DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25988#0026
4
Life of Mountstuart Etphinstone.
CH. I.
in which he lived. 4 He shoulcl have been a frere if he could
not be a knight,’ is a phrase I find in more than one letter, ancl
on one occasion he betrays some indignation, though expressed
in a jocular tone, at his uncle’s having taken to trade, an act
which was opposed to the traditions of his family, and led to his
own banishment from home. And yet it was to this uncle that
India owes the determination of the career of one of its leacling
statesmen. William Elphinstone commanded a ship in the
service of the East India Company, and became one of its
directors, and Lorcl Elphinstone was glacl to avail himself of
the opening which was offered to two of his sons in the Civil
Service of Inclia.
‘ My early desire,’ he once saicl to me, 4 was to be a soldier,
though I had thought while young of more than the life of
a subaltern.’ I cannot, however, but think that he felt fan
inward prompting ’ that he was intendecl by nature for a soldier’s
life. When fairly launched in life his thoughts soared higher
than in his boyhood. Speaking one clay of the day-dreams
in which I used to indulge when young, he eagerly ques-
tionecl me about them. 4 For my part,’ he said, ‘ I dreamt of
winning battles that would throw into the shade the great
struggles of the age.’ 4 In youth we are all for glory,’ he said
on another occasion. It will be noted in this narrative, that
after accompanying Gfeneral Wellesley through the campaign
of 1803, the great captain, who had appreciated his secretary’s
turn for war, expressed his approval in emphatic terms, and
told him that he had mistaken his profession and ought to have
been a soldier. And yet these soldier-like qualities formed only
one phase of a many-sided character. He was the member of a
service which is trained by the esigencies of Indian life to
exchange the pen for the sword at the call of duty. But he
was more than this. I would apply to him the description Milton
gives of our first parent.
‘ For contemplation he and valour formed.’
He was essentially a man of thought as well as of action;
for his love of letters and his thirst for knowledge were intense.
Life of Mountstuart Etphinstone.
CH. I.
in which he lived. 4 He shoulcl have been a frere if he could
not be a knight,’ is a phrase I find in more than one letter, ancl
on one occasion he betrays some indignation, though expressed
in a jocular tone, at his uncle’s having taken to trade, an act
which was opposed to the traditions of his family, and led to his
own banishment from home. And yet it was to this uncle that
India owes the determination of the career of one of its leacling
statesmen. William Elphinstone commanded a ship in the
service of the East India Company, and became one of its
directors, and Lorcl Elphinstone was glacl to avail himself of
the opening which was offered to two of his sons in the Civil
Service of Inclia.
‘ My early desire,’ he once saicl to me, 4 was to be a soldier,
though I had thought while young of more than the life of
a subaltern.’ I cannot, however, but think that he felt fan
inward prompting ’ that he was intendecl by nature for a soldier’s
life. When fairly launched in life his thoughts soared higher
than in his boyhood. Speaking one clay of the day-dreams
in which I used to indulge when young, he eagerly ques-
tionecl me about them. 4 For my part,’ he said, ‘ I dreamt of
winning battles that would throw into the shade the great
struggles of the age.’ 4 In youth we are all for glory,’ he said
on another occasion. It will be noted in this narrative, that
after accompanying Gfeneral Wellesley through the campaign
of 1803, the great captain, who had appreciated his secretary’s
turn for war, expressed his approval in emphatic terms, and
told him that he had mistaken his profession and ought to have
been a soldier. And yet these soldier-like qualities formed only
one phase of a many-sided character. He was the member of a
service which is trained by the esigencies of Indian life to
exchange the pen for the sword at the call of duty. But he
was more than this. I would apply to him the description Milton
gives of our first parent.
‘ For contemplation he and valour formed.’
He was essentially a man of thought as well as of action;
for his love of letters and his thirst for knowledge were intense.