Bengal." He
was thus thrown out of the main line of advancement, and never attained
the rank or emoluments that fell to the share of many less gifted
contemporaries. Hence the peculiarly adventurous character of his career
and the novelty of the scenes which he depicts. Hence, too, perhaps, the
width of his attainments, the enlightened spirit he displayed in his
intercourse with the natives, and his cultivation of his literary powers
as the main resource of his leisure while isolated from the society of
his own race. His start in life belonged to a period long antecedent to
the days of competitive examinations, but his assiduity and desire for
knowledge needed no stimulant and were the keys to his early success.
"His perfect acquaintance with the languages of Southern India--Teloogoo
and Mahratta, as well as Hindoostanee--was," we are told, "the
foundation of his extraordinary influence over the natives of the
country and of his insight into their motives and character." He taught
himself land-surveying and engineering, and constructed roads, tanks and
buildings. He studied geology, botany and antiquities, and applied the
knowledge thus obtained to practical purposes. He gained an acquaintance
with the principles of law, Hindoo, Mohammedan and English, that he
might devise codes and rules of procedure for a country where there were
no courts or legislation, and where he had to administer justice
according to his own lights. In the midst of his thousand avocations he
found time to write a series of novels portraying the manners and
superstitions of India, and depicting the various epochs of its history,
with a fidelity and liveliness that have gained for these works a wide
popularity. Yet perhaps the strongest impression made by this record of
his life comes from the evidence it affords of his humane and
conciliatory spirit in his dealings with the native Indians of every
class, his unselfish devotion to their welfare, his habit of treating
them as equals and his power of inspiring them with confidence, with the
result of enabling him to preserve a large and important district from
participation in the Mutiny, without the aid of troops and against the
constant pressure and appeals of surrounding populations all in full
revolt. His autobiography has already gone through several editions in
England, and we cannot but regret that it has not been republished in
America, where the interest in the country and events to which it