234 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
who had preceded him. Amidst his great and popular 
virtues, he had some propensities which can scarcely 
be reconciled with his other high and noble qualities. 
His love of drinking and of sensual indulgences, which 
he carried to an unpardonable excess, were a stain 
upon the generally preponderating goodness of his 
character. It must, however, be admitted that these 
were the vices of the age, rather than of the man, and 
were scarcely classed among moral offences by the ca- 
suists of his time and country. Those infirmities, more- 
over, were countervailed by so many estimable traits, 
that, with reference to the period in which he lived, he 
was in every respect a remarkable person, whether 
we look upon him as a moral or political agent, as a 
monarch or as a man. He is said to have possessed 
extraordinary vigour of body, to have exhibited great 
skill in all manly and warlike exercises. His strength 
was so great as to appear almost incredible, if what 
his historians relate of him be true. It is mentioned 
by them, that he used to leap from turret to turret 
of the pinnated ramparts used in the East, in his 
double-soled boots,- and that he even frequently 
took a man under each arm, and went leaping along 
the ramparts from one of the pointed pinnacles to 
another.* 
In the frontispiece of the present volume, this cha- 
racter of extraordinary strength is fully indicated. 
The large muscular limbs, thick neck, and expansive 
chest, would show that Baber was a man of no ordi- 
nary physical powers. The sword upon which his right 
* See Supplement to the Memoirs, page 430. 
