Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/82

76 if they came from another world, or emerged for the first time from a subterraneous cavern, astonished, like simpletons, at all around them .'

Aurangzíb's notions of what the education of a prince should be are set forth in the reproof he administered to his old tutor when the latter hastened to Delhi in the hope of a handsome reward from his newly-crowned pupil. After taxing the venerable preceptor of his boyhood – who appears to have been an ordinary Muslim schoolmaster, such as may still be met with all over the East – with his ignorance of the geography and relative importance of European States, the Emperor went on thus: –

'Was it not incumbent upon my preceptor to make me acquainted with the distinguishing features of every nation of the earth; its resources and strength; its mode of warfare, its manners, religion, form of government, and wherein its interests principally consist; and, by a regular course of historical reading, to render me familiar with the origin of States; their progress and decline; the events, accidents, or errors, owing to which such great changes and mighty revolutions have been effected? ... A familiarity with the language of surrounding nations may be indispensable in a king; but you would teach me to read and write Arabic; doubtless conceiving that you placed me under an everlasting obligation for sacrificing so large a portion of time to the study of a language wherein no one can hope to become proficient without ten or twelve years of close application. Forgetting how many important subjects ought to be embraced in the education of a prince, you acted us if it were chiefly necessary that he should possess great skill