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 * THE STATE OF RELIGION. | 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N..I. 
 
 BX 5199 .H4 S65 1829 
 Heber, Reginald, 1783-1826. 
 Some account of the life of C 
 Reginald Heber i" 
 
Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive 
 in 2015 
 
 littps;//arcliive.org/details/someaccountoflifOOIiebe 
 
SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 REGINALD HEBER, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 PUBLISHED BY CROCKER AND BREWSTER, 
 
 47, WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: J. LEAVITT, 
 
 182, BROADWAY- 
 
 1829. 
 
C ONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth, Parentage, and Education of Reginald Heber — bis 
 distinction at Oxford — Palestine 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Heber's Travels in Russia, tlie Crimea, and Germany , 8 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 Heber reiunis to England — takes orders — marries — and set- 
 tles at Hodnet 56 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Poems published — Canon of St. Asaph — Bamptoii Lectures — 
 Heber elected Preacher at Lincoln's Inn — Life of Jeremy 
 Taylor 69 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Heber invited to take upon him the Charge of the Clnirch in 
 India — he declines — and on further consideration accepts 
 it — consecrated Bishop of Calcutta — Address to the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge— embarks for India — 
 Voyage 88 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 India — aiTival in Calcutta — First Visitation .... 116 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Voyage up the Ganges — ^Visitation of the Upper Provin- 
 ces • 140 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Return to Calcutta — Second Visitation — The Bishop at Ma- 
 dras — at Tanjore — at Trichinopoly — Death of Heber 223 
 
 Inscription on the Monument erected in Memory of Bishop 
 Heber, at Madras. Composed by tlie Rev. Thomas Rob- 
 inson, M. A 237 
 
 Tribute to the Memory of Bishop Heber. By Felicia He- 
 mans 239 
 
1.1 FE 
 
 OF 
 
 REGINALD HEBER, 
 
 BISHOP OF CALCUTTA 
 
More sweet than odours caught by him who sails 
 Near spicy shores of Araby the blest, 
 A thousand times more exquisitely sweet. 
 The freight of holy feeling which we meet. 
 In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales 
 From fields where good men loalk, or bowers wherein 
 they rest. 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S ECCLESIASTICAL SKETCHES. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 REGINALD HEBER, 
 
 BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth, Parentage and Education of Reginald Heher — 
 his distinction at Oxford — Palestine. 
 
 The character of Reginald Heber, late 
 Bishop of Calcutta, is one on which readers of 
 every sect and party, religious and political, 
 may agree to dwell with delight. To the 
 scholar his enthusiastic industry in the pursuit 
 of knowledge, the extent of his accomplish- 
 ments, the refinement of his taste, and the 
 elegant works of his genius, will ever afford 
 gratifying and improving subjects of contem- 
 plation. Throughout his life and his writings, 
 it is impossible not to trace the career of a 
 sincere, sober, enlightened patriot. His ser- 
 1 
 
2 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 vices to the Church of Christ have not, per- 
 haps, been surpassed in any Hfetime of equal 
 duration. Nor are these conspicuous merits 
 dimmed or tarnished to pubUc view, by any 
 admixture of such faults of personal temper as 
 are often recorded in the annals of the best 
 and greatest. In every relation of life he ap- 
 pears to have devoutly done his duty, and at 
 the same time done it so humbly and affection- 
 ately, as to endear himself to all with whom he 
 was connected. Few men had more friends ; 
 and he never made an enemy. The early 
 death of one by whom so much had been done, 
 and from whom so much more might have 
 been expected, and the circumstances under 
 which he was thus untimely removed, falling 
 a sacrifice in the prime of his days to the over- 
 abundance of zeal with which he pursued the 
 service of humanity and religion, on a remote 
 shore, among half-civilized, ignorant and be- 
 nighted strangers, and in a climate to which 
 his constitution was ill-adapted, have invested 
 his name and memory with a deep and uni- 
 versal interest. 
 
 It is understood that a detailed Memoir of 
 Bishop Heber's life is in the course of prepa- 
 
FAMILT. 
 
 3 
 
 ration, by the person who knew and loved him 
 the best. In the mean time we venture to 
 collect such scattered particulars as have been 
 published by writers having access to authentic 
 sources of intelligence, and present them in 
 one connected view. 
 
 The family of Heber have long been settled 
 at Martoun-Hall, in Craven, and classed with 
 the most respectable gentry of the county of 
 York. Reginald, father to the Bishop, and 
 second son of Thomas Heber, Esq. of Mar- 
 toun, was born in 1728, and educated at Bra- 
 zen-nose College, O.xford, where he afterwards 
 acted as Tutor during many years, with much 
 reputation. His elder brother dying shortly 
 after Mr. Heber had taken holy orders, he 
 came early into possession of the family estate 
 of Martoun, and, later in life, of that also of 
 Hodnet, in Shropshire, which had descended 
 to his mother from her kinsman. Sir Thomas 
 Vernon, Bart., the last male of an old and 
 honorable hneage. Together with these es- 
 tates Mr. Heber held the living of Malpas, in 
 Cheshire, and subsequently, on his own pre- 
 sentation as lord of that m<anor, the rectory of 
 Hodnet. He was twice married : first, ia 
 
4 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 1773, to Mary, the daughter of the Rev. 
 Martm Baylie, Rector of Kelsall, in Suffolk, 
 by whom he had one son, Richard Heber, 
 Esq., well known in the literary world, and 
 Member of Parliament, till lately, for the 
 University of Oxford : secondly, in 1782, to 
 Mary, daughter of Dr. Cuthbert Allanson, 
 Rector of Wrath, in Yorkshire, by whom he 
 had one daughter and two sons ; the elder of 
 whom was the subject of this memoir. 
 
 Reginald Heber, late Bishop of Calcutta, 
 was born at Malpas on the 21st of April, 
 1783. ' In his childhood,' says an evidently 
 well-informed writer, ' he was remarkable for 
 the eagerness with which he read the Bible, 
 and the accuracy with which he remembered 
 it ; a taste and talent which subsequent ac- 
 quirements and maturer years only served to 
 strengthen, so that a great portion of his read- 
 ing was intended, or at least was employed, to 
 illustrate the Scriptures. He received his 
 early education at the grammar-school of 
 Whitechurch, whence he was afterwards sent 
 to Dr. Bristowe, a gentleman who took pupils 
 near London. His subsequent career at Ox- 
 ford, where he was entered of Brazen-nose 
 
UNIVERSITY PRIZES PALESTINE. 5 
 
 College, in 1800, proved how well his youthful 
 studies had been directed, and how diligently 
 pursued. The University prizes for Latin 
 verse, for the English poem, and for the Eng- 
 lish prose-essay, were successively awarded 
 him ; and " Palestine" received the higher 
 and rarer compliment of public and universal 
 praise. Such a poem, composed at such an 
 age, has indeed some, but not many, parallels 
 in our language. Its copious diction, — its 
 perfect numbers, — its images, so well chosen, 
 diversified so happily, and treated with so 
 much discretion and good taste, — the transi- 
 tions from one period to another of the history 
 of the Holy Land, so dexterously contrived, — 
 and, above all, the ample knowledge of Scrip- 
 ture, and of writings illustrative of Scripture, 
 displayed in it — all these things might have 
 seemed to bespeak the work of a man who 
 " had been long choosing, and begun late," 
 rather than of a stripling of nineteen. Some 
 few of our University English prize-poems 
 have had an ephemeral reputation beyond the 
 precincts of Cambridge and Oxford ; but 
 " Palestine" is almost the only one that has 
 maintained its honours unimpaired, and enti- 
 1* 
 
6 
 
 BISHOP HEBEU. 
 
 tied itself, after the lapse of years, to be con- 
 sidered the property of the nation.' 
 
 The poet's father, now at a very advanced 
 age, but still retaining the vivacity of his mind 
 and affections, was present in the Sheldonian 
 Theatre when Palestine was pronounced from 
 the rostrum by its youthful author ; and wit- 
 nessed the scene with feelings which parents 
 only can understand. The verses were admi- 
 rably delivered, listened to in profound silence, 
 and rapturously applauded by a large and most 
 brilliant audience. The couplet describing the 
 building of the Temple, 
 
 ' No workman steel, no ponderous axes rung. 
 Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung,' 
 
 was particularly admired then, and will con- 
 tinue to be so. But the liveliest sensation at 
 the moment v, as probably excited by the verses 
 in which the author alluded to the then recent 
 expedition of Buonaparte into Palestine, and 
 his discomfiture at Acre by the party of British 
 seamen under the command of Sir Sydney 
 Smith — 
 
 ' When he, from towery Blaltu's yieliling isle 
 And tlie green waters of reluctant IS'ile, 
 The apostate chief — from Blisraim's subject shore 
 
UNU'ERSITY PRIZES. 
 
 7 
 
 To Acre's walls his tropliied banners bore; 
 When the pale desert niark'd his proud array. 
 And Desolation Iio|ied an ampler sway; 
 What hero then ti iumphant Gaul dismayed 1 
 What arm repelled the victor-renegade 1 
 Britannia's champion ! — bathed in hostile blood 
 High on the breach the dauntless seaman stood : 
 Admiring Asia saw tlie unequal fight, — 
 Even tlie pale crescent blessed the Clu-istian's might.* 
 
 Mr. Heber, the father, died in the begin- 
 ning of 1804. In the summer of 1805 Regi- 
 nald gained the prize for an EngHsh Essay- 
 on the Sense of Honour ; thus carrying away, 
 in succession, all the honours of this kind 
 which his University offers for the competition 
 of her sons ; and, shortly after taking his de- 
 srree of A.B., was elected a fellow of All 
 Souls' College — a society in the highest de- 
 gree select and distinguished. 
 
8 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Heber's Travels in Russia, the Crimea and Germany. 
 
 Heber now prepared to make the tour of 
 such parts of Europe as were accessible at the 
 period to EngHsh travellers. In company with 
 his friend, Mr. John Thornton, he visited 
 several of the German states, Russia, and the 
 Crimea ; and some extracts from the journal 
 which he kept throughout these peregrinations, 
 having been printed as notes to the great work 
 of Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke, excited a strong 
 Avish that the whole should be made public. 
 This has not yet been done ; and we must 
 content ourselves with transcribing a few frag- 
 ments — which, however, may well detain at- 
 tention, when it is remembered that they are 
 the productions of a traveller of two or three- 
 and-twenty. They exhibit, in effect, the same 
 accuracy of observation, the same power of 
 picturesque description, and much of the same 
 enlarged views, which have since been so fully 
 
 i 
 
TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 9 
 
 developed in his Indian Journals and Corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 The following is Heber's account of a visit 
 which he and his friend, Mr. Thornton, paid to 
 the celebrated Plato, Archbishop of Moscow, 
 in the Convent of Befania. The information 
 it afforded of the sentiments of the Russian 
 clergy was highly important at the time of 
 Clarke's first publication, and is still curious 
 and interesting. 
 
 ' The space beneath the rocks is occupied 
 by a small chapel, furnished with a stove for 
 winter devotion ; and on the right-hand is a lit- 
 tle narrow cell, containing two coffins ; one of 
 which is empty, and destined for the present 
 archbishop ; the other contains the bones of 
 the founder of the monastery, who is regarded 
 as a saint. The oak coffin was almost bit to 
 pieces by different persons afflicted with the 
 tooth-ache ; for which a rub on this board is a 
 specific. Plato laughed as he told us this ; 
 but said, " As they do it de bon cceur, I would 
 not undeceive them." This prelate has been 
 long very famous in Russia, as a man of ability. 
 His piety has been questioned ; but from his 
 conversation we drew a very favourable idea of 
 
10 
 
 BISHOP liEBER. 
 
 him. Some of his expressions would have ra- 
 ther surprised a very strict rehgionist ; but the 
 frankness and openness of his manners, and the 
 liberaUty of his sentiments, pleased us highly. 
 His frankness on subjects of politics was re- 
 markable. The clergy throughout Russia are, 
 I believe, inimical to their government ; they 
 are more connected with the peasants than most 
 other classes of men, and are strongly interested 
 in their sufferings and oppressions ; to many of 
 which they themselves are likewise exposed. 
 They marry very much among the daughters 
 and sisters of their own order, and form almost 
 a caste. I think Buonaparte rather popular 
 among them. Plato seemed to contemplate his 
 success as an inevitable, and not very alarming 
 prospect. He refused to draw up a Form of 
 Prayer for the success of the Russian arms. 
 " If," said he, " they be really penitent and 
 contrite, let them shut up their places of public 
 amusement for a month, and I will then cele- 
 brate public prayers." His expressions of dis- 
 like to the nobles and wealthy classes were 
 strong and singular ; as also the manner in 
 which he described the power of an Emperor 
 of Russia, the dangers which surround him, and 
 
RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. 
 
 11 
 
 the improbability of any rapid improvement. 
 " It would be much better," said he, " had we 
 a constitution like that of England." Yet I 
 suspect he does not wish particularly well to 
 us, in our war with France.' 
 
 In another chapter is the following masterly 
 sketch of the state of the Russian peasantry: — 
 
 ' We observed a striking difference between 
 the peasants of the croion and those of indi- 
 viduals. The former are almost all in compa- 
 ratively easy circumstances. Their abrock, or 
 rent, is fixed at five roubles a year, all charges 
 ^ included: and as they are sure that it will never 
 be raised, they are more industrious. The 
 peasants belonging to the nobles have their 
 abrock regulated by their means of getting mo- 
 ney, at an average, throughout the empire, of 
 eight or ten roubles. It then becomes not a 
 rent for land, but a downright tax on their in- 
 dustry. Each male peasant is obliged, by law, 
 to labour three days in each week for his pro- 
 prietor. This law takes effect on his arriving 
 at the age of fifteen. If the proprietor choos- 
 es to employ him the other days, he may; as, 
 for example, in a manufactory: but he then 
 finds him in food and clothing. Mutual ad- 
 
12 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 vantage, however, generally relaxes this law; 
 and, excepting such as are selected for domes- 
 tic servants, or, as above, are employed in 
 manufactories, the slave pays a certain abrock, 
 or rent, to be allowed to work all the week on 
 his o^vn account. The master is bound to 
 furnish him with a house and a certain portion 
 of land. The allotment of land is generally 
 settled by the Starosta (Elder of the village) 
 and a meeting of the peasants themselves. In 
 the same manner, when a master wants an in- 
 crease of rent, he sends to the Starosta, who 
 convenes the peasants; and by this assembly it 
 is decided what proportion each individual 
 must pay. If a slave exercise any trade which 
 brings him in more money than agricultural 
 labour, he pays a higher abrock. If by jour- 
 neys to Petersburg, or other cities, he can 
 still earn more, his master permits his absence, 
 but his abrock is raised: the smallest earnings 
 are subject to his oppression. The peasants 
 employed as drivers, at the post-houses, pay 
 an abrock out of the drink-money they receive, 
 for being permitted to drive ; as, otherwise, the 
 master might employ them in other less profit- 
 able labour, on his own account. The aged 
 
RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. 
 
 13 
 
 and infirm are provided with food, and raiment, 
 and lodging, at their owner's expense. Such 
 as prefer casual charity to the miserable pit- 
 tance they receive from their master, are fre- 
 quently furnished with passports, and allowed 
 to seek their fortune; but they sometimes pay 
 an abrocic even for this permission to beg. The 
 number of beggars in Petersburg is very small; 
 as when one is found he is immediately sent 
 back to his owner. In Moscow, and other 
 towns, they are numerous; though I think less 
 so than in London. They beg with great 
 modesty, in a low and humble tone of voice, 
 frequently crossing themselves, and are much 
 less clamorous and importunate than a Lon- 
 don beggar. 
 
 ' The master has the power of correcting his 
 slaves, by blows or confinement ; but if he be 
 guilty of any great cruelty, he is amenable to 
 the laws; which are, we are told, executed in 
 this point with impartiality. In one of the 
 towers of Khitaigorod, at Moscow, there was a 
 Countess Sohikof confined for many years with 
 a most unrelenting severity, which she merited, 
 for cruelty to her slaves. Instances of barba- 
 rity are, however, by no means rare. At 
 2 
 
14 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 Kostroma, the sister of Mr. Kotchetof, the 
 governor, gave me an instance of a nobleman 
 who had nailed (if I understood her right) 
 HIS SERVANT TO A CROSS. The mastcr was sent 
 to a monastery, and the business hushed up. 
 Domestic servants, and those employed in 
 manufactories, as they are more exposed to 
 cruelty, so they sometimes revenge themselves 
 in a terrible manner. The brother of a lady 
 of our acquaintance, who had a great distillery, 
 disappeared suddenly, and was pretty easily 
 guessed to have been thrown into a boiling 
 copper by his slaves. We heard another in- 
 stance, though not from equally good authority, 
 of a lady, now in Moscow, who had been poi- 
 soned three several times by her servants. 
 
 ' No slave can quit his village, or his mas- 
 ter's family, without a passport. Any person 
 arriving in a town or village, must produce his 
 to the Starosta; and no one can harbour a 
 stranger without one. If a person be found 
 dead without a passport, his body is sent to 
 the hospital for dissection; of which we saw 
 an instance. The punishment of living runa- 
 ways, is imprisonment and hard labour in the 
 government works; and a master may send to 
 
RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. 
 
 15 
 
 the public workhouse any peasant he chooses. 
 The prisons of Moscow and Kostroma were 
 chiefly filled with such runaway slaves, who 
 were, for the most part, in irons. On the 
 frontier, they often escape; but in the interior 
 it is almost impossible: yet, during the sum- 
 mer, desertions are very common; and they 
 sometimes lurk about for many months, living 
 miserably in the woods. This particularly 
 happens when there is a new levy of soldiers. 
 The soldiers are levied, one from every certain 
 number of peasants, at the same time all over 
 the empire. But if a man be displeased with 
 his slave, he may send him for a soldier at any 
 time he pleases, and take a receipt from govern- 
 ment; so that he send one man less the next 
 levy. He also selects the recruits he sends to 
 government; with this restriction, that they are 
 young men, free from disease, have sound 
 teeth, and are five feet two inches high. 
 
 ' The Starosta, of whom mention has been 
 so frequently made, is an officer resembling the 
 ancient bailiff of an English village. He is 
 chosen, we are told, (at least generally,) by the 
 peasants; sometimes annually, and sometimes 
 for life. He is answerable for the abrocks to 
 
16 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 the lord; decides small disputes among the 
 peasants; gives billets for quarters to soldiers, 
 or to government officers, on a journey, &c. 
 Sometimes the proprietor claims the right of 
 appointing the Starosta. 
 
 ' A slave can on no pretence be sold out of 
 Russia, nor in Russia, to any but a person born 
 noble, or, if not noble, having the rank of lAetite- 
 nant- Colonel. This rank is not confined to the 
 military; it may be obtained by them in civil 
 situations. (Professor Pallas had the rank of 
 Brigadier.) This law is, however, eluded: as 
 roturiers (plebians) frequently purchase slaves 
 for hire, by making use of the name of some 
 privileged person; and all nobles have the pri- 
 vilege of letting out their slaves. 
 
 ' Such is the political situation ofthepeasant. 
 With regard to his comforts or means of sup- 
 porting existence, I do not think they are de- 
 ficient. Their houses are in tolerable repair, 
 moderately roomy, and well adapted to the 
 habits of the people. They have the air of 
 being sufiiciently fed, and their clothing is 
 warm and substantial. Fuel, food, and the 
 materials for building, are very cheap; but 
 clothing is dear. In summer they generally 
 
RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. 17 
 
 wear Nantkin caftans, one of which costs thir- 
 teen roubles. Their labkas (linden-bark san- 
 dals) cost nothing, except in great towns. 
 They wear a blue Nantkin shirt, trimmed with 
 red, which costs two or three roubles; linen 
 drawers; and linen or hempen rags wrapped 
 round their feet and legs, over which the richer 
 sort draw their boots. The sheep-skin schauh 
 costs eight roubles, but it lasts a long time; as 
 does a lamb-skin cap, which costs three rou- 
 bles. The common red cap costs about the 
 same. For a common cloth caftan, such as 
 the peasants sometimes wear, we were asked 
 thirty roubles. To clothe a Russian peasant 
 or a soldier is, I apprehend, three times as 
 chargeable as in England. Their clothing, 
 however, is strong, and, being made loose and 
 wide, lasts longer. It is rare to see a Rus- 
 sian quite in rags. With regard to the idle- 
 ness of the lower classes here of which we had 
 heard great complaints, it appears, that, where 
 they have an interest in exertion, they by no 
 means want industry, and have just the same 
 wish for luxuries as other people. Great pro- 
 prietors who never raise their abrocks, such as 
 Count Sheremetof, have very rich and pros- 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 perous peasants. The difference we noticed 
 between peasants belonging to the Crown and 
 those of the nobilihj has been abeady mention- 
 ed. The croirn peasants, indeed, it is reason- 
 able to suppose, are more happy; living at 
 their ease, pa\-ing a moderate quit-rent, and 
 choosing their own Siarosta. They are, how- 
 ever, more exposed to vexation and oppres- 
 sion from the petty officers of the crowTi. 
 
 ' This account of the condition of the pea- 
 sants in Russia is an abrege of the different 
 statements we procured in Moscow, and chiefly 
 from Prince Theodore AtA-oiatori/z Galitzin. 
 The levies for the army are considered by the 
 peasants as times of great terror. Baron Bode 
 told me, they generally keep the levy as secret 
 as possible, till they have fixed on cind secured 
 a proper number of men. They are generally 
 chained till they are sworn in : the fore part of 
 the head is then shaved, and they are thus 
 easily distinguished from other peasatits. After 
 this, desertion is very rare, and very difficult. 
 The distress of one of their popular dramas, 
 which we saw acted at Tareslof, in the private 
 theatre of the Governor Prince Ga/i7r»" ' 
 sisted in a young man being pressed for a 
 
THE DON COSSACKS. 
 
 19 
 
 soldier. In the short reign of Peter II., who, it 
 is well known, transferred the seat of govern- 
 ment again to Moscow, no man was pressed for 
 a soldier ; the army was recruited by volun- 
 teers ; and slaves were permitted to enter.' 
 
 Heber visited the country of the Cossacks of 
 the Don ; and his notes concerning their man- 
 ners, which he rated far indeed above those of 
 the Russians, afforded better information than 
 had till then been accessible as to a people 
 destined to act a distinguished part in the de- 
 fence of the North against Buonaparte in 1812. 
 Writing at Axay on the Don, he says — 
 
 ' There is here a very decent kabak, with a 
 billiard-table, and a room adorned with many 
 German engravings, and one English print, 
 that of The Death of Chevalier Bayard. The 
 Cossacks, having never heard of the Chevalier 
 sans reproche, called it The Death of Darius. 
 On my asking if Bourbon was Alexandra Ma- 
 cedonslcy, they answered, to my surprise, that 
 he was not present at the death of Darius, and 
 showed themselves well skilled in his histm^, 
 which one would hardly e.xpect. 
 
 * Education among the Cossacks is not so 
 low as is generally thought, and it improves 
 
20 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 daily. All the children of officers are sent to 
 the academy of Tcherkask, and learn French, 
 German, &c. It was holiday-time when we 
 were there ; but their progress was well spo- 
 ken of. 
 
 ' Tcherkask stands on some marshy islands 
 in the river. The houses are all raised on 
 wooden pillars, and connected by foot bridges. 
 The foot-paths run like galleries before the 
 houses. When we saw it, every part was 
 flooded, except the principal street, the great 
 church, and the market-place. The antic 
 wooden cabins, mixed with the domes of 
 churches, tops of trees, and Calmuck tents, 
 had an interesting effect, just rising from the 
 water. The sudak still continued to poison 
 the air ; but the houses, notwithstanding the 
 people are all fishers, are neat. The Cossacks 
 are much cleaner than the Russians. There is 
 a spacious and ancient cathedral, nearly on the 
 same plan as the Casan Church in Moscow. 
 Detached from the rest of the building is a 
 large tower, which, at a distance, gives a faint 
 recollection of St. Mary's spire at Oxford. 
 There are many other churches, full of very 
 costly ornaments. I never saw so many pearls 
 
THE DON COSSACKS. 
 
 21 
 
 at once, as on the head of a Madonna in the 
 cathedral. These treasures are the spoils of 
 Turkey and Poland. 
 
 ' The manners of the people struck us, from 
 their superiority to the Russians in honesty and 
 dignity. A lieutenant at Petersburg, who once 
 begged alms from us, bowed himself to the 
 ground, and knocked his head on the floor. A 
 lieutenant here, who was imprisoned, and also 
 begged, made the request in a manly and dig- 
 nified manner, and thanked us as if we had 
 been his comrades. 
 
 ' Both men and women are handsome, and 
 taller than the Muscovites. This name they 
 hold in great contempt, as we had several op- 
 portunities of observing. The procurator, the 
 physician, the apothecary, and the master of 
 the academy, being distinguished by their 
 dress and nation from the Cossacks, seemed to 
 have formed a coterie of their own, and to dis- 
 like, and to be disliked by, the whole town. 
 The postmaster said they were much improved 
 since he came there ; that then they would have 
 pelted any stranger. We saw nothing of this 
 kind, except that, when we first landed, mis- 
 talcing us for Russians, some boys cried out, 
 
22 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 " Moscojfsky Canaille ."' — Canaille has become 
 a naturalized word in Russia.' 
 
 He thus sums up his observations on the 
 constitution of the armies of the Don : — 
 
 ' Their government differs, in many respects, 
 from the ancient Malo-Russian, and has lately 
 suffered repeated encroachments. Their terri- 
 tory, which is almost entirely pasture land, is 
 divided into stanitzas, or cantons ; for many 
 stanitzas now contain more than a single vil- 
 lage. To each of these, a certain portion of 
 land and fishery is allotted by government, and 
 an annual allowance of corn from Voronetz, 
 and northwards, according to the returned 
 number of Cossacks. They are free from all 
 taxes ; even from those of salt and distilleries. 
 The distribution of the land to the individuals 
 in each stanitza is settled by the inhabitants 
 and their Ataman. This Ataman was chosen 
 by the people, and was both civil and military 
 commander of the place. Paul had laid some 
 restrictions on this right, which I could not 
 understand. He had also ennobled the chil- 
 dren of all who had the military rank of colo- 
 nel, which was complained of, as introducing 
 an unconstitutional aristocracy. From these 
 
THE DON COSSACKS. 
 
 23 
 
 Atamans, an appeal lies to the Clfancery at 
 Tcheikask. They used to elect their Ata- 
 
 I man there, and to appeal to him only ; as- 
 sembling occasionally, as a check on his con- 
 duct ; but he is now appointed by the crown, 
 
 j and greatly diminished in power. The allot- 
 
 I ment of land and fishery which each Cossack 
 possesses may be let out by him to farm, and 
 
 * often is so ; and it is a frequent abuse to in- 
 
 i sert the names of children in the return of 
 Cossacks, to entitle them to their seniority in 
 becoming officers. I met with a child thus 
 
 ii favoured. This has taken place since the 
 
 II Cossacks, when called out, have been formed 
 into regular regiments, which has depressed 
 entirely the power of the village Ataman, by 
 
 1 the introduction of colonels, captains, &c. 
 Formerly, the Ataman himself marched at the 
 head of his stanitza. Now he merely sends 
 the required contingent, which is put under 
 officers named by the crown. 
 
 ' The Cossack, in consequence of his allow- 
 ance, may be called on to serve for any term, 
 not exceeding three years, in any part of the 
 world, mounted, armed, and clothed at his own 
 expense, and making good any deficiencies 
 
24 
 
 BISHOP HEBI%. 
 
 which may occur. Food, pay, and camp equi- 
 page, are furnished by government. Those 
 who have served three years are not liable, or 
 at least not usually called upon, to serve 
 abroad, except on particular emergencies. 
 They serve, however, in the cordon along the 
 Caucasus, and in the duties of the post and 
 police. After twenty years, they become free 
 from all service, except the home duties of 
 police, and assisting in the passage of the corn 
 barks over the shallows in the Don. After 
 twenty-five years' service they are free en- 
 tirely. 
 
 ' The Procurator declared the whole num- 
 ber of Cossacks, liable to be called on for one or 
 more of these services, Eunounted to 200,000. 
 He acknowledged that, as they would allow no 
 examination into their numbers, he spoke only 
 from conjecture, and from the different allow- 
 ances of corn, &.C. occasionally made. The 
 whole number of male population he reckoned 
 at half a million. The situation of a Cossack 
 is considered as comfortable ; and their obli- 
 gations to service are deemed well repaid by 
 their privileges and their freedom. " Free as 
 A Cossack" is a proverb we have often heard 
 
THE COSSACKS. 
 
 25 
 
 in Russia. The number of Cossack guards, 
 who are all Donsky, amounts to three regi- 
 ments, of 1000 each. The number employed 
 in Persia and Caucasus I could not learn. In 
 the year 1805, a corps of seventy-two regi- 
 ments, of 560 men each, marched under Platof, 
 the Ataman of Tcherkask ; but received coun- 
 ter orders, as it did not arrive in time for the 
 ])attle of Austerlitz. At Austerlitz, only six 
 hundred Cossacks were present. The pea- 
 sants near Austerlitz spoke of them as objects 
 of considerable apprehension to the French 
 cavalry ; particularly the cuirassiers, whose 
 horses were more unwieldy. These Cos- 
 sacks, Platof said, had suffered dreadfully, as 
 they were for some time the only cavalry with 
 the Russian army, and, before the Emperor 
 joined Kotuzof, had lost almost all their horses 
 with fatigue. During the quarrel of Paul 
 with England, he assembled 45,000 Cossacks, 
 as it was believed at Tcherkask, to march to 
 India. I saw the plan was not at all unpopu- 
 lar with Platof and his officers. PlatoPs pre- 
 decessor was the last Ataman who was in 
 l)ossession of all his ancient privileges. He 
 liad often, by his own authority, bound men 
 3 
 
26 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 hand and foot, and thrown them into the Don. 
 He was unexpectedly seized and carried off 
 by the orders of the Empress (Catherine,) 
 and succeeded, as General of the Armies of 
 the Don, by Maffei Ivanovitch Platof, a fine 
 civil old soldier, with the great cordon of St. 
 Anne. 
 
 Of the kindred tribes on the Dnieper we 
 have what follows: — 
 
 ' These men originally were deserters and 
 vagabonds from all nations, who had taken 
 refuge in the marshy islands of the Dnieper. 
 At the foundation of Cherson, they were chas- 
 ed from their homes, and took shelter at the 
 mouth of the Danube, still preserving their cha- 
 racter of fishermen and pirates. Potemkin 
 offering them pay and lands, they returned to 
 the side of Russia, and did great service in the 
 second Turkish war. They received, as a 
 reward, the country newly conquered from the 
 Kuban Tartars. They hold their lands by the 
 same tenure, and enjoy nearly the same privi- 
 leges, as the Don Cossacks. They are, how- 
 ever, much poorer, and more uncivilized, and 
 never quit their country, where indeed they 
 have sufficient employment. They receive no 
 
THE DMEPER COSSACKS. 
 
 27 
 
 pay, except an allowance of rye; and dress 
 themselves at their own expense, and in what- 
 ever colours they choose, without any regard 
 to uniformity. The officers, for the most part, 
 wear red boots, which is their only distinction. 
 They deal largely in cattle, and have a barter 
 of salt for corn with the Circassians. . . . They 
 are generally called thieves. We found them, 
 however, very honest, where their point of 
 honour was touched, very good natured, and, 
 according to their scanty means, hospitable. 
 
 ' The cattle here are larger and finer than 
 any where in Russia. There are no sheep, 
 not even of the Asiatic breed. The Cossack 
 horses are what would be called, in England, 
 good galloways. Their masters vaunt very 
 much their speed and hardiness. According 
 to them, a moderately good horse will go sixty 
 versts, or forty miles, at full speed, without 
 stopping. They are seldom handsome.' 
 
 When Mr. Heber was in this country, his 
 friend Mr. Thornton, the companion of his 
 travels, lost his gun; and they left Ekaterine- 
 dara, supposing it to be stolen; as travellers 
 in Russia are constantly liable to thefts of 
 every description. To their great surprise, 
 
28 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 however, when they arrived at Taman, the 
 gun was brought to them. An express had 
 been sent after them, who had travelled the 
 whole distance from Ekaterinedara to Taman, 
 to restore the gun to its owner; and the per- 
 son employed to convey it refused to accept 
 any reward for his labour. ' Such facts as 
 these (says Dr. Clarke) require no comment. 
 The character of the Cossacks, and their su- 
 periority to the Russians in every qualification 
 that can adorn human nature, is completely 
 established.' 
 
 Our traveller now proceeded to examine the 
 Crimea — so interesting for the remains of an- 
 tiquity and the reverses of fortune. From 
 this part of his journal the following are ex- 
 tracts: — 
 
 ' On the 22d of April we found we had ex- 
 hausted all the curiosities of Taman, and de- 
 termined to proceed directly to Kertch, and 
 wait for our carriage at Kaffa. We were in- 
 duced to take this step by understanding that 
 Venikale offered nothing remarkable either in 
 antiquities or situation, and by our desire to 
 give as much time as possible to Kaffa. The 
 regular ferry-boat was then at Venikale, and 
 
THE CRIMEA. 
 
