That a general review of the state of Hindustan has been now presented and the modes of thought and the customs of its people explicitly recorded. As time pressed and my mind was ill at ease, I did not formulate the proofs of their doctrine nor compare them with the systems of Greece and Persia. Neither did I set down the various conflicting opinions among the Hindus, nor express the thoughts that occurred thereon to this bewildered member of the synod of creation. Were my spirit not too much oppressed by the gloomy toil of these pages and the deciphering of the characters of manuscripts, and did fortune favour and continue its aid, I would first arrange these systems of philosophy in due order and weigh them with those of the Grecian and Persian Schools, contributing somewhat of my own impartial conclusions in measured approval or disapproval, as my fastidious judgment dictated.
Before I had left my obscure home and had approached the gracious threshold of majesty which is the abode where truth meets with recognition, and had mixed with the learned of all creeds, it had been my constant wish that the Bountiful Giver of all desires would vouchsafe to me the companionship of five intelligent and well-disposed persons, namely, a scholar of literary attainments; a profound philosopher; a mystic of holy life; an accomplished rhetorician; and a thinker of speculative and lofty spirit. It was herein my desire that each of these through his own perspicacity and just views of the divine Government, should not regard the truth as captive to his own discoveries, but ever suspicious of his own liability to error, advance in his inquiries with a bold step so that in the common pursuit of truth, the opinions of each might be lucidly set forth. The prescriptive duties of investigation might, in such circumstances, be exercised, and convincing argument distinguished from specious fallacy and proof from all beside it, in he hope that from the heart-lacerating thorn-brakes of discord there might be a happy transition into the garden of unity. When from seclusion I became engaged in public affairs, the five wishes of my aspiring mind grew to fourteen, and nine Hindus increased the contemplated list. I found the majority of them, however, of a retrograde tendency, spinning like a silk-worm, a tissue round themselves, immeshed in their own conclusions, and conceding attainment of the truth to no other, while foxlike, artfully insinuating their own views. In dejection of spirit as one crazy, I nigh came unto losing the control of my reason and breaking the warp and woof of life. On a sudden the star of my fortune blazed in the ascendant and the Imperial grace interposed in my favour, and thus rescued in some measure from vain imaginings, I found peace in the pleasant pastures of universal toleration.
I trust that by the happy destiny of this God-fearing monarch this union will be realised, and my long-cherished desires bloom with the radiance of fulfilment.
O Lord! Unto my soul its sight restore,
And let my feet Thy stair of Truth explore.
The treasures of Thy clemency set free
And bid my spirit find its goal in Thee.
Grant through life's busy ways still at my side,
Thy grace may aid me and Thy mercy guide.