their biographies. It 
 might be of use to coming generations. I do not
 
 366 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 mean to say that all these attacks proceeded from 
 malice, hatred, and ill-will. On the contrary, some of 
 them, I know, come from men who were as good as 
 those whom they attacked. But this very fact, that 
 good men may misunderstand, hate, and persecute 
 good men, would be the best lesson to posterity. No 
 one would venture to say that these three men, whom 
 I have here mentioned together, were entirely free 
 from weaknesses and faults. But what is strange is 
 that, during their life-time, we heard constantly of 
 their weaknesses and faults, while all that is good 
 and beautiful and noble in them was taken as a 
 matter of course. Only when death has lifted the 
 veil from our eyes, do we begin to see clearly, and 
 recognise, when it is too late, the pure, and beautiful, 
 and noble image of man ; aye, the long-despised master- 
 work of a divine art. 
 
 Among Kingsley's works, Hypatia is probably the 
 one most widely known and appreciated, not only in 
 England, but in Germany, France, and Italy also. 
 Though a mere novel, it represents the struggle 
 of the old Greek world with the new powers of 
 Christendom with truly dramatic art. What Bunsen 
 thought of Hypatia may be seen from what he wrote 
 in a preface to the German translation of it : ' I do 
 not hesitate to recognise these two works, Hypatia 
 and the Saint's Tragedy, as the two most important 
 and most perfect creations of his genius. It is in 
 them that I find the justification of a hope which 
 I here venture to express, namely, that Kingsley 
 should continue Shakespeare's historical plays. For 
 many years I have freely confessed that Kingsley 
 seems to me the genius called upon in our century to
 
 CHARLES KINQSLEY. 367 
 
 place by the side of the greatest modern dramatic Epos, 
 beginning with King John and ending with Henry 
 VIII, a second series of national plays, beginning 
 with Edward VI and ending with the landing of 
 William of Orange. It is the only phase in European 
 history which combines all vital elements of dramatic 
 poetry, and which we might watch on the stage 
 without overpowering pain. The tragedy of Saint 
 Elizabeth shows that Kingsley not only knows how 
 to write a novel, but that he has mastered the more 
 severe rules of the drama also, while his Hypatia 
 proves that he can discover in the history of the past 
 all that is truly human and eternal, and place it full 
 of life before our eyes. All his works testify to his 
 ability to catch the fresh tone of the life of the 
 people, and to make broad humour a powerful ingre- 
 dient for dramatic effect. And why should he not do 
 it ? There is a time when the poet, the true prophet 
 of our time, must forget the unpoetical events of the 
 day, which seem important only because they are so 
 near, and say to himself, Let the dead bury their 
 dead! Kingsley it seems to me has arrived at that 
 point, and he ought to decide.' 
 
 In England Kingsley has been loved and revered 
 for many years as a writer and a poet. But he has 
 been much more than that. He formed part and parcel 
 of the people ; nay, one might say ho formed part of 
 the English conscience. He was one of the men of 
 whom one thought at once, whenever a social, or a 
 religious, or a great political question stirred the 
 people. If there are in England the 'Upper Ten 
 Thousand' who are the leaders of what is called 
 society, there are also the ' Upper Hundred,' the
 
 368 BIOGBAPH1CAL ESSAYS. 
 
 leaders of public opinion, whose judgment on the 
 great questions of the day is really asked for and 
 cared for by the people at large. A man belongs to 
 these Centumviri, not because he is a minister, a 
 member of parliament, a bishop, a professor, or a 
 millionaire, but because he is believed to be true, 
 honest, clear-sighted, free from prejudice, unselfish, and 
 independent of party. They are the true salt of the 
 English people. Kingsley was one of these Hundred ; 
 nay, English papers went so far as to call him one of 
 the Twelve who during the last generation have most 
 powerfully impressed and guided the thoughts and 
 feelings of the English nation. This does not mean 
 that his judgment was always trusted or his advice 
 always followed. On the contrary, he was often 
 called a dreamer ; yet people wished to know what he 
 would feel, think, and say about matters which lay 
 within the sphere of his interests, because they knew 
 that he would always say what he felt and thought. 
 His correspondence now shows how many telegraphic 
 wires, not only from England, but from the English 
 Colonies and from America, ended in the quiet rectory 
 at Eversley, and how many electric pulsations radiated 
 from the large heart which beat in the breast of a 
 simple and thoroughly honest country clergyman. 
 People abroad have no idea of the minute organisa- 
 tion of public feeling in England. If newspapers 
 represent the muscles of the social body, the personal 
 relations between men of mark and the thousands 
 who look up to them, form the nervous system from 
 which alone the muscles receive life and vigour. 
 
 This close intellectual organisation is favoured in 
 England by many circumstances. The number of
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 369 
 
 Public Schools is limited. Of Universities there are, or 
 there were till lately, two only. Most men of note are 
 acquainted with each other from school or from univer- 
 sity, and whoever has gained the trust and love of his 
 friends at Eton or Oxford, retains it mostly through life. 
 Besides, though everything in England is on a grand 
 scale, there is also something which in Germany 
 would be called Klein-stddtisch. Almost everybody 
 knows everybody, and the great families, and clans, 
 and counties hold so closely together that whenever 
 two Englishmen meet abroad they soon find out that 
 they are either distantly related or have at least 
 some friends in common. Add to this the innumer- 
 able societies, clubs, charitable institutions, political 
 associations, and last, not least, the central hearth 
 in London, Parliament, where everybody appears 
 from time to time, if only to have a warm shaking of 
 hands with old friends and acquaintances, and you 
 will understand that England hangs more closely 
 together and knows itself better than any other 
 country in Europe. As a natural result of all this, 
 there is a very sharp control. A man who has once 
 attracted public attention is not easily lost sight of. 
 Each man feels this, and this produces a sense of 
 responsibility, or, what the French call, solidarity, 
 which forms the safest foundation of a political 
 organisation. True, Kingsley was only a writer and 
 country-clergyman, but from his earliest appearance 
 we see that he is conscious of belonging to a great 
 people. He knew he could not hide himself, but 
 that his convictions must out, however offensive they 
 might sound to that class of society in which he 
 moved, nay, however opposed they might seem to 
 
 Bb
 
 370 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 be to the interests of the clergy to which he himself 
 was proud to belong. 
 
