Tempo:
SIKHISM UNDER GOBIND
CHAP. Ill
75
that when Muhammad was a fugitive from Mecca, 'the Arab might have changed the history of and that the Achilles of poetry, the reflexion of truth, left Troy untaken. The lord of the Myrmidons, destined to a short life and immortal glory, met an end almost as base as that which he dreaded
lance of an the world';
'^°^_"i!_
^
when struggling with Simois and Scamander; and the heroic Richard, of eastern and western fame, whose whole soul was bent upon the deliverance of Jerusalem, veiled his face in shame and sorrow that God's holy city should be left in the possession of infidels: he would not behold that which he could not redeem, and he descended from the Mount to retire to captivity and a premature grave.- Success is thus not always the measure of greatness. The last apostle of the Sikhs did not live to see his own ends accomplished, but he effectually roused the dormant energies of a vanqui- a new shed people, and filled them with a lofty although character impressed fitful longing for social freedom and national ascendancy, the proper adjuncts of that purity of worship ^^j°^j^g^
which had been preached by Nanak. Gobind saw what Hindus; was yet vital, and he relumed it with Promethean fire. A living spirit possesses the whole Sikh people, and the impress of Gobind has not only elevated and altered the constitution of their minds, but has operated materially and given amplitude to their physical frames. The features and external form of a whole people have been modified, and a Sikh chief is not more distinguishable by his stately person and free and m.aniy bearing, than a minister of his faith is by a lofty thoughtfulness of look, which marks the fervour of his soul, and his persuasion of the near presence of the Notwithstanding these changes it has Divinity.^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ix. 285. For this story of the hon-like king, see Gibbon (Decline and Fall, xi. 143). See also Turner's comparison of the characters of Achilles and Richard (History of England, p. 300), and Hallam's assent to its superior justness relatively to his own parallel of the Cid and the Enghsh hero (Middle Ages, iii. 482). ^ This physical change has been noticed by Sir Alexander Burnes (Travels, i. 285, and ii. 39), by Elphinstone (History of India, ii. 564), and it also sHghtly struck Malcolm (Sketch, Similarly a change of aspect, as well as of dress, &c., p. 129). may be observed in the descendants of such members of Hindu families as became Muhammadans one or two centuries ago, and whose personal appearance may yet be readily compared with that of their undoubted Brahmanical cousins in many That Prichard (Physical parts of Malwa and Upper India. History of Mankind, i. 183 and i. 191) notices no such change in the features, although he does in the characters, of the Hottentots and Esquimaux who have been converted to Christianity, may either show that the attention of our observers 1
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'
CHAP. Ill
75
that when Muhammad was a fugitive from Mecca, 'the Arab might have changed the history of and that the Achilles of poetry, the reflexion of truth, left Troy untaken. The lord of the Myrmidons, destined to a short life and immortal glory, met an end almost as base as that which he dreaded
lance of an the world';
'^°^_"i!_
^
when struggling with Simois and Scamander; and the heroic Richard, of eastern and western fame, whose whole soul was bent upon the deliverance of Jerusalem, veiled his face in shame and sorrow that God's holy city should be left in the possession of infidels: he would not behold that which he could not redeem, and he descended from the Mount to retire to captivity and a premature grave.- Success is thus not always the measure of greatness. The last apostle of the Sikhs did not live to see his own ends accomplished, but he effectually roused the dormant energies of a vanqui- a new shed people, and filled them with a lofty although character impressed fitful longing for social freedom and national ascendancy, the proper adjuncts of that purity of worship ^^j°^j^g^
which had been preached by Nanak. Gobind saw what Hindus; was yet vital, and he relumed it with Promethean fire. A living spirit possesses the whole Sikh people, and the impress of Gobind has not only elevated and altered the constitution of their minds, but has operated materially and given amplitude to their physical frames. The features and external form of a whole people have been modified, and a Sikh chief is not more distinguishable by his stately person and free and m.aniy bearing, than a minister of his faith is by a lofty thoughtfulness of look, which marks the fervour of his soul, and his persuasion of the near presence of the Notwithstanding these changes it has Divinity.^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ix. 285. For this story of the hon-like king, see Gibbon (Decline and Fall, xi. 143). See also Turner's comparison of the characters of Achilles and Richard (History of England, p. 300), and Hallam's assent to its superior justness relatively to his own parallel of the Cid and the Enghsh hero (Middle Ages, iii. 482). ^ This physical change has been noticed by Sir Alexander Burnes (Travels, i. 285, and ii. 39), by Elphinstone (History of India, ii. 564), and it also sHghtly struck Malcolm (Sketch, Similarly a change of aspect, as well as of dress, &c., p. 129). may be observed in the descendants of such members of Hindu families as became Muhammadans one or two centuries ago, and whose personal appearance may yet be readily compared with that of their undoubted Brahmanical cousins in many That Prichard (Physical parts of Malwa and Upper India. History of Mankind, i. 183 and i. 191) notices no such change in the features, although he does in the characters, of the Hottentots and Esquimaux who have been converted to Christianity, may either show that the attention of our observers 1
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