felt themselves sinners, and came to God for mercy, through Christ, God would give the Holy Spirit which would progressively sanctify them in heart and life.' "30th.-Mirza Ibraheem praises my answer, especially the first part."

Mr. Martyn's mind, we have had frequent occasion to notice, closed as it was against trifling vanities, was ever open and alive to many of those subjects which arrest the attention and interest the curiosity of men of science and research, and which form one great source of intellectual gratifications. Whilst the moral depravity of Shiraz chiefly occupied his thoughts, and excited his commiseration, he could find also a mournful pleasure in musing over the fallen grandeur of Persipolis.

He has left the following observations and reflections on visiting those celebrated remains of antiquity.

"I procured two horsemen, as guards, from the Minister, and set off about two hours before sunset. At a station of Rahdars we fed the horses, and then continued our course, through a most dismal country, till midnight, when we entered a vast plain, and two or three hours before day crossed the Araxes, by a bridge of three arches, and coming in sight of the ruins, waited for the day. I laid down upon the bare ground, but it was too cold to sleep. When the sun rose, we entered. My guards and servant had not the smallest curiosity to see ruins; and therefore, the moment they mounted the terrace, they laid down and all fell asleep. These people cannot imagine why Europeans come to see these ruins. One of them said to me, 'A nice place, Sahib; good air, and a fine garden; you may carry brandy, and drink there at leisure.' Thus he united, as he thought, the two ingredients of human happiness-the European enjoyment of drinking, and the Persian one of straight walks, cypress trees, and muddy water in a square cistern. One of my guards was continually reminding me, on my way thither, that

it was uninhabited. Finding me still persist, he imagined that my object must be to do something there in secret, and accordingly, after I had satisfied my curiosity, and was coming away, he plainly asked me, whether I had been drinking-observing, perhaps, my eyes red with cold and want of sleep. When I gravely told them, that drunkenness was as great a sin with us as with them, they altered their tone, and said, wine was not only unlawful, but odious and filthy.

"After traversing these celebrated ruins, I must say, that I felt a little disappointed: they did not at all answer my expectation.-The architecture of the ancient Persians seems to be much more akin to that of their clumsy neighbours, the Indians, than to that of the Greeks. I saw no appearance of grand design any where. The chapiters of the columns were almost as long as the shafts-though they were not so represented in Niebuhr's plate. I saw his name there: and the mean little passages into the square court, or room, or whatever it was, make it very evident that the taste of the Orientals was the same three thousand years ago as it is now.

"But it was impossible not to recollect that here Alexander and his Greeks passed and repassed-bere they sat, and sung, and revelled; now all is silencegeneration on generation lie mingled with the dust of their mouldering edifices:

"Alike the busy and the gay

But flutter in life's busy day,

In fortune's varying colours dress'd.'

"From the ruins I rode off to a neighbouring village, the head man of which, at the Minister's order, paid me every attention. At sunset, we set out on our return, and lost our way. As I particularly remarked where we entered the plains, I pointed out the track, which afterward proved to be right; but my opinion was overruled, and we gallopped farther and farther away. Meeting, at last with some villagers, who were passing the night at their threshing

floor in the field, we were set right. They then conceived so high an idea of my geographical skill, that, as soon as we recrossed the Araxes, they begged me to point out the Keblah to them, as they wanted to pray. After setting their faces toward Mecca as nearly as I could, I went and sat down on the margin, near the bridge, where the water falling over some fragments of the bridge under the arches, produced a roar, which, contrasted with the stillness all around, had a grand effect. Here I thought again of the multitudes who had once pursued their labours and pleasures on its banks. Twenty-one centuries have passed away since they lived how short, in comparison, must be the remainder of my days.-What a momentary duration is the life of man! Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis œvum, may be affirmed of the river; but men pass away as soon as they begin to exist. Well, let the moments pass→→

They'll waft us sooner o'er

This life's tempestuous sea,

And land us on the peaceful shore
Of bless'd Eternity!'