 Kingsley came of a good, old family, and moved 
 in the best society. But when in the year 1849 
 the socialistic agitation of the working men frightened 
 not only the thoughtless, but even the thoughtful 
 statesmen of England, he wrote his novel, Alton 
 Locke, Tailor, and declared himself openly a Char- 
 tist, in the truest sense of the word. He was 
 then known everywhere under the name of Parson 
 Lot, much criticised, abused, and even threatened, 
 but never troubled for one moment in his con- 
 viction that Chartism had its justification, and 
 that it was the duty of every true statesman and 
 patriot to recognise the good elements in socialism, 
 and with their help to keep down its dangerous 
 elements. Much as he was blamed for the part he 
 took, all, even those whom Kingsley attacked most 
 fiercely, felt that his action was entirely unselfish, and 
 that by his advocacy of the extreme views of the 
 working classes he forfeited all chance of Church pre- 
 ferment. He sacrificed not only his time, but his 
 money also (of which he had very little at the time), 
 in order to help in improving the condition of the 
 labouring classes, not only by word, but by deed also. 
 What would people have said in Germany, if he had 
 thundered into their ears that whosoever does not 
 devote at least one tenth part of his time and one 
 tenth part of his annual income to public and 
 charitable purposes belongs to the most dangerous 
 class and fosters the growth of social democracy ! 
 
 Thus he marched on, straight as an arrow. Though 
 devoted heart and soul to the English Church, he
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 371 
 
 stepped forward as the defender of Frederick Maurice, 
 when the Bishops deprived him of his professorship 
 at King's College, because he denied the doctrine of 
 Eternal Punishment. 
 
 When, during long-continued rain, the Bishops 
 ordered a general prayer for sunshine, he declined to 
 read it from the pulpit, first, because even his limited 
 knowledge of the laws of nature told him that much 
 rain was necessary, secondly, because with his limited 
 knowledge of the laws of nature he would not criticise 
 the decrees of the Highest Wisdom. 
 
 At the end of a sermon which he had been asked to 
 preach in London, the clergyman to whom the church 
 belonged rose and warned the congregation against 
 the heresies to which they had had to listen. This 
 was something quite unheard-of, and the excitement 
 became threatening. Kingsley bowed in silence, 
 pacified the people who had gathered round the 
 church, published his sermon, and succeeded in 
 making the Bishop of the diocese acknowledge that 
 there was nothing in his sermon in any way opposed 
 to the true spirit of old and genuine Christianity. 
 
 At the time when nearly the whole of what is 
 called Good Society declared in favour of the Southern 
 States of America, Kingsley remained true to the 
 North, not because he did not admire the heroism 
 of the rebels, but because he clung to one simple 
 principle, that slavery is wrong, and that the victory 
 of the South would have been the victory of slavery. 
 
 In the year 1866, when but few Englishmen saw 
 the true meaning of the war of Prussia against 
 Austria, Kingsley wrote to me (Letters, vol. ii. 
 p.2 3 8) : - 
 
 B b 2
 
 372 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 'My DEAR MAX, 
 
 What great things have happened for Germany, 
 and what great men your Prussians have shown 
 themselves. Much as I was wroth with them about 
 Schleswig-Holstein, I can only see in this last cam- 
 paign a great necessary move for the physical safety 
 of every North German household, and the honour 
 of every North German woman. To allow the pos- 
 sibility of a second 1807-1812 to remain, when it 
 could be averted by any amount of fighting, were 
 sin and shame ; and had I been a Prussian, I would 
 have gone down to Sadowa as a sacred duty to wife 
 and child and fatherland.' 
 
 Again, when towards the close of the Franco- 
 German War the sympathies of nearly all the most 
 eminent men in England, and particularly of the 
 Liberal party, went over from Germany to France, 
 he remained faithful to the end. Knowing how my 
 best friends had then turned against me, he wrote to 
 me (Letters, ii. p. 323) : 
 
 ' EVEKSLEY, 
 
 August 8, 1870. 
 
 'Accept my loving congratulations to you and 
 your people. The day which dear Bunsen used to 
 pray, with tears in his eyes, might not come till the 
 German people were ready, has come, and the German 
 people are ready. Verily, God is just ; and rules too, 
 whatever the press may think to the contrary. My 
 only fear is, lest the Germans should think of Paris, 
 which cannot concern them, and turn their eyes away 
 from that which does concern them, the re-taking 
 Elsass (which is their own), and leaving the French-
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 373 
 
 man no foot of the Rhine-bank. To make the Rhine 
 a word not to be mentioned by the French hence- 
 forth, ought to be the one object of wise Germans, 
 and that alone. In any case, I am yours, full of 
 delight and hope for Germany.' 
 
 Later on there follows another letter, in which he 
 pours out his whole heart on the Franco-German war : 
 
 'August 31. 
 
 'And now a few words on this awful war. I 
 confess to you, that were I a German, I should feel it 
 my duty to my country to send my last son, my last 
 shilling, and after all, my own self to the war, to get 
 that done which must be done, done so that it will 
 never need doing again. I trust that I should be 
 able to put vengeance out of my heart to forget all 
 that Germany has suffered for two hundred years 
 past, from that vain, greedy, restless nation ; all even 
 which she suffered, women as well as men, in the 
 late French war : though the Germans do not forget 
 it, and some of them, for their mothers' or aunts' 
 sakes, ought not. But the average German has a 
 right to say, "Property, life, freedom, has been in- 
 secure in Germany for two hundred years, because 
 she has been divided. The French kings have always 
 tried to keep her divided that they might make her 
 the puppet of their ambition. Since the French Re- 
 volution, the French people (all of them who think 
 and act, viz. the army and the educated classes) have 
 been doing the same. They shall do so no longer. 
 We will make it impossible for her to interfere in 
 the internal affairs of Germany. We will make it 
 an offence on her part after Alfred de Musset's brutal
 
 374 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 song to mention the very name of the Rhine." As 
 for the present war, it was inevitable, soon or late. 
 The French longed for it. They wanted to revenge 
 1813-15, ignoring the fact that Germany was then 
 avenging and very gently 1807. Bunsen used to 
 say to me I have seen the tears in his eyes as he 
 said it that the war must come ; that he only prayed 
 God that it might not come till Germany was prepared 
 and had recovered from the catastrophe of the great 
 French war. It has come, and Germany is prepared ; 
 and would that the old man were alive to see the 
 "battle of Armageddon," as he called it, fought, not as 
 he feared on German, but on French soil. It must 
 have come. The Germans would have been wrong 
 to begin it ; but when the French began, they would 
 have been "niddering" for ever not to have accepted 
 it. If a man persists for years in brandishing his 
 fist in your face, telling you that he will thrash you 
 some day, and that you dare not fight him ; a wise 
 man will, like Germany, hold his tongue till he is 
 actually struck ; but he will, like Germany, take care 
 to be ready for what will come. As for Prussia's 
 being prepared for war, being a sort of sin on her 
 part a proof that she intended to attack France- 
 such an argument only proves the gross ignorance 
 of history, especially of German history, which I 
 remark in average Englishmen. Gross ignorance, 
 too, or willing oblivion of all that the French have 
 been threatening for years past, about "rectifying 
 their frontier." The Germans had fair warning from 
 the French that the blow would be struck some day. 
 And now that it is struck, to turn the other cheek 
 in meekness may be very " Christian" towards a man's
 
