a hardy, warlike people,
simple in manners and scornful of luxury. They were uncultivated in art
and science, but possessed great wit, and a poetical imagination. They
lived in the mountainous region on the southwest of Iran, where the great
plain descends to the Persian Gulf. The sea-coast is hot and arid, as well
as the eastern region where the mountains pass into the table-land of
Iran. Between these tracts, resembling the Arabian desert, lie the high
lands at the extremity of the Zagros chain. These rugged regions, rich in
fruitful valleys, are favorable to the cultivation of corn, of the grape,
and fruits, and afford excellent pasturage for flocks. In the northern
part is the beautiful plain of Shiraz, which forms the favorite residence
of the modern shahs. In the valley of Bend-amir was the old capital of
Persepolis, whose ruins attest the magnificent palaces of Darius and
Xerxes. Persia proper was a small country, three hundred miles from north
to south, and two hundred and eighty from east to west, inhabited by an
Aryan race, who brought with them, from the country beyond the Indus, a
distinctive religion, language, and political institutions. Their language
was closely connected with the Aryan dialects of India, and the tongues of
modern Europe. Hence the Persians were noble types of the great
Indo-European family, whose civilization has spread throughout the world.
Their religion was the least corrupted of the ancient races, and was
marked by a keen desire to arrive at truth, and entered, in the time of
the Gnostics, into the speculations of the Christian fathers, of whom
Origen was the type. Their teachers were the Magi, a wise and learned
caste, some of whom came to Jerusalem in the time of Herod, guided by the
star in the East, to institute inquiries as to the birth of Christ. They
attempted to solve the mysteries of creation, but their elemental
principle of religion was worship of all the elements, especially of fire.
But the Persians also believed in the two principles of good and evil,
which were called the principle of dualism, and which they brought from
India. It is thought by Rawlinson that the Persians differed in their
religion from the primeval people of India, whose Vedas, or sacred books,
were based on monotheism, in its spiritual and personal form, and that,
for the heresy of "dualism," they were compelled to migrate to the West.
The Medes, with whom they subsequently became associated, were incl