 29 
 
 tlie wind directly contrary. For this boat our 
 carriage was obliged to wait: wc ourselves 
 obtained a fishing-boat from the point nearest 
 Kertch. From Phanagoria to this point is 
 reckoned twelve versts: it is a long narrow 
 spit of sand, evidently of recent formation, 
 and marked in Guthrie's map as an island. 
 Even where this terminates, is a range of 
 sand, reaching like a bar across almost half 
 the Bosphorus,and hardly covered with water, 
 which bids fair in time, completely to block up 
 the navigation. An immense quantity of sea- 
 fowl are seen on every part of the Straits. 
 The prospect is perfectly naked and desert; 
 on one side the bare downs and long sand 
 Kossas of Taman, and on the other a bleak 
 and rocky coast, without verdure or inhabit- 
 ants; and the miserable fishermen, who rowed 
 us over, were a very fit group for such a scene. 
 From the Kossa, where we embarked, to 
 Kertch, is reckoned twelve versts. Immedi- 
 ately opposite is a round shallow bay, where 
 was a hut in- which the fishermen occasionally 
 slept. Behind the northern point of this bay 
 opens a much larger; where a few miserable 
 houses, a small church, and a jetty of piles, 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 point out Kertch. The most conspicuous ob- 
 ject is a conical green hill, either entirely or 
 in part artificial, on the top of which is a seat 
 and a flag-staff. The Russian officer, who 
 took us there, fancied it was erected in honour 
 of Mithradates, or some of his family. The 
 shore is very shelving and shallow; and we 
 had the greatest difficulty to get our boat 
 within a reasonable distance of the land. The 
 commandant of Kertch, a Georgian by birth, 
 told us that many plans had been given for a 
 harbour and quarantine at this place; but the 
 present scheme of making KafTathe emporium 
 would probably prevent them. Immediately 
 on landing, we were accosted by a Russian 
 priest with the salutation Xftaroi unrm. We 
 had before observed, that the Cossacks used 
 at this season to salute foreigners in Greek. 
 The town of Kertch is very small and misera- 
 ble; it is chiefly inhabited by Jews. There 
 is one tolerable watchmaker, and two shops in 
 the Bazar, where we saw some English cotton 
 stuffs. The country around is all bare of 
 trees, and their fire-wood is brought from the 
 neighbourhood of Eski-Krim, a distance of 
 perhaps 120 versts. There is a spacious for- 
 
THE CRI3IEA. 
 
 31 
 
 tress, and a garrison of a lieutenant-colonel, 
 a major, and four companies of light-infantry. 
 The men were distinguished by not wearing 
 swords, which most Russian soldiers do: the 
 non-commissioned officers carried rifles. I 
 had made some drawings and memoranda o) 
 the antiquities, which I have lost, but which 
 diflJered in no material point from the account 
 published by Pallas. The most interesting are 
 in the wall of the church. It is perhaps worth 
 mentioning, as illustrative of national charac- 
 ter, that the Russian major, who agreed to 
 furnish us with horses, and an open kibitka to 
 KafTa, insisted on such usurious terms that the 
 other officers cried out shame, and that the 
 same man afterwards squeezed some further 
 presents out of Thornton's servant. A Cos- 
 sack would have disdained such conduct. 
 
 ' In the first stage towards Sudak, a build- 
 ing presents itself on the left hand, in a beau- 
 tiful situation among woods, on the side of a 
 steep hill, which our Tahtar guide said had 
 been an Armenian convent. We conversed 
 with the Tahtars by an interpreter whom we 
 hired at Kaffa: he was a Polish Jew, but had 
 resided several years at Constantinople. No- 
 
32 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 thing could be move interesting, and to us 
 novel, than the prospect, and the appearance 
 of every one we met. A mirza, or noble, ope 
 of the few who still remain in the country, 
 overtook us; and 1 was delighted at being ad- 
 dressed for the first time by the Oriental sa- 
 1am, by which we were afterwards saluted by all 
 the passengers. In this part of the country I 
 only saw one camel, a she one, and kept for 
 her milk: the roads are too steep and rocky 
 for them. The common cart had two wheels, 
 and was drawn by two oxen abreast, like a 
 curricle: it was light, but spacious. This is 
 only seen as far as Sudak: afterwards, the hills 
 are too steep for any wheel carriage. We 
 passed a day with Dr. Pallas at Sudak, who 
 asked much about Messrs. Clarke and Cripps. 
 The beauty of this celebrated valley rather 
 disappointed us, except as far as the vineyards 
 are concerned, which are more extensive and 
 finer than any we saw besides. Dr. Pallas 
 said, that the wine made by the Tahtars was 
 spoiled by the over irrigation of their vine- 
 yards, which increased the size of the grapes, 
 but injured their flavour. The wine we tasted 
 was all poor and hungry. Sudak, or, as it was 
 
THE CRIMEA. 
 
 33 
 
 explained to me, The Hill of the Fountain, is a 
 small village, peopled by a few families of 
 Greeks, with a very small and insecure har- 
 bour. The castle, which is ruinous, stands 
 on a high insulated rock on the east of the 
 town; and at the foot is a beautiful spring, 
 preserved in a large cistern, with a metal cup 
 chained to it. I suppose this is the harbour 
 mentioned by Arrian as possessed by Scythian 
 pirates, between Theodosia and Lampat. 
 There is a small but handsome mosque still 
 entire in the castle. I saw nothing which 
 could be referred to a higher antiquity than 
 the Genoese, nor any thing which I could rely 
 on as even so old as their erections. It is only 
 after Sudak that the real mountaineer features 
 and habits appear to begin. In the Vale of 
 Oluz, or Sudak, very few of the cottages are 
 flat-rooffed, and all the better sort of farm 
 houses are tiled. 
 
 ' At Kaya, the next stage, and from thence 
 to Baydar, the buildings have flat roofs, except 
 the mosques, which are tiled; generally with 
 gable-ends, and surrounded by a wooden por- 
 tico. This distinction between the roofs of 
 
34 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 private and public buildings is mentioned by 
 Aristophanes, as existing in Athens: 
 
 tZi yecf vfiu> c'ixi'»i if'i-^efctv IIFOS AETON. 
 
 Opw«. 1109-10. 
 The houses are generally piled up one above 
 another, half under ground, along the sides of 
 hills; they are composed of clay, and the vil- 
 lages resemble rabbit-warrens. Irrigation is 
 practised universally, and with apparent skill, 
 where the vineyards are planted. Very little 
 corn is grown; but the valleys are literally 
 woods of fruit-trees. Water is abundant; and, 
 near many of the best wells, seats of earth are 
 made, and bowls left for way-faring men to 
 drink. There are wolves and foxes, and, of 
 course, the other game is not very plentiful; 
 but there are hares, and a few partridges. Be- 
 tween Lambat and Aliuschta is the way to 
 ascend Chatyr Dag, which we missed seeing, 
 by the blunder of our Jewish interpreter. 
 
 ' We left Kertch on the twenty-third. From 
 thence the road winds among swampy uncul- 
 tivated savannahs, having generally a range of 
 low hills to the south, and the Sea of Asoph at 
 some distance to the north. These plains are 
 
KAFFA. 
 
 35 
 
 covered with immense multitudes of bustards, 
 cranes, and storks. I saw no pelicans after 
 landing in Europe. I never saw an English 
 bustard; but those of the Crimea appeared to 
 be a stouter bird than what is generally repre- 
 sented in prints. There are many ruins in this 
 part of the country, and other vestiges of po- 
 pulation. We passed two or three small, but 
 solid and well-built bridges over rivulets, which 
 appeared to be of Mohammedan workmanship; 
 and there were many tombs distinguished by 
 the turban. The number of barrows near 
 Kertch is surprising. We passed two villages 
 still standing, and recognised at once the gro- 
 tesque dresses of the Nogay herdsmen repre- 
 sented by Pallas. At night we reached another 
 village some time after dark, and, after a fu- 
 ilous battle with the dogs, obtained a lodging. 
 I have forgotten its name. The next day we 
 found several patches of cultivation, and the 
 country improving, though still full of ruins. 
 ' On our right hand lay the Sea of Asoph; and 
 on our left the Black Sea was now visible. A 
 ruinous mosque was before us. We found, on 
 inquiry, that our driver had mistaken his way; 
 that we had passed the turn to Kaffa, and were 
 
36 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 in the road to Karasubazar. Kaffa now lay 
 on our left hand; and presents a most dismal 
 prospect as it is approached on the side. There 
 is a striking ruin on the north-east point of the 
 bay, which was formerly a mint; and the walls 
 and towers, though dismantled, are very fine. 
 The tower rises like a theatre from the water's 
 edge, and is of considerable extent, but almost 
 entirely ruinous. On the land side it is de- 
 fended by a high wall, with loop-holes and bat- 
 tlements: the loop-holes communicate with a 
 sort of gallery, and are contrived in the thick- 
 ness of the wall, with large internal arches, 
 which give it the appearance of an aqueduct. 
 These arches support the upper walk and pa- 
 rapet. The towers are semicircular. On one 
 of them, in which is a gateway, are many 
 shields with armorial bearings, not much de- 
 faced, which ascertain the Genoese to have 
 been its founders. There are some noble Mo- 
 hammedan baths entire, but now converted into 
 warehouses; many ruined mosques; and one 
 which is still in good order, though little used. 
 There are also the remains of several buildings, 
 which, by their form, and position east and 
 west, appear to have been churches. Turkish 
 
KAFFA. 
 
 37 
 
 and Armenian inscriptions abound: but I could 
 find, in several days' search, no vestige which 
 I could rely on as having belonged to the an- 
 cient Theodosia. The north-west quarter of 
 the town is peopled by Karaite Jews, and the 
 narrow bazar nearest the water swarms with 
 those of Europe. These are the two most 
 populous parts of the town. There are some 
 Armenians, but not exceeding thirty families, 
 and hardly any Tahtars. The remainder of 
 the population consists of the garrison, five or 
 six Italian and German merchants (no French 
 when we were there,) and some miserable 
 French and Suabian emigrants. General Fan- 
 shaw has constructed a very good quay; and, 
 by pulling down some ruinous buildings and 
 a part of the wall, has made a good cut from 
 the north, which he has planted with trees. 
 They were building a very large and conve- 
 nient place of quarantine. T could find no 
 aqueduct; nor did there appear any need of 
 one, as there are many beautiful springs burst- 
 ing out of different parts of the higher town, 
 which, excepting the north-east quarter, where 
 the Karaites live, is entirely waste and ruinous. 
 The springs have all been carefully preserve 
 4 
 
38 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 in. cisterns, some of them ornamented and 
 arched over, with Turkish inscriptions: and 
 one of them in particular, which is near the 
 south-west angle of the walls, is a delightful 
 bath, though small, being surrounded by pic- 
 turesque ruins, and overhung with ivy and 
 brushwood. The ruins of KafFa are mostly of 
 free-stone: the greater part of the houses were, 
 I understood, of mud and ill-baked bricks; but 
 of these hardly any traces are left. None of 
 those still standing have flat roofs, but are all 
 tiled, with very projecting eaves, and in the ' 
 same style of architecture as the palace at 
 Batchiserai. The best of these adjoin to the 
 quay, and are inhabited by the merchants. 
 There are a few buildings lately erected; one 
 a tavern, by a French emigrant; and another 
 a house intended for the governor, Fanshaw. 
 All these are of slight timber frames, covered 
 with plaister. 
 
 * Kaffa was called by the Tahtars, in its bet- 
 ter days, Kutchuk Stamboul (Little Constan- 
 tinople.) I often asked different persons what 
 its former population was; particularly an old 
 Italian, who had been interpreter to the Khans; 
 but the answers I obtained were not such as I 
 
KAFPA. 
 
 39 
 
 could credit. Yet he and the Tahtar peasants 
 were in the same story, lhat it had formerly 
 consisted of sixteen thousand houses. All the 
 Tahtars attributed its desolation to the calami- 
 ties brought on it by the Russian garrison, who 
 tore off the roofs of the houses, where they 
 were quartered, for fire-wood. I was told by a 
 Suabian settler, that wood was chiefly brought 
 from Old Krim, and was very dear: the win- 
 ters he complained of, as very cold. Corn is 
 very dear, and comes chiefly from the Don. 
 Animal food is not so plentiful as I should 
 have supposed. A young man, who was em- 
 ployed to buy stores for Mr. Eaton the con- 
 tractor, stated the price of beef, in the market 
 of Kaffa, to be ten or fifteen copecks the pound, 
 or sometimes more, and the supply irregular. 
 About three miles from Kaffa is a small village 
 of German colonists, who were very poor and 
 desponding: the number might be twelve fami- 
 lies, who were then on their farms, the rest 
 having gone into service, or to sea. General 
 Fanshaw, to whom we had a letter, was at Pe- 
 tersburg; so that I am unable to give so good 
 an account of Kaffa as if I had the means of 
 deriving information from him. His object 
 
40 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 was to establish a Bank at Kaffa, and finally 
 to arrange the intercourse with the Don, by 
 way of Arabat. The merchants of Kaffa were, 
 as usual, excessively sanguine, and confident 
 of the success of their scheme; and we heard a 
 direct contrary story to the one we were taught 
 at Taganrog. We could not learn whether 
 Arabat had a safe harbour: the road from 
 KafTa thither is level, and, if necessary, a rail- 
 road might be put up at no great expense, as 
 it would come by water from Lugan. The bay 
 off Kafl'a is rather exposed to the south-east, 
 but we were assured they had very seldom 
 high winds from that quarter, and that acci- 
 dents had been never known to happen. A 
 small vessel, of the kind which Russia fitted 
 out in numbers during the ^Turkish war, with 
 one mast and a vast lateen sail, was lying in 
 the harbor, to take a Scotchman, named Mac- 
 master, to Immeretta, where, and at Trebizond, 
 he was to act as a sort of consul to an associa- 
 tion which had just opened a trade there. At 
 Kaffa we obtained an order from the govern- 
 ment for horses from the Tahtar villages, at the 
 rate of two copecks a verst per horse. The 
 order was in Turkish: the date was explained 
 
BATCHISKRAI. 
 
 41 
 
 to US, " From our healthy city of KafTa;" which 
 I conclude was its ancient distinction. The 
 elder, or constable, of each village is named 
 " Ombaska;" but I write the Tahtar words from 
 ear only. The road is not interesting till after 
 you have past Old Krim; though there is a 
 gradual improvement in the cultivation. Old 
 Krim, we were told, is so called, because the 
 Tahtars believe it to have been the ancient 
 capital of the Peninsula. It is now a village 
 of filly houses at most, inhabited entirely by 
 Armenians; but the Mohammedan ruins are 
 extensive : there are three mosques, and what 
 appears to have been a bath. The neighbour- 
 ing peasants are all Tahtars.' 
 
 ' Batchiserai is entirely inhabited by Tah- 
 tars, Jews, and Armenians, and is the most 
 populous place we saw in the Crimea. It has 
 several mosques, besides a very fine one in the 
 seraglio, with two minarets, the mark of roy- 
 alty- There are some decent sutlers' shops, 
 and some manufactories of felt carpets, and 
 one of red and yellow leather. The houses 
 are almost universally of wood and ill-baked 
 bricks, Avith wooden piazzas, and shelving 
 roofs of red tile. There is a new church, 
 ' 4* 
 
4St 
 
 BISHOP HLIiER. 
 
 dedicated to St. George ; but the most striking 
 feature is the palace, which though neither 
 large nor regular, yet, by the picturesque style 
 of its architecture, its carving and gihling, its 
 Arabic and Turkish inscriptions, and the foun- 
 tains of beautiful water in every court, inte- 
 rested me more than I can express. The 
 apartments, except the Hall of Justice, are 
 low and irregular. In one are a number of 
 bad paintings, representing different views of 
 Constantinople ; and, to my surprise, birds 
 were pictured flying, in violation of the Mo- 
 hammedan prohibition to paint any animal. It 
 is kept in tolerable repair ; and the divans in 
 the best rooms are still furnished with cush- 
 ions. One ajiartment, Avhich was occupied by 
 the Empress Catherine, is fitted up in a paltry 
 ball-room manner, with chandeliers, &c. and 
 forms an exception to the general style. Tlie 
 Harem is a mean building, separated from the 
 other apartments by a small walled garden, 
 and containing a kitchen, with six or eight 
 small and mean bed-rooms, each of which (as 
 we were told by our guide, who was a Jew, 
 and remembered it in the time of the Khans) 
 was usually occupied by two ladies. In the 
 
THE CRIMEA. 
 
 43 
 
 garden is a large and delightful kiosk, sur- 
 rounded by lattice-work, with a divan round 
 the inside, the centre paved with marble, and 
 furnished with a fountain. The word Serai or 
 Seraglio, which is given to this range of build- 
 ings, seems, in the Tahtar and Turkish lan- 
 guage, to answer to all the significations of our 
 English word Court ; being applied indiffe- 
 rently to the yard of an inn or the inclosure of 
 a palace.' 
 
 ' The valley of Baidar belongs to Admiral 
 Mardvinof ; but his possession was contested 
 when we were there, and the rents were paid 
 to government, in deposit. Many of the Rus- 
 sian ])roprietors of the Crimea were in the 
 same condition, owing to the ibllowing cir- 
 cumstance, as they were represented to me by 
 a young man, named the Count de Rochefort, 
 who was nephew to the Duke of Richelieu. 
 Under the terrors of conquest, the Tahtar 
 proprietors made little opposition to the grants 
 vvhich were made of their lands ; but now that 
 they are again in some measure restored to 
 their rights, such as did not come properly 
 under the description of emigrants have com- 
 menced processes to obtain a reversion of their 
 
44 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 forfeitures, which was a very unexpected blow 
 to their masters. The Russians, since the 
 conquest, have established their abominable 
 code of slavery; but not on so rigid a footing 
 as in their own country. Two days a week, 
 we understood from Pallas, is all the work a 
 Tahtar is obliged to do gratis for his lord ; 
 and the Russians complain heavily of their 
 idleness. The Mountaineers are almost all 
 either entirely freeholders, or on the footing 
 of peasants of the crown. The number of 
 Russian residents in the Crimea is reduced 
 greatly, pome have taken alarm at the tenure 
 of their lands ; others have sustained great 
 losses by their slaves running away, some of 
 whom are received and concealed by the 
 Kuban Cossacks ; which however is now pre- 
 vented by the Duke of Richelieu's govern- 
 ment, which includes the whole country up to 
 Caucasus and the Caspian. 
 
 ' The forests in this tract are not of a very 
 lofty growth : firs, however, and some oaks 
 are found, and magnificent walnut-trees. The 
 Tahtars in the spring, when the sap is rising, 
 pierce the walnut trees, and put in a spigot for 
 some time. When this is withdrawn, a clear 
 
THE CRIMEA. 
 
 45 
 
 sweet liquor flows out, which, when coagula- 
 ted, they use as sugar. In different places 
 we saw a few cypress-trees, growing in tho 
 burial-grounds : they were pointed out to us 
 as rarities, and brought from Stamboul. On 
 the plains above the sea-coast are some fine 
 olive-trees. Lombardy-poplars abound eve- 
 rywhere, and are very beautiful. 
 
 * At Koslof, or Eupatoria, I remember no- 
 thing interesting: but in the desert near it, wo 
 saw some parties of the IVogay Tahtars, and 
 had an opportunity of examining their kibitkas, 
 which are shaped something like a bee-hive, 
 consisting of a frame of wood covered with felt, 
 and placed upon wheels. They are smaller 
 and more clumsy than the tents of the Kal- 
 mucks, and do not, like them, take to pieces. 
 In the Crimea, they are more used for the oc- 
 casional habitation of the shepherd, than for 
 regular dwellings. We saw a great many 
 buffaloes and camels : several of the latter we 
 met drawing in the two-wheeled carts describ- 
 ed before, a service for which I should have 
 thought them not so well adapted as for bear- 
 ing burthens ; and although " a chariot of ca- 
 wie/«" is mentioned by Isaiah, I do not remem- 
 
46 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 ber having heard of such a practice elsewhere. 
 The plain of Koslof is hardly elevated above 
 the sea, and fresh water is very scarce and 
 bad.' 
 
 Crossing the Isthmus of Perekop, Mr. He- 
 ber thus records his general views as to the 
 Tahtar (or Tartar) population of the Crimea, 
 and the neighbouring districts : — 
 
 ' At Perekop are only one or two houses, 
 inhabited by the postmaster and custom-house 
 officers ; and a little barrack. The famous 
 wall is of earth, very lofty, with an immense 
 ditch. It stretches in a straight line from sea 
 to sea, without any remains of bastions or 
 flanking towers, that I could discover. The 
 Golden Gale is narrow, and too low for an 
 English wagon. Golden, among the Tah- 
 tars, seems synonymous with Royal; and thus 
 we hear of the Golden horde, the GoZden tent, 
 &.C. Colonel Symes mentions the same man- 
 ner of expression in Ava ; so that I suppose it 
 is common all over the East. There is only 
 one well at Perekop, the water of which is 
 brackish and muddy. A string of near two 
 hundred kibitkas were passing, laden with 
 salt, and drawn by oxen : they were driven by 
 
PEREKOP. 
 
 47 
 
 Malo-Russians, who had brought corn into the 
 Crimea, and were returning with their present 
 cargo. White or clarified salt is unknown in 
 the south of Russia ; it appears, even on the 
 best tables, with the greater part of its impu- 
 rities adhering, and consequently quite brown. 
 Kibitkas, laden with this commodity, form a 
 kind of caravan. They seldom go out of their 
 way for a town or village, but perform long 
 journeys ; the drivers only sheltered at night 
 on the lee-side of their carriages, and stretch- 
 ed on the grass. During the independence of 
 the Crimea, (an old officer told me,) these 
 people were always armed, and travelled with- 
 out fear of the Tahtars, drawing up their wa- 
 gons every night in a circle, and keeping 
 regular sentries. We here, with great regret, 
 quitted the Crimea and its pleasing inhabit- 
 ants : it was really like being turned out of 
 Paradise, when we abandoned those beautiful 
 mountains, and again found ourselves in the 
 vast green desert, which had before tired us 
 so thoroughly ; where we changed olives and 
 cypresses, clear water and fresh milk, for 
 reeds, long grass, and the drainings of marshes, 
 only made not poisonous by being mixed with 
 
48 
 
 , BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 brandy : and when, instead of a clean carpet 
 at night, and a supper of eggs, butter, honey, 
 and sweetmeats, we returned to the seat of 
 our carriage, and the remainder of our old 
 cheese. 
 
 ' Pallas has properly distinguished the two 
 distinct races of Tahtars, the Nogays and the 
 Mountaineers. These last, however, appear- 
 ed to me to resemble in their persons the Turks 
 and the Tahtars of Kostroma and Yaroslaf. — 
 They are fair and handsome people, like the 
 Tahtars in the north of Russia, given to agri- 
 culture and commerce, and here, as well as 
 there, decidedly different from the Nogays, or 
 other Mongul tribes. The Nogays, however, 
 in the Crimea, appear to have greatly improved 
 their breed by intermarriages with the original 
 inhabitants, being much handsomer and taller 
 than those to the north of the Golden Gate. 
 The Mountaineers have large bushy beards 
 when old; the Tahtars of the Plain seldom 
 possess more than a few thin hairs. The 
 Mountaineers are clumsy horsemen, in which 
 they resemble the northern Tahtars. Their 
 neighbours ride very boldly,, and well. I had 
 an opportunity of seeing two Nogay shepherd 
 
THE TAHTARS. 
 
 49 
 
 boys, who were galloping their horses near 
 Koslof, and who showed an agility and dex- 
 terity which were really surprising. While the 
 horse was in full speed, they sprang from their 
 seats, stood upright on the saddle, leaped on 
 the ground, and again into the saddle ; and 
 threw their whips to some distance, and caught 
 them up from the ground. What was more 
 remarkable, we ascertained that they were 
 merely shepherds, and that these accomplish- 
 ments were not e.\traordinary. Both Moun- 
 taineers and shepherds are amiable, gentle, 
 and hospitable, except where they have been 
 soured by their Russian masters. We never 
 approached a village at night-fall, where we 
 were not requested to lodge ; or in the day- 
 time, without being invited to eat and drink : 
 and, while they were thus attentive, they uni- 
 formly seemed careless about payment, even 
 for the horses they furnished ; never counting 
 the money, and often offering to go away with- 
 out it. They are steady in refusing Russian 
 money; and it is necessary to procure a suffi- 
 cient stock of usluks, paras, and sequins. This 
 is not their only way of showing their dislike 
 to their new masters : at one village we were 
 5 
 
50 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 surprised at our scanty fare, and the reluc- 
 tance with which every thing was furnished, 
 till we learnt that they had mistaken us for 
 Russian officers. On finding that we were 
 foreigners, the eggs, melted butter, nardek, 
 and bekmess, came in profusion. General 
 Bardakoft' told us they were fond of talking 
 politics : when we addressed them on this 
 subject, they were reserved, and affected an 
 ignorance greater than I thought likely or na- 
 tural. Pallas complained of them as disaffect- 
 ed, and spoke much of their idleness. Yet 
 their vineyards are very neatly kept, and care- 
 fully watered ; and, what is hardly a sign of 
 indolence, their houses, clothes, and persons, 
 are uniformly clean. But his account seemed 
 to me by no means sufficiently favourable. 
 They are, I apprehend, a healthy race ; but 
 we met one instance where a slight Avound 
 had, by neglect, become very painful and dan- 
 gerous. On asking what remedies they had 
 for diseases, they returned a remarkable an- 
 swer : " We lay down the sick man on a bed ; 
 and, if it please God, he recovers. Allah 
 Kerim !" Their women are concealed, even 
 more (the Duke of Richelieu said) than the 
 
CHERSO.N. 
 
 61 
 
 wives of Turkish peasants ; and are greatly 
 agitated and distressed if seen, for a moment, 
 without a veil. Like the men, they have very 
 fair and clear complexions, with dark eyes and 
 hair, and aquiline noses. Among the men 
 were some figures which might have served 
 for models of a Hercules ; and the Moun- 
 taineers have a very strong and nimble step in 
 walking. An Imaum, who wears a green tur- 
 ban, and who is also generally the school- 
 master, is in every village. Not many, how- 
 ever, of the peasants could read or write; and 
 they seemed to pay but little attention to the 
 regular hours of prayer.' 
 
 At Cherson he visits the tomb of the Bene- 
 volent Howard. — ' Cherson,' says he, ' is gra- 
 dually sinking into decay, from the unhealthi- 
 ness of its situation, and still more from the 
 preference given to Odessa. Yet timber, 
 corn, hemp, and other articles of exportation, 
 are so much cheaper and more plentiful here, 
 that many foreign vessels still prefer this port, 
 though they are obliged by government first 
 to perform quarantine, and unload their car- 
 goes at Odessa. Corn is cheap and plentiful, 
 but timber much dearer than in the north, aa 
 
S2 
 
 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 the cataracts of the Dnieper generally impede 
 its being floated down. There is a noble for- 
 est which we saw in Podolia, not far from the 
 Bog, a beautful river, imenciimbered by cata- 
 racts; but as some land-carricige would be 
 necessary, it is as yet almost " intada securi.^^ 
 The arsenal at Cherson is extensive and in- 
 teresting: it contains a monument to Potem- 
 kin, its founder. Two frigates and a seventy- 
 four were building; on account of the bar, 
 they are floated down to the Liman on camels 
 as at Petersburg. jVothing can be more 
 dreary than the prospect of the river, which 
 forms many streams, flowing through marshy 
 islands, where the masts of vessels are seen 
 rising from amid brush-wood and tall reeds. 
 In these islands are many wild boars, which 
 are often seen swimming from one to the other. 
 No foreign merchants of any consequence 
 remain here : those who transact business at 
 this court, do it by clerks and supercargoes. 
 My information respecting Cherson was 
 chiefly from a Scotchman named Geddes. 
 The Tomb of Howard is in the desert, about 
 a mile from the town: it was built by Admiral 
 Mordvinof, and is a small brick pyramid, 
 
ODESSA. 
 
 53 
 
 white-washed, but without any inscription. 
 He himself fixed on the spot of his interment. 
 He had built a small hut on this part of the 
 steppe, where he passed much of his time, as 
 the most healthy spot in the neighbourhood. 
 The English burial service was read over him 
 by Admiral Priestman, from whom I had these 
 particulars. Two small villas have been built 
 at no great distance; I suppose also from the 
 healthiness of the situation, as it had nothing 
 else to recommend it. Howard was spoken 
 of with exceeding respect and affection, by all 
 who remembered or knew him, and they were 
 many.' 
 
 Of all the unfortunate noblemen exiled from 
 France by the horrors of the revolution, none 
 made a nobler use of his time and talents than 
 the Duke de Richelieu; who, entering into the 
 service of Russia, became governor of the 
 Crimea, and remained there until the restora- 
 tion of the Bourbons, in 1814. Of the place 
 of his residence, Heber says: — 
 ■ 'Odessa is a very interesting place; and 
 being the seat of government, and the only 
 quarantine allowed, except Caffa and Tagan- 
 rog, is, though of very late erection, already 
 5# 
 
54 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 wealthy and flourishing. Too much praise 
 cannot be given to the Duke of RicheUeu, to 
 whose administration, not to any natural ad- 
 vantages, this town owes its prosperity. The 
 bay is good and secure, but all round is de- 
 sert; and it labours under the want of a navi- 
 gable river, and a great scarcity of fi-esh wa- 
 ter. There are two wells in the town, both 
 brackish; and a third, a very fine one, on the 
 opposite side of the bay: a fourth had been 
 just discovered when I was there, in the gar- 
 den of an Italian merchant, and was talked 
 of like a silver mine. All commodities are 
 either brought in barks from Cherson, or 
 drawn over the steppe by oxen, who were seen 
 lying in the streets and on the new quay, 
 greatly exhausted with thirst, and almost furi- 
 ous in their struggles to get at the water, when 
 it was poured into the troughs. The situation 
 of the town, however, is healthy and pleasant 
 in other respects. The quarantine is large, 
 and well-constructed. 
 
 ' As far as I could learn, (and I made many 
 inquiries,) it was very bad policy to fix their 
 quarantine at Odessa, instead of Otchakof, 
 where was a city and fortress ready built, in a 
 
ODESSA. 
 
 55 
 
 situation perfectly secure from the Turks, and 
 which, lying at the junction of the Bog and 
 Dnieper, is the natural emporium of these 
 seas. The harbour, I understand, is perfectly 
 secure; and, even if the Liman were unsafe, 
 the Bog affords a constant shelter. The ob- 
 servation generally made was, the necessity 
 of a secure quarantine; to which it was an- 
 swered, that the point of Kinburn afforded a 
 situation even more secure than Odessa. If 
 these facts are true, a wise government would 
 probably, without discouraging Odessa, re- 
 store the quarantine to Otchakof, and allow 
 them both to take their chance in a fair com- 
 petition. This, however, seems little under- 
 stood in Russia: Potemkin had no idea of en- 
 couraging Cherson, but by ruining Taganrog: 
 and at present Cherson is to be sacrificed to 
 the new favourite, Odessa.' 
 
66 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Heber returns to England — takes orders — marries — and 
 settles at Hodnet. 
 
 Mr. Heber returned to this country in 1807, 
 and shortly aflei wards took holy orders. The 
 valuable living of Hodnet had been reserved 
 for him since his father's death, and being now 
 put into possession of it, he married Amelia, 
 daughter of the late Dr. Shipley, Dean of St. 
 Asaph, and (to adopt the words of one of his 
 friends) ' happy in the prospect of those do- 
 mestic endearments which no man was more 
 qualified to enjoy, settled himself in his rec- 
 tory. In no scene of his life, perhaps, did his 
 character appear in greater beauty than whilst 
 he was living here, " seeing God's blessings 
 spring out of his mother-earth, and eating his 
 own bread in peace and {)rivacy." His tal- 
 ents might have made him proud, but he was 
 humble-minded as a child — eager to call forth 
 the intellectual stores of others, rather than 
 
UODXET. 
 
 67 
 
 to display his own — arguing witliout dogma- 
 tism, and convincing without triumph — equally 
 willing to reason with the wise, or take a share 
 in the innocent gaieties of a winter's fire-side; 
 for it was no part of his creed that all inno- 
 cent mirth ought to be banished from the pur- 
 lieus of a good man's dwelling; or that he is 
 called upon to abstract himself from the re- 
 finements and civilities of life, as if sitting to 
 Teniers for a picture of the Temptations of 
 St. Anthony. The attentions he received 
 might have made him selfish, but his own in- 
 clinations were ever the last he consulted; 
 indeed, of all the features in his character 
 this was, perhaps, the most prominent — that 
 in him, self did not seem to be denied, to be 
 mortified, but to be forgotten. His love of 
 letters might have made him an inactive pa- 
 rish-priest, but he was daily amongst his pa- 
 rishioners, advising them in difficulties, com- 
 forting them in distress, kneeling, often to the 
 hazard of his own life,* by their sick beds; 
 exhorting, encouraging, reproving as he saw 
 
 • Heber was, on one occasion, brought to the brink of the 
 grave by a typhus fever caught in this way. 
 
68 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 need; where there was strife, the peace- 
 maker; where there was want, the cheerful 
 giver. Yet in all this there was no parade, 
 no effort, apparently not the smallest con- 
 sciousness that his conduct differed from that 
 of other men — his duty seemed to be his de- 
 light, his piety an instinct. Many a good 
 deed done by him in secret only came to light 
 when he had been removed far away, and but 
 for that removal would have been for ever hid 
 — many an instance of benevolent interfer- 
 ence where it was least suspected, and of deli- 
 cate attention towards those whose humble 
 rank in life is too oflen thought to exempt 
 their superiors from all need of mingling 
 courtesy with kindness. That he was some- 
 times deceived in his favourable estimate of 
 mankind, it would be vain to deny; such a 
 guileless, confiding, unsuspicious singleness 
 of heart as his, cannot always be proof against 
 cunning. But if he had not this worldly 
 knowledge, he wanted it perhaps in common 
 with most men of genius and virtue; the 
 " wisdom of the serpent" was almost the only 
 wisdom in which he did not abound.'* 
 
 ♦ Quarterly Review, No LXX. 
 
HODNET. 
 
