S64	A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY
were great men, despite their failings and frailties, and when
one turns from the cold catalogue of their defects to con-
sider the unique grandeur of Fathpur-Sikri, the supreme
beauty of the Taj Mahal and the Moti Masjid, the magni-
ficence of the Agra and Delhi palaces, and the rare wealth
of pictorial and calligraphic art, which owed its excellence
to their guidance and inspiration, one feels inclined to re-echo
the words of the lady Mar6chale of France concerning some
peccant members of the old noblesse of the eighteenth cen-
tury ; ' Depend upon it, Sir, God thinks twice before dam-
ning a man of that quality !' The fame which they achieved
in their own age, and which will endure, was the natural
corollary of their marked intellectuality."1
1.   Edwardes and Garrett, Mughal Rule in India, p. 350,