He was nearly six feet high; his limbs were robust and well-proportioned, though latterly, either through age or increase of bulk, he appeared rather unwieldy and inactive. His face was beautiful; the features large and manly, the forehead lofty and expanded, the eyes dark and animated, the nose finely curved and of due proportion, the lips full, and the general expression of the countenance that of intelligence and benignity. The best portrait of him extant, is a full-sized one by BRIGGS. It is a good picture, as well as an admirable likeness.' This portrait is now exhibiting in the Bristol Institution. I fully concur," Dr. C. continues, “in the Journal's praise of it. It gives, indeed, the impression of a less bulky person than the Rajah's was, in at least the later part of life; and the mouth does not satisfy me in its form or its expression but the rest of the countenance, the attitude of the figure, and the hands-beautifully significant, as well as masterly painted-give that expression to the whole which those who contemplate RAMMOHUN Roy as the Hindoo Sage and Reformer would most desire. It is the expression of devout, reflecting, benignant philanthropy; hopeful, yet with a tinge of pensive solicitude; looking onward, and upward, and contemplating the gleams of truth and righteousness breaking forth to enlighten and to bless his country." : I was Miss AIKIN thus writes of the Rajah to Dr. CHANNING, in a letter dated Hampstead, Oct. 23, 1833 :"I have had your line by Dr. TUCKERMAN. in Kent when he called here, and therefore only saw him last week, but I am exceedingly struck and delighted with him, and impatient to hear him speak more of his noble exertions and designs. On Thursday next I hope he and Mr. PHILLIPS will meet over my breakfast table my friend Mr. LE BRETON and dear JOANNA BAILLIE. You will be with us in spirit, for many associations will bring you to the minds of all of us. When I have the privilege to be present at a meeting like this, of the gifted and the excellent from the far ends of the earth, it seems to me a foretaste of the happiness reserved for the world of spirits. Alas for one who gave me this feeling beyond all others—the admirable RAMMOHUN ROY! He has been frustrated of one of his cherished hopes, that of seeing you face to face, either in this or the other hemisphere-but you were no strangers to each other. Scarcely any description can do justice to his admirable qualities, and the charms of his society, his extended knowledge, his comprehension of mind, his universal philanthropy, his tender humanity, his genuine dignity mixed with perfect courtesy, and the most touching humility. His memory I shall cherish with affectionate reverence on many accounts, but the character in which I best love to contemplate him is that of the friend and champion of woman. It is impossible to forget his righteous zeal against polagymy, his warm approval of the freedom allowed to women in Europe, his joy and pious gratitude for the abolition of suttee. Considering the prejudices of birth and education with which he had to contend, his constant advocacy of the rights and interests of the weaker sex seems to me the very strongest proof of his moral and intellectual greatness." The following letter from Dr. BOOTT, an American physician of London, to Mr. ESTLIN, is a most valuable testimony to the Rajah's religious character: "24, GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, "November 27th, 1833. "MY DEAR SIR,-Your kind, most kind letter of yesterday, has this moment reached me, and I have shed tears over it, at the fresh recollection of the sorrow that has thrown a deep shadow over the future hopes and happiness of my life. I feel the most sincere gratitude to you for your valuable services, and your devotion and tenderness over the sick bed of our late beloved friend. God knows I have deeply sympathised with you in the painful responsibility of your situation, and I am well assured that everything which the soundest medical judgment, and the deepest solicitude could suggest, was done. In the feelings of all around me here, who dearly loved him, you and Dr. PRICHARD are spoken of with sincere and grateful respect, and the blessing of a just man made perfect now rests upon you. "Your account of the change in your feelings towards the Rajah, from the influence of the reports that had reached you, has very deeply affected me; for, knowing the Rajah so well, it is the most striking evidence of the force of human prejudice that I have hitherto met with, -I mean on the part of those who misrepresented him to you; for your yielding to those representations arose from the same sensibility that led you first to admire him in his works. I thank God that you had an opportunity of tearing yourself the veil from your eyes, and that the primitive love and admiration you cherished for him, was confirmed by your personal intercourse with him; confirmed to be rendered immutable by the seal of Death! "To me he stood alone in the single majesty of, I had almost said, perfect humanity. No one in past history, or in present time, ever came before my judgment clothed in such wisdom, grace and humility. I knew of no tendency even to error. To say he was not the disciple of Christ, that he even smiled in approbation of infidelity, and joined those thoughtless and weak and ignorant men who set themselves up against the testimonies of the human heart, which asserts the truth of religion against the wit and the follies of the vainest and the cleverest head, is to belie his whole life. I have often talked with him on religious subjects, and have seen him amid sceptics. He was never more free and unembarrassed and cheerful, than when arguing with those who had a logical and acute mind. He often told me that he always introduced the subject when he met the historian of India, and that his object in the argument was to show the insufficiency of human reason for the production of the highest moral worth, and the hignest happiness. He even contended that the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus,' and unknown and unrevealed till his mission, directed the human mind to more elevated, purer, and more disinterested thoughts, motives and actions, than the noblest philosophy of antiquity did or could do; that the Christian precepts left nothing to desire or to hope for through futurity; that, as a system of morality, it was alone able to lead to purity and happiness here, and to form the mind for any conceivable state of advancement hereafter. He often beautifully said, 'I can never hope in my day to find mankind of one faith, and it is my duty to exercise the charities of life with all men.' He did not go about with the spirit of proselytism. He argued only for the sense of religious obligation, and emphatically assured us that all his experience of life had exhibited to him virtue and self respect and happiness in its true elements, ever in proportion to the intensity of that sense. He was the humblest of human beings, and ardent as he was in the faith of his selection, he was sensibly disturbed if religion was spoken lightly of, or argued but reverentially before woman. would often smile and speak jocosely when the turn of the discussion made him uneasy from his sensibilities towards woman being awakened; and those who knew him, saw by his manner and looks that he adopted this lightness of manner in hopes that the subject would be dropped. He "I was once in his presence where a father was expressing doubts of Christianity before two of his daughters, who were near forty, and before three other ladies. He expressed himself most forcibly in defence of the immutable truth of the religion, and when the conversation was resumed by the sceptic, he touched lightly and with levity on the diction and expressions of the other, and often in the interval sat as if he were abstracted and unconcerned in what was said; and when appealed to, he in the same careless manner criticised the language of his opponent, without touching the A lady whom he loved sat by me, and said in sense. |