 69 
 
 ' He laboured to accommodate his instruc- 
 tions,' says another witness, ' to the compre- 
 hension of all; a labour by no means easy to 
 a mind stored with classic elegance, and an 
 imagination glowing with a thousand images 
 of sublimity and beauty. He rejoiced to form 
 his manners, his habits, and his conversation, 
 to those who were entrusted to his care, that 
 he might gain the confidence and affection of 
 even the poorest among his flock; so that he 
 might more surely win their souls to God, and 
 finally, in the day of the last account, present 
 every man faultless before His presence with 
 exceeding joy. He was, above all, singularly 
 happy in his visitation of the sick, and in ad- 
 ministering consolation to those that mourned; 
 and his name will long be dear, and his memo- 
 ry most precious, in the cottages of the poor, 
 by whose sick beds he has often stood as a 
 ministering angel.' 
 
 The following anecdote is taken from a re- 
 cent number of the London Weekly Review: — 
 
 ' There was in the parish an old man who 
 had been a notorious poacher in his youth, and 
 through the combined influence of his irregular 
 mode of life, drunken habits, and depraved as- 
 
60 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 sociates, had settled down into an irreligious 
 old age. He was a widower, had survived his 
 children, shunned all society, and was rarely 
 seen abroad. The sole inmate of his lonely 
 cottage was a little grandchild, in whom were 
 bound up all the sympathies of his rugged na- 
 ture, and on whom he lavished the warmest 
 caresses. 
 
 ' It was considered an unaccountable depar- 
 ture from his usual line of conduct when he 
 permitted little Philip to attend the Rector's 
 school. " Why not ?" was the old man's reply; 
 " d'ye think I wish Phil to be as bad as my- 
 self ? i'm black enough, God knows!'''' 
 
 ' The old man was taken ill and confined to 
 his room. It was winter. He was unable to 
 divert his mind. His complaint was a painful 
 one,; and there was every probability that his 
 illness might be of long continuance. A neigh- 
 bour suggested that his little grandson should 
 read to him. He listened at first languidly and 
 carelessly; by and bye with some degree of in- 
 terest; till at length his little grandchild be- 
 came the means of fanning into a flame the 
 faint spark of religious feeling which yet lin- 
 gered in the old man's breast. 
 
HODNET. 
 
 61 
 
 ' He expressed a wish that Mr. Heber should 
 visit him; and the good work which it pleased 
 Providence youthful innocence should begin, 
 matured piety was to carry on and complete. 
 It was no ordinary spectacle. The old man 
 lay upon his bed, in a corner of the room, near 
 the trellised window. His features were na- 
 turally hard and coarse; and the marked lines 
 of his countenance were distinctly developed 
 by the strong light which fell upon them. Aged 
 and enfeebled as he was, he seemed fully alive 
 to what was passing around him; and I had 
 leisure to mark the searching of his eye as he 
 gazed, with the most intense anxiety, on his 
 spiritual comforter, and weighed every word 
 that fell from him. The simplicity in which 
 Heber clothed every idea — the facility with 
 which he descended to the level of the old 
 man's comprehension — the earnestness with 
 ivhich he strove not to be misunderstood — and 
 the manner in which, in spite of himself, his 
 voice occasionally faltered as he touched on 
 some thrilling points of our faith, struck me 
 forcibly; while Philip stood on the other side 
 of the bed, his hand locked in his grandfather's, 
 his bright blue eye dimmed with tears as he 
 6 
 
63 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 looked sadly and anxiously from one face to 
 another, evidently aware that some misfortune 
 awaited him, though unconscious to what ex- 
 tent. 
 
 ' The old man died — died in a state of mind 
 so calm, so subdued, so penitent and resigned, 
 " that I feel myself cheered in my labours," 
 said Heber, " whenever I reflect upon it." 
 Heber himself officiated at the funeral. I 
 shall never forget, I never wish to forget — if 
 I were cast to-morrow on a desert island, it is 
 one of the few things I should care to remem- 
 ber of the world I had left behind me — the air, 
 the manner, the look, the expression of hope, 
 and holy joy, and steadfast confidence, which 
 lit up his noble countenance as he pronounced 
 this passage of our magnificent ritual — " O Fa- 
 ther, raise us from the death of sin unto the 
 life of righteousness, that when wc shall depart 
 this life we may rest in thee, as, our hope is, this 
 our brother doth." ' 
 
 The same writer says — 
 
 ' This air of gravity, which was very observ- 
 able in early life, deepened as years rolled over 
 him. In almost any other man it would have 
 appeared artificial and unnatural. In him it 
 
■ERMONS AT HODNET. 
 
 63 
 
 was neither. It was inherent in his character; 
 it was part and parcel of the man; and it be- 
 came him well. It was not the affected gravity 
 of a recluse; nor the churlish gravity of a 
 misanthrope; nor the gravity engendered by 
 spiritual pride — " Stand apart, I am holier 
 than thou" — nor the gravity so convenient to 
 tliose who have very great pretensions and a 
 very slender foundation on which to rest them; 
 but the gravity of one who felt he had a heavy 
 responsibility to discharge, and the most sol- 
 emn obligations to fulfil.' 
 
 His sermons at Hodnet are characterized by 
 the author of an article in the Quarterly Re- 
 view, already quoted, as ' sometimes expand- 
 ing into general views of the scheme and doc- 
 trines of Revelation, collected from an intimate 
 acquaintance, not with commentators, but with 
 the details of Holy Writ itself; — frequently 
 drawing ingenious lessons for Christian con- 
 duct from the subordinate parts of a parable, a 
 miracle, or a history, which a less imaginative 
 mind would have overlooked; — often enlivened 
 by moral stories, with which his multifarious 
 reading supplied him; and occasionally by facts 
 which had come, perhaps, under his observa- 
 
64 
 
 BISHOP faEBER. 
 
 tion, and which he thought calculated to give 
 spirit or perspicuity to the truths he was im- 
 parting: a practice which, when judiciously 
 restrained, is well adapted to secure the rustic 
 hearer from the fate of Eutychus, without giv- 
 ing offence even to nicer brethren: of which the 
 powerful effect is discoverable (though the 
 figures may be grosser than the times would 
 now admit) in the sermons of Latimer and the 
 Reformers; subsequently, in those of Taylor 
 and South; and still more recently, in the po- 
 pular harangues of Whitfield and Wesley; and 
 a practice, we will add, which derives counte- 
 nance and authority from the use of parables 
 in the preaching of our Lord.' 
 
 Of Heber's language in the pulpit the same 
 critic says — ' Polished it was, for such it Avas 
 in his ordinary conversation, yet seldom above 
 the reach of a country congregation, and some- 
 times(when there was aduty tobe driven home) 
 plainspoken.to a degree for which few modern 
 men would have had courage. Frequent- 
 ly it exhibited metaphors, bold, and even start- 
 ling; and ever possessed a singular charm in 
 the happy adoption of expressions from the 
 pure and undefiled English of our Bible, with 
 which his mind was thoroughly imbued.' 
 
HYMNS. 
 
 65 
 
 In the Christian Observer of 131 1 Heber 
 pubHshed the first specimens of his Hijmns: 
 prefixing the following modest and excellent 
 account of his views in composing them. 
 
 ' The following Hymns are part of an in- 
 tended series, appropriate to the Sundays, and 
 principal holidays of the year; connected in 
 in some degree with their particular Collects 
 and Gospels, and designed to be sung between 
 the Nicene Creed and the Sermon. The effect 
 of an arrangement of this kind, though only 
 .partially adopted, is very striking in the Romish 
 liturgy ; and its place should seem to be imper- 
 fectly supplied by a few verses of a Psalm, en- 
 tirely unconnected with the peculiar devotions 
 of the day, and selected at the discretion of a 
 clerk or organist. On the merits of the present 
 imperfect essays the author is unaffectedly dif- 
 fident; and as his labours are intended for the 
 use of his own congregation, he will be thank- 
 ful for'any suggestion which may advance or 
 correct them. In one respect, at least, he 
 hopes the following poems will not be found 
 reprehensible; — no fulsome or indecorous lan- 
 guage has been knowingly adopted: no erotic 
 addresses to Him whom no unclean lip can ap- 
 
66 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 proach, no allegory ill understood, and worse 
 applied. It is not enough, in his opinion, to 
 object to such expressions that they are fanati- 
 cal; they are positively profane. When our 
 Saviour was on earth, and in great humility 
 conversant with mankind; when he sat at the 
 tables, and washed the feet, and healed the 
 diseases of his creatures; yet did not his dis- 
 ciples give him any more familiar name than 
 Master or Lord. And now at the right hand 
 of his Father's majesty, shall we address him 
 with ditties of embraces and passion, or lan- 
 guage which it would be disgraceful in an earth- 
 ly sovereign to endure .'' Such expressions, it is 
 said, are taken from Scripture; but even if the 
 original application, which is often doubtful, 
 were clearly and unequivocally ascertained, 
 yet, though the collective Christian church may 
 very properly be personified as the spouse of 
 Christ, an application of such language to indi- 
 vidual believers is as dangerous as it is absurd 
 and unauthorized. Nor is it going too far to 
 assert, that the brutalities of a common swearer 
 can hardly bring religion into more sure con- 
 tempt, or more scandalously profane the Name 
 which is above every name in heaven and earth, 
 
HYMNS. 
 
 67 
 
 than certain epithets applied to Christ in our 
 popular collections of religious poetry.' 
 
 ' Heber subsequently arranged those hymns, 
 with some others by various writers, in a regu- 
 lar series adapted to the services of the Church 
 of England throughout the year, and it was his 
 intention to publish them soon after his arrival 
 in India; but the arduous duties of his station 
 left little time, during the short life there al- 
 lotted to him, for any employment not imme- 
 diately connected with his diocese. This ar- 
 rangement of them has been published since his 
 death.' 
 
 One of the most admired is that for 
 
 * SUx\D.\Y AFTER CHRISTMAS, OR THE 
 CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 ' Lord of mercy and of might ! 
 Of mankind the life and light ! 
 Maker ! teacher infinite ! 
 
 Jesus ! hear and save ! 
 
 ' Who, when sin's tremendous doom. 
 Gave Creation to the tomb, 
 Didst not scorn the Virgin's womb, 
 Jesus ! hear and save ! 
 
 • Mighty monarch ! Saviour mild ! 
 Humbled to a mortal cliild. 
 Captive, beaten, bound, revil'd, 
 Jeeun '. hear and save ! 
 
68 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 ' Throned above celestial tilings, 
 Borne alolt on an<;els' wings, 
 Lord of lords, and King of kings '. 
 Jesus I hear and save ! 
 
 ' Who shalt yet return from high. 
 Robed in might and majesty, 
 Hear us ! help us when we cry I 
 Jesus t hear and save '.' 
 
 But perhaps the most exquisite of them all 
 is the shortest. 
 
 VESPERS. 
 
 ' God that madest Earth and Heaven, 
 
 Darkness and light ! 
 Who the day for toil hast given, 
 
 For rest the night ! 
 May thine angel guards defend ds. 
 Slumber sweet thy mercy send us. 
 Holy dreams and hopes attend ug. 
 
 This livelong night '.' 
 
POEMS PUBLISHED. 
 
 69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Poems published — Canon of St. Asaph — Bampton Lec- 
 tures — Heber elected Preacher at Lincoln's Inn — Life 
 of Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 In the year 1812 Mr. Heber republished the 
 Poems ah"eady mentioned, together with con- 
 siderable additions, in a small volume, which 
 soon obtained much popularity. ' From the 
 original pieces of that volume,' (says a critic 
 already quoted,) ' it would be easy to select 
 thoughts of animation and of tenderness; but 
 unless perhaps " The Passage ofthe Red Sea" 
 (which is a noble copy of verses) should be 
 excepted, nothing that, as a whole, comes up 
 to the standard of Palestine. In the transla- 
 tions of Pindar which it contains, it may be 
 doubted whether the deep-mouthed Theban is 
 not made to speak too much after the manner 
 of the great minstrel of Scotland; still they are 
 executed with genuine spirit and elegance, and 
 the r£unbling movements of an author, who, in 
 his anxiety to escape from an Hiero or an 
 
70 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 Agesias, is very apt to run riot and lose his 
 way, are connected with no common success.' 
 
 After this publication, ' he withdrew,' (says 
 the same writer,) ' almost entirely from a pur- 
 suit to which he was by temper strongly in- 
 clined, and devoted himself to the unobtrusive 
 duties of the clerical office. Still, out of the 
 fulness of his heart, or at the call of his friends, 
 he would at intervals give proof that his hand 
 had not forgot its cunning, however it might 
 have hung up the harp; and a specimen will 
 not displease our readers: — 
 " FAREWELL. 
 " When eyes are beaming 
 
 What never tongue might tell. 
 When tears are streaming 
 From their crystal cell ; 
 When hands are linked that dread to part. 
 And heart is met by throbbing heart. 
 Oh ! bitter, bitter is the smart 
 
 Of tliem that bid farewell ! 
 " When hope is chidden 
 
 That fain of bliss would tell. 
 And love forbidden 
 
 In the breast to dwell ; 
 When fettered by a viewless chain. 
 We turn and gaze, and turn again, 
 Oh ! death were mercy to tlie pain 
 Of them tliat bi J farewell !"— MS ' 
 
BAMPTON LECTURES. 
 
 71 
 
 He was about this time appointed one of the 
 Canons of St. Asaph, and in 1816 published 
 his Lectures * On the Personality and Office 
 of the Christian Comforter. 
 
 ' The Bampton Lectures which he published 
 in 1816 established his reputation in the theo- 
 logical world; for, though many dissented from 
 his views on some speculative points, every 
 competent judge was compelled to do justice 
 to the depth of learning, the variety of research, 
 and the richness of illustration which those 
 compositions displayed.' 
 
 The conclusion of the work thus character- 
 ized is an admirable specimen of the author's 
 style. After recapitulating the method which 
 he had followed out, he thus sums up: — 
 
 ' Above all it has been mine aim to show 
 that by the Comforter whom Christ foretold, 
 and by those blessed aids which he has for 
 Christ's sake dispensed to mankind, the faith- 
 ful of every age and nation are, no less than 
 the Apostles tliemseh es, infallibly conducted 
 to that truth which is in Jesus: and that " for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for 
 instruction in righteousness," the Scripture of 
 the last, no less than of the former covenant, 
 is " given by the inspiration of God." 
 
72 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 ' Nor do we expect, nor do we desire those 
 further aids to knowledge and to holiness which 
 the Romanists would seek for in the authority 
 whether of their collective Church, or of a 
 single ecclesiastical officer. To us it seems 
 presumptuous and unreasonable, when a rule 
 has been given by God himself, to go on de- 
 manding at his hands another and yet another 
 criterion; to peer about, in the full blaze of 
 sunshine, for the beams of a supplementary 
 star; or to subject the inspiration of the imme- 
 diate Apostles of our Lord to the authoritative 
 decision of their, surely, less enlightened suc- 
 cessors. But, neither in the ancient synagogue, 
 nor in that primitive Church which the Messiah 
 formed on its model, is any claim to be found, 
 when their language is rightly apprehended, to 
 a privilege so extraordinary as that of them- 
 selves interpreting the charter whence they 
 derived their authoritj-. In things indifferent, 
 and in controversies between the brethren, the 
 sentence of the Church was unquestionably 
 binding on the conscience of all its members. 
 But v/here God and man were parties, they 
 could express their opinion only; and the most 
 awful denunciation which they had it in their 
 
BAMPTON LECTURES. 
 
 73 
 
 power to utter, is a confession of their own 
 incompetency. The anathema, of which so 
 formidable ideas are entertained, is in its very 
 terms no other than an appeal to the final 
 judgment of that Lord \vho shall hereafter come 
 in glory; that Lord before whom, as before his 
 proper Master, every individual must stand or 
 fall; and whose laws must be applied by every 
 individual for himself to his own case, and at 
 his own exceeding peril. 
 
 ' If, then, the Scriptures be, as these pretend, 
 obscure, they arc obscure to those who perish. 
 No remedy was provided under the elder Co- 
 venant for those to whose instruction neither 
 Moses nor the Prophets sufficed; nor does St. 
 Peter in the New (though in a case where he 
 admits the difficulty of God's word) direct the 
 ignorant and unstable to apply for further light 
 to himself or his Roman successors. Nor, in- 
 deed, is it intelligible, even on the established 
 principles of Popery, in what manner the re- 
 scripts of their Pontiff, and the decrees of their 
 Council, could product, any more than the an- 
 cient books of Scripture, the effects which they 
 fondly ascribe to them. L^nless the inspired 
 interpreter were omnipresent as well as infalli- 
 7 
 
74 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 ble, his edicts must, no less than every other 
 composition, whether human or divine, be lia- 
 ble to perversion or cavil. If the secular arm 
 be withdrawn, it may be suspected that the 
 sentence of a council will not very greatly 
 avail with those by whom the words of Peter 
 or Paul are evaded or d,espised; nor will any 
 solid satisfaction be afforded by the cumbrous 
 mazes of the canonists and schoolmen, to those 
 weak brethren who have already lost their way 
 in the narrow compass of one little volume. 
 
 ' But, in the essentials of salvation, and to 
 those who sincerely desire to be taught of God, 
 are the Scriptures really obscure.' Let those 
 bear witness, whom by these means alone, the 
 Spirit of God has guided into all necessary 
 truth! Let those bear witness who have fled 
 from the perturbed streams of human contro- 
 versy to this source of living water, whereof 
 " if a man drink he shall never thirst again." 
 Let the mighty army of the faithful bear wit- 
 ness, who, believing no less than they find, and 
 desiring to believe no more, have worshipped 
 in simplicity of heart, from the earliest ages of 
 the Messiah's kingdom, the Father, the Son, 
 and the comfortable Spirit of God! I do not, — 
 
BAMPTON LECTURES. 
 
 75 
 
 God forbid that I should in this place, and be- 
 fore so many of those who must hereafter 
 unite their amplest stores both of classical and 
 sacred learning in his cause from whom we 
 have received all things! — I do not deny the 
 efficacy, the propriety, the absolute necessity 
 of offering our choicest gifts of every kind on 
 the altar of that religion to whose ministry we 
 are called, and of concentrating all the lights 
 of history and science to the illustration of 
 these wonderful testimonies. But, though, to 
 illustrate and defend the faith, such aids are, 
 doubtless, needful, the faith itself can spring 
 from no other source than that volume which 
 alone can make men wise to everlasting salva- 
 tion, that engrafted word, which, though the 
 ignorant and unstable may wrest it to their 
 own destruction, is, to those who receive it 
 with meekness and with faith, the wisdom and 
 the power of God. 
 
 * By this book the Paraclete has guided the 
 Church into whatever truths the Church of 
 Christ has, at any time, believed or known; 
 by this book and the doctrine which it contains, 
 he has convinced the world of sin, and justified 
 the Son of Man from the malicious slanders of 
 
76 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 his enemies; by this book he consoles us for 
 the absence of our Lord, and instructs us in 
 things to come; by this he reigns; where this 
 IS found his kingdom reaches also; by this 
 weapon, proceeding from the mouth of God, 
 shall the enemies of his Christ be at length ex- 
 tirpated from the world; and by this, it may 
 be thought, as by the rule of God's approba- 
 tion, shall the secrets of all hearts be, finally, 
 made known, in that day when " whosoever is 
 not found written in the book of life, shall be 
 cast into the lake of fire." 
 
 'Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the 
 spiritual gift, seeing that we have not followed 
 after cunningly devised fables, let us, each in 
 his station, abound in the labour of the Lord, 
 diffusing as we may that saving knowledge, the 
 possession of which alone could make it expe- 
 dient for the disciples of Christ that their 
 Master should depart and leave them ! And 
 let us pour forth, above all, our fervent prayers 
 to that Almighty Spirit, who hath given us 
 these holy records of his will, that, by his sup- 
 porting grace, they may bring forth in us the 
 fruit of holiness, and the harvest of life without 
 -end, through the mercies of the Father, the 
 
PREACHER AT LmCOLN's INN. 77 
 
 merits of the Son, and the strong protection of 
 the Comforter.' 
 
 It may be proper to mention, that the eight 
 ' Divinity Sermons' preached annually before 
 the University of Oxford, and thereafter print- 
 ed, within two months of their delivery, are 
 called the Bampton Lectures in consequence 
 of their being so preached and printed at the 
 charge of an estate bequeathed to the Uni- 
 versity by the Rev. John Bampton, sometime 
 Canon of Salisbury ; and that the election to 
 preach these discourses has always been con- 
 sidered as one of the highest compliments 
 which the University can bestow on any of its 
 clerical members. In Heber's case the com- 
 pliment was singularly enhanced by the con- 
 sideration of his youth, as compared with the 
 age at which most of his predecessors had 
 been appointed. 
 
 This high honour was followed by another ; 
 namely, his election to be preacher at Lincoln's 
 Inn. In this new character he had to reside 
 a certain part of the year in London, and to 
 deliver sermons in the presence of one of the 
 most learned societies of the metropolis. His 
 manner of acquitting himself in these func- 
 7* 
 
73 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 tions gave liigh gratification to the numerous 
 friends with w iioai liis intercourse was renewed 
 in consequence of his partial removal of resi- 
 dence to London ; among wliom we may men- 
 tion the names of his contemporaries at Oxford, 
 by this time eminent in public life, the Right 
 Honourable Charles Williams Wynn, Charles 
 Grant, and Robert Wilmot Horton, Robert 
 Grant, Esq. M. P., Sir Robert Inglis, Bart., 
 and the family of the Thorntons. 
 
 Except an article now and then in The 
 Quarterly Review, and The Christian Ob- 
 server, Mr. Heber had published nothing for 
 several years, when, in 1822, he undertook 
 to furnish a life of Jeremy Taylor, and a cri- 
 tical examination of iiis writings, for a new 
 edition of the works of that great and good 
 prelate. Heber's Life of Taylor, since pub- 
 lished separately in two small volumes, is, as 
 regards literary taste, one of the most classi- 
 cal productions of our times — and, in a re- 
 ligious point of view, one of the most solidly 
 valuable. ' If it be compared,' (says one of 
 his critics,) ' with the " Sermons on the Per- 
 sonality and OlRce of the Christian Comfort- 
 er," it will be found that it is the v.'ork of 
 
LIFE OF JEREMY TAYLOR. 
 
 79 
 
 maturer knowledge, and a more chastised 
 taste ; the style retaining the vigour, perhaps 
 somewhat of the floridness, of former years, 
 but without being compHcated, ambitious, or 
 constrained ; the matter exhibiting much 
 thought, as well as ample reading, and setting 
 forth, without reserve, the author's own views 
 of most of the controverted points of church 
 doctrine and discipline, which his subject natu- 
 rally led him to pass in review. But the work 
 derives a further interest from the evident sym- 
 pathy with which his biographer (perhaps un- 
 consciously) contemplates the life and writings 
 of that heavenly-minded man: — Much, indeed, 
 they had in common — a poetical temperament; 
 a hatred of intolerance; great simplicity; an 
 abomination of every sordid and narrow-minded 
 feeling ; an earnest desire to make religion 
 practical instead of speculative: and faith, 
 vivid in proportion to the vigour of high 
 imagination.'* 
 
 The following extract from the Life of 
 Jeremy Taylor will, we doubt not, gratify all 
 our readers, and stimulate the curiosity of those 
 who have not as yet perused the work itself. 
 
 * Quarterly Review. 
 
80 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 ' Of Taylor's domestic habits and private 
 character much is not known, but all which is 
 known is amiable. " Love," as well as " ad- 
 miration," is said to have " waited on him," 
 in Oxford. In Wales, and amid the mutual 
 irritation and violence of civil and religious 
 hostility, we find him conciliating, when a 
 prisoner, the favour of his keepers, at the 
 same time that he preserved, undiminished, 
 the confidence and esteem of his own party. 
 Laud, in the height of his power and full- 
 blown dignity; Charles, in his deep reverses; 
 Hatton, Vaughan, and Conway, amid the tu- 
 mults of civil war; and Evelyn, in the tran- 
 quillity of his elegant retirement; seem alike 
 to have cherished his friendship, and coveted 
 his society. The same genius which extorted 
 the commendation of Jeanes, for the variety of 
 its research and vigour of its argument, was 
 also an object of interest and affection with 
 the young, and rich, and beautiful Katherine 
 Philips ; and few writers, who have expressed 
 their opinions so strongly, and, sometimes, so 
 unguardedly as he has done, have lived and 
 died with so much praise and so little cen- 
 sure. Much of this felicity may be probably 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TAYLOR. 
 
 81 
 
 referred to an engaging appearance and a 
 pleasing manner ; but its cause must be 
 sought, in a still greater degree, in the evident 
 kindliness of heart, which, if the uniform tenour 
 of a man's writings is any index to his charac- 
 ter, must have distinguished him from most 
 men living: in a temper, to all appearance 
 warm, but easily conciliated ; and in that which, 
 as it is one of the least common, is of all dis- 
 positions the most attractive, not merely a. 
 neglect, but a total forgetfulness of all selfish 
 feeling. It is this, indeed, which seems to 
 have constituted the most striking feature of 
 his character. Other men have been, to 
 judge from their writings and their lives, to 
 all appearance, as religious, as regular in 
 their devotions, as diligent in the performance 
 of all which the laws of God o> man require 
 from us ; but with Taylor his duty seems to 
 have been a delight, his piety a passion. His 
 faith was the more vivid in proportion as his 
 fancy was more intensely vigorous; with him 
 the objects of his hope and reverence were 
 scarcely unseen or future ; his imagination 
 daily conducted him to " diet with gods," and 
 elevated him to tiie same height above the 
 
82 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 world, and the same nearness to ineffable 
 things, which Milton ascribes to his allegori- 
 cal " cherub Contemplation." 
 
 ' With a mind less accurately disciplined in 
 the trammels and harness of the schools — less 
 deeply imbued with ancient learning — less uni- 
 formly accustomed to compare his notions with 
 the dictates of elder saints and sages, and sub- 
 mit his novelties to the authority and censure 
 of his superiors — such ardour of fancy might 
 have led him into dangerous errors ; or have 
 estranged him too far from the active duties, 
 the practical wisdom of life, and its dull and 
 painful realities : and, on the other hand, his 
 logic and learning — his veneration for antiquity 
 and precedent — and his monastic notions of 
 obedience in matters of faith as well as doc- 
 trine — might have fettered the energies of a 
 less ardent mind, and weighed him down into 
 an intolerant opposer of all unaccustomed 
 truths, and, in his own practice, a superstitious 
 formalist. Happily, however, for himself and 
 the world, Taylor was neither an enthusiast 
 nor a bigot : and, if there are some few of his 
 doctrines from which our assent is withheld 
 by the decisions of the church and the Ian- 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TAYLOR. 
 
 83 
 
 guage of Scripture, — even these (while in 
 themselves they are almost altogether specu- 
 lative, and such as could exercise no inju- 
 rious influence on the essentials of faith or the 
 obligations to holiness,) may be said to have 
 a leaning to the side of piety, and to have 
 their foundation in a love for the Deity, and 
 a desire to vindicate his goodness, no less than 
 to excite mankind to aspire after greater de- 
 grees of perfection. 
 
 ' In the lessons which flow from this chair, 
 in the incense which flames on this altar, the 
 sound of worldly polemics is hushed, the light 
 of worldly fires becomes dim. We see a saint 
 in his closet, a Christian bishop in his ministry ; 
 and we rise from the intercourse impressed 
 and softened with a sense how much our own 
 practice yet needs amendment, and how mighty 
 has been that faith of which these are the fruits, 
 that hope of which these are the pledges and 
 prelibations. 
 
 ' Of the broader and more general lines of 
 Taylor's literary character, a very few obser- 
 vations may be sufficient. The greatness of 
 his attainments, and the powers of his mind, 
 are evident in all his writings, and to the least 
 
84 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 attentive of his readers. It is hard to point out 
 a branch of learning or of scientific pursuit to 
 which he does not occasionally allude ; or any 
 author of eminence, either ancient or modern, 
 with whom he does not evince himself ac- 
 quainted. And it is certain, that as very few 
 other writers have had equal riches to display, 
 so he is apt to display his stores with a lavish 
 exuberance, which the severer taste of Hooker 
 or of Barrow would have condemned as osten- 
 tatious, or rejected as cumbersome. Yet he 
 is far from a mere reporter of other men's argu- 
 ments, — a textuary of fathers and schoolmen, 
 — who resigns his reason into the hands of his 
 predecessors, and who employs no other in- 
 strument for convincing their readers than a 
 lengthened string of authorities. His famili- 
 arity with the stores of ancient and modern 
 literature is employed to illustrate more fre- 
 quently than to establish his positions ; and 
 may be traced, not so much in direct citation, 
 (though of this, too, there is, perhaps, more 
 than sufficient,) as in the abundance of his 
 allusions, the character of his imagery, and 
 the frequent occurrence of terms of foreign 
 
LIFE OF BISHOP TAYLOR. 
 
 85 
 
 derivation, or employed in a foreign and unu- 
 sual meaning. 
 
 ' On the other hand, few circumstances can 
 be named which so greatly contribute to the 
 richness of his matter, the vivacity of his style, 
 and the harmony of his language, as those 
 copious'drafts on all which is wise or beautiful 
 or extraordinary, in ancient writers or in foreign 
 tongues ; and the very singularity and hazard 
 of his phrases have not unfrequently a peculiar 
 charm, which the observers of a tamer and 
 more ordinary diction can never hope to in- 
 spire. 
 
 ' It is on devotional and moral subjects, 
 however, that the peculiar character of his 
 mind is most, and most successfully, devel- 
 oped. To this service he devotes his most 
 glowing language ; to this his aptest illustra- 
 tions : his thoughts and his words at once burst 
 into a flame, when touched by the coals of this 
 altar ; and whether he describes the duties, or 
 dangers, or hopes of man, or the mercy, pow- 
 er, and justice of the Most High ; whether he 
 exhorts or instructs his brethren, or ofl^ers up 
 his supplications in their behalf to the com- 
 mon Father of all: — his conceptions and his 
 8 
 
86 
 
 BISHOF HEBER. 
 
 expressions belong to the loftiest and most sa- 
 cred description of poetry; of which they on- 
 ly want, what they cannot be said to need, 
 the name and the metrical arrangement. 
 
 ' It is this distinctive excellence, still more 
 than the other qualifications of learning and 
 logical acuteness, which has placed him, even 
 in that age of gigantic talent, on an eminence 
 superior to any of his immediate contempora- 
 ries; which has exempted him from the com- 
 parative neglect into which the dry and repul- 
 sive learning of Andrews and Sanderson has 
 fallen ; — which has left behind the acuteness 
 of Hales, and the imaginative and copious 
 eloquence of Bishop Hall, at a distance hardly 
 less than the cold elegance of Clark, and the 
 dull good sense of Tillotson ; and has seated 
 him, by the almost unanimous estimate of pos- 
 terity, on the same lofty elevation with Hooker 
 and with Barrow. 
 
 ' Of such a triumvirate, who shall settle the 
 precedence ? Yet it may, perhaps, be not far 
 from the truth, to observe that Hooker claims 
 the foremost rank in sustained and classic dig- 
 nity of style, in political and pragmatical wis- 
 dom; that to Barrow the praise must be as- 
 
LIFE or BISHOP TAYLOR. 
 
 87 
 
 signed of the closest and clearest views, and 
 of a taste the most controlled and chastened ; 
 but that in imagination, in interest, in that 
 which more properly and exclusively deserves 
 the name of genius, Taylor is to be placed be- 
 fore either. The first awes most, the second 
 convinces most, the third persuades and de- 
 lights most : and, (according to the decision 
 of one whose own rank amorig^the ornaments 
 of English literature yet remains to be deter- 
 mined by posterity,) Hooker is the object of 
 our reverence, Barrow of our admiration, and 
 Jeremy Taylor of our love.' 
 
 This admirable piece of biography perma- 
 nently placed Heber among the first of our 
 modern writers. 
 
88 
 
 BISHOP HEBER 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Heber invited to take upon him the Charge of the Church 
 in India — he declines — and on further consideration 
 accepts it — consecrated Bishop of Calcutta — address 
 to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge — 
 embarks for India — Voyage. 
 
 Early in IS^the news of the death of Dr. 
 Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta, arrived in Eng- 
 land ; and, chiefly through tlie instrumentality 
 of his friend, Mr. Williams Wynn, the Preach- 
 er of Lincoln's Inn was invited to be his suc- 
 cessor in that see. His situation, at the time 
 when this proposal was made to him, has been 
 thus sketched by one of his friends. 
 
 ' Mr. Heber's election as preacher at Lin- 
 coln's Inn was a very flattering distinction, 
 whether the character of the electors be con- 
 sidered, or the merits of his predecessor, or 
 those of the distinguished persons before whom 
 he was preferred ; valuable, moreover, as pla- 
 cing somewhat more " in oculis civium" a 
 man intended by nature for a less obscure 
 station than that which he had for years been 
 
INVITED TO INDIA. 
 
 89 
 
 filling, — though assuredly that was one which 
 he, had it been so ordained, would have con- 
 tinued to fill to his dying day, without any 
 querulous suspicion that he had fallen on evil 
 times when merit is overlooked, and talent 
 suffered to spend itself on an unworthy field. 
 
 ' Thus usefully and happily was he engaged; 
 — in town, occupying an honourable and im- 
 portant situation, and with easy access to men 
 of letters, of whom the capital must ever be 
 the resort; — in the country, inhabiting a par- 
 sonage, built by himself in a situation which 
 he had selected, in the neighbourhood of most 
 of his kindred, amidst friends who loved and 
 reverenced him, and in a parish where none 
 would have desired a greater satisfaction than 
 to have done him a service; — when he was 
 summoned from scenes where, to use a beau- 
 tiful expression of Warburton's, " he had hung 
 a thought upon every thorn," to take upon 
 himself the government of the church in India. 
 
