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tude confined! To me therefore, the royal tears shed upon a re- 

 flection of this kind, seem not only pardonable, but worthy of 

 praise; for they say, that Xerxes, upon a review of his immense 

 army, wept to consider, that of such a number of men, in a very 

 little time, not one would be living. But this ought to incite us 

 to employ our time, fleeting and transitory as it is, if not in great 

 actions, yet certainly in study: and as it may not be permitted us 

 to live long, let us leave something behind to shew that we have 

 lived. Noble is the contention, when friends, by mutual exhort- 

 ations, spirit up each other to the love of immortality!" 



On this melancholy occasion I cannot withhold a most pathe- 

 tic observation, still more distressing, mentioned by Captain 

 Williamson, on the mortality of Europeans in India, which I 

 would rather give in his words than my own, after what I have 

 said respecting the state of British society and manners in that 

 part of the world, on different occasions, in these memoirs. I have 

 no doubt of the truth of this quotation, but I have reason to hope 

 the portrait no longer exists to such an extent ; on the contrary, 

 the manners and customs at Bengal are much improved. 



" I cannot give a better idea of the state of society in Bengal 

 upwards of twenty years ago, than by observing, that I was one of 

 a party, not exceeding sixteen in number, who met to dine with a 

 friend in the soulh barracks of Berhampore, in 1796; when, hap- 

 pening to meet with some friends we had not seen since occupying 

 the same quarters in 1782, we casually mentioned our old com- 

 rades at the same place; but were generally found to wind up our 

 retrospective details, with " Ah poor fellow, but he's dead!" The 

 frequent repetition of the apostrophe induced two of us to take pen 



