_January 30._--Sabat to-day finishes St. Matthew, and will write
to you on the occasion. Your letter to him was very kind and
suitable, but I think you must not mention his logic to him,
except with contempt; for he takes what you say on that head as
homage due to his acquirements, and praise to him is brandy to a
man in a high fever. He loves as a Christian brother; but as a
logician he holds us all in supreme contempt. He assumes all the
province of reasoning as his own by right, and decides every
question magisterially. He allows Europeans to know a little
about Arithmetic and Navigation, but nothing more. Dear man! I
smile to observe his pedantry. Never have I seen such an
instance of dogmatical pride since I heard Dr. Parr preach his
Greek Sermon at St. Mary's, about the τὸ ὄν.
_March 7._--Mirza is gone to the Mohurrum to-day: he discovers
no signs of approach to the truth. Sabat creates himself enemies
in every quarter by his jealous and passionate spirit,
particularly among the servants. At his request I have sent away
my tailor and bearers, and he is endeavouring to get my other
servants turned away; because without any proof he suspects them
of having persuaded the bearers not to come into his service. He
can now get no bearers nor tailor to serve him. One day this
week he came to me, and said that he meant to write to Mr. Brown
to remove him from this place, for everything went wrong--the
people were all wicked, etc. The immediate cause of this
vexation was that some boxes, which he had been making at the
expense of 150 rupees, all cracked at the coming on of the hot
weather. I concealed my displeasure at his childish fickleness
of temper, and discovered no anxiety to retain him, but quietly
told him of some of the consequences of removing, so it is gone
out of his mind. But Mirza happened to hear all Sabat's
querulous harangue, and, in order to vex and disgust him
effectually, rode almost into his house, and came in with his
shoes. This irritated the Arab; but Mirza's purpose was not
answered. Mirza began next day to tell a parcel of lies about
Sabat, and to bring proofs of his own learning. The manifest
tendency of all this was to make a division between Sabat and
me, and to obtain his _salary_ and work for himself. Oh, the
hypocrisy and wickedness of an Indian! I never saw a more
remarkable contrast in two men than in Mirza and Sabat. One is
all exterior--the other has no outside at all; one a most
consummate man of the world--the other an artless child of the
desert.
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