 CHA.RLES KINGSLEY. 375 
 
 self, but most unchristian, base, and selfish towards 
 his women, his children, and his descendants yet un- 
 born. There can be no doubt that the French pro- 
 gramme of this war was, to disunite Germany once 
 more, and so make her weak and at the mercy of 
 France. And a German who was aware of that as 
 all sensible Germans must have been aware had to 
 think, not of the text which forbids us to avenge 
 private injuries, but of that which says, "They that 
 take the sword shall perish by the sword ; " not of 
 the bodily agony and desolation of the war, but of 
 Him who said, "Fear not them that can kill the 
 body," and after that have nothing left to do; but 
 fear him the demon of selfishness, laziness, anarchy, 
 which ends in slavery, which can kill both body and 
 soul in the hell of moral and political degradation. 
 As for this being a "dynastic war," as certain foolish 
 working men are saying who have got still in their 
 heads the worn-out theory that only kings ever go 
 to war it is untrue. It is not dynastic on the part 
 of Germany. It is the rising of a people from the 
 highest to the lowest, who mean to be a people, in 
 a deeper sense than any republican democrat, French 
 or English, ever understood that word. It is not 
 dynastic on the part of France. The French Emperor 
 undertook it to save his own dynasty ; but he would 
 never have done so, if he had not been of opinion (and 
 who knows the French as well as he 1) that it would 
 not be a dynastic war, but a popular one. Else, how 
 could it save his throne 1 ? What could it do but 
 hasten his fall, by contravening the feelings of his 
 people ? But it did not contravene them. Look back 
 at the papers, and you will find that Paris and the
 
 376 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 army (which between them, alas ! constitute now the 
 French people) received the news of war with a de- 
 lirium of insolent joy. 
 
 ' The Emperor was mistaken ... in spite of all his 
 cunning. He fancied that after deceiving the French 
 people after governing them' by men who were 
 chosen because they could and dared deceive that 
 these minions of his, chosen for their untruthfulness, 
 would be true, forsooth, to him alone ; that they 
 would exhibit, unknown, in a secret government, 
 virtues of honesty, economy, fidelity, patriotism, which 
 they were forbidden to exercise in public, where their 
 only function was, to nail up the hand of the weather- 
 glass, in order to ensure fine weather; as they are 
 doing to this day in every telegram. So he is justly 
 punished, as all criminals are, by his own crimes ; and 
 God's judgments are, as always, righteous and true.' 
 
 On September 5, 1870, he wrote again : 
 
 ' EVEKSLET, 
 
 Sept. 5. 
 
 ' Since Waterloo, there has been no such event in 
 Europe. I await with awe and pity the Parisian 
 news of the next few days. As for the Emperor, 
 whilst others were bowing down to him, I never 
 shrank from expressing my utter contempt of him. 
 His policy is now judged, and he with it, by fact, 
 which is the "voice of God revealed in things," as 
 Bacon says; and I at least, instead of joining the 
 crowd of curs who worry where they lately fawned, 
 shall never more say a harsh word against him. 
 Let the condemned die in peace if possible; and he 
 will not, I hear, live many months.'
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 377 
 
 In this manner Kingsley spoke, wrote, and acted 
 throughout the whole of his life, always the sworn 
 enemy of all hypocrisy, meanness, and selfishness ; 
 always the open friend of all who meant well, who pro- 
 fessed openly whatever they had discovered to be true, 
 and who lived for others rather than for themselves. 
 He was by nature the defender of all who were un- 
 justly persecuted, or borne down by the Juggernaut 
 of public opinion. That such a man should have 
 enemies, and bitter enemies, was but natural, but in 
 all the battles which he had to fight he proved him- 
 self, not only a brave, but likewise a generous an- 
 tagonist. The rules of chivalrous courtesy were 
 sacred to him, and to a German reader his courtesy 
 and modesty may sometimes seem carried too far. 
 But this modesty was part of Kingsley's nature, and 
 in some sense the respect which he showed to others 
 arose from self-respect ; and the modesty with which 
 he spoke of his own achievements, prove only his 
 truthfulness towards himself. He was in this respect 
 a true nobleman, one of nature's true gentlemen. We 
 remember one case only where he seems to have for- 
 gotten himself. He had been shamefully attacked 
 and maligned. Then, instead of saying quietly that 
 his opponent had stated the opposite of what was 
 the fact, he allowed himself to imitate an old Father 
 of the Church, and to fell his enemy to the ground, 
 with the words, Impudentissime mentiris. 
 
 His most famous controversy was that with John 
 Henry Newman, the High Church theologian,who ended 
 by becoming a Roman Catholic. The controversy was 
 the old controversy, whether it is allowable within the 
 Christian Church to suppress truth from respect for
 
 378 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 authority. To Kingsley that ecclesiastical policy was 
 not only unchristian, but simply inhuman, and, with all 
 due respect for the historical importance of the papal 
 church-government, he often spoke with the strongest 
 indignation against what he called the un-English 
 character of the Roman priesthood. This called the 
 learned and clever theologian, John Henry Newman, 
 into the arena, as the defender of his new co-reli- 
 gionists, and led to a literary duel which will retain 
 an historical character, if only by having called forth 
 Newman's Apologia pro vita mea. Strange to say, 
 public opinion was in favour of Newman. He was 
 the cleverer, sharper, more sarcastic fencer, and while 
 Kingsley came down with heavy blows, his opponent 
 inflicted many painful wounds. 
 
