rd some useful lessons both
to the prince and people, the darkness of the first ages was embellished
by the giants, the dragons, and the fabulous heroes of Oriental romance.
[50] Every learned or confident stranger was enriched by the bounty, and
flattered by the conversation, of the monarch: he nobly rewarded a Greek
physician, [51] by the deliverance of three thousand, captives; and the
sophists, who contended for his favor, were exasperated by the wealth
and insolence of Uranius, their more successful rival. Nushirvan
believed, or at least respected, the religion of the Magi; and some
traces of persecution may be discovered in his reign. [52] Yet he
allowed himself freely to compare the tenets of the various sects; and
the theological disputes, in which he frequently presided, diminished
the authority of the priest, and enlightened the minds of the people.
At his command, the most celebrated writers of Greece and India were
translated into the Persian language; a smooth and elegant idiom,
recommended by Mahomet to the use of paradise; though it is branded with
the epithets of savage and unmusical, by the ignorance and presumption
of Agathias. [53] Yet the Greek historian might reasonably wonder that
it should be found possible to execute an entire version of Plato and
Aristotle in a foreign dialect, which had not been framed to express the
spirit of freedom and the subtilties of philosophic disquisition.
And, if the reason of the Stagyrite might be equally dark, or equally
intelligible in every tongue, the dramatic art and verbal argumentation
of the disciple of Socrates, [54] appear to be indissolubly mingled with
the grace and perfection of his Attic style. In the search of universal
knowledge, Nushirvan was informed, that the moral and political fables
of Pilpay, an ancient Brachman, were preserved with jealous reverence
among the treasures of the kings of India. The physician Perozes was
secretly despatched to the banks of the Ganges, with instructions to
procure, at any price, the communication of this valuable work. His
dexterity obtained a transcript, his learned diligence accomplished the
translation; and the fables of Pilpay [55] were read and admired in
the assembly of Nushirvan and his nobles. The Indian original, and the
Persian copy, have long since disappeared; but this venerable monument
has been saved by the curiosity of the Arabian caliphs, revived in
the modern Persic, the Turkish, the Syriac, the Heb