Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/86

60 bacco. In spite of his vices, which his fine constitution supported with little apparent injury almost to his sixtieth year, he was no fool; he possessed a shrewd intelligence, and he showed his good sense in carrying on the system of government and principle of toleration inaugurated by Akbar. He was not deficient in energy when war was afoot; he was essentially just when his passions were not thwarted; and he cultivated religious toleration with the easy-going indifference which was the key-note of his character. The son of an eclectic philosopher and a Rajput princess, he professed himself a Moslem, restored the Mohammedan formulas of faith which Akbar had abandoned on the coinage, and revived the Hijra chronology, although for regnal years and months he preserved the more convenient solar system. He followed his father, however, in his policy toward the Hindus, and was equally tolerant toward Christians. He allowed no persecution or badges of heresy, but welcomed the Jesuit father Corsi to his court, encouraged artists to adorn the imperial palaces with pictures and statues of Christian saints, and had two of his nephews baptized, doubtless for reasons of his own. He could be magnanimous and forgiving, when he was not angry. He even bestirred himself to redress the grievances of the people – witness his specious "Institutes" – and had a chain and bell attached to his room at the palace, so that all who wished to appeal to him might ring him up without running the gauntlet of the officials. But it is not on record that anybody was hardy enough to pull the bell.