 ' What his struggles at that moment were, 
 those who were near him at the time know 
 well. How could such a man contemplate 
 such a charge without some self-distrust.' 
 How could he give up his country without a 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 BISHOP HEBER 
 
 pang? How could he look forward to an In- 
 dian climate without apprehension — not, in- 
 deed, for himself, (for of himself he was ever 
 prodigal,) but for his wife and child? Still a 
 splendid opportunity of usefulness was offered 
 him; and accustomed as he was, in a degree 
 quite characteristic, to recognize the superin- 
 tending hand of Providence in all the lesser 
 events of life, it was not to be expected that, 
 in one of the nature and magnitude of this, 
 he would see it no longer. After much delib- 
 eration he refused the appointment, not how- 
 ever without some misgiving of heart: he 
 shortly after withdrew his refusal, and was 
 then satisfied that he had acted right. Secu- 
 lar minds may look, and have looked, for the 
 secular motives which might have actuated 
 him; but, in truth, — 
 
 He lieard a voice lliey couM not hear, 
 
 Which said, no longer stay; 
 He saw a hand they could not see, 
 
 Which beckoned him away.' 
 
 The nature of the duty to which he had been 
 called, is thus sketched by the same writer. 
 ' " If God has no need of human learning,''^ 
 
JNVITED TO INDIA. 
 
 91 
 
 retorted South on the Puritans of his day, 
 " still less has he need of human ignorance:''^ 
 and too truly has this been seen in much of 
 the history of the attempts to Christianise the 
 East. A sanguine spirit has gone forth thith- 
 er, expecting ends without means — hailing the 
 most equivocal symptoms as infallible signs of 
 conversion — prompting replies to the listless 
 heathen, and then recording those parrot- 
 words as spontaneous tokens of grace. To 
 every sentence which one of the missionaries 
 addressed to a man before him, covered with 
 cow-dung, he received as an answer, " Ni- 
 sam!" (most certain!) pronounced with great 
 gravity, and accompanied by a sober nod of 
 the head. " I was much cheered," says the 
 worthy teacher, " by his approving so cordial- 
 ly the doctrines of salvation:" — and if here 
 the questions had ended, this man would have 
 had as good right to be enrolled amongst the 
 lists of converted heathens as many more; 
 but, unluckily, it was further asked, " How 
 old are you?" "How long have you been 
 Sunyasee.'" — to which he rephed, with the 
 same emphasis as before, "NisamI Nisam!" 
 The missionary should ever be on his guard 
 
92 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 against exciting the suspicions of the people 
 of England that his work is hollow and un- 
 sound, — he should be slow to claim conquests 
 which cool-headed men at home may think 
 his desultory mode of warfare not likely to 
 achieve. The people of England are not ig- 
 norant of the boasts of the Roman Catholic 
 teachers in the same field; as many as they 
 could baptize (and in some countries they are 
 said to have made short work of it, by swing- 
 ing a besom) were registered as converts, and 
 reported as living proofs of their amazing suc- 
 cess. And we all know what has been the 
 consequence. Of late years, however, and 
 especially amongst the Protestant missions of 
 our own church, far greater caution has been 
 observed; and now (except, perhaps, in a few 
 instances where the native catechists recom- 
 mend to the missionaries candidates for bap- 
 tism, for whose competency they are them- 
 selves the vouchers) a degree of hesitation is 
 felt about admitting to this rite, that some may 
 think, and perhaps justly think, more than 
 even prudence demands. That error, how- 
 ever, if error it be, is on the right side. 
 
 ' Already, by all who do not wish to be blind, 
 
RELIGIOUS STATE OF INDIA. 
 
 93 
 
 some symptoms of progress may be traced. 
 Till within these few years, the reluctance of 
 the Brahmins to communicate the contents of 
 their sacred books was insuperable; now eve- 
 ry European, who has the curiosity, is per- 
 mitted to look into those mysteries, and ac- 
 quaint himself with what a Hindoo professes, 
 which will often furnish not the worst argu- 
 ments against what he practises. Martyn 
 durst not introduce into his schools his version 
 of the parables, and acquiesced, of necessity, 
 in the use of a Hindoo poem on an avatar of 
 Vishnu, which had no other merit than that of 
 being unintelligible to the children: but at this 
 day the Gospels are freely read, as far as the 
 teachers think fit to impart them; boys of all 
 ranks, from the Brahmin to the Soodra, are 
 assembled together, under the same roof; and 
 places are won and lost in the classes without 
 any reference to caste or colour. When one 
 of the church missionaries was first appointed 
 to the school at Burdwan, not a boy would 
 consent to abide on the same premises with 
 him; by degrees they were induced to become 
 more familiar — at length to attend worship — 
 and at last (except during the holidays) to re- 
 
94 
 
 BISHOF HEBER. 
 
 main with him altogether. At Badagamme, 
 in Ceylon, we are told that the children of 
 different castes may be seen seated on mats, 
 eating and drinking together, with the utmost 
 apparent good-will; — a novel spectacle, even 
 in that island of promise. It is not more than 
 five or six years ago since the project for ed- 
 ucating females in India was reckoned hope- 
 less; now, upwards of thirty girls' schools are 
 in activity at Calcutta alone. At Mirzapore, 
 where a chapel has been established for Ben- 
 galee preaching, the congregation changes 
 several times perhaps during a sermon, as the 
 curiosity or patience of the hearers becomes 
 exhausted; nor is it a symptom of small im- 
 portance that, whilst few old people are ob- 
 served there, the young are always to be found 
 in considerable numbers. We are told by 
 Colonel Phipps, (who resided several months 
 near Juggernaut, and was present at the great 
 annual festival,) that the practice which but 
 recently prevailed, of enticing pilgrims to cast 
 themselves under the wheels of the car, has 
 now ceased; that the disgusting images with 
 which it was decorated have been removed, 
 and that the outer walls of the temple are 
 
RELIGIOUS STATE OF INDIA. 
 
 95 
 
 purged of the like emblems of impurity. 
 " Where there is shame," says Johnson, 
 " there may in time be virtue." 
 
 ' Caste is undoubtedly the great obstacle to 
 the conversion of the East, but it is not an 
 insurmountable obstacle. It existed, with 
 many other Indian peculiarities of the present 
 day, before the age of Arrian; yet Christiani- 
 ty made its way on the coast of Malabar in 
 spite of it. Certain it is, also, that many na- 
 tives in our own times have actually courted 
 baptism, and thereby broken caste, even where 
 the caste was honourable; and that more have 
 been prevented from taking the same step, by 
 the importunate entreaties of parents and 
 friends, seconded, in some cases, by the dis- 
 interested recommendations of the missiona- 
 ries themselves. It is not, indeed, by any 
 measure which " cometh of observation" that 
 a death-blow can be dealt to this deep-rooted 
 institution; but time and Christianity will do 
 the work in peace. Thus it is that slavery, 
 in almost all Christian countries, has disap- 
 peared, no man knowing when or how — not 
 by the triumphant issue of a servile war, not 
 by any sudden measures of legislatorial eman- 
 
96 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 cipation, — l)ut through the operatio'n of the 
 eternal laws of social progress fixed by Pro- 
 vidence, and especially, as we cannot but be- 
 lieve, by the slow yet sure operation of that 
 very principle which is now beginning to work 
 in India. Thus it is that witchcraft, which so 
 few generations back held firm possession of 
 the faith of our forefathers, and against which 
 even the lofty mind of a Sir Matthew Hale 
 was not proof, has been quietly laid to sleep. 
 What prejudice of caste could be stronger 
 than the principle of religious intolerance in 
 our own country three centuries ago, when 
 even Cranmer could sully his fair fame by 
 one miserable, though, no doubt, most con- 
 scientious compliance with it; and what is, 
 perhaps, more remarkable, when, in a subse- 
 quent age, and afler the tempest of the refor- 
 mation had well nigh subsided, even the amia- 
 ble Bishop Jewell could breathe the temper 
 which spake in James and John at the Sama- 
 ritan village, in one solitary sentence of his 
 immortal Apology? But years rolled on, and 
 the better spirit was silently prevailing. 
 Through Hooker, who now appeared, its ad- 
 vance may be traced; though his writings 
 
CHURCH m INDIA. 
 
 97 
 
 (which, however, are of a defensive rather 
 than an aggressive character) occasionally 
 deal out blows against the captious adversa- 
 ries of the church which he revered, with an 
 asperity savouring more of the times than the 
 man, yet never would they deliver over an he- 
 retical offender to the secular arm; and, in 
 the next century, toleration was openly and 
 professedly abetted in a work, which, as it 
 was the first, so it remains the ablest, vindi- 
 cation of the cause — " The Liberty of Proph- 
 esying." — With these and many more such 
 instances before us, we cannot but look for- 
 
 • ward to the time when Brahmin and Soodra 
 shall have the relation to each other of gen- 
 tleman and peasant, and no other — and this 
 the more confidently, because there is good 
 reason to believe that caste is as much a civil 
 as a religious institution, — as much founded 
 upon convenience as upon conscience. 
 
 ' Such a consummation the establishment of 
 a national church among our own countrymen 
 
 • scattered over India was eminently calculated 
 to advance ; and in selecting the founder of 
 that church, (a matter of no small importance 
 to its future fortunes,) a most sound judgment 
 
 9 
 
98 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 was exercised. The hints for his conduct in 
 India, which Dr. Middleton committed to 
 writing whilst on ship-board, and which are 
 given in Archdeacon Bonney's Life of him, 
 are worthy of all praise ; and to that spirit of 
 piety which influei^ced him, both in the accept- 
 ance and discharge of his high functions, were 
 added, talents for business, and a practical 
 wisdom, which enabled him to struggle with 
 difficulties that would have overwhelmed a 
 mind of a different construction, and to devise 
 measures and regulations of ecclesiastical po- 
 lity for the infant church, under which, by 
 God's blessing, it will for ever prosper.. Still 
 his firmness (and few mep had more) was not 
 unfrequently put to the proof The appoint- 
 ment of a bishop at all was considered by 
 many a dangerous experiment ; and perhaps 
 a jealousy of investing him with too ample 
 powers was the natural consequence. It must, 
 for example, have been vain to expect that a 
 knowledge of Christianity should be diffused 
 on any great scale, without the liberal help of 
 native preachers, over such a country as India 
 — more especially when the civil government 
 cannot, for obvious reasons, give more than 
 
CHURCH IN INDIA. 
 
 99 
 
 their best wishes to tlie work. The history 
 of our own Reformation (were not the reason 
 of the thing enough) might have estabHshed 
 this truth ; and whilst Wales, and the Norman 
 Isles, where the new doctrines were taught by 
 ministers of their own, became speedy and sin- 
 cere converts to those doctrines, Ireland, 
 which was visited by English instructors only, 
 — men whose speech was strange and offensive 
 to the great majority of the inhabitants, — never 
 was made fully acquainted with the reformed 
 faith ; and so, that critical day being suffered 
 to pass unimproved, has entailed upon the 
 sister-kingdoms, in our own times, a melan- 
 choly division of heart. The privilege, never- 
 theless, of ordaining native Christians was 
 withheld from Dr. Middleton ; and though he 
 subsequently sued for it under restrictions, it 
 was still denied to him. On trial, however, it 
 was found that a bishop had not been nearly so 
 mischievous as had been apprehended. No 
 rebellion had followed his appointment ; the 
 rupees had continued to drop as fast as before 
 into the Company's treasury : and accordingly, 
 one of the first acts of Dr. Middleton's suc- 
 cessor was to ordain a native Christian. Nor 
 
100 
 
 BISHOP HEBER 
 
 was this the only thorn in the side of our first 
 Indian bishop. It may be gathered from his 
 two latter charges, how much he suffered from 
 the divisions which he saw amongst the peo- 
 ple, and that the want of unity in church doc- 
 trine and discipline afforded him a subject of 
 severe mortification — of mortification propor- 
 tioned to the strength of his reasonable con- 
 viction that every departure from the tenets of 
 the church of England was a departure from 
 sound faith and primitive practice. Baptists, 
 Independents, Wesleyan Methodists and Pres- 
 byterians were all struggling for precedence ; 
 and the poor heathen lookers-on might well be 
 perplexed with unnecessary difficulties when 
 they perceived that the Christian doctors them- 
 selves agreed in nothing but in mutual accu- 
 sations of error. Having borne up, however, 
 against these difficulties as few men could 
 have done ; and having wielded the powers of 
 a bishop for nearly nine years, with a wisdom 
 that has procured for him the admiration of all 
 lovers of our church, this excellent man was 
 gathered to his fathers, and succeeded by Re- 
 ginald Heber :' — (on whom, at the same pe- 
 riod, the University of Oxford conferred the 
 degree of Doctor in Divinity by diploma.) 
 
SUCCEEDS BISHOP MIDDLETON. 101 
 
 ' I can say with confidence,' writes he about 
 this time, ' that I have acted for the best ; and 
 even now that the die is cast, I feel no regret 
 for the resoUition I have taken, nor any dis- 
 trust of the mercies and goodness of Provi- 
 dence, who may protect both me and mine, 
 and, if He sees best for us, bring us back 
 again, and preserve our excellent friends to 
 welcome us. For England, and the scenes of 
 my earliest and dearest recollections, I know 
 no better farewell than that of Philoctetes : — • 
 
 Aui'ftutf TxuT £jreKfoeii£>." ' 
 
 Yet a far better farewell than this was his 
 own ; for having returned to Hodnet for a few 
 weeks to settle his affairs before his final de- 
 parture, on Sunday, 20th of April, 1823, he 
 preached his last sermon there, the effect of 
 which those who read it may partly conjecture 
 — those who heard it (we are told) will never 
 forget. It was printed at the earnest request 
 of the congregation, and as the copies wero 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 few, and the circulation local, it may not pro- 
 bably have fallen into the hands of many of 
 our readers : we take advantage, therefore, of 
 a second edition which has just been publish- 
 ed, to introduce a- passage or two from it to 
 their notice. Having spoken in general of the 
 vanity of fixing the affections on a world where 
 every thing is fleeting, to the neglect of that 
 Being who alone is for ever the same, he pro- 
 ceeds — 
 
 ' My ministerial labours among you must 
 have an end : I must give over into other 
 hands the task of watching over your spiritual 
 welfare ; and many, very many, of those with 
 whom I have grown up from childhood, in 
 whose society I have passed my happiest days, 
 and to whom it has been, during more than 
 fifteen years, my duty and my delight (with 
 such ability as God has given me) to preach 
 the gospel of Christ, must, in all probability, 
 see my face in the flesh no more. Under such 
 circumstances, and connected with njany who 
 now hear me by the dearest ties of blood, of 
 friendship, and of gratitude, some mixture of 
 regret is excusable, some degree of sorrow is 
 holy. I cannot, without some anxiety for the 
 
FAREWELL SERMON AT HODNET. 103 
 
 future, forsake, for an untried and arduous 
 field of duty, the quiet scenes where, during so 
 much of my past life, I have enjoyed a more 
 than usual share of earthly comfort and pros- 
 perity ; I cannot bid adieu to those, with whose 
 idea almost every recollection of past happi- 
 ness is connected, without many earnest wishes 
 for their welfare, and (I will confess it) with- 
 out some severe self-reproach that, while it 
 was in my power, I have done so much less 
 than I ought to have done, to render that wel- 
 fare eternal. There are, indeed, those here 
 who know, and there is One, above all, who 
 knows better than any of you, how earnestly 
 I have desired the .peace and the holiness of 
 His church ; how truly I have loved the peo- 
 ple of this place ; and how warmly I have 
 hoped to be the means, in his hand, of bring- 
 ing many among you to glory. But I am at 
 this moment but too painfully sensible that in 
 many things, yea in all, my performance has 
 fallen short of my principles ; that neither pri- 
 vately nor publicly have I taught you with so 
 much diligence as now seems necessary in my 
 eyes : nor has my example set forth the doc- 
 trines in which I have, however imperfectly, 
 
104 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 instructed you ; yet, if my zeal has failed in 
 steadiness, it never has been wanting in sin- 
 cerity. I have expressed no conviction which 
 I have not deeply felt ; have preached no doc- 
 trine which 1 have not steadfastly believed : 
 however inconsistent my life, its leading object 
 has been your welfare ; and I have hoped, 
 and sorrowed, and studied and prayed for 
 your instruction, and that you might be saved. 
 For my labours, such as they were, I have 
 been indeed most richly rewarded, in the uni- 
 form affection and respect which I have re- 
 ceived from my parishoners ; in their regular 
 and increasing attendance in this holy place, 
 and at the table of the Lord ; in the welcome 
 which I have never failed to meet in the houses 
 both of rich and poor ; in the regret (beyond 
 my deserts, and beyond my fullest expecta- 
 tions) M ith which my announced departure has 
 been received by you ; in your expressed and 
 repeated wishes for my welfare and my return ; 
 in the munificent token of yom- regard, with 
 which I have been this morning honoured ;* 
 
 * A piere of plate bad been given lo Mr. Heber by hia 
 parisbioneis 
 
FAREWELL SERMON AT HODNET. 105 
 
 in your nuirierous attendance on the present 
 occasion, and in those marks of emotion which 
 I witness around me, and in which I am my- 
 self well nigh constrained to join. For all 
 these, accept such thanks as I can pay — ac- 
 cept my best wishes — accept my affectionate 
 regrets — accept the continuance of the prayers 
 which I have hitherto offered up for you daily, 
 and in which, whatever and wherever my 
 sphere of duty may hereafter be, my congre- 
 gation of Hodnet shall (believe it !) never be 
 forgotten.' 
 
 He then exhorts them, by various consider- 
 ations, to mutual charity and good will; and 
 continues in words which (long as our extract 
 has already been) we know not how to with- 
 hold— 
 
 ' Would to God, indeed, I could hope to 
 leave you all as truly at peace with each otlier, 
 as I trust and believe there is peace between 
 me and you! Yet if there be any here whom 
 I have at any time offended, let me entreat his 
 forgiveness, and express the hope that he has 
 already forgiven me. If any who thinks he 
 has done me wrong (I know of none,) let him 
 be assured that the fault, if it were one, is not 
 
106 FAREWELL SERMO.V AT HODNET. 
 
 only forgiven, but forgotten; and let me earn- 
 estly entreat you all, as it may be the last re- 
 quest which I shall ever make, the last advice 
 which I shall ever offer to you — little children, 
 love one another and forgive one another, even 
 as God, for Christ's sake, hath loved and for- 
 given you.' 
 
 Having thus taken leave of a parish where 
 he still signified a hope that he might lay his 
 bones, he hastened again to town to receive 
 imposition of hands, and then depart — 
 
 ' My consecration (he writes to a friend in 
 the country) is fixed for next Sunday; and as 
 the time draws near, I feel its awfulness very 
 strongly — far more, I think, than the parting 
 which is to follow a fortnight after. I could 
 wish (he adds) to have the prayers of my old 
 congregation, but know not well how to ex- 
 press the wish in conformity with custom, or 
 without seeming to court notoriety.' 
 
 A special general meeting of the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge was now call- 
 ed, and a valedictory address to him, pro- 
 nounced, in the name of that venerable body, 
 by the Bishop of Bristol; an address only yield- 
 ing in beauty (if it does yield) to the reply 
 
CONSECRATED. 
 
 107 
 
 which it produced — the one dignified, impres- 
 sive, affectionate — the other glowing with all 
 the natural eloquence of excited feelings. 
 
 ' 3Iy Lord,' said the excellent Bishop of 
 Bristol, ' The Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge desire to offer to your Lordship 
 their sincere congratulations upon your eleva- 
 tion to the Episcopal See of Calcutta. 
 
 ' They derive from your appointment to this 
 high office the certain assurance, that all the 
 advantages which they have anticipated from 
 the formation of a Church establishment in 
 India, will be realized; and that the various 
 plans for the diffusion of true religion among its 
 inhabitants, which have been so wisely laid, and 
 so auspiciously commenced by your lamented 
 predecessor, will, under your superintendence 
 and control, advance with a steady and unin- 
 terrupted progress. They ground this assur- 
 ance upon the rare union of intellectual and 
 moral qualities which combine to form your 
 character. They ground it upon the steadfast- 
 ness of purpose with which, from the period of 
 your admission into the ministry, you have ex- 
 clusively dedicated your time and talents to 
 the peculiar studies of your sacred professioa; 
 
108 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 I 
 
 abandoning that human learning in which you 
 had already shown that you were capable of 
 attaining the highest excellence, and renounc- 
 ing the certain prospect of literary fame. But, 
 above all, they ground this assurance upon the 
 signal proof of self-devotion which you have 
 given by your acceptance of the episcopal of- 
 fice. With respect to any other individual, 
 who had been placed at the head of the Church 
 Establishment in India, a suspicion might have 
 been entertained that some worldly desire, 
 some feeling of ambition, mingled itself with 
 the motives by which he was actuated; but, 
 in your case, such a suspicion would be desti- 
 tute even of the semblance of truth: every en- 
 joyment which a well-regulated mind can de- 
 rive from the possession of wealth, was placed 
 within your reach; every avenue to profes- 
 sional distinction and dignity, if these had been 
 the objects of your solicitude, lay open before 
 you. What then was the motive which could 
 incline you to quit your native land ? — to ex- 
 change the delights of home for a tedious 
 voyage to distant regions ? — to separate your- 
 self from the friends with whom you had con- 
 versed from your earliest years.' What, but 
 
EMBARKS FOR INDIA. 
 
 109 
 
 an ardent wish to become the instrument of 
 good to others — a holy zeal in your Master's 
 service — a firm persuasion that it was your 
 boiMiden duty to submit yourself unreservedly 
 to his disposal i to shrink from no labour which 
 he might impose, to count no sacrifice hard 
 whicli he might requii'e?' 
 
 In his reply the Bishop expressed ' the set- 
 tled purpose of his soul,' to devote his best 
 talents ' to the great cause in which all their 
 hearts were engaged, and for which it was not 
 their duty only, but their illustrious privilege 
 to labour,' and that he looked forward with 
 pleasure to ' the time when he should be ena- 
 bled to preach to the natives of India in their 
 own language.' 
 
 'On Monday, 16th June, 1823,' (says the 
 writer previously quoted) ' Dr. Heber embark- 
 ed with his family a little below Gravesend, 
 and, accompanied to the ship by many sorrow- 
 ing fiiends, bade adieu to England for ever. 
 Well it is that every great event in life, which 
 does violence to the feelings, usually brings 
 with it immediate demands upon our exertions, 
 whereby the attention is diverted, and the grief 
 subdued. On ship-board he found abundant 
 10 
 
110 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 occupation in prosecuting the study of Hindos- 
 tanee and Persian, which, independently of 
 their prospective usefulness, he, as many others 
 had done before him, found to be possessed of 
 high interest and curiosity, — " as establishing 
 beyond all doubt the original connection of the 
 languages of India, Persia, and Northern Eu- 
 rope, and the complete diversity of these from 
 the Hebrew and other Semitic IcUiguages. 
 Those (he observes) who fancy the Persians 
 and Indians to have been derived from Elam, 
 the son of Shem, or from any body but Ja- 
 pheth, the first-born of Noah, and father of 
 Gomer, Meshech, and Tubal, have, I am per- 
 suaded, paid no attention to the languages 
 either of Persia, Russia, or Scandinavia. I 
 have long had this suspicion, and am not sorry 
 to find it confirmed by even the grammar of 
 my new studies. If, in a year or two, (he ex- 
 ultingly adds,) I do not know them both (Hin- 
 dostanee and Persian) at least as well as I do 
 French and Gei-man, the fault, I trust, will be 
 in my capacity, not in my diligence." 
 
 ' One of his first thoughts after the ship had 
 sailed, was to propose daily evening prayers, 
 and he was gratified at the readiness with which 
 
VOVAGE TO INDIA. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the captain assented to the proposal. He ac- 
 cordingly officiated as chaplain to the ship, 
 reading prayers in the cuddy daily during the 
 voyage. He read prayers and preached regu- 
 larly once on each Sunday; and on one occa- 
 sion, having on the previous Sunday discoursed 
 to the passengers and crew, in the way of pre- 
 paration, he administered the Lord's Supper, 
 and was highly pleased; having been told to 
 expect only one or two, that he had twenty-six 
 or twenty-seven participants; and his gratifi- 
 cation was much increased when he observed 
 in the course of the evening of the same day, 
 that " all the young men who had participated, 
 had religious books in their hands, and that 
 they appeared, indeed, much impressed." 
 
 ' The following incidents are extracted from 
 his journal of the voyage as tending to show 
 the character of his feelings at this interesting 
 crisis. A few days after they had left land, 
 a vessel passed the ship homeward bound. On 
 this event he remarks, " my wife's eyes swam 
 with tears as this vessel passed us, and there 
 were one or two of the young men who looked 
 wishfully after her. For my own part, I am 
 well convinced all my firmness would go, if I 
 
112 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 allowed myself to look back, even for a mo- 
 ment. Yet, as I did not leave home and its 
 blessings without counting the cost, I do not, 
 and I trust in God, that I shall not, regret 
 the choice I have made. But knowing how 
 much others have given up for my sake, should 
 make me more studious to make the loss less 
 to them; and also, and above all, so to dis- 
 charge my duty, as that they may never think 
 that these sacrifices have been made in vain." 
 Again; about a month after his departure, he 
 ■vvrites — " How little did I dream at this time 
 last year, that I should ever be in my present 
 situation! How strange it now seems to me 
 to recollect the interest which I used to take in 
 all which related to southern seas and distant 
 regions, to India and its oceans, to Australasia 
 and Polynesia! I used to fancy I should like 
 to visit them, but that I ever should, or could 
 do so, never occurred to me. Now, that I 
 shall see many of tlie.=;e countries, if life is 
 spared to me, is not improbable. God grant 
 that my conduct in the scenes to which he has 
 appointed me may be such as to conduce to his 
 glory, and to my own salvation through his 
 Son." Such was the spirit in which this holy 
 
VOYAGE TO INDIA. 
 
 113 
 
 man denied himself, took up his crofes and fol- 
 lowed Christ.' 
 
 ' " August 18. — The same breeze, which has 
 now increased to what seamen call a strong 
 gale, with a high rolling sea from the south- 
 west. Both yesterday and to-day we have had 
 the opportunity of seeing no insufficient speci- 
 men of those gigantic waves of which I have 
 often heard as prevailing in these latitudes. In 
 a weaker vessel, and with less confidence in 
 our officers and crew, they would be alarming 
 as well as awful and sublime. But, in our 
 case, seen as they are from a strong and well- 
 found ship, in fine clear weather, and with good 
 sea room, they constitute a magnificent spec- 
 tacle, which may be contemplated with un- 
 mixed pleasure. I have hardly been able to 
 leave the deck, so much have I enjoyed it, and 
 my wife, who happily now feels very little in- 
 convenience from the motion, has expressed 
 the same feelings. The deep blue of the sea, 
 the snow-white tops of the waves, their enor- 
 mous sweep, the alternate sinking and rising of 
 the ship, which seems like a plaything in a 
 giant's hands, and the vast multitude of sea- 
 birds skimming round us, constitute a picture 
 of the most exhilerating, as well as the most 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 BISHOP KEBER. 
 
 impressive character; and I trust abetter and 
 holier feeling has not been absent from our 
 minds, of thankfulness to Him who had thus 
 far protected us, who blesses us daily with so 
 many comforts beyond what might be expected 
 in our present situation, and who has given us 
 a passage, throughout the whole extent of the 
 Atlantic, so unusually rapid and favourable. 
 
 "September 18. — This evening we had a 
 most beautiful sunset — the most remarkable 
 recollected by any of the officers or passengers, 
 and I think the most magnificent spectacle I 
 ever saw. Besides the usual beautiful tints of 
 crimson, fiame-colour, &c., which the clouds 
 displayed, and which were strangely contrasted 
 with the deep blue of the sea, and the lighter, 
 but equally beautiful blue of the sky, there 
 were in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 (linking sun, and for some time after his disc 
 had disappeared, large tracts of a pale trans- 
 lucent green, such as I had never seen before 
 except in a prism, and surpassing every effect 
 of paint, or glass, or gem. Every body on 
 board was touched and awed by the glory of 
 the scene, and many observed, that such a 
 spectacle alone was v. orth the whole voyage 
 
VOYAGE TO INDIA. 
 
 from England. One circumstance in the scene 
 struck me as different from all which I had 
 been led to e.xpect in a tropical sunset. I 
 mean, that its progress from light to darkness 
 was much more gradual than most travellers 
 and philosophers have stated. The dip of the 
 sun did not seem more rapid, nor did the dura- 
 tion of the tints on the horizon appear mate- 
 rially less than on similar occasions in England. 
 Neither did I notice any striking difference in 
 the continuance of the twilight. I pointed out 
 the fact to JNlajor Sackville, who answered that 
 he had long been convinced that the supposed 
 rapidity of sunrise and sunset in India had been 
 exaggerated, — that he had always found a good 
 hour between dawn and sunrise, and little less 
 between sunset and total darkness." ' 
 
116 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 India — Arrival in Calcutta — First Visitation. 
 
 ' In October, 1823,' (says one of his friends) 
 ' Heber landed in India, with a field before 
 him that might challenge the labours of an 
 apostle, and we will venture to say, with as 
 much of the spirit of an apostle in him as has 
 rested on any man in these latter days. It 
 was now his anxious wish to compose, as far 
 as in him lay, those unhappy religious dissen- 
 tions of which we have already spoken ; and, 
 without making any concession unbecoming a 
 loyal and true lover of his own church, to set 
 forth the necessity of humility and charity. 
 Christian graces to which schism is so com- 
 monly fatal — and without which even the purest 
 speculative opinions, can, after all, be worth 
 nothing. For such a task as this, none who 
 0 knew Dr. Heber at all, could deny that he 
 was singularly well fitted. In a personal re- 
 gard for himself, he was sure to bow the hearts 
 of the people as the heart of one man. Is it 
 
ARRIVES IS tXDIA. 
 
 117 
 
 not according to our experience to believe, 
 that the affections might have influenced tho 
 conclusions of the understanding, and that by 
 his means many angry disputants might have 
 been brought to think alike, and to think as our 
 church directs them ? With a further view to 
 more general conformity, he, after a while, 
 suggested to the Society for Promoting Chris- 
 tian Knowledge the propriety of sending out 
 (^if possible) missionaries episcopally ordained, 
 in order so far to obviate an unfavourable im- 
 pression produced on the natives, who were at 
 a loss what character to assign to ministers of 
 the Gospel, whom those who supported and 
 dispersed them were unwilling to admit to their 
 own churches. Nor did he think such a mea- 
 sure unlikely to promote the influence of the 
 Church of England (already very considera- 
 ble) with the different stocks of oriental Chris- 
 tians — Greeks, Armenians and Syrians — who 
 hold, like her, episcopacy to be of apostolic in- 
 etitution. In accordance with these senti- 
 ments. Dr. Heber thought fit to re-ordain se- 
 'veral Protestant ministers who made an ap- 
 plication to that effect, and though he did not 
 urge the universal adoption of such a plan, yet 
 
118 
 
 BISHOP HEBER; 
 
 he did not conceal his opinion that it was much 
 to be desired. To the native schools he gave 
 his utmost protection and support; interested in 
 their behalf those whose patronage was most 
 valuable; and took effectual steps for render- 
 ing the bounty of his countrymen at home tri- 
 butary to the same good end. He preached 
 very often: it never had been his practice to 
 spare himself when in England, and in the 
 east he felt further calls in the more pressing 
 wants of the people, and the extreme paucity 
 of the clergy. 
 
 ' Short as his time in India was, his visita- 
 tions had embraced almost the whole of his 
 vast diocese. To the northern portion of it, 
 which Bishop Middleton (who found ample oc- 
 cupation at Calcutta and in southern India) 
 had never been able to reach, he first turned 
 his steps; and having journeyed as far as Me- 
 rut, " leaving behind him," says Mr. Fisher, 
 the chaplain of the station, " an impression 
 which I think will not soon or easily pass 
 away," he bent his course southwards, and 
 traversed the country to Bombay.' 
 
 The letters and journals which form the ma- 
 terials of the subsequent part of this biography 
 
ARRIVAL IN INDIA. 
 
 119 
 
 have already obtained a classical authority. 
 On their merits as literary compositions we 
 find the following remarks:* 
 
 ' Of all the foreign possessions of England, 
 India is, we think, the most important; as- 
 suredly, it is the most interesting. A body of 
 our countrymen are employed there, whose 
 zeal, talents, and accomplishments are beyond 
 praise — a set of functionaries, civil and mili- 
 tary, whose general deserts have not been sur- 
 passed in the history of any independent state, 
 ancient or modern; while, to seek for any pa- 
 rallel example in colonial annals, would, it is 
 admitted on all hands, be vain and ridiculous. 
 Literature of various kinds is widely and pro- 
 foundly cultivated among a large portion of 
 these meritorious officers, during their stay in 
 the East; and not a few of them are every 
 year returning to spend the afternoon of life, 
 in well-earned competence and leisure, in their 
 own country. Under such circumstances, it is 
 impossible not to reflect, without some wonder, 
 that the English library is to this hour ex- 
 tremely poor in the department of books de- 
 
 * See Qu.irterly Review, No. LXXIII. 
 
120 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 scriptive of the actual appearances of men and 
 things in India; of the scenery of regions where 
 almost every element of the beautiful and the 
 sublime has been scattered with the broadest 
 lavishness of nature's bounty; of cities, on the 
 mere face of which one of the most wonderful 
 of all human histories is written, through all 
 its changes, in characters that he who runs 
 may read — where the monuments of Hindoo, 
 Moslem, and English art and magnificence 
 may be contemplated side by side; of manners, 
 amongst which almost every possible shape 
 and shade of human civilization finds its repre- 
 sentative ; where we may trace our species, step 
 by step, as in one living panorama, from the 
 lowest depths of barbarian and pagan darkness, 
 up to the highest refinements of European so- 
 ciety, and the open day-light of Protestant 
 Christianity. 
 
 ' This poverty, where so much wealth might 
 have been expected, is, nevertheless, easy 
 enough to account for. The great majority of 
 our Anglo-Indian adventurers leave their na- 
 tive land very early in life, and become accus- 
 tomed to Indian scenery and manners before 
 the mind is sufficiently opened and calmed for 
 
INDIA. 
 
