66

ments, and assert that the idol, aware of the violent disposition of Mahmoud and his mercenary motives, on the fall of Putten, retired into the ocean. The trembling Brahmins are said to have offered ten millions sterling if the conqueror would spare the idol, urging that the destruction of an image of stone would not convert the hearts of the Gentoos, and that the sum they promised might be dedicated to the relief of the faithful. "Your arguments," replied the Sultan, are specious and strong; but I am desirous of being looked on by the eyes of posterity as a destroyer of idols, not as a dealer in them." Repeating his blows, one of them broke open the belly of the image, which was hollow, and disclosed a quantity of diamonds and rubies and pearls, of far greater value than the ransom offered by the Brahmins-explaining very sufficiently their devout prodigality. Some estimate of the treasures of Somnauth may be formed from the extent of its possessions, and multitude of attendants. It was endowed with a revenue of two thousand villages; two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to the service of the deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in water brought from the distant Ganges; the subordinate ministers consisted of three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing-girls, conspicuous for their birth and beauty. Amongst the spoils carried to Ghuzni was a chain of gold, 400lbs. in weight, which hung by a ring from the roof of the building, and supported a great bell used for summoning the people to prayer; besides some thousands of images, of various shapes and sizes, all made of gold or silver.* Having annihilated, as he supposed, the whole fraternity of Somnauth priests, Mahmoud turned his steps towards his native land; but being led by his guide through a desert of burning sands, his troops began to fall around him, victims to thirst and frenzy. Suspecting the fidelity of his conductor, he caused him to be put to the torture, and, by these cruel means, extorted a confession, that, being the only survivor of the sacrilegious massacre at Somnauth, and having nothing more that was valuable in life, he resolved, if possible, to avenge the fall of his countrymen, and die, if detected, in that glorious effort.

Mahmoud left, as his viceroy at Somnauth, a prince, named Dabishleen, who restored the temple promptly, in consideration of the vast revenue derivable from its pilgrim-tax; and the poet Sadi, who visited the shrine at least two centuries after the sultan's death, gives the following account of his adventure, in a poem commencing with the words—" I saw an idol at Somnauth, jewelled like the idol Munât in the days of superstition and ignorance." Wondering at the folly of live people paying adoration to a senseless and motionless mass of matter, Sadi ventured to express his sentiments to an attendant priest. Enraged at the effrontery and impiety of the poet, the reverend man summoned his fraternity, and threatened immediate punishment if he did not retract his expressions and

* Oriental mythologists attribute to the idol Somnauth the province of adjudging to departed souls the bodies appointed for their future residence, according to the doctrine of transmigration. The same writers consider the ebb and flow of the ocean as nothing more than a mark of its adoration towards their favourite idol.

acknowledge his crime. Sadi very artfully extricated himself by averring, that he only uttered such doubts for the purpose of giving the priests an opportunity of more fully confirming his belief in their idol. This was readily promised; but, in order to enjoy the great prerogative, it was necessary that Sadi should continue in the act of worship during the whole night, and at morning he would perceive the idol raise one of its arms in the act of supplication. Just before sunrise, at the sound of a deep-toned bell, the idol raised its monstrous arm, to the inexpressible delight of worshipping thousands; while Sadi, creeping behind the image, discovered a servitor concealed, and tugging manfully at the rope which regulated the miraculous movement. The convicted servitor fled, but was pursued by Sadi, who now felt that his life would inevitably be forfeited should the priesthood lay hold of him; so, coming up with his victim, he pitched him head-foremost into a well, and threw in after him several ponderous stones. Escaping from Somnauth and from Hindu, Sadi returned to Persia, and published the disgrace of the "Lord of the Moon."

The situation of Somnauth has occasioned its comparison with the temple of the Sun at Kotah, called the Black Pagoda, which also stands upon a promontory washed by the waves of the Eastern Sea, in the Bay of Bengal; and Asoka's selection of rocks on the high road to each, for the promulgation of his edicts, would seem to indicate that both enjoyed in his day a corresponding celebrity; and that, from the great resort of pilgrims, the approaches to them afforded the surest means of causing his doctrines and injunctions to be universally known.

