It is sufficiently established, from these contradictory and imperfect accounts of the latter years of Gúrú Góvind, that he performed no actions worthy of record after his flight from Chamkóur: and when we consider the enthusiastic ardour of his mind, his active habits, his valour, and the insatiable thirst of revenge, which he had cherished through life, against the murderers of his father, and the oppressors of his sect, we cannot think, when that leading passion of his mind must have been increased by the massacre of his children, and the death or mutilation[51] of his most attached followers, that he would have remained inactive; much less that he would have sunk into a servant of that government, against which he had been in constant rebellion: nor is it likely that such a leader as Gúrú Góvind could ever have been trusted by a Muhammedan prince: and there appears, therefore, every reason to give credit to those accounts which state, that mental distraction, in consequence of deep distress and disappointment, was the cause of the inactivity of Gúrú Góvind's declining years. Nor is such a conclusion at all at variance with the fact of his being killed at Nadér, as it is probable, even if he was reduced to the state described, that he continued, till the close of his existence, that wandering and adventurous life to which he had been so early accustomed. In the character of this reformer of the Sikhs, it is impossible not to recognise many of those features which have distinguished the most celebrated founders of political communities. The object he attempted was great and laudable. It was the emancipation of his tribe from oppression and persecution; and the means which he adopted, were such as a comprehensive mind could alone have suggested. The Muhammedan conquerors of India, as they added to their territories, added to their strength, by making proselytes through the double means of persuasion and force; and these, the moment they had adopted their faith, became the supporters of their power against the efforts of the Hindús; who, bound in the chains of their civil and religious institutions, could neither add to their number by admitting converts, nor allow more than a small proportion of the population of the country to arm against the enemy. Góvind saw that he could only hope for success by a bold departure from usages which were calculated to keep those, by whom they were observed, in a degraded subjection to an insulting and intolerant race. "You make Hindús Muhammedans, and are justified by your laws," he is said to have written to Aurungzéb: "now I, on a principle of self-preservation, which is superior to all laws, will make Muhammedans Hindús[52]. You may rest," he added, "in fancied security: but beware! for I will teach the sparrow to strike the eagle to the ground." A fine allusion to his design of inspiring the lowest races among the Hindús with that valour and ambition which would lead them to perform the