 In spite of his secession Newman enjoys great 
 popularity in England. He is loved and esteemed, 
 because after all he is looked upon as a martyr to 
 his convictions. The Roman Catholics themselves 
 fear him, or at least do not quite trust him, and he 
 who has done more for the Roman Church than any 
 other English convert, has never been admitted to 
 an influential position in the Church 1 . Personal 
 sympathies and a certain delight in his swordsman- 
 ship secured the sympathy of most newspapers and 
 journals in favour of Newman ; and Kingsley him- 
 self, in his frank, honest way, confessed openly that 
 'he had crossed swords with a man too strong for 
 him.' And yet, whoever is able to separate the out- 
 ward shell from the real kernel of the question, will 
 easily see that Kingsley defended a strong position 
 badly, while Newman defended a weak position 
 
 1 Written before he was made a Cardinal.
 
 CHARLES K1NGSLEY. 379 
 
 cleverly. Kingsley fought with his heart, Newman 
 with his tongue. The one cared for truth, the other 
 for victory. 
 
 During this long controversy in the years 1864 
 and 1865, Kingsley's friends observed the first 
 symptoms of decreasing force and health, and it re- 
 quired his iron will during the last ten years of his 
 life to produce so much and to sustain throughout 
 the glow of his thoughts and the splendour of his 
 language. But he was weary. Nay, through the 
 whole of his life, full of work as it was, we can hear 
 a deep note of sadness and of longing for peace and 
 rest in the grave. Even in his first work, the ' Saint's 
 Tragedy,' he sang his touching song : 
 
 '0 that we two lay sleeping 
 In our nest in the churchyard sod. 
 With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast, 
 And our souls at home with God ! ' 
 
 His lot on earth could hardly have been happier. 
 But in the midst of all his happiness as husband, 
 father, friend, teacher, preacher, and poet, his eyes 
 seem always lifted beyond the earth towards the 
 Eternal. He has died young ; and of his life, if we 
 mean by that a chain of great events, there is little 
 to relate. He was a country-clergyman, a Professor 
 of History at Cambridge, .then Canon of Chester and 
 Westminster, and died on the 23rd of January, 1875, 
 in the fifty-fifth year of his life. The interest of the 
 two volumes in which his wife and his friends have 
 collected his letters and the memoirs of his life 
 centres entirely in the man himself, in the magnifi- 
 cent human soul that speaks to us on every page.
 
 380 BI03RAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Whoever wants to know England and its real 
 strength, should read these volumes. 
 
 But the book has also a charm of its own, and 
 whoever can watch a beautiful sun, setting in the 
 west after a glorious course, and illuminating by its 
 refracted rays the whole sky with its clouds, and the 
 whole earth with its mountains and valleys, will 
 delight in watching the glorious course and the 
 beautiful setting of a human soul which in life has 
 warmed, nourished, strengthened and gladdened many 
 a heart, and which was never more grand and glorious 
 than in its death. 
 
 In conclusion, I add a few extracts from a pre- 
 face which I was asked to write soon after Kings- 
 ley's death for a new edition of his 'Roman and 
 Teuton :' 
 
 ' Never shall I forget the moment when for the 
 last time I gazed upon the manly features of Charles 
 Kingsley, features which Death had rendered calm, 
 grand, sublime. The constant struggle that in life 
 seemed to allow no rest to his expression, the spirit, 
 like a caged lion, shaking the bars of his prison, the 
 mind striving for utterance, the soul wearying for 
 loving response, all that was over. There remained 
 only the satisfied expression of triumph and peace, 
 as of a soldier who had fought a good fight, and who, 
 while sinking into the stillness of the slumber of 
 death, listens to the distant sounds of music and to 
 the shouts of victory. One saw the ideal man, as 
 Nature had meant him to be, and one felt that there 
 is no greater sculptor than Death. 
 
 ' As one looked on that marble statue which only 
 some weeks ago had so warmly pressed one's hand,
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 381 
 
 his whole life flashed through one's thoughts. One 
 remembered the young curate and the Saint's Tragedy ; 
 the chartist parson and Alton Locke ; the happy poet 
 and the Sands of Dee ; the brilliant novel-writer and 
 Hypatia and Westward-Ho ; the Rector of Eversley 
 and his Village Sermons; the beloved professor at 
 Cambridge, the busy canon at Chester, the powerful 
 preacher in Westminster Abbey. One thought of 
 him by the Berkshire chalk-streams and on the 
 Devonshire coast, watching the beauty and wisdom 
 of Nature, reading her solemn lessons, chuckling too 
 over her inimitable fun. One saw him in town- 
 alleys, preaching the Gospel of godliness and cleanli- 
 ness, while smoking his pipe with soldiers and nav- 
 vies. One heard him in drawing rooms, listened to 
 with patient silence, till one of his vigorous or quaint 
 speeches bounded forth, never to be forgotten. How 
 children delighted in him! How young, wild men 
 believed in him, and obeyed him too ! How women 
 were captivated by his chivalry, older men by his 
 genuine humility and sympathy ! 
 
 ' All that was now passing away was gone. But 
 as one looked on him for the last time on earth, one 
 felt that greater than the curate, the poet, the pro- 
 fessor, the canon, had been the man himself, with 
 his warm heart, his honest purposes, his trust in his 
 friends, his readiness to spend himself, his chivalry 
 and humility, worthy of a better age. 
 
 'Of all this the world knew little ; yet few men 
 excited wider and stronger sympathies. 
 
 ' Who can forget that funeral on the 28th Jan., 
 1875, and the large sad throng that gathered round 
 his grave ? There was the representative of the Prince
 
 382 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of Wales, and close by the gipsies of the Eversley 
 common, who used to call him their Patrico-rai, their 
 Priest-King. There was the old Squire of his village, 
 and the labourers, young and old, to whom he had 
 been a friend and a father. There were Governors 
 of distant Colonies, officers, and sailors, the Bishop 
 of his diocese, and the Dean of his abbey ; there were 
 the leading Nonconformists of the neighbourhood, 
 and his own devoted curates, Peers and Members of 
 the House of Commons, authors and publishers ; and 
 outside the churchyard, the horses and the hounds 
 and the huntsman in pink, for though as good a 
 clergyman as any, Charles Kingsley had been a good 
 sportsman too, and had taken in his life many a fence 
 as bravely as he took the last fence of all, without 
 fear or trembling. All that he had loved, and all 
 that had loved him were there, and few eyes were dry 
 when he was laid in his own yellow gravel bed, the 
 old trees which he had planted and cared for waving 
 their branches to him for the last time, and the grey 
 sunny sky looking down with calm pity on the 
 deserted rectory, and on the short joys and the 
 shorter sufferings of mortal men. 
 
