CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
sentiments expressed, than from the fact that it was written by himself:—
Here was deposited the mortal part of a man
Who feared God, but not death,
And maintained independence,
But sought not riches; who thought
None below him but the base and unjust,
None above him but the wise and virtuous;
Who loved
His parents, kindred, friends, and country,
With an ardour
Which was the chief source of
All his pleasures and all his pains :
And who, having devoted
His life to their service, and to
The improvement of his mind, resigned it calmly,
Giving Glory to his Creator,
Wishing peace on earth
And with good will to all creatures.
On the twenty-seventh day of April,
In the year of our blessed Redeemer,
One thousand seven hundred and ninety-four.
The lofty obelisk, its clear-cut lines towering far above the surrounding structures, is typical of him who sleeps below, whose name similarly dominates all others in the history of the decade during which he laboured in Bengal.
Sir William Jones arrived at Calcutta in 1783, to take up the office of a puisne judge of the Supreme Court, and the account of his reception given by his biographer indicates the high place which he at once took in public estimation, a place which he held with increasing honour to the last.
154
