ter, exerted themselves with the
most praiseworthy zeal to represent fully and faithfully the marvels of
the Chehl Minar; and these persevering efforts were followed within no
very lengthy period by the splendid and exhaustive works of the Baron
Texier and of MM. Flandin and Coste. Persepolis rose again from its
ashes in the superb and costly volumes of these latter writers, who
represented on the grandest scale, and in the most finished way,
not only the actual but the ideal--not only the present but the
past--placing before our eyes at once the fullest and completest views
of the existing ruins, and also restorations of the ancient structures,
some of them warm with color and gilding, which, though to a certain
extent imaginary, probably give to a modern the best notion that it is
now possible to form of an old Persian edifice.

It is impossible within the limits of the present work, and with the
resources at the author's command, to attempt a complete description of
the Persian remains, or to vie with writers who had at their disposal
all the modern means of illustration. By the liberality of a well-known
authority on architecture, he is able to present his readers with
certain general views of the most important structures; and he also
enjoys the advantage of illustrating some of the most curious of the
details with engravings from a set of photographs recently taken. These
last have, it is believed, an accuracy beyond that of any drawings
hitherto made, and will give a better idea than words could possibly do
of the merit of the sculptures. With these helps, and with the addition
of reduced copies from some of MM. Flandin and Coste's plates, the
author hopes to be able to make his account fairly intelligible, and to
give his readers the opportunity of forming a tolerably correct judgment
on the merit of the Persian art in comparison with that of Babylon and
Assyria.

Persian architectural art displayed itself especially in two forms of
building--the palace and the tomb. Temples were not perhaps unknown in
Persia, though much of the worship may always have been in the open
air; but temples, at least until the time of Artaxerxes Mnemon, were
insignificant, and neither attracted the attention of contemporaries,
nor were of such a character as to leave traces of themselves to after
times. The palaces of the Persian kings, on the other hand, and the
sepulchres which they prepared for themselves, are noticed by many
an