 121 
 
 considering them duly. Ere such men begin 
 to think of describing India, they have lost the 
 European eyes on which its picturesque fea- 
 tures stamp the most vivid impression. When 
 they set about the work, they do pretty much 
 as natives of the region might be expected to 
 do — that is, in writing for people at home, they 
 omit, as too obvious and familiar to be worthy 
 of special notice, exactly those circumstances 
 which, if they could place themselves in the 
 situation of their readers, they would find it 
 most advantageous to dwell upon. They give 
 us the picture, without its foreground — the 
 scholia, without the text. The literary sin that 
 most easily besets them is that capital error of 
 taking for granted. 
 
 ' When men of riper years and experience 
 repair to these regions, they go in the discharge 
 of important functions, which commonly con- 
 fine the field of personal observation to narrow 
 limits, and which always engross so much time, 
 that it is no wonder they should abstain from 
 supererogatory labour of any sort. Those who 
 under such circumstances have been led by 
 extraordinary elasticity of mind to steal time 
 for general literature from the hours of needful 
 II 
 
122 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 repose, have, in most instances, paid dearly for 
 their generous zeal. Very few of those distin- 
 guished victims, however, have bestowed any 
 considerable portion of their energies on the 
 particular department which we have been al- 
 luding to. The history and antiquities of In- 
 dian mythology, legislation, and philosophy 
 have appeared worthier of such high-aimed 
 ambition; and he who once plunges fairly into 
 that mare magnum of romantic mystery, is little 
 likely to revisit, with all his vigour about him, 
 the clearer, and, perhaps, with all reverence be 
 it said, the more useful stream of week-day 
 observation and living custom. It would be 
 below the dignity of these learned moonshees 
 and pundits to quit their Sanscrit and Persic 
 lore, for the purpose of enlightening ignorant 
 occidentals in regard to the actual cities and 
 manners of Eastern men. 
 
 ' There is a circumstance of another kind, 
 which it would be absurd to overlook. The 
 intercourse which takes place between distin- 
 guished English functionaries in the military 
 and civil service of the Company and the upper 
 classes of the natives, is and must be accompa- 
 nied, on the side of the latter, with many feel- 
 
INDIA. 
 
 123 
 
 ings of jealousy. It seldom wears even tho 
 slightest appearance of familiarity, except in 
 the chief seats of government ; and there, as 
 might be supposed, the natives are rarely to 
 be seen now-a-days in their pure and unmixed 
 condition, either as to real character or as to 
 external manners. Exceptions of course there 
 are to this rule, as to most others; but we be- 
 lieve they are very rare. Of recent years. Sir 
 John Malcolm furnishes by far the most re- 
 markable instance; — but they who read Bish- 
 op Heber's account of Sir John's personal 
 qualifications will be little disposed to draw 
 any general inference from such an example. 
 
 ' It is strange, but true, that only two Eng- 
 lish gentlemen have as yet travelled in India 
 completely as volunteers — Lord Valentia, and 
 a young man of fortune, whom Bishop Heber 
 met with at Delhi ; and who is still, we be- 
 lieve, in the east. Perhaps, were more to fol- 
 low the example, the results might be less 
 satisfactory than one would at first imagine. 
 Orientals have no notion of people performing 
 great and laborious journeys from motives of 
 mere curiosity ; and we gather, that when 
 such travellers do appear in India, they are 
 
124 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 not unlikely to be received with at least as 
 much suspicion as any avowed instruments of 
 the government. 
 
 ' Considering Bishop Heber merely as a 
 traveller, he appears to have carried to India 
 habits and accomplishments, and to have tra- 
 versed her territories under circumstances 
 more advantageous, than any other individual, 
 the results of whose personal observation have 
 as yet been made public. He possessed the 
 eye of a painter and the pen of a poet ; a 
 mind richly stored with the literature of Eu- 
 rope, both ancient and modern ; great natural 
 shrewdness and sagacity ; and a temper as 
 amiable and candid as ever accompanied and 
 adorned the energies of a fine genius. He 
 had travelled extensively in his earlier life, 
 and acquired, in the provinces of Russia and 
 Turkey especially, a stock of practical know- 
 ledge, that could not fail to be of the highest 
 value to him in his Indian peregrinations. 
 His views were, on all important subjects, 
 those of one who had seen and read much, 
 and thought more — liberal, expansive, worthy 
 of a philosopher and a statesman. In the ma- 
 turity of manhood he retained for literature 
 
INDIA. 
 
 125 
 
 and science the ardent zeal of his honoured 
 youtli. The cold lesson, nil admirari, had 
 never been able to take hold on his generous 
 spirit. Religion was the presiding influence ; 
 but his religion graced as well as heightened 
 his admirable faculties ; it employed and en- 
 nobled them all. 
 
 ' The character in which he travelled gave 
 him very great opportunities and advantages 
 of observation. His high rank claimed re- 
 spect, and yet it was of a kind that could in- 
 spire no feelings of personal jealousy or dis- 
 trust ; this the event proved, whatever might 
 have been anticipated. The softness and 
 grace of his manners ; a natural kindliness 
 that made itself felt in every look, gesture, 
 and tone ; and an habitual elegance, with 
 which not one shade of pride, haughtiness, or 
 vanity ever mingled— these, indeed, were qua- 
 lities which must have gone far to smooth the 
 rough paths before him, in whatever official 
 character he had appeared. As it was, they 
 inspired everywhere both love and reverence 
 for the representative of our Church. Many 
 -will hear with surprise— none, we think, with- 
 out pleasure— that his sacred office, where it 
 11* 
 
126 
 
 BISHOP HEBHR. 
 
 was properly explained, even in the remotest 
 provinces, received many touching acknow- 
 ledgments. There was no bigotry about him, 
 to check the influence of his devout zeal. In 
 quitting one of the principal seats of Hindoo 
 superstition, we find him concluding his lamen- 
 tation over the darkness of the atmosphere 
 v-ith an avowal of his hope and belief that 
 " God, nevertheless, may have much people in 
 this city." And who will not be delighted to 
 learn that this wise and charitable spirit met 
 with its reward ; — that learned doctors, both 
 Moslem and Brahmins, — men who would have 
 shrunk from the vehement harangues of half- 
 educated zealots, however sincere and excel- 
 lent, — were eager to hear a mild and accom- 
 plished scholar reason of life, death, and the 
 judgment to come ; and that the poor peasan- 
 try often flocked to him, as he passed on his 
 way, to beg, not for medicines only, but for 
 the prayers of the holy stranger. 
 
 ' The bishop, luckily for his English readers 
 — (for even a Heber might have written about 
 India in a style less adapted for them, had he 
 deferred the task) — seems to have begun this 
 work the very day that he entered the Hooghly : 
 
ARRIVAL IN INDIA. 
 
 127 
 
 he landed in the course of the evening at a 
 small village, one, he was told, that had been 
 but rarely visited by Europeans, where he WEia 
 conducted to a temple of Mahadeo : — 
 
 " The grcenhouse-like smell (says he) and 
 temperature of the atmosphere which sur- 
 rounded us, the exotic appearance of the 
 plants and of the people, the verdure of the 
 fields, the dark shadows of the trees, and the 
 exuberant and neglected vigour of the soil, 
 teeming with life and food, neglected, as it 
 were, out of pure abundance, would have been 
 striking under any circumstances ; they were 
 still more so to persons just landed from a 
 three months' voyage; and to me, when asso- 
 ciated with the recollection of the objects 
 which have brought me out to India, the ami- 
 able manners and countenances of the people, 
 contrasted with the symbols of their foolish 
 and polluted idolatry now first before me, im- 
 pressed me with a very solemn and earnest 
 ■wish that I might in some degree, hoAvever 
 small, be enabled to conduce to the spiritual 
 advantage of creatures so goodly, so gentle, 
 and now so misled and blinded. ' Angeli 
 forent, si essent Christian! !' As the sun went 
 
I'iS 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 down, many monstrous bats, bigger than the 
 largest crows I have seen, and chiefly to be 
 distinguished from them by their indented 
 wings, unloosed their hold from the palm- 
 trees, and sailed slowly around us. They 
 might have been supposed the guardian genii 
 of the pagoda." 
 
 His first impressions concerning the out- 
 ward appearance of the natives themselves, 
 must be exceedingly interesting : 
 
 " Two observations (he says) struck me for- 
 cibly ; first, that the deep bronze tint is more 
 naturally agreeable to the human eye than the 
 fair skins of Europe, since we are not dis- 
 pleased with it even in the first instance, while 
 it is well known that to them a fair complexion 
 gives the idea of ill health, and of that sort of 
 deformity which in our eyes belongs to an 
 Albino. There is, indeed, something in a ne- 
 gro which requires long habit to reconcile the 
 eye to him ; but for this the features and the 
 hair, far more than the colour, are answer- 
 able. The second observation was, how en- 
 tirely tlie idea of indelicacy, which would 
 naturally belong to such figures as those now 
 around us if they were white, is prevented by 
 
^tOLOUR OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 129 
 
 their being of a difl'eient colour from our- 
 selves. So much are we children of associa- 
 tion and habit, and so instinctively and immedi- 
 ately do our feelings adapt themselves to a 
 total change of circumstances ; it is the partial 
 and inconsistent change only which affects us." 
 
 " The great difference in colour between 
 different natives struck me much: of the crowd 
 by whom we were surrounded, some were 
 black as negroes, others merely copper-co- 
 loured, and others little darker than the Tu- 
 nisines whom I have seen at Liverpool. Mr. 
 Mill, the principal of Bishop's College, who, 
 with Mr. Corrie, one of the chaplains in the 
 Company's service, had come down to meet 
 me, and who had seen more of India than most 
 men, tells me that he cannot account for this 
 difference, which is general throughout the 
 country, and everywhere striking. It is not 
 merely the difference of exposure, since thi? 
 variety of tint is visible in the fishermen who 
 are naked all alike. Nor does it depend on 
 caste, since very high-caste Brahmins are 
 sometimes black, while Pariahs are compara- 
 tively fair. It seems, therefore, to be an ac- 
 cidental difference, like that of light and dark 
 
130 
 
 BISHOP HEBEK. 
 
 complexions in Europe, though where so much 
 of the body is exposed to sight, it becomes 
 more striking here than in our own country." 
 
 " Most of the Hindoo idols are of clay, and 
 very much resemble in composition, colouring, 
 and execution, though of course not in form, 
 the more paltry sort of images which are car- 
 ried about in England for sale by the Lago di 
 Como people. At certain times of the year, 
 great numbers of these are in fact hawked about 
 the streets of Calcutta in the same manner, on 
 men's heads. Tliis is before they have been 
 consecrated, which takes place on their being 
 solemnly washed in the Ganges by a Brahmin 
 Pundit. Till this happens, they possess no sa- 
 cred character,and are frequently given as toys 
 to children, and used as ornaments of rooms, 
 which when hallowed they could not be, with- 
 out giving great oflence to every Hindoo who 
 saw them thus employed. I thought it re- 
 markable that though most of the male deities 
 are represented of a deep brown colour, like 
 the natives of the country, the females are 
 usually no less red and white than our porce- 
 lain beauties, as exhibited in England. But 
 it is evident from the expressions of most of 
 
COLOUR OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 131 
 
 the Indians themselves, from the style of their 
 amatory poetry, and other circumstances, that 
 they consider fairness as a part of beauty, and 
 a proof of noble blood. They do not like to 
 be called black, and though the Abyssinians, 
 who are sometimes met with in the country, 
 are very little darker than they themselves 
 are, their jest-books are full of taunts on the 
 charcoal complexion of the ' Hubshee.' Much 
 of this has probably arisen from their having 
 been so long subjected to the Moguls, and 
 other conquerors originally from more north- 
 ern climates, and who continued to keep up 
 the comparative fairness of their stock by fre- 
 quent importation of northern beauties. In- 
 dia, too, has been always, and long before the 
 Europeans came hither, a favourite theatre 
 for adventurers from Persia, Greece, Tartary, 
 Turkey, and Arabia, all white men, and all in 
 their turn possessing themselves of wealth 
 and power. These circumstances must have 
 greatly contributed to make a fair complexion 
 fashionable. It is remarkable, however, to 
 observe how surely all these classes of men 
 in a few generations, even without any inter- 
 maiTiage with the Hindoos, assume the deep 
 
132 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 olive tint, little less dark than a negro, which 
 seems natural to the climate. The Portu- 
 guese natives form unions among themselves 
 alone, or, if they can, with Europeans. Yet 
 the Portuguese have, during a three hundred 
 years' residence in India, become as black aa 
 Caffres. Surely this goes far to disprove the 
 assertion, which is sometimes made, that cli- 
 mate alone is insufficient to account for the 
 difference between the negro and the Eu- 
 ropean. It is true, that in the negro are other 
 peculiarities which the Indian has not, and 
 to which the Portuguese colonist shows no 
 symptom of approximation, and which un- 
 doubtedly do not appear to follow so naturally 
 from the climate as that swarthiness of com- 
 plexion which is the sole distinction between 
 the Hindoo and the European. But if heat . 
 produce one change, other peculiarities of cli- 
 mate may produce other and additional cliang- 
 es, and when such peculiarities have three or 
 four thousand years to operate in, it is not 
 easy to fix any limits to their power. I am 
 inclined, after all, to suspect that our Eu- 
 ropean vanity leads us astray in supposing 
 that our own is the primitive complexion, 
 
CALCUTTA. 
 
 133 
 
 which I should rather suppose was that of the 
 Indian, half way between the two extremes, 
 and perhaps the most agreeable to the eye 
 and instinct of the majority of the human race. 
 A colder climate, and a constant use of clothes, 
 may have blanched the skin as effectually as 
 a burning sun and nakedness may have tan- 
 ned it ; and I am encouraged in this hypo- 
 thesis by observing that of animals the natural 
 colours are generally dusky and uniform, 
 while whiteness and a variety of tint almost 
 invariably follow domestication, shelter from 
 the elements, and a mixed and unnatural diet. 
 Thus' while hardship, additional exposure, a 
 greater degree of heat, and other circumstan- 
 ces with which we are unacquainted, may 
 have deteriorated the Hindoo into a negro, 
 opposite causes may have changed him into 
 the progressively lighter tints of the Chinese, 
 the Persian, the Turk, the Russian and the 
 Englishman." 
 
 The Bishop's description of Calcutta and the 
 neighbouring country is highly entertaining ; 
 but on this we do not purpose to dwell, being 
 more attracted by his sketches of things " na- 
 tive, and to the manner born." We must, 
 12 
 
134 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 however, make room for his introduction to 
 the durbar, or native levee of the Governor- 
 general — " which all the principal native resi- 
 dents in Calcutta were expected to attend, as 
 well as the vakeels from several Indian prin- 
 ces. — I found, (says he,) on my arrival, the 
 levee had begun, and that Lord Amherst, at- 
 tended by his aides-du-camp and Persian se- 
 cretary, had already walked down one side, 
 where the persons of most rank, and who were 
 to receive ' khelats,' or honorary dresses, 
 were stationed. I therefore missed this cere- 
 mony, but joined him and walked round 
 those to whom he had not yet spoken, com- 
 prising some persons of considerable rank and 
 wealth, and some learned men, travellers from 
 different eastern countries, who each in turn 
 addressed his compliments, or petitions, or 
 complaints to the governor. There were se- 
 veral whom we thus passed who spoke English 
 not only fluently but gracefully. Among 
 these were Baboo Ramchunder Roy and his 
 four brothers, all fine, tall, stout, young men, 
 the eldest of whom is about to build one of 
 Mr. Shakespear's rope-bridges over the Ca- 
 ramnasa.* 
 
 * Of these curious bridges, tlie bisliop elsewhere says, 
 
governor-general's durbar. 135 
 
 " After Lord Amherst had completed the 
 circle, he stood on the lower step of the 
 throne, and the visitors advanced one by one 
 to take leave. First came a young raja of the 
 Rajapootana district, who had received that 
 day the investiture of his father's territories, 
 in a splendid brocade khelat and turban ; he 
 was a little, pale, shy-looking boy, of twelve 
 years old. Lord Amherst, in addition to these 
 splendid robes, placed a large diamond aigrette 
 in his turban, tied a string of valuable pearls 
 round his neck, then gave him a small silver 
 
 " Tlieir pi iiu iplp differs fiom thai ol' chaiii-briilgcs, in tlie 
 rontre being u little elevated, and in dieir needing no abut- 
 ments. It is, ill fact, an application of a ship's standing- 
 rigging to a new purjiose, and it is not even necessaiy tliat 
 there should be any foundation at all, as the whole may be 
 made to rest on flat timbers, and, with the complete appa- 
 ratus of cordage, iron, and Bamboos, may be taken to 
 pieces and set up again in a few hours, and removed from 
 place to place by the aid of a few camels and elephants. 
 One of these, over a torrent near Benares, of one hmidred 
 and sixty feet span, stood a severe test during last year's 
 inundation, when, if ever, the cordage might have been 
 expected to suffer from the rain, and when a vast crowd of 
 neighbotu-ing villagers took refuge on it as the only safe 
 place in tlie neighbourhood, and indeed almost tlie only ob- 
 ject which continued to hold itself above the water." 
 
1S6 
 
 EISHOr HEBER. 
 
 bottle of attar of roses, and a lump of pawn 
 or betel, wrapped up in a plaintain leaf. Next 
 CEime forwards the ' vakeel,' or envoy of the 
 Maharaja Scindeah, also a boy, not above 
 sixteen, but smart, self-possessed, and dandy- 
 looking. His khelat and presents were a lit- 
 tle, and but a little, less splendid than those 
 of his precursor. Then followed Oude, Nag- 
 poor, Nepaul, all represented by their vakeels, 
 and each in turn honoured by similar, though 
 less splendid marks of attention. The next 
 was a Persian khan, a fine military looking 
 man, rather corpulent, and of a complexion 
 not differing from that of a Turk, or other 
 southern Europeans, with a magnificent black 
 beard, and a very pleasing and animated ad- 
 dress. A vakeel from Sind succeeded, with 
 a high red cap, and was followed by an Arab, 
 handsomely dressed, and as fair nearly, though 
 not so good-looking as the Persian. These 
 were all distinguished, and received each some 
 mark of favour. Those who followed had 
 only a little attar poured on their handker- 
 chiefs, and some pawn. On the whole it was 
 an interesting and striking sight, though less 
 magnificent than I had expected, and less so 
 
CALCUTTA. 
 
 137 
 
 1 think than tlic levee of an European mo- 
 narch. The sameness of the greater part of 
 the dresses (white muslin) was not sufficiently 
 relieved by the splendour of the few khelats ; 
 and even these, which were of gold and silver 
 brocade, were in a great measure eclipsed by 
 the scarlet and blue uniforms, gold lace, and 
 feathers of the English. One of the most 
 striking figures was the governor-general's 
 native aid-du-camp, a tall, strong-built, and 
 remarkably handsome man, in the flower of 
 his age, and of a countenance at once kind 
 and bold. His dress was a very rich hussar 
 uniform, and he advanced last of the circle, 
 with the usual military salute ; then, instead 
 of the offering of money which each of the rest 
 made, he bared a small part of the blade of his 
 sabre, and held it out to the governor. The 
 attar he received, not on his handkerchief, but 
 on his white cotton gloves. I had on former 
 occasions noticed this soldier from his heigiit, 
 striking appearance and rich uniform. He is 
 a very respectable man, and reckoned a good 
 officer." 
 
 We find the following entry under date 
 April 2 Il- 
 ls* 
 
138 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 " I entered into my forty-second year. God 
 grant that my future years may be as happy, 
 if he sees good! and better, far better spent 
 than those which are gone by! This day I 
 christened my dear little Harriet. God bless 
 and prosper her with all earthly and heavenly 
 blessings! We had afterwards a great dinner 
 and evening party, at which were present the 
 Governor and Lady Amherst, and nearly all 
 our acquaintance in Calcutta. To the latter 
 I also asked several of the wealthy natives, 
 who were much pleased with the attention, 
 being, in fact, one which no European of high 
 station in Calcutta had previously paid to any 
 of them. Hurree Mohun Thakoor observing 
 ' What an increased interest the presence of 
 females gave to our parties,' I reminded him 
 that the introduction of women into society 
 was an ancient Hindoo custom, and only dis- 
 continued in consequence of the Mussulman 
 conquest. He assented with a laugh, adding, 
 however, ' It is too late for us to go back to 
 the old custom now.' Rhadacant Deb, who 
 overheard us, observed more seriously, ' It is 
 very true that we did not use to shut up our 
 women till the times of the Mussulmans. But 
 
139 
 
 before we could give them the same liberty as 
 the Europeans, they must be better educated.' 
 I introduced these Baboos to the chief-justice, 
 which pleaded them much, though, perhaps, 
 they were still better pleased with my wife 
 herself presenting them pawn, rosewater, and 
 attar of roses before they went, after the na- 
 tive custom." 
 
140 
 
 BISHOP HEBEU. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Voyuf^c it/i the (lunges — Visitation of the Upper Pro- 
 vinces. 
 
 It was on the 15th of the following June 
 that the Bishop left Calcutta for his long and 
 arduous visitation of the Upper Provinces. 
 He was now separated from his family, and 
 felt sorely the loss of that " atmosphere of 
 home," as he beautifully calls it, which he had 
 hitherto carried about with him. 
 
 For several months, the Bishop and his 
 companions travelled chiefly by water — merely 
 landing 'vhen any duty vv^as to be performed, 
 or aiiy object of special interest solicited their 
 attention. 
 
 The boat in whicli he went is thus describ- 
 ed in his Journal. " A Bengalee boat is the 
 simplest and rudest of all possible structures. 
 It is decked over, throughout its whole length, 
 with bamboo; and on this is erected a low 
 light fabric of bamboo and straw, exactly like 
 a small cottage without a chimney. This is 
 the cabin, baggage-room, &c.; here the prij- 
 
TOTA.GE UP THE GANGES. 
 
 141 
 
 eengers sit and sleep; and here, if it be in- 
 tended for a cooking-boat, are one or two 
 small ranges of brick-Avork like English hct- 
 hearths, but not rising more than a few inches 
 above the deck, with small, round, sugar-loaf 
 holes, like those in a lime-kiln, adapted for 
 dressing victuals with charcoal. As the roof 
 of this apartment is by far too fragile for men 
 to stand or sit on, and as the apartment itself 
 takes up nearly two-thirds of the vessel, up- 
 right bamboos are fixed by its side, which sup- 
 port a kind of grating of the same material, 
 immediately above the roof, on which, at the 
 height probably of six or eight feet above the 
 surface of the water, the boatmen sit or stand 
 to work the vessel. They have, for oars, long 
 bamboos, with circular boards at the end, a 
 longer one of the same sort to steer with, a 
 long rough bamboo for a mast, and one, or 
 sometimes two sails, of a square form, (or 
 rather broader above than below,) of very 
 coarse and flimsy canvass. Nothing can seem 
 more clumsy and dangerous than these boats. 
 Dangerous I beheve they are, but with a fair 
 wind they sail over the water merrily. The 
 breeze this morning carried us along at a good 
 
142 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 rate, yet our English-rigged brig could do no 
 more than keep up with the cooking-boat." 
 
 The Bishop's amiable disposition led him, 
 in his progress, to pay whatever attentions lay 
 in his power to those dethroned princes, whose 
 melancholy remains of pomp and grandeur are 
 among the most interesting objects that any 
 Indian Traveller can meet with. A mere ac- 
 cident, however, (having landed to see a pa- 
 goda,) was the means of his first introduction 
 to one of these personages. It was on the 
 18th of June, at Sibnibashi — the Sibnibas of 
 Rennell (who has, however, placed it on the 
 wrong bank of the river,) — that a priest of 
 Rama, having been put into good humour by 
 a handsome fee, for showing his temple, asked 
 the Bishop if he would like to see the Rajah's 
 palace also. 
 
 " On my assenting, they led us to a really 
 noble gothic gateway, overgrown with beauti- 
 ful broad-leaved ivy, but in good preservation, 
 and decidedly handsomer, though in pretty 
 much the same style, with the ' Holy Gate' 
 of the Kremlin in Moscow. Within this, 
 which had apparently been the entrance into 
 the city, extended a broken but still stately 
 
SIBNIBASHI. 
 
 143 
 
 avenue of tall trees, and on either side a wil- 
 derness of ruined buildings, overgrown with 
 trees and brush-wood, which reminded Stowe 
 of the baths of Caracalla, and me of the up- 
 per part of the city of Caffa. I asked who 
 had destroyed the place, and was told Seraiah 
 Dowla, an answer which (as it was evidently 
 a Hindoo ruin) fortunately suggested to me 
 the name of the Raja, Kissen Chund. On 
 asking whether this had been his residence, 
 one of the peasants answered in the affirma- 
 tive, adding that the Raja's grand-children 
 yet lived hard by. By this I supposed he 
 meant somewhere in the neighbourhood, since 
 nothing here promised shelter to any beings 
 but wild beasts, and as I went along I could 
 not help looking carefully before me, and 
 thinking of Thalaba in the ruins of Babylon; 
 
 ' Cautiously he trodc, and felt 
 
 The dangerous ground before him with his bow ; . . . . 
 
 The adder, at the noise alarmed, 
 
 Launched at the intruding staff her arrowy tongue.' 
 
 Our guide meantime turned short to the right, 
 and led us into what were evidently the ruins 
 of a very e.\tensive palace. Some parts of it 
 
144 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 reminded me of Conway Castle, and others 
 of Bolton Abbey. It had towers like the 
 former, though of less stately height, and had 
 also long and striking cloisters of gothic arch- 
 es, but all overgrown with ivy and jungle, 
 roofless and desolate. Here, however, in a 
 court, whose gateway had still its old folding 
 doors on their hinges, the two boys whom we 
 had seen on the beach came forward to meet 
 us, were announced as the great grandsons of 
 Rajah Kissen Chund, and invited us very 
 courteously, in Persian, to enter their father's 
 dwelling. I looked round in exceeding sur- 
 prise. There was no more appearance of in- 
 habitation than in Conway. Two or three 
 cows were grazing among the ruins, and one 
 was looking out from the top of a dilapidated 
 turret, whither she had scrambled to browse 
 on the ivy. Tlie breech of a broken cannon, 
 and a fragment of a mutilated inscription lay on 
 the grass, which was evidently only kept down 
 by the grazing of cattle; and the jackalls, 
 whose yells began to be heard around us as 
 the evening closed in, seemed the natural 
 lords of the place. Of course, I expressed 
 no astonishment, but said how much respect I 
 
SIB.MBASHI. 
 
 145 
 
 felt for their family, of whose ancient splen- 
 dour I was well informed, and that I should 
 be most happy to pay my compliments to the 
 raja, their father. They immediately led us 
 up a short, steep, straight flight of steps, in 
 the thickness of the wall of one of the tow- 
 ers, precif3ely such as that of which we find 
 the remains in one of the gateways of Rhud- 
 dlan Castle, assuring me that it was a very 
 ' good road;' and at the door of a little vault- 
 ed and unfurnished room, like that which is 
 shown in Carnarvon Castle as the Queen's 
 bed-chamber, we were received by the Raja 
 Omichund, a fat, shortish man, of about forty- 
 five, of rather fair complexion, but with no 
 other clothes than his waistcloth and Brahmi- 
 nical string, and only distinguished from his 
 vassals by having his fbr-^head marked all over 
 with alternate stripes of chalk, vermilion, and 
 
 j gold leaf The boys had evidently run home 
 to inform him of our approach, and he had 
 made some preparation to receive us in dur- 
 bar. His own musnud was ready, a kind of 
 mattress, laid on the ground, on which, with a 
 
 I very harmless ostentation, he had laid a few 
 trinkets, a gold watch, betel-nut box, he. &c. 
 
 ' 13 
 
146 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 Two old arm chairs were placed opposite for 
 Stowe and me. The young rajas sat down at 
 their father's right hand, and his naked do- 
 mestics ranged themselves in a line behind 
 him, with their hands respectfully folded. On 
 the other side the Sotaburdar stood behind 
 me; Stowe's servant took place behind him, 
 and Abdullah between us as interpreter, which 
 functions he discharged extremely well, and 
 which was the more necessary since, in strict 
 conformity with court etiquette, the conversa- 
 tion passed in Persian. I confess I was mov- 
 ed by the apparent poverty of the representa- 
 tive of a house once very powerful, and paid 
 him more attention than I perhaps might have 
 done had his drawing-room presented a more 
 ])rincely style. He was exceedingly pleased 
 by my calling him ' Maha-rajah,' or Great 
 King, as if he were still a sovereign like his 
 ancestors, and acknowledged the compliment 
 by a smile, and a profound reverence. He 
 seemed, however, much puzzled to make out 
 my rank, never having heard (he said) of any 
 ' Lord Sahib,' except the governor-general, 
 while he was still more perplexed by the ex- 
 position of ' Lord Bishop Sahib,' which, for 
 
SIBNIBASIII. 
 
 some reason or other, my servants always pre- 
 fer to that of ' Lord Padre.' He apologized 
 very civilly for his ignorance, observing that 
 he had not been for many years in Calcutta, 
 and that very few Sahibs ever came that way. 
 I told him that I was going to Dacca, Benha- 
 res, Delhi, and possibly Hurdwar; that I was 
 to return in nine or ten months, and that 
 should he visit Calcutta again, it would give 
 me great pleasure if he would come to see 
 me. He said he seldom stirred from home, 
 but as he spoke his sons looked at him with so 
 much earnest and intelligible expression of 
 countenance, that he added that ' his boys 
 would be delighted to see Calcutta and wait 
 on me.' He then asked very particularly 
 of Abdullah in what street and what house I 
 lived. After a short conversation of this kind, 
 and some allusions on my part to his ances- 
 tors and their ancient wealth and splendour, 
 which were well taken, we took leave, escort- 
 ed to the gate by our two young friends; and 
 thence, by a nearer way through the ruins, to 
 our pinnace, by an elderly man, who said he 
 was the Raja's ' Mucktar,' or chamberlain, 
 and whose obsequious courtesy, high reve- 
 
148 BISHOP HEBEK. 
 
 rence for his master's family, and numorou*, 
 apologies for the unprepared state ia which 
 we had found ' the court,' reminded me of 
 old Caleb Balderstone." 
 
 We throw together a few detached passa- 
 ges, which may servo to give some notion of 
 the sort of scenery and adventures the Bishop 
 encountered in his voyage. 
 
 " June '-22. — On the bank we Ibund a dwarf 
 mulberry tree, the first we have seen in In- 
 dia. A very handsome and sleek young bull, 
 branded with the emblem of Siva on his 
 haunches, was grazing in the green paddy 
 (rice-field.) He crossed our path quite tamo 
 and fearless, and seeing some fiofin grass in 
 Stowe's hand, coolly walked up to smell at it. 
 These bulls are turned out when calves, on 
 different .solemn occasions, l)y wealthy Hin- 
 doos, as an acceptable offering to Siva. It 
 would be a mortal sin to strike or injure them. 
 They feed where they choose, and devout 
 persons take great delight in pampering them. 
 They are exceeding pests in the villages near 
 Calcutta, breaking into gardens, thrusting 
 their noses into the stalls of fruiterers and 
 pastry-cooks' shops, and helping themselves 
 
BULLS OF SIVA. 
 
 149 
 
 ■without ceremony. Like otiier petted ani- 
 mals, they are sometimes mischievous, and 
 are said to resent with a push of their horns 
 any delay in gratifying their wishes." 
 
 June 21. — We passed, to my surprise, a 
 row of no less than nine or ten large and very 
 beautiful otters, tethered, with straw collars 
 and long strings, to Bamboo stakes on the 
 bank. Some were swimming about at the full 
 extent of their strings, or lying half in and 
 half out of the water, others were rolling them- 
 selves in the sun on the sandy bank, uttering 
 a shrill whistling noise as if in play. I was 
 told that most of the fishermen in this neigh- 
 bourhood kept one or more of these animals, 
 who were almost as tame as dogs, and of great 
 use in fishing, sometimes driving the shoals 
 into the nets, sometimes bringing out the 
 larger fish with their teeth. I was much 
 pleased and interested with the sight. It has 
 always been a fancy of mine, that the poor 
 creatures whom we waste and persecute to 
 death for no cause, but the gratification of our 
 cruelty, might by reasonable treatment be 
 made the sources of abundant amusement and 
 advantage to us. The simple Hindoo shows 
 13* 
 
BISHOP 
 
 HEBER. 
 
 here a better tuste luicl judgment, tlian half 
 the otter-hunting and badger-baiting gentry 
 of England." 
 
 — Tlie river continues a noble one, 
 and the country bordering on it is now of a 
 fertility and tranquil beauty, such as I never 
 saw before. Beauty if certainly has, though 
 it has neither mountain, nor waterfall, nor rock, 
 which all enter into our notions of beautiful 
 scenery in England. But the broad river, 
 with a very rapid current, swarming with small 
 picturesque canoes, and no less picturesque 
 fishermen, winding through fields of green 
 corn, natural meadows covered with cattle, 
 successive plantations of cotton, sugar, and 
 pawn, studded with villages and masts in eve- 
 ry creek and angle, and hacked continually 
 (though not in a coniimious and heavy line 
 like th(! shores of the Hooghly) with magnifi- 
 cent peepnl, banian, bamboo, betel, and coco 
 trees, affords a succession of pictures the most 
 t ianls that I liavc seen, and infinitely lieyond 
 anything which I ever expected to see in Ben- 
 s,al. To add to our pleasure this day, we had 
 a fine rattling breeze, carrying us along against 
 )!ic stream, wliich it raised into a curl, at th-i 
 
SCENERY OF THE GAXGE3. 151 
 
 rate of five miles an hour; and more than all, 
 1 heard from my wife." 
 
