the physical conformation of their country, and politically
repugnant to anything like centralization or union. A Persian king like
Cambyses or Darius might be excused if, when his thoughts turned to
Greece, he had a complacent feeling that no danger could threaten him
from that quarter--that the little territory on his western border was a
prey which he might seize at any time that it suited his convenience or
seemed good to his caprice; so opening without any risk a new world
to his ambition. It required a knowledge that the causes of military
success and political advance lie deeper than statistics can reach--that
they have their roots in the moral nature of man, in the grandeur of his
ideas and the energy of his character--in order to comprehend the fact,
that the puny power upon her right flank was the enemy which Persia had
most to fear, the foe who would gradually sap her strength, and finally
deal her the blow that would lay her prostrate.

CHAPTER II. CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.

It is evident that an Empire which extended over more than twenty
degrees of latitude, touching on the one hand the tropic of Cancer,
while it reached upon the other to the parallel of Astrakan, and which
at the same time varied in elevation, from 20,000 feet above to 1300
below the sea level, must have comprised within it great differences of
climate, and have boasted an immense variety of productions. No general
description can be applicable to such a stretch of territory; and it
will therefore be necessary to speak of the various parts of the
Empire successively in order to convey to the reader a true idea of
the climatic influences to which it was subject, and the animals,
vegetables, and minerals which it produced.

Commencing with Persia Proper, the original seat and home of the race
with whose history we are specially concerned at present, we may observe
that it was regarded by the ancients as possessing three distinct
climates--one along the shore, dry and scorchingly hot; another in the
mountain region beyond, temperate and delightful; and a third in the
tract further inland, which was thought to be disagreeably cold and
wintry. Moderns, on the contrary, find two climates only in Fars--one
that of the Desbistan or "low country," extremely hot and dry,
with frequent scorching and oppressive winds from the south and the
south-east; the other, that of the highlands, which is cold in winter,
but in summer pleasant and enjoy