Tradition alone asserts that the gates of sandal-wood which hung at the principal entrance of the temple, were carried away, amongst the spoils or trophies of Mahmoud's twelve expeditions, to Ghuznee, and ultimately placed in the entrance to his grand mausoleum, three miles distant from that city. It can easily be understood, from the least reflection upon the character of the hero, why he would have plundered the hoarded treasures of the temple, but it does not so clearly appear, in the absence of all written record of the fact, why a prince of such insatiable avarice would have felt desirous of possessing two wooden valves, and for no other purpose than to adorn a tomb. The calculations and passions of the avaricious are seldom extended to prospects beyond the grave. That such was his real character the concurrent testimony of Oriental writers establishes beyond all doubt. Gibbon, one of the most accurate as well as eloquent historians, writes: "Avarice was the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character of Mahmoud the Guznevide, and never has that passion been more richly satiated. The Orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the amount of millions of gold and silver, such as the avidity of man has never accumulated in the magnitude of pearls, diamonds, and rubies, such as have never been produced by the workmanship of nature. Yet the soil of Hindostan is impregnated with precious minerals: her trade, in every age, has attracted the gold and silver of the world: and her virgin spoils were rifled by the first Mahometan conquerors. His behaviour, in the last days of his life, evinces the vanity of these possessions, so laboriously won, so dangerously held, and so inevitably lost. He surveyed the vast

and various chambers of Ghuznee-burst into tears-and again closed the doors, without bestowing any portion of the wealth which he could no longer hope to preserve. The following day he reviewed the state of his military force: one hundred thousand foot, fifty-five thousand horse, and thirteen hundred elephants of battle. He again wept the instability of human greatness: and his grief was embittered by the hostile progress of the Turkmans, whom he had introduced into the heart of his Persian kingdom."

If this great man of a little mind ever carried away the worthless wooden gates of Somnauth, they are believed to have been set up in his grand mausoleum, where the iron mace was deposited with which he smote the Hindoo idol, and which "few men, such as mortals now are, could wield, yet he wielded easily and alone." It is no particular proof that these famous doors were originally at Somnauth, and taken thence as military spoils, that Runjeet Sing desired to purchase them for Shah Soojah, for the bare existence of a tradition, although unsupported by history, would have been grounds sufficient for such idolaters to act upon.* When the British got possession of Mahmoud's tomb no iron mace could be found, nor did Major Hough ever see it, although he speaks of it as having certainly existed; and as to the gates, the people of Somnauth retain no legend of any sort about them. Can it be possible, therefore, that the GovernorGeneral of India has congratulated the Hindoo people upon recovering sacred relics of which they had never been possessed, and has risked his high renown and learned reputation with his countrymen upon a disputed point in the ancient history of Asia? But gates, from immemorial time, appear to have occasioned sorrow and disappointment to some of the most illustrious characters in the history of mankind, who had the fortune to make spoils or prizes of them. The Philistines never forgave Samson the abstraction of the gates of Gaza,-a name marvellously resembling Gazni: the Romans exiled Camillus for secreting the gates of Veii; the gates which Napoleon saw cast and fashioned for his tomb now lie neglected in the crypt of St. Denis, a memorial of the early ruin of his power. May the capture of the gates of Somnauth prove less luckless in its effects than those celebrated historic parallels to which we have here alluded!

A modern Somnauth, raised by the pious munificence of Ahila Byhe, widow of a prince of the Holkar family, occupies the site of the more ancient temple here, destroyed in the year 877, in which an image of Siva is erected. This idol is worshipped continually by the gentler sex, and pilgrims pay a small tribute to the Mussulman Nabob for the permission; so that although the splendour of Somnauth is extinguished, its reputation lives. Through the interposition of the Bombay presidency, in the

*The gates are twelve feet high, consist of four leaves, on each of which has been discovered a Cuphic inscription, supposed to relate to their capture by Mahmoud. On each leaf Lord Ellenborough proposed to inscribe a motto, consisting of these four words, "Mahmoud rapuit, Ellenborough restituit:" but the Hindoos have lost their veneration for these ancient relics, which they look upon as lastingly polluted by being placed in the entrance of a Moslem tomb.

Junaghur state, greater liberty was extended to Hindoo pilgrims; and all castes and classes of that people have long exhibited a desire to extricate this ancient and favourite shrine from Mahommedan control.

