'Almighty God bestows his trusts upon him who discharges the duty of cherishing his subjects and protecting the people. It is manifest and clear to the wise that a wolf is no fit shepherd, neither can a faint-hearted man carry out the great duty of government. Sovereignty is the guardianship of the people, not self-indulgence and profligacy. The Almighty will deliver your humble servant from all feeling of remorse as regards your Majesty[1].'
He made it absolutely clear to Sháh-Jahán that his usurping son would suffer no sentiment of filial piety to stand between him and his duty to the people: –
'I wish to avoid your censure,' he wrote in another letter to his father, 'and cannot endure that you should form a wrong estimate of my character. My elevation to the throne has not, as you imagine, filled me with insolence and pride. You know, by more than forty years' experience, how burthensome an ornament a crown is, and with How sad and aching an heart a monarch retires from the public gaze. ... You seem to think that I ought to devote less time and attention to the consolidation and security of the kingdom, and that it would better become me to devise and execute plans of aggrandizement. I am indeed far from denying that conquests ought to distinguish the reign of a great monarch, and that I should disgrace the blood of the great Tímúr, our honoured progenitor, if I did not seek to extend the bounds of my present territories. At the same time, I cannot be reproached with inglorious inaction. ... I wish you to recollect the greatest conquerors are not always the greatest kings. The nations of the earth have often been subjugated by mere uncivilised barbarians, and the most extensive con-
- ↑ Kháfí Khán, in Elliot and Dowson, vol. vi p. 253.