 " July 1 . — The noise of the Ganges is really 
 like the sea. As we passed near a hollow and 
 precipitous part of the bank, on which the wind 
 set full, it told on my ear exactly as if the tide 
 were coming in; and when the moon rested 
 at night on this great, and, as it then seemed, 
 this shoreless extent of water, we might have 
 fancied ourselves in the cuddy of an Indiaman, 
 if our cabin were not too near the water." 
 
 " Dacca, July 6. — The Nawab's carriage 
 passed us, an old landau, drawn by four horses, 
 with a coachman and postilion in red liveries, 
 and some horse-guards in red also, with high 
 ugly caps, like those of the old grenadiers, with 
 gilt plates in front, and very ill mounted. The 
 great men of India evidently lose in point of 
 effect, by an injudicious and imperfect adop- 
 tion of European fashions. An eastern cav<i- 
 lier, with his turban and flowing robes, is a 
 striking object; and an eastern prince on liorse- 
 back, and attended by liis usual train of white- 
 staved and high-capped janizaries, a still more 
 noble one; but an eastern prince in a shabby 
 carriage, guarded by men dressed like an 
 
152 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 equestrian troop at a fair, is nothing more than 
 ridiculous and melancholy. It is, however, 
 but natural, that these unfortunate sovereigns 
 should imitate, as far as they can, those cos- 
 tumes which the example of their conquerors 
 has associated with their most recent ideas of 
 power and splendour." 
 
 " The Nawab called this morning, according 
 to his promise, accompanied by his eldest son. 
 He is a good-looking elderly man, of so fair a 
 complexion, as to prove the care with which 
 the descendants of the Mussulman conquerors 
 have kept up their northern blood. His hands, 
 more particularly, are nearly as white as those 
 of an European. He sat for a good while 
 smoking his hookah, and conversing fluently 
 enough in English, quoting some English 
 books of history, and showing himself very 
 tolerably acquainted with the events of the 
 Spanish war, and the part borne in it by Sir 
 Edward Paget. His son is a man of about 
 thirty, of a darker complexion, and education 
 more neglected, being unable to converse in 
 English. The Nawab told us of a fine wild 
 elephant, which his people were then in pur- 
 suit of, within a few miles of Dacca. He said 
 
NABOB OF DACCA. 
 
 153 
 
 that they did nof often come so near. Ho 
 cautioned me against going amongst the ruins, 
 except on an elephant, since tygers sometimes, 
 and snakes always, abounded there. He ask- 
 ed me several pertinent questions as to the 
 intended extent and object of my journey, and 
 talked about a Greek priest, who, he said, 
 wished to be introduced to me, and whom ho 
 praised as a very worthy, well-informed man. 
 I asked him about the antiquities of Dacca, 
 whicii he said were not very old, the city itself 
 being a comparatively recent Mussulman foun- 
 dation. He was dressed in plain white mus- 
 lin, with a small gold tassel attached to his 
 turban. His son had a turban of purple silk, 
 ribbed with gold, with some jewels in it. Both 
 had splendid diamond rings. 1 took good care 
 to call the father ' his highness,' a distinction 
 of which Mr. Master had warned me that he' 
 was jealous, and which he himself, I observed, 
 was very careful always to pay him. At length 
 pawn and attar of roses were brought to me, 
 and I rose to give them to the visitors. The 
 Nawab smiled, and said, ' What, has your 
 I lordship learned our customs.^' Our guests 
 then rose, and Mr. Master gave his arm to th< 
 
154 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 NaAvab to lead him down stairs. The stair- 
 case was lined with attendants with silver 
 sticks, and the liorse-guards, as before, were 
 round the carriage; this was evidently second- 
 hand, having the arms of its former proprietor 
 still on the pannel, and the whole show was 
 any thing but splendid. The Company's se- 
 poys were turned out to present arms, and 
 the Nawab's own followers raised a singular 
 sort of acclamation as he got into his carriage, 
 -reckoning up the titles of his family, ' Lion of 
 War!' 'Prudent in Counsel!' 'High and 
 Mighty Prince,' &.C. &c. But the thing was 
 done with little spirit, and more like the pro- 
 clamations of a crier in an English court of 
 justice, than a ceremony in which any person 
 took an interest. I was, however, gratified 
 throughout the scene by seeing the humane 
 (for it was even more than good-natured) re- 
 spect, deference, and kindness, which in every 
 Avord and action Mr. Master showed to this 
 poor humbled potentate. It could not have 
 been greater, or in better taste, had its object 
 been an English prince of the blood." — Heber^s 
 Journal. 
 
 Gradually adopting, as they are, much of 
 
MEER ISRAF ALL 
 
 155 
 
 I , the habits, customs, and, above all, the educa- 
 tion, properly so called, of English noblemen, 
 the future destinies of these native princes 
 
 I must be allowed to form a subject of very great 
 
 t interest, and no less importance. 
 
 We find the Bishop honoured, on his first 
 landing by the attendance of certain officers 
 bearing silver sticks, native badges of exalted 
 rank, which were formerly adopted by many 
 of the Company's superior officers, but which 
 are now conceded to no ^Europeans in Bengal 
 
 i but the governor-general, the commander of 
 the forces, the chief-justice, and the Bishop of 
 Calcutta. These emblems are granted or re- 
 fused to the native houses, according to the 
 view which the government takes of their pre- 
 tensions and deserts, and are as eagerly covet- 
 ed and canvassed for as the stars and ribbons 
 of any European court. From the palace of 
 
 I the rajah of Dacca, the Bishop proceeded to 
 that of Meer Israf Ali, the chief Mahometan 
 gentleman of that district. We again quote 
 from the Journal. 
 
 " July 20.— He is said by Mr. Master to 
 
 I have been both extravagant and unfortunate, 
 and therefore to be now a good deal encum- 
 
1.56 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 bered. But his landed property still amounts 
 to above three hundred thousand begahs, and 
 his family is one of the best (as a private fa- 
 mily) in India. He was himself absent at one 
 of his other houses. But his two eldest sons 
 had been very civil, and had expressed a hope 
 that I would return their visit. Besides which, 
 I was not sorry to see the inside of this sort 
 of building. Meer Israf Ali's house is built 
 round a court-yard, and looks very much like 
 a dismantled convent, occupied by a corps of 
 Uhlans. There are abundance of fine horses, 
 crowds of shabby-looking servants in showy 
 but neglected liveries, and on the whole a sin- 
 gular mixture of finery and carelessness. The 
 two young men, and a relation, as they said he 
 was, who seemed to act as their preceptor and 
 as their father's man of business, received me 
 with some surprise, and were in truth marvel- 
 lously dirty, and unfit to see company. They 
 were, however, apparently flattered and pleas- 
 ed, and showed their good manners in ofl'ering 
 no apologies, but leading me up a very mean 
 staircase into their usual sitting rooms, which 
 were both better in themselves, and far better 
 furnished than I expected from the appearance 
 
MEER ISRAF ALL 157 
 
 of things below. After the few first compli- 
 ments, I had recourse to Abdullah's interpre- 
 tation, and they talked very naturally, and 
 rather volubly, about the fine sport their father 
 would show me the next time I came into the 
 country, he having noble covers for tygers, leo- 
 pards, and even wild elephants. At last out 
 came a wish for silvei' sticks! Their father, 
 they said, was not in the habit of asking fa- 
 vours from government, but it was a shame 
 that the baboos of Calcutta should obtain 
 badges of nobility, while true Seyuds, descend- 
 ants of the prophets, whose ancestors had never 
 known what trade was, but had won with their 
 swords from the idolaters the lands for which 
 they now paid taxes to the Company, should 
 be overlooked. I could promise them no help 
 here, and reminded them that an old family 
 was always respected whether it had silver 
 sticks or no, and that an upstart was only 
 laughed at for decorations which deceived 
 nobody. ' Yes,' said the younger, ' but our 
 ancestors used to have silver sticks, and we 
 have got them in the house at this day.' I 
 said if they could prove that, I thought that 
 government would be favourable to their re- 
 14 
 
158 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 quest, but advised them to consult Mr. Master, 
 who Avas their father's intimate friend. We 
 then parted, after their bringing pawn and rose 
 water in a very antique and elegantly carved 
 bottle, which migiit really have belonged to 
 those days when their ancestors smote the ido- 
 laters. Mr. Master afterwards said, that if the 
 Meer himself had been at home, I never should 
 have been plagued with such topics; that he 
 was a thorough gentleman, and a proud one, 
 who wished for the silver sticks, but would 
 never have asked the interest of a stranger." 
 
 "Jubj 23. — In the course of our halt this day, 
 a singular and painfully interesting character 
 presented himself in the person of a Mussul- 
 man Fakir, a very elegantly formed and hand- 
 some young man, of good manners, and speak- 
 ing good Hindoostanee, but with insanity 
 strongly marked in his eye and forehead. He 
 was very nearly naked, had a white handker- 
 chief tied as an ornament round his left arm, 
 a bright yellow rag hanging loosely over the 
 other, a little cornelian ornament set in silver 
 round his neck, a large chaplet of black beads, 
 and a little wooden cup in his hand. He ask- 
 ed my leave to sit down on the bank to watch 
 
MUSSULMAN FAKIR. 
 
 159 
 
 what we were doing, and said it gave his heart 
 pleasure to see EngUshmen; tliat he was a 
 great traveller, had been in Bombay, Cabul, 
 &c., and wanted to see all the world, wherein 
 he was bound to wander as long as it lasted. 
 I offered him alms, but he refused, saying, he 
 never took money, — that he had had his meal 
 that day, and wanted nothing. He sat talking 
 wildly with the servants a little longer, when 
 1 again told Abdullah to ask him if I could do 
 any thing for him; he jumped up, laughed, 
 said ' No pice!' then made a low obeisance, 
 and ran off, singing ' La Illah ul Allah!' His 
 manner and appearance nearly answered to the 
 idea of the Arab Mejnoun, when he run wild 
 for Leila." 
 
 ^'July 31. — At a neighbouring village I saw 
 an ape in a state of liberty, but as tame as pos- 
 sible, the favourite, perhaps the deity, certainly 
 the sacred animal of the villagers. He was 
 sitting in a little bush as we stopped (to allow 
 the servants' boats to come up), and on smell- 
 ing dinner, I suppose, for my meal was getting 
 ready, waddled gravely down to the water's 
 edge. He was about the size of a large spa- 
 niel, enormously fat, covered with long silky 
 
160 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 hair generally of a rusty lead colour, but on his 
 breast a fine shot blue, and about his buttocks 
 and thighs gradually waving into a deep or- 
 ange; he had no tail, or one so short that the 
 hair concealed it; he went on all fours only. I 
 gave him some toast, and my sirdar-bearer (a 
 Hindoo) sent him a leaf full of rice. I suspect 
 he was often in the habit of receiving doles at 
 this spot, which is the usual place for standing 
 across a deep bay of the river, and I certainly 
 have never yet seen a human Fakir in so good 
 case. To ascend a tree must be to a hermit 
 of his size a work of considerable trouble, but 
 I suppose he does so at night for security, 
 otherwise he would be a magnificent booty for 
 the jackalls." — Journal. 
 
 About this stage of the progress, we find 
 inserted in the Bishop's record two copies of 
 verses, which we shall quote at length. To 
 our fancy they are, in their kind, of exquisite 
 merit;" and, indeed, to speak plainly, we con- 
 sider the second of them as superior to any of 
 Heber's poems previously published — even to 
 " Palestine." 
 
 " If thou wei t by my side, my love ! 
 Huw fust wuulJ evening fail 
 
VERSES TO MRS. IIEBER. 
 
 In green Bciigala's palmy gi'ovc, 
 Listening tlic niglitingalo ! 
 
 '• If llioii, my love ! wert by my side, 
 
 My babies at my knee, 
 How gaily would our pinnace glide 
 
 O'er Gmiga's mimic sea ! 
 
 " I miss thee at the dawning grey, 
 
 When, on our deck reclined, 
 III careless ease my limbs 1 lay. 
 And woo the cooler w ind. 
 
 '■ I miss thee when by Gunga's stream 
 
 My twiliglit steps I guide. 
 But most beneath tlie lamp's pale beam 
 
 I miss tlicc from my side. 
 
 " I spread my books, niy pencil lr\. 
 The lingering nuon lo cheeii, 
 
 But miss thy kind approv ing eve, 
 Tliy meek attentive ear. 
 
 " But w hen of morn and eve the star 
 
 Beholds me on my knee, 
 I feel, though thou art distant far, 
 Thy prajcrs ascend for me. 
 
 " 'I'licn on ! then on ! where duty leads. 
 
 My course be onward still. 
 O'er broad Ilindostan's sultry meads, 
 O'er bleak Ahiiorali'i liill. 
 14* - 
 
162 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 " That course, nor Delhi's kingly gates. 
 
 Nor Wild Malwiili detain. 
 For sweet tlie bliss us both awaits 
 
 By yonder western main. 
 
 " Thy towers, Bombay, gleam bright, they aaj. 
 
 Across the dark blue sea, 
 But ne'er were hearts so light and gay 
 
 As then shall meet in thee !" 
 
 The other is entitled " An Evening Walk in 
 Bengal:" we know few dead poets, and no 
 living one, who might not be proud to own 
 it:— 
 
 " Our task is done ! on Guiiga's breast 
 
 Tlie sun is sinking down to rest ; 
 
 And, moored beneath the tamarind bough. 
 
 Our baric has found its harbour now. 
 
 With furled sail, and painted side. 
 
 Behold the tiny frigate ride. 
 
 Upon her deck, 'mid charcoal gleams, 
 
 The Moslems' savoury sujjper steams, 
 
 While all apart, beneath the wood. 
 
 The Hindoo cooks his simpler food. 
 
 " Come « alk with nie the jungle through ; 
 
 If yonder hunter told us true. 
 
 Far off, in desert dank and rude, 
 
 'I'he tyger holds his solitude ; 
 
 Nor (taught 1 y recent harm to shoi» 
 
 Tlio tluuiders of llie English gun,) 
 
' EVENING WALrf I.N BENTSAL.' 
 
 16S 
 
 A dreadful guost, Init rarely seen, 
 
 Returns to scare the village green. 
 
 Come boldly on ! no venom 'd snake 
 
 Can shelter in so cool a brake ; 
 
 Child of the sun ! he loves to lie 
 
 'iMid Nature's embers, parched and di^, 
 
 Where o'er some tower, in ruin laid. 
 
 The peepul spreads its haunted shade ; 
 
 t)r round a tomb his scales to wreatlie, 
 
 Fit warder in the gate of deatli ! 
 
 Come on ! Yet jiause ! Ijehold us now 
 
 Beneath the bamboo's arched bough. 
 
 Where, gemming oft that sacred gloom. 
 
 Glows the geranium's scarlet bloom,* 
 
 And winds our path through many a bower 
 
 Of fragrant tree and giant flower ; 
 
 The ceiba's crimson pomp display'd 
 
 O'er the broad plantain's humbler shade. 
 
 And dusk anana's prickly blade ; 
 
 While o'er the brake, so wild and fair. 
 
 The betel waves his crest in air. 
 
 With jiendent train and rushing wings, 
 
 Aloft the gorgeous peacock springs ; 
 
 And he, the bird of hundred dyes, 
 
 ^Vhose plumes the dames of Ava prize. 
 
 So rich a shade, so green a sod, 
 
 Our English fairies never trod ; 
 
 * .\ shrub whose deep scarlet flowers very much re- 
 semble the geranium, and thence called the Indian gera- 
 nium. 
 
164 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 Vet who in Iihlia's bow'r has stood, 
 
 l$nl ihoiiglil on England's ' good green wood T 
 
 And bless'd Ijcneatli the palmy shade. 
 
 Her hazel anil her hawthorn glade, 
 
 And breath'd a jirax 'r, (how oft in vain !) 
 
 To gaze ujjon lici' oaks again 1 
 
 " A truce to thoii^lit ! the jackall's ery 
 Resounds like sylvan re\eh v ; 
 And thiongh the tree?, yon failing ray 
 \\ ill scantly serve to giude our way. 
 Yet mark ! as fade the upper skies, 
 ICach thicket opes ten thousand eyes. 
 Before, beside us, and above. 
 The fire-(ly lights his lamp of love, 
 Retreating, chasing, sinking, soaring, 
 The darkness of the copse exploring ; 
 While to this cooler air confest, 
 'J'he broad dhatura bares her breast. 
 Of fragrant scent and vii gln white, 
 A pearl around the locks of night ! 
 Still as we piu«s, in softened jiuni, 
 Alon j the breezy alleys come 
 The \illage song, the horn, the drum. 
 Still as v.e jjass, from bush and briai'. 
 The shrill cigala strikes his lyre; 
 And, what is she whose li(|uid strain 
 Thrills through yon copse of sugar-cane ? 
 I know that soul-entrancing sv.ell ! 
 It is — it must be — Philomel ! 
 
 " Enriugh, enough, the rustling trees 
 Announce a shower ujjon the luceze, — 
 
BENARES. 
 
 165 
 
 Tlie flashes of the summer sky 
 Assume a detper, niildier die ; 
 , Yon lamp tliat trembles on the stream. 
 From (ovth our cabin sheds its beam ; 
 And we must early sleep, to find 
 Betimes the morning's healthy wind. 
 But oh ! with thankful hearts confess, 
 Ev'n here tliere may be happiness ; 
 And He, the bounteous Sire, has given 
 His peace on earth — his hope of heaven !" 
 
 We shall next quote the Bishop's most pic- 
 turesque description of the great ecclesiastical 
 capital of India — Benares, a city " more en- 
 tirely and characteristically eastern than any 
 he had seen before." 
 
 " No Europeans (says he) live in the town, 
 nor are the streets wide enough for a wheel-car- 
 riage. Mr. Frazer's gig was stopped short 
 almost in its entrance, and the rest of the way 
 was passed in tonjons, through alleys so crowd- 
 ed, so narrow, and so winding, that even a 
 tonjon* sometimes passed with difficulty. The 
 houses are mostly lofty, none I think less than 
 two stories, most of three, and several of five 
 or six, a sight which I now for the first time 
 
 * A species of litter. 
 
166 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 saw in India. The streets, like those of Ches- 
 ter, are considerably lower than the ground- 
 floors of the houses, Avhich have mostly arched 
 rows in front, with little shops behind them. 
 Above these, the houses are richly embellish- 
 ed with verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel 
 windows, and very broad and overhanging 
 eaves, supported by carved brackets. The 
 number of temples is very great, mostly small, 
 and stuck like shrines in the angles of the 
 streets, and under the shadow of the lofty 
 houses. Their forms, hov/ever, are not un- 
 graceful, and they are many of them entirely 
 covered over with beautiful and elaborate carv- 
 ings of flowers, animals, and palm-branches, 
 equalling in minuteness and richness the best 
 specimens that I have seen of Gothic or Gre- 
 cian architecture. The material of the build- 
 ings is a very good stone, from Chunar, but 
 the Hindoos here seem fond of painting them 
 a deep red colour, and, indeed, of covering 
 the more conspicuous parts of their houses 
 with paintings in gaudy colours of flower-pots, 
 men, women, bulls, elephants, gods and god- 
 desses, in all their many-formed, many-headed, 
 many-handed, and many-weaponed varieties. 
 
BENARES. 
 
 167 
 
 The sacred bulls devoted to Siva, of every 
 age, tame and familiar as mastiffs, walk lazily 
 uj) and down these narrow streets, or are seen 
 lying across them, and hardly to be kicked up 
 (any blows, indeed, given them must be of the 
 gentlest kind, or woe be to the profane wretch 
 who braves the prejudices of this fanatic popu- 
 lation) in order to make way for the tonjon. 
 Monkeys sacred to Hunimaun, the divine ape 
 who conquered Ceylon for Rama, are in some 
 parts of the town equally numerous, clinging 
 to all the roofs and little projections of the tem- 
 ples, putting their impertinent heads and hands 
 into every fruiterer's or confectioner's shop, 
 and snatching the food from the children at 
 their meals. Fakirs' houses, as they are call- 
 ed, occur at every turn, adorned with idols, 
 and sending out an unceasing tinkling and 
 strumming of vinals, biyals, and other discord- 
 ant instruments; while religious mendicants of 
 every Hindoo sect, offering every conceivable 
 deformity, which chalk, cow-dung, disease, 
 matted locks, distorted limbs and disgusting and 
 hideous attitudes of penance can show, liter- 
 ally line the principal streets on both sides. 
 The number of blind persons is very great (I 
 
168 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 was going to say of lepers also, but I am not 
 sure whether the appearance on the skin may 
 not have been filth and chalk) ; and here I saw 
 repeated instances of that penance of which I 
 had heard much in Europe, of men with their 
 legs or arms voluntarily distorted by keeping 
 them in one position, and their hands clench- 
 ed till the nails grew out at the backs. Their 
 pitiful exclamations as we passed, ' Agha Sa- 
 hib,' ' Topee Sahib,' (the usual names in 
 Hindostan for an European), ' khana kc waste 
 kooch cheez do,' ' give me something to 
 eat,' soon drew from me what few pice I had; 
 but it was a drop of water in the ocean, and 
 the importunities of the rest, as we advanced 
 into the city, were almost drowned in the hub- 
 bub which surrounded us. Such are the sights 
 and sounds which greet a stranger on entering 
 this ' the most Holy City' of Hindostan, 
 ' the Lotus of the world, not founded on com- 
 mon earth, but on the point of Siva's trident,' 
 a place so blessed, that whoever dies here, of 
 whatever sect, even though he should be an 
 eater of beef, so he will but be charitable to the 
 poor Brahmins, is sure of salvation. It is, in 
 fact, this very holiness which makes it the com- 
 
BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA. 
 
 169 
 
 mon resort of beggars: since, besides the num- 
 ber of pilgrims, which is enormous from every 
 part of India, as well as from Tibet and the 
 Birman Empire, a great multitude of rich in- 
 dividuals in the decline of life, and almost all 
 the great men who are from time to time dis- 
 graced or banished from home by the revolu- 
 tions which are continually occurring in the 
 Hindoo states, come hither to w^sh away their 
 sins, or to fill up their vacant hours with the 
 gaudy ceremonies of their religion, and really 
 give away great sums in profuse and indiscri- 
 minate charity." 
 
 The interior of one of the innumerable tem- 
 ples of the holy city is thus given: — 
 
 " The temple-court, (says Heber) small as 
 it is, is crowded like a farm-yard with very fat 
 and very tame bulls, which thrust their noses 
 into every body's hand and pocket for gram 
 and sweetmeats, which their fellow-votaries 
 give them in great quantities. The cloisters 
 are no less full of naked devotees, as hideous 
 as chalk and dung can make them, and the 
 continued hum of ' Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!' 
 is enough to make a stranger giddy. The 
 place is kept very clean, however, — indeed 
 15 
 
no 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 the priests seem to do little else than pour 
 water over the images and the pavement, and 
 I found them not merely willing, but anxious 
 to show me every thing, — frequently repeating 
 that they were Padres also, though it is true 
 that they used this circumstance as an argu- 
 ment for my giving them a present." 
 
 We are happy to observe, in the general, 
 that the scope and tendency of the Bishop's 
 remarks and reflections on India are decidedly 
 favourable. The obvious defects of the pre- 
 sent system of police, and judicial administra- 
 tion in India, are commented on with justice 
 — never in the tone of exaggerated feeling. 
 The character, dispositions, and capabilities 
 of our native subjects, on the other hand, are 
 treated in a manner which will give little satis- 
 faction to those proud and haughty bigots of 
 Europeanism, who have, in many cases, been 
 suffered to exert a most perilous degree of in- 
 fluence over the destinies of that immense 
 empire. He does not lend his canvass exclu- 
 sively either to the lights or the shades of the 
 living picture before him — but transfers it 
 faithfully with all its features ; and pronounces 
 that, upon the whole, in the midst of much 
 
BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA. 
 
 171 
 
 (hat is dark, doubtful, and melancholy, the 
 predominant feeling, with which it deserves to 
 be contemplated, is the cheering and stimula- 
 ting one of hope. That the British sway has, 
 in the main — looking to the whole country and 
 the population in the mass — been productive 
 of good to India, he distinctly asserts ; and he 
 adduces evidence which cannot, we think, 
 leave it in the power of any honest man to dis- 
 sent from that opinion. That it has degraded 
 and impoverished certain classes of the popu- 
 lation all over India, and, through them, es- 
 sentially injured some particular districts of 
 the country, he as distinctly confesses. That 
 we ought to look to India with an eye of ex- 
 treme watchfulness is an inference which he 
 presses continually. If we do so — if we per- 
 severe in a course of conduct, which, as gra- 
 dually but sensibly bettering the condition of 
 the great mass of the people, presents the 
 fairest prospect of overbalancing the admitted 
 elements of danger inherent in certain classes 
 of the population as they now stand — and at 
 the same time show readiness to improve the 
 condition of those classes themselves, when- 
 ever it is possible to do so with safety to our 
 
172 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 own interest — it" this be the Hne of conduct 
 pursued steadily in India, the Bisliop has no 
 nervous apprehensions whatever as to the per- 
 manence of our empire. That such an empire 
 should remain, for an indefinite course of time, 
 in the relation of a colonial or quasi-colonial 
 appendage to a kingdom so remote as this, his 
 lordship was not likely to dream. But that, 
 under a firm, paternal, and liberal system of 
 government, the industry of India may be 
 stimulated to an extent hitherto unimagined ; 
 the character of her people raised and 
 strengthened ; their prejudices, even their re- 
 ligious prejudices, slowly, indeed, but surely 
 overcome ; and, in a word, the whole condition 
 of these enormous regions so altered and im- 
 proved, that their political separation from 
 Great Britain might be another name for the 
 admission of several great independent states 
 into the social system of the civilized world, 
 and even of the Christian world — these are 
 prospects which, after duly weighing what has 
 already been done, the rational and compre- 
 hensive intellect of Heber appears to have 
 considered as neither visionary nor absurd. 
 On passing Mirzapoor, a city the impor- 
 
BRITISH EMPIRE I.N IXDIA. 
 
 173 
 
 tancc of which dates entirely from the csta- 
 blisiiment of the English government, and 
 which now exhibits a population of from two 
 to three hundred thousand inhabitants, en- 
 gaged in traffic to a great extent, enjoying, 
 apparently, ease, comfort, and independence, 
 and surrounded with new buildings of all sorts, 
 as splendid as are to be seen anywhere out of 
 Calcutta, the Bishop pauses to say — 
 
 " This is, indeed, a most rich and striking 
 land. Here, in the space of little more than 
 two hundred miles, along the same river, I 
 have passed si.K towns, none of them less 
 populous than Chester, — two (Patna and Mir- 
 zapoor) more so than Birmingham ; and one, 
 Benares, more peopled than any city in Eu- 
 rope, except London and Paris ! And this be- 
 sides villages innumerable. I observed to 
 Mr. Archdeacon Corrie, that I had expected 
 to find agriculture in Hindostan in a flourish- 
 ing state, but the great cities ruined, in con- 
 sequence of the ruin of the Mussulman nobles. 
 He answered, that certainly very many ancient 
 families had gone to decay, but he did not 
 think the gap had been ever perceptible in his 
 time, in this part of India, since it had been 
 15* 
 
174 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 more than filled up by a new order rising fi om 
 the middling classes, whose wealth had, dur- 
 ing his recollection, increased very greatly. 
 Far, indeed, from those cities which we had 
 already passed decaying, most of them had 
 much increased in the number of their houses, 
 and, in what is a sure sign of wealth in India, 
 the number and neatness of their ghats and 
 temples, since he was last here. Nothing, he 
 said, was plainer to him, from the multitude 
 of little improvements of this kind, of small 
 temples and Bungalows, partly in the Euro- 
 pean style, but obviously inhabited by natives, 
 that wealth was becoming more abundant 
 among the middling ranks, and that such of 
 them as are rich are not afraid of appearing 
 so. The great cities in the Dooab, he said, 
 were indeed scenes of desolation. The whole 
 country round Delhi and Agra, when he first 
 saw it, was filled with the marble ruins of vil- 
 las, mosques, and palaces, with the fragments 
 of tanks and canals, and the vestiges of inclo- 
 sures. But this ruin had occurred before the 
 British arms had extended thus far, and while 
 the country was under the tyranny and never- 
 ending invasions of the Persians, Affghans, 
 
BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA. 
 
 175 
 
 and Maharattas. Even here a great innprove- 
 tnent had taken place before he left Agra, and 
 he hoped to find a much greater on his return. 
 He apprehended that, on the whole, all India 
 had gained under British rule, except, perhaps, 
 Dacca and its neighbourhood, where the ma- 
 nufactures had been nearly ruined." 
 
 Higher up, at Wallahabad, the intelligent 
 collector of the district, Mr. Ward, introduced 
 to the Bishop the zemindar of the district, a 
 Mahometan gentleman, of high family and re- 
 spectable character, and a very interesting 
 conversation ensued. The Bishop happened 
 to introduce the subject of field sports : 
 
 " I observed (says Heber) that there was 
 much jungle in the neighbourhood, and asked 
 if there were any tygers. ' Tygers ! No,' 
 said he, ' not for several years back ; and as 
 for jungle, there is three times as much culti- 
 vated land now as there used to be under the 
 government of the vizier. Then there were 
 tygers in plenty, and more than plenty ; but 
 there are better things than tygers now, such 
 as corn-fields, villages, and people."' .... 
 " It is curious and interesting to find both the 
 apparently progressive improvement of the 
 
 I 
 
176 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 country under the British government, as con- 
 trasted with its previous state, and also how 
 soon, and how easily, in a settled country, the 
 most formidable wild animals become extinct 
 before the power of man. The tyger will soon 
 be almost as great a rarity in our eastern as 
 in our western dominions : the snake, how- 
 ever, will hold his ground loiiger." 
 
 Still higher up the country, not far from 
 Cawnpore, we find the Bishop writing as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " The day was fine, and though the roads 
 were in a very bad state, it was dehghtful to 
 hear the mutual congratulations of our bearers 
 and the villagers whom we passed, both parties 
 full of thankfulness to God, and considering 
 themselves, with apparent reason, as delivered 
 from famine and all its horrors. One of these 
 mutual felicitations, M'hich the Archdeacon 
 overheard the day before, was very interest- 
 ing, as it was not intended for his ear, and was 
 one of the strongest proofs I have met with of 
 the satisfaction of the Hindoos with their ru^ 
 lers. ' A good rain this for the bread,' said 
 one of the villagers to the other. ' Yes,' 
 was the an3'.ver, ' and a good government, 
 
CHARACTER OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 177 
 
 under which a man may eat bread in safety.' 
 While such a f'eehng prevails, wc may have 
 good hopes of the stability of our Indian go- 
 vernment." 
 
 We might quote a dozen passages more of 
 the same cast and tendency. 
 
 To us the most painful subject the Bishop 
 touches on, and he does so frequently in a 
 very affecting manner, is the levity, to give it 
 no worse name, with which our young and 
 thoughtless countrymen often trifle with the 
 feelings of the natives. Its danger is as obvi- 
 ous as its vice. Let one example serve : he 
 met a military officer voyaging up the Ganges, 
 who made it his boast that, whenever his cook- 
 boat hung behind, he fired at it with ball. 
 The gentleman, no doubt, took care to shoot 
 high ; but such tricks cannot be practised 
 without e-xciting bitter anger at the time, and 
 leaving a lasting impression of disgust. It is 
 delightful to turn from such incidents to the 
 many specimens he gives of the gratefulness 
 with which the poor natives receive the kind- 
 ness of their European superiors. Talking of 
 his own numerous attendants generally, the 
 Bishop says he found them susceptible, in a 
 
178 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 high degree, of those amiable feelings, which, 
 no question, the habitual conduct and demea- 
 nour of their kind-hearted master were singu- 
 larly calculated to call Ibrth. On one occasion 
 a boy brought a httle leveret to the side of his 
 horse, and when he reproved him for meddling 
 with a poor animal much too young to be of 
 any use at the table, and directed one of his 
 own servants to see that it was put back again, 
 as nearly as possible on the spot where it had 
 been lifted, the whole crowd of grooms and 
 bearers burst out with blessings on his head. 
 Another time when he interfered, to prevent 
 a horse's tail being docked, observing that 
 " Go had bestowed on no animal a limb too 
 much, or which tended to its disadvantage, 
 the speech" (says he) " seemed to chime in 
 wonderfully with the feelings of most of my 
 hearers ; and one very old man observed that, 
 during the twenty-two years the English had 
 held the district, he had not heard so grave 
 and godly a saying from any of them." " I 
 thought of Sancho Panza (adds the modest 
 bishop) and his wise sayings, and regretted 
 that, with my present knowledge of their lan- 
 guage, I could not tell them any thing really 
 
CHARACTER OF THE HINDOOS. 179 
 
 worth their hearing." Such things, however, 
 were probably as profitably heard as more for- 
 mal lessons might have been. His lordship's 
 attendants, in their progress up the river, were 
 often coming and asking leave of absence for 
 a day or two, to visit parents or kindred resi- 
 ding near the banks. He gained much favour 
 by the readiness with which he listened to 
 such demands : the kindness seems never to 
 have been abused ; and on one occasion he had 
 the gratification to ascertain that an advance of 
 a month's wages had been converted solely to 
 the use and benefit of a poor groom's aged fa- 
 ther and mother. A touching incident occurs 
 very early in the voyage : he finds that a boat- 
 man set apart every day a certain portion of his 
 rice, and bestowed it on the birds, saying, ' It 
 is not I, but my child that feeds you.' He had 
 lost an only son some years before, and the boy 
 |{ ^having been in the custom of feeding the birds 
 in this way, the parent never omitted doing so 
 at sunset, in his name. These are not peoplo 
 of whose feelings men can make light with 
 impunity. 
 