EDUCATION.

EVERY boy should have his head, his heart, and his hand educated: let this truth never be forgotten.

By the proper education of his head, he will be taught what is good, and what is evil; what is wise, and what is foolish; what is right, and what is wrong. By the proper education of his heart he will be taught to love what is good, wise, and right; and to hate what is evil, foolish, and wrong; and by the proper education of his hand, he will be enabled to supply his wants; to add to his comforts, and to assist those that are around him.

The highest objects of a good education are to reverence and obey God, and to love and serve mankind; everything that helps us in attaining these objects is of great value, and everything that hinders us is, comparatively, worthless. When wisdom reigns in the head, and love in the heart, the hand is ever ready to do good; order and peace smile around, and sin and sorrow are almost unknown.

STANZAS

ON THE DEATH OF DR. SOUTHEY, POET-LAUREATE.

O'ER Keswick's valley croaks the funeral bird;
On Greta's bank the bell of death is heard ;
Stern Skiddaw echoes many a hoarse reply,
And wailing Derwentwater wafts the cry.

Here flourish'd late a peerless brotherhood,

Three minstrels who the lake and mountain woo'd.
Sweet triad! Orphean spells have lost their sway,
Else ye'd not shrunk to one white head this day.

How solemn and how sad the travell'd knell
Of Britain's Laureate on my heart doth swell!
Yet better thoughts the gushing sorrow stem-
"Tis our afflicted Laureate's requiem.

Quench'd is the fire in Roderick's lay that glow'd,
The fountain dry in Madoc that o'erflow'd;

And Fancy's soul, which dark Kehama bred
And wondrous Thalaba, earth's coil hath shed.

From that charm'd pen th' enchanter's touch hath pass'd;
That voice of music, it is mute at last :

Yet sorrow not: death's bitterness was o'er;

The touch was marr'd, the voice was hush'd before.

Thro' forty years his harp sweet strains had given,

Nor jarr'd at last; its strings, o'erworn, had riven :
Thro' forty years his Muse the bard inspir'd,
Till mind and Inspiration's self grew tir'd.

Oh deep reverse! Be pity quench'd in awe!
Yon soul-less eye was it that mysteries saw :
Those quivering lips, whose tuneless accents prate,
Wisdom once stor❜d and melody did freight.

Poor wreck of noble bark! We view in thee
Mysterious Heaven's inscrutable decree :
Adoring would we bow, and meekly say,

"God's name be blest! He gave; He takes away."

Nor rashly deem that guilt call'd down the blow;
His life was blameless, as his page was snow :
He dealt instruction, he dispens'd delight,
Lov'd, and was lov'd-e'en in his reason's night.

Nor prematurely fail'd. He rear'd a name ;
He won the garland; and he lives to fame-
The fame unsullied genius can give :

While lasts our language Southey's verse shall live.

Yet Southey's brow another wreath entwin'd;
Th' historian left the poet's self behind.
His matchless prose abides, the solid base
Of that high monument his Muse doth grace.

We will not mourn :-life's hope was in its close;
We will not mourn thee in the tomb's repose;
We will not mourn thee in thy fair renown,
Nor wish thee back to laureate's fading crown.

May to the bard whose front the bay shall gird
Our Poet's mantle be alike transferr'd!
And let none deem to Southey's name a wrong
This simple tribute of a babe in song.

Now, joy, O Muse! Thy priesthood could not die.
Mantle and widow'd bay sit smilingly

On Rydal's Seer, of voice serene and sweet :-
Minstrel and man in laureate Wordsworth meet.

8th April, 1843.

C. J. C.

LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

THOUGH all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the surface of the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to doubt our strength. Let her and falsehood grapple! who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? Who knows not that truth is strong next to the Almighty? She needs no politics, nor stratagems, nor licensings, to make her victorious; those are the shifts and defencers that error uses against her power. Give her but room and do not bind her when she sleeps, for then she speaks not true, but then rather she turns herself into all shapes, except her own, and perhaps tunes her voice according to the time, until she be adjured into her own likeness. To count a man not fit to print his mind, is the greatest indignity to a free and knowing spirit that can be put upon him.-MILTON.