all mankind, was the doctrine which he ever opposed to the hot-headed spirit of Mussulman aggression. Place your reliance on God, said he, for every thing, and live in harmony and love with each other, and then you shall be saved. He acted up to this doctrine, too, throughout his whole life; he accumulated no goods, had no private property, every thing was shared with his followers, he had all in common with them.

One can easily understand how the constant reflection on the evils caused by civil strife and religious animosity had led a naturally benevolent mind to such conclusions as these. He saw a thousand evils springing from hatred and broils; remove these causes of disquietude, he argued, and all will be well. The fallacy was one which has captivated other minds besides Nanuk's--a fallacy that can only tell upon the benevolent and the amiable.

"A hundred thousand Muhammads," he exclaimed, on one occasion, "a million of Brahmas, Vishnus, and Ramas stand at the gate of the most high. These all perish-God alone is immortal. Yet man, who joins his

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fellows in praising God, he is not ashamed of living in contention with them; verily the evil spirit has possessed him. He alone is a true Hindu whose heart is just; he alone is a good Mussulman whose life is pure.

There was a loftiness about Nanuk's teaching, which was very imposing; a sublime enthusiasın breathed in his words, that captivated his hearers. A poet himself, for he spent his leisure hours in writing poetry, he was fond of poetic expression and sublime imagery, proving, by some of his sayings, that there was a great soul breathing within him, yearning after the good and the true, the beautiful and the excellent.

"How darest thou, infidel," asked a zealous Mussulman of him one day, "how darest thou, infidel, turn thy feet towards the house of God ?"

"Turn them, O believer! if thou canst, where the house of God is not," was Nanuk's meek but sublime answer.

Like the Hindus, he taught the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, almost in the very words in which Pythagoras and his disciples had taught it so many

centuries before. Dogs and cats were the animals which the souls of the wicked should

animate in future births, whilst those of the good should gradually climb the ladder of existence, attaining to Paradise at last.

CHAPTER II.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SEIKHS-NANUK AND

GOVIND.

NOTHING could be more simple than the manner in which Nanuk wandered about, discoursing as he went. He gradually separated from the class of fakirs to which he at first belonged, and which he had loved so much in his youth--a change that brought upon him, of course, the violent denunciations of the more bigoted Hindus. Of that, however, he recked little. It was sufficient for him that he considered a course of conduct right or profitable, and he cared little then what the world might think about it.

He was, on one occasion, taken by the soldiers of Baber before that stern Muhammadan conqueror. Nanuk discoursed to him as he

discoursed to his followers usually. Baber was pleased and astonished; so much pleased, indeed, that he ordered an ample provision to be made for the Seikh prophet's future maintenance.

"O king," replied Nanuk, "know that I want no provision made for my future maintenance. I trust in Him who provides for all men. A man of truth and piety requires no favour at the hands of conquerors, nor will he consent to receive such." He carried a rude tent about with him in all his wanderings, but it was usually under the shade of a tree that he discoursed to his followers, or sitting beside a wall. Unbelievers in his mission desired to see some miracle in attestation of it. "I have nothing of the kind to exhibit," said he, calmly;

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the true teacher has nothing but truth as his sign. The world may change, but the Creator is unchangeable."

But the followers of Nanuk were by no means pleased with this simplicity. They were dissatisfied that their prophet should call himself a Gooroo only, or teacher, and not a miracle-worker and a God, so they invented miracles for him in abundance. At eleven years of