 How well they appreciate, and how lasting- 
 * ly they remember, the benefits conferred on 
 
180 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 them by kind and judicious functionaries, may 
 be gathered from many examples scattered 
 over Heber's journal. Thus, at Allahabad, 
 when he asked, with a natural curiosity, which 
 of the governors of India stood highest in the 
 good opinion of the 'people, he found that, 
 though Lord Wellesley and Warren Hastings 
 were honoured as " the two greatest men that 
 had ever ruled this part of the world," the 
 people universally " spoke with much affection 
 of Mr. Johnathan Duncan." — " Duncan Sa- 
 hib hhachola baee; i. e. Mr. Duncan's young- 
 er brother, is still," he says, " the usual term 
 of praise applied to any public man who ap- 
 pears to be actuated by an unusual spirit of 
 kindness towards their nation." Again, at 
 Boglipoor, he found the memory of Judge 
 Cleveland, who died at the age of twenty- 
 nine, in 1784, still fresh in honour: this able 
 and eminent man did much for that district; 
 he improved its husbandry, established ba- 
 zaars, and, above all, instituted a police, which 
 has been found lastingly effective in a region 
 formerly noted for disorders. When he died, 
 the chiefs of the hill country and the Mussul- 
 man gentry of the plain joined their contribu- 
 
PREJUDICES DIMINIIHING. 
 
 181 
 
 tions to erect a stately monument over his 
 grave: 
 
 " As being raised to the memory of a Chris- 
 tian, (says Heber,) it is called a Griege, i. e. 
 a church; and the people still meet once a 
 year in considerable numbers, and have a 
 Poojah, or religious spectacle, in honour of 
 his memory." 
 
 Both Hindoos and Moslem have since con- 
 tributed largely to pay similar honours to He- 
 ber himself ; and his name, too. Christian 
 bishop as he was, will be remembered in poo- 
 jahs of its own. 
 
 Of the slow but distinct and undeniable 
 diminution of the Anti-Christian prejudices of 
 the natives, we have already had occasion to 
 cite some proofs ; we may here throw together 
 a few of the many notices to the same purport 
 which occur in the earlier part of Heber's In- 
 dian Journal. At vol. i. p. 219, (quarto edi- 
 tion,) we find Archdeacon Corrie applied to 
 by a Brahmin of high rank, and, it is impor- 
 portant to add, of much wealth, " to grant 
 him an interview, that he might receive in- 
 struction in Christianity;" and, on the bish- 
 op's expressing some surprise at this occur- 
 16 
 
182 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 rence, the archdeacon answers, " This is not 
 the only indication I have met with in this 
 quarter, of persons who seem not unwilling to 
 inquire into religious subjects. — One of the 
 hill-people at the school has declared, of his 
 own accord, his intention of giving up Sunday 
 to the worship of God; and there are several 
 Hindoos and Mussulmans, who make no ob- 
 jection to eat victuals prepared by Christians, 
 saying, that they think the Christians are as 
 pure as themselves, and they are sure they 
 are wiser." 
 
 At p. 288, where the bishop is describing 
 his visitation of the schools established for the 
 native youth at Benares, in which the Gospels 
 are used as a school-book, we find the very 
 able and intelligent governor of the place, 
 who accompanied his lordship, stating as fol- 
 lows: — " That they had every reason to think 
 that all the bigger boys, and many of the 
 lesser ones, brought up at these schools, learn- 
 ed to despise idolatry and the Hindoo faith, 
 less by any direct precept, for their teachers 
 never name the subject to them, and in the 
 Gospels, which are the only strictly religious 
 books read, there are few, if any, allusions to 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 
 
 183 
 
 it, than from the disputations of the Mussul- 
 man and Hindoo boys among themselves, from 
 the comparison which they soon learn to make 
 between the system of worship which they 
 themselves follow and ours, and above all, 
 from the enlargement of mind which general 
 knowledge and the pure morality of the Gos- 
 pel have a tendency to produce. Many, both 
 boys and girls, have asked for Baptism, but it 
 has been always thought right to advise them 
 to wait till they had their parents' leave, or 
 were old enough to judge for themselves; and 
 many have, of their own accord, begun daily 
 to use the Lord's Prayer, and to desist from 
 showing any honour to the image. Their pa- 
 rents seem extremely indifferent to their con- 
 duct in this respect. Prayer, or outward 
 adoration, is not essential to caste. A man 
 may believe what he pleases, nay, I under- 
 stand, he may almost say what he pleases, 
 without the danger of losing it, and so long as 
 
 i they are not baptized, neither eat nor drink in 
 company with Christians or Pariars, all is 
 well in the opinion of the great majority, even 
 
 I in Benares." 
 
 And lastly, at p. 514, we find the Bishop 
 
184 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 himself recording his observation, after he had 
 visited the country from Calcutta to Meerut, 
 that in many places " a sort of regard seemed 
 to be paid to the Sabbath by the natives." And 
 the particular instance that suggests the re- 
 mark points to some Brahmins. — 
 
 " Of the way of performing these long jour- 
 neys in India, I was myself (says the Bishop, 
 in one of his letters to Mr. Wilmot Horton) 
 very imperfectly informed before I came here; 
 and, even then, it was long before I could be- 
 lieve how vast and cumbersome an apparatus 
 of attendance and supplies of every kind was 
 necessary, to travel in any degree of comfort 
 or security. On the river, indeed, so long as 
 that lasted, our progress was easy and plea- 
 sant, (bating a little heat ar.ri a few storms,) 
 carried on by a strong south-eastern breeze, 
 in a very roomy and comfortable boat, against 
 the stream of a majestic body of water, with 
 a breadth, during the rainy season, so high up 
 as Patra, of from six to nine miles, and even 
 above Patra, as far as Cawnpore, in no place 
 narrower than the Mersey opposite Liverpool. 
 But it is after leaving the Ganges for the land 
 journey, that, if not the tug, yet no small part 
 
TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 185 
 
 of the apparalus^ provenlus, el commealus of 
 war, commences. It has been my wish, on 
 many accounts, to travel without unnecessary 
 display. My tents, equipments, and number 
 of servants, are all on the smallest scale which 
 comfort or propriety would admit of. They 
 all fall short of what are usually taken by the 
 collectors of districts; and in comparison of 
 what the commander-in-chief had with him 
 the year before last, I have found people dis- 
 posed to cry out against them as quite insuffi- 
 cient. Nor have I asked for a single soldier 
 or trooper beyond what the commanding offi- 
 cers of districts have themselves offered as 
 necessary and suitable. Yet, for myself and 
 Dr. Smith, the united numbers amount to 
 three elephants, above twenty cameLs, five 
 horses, besides ponies for our principal ser- 
 vants, twenty-six servants, twenty-six bearers 
 of burdens, fifteen clashees to pitch and re- 
 move tents, elephant and camel drivers, I be- 
 lieve, thirteen; and since we have left the 
 Company's territories and entered Rajapoo- 
 tam, a guard of eighteen irregular horse, 
 and forty-five sipahees on foot, includmg na- 
 tive officers. Nor is this all; for there is a 
 16* 
 
186 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 number of petty tradesmen and other poor 
 people, Vt'hose road is the same as ours, and 
 who have asked permission to encamp near 
 us, and travel under our protection; so that 
 yesterday, when I found it expedient, on ac- 
 count of the scarcity which prevails in these 
 provinces, to order an allowance of flour, by 
 way of Sunday dinner, to every person in 
 camp, the number of heads was returned one 
 hundred and sixty-five. With all these formi- 
 dable numbers, you must not, however, sup- 
 pose that any exorbitant luxury reigns in niy 
 tent; our fare is, in fact, as homely as any 
 two formers in England sit down to; and, if 
 it be sometimes exnberant, the fault must be 
 laid on 'a country where we must take a whole 
 sheep or kid, if we would have animal Ibod at 
 all, and whore neither sheep nor kid will, 
 when killed, remain eatable more than a dav 
 or two. Tiic truth is, that where people car- 
 ry every thing with them, tent, bed, furniture, 
 wine, beer, and crockery, ior six months to- 
 gether, no small (piaiitity of beasts of ljurden 
 may well be supposed necessary; and in coun- 
 tries such as those which I have now been 
 traversing, where every man is armed; whcra 
 
PREACHES AT BENARES. 
 
 187 
 
 every third or fourth man, a few years since, 
 was a tiiief by profession; and where, in spite 
 of English influence and supremacy, tlie for- 
 ests, mountains, and multitudes of petty sove- 
 reignties, aflbrd all possible scope for the prac- 
 tical application of Wordsworth's ' good old 
 rule,' — you may believe me, that it is neither 
 pomp nor cowardice which has thus fenced 
 your friend in with spears, shields, and bayo- 
 nets."* 
 
 In the course of this arduous pilgrimage 
 from Calcutta to Bombay, he found occasions 
 for preaching upwards of fifty times; and the 
 sermon delivered on one of those occasions, 
 at the consecration of a church near Benares, 
 was printed at the request of the Europeans 
 who heard it; and, though bearing marks of 
 having been written in haste, fully justifies 
 tlieir discernment in having made that re- 
 quest. The following passage has much of 
 the pecuhar manner of the author of Pales- 
 tine : — 
 
 " Ifthe Israehtes were endowed, beyond the 
 nations of mankind, with wise and righteous 
 
 * Letter dated liaiitcliar, ((iii/.erat,) March, 14, 1825. 
 
188 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 lawg^ vvith a fertile and almost impregnable 
 territory, with a race of valiant and victorious 
 kings, and a God who (while they kept his 
 ways) was a wall of fire against their enemies 
 round about them; if the kings of the wilder- 
 ness did them homage, and the lion-banner of 
 David and Solomon was reflected at once 
 from the Mediterranean and the Euphrates — • 
 it was, that the way of the Lord might be 
 made known by their means upon earth, and 
 that the saving health of the Messiah might 
 become conspicuous to all nations. 
 
 " My brethren, it has pleased the Almighty, 
 that the nation to which we ourselves belong, 
 is a great, a valiant, and an understanding na- 
 tion; it has pleased Him to give us an em- 
 pire, in which the sun never sets — a commerce 
 by which the remotest nations of the earth are 
 become our allies, our tributaries, I had almost 
 said our neighbours; and by means (when re- 
 garded as human means, and distinct from his 
 mysterious providence) so inadequate, as to 
 excite our alarm as well as wonder, the sove- 
 reignty over these wide and populous heathen 
 lands. But is it for our sakes that he has 
 given us these good gifts, and wrought these 
 
PREACHES AT BENARES. 
 
 189 
 
 great marvels in our favour? Are we not 
 rather set up on high in the earth, that we may 
 show forth the light by which we are guided, 
 and be the honoured instruments of diffusing 
 those blessings which we ourselves enjoy, 
 through every land where our will is law, 
 through every tribe where our wisdom is held 
 in reverence, and in every distant isle which 
 our winged vessels visit ? If we value, then, 
 (as who does not value?) our renown among 
 mankind; if we exult (as who can help exult- 
 ing?) in the privileges which the providence of 
 God has conferred on the British nation; if 
 we are thankful (and God forbid we should be 
 otherwise) for the means of usefulness in our 
 power; and if we love (as who does not love?) 
 our native land, its greatness and prosperity, — 
 let us see that we, each of us in our station, 
 are promoting to the best of our power, by ex- 
 ample, by exertion, by liberality, by the prac- 
 tice of Christian justice and every virtue, the 
 extention of God's truth among men, and the 
 honour of that holy name whereby we are 
 called. There have been realms before as 
 famous as our own, and (in relation to the then 
 extent and riches of the civilized world) as 
 
190 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 powerful and as wealthy, of which the traveller 
 sees nothing now but ruins in the midst of a 
 wilderness, or where the mariner only finds a 
 rock for fishers to spread their nets. Nineveh 
 once reigned over the East; but where is 
 Nineveh now ? Tyre had once the commerce 
 of the world; but what is become of Tyre? 
 But if the repentance of Nineveh had been per- 
 severed in, her towers would have stood to 
 this day. Had the daughter of Tyre brought 
 her gills to the Temple of God, she would 
 have continued a Queen forever." 
 
 This visitation gave the Bishop an oppor- 
 tunity of ascertaining the state and wants of 
 the Christian congregations in the northern 
 districts of his diocese, where in four principal 
 places, Benares, Chunar, Merut, and Agra, 
 he had the satisfaction of finding service per- 
 formed in Hindostanee according to the Lit- 
 urgy of the English Church; it also brought 
 him acquainted with a race of men of a cha- 
 racter far more manly than the Bengalese, 
 dwelling, under native chiefs, among the moun- 
 tains near Rajemahel, in the province of Bahar 
 — not divided into castes, indifferent to the 
 idolatries of the plains, and on every account 
 
CHRISTIAN CONGREGATIONS. 191 
 
 offering, as the Bishop thought, a very pro- 
 mising field for Christian teachers. He ac- 
 cordingly (by way of beginning) fixed a mis- 
 sionary at Boglipore, a place affording local 
 advantages for the establishment of schools, 
 for learning the language, and becoming ac- 
 quainted with the heads of these clans, who 
 appear to be a primitive race, protected by 
 their fastnesses from much contact or inter- 
 course with the invaders that, from time to 
 time, have made India their own. The Bishop 
 entertained a very sanguine hope that a con- 
 version of no ordinary extent would be thus 
 effected, and regarded the beginning thus made 
 as doubly important, on account of the con- 
 nectijon which, in all probability, exists between 
 these tribes and the Goands and other nations 
 of central India, whom they are said strongly 
 to resemble in habits and character. 
 
 In a letter to one of his friends, written at 
 the close of this extensive journey, the Bishop 
 distinctly expresses his satisfaction that he had 
 never, in the whole course of it, turned either 
 to the right hand or to the left for the sake of 
 gratifying curiosity — that he had travelled in 
 his episcopal capacity, and allowed no other 
 
192 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 objects to interfere with those which were 
 pressed on him by the character of his func- 
 tions. But no accomplished Englishman, far 
 less a deeply read and deeply thinking scholar 
 like Heber, could traverse these regions with- 
 out having his attention called to many objects, 
 which may not, at first sight, appear to have 
 been, in his case, professional. The whole 
 state and condition, however, of the Indian 
 population, it was, in fact, most strictly and 
 sacredly his duty to study; and how success- 
 fully he carried his talents to this obiect we 
 have in our power to show, by some passages 
 from his MS. correspondence. The letter, 
 from which we are about to quote, was written 
 in March, 1825; and addressed to one of his 
 oldest and most intimate friends, — a gentle- 
 man, not of his own profession, but engaged in 
 the business of the world, and the duties of a 
 high public station.* 
 
 " Though the greater part of the Company's 
 provinces (except Kumaoon) are by no means 
 abundant in objects of natural beauty or curi- 
 osity, the prospect offering little else than an 
 
 * Right Hon. R. W. Horton, tlien Under-Secretary of 
 State in tlie Colonial Department. 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTOX. 
 
 193 
 
 uniform plain of slovenly cultivation, yet, in 
 the character and manners of the people, there 
 is much which may be studied with interest and 
 amusement; and in the yet remaining speci- 
 men of oriental luxury and pomp at Lucknow; 
 in the decayed, but most striking and romantic, 
 magnificence of Delhi; and in the Taj-Mahal 
 of Agra, (doubtless one of the most beautiful 
 buildings in the world,) there is almost enough, 
 even of themselves, to make it Avorth a man's 
 while to cross the Atlantic and India Oceans. 
 
 " Since then I have been in countries of a 
 wilder character, comparatively seldom trodden 
 by Europeans, exempt during the greater part 
 of their history from the Mussulman yoke, and 
 retaining accordingly a great deal of the sim- 
 plicity of early Hindoo manners, without much 
 of that solemn and pompous uniformity which 
 the conquests of the house of Timur seem to 
 have impressed on all classes of their subjects. 
 Yet here there is much which is interesting 
 and curious. The people, who are admirably 
 described (though I think in too favourable 
 colours) by Malcolm, in his Central India, are 
 certainly a lively, animated, and warlike race 
 of men, though, chiefly from their wretched 
 17 
 
194 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 government, and partly from their still more 
 wretched religion, there is hardly any vice, 
 either of slaves or robbers, to which they do 
 not seem addicted. Yet such a state of soci- 
 ety is at least curious, and resembles more the 
 picture of Abyssinia as given by Bruce, than 
 that of any other country which I have seen or 
 read of ; while here too there are many wild 
 and woody scenes, which, though they want 
 the glorious glaciers and peaks of the Himma- 
 laya, do not fall short in natural beauty of some 
 of the loveliest glens which we went through 
 ten years ago in North Wales; and some very 
 remarkable ruins, which, though greatly infe- 
 rior as works of art to the Mussulman remains 
 in Hindoostan Proper, are yet more curious 
 than them, as being more different from any- 
 thing which an European is accustomed to see 
 or read of. 
 
 " One fact, indeed, during this journey, has 
 been impressed on my mind very forcibly — 
 that the character and situation of the natives 
 of these great countries are exceedingly little 
 known, and in many instances grossly mis- 
 represented, not only by the Engish public in 
 general, but by a great proportion of those also 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 
 
 195 
 
 who, though they have been in India, have 
 taken their views of its population, manners, 
 and productions from Calcutta, or at most from 
 Bengal. I had always heard, and fully be- 
 lieved till I came to India, that it was a griev- 
 ous crime, in the opinion of the Brahmins, to 
 eat the flesh or shed the blood of any living 
 creature whatever. I have now myself seen 
 Brahmins of the highest caste cut off the heads 
 of goats as a sacrifice to Doorga; and I know, 
 from the testimony of Brahmins, as well as 
 from other sources, that not only hecatombs of 
 animals are oflen offered in this manner as a 
 most meritorious act, (a Raja, about twenty- 
 five years back, offered sixty thousand in one 
 fortnight,) but that any person, Brahmins not 
 excepted, eats readily of the flesh of whatever 
 has been offered up to one of their divinities; 
 while among almost all the other castes, mut- 
 ton, pork, Hsh, venison, — anything but beef and 
 fowls, — are consumed as readily as in Europe. 
 Again, I had heard all my life of the gentle 
 and timid Hindoos, patient under injuries, 
 servile to their superiors, &c. Now, this is 
 doubtless, to a certain extent, true of the 
 Bcngalesc, (who, by the way, are never 
 
196 
 
 BISHOP HKBER. 
 
 reckoned among the nations of Hindoostan by 
 those who speak the language of that country,) 
 and there are a great many people in Calcutta 
 who maintain that all the natives of India are 
 alike. But even in Bengal, gentle as the ex- 
 terior manners of the people are, there are 
 large districts close to Calcutta, where the 
 work of carding, burning, ravishing, murder, 
 and robbery, goes on as systematically, and in 
 nearly the same manner, as in the worst part 
 of Ireland; and on entering Hindoostan, pro- 
 perly so called, which, in the estimate of the 
 natives, reaches from the Rajamahal hills to 
 Agra, and from the mountains of Kumaoon to 
 Bundelcund, I was struck and surprised to find 
 a people equal in stature and strength to the 
 average V of European nations, despising rice 
 and rice-eaters, feeding on wheat and barley- 
 bread, exhibiting in their appearance, conver- 
 sation, and habits of life, a grave, a proud, and 
 decidedly a martial character, accustomed uni- 
 versally to the use of arms and athletic exer- 
 cises from their cradles, and preferring very 
 great military service to any other means of 
 livelihood. This part of their character, but 
 in a ruder and wilder form, and debased by 
 
LETTER TO MR. 
 
 HORTON. 
 
 197 
 
 much alloy of treachery and violence, is cou 
 spicuous in the smaller and less good-looking 
 inhabitants of Rajapootam and Malwah; while 
 the mountains and woods, wherever they oc- 
 cur, show specimens of a race entirely different 
 from all these, and in a state of society scarcely 
 less elevated above the savages of New Hol- 
 land, or New Zealand; and the inhabitants, 
 I am assured, of the Deccan, and of the Pre- 
 sidencies of Madras and Bombay, are as dif- 
 ferent from those which I have seen, and from 
 each other, as the French and Portuguese from 
 the Greeks, Germans, or Poles. So idle is it 
 to ascribe uniformity of character to the inhabi- 
 tants of a country so extensive, and subdivided 
 by so many almost impassable tracts of moun- 
 tain and jungle, and so little do the majority 
 of those whom I have seen deserve the gentle 
 and imbecile character often assigned to them. 
 
 " I met, not long since, with a speech by a 
 leading member of the Scotch General As- 
 sembly, declaring his ' conviction that the 
 truths of Christianity could not be received by 
 men in so rude a state as the East Indians, and 
 that it was necessary to give them first a relish 
 for the habits and comforts of civilized life 
 17* 
 
198 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 before they could embrace the truths of the 
 Gospel.' The same slang (for it is nothing 
 more) I have seen repeated in divers pam- 
 phlets, and even heard it in conversations in 
 Calcutta. Yet though it is certainly true that 
 the lower classes of Indians are miserably poor, 
 and that there are many extensive districts 
 where, both among low and high, the laws are 
 very little obeyed, and there is a great deal of 
 robbery, oppression, and even ferocity, I know 
 no part of the population, except the mountain 
 tribes already mentioned, who can with any 
 propriety of language be called uncivilized. 
 Of the unpropitious circumstances which I 
 have mentioned, the former arises from a po- 
 pulation continually pressing on the utmost 
 limits of subsistence, and which is thus kept 
 up, not by any dislike or indifference to a bet- 
 ter diet, or more ample clothing, or more nu- 
 merous ornaments, than now usually fall to the 
 peasant's share, (for, on the contrary, if he 
 has the means, he is fender of external show 
 and a respectable appearance, than those of 
 his rank in many nations of Europe,) but by 
 the foolish superstition, which Christianity on- 
 ly is likely to remove, which n^akcs a parent 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 
 
 199 
 
 regard it as unpropitious -to allow his son to 
 remain unmarried, and which couples together 
 children of twelve or fourteen years of age. 
 The second has its origin in the long-contin- 
 ued misfortunes and intestine wars of India, 
 which are as yet too recent (even where their 
 causes have ceased to exist) for the agitation 
 which they occasioned to have entirely sunk 
 into a calm. But to say that the Hindoos or 
 Mussulmans are deficient in any essential fea- 
 ture of a civilized people, is an assertion which 
 I can scarcely suppose to be made by any who 
 have lived with them. Their manners are at 
 least as pleasing and courteous as those in the 
 corresponding stations of life among ourselves; 
 their houses are larger, and, according to their 
 wants and climate, to the full as convenient as 
 ours; their architecture is at least as elegant; 
 and though the worthy Scotch divine may 
 doubtless wish their labourers to be clad in 
 hoddin grey, and tiieir gentry and merchants 
 to wear powder and mottled stockings, like 
 
 worthy Mr. and the other elders of his 
 
 kirk-session, I really do not think that they 
 Avould gain either in cleanliness, elegance, or 
 comfort, by exchanging a white cotton robe for 
 the completest suit of dittos. 
 
200 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 " Nor is it true, that, in the mechanic arts, 
 they are inferior to the general run of Eu- 
 ropean nations. Where they fall short of us, 
 (which, is chiefly in agricultural implements 
 and the mechanics of corhmon life,) they are 
 not, so far as I have understood of Italy and 
 the South of France, surpassed in any great 
 degree by the people of those countries. 
 Their goldsmiths and weavers produce as 
 beautiful fabrics as our own, and it is so far 
 from true, that they are obstinately wedded to 
 their old patterns, that they show an anxiety 
 to imitate our models, and to imitate them 
 very successfully. The ships built by native 
 artists at Bombay are notoriously as good as 
 any which sail from London or Liverpool. 
 The carriages and gigs Avhich they supply at 
 Calcutta are as handsome, though not so 
 durable, as those of Long Acre. In the little 
 town of Monghyr, three hundred miles from 
 Calcutta, I had pistols, double-barrelled guns, 
 and diflercnt pieces of cabinet work brought 
 down to my boat for sale, which in outward 
 form, (for I know no further,) nobody but 
 
 perhaps Mr. could detect to be of 
 
 Hindoo origin ; and at Delhi, in the shop of 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 201 
 
 a wealthy native jeweller, I found brooches, 
 ear-rings, snuff-boxes, &c. of the latest mo- 
 dels, (so far as I am a judge,) and ornamented 
 with French devices and mottos. 
 
 " The fact is, that there is a degree of inter- 
 course maintained between this country and 
 Europe, and a degree of information existing 
 among the people as to what passes there, 
 which, considering how few of them speak or 
 read English, implies other channels of com- 
 munication besides those which we supply, 
 and respecting which I have b(;en able as yet 
 to obtain very little information. 
 
 " Among the presents sent last year to the 
 supreme government by the little state of 
 Ladeh, in Chinese Tartary, some large sheets 
 of gilt leather, stamped with the Russian 
 eagle, were the most conspicuous. A travel- 
 ler, who calls himself a Transylvanian, but 
 who is shrewdly suspected of being a Russian 
 spy, was, when I was in Kumaoon, arrested 
 by the commandant of one of our fortresses 
 among the Himmalaya mountains ; and, after 
 all our pains to exclude foreigners from the 
 service of the native princes, two Chevaliers 
 of the Legion of Honour were found, about 
 
202 
 
 BISHOP HEBEK. 
 
 twelve months ago, and are still employed in, 
 casting cannon, and drilling soldiers for the 
 Seik Raja, Runjeet Singh. This, you will say, 
 is no more than we should be prepared to ex- 
 pect ] but you probably would not suppose, 
 (what I believe is little, if at all, known in 
 Russia itself,) that there is an ancient and 
 still frequented place of Hindoo pilgrimage 
 not many miles from Moscow; — or that the 
 Secretary of the Calcutta Bible Society re- 
 ceived, ten months ago, an application (by 
 whom translated I do not know, but in very 
 tolerable English) from some priests on the 
 shore of the Caspian Sea, requesting a grant 
 of Armenian Bibles. After this, you will be 
 the less surprised to learn that the leading- 
 events of the late wars in Europe (particular- 
 ly Buonaparte's victories) were often known, 
 or at least rumoured, among the native mer- 
 chants of Calcutta, before government re- 
 ceived any accounts from England ; or that 
 the suicide of an English minister (with the 
 mistake, indeed, of its being Lord Liverpool 
 instead of the Marquis of Londonderry) had 
 become a topic of conversation in the ' Burra 
 Bazar,' (the native exchange,) for a fortnight 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 
 
 203 
 
 before the arrival of any intelligence by the 
 usual channels. 
 
 " With subjects thus inquisitive, and with 
 such opportunities of information, it is appa- 
 rent how little sense there is in thcdoctrine 
 that we Must keep the natives of Hindostan 
 in ignorance if we would continue to govern 
 them. The fact is, that they know enough 
 already to do us a great deal of mischief, if 
 they should find it their interest to make the 
 trial. They are in a fair way, by degrees, to 
 acquire still more knowledge for themselves ; 
 and the question is, whether it is not the part 
 of wisdom, as well as duty, to superintend and 
 promote their education while it is yet in our 
 power, and supply them with such knowledge 
 as will be at once most harmless to ourselves 
 and most useful to them. 
 
 " In this work the most important part is to 
 give them a better religion. Knowing how 
 strongly I feel on this subject, you will not be 
 surprised at my placing it foremost. But even 
 if Christianity were out of the question, and if, 
 when I had wheeled away the rubbish of the 
 old pagodas, I had nothing better than simple 
 Deism to erect in their stead, I should still feel 
 
204 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 some of the anxiety which now urges me. It 
 is necessary to see idolatry, to be fully sensible 
 of its mischievous effects on the human mind. 
 But of all idolatries which I have ever read or 
 heard of^ the religion of the Hindoos, in which 
 I have taken some pains to inform myself, 
 really appears to me the worst, both in the 
 degrading notions which it gives of the Deity; 
 in the endless round of its burdensome cere- 
 monies, which occupy the time and distract 
 the thoughts, without either instructing or in- 
 teresting its votaries ; in the filthy acts of un- 
 cleanness and cruelty not only permitted but 
 enjoined, and inseparably interwoven with 
 those ceremonies ; in the system of castes, a 
 system which tends, more than anything else 
 the Devil has yet invented, to destroy the 
 feelings of general benevolence, and to make 
 nine-tenths of mankind the hopeless slaves of 
 the remainder; and in the total absence of 
 any popular system of morals, or any single 
 lesson, which the people at large ever hear, 
 to live virtuously and do good to each other. 
 I do not say, indeed, that there are not some 
 scattered lessons of this kind to be found in 
 their ancient books ; but those books are nei- 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 205 
 
 ther accessible to the people at large, nor are 
 these last permitted to read them; and, in ge- 
 neral, all the sins which a Sudra is taught to 
 fear, are, killing a cow, offending a Brahmin, 
 or neglecting one of the many frivolous rites 
 by which their deities are supposed to be con- 
 ciliated. Accordingly, though the general 
 sobriety of the Hindoos (a virtue which they 
 possess in common with most inhabitants of 
 warm climates) affords a very great facility to 
 the maintenance of public order and decorum, 
 I really never have met with a race of men 
 whose standard of morality is so low, who feel 
 so little apparent shame in being detected in 
 a falsehood, or so little interest in the suffer- 
 ings of a neighbour not being of their own 
 caste or family; whose ordinary and familiar 
 conversation is so licentious ; or, in the wilder 
 and more lawless districts, who shed blood 
 with so little repugnance. The good quali- 
 ties which there arc among them (and, thank 
 God ! there is a great deal of good among 
 them still) are, in no instance that I am aware 
 of, connected with, or arising out of, their reli- 
 gion, since it is in no instance to good deeds 
 or virtuous habits of life that the future re- 
 18 
 
206 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 wards in which they beHeve are promised. 
 Their bravery, their fidehty to their employ- 
 ers, their temperance, and (wherever these 
 are found) their humanity and gentleness of 
 disposition, appear to arise exclusively from 
 a natural happy temperament; from an ho- 
 nourable pride in their own renown, and the 
 renown of their ancestors; and from the good- 
 ness of God, who seems unwilhng that his 
 image should be entirely defaced even in the 
 midst of the grossest error. The Mussul- 
 mans have a far better creed ; and though 
 they seldom either like the English or are 
 likfed by them, I am inclined to think are, on 
 the whole, a better people. Yet, even with 
 them, the forms of their worship have a natu- 
 ral tendency to make men hypocrites, and 
 the overweening contempt with Avhich they 
 are inspired for all the world beside, the de- 
 gradation of their women by the system of 
 polygamy, ' and the detestable crimes, which, 
 owing to this degradation, are almost univer- 
 sal, are such as, even if I had no ulterior hope, 
 would make me anxious to attract them to a 
 better or more harmless system. In this 
 work, thank God! in those parts of India 
 
LETTER TO MK. HORTON. 
 
 207 
 
 which I have visited, a beginning has been 
 made, and a degree of success obtained, at 
 least commensurate to the few years during 
 which our missionaries' have laboured; and 
 it is still going on, in the best and safest way, 
 as the work of private persons alone, and al- 
 though not forbidden, in no degree encourag- 
 ed, by government. 
 
 " In the meantime, and as an useful auxilia- 
 ry to the missionaries, the establishment of 
 elementary schools, for the lower classes and 
 for females, is going on to a very great extent, 
 and might be carried to any conceivable ex- 
 tent to which our pecuniary means would 
 carry us. Nor is there any measure from 
 which I anticipate more speedy benefit than 
 the elevation of the rising generation of fe- 
 males to their natural rank in society, and giv- 
 ing them (which is all that, in any of our 
 schools, we as yet venture to give) the les- 
 sons of general morality extracted from the 
 Gospel, without any direct religious instruc- 
 tion. These schools, such of them at least as 
 1 have any concern with, are carried on with- 
 out any help from government. Government 
 has, however, been very liberal in its grants 
 
208 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 both to a Society for National Education, and 
 in the institution and support of two colleges 
 of Hindoo students of riper age, the one at 
 Benares, the other at Calcutta. But I do not 
 think any of these institutions, in the Avay af- 
 ter which they are at present conducted, like- 
 ly to do much good. In the elementary schools 
 supported by the former, through a very cause- 
 less and ridiculous fear of giving offence to 
 the natives, they have forbidden the use of the 
 Scriptures, or any extracts from them, though 
 the moral lessons of the Gospel are read by 
 all Hindoos who can get hold of them, with- 
 out scruple and with much attention ; and 
 though their exclusion is tantamount to ex- 
 cluding all moral instruction from their schools, 
 the Hindoo sacred writings having nothing 
 of the kind, and, if they had, being shut up 
 from the majority of the people by the double 
 fence of a dead language and an actual pro- 
 hibition to read them, as too holy for common 
 eyes or ears. The defects of the latter will 
 appear when I have told you that the actual 
 state of Hindoo and Mussulman literature, 
 mutatis mutandis, very nearly resembles what 
 the literature of Europe was before the time 
 
LETTER TO HOKTON. 209 
 
 of Galileo, Copernicus, and Bacon. The 
 Mussulmans take their Logic from Aristotle, 
 filtered through many successive translations 
 and commentaries, and their metaphysical sys- 
 tem is professedly derived from Plato (' Fila- 
 toun.') The Hindoos have systems not very 
 dissimilar from these, though, I am told, of 
 greater length and more intricacy ; but the 
 studies in which they spend most time are the 
 acquisition of the Sanscrit, and the endless re- 
 finements of its grammar, prosody and poetry. 
 Both have the same natural philosophy, which 
 is also that of Aristotle in zoology and botany, 
 and Ptolemy in astronomy, for which the 
 Hindoos have forsaken their most ancient no- 
 tions of the seven seas, the six earths, and tlie 
 flat base of Padalon, supported on the back of 
 a tortoise. By the science which ithey now 
 possess, they are, some of them, able to forctel 
 an eclipse or compose an almanac; and many 
 of them derive some little pecuniary advantage 
 from pretensions to judicial astrology. In 
 medicine and chemistry they are just suffi- 
 ciently advanced to' talk of substances being 
 moist, dry, hot, Stc. in the third or fourth de- 
 gree; to dissuade from letting blood or phy- 
 18* 
 
210 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 sicking on a Tuesday^ or under a particular 
 aspect ofthe heavens; and to be eager in their 
 pursuit of the philosopher's stone and the 
 elixir of immortality. 
 
