ently, were the _aristocracy_ of the country. Whether they
really were so matters not; they persuade themselves or their
children that they were. This is a very common and a very innocent
sort of vanity. We often find Englishmen in India, and I suppose in
all the rest of our foreign settlements, sporting high Tory opinions
and feelings, merely with a view to have it supposed that their
families are, or at some time were, among the aristocracy of the
land. To express a wish for Conservative predominance is the same
thing with them as to express a wish for the promotion in the Army,
Navy, or Church of some of their near relations; and thus to indicate
that they are among the privileged class whose wishes the Tories
would be obliged to consult were they in power.[39]

Man is indeed 'fearfully and wonderfully made'; to be fitted himself
for action in the world, or for directing ably the actions of others,
it is indispensably necessary that he should mix freely from his
youth up with his fellow men. I have elsewhere mentioned that the
state of imbecility to which a man of naturally average powers of
intellect may be reduced when brought up with his mother in the
seraglio is inconceivable to those who have not had opportunities of
observing it.[40] The poor old Emperor of Delhi, to whom so many
millions look up, is an instance. A more venerable-looking man it is
difficult to conceive, and had he been educated and brought up with
his fellow men, he would no doubt have had a mind worthy of his
person.[41] As it is, he has never been anything but a baby. Raja
Jivan Ram, an excellent portrait painter, and a very honest and
agreeable person, was lately employed to take the Emperor's portrait.
After the first few sittings, the portrait was taken into the
seraglio to the ladies. The next time he came, the Emperor requested
him to remove the great _blotch from under the nose_. 'May it please
your majesty, it is impossible to draw any person without _a shadow_;
and I hope many millions will long continue to repose under that of
your majesty.' 'True, Raja,' said his majesty, 'men must have
shadows; but there is surely no necessity for placing them
immediately under their noses. The ladies will not allow mine to be
put there; they say it looks as if I had been taking snuff all my
life, and it certainly has a most filthy appearance; besides, it is
all awry, as I told you when you began upon it.' The Raja was obliged
to remove from under