"The Mahometans having finished their prayers, I mounted my horse, and pursued my way over the plain. We arrived at the station of the Rahdars so early, that we should have been at Shiraz before the gates were open, so we halted. I put my head into a poor corner of the caravansera, and slept soundly upon the hard stone, till the rising sun bid us continue

our course.

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"One of my guards was a pensive romantic sort of a man, as far as Eastern men can be romantic, that is, he is constantly reciting love verses. He often broke a long silence by a sudden question of this sort: Sir, what is the chief good of life?" I replied, "The love of God.' 'What next?" 'The love of man.' 'This is,' said he, to have men love us, or to love them?" To love them.' He did not seem to agree with me. Another time he asked, 'Who were the worst people

in the world?"-I said, 'Those who know their duty and do not practise it.' At the house where I was entertained, they asked me the question, which the Lord once asked, What think ye of Christ?' I generally tell them, at first, what they expect to hear, The Son of God; but this time I said, 'The same as you say-the Word of God.' Was he a Prophet?" "Yes, in some sense, he was a Prophet; but what it chiefly concerns us to know, he was an Atonement for the sins of men.' Not understanding this, they made no reply. 'What did I think of the soul; was it out of the body, or in the body?' I supposed the latter. 'No,' they said, it was neither the one nor the other; but next to, and the mover of, the body.""

The details Mr. Martyn gives of the fast of Ramazan, which he witnessed on his return to Shiraz, whilst they show that he was far from being an inobservant spectator of what was passing around him, afford a striking view of the interior of Mahometanism.-We plainly discover from them that a love for particular popular preachers-a fiery zeal in religion-a vehement excitation of the animal feelings, as well as rigid austerities are false criterions of genuine piety--for we see all these in their full perfection among the real followers of the Crescent, as well as among the pretended disciples of the Cross.

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Sept. 20th (first day of the fast of Ramazan.)—All the family had been up in the night, to take an unseasonable meal, in order to fortify themselves for the abstinence of the day. It was curious to observe the effects of the fast in the house. The master was scolding and beating his servants; they equally peevish and insolent; and the beggars more than ordinarily importunate and clamorous. At noon, all the city went to the grand Mosque. My host came back with an account of new vexations there. He was chatting with a friend, near the door, when a great preacher, Hagi Mirza, arrived, with hundreds of followers, Why do you not say your prayers?' said the new-comers to the two friends. We have finish

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ed,' said they. Well,' said the others, if you cannot pray a second time with us, you had better move out of the way.'-Rather than join such turbulent zealots, they retired. The reason of this unceremonious address was, that these loving disciples had a desire to pray all in a row with their master, which, it seems, is the custom. There is no public service in the Mosques; every man there prays for himself. Coming out of the Mosque, some servants of the Prince, for their amusement, pushed a person against a poor man's stall, on which were some things for sale, a few European and Indian articles, also some valuable Warsaw plates, which were thrown down and broken. The servants went off, without making compensation. No Cazi will hear a complaint against the Prince's servants.

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"Hagi Mahommed Hasan preaches every day during the Ramazan. He takes a verse from the Koran, or more frequently tells stories about the Imans. If the ritual of the Christian Churches, their good forms, and every thing they have, is a mere shadow, without the power of truth; what must all this Mahometan stuff be? though, how impossible to convince the people of the world, whether Christian or Mahometan, that what they call religion, is merely a thing of their own, having no connexion with God and his Kingdom. This subject has been much on my mind lately. How senseless the zeal of Churchmen against Dissenters, and of Dissenters against the Church! The Kingdom of God is neither meat nor drink, nor any thing perishable; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

"Mirza Ibraheem never goes to the Mosque, but he is so much respected, that nothing is said: they conclude that he is employed in devotion at home. Some of his disciples said to Seid Ali, before him, 'Now the Ramazan is come, you should read the Koran, and leave the Gospel.' 'No,' said his uncle, 'he is employed in a good work; let him go on with it.' The old man continues to inquire with interest about