 " The task of enlightening the studious youth 
 of such a nation would seem to be a tolerably 
 straightforward one. But though, for the col- 
 lege in Calcutta, (not Bishop''s College remem- 
 ber, but the Vidhalya, or Hindoo College,) an 
 expensive set of instruments has been sent 
 out, and it seems intended that the natural 
 sciences should be studied there, the Mana- 
 gers of the present institution take care that 
 their boys should have as little time as possi- 
 ble for such pursuits, by requiring from them 
 all, without exception, a laborious study of 
 Sanscrit, and all the useless and worse than 
 useless literature of their ancestors. A good 
 deal of this has been charged (and in some 
 little degree charged with justice) against the 
 exclusive attention paid to Greek and Logic 
 till lately in Oxford. But in Oxford we have 
 never been guilty (since a better system was 
 known in the world at large) of teaching the 
 Physics of Aristotle, however we may have 
 paid an excessive attention to his Metaphysics 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 211 
 
 an d Dialectics. In Benares, however, I found 
 in the institution supported by Government, 
 a professor lecturing on astronomy after the 
 system of Ptolemy and Albumazar, while one 
 of the most forward boys was at the pains of 
 casting my horscope; and the majority of the 
 school were toiling at Shanscreet grammar. 
 And yet, the day before, in the same holy city, 
 I had visited another college, founded lately 
 by a wealthy Hindoo banker, and intrusted by 
 him to the management of the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society, in which, besides a gramma- 
 tical knowledge of the Hindostanee language, 
 as well as Persian and Arabic, the senior boys 
 could pass a good examination in English 
 grammar, in Hume's History of England, 
 Joyce's Scientific Dialogues, the use of the 
 globes, and the principal facts and moral pre- 
 cepts of the Gospel, most of them writing beau- 
 tifully in the Persian, and very tolerably in 
 tlie English, character, and excelling most 
 boys I have met with in the accuracy and 
 readiness of their arithmetic. The English 
 officer who is now in charge of the Benares 
 Vidhalya is a clever and candid young man, 
 and under him I look forward to much im- 
 
BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 provement. Rani-Mohun-Roy, a learned na- 
 tive, who has sometimes been called, though 
 I fear without reason, a Christian, remonstrat- 
 ed against this system last year, in a paper 
 Vv'hich he sent to me to put into Ijord Am- 
 herst's hands, and which, for its good English, 
 good sense, and forcible argument, is a real 
 curiosity, as coming from an Asiatic." 
 
 In another part of the same letter, the Bish- 
 op treats incidentally of a topic with their in- 
 attention to which both Professor Von Schle- 
 gel and his brother have bitterly reproached 
 the English — the architectural antiquities of 
 Hindostan. 
 
 " I had myself (says he) heard much of these 
 before I set out, and had met with many per- 
 sons, both in Europe and at Calcutta (where 
 nothing of the kind exists) who spoke of the 
 ])resent natives of India as a degenerate race, 
 whose inability to rear such splendid piles was 
 a proof that these last belong to a remote an- 
 tiquity. I have seen, however, enough to 
 convince me both that the Indian masons and 
 architects of the present day only want patrons 
 sufliciently wealthy or sufficiently zealous to 
 do all which their lulhers have done, and tliut 
 
letter to MR. HORTON. 213 
 
 there are very few structures here which can, 
 on any satisfactory grounds, be referred to a 
 date so early as the greater part of our own 
 cathedrals. Often, in Upper Hindoostan, and 
 still more frequently in Rajapootam and Mal- 
 wah, I have met with new and unfinished 
 shrines, cisterns, and ghats, as beautifully 
 carved and as well proportioned as the best of 
 those of an earlier day. And though there 
 • are many buildings and ruins which exhibit a 
 most venerable appearance, there are many 
 causes in this country which give this appear- 
 ance prematurely. In the first instance we 
 ourselves have a complex impression made on 
 , us by the sight of edifices so distant from our 
 own country, and so unlike whatever we have 
 seen there. We multiply, as it were, the geo- 
 graphical and moral distance into the chrono- 
 logical, and can hardly persuade ourselves that 
 we are contemporaries with an object so far 
 removed in every other respect. Besides this, 
 however, the firmest masonry in these climates 
 is sorely tried by the alternate influence of a 
 pulverizing sun and a continued three months' 
 rain. The wild fig-tree {pupul or Jicus reli- 
 giosa,) which no Hindoo can root out, or even 
 
214 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 lop, without a deadly sin, soon sows its seeds 
 and fixes its roots in the joints of the arching, 
 and being of rapid growth, at the same time, 
 and in a very few years, increases its pictur- 
 esque and antique appearance, and secures its 
 eventual destruction; lastly, no man in this 
 country repairs or completes what his father 
 has begun, preferring to begin something else 
 by which his own name may be remembered. 
 Accordingly, at Dacca are many fine ruins, 
 which at first impressed me with a great idea 
 of their age. Yet Dacca is a modern city, 
 ibunded, or at least raised from insignificance, 
 under Shah Oehanghise, in A. D. 1608; and 
 the tradition of the place is, that these fine 
 buildings were erected by European architects 
 in the service of the then governor. At Be- 
 nares, the princij)al temple has an appearance 
 so venerable, that one might suppose it to 
 have stood unaltered ever since the Treta 
 Yug, and that Mena and Capila had perform- 
 ed austerities witliin its precincts. Yet it is 
 historically certain that all the Hindoo temples 
 of consequence in Benares were pulled down 
 by Aurungzebe, the contemporary of Charles 
 the Second, and that the present structure 
 
LETTER TO MR. HORTON. 215 
 
 must have been raised since that time. The 
 observatories of Benares, Delhi, and Jage- 
 poor, I heard spoken of in the carelessness of 
 conversation, not only as extremely curious in 
 themselves (which they certainly are,) but as 
 monuments of the ancient science of the Hin- 
 doos. All three, however, are known to be 
 the work of the Rajah Jye Singh, who died in 
 1742! 
 
 " A remote antiquity is, with better reason, 
 claimed for some idols of black stone, and 
 elegant columns of the same material, which 
 have been collected in different parts of the 
 districts of Rotas, Bulnem, &.c. — These be- 
 long to the religion of a sect (the Boodhists) 
 of which no remains are now found in those 
 provinces. But I have myself seen images 
 exactly similar in the newly erected temples 
 of the Jains, a sect of Boodhists, still wealthy 
 and numerous in Guzerat, Rajapootam, and 
 Malvvah; and in a country where there is lite- 
 rally no history, it is impossible to say how 
 long since, or how lately, they may have lost 
 their ground in the more ea.stern parts of Gund- 
 wana. 
 
 " In the wilds which I have lately been tr|i- 
 
216 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 versing, at Chittore Ghur more particularly, 
 there are some very beautiful buildings, of 
 which the date was obviously assigned at ran- 
 dom, and which might be five hundred or one 
 thousand, or a hundred-and-fifty years old, for 
 all their present guardians know about the 
 matter. But it must be always borne in mind 
 that one thousand years are just as easily said 
 as ten, and that in the mouth of a Cicerone 
 they are sometimes thought to sound rather 
 better. 
 
 " The oldest things which I have seen, of 
 which the dates could be at all ascertained, 
 are some detached blocks of marble, with in- 
 scriptions, but of no appalling remoteness; and 
 two remarkable pillars of black mixed metal, 
 in a Patau forest near Delhi, and at C\'*tab- 
 Misar in the same neighbourhood; both co- 
 vered with inscriptions, which nobody can now 
 read, but both mentioned in Mussulman history 
 as in their present situation at the time when 
 ' the Believers' conquered Delhi, about A. D. 
 1000. But what is this to the date of the Par- 
 thenon ? Or how little can these trifling relics 
 bear a comparison with the works of Greece 
 and Egypt.' 
 
LETTER TO BIR. HORTON. 217 
 
 " Ellora and Elephanta I have not yet seen. 
 I can believe all which is said of their size and 
 magnificence; but they are without date or 
 inscription: they are, I understand, not men- 
 tioned, even incidentally, in any Sanscrit MS. 
 Their images, &c. are the same with those now 
 worshipped in every part of India, and there 
 have been many Rajahs and wealthy individ- 
 uals in every age of Indian history who have 
 possessed the means of carving a huge stone- 
 quarry into a cathedral. To our cathedrals, 
 after all, they are, I understand, very inferior 
 in size. All which can be known is, that Ele- 
 phanta must probably have been begun (whe- 
 ther it was ever finished seems very doubtful) 
 before the arrival of the Portuguese at Bom- 
 bay; and that Ellora may reasonably be con- 
 cluded to have been erected in a time of peace 
 under a Hindoo prince, and therefore either 
 before the first AfFghan conquest, or subse- 
 quently, during the recovered independence 
 of that part of Candeish and the Deccan. This 
 is no great matter certainly, and it may be 
 older; but all I say is, that we have no reason 
 to conclude it is so, and the impression on my 
 raind decidedly accords with Mill — that the 
 19 
 
218 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 Hindoos, after all, though they have doubtless 
 existed from very great antiquity as an indus- 
 trious and civilized people, had made no great 
 progress in the arts, and took all their notions 
 of magnificence from the models furnished by 
 their Mahometan conquerors." ' 
 
 From Meerut the Bishop continued his jour- 
 ney to Bombay — 
 
 ' His sojourn there (says a writer already 
 cited*) was rendered somewhat remarkable 
 by the arrival, nearly at the same time, of a 
 bishop from Antioch, to superintend that part 
 of the Syrian Church which refuses allegiance 
 to the Pope. After a suspension, for some 
 years, of all intercourse with the country from 
 which its faith originally sprung, and Avhich in 
 later times, by a fresh supply of ministers, had 
 enabled it to throw off, in a great measure, 
 the usurpations of the church of Rome enforc- 
 ed by the Portuguese, it was now destined to 
 rejoice once more in a nursing-father from 
 Syria. The favourable disposition of this 
 branch of the Syro-Malabaric church towards 
 our own had long been known. It is a curi- 
 
 * Quarterly Review, No. LXX. 
 
BOlhBA*. 
 
 219 
 
 ous fact, however, and one that may be new 
 to our readers, that Principal Mill, in \822, 
 found their college and parochial schools at 
 Cottayam, under the direction of three clergy- 
 men of the Church of England, who, without 
 compromising their own views, gave no of- 
 fence to the Metropolitan, who consulted and 
 employed them; using for themselves and their 
 own families the English Liturgy at one of 
 his chapels; and condemning by their silence 
 those portions ol the Syrian ritual which, as 
 Protestants, they could not approve and which 
 they trusted the gradual influence of the know- 
 ledge they were helping to disseminate would 
 at length, and by regular authority, undermine. 
 Nor was this friendly feeling less conspicuous 
 in the readiness wit h which Mar Athanasius 
 (the Syrian prelate) attended the sei-vice at 
 Bombay according to the English forms, and 
 received the communion at the hands of Bishop 
 Heber. Neither was it likely to be diminished 
 by a small viaticum for the prosecution of his 
 journey to Malabar, and a donation to the poor 
 students in theology at Cottayam, which the 
 Bishop was enabled to bestow from the bounty 
 of the Christian Knowledge Society, — an ap- 
 
220 
 
 BISHOP ftEBER. 
 
 plication of their funds which, if disapproved 
 — (he writes with his usual modesty and dis- 
 interestedness) " I will most cheerfully re- 
 place." 
 
 ' Ceylon, which Heber next visited, might 
 seem to be a paradise on earth. Gentle undu- 
 lations of what in England might be called 
 well-dressed lawn (we speak of the S. W. 
 quarter) — rivers rapid, deep, clear — cocoa- 
 palms peeping forth from vast tracts of jungle, 
 and marking to an experienced eye the site of 
 some sequestered village — mountain-sierras of 
 no inconsiderable height, and of shapes the 
 most fantastic — plants of all hues, the choicest 
 ornaments of an English hot-house — precious 
 stones of every variety, unless, perhaps, the 
 emerald ; — such are some of the riches of 
 Ceylon. But the picture has its deep sha- 
 dows. Along the borders of those romantic 
 streams there lurks an air, that no man can 
 breathe long, and live ; — a fact the more re- 
 nmrkable, as the tanks or standing pools of 
 the same country are said to exhale an atmos- 
 phere of health, and to one of these Karidy 
 has been supposed to owe its comparative sa- 
 lubrity. Snakes and other reptiles are so 
 
BOMBAY. 
 
 221 
 
 abundant, so active, and so deadly, that but 
 few birds are seen, and for the songsters of 
 an English grove, the traveller must be con- 
 tent to receive in exchange " apes that mow 
 and chatter at him," as if the island were 
 Prospero's. Female infanticide is reported 
 to prevail in some districts to a considerable 
 extent; and we can easily believe this of a 
 country in which several brothers of the same 
 family are accustomed to share tlie same wife; 
 and, to crown all, at night the blaze of the sa- 
 crifice, the dance, and the drum, proclaim that 
 those who worship at all, worship the devil. 
 Yet, with all this, the island holds out a pros- 
 pect of better things. The noble experiment 
 of Sir Alexander Johnstone, as to the intro- 
 duction of a species of jury trial, appears to 
 have been crowned with most encouraging 
 success. The prejudice of caste is far less 
 powerful than on the continent; and the Dutch 
 had long ago established in it a system of pa- 
 rochial schools and parochial preaching, which, 
 though for some time fallen into decay, the 
 Bishop hoped, with the concurrence of go- 
 vernment, which he solicited, to restore to 
 more than former usefulness, and connect 
 
222 
 
 BISHOP HEBEK. 
 
 with the national churcli. Meanwhile, as a 
 secondary measure, he moved the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge to establish 
 one or more central schools in the islands, for 
 the board and education of a certain number 
 of native Christian youths, who might thus be 
 <iualified to act as schoolmasters; and, in case 
 of promising talents, become recruits for the 
 college at Calcutta, thence to return in due 
 time, and shed blessings on their native isl- 
 and. Before quitting Ceylon, the Bishop 
 paid a visit to Kandy — a spot where the ho- 
 nour of England suffered a stain, and which 
 our troops must have taken possession of once 
 more, with feelings not unlike those of the 
 army of Germanicus, when they reached the 
 secluded scene where the legends of Varus 
 had left their bones to whiten. Little, indeed, 
 could it have been thought, twelve years be- 
 Ibre, that a capital which was then the den of 
 the most bloodthirsty and treacherous savage 
 that ever disgraced a throne, and in whom, if 
 his subjects must needs have a devil to adore, 
 they might have found hhn to their hands, was 
 destined so soon to be the peaceful abode of a 
 Christian minister, and the resting place of a 
 most Christian bishop.' 
 
( 223 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Return to Calcutta — Second Visitation — Ttte Bishop at 
 Madras — at Tanjore — at Tricldnopoly — Death of 
 Heber. 
 
 After an absence of about fifteen months, 
 in October, 1825, he again arrived at Cal- 
 cutta, where he remained long enough to make 
 his reports to England — to preside at meetings 
 where his presence was required — to hold an 
 ordination, and, what was of no small impor- 
 tance, to promote the building of a church in 
 the native town at Calcutta, where service 
 might be performed by the missionaries on the 
 spot, or in tlie neighbourhood, in the Bengalee 
 and Hindostanee languages, according to the 
 Liturgy of the Church of England. Such a 
 measure had been adopted elsewhere with the 
 happiest effects, amongst the Hindoos, a peo- 
 ple remarkably alive to what is graceful and 
 decorous in external worship ; and here, it 
 was hoped, might prevent the few right ideas, 
 which the youths had gathered at the schools, 
 
224 
 
 BISHOP HE6ER. 
 
 or in the perusal of Christian books, from be- 
 ing entirely effaced by the idolatrous practices 
 they were daily condemned to witness. 
 
 This done, the Bishop hastened to Madras, 
 a presidency which he had reserved for a se- 
 parate visitation, and wherein it was ordained 
 that he should end his course. On Good Fri- 
 day he preached at Combaconum on the Cru- 
 cifixion; and on Easter Sunday, at Tanjore, 
 on the Resurrection. The day following he 
 held a confirmation at the same place; and in 
 the evening deUvered an address to the as- 
 sembled missionaries, as he stood near the 
 grave of Schwartz, a name which he had ever 
 venerated. He arrived at Trichinopoly on 
 the first of April, lf}26, and the same evening 
 wrote a letter, of which the following is a 
 part: — 
 
 " I have been passing the last four days in 
 the society of a Hindoo Prince, the Rajah of 
 Tanjore, who quotes Fourcroy, Lavoisier, 
 Linnaeus, and Buffon, as fluently as Lady 
 Morgan — has formed a more accurate judg- 
 ment of the poetical merits of Shakspeare than 
 that so felicitously expressed by Lord Byron 
 — and has actually emitted English poetry 
 
TRICHINOPOLY. 
 
 225 
 
 very superior indeed to Rosseau's Epitaph on 
 Shenstone — at the same time that he is much 
 respected by the Enghsh officers in the neigh- 
 bourhood as a real good judge of a horse, and 
 a cool, bold, and deadly shot at a tyger. 
 The truth is, that he is an extraordinary man, 
 who, having in early youth received such an 
 education as old Schwartzf the celebrated mis- 
 sionary, could give him, has ever since con- 
 tinued, in the midst of many disadvantages, to 
 preserve his taste for, and extend his know- 
 ledge of, European literature — while he has 
 never neglected the active exercises and frank 
 soldiery bearing which become the descendant 
 of the old Mahratta conquerors, and by which 
 only, in the present state of things, he has it 
 in his power to gratify the prejudices of his 
 people, and prolong his popularity among 
 them. Had he lived in the days of Hyder, 
 he would have been a formidable ally or ene- 
 my, for he is, by the testimony of all in his 
 neighbourhood, bold, popular, and insinuating. 
 At present, with less power than an English 
 nobleman, he holds his head high, and appears 
 contented; and the print of Buonaparte which 
 hangs in his library is so neutralized by that 
 
226 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 of Lord Hastings in full costume, that it can 
 
 do no harm to any body To finish 
 
 the portrait of Maha Rajah Sarboju, I should 
 tell you that he is a strong-built and very 
 handsome middle-aged man, with eyes and 
 nose like a fine hawk, and very bushy gray 
 mustachios — generally very splendidly dress- 
 ed, but with no effeminacy of ornament, and 
 looking and talking more like a favourable 
 specimen of a French general officer than any 
 other object of comparison which occurs to 
 me. His son, Rajah Sewaju (so named after 
 their great ancestor) is a pale, sickly lad of 
 seventeen, who also speaks English, but im- 
 perfectly, and on whose account his father la- 
 mented, with much apparent concern, the im- 
 possibility which he had found of obtaining any 
 tolerable instruction in Tanjore. I was moved 
 at this, and offered to take him with me in my 
 present tour, and afterwards to Calcutta, 
 where he might have apartments in my house, 
 and be introduced into good English society; 
 at the same time, that I would superintend his 
 studies, and procure for him the best masters 
 which India affords. The father and son, in 
 different ways, the one catching at the idea 
 
RAJAH AT TANJORE. 
 
 227 
 
 with great eagerness, the other as if he were 
 afraid to say all he wished, seemed both very 
 well pleased with the proposal. Both, how- 
 ever, on consulting together, expressed a 
 doubt of the mother's concurrence; and, ac- 
 cordingly, next day, I had a very civil mes- 
 sage, through the Resident, that the Rannee 
 had already lost two sons; that this survivor 
 was a sickly boy; that she was sure he would 
 not come back alive, and it would kill her to 
 part with him; but that all the family joined 
 in gratitude, Slc. &c. 
 
 " So poor Sewaju must chew betel, and sit 
 in the Zenanah, and pursue the other amuse- 
 ments of the common race of Hindoo Princes, 
 until he is gath(yed to those heroic forms, 
 who, girded with long swords, with hawks on 
 their wrists, and garments like those of the 
 king of spades (whose portrait painter, as I 
 guess, has been retained for this family,) adorn 
 the principal room in the palace. Sarboju 
 (the father) has not trusted his own immor- 
 tality to records like these; he has put up a 
 colossal marble statue of himself by Flaxman, 
 in one of his halls of audience, and his figure 
 is introduced on the monument (also by Flax- 
 
228 
 
 BISHOP HEBKR. 
 
 man) which he has raised in the mission 
 church to the memory of his tutor, Schwartz, 
 as grasping the hand of the dying saint, and 
 receiving his blessing. 
 
 " Of Schwartz and his fifty years' labour 
 among the heathen, the extraordinary influ- 
 ence and popularity which he acquired, both 
 with Mussulmans, Hindoos, and contending 
 European governments, I need give you no 
 account, except that my idea of him has been 
 raised since I came into the south of India. 
 I used to suspect that, with many admirable 
 qualities, there was too great a mixture of in- 
 trigue in his character, that he was too much 
 of a political prophet, and that the veneration 
 which the heathen paid, and still pay him, (and 
 which, indeed, almost regards him as a supe- 
 rior being, putting crowns and burning lights 
 before his statue,) was purchased by some un- 
 warrantable compromise with their prejudices. 
 I find I was quite mistaken. He was really 
 one of the most active and fearless (as he was 
 one of the most successful) missionaries who 
 have appeared since the Apostles. To say 
 that he was disinterested in regard to money 
 is nothing; he was perfectly careless of power, 
 and renown never seemed to affect him even 
 
TRICHINOPOLY. 229 
 
 SO far as to induce an outward show of humil- 
 ity. His temper was perfectly simple, open, 
 and cheerful; and in his political negotiations 
 (employments which he never sought, but 
 which fell in his way) he never pretended to 
 impartiality, but acted as the avowed, though 
 certainly the successful and judicious agent of 
 the orphan prince intrusted to his care, and 
 from attempting whose conversion to Chris- 
 tianity he seems to have abstained, from a 
 feeling of honour. His other converts were 
 between six and seven thousand, besides those 
 which his predecessors and companions in the 
 cause had brought over. The number is gra- 
 dually increasing, and there are now in the 
 south of India about two hundred Protestant 
 congregations, the numbers of which have 
 been sometimes vaguely stated at forty thou- 
 sand. I doubt whether they reach fifteen 
 thousand; but even this, all things considered, 
 is a great number. The Roman Catholics are 
 considerably more numerous, but belong to a 
 lower caste of Indians, (for even these Chris- 
 tians retain many prejudices of caste,) and in 
 point of knowledge and morality, are said to 
 be extremely inferior. 
 
 20 
 
230 
 
 BISHOP HEBER 
 
 " The Brahmins, being Umited to voluntary 
 votaries, have now often very hard work to 
 speed the ponderous wheels of Suon and Bali 
 through the deep lanes of this fertile country. 
 This is, however, still the most favoured land 
 of Brahminism, and the temples are larger and 
 more beautiful than any which I have seen in 
 Northern India. They are also decidedly 
 older; but as to their very remote age, I am 
 still incredulous." 
 
 ' The date of this letter gives it a melan- 
 choly interest. It was probably the last that 
 this admirable man wrote. Next day being 
 Sunday, he again preached and confirmed, a 
 rite which he administered once more on 
 Monday morning (April the 3d, 1826) in the 
 Fort Church. He returned home to break- 
 fast; but before sitting down, took a cold-bath, 
 as he had done the two preceding days. His 
 attendant, thinking that he stayed more thfin 
 the usual time, entered the apartment, and 
 found the body at the bottom of the water, 
 with the face downwards. The usual resto- 
 ratives of bleeding, friction, and inflating the 
 lungs, were instantly tried; but life was gone: 
 and, on opening the head, it was discovered 
 
DIES AT TRICHINOPOLV. 
 
 231- 
 
 that a veesel had burst on the brain, in con- 
 sequence, as the medical men agreed, of the 
 sudden plunge into the water whilst he was 
 warm and exhausted. His remains were de- 
 posited, with every mark of respect and un- 
 feigned sorrow, on the north side of the altar 
 of St. John's church at Trichinopoly. 
 
 'The disastrous intelligence of his decease 
 was communicated with every caution to his 
 unfortunate widow (who had been left at Cal- 
 cutta with her two children) by her relation, 
 Lord Combermere. She is left to mourn an 
 irreparable loss, but not without that resigna- 
 tion and acquiescence in the will of Provi- 
 dence, which the precepts and example of her 
 husband were so calculated to inspire and 
 confirm in her mind. 
 
 ' True it is (says the same writer*) that an 
 apparent accident was the immediate cause 
 of the abrupt termination of the Bishop's life, 
 but it may well be thought that his constitu- 
 tion was becoming more frail and susceptible 
 of injury through his unremitted exertions — 
 exertions which he was led to make by habits 
 
 * Quarterly Review, No. LXX. 
 
232 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 formed in a more temperate climate — by a 
 fear which beset him of sinking into that su- 
 pineness which a residence in India is so apt 
 to engender — and by a spirit thoroughly inte- 
 rested in the pursuit of the great object before 
 him. So long as this immense portion of the 
 globe, extending from St. Helena to New 
 Holland, is consigned to the ecclesiastical su- 
 perintendence of one mah, and that one man 
 is not deterred from doing his best by the im- 
 possibility of doing much, it is to be feared 
 there must be a certain waste of valuable life; 
 for what European, arriving in India at the 
 age which a bishop has usually reached be- 
 fore he obtains his appointment, is likely to 
 preserve his health long, in the midst of the 
 disquietudes attending a new establishment — 
 remote from the mother country — incomplete 
 in its subordinate parts — in its fruits perpetu- 
 ally disappointing the hopes and efforts of the 
 labourer — whilst to all this must be added, 
 the extreme difficulty (to say the least of it) of 
 timing all the journeys right, where so many, 
 and of such length, must be made, and of al- 
 ways selecting for them those seasons of the 
 year, and those hours of the day, which are 
 least deadly. 
 
CONCLUSION. iJ33 
 
 * Thus died this faithful servant of God, in 
 the 43d year of his age, and the third of his 
 episcopacy, labouring to the last in the cause 
 that was nearest his heart, and, like Fletcher 
 ofMadely, almost expiring in the very act of 
 duty. The world may honour his memory as 
 it will, though such as were best acquainted 
 with him can scarcely hope that it should do 
 him justice; for he had attached himself to no 
 party, either in church or state, and therefore 
 had secured no party-advocates; and of forms, 
 by which mankind at large (for the want of less 
 fallacious means of estimating character) are 
 almost compelled to abide, he was not, per- 
 haps, a very diligent observer: but in India a 
 strong sense of his worth has manifested itself, 
 as it were by acclamation. At Madras, a 
 meeting was held, a few days after his death, 
 in the Government Gardens, the excellent Sir 
 Thomas Munro in the chair, where to say that 
 lamentation was made over him would be a 
 weak word — there was a burst of affectionate 
 feeling, which proves, were proof wanting, how 
 grievous a loss the cause of Christianity has 
 sustained in the removal of an advocate whose 
 heart and head were equally fitted to recom- 
 20^ 
 
234 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 mend it. A subscription was forthwith com- 
 menced on a scale of Indian munificence, for a 
 monument, to be erected to him in St. George's 
 church ; and this was taken up with the 
 warmest zeal everywhere, and among all ranks 
 and conditions of men throughout the presi- 
 dency.* At Bombay it was determined to 
 found a scholarship for that presidency, at the 
 college at Calcutta, to be called Bishop He- 
 ber's Scholarship — a testimony of respect the 
 most appropriate that could have been devis- 
 ed; and examples so generous have not been 
 lost upon the capital of Bengal. 
 
 ' It is very pleasing to hear all this. Still, 
 none could know him truly as he was, without 
 visiting (as we have often done) the parish 
 where he had chiefly resided from his child- 
 hood upwards — where he had been as the son, 
 the husband, the father, the brother, the mas- 
 ter, above all, as the shepherd of the flock. 
 There, we are told, the tidings of his death 
 were received by all as if each had lost a per- 
 sonal friend ; and though a considerable in- 
 terval had elapsed since he bade them fare- 
 
 * The native subscriptions in the lifts are numerous, be- 
 yond what we could iiave believed. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 235 
 
 well, their sorrow was as fresh as if he had 
 just breathed his last under that roof which, 
 in doubt, in difficultyj and in distress, had so 
 frequently been their refuge. These are ar- 
 guments of his worth the most genuine that 
 can be offered, and which it would now be in- 
 jurious to suppress ; others may speak of the 
 richness of his conversation, the playfulness of 
 his fancy, the delicacy of his taste, of the al- 
 most unequalled vigour and retentiveness of 
 his memory, which, had it not been over- 
 shadowed by higher intellectual qualities, 
 would alone have constituted him an extraor- 
 dinary man — of that memory which always 
 supplied him with the apposite quotation, the 
 suitable illustration, the decisive authority — 
 but it has been the main object of these pages 
 (however imperfectly attained) to discover 
 something of " the hidden man of the heart," 
 and to hold out to those who cannot hope to 
 rival the high endowments of Bishop Heber, 
 or to follow him in the public and splendid 
 parts of his career, the imitation of those vir- 
 tues which the under-current, as well as the 
 palpable course, of his life presented — of his 
 charity, his humility, his abandonment of eve- 
 
236 
 
 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 ry selfish feeling, his piety, at once enthusias- 
 tic and practical, exhibited in the unobtrusive 
 and heartfelt purity of his own life, and in the 
 tempered fervour and happy fruits of his la- 
 bours as a minister of the Gospel.' 
 
( 237 ) 
 
 INSCRIPTION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MONUMENT ERECTED IN MEJIORY 
 
 OF 
 
 BISHOP HEBER 
 
 AT MADRAS. 
 Composed by the Rev. Thomas Robinson, M.A. 
 
 M. S. 
 
 TIRI ADMODUM REVEBENDI ET IN CHBISTO l"ATR13 
 
 REGINALDI HEBER S. T. P. 
 
 PHIMO COLLEGII ^NEI NASI IN ACADEMIA OXONIENSI ALUMNI 
 COLLEGII DEINDE OMNIUM ANIMARUM 90CII 
 PAROCHia: HODNET IN AGRO SUO NATALI SAL0PIEN3I 
 RKCT0RI3 
 
 APVD SOCIETATEM HONORABILEM HOSPITII LINCOLNIE N9I3 
 PRjKDICATORIS 
 POSTREMO AUTEM EPISCOPI CAIX'UTTENSIS 
 qui IN IPSO ADOLESCENTI.T, FLORE 
 INGENII FAHA 
 HUMANITATIS CULTU 
 OMNIGEN3C<lUE DOCTRIN.*; LAUDE 
 ORNATISSIMUS 
 
( 238 ) 
 
 EA OMNIA IN COMMUNEM ECCLESIiE FRUCTUM AFFEKENS 
 3E SUAQUE DEO HUM4LLIME CONSECRAVIT 
 IN SANCTISSIMUM EPISC0PATU3 ORDINEM 
 BONIS OMNIBUS H0RTANTIBU3 ADSCRIPTUS 
 ECCLESI-t APUD IND03 ANGLICANS INFANTIAM 
 WON PRO VIRIBUS SED ULTRA VIRES 
 USqUE AD VlTiE JACTURAM 
 ALUIT FOVIT SUSTENTAVIT 
 ADMIRABILI INOENII CANDORE 
 SUAVISSIMA MORUM SIMPLICITATE 
 DIVINAQUE ANIMI BENEVOLENTIA 
 USqUE ADEO OMNES SIBl VINXERAT 
 UT MORTUUM 
 ECCLE3IA UNIVER3A PATREM 
 ETIAM EXTERI PATRONUM CARISSIMUM 
 DESIDERARENT 
 NATUS DIE APRIUS XXI A. D. MDCCLXXXIII 
 SUBITA MORTE PRJIREPTUS JUXTA URBEM TRICHI NOPOLIM 
 MORTALES EXUVIAS DEP03UIT APRILIS DIE III 
 ANWO SALUTI3 MDCCCXXVI SVIE XLIII EPISCOPATUS III 
 
 MADRA3EN3ES 
 NON SOLUM CHRISTIANI SED ET ETHNIC! 
 PRINCIPES MAGNATES PAUPERES 
 AD HOC MARMOR EXSTRUENDUM 
 UNO CONSENSU ADFUERE. 
 
( 239 ) 
 
 TRIBUTE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MEMORY OF BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 If it be sad, to speak of treasures gone. 
 Of sainted genius called too soon away. 
 
 Of light, from this world taken while it shone. 
 Yet kindling onward to tlie perfect day — 
 
 How shall our grief, if mournful these tilings be. 
 
 Flow forth, O guide and gifted friend ! for thee'? 
 
 Hath not thy voice been here amongst us heard ? 
 
 And that deep soul of gentleness and power. 
 Have we not felt its breath in every word. 
 
 Wont from thy lip, as Hermon's dew, to shower 
 Yes ! in our hearts thy fervent thouglits have burned — 
 Of heaven they were, and thither are retuni'd. 
 
 How sliall we mourn thee 1 — Witli a lofty trust. 
 Our life's immortal birthright from above ! 
 
 With a glad faitli, whose eye, to track the just, 
 Tlirough shades and mysteries lifts a glance of love. 
 
 And yet can weep ! — for Nature so deplores 
 
 The friend that leaves us, though for happier shores 
 
( 240 ) 
 
 And otie high tone of ti hunph o'er tliy bier. 
 One strain of solemn rapture be allowed ! 
 
 Thou that, rejoicing on thy mid [career. 
 Not to decay, but unto death hast bow'd ! 
 
 In those bright regions of the rising sun. 
 
 Where Victory ne'er a crown like thine hath won. 
 
 Praise, for yet one more name, with power endowed. 
 To cheer and guide us onward as we press, 
 
 Yet one more image on the heart bestowed. 
 To dwell there — beautiful in holiness ! 
 
 Thine ! Heber tliine ! whose memory from the dead 
 
 Shines as the star, which to the Saviour led. 
 
 Felicia Hemans. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Date Due 
 
 1^ 
 
 11 
 
f