intended to be cast upon the taste and fairness of Mohammedans, among whom are to be found some of the most ardent admirers of Ratan Nath's genius, but a simple fact is stated which will be perfectly intelligible to those who have heard the legend that wasim's Musnavi was composed by the great poet Atlsh. It is no wonder, therefore, that the press which expresses the voice of common people when it is not its echo, should hesitate to express its due appreciation of a Hindu writer who wrote in Urdu. His fame has also suffered because he was indifferent to it, and because he lived a life which in this country seldom brings celebrity, if not fame, to a man of letters. Those who knew him, know that he composed almost all of his works in a manner that only one utterly careless of notoriety and fame could have done. To publish book after book without revising a single manuscript page or correcting a single proof-sheet, does not show any very great craving for fame or even celebrity; and this is what Ratan Nath Dar did all his life. But he did more; he never sought the means by which alone he could obtain the passport to honor and fame. He did not attach himself to any native court or seek the patronage of any chief as many inferior men, who thereby attained greater distinction and greater celebrity, have done. In the old society which still lingers at our native courts this is the path-way which leads to renown, however shortlived that renown may be. A few years before his death Ratan Nath Dar, doubtless, went to Hyderabad to better his position under the patronage of the court there; but no better proof can be given of what I have said as regards his indifference to what has been called 'the last infirmity of noble minds,' than his utter failure in attaining his object, due partly to his intemperate habits but partly also to his inability to adapt himself to his new surroundings. Even in his sanest and healthiest days Ratan Nath Dar could never have been a good courtier. The tact and the temper were both wanting to him. The generosity of a Hindu minister did indeed save him from ruin; but it could do no more. And so it happens that while the greatest Urdu poet now living is the recipient of such marks of distinction as reflect no little credit upon his royal patron, the greatest master of Urdu fiction dies under the shadow of the same prince's court, in poverty, if not in utter misery. But the prejudice of the contemporaries and the absence of adventitious aids may for a time be able to keep down an author's fame, they can never wholly extinguish it, or even permanently and materially diminish it. It is not that Ratan Nath Dar's celebrity has suffered in this generation only; but there is reason to believe that even in the eyes of posterity his fame is not likely to stand as high as, considering his great literary talents alone, it deserves to do. Ratan Nath was, as I have said, a man of letters, pure and simple; and during the whole course of his life, he never interested himself in, or identified himself with, any of the movements of thought or action, which have engaged the sympathies, stimulated the energies and fired the imagination of the men of his generation--move-ments which have made Syed Ahmed a prophet, and Swami Dayanand a martyr. Our present day movements--social, religious, moral and political—need literary and artistic interpreters who will 86