s permanent protection. Her removal from this life to a
better was mourned by every member of the family with equal sorrow as when
their dearest relative ceased to live.'

It is my intention (if I am permitted), at some future period, to write a
more circumstantial account of Meer Hadjee Shah's adventures through life,
than my present limits allow. In the meantime, however, I must satisfy
myself by a few remarks founded on a personal observation and intimacy
during the last eleven years of his eventful life. His example and precept
kept pace with each other, 'That this world and all its vanities, were
nothing in comparison with acquiring a knowledge of God's holy will, and
obeying Him, in thought, in word, and deed.'

He was persuaded by the tenets of his religion that by exercising the body
in the pilgrimage to Mecca, the heart of man was enlightened in the
knowledge and love of God. He found by obeying the several duties of the
religion he professed, and by enduring the consequent trials and
privations of a pilgrimage without regard to any feelings of selfish
gratification or indulgent ease, that, his nature being humbled, his love
to God was more abundant.

His law commanded him to fast at stated periods, and although he was
turned of seventy when I first saw him, yet he never failed, as the season
of Rumzaun approached, to undergo the severity of that ordinance day by
day during the full period of thirty days; and it was even a source of
uneasiness to my venerated friend, when, two years prior to his decease,
his medical friends, aided by the solicitude of his family, urged and
prevailed on him to discontinue the duty, which by reason of his age was
considered dangerous to health, and perhaps to life. Prayer was his
comfort; meditation and praise his chief delight. I never saw him
otherways than engaged in some profitable exercise, by which he was
drawing near to his Creator, and preparing himself for the blessedness of
eternity, on which his soul relied.

During our eleven years' constant intercourse, I can answer for his early
diligence; before the day had dawned his head was bowed in adoration to
his Maker and Preserver. At all seasons of the year, and under all
circumstances, this duty was never omitted. Even in sickness, if his
strength failed him, his head was bowed on a tray of earth, to mark his
dutiful recollection of the several hours appointed for prayer. The
Psalmist's language has often been realized