 'All went home feeling that life was poorer, and 
 every one knew that he had lost a friend who had 
 been, in some peculiar sense, his own. Charles 
 Kingsley will be missed in England, in the English 
 colonies, in America, where he spent his last happy 
 year ; aye, wherever Saxon speech and Saxon thought 
 is understood. He will be mourned for, yearned for, 
 in every place in which he passed some days of his 
 busy life. As to myself, I feel as if another cable 
 had snapped that tied me to this hospitable shore.
 
 CHABLES KINGSLEY. 383 
 
 ' When an author or a poet dies, the better part of 
 him, it is often said, is left in his works. So it is 
 in many cases. But with Kingsley his life and his 
 works were one. All he wrote was meant for the 
 day when he wrote it. That was enough for him. 
 He hardly gave himself time to think of fame and 
 the future. Compared with a good work done, with 
 a good word spoken, with a silent grasp of the hand 
 from a young man he had saved from mischief, or 
 with a " Thank you, Sir," from a poor woman to whom 
 he had been a comfort, he would have despised what 
 people call glory, like incense curling away in smoke. 
 He was, in one sense of the word, a careless writer. 
 He did his best at the time and for the time. He 
 did it with a concentrated energy of will which broke 
 'through all difficulties. Though the perfection and 
 classical finish which can be obtained by a sustained 
 effort only, and by a patience which shrinks from no 
 drudgery, may be wanting in many of his works, he 
 has but few equals, if any, in the light and fire of his 
 language, in the boldness of his imagination, and in 
 the warmth of his heart. 
 
 ' He cared little for fame ; but fame has come to 
 him. His bust will stand in Westminster Abbey, 
 in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, by the side of 
 his friend Frederick Maurice; and in the Temple 
 of Fame which will be consecrated to the period of 
 Victoria and Albert, there will be a niche for Charles 
 Kingsley, the author of Alton Locke and Hypatia.'
 
 INDEX, 
 
 ABHIDHARMAKOSHASASTRA, 
 
 pp. 208, 209. 
 Adam, William, 24. 
 Adesa, or Divine Command, 90, 98, 
 
 108. 
 
 Adi Brahma Samaj, 58, 92, 106. 
 Age of man, 5. 
 All-Father, the, 10. 
 Alton Locke, 370. 
 Anecdota Oxoniensia, Buddhist 
 
 texts in, 188. 
 Anquetil Duperron, 318. 
 Arabic, Mohl's reports on, 298. 
 Archaeological Institute at Rome, 
 
 332. 
 Aryans, the North- Western, io. 
 
 South -Eastern, io. 
 Arya-Samaj, 92, 167, 181. 
 Ashi-dahaka, 278. 
 Asiatic Researches, 240. 
 Assyrian inscriptions, 287, 288. 
 
 sculptures, 288. 
 Atma, 104. 
 
 BABYLON and Nineveh, inscrip- 
 tions at, 291. 
 
 Babylonian alphabet, 292. 
 
 Behistun, trilingual inscriptions of, 
 284, 287. 
 
 sculptures of, 388. 
 
 Bentley, dislike of Colebrooke, 259. 
 Beyond, the, 9, io. 
 Bhagvat Geeta, the, 237. 
 Bharata Arama, 77. 
 Boehtlingk and Roth's Sanskrit 
 
 Dictionaries, 301. 
 Botta's discoveries at Khorsabad, 
 
 289. 
 
 Monuments de Ninive, 290. 
 Bruhma-dharma, 41. 
 Brahma marriage, the first, 56. 
 
 rites, 109-112. 
 
 Brahma Marriage Bill, 77. 
 Brahma Missionary Conference, 94. 
 Brahma-Sabha, 25. 
 Brahma-Samaj, 25, 27, 37, 38, 90, 
 - 92, 96, 106, 143, 150, 182. 
 
 pronounced the Veda not of super- 
 
 human origin, 40, 181. 
 
 dates in history of, 87. 
 
 a monotheistic church, 152. 
 
 a religion and a church, 152. 
 Brahmaic Covenant, 38 n., 41. 
 Brahmanas, the, 20, 246, 249. 
 Buddha Ainitabha, 183, 214. 
 Buddhist texts, 1 86. 
 
 Chinese translations of, 186. 
 
 literature, 187. 
 Bunsen, 311. 
 
 memoirs of, 312. 
 
 his birth, 315. 
 
 his education, 316. 
 
 travels with Astor, 317. 
 
 his longing for the East, 318. 
 
 stay in Holland, 320. 
 
 in Denmark, 321. 
 
 goes to Berlin, 321. 
 
 to Paris, 323. 
 
 works at Arabic and Persian, 
 
 323- 
 
 goes to Italy, 324. 
 
 his marriage, 320. 
 
 becomes Niebuhr's secretary, 
 
 328. 
 
 Charge 1 d'Affaires at Rome, 329. 
 
 his interest in ecclesiastical 
 
 matters, 330. 
 
 the Prussian legation at Rome, 
 
 331- 
 
 his friends at Rome, 331. 
 
 his Hymn and Prayer Book, 332. 
 
 studies hieroglyphics, 332. 
 
 leaves Rome for England, 332. 
 
 life in England, 333-336. 
 
 C C
 
 386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bunsen, Prussian Minister in Switz- 
 erland, 336. 
 
 second visit to England, 337. 
 
 appointed Prussian Envoy in 
 
 England, 340. 
 
 works written in England, 344. 
 
 visit to Oxford, 344. 
 
 his orthodoxy doubted, 345-347. 
 
 his many friends, 346. 
 
 his feelings towards the Pusey- 
 
 ites, 347. 
 
 his love for the king of Prussia, 
 
 348- 
 
 his faith in Prussia, 351. 
 
 loss of political influence, 352. 
 
 resigns and settles at Heidelberg, 
 
 354. 355- 
 
 his Bibelwerk, 355, 356. 
 
 last visit to Berlin, 356. 
 
 death, 357. 
 
 amount of work achieved by, 
 
 357. 358- 
 
 his great influence, 362. 
 Bunyiu Nanjio, 182. 
 
 sent to England, 185. 
 
 studies at Oxford, 185. 
 
 prepares Catalogue of the Tripi- 
 
 tfaka, 187. 
 
 his life in Japan, 190-204. 
 Burnouf, Eugene, 278, 283, 300. 
 
 CAIRD, Dr., his doctrine and the 
 
 Upanishads, 104. 
 Caste, 244 n. 
 
 Colebrooke on, 248-250. 
 Castes, different, 246. 
 Catholic Samaj, 78, 83. 
 Chinese, Mohl's reports on, 299. 
 
 poem, 205. 
 
 translations of Buddhist texts, 
 
 1 86. 
 
