o 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
object in its simple identity, and discriminate clearly, 
through the obstructions gathered round it by the fo- 
reign adjuncts of censure or of praise. Friends conceal 
and enemies magnify the truth, where this is unfa- 
vourable ; it is therefore to be sought between the two 
extremes, and will generally be found by a patient 
and unbiassed inquirer. 
In considering what has been said by the writers 
who have treated the life of Timur Beg, it seems to 
me, only one conclusion can be drawn : — that he was 
an unrelenting man, an implacable and cruel prince. 
This appears even in his own Memoirs, evidently 
written with the design of giving to posterity a most 
favourable impression of his character and actions. 
The thin crust of palliation is too transparent to hide 
the dark results of ferocious passion and sanguinary 
ambition, which lie in black and thick masses be- 
neath; and the pretence to strong religious impressions 
is but a flimsy foil to the enormities which may be 
continually traced, with repelling vividness, in a life 
of seventy years. In fact, it may be truly said that 
all conquerors are tyrants, for tyranny is inseparable 
from the lust of dominion : it is the necessary result 
of conquest, as those impulses which lead to the one 
invariably tend to the other. 
In his autobiography, Timur has maintained for 
himself the highest principles of virtue ; but sentiments 
and actions are often as cardinal points in the moral 
hemisphere, and as opposed as they are extreme. A 
person may be practically wicked who is theoretically 
moral; and no argument can be drawn, in favour of a 
man’s good tendencies, from his written admiration of 
