s, and for a while cleared the
country of them, yet in the reign of his son they succeeded in wresting
from his dynasty one-half of his empire, and Hindostan, the acquisition
of Mahmood, became henceforth its principal possession.

5.

We have now arrived at what may literally be called the turning-point of
Turkish history. We have seen them gradually descend from the north, and
in a certain degree become acclimated in the countries where they
settled. They first appear across the Jaxartes in the beginning of the
seventh century; they have now come to the beginning of the eleventh.
Four centuries or thereabout have they been out of their deserts,
gaining experience and educating themselves in such measure as was
necessary for playing their part in the civilized world. First they came
down into Sogdiana and Khorasan, and the country below it, as
conquerors; they continued in it as subjects and slaves. They offered
their services to the race which had subdued them; they made their way
by means of their new masters down to the west and the south; they laid
the foundations for their future supremacy in Persia, and gradually rose
upwards through the social fabric to which they had been admitted, till
they found themselves at length at the head of it. The sovereign power
which they had acquired in the line of the Gaznevides, drifted off to
Hindostan; but still fresh tribes of their race poured down from the
north, and filled up the gap; and while one dynasty of Turks was
established in the peninsula, a second dynasty arose in the former seat
of their power.

Now I call the era at which I have arrived the turning-point of their
fortunes, because, when they had descended down to Khorasan and the
countries below it, they might have turned to the East or to the West,
as they chose. They were at liberty to turn their forces eastward
against their kindred in Hindostan, whom they had driven out of Ghizni
and Affghanistan, or to face towards the west, and make their way
thither through the Saracens of Persia and its neighbouring countries.
It was an era which determined the history of the world. I recollect
once hearing a celebrated professor of geology attempt to draw out the
consequences which would have occurred, had there not been an outlet for
the Thames, which exists in fact, at a certain point of its course. He
said that, had the range of hills been unbroken, it would have streamed
off to the north-east, and have run into