 Christ, humility of, 124. 
 Christianity, distinction between, 
 
 and other faiths, 1 20. 
 Church of the Future, 343, 344. 
 Code of Gentoo Laws, 244. 
 Colebrooke, T. H., 228. 
 
 on the Vedas, 39. 
 
 founder of Sanskrit scholarship, 
 
 229, 232. 
 
 Colebrooke, his father, 233. 
 
 goes to India, 233. 
 
 view of the vernaculars, 234. 
 
 scheme for governing India, 235. 
 
 settles at Tirhut, 235. 
 
 Oriental studies, 236. 
 
 scientific, 236. 
 
 not literary, 237. 
 
 transferred to Purneah, 238. 
 
 letters to his father, 238-240. 
 
 studies in philosophy, 241. 
 
 first paper presented to Asiatic 
 
 Society, 241. 
 
 removed to the judicial service, 
 
 243. 
 
 settles near Benares, 244. 
 
 translates Jagannatha's Digest, 
 
 245- 
 
 Essays, &c., 245. 
 
 views on Caste, 246. 
 
 diplomatic mission to Nagpur, 
 
 251. 
 
 contributions to the Asiatic 
 
 Researches, 251, 256. 
 
 Sanskrit Grammar, 252. 
 
 President of the Court of Ap- 
 
 peal, 256. 
 
 of the Asiatic Society, 256. 
 
 studies the Veda, 257. 
 
 Member of Council, 261. 
 
 marriage, 262. 
 
 returns to England, 262. 
 
 his Oriental works, 262, 263, 
 
 265. 
 
 presents his MSS. to the East 
 
 India Company, 263. 
 
 Royal Asiatic Society, 264. 
 
 death, 266. 
 
 Collet, Miss, 24*}., 72, 89, 106, 149. 
 
 Communion of Saints, 90, 98. 
 
 Comparative mythology, first glim- 
 merings of, 240. 
 
 Comparative philology, Colebrooke' s 
 studies in, 252. 
 
 Cornelius, 339. 
 
 Crimean War, 354. 
 
 Cuneiform inscriptions, 283-284. 
 
 Cureton's Ignatius, 298. 
 
 Cutch Behar marriage, 78, 86, 97, 
 99, 107, 114, 148.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 387 
 
 Cutch Behar marriage, letters on, 
 
 88-89, 107-111. 
 Czoma de Koros, 318. 
 
 DAYA-BHlGA, 261. 
 Dayananda Sarasvatl, 92, i67. 
 
 his belief in the Vedas, 168, 179, 
 
 1 80. 
 
 autobiography, 171 n. 
 
 his early training, 172. 
 
 his early doubts, 173. 
 
 leaves his home, 175. 
 
 studies the Yoga philosophy, 1 76. 
 
 his ascetic life, 177. 
 
 his orthodoxy questioned, 179. 
 
 his publications, 180, 182. 
 
 his death, 180. 
 Debendran&th Tagore, 37, 40, 83, 
 
 84, 91, 92, 103, 152. 
 
 sends Brahmans to Benares, 40. 
 
 his doctrines, 42, 59, 152. 
 
 retires to the hills, 53, 58, 154. 
 
 friendship with Keshub Chun- 
 
 der Sen, 54. 
 
 parts with Keshub Chunder Sen, 
 
 58, 63. 
 Deva, 1 1 8. 
 Dharma-sabha, 25. 
 Dharmasangraha, 213. 
 Digest of Laws, Colebrooke's, 255, 
 
 260. 
 Dvarkanath Tagore, I, 37. 
 
 joins the Brahma-Samaj, 38. 
 in Paris, 40. 
 
 EGYPTS Place in History, Bun- 
 sen's, 344. 
 
 England's ignorance of German 
 aims, 350. 
 
 English Dictionary, new, 5. 
 
 Essays on the Religious Ceremonies 
 of the Hindus, 745. 
 
 FAITH, 165. 
 
 Father, God as a, 120, 131. 
 Feridun and Fredun, 278. 
 Finite, the, 164, 166. 
 Foucaux's Life of Buddha, 301. 
 Frederick William IV, 361. 
 
 Fresnel, M., 294, 295, 298. 
 Fiirst, first, 30. 
 
 GENTOO, 244 ra. 
 Gladstone, Bunsen's love for, 334. 
 God, names for, 119. 
 Goldstiicker's Sanskrit Dictionary, 
 
 301. 
 
 Gorresio's Ramayaa, 301. 
 Greek Grammar, 254. 
 Greek, revival of, 230. 
 Grotefend, 283. 
 Guizot, his patronage of Oriental 
 
 studies, 300. 
 
 HAMADAN, inscriptions of, 284. 
 Hibbert Lectures, M. M.'s, 118, 
 
 158, 160, 161, 166. 
 Himyaritic inscriptions, 294, 297. 
 Hincks, Rev. E., 293. 
 Hindu agriculture, 239. 
 
 philosophy, 241. 
 Hora, 236. 
 
 Hdtan, the priest, 206. 
 
 copies the MSS. in the temple 
 
 at Nara, 208. 
 
 his works, 209. 
 Hundred Greatest Men, 30. 
 Hypatia, Kingsley's, 366. 
 
 IDOLS, 31,32. 
 
 Ignatius, Bunsen'e, 344. 
 
 India, despised by Europeans, 103, 
 
 . I0f> - 
 Indian literature, Mohl's attention 
 
 to, 301. 
 
 Indian Reform Association, 77. 
 Indian Reformation, 4. 
 Indian Theists, their opinion of 
 
 Christ, 75-77. 
 Infinite, the, 162, 163, 164, 166. 
 
 or Indefinite, 162. 
 
 sensuous impressions suggest the, 
 
 165. 
 
 Institut de France, its opposition 
 to Napoleon, 308. 
 
 JAGANNATHA, 34. 
 
 the Pandit, 244. 
 
 his digest, 244. 
 
 oca
 
 388 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Jerusalem Bishopric, 337. 
 Jones, Sir W., 268, 269, 270. 
 Journal Asiatique, Mohl's reports 
 
 in, 273, 273 n., 281. 
 Juggernaut, 34. 
 
 KANT'S philosophy, 160. 
 Kenjiu Kasawara, 211. 
 
 comes to England, 211. 
 
 his death, 213. 
 
 visits Ceylon on his voyage home, 
 
 219. 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, 49, 83, 92, 103. 
 
 his family, 50, 51. 
 
 his boyhood, 51, 52. 
 
 love of acting, 5 2 . 
 
