Note 7 — Chapter III · Agra.

“My brother’s name,” he answered; “yes, that will not lightly be forgotten: preserved, perhaps, not so much through his deeds as through his immortal work, the ‘Akbar Nama,’7 in which he describes the history of our great Emperor’s reign. That is indeed a book, my friend, in comparison with which all my writings sink to nothing. But I have remarked to him that he raises Akbar too much to the clouds; for after all, he, as a man, has his faults, like others, and perhaps in the future he may be accused of flattery of princes and of prejudice. But he would not listen to me, nor in the least diminish his praise of the Emperor. ‘If I,’ he answered me, ‘may not say all that I in truth think of the man, who is more than my prince—he is my benefactor and truest friend,—rather than not say what I think, I would throw my book away.’ As you can understand, against all that there was no reasoning; and one can see also that to Akbar, although he says nothing, the praise of a friend whose opinion he prizes so highly is very welcome.”