Man is indeed ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’; to be fitted himself for action in the world, or for directing ably the actions of others, it is indispensably necessary that he should mix freely from his youth up with his fellow men.  I have elsewhere mentioned that the state of imbecility to which a man of naturally average powers of intellect may be reduced when brought up with his mother in the seraglio is inconceivable to those who have not had opportunities of observing it.[40] The poor old Emperor of Delhi, to whom so many millions look up, is an instance.  A more venerable-looking man it is difficult to conceive, and had he been educated and brought up with his fellow men, he would no doubt have had a mind worthy of his person.[41] As it is, he has never been anything but a baby.  Raja Jivan Ram, an excellent portrait painter, and a very honest and agreeable person, was lately employed to take the Emperor’s portrait.  After the first few sittings, the portrait was taken into the seraglio to the ladies.  The next time he came, the Emperor requested him to remove the great blotch from under the nose.  ’May it please your majesty, it is impossible to draw any person without a shadow; and I hope many millions will long continue to repose under that of your majesty.’  ‘True, Raja,’ said his majesty, ’men must have shadows; but there is surely no necessity for placing them immediately under their noses.  The ladies will not allow mine to be put there; they say it looks as if I had been taking snuff all my life, and it certainly has a most filthy appearance; besides, it is all awry, as I told you when you began upon it.’  The Raja was obliged to remove from under the imperial, and certainly very noble, nose, the shadow which he had thought worth all the rest of the picture.  Queen Elizabeth is said, by an edict, to have commanded all artists who should paint her likeness, ’to place her in a garden with a full light upon her, and the painter to put any shadow in her face at his peril’.  The next time the Raja came, the Emperor took the opportunity of consulting him upon a subject that had given him a good deal of anxiety for many months, the dismissal of one of his personal servants who had become negligent and disrespectful.  He first took care that no one should be within hearing, and then whispered in the artist’s ear that he wished to dismiss this man.  The Raja said carelessly, as he looked from the imperial head to the canvas, ’Why does your majesty not discharge the man if he displeases you?’

’Why do I not discharge him?  I wish to do so, of course, and have wished to do so for many months, but kuchh tadbir chahiye, some plan of operations must be devised.’  ’If your majesty dislikes the man, you have only to order him outside the gates of the palace, and you are relieved from his presence at once.’  ’True, man, I am relieved from his presence, but his enchantments may still reach me; it is them that I most dread—­he keeps me in a continual state of alarm; and I would give anything to get him away in a good humour.’