 English studies, 52, 53. 
 
 his marriage, 53. 
 
 joins the Brahma -Samaj, 53. 
 
 abjures idolatry, 54. 
 
 friendship of Debendranath Ta- 
 
 gore, 54. 
 
 clerk in Bank of Bengal, 55. 
 
 resigns clerkship, 55. 
 
 expelled from his family, 56. 
 
 champion of the Brahma- Samaj, 
 
 56. 
 
 gives up the Sacred Thread, 58. 
 
 dismissed by Debendranath Ta- 
 
 gore, 58, 63. 
 
 his eloquence, 59. 
 
 doctrines held by, 62, 153. 
 
 devotion to Christ, 64, 98, 1 1 8. 
 
 practical reforms, 64. 
 
 and Debendranath Tagore, differ- 
 
 ence between, 65. 
 
 his influence for good, 67, 95. 
 
 his conception of prayer, 70. 
 of inspiration, 71. 
 
 visits England, 72. 
 
 interview with Dr. Pusey, 73, 101. 
 
 marriage of his daughter, 78, 97, 
 
 107, 148, 156. 
 
 hia view of all religions, 80. 
 
 death, 84. 
 
 his so-called vagaries, 154, 157. 
 
 persecution of, 93. 
 on the Trinity, 126. 
 Khorsabad, Botta's discoveries at, 
 
 289. 
 
 Khorsabad, M. Place at, 293. 
 
 treasures from, lost, 295. 
 Kingsley, Charles, 363, 367. 
 
 his wide-spread influence, 368. 
 
 Chartist sympathies, 370. 
 
 horror of slavery, 371. 
 
 views on the war of 1866, 371, 
 
 37 2 - 
 
 on the Franco-German war, 372, 
 
 37<5. 
 
 his modesty, 377. 
 
 and Newman, 378. 
 
 his death, 380. 
 
 his funeral, 382. 
 Koyunjik, Layard at, 292, 294. 
 Kshatriyas, the, 246, 249. 
 
 LANGUAGE, Science of, 7. 
 Lassen, 283, 285, 
 
 Indian Antiquities, 301. 
 Layard, 289. 
 
 Loftus, 289. 
 
 his work at Susah, 294. 
 London Protocol, the, 354. 
 
 MAHISHYA, a, 247. 
 
 Mahrattas, 234. 
 
 Maimansaka philosophers, 258. 
 
 Man, age of, 5. 
 
 Median and Babylonian inscriptions, 
 
 285, 286, 289, 291, 292. 
 Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta, 24. 
 MimansSi, the, 241. 
 Mohl, Julius, 272. 
 
 birth and family, 2 74. 
 
 education, 274, 275. 
 
 Oriental studies, 275. 
 
 professor at Tubingen, 2 76. 
 
 life in Paris, 277. 
 
 Chinese studies, 276. 
 
 Persian studies, 277. 
 
 friends in Paris, 280. 
 
 member of the French Institute, 
 
 280. 
 
 Professor of Persian, 280. 
 
 Socie^ Asiatique, 281. 
 
 his Annual Reports, 281, 297, 
 
 301, 302. 
 
 his truthfulness, 304.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 389 
 
 Mozumdar, Protap Chunder, 52,84. 
 Murdhiibhishikta, a, 247. 
 
 NEW Charter of East India Com- 
 pany, 242. 
 
 Dispensation, 65, 79, 81, 115, 
 
 143, 150. 
 
 newspaper, 115, 117. 
 Newman, interview with Bunsen, 
 
 335- 
 
 Apologia, 338. 
 
 and Kingsley, 378. 
 Nineveh, Botta's excavations at, 
 
 285, 286. 
 Nishada, a, 247. 
 Norris, Mr., 289, 290, 295. 
 Nyaya philosophy, 104, 241. 
 
 OLMUTZ, 352, 354. 
 
 Oppert's view of the cuneiform 
 
 alphabet, 296. 
 
 Origin of Caste, Colebrooke's, 245. 
 Oxford, Bunsen at, 335. 
 
 PALM leaves in the Horiuji 
 
 Monastery, 224. 
 PAnini, 253. 
 Parainatmi, 104, 122. 
 Peel, Sir R., letter from, 339. 
 Pehlevi and Parsi, 278. 
 Persian inscriptions, 285, 286. 
 Pra//apati, n. 
 Pratyag-atma, the, 122. 
 Precepts of Jesus, 22. 
 Present to Monotheists, 34 n. 
 Prinsep's Pali alphabet, 301. 
 Prussian constitution, 349. 
 Purawas, 41, 42, 42 n., 181. 
 Pusey, Dr., and Keshub Chunder 
 
 Sen, 73. 
 
 Queen Victoria and Bunsen, 341, 
 342. 
 
 opening parliament, 342. 
 
 at Windsor, 342, 344. 
 
 Ram Chandra Vidyabaglsh, 37. 
 Rammohun Roy, i, 83, 92, 103, 
 
 IS'- 
 
 his death, i, 29. 
 
 Rammohun Roy, his burial, I. 
 
 his language, 6, 7. 
 
 why he visited England, 8, 11,12. 
 
 a true Brahman, 8, n, 33. 
 
 his birth, 15. 
 
 his youth, 1 5, 47. 
 
 visits Tibet, 15, 16. 
 
 serves as Dlwan, 16. 
 
 his wealth, 16 n. 
 
 life at Calcutta, 17. 
 
 his belief in the Veda, 18, 21, 
 
 34 36. 
 
 learns Greek and Hebrew, 2 r . 
 
 study of the Bible, 22. 
 
 Precepts of Jesus, 22. 
 
 opposition of missionaries, 22. 
 
 and Middleton, Bishop of Cal- 
 
 cutta, 24. 
 
 Saturday meetings, 24, 25. 
 
 founder of the Brahma-Sain^], 
 
 25. 37- 
 
 widow burning, 25. 
 
 Prayer Hall, 27. 
 
 visits England, 28, 48. 
 
 arrives at Bristol, 28. 
 
 a great man, 30, 31. 
 
 opposition to idolatry, 31, 47. 
 
 his mother, 33. 
 
 religious views, 34. 
 
 letter to Mr. Gordon, 45. 
 
 his parents, 46. 
 
 Rawlinson, Colonel, 282, 284, 288, 
 289. 
 
 paper on the Behistun inscrip- 
 tion, 290, 292, 294. 
 
 Reforms, practical, of Keshub 
 Chunder Sen, 64. 
 
 Religion, Science of, 8. 
 
 'Remarks on the Husbandry and 
 Commerce of Bengal,' 242. 
 
 Renan, his account of Mohl, 305. 
 
 Revolution of 1848, 350. 
 
 Rig- Veda, Dayiinanda Sarasvati's 
 commentary on the, 1 70. 
 
 Rishis, the, 146. 
 
 Rosen, Friedrich, 39. 
 
 SACRED Books of the Buddhists 
 
 in Japan. 184. 
 Sacred Thread, the, 57, 58.
 
 390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sadharan-Samaj, 78, 83, 106. 
 $akuntala, 230. 
 Sankara (Sastri, 20. 
 Sanskrit, discovery of, 231. 
 
 scholars, two classes of, 266. 
 
 texts first printed, 245. 
 Sayana, 257. 
 
 Schlegel, 318. 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein question, 351, 
 
 353- 
 
 Schultz in Armenia, 283. 
 Science of Language, 7. 
 
 Religion, 8. 
 Self, the true, 11,12. 
 
 Sensuous impressions and the In- 
 finite, 164. 
 Shah Nameh of Firdusi, 273, 302. 
 
 translated by Mohl, 276, 277. 
 
 importance of, 278. 
 Shin-shiu sect, 183, 184. 
 Shyamaji KHsAnavarma, 171. 
 $ivanath /Sastri, 37 n., 38 n. 
 Stanley, Dean, 115, 141, 144. 
 
 and Keshub Chunder Sen, 116, 
 
 128. 
 
 his boldness, 132. 
 
 his tone of mind historical, 135. 
 
 did he believe in miracles ? 137. 
 /Sudra class, 246, 249. 
 Sukhavatl, 182. 
 
 Sukhavatl- vyuha, 185. 
 
 Suttee, 25, 26. 
 
 Syriac and Coptic MSS., 298. 
 
 TANTRAS, 42, 42 n., 181. 
 Tattva-bodhini Sabha, 37. 
 Theistic Review, 1 50, 1 54. 
 Thraeiaona, Zend, 278. 
 Traitana, or Trita, 278. 
 
 Trinitarianism in India, 23. 
 Trinitarians, 23, 122. 
 Tripiteka, or Three Baskets, 187. 
 Troyer's Ragrataranginl, 301. 
 
 UNITARIANS, 23, 122. 
 Uni-trinitarian, 126. 
 Upanishads, 20, 21, 42, 104. 
 
 VALSYAS, the, 246, 249. 
 Van, inscriptions of, 291. 
 Veda, 3, 20, 40, 43, 168. 
 
 difficulty in studying the, 19, 
 
 39- 
 
 declared not of superhuman 
 
 origin, 40, 168. 
 
 still the sacred books of India, 
 
 181. 
 
 Mohl on the Veda, 298. 
 Vedanta, 20. 
 
 Vaidya, or AmbashtfAa, 247. 
 Vedic Propaganda, 181. 
 
 College, 182. 
 
 Voysey's attack on Keshub Chun- 
 der Sen, 88, 94, 95. 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS, 233, 243, 
 244, 245. 
 
 Westergaard, 287. 
 
 essay on Median inscriptions, 
 
 289. 
 
 White Lotus Sect, 184. 
 Wilkins' Bhagvat Geeta, 237. 
 Woepke, 301. 
 
 YOGA, 176, 176 n. 
 ZOHAK, 278.
 
 STANDARD BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS, 
 
 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LORD MACAULAY. 
 
 By the Right Hon. G. O. TREVELYAN, M.P. Library Edition, 2 vols. 
 8vo. 36^. Cabinet Edition, 2 vols. crown 8vo. I2s. Popular Edition, 
 
 1 vol crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 
 
 By the Right Hon. G. O. TREVELYAN, M.P. Library Edition, 8vo. 
 i8s. Cabinet Edition, crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 REMINISCENCES By THOMAS CARLYLE. Edited by J. A. 
 FROUDE, M.A. 2 vols. crown 8vo. i8j. 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE, A History of the First Forty Years of 
 his Life, 1795 to 1835. ByJ. A. FROUDE, MA. With 2 Portraits 
 and 4 Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo. 32^. 
 
 CARLYLE'S LIFE in LONDON : from 1834 to his death 
 in 1881. By J. A. FROUDE, M.A. With Portrait engraved on steel. 
 
 2 VOls. 8VO. 32J. 
 
 LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF JANE WELSH 
 CABLYLE. Prepared for publication by THOMAS CARLYLE, and 
 Edited by J. A. FROUDE, M.A. 3 vols. 8vo. $6s. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By JOHN STUART MILL. 8vo. 7*. 6d. 
 JAMES MILL; A Biography. By A. BAIN, LL.D. Crown 8vo. 5-y. 
 
 JOHN STUART MILL ; A Criticism, with Personal Recollec- 
 tions. By A. BAIN, LL.D. Crown 8vo. is. (xi. 
 
 OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. By 
 
 J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, F.R.S. 8vo. ;j. 6d. 
 
 LIFE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. By the 
 Rev. G. R. GLEIG, M.A. Crown 8vo. Portrait. 6s. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, K.C.B. By 
 
 JOHN CLARK MARSHMAN. Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d. 
 
 ESSAYS IN ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY. By the 
 Right Hon. Sir J. STEPHEN, LL.D. Crown 8vo. "]s. 6d. 
 
 LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, & Co.
 
 WORKS BY 
 
 F. MAX MULLER, K.M., 
 
 FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE. 
 
 SELECTED ESSAYS ON LANGUAGE, MYTHOLOGY, 
 AND RELIGION. 2 vols. crown 8vo. i6s. 
 
 LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 
 
 2 vols. crown 8vo. i6s. 
 
 INDIA, WHAT CAN IT TEACH US? 
 
 A Course of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge. 
 8vo. 1 2S. 6d. 
 
 HIBBERT LECTURES, 
 
 LECTURES ON THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF 
 RELIGION, as illustrated by the Religions of India. Crown 8vo. 
 7-r. 6d. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION: 
 
 Four Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution ; with Notes and 
 Illustrations on Vedic Literature, Polynesian Mythology, the Sacred 
 Books of the East, &c. Crown 8vo. fs. 6d. 
 
 A SANSKRIT GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 
 
 In Devanagari and Roman Letters throughout. Royal 8vo. "js. 6d. 
 
 LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, & Co.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed.